Enhancing care,
Advancing health science


Curiositas

Curiositas aims to provide readers of the Ulster Medical Journal with interesting short articles that are relevant to health-related matters of the Northern Ireland population and further afield.

We will accept the following type of articles:

  • Brief items of news (maximum of 150 words).
  • Quiz questions (maximum 100 words) with answers. Contributors should supply both a short answer (maximum 80 words) for the printed journal and a long answer (maximum 500 words) for the website.

The Quiz questions can be aimed at an undergraduate, postgraduate or continuing medical education level.

Published Curiositas items can be accessed through the online journal issue in which they appeared.

Images

We actively encourage the use of images which are interesting, informative, relevant and inoffensive.

  • Images which have an educational message are more likely to be accepted.
  • They should be of an acceptable quality and resolution.
  • The images should be submitted as separate jpeg or tiff files and should not be embedded in a word document.
  • The Editor retains the right to make reasonable adjustments to an image to enhance the clarity of the message that it is trying to portray.
  • The Editor's decision on the use of images is final.

The patient's written consent to the publication of a clinical image in the UMJ must be obtained if there is any possibility that he or she could be identified.

Patient consent is generally not required for radiological and histopathological images but all patient identification details such as name, address, date of birth, and health and social care number must be removed. The Editor may request the patient's written consent if there is a particular feature of the image which may be unique to the individual.

If consent is required, a Patient Consent Form should be completed and returned with the submission.

Notes for Contributors

All correspondence should be sent directly to the UMJ Editor by email (see below).

Covering and named-guarantor letters and patient consent forms (all of which require signatures) should be sent as scanned copies. The originals should be preserved and not destroyed.

Articles should be sent as a Word or rtf file in single spacing with wide margins, preferably in Times (New) Roman 12pt font.

A covering letter signed by all the authors must be supplied. The letter should give the authors' names and places of work, and should state that the work has not been published elsewhere, that all the authors agree to publication and that they all have been actively involved in the preparation of the article.

One of the authors must accept responsibility for the article by signing a letter confirming that he or she is the "named guarantor".

All authors should read and accept the instructions on the Ulster Medical Journal’s Contributing page.

Contributors' checklist:

  • The article itself.
  • A covering letter signed by all authors.
  • A signed "named-guarantor" letter.
  • Image files (if used).
  • Patient written consent (if required).

Contact

The Editor editor@ums.ac.uk