Format of Articles for the journal Epilepsy: Insights & Strategies

1. Content: The article must relate to epilepsy and convey information that would be useful to significant numbers of people in the Epilepsy Community. The message should come from an individual who has had epilepsy or has vicariously experienced seizures through a person important in their life. The point-of-view should not be that of a doctor, nurse, researcher or epilepsy health care professional, unless that person has experienced epilepsy in private life. The article should not be a summary of your personal medical history.
2. Originality: Your article must be original, meaning that it must be your work. It cannot be a reproduction from another source. Any words taken from another source must be put in quotes and attributed to that source. If you copy a picture or table from another website or publication, tell us where you got it, and we will have to get permission to use it.
3. Authorship: You should list your name and the name of any coauthors. There is no limit on the number of authors. You may collaborate. Coauthors should agree on whose name goes first: usually it is the person who makes the major contribution to the article. Epilepsy.com needs to have your real name(s) for purposes of communication, but you can choose to post the article anonymously if you do not want your name(s) to be public.
4. Medical privacy: You may be revealing information about your personal medical history to the world. Think before you do so. Consider whether you wish to publish under your real name or anonymously.
5. Word Processor: Microsoft Word format is preferred. You also can submit in plain text (txt), rich text (rtf) format. Alternatively, you can paste your article into the body of an email sent to Robin Owen at robin@epilepsytherapyproject.org. We can also scan a printed, typed article mailed to us at Robert S. Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., Neurology, Room A343, Stanford Medical Center, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5235. If mailed, please identify it as an article submitted for epilepsy.com.
6. Sections: Have a title page with a title and the authors’ name(s). Have a summary abstract of between 100 and 250 words, conveying your main points. Then place the body of your article, followed by any citations to other published literature, then any pictures, figures or tables and a brief description of them (figure legends). We will put it all in order before publishing it on the website.
7. Length: The articles should be 2 -10 single-spaced typed pages long, usually equivalent to about 1000 - 5000 words. This refers to the body of the text, not counting words in the title page, abstract, citations to other work or figure legends. Use any font, font size or margins that you wish. Epilepsy.com will reformat the material for publication.
8. Language: Except with special arrangements, all articles must be submitted in English.
9. Citations to other publications: Where you mention or quote from other publications, put in parentheses the name of the first author and date of the publication. In the citations section at the end, list the full original source. Alphabetize the citations by last name of the first author. In the citation at the end, include: last name and first initial of all authors, listed in the order of their original publication; title of the article, chapter, book or website; the name of the book or journal from which it comes; the year published; volume and page of the journal. If it is a book, add the publisher’s name and city.
10. Drawings, photos, charts, tables and figures: Any of these are welcome, and can spice up the text of an article. Ideally, photos and figures should be in jpg or gif format, but epilepsy.com can convert from other formats if you do not know how. We also can scan them into the article.
11. Photo permission release: Any photos that allow people to be identified in the picture will require a signed release by all identified subjects. Epilepsy.com will supply the form for this release, which must be used to obtain permission. Lacking the signed form, the photo will be removed.
12. Copyright release: If your article is to be published/posted, we will send you a copyright release form to sign. The article cannot be published/posted until we have that in hand.

Section Editor: Robert Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. and Robin Owen