Authors’ Guidelines

 

Presentation of Manuscripts

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts for JOINTS have to be submitted via Publishing Manager. The correspondence for each article must be carried on only by the corresponding author. He/She/Them must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list – please read the full details under “Authorship and Copyright” – and that they have all approved the submitted version of the manuscript. The corresponding author can see the manuscript details in the submission system if He/She/Them register and log in using the e-mail address provided during the manuscript submission.

All information entered during the submission process related to the manuscript should be identical to the final submitted version of the manuscript. Papers are accepted on the understanding that they have not been, and will not be, published elsewhere.

A cover letter must also be included with each manuscript submission. 

When submitting a paper, authors should observe the following guidelines:

– Do not attempt to make your output approximate or match the typeset page.

– Be consistent in style (i.e., units, abbreviations).

– End paragraphs in a uniform manner and in a different manner from line endings within paragraphs. A frequently used paragraph ending is simply two carriage returns.

– Use double spacing in your document. Do not add extra line spacing (except as a normal paragraph ending indication) above or below titles, subheads, or between paragraphs.

– Avoid using multiple spaces (horizontal) in your electronic manuscript. End sentences with only one space. Never use multiple spaces for horizontal positioning of text.

– Table and figure captions should be prepared in separate files. The Authors have to indicate this material within the text.

– Additional tables or figures and/or extra methodological detail can be included in a separate Supplementary Appendix.

The following documents should appear in all manuscript types, and their submission is mandatory for publication:

  • TITLE PAGE: The title page must contain the Authors’ names, appointments, and affiliations, along with the full contact details of the Corresponding Authors, including their current e-mail addresses. A full and short-running title should be given, plus a small number of keywords (5-10) for indexing purposes. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article.
  • COVER LETTER: Authors who submit manuscripts to JOINTS must provide a supporting Cover Letter that briefly details the article’s relevance to the journal’s audience and how the article advances understanding of the field. The Cover Letter must include contact information [affiliation, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number] for all authors. Authors should indicate a Corresponding Author to whom correspondence will be sent if the manuscript is accepted for publication. In the Letter, authors must confirm that the manuscript has been submitted solely to this journal and is not published, in the press, or submitted elsewhere (including preprint servers). Authors must confirm that all the research meets the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the study country. Authors must confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship. The Cover Letter must be signed by the Corresponding Author on behalf of all other authors.
  • ABSTRACT*: The Abstract should count a maximum of about 300 words. It should be organized into sections using the following headings: INTRODUCTION or BACKGROUND or OBJECTIVE; PATIENTS AND METHODS or MATERIALS AND METHODS or SUBJECTS AND METHODS or CASE REPORT/PRESENTATION; RESULTS; CONCLUSIONS.
  • REFERENCES: References should be numbered in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and should be located in superscript and not in parenthesis. References have to follow a numerical order and should be identified in the text, tables, and legends through Arabic numbers in superscript. 

*The Abstract is not mandatory for Letters to the Editor and Editorials. Please see full details under “Article Types”.

 

Document file formats for submission  

Authors should submit their article as a unique Word document (.doc, .docx), including all the aforementioned sections (except for figure files). Article pages should be numbered consecutively by inserting the page number (in Arabic numerals) at the bottom of each page. Authors must add continuous line numbering throughout the document in order to facilitate the review process and subsequent author revisions.

 

Article length and word count

In most cases, there is no strict limit on word count or number of pages, tables, figures and references. However, the editorial recommendation is that authors write concisely. The main text should be no more than 6,000 words long (not including Abstract, References and Figure legends). Original articles should not contain more than 60 references. For review articles, the text should not exceed 8,000 words long (not including Abstract, References and Figure legends). Review articles should not contain more than 100 references. The journal reserves the right to reconsider this limit by evaluating each article individually.

Exceptions apply for the main text of Brief Communications (maximum length: 5,000 words with up to 30 references and 2 tables and/or figures), Editorials (maximum length: 10,000 words with up to 30 references and 2 tables and/or figures) and Opinion Papers (maximum length: 10,000 words with up to 30 references and 2 tables and/or figures). Letters are restricted to the discussion of papers already published in the journal, with a maximum of 1,000 words, one table or figure and up to 20 references.

 

How to structure your article

Title page, Abstract, and Keywords

  • Title: The full title should be concise and informative. Abbreviations and formulae should not be included in the title. The title should be no more than 180 characters (including spaces).
  • Running head: A running head (short title) should be supplied and should not exceed 50 characters (including spaces).
  • Authors’ names and affiliations: The title page must include the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author, along with authors’ affiliations below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a superscript number immediately after the author’s name and before the corresponding affiliation. Please note that JOINTS takes a neutral position with respect to territorial claims in institutional affiliations.
  • Corresponding Author: Authors must indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication, and post-publication. Ensure that the Corresponding Author’s title(s) and credentials, degree(s) (e.g., MD, Ph.D), affiliation(s), and postal and email addresses are given and that contact details are kept up to date by the Corresponding Author.
  • Abstract: Each manuscript must begin with an abstract that summarizes the results obtained and the conclusions drawn. References must not be included in the abstract. Original research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses require structured abstracts, while in narrative reviews, the abstract must not be structured. The abstract ought to offer the context or background for the research and must articulate the study’s objectives, fundamental methodologies (including participant selection, environments, measurements, and analytical approaches), primary discoveries (including precise effect magnitudes and their statistical and clinical relevance, when feasible), and key conclusions.
  • Keywords: Three to ten keywords should be supplied in alphabetical order immediately after the abstract. Authors should use American spelling and avoid general and plural terms as well as multiple concepts (e.g., avoid “and”, “of”). Only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be included in the keyword list. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article. Keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Graphical abstract: Even though a graphical abstract is optional, its use is encouraged as it draws more attention to the article. The graphical abstract aims to summarize the article’s contents in a pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a broad readership. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system (Publishing Manager). Authors should provide an image with a minimum of 531×1328 pixels (h×w). The image should be readable at a size of 5×13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file formats include: .TIFF, .PMG, .JPG. 

 

The paper should then proceed conventionally with the following sections:

  • INTRODUCTION (or BACKGROUND)
  • MATERIALS AND METHODS (or PATIENTS AND METHODS or SUBJECTS AND METHODS)
  • RESULTS
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES

 

Main Text

The main text of Original Articles, Systematic Reviews, and Meta-analyses should be organized into the abovementioned sections: Introduction (or Background), Materials and Methods (or Patients/Subjects and Methods), Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References.

For articles that are not based on original data, the sections Materials and Methods (or Patients/Subjects and Methods) and Results can be replaced with other subheadings at the authors’ discretion.

Commentaries, Editorials, and Letters to the Editor do not require a structured organization of the main text. However, the use of the Introduction section and additional subheadings is encouraged for Commentaries and Editorials.

In the Materials and Methods section, authors should describe in detail the design, subjects, and methods for all studies. Sufficient details must be provided so that the study can be replicated by other researchers. Instruments used must be accompanied by their model’s name, city, state, and country of manufacture in round brackets. The clone’s name and source of monoclonal antibodies should be reported. The statistical methods and statistical software program(s) used should be described.

Each section of the text should respect the following guidelines:

  • Introduction: The authors in the introduction session should place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important in comparison with published articles. They should define the aim of the work and clearly explain the specific hypothesis being tested. It is fundamental to specify if the observation could be based on previous research by others or your own pilot study and to include a summary of findings from previous, relevant studies.
  • Materials/Patients/Subjects and Methods: The Methods section should prioritize clarity regarding the rationale and approach behind conducting the study in a specific manner. New experimental procedures and protocols should be described in detail, while well-established methods can be briefly described but appropriately cited. The materials and analysis should provide robust information to allow replication of the study. Study design should be described in detail, and descriptions of reagents and equipment (if present) should facilitate replication. Statistical methods and software program(s) must be described in enough detail in a specific paragraph (Statistical Analysis) in order to enable a knowledgeable reader to access the original data to verify the results. The Methods section should incorporate a declaration confirming the approval of the research by a local, regional, or national review entity (such as an ethics committee or institutional review board) and adherence to the Helsinki Declaration. Authors employing AI technology should sufficiently detail its utilization in the methods section to facilitate replication of the approach, specifying the tool utilized and its version.
  • Participants selection and description
    Provide a detailed explanation of how participants, whether healthy individuals, patients, or controls, are selected for observational or experimental purposes. This should include clear criteria for eligibility and exclusion, as well as a description of the source population. Sex or gender of the participants should also be reported.
  • Animal studies
    Research involving animals should adhere to globally recognized standards and to the ARRIVE guidelines for documenting experiments involving live animals. Animal species/strain, sex, source (vendor name, location), age range, weight and any additional data should be indicated. Please note that we encourage the use of both male and female animals. The use of single-sex should be scientifically justified.
  • Statistical methods
    Statistical methods must be clearly described for original articles based on animal or human studies. The statistical methods and statistical software program(s), as well as the version used, should be described. Two-tailed significance tests should be used unless explicitly stated. Controls should be described as completely as experimental subjects. Measures of location should be accompanied by measures of variability (e.g., mean and confidence intervals) as well as conventional probability values. Clinical trial reports should include a description of the statistical power of the study.
  • Results: This section must contain all results obtained during (and, if applicable, after) the study, mentioning all study outcomes and findings based on the supporting data. Tables and Figures must summarize the most important findings. Supplementary materials and/or technical details can be inserted as supplementary files and appendices.
  • Discussion: In the discussion section, authors do not simply restate the results, but they have to explain them widely, interpreting the results and anticipating the conclusions and highlighting important aspects and findings of the study. In these sections, references to other literature articles are usually suggested in order to better explain the framework of the study. A final paragraph with limitations of the study (if any) is strongly suggested in order to strengthen the validity of your work.
  • Conclusions: In this final section, all general outcomes of your study must be mentioned, as well as the need for further studies if such conclusions remain limited. Any suggestions or advice for other authors should be added in order to make your work a valuable contribution to scientific literature.

 

Nomenclature, Units and Abbreviations

All measurements should be expressed in SI units, except for hemoglobin (g/dL) and blood pressure (mmHg). Authors should specify if the original results were expressed in other units of measurement and should use appropriate conversion factors. Standard abbreviations without punctuation are used. Units, Symbols, and Abbreviations (1988), published by the Royal Society of Medicine, and SI: The International System of Units (1982) from HMSO both provide useful guides.

A space should be inserted between numbers and units of measurement (e.g., INCORRECT: 65mg/dL; CORRECT: 65 mg/dL). The term “versus” should be written in italics and small letters as follows: “vs.”. The “p” of the p-value and the “t” of the t-test must be written in italics and lowercase Authors must use full stops instead of commas for decimal numbers (e.g., (e.g., INCORRECT: 65,5; CORRECT: 65.5). – In the main text, “et al.” must be written as “et al” without punctuation, followed by the reference number.  The terms “in vivo” and “in vitro” must be written in italics and small letters.

Abbreviations, used sparingly, should follow the first full spelling in round brackets. For example: mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, the excessive use of abbreviations in the text is discouraged. Authors must not include an abbreviated term in the manuscript without writing the term in full the first time it appears in the text. A list of abbreviations at the beginning of the article is allowed only if this list contains a minimum of 8 abbreviations.

 

Gene Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see http://varnomen.hgvs.org/, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided. Gene names must be written in italics.

 

Drug Names and Pharmaceutical industries

In general, the use of generic names should be preferred when authors refer to drugs. Brand names may be inserted in round brackets at the author’s discretion. Drug names are spelled out according to the European Pharmacopoeia, but the American spelling should be used after the first use of a drug name. Authors should insert town, state, and nation names when citing pharmaceutical or device industries.

 

References, Tables, and Figures

References

References must be supplied at the end of each manuscript (immediately after the section “Conflict of interest”) and numerically listed in the reference list in the order in which they were first used in the text. They must be numbered in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text and should be identified in the text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript before punctuation. For example: “Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a type of mammalian adipose tissue, located in several specific depots in the body1.”.

When reporting the reference numbers in the text, authors must follow these rules: “1-2” must be written as “1,2”. Authors must insert “-” only in the presence of more than two consecutive numbers. For example: “1,2,3,4,5,6” must be written as “1-6”.

Reference numbers must follow a sequential order within the text and must be inserted before the punctuation (YES12. NO.12).

For each reference, all authors have to be listed (do not use et al.), together with the year without the month of publication. Delete the number of the single issue after the volume number.

Name of the journal: write the international acronyms without any punctuation. Insert a space after the semicolon and colon (INCORRECT: 2014;2014:907915; CORRECT: 2014; 2014: 907915). Moreover, initial and final pages must be entirely reported (INCORRECT: 135-46; CORRECT: 135-146).

In the references, authors must insert a space after the semicolon and colon.

Examples:

  • CORRECT: Garcia-Contreras M, Brooks RW, Boccuzzi L, Robbins PD, Ricordi C. Exosomes as biomarkers and therapeutic tools for type 1 diabetes mellitus. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2017; 21: 2940-2956.
  • INCORRECT: Garcia-Contreras M, Brooks RW, Boccuzzi L, Robbins PD, Ricordi C. Exosomes as biomarkers and therapeutic tools for type 1 diabetes mellitus. EurRevMedPharmacolSci 2017;21:2940-2956.

For each reference, authors must replace “and” with “,” (comma) before the last author’s name. Moreover, all authors’ names must be written with the same text size (only the first letter of the author’s name must be written in capital letters). For example:

(INCORRECT) Example 1: DA. Baidal, C. Ricordi, M. Garcia-Contreras, A. Sonnino, A. Fabbri. Combination high-dose omega-3 fatty acids and high-dose cholecalciferol in new onset type 1 diabetes: A potential role in preservation of beta-cell mass. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2016 Jul;20(15):3313-8.

(CORRECT) Example 1: Baidal DA, Ricordi C, Garcia-Contreras M, Sonnino A, Fabbri A. Combination high-dose omega-3 fatty acids and high-dose cholecalciferol in new onset type 1 diabetes: a potential role in preservation of beta-cell mass. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2016; 20: 3313-3318. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27467009/

(INCORRECT) Example 2: Gomez-Meade C.A., Lopez-Mitnik G. V., Messiah S. E., Garcia-Contreras M., Sanchez J. Vitamin D status in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in a sun-rich environment. CellR4 2016; 4 (5): e2140

(CORRECT) Example 2: Gomez-Meade CA, Lopez-Mitnik GV, Messiah SE, Garcia-Contreras M, Sanchez J. Vitamin D status in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in a sun-rich environment. CellR4 2016; 4: e2140. https://www.cellr4.org/article/2140

The link to the PubMed page or to any other website must be added at the end of the reference.

JOINTS does not accept the publication of text referring to “data not shown” or “unpublished data”. When referring to papers that have been accepted for publication but are not yet available, they should be indicated as “in press” or “forthcoming”.

 

Web references

The full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed should be given. Any additional information, if known (e.g., author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references should be included in the reference list.

Authors must carefully check the appropriateness of the references before submitting the manuscript.

 

Figures

Figures must be supplied as a separate file, with the figure number incorporated in the file name (e.g., Figure 1.jpg). They must not be embedded in the main text and must be numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1). JOINTS accepts high-resolution figures in the following formats: TIFF, EPS, JPG.

The figure resolution for various types of original figures, at their final size, should be as follows: Line art – Minimum 600 dpi, measuring preferably 13 by 18 cm and no more than 20 by 25 cm in size. Halftone (i.e., both B/W and Colour photographs) – Minimum 300 dpi, measuring preferably 13 by 18 cm and no more than 20 by 25 cm in size. Line and tone (line art and halftone combined) – Minimum 600 dpi, measuring preferably 13 by 18 cm and no more than 20 by 25 cm in size.

For line figures: lines should be solid, the text should be presented in a standard font and not blurred, and the overall illustration/image should be sharp and clear. Authors should avoid using tints if possible; if they are essential to the understanding of the figure, try to make them coarse. As a reminder, if the electronic files are viewed at 400% on the computer screen and look blurred or pixelated, then they are not of sufficient quality for printing.

There are no color figure charges for this journal.

Figure legends must be included in the main text of the manuscript (immediately after the reference list) but not in the figure file. Figure legends should also include a list of abbreviations (if needed).

Requirements for Reuse of Published Figures

If an author of a submission is re-using a figure or figures published elsewhere, or that is copyrighted, the author must provide documentation that the previous publisher or copyright holder has given permission for the figure to be re-published. JOINTS editors consider all material in good faith that their journal has full permission to publish every part of the submitted material, including illustrations.

 

Tables

Tables and table legends should be provided as part of the article document and embedded in the main text (immediately after the figure legends). They should be self-contained and understandable without reference to the text, and they should not duplicate the information that is already included in the text. They must be numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1). Tables must be supplied in their original, editable format (preferably Microsoft Word). Our production team does not accept tables as images or illustrations (e.g., tables in .jpg, .tif, or other image formats). All abbreviations included in the tables must be defined in the footnotes. Tables and table footnotes can include references in Arabic numerals at the author’s discretion. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for p-values. Statistical measures (such as SD or SEM) should be defined in the Table heading.

 

Supplementary Material 

Supplementary material should be uploaded to Publishing Manager and supplied as a separate file in both the following formats: .doc/.docx and .pdf. The authors should use the prefix “Supplementary” for each supplementary document submitted (e.g., Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Figure 1). Files larger than 10 MB should be sent directly via email to submission.joints@verduci.it.

Authors must submit supplementary material together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If authors wish to make changes to supplementary material at any stage of the process, they should make sure to provide an updated file.

 

Declarations

All manuscripts must contain the following required sections at the end of the paper:

  • Ethics Approval: An Ethics Committee should have approved human and animal studies but, in questionable matters, the Editors reserve the right to reject papers. Example of Ethics Statement: “All subjects provided written informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (as revised in 2013), and the protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of NAME OF THE INSTITUTE (project or protocol identification number XXX and date of approval).” OR “Ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to REASON (please provide a detailed justification).”
  • Informed Consent: Informed consent must be obtained for studies involving human participants. A statement that informed consent was obtained from the study participants must also appear in the manuscript as follows: “All subjects provided written informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study.”. Example of Informed Consent declaration: “Written informed consent was provided by the patient (and/or his/her parents) for permission to receive therapy and to publish this case report.”
  • Acknowledgments: Brief acknowledgments of subjects who have made genuine contributions to the article and who endorse the data and conclusions should be included. In this section, authors must include written permission to use any copyrighted text and/or illustrations. In this section, authors are required to disclose any source of financial support to their work and/or all relevant consultancies within 12 months prior to submission (for more details, visit the page “Policy, Licensing and COI”).
  • Funding: In this section, authors must list any funding source and funding interests. For example: “This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxxx, yyyyy]”. Example of declaration of funding interests: (i) This study was funded [in part or in full] by [insert name of funding organization], grant number [insert grant or another identification number]. (ii) The [writing or preparation] of this paper was funded in part by [insert name of funding organization]. (iii) Initial data analyses were undertaken by [name of individuals if not listed as Authors] who are employees of [name company] and received funding from [insert name of funding organization]. (iv) Writing support was provided by [insert name of individual(s)] of [name company] and funded by [insert name of funding organization]. We remind authors that manuscripts published in JOINTS by authors funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are eligible for indexing in MEDLINE/PubMed. If the article is accepted for publication and the work was supported by NIH, authors should insert the NIH grant number(s) in the Funding section of the manuscript. If the work was not supported by any source of funding, the authors should declare it in a statement.
  • Authors’ Contributions: For transparency purposes, we request a short paragraph indicating the individual contribution of each author for articles with more than one author (author names should not be abbreviated). This information includes substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the article or making critical revisions related to the relevant intellectual content of the manuscript; supervision; validation and final approval of the version of the article to be published.
  • ORCID ID: In this section, authors should include their ORCID ID, a unique and persistent author identifier to help distinguish their work from that of other researchers.
  • Conflict of Interest: All authors must disclose any personal and financial relationships with other people or organizations that could influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include consultancies, employment, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications and registrations, and grants or other funding. In this section, authors must disclose any potential conflict of interest. Example of authors’ declaration of personal interests: (i) [Name of individual] has served as a speaker, a consultant, and an advisory board member for [names of organizations],  and has received research funding from [names of organization]. (ii) [Name of individual] is an employee of [name of organization]. (iii) [Name of individual] owns stocks and shares in [name of organization]. (iv) [Name of individual] owns patent [patent identification and brief description]. If authors do not have conflicts of interest to disclose, they should include the following sentence in this section: “The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose”.
  • Data Availability: JOINTS encourages authors to provide a statement of data availability in their articles containing original data. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the study results can be found, including, if applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study. Data availability statements can also indicate if data are available on request from the authors and where no data are available, if appropriate. Data availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one of the following forms):
  • The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the repository [NAME], [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].
  • The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE] but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
  • Data sharing does not apply to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
  • The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
  • All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and/or its supplementary material].
  • Artificial Intelligence: At submission, the authors must disclose whether and how they used artificial intelligence or assisted technologies in the production of the study (including figures) in the cover letter as well as in the manuscript in an appropriate statement at the end of the text. Authors are responsible for the material submitted and produced by artificial intelligence and must be able to declare that there is no plagiarism in the manuscript, including figures.

 

Ethics

Human Studies and Ethical Principles

An Ethics Committee should have approved human studies. However, Editors reserve the right to reject papers in case of questionable matters.

According to the ICMJE recommendations, all investigators should ensure that the planning, conduct, and reporting of human research are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013. All authors should seek approval to conduct research from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., Ethics Committee, Institutional Review Board). If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the local, regional, or national review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. Approval by a responsible review body does not preclude editors from forming their own judgments about whether the research conducted was ethically appropriate.

All research on humans must have approval from the IRB (Institutional Review Board) or from equivalent local Ethics Committees. The age and gender of all subjects should be provided in the main text or in the Supplementary Material.

For non-interventional studies (e.g., surveys, cross-section studies, etc.), all participants must be fully informed about anonymity, how the data will be used, the reason for the research, and if there are any associated risks. As with all research involving humans, ethical approval from an appropriate ethics committee or an official IRB exemption must be obtained before conducting the study. The journal retains the authority to ask authors for documentation, such as the approval/exemption letter, survey questionnaire, and informed consent procedure/form.

Ethics Committee approval (including acceptance number and date of approval) is deemed necessary for retrospective observational studies. Should specific Ethics Institutions/Universities have different guidelines, Authors must furnish the directives outlined by the Ethics Committee of the respective institution, confirming that Ethics Committee approval is not mandated for retrospective observational studies.

If the authors have submitted the approval request to the Ethics committee and the committee determines that no approval is required, the name of the ethics committee granting this exemption should be mentioned in the ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ or ‘Ethics Approval Statement,’ accompanied by a comprehensive explanation of the ethical approval waiver. 

 

Helsinki Declaration

When reporting experiments on human subjects, all investigators should ensure that the planning, conduct, and reporting of human research are in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (as revised in 2013).

 

Informed consent

All research involving human participants necessitates informed consent from the participants (or their parent/legal guardian if they are under 16 years old), and this consent should be explicitly mentioned in the manuscript as follows: “All subjects provided written informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study.”. Manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups or cases where consent might not be fully informed will be subject to the editor’s discretion. 

Appropriate consents, permissions, and releases must be obtained where authors wish to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individual in their publication. This is to comply with all applicable laws and regulations concerning the privacy and/or security of personal information, including, but not limited to, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679. Patients have the right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. 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 his/her parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient visualizes the manuscript to be published. Authors should inform these patients whether any potentially identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication.

Examples of ethics and informed consent statements:

  1. Original article: “All subjects provided written informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (as revised in 2013), and the protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of NAME OF THE INSTITUTE (project or protocol identification number XXX and date of approval).” OR “Ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to REASON (please provide a detailed justification).”
  2. Case report: “Written informed consent was provided by the patient (and/or his/her parents) for permission to receive therapy and to publish this case report.”

Please note that photographs of patients or research subjects should not be used unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and explicit permission has been given by the patient or research subject as part of the informed consent. Such photographs should be anonymized using boxes or dots, or shades covering eyes and/or other identifying details. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, authors should provide assurance that such alterations do not affect the scientific meaning. If consent has not been obtained, it is not sufficient to anonymize a photograph simply by using eyebars or blurring the face of the subject. Formal consents are not required for the use of entirely anonymized images from which the individual cannot be identified (e.g., X-rays, ultrasound images, computed tomography/magnetic resonance scans, etc.).

 

Animal studies and Ethical principles 

Research involving animals should adhere to globally recognized standards and to the ARRIVE guidelines for documenting experiments involving live animals. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed, but in questionable matter, the Editors reserve the right to reject papers. This statement is mandatory for acceptance and publication of the manuscript. Authors should ensure that the experimental conditions and procedures of their research minimize any harm to animals.

Animal species/strain, sex, source (vendor name, location), age range, weight and any additional data should be indicated. Please note that we encourage the use of both male and female animals. The use of a single sex should be scientifically justified.

The project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be stated in the “Ethics Approval” statement. Research procedures must be carried out in accordance with national and institutional regulations. Statements on animal welfare should confirm that the study complied with all relevant legislation.

 

Cell lines

The Materials and Methods section should report the origin of any cell lines. The contamination or misidentification of cell lines negatively impacts the validity of research observations. Therefore, authors are required to describe the source of the cell line, as well as the method used for authentication, in the Materials and Methods section. References must also be given to either a published paper or to a commercial source. Confirmation of written informed consent must be provided if the line is of human origin in case de novo cell lines were used. Editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.

 

Clinical Trials

All clinical trials submitted for consideration of publication in JOINTS must be registered according to the ICMJE guidelines.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) defines a clinical trial as “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. Health-related interventions are those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-care changes.”

When submitting your manuscript, please include the unique trial number and the name of the registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov or ISRCTN) at the end of the abstract and in your cover letter. It is recommended that registration be completed at the time of obtaining the first participation consent. Acceptable registries should contain the minimum 24-item trial registration dataset at the time of registration and must be a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

To align with ICMJE policy, investigators registering device trials on ClinicalTrials.gov must select the option of public posting before device approval, thus opting out of the lockbox. Approval to conduct a study by an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board) does not fulfill the ICMJE requirement for prospective clinical trial registration. For instance, registering retrospectively at the point of manuscript submission fails to fulfill ICMJE requirements.

Secondary analyses of primary clinical trials should be referenced by the trial registration number of the primary trial rather than being registered as distinct clinical trials. This information must also be disclosed in the statements and authors must cite the source by inserting the unique identifier.

 

Authorship and Copyright

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following:

  • Research conception and design
  • Acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data
  • Manuscript drafting and supervision
  • Revision and final approval of the version of the manuscript to be submitted

All authors must approve all the submitted versions of the manuscript.

JOINTS encourages transparency by publishing statements on author contributions since the journal is not in a position to investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes before or after publication. Such disagreements, if they cannot be resolved amongst authors, should be brought up to the relevant institutional authority. Authors are therefore required to include a statement in the manuscript that specifies the contribution of every author.

 

Corresponding Authors’ Responsibilities

The corresponding author is solely responsible for communicating with the journal and managing communication between co-authors. Before submission, the corresponding author ensures that all authors are included in the author list, that its order has been agreed upon by all authors, and that all authors are aware that the paper was submitted. The corresponding author also ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements are properly reported.

 

Changes to authorship

Authors should consider the list and order of authors carefully before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the first submission. Any deletion, addition or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list can be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the Editor-in-Chief. To request this change, the Editor-in-Chief must receive a letter from the Corresponding Author (at submission.joints@verduci.it) specifying the reason for the change in the authors’ list, along with a written confirmation letter from all authors that they agree with the removal, addition or rearrangement. In the case of removal or addition of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being removed or added.

 

Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA)

Authors are required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (click here to download the Copyright Transfer Agreement in PDF) for all papers accepted for publication in JOINTS. Signing the CTA is mandatory for manuscript publication, and manuscripts will not be processed by the Publisher for production until the Editorial Office has received a signed CTA form. After submission, authors cannot submit their manuscripts to other journals. After acceptance, the Publisher retains the rights and becomes the paper’s owner. The CTA form must be signed by all the authors (by hand or electronically) and can be sent via email (submission.joints@verduci.it) or uploaded to Publishing Manager during the submission procedure. The Editors retain the usual right to modify the editorial style and the length of a manuscript (major changes will be discussed with the Corresponding Author) and to decide the publication date.

Authors who wish to publish in our journal must comply with the guidelines on Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE and the Council of Science Editors. These guidelines aim to ensure that articles are published in a responsible and ethical manner.

 

Third-party permission 

Authors who wish to use copyrighted third-party content (defined as any material within the manuscript that is not the author’s original work) must obtain permission from the copyright holder (usually the original publisher). Third-party content may consist of figures, photos, and illustrations and may be found in several places such as, but not limited to, websites, print and online books and articles, theses, annual reports, conference material, etc. Once obtained, documents certifying the permission to use third-party content should be sent to submission.joints@verduci.it for archiving purposes.

 

Preprint Policy

Please note that JOINTS does not accept submissions of manuscripts that have previously been made available online as a preprint on a preprint server or on the authors’ own website. Exceptions may be made if the Editor-in-Chief considers the article to be of particular interest.

Authors must submit manuscripts that are not published in press, or submitted to other scientific journals, books, or other venues that could be considered formal publications (including preprints). The correspondence for each article will be received by the Corresponding Author. The submission procedure requires a declaration of personal interests and funding interests of all authors; these details should also be included in the manuscript.

 

Publication Ethics and Recommendations

JOINTS follows the guidelines on Good Publication Practice: COPE and ICMJE. These guidelines aim to ensure that articles are published in a responsible and ethical manner.

Moreover, in accordance with the ICMJE’s Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, we expect that authors, reviewers and editors follow the best-practice guidelines on ethical behavior.

Some specific information about the authors’ responsibilities can be found below:

  • Authors have to follow the Good Publication Practice: COPE and ICMJE guidelines. Please, also check the Scientific Misconduct, Expressions of Concern, and Retraction guidelines from ICMJE.
  • Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer review process on submitted manuscripts.
  • Authors have to ensure timely communication and availability to reply to concerns during the review and publication process.
  • Integrity should be the standpoint of both authors and the journal.
  • Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously.