CIOS :: Clinics in Orthopedic Surgery

Instructions to Authors

1. AIMS AND SCOPE

Clinics in Orthopedic Surgery (CiOS), the official English journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association (KOA), is an international, peer-reviewed journal. It covers all fields of clinical orthopedic surgery and basic research related to orthopedic surgery. It is a quarterly journal published in March, June, September, and December.

The journal aims to promote communication regarding orthopedic problems and advanced patient care. All manuscripts should be creative, informative, and useful for the diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic conditions. Articles in the following categories will be published: original articles, case reports, invited review articles, editorials, and letters to the Editor. All submissions, reviews, and decisions are processed on-line (http://ecios.org, http://cios.kr, http://ecios.kr).

2. LANGUAGE

All manuscripts should be written in English.

3. PEER REVIEW

The papers will be peer-reviewed by two accredited experts in the orthopedic field. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for final decisions regarding the acceptance of a peer-reviewed paper.

4. RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

A.	Conflict of Interest
	Authors of manuscripts must disclose any potential conflicts of interest at the time of submission. Statements on conflict of interest have no influence on the editorial decision to publish.
B.	Research Approval
	All manuscripts dealing with human subjects must include a statement that subjects provided informed consent and that the study was approved by an institutional review board. All manuscripts containing animal experiments must include a statement that the study has been approved by an animal utilization committee or a similar committee.

	Any research that involves a clinical trial should be registered with a primary national clinical trial registration site such as http://ncrc.cdc.go.kr, or other sites accredited by the WHO or the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
C.	Policy on Duplicate Publication
	Submitted manuscripts must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Redundant or duplicate publication of a paper may be considered acceptable under specific circumstances according to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/icmje.pdf).

For policies on research and publication ethics not stated in the instructions, the 'Good publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals (http://kamje.or.kr/publishing_ethics.html)' or 'Guidelines on good publication (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines)' can be applied.

5. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

A.	Online Submission
•	Manuscript submission is only available through the online manuscript submission center at http://ecios.org, http://cios.kr, http://ecios.kr.
•	All manuscripts should be submitted as MS-Word files, and will be converted into PDF files on site. Authors should check converted files before final submission.
B.	Financial Disclosure and Copyright Transfer
	All authors must sign and scan a copy of the journal's "Financial Disclosure and Copyright Transfer" form, which is available on-line on the submission page. The completed form should be submitted at the time of manuscript submission.

6. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT

Authors are required to submit their manuscripts after reading the following instructions. Any manuscript that does not conform to the following requirements will be considered inappropriate and may be returned.

General Requirements

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Manuscripts must be submitted as MS-WORD files. The text should be typed in 10-point font and double-spaced.

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If a long-term follow-up is needed, given the scope of the study, it should be performed over two years.

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Pages should be numbered from, and including, the abstract.

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To facilitate blind peer review, the manuscript must not contain the name of any author or institution.

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Measurements should be presented in accordance with the International System of Units (SI).

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Abbreviations should be minimized. When necessary, spell out the full term the first time it appears in the text, add the abbreviation in parentheses, and use the abbreviation thereafter.

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To cite a reference with an author in the text, insert the author's surname only and the citation number in superscript. e.g., Brown¹⁾
For a reference with two authors, list both names in the citation. e.g., Brown and Copper²⁾ For a reference with three or more authors, use 'et al.', e.g., Brown et al.³⁾ The end of a sentence should be indicated by a citation number, not by a period or a comma. e.g., described.³⁾ not as described³⁾.

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If two or more citation numbers are required, separate numbers with a comma (,) or a dash (-). e.g., Boyes^1-3) Chapman^1,2,7)

Title Page

The title page should contain the full title of the paper, the names of the authors and of the institutions, and institutional addresses. If authors are at different institutions, first present the institution where most of the work was carried out, and indicate individual departments and institutions by inserting a superscript letter immediately after the author's name, and the same letter in front of the appropriate institution. The name, address, e-mail address, telephone, and fax number of the corresponding author should be placed in the lower portion of the title page. The title should be expressed briefly, clearly, and concisely. It is not necessary to lead with expressions like "clinical research on-" or "the study on-."

Abstract

Each paper should start with an abstract not exceeding 350 words. The abstract should state the background, methods, results, and conclusions in each paragraph in a brief and coherent manner. Relevant numerical data should be included. Under the abstract, keywords should be inserted (maximum 5 words) and listed in the following order: anatomical name (illness), diagnosis, and treatment, for example, femoral head, avascular necrosis, core decompression, for a paper entitled, "Core decompression for the treatment of avascular necrosis of the femoral head." Authors are recommended to use the MeSH database to find Medical Subject Heading Terms at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html. The abstract should be structured into the following sections.

1)	Background: The rationale, importance, or objective of the study should be described briefly and concisely in one to two sentences. The objective should be consistent with that stated in the Introduction.
2)	Methods: The procedures conducted to achieve the study objective should be described in detail, together with relevant details concerning how data were obtained and analyzed and how research bias was adjusted.
3)	Results: The most important study results and analysis should be presented in a logical manner with specific experimental data.
4)	Conclusions: The conclusions derived from the results should be described in one to two sentences, and must match the study objective.

Abbreviations or references are not allowed in the abstract.

Introduction

State the background or problem that led to the initiation of the study. Lead systematically to the hypothesis of the study, and finally, to a restatement of the study objective, which should match that in the Abstract. Do not include conclusions in the Introduction.

Methods

Institutional review board (IRB) approval, when applicable, must be stated. Describe the study design (prospective or retrospective, inclusion and exclusion criteria, duration of the study) and the study population (demographics, length of follow-up). Explanations of the experimental methods should be concise, but yet enable replication by a qualified investigator.

Results

This section should include detailed reports on the data obtained during the study. All data in the text must be presented in a consistent manner throughout the manuscript.

Discussion

In the Discussion, data should be interpreted to demonstrate whether they affirm or refute the original hypothesis. Discuss elements related to the purpose of the study and present the rationales that support the conclusion drawn by referring to relevant literature. Care should be taken to avoid information obtained from books, historical facts, and irrelevant information. A discussion of study weaknesses and limitations should be included.

Acknowledgements

All persons who have made substantial contributions, but who have not met the criteria for authorship, should be acknowledged here. All sources of funding for the study should be stated here explicitly.

References

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The number of references is limited to 30 for original articles and 10 for case reports.

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The references should be numbered according to the citation order in the text (not alphabetically).

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All references must be cited in the text.

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Non-published findings and personal communications should not be included in the list of references.

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References to journal articles should conform to the journal title abbreviations used in the Index Medicus.

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List names of all authors when six or fewer. When seven or more, list only the first three names and add et al.

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Authors should be listed by surname followed by initials.

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Examples of references are as follows:

1)	Journal article
	1.	Mannino R, Zuelzer W, McDaniel C, Lyckholm L. Advance directives and resuscitation issues in the care of patients in orthopaedic surgery. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008;90(9):2037-42.
	2.	Kocher MS, Kim YJ, Millis MB, et al. Hip arthroscopy in children and adolescents. J Pediatr Orthop. 2005;25(5):680-6.
2)	Supplement
	1.	Turner CH, Robling AG. Mechanisms by which exercise improves bone strength. J Bone Miner Metab. 2005;23 Suppl:16-22.
3)	Book
	1.	Townsend CM, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox K. Sabiston textbook of surgery. 17th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders; 2004. 114-8.
4)	Book chapter
	1.	Bozic KJ, Saleh KJ. Economics of total hip arthroplasty. In: Callaghan JJ, Rosenberg AG, Rubash HE, ed. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007. 829-35.

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For more on references, refer to the NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers.

Tables

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Tables should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals and given a brief title. Use capital letters for the first letter of each word in the title, except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.

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Tables should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.

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If an abbreviation is used in a table, it should be defined in a footnote below the table.

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The symbols should be used in the following order: *, †, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡. Each symbol must be defined in a footnote.

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Tables should be understandable and self-explanatory, without references to the text.

Figure Legends

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Illustrations should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text (e.g. Fig. 1).

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Each illustration should have a brief and specific legend, which should be listed on a separate manuscript page after references.

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Staining techniques used should be described. Photomicrographs with no inset scale should have the magnification of the print in the legend.

Illustrations

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Papers containing unclear photographic prints may be rejected.

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Each figure should be prepared in a separate file (e.g. Fig 1.jpg).

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The name of an image file should match the figure number, such as Fig 1.eps. If a figure contains two or more photographs, they should be assigned an Arabic numeral followed by letters in the English alphabet. Example: Fig 1A, Fig 1B

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Submit illustrations on-line in JPEG, GIF or PPT format. Do not embed images into the text file. Figures may be halft one photographs or black on white line drawings. Color images will be accepted only when essential. Remove any writing that could identify a patient.

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If a manuscript is accepted for publication, the journal will request high quality figures in TIFF or EPS format. When using a digital camera, set the resolution to a minimum of 300 ppi (pixels per inch), and set the size of the image to 5 × 7 in (127 × 178 mm). Color and grayscale images, such as radiographs, must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, and line art drawings must have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.

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Any illustrations previously published should be accompanied by the written consent of the copyright holder.

7. OTHER TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS

All other types of manuscripts should meet the above-mentioned requirements.

A.	Review Articles
	Review articles should focus on a specific topic. Publication of these articles will be decided upon by the Editorial Board.
B.	Case Reports
	Authors are warned that these have a high rejection rate.
•	Abstract: The Abstract should not exceed 150 words, and must be written as one unstructured paragraph. In other words, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusions must not be paragraphed in the Abstract.
•	Introduction: The reason for reporting the case should be stated in a clear and cohesive manner. It is not necessary to use the word "introduction."
•	Case report: This section should include relevant elements, such as, patient history and treatment.
•	Discussion: Discussion should focus on the case and pertinent literature.
•	References: References should not exceed 10.
C.	Editorials
	Editorials are invited by the editors and should be commentaries on articles published recently in the journal. Editorial topics could include active areas of research, fresh insights, and debates in the field of orthopedic surgery. Editorials should not exceed 1,000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures.
D.	Brief Communications
	Brief communications are short articles describing a clinical or experimental findings of importance or great advancement. A brief communication should be organized in the same way as original articles and should be limited to 1,500 words. The number of tables and figures in total should not exceed two.
E.	Letters to the Editor
	The journal welcomes readers' comments on articles published recently in the journal or orthopedic topics of interest.

8. STANDARDS FOR REPORTING

For the specific study design, such as randomized control study, study of diagnostic accuracy, meta-analysis, observational study and non-randomized study, it is recommended for authors to follow the reporting guide lines listed in the following table.

CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)		http://www.consortstatement.org/
STARD (Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy)		http://www.stardstatement.org/
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analyses)		http://www.prismastatement.org
STOBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in epidemiology)		http://www.strobestatement.org/
MOOSE (Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology)		http://www.consortstatement.org/ mod_product/uploads/ MOOSE%20Statement%202000.pdf/

9. AUTHOR'S CHECKLIST

•	Manuscript in MS-WORD (.doc) format.
•	Double-spaced typing with 10-point font.
•	Sequence of title page, abstract and keywords, introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references, tables, and figure legends. All pages numbered consecutively, starting with the abstract.
•	Title page with article title, authors' full name(s) and affiliation(s), address for correspondence (including telephone number, e-mail address, and fax number), running title (less than 10 words), and acknowledgements, if any.
•	Abstract in structured format up to 350 words for original articles and in unstructured format up to 150 words for case reports. Keywords (up to 5) from the MeSH list of Index Medicus.
•	All table and figure numbers are found in the text.
•	Figures as separate files, in JPG, GIF, or PPT format.
•	References listed in proper format. All references listed in the reference section are cited in the text and vice versa.
•	Covering letter signed by the corresponding author.