Guidelines for Submissions for Consideration

of Publication in Firsthand

Firsthand is the newsletter of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists and is published 10 times a year. Firsthand is published at the beginning of each month.

From 2012 there will be a significant change to winter publications; Firsthand will no longer be published in December and will instead be published in January.

The Society’s scientific journal, Physiotherapy Ireland, will in future be published in December, i.e. no Firsthand, and there is no change to the publication of the scientific journal in June, i.e. no Firsthand.

Any physiotherapist wishing to submit an article for publication in Firsthand must be a current member of the Society.

The Editor at all times reserves the right to decide if content will be published. The Honorary Editor is Kerry McLaverty MISCP. The Communications & Events Coordinator is Aoife Mac Eoin MRII.

1.    Submission of Articles
1.1 There are new deadlines for submission to every issue of Firsthand. Firsthand will no longer be published in December and is not published in June each year.

1.2 All submissions should be e-mailed to the Communications & Events Coordinator @ firsthand@iscp.ie in Microsoft Word format. Please include the author’s name and mobile telephone number at the top of the submission. Providing a mobile number means that the Communications & Events Coordinator can contact the author in the event of any urgent queries. This number will not be divulged by the Communications & Events Coordinator and will not appear in Firsthand.

1.3 The Communications & Events Coordinator will confirm receipt of any submission received and will subsequently advise if it will or will not be included in the issue.


2.    Length of Articles
2.1 The maximum word limit per page is 800 words; the Editor will also consider submissions of shorter lengths.

2.2 If an article longer than one page is intended, please contact the Editor in advance to clarify if it can be accommodated.

2.3 Please note that submissions for the Branch, Clinical Interest and Employment Groups’ Reports section have a maximum word limit of 350 and the Editor may at times need to further shorten these.

2.4 Please note that obituaries should be limited to 400 words maximum. Suggested information to include is qualification details, career history and contribution made both to the Physiotherapy profession and to the Society.

3.    Photographs
3.1 Photographs are always requested as they enhance any article. These should be sent in separate jpeg attachments and should be of an appropriate size to ensure good quality when enlarged by the designers. A size of at least 800KB (0.8MB) is preferable. Photograph size can be viewed by right-clicking on its icon and selecting ‘properties’. It may be possible to use smaller sized photos, depending on the design of the page.

3.2 The inclusion of a complete caption with each and every photograph is essential. The caption(s) should be included in the Word document, at the end of the article and where more than one photograph is being supplied, each photograph must be identified by a number with the corresponding number placed beside the text of the caption.

3.3 The term “complete” means that information relating to the photograph should include the full names (i.e. first name and surname) of each and every person featured (unless it is a crowd picture);  For example, “Photo 1: Volunteers at the Special Olympics: L-R John Doe, Jane Doyle and Jim Murphy”. The event, e.g. “Presenting prizes at the Physiotherapy 25th Anniversary Dinner,” and the date.

3.4 Unless the article requires technical images, it is worth bearing in mind that most people are interested in other people; therefore it is a good idea to have pictures of people who are clearly visible and identifiable in the photograph.  To achieve this, including pictures of small groups of people, eg four or five or less is better than including large groups.