Submissions

Author Guidelines

Guide for Authors

1.      About the journal:

Tunisian Journal of Emergency Medicine (TJEM) is a national multidisciplinary peer- reviewed journal dedicated to advanced clinical practice, education, research and innovation in emergency medicine,

The journal is constantly updated online journal that publishes meta-analyses, systematic reviews, original articles, case reports; brief reports on clinical and laboratory observations, photograph/radiograph and ECG of the month covering all medical specialties.

The journal's full text is available at www.tjem.tn

The journal allows free access (Open Access) to all its contents.

2.      Article types:

Original Articles

TJEM encourages the submission of original research addressing clinically relevant questions in emergency medicine, critical care, trauma, toxicology, disaster medicine, prehospital care, and medical education.

Original articles should present novel findings derived from appropriately designed studies and should be organized according to the conventional IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion).

Manuscripts should not exceed 4,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends. Authors are encouraged to present their findings concisely while providing sufficient methodological detail to allow critical appraisal and reproducibility.  A structured abstract of no more than 300 words is required.

Review Articles

TJEM considers narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses addressing topics of current interest to emergency medicine practitioners.

Review articles should provide a balanced and critical synthesis of the available evidence and identify implications for clinical practice and future research.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be conducted and reported in accordance with current international standards.

Case Reports

Case reports remain an important educational resource when they describe unusual clinical presentations, unexpected treatment responses, rare diseases, novel diagnostic challenges, or situations that provide valuable lessons for emergency physicians.

Authors should clearly explain the educational significance of the case and discuss its implications in the context of the existing literature.

Written informed consent from the patient or legal representative is mandatory before submission.

Brief Reports

Brief reports provide an opportunity to communicate preliminary findings, innovative practices, or concise research observations of immediate relevance to emergency medicine.

The manuscript should be focused and concise while maintaining scientific rigor.

Images in Emergency Medicine

This section highlights clinical, radiological, ultrasonographic, pathological, or procedural images that offer significant educational value.

The accompanying text should emphasize the learning points illustrated by the image rather than provide a detailed case report.

3.      Manuscript Preparation and Formatting Guidelines

General Requirements

Manuscripts must be submitted in English and should be written in a clear, concise, and scientifically accurate style. Authors are encouraged to use simple and direct language and to avoid unnecessary jargon, redundancy, and excessive abbreviations.

All manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx)

Title Page

The title page should be submitted as a separate document and must include:

·         Full title of the manuscript

·         Short running title (optional)

·         Full names of all authors

·         Institutional affiliations of all authors

·         Name, postal address, and e-mail address of the corresponding author

·         ORCID identifiers (If possible)

·         Word count of the manuscript

·         Number of tables and figures

·         Clinical trial registration number

To preserve double-blind peer review, author-identifying information should not appear in the main manuscript file.

Abstract and Keywords

Original articles should include a structured abstract of no more than 300 words, organized under the following headings:

• Background
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions

Review articles, brief reports, and case reports should include an unstructured abstract unless otherwise specified.

Authors should provide 3–6 keywords using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) whenever possible.

Language and Style

Authors should ensure consistency in terminology throughout the manuscript.

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. Excessive use of abbreviations should be avoided.

Generic drug names should be used whenever possible.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively according to their order of appearance in the text.

Each table should have a concise title and, where necessary, explanatory footnotes.

Tables should not duplicate information already presented in the text.

Figures and Images

Figures should be numbered consecutively according to their order of appearance in the text.

Each figure must be accompanied by an appropriate legend.

Images should be of sufficient quality to allow clear interpretation by reviewers and readers.

Any identifying patient information must be removed unless explicit written consent has been obtained.

4.      Reporting Standards

TJEM supports the principles of transparent and accurate reporting of scientific research. Authors should submit following internationally recognized reporting guidelines appropriate to their study design.

The journal endorses the recommendations of the EQUATOR Network and requests that authors submit the relevant reporting checklist when applicable.

Compliance with these guidelines facilitates peer review and improves the quality and transparency of published research.

5.      Clinical Trial Registration :

Prospective registration is required for all interventional clinical trials.

Acceptable registries include:

• ClinicalTrials.gov
• Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR)
• Other recognized trial registries

The registration number and registry name must be reported on the title page, in the abstract, and within the Methods section.

For systematic reviews and meta-analyses, registration in PROSPERO is strongly encouraged.

6.      Authorship Criteria

TJEM follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

7.      CRediT Author Contributions Statement

All submissions must include an Author Contributions Statement based on the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework.

Examples of contribution roles include:

• Conceptualization
• Methodology
• Data Curation
• Formal Analysis
• Investigation
• Writing – Original Draft
• Writing – Review & Editing
• Supervision
• Project Administration

The contribution of each author should be clearly described.

8.      Ethical Considerations

TJEM is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and research integrity.

Research involving human participants must have received prior approval from an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board. The name of the approving body and approval reference number should be clearly stated in the manuscript.

Studies involving human participants should be conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable national regulations.

Patient confidentiality must be respected throughout the manuscript. Identifiable information should not be published unless explicit written consent has been obtained

9.      Authorship

Authorship should reflect substantial intellectual contribution to the work.

TJEM follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. All authors should have participated sufficiently in the study to take public responsibility for its content.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

10.  Conflicts of Interest

Transparency regarding potential conflicts of interest is essential to maintaining trust in scientific publishing.

Authors are required to disclose any financial, academic, institutional, or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing the work presented.

If no conflicts exist, authors should state:

"The authors declare no conflicts of interest."

11.  Funding

All sources of financial support should be disclosed.

The role of the funding organization in study design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and publication decisions should be described whenever applicable.

12.  References

References should follow the Vancouver citation style and be numbered consecutively according to the order of appearance in the text in which they are first mentioned in the text in brackets.

Authors are encouraged to cite relevant and recent literature whenever appropriate. Excessive self-citation should be avoided.

Whenever available, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) should be included.

13.  Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to TJEM undergo an initial editorial assessment followed by double-blind peer review.

The editorial team evaluates submissions for scientific quality, methodological soundness, originality, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal's scope.

The final decision regarding publication rests with the Editor-in-Chief.

14.  Open Access Policy

The TJEM is a fully open-access journal committed to the immediate and unrestricted dissemination of scholarly research. All published articles are freely available to the global academic community and the general public immediately upon publication, without any subscription barriers or paywalls. To ensure absolute equity in academic publishing, the journal operates under a "Diamond Open Access" model. We do not charge any submission fees, editorial processing fees, or Article Processing Charges (APCs). Publishing in the TJEM is entirely free of charge for all authors and their affiliated institutions.

All published articles are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication.

15.  Copyright and licensing policy

THE tjem allows authors to retain unrestricted copyright and full publishing rights of their articles.

All articles published in this journal are openly accessible and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This guarantees that anyone is free to:

• Share: Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

• Adapt: Remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

• Attribution: Users must give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the journal, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

By submitting a manuscript to tjem, authors grant the journal the right of first publication, while retaining full ownership of their intellectual property.

16.  Publication ethics and malpractice statement

TJEMis dedicated to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and maintaining the integrity of the scientific record. Our editorial board adheres strictly to the core practices and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors submitting manuscripts must ensure that their work is entirely original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration by any other journal. For original research involving human participants or animal subjects, authors must provide an explicit statement confirming that the study was approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or local ethics committee, and that informed consent was obtained from all human participants. Furthermore, all authors are required to fully disclose any potential conflicts of interest—financial, personal, or professional—that could be perceived to influence their research or its interpretation. The journal maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards academic misconduct, and any allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, or duplicate publication will be rigorously investigated by the editorial team.

• Where to disclose: Authors must include a dedicated statement at the very end of their manuscript text file, right before the References section, under the heading: "Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process".
• What to disclose: If AI was used, the statement must clearly specify the name of the tool, the version used, and the specific purpose (e.g., "ChatGPT-4o was used to improve the readability and English grammar of Section 3").
• What does not need disclosure: Basic tools used to check spelling, grammar, or general references do not need to be declared.
• AI cannot be an author: Please note that AI tools cannot be listed as an author or co-author on any manuscript, as they cannot take public responsibility or accountability for the content and integrity of the work.