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BMC Medical Research Methodology

BMC Medical Research Methodology is an open access, peer-reviewed journal publishing original research articles in methodological approaches to healthcare research. Articles on the methodology of epidemiological research, clinical trials and meta-analysis/systematic review are particularly encouraged, as are empirical studies of the associations between choice of methodology and study outcomes.

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Subject Health Care Sciences & Services
Impact Factor 3.4
Quartile Q1
Open Access Type Open
eISSN 1471-2288
Invitation Only No
Cost Range £2290.00 GBP / $3090.00 USD / €2690.00 EUR APC

Submission Instructions

BMC Medical Research Methodology accepts the following article types. Click on an article type to view submission instructions.

Research Article

Cover Letter A cover letter is required with the submission. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, and confirm the manuscript has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
Abstract An abstract is required. Abstract must not exceed 350 words. The abstract must be structured with separate sections. The abstract must include Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and Trial registration sections.
Manuscript The manuscript must include Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, and a Declarations section with all required subheadings. The manuscript must include three to ten keywords and document any use of a Large Language Model in the Methods section or another suitable section if no Methods section is available.
References References must follow Vancouver style. Only published articles, clinical trial registration records, and published or publicly available abstracts may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and web links or URLs must be numbered and included in the reference list in full with the site title, URL, and access date.
Figures & Tables Figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript, tables shorter than one page may be placed within the manuscript, and tables longer than one page may be placed at the end of the document with their intended location indicated in the text. Figures must be numbered and uploaded in the order first mentioned in the text, multi-panel figures must be submitted as a single composite file, and tables must be numbered and cited in sequence and must not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
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Review

Cover Letter A cover letter is required with the submission. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract An abstract is required. The abstract must not exceed 350 words.
Manuscript Review manuscripts must include Background, Main text, Conclusions, and a Declarations section. Review manuscripts must include three to ten keywords, an Availability of data and materials statement, the required Declarations subheadings with 'Not applicable' where a section is irrelevant, and any use of a Large Language Model must be documented in the Methods section or another suitable part of the manuscript if no Methods section is available.
References References must follow Vancouver style. Only published articles, clinical trial registration records, and published or publicly available abstracts may be cited, unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and web links must be numbered and included in the reference list with the site title, full URL, and access date.
Figures & Tables Tables shorter than one page may be placed within the manuscript, tables longer than one page may be placed at the end of the document, figure titles and legends must appear in the main manuscript rather than the graphic file, and figures must be uploaded separately in the order cited. Figures and tables must be numbered in the order cited, multi-panel figures must be submitted as a single composite file, and tables must not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
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Systematic Reviews

Cover Letter A cover letter is required with the submission. Cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract Abstract requirements are not specified.
Manuscript Systematic Reviews must be submitted as Research articles.
References References may include only articles, clinical trial registration records, and abstracts that are published, in press, or publicly available via e-print/preprint servers; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must be excluded; journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE; and web links and URLs must be assigned a reference number and listed in full in the reference list with access dates.
Figures & Tables Tables shorter than one A4 or Letter page may be placed within the manuscript, tables longer than one page may be placed at the end of the document with callouts in the text, figure titles and legends must appear in the main manuscript rather than in the graphic file, and figures must be uploaded separately in mention order. Figures must be numbered in text order, submitted as single composite files for multi-panel figures, and have keys incorporated into the graphic, while tables must be numbered and cited in sequence and created using the word processor's Table object rather than embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
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Database Article

Cover Letter A cover letter is required with the submission. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, and confirm the manuscript content has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
Abstract A structured abstract is required. Abstract must not exceed 350 words. Abstract must be structured. Abstract must include Background, Main body of the abstract, and short Conclusion.
Manuscript Manuscript should include Background, Construction and content, Utility and discussion, Conclusions, and a Declarations section with the required subheadings. Manuscript must include three to ten keywords, a Declarations section containing Ethics approval and consent to participate, Consent for publication, Availability of data and materials, Competing interests, Funding, Authors' contributions, and Acknowledgements, and any use of a Large Language Model must be documented in the Methods section or a suitable alternative section.
References References must follow Vancouver reference style. Web links and URLs must be cited with a reference number in the reference list rather than in the text, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list.
Figures & Tables Figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than in the graphic file, tables shorter than one page can be placed within the manuscript, and tables longer than one page can be placed at the end of the document. Figures must be numbered in the order first mentioned in the text and multi-panel figures submitted as a single composite file, while tables must be numbered and cited in sequence and must not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
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Software Article

Cover Letter A cover letter is required with the submission. The cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved submission, confirm the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract An abstract is required. The abstract must not exceed 350 words. The abstract must be structured. The abstract must include the headings Background, Results, and Conclusions and must not cite references.
Manuscript The manuscript must include sections titled Background, Implementation, Results, Conclusions, an Availability and requirements section, and a Declarations section, with Results optionally combined with Discussion. The manuscript must include three to ten keywords, define abbreviations at first use and provide a list of abbreviations if used, document any Large Language Model use in the Methods section or equivalent, and include Declarations subheadings for Ethics approval and consent to participate, Consent for publication, Availability of data and materials, Competing interests, Funding, Authors' contributions, and Acknowledgements with 'Not applicable' where a section is not relevant.
References References must follow Vancouver reference style. Only published or in-press articles, clinical trial registration records, abstracts, and publicly available preprints may be cited, unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list, web links and URLs must be cited as numbered references in the reference list, and journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE.
Figures & Tables Tables shorter than one page may be placed within the manuscript, larger tables may be placed at the end of the document, and the software application or tool should be included as an additional file. Figure titles and legends must be provided in the manuscript rather than the graphic file, multi-panel figures must be submitted as a single composite file, tables must be created using the word processor's table function rather than embedded as figures or spreadsheet files, and tables must not use color or shading.
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Matters Arising

Cover Letter A cover letter is required. Cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, confirm the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and name the special issue if applicable.
Abstract No abstract should be included. The first paragraph should serve as the abstract for submission purposes, and the main text should ideally not exceed 1,200 words. No abstract should be included, and the first paragraph is used as the abstract for submission purposes.
Manuscript The main text should ideally not exceed 1,200 words. Manuscript should begin with a brief first paragraph summarizing the message for non-specialists, may be broken into short informative subsections, and must include a 'Declarations' section with the subheadings 'Ethics approval and consent to participate', 'Consent for publication', 'Availability of data and materials', 'Competing interests', 'Funding', 'Authors' contributions', and 'Acknowledgements', with an optional 'Authors’ information' subsection. Include three to ten keywords, provide a list of abbreviations if abbreviations are used, and write 'Not applicable' under any irrelevant Declarations subsection.
References Matters Arising articles may have up to 15 references. References should follow the Vancouver reference style. Only published or in-press articles, clinical trial registration records, abstracts, and public e-print or preprint items may be cited, unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications must not appear in the reference list, journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE, and all URLs must be numbered and included in the reference list with full site title, URL, and access date.
Figures & Tables Manuscripts should ideally require only one or two small figures or tables. Figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript, tables under one page may be placed within the manuscript, and larger tables may be placed at the end of the document. Figures must be numbered in text order and multi-panel figures submitted as a single composite file, while tables must be numbered in sequence and not embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.
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Scoping Reviews

Cover Letter A cover letter must be included with the submission. Cover letter must explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm all authors approved the submission, and confirm the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
Abstract Abstract requirements are not specified.
Manuscript Systematic Reviews and Scoping Reviews must be submitted as Research articles.
References References may include only published articles, clinical trial registration records, and abstracts or items available through public e-print/preprint servers, and journal abbreviations must follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE.
Figures & Tables Tables under one page may be placed within the manuscript, tables over one page may be placed at the end of the document, and figure titles and legends must be provided in the main manuscript rather than in the graphic file. Figures and tables must be numbered in the order cited in the text, and multi-panel figures must be submitted as a single composite file.
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Recent Publications

The survival double descent: generalization dynamics of deep neural networks in time-to-event analysis

Steven N. Hart, Ann L. Oberg

10.1186/s12874-026-02894-1
View Publication

Capacity building at an Australian regional clinical trials unit: determinants of growth and correlation with a capability framework

Lisa A Bell, Rebecca Gurnett, Carmel E Goss, Geoffrey Chong, Ethan L Pitman, Michael Tuohill, Ashleigh Clarke, Virginia Murphy, Wasek Faisal

10.1186/s12874-026-02902-4
View Publication

The GALENOS approach to triangulating evidence: a structured approach for integrating information from human and animal studies

Thomy Tonia, Julian P.T. Higgins, Virginia Chiocchia, James Downs, Emily Wheeler, Jennifer Potts, Katharine A. Smith, Malcolm Macleod, Gin S. Malhi, Andrea Cipriani, Georgia Salanti

10.1186/s12874-026-02891-4
View Publication

Spatially varying coefficient generalized distributed lag models for binary response with MCEM estimation

Ali Hadianfar, Omid Karimi, Azadeh Saki

10.1186/s12874-026-02886-1
View Publication

A comparative simulation study of cluster ensemble algorithms integrated with multiple imputation for clustering with missing data

Yui Tomo, Funato Sato, Mari Oba

10.1186/s12874-026-02869-2
View Publication

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to publish?

Submission to first decision (median): 7 days.

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Is a cover letter required?

A cover letter is required. It should explain why the manuscript should be published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, address any issues relating to journal policies, declare any potential competing interests, confirm that all authors approved the submission, confirm that the content has not been published or submitted elsewhere, and identify the special issue if applicable. Authors may also suggest preferred or non-preferred peer reviewers in the cover letter.

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What are the publication costs?

Research Topics

Meta-analysis and systematic reviews Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life Statistical Methods in Clinical Trials Advanced Causal Inference Techniques Statistical Methods and Bayesian Inference Statistical Methods and Inference Health Policy Implementation Science Ethics in Clinical Research Health disparities and outcomes Delphi Technique in Research Reliability and Agreement in Measurement Healthcare Policy and Management Survey Methodology and Nonresponse Clinical practice guidelines implementation Machine Learning in Healthcare Global Cancer Incidence and Screening Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare Chronic Disease Management Strategies Mental Health Research Topics Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet Health Sciences Research and Education Primary Care and Health Outcomes Data-Driven Disease Surveillance COVID-19 epidemiological studies Optimal Experimental Design Methods

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