ADDITIONAL DETAILS

 

Abbreviations (if any):
If abbreviations are used in the text they should either be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided.

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

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

 References :
Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy and completeness of the references. The number of references should not exceed 50. The style of the references should follow the MEDLINE/ PubMed Journal Article Citation Format found at the National Center for Bibliography Information [NCBI] Website where specific reference citations can be searched for. Abbreviations of journal names must conform to those used in MEDLINE/PubMed. Avoid using abstracts as references. In the references, do not list personal communications and unpublished material (including oral and poster presentations and manuscripts not yet accepted for publication).
All references must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. The must be no more than 50 references listed, e.g.

For an article within a journal:

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

For a book chapter, or article within a book:

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

If a non-English-language reference is listed, the original language should be indicated, as shown in the following sample: Journal article not in English

Otani T, Hayashi S, Ueno Y, Hayashi H, Kato T, Tamegai H, Fujii K. Long-term radiographic evaluation of muscle release operation for arthritis of the hip: comparison study between the results of muscle release and the natural history of osteoarthritis. Rinshou Seikeigeka (Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery) 2004;39:921–6 (in Japanese).

Tables :
To be added to the blinded manuscript after the references. Tables should be given a brief, informative title and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Type each table double spaced on a separate page. Use the table function in MICROSOFT WORD, not spreadsheets, to make tables. Tables must be no larger than a single sheet of A4 paper. The table number and title should appear above the table, and the definition of all abbreviations, levels of statistical significance, and additional information should appear below the table.

Preparing tables : Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, maximum 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.
Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the document text file. Such tables should be formatted using the ‘Table object’ in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review.
Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or comma separated values (.csv). As with all files, please use the standard file extensions.

Figures :
Figures should be provided separately and should be uploaded in scripture as additional files. Figure legend has to be included in the blinded manuscript after tables. Please site figures in the text in rounded brackets (Fig 1A). Include an internal scale in any micrographs or provide the magnification in the caption (wherever appropriate). Professionally produced arrows should be used to highlight the photograph’s message and the illustration should be of a professional standard. If photographs of persons are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or the subject’s or guardian’s written permission to use the photograph must accompany the manuscript.

Preparing illustrations and figures : Please note that Acta of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery can only publish 10 figures in each article. If you have more than ten figures and feel that all are essential to the understanding, please make this clear in your covering letter, explaining why the figures are needed. Figures and tables should be sequentially referenced. Authors should include all relevant supporting data with each article.
Figures should be provided as separate files and should not be included in the main text of the submitted manuscript or include within them the figure legend. Each figure should comprise only a single file. There is no charge for the use of color.  Authors should make every effort to preserve the anonymity of the patient be removing or concealing any identifiable features, including birthmarks and tattoos. Please take extra care with images of the head and face, ensuring that only the relevant features are shown. Publication of facial images will be subject to approval by the Editor-in-Chief.

Formats :
The following file formats can be accepted:

  • EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
  • PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
  • TIFF
  • JPEG

HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURES ARE NECESSARY

Figure legends :
No more than 10 figures per article is accepted. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals – i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words. Figures should be provided as separate files. The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals – i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words. The legend should include a brief description of the exact location of image on the patient, the type of image (e.g. micrograph/x-ray), and time in relation to progression e.g. one week after surgery. There must be no abbreviations unless they are expanded (excluding common abbreviations such as antibodies).

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

Ethics :
It is the responsibility of the authors to assure that all clinical investigations detailed in manuscripts submitted to the journal are conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html). All case reports must include a statement indicating that informed consent has been obtained from the patient or appropriate persons for publication, including any necessary photographs.
An example of such a statement would be “The patients and/or their families were informed that data from the case would be submitted for publication, and gave their consent.” Do not use patients’ names, initials, institutional ID numbers, or other identifying information. Articles, including their study design, originating from a particular institution are assumed to be submitted with the approval of the requisite authority on ethical issues.
Articles describing research involving human subjects must include a statement in the Materials and methods section indicating that approval was given by the institutional review board (IRB) or Ethics committee of the institution and that informed consent was obtained from each patient or candidate. Manuscripts reporting animal experiments must include a statement in the Materials and methods section indicating that approval was obtained from the institutional review board and that animal care complied with the guidelines of the authors’ institution or any national law on the care and use of laboratory animals.

Statistics :
Statistical methods should be described with sufficient detail at the end of Materials and Methods to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals).

After Acceptance:

Upon acceptance of your article, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs. Authors approval will be needed for final publication and corrections can be done at this stage. No corrections can be done after publication of the article

Colour Illustrations :
Online publication of colour illustrations is free of charge. Please note that, in such cases, it is the authors’ responsibility to prepare figures to be illustrative enough to convey the necessary information even after they are converted into black and white.

Proofreading :
The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables, and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor. After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Online First :
The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Style and language

General :
Currently, Acta of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture. It is essential that submitted manuscripts have a high standard of written English. Manuscripts that are poorly written will be returned to authors for revision prior to peer review. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and to have their article checked by colleagues before submission. Non-native speakers of English may choose to make use of a copyediting service before submission.
Acta of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery will copy edit accepted manuscripts before they are published. The editing is designed only to correct such things as misused words, spelling errors, missing references or incomplete citation information.

Typography :

  • Please use double line spacing.
  • Type the text justified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
  • Abbreviations spelt out in full for the first time
  • Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out.
  • Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out.
  • Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
  • Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.
  • All pages should be numbered.
  • Use the Acta of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery reference format.
  • Footnotes to text should not be used.
  • Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full.
  • Gene names should be in italic, but protein products should be in plain type.
  • Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise they will be lost during manuscript processing.
  • Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be indicated in italics, and authors are required to use approved gene symbols, names, and formatting. Protein products should be in plain type.

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

 


Artwork Guidelines 

Electronic figure submission :
Supply all figures electronically as supplementary file while submission

Figure numbering :
All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals. Figures should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order. Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
If an appendix appears in your article/chapter and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, “A1, A2, A3, etc.” Figures in online appendices (Electronic supplementary material) should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure captions :
Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file. Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption. Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.
The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures.

Permissions :
If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.