Diversity in Health and Social Care Contributing

Diversity in Health and Social Care is now known as Diversity in Health and Care.

For further details please click here.

Contributing

This journal is concerned with all aspects of diversity in health and social care. Diversity is seen as a very broad concept, embracing, for example, culture, belief, disability, gender, race and ethnicity, as well as underserved and marginalised populations. Diversity also extends to the wide variety of settings in which care takes place and the multidisciplinary nature of professional practice.

The editors welcome:

research papers that address any aspect of diversity, including evaluative studies and methodological debates
practice papers that provide examples of culturally competent practice, or which address the practicalities, policy or managerial aspects of delivering services to members of diverse groups
debate papers that address key issues in diversity or which focus on under-researched topics
knowledge-sharing reports that may include book, website, video and other resource reviews and papers about specific initiatives to improve practice

The instructions below give some information about how contributions should be presented. If any of these need clarification please contact the Editors.

Submission and peer review procedure

Submit papers electronically to the Editors at dhsc@radcliffemed.com, or send them by post to the address at the base of this page. An acknowledgement of receipt of the manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author(s).
All research papers submitted for publication will be subject to peer review. Papers are assumed to be submitted exclusively to the journal unless otherwise stated and, on acceptance, they become the copyright of the journal. Papers based on primary research should comply with appropriate research governance and ethical approval.
Authors are invited to recommend two appropriate reviewers for their paper, whom the Editors might approach, at their discretion, for peer-review purposes.
The turnaround time for papers will be up to six to eight weeks from submission to decision and up to 12 weeks from decision to publication, with a fast-track process also available. This will be an audited process.
The editor reserves the right to make minor adjustments and, if necessary, to shorten the article without changing the meaning.
One copy of revised articles is sufficient. A covering letter should make it clear that the final manuscript has been seen and approved for publication by all the authors.

General style

Topics within the remit of the journal should be presented clearly and concisely and must be written in a gender-free, non-discriminatory style.
Permission to reproduce previously published material must be obtained in writing from the copyright holder and the original source should be acknowledged in the manuscript.
All manuscripts should be typed in double-line spacing on one side only of A4 paper, with a margin of 3cm all round, pages should be numbered consecutively. Please include an abstract of a maximum of 300 words.
The first page of the paper should contain the title, the author(s) name(s) and an address for correspondence. Each author should indicate his/her professional discipline, current appointment and qualifications. The address of the corresponding author will be printed with the paper (if published) unless you request that it is omitted.
When first using abbreviations in the text, the term the author wishes to abbreviate should be spelt out in full with its abbreviation in brackets. Thereafter the abbreviation can and should be used. Abbreviations should be in capital letters and unpunctuated.

Tables, figures and illustrations

As far as possible articles should be suitably illustrated but not contain more than three tables.
Tables should not duplicate but rather supplement information given in the text. They should be typed on a separate sheet and have a caption. Do not use vertical rules in tables.
Tables should only be used when data cannot be expressed clearly in any other form. Figures should not duplicate information provided in the text.
Illustrations may be line drawings or black-and-white photographs of good quality, preferably with a gloss finish. Illustrations will not be returned after publication unless specifically requested. All illustrations are submitted at the owner's risk, the publisher accepts no liability for loss or damage while in possession of the material.

Length of article
Articles should be between 2000 and 5000 words.

Structural aids
Subheadings are encouraged, when suitable, to break up the text as well as to improve readability.

References

The style of referencing is the Harvard system. References should be listed alphabetically at the end of the article. If there is more than one reference in any given year for the same author, then list them as 2003a, 2003b, etc, as they appear in the order of the text.
Cross-referencing should be inserted in parentheses in the text, in full for single or dual authors (Smith and Eades, 2003) but abbreviated (Owen et al, 1999) for multiple authors.
Information taken from unpublished papers, personal communications and observations should only be included in the text and not referred to as a formal reference.
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.

Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the author submitting the paper and must be returned promptly. This will allow correction of printers' and similar errors. Major changes will not be entertained and authors may be charged for excessive amendments at this stage.

Correspondence and enquiries
Submissions should be emailed to the Editors at: dhsc@radcliffemed.com

All written correspondence should be addressed to: Professor Paula McGee and Professor Mark Johnson, Faculty of Health Birmingham City University, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2SU, UK.

For further information contact: Professor Paula McGee, tel: +44(0) 121 331 5340 or email paula.mcgee@uce.ac.uk, or Professor Mark Johnson, Mary Seacole Research Centre, De Montfort University, tel: +44(0) 116 201 3906 or email mrdj@dmu.ac.uk