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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Journal of Medical Economics.

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

Checked 2026-08-02
Check readiness freePrepare this manuscript

Article types

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

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 350 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
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  • Case Report: Use a structured abstract.
  • Should be no more than 10,800 words, inclusive of the abstract, tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, endnotes.
  • Should contain a structured abstract of 300 words.
  • Should be no more than 11,200 words, inclusive of the abstract, tables, references, figure captions, footnotes, endnotes.
  • Perspective: General guidelines for Patient Perspectives are listed below: No abstract required.
  • Trial registration numbers should be included in the abstract, with full details in the methods section.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • 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.
  • Abstract: a structured abstract of no more than 350 words.
  • A structured abstract should cover (in the following order): objective, methods, results and conclusion.
  • Abstract: a structured abstract of no more than 250 words.
  • Case Report: A structured abstract should cover (in the following order): introduction, case report; conclusion.
  • The structured abstract should cover (in the following order): the aims of the article, its materials and methods (the experimental system and procedures used), the results, limitations and conclusions.

Keywords

  • Provide 5-10 keywords chosen by the author.
  • Perspective: General guidelines for Patient Perspectives are listed below: Up to one display item (figure or table) is allowed; · Articles should contain between 3-5 keywords.
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  • Should contain between 5 and 10 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 to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
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  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • Authors must present all data sources used in their model in a table with references to the published papers.
  • 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.

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.
  • 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

  • Add or confirm the author-written Funding statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • 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].
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  • Declaration of funding – should mention the sponsors for the study and the role of the sponsors in the preparation of this article.
  • Acknowledgements – non-author assistance should be included here (e.g., medical writer(s), statistician.) together with the source for funding of any such assistance.

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

  • Add or confirm the author-written Data availability statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Depending on the journal’s data sharing policy, authors may be required to provide a data availability statement, even where there is no data associated with the article.
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  • In this instance, the data availability statement should read: “No data are associated with this article.”.

Ethics statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Ethics statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Perspective: General guidelines for Patient Perspectives are listed below: Articles should be approximately 1,000 words.
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  • Ethics and Consent: All research must be conducted within an appropriate ethical framework.
  • Details of approval by the authors’ institution or an ethics committee must be provided in the Methods section of the Study Protocol.
  • If authored by someone other than the patient, the authors must obtain written informed consent to publish from the patient.
  • Additionally, a declaration statement must be included in the manuscript to confirm that the patient has seen the paper and agrees to the publication.
  • Therefore, informed consent was not required.
  • * When using verbal consent, manuscripts must include the rationale, approving IRB/ethics committee, and how it was documented.
  • 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.
  • Perspective: General guidelines for Patient Perspectives are listed below: Patient authors should be aware that they must provide an email address during submission to allow communications relating to the progress of their paper.
  • 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.
  • In the event that the patient is not an adult or lacks capacity to provide informed consent, or is deceased, written informed consent must be obtained from the patient’s legal guardian or next of kin/executor of their estate.
  • Taylor & Francis require that in addition to the above statements, authors request patients to complete the Consent to Publish form before submission of an article and that authors keep a copy of these forms on record.
  • NOTE: Studies that use (i) any form of identifiable patient data, or (ii) use deidentified data from a database related to the authors or their affiliation, where the database includes participant/patient identifiers, must have obtained prospective ethics approval, a waiver, or exemption from an Independent Review Board prior to the start of the study.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • - “All authors confirm that the patient discussed in the article has reviewed the article and consented to publication.
  • The authors confirm that the patient has been fully informed that the paper will be available to the public and is subject to standard academic publishing practices.”.
  • - “All authors confirm that the patient’s next of kin has reviewed the article and consented to publication.
  • Case Report: For submissions where patients or participants can be potentially identified (e.g.
  • The authors confirm that the patient’s next of kin has been fully informed that the paper will be available to the public and is subject to standard academic publishing practices.”.

Cover letter

  • · Please carefully consider if your article contains any third-party or proprietary information that may require additional permissions to be obtained.
  • Using Third-Party Material in your Paper You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
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  • Where permissions to access and reuse were not required, the authors have to explain why.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The article must include a statement making it clear who the dataset owner is and an explanation of whether or not permissions were obtained to access and reuse the dataset for the study.
  • NOTE: When authors are extracting small amounts of aggregate data as is reported in published articles that have utilized CT datasets, permission to access and reuse the data is not required.
  • Clinical Trial: If an author has direct access to the CT dataset which may include identifying information, such as if the authors or their institution were involved in the clinical trial and the collection of the prospective data, they need to take the following actions: The authors must also include a permissions statement that clarifies who owns the dataset and whether or not permission to access and reuse the data was granted by the dataset owner.
  • Authors using a full de-identified CT dataset from a published article, must take the following actions: Check that the CT has IRB approval and seek permission from the authors of the CT to reuse the de-identified data in the present study.
  • Authors using a full de-identified CT dataset from a published article, must take the following actions: Authors must include a statement in the article explaining who the dataset owner is and whether or not permissions were granted by the dataset owner to access and reuse the deidentified CT data for the study.

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.
  • Author Contributions – should briefly highlight which author(s) were involved in the conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of the data; the drafting of the paper or revising it critically for intellectual content; and the final approval of the version to be published; and that all authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Supplementary files

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

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • Upon acceptance for publication, all articles will require a publishing agreement to be signed by the corresponding author to confirm copyright and that the article will be available online in perpetuity.
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  • 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

  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
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  • If further re-review is required, this will reset the timeline to start from the submission date of the revisions, with re-review prioritised as per the chosen track.
  • Please note that discounts must be requested at the Charges stage of the submission process when the APC quote is confirmed and may not be considered after submission.
  • Please contact Mike.Gregg@tandf.co.uk to find out how to obtain this discount before you submit your article.
  • No TM or ® symbols should be used anywhere in the manuscript, and proprietary names should not appear in the title.
  • Systematic Review: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be registered prospectively (prior to the collection of data) with an open and accessible registry, e.g. PROSPERO.
  • Details of registration must be included in your manuscript upon submission (including registration numbers where applicable).
  • If images are included in the article, authors must obtain Consent to Publish from the author using the Consent to Publish form.
  • Declaration of financial/other relationships – should mention all relationships (financial, employment, other significant/relevant relationships) for each author.
  • Any other 'thank yous' should also be placed here (e.g., other investigators, other study centres, data management.).
  • For all NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the declaration of interest statement.
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical trials should be registered prospectively – i.e. before participant recruitment.
  • 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.
  • The authors should also follow the steps below based on how they accessed the data and include the relevant details in the manuscript.
  • - If the IRB does not cover reuse in the present study, the authors must obtain IRB approval or an exemption prior to the study begining.
  • **Please note IRB approval/exemption must be obtained prior to conducting the study.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Authors based in North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar (Burma), Libya, Ukraine, and Venezuela should contact Mike.Gregg@tandf.co.uk prior to submission.
  • Clinical Trial: Clinical trials: If the study protocol relates to a clinical trial then the Trial Registration details must be provided: name of registry, registry number, registration date and URL of the trial in the registry database.
  • 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).
  • * If an author of the present study participated in the CT and the prospective CT study’s IRB approval covers further data reuse for the present, additional IRB approval is not required.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Clinical Trial: If an author has direct access to the CT dataset which may include identifying information, such as if the authors or their institution were involved in the clinical trial and the collection of the prospective data, they need to take the following actions: Check that the CT's original IRB approval covers reuse of the data for the authors’ study purpose*.
  • Please be advised that any submission fees incorrectly paid by authors cannot be refunded.
  • The data qualify as de-identified under HIPAA and do not constitute protected health information.
  • 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.

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, 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

  • Research Letter: Word limit: A typical research letter paper for this journal should be no more than 5000; this limit includes title; author names and affiliation; tables; figure captions; footnotes; endnotes; everything you want to see in print.
  • Brief Report: Word limit: A typical brief report paper for this journal should be no more than 4000 words; this limit includes title; author names and affiliation; tables; references; figure captions; footnotes; endnotes; everything you want to see in print.
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  • Perspective: General guidelines for Patient Perspectives are listed below: No more than 10 references.
  • Main text: should follow the standard original research structure of Introduction; Methods; Results; Conclusion and Discussion.
  • Case Report: Main text: should follow the following structure of Introduction; Case report (up to 8 cases); Discussion; Conclusion.
  • Data Availability: In general, this article type should not include new research and data.
  • At first mention of a trade name in the Abstract and first section of the main text, an asterisk should be used with a corresponding footnote giving details for the proprietary name.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: Title page; Authors' names and affiliations; Address for correspondence; Structured abstract; Keywords; Short title; Introduction (main text), Methods, Results, Discussion; Conclusions; Transparency with the following subsections: Declaration of funding; Declaration of financial/other interests; Author Contributions; Acknowledgments; Previous presentations; References; Appendices (as appropriate); Table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); Figures; figure captions (as a list), Supplementary material.

Language and text style

  • Discount codes must be presented at quotation and cannot be applied retrospectively.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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).

Study reporting guidelines

  • Protocol: Study Protocols should follow the relevant reporting guideline for the study.
  • For animal studies, approval must have been obtained from the local or institutional animal use and care committee.
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  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).

Manuscript structure

  • This section should have four sub-sections as follows: i.
  • They must also include a statement in the methods section declaring that they used secondary de-identified data obtained from publicly accessible sources.
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  • Authors that use surveys in their study must follow the steps below and add details of these steps to the method section of their article: Researchers must inform participants about the research purpose, anonymity provisions, and data storage methods used.
  • Authors that use surveys in their study must follow the steps below and add details of these steps to the method section of their article: Researchers must ensure participants are fully informed about research aims, associated risks, their right to confidentiality and whether the data collected will be published.
  • Authors that use surveys in their study must follow the steps below and add details of these steps to the method section of their article: Researchers must collect participants written consent to participate in the survey and for publishing their responses and data*.
  • Authors that use surveys in their study must follow the steps below and add details of these steps to the method section of their article: Researchers must adhere to all legal requirements on data protection.
  • Authors that use surveys in their study must follow the steps below and add details of these steps to the method section of their article: A statement confirming IRB approval** or exemption must be added to the manuscript.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The methods section must include the following details about the database: - the database name and owner,.
  • Clinical Trial: When clinical trial (CT) data is used retrospectively, the authors must include the following in the methods section: the CT name, registration number, and confirmation that the trial followed the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
  • 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.
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What your package checks

Abstract: 350 words
Paper: 4,000 words
Keywords: 5-10 keywords
Declarations: Data availability, Funding, Ethics, Acknowledgements, 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