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This page outlines the journal-specific policies that govern manuscript evaluation, peer review, publication ethics, research integrity, orthopaedic research and education, clinical and translational reporting, data transparency and post-publication responsibilities.
These policies should be read together with ZENTIME’s publisher-level Editorial Policies, Publishing Policies, and Open Access, Fees and Licensing policies. Where journal-specific requirements supplement publisher-level policies, the requirements stated on this journal website apply.
As a journal publishing research and scholarly work across orthopaedic medicine, including bone science, bone biology and physiology, orthopaedic clinical practice, bioengineering, regenerative medicine, rheumatology, orthopaedic technology, orthopaedic innovation, orthopaedic education, nursing care and related basic, clinical and translational research, the journal requires clear reporting of study design, methodological procedures, clinical or experimental outcomes, educational interventions where applicable, ethical considerations, data transparency, conflicts of interest and participant or patient consent where applicable.
The journal welcomes research spanning basic and clinical sciences and aims to promote advances in orthopaedic medicine, improve the quality of orthopaedic healthcare and support the exchange of knowledge among clinicians, researchers, educators and other professionals involved in orthopaedic medicine.
The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers and editorial board members to follow internationally recognized standards of responsible scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the EQUATOR Network, where applicable.
The journal operates a single-anonymous peer review process to ensure the quality, integrity, scientific rigor and relevance of published content.
All submitted manuscripts are first assessed by the editorial office or a handling editor for completeness, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, ethical compliance, reporting quality and suitability for further evaluation. Manuscripts that are outside the journal’s scope, do not meet basic reporting standards, lack sufficient originality or raise significant ethical, methodological or patient safety concerns may be declined before external peer review.
The journal uses a single-anonymous peer review model, in which reviewers remain anonymous to authors. Original research articles, clinical studies, basic and translational studies, systematic reviews, educational research, technology and innovation studies, case reports and other scholarly manuscripts requiring external review are normally assessed by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise.
For manuscripts involving bone biology, regenerative medicine, bioengineering, rheumatology, orthopaedic technology, surgical or non-surgical interventions, rehabilitation, nursing care, orthopaedic education, imaging, biomechanics or statistical modelling, editors may invite reviewers with appropriate clinical, scientific, educational, technical, methodological or statistical expertise.
Reviewer comments are advisory. Final editorial decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or designated handling editor based on editorial assessment, reviewer comments, originality, methodological rigor, scientific or clinical significance, ethical compliance, relevance to orthopaedic medicine and suitability for the journal.
Editorials, commentaries, letters to the editor, correspondence, hypotheses, perspectives, case reports, corrections and invited content may be reviewed internally or externally at the editors’ discretion, according to the nature of the content.
The journal maintains editorial independence in all editorial decisions. Decisions on individual manuscripts are made by the Editor-in-Chief, handling editors or designated editorial decision-making team in accordance with the journal’s policies.
Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, ethical integrity, scientific validity and potential contribution to orthopaedic medicine, clinical practice, education, research or healthcare.
Decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, institutional affiliation, political considerations or the financial interests of ZENTIME, journal owners, editors, editorial board members, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, biotechnology companies, technology providers, educational institutions or any third party.
Editors and editorial board members must maintain confidentiality, declare conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where impartiality may be compromised. Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members or journal staff will be handled independently by an editor without conflict of interest and will undergo the same editorial assessment and peer review standards as other submissions.
The journal is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and research integrity. Authors, editors and reviewers are expected to act with honesty, transparency and accountability throughout the submission, review and publication process.
The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, redundant publication, duplicate submission, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, authorship manipulation, peer review manipulation, paper mills or other forms of research or publication misconduct.
For orthopaedic research, authors must not misrepresent experimental findings, clinical outcomes, diagnostic results, imaging findings, biological mechanisms, treatment effects, complications, educational outcomes, rehabilitation outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, biomechanical results, or other evidence supporting the conclusions of the study.
Authors should provide accurate descriptions of research methods, study populations, experimental models, interventions, outcomes, statistical analyses and limitations.
Suspected misconduct will be assessed according to the journal’s procedures and ZENTIME’s publisher-level policies. Depending on the circumstances, outcomes may include a request for clarification, manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, article removal or notification of relevant institutions or authorities.
All listed authors must have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work, approved the submitted version and agreed to its submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that authorship, author order, corresponding author details and required declarations have been agreed by all authors before submission.
The journal requires an author contribution statement and encourages the use of the CRediT taxonomy where appropriate. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission.
Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial competing interests that could influence, or be perceived to influence, the work.
For orthopaedic research and education, relevant disclosures may include employment, consultancy, advisory roles, honoraria, speaker fees, stock ownership, patents, patent applications, royalties, licensing agreements, sponsored research, medical device or technology support, pharmaceutical support, educational grants, research materials, technical assistance, statistical support, writing assistance or other relationships with relevant commercial or non-commercial organizations.
All funding sources, grant numbers and institutional support should be disclosed. Authors should state the role of funders, sponsors, manufacturers, technology providers or other supporting organizations in study design, participant recruitment, data collection, intervention development, data access, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation and the decision to submit for publication.
Authors should state whether they had full access to the study data and whether any sponsor, funder or external organization had any role in approving or restricting publication.
Changes to authorship after submission require a clear explanation, written agreement from all authors and editorial approval.
Research involving human participants, human data, human tissue, musculoskeletal specimens, imaging data, educational participants or identifiable clinical information must have appropriate ethics approval or exemption. Authors should state the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board, approval number or reference, and any relevant exemption information in the manuscript.
Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and international ethical standards. Authors should provide details of ethical approval and animal welfare considerations where applicable.
Studies involving orthopaedic clinical care, rehabilitation, nursing care, regenerative medicine, biologics, imaging, musculoskeletal procedures, educational interventions or other research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical, regulatory and safety requirements.
Informed consent should be obtained where required. Written consent for publication is required for identifiable patient information, clinical photographs, radiographs, CT or MRI images, intraoperative images, surgical or procedural videos, case details or other personal information where applicable.
Patient privacy and confidentiality must be protected, and identifying information should not be published unless essential and properly consented.
Authors should take particular care when reporting rare disorders, unusual anatomical conditions, paediatric cases, distinctive clinical presentations, identifiable images or other information that may allow direct or indirect identification of individuals.
For studies involving students, healthcare professionals or other participants in orthopaedic education, authors should describe relevant ethical approval, consent procedures and measures taken to protect participant confidentiality where applicable.
Manuscripts reporting orthopaedic clinical studies should provide sufficient information to support evaluation, interpretation and reproducibility.
Where applicable, authors should report:
diagnosis, indication and eligibility criteria;
surgical or non-surgical intervention details;
surgical approach, fixation method, implant position or reconstruction technique;
implant, device, instrument, navigation system, robotic platform or biologic product used;
manufacturer, model, version, generation, material, coating, bearing surface, cement use or other relevant characteristics;
whether the implant, device or product was approved, cleared, CE-marked, investigational, off-label, custom-made, three-dimensionally printed, modified or used for research purposes;
surgeon experience, learning curve considerations, center volume or operator training where relevant;
comparator, standard care, control intervention or historical control;
perioperative care, rehabilitation protocol and follow-up schedule;
outcome measures, including clinical outcomes, radiographic outcomes, patient-reported outcomes and safety endpoints.
Authors should report complications and safety outcomes transparently. This may include infection, nonunion, malunion, implant loosening, implant breakage, dislocation, instability, thromboembolism, neurovascular injury, wound complications, revision surgery, reoperation, readmission, mortality, adverse device effects and other clinically relevant events.
For implant or device studies, authors should report device-related adverse events, device deficiencies, malfunctions, failure modes, usability issues and any unexpected risks identified during the study.
Clinical and interventional studies involving orthopaedic medicine should be registered in a publicly accessible registry before participant recruitment begins, where applicable. The registry name and registration number should be included in the manuscript.
Manuscripts reporting clinical trials should include a data sharing statement where required by applicable standards or journal policy. The statement should indicate whether de-identified individual participant data will be shared, what data will be shared, whether related documents such as the study protocol or statistical analysis plan will be available, when and for how long the data will be available, and the conditions for access.
For registry-based studies, authors should describe the registry source, data governance, inclusion criteria, coding definitions, linkage methods, missing data, validation procedures, follow-up completeness and limitations.
Authors should follow appropriate reporting guidelines according to study design. Relevant guidelines may include CONSORT for randomized trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, STROBE for observational studies, SPIRIT for trial protocols, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, TRIPOD or TRIPOD+AI for prediction model studies, CARE for case reports, SQUIRE for quality improvement studies, TIDieR for intervention description, ARRIVE for animal studies and other applicable EQUATOR Network resources.
Reporting checklists and flow diagrams should be submitted where required by the journal or relevant reporting guideline.
Manuscripts reporting preclinical, biomechanical, bioengineering, in vitro, ex vivo or animal studies should provide sufficient methodological detail to support reproducibility and critical evaluation.
Where applicable, authors should describe:
For computational or biomechanical studies, authors should describe relevant model assumptions, boundary conditions, material properties, testing conditions, computational methods and validation procedures where applicable.
For animal studies, authors should follow appropriate animal research reporting standards and describe measures taken to minimize pain, distress and unnecessary animal use.
Authors should include a Data Availability Statement where applicable, describing where the data supporting the findings can be accessed or explaining why data cannot be shared.
Data, protocols, statistical analysis plans, analytic code, imaging datasets, experimental materials, educational instruments, assessment tools, biomechanical data and other supporting materials should be made available in suitable repositories where possible and appropriate.
Restrictions due to privacy, ethics, legal, commercial, intellectual property, confidentiality, cybersecurity or participant re-identification risks should be clearly explained.
For clinical studies, authors should ensure that shared data are appropriately de-identified and consistent with ethics approval, informed consent and applicable data protection requirements.
For imaging studies, authors should describe the imaging modality, acquisition protocol, image processing or measurement methods, assessor training, blinding and reliability assessment where applicable.
For educational studies, authors should provide sufficient information about educational materials, assessment instruments and implementation procedures to facilitate evaluation and replication where appropriate.
Supplementary materials should support the main article and should not replace essential methods, results, ethical information, outcome definitions or validation information needed to evaluate the work.
AI tools and large language models cannot be listed as authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of all submitted content, including any content generated or assisted by AI tools.
Use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies beyond basic language editing should be disclosed in the manuscript according to the journal’s requirements. AI tools must not be used to fabricate, falsify or manipulate data, images, references, clinical findings, experimental results, educational outcomes, statistical results or conclusions.
For manuscripts involving AI-assisted diagnosis, medical imaging, predictive modelling, clinical decision support, educational technologies, automated assessment or other AI applications relevant to orthopaedic medicine, authors should describe the intended use, system or model version, development and validation methods, datasets, performance metrics, workflow, human oversight, limitations, potential risks and safeguards where applicable.
Authors should clearly distinguish between original clinical or experimental images, processed images, simulated materials and AI-generated images or content. AI-generated or AI-assisted clinical, scientific or educational materials should not be presented as original evidence without appropriate disclosure.
Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, peer review reports, decision letters or related materials to public AI tools unless explicitly permitted by the journal and consistent with confidentiality and data protection requirements.
The journal considers manuscripts that have been posted as preprints, provided that the work has not been formally published and is not under consideration by another journal at the same time.
Authors must disclose any preprint, conference abstract, thesis, report, educational report, clinical trial registry record, technical report or related prior dissemination at submission. Where applicable, authors should provide the preprint server name, DOI or link.
Authors should clearly explain the relationship between the submitted manuscript and any prior version, including what is new in the submitted work.
If the manuscript is accepted, authors are encouraged to update the preprint or repository record with a citation and link to the final published article.
Duplicate submission and redundant publication are not permitted.
Open Access
The journal is a Gold Open Access journal. All published articles are freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication.
Authors should review the journal's Open Access and Fees page before submission for information on article processing charges, waiver or discount options, copyright, licensing, article sharing and self-archiving.
Copyright
Authors are required to transfer copyright in their accepted manuscript to the journal upon acceptance for publication.
In exceptional circumstances, including where specific institutional or funder requirements apply, authors may contact the editorial office to discuss alternative copyright arrangements.
Licensing
All published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
The CC BY 4.0 license permits others to share, copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.
Article Sharing and Self-Archiving
Authors may share, host and self-archive the published Version of Record in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 license.
Articles may be shared through institutional repositories, personal websites, academic networks and other appropriate platforms, provided that appropriate attribution to the original publication is retained and the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license are respected.
Use of Third-Party and Previously Published Material
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce or adapt material owned by third parties where permission is required. This includes material previously published by the authors themselves if the copyright is held by another publisher or third party.
Permission may be required for, including but not limited to:
previously published figures, tables, graphs, charts, schemes, artworks or other content that is reproduced or only slightly modified;
substantial extracts of text or other material from previously published works;
photographs, images or other visual materials for which the authors do not hold the necessary rights; and
the authors' own previously published material where the authors have not retained the relevant copyright or reuse rights.
Authors should obtain all necessary permissions before submitting the manuscript and provide appropriate attribution and permission statements where required.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that the use of third-party material complies with applicable copyright, license and permission requirements. Third-party material may not necessarily be covered by the CC BY 4.0 license applied to the article as a whole.
The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and transparency of the scholarly record. Post-publication updates may include corrections, expressions of concern, retractions or article removal where appropriate.
Corrections may be issued for significant errors that do not invalidate the article. Retractions may be issued when findings are unreliable, unethical or substantially compromised. Expressions of concern may be issued when serious concerns remain unresolved.
For orthopaedic research, post-publication concerns may include unreliable clinical or experimental results, misrepresented treatment effects, inaccurate biological or biomechanical findings, manipulated images or data, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unreliable educational outcomes, privacy breaches or other issues that may affect the scientific, clinical or educational interpretation of the article.
Authors may appeal an editorial decision or submit a complaint by contacting the Editorial Office. Appeals should identify specific concerns, such as a possible error in the editorial process, a misunderstanding of the manuscript or evidence that relevant information was not adequately considered.
Appeals do not guarantee reconsideration, external review or reversal of the original decision. Repeated appeals without new evidence may not be considered.
Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, conflicts of interest, confidentiality or publication ethics will be handled fairly, confidentially and in a timely manner.
Related publisher policies: ZENTIME Editorial Policies and ZENTIME Publishing Policies.
Related ZENTIME publisher policies:
Editorial Policies
Publishing Policies
Open Access, Fees and Licensing
Related external standards and resources may include:
Committee on Publication Ethics
World Association of Medical Editors
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
EQUATOR Network
CONSORT
PRISMA
STROBE
SPIRIT
STARD
TRIPOD and TRIPOD+AI
CARE
SQUIRE
TIDieR
ARRIVE
