PUBLICATION ETHICS

Journal Orthopaedi and Traumatology Surabaya (JOINTS) adheres to the policies of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). We publish original articles, case reports, and review articles on a variety of musculoskeletal topics.

We are committed to maintaining high ethical standards. Publication ethics in this journal are based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). This journal also applies open citations as indicated in the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC). The following statement clarifies the ethical behavior expected of all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, and reviewers.

Duties of Authors

1. Submission 

Authors must submit all manuscript elements online through the JOINTS Submission system. These elements include:

• Title Page
• Manuscript formatted according to the JOINTS Template
• Copyright Transfer Agreement
• Ethical Clearance (for Original Articles)
• Written Informed Consent from Patients (for Case Reports)

Hard-copy submissions will not be considered or returned.

Manuscripts should adhere to the journal's submission guidelines. Authors are encouraged to utilize relevant checklists from this journal to ensure accurate reporting of research studies. The use of robust reporting guidelines, such as those provided by the EQUATOR Network, is also strongly recommended.

2. Human and Animal Subjects

The research being reported should have been conducted ethically and responsibly and should comply with all relevant legislation. For manuscripts reporting medical studies involving human participants, authors must provide a statement on the title page identifying the ethics committee that approved the study, including the ethical clearance number, and confirming that the study conforms to recognized standards (for example, the Declaration of Helsinki). Research involving animals should be conducted with the same rigor as research on humans. The authors should implement the ARRIVE checklist the 3Rs principles (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). The authors must describe the detailed journals regarding study design and statistical analysis, experimental procedures, experimental animals, housing, and husbandry. Authors must inform that ethical and legal approval was obtained before the start of the study and state the name of the body approving. The authors should also state whether experiments were performed following relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations.

3. Reporting Manuscript's Standards 

Informed consent must be obtained before any actions that could compromise a subject's privacy are taken. Subject data should never be altered or falsified in an attempt to anonymize individuals. Identifying details, whether written or photographic, should be omitted if they are not essential. If there is any doubt about anonymity, a consent form should be sought, as complete anonymity can be difficult to achieve. Covering a subject's eyes in a photograph, for example, is not an adequate method of protecting their identity. Once informed consent has been obtained, a statement to that effect should be included in the article.

4. Reporting Manuscript's Standards 

The authors must present an accurate account of the original article (research, review, or case report) performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Authors should present their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. Authors should strive to describe their methods clearly and unambiguously so that their findings can be confirmed by others. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and will be unacceptable.

5. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that they have written manuscripts that adhere to publication requirements and that the submitted work is original, is not plagiarized, and has not been published elsewhere. The manuscript should not be submitted concurrently to more than one publication. Relevant previous work and publications, both by other researchers and the authors' own, should be properly acknowledged and referenced. The primary literature should be cited where possible. Original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations.

6. Duplicate and Redundant Publications

Authors must avoid duplicate publication, which is reproducing verbatim content from their other publications. Authors should not submit and are also expected will not publish redundant manuscripts or manuscripts describing the same research in more than one journal. Multiple publications arising from a single research project should be clearly identified as such, and the primary publication should be referenced.

7. Acknowledgment of Sources

All sources of data used in the research and cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should be properly identified. The authors must present a proper acknowledgment of the work of others.

8. Authorship of the Paper 

The authorship of research publications should accurately reflect individuals' contributions to the work and its reporting. Authors should ensure that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be included as co-authors. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. Others who have made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors. In cases where major contributors are listed as authors, those who made less substantial or purely technical contributions to the research or publication should be acknowledged in an acknowledgment section. Authors are requested to fill in the author contribution section on the title page.

9. Fundamental Errors in Published Works

In case the author discovers an error or inaccuracy in their submitted manuscript, the author should promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

10. Data Access and Retention

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable.

11. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial or personal connections that might affect their work. This includes things like employment, consulting, stock ownership, payments, and grants. Disclose these interests in two places: 1) A brief statement outlining any potential conflicts of interest should be included on the Title Page, If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none' and 2) In a separate Copyright Transfer Agreement and Author Declaration. It is essential that potential conflicts of interest are declared in both locations and that the details provided are identical.

12. The Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors are permitted to utilize AI to improve their manuscripts' language and readability, but only with proper human supervision. It is essential to carefully review and revise any AI-generated content because AI can sometimes produce errors or biased information. To maintain transparency, authors must disclose their use of AI in the manuscript, and this statement should also appear in the published work. AI cannot be listed as an author; human authors are responsible for ensuring the originality of their work and compliance with copyright laws. For more details, click here.

13. The Use of AI in Figures, Images, and Artwork

AI cannot be used to generate or alter images within manuscripts, with the exception of minor adjustments that preserve the original information. The use of AI to create any form of artwork, including graphical abstracts, is strictly prohibited. In certain cases, AI may be used to generate cover art, but only with prior approval from the journal editor and with proper attribution of rights and content. For further information and specific guidelines, please refer to the provided link.

 

Duties of Editor

1. Publication Decisions

Editors are accountable and should take responsibility for everything they publish. Editors should apply consistent standards in their processes so that they have procedures and policies in place to ensure the quality of the material they publish and maintain the integrity of the published record. Based on the review report of the editorial board, the editor can accept, reject, or request modifications to the manuscript. Editors should ensure timely peer review and publication and avoid unnecessary delays. The editors may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism that encourage maximum transparency and complete, honest reporting.

2. Review of Manuscripts

The editor must ensure that each manuscript is initially evaluated by the editor for originality. Editors should critically assess the ethical conduct of studies in humans and animals. The editor should organize and use peer review fairly and wisely. Editors should explain their peer review processes in the information for authors and also indicate which parts of the journal are peer-reviewed. The editor should use appropriate peer reviewers for papers that are considered for publication by selecting people with sufficient expertise and avoiding those with conflicts of interest.

3. Fair Play 

Editors should make fair and unbiased decisions independent of commercial considerations and ensure a fair and appropriate peer-review process. The editor must ensure that each manuscript received by the journal is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to the sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc., of the authors. Editors are in a powerful position to make decisions on publications, which makes it very important that this process is as fair and unbiased as possible.

4. Confidentiality

Editors should ensure confidential handling of manuscripts, with no details being disclosed to anyone except the peer reviewers without the permission of the author. If discussions between an author, editor, and peer reviewer have taken place in confidence, they should remain in confidence unless explicit consent has been given by all parties or unless there are exceptional circumstances (eg, when they might help substantiate claims of intellectual property theft during peer review). 

5. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

The editor of the Journal will not use unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript for his own research without the written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained by editors as a result of handling the manuscript will be kept confidential and not used for their personal advantage. 

6.The Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

All manuscripts and associated communication should be kept strictly confidential. Editors are prohibited from uploading these materials to any AI tools. The editorial assessment process must be conducted exclusively by humans, as AI cannot provide the critical evaluation required. Editors retain full responsibility for the editorial process and all final decisions. For further details, please click here.

 

Duties of Reviewers

Manuscripts submitted for publication in the JOINTS journals are subjected to double-blind peer review. Double-blind reviewing maintains the authors' and the reviewers' identities, not disclosing their names to each other. The anonymity of authors and reviewers ensures an objective and unbiased assessment of the manuscript.

1. Confidentiality

Information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors should be kept confidential and treated as privileged information. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

2. Standards of Objectivity

Review of submitted manuscripts must be done objectively, and the reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. The results reported in the manuscript must be original and authentic work of the authors. They should be devoid of any plagiarism, and the material should not have been published earlier. Experiments and other analyses should meet the recognized technical standards and must be described systematically. The manuscript must provide a statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the study, and that the study conforms to recognized standards. The research presented in a manuscript should facilitate reaching accurate conclusions from the statistics. Methods, experiments, and reagents should be documented in detail. Authors should present and interpret the results and conclusions appropriately and comprehensively, clearly explaining the results and outcomes of their study. An incomplete interpretation of the results may result in the rejection of the manuscript. Furthermore, the manuscript should be written in English in a clear, direct, and active style, free from grammatical errors and other linguistic inconsistencies. All pages should be numbered sequentially, facilitating the reviewing and editing of the manuscript (see duties of Authors).

3. Promptness

The reviewers should respond in a reasonable time frame. If they cannot return a review within the proposed time, they should inform the journal promptly and explain they require an extension. In the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for him/her to complete a review of the manuscript within a stipulated time, then this information must be communicated to the editor so that the manuscript can be sent to another reviewer.

4. Contribution to Editorial Decisions 

Peer review assists editors in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communications with authors, may assist authors in improving the manuscripts. Peer review is a heart of a scientific endeavor.

5.  Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that is an observation, derivation, or argument that has been reported in previous publications should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also notify the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other manuscript (published or unpublished) of which they have personal knowledge.

6. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

7. The Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Manuscripts should be kept confidential. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts or any part of them to AI tools, even when preparing review reports, as this could violate author confidentiality and data privacy. Peer review must be done by human reviewers, as AI cannot provide the critical assessment needed and could generate inaccurate or biased conclusions. Reviewers are fully accountable for their review reports. For more information, click here.

 

Screening for AI-Generated Articles

To identify potentially AI-generated manuscripts, the following checks are proposed:

1. The absence of prior publications by the author in reputable databases such as Google Scholar or PubMed, etc., will be examined.
2. The lack of an official institutional affiliation by the author will be considered.
3. Manuscripts submitted spontaneously without prior contact or invitation will be scrutinized.

This policy will be periodically reviewed and updated to reflect technological advancements and best practices, ensuring the integrity and ethical standards of the publishing process. Authors are advised to read our policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies for Elsevier and COPE.