Submission guidelines Keeping up with primary health care trends is easy with this bi-monthly newsletter. Objective and informed, PHC RIS infonet keeps you up to date with what's happening across primary health care. This newsletter is a great resource full of news, reviews, tips and advice, and articles written by your peers. PHC RIS infonet is sent in hard copy to over 1000 subscribers, and to more than 1600 electronic subscribers. Thank you for your interest in submitting an article to PHC RIS infonet.

Word limit

The maximum word-limit for all articles contributed is 300 words. If you are submitting a photo or image with your article, the word limit is reduced to 270 words.

What to include?

Include the following details in your article

• Headline / Title
• Author name
• Author contact details
  • Email
  • Phone
• Author's organisation (please include URL if available)
• Author's position title

Photos and images

• We welcome the submission of photos and other pictures (eg. logos) to be used with articles submitted.
• Photos must be submitted individually as image files if you would like them to be included in PHC RIS infonet.
• Acceptable image files include JPEG, TIFF, BITMAP and GIF
• Images should be attached and emailed to infonet@phcris.org.au

PHC RIS infonet and the PHCRED Strategy

The showcase of activities and achievements of the PHCRED Strategy is an interesting and regular feature in PHC RIS infonet. Many contributors have found it to be an effective way of promoting their activities.
If you would like to submit an article about the achievements in your PHCRED department simply complete our on-line submission form.
You might also like to join the mailing list to received reminders about article deadlines.

Writing style

A newsletter is less formal in style than some other publications, so when writing an article for inclusion in PHC RIS infonet keep the following tips in mind ¹

• Write in the active voice – for instance, the statement "GPs prefer printed documents" is more active than "printed documents are preferred by GPs"
• Put the action in the verb - for instance, the statement "producing paper"” is more succinct than “the production of papers”.
• Where possible, avoid making generalisations. For instance, when referring to a survey, it may be more accurate to state "most (70%) men surveyed agreed with the finding" rather than stating that "most men agreed with the finding".
• Be clear and concise. Given the 300 word-limit, if you can remove/reduce the number of words without altering the meaning, please do so.
• Avoid using technical jargon so that your article is understandable to readers who are not specialists in that area. Avoid resorting to clichés as much as possible.
• Avoid using acronyms unless absolutely necessary. Acronyms may be distracting to readers who do not specialise in a particular area. Where it is necessary to use an acronym it should be clearly defined the first time it is used.
• Be aware of who is the intended audience for your article. Structure an article in a way that highlights the most relevant details to your intended audience.

How to submit an article

Once your article meets the requirements above simply complete all sections of our on-line submission form

2012 Deadlines

Deadlines for submitting articles to PHC RIS infonet:

• February edition - Friday 13 January 2012
• April edition - Friday 24 February 2012
• June edition - Friday 27 April 2012
• August edition - Friday 22 June 2012
• October edition - Friday 31 August 2012
• December edition - Friday 26 October 2012

More information

Contact the editor, Louise Baird at infonet@phcris.org.au

References

1. Eckermann S, McIntyre E, Magarey A. Producing newsletters - Criteria for success. Australian Family Physician Vol. 36, No. 1/2, January/February 2007.

Resources

Bowler, S. Preparing articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Available at www.deakin.edu.au/hmnbs/research/information-and-resources.php [Accessed May 18 2009].

PHC RIS infonet
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Produce reader-friendly writing
www.phcris.org.au/infobytes/friendly_writing.php