Guide for Authors

1. Aim and Scope

The Journal of Sporthopedia is an international, open-access, peer-reviewed journal publishing original research, systematic and scoping reviews, case reports, and technical notes in:

• Sports orthopaedics and traumatology
• Cartilage and joint preservation surgery
• Musculoskeletal (MSK) medicine and regenerative therapies
• Arthroscopy and minimally invasive surgical techniques
• Surgical education and training methodology
• Biomechanics and rehabilitation relevant to orthopaedic sports medicine

The journal particularly welcomes high-quality clinical trials, diagnostic accuracy studies, translational research, artificial intelligence applications in musculoskeletal medicine, systematic reviews, and evidence-based surgical innovation.

Submissions outside this scope will be desk-rejected without external review.

2. Article Types and Word Limits

(Editorial team: confirm these limits — drafted using comparable journals such as Cartilage, KSSTA, and JEO as reference points.)

3. Ethical Requirements

• Human studies: Must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. Institutional Review Board / Ethics Committee approval is required, with approval number and date stated in the Methods section.
• Informed consent: Required for all identifiable patient data or images. State explicitly in the manuscript.
• Sex and Gender Reporting: Authors should report sex and gender according to the SAGER Guidelines whenever applicable, specifying how sex and/or gender were assessed and, where relevant, whether findings apply to one or both.
• Animal studies: Must comply with institutional/national guidelines and be reported per the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines.
• Clinical trials: Must be prospectively registered in a public trials registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov) prior to patient enrollment; registration number required at submission. Retrospectively registered trials may be rejected without external review, except where a documented and justified exception applies (to be assessed by the Editor-in-Chief).
• Systematic/scoping reviews: Prospective protocol registration (PROSPERO or OSF) is strongly encouraged; registration DOI/ID must be cited.
• Authorship: Follows ICMJE criteria (substantial contribution to conception/design or analysis, drafting/revising, final approval, and accountability). All authors must meet all four criteria. In addition, authors must provide a CRediT Contributor Role Statement (see Section 9.9).
• ORCID: An ORCID iD is mandatory for the corresponding author and strongly encouraged for all co-authors. ORCID iDs should be entered at submission and included on the title page.
• Conflict of Interest: All authors must disclose financial and non-financial conflicts of interest at submission.

4. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

• Authorship: AI tools (including large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, or similar) cannot be listed as authors. Authorship requires accountability for the work, which AI tools cannot assume.
• Disclosure: Any use of AI tools in the writing, editing, translation, figure/image generation, or analysis of a submission must be disclosed in the Methods section (for data analysis/AI-assisted research tools) and/or Acknowledgments (for writing/language assistance). The disclosure should specify which tool was used and for what purpose.
• Data integrity: AI tools must not generate or modify original scientific data. All reported data must derive from the study's actual measurements, observations, or analyses.
• Author responsibility: Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all content, including any text, data, or analysis produced with AI assistance. AI-generated content must be verified against primary sources; fabricated or hallucinated citations are grounds for rejection.
• Peer review: Reviewers and editors may not upload submitted manuscripts to AI tools or third-party services, in order to protect author confidentiality and data privacy.
• Images/figures: AI-generated or AI-altered images are not permitted for original research data (e.g., radiographs, histology, clinical photographs) unless the AI-based method is itself the subject of the study, in which case full methodological disclosure is required.
• Scope not covered: These provisions do not apply to established, validated software used for standard statistical analysis, reference management, or spell-checking.

5. Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

The Journal of Sporthopedia follows the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to uphold the highest standards of research and publication integrity.

• Plagiarism: Manuscripts are screened using Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate), activated upon Crossref membership (similarity threshold: <20%, excluding references and standard methods language).
• Duplicate/redundant publication: Submission of the same (or substantially overlapping) data, findings, or manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously, or previously published elsewhere, is prohibited.
• Salami slicing: Fragmenting a single study into multiple manuscripts to inflate publication count without independent scientific merit is not permitted. Authors should disclose related manuscripts derived from the same dataset or cohort.
• Image manipulation: See Section 9.5 (Image Integrity).
• Paper mills: The Editorial Office reserves the right to investigate submissions suspected of originating from paper mills (e.g., templated language, fabricated authorship, implausible datasets) and may request raw data or additional verification.
• Citation manipulation: Coercive citation, citation stacking, or excessive self-citation intended to manipulate journal or author metrics is prohibited and may result in rejection.
• Data fabrication/falsification: Any evidence of fabricated or falsified data will result in rejection and may be reported to the authors' institution.

Suspected violations at any stage (submission, review, or post-publication) will be investigated in accordance with COPE flowcharts, and may result in rejection, retraction, or notification to the authors' institution.

6. Preprint Policy

The Journal of Sporthopedia permits and encourages the deposition of preprints (e.g., bioRxiv, medRxiv, Research Square, OSF Preprints) prior to or during peer review. Authors should:

• Disclose the preprint DOI/link at submission
• Update the preprint record with a link to the final published version upon acceptance
• Note that posting a preprint does not constitute prior publication and does not affect eligibility for peer review

7. Open Science Policy

Authors are strongly encouraged to support open and reproducible research by:

• Sharing study protocols (e.g., via PROSPERO, OSF, ClinicalTrials.gov)
• Depositing analysis code in a public repository (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo) with a citable DOI
• Depositing datasets in a recognized public repository (e.g., Zenodo, OSF, Dryad, institutional repository) whenever ethically and legally possible, in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)
• Providing a Data Availability Statement in every original research submission (see Section 9.9)

8. Editorial Process Flow

A typical manuscript follows this pathway from submission to publication:

Submission
    ↓
Editorial screening (scope & quality check)
    ↓
Similarity Check (plagiarism screening)
    ↓
Desk decision (accept for review / desk reject)
    ↓
Peer review (≥2 independent reviewers)
    ↓
Revision (author response to reviewer comments)
    ↓
Acceptance decision
    ↓
Author proofing
    ↓
Publication (online, DOI assigned)

Typical timelines for each stage are provided in Section 12 (Peer Review).

9. Manuscript Preparation

9.1 General Formatting

• Microsoft Word (.docx), double-spaced, 12-pt font (Times New Roman or Arial), continuous line numbering, 2.5 cm margins.
• SI units throughout.
• Abbreviations defined at first use.
• Manuscripts must be written in clear scientific English. Either American or British English may be used, but not a mixture of both within the same manuscript. Authors whose first language is not English are encouraged to obtain professional language editing before submission. Use of a language-editing service does not guarantee acceptance.

9.2 Title Page (separate file, for blinded review)

• Full title (concise, no abbreviations)
• Author names, degrees, affiliations, ORCID iDs (mandatory for corresponding author)
• Corresponding author contact details
• Word count, number of tables/figures
• Funding sources
• Conflict of interest statement
• Ethics approval statement

9.3 Blinded Manuscript File

• No author identifying information
• Structured abstract (for original research: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusion)
• Keywords (3–6, MeSH terms preferred)
• Main text following IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion) for original research
• Reporting guideline checklist submitted as a supplementary file (see Section 9.4)

9.4 Reporting Guidelines

Authors must follow the appropriate reporting guideline for their study design and submit the corresponding completed checklist as a supplementary file.

9.5 Tables, Figures, and Image Integrity

• Tables and figures numbered sequentially and cited in order in text, each with a self-explanatory title/legend
• Figures: minimum 300 dpi, submitted as separate files (TIFF/JPEG/PNG)
• Radiographic/MRI images must be de-identified
• Image integrity: Brightness, contrast, and color adjustments must not alter, obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original image, including background. Any specific feature within an image may not be enhanced, moved, removed, or introduced. Grouping of images from different parts of the same figure, or from different figures, must be made explicit through clear labeling and delineation. Where manipulation is necessary for clarity, it must be disclosed in the figure legend and, if requested, original unprocessed files must be provided to the Editorial Office.

9.6 References

• Vancouver (NLM) style, numbered in order of appearance
• In-text citations as square brackets, e.g. [1], [2,3], [4–6]
• Journal abbreviations per PubMed/NLM catalog
• DOIs included where available
• Use of reference management software such as EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley is recommended

9.7 Statistical Reporting

• Statistical methods described with enough detail for replication, including software and version used
• Sample size calculation (a priori power analysis) reported for prospective studies where applicable
• Effect sizes reported alongside p-values, not in isolation
• 95% confidence intervals reported for all key estimates
• Assumption checking for parametric tests (e.g., normality, homogeneity of variance) described
• Missing data handling strategy explicitly stated (e.g., complete case analysis, multiple imputation)
• Multiple comparisons correction method specified where relevant (e.g., Bonferroni, FDR)
• Exact p-values preferred over "p<0.05" where possible
• Authors are encouraged to report minimally clinically important difference (MCID), patient acceptable symptom state (PASS), or substantial clinical benefit (SCB) thresholds where appropriate, particularly for patient-reported outcome measures

9.8 Supplementary Material

The following may be submitted as supplementary material and will be published online alongside the article:

• Surgical technique videos
• Reporting guideline checklists (PRISMA, CONSORT, STROBE, etc.)
• Statistical analysis code
• Large or extended data tables
• Raw datasets (where ethically permissible)

9.9 End-of-Manuscript Statements

The following statements are mandatory for all original research submissions and must appear as separate headed sections at the end of the manuscript, in this order:

1. Funding — state all funding sources, or "This research received no external funding."
2. Conflict of Interest — full disclosure or "The authors declare no conflict of interest."
3. Author Contributions (CRediT) — a CRediT Contributor Role Statement listing each author against applicable roles (Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project Administration, Funding Acquisition).
4. Acknowledgements — non-author contributors (e.g., technical assistance, statistical consultation).
5. Data Availability Statement — e.g., "All original data supporting the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author" or "Data are deposited in [repository] and available at [DOI/link]," consistent with FAIR principles. A Data Availability Statement is mandatory for all original research articles.

9.10 Graphical Abstract (optional)

Authors are encouraged, though not required, to submit a single-panel graphical abstract summarizing the key finding of the manuscript for visual indexing and social media dissemination.

9.11 Video Abstract (optional)

Authors are encouraged to submit a short (≤2-minute) video abstract summarizing the study's rationale, methods, and key findings, particularly for surgical technique and clinical outcome papers.

10. Submission Process

1. Register/log in at journal.sporthopedia.org
2. Follow the 5-step OJS submission wizard
3. Upload: (a) blinded manuscript, (b) title page, (c) figures/tables, (d) supplementary files (reporting guideline checklist, ethics approval, etc.)
4. Include a cover letter addressing the Editor, stating novelty and relevance to journal scope
5. Complete the Submission Checklist (Section 11) confirming compliance with these guidelines

11. Submission Checklist

All submissions must include the following before being sent for review:

• Cover letter
• Blinded manuscript
• Title page (with ORCID iD for corresponding author)
• Figures and figure legends
• Tables
• Ethics approval statement (or exemption justification)
• Ethical approval number
• Conflict of interest declaration
• Funding statement
• CRediT author contribution statement
• Data Availability Statement
• Completed reporting guideline checklist (PRISMA, CONSORT, STROBE, CARE, ARRIVE, etc., as applicable)
• AI use disclosure (if applicable)
• Trial/protocol registration number (if applicable)
• Preprint disclosure (if applicable)
• Permissions for reproduced/copyrighted material

12. Peer Review

• Double-blind peer review by a minimum of two independent reviewers
• Statistical review may be requested where appropriate (e.g., complex modeling, RCTs, diagnostic accuracy studies)
• Initial editorial decision (desk accept/reject) target: within 2 weeks
• Full peer review target: 6–8 weeks
• Revisions must be returned within 4 weeks (extendable on request)

13. After Acceptance

• Author proofs circulated for final correction (48–72 hour turnaround requested)
• Open access license: CC BY 4.0 — authors and readers may copy, distribute, and adapt the work for any purpose, provided appropriate credit is given.
• Article Processing Charge (APC): None. Publication in the Journal of Sporthopedia is currently free of charge to authors.
• Copyright: Authors retain copyright; the journal is granted a non-exclusive license to publish under CC BY 4.0.
• Crossmark: To be enabled following Crossref membership, providing readers with a persistent link to the article's current status (updates, corrections, retractions).

14. Journal Policies

• Corrections: Minor errors not affecting the scientific conclusions may be addressed via a published Correction/Erratum.
• Retractions: Articles found to contain serious errors, misconduct, or ethical violations will be retracted following COPE retraction guidelines, with a public retraction notice linked to the original article.
• Expressions of Concern: May be issued where credible concerns are raised but investigation is ongoing or inconclusive.
• Research Misconduct: Allegations of research misconduct (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or other serious deviations from accepted research practice) will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines, and may be referred to the authors' institution(s) or relevant regulatory bodies.
• Appeals: Authors may appeal an editorial decision in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, providing a point-by-point rebuttal. Appeals are considered by an editor not involved in the original decision where feasible.
• Complaints: Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, or publication ethics may be submitted to the Editorial Office and will be handled in accordance with COPE guidelines.
• Post-publication discussion: Readers may submit Letters to the Editor regarding published articles; original authors will be invited to respond.
• Editorial independence: Editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit, originality, and relevance to journal scope, independent of commercial or institutional influence.

Endorsement of international standards: The Journal of Sporthopedia endorses the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the EQUATOR Network, the DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, and the Recommendations on the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

15. Contact

• Editorial Office: editor@sporthopedia.org
• Journal website: https://journal.sporthopedia.org
• X (Twitter): [to be added]
• LinkedIn: [to be added]

End of draft v1.1.