Strategies in Trauma and Limb Reconstruction

Register      Login

Author Instructions

 
 
General Instructions for Online Submissions

All authors interested in publishing their research work in Strategies in Trauma and Limb Reconstruction (STLR) will need to submit their manuscripts for publication through a web-based manuscript tracking system (MTS). The authors can submit new manuscripts, revise their existing manuscripts, and upload other required documents on the MTS. MTS also provides for tracking the status of the manuscripts, that are already submitted. This system helps the editorial office to communicate with the editors, associate editors, and reviewers and thus manage the peer review process. The same system is used for communication with authors. Please go to the Manuscript tracker and register yourself (if first time user) to submit the manuscripts. Manuscripts are received with the understanding that they contain original data that are not previously published or are being considered for publication elsewhere. In case of any queries or additional information, you can write an e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal at nayagam1@limbrecon.com.

Editorial and peer review process

The submitted manuscripts are duly acknowledged. The article once submitted will undergo plagiarism check. An initial check is conducted to ensure that all author instructions are complied with and the guidelines for submission are followed. All communications regarding the manuscript with the Journal should be handled by one of the authors (assigned as ‘corresponding author’). The Managing editor runs the initial check, processes the manuscript for all the required components, and approves for moving to the next level. The manuscript may be returned to the author for corrections, if required, to conform to the journal instructions.

Once, the article passes the initial check, it will undergo editorial review. Here, the manuscript is checked for suitability for the core readers of Strategies in Trauma and Limb Reconstruction (STLR) by the Editor-in-Chief. If it is found suitable, it is assigned to one of the Associate Editors/ Editor/ Editorial Board Member on the editorial board. The editorial review which includes initial assessment and assignment for review to associate, section editors or reviewers will take 5-7 working days. Manuscripts not found suitable will not be sent out for review and will be immediately rejected, and authors informed.

Once the manuscript passes the editorial review, it will then be sent for external peer review. Manuscripts are sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the manuscript. All manuscripts undergo a double-blinded review process. The Editor-in-Chief makes a final recommendation (revise/ accept/ reject) on the manuscript based on the suggestions and comments of the reviewers. The authors will be informed of the first decision in 8 – 10 weeks from the date of submission. If a manuscript must be revised, the author(s) are asked to give a detailed response to the reviewers' suggestions and submit the revised manuscript for further review. Decisions on the revised manuscripts will be conveyed within 4 weeks from the date of re-submission. This process is repeated till the authors, reviewers, and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. The authors can track the progress of the manuscript through https://www.stlrjournal.com/manuscriptTrack/STLR. 

The manuscript will be assessed for significance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope and content, Studies that challenge previously published research or have negative results despite having sufficient power will also be considered. Manuscripts received from Editorial Board members will be screened by the Editor in Chief and sent to external peer reviewers. Manuscripts authored by the Editor in Chief will be handled by the other editorial board members, and the final decision will be made by the Associate editor/ Editor. The editorial board members who are authors will be excluded from publication decisions. The journal's standard procedures are followed for manuscripts received from the members of sponsoring organization/ institution wherein the members linked with the same institution as the author (s) are excluded from the review and editorial decisions.

Process for appeals

Genuine appeals to editor decisions are welcome. The authors can appeal if they have a genuine cause to believe that the editorial board has wrongly rejected the paper. If the authors wish to appeal against the editor’s decision, they should email the editorial office editor@jaypeebrothers.com /nayagam1@limbrecon.com explaining in detail the basis for the appeal with evidence or new information. The editorial office will acknowledge the appeals and conduct an unbiased investigation. Within 6 to 8 weeks, appeals will be processed, and the decision will be conveyed to the authors. Till the time of decision, the paper should not be submitted to other journals. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal makes the final decision. Second appeals will not be considered.

Article processing charges

There are no article processing charges for publication of an article in the journal.

Publication schedule

Strategies in Trauma and Limb Reconstruction (STLR) journal publishes tri-annually (January, May, and September) focusing on the field of orthopedics and trauma.

Copyright and Licensing

Under Creative Commons the Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content. The authors assign exclusive commercial re-use rights of the article to the Publisher.

All open access articles published are distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License as currently displayed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. 

From 2024, all open access articles published are distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License as currently displayed at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited.

Authors have to mandatorily submit the Open Access License Agreement Form when submitting the manuscript.

Articles published under this arrangement are made freely available online upon publication without subscription barriers to access. Users of such published articles are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display these articles for personal, research and educational use provided that:

  • The original authorship is properly and fully attributed.
  • The journal and publisher are attributed as the original place of publication with correct citation details given.
  • If an original work is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this is clearly indicated.
  • No articles are reproduced for commercial use without the prior consent of the Publisher. All the licensing requests and permissions for commercial use of the article will be managed by the Publisher. For re-use of the content for other purposes that are not covered by the CC-BY-NC-SA/ CC-BY-NC license, please contact journals.permissions@jaypeebrothers.com
  • Authors are also entitled to deposit the final electronic version of the article into an institutional or centrally organized subject repository upon publication. They should include a link to the published version of the article on the journal's web site, and the journal and publisher should be attributed as the original place of publication, with correct citations given.
Editorial and publishing policies
Anti-plagiarism policy

The journal follows World Association of Medical Editors (WAME’s) definition of plagiarism: “Plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism is to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format (print or electronic)”.

The journal follows a strict anti-plagiarism policy. The authors are advised not to indulge in any form of plagiarism. The journal investigates allegations of plagiarism or the unauthorised use of published content to uphold the rights of our authors. We also work to guard the journal's reputation against unethical practices.

The submitted article are checked with duplication-checking software. If the content is found to be plagiarised, the Editor and the journal committee will take an appropriate action as directed by the guidelines put forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). If plagiarism is detected after publication, the Journal will initiate investigation. If plagiarism is established, the Journal reserves the right to act including, but not limited to notifying the authors’ institution and funding bodies, retracting the plagiarised article or taking appropriate legal action. To report plagiarism, contact the journal office at editor@jaypeebrothers.com. For further information about the policy on publication malpractice or research misconduct, refer to the policy page https://www.stlrjournal.com/journal/STLR/page/policy

Protection of research participants

The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

  1. All researchers should make sure that human research is planned, carried out, and reported in accordance with the 2013 revision of the Helsinki Declaration. Every author should contact the local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board) for permission before conducting research.
  2. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication.
  3. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For instance, covering the eye area in patient photos does not adequately preserve identity. In this case, it is advised to digitally crop/ remove the identifying characteristics. If identifying characteristics are removed, authors must guarantee—and editors must note—that the interpretation of the data is not altered.
Patient consent for publication for case reports

As per the CARE reporting guidelines, the patient or the legal guardian must provide a written informed consent for inclusion of their clinical and imaging details in the manuscript for the purpose of publication. The submitted manuscript needs to contain a statement that informed consent was obtained from the patient for the purpose of publication.

  • If the patient is deceased or incapacitated, the authors must seek permission from the patient's relatives which must be stated in the submitted manuscript.
  • In cases where permission could not be obtained from the patient or the relatives, the head of the medical team or the institutional review board must take responsibility for the anonymization of the patient, and this must be stated in the submitted manuscript.
  • If the informed consent has been waived by the institutional review board, the same must be included in the manuscript.
  • In case the patient is a child/ minor, the consent should be obtained from the parent/ legal guardian, and this information should be included in the manuscript.

Click to download the Patient Consent form

Ethics committee approvals and patient consent for participation in research studies

All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state:

  1. Name of the ethics committee or institutional review board that approved the study
  2. Approval number and date.

If the ethical approval is not required or is exempt, then a statement mentioning the same should be included in the submitted manuscript, with reasons for the same.

A statement about whether written or verbal informed consent was obtained from the patients to participate in the research should be included in the submitted manuscript. If the requirement for informed consent to participate has been waived by the Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (i.e., where it has been deemed that consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain), please state this.

Animal studies

The journal does not consider Animal Research or Animal Studies for publication. Submissions based on animal studies will be rejected without review.

Clinical trials

The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for clinical trial registration (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html ). According to ICMJE, “Clinical trial is any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome.”

  1. The authors are required to register the clinical trials in a public trial registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. If there is a substantial delay between the submission of registration materials and their posting at the trial registry, the authors should provide a letter explaining the circumstances that led to the delay.
  2. An acceptable registry must include the minimum 24-item trial registration data set (http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/trainTrainer/WHO-ICMJE-ClinTrialsgov-Cross-Ref.pdf or www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform ) at the time of registration and before enrolment of the first participant.
  3. Secondary data analyses of primary (parent) clinical trials should not be registered as separate clinical trials, but instead should reference the trial registration number of the primary trial.
  4. The authors should ensure that they have met the requirements of their funding and regulatory agencies regarding aggregate clinical trial results reporting in clinical trial registries. It is the authors’, and not the journal editors’, responsibility to explain any discrepancies between results reported in registries and journal publications.
  5. The authors are required to follow the ICMJE’s data sharing policy for clinical trials.
Data availability statement

The authors are required to include Data Availability Statement in the articles that report results derived from research data. Data Availability Statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found. The statement should include that the data set used in the current study is available (option as appropriate) a. repository name b. name of the public domain resources c. data availability within the article or its supplementary materials d. available on request from (contact name/email id) e. dataset can be made available after embargo period due to commercial restrictions. Where research data are not publicly available, this must be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for accessing the data.

Authorship

The journal adheres to the ICMJE recommendation for authorship requirements. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors.

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

It is the collective responsibility of the authors, not the journal to which the work is submitted, to determine that all people named as authors meet all four criteria; it is not the role of journal editors to determine who qualifies or does not qualify for authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts. The criteria used to determine the order in which authors are listed on the by-line may vary and are to be decided collectively by the author group and not by editors. One author should assume the role of “corresponding author” who is mainly responsible for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication processes. The corresponding author should also be accessible following publication to address any criticisms of the work and assist with any requests from the journal for data or additional information, should those requests come up


© Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) LTD.