Instructions for Authors

For guidelines on BMJ Journals policy and submission please click on links below.
Manuscript Formatting
Editorial policies
Patient consent forms
Licence forms
Peer Review Process
Online First process

Editorial policy

Thorax seeks to publish significant advances in scientific understanding which are likely to impact on clinical practice. Articles concerning clinical topics, critical care, and those on basic mechanisms with application to clinical material, will be welcomed. We aim to cover all areas of respiratory medicine (epidemiology, paediatrics, immunology, pharmacology, pathology, surgery and critical care) through publishing original papers, editorials, reviews, case reports and images. The priorities are originality and excellence.

All submissions are subject to peer review. All papers that are potentially acceptable undergo statistical analysis.

Submissions to Thorax, once peer reviewed, are discussed at the weekly editorial committee prior to decision. We aim to ensure a fair and independent peer review system and to publish articles which follow the highest ethical standards concerning research conduct.

Open access/Unlocked articles

Authors are able to make their articles freely available online, immediately on publication, for a fee, using the Unlocked service. This service is available to any author publishing original research in a BMJ Journal for a fee of £1,700(+VAT)/€2,515(+VAT)/$3,145.

Article types and word counts

• Original Research
• Case Reports
• Pulmonary Puzzles
• Images in Thorax
• Reviews
• Letter to the editor (original research)
• Correspondence
• Editorials
• Lung alerts
• Supplements

The word count excludes the title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements and contributions and the references.

Original Research

Full papers should follow the basic structure of abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, references, and tables and figures as appropriate. They should not normally exceed 250 words for the abstract, 3000 words for the content and include no more than 35 references. There is an online data repository for extra information, tables, figures and appendices.

Case reports

Case reports should not exceed 850 words with one table or illustration, a short unstructured abstract, and up to 10 references. We recommend an author limit of 5, but we can consider more if authors can show significant contributions and/or give compelling or specific reasons. We do ask that authors indicate that they have obtained patient consent.

Pulmonary Puzzles

This category is for unusual cases that make an educational point. Since the aim of these articles is to stimulate the reader to think about the case, the title should be ambiguous and not give away the final diagnosis immediately.

Pulmonary Puzzles will appear in two parts and should be submitted via Bench>Press using the article type ‘case reports’. The first part should contain a very brief clinical introduction to a case (maximum 250 words) followed by an image and a question designed to stimulate the reader to think about what the image shows. The legend should not indicate the diagnosis but should simply describe the nature of the image. The second part (maximum 250 words) will appear later in the issue and should contain the answer. The answer should include a brief description of the key diagnostic features of the image, the outcome, and a teaching point. Pulmonary Puzzles will not include more than 5 references. The quality of the image must be at least 600dpi and in TIFF, JPEG, GIF, Powerpoint or EPS format. We do ask that authors indicate that they have obtained patient consent.

Images in Thorax

Our Images in thorax section consists of a case report of 100 words, a few learning points, a maximun of two figures, and two references. The images can be radiological, pathological or both. Thorax will cover the cost of printing pathological images in colour. We recommend an author limit of 5, but we can consider more if authors can show significant contributions and/or give compelling or specific reasons. We do ask that authors indicate that they have obtained patient consent.

Reviews

Although usually commissioned, we do occasionally accept unsolicited review articles. These should not normally exceed 4000 words.

Letter to the Editor (original research)

Research letters in Thorax are welcome and should be submitted via Bench>Press. These should not normally exceed 500 words, with one table or figure and should include no more than 5 references. Any additional submission information including methodology, data and tables can be placed in the on-line repository facility on the Thorax website.

Correspondence

Letters in response to articles published in Thorax are welcome and should be submitted via Bench>Press. Correspondence must reach us by the end of the following calendar month (eg. by the end of July, for letters referring to articles in the June print issue) and be a maximum of 400 words, with one figure or table and no more than 5 references. As for research letters, authors may also make use of the on-line repository facility for supplemental data.

Editorial

Editorials are normally commissioned but the Editors may occassionally accept uncommissioned articles of this type.

Word count: up to 1500 words.
References: up to 20.

Lung Alerts

For information on being an author for a Lung Alert please contact one of the two Lung Alert editors directly, Dr Angshu Bhowmik (angshub{at}cheerful.com) and Dr Jennifer Quint (j.quint{at}medsch.ucl.ac.uk)

Supplements

The BMJ Publishing Group journals are willing to consider publishing supplements to regular issues. Supplement proposals may be made at the request of:

1. The journal editor, an editorial board member or a learned society may wish to organise a meeting, sponsorship may be sought and the proceedings published as a supplement.
2. The journal editor, editorial board member or learned society may wish to commission a supplement on a particular theme or topic. Again, sponsorship may be sought.
3. The BMJPG itself may have proposals for supplements where sponsorship may be necessary.
4. A sponsoring organisation, often a pharmaceutical company or a charitable foundation, that wishes to arrange a meeting, the proceedings of which will be published as a supplement.

In all cases, it is vital that the journal’s integrity, independence and academic reputation is not compromised in any way.

For further information on criteria that must be fulfilled, download the supplements guidelines (PDF).