Scientific Manuscripts Submitted for Peer-Review
North Carolina is blessed with some of the finest medical research institutions in the world. The work of the medical scientists that labor in our research facilities becomes complete (in many ways) and public when it is published in peer-reviewed journals. While medical researchers in North Carolina have many journals to which they can submit their manuscripts, we want them to consider keeping their work here at home. To be more specific, we invite the authors of our state to submit their papers to the North Carolina Medical Journal.

An editor reviews all papers received and those of sufficient quality are peer-reviewed. As with any journal of merit, only papers of high quality will be published. Papers printed in the Journal are indexed in the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE public database.

Manuscripts submitted for review by the North Carolina Medical Journal must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) as Microsoft Word attachments. Please include a cover letter and send your submission to: ncmedj(at)nciom(dot)org. Before you submit your manuscript, please see: Guidelines for Scientific Manuscripts for Peer-Review


We generally accept two types of manuscripts for review: (1) original clinical or health services research contributions and (2) systematic reviews (both regardless of specific topic). We are especially interested in publishing research papers that have relevance to the health of the people of our state.

Original Clinical or Health Services Research Contributions. Randomized trials, intervention studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, cohort studies, cost-effectiveness analyses, case-control studies, secondary data analyses of administrative datasets, and surveys with high response rates. Each manuscript should clearly state an objective or hypothesis; the design and methods (including the study setting and dates, patients or participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, or data sources and how these were selected for the study); the essential features of any interventions; the main outcome measures; the main results of the study; a comment section placing the results in context with the published literature; limitations; and the conclusions. (Definition from The Journal of the American Medical Association) (Cite – Moher D, Cook DJ, Eastwood S et al. Improving the quality of reports of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials: the Quorom statement. Lancet 1999, 354: 1896-900 and Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC et al. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: A proposal for reporting. JAMA 2000;283:2008-2012.)

Systematic Reviews.Systematic, critical assessments of literature and data sources pertaining to clinical topics, emphasizing factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, or prevention. All articles or data sources should be selected systematically for inclusion and be critically evaluated, and the selection process should be described in the paper. The specific type of study or analysis, population, intervention, exposure, and tests or outcomes should be described for each article or data source. Meta-analyses also will be considered as reviews. (Definition from The Journal of the American Medical Association)

Manuscripts submitted for review by the North Carolina Medical Journal must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) as Microsoft Word attachments. Please include a cover letter and send your submission to ncmedj(at)nciom(dot)org. Before you submit your manuscript, please see: Guidelines for Scientific Manuscripts for Peer-Review