Meet CMA Today readers

CMA Today is the only publication of its kind dedicated to meeting the educational and informational needs of the practicing CMA (AAMA) and, to a lesser extent, the office manager, and the medical assisting educator and student.

Medical assistants are multiskilled allied health professionals who work primarily in outpatient settings. They perform a variety of administrative and clinical procedures (e.g., scheduling, coding, infection control, diagnostic testing, obtaining patient histories and vital signs, assisting with examinations, and patient education).

Six times a year, CMA Today gives these 22,000+ readers timely coverage of medical assisting issues and in-depth articles on aspects of medical assisting operations.

What's in it for you?

What will you reap for your time and effort? Personal satisfaction from helping to promote the medical assisting profession and advancing the knowledge of medical assistants; respect and recognition from your peers; points toward CMA (AAMA) recertification; and the opportunity to be published in a professional publication. You'll also receive complimentary copies of the CMA Today issue in which your article appears.

Manuscript specs

Submissions: Manuscripts must be submitted exclusively to CMA Today and must not have been published previously. (Note: Current members of AAMA boards or volunteer teams may not submit manuscripts or serve as interviewees.)

Manuscripts: Manuscripts must be e-mailed as a Word document attachment.

Recommended length: Manuscripts for CE articles should be 3,000 words and departments 1,150-1,375 words. The final determinant of an acceptable length is the subject matter of the manuscript. The editor reserves the right to edit manuscripts for length.

Cover page: Include the complete name, credentials, address, daytime phone, fax number, and e-mail, if any, of the author(s).

Biography: Submit a brief (50 words or less) biography. State your current position and relevant professional experience.

References: All quotes, facts, figures, or material gained from another source and referred to in the text must be properly and completely referenced. Follow AMA's Manual of Style. Cite references in numerical order as they appear in the manuscript. Within the text, citations should be numbered only. The list of references must include the following information:

Journals: (1) authors' surnames and initials; (2) title of article and subtitle, if any; (3) abbreviated name of journal; (4) year; (5) volume number; (6) part or supplement number, when pertinent, and issue month or number when pagination is not consecutive throughout a volume; and (7) inclusive page numbers.

Books: (1) authors' surnames and initials; (2) surname and initials of editor or translator, if any; (3) title of book and subtitle, if any; (4) number of editions after the first; (5) place of publication; (6) name of publisher; (7) year of publication; (8) volume number, if there is more than one volume; and (9) page numbers, if specific pages are cited.

Online journals: Example 1: For those without volume, issue, and page information, the date of access, preceded by a URL and date of publication (if available) may be used: 1. Trapp D. Medicare's rule changes are drawing fire. Am Med News. 2007. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/11/19/gvsa1119.htm. Published November 19, 2007. Accessed March 28, 2008.

Example 2: For those with volume and page information, include date accessed: 1. Paller AS, Siegfried EC, Langley RG, et al. Etanercept treatment for children and adolescents with plaque psoriasis. N Engl J Med. 2008; 358(3): 241-251. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/3/241. Published January 17, 2008. Accessed May 7, 2009.

Note: If the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number is listed with the article, this may be used in place of a URL in the citation.

Websites: Include pertinent data, updated date, and access date, for example: 1. Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct (HONcode) for medical and health web sites. Health on the Net Foundation. http://www.hon.ch/conduct.html. Updated March 15, 2007. Accessed June 26, 2008.

Heads and subheads: The use of headings within the text makes the manuscript easier to understand. Subheads should be kept short, succinct, and meaningful, and they should be similar in sense and tone.

Capitalization: Do not type in all capital letters. Type in upper-lower case.

Manuscript review and selection

Review process: Submissions to CMA Today are carefully reviewed for professional content and potential value to readers. Acceptance for publication depends primarily on these reviews and recommendations, as well as on long-range editorial plans based on the current and future needs and interests of medical assistants. Publication and/or publication dates are not guaranteed. Consideration for publication may take several weeks, depending on the volume of articles received. Several months might elapse before an accepted manuscript is assigned a publication date.

Commercial publicity: It is AAMA policy not to promote product names, manufacturers, or services in published articles. Authors are cautioned not to endorse products or companies. Manuscripts with such material are immediately dropped from consideration.

Copyright and releases: CMA Today is copyrighted in the name of the AAMA. Authors release copyright to AAMA for articles accepted for publication in CMA Today.

Including photographs, charts, graphs, and documents with manuscripts is encouraged. Such items must be legally released for CMA Today use, so you must include complete reference information. Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they are the original work of the signatory author(s) and that they are not concurrently being submitted elsewhere for publication.

Publication: While every effort is made to preserve the author's style, CMA Today reserves the right to edit articles for clarity, style, and space requirements.

Reprints: Published articles in CMA Today become the property of AAMA and reprint or reproduction permission must be obtained from the AAMA. Reprints can be purchased from the publisher.

A checklist for success

Follow the style rules of The Associated Press Stylebook; and, for citations and references, the Manual of Style, by the American Medical Association.

• Write a lead sentence or paragraph that will draw the audience into the article. Keep it relevant to the topic and get to the point quickly. Tie in the pertinence of the topic to the medical assisting profession.
   
• Write in the active voice.
   
• Avoid cliches and jargon. Keep the "twenty dollar" words to a minimum.
   
• Don't preach or lecture.
   
• Follow a journalistic style. Keep your writing tight, provide adequate detail, and follow a logical progression of ideas.
   
• Use specific examples and case histories to illustrate points.
   
• Include sidebars for pertinent facts.
   
• Provide supporting tables, figures, charts, or artwork along with your manuscript. Such items should be self-explanatory, and the reader should not have to refer to the text to understand. Likewise, the body of the article should not rely on supplemental material. Add captions to photographs. Include complete reference information.
   
• Credit your sources.
   
• Make your concluding remarks memorable and relevant to the article.
   
• Edit thoroughly. Eliminate unnecessary words. Double-check facts and figures—we count on you to give us correct information.

Where to send manuscripts

E-mail manuscripts to:
CMAToday@aama-ntl.org

E-mail questions to:
jlynch@aama-ntl.org

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