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.
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.
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.
There are no article processing charges for publication of an article in the journal.
Strategies in Trauma and Limb Reconstruction (STLR) journal publishes tri-annually (January, May, and September) focusing on the field of orthopedics and trauma.
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
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 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.
The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
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.
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:
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.
The journal does not consider Animal Research or Animal Studies for publication. Submissions based on animal studies will be rejected without review.
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.”
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.
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.
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