This title has ceased (2018)
London Journal of Primary Care (LJPC) is an international, peer-reviewed, PubMed-cited journal that publishes articles on the multi-dimensional aspects of primary care that make it so human and vibrant. It particularly welcomes case studies, multidisciplinary participatory research and evaluated system improvement projects. LJPC wants to make a real difference – by showing people new ways to tackle old or difficult problems, and by informing policy for integrated care. LJPC maintains a membership of authors, users and editors who contribute to continuing conversations to develop themes and clusters of papers on subjects of immediate relevance. LJPC publishes on the web – six issues a year posted every two months.
London Journal of Primary Care is the official journal of the RCGP's North & West London, North East London and South London Faculties.
LJPC wants to make a real difference – by showing people new ways to tackle old or difficult problems, by helping grass-roots practitioners to put locally-developed innovations into the public domain, and by facilitating debate about emerging issues. LJPC also highlights organisational issues. Integrated working requires infrastructure that helps people get to know each other across organisational boundaries and undertake shared projects to understand each other’s complementary roles - for example communication systems for end of life care, clustering of practices as communities for health, and mechanisms to support self-help.
Internationally, LJPC supports cross-cultural debates about effective health care systems in different contexts. When we say “HEALTH”, we mean social, emotional and spiritual health, as well as physical health - not merely the medical treatment of disease. LJPC aims to build Case Study Sites with a series of papers that reveal different aspects of the case. Liaison editors in the Case Study Sites will signpost papers published elsewhere as well as those in LJPC.
Paul Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, London Journal of Primary Care, 2014
For further information on Editorial Governance, please review LJPC's Editorial Board
Aims and Scope
London Journal of Primary Care has a vision for high quality, multidisciplinary primary care that goes beyond medical treatments. It requires competent organisations, systems and team-working as well as quality one-to-one consultations. It considers environments that support healthy individuals, families and communities as well as care pathways for named diseases. Practitioners often need to work in partnership with others, including those concerned with social care, mental health, public health and voluntary care.
The journal will promote generalist practice - medical and non-medical. Generalists differ from specialists by dealing with all aspects of people’s health and disease. People sometimes present with a simple diagnosis. But often they have multiple inter-connected concerns. Things like continuity of care, reflective practice and team-working help bubble to the surface things that matter, but at first sight are invisible. Papers should be practically useful. Each should contain a message or insight that will help practitioners, managers or policy-makers to improve quality. Case studies and complex interventions will be particularly welcome when they reveal the dynamic nature of primary care. The first test for a paper you submit is the ‘so what?’ test.
We welcome research and audit, as well as thoughtful analysis. We encourage you as an author to think of yourself as a reflective inquirer and story-holder. This means your paper should describe a question that you are trying to answer, and also why this question is important both to you and to a bigger story. Combined quantitative, qualitative and participatory inquiries are ideal because these provide different kinds of insight into complex situations and together can reveal more than any discrete insight can, on its own. We expect you to include good data and describe its limitations. We expect you to be familiar with the writings of others.
All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editor, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by at least three independent, anonymous expert referees. All peer review is open and submission is online via Editorial Manager
