COPMI GEMS (Gateway to Evidence that MatterS)

Aim of GEMS

Guidelines for potential contributors

General Guidelines

Style Guidelines

Referencing Guidelines

Published GEMS

• Edition 1 (July 2008) The importance of being child and family focused
• Edition 2 (September 2008) Children who care for parents with mental illness: A UK perspective
• Edition 3 (December 2008) Children of parents with mental illness and their family relationships
• Edition 4 (March 2009) Children of parents with dual diagnosis
• Edition 5 (May 2009) When a parent is hospitalised: the impact on children
• Edition 6 (August 2009) Issues for mental health workers when working with children and parents
• Edition 7 (December 2009) Pre-school children in families with parental mental illness
• Edition 8 (February 2010) Ulysses Agreements in supporting families affected by parental mental illness
• Edition 9 (April 2010) Grandparents parenting grandchildren when parents have a mental illness
  

Aim of GEMS

The aim of the bi monthly 'Gateways to Evidence that MatterS' (GEMS) is to provide a summary of recent, Australian and international research concerning children (aged 0-18 years) of parents with a mental illness, their parents and families. While research in this area is growing, there is a lack of evidence based practice when working with families affected by parental mental illness.

These GEMS have been prepared as a resource for those working in the field, and aim to provide a synthesis of available research that might guide and direct practitioners, and highlight current research and practice gaps. GEMS promotes the collection, interpretation and integration of valid, recent and relevant research from around the world, based on the views and experiences of those researching, working and living with parental mental illness. View presentation: Introducing COPMI GEMS. (7MB)

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We are excited to offer to you these GEMS and hope that they will be useful for you in your area. We hope that you find these GEMS interesting and compelling. We also encourage you to share these GEMS with others, and to consider submitting one of your own.

However, before you start work on a possible GEM please examine the contributor guidelines and contact the editors at researchevaluation@aicafmha.net.au to discuss your proposal.

Guidelines for potential contributors to GEMS:

General guidelines

• The topic and content needs to be focused on issues related to children whose parents have a mental illness and/or families affected by parental mental illness.
• The specific topic needs to be negotiated prior to submission, with the editors of the GEMS.
• The GEMS needs to be written in a style that makes the content readily accessible to those in the field.
• The GEMS needs to be synthesis of relevant, recent research in the identified topic area. GEMS are not discussion or opinion pieces but instead a distillation of key and recent empirical work in the area.
• The recommended word counts per section are as follows:
  • Text and references combined = 850-1000 words (prefer no more than 350 words in reference section)
  • Quick facts 125-150 words.

Style guidelines

Each GEMS must include:

• title
• for ease of reading, the GEMS needs to be broken into sub-titles, related to the topic
• a section that highlights the limitations of the evidence presented including any gaps in the evidence (NB: this section should not include practice or service limitations)
• a section outlining clinical and/or practice implications
• quick facts, providing a quick summary of the main issues raised in the GEMS (e.g. 3 - 5 key points)
• Australian English rather than American English
• a declaration of any competing interests the author/s might have
• you might like to include web links and other papers and/or books for further reading and information, if relevant and easily available
• please provide your email and/or other contact details for readers wishing to pursue the material further
• references presented in the Vancouver style (see below for examples).

Please email the editors (researchevaluation@aicafmha.net.au) if you are interested in submitting a GEMS or if you have any general queries.

Vancouver Referencing Guidelines

The Vancouver style of referencing gives a number in place of a reference in the main text. This means that when citing a reference, a number enclosed in round brackets is used to refer to an article, book and so on, for example, (1) or (23) placed in the body of your text indicates the relevant reference.

Citations are numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. The source is then listed, alongside the number, at the end of the publication, with relevant publication information. Once a source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent references.

Here are some examples of Vancouver referencing within the main body of the text:

Brown (11) argues that??

Several studies (1-5, 11, 12) have found that??.

For example, see 3...

This finding confirms previous studies. 3, 8, 11-14

In the text, you don't refer to either the author or the date of the reference, unless relevant to the discussion.

A numbered list of references must be proved at the end of each GEMS. The list needs to be in the order of citation from the text, not in alphabetical order. Ensure you present the correct publication information.

Referencing List Layout Examples:

Journal article

Number. Author of article. Title of article. Title of Journal. year; vol(issue):page number(s).

1. Bibou-Nakou I. Helping teachers to help with children living with a mentally ill parent. School Psychology International. 2004; 25(1): 42-58
2. Beardslee, WR, Versage EM, Gladstone TR. Children of affectively ill parents: a review of the last 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 1998; 37: 1134-1141.

Book

Number. Author. Title. Place of publication: Publisher; Year.

1. Bowlby JA. Attachment and loss. New York: Basic Books; 1969.
2. Smith JA, Jones MA. Children of parents with a mental illness. Brisbane: Alston Park; 2001.

For other guidelines and examples please refer to any of the guides freely available on the web:

Monash University -

http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/vancouver.html

RMIT University -

http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=8rwjnkcmfoeez;STATUS=A;SECTION=6;PAGE_AUTHOR=Karen%20Macvean

University of Southampton -

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/library/infoskills/references/vancouver.html

University of Southampton -

http://www.soton.ac.uk/library/infoskills/references/vancouverexamples.html

University of Queensland -

http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/vancouv.pdf

Last Modified: 25-05-2010 12:56:20
URL: http://www.copmi.net.au/gems/index.html
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