General Information
NZMSJ welcome authors to submit articles to both the published journal issues and the NZMSJ Blog. With a few exceptions, the NZMSJ accepts academic submissions to our journal issues, and non-academic submissions on our NZMSJ Blog. The submission process and requirements are the same for both, please refer to the submission guidelines for more information. All submissions undergo a double blinded peer review process.
The NZMSJ does not have an article processing charge i.e. authors are not expected to pay a cost for publishing their work in our journal.
Full NZMSJ Submission Guidelines (Download)
Types of Submissions
NZMSJ Journal:
Original research articles (<3000 words)
Academic review articles (<3000 words)
Case reports (<1500 words)
Academic viewpoint (<1500 words)*
Feature articles (<3000 words)*
Letters (<500 words)*
*Feature articles must be related to the issue theme. The issue theme will be published on the NZMSJ Facebook page approximately two months prior to the issue deadline. Letters must be written in response to a previously published NZMSJ article. Publication of accepted academic viewpoints, feature articles and letters in each issue will be limited and publication of these article types will occur at the Editor’s discretion. If articles are unable to be published in the upcoming issue, authors can choose to have their accepted articles transferred for publication in the blog, or to be considered for publication in the subsequent issue.
NZMSJ Blog:
Original blog article (<3000 words)
Media reviews (<700 words)
New Zealand Medical Student Association (NZMSA) Creative Writing (including poems, songs, short stories or anything similar)
*The word count for each type of submission must be strictly followed. The abstract (250 words maximum) and references are not included in the total word count.
Criteria for Acceptance
- Submissions that are of interest to medical students
- NZMSJ Ethical Considerations are respected (below)
- If research/academic submission: NZMSJ Reporting guidelines are followed (below)
- Follows the mandatory format requirements
- All Author identifiers (including name) have been anonymised/removed from the submitted manuscript
- Spelling, grammar, and clarity is to an acceptable standard
- Written approval from research supervisors is required for original research articles
- Written consent from patients is required for case reports
- Anonymised Manuscript + Manuscript Cover Sheet (Cover Sheet must be uploaded at time of submission as a SUPPORTING FILE on Scholastica).
NZMSJ Reporting guidelines
The EQUATOR Network outlines the reporting guidelines for various study designs. The NZMSJ kindly asks authors to follow the respective reporting guideline.
NZMSJ Privacy Policy
Processing Time:
Please note peer review and processing times vary however, our current time from submission to final decision is 62 days.
Plagiarism policy:
The NZMSJ only publishes only original content. When submitting an article, authors must sign the cover sheet to confirm that the submission is the author's own original work, which has not been published elsewhere. Submission where plagiarism or duplication is found to have occurred will not be considered for publication in the NZMSJ Issue or Blog.
Further Clarification
For further information or queries, please contact the Editor-in-Chief (chief_editor@nzmsj.com).
