Authors Guidelines

Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports (JOCR)

Scope of the journal

Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports (JOCR) publishes original and interesting case reports that contribute significantly to Orthopaedic knowledge.

Manuscripts must meet one of the following criteria:

1. Unexpected or unusual presentations of a disease
2. New associations or variations in disease processes
3. Presentations, diagnoses, and/or management of new and emerging diseases
4. An unexpected association between diseases or symptoms
5. An unexpected event in the course of observing or treating a patient
6. New technique or modification of the original surgical technique
7. An unusual complication of a particular disease or surgery
8. Findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect
9. A small series of cases with unusual outcomes. (Case Series will be considered as “Research Article”)
10. A technical note demonstrated on a single case.
11. A Case Series with min. 3 and max. 10 cases in number. (Case Series will be considered as “Research Article”)
12. Original Articles
13. Review Articles

(Please note Video files are not accepted in an article)

Manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial Board and two external referees, and if your manuscript is accepted, it will be subject to a 12,000/- INR article-processing charge, for oversees the article processing charges will be 325$. No charges for submitting the manuscript or for a decision on the manuscript. Authors will usually receive a decision on their manuscript within 8 weeks.  (Please note we do not provide W-8 forms)

All manuscripts are to be submitted via the Journal submission software on the website. Any other query regarding article formatting for the submission process can also be mailed to editor.jocr@gmail.com

The following files will be essential for the submission of an article

–  Cover letter

–  Title page

–  Blinded manuscript

–  Tables

–  Figures

–  Copyright form

(Please note Video files are not accepted in an article)

The details of formatting these files are provided below.

The accepted format for case report articles

The Journal follows the Uniform Requirements for manuscript as laid down by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html)

Manuscripts submitted to JOCR must be submitted in the format described below. Articles that do not meet the journal’s style will not be peer-reviewed or considered for publication. All articles should have line numbering and not be more than 2000 words long with a minimum of 10 references and 10 figures. Manuscripts should also contain an abstract of up to 350 words. Case reports will only be accepted for peer review in the following format:

• Title page

• Learning point of the article.

• Abstract

• Introduction

• Case presentation(s)

• Discussion

• Conclusions

• Clinical Message

• References

• Illustrations and figures

• Figure legends (if any)

• Additional data files (if any)

• List of abbreviations used (if any)

• Competing interests

• Authors’ contributions

• Acknowledgements and Funding

• Copyright Form.

Guidelines to Authors

Title page

The first page of the manuscript should be a dedicated title page, including the title of the article. The title should include the study design, i.e. Case report. For example

A presenting with B in C: (OR, if the case reports details 3 to 10 max. patient: a case series)

A maximum of six authors can be added to an article.

Author Name 1¹, Author Name 2², Author Name 3³*

Address: ¹ Full designation, degree, and postal address of author 1; ² Full designation, degree, and postal address of author; ³ Full designation, degree, and postal address of author 3

Email: Email addresses for all the authors are compulsory; email@address.com;

* Corresponding author should be indicated with an asterisk.

The contact number of the corresponding author is to be mentioned on the title page.

The full names, institutional addresses, and email addresses of all authors must be included on the title page. The corresponding author should also be indicated. No other information should be included on this page.

Provide each author’s Photo. (Photo should be with an Apron or Professional formal attire, Shirt, tie, coat, etc.)

Learning point of the article- Write the relevant text in one line.

Abstract

This should start on page 2 of the manuscript. The abstract must not exceed 350 words. Do not use abbreviations or references in the abstract. The abstract should be structured into three sections and should make clear how the case report adds to the Orthopaedic literature:

• ·Introduction An introduction about why this case is important and needs to be reported. Please include information on whether this is the first report of this kind in the literature.
• ·Case presentation Brief details of what the patient presented with, including the patient’s age, sex, and ethnic background.
• ·Conclusion A brief conclusion of what the reader should learn from the case report and what the clinical impact will be. Is it an original case report of interest to a particular clinical specialty of medicine or will it have a broader clinical impact across medicine? Please include information on how it will significantly advance our knowledge of a particular disease etiology or drug mechanism.
• Keywords: Minimum 3 Keywords related to the article.

Introduction

The introduction section should explain the background of the case, including the disorder, usual presentation and progression, and an explanation of the presentation if it is a new disease. If it is a case discussing an adverse drug interaction the introduction should give details of the drug’s common use and any previously reported side effects. It should also include a brief literature review.

Case presentation

This should present all relevant details concerning the case. The case presentation should contain a description of the patient’s relevant demographic information (without adding any details that could lead to the identification of the patient); any relevant medical history of the patient; the patient’s symptoms and signs; any tests that were carried out and a description of any treatment or intervention. This section may be broken into subsections with appropriate subheadings. If it is a case series, then details must be included for all patients.

Discussion:

This section should discuss the peculiarities of the case in detail with reference to the literature. A detailed literature review at least of the Medline using Pubmed should be given here along with keywords.  This should then logically conclude with the take-home message from the case report

Conclusion

This should state clearly what can be concluded from the case report, and give a clear explanation of the importance and relevance of the case. Is it an original case report of interest to a particular clinical specialty of medicine or will it have a broader clinical impact across medicine? Please include information on how it will significantly advance our knowledge of a particular disease etiology or surgical technique or pathology.

Clinical Message

Abbreviations (if any)

If abbreviations are used in the text they should either be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided.

Consent

This section is compulsory. It should provide a statement to confirm that the patient has given their informed consent for the case report to be published. You do not need to send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication

Competing interests

Please declare whether competing interest exists. A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations.

Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing must read: “The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests’’.

Authors’ contributions

We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author’s contribution):

“FC analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the hematological disease and the transplant.  RH performed the histological examination of the kidney and was a major contributor to writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance or a department chair who provided only general support.

Acknowledgments

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to the conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship.

References

All references must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Please check the Instructions for Authors page for details on the format of references.

There must be a minimum of 10 references.

For an article within a journal:

Bentolila V, Nizard R, Bizot P, Sedel L. Complete traumatic brachial plexus palsy. Treatment and outcome after repair. J Bone Joint Surg Am 1999;81:20-8.

For a book chapter, or an article within a book

Songcharoen P. Neurotization in the treatment of brachial plexus injury. In: Omer G, Spinner M, van Beek A, editors. Management of peripheral nerve problems. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders; 1998. p. 459-64.

Preparing illustrations and figures

Please note that JOCR can only publish ten figures in each case report. If you have more than ten figures and feel that all are essential to the understanding of the case report, please make this clear in your cover letter, explaining why the figures are needed. Figures and tables should be sequentially referenced. Authors should include all relevant supporting data with each article.

Figures should be provided as separate files and should not be included in the main text of the submitted manuscript or included within them the figure legend. Each figure should comprise only a single file. There is no charge for the use of color.

Authors should make every effort to preserve the anonymity of the patient be removing or concealing any identifiable features, including birthmarks and tattoos. Please take extra care with images of the head and face, ensuring that only the relevant features are shown. Publication of facial images will be subject to approval by the Editor-in-Chief.

Formats

The following file formats can be accepted:

• EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
• PDF (also especially suitable for diagrams)
• PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
• TIFF
• JPEG

(Please note Video files are not accepted in an article)

Figure legends

No more than 10 figures per case report are accepted. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals – i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3, etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words. Figures should be provided as separate files.

The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals – i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3, etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words.

The legend should include a brief description of the exact location of the image on the patient, the type of image (e.g. micrograph/x-ray), and time in relation to progression e.g. one week after surgery. There must be no abbreviations unless they are expanded (excluding common abbreviations such as antibodies).

Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Preparing tables

Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3, etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, a maximum of 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.

Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the document text file. These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the ‘Table object’ in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review; this will not always be the case if columns are generated by simply using tabs to separate text. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. Color and shading should not be used.

Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as additional files. Additional files will not be displayed in the final, published form of the article, but a link will be provided to the files as supplied by the author.

Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or comma-separated values (.csv). As with all files, please use the standard file extensions.

Additional files (applies to submission using software)

Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports also allows movies and/or animations to be included as additional files and allows movies to be viewed in the context of the article. There may be occasions where an author wishes to provide data sets, tables, or other information as additional information. These files can be uploaded using the ‘Additional Material files’ button in the manuscript submission process.

If additional material is provided, please list the following information in a separate section of the manuscript text, immediately following the tables (if any):

* File name

* File format (including name and a URL of an appropriate viewer if the format is unusual)

* Title of data

* Description of data

Additional datafiles should be referenced explicitly by file name within the body of the article, e.g. ‘See additional file 1: Movie1 for the original data used to perform this analysis’.

Copyright Form: To be downloaded from the website and a signed copy scanned and submitted along with manuscript

Style and language

General

Currently, JOCR can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture.

It is essential that submitted manuscripts have a high standard of written English. Manuscripts that are poorly written will be returned to authors for revision prior to peer review. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply and to have their articles checked by colleagues before submission. Non-native speakers of English may choose to make use of a copyediting service before submission.

JOCR will copyedit accepted manuscripts before they are published. The editing is designed only to correct such things as misused words, spelling errors, missing references, or incomplete citation information.

Typography

• Please use double-line spacing.
• Type the text unjustified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
• Abbreviations spelled out in full for the first time
• Numerals from 1 to 10 spelled out
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence are spelled out
• Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
• Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.
• All pages should be numbered.
• Use the JOCR reference format.
• Footnotes to text should not be used.
• Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full.
• Gene names should be in italic, but protein products should be in plain type

Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise, they will be lost during conversion to PDF.

• Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be indicated in italics, and authors are required to use approved gene symbols, names, and formatting. Protein products should be in plain type.

Units

SI Units should be used throughout (liter and molar are permitted, however).

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed at the end of the text
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Copyright Notice

Proposed Creative Commons Copyright Notices

Proposed Policy for Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).