| | OSTEOARTHRITIS AND CARTILAGE is the official journal of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International. The Journal serves as a focal
point and forum for the exchange of ideas for the many kinds of scientists, specialists and practitioners concerned with osteoarthritis
and cartilage. One of its aims is to foster the cross-fertilisation between clinical and basic sciences of the various disciplines involved. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage publishes manuscripts representing originality and scientific excellence on all aspects of osteoarthritis,
cartilage and cartilage repair. The Journal welcomes clinical, epidemiological, experimental, translational and other types of research
relevant to osteoarthritis and cartilage. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage aims for an independent, fair and rapid peer review of
submitted manuscripts.
Submission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts are to be submitted through the Elsevier Editorial System
on-line submission and peer-review system. Access to Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Elsevier Editorial System is as follows:
 http://ees.elsevier.com/oac/
In order to access Editorial Manager, mouse click on Register in the upper left corner.
Once you have established your Username and Password, you can sign on as an author and enter the information for submitting a new manuscript.
Prepare your manuscript for upload as follows:
• Create a file containing just the title page and abstract
• Create
a file containing the main text of the manuscript, including all references, excluding the title page and abstract
• Do not
include figures within the main text file, but supply these as separate image files
For any additional information, please contact
the Editor:
Stefan Lohmander, at
Department of Orthopedics
Lund University Hospital
SE-22185 Lund
Sweden
Email: OAC@elsevier.com
Submissions become the property of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International.
Please
read and follow the instructions to authors outlined below. Failure to follow these instructions will delay processing of the manuscript.
1. MANUSCRIPT FORMAT
The maximum word count listed for each type of article
excludes title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements and contributions, and references.
Manuscript format should comply with the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals' ( http://www.icmje.org
).
In all matters of style, please consult the Manual of Style (ed. 8) published by the American Medical Association. Number each
page sequentially, including the title page, abstract, text, references, figure legends, and tables.
Authors are responsible for providing
a manuscript written in clear English. Delay or rejection may result when papers are poorly written and in need of extensive editing.
Where appropriate, authors should obtain the help of an individual or organization competent in Medical Scientific English, where English
is the primary language.
Additional points: insert an extra blank line at the end of headings and paragraphs; type text without end
of line hyphenation, except for compound words; be consistent with punctuation and only insert a single space between words and after
punctuation.
Avoid abbreviations whenever possible, and never use unfamiliar abbreviations. When use of an abbreviation is
customary, list the full word on its first appearance followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Once identified, the abbreviation
should be used consistently throughout the text.
Measurements should be expressed in metric units wherever possible, and along
with physical and chemical quantities, should be abbreviated as recommended in the instructions to authors of the current volume of Journal
of Biological Chemistry. Symbols of units of measurement must accord with the Système International (SI). Abbreviations
for SI units and statistical terms are those in Baron DN (ed.) Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A Guide for Medical and Scientific
Editors and Authors, 5th ed. London: Royal Society of Medicine Press. Preferred alternative units may be given in parentheses.
Generic
names should be used for drugs. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand name and the name of the manufacturer
in parentheses at the first mention of the generic drug name in the methods section.
Guidelines for the reporting of many different
types of studies is available through the EQUATOR network (Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research; http://www.equator-network.org/).
1.1. Full length original research article
Full length original articles
should amount to no more than 4000 words, 8 figures and tables, and 50 references. Each of the following sections should be included
in the manuscript in this order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, Author contributions,
Role of the funding source, Conflict of interest, References, Figure legends, each individual Table, each individual Figure. Specific
recommendations relating to these manuscript sections follow below.
1.1.1 Manuscripts
reporting Clinical Trials
All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in the journal should follow the Consolidated
Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines, and include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a manuscript figure. Please refer to
the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. A copy of the study protocol and
statistical analysis plan, if one has been developed, should be included with the submitted manuscript, together with a completed CONSORT
checklist. This checklist can be found for downloading on the CONSORT website.
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage has adopted
the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which requires, as a condition of consideration for
publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry such as www.clinicaltrials.gov or www.isrctn.com
. All trials that began enrolling patients after July 1, 2005, must have been registered at or before onset of patient enrollment. Any
trial which was still seeing patients on September 13, 2005, should have been registered before September 13, 2005. If the trial was
complete before September 13, 2005, the trial should be registered before manuscript submission. The clinical trial registration number
should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. Clinical trial manuscripts that do not fulfill these criteria will not
enter the editorial process, but will be returned to the authors.
For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research
project that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the
effects of health outcomes. Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related
outcome (for example drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes).
Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures
and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion
of the investigator) do not currently require registration. Further information can be found at http://www.icmje.org .
Disclosure of Clinical Trial Results. In line with the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the
journal will not consider results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which primary registration resides to be prior publication
if the results posted are presented in the form of a brief structured (< 500 words) abstract or table. However, divulging results
in other circumstances (e.g., investors' meetings) is discouraged and may jeopardise consideration of the manuscript. Authors should
fully disclose all posting in registries of results of the same or closely related work.
1.1.2 Reporting observational studies in epidemiology
Manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal reporting observational
studies in epidemiology should conform with the recommendations of the STROBE initiative (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational
studies in Epidemiology). Checklists for different types of observational studies are available at http://www.strobe-statement.org/index.html.
It is recommended that a completed checklist is submitted with the manuscript.
1.1.3
Reporting laboratory experiments
To fully understand the context, methods, data and conclusions that relate to an experiment,
the reader must have access to appropriate background information. The experiment should be described in a way that makes it possible
for the reader to repeat it. A clear description of the chosen study design is necessary for the reader's understanding of both the experiment
and the statistical analysis of the data generated by the experiment.
Many journals, including Osteoarthritis and Cartilage,
now require, as an example, that authors reporting microarray-based experiments comply with the Minimum Information about a Microarray
Experiment (MIAME) checklist (link to http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame.html ) as a prerequisite for publication.
Similar minimum information guidelines are available for reporting proteomics (MIAPE http://www.psidev.info/miape/ ) and
other types of 'omics' studies. For further reading on evolving reporting guidelines, see Minimum reporting guidelines for biological
and biomedical investigations (MIBBI) ( http://www.mibbi.org ) .
The statistical analysis should be presented
with enough detail to allow a reader with access to original data to verify reported results.
Analysis units. Describe the
experimental unit clearly. This is usually the smallest unit that can be independently randomized to a group, i.e. it should be possible
to randomize any two experimental units to different groups. The experimental unit should also be the statistical analysis unit.
Experimental design. Describe the randomization procedure, and present the number of randomized units, replicates and number
of times the experiment is repeated. If blinding is used this should also be described. Formal experimental designs, like randomized
block, latin square, split-plot, etc., have been developed and are described in a number of statistical textbooks. State clearly if one
of these formal designs are used. If this is not the case, describe and explain the used design in detail.
Data description.
Descriptions of observed data in aggregated form, for example as a mean or median value, should be presented both with a suitable measure
of dispersion (e.g. standard deviation or range) and the number of experimental units included.
Statistical methods. Describe
the statistical methods used for hypotheses testing and parameter estimation in detail. If non-standard methods have been used, give
references to published descriptions, with pages stated. All statistical methods are based on certain assumptions. Students t-test, for
example, requires Gaussian distribution and homogeneous variance. If the assumptions are not fulfilled, the results may be unreliable.
Assumptions should therefore be checked, and the results of the investigation should be presented.
Results. It should be
recognized in the results presentation that a statistically significant effect or difference not necessarily is of interest, it may be
too small to be relevant. It is therefore better to specify the effect size/standardized response mean, and presenting the uncertainty
with a 95% confidence interval, than describing an effect as statistically significant, or not statistically significant. P-values should
be presented numerically, without categorization, e.g. write p = 0.15, not ns, and p = 0.03, not p < 0.05. When computer printout
says p = 0.0000, write p < 0.0001. Confidence intervals should be presented as (lower limit, upper limit).
1.2 Brief report of original research
Brief reports may be submitted for the rapid communication of results
of significant interest and novelty. Brief reports should not exceed 2000 words and 15 references, and should follow the general format
described above with the following exceptions:
Instead of a separate Abstract and Introduction, the Short Communication should
begin with a brief paragraph stating the problem addressed and concluding with the major finding of the report; this paragraph will serve
both as Introduction and Summary. Methods, Results and Discussion sections should be combined, and no more than 2 Figures and/or Tables
may be included. Authors names and addresses should appear at the end of the paper along with three key words. Recommendations relating
to the relevant manuscript sections follow below.
1.3 Editorial
The purpose
of an editorial is to stimulate discussion and thought in a brief format. As such, it may contain personal opinion and comment as supported
by evidence. Editorials often provide perspectives linked to an article in the same issue. Editorials also provide a forum for the editors
to inform readers of updates or changes in editorial policies.
Editorials should be no longer than 1500 words with a maximum of 2
figures and/or tables and 15 references. Recommendations relating to relevant sections of this article type follow below (link).
1.4 Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
The suggested word count is 4000,
a maximum of 8 tables and/or figures and 100 references. Reviews should include an abstract. Recommendations relating to relevant sections
of this manuscript type follow below.
Reviews may come in different formats. The Systematic Review format is preferred wherever
possible and appropriate. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be reported following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement
( http://www.prisma-statement.org ) .
1.5 Letter to the Editor
Comments regarding articles published in the Journal, or other current matters, are solicited and should be submitted as 'Letter
to the Editor'. Such Letters, which should not be original research communications (see Brief Report the appropriate format
for such manuscripts), are subject to editorial review. When a published article is subjected to comment or criticism, the authors of
that article will be invited to submit a letter of reply.
Letters are no more than 800 words, no abstract, no tables or figures,
and maximum 8 references. Recommendations relating to relevant sections of this form of article follow below.
1.6 Supplementary data
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage now accepts electronic supplementary material to support
and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications,
movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background methods and datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied
will be published alongside the electronic version of your article, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com
. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended
file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive
caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/authorartworkinstructions
.
1.7 Manuscript sections
1.7.1. Title page
Title page should include author affiliations and full corresponding author contact details, as well as
separate running title where appropriate.
1.7.2. Abstracts
Abstracts
should be no more than 250 words. The abstract should be structured into sections, at least including the following: (1) Objective; (2)
Design - if clinical to include setting, selection of patients, details on the intervention, outcome measures, etc.; if laboratory research
to include details on materials and methods; (3) Results; (4) Conclusions. For further detail on how to construct an abstract please
refer to the guidelines published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2004;291:125-9).
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a list of 3-6 keywords, using English spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple
concepts (avoid, for example, `and?, `of?). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be
eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Running headline
A running title of not more than 40 characters
(including spaces), suitable for page headings, should be provided at the bottom of the title page if the full title is longer than 40
characters.
1.7.3 Introduction
Introduction should be brief, to the point,
and contain the background that motivated the study. You may assume that the reader is familiar with e.g. the fact than osteoarthritis
is a common joint disease, there's no need to repeat that in this journal.
1.7.4
Method
Methods shall contain details relevant to the conduct and interpretation of the study. This includes a description of statistical
methods sufficiently detailed so that an investigator with access to the data can verify the results (see section below on statistics).
Classification criteria should be reported on patients (where relevant) by a brief description of the clinical features of patients,
and by reference to the criteria used. Use of subheadings that aid clarity is encouraged.
1.7.5 Results
Avoid undue repetition of data in text and tables. Brief comments on the significance of the results is appropriate,
but broader aspects of interpretation is reserved for discussion. Use of subheadings to aid clarity is encouraged.
1.7.6 Discussion
Discussion section should contain a concise discussion of the findings in context of relevant
published data. Which of your results are confirmatory, which are novel? Specifically, how do your results advance this field of research?
A section on limitations of interpretation of results due to the selection of methods, materials or patients is often recommended. Avoid
lengthy extrapolation and speculation.
1.7.7 Acknowledgements
All contributors
who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined below should be listed here. 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. All persons
acknowledged must give their written permission.
Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the
responsible entity and who paid for this assistance.
1.7.8 Contributions
All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed as authors. Each author should
have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate parts of the content.
All authors should
have made substantial contributions to all three of sections (1), (2) and (3) below:
(1) the conception and design of the
study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data
(2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important
intellectual content
(3) final approval of the version to be submitted
Each manuscript should be accompanied by a declaration of
each author's contributions relating to sections (1), (2) and (3) above. This declaration should also name one or more authors (including
email addresses) who take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to finished article. These declarations
will be included in the published manuscript.
A declaration of contributions can include the following points, to be modified as appropriate:
• Conception and design
• Analysis and interpretation of the data
• Drafting of the article
• Critical
revision of the article for important intellectual content
• Final approval of the article
• Provision of study materials
or patients
• Statistical expertise
• Obtaining of funding
• Administrative, technical, or logistic support
• Collection and assembly of data
Any change in authors, author order or contributions after initial submission must be approved
in writing by all authors, and changes must be explained to the editor.
1.7.9
Role of the funding source
All sources of funding should be declared in this section. Authors should declare the role of study
sponsors, if any, in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the
decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should state this.
1.7.10 Competing interests
At the end of the manuscript text, under a subheading
"Competing interest statement" every author must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations
that could potentially and inappropriately influence (bias) their work and conclusions. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include
employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and research grants
or other funding
The existence of competing interests is common and often inevitable. Competing interests are not inherently unethical,
but not declaring them is.
1.7.11 References
References should be listed
in numerical sequence as they are cited in the text. Names of the first six authors are to be provided. The reference style is based
on the 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals' ( http://www.icmje.org ). Both journal and
book references should contain inclusive page numbers.
Personal communications and unpublished data should be cited in parentheses
in the text, and not included in the numbered reference listed at the end of the article. Such citations from someone other than the
authors (e. g., personal communication) can only be published if a signed letter of permission if provided.
References to abstracts
should be included only when essential, and then only if the abstract is from a readily accessible periodical (e.g., Federation Proceedings:
FEBS Abstracts). Such references must contain the word (Abstract) after the title.
References in the text should be identified by
superscript numbers, inside punctuation at the end of the sentence, and numbered in order of appearance. Along with the entire manuscript,
references should be double spaced.
Examples of References
Journal Articles
1. Standard Journal Articles
(List all authors when six or less; when seven or more, list the first six and add et al. Do not repeat page numbers).
Wailing HW,
Raggatt LJ, Irvine DW, Barmina OY, Toledano JE, Goldring MB, et al. Impairment of the collagenase-3 endocytotic receptor system in cells
from patients with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 2003;11:854-63.
2. Corporate Author
FDA Document: Guidelines
for industry. The extent of population exposure to assess clinical safety: for drugs intended for long-term treatment of non-life-threatening
conditions, ICH-EIA, March 1995; Federal Register March 1, 1995 (60FR11270).
Books
1. Personal Author(s)
Moskowitz
RW, Howell DS, Altman RD, Buckwalter JA, and Goldberg VM. Osteoarthritis: Diagnosis and Medical/Surgical Management, Third Edition. Philadelphia,
W. B. Saunders 2001.
2. Corporate Author
Drug Information for the Health Care Professional. Volume 1 USP DI. Micromedex, Thomson
Health Care. Quebecor World. Taunton, MA, XXII 2002.
3. Editor, Compiler, Chairman as Author
Favus MJ. Primer on the Metabolic
Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, IV. An official publication of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia 1999:1-502.
4. Chapter in Book
Lozada CJ, Altman RD. Management of osteoarthritis.
In: Arthritis and Allied Conditions, Koopman WJ, Ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins 2001:2246-63.
Website
Uebersax
J. A practical guide to local dependence in latent class models. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jsuebersax/condep.htm
.
1.7.12 Figure legends
Legends for illustrations should be included
on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. A legend must accompany each illustration.
1.7.13 Illustrations and Tables
Suggested position of figures and tables in the text should be marked in the manuscript and
cited in the text in order of appearance. Arabic numbering should be used for both figures and tables. Each figure and each table should
be submitted on a separate page.
Each table should be appropriately numbered and typed on a separate page. Table legends should be
typed above each table.
Figures, especially charts, graphs and line drawings, are generally reduced in size for publication. Consider
print page and column format when designing your figures and tables. All numbers, letters and symbols should be large enough that when
reduced they will remain legible. Arrows should be added to radiographs, histology and other illustrations for clarity. Measures should
be included in histology images to indicate magnification. Figures not properly prepared will be returned to the contributor for revision.
Please refer to ethics and scientific misconduct section: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/intro.cws_home/ethical_guidelines
regarding modifications of original images.
When preparing their manuscript, authors should consider the most appropriate format
to present their data. Certain graphics formats, such as bar graphs, often have low information content, and data and statistics may
often be best presented in a table. The editors may request authors to revise graphics or change data presentation format prior to publication
of accepted manuscripts.
Figures should be appended in a readily available format (e. g., BMP, TIF, or PDF). There is no charge for
a limited number of color figures. Submitting your artwork in detailed electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible
standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail. In general, figures in JPG or PPT do not provide sufficient detail
in reproduction. A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on the Elsevier website: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authors.authors/authorartworkinstructions
.
Although not essential at the time of submission, written permission from publishers and authors to reproduce or adapt previously
published illustrations and tables will be needed at time of acceptance and prior to the manuscript being forwarded to the publisher
( http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/copyright.
2.
EDITORIAL POLICIES
Authorship
See section 1.7.8
Competing interests
Every author must disclose any financial
and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could potentially and inappropriately influence (bias) their work
and conclusions. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert
testimony, patent applications/registrations, and research grants or other funding.
The existence of competing interests is common
and often inevitable. Competing interests are not inherently unethical, but not declaring them is.
Signed authors disclosure
A separate statement must be submitted, signed by all authors, referable to validity of authorship, financial disclosure and the participation
of those in the acknowledgment. Author
disclosure form
3. ETHICS
Ethics approval of research on humans
or animals
Authors, in compliance with the Uniform Requirements, are required to include a statement (in reports of clinical trials
or other experimentation on humans) whether "the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible
committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000".
The reason for this statement is that some ethics committees are regulated by national law, not the Helsinki Declaration. They therefore
sometimes approve studies that violate the principles of the Helsinki Declaration, and such studies should, according to both the Helsinki
Declaration and the CIOMS (Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences http://www.cioms.ch/ ) not be accepted
for publication.
Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines.
Approvals as detailed above in this section must be explicitly stated in the submission cover letter. Approvals must also be explicitly
stated in the manuscript, including the name and location of the approving ethics committee(s).
Patient consent
Manuscripts
involving research on human subjects should contain a statement that they gave informed consent to the work.
Patients have a right
to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients' images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included
in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and
you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next
of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written
consents must be provided to Elsevier on request.
Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they
are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide
assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.
If such consent has not been obtained, personal
details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must
be removed before submission.
Scientific misconduct
The editors of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage consider very
seriously all possible forms of misconduct. We follow guidance and definitions provided by e.g. the Committee on Publication Ethics ( http://publicationethics.org/
) the World Association of Medical Editors ( http://www.wame.org/ ) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors
(ICMJE) ( http://www.icmje.org/ ).
The WAME definition of scientific misconduct includes the following behaviours:
Falsification of data: ranges from fabrication to deceptive reporting of findings and omission of conflicting data, or wilful
suppression and/or distortion of data.
Plagiarism: The appropriation of the language, ideas or thoughts of another without
crediting their true source and representation of them as one's own original work.
Improprieties of authorship: improper assignment
of credit, such as excluding others, misrepresentation of the same material as original in more than one publication, inclusion of individuals
as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work published or submission of multi-authored publications without the concurrence
of all authors.
Misappropriation of the ideas of others: an important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas
among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However,
improper use of such information can constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
Violation
of generally accepted research practices: serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper
manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results.
Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: including but not limited to serious
or substantial, repeated, wilful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human
subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological or chemical materials.
Inappropriate
behaviour in relation to misconduct: this includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, failure to report known
or suspected misconduct, withholding of information relevant to a claim or misconduct and retaliation against persons involved in the
allegation or investigation.
Manipulation of images Manipulation of images is regarded as falsification of data. The editors
of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage concur with the principles described in e.g. the Journal of Clinical Investigation (Neill, U., and Turka,
L.A. 2007. Navigating through the gray (and CMYK) areas of figure manipulation: rules at the JCI. J. Clin. Invest. 117:2736; and Neill,
US. All data are not created equal. J Clin Invest 2009;119:424) and the Journal of Cell Biology (Rossner, M., and Yamada, K.M. 2004.
What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation 166:11-15. Authors are recommended to read these articles before submission
to OAC.
A good summary rule is provided by the following quote from the article by Rossner and Yamada in the Journal of Cell Biology:
"No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping of images from different
parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g., using
dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are
applied to the whole image and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments
(e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend."
4. PEER
REVIEW
All manuscripts submitted to Osteoarthritis and Cartilage are peer reviewed, internally and or externally. A significant
proportion of the submitted articles are rejected after a first review by the editor-in-chief and one or more editors for reasons of
insufficient originality, scientific flaws, or an absence of message important to the readers of the Journal. This decision is forwarded
to the authors within 1-2 weeks. The remaining manuscripts are by the deputy editors assigned to one of the associate editors who is
responsible for selecting one or more external experts for a detailed review of the submitted work. Manuscripts are in addition reviewed
by the biostatistics deputy editor when appropriate.
Reviewers and editors advise the editor-in-chief, who is responsible for the
final decision on a manuscript. The decision of the editor-in-chief is final. Any correspondence relating to manuscript decisions should
be directed to the editor-in-chief using the email address oac@elsevier.com.
As a part of their submission, the author
should indicate closely related papers or manuscripts that have been submitted or published elsewhere in a note to the Editor.
When
received, Editorial Manager system will notify you of the manuscript number. This number is to be used in all correspondence with the
editor.
Only one major revision is allowed per manuscript, unless specific circumstances suggest otherwise and at the discretion of
the Editors. In other words, a second major revision recommendation by the reviewers is the same as a reject decision by the editors,
while minor revision is allowed following a major. Authors should therefore very carefully consider and respond to all the comments and
suggestions of the reviewers. A revised manuscript should be accompanied by a separate detailed and carefully worded point-by-point response,
detailing the 'comments' and 'actions' of the authors to each point raised by the reviewers.
Peer review of papers submitted
by Osteoarthritis and Cartilage editorial team
Research articles authored by a member of the OAC editorial team are independently
peer reviewed, and the member blinded to access to reviews and decisions in the Editorial Manager system. An editor will have no influence
on decisions relating to the article.
5. PUBLICATION
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright
see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright ). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information.
An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a "Journal Publishing
Agreement" form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles
including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution
outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions
).
Funding Body Agreements and Policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who
publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards.
To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Permissions
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit
the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please download these from http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail
address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download
Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to
annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return
to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections
and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail,
or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures.
Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of
your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections
cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article
if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article
via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a
cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be
ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
6. FAST TRACK PUBLICATION
The Journal will consider fast track publication requests. Note your request in the cover letter
of your submission, and clearly motivate your request. If possible, contact the editorial office and the Editor-in-Chief in advance of
your submission. A decision on publication will be reached within 2 to 3 weeks from submission. On-line publication will be within 5
days of acceptance, and rapid print publication can be accomplished within a month or two.
7. MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST
Title Page
• Title
• Names, initials and appointment held by each author;
name of the department or institution to which the work should be attributed and name and contact details of the author responsible for
correspondence.
• 250 word abstract structured into the following sections: (1) Objective; (2) Design (3) Results and (4) Conclusions.
• 4-6 keywords
Manuscript Preparation - Text
• At end of discussion text add statements as appropriate regarding
acknowledgements, contributions, declaration of funding and role of funding source, competing interests, and studies involving humans
or animals.
• Double spacing of entire text, including abstract and references
• Liberal margins
• Number
pages sequentially
• References should be listed in numerical sequence as they are cited in the text.
Appended to Manuscript
• Figure Legends
• Figures
• Tables
• Supplemental Text/Video
• Cover Letter
• Author
Disclosure Form
• Conflict of Interest Statement
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