Submission guidelines
Submit manuscript
Please read the guidelines in full before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
VJSM® Editor-in-Chief Dr. Stephen Brockmeier can be contacted via email at sbrockmeier@vjsportsmed.org. For submission questions, please contact jeanine@aossm.org.
The Video Journal of Sports Medicine (VJSM®) is the official publication of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.
Submit manuscripts online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vjsm.
Download the VJSM® Submission Guidelines or see below.
Download the VJSM® Ethics Policies.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
To familiarize authors in this neweer publication process, please refer to the following articles presented by our editorial board:
The AOSSM Medical Publishing Board of Trustees (MPBOT) oversees the publication of the Video Journal of Sports Medicine. Members of the MPBOT are elected by the MPBOT Board of Trustees.
VJSM® operates a conventional single-anonymized reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author.
Submissions must not be under simultaneous consideration by any other publication, before or during the peer-review process. Articles published in VJSM® may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the publisher. The Journal recognizes complete editorial independence from the AOSSM and all other affiliated societies.
Only submissions that meet the aims and scope of VJSM® are reviewed. VJSM® utilizes a single-anonymized external peer-review process for new submissions, which includes a minimum of 2 referees as well as the Editor-in-Chief. Revised submissions are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, who evaluates the revision and decides whether the authors have responded adequately to the reviewers’ comments and whether further revisions are required before the submission can be considered acceptable. The following criteria are used in evaluating all submissions: quality of execution, quality of visual presentation, quality of writing, contribution to current knowledge, acknowledgment of limitations, support of the Journal’s mission, and compliance with COPE and ICMJE guidelines for ethical publication. All submission decisions are approved by the Editor-in-Chief, who may request additional changes or modify the decision. All reviewers are required to update their disclosures each year to minimize potential reviewer bias.
Members of the Editorial Board are allowed to submit manuscripts and abide by all standard editorial and journal policies. This includes communicating only with the editorial office regarding the process of peer review. Members of the Editorial Board are never involved with reviews of their own submissions.
As part of the submission process, you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights to the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere (including on a media repository such as YouTube or VuMedi), and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
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.
All published articles will incur the updated pricing structure, outlined below. There are no fees payable to submit to this Journal. Article processing charges are only assessed upon acceptance.
- $900 for a direct submission to the journal, without any of the below criteria being met
- $600 if the author is a member of an affiliated society (for a list of affiliated societies, please click here)
- $450 if the authors resides in a lower middle-income (https://data.worldbank.org/income-level/lower-middle-income) country, as noted by the World Bank
- $300 if the author is a member of an affiliated society AND resides in a lower middle-income country, as noted by the World Bank
The processing fee will be waived if the author resides in a low-income (http://data.worldbank.org/income-level/LIC) country, as noted by the World Bank
Please note that Canadian authors will need to pay the applicable tax with the Article Processing Charge.
- Submission Guidelines
- Submissions
- Manuscript Format
- Manuscript Preparation
4.1 Abstract
4.2 Video Categories
4.3 Video
4.4 Text
4.5 Acknowledgment
4.6 References
4.7 Figures and Tables
4.8 Video Format - Accepted Manuscripts
- Letters to the Editor
- Reuse Guidelines
- Important Notice on Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
Submissions must not be under simultaneous consideration by any other publication, before or during the peer-review process, and cannot be uploaded to any preprint server or broad media repository (e.g., YouTube, VuMedi). Articles published in VJSM® may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the publisher.
Submissions should cite any other work by one or more of the co-authors that is relevant to the subject matter of the current submission or that used any of the same subjects, animals, or specimens being reported in the current submission. This includes submissions that are currently under preparation, are being considered for publication by VJSM® or any other journal, are accepted for publication, or already published. In any of these cases, the relationship to the current submission should be made clear.
The authors retain copyright under the terms outlined by the Creative Commons Attribution Open Access Noncommercial License Agreement. This license stipulates that anyone is free to copy, distribute, and display the article provided they give credit to the article. For more information on the Creative Commons Noncommercial Attribution License, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Authors should register on our online submission site at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vjsm to submit manuscripts.
When submissions have been received by the editorial office, the corresponding author will be sent an acknowledgment giving an assigned submission number, which should be used with all subsequent correspondence for anything related to that particular manuscript.
The following items are required upon submission:
- A title page — click here for a title page template.
- A thumbnail image for their video with an aspect ratio of 16:9.
- Written manuscript consisting of a formatted abstract, video transcript, and references.
- AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov). Any combined payments listed over $500/year from a single company should be included. Authors should include payments from the previous 5 years.
- If reporting an original study, a copy of the IRB or other agency approval (or waiver) if animal subjects or human subjects or tissues or health information were used. This information should be uploaded with the disclosure and publishing forms and not as a supplemental file.
- Once accepted, we require authors to send their fully-rendered video over to our Production Department. Please look out for the link; it will be in the article acceptance email.
A cover letter, acknowledgments, and suggested reviewers are optional. If a paper has more than 5 authors, a cover letter detailing the contributions of all authors should be included in the appropriate box on the submission page. Only those involved in creating the submission should be included in the author line. Others should be listed as a footnote or acknowledgment. While there is no limit on the number of authors, no more than 12 will be listed on the masthead of the published article; additional authors will be listed at the end of the article. Authorship should be determined using the ICMJE authorship guidelines.
Manuscript pages, limited to the abstract, video transcript, and references, should be double-spaced with consecutive page numbers and continuous line numbers. The system handles most common word processing formats; however, Microsoft Word is preferred. The transcript should be in paragraph format and include the headings and/or subheadings used within the abstract. References must be included at the end of the transcript text.
Abstracts should summarize the contents of the article in 350 words or less. The abstract should be structured in the following format:
- Background: In one or two sentences, summarize the scientific body of knowledge surrounding your study and how this led to your investigation.
- Indications: State the reason(s) behind the intervention shown.
- Technique Description: Provide a concise overview of the surgical or rehabilitation technique shown, as applicable.
- Results: Briefly summarize the expected outcome of the procedure being described based upon the authors’ experience and/or salient literature.
- Discussion/Conclusion: Summarize the most important conclusions or recommendations that can be directly drawn from your study.
- Keywords: Include at least 5 keywords for indexing. When submitting an article, you will be asked to choose from a list of terms that are used for assigning reviewers. These terms can be used in the manuscript as well. The list can be found at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vjsm.
Types of videos encouraged include:
- Surgical Techniques
Surgical techniques include demonstrations of original or established techniques. - Rehabilitation Techniques
Rehabilitation techniques include demonstrations of original or established techniques. - Physical Examination Techniques
Physical examination techniques include demonstrations of original or established techniques. - Case Series
Case series include is group of case reports involving patients who were given similar treatment. - Other Treatment Procedures
Other treatment procedures may include any other procedure that does not fit into the above types (e.g., on-field management, reduction or manipulation techniques).
Video slide decks should follow the below format and should be between 8 and 10 minutes in length. Note that videos must be narrated.
Surgical/Technique Video
- Title slide (including author information)
- Disclosures (for US authors, VJSM® does check all disclosures against the Open Payments database [OPD]; articles will be returned with requests for updated disclosure information if the provided disclosures do not match data provided within the OPD)
- Overview: Bullet-pointed, informal abstract
- Background: Patient presentation, evaluation, surgical/treatment indications/contraindications
- Preoperative planning
- Patient positioning
- Procedure: Step by step, including options to consider depending on pathology encountered
- Potential complications (how to avoid)
- Postoperative/posttreatment management and rehab protocol
- Return-to-sport guidelines/criteria
- Patient outcomes (cite published outcomes if possible)
- Acknowledgments (if applicable)
- Slide of alphabetized and numbered relevant references
Nonsurgical Procedure
- Title slide
- Disclosures
- Overview: Bullet-pointed, informal abstract
- Background: Rationale, patient presentation, evaluation, indications
- Technique
- Potential complications or adverse events
- Return-to-sport guidelines/criteria
- Patient outcomes (cite published outcomes if possible)
- Acknowledgments (if applicable)
- Slide of alphabetized and numbered relevant references
Written text should be limited to the abstract (formatted as outlined), transcript of the video narration, and supporting references. Figures and tables used in the video may also be included in the transcript. Please use a notation where the figure should be placed and upload the figure file separately. For best quality, please upload the file in its original file format.
Type the acknowledgments in the box provided on the submission page as well as within the video slide deck; do not include them in the manuscript. This information will be added to the accepted manuscript at the time of publication. Give credit to technical assistants and professional colleagues who contributed to the quality of the video but are not listed as authors.
Policy change effective 10/15/2022: References should be cited within the video transcript text but rather can include content related to the technique depicted or provide outcomes for the procedure highlighted.
References should be double-spaced in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author and numbered according to alphabetical listing. The number of references is recommended to be 10, but more are permitted if needed. If references are not in alphabetical order the uploaded file will be REJECTED and will have to be resubmitted with the references in the correct form. When author entries are the same, alphabetize by the first word of the title. In general, use the Index Medicus form for abbreviating journal titles and the AMA Manual of Style (11th ed) for format. Note: References must be retrievable. Published papers and papers published on preprint servers can be listed in the reference list. Do not include in the reference list meeting presentations that have not been published.
References will be linked to Medline citations for the reviewers. Authors can include articles that are in Epublish mode. To ensure that these Epub references are linked correctly, please provide the PMID number from Medline at the end of the reference. For example: Emery CA, Meeuwisse WH. Injury rates, risk factors, and mechanisms of injury in minor hockey. Am J Sports Med. 2006 Jul 21; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 16861577
There is a limit of three (3) figures or tables per manuscript, should you find it necessary to include outside of the video file. Any material that is submitted with an article that has been reproduced from another source (that is, has been copyrighted previously) must conform to the current copyright regulations. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain written permission for reproduction of copyrighted material and provide the editorial office with that documentation before the material will be reproduced in the Journal.
All image files for figures should be labeled with the Figure number (label each part if figures include multiple parts, e.g., 1A, 1B). The figure legend should be placed below each figure and should include descriptions of each figure part and identify the meaning of any symbols or arrows. Terms used for labels and in the legend must be consistent with those in the text.
Figures for papers accepted for publication must meet the image resolution requirements of the publisher, SAGE Publishing. Files for line-based drawings (no grayscale) should ideally be submitted in the format they were originally created; if submitting scanned versions, files should be 1200 dots per inch (dpi). Color photos should be submitted at 600 dpi and black-and-white photos at 300 dpi.
Charts and graphs can be submitted in the original form created (e.g., Word, Excel, or PowerPoint). Photographs or scanned drawings embedded in Word or PowerPoint, while acceptable for review, are not acceptable for publication.
All photographs or videos of patients or other individuals that disclose their identity or any other identifiable information must be accompanied by a signed photographic release granting permission for their likeness to be reproduced in the article.
For more information about the format requirements for videos, please review our Author Gateway. For detailed information pertaining to copyright and permissions requirements, view the Video Permission and Fair Use Quick Guide. For videos with identifiable subjects, subjects will need to sign the Audio- Visual Likeness Release Form. It is the author’s responsibility to submit signed release forms, if necessary, for each video.
A watermark will appear on the bottom right of your video. Please avoid placing any logos in that area.
Once an article is accepted and typeset, authors will be required to carefully read and correct their manuscript proofs that have been copyedited by the publisher. Any extensive changes made by authors on the proofs will be charged to authors at the rate of $2 a line. Authors are responsible for ordering reprints of their articles. Completed articles will be published on our website. No corrections can be made after publication, including corrections to author names and affiliations. All corrections must be made at the proofing stage.
Letters to the editor should be submitted online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/vjsm. Use the link “Submit a Letter to the Editor” at the top of the page. Letters should include all authors’ names at the end of the body of the letter. The author disclosure form and contributor publishing agreement are required for letters to the editor. Letters will be sent to the author of the paper discussed for a reply.
In publishing with VJSM®, you grant the journal exclusive right and license to produce, publish, and make available. As the author, if you would like to reuse video content, you may do so in the following ways in accordance with CC BY-NC-ND and with attribution: embed link to the video in full; repurpose one clip using no more than a total of 60 seconds; quote or restate transcribed material. Content may be shared only on non-mass media sharing sites and for noncommercial purposes only. See Process for Requesting Permission if you determine your reuse does require permission.
8. Important Notice on Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
VJSM® and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of articles published in the Journal. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the Journal. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, or where data or other information found to be incorrect or falsified, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction), retracting the article, taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies, banning the author from publication in the Journal or all SAGE journals, or appropriate legal action.