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Submitting your materials

ORCID

We encourage authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:

  • Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
  • Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
  • Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.

See our ORCID FAQs for more information. If you don’t already have an iD, you can create one by registering directly at https://ORCID.org/register.

ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information. 

Peer Review

First and foremost this is a collaborative partnership to achieve the objectives of the journal and the authors with respect to scientific writing.  

Upon electronic receipt the manuscript will be reviewed for:

  • Compliance with the DMPHP Scope; a manuscript maybe rejected with an explanation to seek a more appropriate journal
  • Compliance with the submitted “Type of Article” category; a manuscript maybe returned to the authors with a recommendation to submit to a more appropriate DMPHP article category.
  • Compliance with the Instructions for Authors; an article maybe rejected or returned to the authors to comply.
  • Grammar and spelling; an article maybe rejected or returned to the authors with a recommendation to seek professional English medical writing assistance before further review.

The Managing Editor or Editor-in Chief will assign an appropriate manuscript to a Deputy Editor for an initial review who will assign the manuscript to an Associate Editor to supervise the review process. 

Each submitted manuscript (except a Letter to the Editor) is reviewed by a minimum of 2 peer reviewers this may be any combination of reviewers from the DMPHP panel, Associate or Deputy Editor. A Letter to the Editor will be reviewed at the discretion of the Editors.

If warranted, the submission will also be sent for statistical review.

The Associate Editor will complete their review and forward this to the Deputy Editor for a consensus review. The Deputy Editor will notify the corresponding author of this consensus decision.

If the Associate Editor and Deputy Editor do not reach consensus then the Editor-in-Chief,  another Deputy Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be the arbiter to bring the review to consensus. Then the Deputy Editor will notify the corresponding author of this decision.

  • Reject: with an explanation if appropriate
  • Revise:
    • To remain as the submitted Type of Article
    • As another Type of Article with explanation
    • Note that acceptance is not guaranteed depending on the progress of the revisions, as the editorial process with subsequent revisions may not meet the burden of acceptance.
  • Accept:
    • With reviewer comments, or, explanations to enhance the manuscript to meet the burden of acceptance
    • The review process and revisions may continue depending on the progress of the revisions with continued attention by the Editors and reviewers
  • Accept production files needed (final acceptance)

This process will repeat until Accept-production files needed or rejection.

The author may suggest names of three potential reviewers and the identities of peer reviewers are kept confidential.


After Acceptance

Page Proofs and Corrections

Articles are edited in acceptance date order, and corresponding authors will receive electronic page proofs of the complete typeset article before publication. Portable document format (PDF) files of the typeset pages and support documents (eg, reprint order form) will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail. Complete instructions will be provided with the e-mail for answering copy editor queries and returning corrections to the publisher within 24 hours.

It is the author's responsibility to ensure that there are no errors in the proofs. Changes that have been made to conform to journal style will stand if they do not alter the authors' meaning. Only the most critical changes to the accuracy of the content will be made. Changes that are stylistic or are a reworking of previously accepted material will be disallowed. Figure modification or replacement and major rewrites will be returned to the scientific editor, and possibly sent to peer review again. The publisher reserves the right to deny any changes that do not affect the accuracy of the content. Authors may be charged for alterations to the proofs beyond those required to correct errors or to answer queries.

Embargo Policy

All information regarding the content and publication date of the accepted manuscripts is confidential. Information about or contained in accepted articles cannot appear in any media outlet (print, broadcast, or electronic) until the date specified for that article by the publisher.

Publishing your article as Gold Open Access

You will have the option to publish your article as Gold Open Access, enabling the final published version to be made freely available under a Creative Commons license. You might be required to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC) for Gold Open Access. You may be eligible for a waiver or discount, for example if your institution has a Transformative agreement with Cambridge University Press. For more information about your Open Access options, please see here. For more information about the benefits of choosing to publish Open Access, see here.


Licence to publish

Before Cambridge can publish your manuscript, we need a signed licence to publish agreement. Under the agreement, certain rights are granted to the journal owner which allow publication of the article. The original ownership of the copyright in the article remains unchanged. For full details see the publishing agreement page.