Euan Lawson (left) is Acting Editor of the BJGP and David Misselbrook (right) is Deputy Editor of the BJGP.
What a year! William Osler declared that “The great Republic of Medicine knows no national boundaries”. Doctors form a very special community. This year we have faced our greatest challenge since the end of the second world war. And we are still here.
Any community must adapt to change. At the hight of lockdown we kept our heads down and got on with it. Now is time to take stock. We can be pretty sure that there are still challenges ahead.
For communities to move forward they must think and talk together. The BJGP is the world’s leading GP journal. But not all of our adaptation happens through front of stage research. We meet with colleagues over coffee to chat and exchange ideas. And not all of our challenges are due to Covid.
BJGP Life is our collective coffee lounge. As GPs we represent the smartest members of our community – we all have so much to contribute. If you have something to say then we can get your views onto the website within a couple of weeks. Together we can throw problems around, share good ideas, share our insights and perhaps move towards better ways of working. BJGP Life also publishes articles on everything beyond the consulting room, and we reach into areas such as book and film reviews, arts, theatre and exhibitions. And, of course, we do opinion and polemic. All original ideas are welcome.
BJGP Life is our collective coffee lounge.
Some of these will then find their way into the Life & Times section of the BJGP itself (previously “Back Pages” and “Out of Hours”). All articles in the print journal, including Life & Times, will be indexed on Pubmed but articles for Life & Times are not generally peer-reviewed in the same way as research articles and editorials.
For BJGP Life, this is how it works:
The optimal size for an opinion piece for BJGP Life is 600-700 words, but we have some flexibility. We like book reviews to be about 300-350 words, although some reviews will morph into opinion pieces, or may review 2 books on a similar theme, and be 600-700 words long. We do publish longer essays on occasions, typically lengths of 1200-1400 words. But 700 words or so are enough for most articles. Have a look at the website. Do you have something that might fit in, or better still something that might push the boundaries?
If you want to pitch an idea to us then get in touch. This link also gives more information about what we will publish. If you are hoping to get your article into the print BJGP Life and Times then talk to us here – it will need to get into BJGP Life first.
All original ideas are welcome. We are waiting to hear from you!
If you have your article ready to go then submit it here.
But what about my research?
The BJGP publishes two research journals, the BJGP itself, and BJGP Open. The BJGP also commissions editorials and BJGP Open also publishes Practice and Policy articles. For advice re submission to the BJGP look here. For advice re submission to BJGP Open look here.
We are waiting to hear from you!
Featured photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
