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Authors are encouraged to follow the typesetting and layout requirements as guidelines in preparing their manuscript for initial submission and peer review. All manuscripts accepted for publication must meet these requirements.

• As manuscript files need to be easily accessible by a number of different persons involved in the refereeing and  revision of a manuscript, .doc or .docx files are preferred.
• Do not include a title page in this file. Include the title of your submission in the document header. Begin the document with the abstract and key messages followed by the main body of the article. The online submission process will prompt you to enter the title of your paper as well as the abstract and keywords in separate data fields. Where the form asks you to describe 'Coverage', please identify the jurisdiction(s) that the reform covers (e.g., 'Saskatchewan' ). The text of your abstract will thus be entered in the Abstract field in the online submission form and appear at the beginning of the .doc/.docx file that you upload.
• Write your article in English or French.
• Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
• All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 2.5 cm, including your tables.
• Single space your text.
• Page numbering should appear at the bottom of each page.
• Use straight rather than smart punctuation.
• Use a single column layout.
• Font: 12 pt. Times.
• All tables should be embedded in the main text of the manuscript. If a submission is accepted for publication, authors must supply figures as a separate .png or .jpeg files.
• Copyedit your manuscript.

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification
Indicate the start of a new paragraph with two hard returns—that is, by inserting an empty line between single-spaced paragraphs.

Language & Grammar
All submissions must be in English or French.

Authors should follow Canadian English or Québécois French spelling conventions as set out in: Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2^nd ed. Oxford University Press or Canadian Oxford Dictionary Online  and Le grand dictionnaire terminologique (GDT), Office québécois de la langue française. In matters of style other than those detailed below please refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press or Chicago Manual of Style Online.

Emphasized Text
Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize.

Non-English/French Language Terms
Whenever possible, terms ‘borrowed’ from a language other than the language in which the article is written should be set in italics.

Headings
LEVEL 1 HEADINGS should be flush-left and appear in all caps and boldface. Level 2 Headings should be flush-left, sentence case, and appear in boldface. 

Titles
Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics.

Footnotes
Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10 pt. using Times. They should be single-spaced and there should be a footnote separator rule (line). Footnote numbers  in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. 

Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should have short, descriptive titles that appear above the table or figure. All footnotes to tables and their source(s) should be typed below the tables. Column headings should clearly define the data presented. Tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type (less than 8 pt font) in tables and figures. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" (3.8 cm) margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view. If a submission is accepted for publication, authors must supply figures as a separate .png or .jpeg files.

Numbers
Spell out whole numbers from one through ten and numbers beginning a sentence.

Percentages
In the main text as well as in Tables and Figures, percentages should be given in numerals followed by %.

Dates
Specific dates are expressed using cardinal numbers. The day-month-year date style is preferred (e.g., The amendment was approved on 12 April 2012). Decades are expressed in numerals. No apostrophe appears between the year and the 's' (e.g., the 1980s and 90s).

Quotations
In general, short quotations, especially ones that are not a full sentence, are run in—that is, integrated into the text in the same type size and font and enclosed in quotation marks. A hundred words or more—or at least eight lines—are set off as a block quotation (indented from both the right and left margins). Block quotations are not enclosed in quotation marks.

Quoted sentences that run into the text are enclosed in double quotation marks. Single quotation marks enclose quotations within a quotation, and single words and phrases.  Although material set off as a block quotation is not enclosed in quotation marks, quoted matter within the block quotation is enclosed in double quotation marks.

Periods and commas precede closing quotation marks, whether double or single.  Colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points, however, follow closing quotation marks unless a question mark or exclamation point belongs within the quoted matter.

Text Citations
All sources should be cited using author-date format. Author-date citations within the text are listed with the punctuation shown below:

(Smith 2002; 2009; Smith and Jones 2011, 45)

Separate years from page numbers with a comma. Separate works from one another with a semicolon. If listing two works by the same author, repeat only the year. List up to three authors of a single work. If a work has four or more authors, list only the first and use 'et al.' (Stabile, Laporte, Coyte 2006; Lavis et al. 2006, 621). If two or more works share the same authors and dates, use 'a,' 'b,' and so on to distinguish among them (e.g., Asada 2010a; 2010b)

References, however, should list all authors.

Author-date citations are usually placed just before a mark of punctuation. If syntax permits, an author-date citation may precede a quotation.

Where the author’s name appears in the text, it need not be repeated in the parenthetical citation.

With long quotations set off as a block of text indented from the right and left margins, citations appear at the end of the block quotation. The opening parenthesis appears after the final punctuation mark of the quoted material. No period either precedes or follows the closing parenthesis.

References
It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information, including Digital Object Identifiers or DOIs. Format DOIs as a hyperlink—e.g.,  https://doi.org/10.13162/hro-ors.v8i2.4114.

After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break—not a page break—and begin your references on the same page, if possible, beginning with the Level 1 Heading, “REFERENCES”.

References should contain only works cited in the article. 

References should be listed alphabetically by author surname, and by year of publication, from oldest to newest work in style shown below. Note that all titles except periodicals are in sentence style, with only the first word and proper nouns capitalized. Book and journal titles appear in italics. No quotation marks are used around titles. An author’s edited works are listed after authored ones.

REFERENCES

Gauvin F-P. 2014. Canada Health Act, Revised Statutes of Canada (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-6) Department of Justice Canada. http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-6/FullText.html

Emery H, Ferrer A. 2012. The social rate of return to investing in character: an economic evaluation of Alberta's Immigrant Access Fund small loan program. Department of Economics, University of Calgary Working Paper Series, #2012-01. https://econ.ucalgary.ca/manageprofile//sites/econ.ucalgary.ca.manageprofile/files/unitis/publications/162-65056/EmeryFerrer.pdf

Grignon M. 2008. The role of education in health system performance. Economics of Education Review 27: 299-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2006.11.001

Grignon M. 2009a. La regulation par la concurrence entre assureurs. En Traite d'economie et de gestion de la santé, éd. Bras P-L, Pouvourville G, Tabuteau D, 209-214. Paris, France: Editions des sciences politiques et Editions de la Sante.

Grignon M. 2009b. Pourquoi les systemes de sante sont ils organises differemment? Revue Economique 60(2): 545-558. https://doi.org/10.3917/reco.602.0545

Health Canada. 2011. Canada’s health care system. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/pubs/system-regime/2011-hcs-sss/index-eng.php

Horne F. 2012. Medicare's front door, primary health care, needs a remodel. Globe and Mail, 31 October.  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/medicares-front-door-primary-health-care-needs-a-remodel/article4773769/

Kingdon JW. 2003. Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. 2nd ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.

Lavis JN, Røttingen JA, Bosch-Capblanch X, Atun R, El-Jardali F, Gilson L, Lewin S, Oliver S, Ongolo-Zogo P, Haines A. 2012. Guidance for evidence-informed policies about health systems: 2. Linking guidance development to policy development. PLoS Medicine 9 (3):e1001186. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001186

Lazar H, Forest P-G, Lavis JN, Church J. eds. 2013. Paradigm freeze: why it is so hard to reform health care in Canada. Queen’s Policy Studies Series. Montreal and Kingston, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press. https://www.queensu.ca/iigr/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.iigrwww/files/files/pub/archive/books/ParadigmFreezeLockedLowRes.pdf

 Marchildon GP. 2006. Health systems in transition: Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.