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.

Presentation

Manuscript preparation

Word-process the text in double spacing with a margin of at least 2 cm all round. Left justify the text and include line-numbers and page-numbers.

Submit papers in Journal style. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript for correction and resubmission by the authors before it is sent out for review. Please refer to "Terminology for Hand Surgery" published by the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH) to ensure correct terminology is used: www.ifssh.info/TerminologyOfHandSurgery.html.

Please also read this article which gives further advice on terminology

http://www.sagepub.com/content/40/8/880.full.pdf+html

 

Keywords and abstracts: Helping readers find your article online

The title, keywords and abstract are vital in ensuring that readers find your article online through search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting SAGE’s Journal Author Gateway Guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

Guidelines for submitting artwork, figures and other graphics

Submit electronic files of illustrations and figures.  Preferred formats are .jpg or .tif. Pdf and PowerPoint files are not acceptable.

Line illustrations: All line illustrations should present a crisp black image on an even white background, and should be at a minimum of 600 dpi. Illustrations will be reduced in size during production and you must allow for this when choosing the size of any lettering.

Photographic illustrations and radiographs: Photographs and radiographs should be submitted as clear images at a resolution of at least 300 dpi for an image width of 10 cm. Submit radiographs as photographic images, carefully made to bring out the detail to be illustrated, with an overlay indicating the area of significance if necessary. Any lettering should be in capitals and of an appropriate size taking into account any necessary reduction in size of the illustration during production.

State the original magnification of microscopy images in the figure legend, or include a length guide on the image. Label all illustration files with a figure number.

Type figure legends, double spaced, in a separate section of the manuscript after the reference list. Number figures consecutively as they appear in the manuscript and ensure that all figures are referred to in the text. Keep legends brief, with no more than 40 words if possible.

For further guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Guidelines for submitting supplemental files

The Journal is able to host approved supplemental materials online, alongside the full-text of articles. Supplemental files may be uploaded to Editorial Manager and will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information on copyright, acceptable formats and size, please refer to SAGE’s Guidelines for Authors on Supplemental Files.

All figures, tables and supplementary material must be numbered and cited in the text. For supplementary material use the prefix S, e.g., Table S1, Figure S1, Video S1

Please upload a file under the “Social media assets" section. This can be a short video, a slide or an infographic related to your submission. If your submission is accepted, this file will be used as promotional material.

English language editing services

Non-English speaking authors who would like to refine their use of language in their manuscripts should have their manuscript reviewed by colleagues with experience of preparing manuscripts in English.

Alternatively it might be useful to consider using a professional editing service. Visit http://www.sagepub.co.uk/authors/journal/submission.sp for further information.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in the preparation of a submission must be declared on the Title Page and in the Submission Letter in a statement fully disclosing the extent to which AI has been used.

Journal style

Style for scientific papers(excluding case reports)

Set out manuscripts as follows, starting each section on a separate page: title, abstract, main text, reference list, figure legends. You must also provide a separate Title page.

Title page: Give the following information: 1) title of article; 2) full name of each author*; 3) name and address of the department(s) or institution(s) to which the work should be attributed, indicating which author is from where; 4) name, address, telephone numbers, email address and twitter handle (if you have one) of the corresponding author; 5) four to six keywords; 6) confirmation of authorship, contributorship and acknowledgements (if applicable, see Section 2.3); 7) declaration of conflicting interests; 8) funding statement; 9) ethical approval declaration; 10) Informed consent declaration; 11) contributorship details (always required unless submission has only one author)

See: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jhse/account/Declarations.docx

See http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html# for guidance on authors and contributors. Please include twitter handles for all authors and contributors who have them. If your submission is accepted, providing twitter handles will facilitate the promotion of your article on social media and enable authors to engage in discussions on twitter.

Title: The title should be concise. The maximum number of characters with spaces is 120.

Abstract: 250 words summarizing the study under these sub-headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion. Do not include statistical significance values, footnotes references, or abbreviations. State the level of evidence at the end of the Abstract (see chart at the end of this document).

Main text: The manuscript is usually split into sections under the headings Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. The use of other headings may be appropriate depending on the nature of the paper. Avoid excessive use of subheadings. Normally only two categories of headings should be used: type major headings (such as Methods, Results and Discussion) in capital letters in the centre of the page in BOLD; type minor headings in lower case (with an initial capital letter) at the left margin and Bold. Do not number headings.

In the manuscript please note:

Do not use "he", "his" etc where the sex of a person is unknown; use a non-gendered term such as "the patient”. Do not refer to patients/participants as “subjects”. Avoid claiming priority.

Proprietary (trade) names: Use non-proprietary names of drugs, suture materials, instruments etc. whenever possible. Give the proprietary name in brackets after the approved name and spell it with a capital letter followed by company name, city, state, country. For example, Axon BX-15 single screw extruder (Axon, Åstorp, Sweden).

Abbreviations: Avoid abbreviations. If used, explain unusual abbreviations when they first occur in the text. Record the size of sutures as 2-0, 3-0 etc., not 2/0 etc.

Hyphens: The use of hyphens is subjective. However, do not use a hyphen for nonunion, malunion, interphalangeal, metacarpophalangeal, scapholunate, radiolunate, radioscaphoid, preoperative and postoperative. It is acceptable to insert a hyphen to separate two vowels, for example intra-articular and extra-articular.

Units: Use SI units throughout. Always insert a space between a number and a unit, e.g., 5 mm.

Numbers: Spell out one to ten except when used for units of measurement (mass, time, length); for numbers over ten, use numerals except when starting a sentence. Do not give percentages if the total number in the sample is less than 50. Round percentages greater than 10 to the nearest whole number.

Statistical methods: There is no need to document the computer program used for statistical analysis, e.g., "Data was analysed using SPSS (Chicago, Illinios)”. It is, however, essential that the statistical tests used are documented. Analyse numerical data by appropriate statistical methods which must be stated clearly in the Methods section of the paper. State in text or tables whether data are given as means and standard error of mean (SEM) or means and standard deviation (SD), then, when appropriate, give individual data as mean (SEM) or mean (SD). Do not use the "±" sign, e.g., 12.3 (SD 0.5) not 12.3 ± 0.5. Provide confidence intervals for data when appropriate. It is strongly recommended that statistical advice is obtained and acknowledged when preparing an article as submissions may be reviewed by a statistician. See Sauerland S, Lefering R, Bayer-Sandow T et al. Fingers, hands or patients? The concept of independent observations. J Hand Surg Br. 2003, 29: 102-5. /doi/abs/10.1016/S0266-7681(02)00360-1

Tables: Avoid big tables containing large amounts of data; if this information is essential split it into smaller tables. Type each table on a separate sheet using double spacing and only horizontal rules. In Microsoft Word, the correct table style is “Table Simple 1”, which can be found in Word 2003 by selecting the table and going to Table Autoformat, selecting “Table Simple 1” and unchecking the boxes “Color” and “Apply special format to the last column”. In Word 2007, select the table and click on the Design tab in Table Tools. Scroll down the Table Styles to find “Table Simple 1” (hover the mouse over the style to display its name); then set Shading to “No Color” and uncheck the Last Column box under Table Style Options. In Word 10, select the table and click on the Design tab in Table Tools. Hover over the Table Styles and choose the black and white Light Shading style.  Then choose “No Color” from the Shading options. Alternatively, refer to tables published in the Journal and simply use the “Borders” command to edit your table into the same format.

Give an identification number and title above each table and any other explanatory information in footnotes below. Include all units and explain uncommon ones in the footnote. Refer to all tables in the text. Do not duplicate material in tables in the text or figures.

Style for short reports

A case report, small case series or technical tip should be submitted to the Journal as a one-page report containing no more than 1050 words, though its length should be reduced by 200 words for each figure or table. Thus, if a short report contains two figures or tables it should be no more than 600 words long. The format should be:

Title

Abstract (maximum 40 words)

The text without section headings

The reference list (no more than four references)

Figure legends

Upload onto the system as ‘manuscript (without authors’ names, affiliations)’. You must also upload a separate Title Page which includes the same information as set out above for scientific papers under the journal style guidance above.

Include the abstract in the relevant section of the submission process.

All submissions must be accompanied by a letter of submission which confirms that:

All the authors have approved the final contents of the submission, been actively involved in the planning and enactment of the study, and have also assisted with the preparation of the submitted article. See http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html for definition of authorship and ensure that all authors meet the criteria.

The article has not been submitted elsewhere.

The references have been checked and are correct.

The authors have read the Submission Guidelines and the paper conforms to this Guide in all respects.

In addition, if you are submitting a full length original research article, your submission letter MUST include the following two statements:

We, the authors of this submission confirm that we have not published the same or a very similar study with the same or very similar results and major conclusions in any other journals. These include English or non-English language journals and journals that are indexed or not indexed in PubMed, regardless of different words being used in the article titles, introduction and discussion.  

The authors of this submission understand that dual submission refers to publication in any language and that dual submission will result in academic sanctions which will include the blocking of all authors to prevent their future submissions to the JHS-E.

The name of the corresponding author should be printed at the foot of the submission letter instead of a signature.

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.

The LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTeX template is available on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

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 an abstract formatted in line with the article type guidance in the Preparation section above. 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 and in the print version. There is no charge for reproducing figures in color in the printed version.

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.

Title page

To ensure fair and anonymous peer review, your manuscript must be fully anonymized. Please ensure any identifying information is removed from the main manuscript document and included on the Title Page instead. Do not include any author names in the manuscript file name and remove names from headers and footers. This version of the manuscript will be sent to the peer reviewers. The Title Page will not be sent to peer reviewers. See the Sage Journal Author Gateway for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.

The Title Page should include:

• Article title
• The full list of authors including names and affiliations of each
• 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 – please indicate this on the title page.
• All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission (please see the authorship section for more information).
• Contact information for the corresponding author: name, institutional address, phone, email
• Acknowledgments section
• Declaration of conflicting interest
• Funding statement
• Ethical approval and informed consent statements
• Data availability statement
• Any other identifying information related to the authors and/or their institutions, funders, approval committees, etc, that might compromise anonymity.

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

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

To ensure proper anonymization, please include a section with the heading ‘Statements and Declarations’ on your title page, 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. This information will be added to the end of your published paper.

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.

Consent to participate

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.

Consent for publication

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.

Reference style and citations

The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the authors, who are encouraged to download reference details from MedLine or another accurate database, in order to avoid inaccuracies and typographical errors. References are checked during the review process and if inaccuracies are found, the submission will be returned to the authors for correction before the review process can be continued. Limit citations to those that are pertinent and essential to your study; for example, it is not necessary to cite Dupuytren's original publication in every paper about Dupuytren's disease.

Submit references in the correct style for this journal. Our reference style is available on Endnote. Please check the Output page at www.endnote.com or go to: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp and carry out a search using the words exactly as follows: Journal of Hand Surgery (European Volume). It is also available on Citavi, please see http://www.citavi.com/sub/manual5/en/index.html?101_changing_citation_styles.html for more information.

In the text, citations should give the author's name and date of publication in brackets. Do not use superscript numerals. If there are two authors, link their names with "and", not "&" - for example (Sauerland and Davis, 2004). If there are three or more authors give the name of the first and follow it with "et al." - for example (Kalbermatten et al., 2008). When several references are given together in brackets in the text, list them in alphabetical order, with each reference separated by a semicolon.

Type the reference list double spaced and separately from the main text. List references in alphabetical order of their first author. If there are more than six authors, give the first three followed by "et al.". When referencing a journal article, list the authors, the title of the article, the journal title abbreviation used by PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/), the year, the volume number and the first and last page - this style is similar to that used in PubMed. Authors are advised to "copy and paste" from PubMed and then adjust the reference. If reference software is used the authors must check that each reference is in the correct format.

Note the following examples of references:

Articles in journals

If the authors are more than six:

Kalbermatten DF, Erba P, Mahay D et al. Schwann cell strip for peripheral nerve repair. J Hand Surg Eur. 2008, 33: 587-94.

If the authors are one to six:

Sauerland S, Davis TRC. The consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT); better presentation of surgical trials in the Journal of Hand Surgery. J Hand Surg Br. 2004, 29: 621-4.

Sauerland S, Lefering R, Bayer-Sandow T, Brüser P, Neugebauer EAM. Fingers, hands or patients? The concept of independent observations. J Hand Surg Br. 2003, 28: 102-5.

Book

Dawson DM, Hallett M, Millender LH. Entrapment neuropathies, 2nd Edn. Boston, Little, Brown, 1990: 81.

Chapter in a book

Kaplan EB, Spinner M. Normal and anomalous innervation patterns in the upper extremity. In: Omer GE, Spinner M (Eds.) Management of peripheral nerve problems. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1980: 75-115.

Chapter in a book with volumes

O'Brien BMC. Experimental research in hand surgery. In: Tubiana R (Ed.) The hand. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1981, Vol. 1: 501-10.

Internet publication

AAOS (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons) Clinical practice guideline on treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. Rosemont (IL): American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2008.

https://www.aaos.org/quality/quality-programs/upper-extremity-programs/carpal-tunnel-syndrome/

Do not refer to abstracts, personal communications and unpublished material such as lectures, posters, correspondence club letters and submitted but not published manuscripts.

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

Our reference style is available on Endnote. Please check the Output page at www.endnote.com or go to: http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp and carry out a search using the words exactly as follows: Journal of Hand Surgery (European Volume). It is also available on Citavi, please see http://www.citavi.com/sub/manual5/en/index.html?101_changing_citation_styles.html for more information.

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.

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.

• We encourage all authors and co-authors ensure their ORCID IDs are linked to their JHSE Editorial Manager 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 journal 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.