Definitions:
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- The Mediterranean Journal of Emergency Medicine & Acute Care (MedJEM) is a periodic double-blind peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal published by the Mediterranean Academy of Emergency Medicine (MAEM), a regional international chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). MedJEM publishes under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- MedJEM aims to serve the patient, the medical provider and the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) and acute care.
- MedJEM focuses on the advancement of emergency medicine & acute care in the Mediterranean region and internationally in nations where the field and the specialty of EM remain in an early or middle phase of development.
Structure:
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- Board of Trustees
- Advisory Council
- Editorial Review & Decision Board
- Technical Review & Publication Board
Board of Trustees (BOT):
This is the governing body of the journal.
- BOT members must be members of the MAEM &/or AAEM.
- BOT members will meet no less than once every 6 months.
- BOT members are expected to attend two annual meetings that will be prescheduled at the following annual conferences: MAEMC/MEMC (Mediterranean Academy of Emergency Medicine Congress/Mediterranean Emergency Medicine Congress) or AAEM congress. BOT members must attend in-person one of the two meetings. They can otherwise delegate an official representative from their organization who is deemed knowledgeable and current regarding MedJEM by the chair of the BOT.
- Appointment to the BOT is by invitation only. Members will include:
- MedJEM founders – They are eligible to serve as lifetime members of the BOT.
- MedJEM sponsoring societies, institutions & other bodies who have officially adopted MedJEM as their official medical journal.
- One representative of every body that is invited to support MedJEM.
- Voting Authority:
- Fifty percent of the voting authority will be proportionately assigned based on financial contributions to the development of MedJEM. This will be reviewed and calculated annually at the BOT meeting.
- The other 50% will be assigned and divided equally between the BOT members
- BOT members may be appointed by more than 1 sponsoring body to represent them in the MedJEM BOT. Voting authority will then accordingly be additive.
- Decisions pertaining to operations are passed through a simple majority. Amendments to the bylaws or BOT require a two third majority or more.
- Appointment to the BOT is a privilege and will be reviewed annually. Failure to provide presence and contribution to the BOT may result in termination of appointment and/or termination of the agreement between MedJEM & the sponsoring body.
- The Executive Committee of the BOT will consist of a chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer. The election of the executive committee will be held once every 3 years.
- The Board of Trustees will need to approve all major journal decisions - including:
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- Editor-in-Chief & Deputy Editor Selection
- Journal Mission & Vision Statement, Bylaws, Policies & Strategies
- Terms of periodic, scheduled or emergency reviews of its leadership
- MOUs, Contracts & Agreements
- Budgets & Financial reports
Advisory Council:
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- Members of this board provide guidance and ideas to the editors and promote the journal.
- They can help direct contributors and contributions to MedJEM.
- However, they do not have a primary role in the reviewing process and article selection.
- They have no meeting or organizational membership requirement.
- The BOT reviews Advisory Council membership every 3 years.
Editorial Review & Decision Board:
It consists of:
- Editor-in-Chief: oversees the functions of all other segments and is the primary decision-maker for all manuscripts. The editor-in-chief needs to approve or reject the decision of the Associate Editors. She/he can re-assign this role to designated deputy editors. In addition, the editor-in-chief assigns roles to members of the editorial board and is able to execute changes in the journal sections without the need for BOT approval.
- Deputy editors: they assume the role of Editor-in-Chief in their absence and assist the Editor-in-Chief and other section editors in editing articles for style and length and ensuring that the journal has a consistent style. They can serve as primary decision-makers if and when asked to do so by the Editor-in-Chief.
- Associate editors: decision-making editors that oversee and decide whether to publish, revise, or reject an article or not. They are expected as well to play a major role in recruitment of potential publications and are expected to provide at least one contribution per year.
- Section editors: direct managers of journal sections; they put a preliminary decision on papers assigned to them by the editor-in-chief, oversee the assignment and review process, and serve as reviewers in some cases.
- Editors: they constitute editors that are not assigned to any of the above categories; essentially, editors form the editorial board. They contribute by publishing and/or recruiting contributors (publications, reviewers…) to the journal, review manuscripts on the request of the editor-in-chief, deputy, associate or section editors, and give their opinions on assigned tasks.
- Reviewers: reviewers receive manuscripts to evaluate and give their opinions. They play a critical role in manuscript appraisal and the subsequent decision.
Technical Review & Publication Board:
This board includes: Technical Review Board, Research Methodology Editors, Statistical Reviewers, Language Editors, Social Media Team, IT Team including a Network and Website Editor, Distribution Officer, Financial Analyst, Copy Editor, Grammar and Punctuation Editor.
Policies & Procedures:
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- Membership in AAEM &/or MAEM is required for more than 50% of the Associate Editors.
- A minimum of 80% of the Editorial Board must have their primary academic affiliation in nations where EM is in an early or middle phase of development.
- Nations where EM is considered in an advanced phase of development include but are not limited to:
- USA
- Canada
- Australia
- United Kingdom
Meetings:
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- BOT members: will meet no less than once every 6 months. They are expected to attend two annual meetings that will be prescheduled at the following annual conferences: MAEMC/MEMC or AAEM congress. BOT members must attend in-person one of the two meetings. They can otherwise delegate an official representative from their organization who is deemed knowledgeable and current regarding MedJEM by the chair of the BOT.
- Editor-in-Chief: will meet in-person with the BOT no less than once every 6 months. She/he is expected to attend the two annual BOT meetings that will be prescheduled at the following annual conferences: MAEMC/MEMC or AAEM congress.
- Deputy Editors: will meet no less than once every 12 months. They are expected to attend in-person the annual prescheduled meeting alternating at the following conferences: MAEMC & MEMC.
- Associate Editors: are invited to meet once per year.
- Advisory Council, Reviewers & Section Editors as well as members of the Technical Review & Publication Board: have no meeting attendance requirements.
Sponsoring Bodies:
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- Includes Organizations, Societies, institutions or other bodies of relevance to the field of Emergency Medicine & acute care
- List includes but is not limited to:
- MAEM (Founder): Lisa Moreno, MD, FAAEM
- American University of Beirut (AUB): Eveline Hitti, MD, FAAEM
- GREAT Italy: Salvatore DiSomma, MD
- LAEM: Eveline Hitti, MD, FAAEM
- LSEM: Amin Kazzi, MD, FAAEM, MAAEM
- MENATOX: Ziad Kazzi, MD, FAAEM
- University of California, Irvine (UCI): Shahram Lotfipour, MD, FAAEM
- WestJEM: Mark Langdorf, MD, MHPE, FAAEM.