Author Guidelines

Journal of Bone and Soft Tissue tumors (JBST) is an International Peer Reviewed Journal Publishing articles related to care and research in field of bone and soft tissue cancers.

Bone and Soft tissue cancers is a rapidly developing area both in terms of diagnostic modalities and innovation in treatment protocols thus increasing the life as well as improving the quality of life. Although number of patients may be comparatively low but the impact of these diseases is quite great and we believe this area requires an independent journal to provide single platform to publish all research and development in this important area..

JBST is First of its kind journal where a complete journal is dedicated to Bone and Soft Tissue tumors. The submission format is kept very simple and practical.

Scope of the Journal

JBST will focus to integrate knowledge from all resources and create a common wisdom pool. The focus of the journal will be clinical, medical and surgical aspects of orthopaedic oncology but will also extend to include Basic sciences, clinical trials, molecular biology; genetics, pathology; radiodiagnosis, interventional radiology, radiotherapy, biomechanics; biomaterials; nanotechnology; and also special prosthesis designs. This journal primarily aims to cater to clinicians, researchers and health-care providers whose focus is on the understanding and treatment of bone and soft tissue tumors

JBST will be an international peer review Journal with contributions from all across the globe.

What is different about JBST?

• Integration of Knowledge starting from basic science to clinical studies to provide a unique structural overview of the entire scenario of bone and soft tissue tumors
• Create Wisdom pool by combining Evidence Based Principles with Expertise and Experience. A section or whole issues will be dedicated to burning questions in Orthopaedic Oncology with invited articles, reviews and original work
• Better Patient Care with inclusion of clinical relevance section to articles of JBST and Case Based discussions and debates.
• Improve training and educational resources through video journal and ‘OncoMedia’

The entire format of the Journal will be one of ‘Integration’ with basic science, clinical trials, clinical research, case based discussion, evidence based medicine, expert opinion, Videos, keynote presentations and web resources, all aiming together to ‘Translate’ into betterment of care in Bone tumors. The submission format is kept very simple and practical and accepted articles will be in form of case reports, case series, original articles, technical notes and also metanalysis and systematic review of literature with complications or complicated cases in focus.

The Journal will include many focused and novel features including those listed below:

GUEST EDITORIALS, INTERVIEWS & EXPERT OPINIONS: These will be invited from eminent clinician/researcher who have vast experience in field of bone tumors

CASE REPORT: A single case that highlights a particular complication along with treatment strategy and methods of management of a unique/difficult/complicated case

ORIGINAL ARTICLES: Original articles on any study focused on surgical or nonsurgical treatment modality of bone and soft tissue tumors

BASIC SCIENCE: Original and review articles from field of basic research in bone tumors including genetic studies, histopathogical developments and biomechanical studies

PHARMACOLOGICAL STUDIES: Especially clinical trials and articles related to innovative drug and medical management of bone and soft tissue tumors.

ALLIED SCIENCES: articles from allied branches like radiotherapy, radiodiagnostics, interventional radiology and rehabilitation sciences would also be accepted in JBST

TECHNICAL NOTES: Specific technical tricks and pearls or improvisations during surgery or conservative management of a patient can be published in a more pictorial form including videos and graphic diagrams

CASE IMAGE: Only a single image of a unique case can spark a full-fledged discussion on diagnosis and treatment of it. This section will aim to publish such images with detailed descriptions of the case

COMPLEX & COMPLICATED CASES: A primarily complex or complicated cases which is difficult to manage with multiple factors in clinical decision making. Management protocol with decision making flowchart will be included in this

CASE STUDY: The other spectrum to primary complex case is multiply operated case that now presents with unique decision making scenarios which are complex and need personalized thought process and management plan. Most focus will be on the rationale of management and ultimate result. Patient perspective will also form a part of every case study

LITERATURE REVIEW: In form of special review, metanalysis or systematic reviews focussed on one particular complications or complicated cases.

JOURNAL REVIEW: A review of articles related to orthopaedic complications that are published in last one month in other Journals

LETTER TO EDITOR: On any topic or article that is published in the journal. Readers can share their own similar cases as published in the Journal

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Contact JBST:
email: editor.jbst@gmail.com
website: www.jbstjournal.com

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Manuscript Submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts online using the online electronic submission system ‘Scripture’ developed for this journal by IORG. Please Click Here if you are ready to Submit your article.

Article Charges: Since the Journal is Open access, the cost of publication is shared by the author and the Journal equally. For every submission that is accepted for publication, the article processing charges will be 5000 INR (for papers from India) and 150 USD (for foreign articles). Open access will allow us to make your article free to access and download by everyone and will invite better citation and wide outreach. The article processing charges are lowest in the world as here both author and journal share the charges for each article [other similar journals have article processing charges of USD 2000 for making one article open access]. There are no charges for submitting the manuscript or for peer review and decision on the manuscript. Authors will usually receive a decision on their manuscript within 8-12 weeks.

All manuscripts are to be submitted via the Journal submission software ‘Scripture’ on the website www.jbstjournal.com Any other query regarding article formatting for submission process can also be mailed to All manuscripts are to be submitted via the Journal submission software ‘Scripture’ on the website www.jbstjournal.com Any other query regarding article formatting for submission process can also be mailed to editor.jbst@gmail.com

 

Authors Agreement

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms”

1. The author (s) allow the right to first publication of the article entitled to the Journal of Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors in the event the work is published.

2.The  author(s) warrant(s) that the article is original, is not under consideration by another journal, and has not been published previously. The authors accept responsibility for releasing this material.”

3.In case a paper has previously been presented or published as a poster in a national or international conference, the author(s) must make a full disclosure to the editor about it. Such papers are still eligible for publication in the journal provided the author(s) disclose this during their submission.

4. The authors state that a valid informed consent is taken from all human subjects that are included in their articles

For all purposes, the copyright of the articles belongs to the authors.

Copyright Letter/Form:  Download Here

Conflict-of-interest Statement

All authors are expected to disclose any commercial affiliations as well as consultancies, stock ownership, or patent-licensing arrangements that could be considered to pose a conflict of interest regarding the submitted article. A conflict-of-interest statement will be forwarded to the corresponding author for signature upon acceptance of the manuscript. The signature of all authors is required. No article will be published until return of the completed form to the journal office.

Download Conflict of Interest form: http://jbstjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/coi_disclosure.pdf

(Conflict of Interest form– COI is a special document. we can’t open it on the browser. To make its use download it on the desktop, even though it shows ” Please wait….” error and then open it. )

Conflict of Interest forms are according to Guidelines by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and Each Authors details have to be filled separately and submitted with the manuscript. Plagiarism is not permitted and Journal will check every article for plagiarism using ‘Plagtracker’ and google search.

Article submission Charges: None

Article Publishing charges: 5000INR or 150$ (for international article). The publishing charges has to paid only on acceptance of the article]

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English should seek the assistance of a colleague who is a native English speaker and familiar with the field of the work. Authors are advised to follow the recommendations in the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication” proposed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org). Manuscripts must be typed double-spaced with wide margins on A4 paper. The manuscript parts should be in the following order, with each section beginning on a new page: title page, abstract, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. Number all lines in a continuous manner and number all pages in the bottom right corner beginning with the title page. For reports on randomized control studies, authors should refer to the CONSORT statement (www.consort-statement.org). Standard abbreviations and SI units should be used. Define abbreviations at first appearance in the text, figure legends, and tables, and avoid their use in the title and abstract. Use generic names of drugs and chemicals.

SUBMISSION FORMATS

JBST accepts following formats of articles

1. Perspectives
2. Insights
3. Interviews
4. Master Class
5. Innovations
6. Burning Questions
7. Case Reports
8. Original articles
9. Reviews, meta-analysis, systematic reviews
10. Case Study /Series
11. Case Image
12. Technical Note
13. Video Technique
14. Surgical Tips and tricks
15. Case Approach
16. Clinical Perspective
17. Letter to Editor
18. Letter to Experts

Description of various format is provided below

Perspectives – A clinical overview of a common topic with aim to share with reader the recent update and current state of affairs

Insights – Invited article from an Expert in the Field specially focusing on their area of Research or Interest

 Interviews – Academicians and Researchers across the world will get a chance to feature in our interview section and share their views

Master Class – In this feature we will invite a ‘Master’ to demonstrate videos or pictorial demonstrations of surgical techniques or concepts.

Innovations: An innovative concept or an Idea that provides a new perspective. This needs to send directly to editorial email and after editorial review it will be send for peer review. 1000 words article describing the new concept, implant, protocol or surgical modification should be accompanied with a note of how this will be clinically relevant.

Burning Questions: Opinion/Counter opinions from experts or group of experts on selected topics

Original Articles: include case series, comparative trials, epidemiological studies and RCT’s

Case Reports: Have been detailed below and all the remaining formats follow similar guidelines as case reports

Case Image: is description of a single Image which has an unique learning point

Technical Note and Video Technique: detailed description of a new technique or improvisation of an old technique

 Surgical Tips: Small surgical tips and pearls are invited for this section. Pictures are essential and video will be preferable

Case Study: This new format combines the level V evidence with Clinical Decision Making (CDM). It focuses on getting the thought process of the treating surgeon when dealing with a complex/complicated case

 Case Approach: This is a new but invited only section. We will invite an expert to describe to his approach to a particular case scenario with literature and rationale behind the approach

Clinical Perspective: this special section will publish specific learning points or experiences which the authors can share with the readers. The only essential point is that this perspective should be clinically relevant and rationally acceptable. This need not be with details of management or follow up of the case. The idea is to provide a platform for publication of these important and clinically relevant learning points. A single page write up of less than 1000 words will be accepted.

 Letter to Editor: on articles in JBST. Letters should be typed double-spaced and limited to 1000 words. A copy of the letter will be sent to the previous article’s author(s) to invite a response.

 Letter to Experts: JBST will soon be creating an Expert panel of surgeons. Readers of JBST can ask queries regarding complicated cases to our Experts. These queries will be answered by experts and the Orthopaedic Research Group will add literature review to this expert opinion and article will be peer reviewed and published in 15 days.

Photo-Article: Pictorial articles which will be an easy read with most important message highlight

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Following files will be essential for submission of any kind of article

–               Cover letter

–               Title page

–               Blinded manuscript

–               Tables

–               Figure

–               Conflict of Interest form

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The details of formatting these files are provided below.

Manuscripts submitted to JBST must be submitted in the format described below. Articles that do not meet the journal’s style will not be peer reviewed or considered for publication. All articles should be no more than 3500 words long with a maximum of 50 references and 10 figures. Manuscripts should also contain an abstract of up to 350 words. Article will only be accepted for peer review in the following format:

Cover Page

Title page

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Material and Methods

Results:

Complications:

Discussion:

Conclusions:

Clinical Relevance:

References:

Illustrations and figures:

Figure legends (if any):

Additional data files (if any):

List of abbreviations used (if any):

Conflict of interests: To be downloaded from the website and a signed copy scanned and submitted along with manuscript   [Download Here ] 
(Conflict of Interest form– COI is a special document. we can’t open it on the browser. To make its use download it on the desktop, even though it shows ” Please wait….” error and then open it. )

Authors’ contributions:

Acknowledgements and Funding:

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Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word Document format

Cover Letter: This is the official letter written to editors by the author, where they can inform the editorial board about significance of their study. They can also inform regarding special situations like shared data with another study or long term follow up of already published article. This also provides the chance to authors to interact directly with editorial board and put up any specific point for considerations like more number of authors, manuscript exceeding word count or figure count.

Title Page

The title should be concise and informative to make electronic retrieval of the manuscript both effective and specific. Include important information such as the study design, i.e., clinical or basic, and in particular indicate if the study is a randomized control trial. A running title not exceeding 35 letters and spaces should be provided.

Example of Title Page

The first page of the manuscript should be a dedicated title page, including the title of the article. The title should include the study design, i.e. Case report. For example

Authors Names should appear in sequence that will be final, with superscript numbers mentioning authors affiliations

Author Name A¹, Author Name B², Author Name C^3*

Address: ¹ Full designation, degree and postal address of author A; ² Full designation, degree and postal address of author B; ³ Full designation, degree and postal address of author C

* Corresponding author should be indicated with an asterisk.

The full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors must be included on the title page. No other information should be included on this page.

The page should contain the article title, the full names of the authors including only major qualification such as M.D. or Ph.D., and the complete postal address of the department and institution where the work was done. Designate one author as a correspondent and supply his or her complete postal address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. If the name or address for offprint requests is different, this should be stated. Every person listed as an author should have materially participated in the design, execution, and analysis of the study and should verify the accuracy of the entire manuscript before its submission. No more than 6 authors can be included in the title page. Lesser contributors may be noted in an acknowledgment section at the end of the manuscript.

Authorship criteria are as per the ICMJE Guidelines and include Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions:

• To conception and design or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data
• Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
• Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship
• General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship
• Order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors

For an original article the number of contributors should not exceed six; for case reports, letter to the Editor and review articles, the number of contributors should not exceed four. A justification should be included, if the number of contributors exceeds these limits.

Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. A short summary of the work done in the field of review should accompany the manuscript.

Example to state Author’s Contributions

We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author’s contribution):

“FC analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the fracture disease and the stiffness.  RH performed the histological examination of the callus, and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance or a department chair who provided only general support.

Blinded Submission

Author information should not be included in the main document. Authors should submit the title page, the main document, and the Pictures separately. To ensure blinding, authors should not include in the abstract or text the name or initials of the authors or the institution at which the study was performed. Refer to your own published work in the third person. Use “In the previous work of Author name et al.”, not “In our previous work.” The blinded manuscript should contain title, abstract, keywords, main article with references, tables and figure legends

Abstract: This should start on page 2 of the manuscript. The abstract must not exceed 350 words. Do  not use abbreviations or references in the abstract. The structured abstract should consist of four paragraphs: Background (including the context and purpose of the research), Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The abstract should be typed on a separate page, and should not include abbreviations, footnotes, or references. Abstract should make clear how the paper adds to the Orthopaedic literature:

Keywords: Add 3 to 5 keywords at the end of abstract. MESH terms will be preferable

Blinded Manuscript: The length of the text and references should not exceed 15 pages of double-spaced type. The number of figures and tables together should not exceed 20. Do not repeat in the text all data that appear in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. A conclusion may be included in the summary paragraph of the Discussion only if it is not redundant.

The blinded manuscript should not contain names of author or their institute. References should be numbered in order of appearance and should be placed in square brackets [1]. Manuscript is usually, but not necessarily, divided into sections with the headings Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Clinical Relevance. Long articles may need section subheadings to clarify their content.

Introduction: should explain the background of the case, including the disorder, usual presentation and progression and an explanation of the presentation if it is a new disease. If it is a case discussing an adverse drug interaction the introduction should give details of the drug’s common use and any previously reported side effects. It should also include a brief literature review.

Material & Methods should be sufficiently detailed to allow easy understanding and reproduction of the study. Details of study design, outcome measures, outcome assessors and statistical methods have to be provided here. Surgical technique should be described in details with photographs and videos [videos should be uploaded on you tube and link to be submitted to us]

Results: Keep results very succinct and to the point. Write all data in mean ± SD [Range] with appropriate standard units. Mention p values till third decimal points. Use tables to display the numerical data. Do not interpret the results in this section. Provide details of complication events and their individual follow ups

Discussion: should be elaborate and should focus on the main results of your study. Individual resuts should be addressed separately and put in context with the current literature.

Clinical relevance: of the study should be mentioned in three or four sentences

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

 Conflict of interests

Please declare whether competing interest exists. A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing must read: “The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests”.
Download Conflict of Interest form [Click Here] 
(Conflict of Interest form– COI is a special document. we can’t open it on the browser. To make its use download it on the desktop, even though it shows ” Please wait….” error and then open it. )

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).

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Case Reports: Case reports will be considered for publication if they contribute to an understanding of the diagnosis, treatment, and/or pathogenesis of diseases related to orthopaedic surgery. Manuscripts should include the headings Introduction, Report of the case, and Discussion. Do not forget to clearly indicate that consent for publication has been obtained from the patient or his/her nearest relative.

Case Image: is description of a single Image which has an unique learning point. It should not exceed 1000 words and should have headings of abstract, keywords, case image, discussion, conclusion, clinical message, references, figures and figure legends.

Technical Note and Video Technique: detailed description of a new technique or improvisation of an old technique. It should not exceed 1000 words and should have headings of abstract, keywords, Technical Note, discussion, conclusion, clinical message, references, figures and figure legends.

Surgical Tips: Small surgical tips and pearls are invited for this section. Pictures are essential and video will be preferable. It can be a small article from 500 to 1000 words and should include abstract, keywords, Surgical tip, discussion, clinical relevance, references, figures and figure legends

Case Study: This new format combines the level V evidence with Clinical Decision Making (CDM). It focuses on getting the thought process of the treating surgeon when dealing with a complex/complicated case. It should not exceed 2500 words and should include a structured abstract, keywords, background, Case introductions, case history, Case Assessment, Case Conceptualization, Management Options, treatment given, Implications of the case, Clinical recommendations, acknowledgements, references, Figures and figure legend. For more details authors can read the case study published in Journal of orthopaedic case reports titled “Infected Nonunion of Radius and Ulna –Strategy of approach”

Review Articles: These are commissioned, as authors are invited by the editor to contribute review articles.

Letters to the Editor: Letters to the editor of sufficient interest about published articles will be considered for publication. Letters should be typed double-spaced and limited to 1000 words. A copy of the letter will be sent to the previous article’s author(s) to invite a response.

Preparing illustrations and figures:

Please note that JBST can only publish ten 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.

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.

JBST also allows movies and/or animations to be included as additional files, and allows movies to be viewed in the context of the article. Video files should be send to us by email to editor.jbst@gmail.com or can be uploaded to you tube and link send to us.

Additional data files should be referenced explicitly by file name within the body of the article, e.g. ‘See additional file 1: Movie1 for the original data used to perform this analysis’.

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.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism, the duplicate publication of others or the author’s own work to whatever extent, without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal. Anti-plagiarism software may be used to check the originality of the submitted manuscript. Plagiarism represents the violation of copyright law.

STYLE AND LANGUAGE

General: Currently, JBST 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.

JBST 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 unjustified, 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 JBST 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.
• Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
• Name your figure files with “Fig” and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line art

• Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering, and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
• Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone art

• Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination art

• Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, colour diagrams, etc.
• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Colour art

• Colour art is free of charge for online publication.
• If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colours are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colours are still apparent.
• If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to colour in the captions.
• Colour illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans-serif fonts).
• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
• Do not include titles or captions in your illustrations.

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.

Figure placement and size

• When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
• For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.

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.