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Information for Authors

 

Submissions: Borden publications focus on readiness-related military medical subjects. Submissions on all subjects and perspectives associated with the art and science of military medicine are welcome, including textbooks, specialty books, and monographs (+/- 100 pages). Proposals (see submission guidelines) are reviewed and approved by voting members of the Borden Publications Board. Please use the Contact Us form to notify us about your proposal and receive further information.

Style: The Textbooks of Military Medicine (TMM) series is edited to the style established in the American Medical Association Manual of Style (AMA), 10th edition, as modified by TMM style. Because each volume is part of the TMM series, the style needs to be consistent, not only from chapter to chapter, but also from volume to volume.

The intended audience for the TMM series is international and diverse. It includes not only professional medical officers in the US military, but also medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences; military physicians assistants, nurses, medics, and corpsmen; and members of civilian organizations. Therefore, you need to write simultaneously for experts as well as nonexperts in your field.

Textbooks are written more formally than journal articles. Please avoid the first person (“we”): Rather than "we conducted a literature review and found…," write "A literature review resulted in…" Rather than "We will break down categories in order of importance…" write "The following categories are listed in order of importance…" Occasional usage of "we" is okay, such as when listing recommendations in the conclusion. No abstract or keyword listing is necessary.

As government publications, textbooks must follow plain language guidelines.

Please adhere to the following guidelines for textbook chapters:

TITLE PAGE: Include the chapter title, chapter authors (with academic degrees), a list of all internal headings (TOC), and all author affiliations/professional titles/military rank.

HEADINGS: Use appropriate headings throughout the body of the text (when using subheads, there must be at least two under each head). All chapters in TMM volumes begin with an INTRODUCTION and end with a SUMMARY.

REFERENCES: Please do NOT use a Reference Manager (eg, EndNote) or any other automatic referencing program. If you use one while writing drafts, please remove the programming before submitting the chapter. Please put in-text reference numbers in superscript, without parentheses. Authors need to provide complete reference documentation for their chapters. TMM textbooks use the AMA reference numbering system, in which references are numbered consecutively with the first callout in the text. Subsequent uses of the same reference retain the original number. In addition, page numbers are needed for exact quotes. Do NOT annotate the references. All textual material should be incorporated into the chapter text. Unpublished data such as personal communications go into the reference list, not in parentheses in the text. See our reference section for examples.

FIGURES, TABLES, AND EXHIBITS: All figures, tables, exhibits, and references must be called out in numerical order throughout the manuscript.

Figures should be original or already in the public domain. It is preferable to avoid copyrighted material, since Borden publications will be in the public domain, and obtaining permissions for all formats and editions is difficult. It is the author’s responsibility to secure all permissions and forward them to the BI when the manuscript is submitted. Written releases must be obtained from all recognizable persons shown in photographs (see Model Release form below).

Please provide all graphical material separately in the original file format, with the highest possible quality. Photographs must be at least 300 dpi to reproduce properly in the textbooks. Do NOT submit images embedded in Word files.

All figures must have explanatory captions, and if not created by the author, complete source information is required. Provide titles for all tables and exhibits. Identify all abbreviations used.

EXAMPLES: Please see Recruit Medicine for chapter examples.

Other clinical publications are also edited according to AMA. Medical history books can follow AMA or the Chicago Manual of Style; technical and legal requirements are same.

FORMS: The following forms must be completed, signed, and returned to Borden Institute:

Manuscripts are received with the understanding that they are submitted solely to the Borden Institute (BI); that upon submission, they become the property of the BI; that the work has not been previously published; and that data in the manuscript have been reviewed by all authors. All submissions will be screened with an online plagiarism checker. We reserve copyright on all published material, and such material cannot be reproduced without written permission from the BI.

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