EMS Historian Author Guidelines/Standards (2023)

The EMS Historian is the official journal of The National EMS Museum. As such, the purpose of the EMS Historian is to provide a publication which furthers the mission of The National EMS Museum. Here is that mission:

The Mission of The National EMS Museum is to engage the legacy and heritage of pre-hospital care, disseminate knowledge of the practice of emergency care, inspire innovation, and cultivate an appreciation for emergency medical services.

Hence, the EMS Historian journal publishes original articles highlighting EMS past, present, and future – including the people, innovations, organizations, and services that have been a part of the legacy of emergency medical services throughout history. Ultimately the EMS Historian seeks to foster appreciation for and dialog around EMS across generations and communities.

As a journal, we strive to promote accuracy and balance in our content. Authors are asked to check the accuracy of their work, and to provide full attribution when appropriate.

Editorial direction for the EMS Historian is provided by journal editorial team and by the Board of Directors of The National EMS Museum.

All content is edited by the EMS Historian editorial team. Any changes made in the editing process are shared with the author prior to the journal going to print. Reasonable accommodation will be made for the author’s wishes if there is a difference of opinion, but all final decisions on content and edits are made by the EMS Historian team. The collaborative review process is detailed in a later section.

Any errors discovered post publication are corrected in subsequent issues of the journal or on the Museum’s website and social media. Significant changes to content are identified for readers with an editor’s note. This should be a rare occurrence.

The EMS Historian editorial team strive to uphold the highest standards of ethics in our editorial decision-making. That includes maintaining independence and objectivity from the interests of journal advertisers, sponsors, and other stakeholders.

The editorial team will avoid any relationships that might impair objectivity in the making of editorial decisions.

Submitting an article proposal to the EMS Historian

Please do not submit an article until you have contacted the EMS Historian editorial team.
Unsolicited articles submitted before contacting editorial staff will be returned to the author. You may contact editorial staff at the following email addresses:

editor@emsmuseum. org

For each article you are proposing, include:

•  a working title for the article (photo essays are also considered)
•  a paragraph or two description of the article, including its’ main points
•  a word count for the article (if already written or approx if not yet completed)
•  a description of any photos or artwork to be included with the article
•  a date by which the article will be submitted (must minimally conform to issue deadlines)
•  any other information you believe would help journal editorial staff to understand your idea

If your article/idea does not meet our needs as submitted, we may work with you to craft the article in such a way that it is appropriate for the EMS Historian.

Submitting an article for review

If the EMS Historian editorial staff have accepted your proposed article/proposal for an article, please follow these important specifications for submission style and format.

The EMS Historian article specifications:

•  Contributions must be your own original research and writing – and cannot have been submitted to or published in another publication or on the web.
•  Each submission should be 500 to 2,000 words in an editable Microsoft Word document enabled with track changes feature. Manuscripts longer that 2,000 words will be considered in consultation with the editorial staff, and may be presented in multiple parts/editions.
•  The text should be written in Times New Roman font, 12-point, and single-spaced with breaks between paragraphs, and one space after periods.

With your submission, please include:

•  If references are appropriate and are used, please include them at the end of the article, on a separate page, in MLA 9th edition bibliography format. Any questions on that format should be discussed with the EMS Historian editorial staff prior to submission of your article.
•  If links or websites could provide readers with more information on your topic, include those as well.
•  Include photos and/or artwork related to the article in separate JPEG, PDF or PNG files – at least 400 dpi or the format equivalent
•  Include a very brief (four to five sentence) biographical statement along with a recent head shot photo. Include the same information for all authors if the article has more than one author.

Editing and revising before publication

If the EMS Historian editorial team accepts your article for publication in the journal, journal editorial staff will edit the article for punctuation, spelling, grammar, style and clarity. To the extent possible, journal editorial staff will also edit the article for accuracy. The EMS Historian and The National EMS Museum does not have the staff or the resources to fact-check all areas of the articles submitted. Therefore, it is the author’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of their work and insert proper citations/references, website links, and contact information for staff to validate information and quotes included in the submission. Articles without a bibliography may be returned to the author as incomplete submissions. Since this is a journal including areas of history and innovation, the accuracy of the information presented is vitally important.

The EMS Historian team reserves the right to edit your submission. Once edited, the article will be returned to the author for a review of the edits and changes. If the author disagrees with any edits or changes, the author is responsible for contacting the editorial team at one of the email addresses above with in five (5) days of receiving the edited article for author review.

If editorial staff do not hear back from the author, the editorial team will proceed with edits as submitted to the author.

If a second edit is made to include the author’s changes, or additional revisions as identified by EMS Historian editorial team, the article will be returned to the author for review and approval before final publication. If the author does not reply in writing, email, within five (5) days of receiving the new draft the version as submitted to the author will be prepared for publication.

Once the author has seen the edited version of the article (including the title) and has agreed to the edits/changes via written, email, permission to editor@emsmuseum. org,  editorial staff will perform a final review and will prepare the article for publication. In those instances when the author does not agree with edits/changes made, the article will not be published.

Submitting an article is not a guarantee of the article being published. The journal has limited space. Articles may be run in subsequent issues. If the article is not published the article (and accompanying photos and/or artwork) will be returned to the author. Authors may resubmit articles as long as the requirements outlined above are met at the time of each submission.

The deadlines for the submission of proposals and article submissions are as follows:

Proposal submission: April 7, 2023

Article submission (with photos/artwork): June 30, 2023

Review of edited content: August 15, 2023

Tentative publishing date: December 1, 2023

Submission checklist

Please use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the EMS Historian for review.

Proposals/Articles:

•  email address and phone number for author(s)
•  an article idea is communicated clearly – for proposals
•  all pages of the article should be numbered (if the article has already been written)
•  all potential patient health information/identifiers are removed from photos (if applicable)
•  all photos and artwork are submitted in formats as above
•  a brief bio (as above) from the author – as well as a head shot is included
•  all references are cited in a Reference List submitted with the article
•  articles have been “spell checked” and “grammar checked”
•  articles have been carefully checked for factual accuracy
•  permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet) if applicable
• Signed author contract due before final draft approval

______________________________________________________________________________
The EMS Historian is always looking for content which tells the story of the evolution of EMS in the United States and the influence of international pre-hospital care in the US. We encourage you to submit your article ideas and articles for consideration for publication in our journal. Please do not hesitate to contact us at the above email addresses if you have any questions.