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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Hospital Practice.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-01
Check readiness freePrepare this manuscript

Article types

Review
Clinical Trial
Editorial
Research Article
Review Article
Perspective
Letter
Original Article
Letter to the Editor
Protocol
Lectio
Case Report
Systematic Review
Book Review

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 300 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
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  • Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section.
  • The PLS should be included in the manuscript under its own heading (“Plain Language Summary”) and placed after the Abstract and before the Introduction.
  • In addition, the PLS should: • Be distinct from the abstract and written in easy-to-understand language rather than complex words (see Universal Patient Language).
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • Abstract: no abstract required.
  • Clinical Trial: If applicable, please confirm that your clinical trial has been registered in a public repository at the beginning of the research process (prior to patient enrollment) and provide the registry name and trial registration number, which should also be included in the Abstract and Methods sections of the manuscript.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.
  • Research Article: Abstract (in Original Research articles, the abstract should be structured using the following headings: Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusion.).
  • A structured abstract of more than 100 and no more than 300 words.
  • Review / Letter / Book Review: Place, e.g., [abstract], [book review] or [letter] after the article title: Author K.
  • Please note that Graphical PLS cannot be indexed on PubMed. → Graphical PLS & Graphical Abstracts While a Graphical PLS serves a different purpose than a Graphical Abstract, the publication process is the same for both.

Keywords

  • Keywords: should be drawn from the Index Medicus Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) lists or phrases for indexing.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references in Vancouver style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • References should be denoted numerically and in sequence in the text, using Arabic numerals placed in square brackets, i.e., [12].
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  • Editorial: A minimum of 30 references should be included in your manuscript; lists with fewer than 30 references will be reviewed at the discretion of the editorial office.
  • Please note: A maximum of 20 references are permitted in Editorials.
  • Use an unspaced en dash between page numbers. Warning | Not controlled when printed Maintained by Head of Copyediting | Taylor & Francis | Journals Page 3 of 11 Information Classification: General In the text and in the reference list NLM uses p. rather than pp. With a quotation Author maintains that “This is author’s quoted text” [1,p.3].
  • Letter: Personal communication References to personal communications are cited only in the text. … and most of these proved to be fatal (2003 letter from RS Grant to me; unreferenced, see “Notes”) … Tables and figures Table and figure captions References cited only in tables or figure captions should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure.
  • For example: …and many nurses involved with such cases (Mar 22, 2007 posting by RS Grant to the ANPACC Listserv; unreferenced, see “Notes”) report… Blog Messages posted to discussion lists like a blog are considered a form of personal communication and should not be included in a reference list.
  • Please include only published references and cite full sources.
  • References should be current and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited in the text.
  • Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • Authors do not need to include DOIs for published journal articles when preparing manuscripts.
  • Do not include a full point at the end of DOI or URL addresses.
  • Place the source information in parentheses, using a term or terms to indicate that the citation is not represented in the reference list.
  • Include the nature and source of the cited information, using terms to indicate that no corresponding citation is in the reference list.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.
  • If the reference also includes a place of publication, this should follow the rules as given above for book references, with any state or country included placed in brackets.
  • Please aim for no more than 10 references.
  • Conference Conference details Please note that in the following reference types the conference name should be followed by the date in [yyyy mm dd–dd] format, followed by the place in which the conference is held.
  • Place references to such communications within the running text only.
  • The other graphic will need to be cited as a figure in the manuscript and will then appear in the HTML/typeset articles near the location of the first citation. → Supplementary Material Graphical PLS may also be published as supplementary material, which is published alongside the full- text HTML article under the “Supplemental Material” tab and hosted on Figshare as open access content.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Authors must obtain permission via the original publisher for any adapted/reproduced table or figure material and must use the exact credit wording as specified by the original publisher.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Include or confirm the data availability statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Ethics statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Patient authors should be aware that they must provide an email address during submission to allow communications relating to the progress of their paper.
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  • In settings where ethics approval for non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys) is not required, authors must include a statement to explain this.
  • Authors should familiarise themselves with our policy on participant/patient privacy and informed consent.
  • Patient authors should carefully consider whether to use an existing personal email address or to create an alternate email address that can be used for their authored works.
  • Review: All original research papers involving humans, animals, plants, biological material, protected or non-public datasets, collections or sites, must include a written statement in the Methods section, confirming ethical approval has been obtained from the appropriate local ethics committee or Institutional Review Board and that where relevant, informed consent has been obtained.
  • Editorial: Consent All authors are required to follow the ICMJE requirements and Taylor & Francis Editorial Policies on privacy and informed consent from patients and study participants.
  • Authors must include a statement to confirm that any patient, service user, or participant (or that person’s parent or legal guardian) in any type of qualitative or quantitative research, has given informed consent to participate in the research.
  • Case Report: a clinical case report detailing their medical history, identifiable images or media content, etc), authors must include a statement to confirm that they have obtained written informed consent to publish the details from the affected individual (or their parents/guardians if the participant in not an adult or unable to give informed consent; or next of kin if the participant is deceased).
  • Case Report: For submissions where patients or participants can be potentially identified (e.g.

Blinded manuscript

  • Remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and other direct identifiers from the blinded manuscript file.
  • The PDF should be uploaded as the “Manuscript - with author details”/“Manuscript - anonymous” file.

Cover letter

  • Using third-party material in your paper You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
  • Review: The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
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  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Author contributions

  • Submitting authors should be prepared to submit CRediT roles for themselves and their co-authors (where applicable) as part of the submission process.

Supplementary files

  • Include every cited supplementary file and use matching labels in the manuscript.

Title page and author information

  • Provide the author, affiliation, and correspondence details for the separate title page; Articlo creates the editable companion file.
  • The only author-identifying information should be on the title page, which should be submitted online as a separate document.
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  • Please include all authors’ full names, affiliations, postal addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses on the title page.
  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • Editorial: A typical Editorial for this journal should be no more than 1500 words.
  • Use an unspaced en dash to join inclusive first and last numbers, e.g. [2,3,4,5,7,10] would be abbreviated to [2–5,7,10].
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  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • London: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; 1998. p. 75–81. Warning | Not controlled when printed Maintained by Head of Copyediting | Taylor & Francis | Journals Page 9 of 11 Information Classification: General Presentation Presentations and posters should also include the stream in which they were presented if available.
  • Review: These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Perspective: The intention is very much that the article should offer a personal perspective on a topic of recent interest.
  • Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access.
  • Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
  • Structure All manuscripts should follow the basic format below.
  • Data included in research reports should be as current as possible.
  • Full sentences and paragraphs should be used in writing the content of the paper—bullet points are not an acceptable format for the presentation of information.
  • For all NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the disclosure of interest statement.
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical trials should be registered prospectively – i.e. before participant recruitment.
  • Editorial: Authors of retrospectively registered trials must be prepared to provide further information to the journal editorial office if requested.
  • Clinical Trial: The clinical trial registry should be publicly accessible (at no charge), open to all prospective registrants, and managed by a not-for-profit organization.
  • All research studies on humans (individuals, samples, or data) must have been performed in accordance with the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki.
  • Please include all relevant safety precautions; and cite any accepted standard or code of practice.
  • You will also need to upload your LaTeX source files, which should be uploaded as a single zip file alongside your submission and marked as “LaTeX Source Files”.
  • Queries Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Please note that Taylor & Francis does not require the inclusion of all optional elements, so you should match the samples below.
  • Use the dates for the individual journal article being cited.
  • Use an unspaced en dash between page numbers.
  • Do not include as forthcoming any articles that have been submitted for publication but have not yet been accepted for publication.
  • Forthcoming book Do not include as forthcoming any books that have been submitted for publication but have not yet been accepted for publication.
  • The nature and source of the cited information should be identified by an appropriate statement.
  • Include the report series and number if available.
  • Provide answers to the questions: Why was the study done?
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • Clinical Trial: As a condition of consideration for publication, all clinical trials must be registered at an appropriate online public registry before submission of a manuscript based on the trial.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical Trials Registry In order to be published in a Taylor & Francis journal, all clinical trials must have been registered in a public repository, ideally at the beginning of the research process (prior to participant recruitment).
  • The process of obtaining consent to publish should include sharing the article with the individual (or whoever is consenting on their behalf), so that they are fully aware of the content of the article before it is published.
  • Include the country name for other countries only to avoid ambiguity: Cambridge (MA) Cambridge (UK) If more than one place of publication is found, use the first listed place of publication.
  • The conference place should include the town or city followed by the US state code or country after a comma rather than in brackets. [authors or editors] [Conference title]; [year] [abbreviated month] [day(s)]; [town or city], [state or country].
  • Use the active voice rather than the passive voice (for example, “Dr Smith’s team report several improvements” rather than “Several improvements were reported by Dr Smith’s team”).
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Place: Publisher; Year. p. 000–000.
  • Place family designations of rank after the initials, without punctuation, e.g. Author AA Jr.
  • Do not abbreviate journal titles consisting of a single word.
  • Add the phrase “Accompanied by:” followed by a description of the medium.
  • Place: Publisher; Year. (Series editor(s) optional).
  • Place: Institution; Year. (Report series; Report number).
  • Keep statements factual and avoid providing opinions or speculation on the study’s findings and significance.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.
  • Do not elide page number ranges.
  • Place: Publisher; Year.
  • Place: Publisher.
  • Place: Publisher; Year [cited Date].
  • Place within the running text only.
  • Place the source information in parentheses.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server or registered your study with a registry (e.g. ClinicalTrials.gov), please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Article type and manuscript length

  • Perspective: Word limit: a typical patient perspective should be no more than 1000 words; this limit includes the title; author names and affiliations; tables; references; and figure captions.
  • Review: A typical Original research article, review article, or health outcome for this journal should be more than 3000 and no more than 6000 words; this limit does not include keywords, references, legends, and a maximum of 6 figures and 8 tables.
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  • Research Article: A typical Original research article, review article, or health outcome for this journal should be more than 3000 and no more than 6000 words; this limit does not include keywords, references, legends, and a maximum of 6 figures and 8 tables.
  • Review Article: A typical Original research article, review article, or health outcome for this journal should be more than 3000 and no more than 6000 words; this limit does not include keywords, references, legends, and a maximum of 6 figures and 8 tables.
  • Main text: does not require a specific structure.
  • This means that no author-identifying information should be included in the main text or in the file name of the main document.

Authorship and originality

  • Preparing your paper All authors submitting to medicine, biomedicine, health sciences, allied and public health journals should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
  • We do not accept manuscripts that have plagiarized content within them – this includes self-plagiarism.

Manuscript structure

  • Not all sections are required for all manuscripts, but we do encourage authors to be as thorough as possible during submission.
  • The manuscript text should be separated into relevant sections and paragraphs with appropriate headings.
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  • They should find it interesting and be able to understand the study, its conclusions, and the potential impact of the research.
  • Each manuscript should clearly state an objective or hypothesis; the design and methods; a comment section placing the results in context with the published literature and addressing study limitations; and the conclusion.
  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Clinical Trial: However, for clinical trials that have not been registered prospectively, Taylor & Francis journals requires retrospective registration to ensure the transparent and complete dissemination of all clinical trial results which ultimately impact human health.

Language and text style

  • If you need to use a technical term or abbreviation, explain it the first time you use it. 2 Once your PLS is complete (or during the writing process), ask someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of the subject to read the PLS and provide feedback.
  • Please use American spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
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  • Please use single quotation marks, except where 'a quotation is "within" a quotation'.
  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • Author Instructions To facilitate indexing on PubMed, the plain language summary should be written in English and submitted in plain text, continuous prose format.
  • Use short, clear sentences and phrase sentences in neutral language, remaining as objective as possible.
  • Use person-centered language rather than focusing on the condition/illness or disability.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Capitalize only the first word of the title, proper nouns, proper adjectives, acronyms, and initialisms unless the conventions of a particular language require other capitalization.
  • Graphical Plain Language Summaries As mentioned previously, plain language summaries must be submitted in a plain text, continuous prose format; this is important to ensure that the PLS can be indexed on PubMed.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • See http://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/ Journal title abbreviations should not include full points, except at the end of the title; see examples below.
  • Place the original language title or romanized title before the translation.

Study reporting guidelines

  • For animal studies, approval must have been obtained from the local or institutional animal use and care committee.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).
Save journal and get updates Download complete checklist

What your package checks

Abstract: 300 words
References: Vancouver
Title page: separate file
Declarations: Ethics, Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source