Before formal submission, potential contributors are invited to either enquire whether or not a particular article would be of interest to the Editorial Board, or to obtain advice about the way in which a manuscript should be prepared for submission.

• Title Operations Coordinator: submissions@phcfm.org
• Editor-in-Chief: editor@phcfm.org
• Technical assistance: If you require technical assistance in submitting your manuscript to the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine (PHCFM), you will find details of how to contact AOSIS OpenJournals support directly by clicking here.

The African Jurnal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine (PHCFM) is an Open Access, peer reviewed journal publishing research that encourages scholarly exchange between family medicine and primary health care researchers and practitioners across Africa. The journal is edited by Pierre de Villiers with the assistance of an expert Editorial Board. Each article published by PHCFM follows a specific format, as detailed in the corresponding instructions for authors.

The instructions for authors include information about the criteria for publication, preparing a manuscript for submission to the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine (PHCFM) and the online submission process. Other relevant information about the journal's policies and the refereeing process can be found under the 'Resources' section.

In order to be accepted for publication in the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, research must satisfy the following criteria:

• The study should present the results of primary scientific research.
• Results reported have not been published elsewhere.
• Experiments, statistics and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail so that another researcher is able to reproduce the experiments described.
• Conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion and are supported by the data.
• The article is presented in an intelligible fashion and is written in clear and unambiguous Standard English.
• The research meets all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.
• The article adheres to appropriate reporting guidelines and community standards for data availability.

For more information on the journals copyright, competing interest and ethical policies, click chere.

The African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine  publishes the following types of articles (click on the link to learn more about the format and structure requirements):

• Editorials: This section aims to publish comments and opinions, and to explore new ideas within the focus and scope of the journal. Contributions from the Editor will be published at regular intervals throughout the year (less than 1500 words with a maximum of 10 references). 
• Original articles: Original research articles should inform readers of innovative research in a particular field within or related to the focus and scope of the journal presented according to a clear and well-structured format. Research published in this section should add to the existing body of knowledge published in this field (between 3500–7000 words with a maximum of 60 references). All original articles must be accompanied by signed, written evidence of ethics approval (ethics clerance certificate) from an approved Research Ethics Committee / Institutional Research Board. Such evidence should be uploaded under Step 4 of the online submission process as a supplementary file.
• Review articles: May be submitted or solicited by the editor. These articles should inform a broad readership about fields in which there have been recent, important advances of immense, fundamental importance and highlight unresolved questions and future directions. Standard headings are not always appropriate, but the review should have clear subheadings to provide order to the manuscript (between 2500–4000 words with a maximum of 40 references; abstract required).
• Opinion papers: Short opinion piece or personal perspectives (not research papers) on any fundamental primary health care and family medicine topic. These essays are meant to express a personal viewpoint, with rare exception and should have no more than two authors (between 1000–2000 words). Standard headings are not always appropriate, but the essay should have clear subheadings to provide order to the manuscript.
• Scientific letters: Discussions on material, whereby the authors raise their opinion on a particular aspect of primary health care and family medicine studies or their reaction to a previously published paper in PHCFM. This section encourages debate amongst authors and readers on topical issues of national and global importance to the field of primary health care and family medicine studies. Letters will be published at the Editor's discretion. In the case of critical letters, the original author will be given an opportunity to provide a short rebuttal which will be published along with the critical letter (up to 800 words).
• Case studies: Should document the diagnosis and treatment of a patient or group of patients, or could potentially describe the implementation of an educational program or healthcare-related intervention. Authors are required to provide an abstract of 250 words with manuscripts in this section (between 500–1500 words).
• Conference reports, proceedings and abstracts: The journal will publish conference proceedings, conference reports and abstracts. Should you wish for the journal to publish proceedings from a conference you are organising, please contact the Editor. Conference reports should be no longer than 1500 words. Educational material: Education module or course content, or any material used in the education and training of students. Submissions must be less than 3500 words and free from copyright.
• Book reviews: Normally requested by the editor or book-review editor on any books relevant to aspects of primary health care and family medicine. Please contact the editor if you would like to suggest a review or book for consideration.

The African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine uses the Vancouver referencing system (click on the link below to view the Vancouver referencing guide):

• Vancouver  style guide

Authors and referees are asked to declare any competing interests. Copyright rests with authors. For more information on the copyright of articles, see our publisher's copyright and license policy under the 'Editorial details' and 'Resources' sections.

You will need an author account with the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine in order to submit a manuscript.

Here follows detailed instructions on how to submit an article online:

1. After you have logged in and clicked on 'Author', click on the link under 'start a new submission' to go to step 1 of the five-step submission process.
2. Enter data and answer questions as prompted.
3. Click on the Next button on each screen to save your work and advance to the next screen. 
4. You are required to upload your files in two separate steps.  Step 2: Upload single submission file - Click on the Browse button and locate the file on your computer. When you have selected the file you wish to upload, click the Upload button. Note: You have a limit of 15MB for a single file you upload. Review your submission (in a Word .doc)  before sending it to the Editors. Step 4: Upload cover page and other multiple supplementary file(s).
   • Click on the Browse button and locate the file on your computer.
   • Select the designation of your supplementary files (.eps, .xls).
   • When you have selected the file you wish to upload, click the Upload button. Note: You have a limit of 15MB  for a single file you upload.
   • Repeat steps 1–3 until all supplementary files have been uploaded. Note: You can only upload 1 supplementary file at a time.
5. Review your submission online in Step 5 before sending it to the Editors.
6. Click the Finish Submit button when you are done reviewing.  

Support videos:

• Click here to view a video on how to submit an article online.
• Click here to view a video on how to proofread your article.

The submission process can be interrupted at any time; when users return to the site they can continue where they left off. After completing the submission, you will receive a submission confirmation via email. You can also log in to the African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine at any time to check the status of your manuscript.