FULGME publishes the operational and administrative scholarship of graduate medical education. If your work makes a GME program run better, we want to see it. Submissions are accepted year-round, and there are no fees at any stage.
Go to the FULGME Call for SubmissionsWhat we publish
The journal publishes the following article types. The word limit is 2,000 words for all types, excluding the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure captions.
| Research | Original studies with a stated method and results. |
|---|---|
| Brief Report | Shorter empirical work, typically a single-site initiative with outcome data. |
| Innovation | A new approach or strategy in graduate medical education administration that has been implemented and assessed, with enough detail for others to replicate it. Include what it took to run: cost, time, materials, training, technology, and how participants received it. |
| Perspective | Informed argument or professional reflection, grounded in experience. |
| Process Improvement | A described change to a workflow or system, with what was learned. |
| Best Practices | Consolidated practical guidance drawn from experience. |
| Review | A synthesis of existing literature or practice on a topic relevant to graduate medical education professionals. |
| Personal Essay | A first-person account of professional experience in graduate medical education, written so that others in the role can take something from it. |
| Letter to the Editor | A response to an article published in FULGME, or a short comment on a question facing graduate medical education administration. |
What to include
- A cover letter, one or two paragraphs, introducing the work
- Title
- Every author’s full name, credentials, institutional affiliation, and role
- The corresponding author’s name and email, for all correspondence through review and publication
- A structured abstract for research, brief reports, innovations, and reviews, using Background, Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Perspectives, personal essays, and letters to the editor do not require one.
- The body of the article, with clear section headings, up to 2,000 words
- A reference list for every factual or quantitative claim. If you state a percentage, a count, or a finding from a survey or dataset, cite the source.
- Any figures or tables, with captions, and the underlying numbers
- A conflict of interest statement, even if it is to declare none
- Acknowledgements, if any
- If the work has been published or submitted anywhere else, a note saying where
The requirement to cite quantitative claims is not a formality. It is what allows another coordinator to check your numbers, build on your work, and cite you with confidence.
Authorship
List as an author anyone who took an active part in the research, the writing, or the editing of the manuscript. Anyone who contributed in another way belongs in the acknowledgements. No one who helped is left out of both.
Every listed author is accountable for the content and has approved the version submitted.
References
Follow the AMA Manual of Style.
- Number references consecutively in the order they first appear in the text, tables, or legends
- Abbreviate journal names using the MEDLINE format
- List up to six authors, then et al
- Cite references in the text with superscript numerals
- Use superscript letters for footnotes on tables and figures
Preparing your manuscript
Guidance on what belongs in each section. Useful if this is your first submission, and safe to skip if it is not.
Section-by-section guidance
Introduction
State why the work matters. Summarise what is already known, identify the gap your work addresses, and end with a clear statement of your objective.
Methods
Justify the approach or framework you chose. Describe the setting, the participants, the intervention, the outcome measures, and how you analysed the data. Give enough detail that another institution could repeat what you did.
Results
Report what happened, objectively. Include participant demographics, whether the work proved feasible, response rates, and the numbers behind any percentage. Report findings that went against you as well as those that went your way.
Discussion
Summarise the significant findings and set them in context. Address how far the results generalise beyond your setting, and anything internal to the study that could have influenced them. Consider alternative explanations. Close with what you would recommend to others.
Conclusion
A short summary of the key takeaways. No new material.
How to submit
Submit through the FULGME Call for Submissions form. If you have trouble with the form, write to info@fulgme.org and we will help.
What happens next
- Acknowledgement. The editors confirm receipt and check that the submission is within scope and complete.
- Review. Four independent reviewers read your submission. Review is single-anonymised: the reviewers see your name, you do not see theirs. No one with a relationship to your work reviews it.
- Decision. The Editor in Chief makes the final decision, based on the recommendations of all four reviewers. The decision is accept, accept with revisions, revise and resubmit, or decline. Expect roughly 90 days from submission to decision.
- Revision. If revisions are requested, you receive the reviewer comments and a date by which to return the revised manuscript.
- Publication. Accepted articles appear in the next issue.
All submissions received through the open call go through this process. The one exception is the annual invited board contribution, which is editorial content rather than peer-reviewed research and is labelled as such on its article page. See the peer review policy.
After publication
Accepted articles are published in the next issue, assigned a Crossref DOI, and made freely available in HTML and PDF. Each article receives its own permanent web address and citation metadata, so it can be found, cited, and included in your CV or promotion file.
You retain copyright in your article. FULGME publishes it under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, which means you remain free to deposit it in an institutional repository and share it directly with colleagues.
Authors are encouraged to share their published article. You will find a ready-made citation on every article page.
Before you submit, check
- The article is within the 2,000 word limit
- A cover letter is attached
- The corresponding author’s name and email are on the title page
- References follow AMA style
- Every quantitative claim has a citation
- Author names, credentials, and affiliations are exactly as you want them to appear permanently
- Any named individual has given written consent
- A conflict of interest statement is included
- Any prior or concurrent publication is disclosed
- You hold the rights needed to publish the work under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Affiliations and author names are worth double-checking. They become part of a permanent, citable record, and correcting them afterwards requires a formal correction notice.
This page was last reviewed on 19 August 2026. Questions about any policy on this page should be sent to info@fulgme.org.