We appreciate your interest in submitting to our journal. We are interested in and open to unique article types aside from the ones listed below. If you do have a unique article format, please share your reason for this format with the editors before submitting for review. Please also note we are unable to accept original research at this time due to scope of our journal. If you are interested in including some original research within your reports, consider adding it under “outcomes” but please do not format your article as original research. For an example, please review the Almost Home Kids article published in our first edition.

Article Types

Program Reports

A Program Report is a comprehensive description of a medical program that provides care to children with medical complexity (CMC). Programs that qualify could be outpatient primary care programs, outpatient consultative services, inpatient primary or consultative services, multidisciplinary clinics which mainly serve children with medical complexity, or a combination thereof. A this time we will not be publishing reports of rehabilitation or long term care facilities unless there is a unique medical program within the facility. Priority will be placed on publishing reports from programs serving all children with medical complexity and which do not limit their population to specific diagnoses.  

The format of a Program Report will be best determined by the author and the function of the program being described though editors will prioritize more comprehensive reports. A potential outline for the Program Report follows; components are not required for publication.

  1. Program Summary (will serve as an abstract)
  2. Program Description
    1. Practice type and setting
    2. Population served including patient eligibility criteria
    3. Practice mission statement or objectives
  3. Services
    1. Services provided
    2. Service access: appointments per session/appointment length, clinic templates
    3. Service access: new patient referral process
    4. Marketing plan
  4. Team Members
    1. FTE for each position
    2. Function of each position
    3. Job descriptions can be added as an addendum
  5. Financial Plan
    1. Income opportunities (billing, alternative payment models, Title V, grants)
    2. Tracking mechanisms for value to hospital/system aside from billing
    3. Funding for each team member
    4. Funding for other expenses of the program
    5. Start up history
  6. Outcomes
    1. Number of patients served
    2. Revenue or other tracked outcomes
    3. Innovations program has developed/achieved (patient care, healthcare system, or other systems)

Program Reports have no word limitations but the program summary/abstract is required to be 200 words or less. 

 

Care Innovation Reports

A Care Innovation Report is a comprehensive description of an unique model of care delivery developed specifically to address the needs of children with medical complexity and their families. Care Innovations that could qualify could be specific unique components of an outpatient or inpatient program serving children with medical complexity, the end results of a quality improvement/performance improvement project (such as the sustainable components 1 year out), a system-wide project aiming to improve care for CMC despite location CMC are seen in (such as an EMR innovation), or a multi-agency collaborations (such as between medical institutions, government, local agencies and nonprofits, payers of care, families, etc). Priority will be placed on publishing reports from programs serving all children with medical complexity and which do not limit their population to specific diagnoses.  

The format of a Care Innovation Report will be best determined by the author and the function of the program being described though editors will prioritize more comprehensive reports. A potential outline for the Care Innovation Report follows; components are not required for publication.

  1. Care Innovation Overview (will serve as an abstract)
  2. Problem Description
    1. Nature and significance of local problem
    2. Agencies/programs involved in the problem (if applicable)
    3. Rationale of addressing the problem and background to support this
    4. Aim of innovation
  3. Innovation
    1. Innovation description: components of the innovation including specific roles or details
      1. Agencies, programs, family members involved in developing the innovation
      2. New roles created for innovation/people required for innovation
      3. Tools developed/required for this innovation
      4. Other details important to the implementation of this innovation including any financial considerations
    2. Any prior attempts or early versions of innovation that were not continued
    3. Any study or measures of the innovation and outcomes
  4. Discussion
    1. Has the innovation remained sustainable? If not, why and has it changed?
    2. How can this innovation be adapted to other programs?
    3. Conclusions
  5. Future steps/plans in innovation

Please include any figures, pictures, or documents related to your innovation!

 

 

Medical Educational Program Reports

A Medical Educational Program Report is a comprehensive description of a medical educational program that focuses on teaching on care to children with medical complexity (CMC). Programs that qualify could be rotations/electives, lecture series, or components of a larger curriculum for students (of all medical disciplines), interns/residents, fellows, or post-degree/CME. Priority will be placed on publishing reports from curriculums teaching on care of all children with medical complexity and which do not limit their population to specific diagnoses.  

The format of a Medical Educational Program Report will be best determined by the author and the function of the program being described though editors will prioritize more comprehensive reports. A potential outline for the report follows; components are not required for publication. 

  1. Program Summary/Abstract
  2. Program Description
    1. Target learners
    2. Why curriculum was developed/educational need
    3. Educational setting and timeframe/length
    4. Goals and objectives
    5. Development history
  3. Program Components
    1. Structure of program including schedule examples
    2. Any detailed description of unique components
    3. Resources for education
    4. Details of coordination of components, especially if learner-led 
  4. Educational Team Members
    1. Faculty involved and where program is housed academically
  5. Funding
    1. If components are funded, describe source and sustainability
  6. Outcomes
    1. Number of learners per year
    2. Learner reviews and scores
    3. Other outcomes (long term impact on patient outcomes for example)

Medical Educational Program Reports have no word limitations but the program summary/abstract is required to be 200 words or less. 

 

 

Complex Care Case Reports

Complex Care Case Reports are an import method to further clinical care in a developing field. Case Reports which involve multidisciplinary teamwork and care coordination will be prioritized for publication. We welcome cases of care coordination with community and non-medical agencies. We also highly encourage family involvement in the writing of the case report and support offering family co-authorship.

We will also consider case reports diagnosing unique manifestations or detailing novel symptom management of complications of chronic disease in CMC (ie: dysautonomia). We are generally not looking for initial diagnosis of a complex condition. Diagnostic dilemmas (without patient outcome at time of publication) will also be considered but must be discussed with editorial staff prior to submission.

All cases should be real cases and must have consent from patient or family and identified providers. Consent must be attested by authors in article (see Informed Consent below).

Case Reports highlighting multidisciplinary teamwork or care coordination should consist of:

  1. Unstructured abstract that summarizes the case.
  2. Section that details the patient presentation and problem to be addressed.
  3. The care collaboration provided with patient outcomes. We encourage a multidisciplinary write up including perspectives from multiple providers and family.
  4. Discussion that includes a brief review of the relevant literature and describes how this case brings new understanding to care coordination.

Case Reports highlighting unique presentations or management of complications of complex conditions should consist of:

  1. Unstructured abstract that summarizes the case.
  2. Section that details the patient presentation, initial workup, and outcome.
  3. Unanswered components of this case.
  4. Discussion that includes a brief review of the relevant literature and describes how this case brings new understanding to clinical care for CMC.

Case reports have no word limitations but the abstract is required to be 200 words or less.

Publication Reviews: Research Articles or Educational Resources

Reviews of recently published (within the last 6 months) research articles or educational resources relevant to care of children with medical complexity are welcome. Research articles should be indexed (have a DOI or PMID). Educational resource can come from MedEdPORTAL or other widely-available online educational resources. Format includes article/resource summary followed by a section with personal commentary. Reviews typically will be less than 1000 words with no abstract. Please be mindful of limiting the amount of direct quotes and paraphrasing as this can trigger journals who search the web for copyright infringements. You can not review your own literature or educational resource.

Commentaries

CCJ accepts commentaries in many domains related to pediatric complex care including but not limited to: clinical care advances, care coordination innovations, local and national health policy updates, and novel ideas related to systems of care.

Commentaries typically will be less than 1000 words but there is no word limitations, we welcome longer pieces if the topic indicates this. Usually commentaries will not have an abstract.

Publishing Style

Authors: Complete names of authors with degrees and affiliations should be included.

Word Count: Word count is unlimited but manuscripts should not be longer than needed to be effective. If an article type requires an abstract, an abstract is required to be 200 words or less.

Abbreviations: All abbreviations should be spelled out with the first appearance in text with abbreviation in parentheses next to it.

Figures: All figures should be titled. We prefer JPEGs (.jpg) for figures.

References: CCJ follows the editorial style of the American Medical Association.

Submission Document: The preferred format for a submission is in a Word document. 

Submitting

Please email your manuscript to complexcarejournal@gmail.com. Please have contact information of corresponding author in this email. Submission implies commitment to publish in CCJ. Authors should not submit the same manuscript to another journal at the same time nor should the work be previously published.

Peer Review Process

Once a manuscripts has been received by the editorial board, it is reviewed for appropriateness for CCJ. If deemed appropriate, the board designates two (or more if indicated) reviewers to the manuscript.

Our unique peer review process includes an open and collaborative method to reviewing the manuscript between the authors and the reviewers. The manuscript is placed in a shared, editable document where all members add comments through “track changes” over a two to four week time period. This process starts with the reviewers providing initial comments but then is open to this small team working together to come with a final manuscript. At the end of the comment period, the author has to approve the edited manuscript before it is brought again to the editorial board before publishing. The goal of this method is to provide constructive commentary to the author and to develop an efficient peer review method. In addition, peer reviewers are encouraged to provide public commentary on published articles through the moderated commentary feature of the journal.

If a member of editorial board submits to CCJ, that member will have no involvement in the peer review process as an editor (only as an author).

Publishing Ethics

Authorship

All authors should meet the below criteria; any person who meets the below criteria should be considered an author. All authors must approve final manuscript prior to submission. A contributing author includes those who:

  1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or information collection, AND
  2. Drafted the article or revised it critically, AND
  3. Approved the version to be published, AND
  4. Can be held accountable for all aspects of the work.

Supervision is not sufficient to claim authorship. When a large group submits a manuscript, the persons who meet the above criteria are considered having authorship. Contributors can be included at the end of a manuscript in an Acknowledgements section.

Conflict of Interests

Complex Care Pediatrics requires all authors to acknowledge any potential conflicts of interest using the standardized disclosure form of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). We typically do not accept manuscripts of authors with financial ties to the topics of the manuscript (we will consider Program Reports of privately-owned practices).

Informed Consent

Written consent from the patient (if of age and ability) or family and from the providers identified in the case who cared for the patient is required before a manuscript can be submitted. We also encourage families to be involved in the writing of the case report and support families as co-authors. We are not able to publish case reports with a contentious course or diagnosis.

We have provided a sample consent form (link here) for authors to use and suggest families sign a copy of the manuscript. This consent is to be held by the authors. An attestation statement by authors should be included in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained. Requirements of local institutional review boards should be followed. For more guidance, review the CARE Case Report Guidelines.

Plagiarism

Any article discovered to be plagiarized will be corrected (in the setting of inadequate citation) or retracted. Authors’ institutions may be contacted depending on the extent of plagiarism.

Prior Publication

We do not accept previously published material.

Permissions

Authors hold responsibility for all permissions necessary for any copyrighted or previously published materials used in their manuscript.

Publishing Policies

Upon approval for publication, the manuscript copyright is transferred from the authors to CCJ. CCJ can reproduce and distribute the manuscript as agreed on by the authors and in typical manner of CCJ which includes adapting for print and electronic formats.

The authors have patent and trademark rights to their work and content described at all times. The authors have access to their articles online. The authors may distribute copies of their work but may not sell work which CCJ holds the copyright. The authors may promote their publications (including on social media) and may link directly to the published article.

At this time, CCJ is completely open access. Any reader is responsible for requesting permission to use any of the published materials.

Communication

Any questions, comments, or other communications to CCJ may be directed to complexcarejournal@gmail.com.