Online submission

Essentially, the Benchpress system at our online editorial office will convert your manuscript to a PDF for the review process. Most common word processing formats are accepted for text and tables, although the system prefers Word and PDF, and images should be submitted as GIF, TIFF, EPS, or JPEG files. 

The Benchpress system can also accept supplemental files (for example: videos, datasets, research protocols and checklists or statements) related articles published or available elsewhere, articles in press elsewhere, permission letters, etc. These are files that normally do not appear with the print article, although they might accompany the final version of the paper online. Supplemental files are not converted to PDF but will be available to reviewers or editors exactly as you upload them.

Full details follow:

Registration

To access the system for the first time you will need to register at our online editorial office which is operated by a service called Benchpress.

Please click on ‘CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT’. You will be asked to complete 3 steps:

Enter your email address. This is your unique user identification, which you will need to log into the system on all occasions.

Enter a password. This will be encrypted for security reasons, and will not be known to either the BMJ editorial office or HighWire Press. If you forget your password you will need to click on ‘I HAVE FORGOTTEN MY PASSWORD’ and follow the steps outlined.

Choose a ‘password hint’ question and provide an answer. You will need to provide this answer if you forget your password.

Please note: a single password will be created which applies to all journals using the Benchpress online submission and tracking system. Once you have registered for your first journal, you do not need to re-register in order to use another journal's system. Simply log in with your existing email address and password.

A verification number and URL will be emailed to you. You will need to visit the URL and enter the verification number in order to proceed to the next step. This helps ensure that your email address is not being used fraudulently.

Once you have verified your email address you will be asked to provide a basic profile consisting of your contact information, plus expertise terms. Although you may use the same email address and password to access any journal using the Benchpress system, you must create an individual profile with each journal.

Submitting a manuscript

Thank you for letting us consider your manuscript. Before you submit your manuscript please check that it is in the correct style for the appropriate section of the BMJ. Does it need a structured abstract, for instance, and is the main text about the right length? Please check our advice section

Before you can use this submission website you have to register, creating your own account. When you have created an account please go to your Author Area and click "SUBMIT A NEW MANUSCRIPT".

Choosing other BMJ Journals if your first submission isn't accepted

You may want to try submitting your work to one or more of the other BMJ Journals if your article is rejected. To make this easier for you and editors the online system allows you to select - at the point of first submission - up to three BMJ Journals to submit your article to subsequently. Please check those journals' instructions for authors to ensure that they accept articles like yours, and then put the chosen journals in order of priority. Your manuscript will be automatically transferred to each journal in turn, after rejection, if the editor feels it may be relevant for the next journal. Any comments made by editors and peer reviewers will also be transferred. On rejection from one journal there will be a delay of five days before a paper is moved to the next. This is to allow you time if you decide to appeal. Please contact the editorial office if you want to appeal to an earlier journal after that five day period.

Metadata page

On this page you can enter important information ("metadata") about the manuscript for instance, the number of authors, title, abstract, summary points, covering letter, any companion articles and other files such as questionnaires, whether this is a resubmission or a fast track article, etc.

When you are happy with the metadata page click "SAVE/CONTINUE" at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the next screen.

Author details

Please fill out the appropriate fields, making sure that the corresponding author box is ticked with the correct email address. You can insert and delete authors on this page.

If a field has blue text next to it this means that you have to fill it in: it is a required field.

When you are happy with the author details please click "SAVE/CONTINUE".

Please also provide key information about all of the authors in the manuscript's title page. The title page should list all authors' names, positions, institutions and full postal addresses including postal codes, as well as the corresponding author's email address. 

If you are submitting an article with no figures and no supplemental files then all you have to do is insert the word count and click "SAVE/CONTINUE".

We would like you to upload any figures and images separately from the word file, preferably as JPEG files. Images may also be submitted as TIFF, GIF, EPS, MPEG, AVI, MOV, and WAV files. To tell us how many figures there are please type the number in the image box or use the drop down menu.

If you need to upload tables please submit them as separate Word files or, failing that, please convert them to JPEG files and submit them as figures. PLEASE DO NOT USE EXCEL.

You can also upload supplemental files – for instance, copies of questionnaires used in original research; study protocols, and checklists for the CONSORT, QUOROM, and STARD statements; video clips.

Upload page

This is where you submit all of the files relating to and comprising your manuscript. If you have two figures, and you put a 2 in the image box on the previous page, then you should have a total of three files to upload – the text file (Word Document), and the 2 figures (we prefer JPEG files). Please click on the "Browse" button to find your relevant files on your PC.

When you are happy with all of your files then you can click "UPLOAD" at the bottom of the page. This may take a minute or two, depending on the size of the files.

File formats

Papers can be submitted using any standard word processing software, although we prefer Word. Please ensure that you include the heading "References" at the top of the citations (see below).

Acceptable standard graphic formats include JPEG, TIFF, GIF, EPS, MPEG, AVI, MOV, and WAV.

PLEASE NOTE WE CANNOT ACCEPT POWER POINT OR EXCEL FILES

Formats for tables

If your article is in Word please submit the tables in Word. If this isn’t possible please save tables as JPEG files and upload them as you would a figure.

Formats for figures

We prefer JPEG files. We can also accept Tiff files and GIF files. Colour images should be formatted as high quality JPEG files.

ALL IMAGES SHOULD BE SUBMITTED ON BENCHPRESS AS SEPARATE FILES AND NOT EMBEDDED INTO THE TEXT.

We are sorry that the submission process takes time. If you cannot wait, you can interrupt your submission and continue the process on another occasion. Clicking on "SAVE/CONTINUE" at the bottom of the screen when entering you metadata enables you to save that page or continue to the next page. If you choose not to complete the submission on that occasion, the submission will appear in the "SUBMISSIONS IN PROGRESS" queue in the Author Area. If you decide not to complete the submission at all please choose "WITHDRAW".

When you have uploaded

Everything will go off to be converted by the website host Highwire.  Your figures and tables (if you have any) will be merged with the text as a single pdf, so everything will be in one file: text, tables and figures. This makes it much easier for editors and peer reviewers to read and appraise your manuscript.

This may take up to 2 hours. The system will email you when the pdf of your submission is ready for you to approve.

During conversion the system will automatically hyperlink the references in your manuscript to Medline or the journal the article was published in (if the journal is hosted by Highwire Press). Please ensure that you include the heading "References" at the top of the citations to facilitate linkage.

If your references don’t hyperlink please don’t worry. It may be that the journals are not indexed by Medline or the system does not recognise the way you have formatted them. Occasionally the hyperlinking just fails for no apparent reason. Please don’t be concerned about this; it won’t stop us considering your paper.

When the system emails you to approve the conversion please click on the link in the email or go to your Author Area and click "SUBMISSION READY FOR YOU TO APPROVE".

At this point you can edit your manuscript metadata and author details, and you can reupload your text and figs if necessary. To view the submission just click on the pdf.

If you are satisfied with everything then click the small approval boxes in each section (all boxes have to be ticked) then click "SUBMIT" at the bottom of the page.

Submitting a revision

If we invite you to revise your manuscript please enter your author area and click on "SUBMIT A REVISION/RESUBMISSION". You will then be presented with your original manuscript metadata (the first page you ever filled out). Please edit this and the author page if necessary. Then please enter the number of images and supplemental files and please upload your revised manuscript.

Do not forget to enter your covering letter and your response to reviewers in the correct field on the metadata page. It is very important that you provide a new covering letter at this stage, explaining in detail how you have responded to all the peer review and editorial comments and the revision checklist.

BMJ peer review process

The full description of our peer review process explains what will happen to your paper once you have submitted it, our average decision times, and how to appeal against rejection.

Miscellaneous points

You can keep track of you manuscript throughout the process by going to your author area and clicking "MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW (CHECK STATUS).

If your manuscript is sent for external peer review you will find reviewers comments in the author area. Please enter "MANUSCRIPTS WITH DECISIONS" and click on Review.

If we commission you to write for the BMJ we will email you and ask you to go to the author area of our online editorial office and click "REQUESTED COMMISSIONS". You can accept or decline the commission from here.

When you come to submit your commissioned article then click "ACCEPTED COMMISSIONS – PAPERS TO BE SUBMITTED". The procedure will then be the same as for an unsolicited article. We appreciate your help with this: submitting the commissioned article in this way will help us to provide an efficient service to you.

Help

Detailed help files are available throughout our online editorial office and can be used without stopping the submission process. If you experience serious problems please email the BMJ editorial office: papersadmin@bmj.com