Instructions & Guidelines
FULGME serves as an open platform for the publication of GME insights, best practices, and innovative ideas. Submission categories include original research, educational administrative innovations, brief reports, reviews, perspectives, personal essays, and letters to the editor. All submissions should pertain to GME and be of interest to other GME professionals. Submissions may have been published in print or electronic format and can be currently under consideration by another publication or medium.
Manuscript Types
Innovation
A description of a new approach or strategy in medical education administration that has been implemented and assessed. Submissions should answer the question: Should this innovation be duplicated in other institutions and/or programs? Submissions should also include some form of information on viability: cost, time, materials, training, technology, etc., and suitability among participants.
Perspective
A thorough discussion that provides evidence-based and expert opinions on issues of broad interest to GME administrators, managers, and/or institutional officials. Perspectives should provide the author’s expert opinion and will generally convince readers to consider a potential course of action rather than simply raising awareness.
Report
A summary of a new insight or idea, evaluation method, administrative approach, or effective best practice that advances the field of GME or addresses a current “hot topic.” Brief Report submissions may focus on more specific outcomes, such as a single setting, a smaller cohort of trainees, a single discipline, or preliminary or self-reported outcome measures. Brief Report submissions must adhere to the FULGME structured format for abstracts and manuscript content.
Research
Includes all content areas of GME administration and should follow standard quality criteria for qualitative or quantitative research as depicted by the Forum for United Leaders in Graduate Medical Education.
Review
A summary of any topic relevant to graduate medical education professionals.
Topic Areas
Manuscripts can focus on one of the four topic areas:
Best Practices
Process Improvement
Innovative Ideas
Research
Manuscript Components
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Cover Letter: a brief introduction to your scholarly work
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Title Page: should include the following:
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Title
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Author names and relevant degrees, with institutional affiliations, and roles
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Acknowledgements and relevant disclosures
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Corresponding author’s contact information
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Authorship: Any person(s) that have actively participated in the research, writing, and/or editing of the submitted manuscript
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Anyone that contributed to the manuscript in a way other than those mentioned above should be listed in the acknowledgements.
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Anyone that contributes to the writing must be listed as an author or mentioned in the acknowledgements.
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Abstract: Required for research, innovation, review, or report submissions. These must follow the FULGME format: background, objective, methods, results, and conclusions.
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Background: Description of the quality problem(s), and relevance and importance to GME personnel; existing gap to achieve desired quality outcome(s)
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Objective: The aim(s) of the quality improvement project
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Methods: Key context of the quality intervention (institution, participants), number of iterative steps, evaluation process
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Results: Key findings; outcomes both intended and unintended (balancing measures); and fidelity to the intervention
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Conclusions: Summary of key findings, with focus on potential for spread to other settings and implications for GME
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Manuscript Sections: required for research, innovation, review, or report submissions.
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Introduction: describe the importance and relevance to the audience, a description of existing research/literature that showcases the evidence gaps the forthcoming submission intents to address, and a statement of the objective
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Methods: should include the following, as applicable
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Justification for theoretical constructs and/or methods chosen.
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Detailed descriptions so that others may replicate discussed implementations.
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Setting and participants
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Interventions
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Outcomes measures
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Analysis of the outcomes
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Survey and/or assessment descriptions.
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Results: should be reported in an objective manner and include the following, as applicable
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Include general information such as demographic statistics and participation numbers.
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Describe feasibility and acceptability.
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Showcase the percentage of the findings.
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Report response rates.
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Include both negative and positive findings.
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Discussion: brief summaries of the most significant, unexpected, or distinctive findings of the study; should evaluate the results and place them in context; examine how the study or project limitations could impact the validity of your findings (this encompasses external validity, or generalizability, and internal validity, or the likelihood that your findings are accurate); consider alternative explanations for findings and propose additional research questions or study designs that might yield different results; describe possible next steps in your study; recommendations for best practices or next steps based on the results of the study
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Conclusion: a few sentences that briefly summarize the key takeaways from the process, innovative idea and/or study
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References: All reference listings must be numbered consecutively in the order they are cited in the text, tables, or legends following the AMA Manual of Style (https://www.amamanualofstyle.com). Abbreviations of journal names must follow the MEDLINE format. Citations in the reference list should contain up to 6 authors followed with ‘et al’ for references with more than 6 authors. All references must be provided as citations in the text using superscripted numbers (ie, 1,2,3). Footnotes on tables or figures use superscripted letters (ie, a,b,c).