MEDICAL PHYSICS AUTHOR GUIDELINES
1. SUBMISSION
Authors must attest that content submitted has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a scientific meeting abstract or proceedings paper as described below.
Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://medphys.msubmit.net/
Data protection:
By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices.wiley.com/statements/data-protection-policy.html.
Preprint policy:
This journal will consider for review articles previously available as preprints on non-commercial servers such as ArXiv, bioRxiv, psyArXiv, SocArXiv, engrXiv, etc. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to non-commercial servers at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. Authors must declare self-archival of the manuscript during submission.
For help with submissions, please contact: medphys@wiley.com
2. AIMS AND SCOPE
Medical Physics publishes original, high impact physics, imaging science, and engineering research that advances patient diagnosis and therapy through contributions in 1) Basic science developments with high potential for clinical translation 2) Clinical applications of cutting-edge engineering and physics innovations 3) Broadly applicable and innovative clinical physics developments
Medical Physics is a journal of global scope and reach. By publishing in Medical Physics your research will reach an international, multidisciplinary audience including practicing medical physicists as well as physics- and engineering based translational scientists. We work closely with authors of promising articles to improve their quality.
Medical Physics encourages submissions describing novel, cutting edge physics and engineering developments in medical imaging, ionizing radiation therapy, and other image-guided therapeutic interventions. Topics of particular interest include
Experimental and computational ionizing and non-ionizing dosimetry including instrumentation and algorithm development
Image reconstruction, image analysis, computer-aided detection and diagnosis, radiomics, biomarkers, machine learning, deep learning, image registration, and feature extraction.
Treatment optimization, treatment outcomes analysis, mathematical modeling of treatment biological effects.
Novel imaging and treatment delivery platforms and instrumentation, including MRI-linac, multimodality imaging, x-ray phase-contrast imaging, and nanoparticles and devices for thermal therapies, ultrasound ablation, and image guided therapy.
All modalities including photon/electron/particle therapy, thermal therapies, ultrasound ablation, CT imaging, radiography, fluoroscopy as well as ultrasound, magnetic resonance, microwave, optical, photoacoustic, electrical impedance, and nuclear medicine imaging
Observer studies and methodologies, virtual clinical trials,
Archived datasets for imaging and therapy research
3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS
Submissions may be in the form of the article types listed below. Please read carefully to determine the best article type for your work. Note that Review and Future of Medical Physics articles must begin submission as proposals, Controversial Topics must be developed with the editors prior to submission, and Ph.D. Thesis Abstracts should be submitted via email using the journal’s template. All submissions (except Ph.D. Thesis Abstracts) will undergo full peer review.
Page Charges
Printed page limits of individual articles are noted below. Printed page lengths beyond this limit will be charged to the author at $200 per additional typeset journal page. An agreement to pay will be made available to authors with page proofs and can be used for calculating any excess page charges. The Editors strongly encourage authors to estimate potential typeset article length by applying the formula below to their manuscript prior to submission. Authors will be asked to enter this estimate at submission.
Published pages = (average words per full-text manuscript page) * no. pages (including title, abstract, references, embedded figures)/900.
You can estimate words/manuscript page by using Microsoft Word to count all of the words selected in a typical full, text-only page. Please Note: This estimate will not guarantee a final typeset journal article page count or prevent charges levied for articles exceeding the allotted number of typeset journal pages for your article type. Generally, the above formula is accurate within 1 printed page 70% of the time.
Article Types
A Research Article is a report of original experimental or theoretical research. Attention to clarity and conciseness facilitates the review process and also the impact of the published article. Research articles must include novel medical physics scientific or technical content or broadly applicable clinical physics innovations (generally, most articles with a purely applied/clinical focus should be submitted to our sister journal, the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics). The typeset journal page limit for Research Articles is 10 printed pages.
A Technical Note is a concise description of a specific development, procedure or device which should be a solution to a specific problem and have sufficient relevance to be useful to many readers of Medical Physics. Authors must insert the words “Technical Note: . . .” at the beginning of their title. The typeset journal page limit for Technical Notes is 5 printed pages.
A Medical Physics Letter (MPL) is a short article on a scientific or clinical topic of overriding importance to medical physicists. MPLs are subjected to an expedited review process. The initial review cycle decisions are limited to: “accept with no revisions,” “conditionally accept with minor or major revisions”, or “reject”. A final decision must be made by the end of the second review cycle. An MPL does not preclude publication of a regular research article at a later time, provided the latter is a substantial expansion of the former. Because of the timeliness of a Medical Physics Letter, any revisions must be submitted within 4 weeks of receiving the Editor's decision email. The typeset journal page limit for Medical Physics Letters is 5 printed pages.
A Review Article is an authoritative review of a subject important to the field of Medical Physics. Review Articles may be either invited or proffered. Authors should submit a detailed proposal consisting of a title page, rationale, and an outline, which should be submitted online as a new manuscript. The proposal will be assigned to a Review article co-editor, who will negotiate the content with the authors. If the proposal is approved, the authors will be invited to submit a full manuscript. The Review article co-editor will manage the peer-review process of the manuscript. The rationale should explain the need for the Review article at this time and put the proposed article into context of the existing literature. The outline should be detailed enough to allow the Review article co-editor to assess the topics and level of detail covered. Review Articles are published online only. The typeset journal page limit for Review Articles is 20 pages.
While longer Review articles maybe accepted for publication with editor concurrence, additional pages over the limits stated above will incur excess page charges. For details and instructions on submitting a Review proposal, please click here
A Future of Medical Physics Article is an authoritative forward-looking projection of a subject important to the field of Medical Physics. These articles may be either invited or proffered. Authors should submit a detailed proposal consisting of a title page, rationale, and an outline, which should be submitted online as a new manuscript. The proposal will be assigned to a Future article co-editor, who will negotiate the content with the authors. If the proposal is approved, the authors will be invited to submit a full manuscript. The Future article co-editor will manage the peer-review process of the manuscript. The rationale should explain the need for the Future article at this time, and put the proposed article into context of the existing literature. The outline should be detailed enough to allow the Future article co-editor to assess the topics and level of detail covered. Future of Medical Physics Articles are published online only. The typeset journal page limit for Future of Medical Physics Articles is 15 pages.
While longer Future of Medical Physics articles maybe accepted for publication with editor concurrence, additional pages over the limits stated above will incur excess page charges. For details and instructions on submitting a Future of Medical Physics proposal, please click here
An AAPM Scientific Report is a consensus report prepared by a task group or other formal committee-like entity of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). Scientific Reports are published online only and are freely available to non-subscribers. Scientific Reports may not be published in Medical Physics until they have gained full approval from the internal AAPM review process (the cover letter should explicitly state that approval has been granted). For lengthy Scientific Reports, submission of an Executive Summary or Summary of the full report (available on the AAPM web page) is the preferred pathway to Medical Physics publication. Review guidance for Scientific Consensus Reports is available here.
A Special Report is a consensus report sponsored by an organization other than the AAPM that the editors have determined is of general interest to medical physicists. Special Reports are published online only and are freely available to non-subscribers.
Medical Physics Dataset Articles (MPDAs) describe scientifically or clinically valuable open-access datasets with high potential for contributing to the research of medical physicists working on related problems. In contrast to Research Articles, MPDAs should not include hypothesis testing, or data analyses supporting generalizable conclusions. The publicly-accessible dataset must be permanently archived before the MPDA can be published. The typeset journal page limit for Medical Physics Dataset Articles is 10 printed pages. Full Author and Reviewer Instructions are available here.
A Controversial Topic Article is a full length paper on a medical physics topic that is controversial, highly relevant, and of wide interest to the Medical Physics community In contrast to the debate format of Point/Counterpoint articles, these papers are more in-depth and generally argue for only one point of view. It is desired that the manuscript include results of the authors’ and/or others’ experimental and/or simulation studies to defend the authors’ position on the issue, but depending on the topic, this is not absolutely necessary. Manuscripts in this category can be both proffered and invited. Authors intending to submit a proffered Controversial Topic article should discuss the subject of the article with the Editor-in-Chief before beginning development of the article. While these articles should focus on scientific controversies, occasional offerings on broader issues as they relate to medical physics research, e.g., funding, research training, etc., may be considered at the Editors’ discretion. The abstract for a Controversial Topics article should be a brief (300 words or less) synopsis of the paper rather than the 4 part structured abstract for other types of articles. The typeset journal page limit for Controversial Topic articles is 10 printed pages.
A Point/Counterpoint “Debate” is a concise article consisting of pro and con positions on a controversial issue in the discipline. These are typically invited rather than proffered. The Editor invites authors to submit articles addressing a specific topic, one for each side of the argument. Each side of the debate should be prepared by a single author unless coauthorship by both sides has been arranged prior to the start of the debate. Readers who wish to volunteer to debate a controversial issue should contact the Point/Counterpoint Moderators for instructions (Dr. Jing Cai: jing.cai@duke.edu; Dr. Habib Zaidi: habib.zaidi@hcuge.ch; Mr. Gerald A. White: gerald.white@mindspring.com).
A Correspondence normally addresses a scientific point in connection with a previous publication in Medical Physics.
An Editorial is a brief (usually 2-3 pages or less) article of general interest to readers. Generally, Editorials are authored by one or more of the Editors or invited by the Editors. Editorials usually address issues associated with Medical Physics operations or editorial policies. Occasionally, Editorials on issues of general concern to scientific publishing or peer-reviewed science are published.
An Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the paper should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of erratum is given. The Erratum is made freely available to all readers and is linked to the corrected article. There is no page limit for an Erratum. Please query the Editorial Office for a template to prepare your erratum.
A Book Review is a 1 to 3 page critical review of a published book or anthology that has been commissioned by the Book Review Editor. Authors who are interested in having their publications reviewed in Medical Physics, or who wish to query an unsolicited book review, should contact the Editorial Office at: medphys@wiley.com.
A Ph.D. Thesis Abstract is a short description of a Ph.D. research project of a recent graduate. If the dissertation is available online, please include the URL. If not, please include references to any accessible publications by the author that relate specifically to the dissertation. Please do not include abstracts of papers presented at scientific meetings. Ph.D. Thesis Abstracts should be submitted as Word documents via e-mail to the Editorial Office: medphys@wiley.com using the standard template found here. Ph.D. Thesis Abstracts are published online only at medphys.org/phdabstracts.
4. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION
Cover Letters
Cover letters are not mandatory; however, they may be supplied at the author’s discretion.
Parts of the Manuscript
The manuscript (including title page) should be submitted as a single file, with supplementary material in separate files.
Main Text File
The text file should be presented in the following order:
Title page
A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice Search Engine Optimization tips);
A short running title of less than 40 characters;
The full names of the authors;
The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted (When preparing your title page in a .tex file, please do not use the command \affiliation, which will re-arrange the order of authors and group them by affiliation.)
Indication of and complete contact information for the corresponding author
Any other footnotes to the above information (such as co-first authorship, senior author, or previous publication of manuscript text or data)
Abstract and keywords
Main text (with figures, including legends, and tables embedded as they are mentioned for review)
References
Acknowledgments and Conflict of Interest Statement
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS: Authors of accepted manuscripts will be asked to resupply the above in final files with separate table and figure files that meet quality specifications for production. For more details, please see Publication Process After Acceptance below.
Authorship
Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.
Abstract
An abstract must accompany every article (except Editorials, Point/Counterpoint, Correspondence, and Errata). The abstract should be submitted at the front of the complete manuscript (Article File).
For Research Articles, Technical Notes, and Medical Physics Letters, a structured abstract is required that consists of 4 parts: Purpose, Methods, Results and Conclusions. For Research Articles, that abstract should not exceed 500 words. A limit of 300 words applies to Technical Notes and Medical Physics Letters.
For Review Articles, Future of Medical Physics Articles, AAPM Scientific Reports, Special Reports, and Controversial Topics, the abstract should be a single, unstructured paragraph. For Review Articles, Future of Medical Physics Articles, Scientific Reports, and Special Reports, that abstract should not exceed 500 words. A limit of 300 words applies to Controversial Topics. For Dataset Articles, please see the detailed instructions for abstract requirements.
Keywords
The journal has recently adopted a new taxonomy (xlsx file) for submission and review. This taxonomy is used to match manuscripts with referees of the appropriate specialty. Author are required to select terms from this taxonomy at submission. All authors and reviewers are encouraged to adopt the taxonomy by updating their profiles in the submission and review system.
In addition to the taxonomy, please provide three to five keywords that capture the topic and subject matter addressed in the article. These keywords are used for bibliographic searching and indexing and should be chosen thoughtfully.
Main Text
Manuscripts must be in clear and correct scientific English, free of major style and grammatical errors. Authors not fluent in English should have their manuscripts edited by an expert in English (e.g., a native speaker or expert English-language scientific editor) prior to submission. Medical Physics is not able to provide free English-language editing services to authors. We cannot proceed with publication until authors provide stylistically and grammatically correct English language text.
For ease of review, manuscripts should be submitted as a single column of double-spaced text.
Submissions to Medical Physics must have page numbering and continuous line numbering. Instructions for inserting page numbers and continuous line numbers in Word are located here. The Medical Physics LaTex template contains includes information required to display page and line numbers in your manuscript file.
In general, the editors prefer .doc(x) files for peer review. Authors using LaTex should make every effort to convert their file to .doc(x) for submission. If conversion to .doc(x) is not possible, and the .tex file does not display properly in the submission system, please convert to a .pdf that allows for selection of the text (not a flat image).
Every review and research article must include an Introduction that identifies the issue or problem addressed in the article, describes why it is important, and provides a summary of the approach to the issue or problem. The introduction should provide a context for a reader who is not intimately familiar with the issue or problem addressed in the article. In addition to an introduction, all Research Articles, Technical Notes, and Medical Physics Letters must have the following 4 sections: Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions.
Acknowledgments
Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support (funding) should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.
Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement. The Conflict of Interest statement must be included in this section of the manuscript text. If there are no conflicts of interest, the authors must include a statement similar to “The authors have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose.”
References
References should follow standard American Medical Association (AMA) Style. All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and must be as complete as possible. In text citations should cite references in consecutive order using Arabic superscript numerals.
Authors are urged to exclude unnecessary and/or incomplete references. References must be in the accessible, archival literature. “Private Communications” and commercial identifications and manuals are not appropriate for the reference list but can be identified as footnotes to the text.
For more information about this reference style, please see the AMA Manual of Style.
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