Submitting an Article

Guidelines for Submitting Articles for Consideration

Illinois Family Physician is a quarterly publication of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians. Each February, May, September and November it is mailed to IAFP Active and Life member family physicians (approximately 3,000).  All IAFP members, including family medicine residents and students receive the e-Magazine which is also widely publicized on our website and social media. All submitted works must appeal to this audience.

The first step to publication in Illinois Family Physician is to submit a story idea. Please contact Editor, Ginnie Flynn gflynn@iafp.com with a brief topic description and relevance to family medicine for initial approval. Current and archived issues of Illinois Family Physician are available online. We encourage referring to previous issues for examples of writing style and topics from contributing authors. IAFP members are first priority for submitted articles. However, consideration will be given to non-members writing on a topic of verified interest to the IAFP membership.

• Stories chosen for publication may use a conversational voice, and must be an original work of the author.
• For data comparison, we encourage the use of visual aids such as charts and graphs. Any created visuals (charts/graphs) or images should be emailed as separate files (JPG images) and not embedded in the article.  Please indicate in the article text where each visual should be placed in layout. 
• All articles should range between 800 and 2,000 words. The author should include name, title and affiliation, e-mail address and telephone number where editors can call during the working day.  A headshot photo is also recommended if there is only one author.
• Copy deadlines are generally a month before the magazine production week to provide time for proper editing. All articles will go through an editing process by the editors to ensure coherence with our style guidelines. For example, always use the words "family medicine" and "family physician" – not "family practice" or "family practitioner."