Writing for BJGP Open: practice & policy

• Commentaries
• Case reports
• International reports

Case reports should describe a patient or patients with common diagnoses where the presentation or management has prompted a question likely to interest the BJGP Open readership, or an unusual presentation which raises more general issues of diagnosis and management, including ethical dilemmas, communication problems, health literacy, psychosocial problems, and primary care team management.

Case reports should be approximately 800–1000 words in length, excluding references, and may include up to two photographic images. They should be structured to include an Introduction, which sets the scene and indicates the purpose of writing the article, the Case report itself, a Discussion, which draws out the key messages and points of interest, followed by references and a note on patient consent.

It is essential to obtain permission from any patients whose story is to be used as the basis for a case report and to maintain patient confidentiality. A signed statement of informed consent to publish patient descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees from all persons who can be identified is required. In the case where an individual does not have the legal, mental, or physical capacity to consent (for example, an underage child, a person with cognitive or intellectual disabilities, or a deceased person), permission can be granted by another person and they are required to state their relationship to that individual.Such persons should be offered the opportunity to see the manuscript before its submission.

• Patient consent form [PDF]

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International reports

International reports describe interesting and important clinical, health policy, and medicopolitical developments and initiatives, and are designed to highlight aspects of primary health care around the globe and to generate discussion and debate.

They should be approximately 800–1000 words in length with up to 10 references.

Open access publication

BJGP Open operates an open access publication policy for all its articles. We make accepted papers freely available where the funder of the research has agreed to pay for open access publication, and the authors can claim the Article Processing Charge (APC). Payment of APCs and open access publication do not affect the Journal's usual peer review processes.

Many funders such as the Research Councils, the National Institute for Health Research, the Wellcome Foundation and some major charities now require authors to make their research available through open access, and the costs of the APCs are included in research funding applications. The APC for BJGP Open has been set at £1000 (plus VAT where applicable) for Research articles and £250 (plus VAT where applicable) for Practice & Policy articles and refunds will not normally be issued. Open access not only allows free publication of publicly funded research to everyone, but also enables it to be shared and re-used with minimal restrictions.

Authors of BJGP Open articles retain copyright and the default license type is CC BY 4.0. Authors may self-archive their articles, however please acknowledge the source and link to the final published version, and label the article CC BY 4.0 where applicable. The articles are fully available on publication via the BJGP Open website.

• Email: BJGPOpen@rcgp.org.uk
• Creative Commons licence

Submit an article to BJGP Open

Submit your article via the BJGP Open submission system ScholarOne Manuscripts. When you register, make sure you enter your email address correctly, otherwise we’ll have no way of contacting you. If your email address changes, remember to update your profile.