Submission guidelines

Submit manuscript

Please read the guidelines in full before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

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The Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the author responsibilities section on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with our Editorial Policies and our Publication Ethics Policies.

Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions and peer review from a diverse range of authors and reviewers from across all countries and backgrounds. Read our diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Open access options are available – see below.

Please read the guidelines below then submit your manuscript here.

Access: Subscription
Accepts preprints? Yes
Identity transparency: Single anonymized

Please note that this journal is online-only and does not offer print copies.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost.

Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Open Access agreement eligibility is determined by the corresponding author’s affiliation matching an agreement at acceptance. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access.

For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

Your article must be within the scope of the journal and be of sufficient quality. If not, it will not be reviewed. Please read the journal’s Aims and Scope to see if your article is appropriate.

The manuscript must be your original work, you must have the rights to the work, and you must have obtained and be able to supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, including figures, illustrations, tables, lengthy quotations, or other material previously published elsewhere.

Article types

Submitting your video to FPSAM Video Journal is a two-step process:

  1. Upload your video to http://videos.liebertpub.com/. (See below for formatting instructions)
  2. Complete your submission at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fpsamv (See below for additional information)

Preparing your video

  • Begin by uploading the highest quality video available to you to ensure the best presentation. You should play your video back at full screen and check that all elements (graphics, text, still images, etc.) are legible and of sufficient quality prior to uploading it.
  • Videos may be up to 12 minutes in duration, but the most effective videos are less than 10 minutes in length.
  • Text and audio in the video must be in English. The video must include audio narration explaining the procedure.
  • Please do NOT use any background music in your video submission. Videos containing music will be returned without peer review.

Accepted video formats are:

  • Windows Media Video (WMV)
  • MPEG (MPG, MPEG, MP4)
  • Audio Video Interleave (AVI)
  • QuickTime (MOV)

Most codecs supported by these formats are acceptable. After submission, we may need to request the video submitted in a different codec in the event a non-standard codec is used.

  • The resolution of the video should be at least 512x384 for 4:3 aspect ratio videos, and 512x288 for 16:9 videos. Videos can be larger than these dimensions, but not smaller.
  • (These are MINIMUM requirements. We strongly advise that the resolution be higher, preferably as close to full screen dimensions as possible.)
  • Videos must be in NTSC format (the European PAL format is not supported.)
  • Videos that are only a PowerPoint slideshow will not be accepted.

Presentation of Word Files (Title Page and Abstract) to Accompany Video

A Word document for the title page must be provided that contains the following:

  • Full video title
  • Exact running time of video
  • All contributing authors
  • All authors’ affiliations and email addresses
  • The source of work or study, and if there are any conflicts of interest or obligations resulting from it.
  • Ethics approval and Patient Consent statements. (See below)
  • Author Disclosure Statement. This statement should disclose any commercial associations during the last two years that might create a conflict of interest in connection with the video. The statement should be included in the main text file at the end of the abstract.

A Word document for the abstract must be provided that contains the following:

  • A structured abstract up to 500 words, organized as follows: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions, Disclosure Statement.
  • References, if applicable (Prior abstract presentations should be mentioned as a footnote to the video title). Please see below for reference formats.

References

The reference list must be prepared double-spaced in Word and numbered consecutively as they are cited in the text (using superscript numbers). References appearing for the first time in tables and figures must be numbered in sequence with those cited in the text where the table or figure is mentioned. Use journal abbreviations as provided by PubMed/Medline. List all authors when there are six or less. When there are more than six, list the first three, followed by et al. If references to personal communications or unpublished data are used, they are not to be in the list of references. They should be referred to in the text in parentheses: (A.B. Smith, personal communication). Include among the reference any papers that have been accepted for publication but not yet published; identify the name of publication and add "In Press." The maximum number of references may not exceed 100. 

Experimentation in Human Subjects, Patient Consent, and Internal Review Board Approvals/Waivers

Papers reporting human experimentation will be reviewed in accordance with the precepts established by the Declaration of Helsinki (2013). https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/.

Papers containing studies performed on human subjects must include a statement that the investigations were performed after approval by a local Human Investigations Committee or Institutional Review Board, and after obtaining informed consent from a patient (or other responsible individuals). If it is deemed necessary during the peer review process, the editors may require that the authors provide the editorial office with copies of such documentation. It is required that the author(s) retain and archive all relevant forms, releases, statements, and consents.

Anonymity of patients, healthy volunteers, and other study participants is paramount and must be protected as required by law. In most cases, a general description of the study participants is sufficient insofar as meaning is not lost. Nonessential data (age, sex, occupation, etc.) of individual subjects should not be included in a manuscript unless it is clinically or epidemiologically relevant or important to the manuscript.

When reporting research involving human data, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed have been assessed by the responsible review committee (institutional and national), or if no formal ethics committee is available, were in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2013. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. Approval by a responsible review committee does not preclude editors from forming their own judgment whether the conduct of the research was appropriate.

A sentence declaring adherence to Institutional Review Board protocols and informed consent should be included in the submission. If the study is judged exempt from approval from an Institutional Review Board, a statement from the committee is required indicating a waiver has been issued. Informed consent by participants should always be secured. If securing consent is not possible or waived by an institutional review board, a statement and evidence to this effect must be noted by the authors in the submission. The information on ethics committee review and approval, and securing of informed consent from the study participants should also be outlined in the cover letter accompanying the submission.

The participant confidentiality and consent requirements contained herein are applicable to any text, photograph, image, video, or any other media submitted to FPSAM Video Journal.

Animal Experimentation

Authors must clearly state in the text that the experiments were carried out in compliance with the relevant local institutionally reviewed animal use regulations and/or national laws relating to the conduct of animal experimentation, or, where such laws do not exist, that the studies were performed in accordance with an internationally recognized code of practice. Authors should clearly state source(s) and numbers of animals being used in all experiments in their manuscript.

Peer Review Policy

All video submissions are subject to peer review. At least two reviewers will review the abstract and the video as part of the peer-review process. Authors are encouraged to suggest names of appropriate reviewers and may also request that a particular individual not serve in that capacity. Reviewer selection is ultimately at the discretion of the Editor. Major corrections may require changes in the video with resubmission.

Legal

Copyright

Videos previously presented at meetings will be considered as long as the authors have retained ownership of its copyright at the time of submission. All accepted videos will become the property of FPSAM Video Journal. However, after being published in FPSAM Video Journal, the videos may be presented and viewed at scientific meetings, but may not be republished elsewhere.

The copyright agreement process between the author and the Publisher is handled via email when the video is accepted for publication. Authors will receive a follow-up email with instructions on completing the online Copyright Agreement Form.

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with coauthors to ensure they have completed the online copyright form. Authors not permitted to release copyright must still complete the form acknowledging the statement of the reason for not releasing the copyright.

Music

Background music will not be permitted in any videos. Any submissions containing music will be returned without peer review.

Permissions for Use or Adaptation of Published Material

The author is responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce figures, tables, and text from previously published materials, even if it is the author’s own work. Written permission must be obtained from the original copyright holder (generally the publisher, the author, or editor) of the journal, book, or video concerned. An appropriate credit line should be included in the figure legend or table footnote, and full publication information should be included in the reference list. Written permission must be obtained from the author of any unpublished material cited from other institutions and should accompany the submission.

Identification of Instrumentation

A disclaimer will be placed at the bottom of your abstract indicating that representation of any instrumentation within the video does not indicate any endorsement of the product and/or company by the Publisher, the Society, or the author(s).

Author Disclosure Statement(s)

When uploading your video submission, you will be asked to disclose any commercial associations that might create a conflict of interest in connection with submitted manuscripts. This Author Disclosure statement should include appropriate information for EACH author, thereby representing that competing financial interests of all authors have been appropriately disclosed according to the policy of FPSAM Video Journal. If no conflicts exist, the authors must state “No competing financial interests exist.”

Reprints (Copies of Videos)

After the video is published, it may not be published elsewhere without explicit permission from the Publisher. While personal copies of the video can be downloaded and saved for personal use only, any systematic download that would create a new database will not be allowed.

Clinical trial registration

The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

Formatting your manuscript

Accepted file types

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. You do not need to follow a template, but please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined.

Your article title, keywords, and abstract all contribute to its position in search engine results, directly affecting the number of people who see your work. For details of what you can do to influence this, visit How to help readers find your article online.

Title

Your manuscript’s title should be concise, descriptive, unambiguous, accurate, and reflect the precise contents of the manuscript. A descriptive title that includes the topic of the manuscript makes an article more findable in the major indexing services.

Abstract

Please include a structured abstract of 500 words between the title and main body of your manuscript that concisely states the purpose of the research, major findings, and conclusions. If your research includes clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. Submissions that do not meet this requirement will not be considered.

For clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

Keywords

Please include a minimum of 4 keywords, listed after the abstract. Keywords should be as specific as possible to the research topic.

Artwork, figures, and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures, and graphs in electronic format, please read Sage’s artwork guidelines.

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

Please ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Acknowledgments

If you are including an Acknowledgements section, this will be published at the end of your article. The Acknowledgments section should include all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship. Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your manuscript.

Writing assistance and third party submissions: if you have received any writing or editing assistance from a third-party, for example a specialist communications company, this must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgements section and in the covering letter. Please see the Sage Author Gateway for what information to include in your Acknowledgements section. If your submission is being made on your behalf by someone who is not listed as an author, for example the third-party who provided writing/editing assistance, you must state this in the Acknowledgements and also in your covering letter. Please note that the journal editor reserves the right to not consider submissions made by a third party rather than by the author/s themselves.

Author contributions

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review and publication process, this journal has adopted CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). CRediT is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 roles, which is used to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work.

You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.

Statements and declarations

Please include a section with the heading ‘Statements and Declarations’ at the end of your submitted article, after the Acknowledgements section [and Author Contributions section if applicable] including each of the sub-headings listed below. If a declaration is not applicable to your submission, you must still include the heading and state ‘Not applicable’ underneath. Please note that you may be asked to justify why a declaration was not applicable to your submission by the Editorial Office.

Ethical considerations

Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. You can find information on what to say in your ethical statements as well as example statements on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.

All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved the study, or waived the requirement for approval, providing the full name and institution of the review committee in addition to the approval number. If applicable, please also include this information in the Methods section of your manuscript.

Please include any participant consent information under this heading and state whether informed consent to participate was written or verbal. If the requirement for informed consent to participate has been waived by the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (i.e. where it has been deemed that consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain), please state this. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section. More information and example statements can be found on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.

Submissions containing any data from an individual person (including individual details, images or videos) must include a statement confirming that informed consent for publication was provided by the participant(s) or a legally authorized representative. Non-essential identifying details should be omitted. Please do not submit the participant’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent to publish but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file in addition to the statement confirming that consent to publish was obtained within the manuscript text. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section.

Declaration of conflicting interest

The journal requires a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors so that a statement can be included in your article. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, see our policy on conflicting interest declarations and the ICMJE recommendations.

If no conflict exists, your statement should read: ‘The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article’.

Funding statement

All articles need to include a funding statement, under a separate heading, even if you did not receive funding. You’ll find guidance and examples on our Funding page.

Data availability

The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

  • Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
  • Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
  • Cite this data in your research

Reference style and citations

The journal follows the Sage Vancouver reference style. View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms.

Every in-text citation must have a corresponding citation in the reference list and vice versa. Corresponding citations must have identical spelling and year.

Authors should update any references to preprints when a peer reviewed version is made available, to cite the published research. Citations to preprints are otherwise discouraged.

EndNote

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file

Supplemental material

This Journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Author Services. Visit Sage Author Services for further information.

As part of the submission process you will need to confirm that this is your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that this is for first publication in this Journal, that it is not being considered for/has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that the journal may accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.

Preprints

The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.

Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission.

Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed.

Learn more about our preprint policy.

Submission site

Submit your manuscript online via Sage Track.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in Sage Track before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Manuscripts should only be submitted with the consent of all contributing authors. The individual responsible for submitting the manuscript should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the manuscript are listed as authors.

Ensure you upload all relevant manuscript files, including any additional supplemental files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

Authorship

Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

Files

  • Your manuscript, properly formatted according to all stipulations above, and within the scope of the journal.
  • Figures and images.
  • Supplemental material. This journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc) alongside the full-text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

Other information required for submission

  • ORCID ID of the submitting author.
    • It is strongly encouraged that all co-authors ensure their ORCID IDs are linked to their accounts in the submission system prior to article acceptance, as this is the only way to have their ORCID ID present on the published article. ORCID IDs cannot be added to manuscripts after acceptance/publication. Please note that each co-author must log in to the submission system to add their own ORCID ID to their account. To add an ORCID ID, edit your account, click the link when prompted, and sign into your ORCID account to validate your ID. You will then be redirected back to the submission system and your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata.
    • Please create an ORCID ID if you do not already have one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
  • Complete list of authors, with their institutional affiliations.
    • The author information you enter at submission must exactly match what is included on your manuscript and/or title page, including full names, academic affiliations, and corresponding author contact details.
    • The listed affiliation should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a note at the end of the manuscript.
    • All listed authors must meet the criteria for authorship (above).
    • All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission.
    • All authors must have given consent for the manuscript to be submitted in its current form.
  • Keywords: During submission, you may be asked to select or enter keywords for your manuscript. These keywords are used to match appropriate reviewers to your manuscript.
  • The number of figures, tables, and words in your manuscript.
  • Funder information: Name, grant/award number.
  • You may be required to enter your declaration of conflicting interest as part of the submission process, in addition to listing it on your manuscript and/or title page. Please have it on hand.
  • If you have posted your manuscript to a preprint server, you will be asked to supply the DOI (this does not prohibit submission, but no changes should be made to the preprint version while your manuscript is under evaluation in this journal). Please see our guidelines on prior publication. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your manuscript is accepted, you must include a link in your preprint to the final version of your published article.

The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal:
Identity transparency: Single-anonymized
Reviewer interacts with: Editor
Review information published: None

Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejected without peer review at this point if they are out of scope for the journal or otherwise unsuitable.

After passing the initial evaluation, your manuscript will then be peer reviewed. You can log in at any time to check the status of your manuscript. We will notify you when a decision has been reached.

After internal editorial screening for suitability, all manuscript submissions containing original research or that comprise scholarly review are subject to rigorous, independent, external peer review. Editorials, correspondence, news features, and/or Invited opinion or perspective contributions in other sections of the journal are subject to stringent editorial oversight; at need, external, independent review will be arranged to address specialized topics. Final decisions for publication are solely the responsibility of the Editor(s)-in-Chief.

To ensure the integrity of the peer review process we assign reviewers and cannot accept author recommendations.

All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision on all manuscripts, including those appearing in a special issue or special collection. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

As a COPE member we engage with multiple forms of post-publication discussion in line with wider guidance from Sage: Commentaries, Critiques and Responses.

You can view our complaints and appeals policy here.

Read Sage's complete peer review policy.

Plagiarism

The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.

Contributor’s Publishing Agreement

Before publication, we require the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Preprints

If your manuscript was posted on a preprint server prior to acceptance, you must include a link in your preprint to the final published version of your published article.

Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal, Sage Edit, or by email, and should be returned promptly to avoid delaying publication. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. This is the final opportunity to make changes to your manuscript. Further corrections will not be possible after publication. Changes to the author list are not permitted at this stage.

Publication

OnlineFirst publication: This enables us to publish final articles online immediately, without waiting for assignment to a future issue of the Journal. This usually significantly reduces publication lead time. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.

Access to your published article: We provide you with online access to your published article. The online access link is provided to the corresponding author for sharing with their co-authors.

Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process. Between us, we can ensure that your article is found, read, downloaded and cited as widely as possible. Many of the most effective tactics are those you can do quickly and easily to your network of contacts and peers. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway for numerous resources to help you promote your work.

The Sage Journal Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journals Solutions Portal.

You can view our complaints and appeals procedure.

Contact us

You can direct any questions to the journal’s editorial office:

fvj.pra@sagepub.com