Bone Materials : Instructions for authors

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Instructions to Authors

About the journal

Bone Materials (Formerly as: Clinical Trials in Orthopedic Disorders) is an international open-accessed, fully peer-reviewed journal publishing the science, clinical application and technology development of all aspects of bone materials, it publishes reviews and regular research articles. The journal provides a forum for publishing papers which advance the in-depth understanding and research of the relationship between the structure, the properties, the functions or the applications of all kinds of materials in bone science.

Original Manuscripts on clinical and laboratory research of basic and applied character which focus on the properties or performance of bone materials or the reaction of host tissues to materials are given priority publication. Other acceptable topics include application technology in clinical and laboratory technology in bone materials.

The scope of Bone Materials includes, but is not limited to:
Design, synthesis, and evaluation of bone / cartilage materials
Surface modification methods of bone / cartilage materials
Safety assessment of bone / cartilage materials
Biomechanics of bone / cartilage materials and devices
Interaction of bone / cartilage materials with cells, especially stem cells
Bone / cartilage materials and 3D printing
Bone / cartilage materials and digital technology
Clinical applications of bone / cartilage materials
Materials and devices used for various applications in dental restorations

Bone Materials uses a rigorous and timely peer-review process that ensures the highest quality for publication. The journal ensures the accuracy, timeliness and completeness of the database’s content. Bone Materials dedicated to disseminate each published article to achieve the largest display through the most influential international journal platform.

The Editorial Process

Each submission to Bone Materials passes through a quality control check and peer-review evaluation process before receiving a decision. The initial in-house quality control check deals with issues such as plagiarism check, competing interests, ethical requirements for studies involving human participants or animals, financial disclosures, in full compliance with Bone Materials’s data availability policy. Submissions may be returned to authors for queries, and will not be assigned to our Editorial Board or peer reviewers until they pass the quality control check.

Peer Review Process
Once the manuscript has passed quality control check, it is assigned to the strict double-blinded peer review process for a decision, either to accept, revise, or reject the article. Before manuscripts are sent for review, invited peer reviewers are confirmed regarding their availability, conflicts of interest with the manuscript, their agreements to have their names and comments published afterwords. A peer review report together with the reviewer’s name, if permitted, will be posted at the end of the article. Only 15–20% of submitted manuscripts are published in Bone Materials. Most manuscripts will be evaluated by 3–5 external reviewers. Average time from the submission to the first editorial decision is 1 month. The review time could be shortened to 7 days for the paper with sophisticated review comments from other recognized journals in the field. According to these comments, the academic editors will make a decision as to accept, reject, request a revision or send to another peer review. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three working days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as ‘Ahead of Print’ immediately on acceptance.

Reviewer Recognition
The quality of Bone Materials depends on the effort that is generously contributed by our reviewers who have dedicated their expertise and time helping to ensure we publish great science. Bone Materials will provide a certification of review for those who make general comments with more than 150 words and complete the peer-review process within 14 days. We encourage the reviewers to share and discuss their review comments on Publons (www.publons.com). Bone Materials will also give credit to registered reviewers on Publons.

Complaints Process
This procedure applies to complaints about the policies, procedures, or actions of the Bone Materials’s editorial staff. We welcome complaints as they provide an opportunity and a spur for improvement, and we aim to respond quickly, courteously, and constructively. The procedure outlined below aims to be fair to those making complaints and those complained about.

Definition:
Our definition of a complaint is as follows:
a. The complainant defines his or her expression of unhappiness as a complaint.
b. We infer that the complainant is not simply disagreeing with a decision we have made or something we have published (which happens every day) but thinks that there has been a failure of process—for example, an unacceptably long delay or a rude response—or a severe misjudgement.
c. The complaint must be about something that is within the responsibility of Bone Materials editorial office – i.e. content or process.

How to make a complaint:
a. Complaints may be made by phone, email, or letter, ideally to the person the complainant is already in contact with over the matter being complained about. If that is not appropriate please email:
b. Whenever possible complaints will be dealt with by the person to whom they are made. If that person cannot deal with the complaint he or she will refer it to the Editor-in-Chief.
c. Complaints about editorial matters that are sent to Medknow officers and officials will usually be referred in the first instance to the Editor.
d. All complaints will be acknowledged (immediately on the phone, within seven working days if by email or post).
e. If possible a definitive response will be made within two weeks. If this is not possible an interim response will be given within two weeks. Interim responses will be provided until the complaint is finally resolved.
f. If the complainant remains unhappy, complaints should be escalated to the editor, whose decision is final.
g. If the complainant has exhausted the internal processes and is still unhappy he or she can complain to the following body:
The Committee on Publication Ethics COPE publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific, technical, and medical journals http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/. It will consider complaints against editors but only once a journal’s own complaints procedures have been exhausted.

Clinical trial registry

Bone Materials favors registration of clinical trials and is a signatory to the Statement on publishing clinical trials in Indian biomedical journals. Bone Materials would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable:

This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun enrollment of subjects in or after June 2008. Clinical trials that have commenced enrollment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in Bone Materials only if they have been registered retrospectively with clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the four components mentioned below:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope and number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Update your ORCID record after publication
The first author or the corresponding author should provide ORCID upon manuscript submission. Bone Materials also helps authors to register a unique ORCID identifier to uniquely identify author’s publication.

Contribution Details

Provide at minimum one contribution for each author in the submission system. Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work. The submitting author is responsible for completing this information at submission, and we expect that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time.

The author’s names are listed in the following format: full family (sur)name followed by abbreviated family and first and middles names. For example, “WCL and LL contributed equally to this work. WCL, LL, FJF, ZCC, HF and WXM designed the research study. WCL, ZCC, HF and WXM performed the research. XJZ and LJR contributed new reagents and analytic tools. WCL, LL and FJF analyzed the data. WCL, LL and FJF wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.”

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

Authors:

When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias or be seen to bias their work.
Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs. Authors should avoid entering in to agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and non-profit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.

Peer Reviewers:
Reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Reviewers must not use knowledge of the work they’re reviewing before its publication to further their own interests.

Editors and Journal Staff:
Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists. Editorial staff must not use information gained through working with manuscripts for private gain. Editors should publish regular disclosure statements about potential conflicts of interests related to the commitments of journal staff. Guest editors should follow these same procedures.

Submission of Manuscripts

Please submit your manuscript via our online manuscript handling site at https://review.jow.medknow.com/BoneMater using the log-in details provided to you by the editorial office. First time users will have to register at this site. Registration is free but mandatory. Registered authors can keep track of their articles after logging into the site using their user name and password.

Authors submitting manuscripts by email ([email protected]) also can be accepted.

. If you experience any problems, please contact the editorial office by e-mail at editor [AT] bonematerials . com

The submitted manuscripts that are not as per the “Instructions to Authors” would be returned to the authors for technical correction, before they undergo editorial/ peer-review. Generally, the manuscript should be submitted in the form of two separate files:

[1] Title Page/First Page File/covering letter:

This file should provide

The type of manuscript (original article, case report, review article, Letter to editor, Images, etc.) title of the manuscript, running title, names of all authors/ contributors (with their highest academic degrees, designation and affiliations) and name(s) of department(s) and/ or institution(s) to which the work should be credited, . All information which can reveal your identity should be here. Use text/rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files.
The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references, tables and abstract), word counts for introduction + discussion in case of an original article;
Source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these;
Acknowledgement, if any. One or more statements should specify 1) contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship, such as general support by a departmental chair; 2) acknowledgments of technical help; and 3) acknowledgments of financial and material support, which should specify the nature of the support. This should be included in the title page of the manuscript and not in the main article file.
If the manuscript was presented as part at a meeting, the organization, place, and exact date on which it was read. A full statement to the editor about all submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant publication of the same or very similar work. Any such work should be referred to specifically, and referenced in the new paper. Copies of such material should be included with the submitted paper, to help the editor decide how to handle the matter.
Registration number in case of a clinical trial and where it is registered (name of the registry and its URL)
Conflicts of Interest of each author/ contributor. A statement of financial or other relationships that might lead to a conflict of interest, if that information is not included in the manuscript itself or in an authors' form
Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/ contributors’ list
A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, that the requirements for authorship as stated earlier in this document have been met, and that each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work, if that information is not provided in another form (see below); and
The name, address, e-mail, and telephone number of the corresponding author, who is responsible for communicating with the other authors about revisions and final approval of the proofs, if that information is not included on the manuscript itself.

[2] Blinded Article file: The main text of the article, beginning from Abstract till References (including tables) should be in this file. The file must not contain any mention of the authors' names or initials or the institution at which the study was done or acknowledgements. Page headers/running title can include the title but not the authors' names. Manuscripts not in compliance with the Journal's blinding policy will be returned to the corresponding author. Use rtf/doc files. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 1 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file. The pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the first page of the blinded article file.

[3] Images: Submit good quality color images. Each image should be less than 2 MB in size. Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 1600 x 1200 pixels or 5-6 inches). Images can be submitted as jpeg files. Do not zip the files. Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file.

[4] The contributors' / copyright transfer form (template provided below) has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax or email as a scanned image. Print ready hard copies of the images (one set) or digital images should be sent to the journal office at the time of submitting revised manuscript. High resolution images (up to 5 MB each) can be sent by email.

Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form can be submitted online from the authors’ area on https://review.jow.medknow.com/bonemater.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Read the journal scope and criteria for publication for information on what Bone Materials publishes. Bone Materials welcomes presubmission inquiries. Manuscripts should be organized as follows.

Bone Materials accepts manuscripts written in American English.

Title page:
Title: 20 word maximum. Titles should be written in sentence case (only the first word of the text, proper nouns, and genus names are capitalized). Avoid specialist abbreviations if possible. For specific type of clinical trials, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses, the subtitle should include the study design.

Author list: All authors must meet the criteria for authorship in accordance with the standard proposed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.
org/). Author names(unabbreviated) should be given as first name, and family (sur)name. A hyphen should be included between the syllables of Chinese names, for example Xiao-Ming Xu.

Affiliations: The affiliation includes department, university, or organizational affiliation and its location, including city, state/province (if applicable), and country. If an author has multiple affiliations, enter all affiliations on the title page only. In the submission system, enter only the preferred or primary affiliation.

Corresponding Author(s): Include the academic degree (e.g., M.D., Ph.D., B.S.) and an email address for each corresponding author listed on the title page of the manuscript. The submitting author is automatically designated as the corresponding author in the submission system. The corresponding author is the primary contact for the journal office and the only author able to view or change the manuscript while it is under editorial consideration. Only one corresponding author can be designated in the submission system, but this does not restrict the number of corresponding authors that may be listed on the article in the event of publication. Whoever is designated as a corresponding author on the title page of the manuscript file will be listed as such upon publication.

ORCID: The corresponding author must provide an ORCID iD at the time of submission by entering it in the user profile in the submission system.

Funding information: This information should describe sources of funding that have supported the work, including full names of foundation that funded the study or authors, specific grant numbers, and initials of authors who received each award. It is important to gather these details prior to submission because your funding information cannot be changed after initial submission without journal approval. If your manuscript is published, your statement will appear in the Funding section of the article.

Main body:

Abstract: ≥500words, structured abstract. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Reports of randomized controlled trials should follow the CONSORT extension for abstracts. The abstract must include the following separate sections:

Background: the context and purpose of the study
Methods: how the study was performed and statistical tests used
Results: the main findings
Conclusions: brief summary and potential implications
Trial registration: If your article reports the results of a health care intervention on human participants, it must be registered in an appropriate registry and the registration number and date of registration should be in stated in this section.

Key words: 8-10 keywords that reflect the main content of the study. Each keyword is separated by a semicolon.

Introduction: 500 words maximum. The Background section should include:

- The background to the study;

- A summary of the existing literature;

- Specific purpose and hypothesis why this study was necessary or its contribution to the field.

Subjects and Methods: The methods section should include:

- The study design: (1)Trial design: Description of trial design (such as parallel, factorial); (2) Ethical approval: the name of the approving institutional review board or equivalent committee(s) and its approval number; and (3) informed consent;

- The participants: (1) the recruitment process: Settings and locations where the data were collected and (2) Eligibility criteria: including inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, rejection criteria;

- Intervention: The interventions for each group with sufficient details to allow replication, including how and when they were actually administered;

- Outcome measures: Completely defined pre-specified primary and secondary outcome measures, including how and when they were assessed;

- Sample size and power: How sample size was determined;

- Statistical analysis: Statistical methods used to compare groups for primary and secondary outcomes; Methods for additional analyses, such as subgroup analyses and adjusted analyses

- Data management:

- Data review: (1) Data review Committee; (2) Researchers’ qualification; (3) Audit; (4) Compensation to the subjects; (5) Compensation to the Harms;

- Ethics and Dissemination: (1) Ethical approval; (2) Changes to the protocol; (3) Informed Consent; (4) Confidentiality; (5) Data collection; (6) Cares for the Harms; (7) Dissemination Policy;

Results: This should include the findings of the study including, if appropriate, results of statistical analysis which must be included either in the text or as tables and figures.

Statistical analysis: Authors must provide detailed information for each statistical test applied including: the type of test; specific p values (not > or <); degrees of freedom; population size; definition of population (e.g., number of individual measurements, number of animals, number of slices, number of times treatment was applied, etc.); and if performed, what correction was used to adjust for multiple pair wise comparisons.

Discussion: 1500 words maximum. This section should discuss the implications of the findings in context of existing research and highlight limitations of the study.

Trial status: Authors should report the protocol version number and date, the date recruitment began, and the approximate date when recruitment will be completed.

Figures and Tables: Flow diagram which displays the progress of all participants through the trial should be provided.

Figure legend(s) and Table title(s) are provided. The order and numerical labeling of tables and figures is consistent with their appearance and presentation in the text. Symbols in tables (e.g., +, -, ×, ÷, ) correctly correspond to the definitions in the footnotes. Only one legend is provided for each multi-panel figure consisting of color graphs, black and white graphs, or line graphs that depicts data of the same theme. For example: Figure 1 Pathological changes in atrophic gastritis tissue before and after treatment. (A) …. (B) …. (C) …. (D) …. (E) …. (F) ….

References: 30 references minimum for original article, which 30% of cited references should have been published within the preceding 3 years. Bone Materials has adopted the reference style of JAMA. Please download it from EndNote.

Additional information requested at submission:
Author contributions: Provide at minimum one contribution for each author in the submission system. Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work. The submitting author is responsible for completing this information at submission, and we expect that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time.
The author’s names are listed in the following format: full family (sur)name followed by abbreviated family and first and middles names. For example, “WCL and LL contributed equally to this work. WCL, LL, FJF, ZCC, HF and WXM designed the research study. WCL, ZCC, HF and WXM performed the research. XJZ and LJR contributed new reagents and analytic tools. WCL, LL and FJF analyzed the data. WCL, LL and FJF wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.”

Financial support: Financial Disclosure Statement should include: (1)Specific grant numbers; (2)Initials of authors who received each award; (3)Full names of commercial companies that funded the study or authors; (4)Initials of authors who received salary or other funding from commercial companies; (5) whether any sponsors or funders (other than the named authors) played any role in Study design/Data collection and analysis/Decision to publish/Preparation of the manuscript.
If they had no role in the research, include this sentence: “The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.”
If the study was unfunded, include this sentence as the Financial support: “The author(s) received no specific funding for this work."

Acknowledgment: Those who contributed to the work but do not meet the authorship criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgments with a description of the contribution.

Conflict of interests: All potential competing interests must be declared in full. If the submission is related to any patents, patent applications, or products in development or for market, these details, including patent numbers and titles, must be disclosed in full.
If all authors have nothing to declare, include this sentence as the Conflicts of interest: “None declared.”

Institutional review board statement: e.g. “The research involving human participants must have been approved by the hospital ethics committee (Approval number and date of approval). The study followed the principles in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants. The study was registered in Trial Registry (registration number and date of registration), compulsory for all prospective clinical studies.”

Declaration of participant consent: E.g. The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent forms. In the form the patients have given their consent for their images and other clinical information to be reported in the journal. The patients understand that their names and initials will not be published and due efforts will be made to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
Facial photos of human subjects should be obscured whenever possible to comply with publishing standards.

Reporting statement:
For human subjects research, the manuscript should conform to the following reporting guidelines according to ICMJE:
- Randomized trials: CONSORT
- Non-randomized trials: TREND
- Observational studies: STROBE
- Systematic reviews: PRISMA
- Case reports: CARE
- Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE
- Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD
- Economic evaluation studies: CHEERS
- Other types of health-related research: Consult the EQUATOR web site for appropriate reporting guidelines

Biostatistics statement: E.g. The statistical methods of the study should be reviewed by the biostatistician of their institution.

Data sharing statement:
(1) Will individual participant data be available (including data dictionaries)?
(2) What data in particular will be shared (single choice)?
- All of the individual participant data collected during the trial, after deidentification
- Individual participant data that underlie the results reported in this article, after deidentification (text, tables, figures, and appendices)
(3) What other documents will be available (multiple choice)?
- Study Protocol; Statistical Analysis Plan; Analytic Code; Informed Consent Form; Clinical Study Report
(4) When will data be available (start and end dates) (single choice)?
- Immediately following publication, No end date;
- Beginning 3 months and ending 5 years following article publications
- Beginning 9 months and ending 36 months following article publication
(5) With whom (single choice)?
- Anyone who wishes to access the data
- Researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal
- Investigations whose proposed use of the data has been approved by an independent review committee (“learned intermediary”) identified for this purpose
(6) For what types of analyses (single choice)?
- Any purpose; To achieve aims in the approved proposal; For individual participant data meta-analysis
(7) By what mechanism will data be made available (single choice)?
- Data are available indefinitely at (Link to be included)
- Proposals should be directed to [email protected] To gain access, data requestors will need to sign a data access agreement. Data are available for 5 years at a third party website (Link to be included).
- Proposals may be submitted up to 36 months following article publication. After 36 months the data will be available in our University’s data warehourse but without investigator support other than deposited metadata. Information regarding submitting proposals and accessing data may be found at (Link to be provided).

Supporting Information:
Authors can submit essential supporting files and multimedia files along with their manuscripts. All supporting information will be subject to peer review. List supporting information captions at the end of the manuscript file. For example: Additional file 1: Text. Title is strongly recommended. Legend is optional.
For prospective clinical study, the following documents are encouraged to upload:
(1) Institutional Review Board Approval Document;
(2) Clinical Trial Protocol;
(3) Signed Informed Consent Form;
(4) Checklist of Reporting Guidelines, e.g. CONSORT 2010 Checklist.
Other supporting documents are welcomed, including:
(1) The approved grant application form;
(2) Copyright License Agreement;
(3) Conflict-of-interest Disclosure form (Download from http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/).

Copyright/Permissions after Publication

The publisher retains all rights concerning assembling, printing, reproducing, translating, disseminating, exhibiting, publishing, retrieving and indexing part or of all the contents of the article.
• After signing transfer of copyright with the journal, the authors still retain the rights.
• In not-for-profit circumstances, the use, dissemination and reproduction of part or of all contents of the article is permitted when cited properly.

Types of Manuscripts

Original Articles:

Bone Materials will consider manuscripts on any clinical topic that is relevant to all aspects of orthopedic disorders.

Reviews:
Invited reviews are topical reviews, generally 6,000 words in length, which cover a current topic of interest in nervous system diseases.

Case Reports:

New, interesting and rare cases can be reported. They should be unique, describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority. These communications could be of up to 1000 words (excluding Abstract and references) and should have the following headings: Abstract (unstructured), Key-words, Introduction, Case report, Discussion, Reference, Tables and Legends in that order.
The manuscript could be of up to 1000 words (excluding references and abstract) and could be supported with up to 10 references. Case Reports could be authored by up to four authors.

Letters to the Editor:
Brief communications and case reports should offer an important new observation and not simply review the literature. In rare instances, we will consider case reports for this article type, but only if the topic is extraordinarily novel.

Corrections and Retractions:
Bone Materials publishes corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern as appropriate, and as quickly as possible. We follow the ICMJE and COPE guidelines where applicable.

• Correction: A notice of correction will be issued by Bone Materials to correct substantial errors that appear in published articles when these errors significantly affect the content or understanding of the work (e.g., error in data presentation or analysis) or when the error affects the publication’s metadata (e.g., misspelling of an author’s name). In these cases, Bone Materials will publish a correction that will be linked to the original article. In very rare cases, we may choose to correct the article itself and repost it online. If that course is taken, a correction notice will also be created to document the changes to the original article.
• Author-Initiated Retractions: Bone Materials will retract an article at the authors’ request at any time unless it is under review for a possible violation of Responsible Conduct Regarding Scientific Communications. At the authors’ option, the retraction notice may simply state that the article has been retracted at the authors’ request. Alternatively, the authors may provide a brief explanation of the error(s) prompting the retraction. However, statements of retraction may not assign blame to specific authors or laboratories.
• Retractions: The editors reserve the right to retract an article at any time after publication without the consent of the authors if an investigation by an appropriate authority reveals a violation of Bone Materials’s ethics policy.
To request a correction/retraction, please contact the editorial office directly at [email protected]

Plagiarism
• Each Bone Materials paper will be checked twice, using Crosscheck to verify originality after submission and prior to publication. The check report will be sent to the authors.
• The similarity of any Bone Materials paper should not be over 5% against one single published paper, not over 20% against all published papers.
• Similarity between new submitted manuscript and the published by the same research team or author should be not over 30%.
• No retracted articles should be cited.
• For dishonorable events including redundant (duplicate) publication, suspected plagiarism, and undisclosed conflicts of interest, Bone Materials will abide by COPE guidelines (http://publicationethics.org/resources).

Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs

Initiative	Type of Study	Source
CONSORT	Randomized controlled trials	http://www.consort-statement.org
STARD	Studies of diagnostic accuracy	http://www.consort-statement.org/stardstatement.htm
QUOROM	Systematic reviews and meta-analyses	http://www.consort- statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf
STROBE	Observational studies in epidemiology	http://www.strobe-statement.org
MOOSE	Meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology	http://www.consort- statement.org/Initiatives/MOOSE/moose.pdf

Ethical Guidance
According to ICMJE recommendations, the authors should follow all ethical principles for medical research involving humans and experimental animals.

Requirements for Ethical Issues Related to Clinical Trials
• All studies performed involving human should be registered in clinical trials registry platform, such as ClinicalTrials.gov, prior to participant recruitment. The registry platform
and register identifier should be provided upon submission and included in the abstract of the manuscript.
• The ethics committee and the approval number(s) should be stated in papers. Prospective clinical studies with no registration will not be accepted by Bone Materials. In addition, informed consent of study and protocol version should be indicated.
• Clinical manuscripts should be written according to the reporting guidelines at www.equator-network.org. Additionally, checklists and a flow chart should be provided upon submission.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients’ names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines: i. Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices. ii. If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicat ed in the manuscript.

Sending a revised manuscript

Authors who receive a decision of minor revision or major revision have 21 days to resubmit the revised manuscript.
If you are submitting a revised manuscript, the following items with your revised submission are required:
• Response to reviewers form: Address the specific points made by each reviewer.

• Revised manuscript (traced copy): Include a traced copy of your manuscript file showing the changes you have made on the original submission.
• Revised manuscript (clean copy): Upload a clean copy of your revised manuscript that does not show your changes.

Reprints and proofs

Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Publication Schedule

The journal publishes articles on its website immediately on acceptance and follows a ‘continuous publication’ schedule. Articles are compiled for ‘print on demand’ semiannual issues.

Open Access Fees
Authors of invited papers will be granted complete waiver for the open-access fee.

When a paper is accepted for publication, the authors will be issued an invoice of the open-access fee. The open-access fee is used for online open access, development and maintenance of editorial system, and data processing for better exposure on Google Scholar, iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones, as well as for PubMed indexing and CrossRef registration. The open-access fee will, at the discretion of the editorial committee based on the quality of manuscript, be reduced or waived for manuscripts from low-income countries. Articles decision making is not associated with author’s ability to pay. The cost for language polishing is not covered in open-access fee.

Dissemination after Publication
Once the paper is published, it will be scheduled for dissemination via e-Newslettter.
After publication, Bone Materials provides articles more visibility on the social network, e.g., Mendeley, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. We also recommend authors link your paper from as many websites as possible using citation and social book marking tools such as,
• ORCID, https://orcid.org/
• ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/
• Kudos, https://www.growkudos.com/
• Mendeley, https://www.mendeley.com/
• Figshare, https://figshare.com/
• DataCite, https://www.datacite.org/
• Google+, https://plus.google.com/discover
• Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/
• Twitter, https://twitter.com/
• LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/ctod-zhao-982994140
• Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthamoeba_keratitis#References

Copyrights

The entire contents of the Bone Materials are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 Unported License.

Checklist

Covering letter

Signed by all contributors
Previous publication / presentations mentioned
Source of funding mentioned
Conflicts of interest disclosed

Authors

Last name and given name provided along with Middle name initials (where applicable)
Author for correspondence, with e-mail address provided
Number of contributors restricted as per the instructions

Identity not revealed in paper except title page (e.g. name of the institute in Methods, citing previous study as 'our study', names on figure labels, name of institute in photographs, etc.)

Presentation and format

Title page contains all the desired information
Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
Abstract provided (unstructured abstract of 250 words for original articles, structured abstracts of about 200 words for all other manuscripts excluding letters to the Editor)
Key words provided (three or more)
Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’

Language and grammar

Uniformly American English
Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure. Numerals from 1 to 10 spelt out
Numerals at the beginning of the sentence spelt out
Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer's name and address (city and state/country).
Species names should be in italics

Tables and figures

No repetition of data in tables and graphs and in text
Actual numbers from which graphs drawn, provided
Figures necessary and of good quality (colour)
Table and figure numbers in Arabic letters (not Roman)
Labels pasted on back of the photographs (no names written)
Patients' privacy maintained (if not permission taken)
Credit note for borrowed figures/tables provided
Write the full term for each abbreviation used in the table as a footnote
Discussion (1,000 words maximum)

- Past contributions and existing problems of others in the field of research
- Discuss the major novel findings of the study and describe the different characteristics from other studies
- Disclose the limitations and bias to embody the authenticity of the contents
- Indicate the theoretical significance and practical application value of the present results and make a strong conclusion

References: use the 10th edition of American Medical Association (AMA) citation style.

Figures and Tables
Additional files
File 1: SPIRIT checklist (mandatory)
File 2: Research Organization and list of Investigators (if applicable)
File 3: Ethical Approval (if applicable)
File 4: Informed Consent Form (if applicable)
Research Articles

Title: 90 characters (20 words) maximum
Abstract: This should be structured with the following sections.

- Background and objectives
- Design
- Methods
- Results
- Conclusion
Registration details should be included in this section.
Keywords: Five to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.
Introduction (1,500 words maximum)
- Research background:
- Novelty of this study:
- Main objective:

Materials/Subjects and Methods
Results: Main findings of the study
Discussion (1,000 words maximum)
- Past contributions and existing problems of others in the field of research
- Discuss the major novel findings of the study and describe the different characteristics from other studies
- Disclose the limitations and bias to embody the authenticity of the contents
- Indicate the theoretical significance and practical application value of the present results and make a strong conclusion

References
-Original articles should cite references that have been published within the preceding 3 years. Bone Materials has adopted the 10th edition of American Medical Association (AMA) citation style.

Books, Reference Books, and Book Chapters:
Theis JL. Case Studies for the Occupational Therapy Assistant. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning; 2011.
Martin S, Kessler M. Neurological Interventions for Physical Therapy. 2nd edition. St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier; 2007.
Academic Journals
Simmons L, Smith T. Effectiveness of Pre-operative Physiotherapy-Based Programmes on Outcomes Following Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Phys Ther Rev. 2013; 18:1-10. Available from: CINAHL Complete. Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 30, 2015.
Khetani MA. Validation of Environmental Content in the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2015;96:317-322.
Godoy MFG, Oliani A, Guimarães T, Azoubel L, Silva Oliveira R, de Godoy J. Clinical treatment of arm lymphedema in an outpatient setting: Two years of follow up. J Phlebology & Lympholo [serial online]. January 2010;(3):11-15. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 30, 2015.
Subauste CS. Autophagy as an antimicrobial strategy. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2009;7(6):743-752. doi:10.1586/eri.09.41.
Baxyk S, ed. Mental Health Promotion, Prevention, and Intervention with Children and Youth: A Guiding Framework for Occupational Therapy. Bethesda, MD: The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.; 2011.
Olson L. Development and Implementation of Groups to Foster Social Participation and Mental Health. In: Bazyk S, ed. Mental Health Promotion, Prevention, and Intervention with Children and Youth: A Guiding Framework for Occupational Therapy. Bethesda, MD: The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.; 2011: Chapter 5.
Web Page:
American Physical Therapy Association. Professionalism. American Physical Therapy Association. http://www.apta.org/Professionalism/. Published June 2007. Updated March 25, 2011. Accessed November 13, 2012.
Figures and Tables

Invited Reviews

Word limit: 6,000 words maximum including the abstract, but excluding references, tables and figures.
Title: 90 characters (20 words) maximum.
Abstract: 250 words maximum, unstructured.
Keywords: Five to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.
Body: The body should consist of a comprehensive, objective, and critical overview that is based almost exclusively on information that has been published in peer-reviewed reports. Authors are expected to present all sides of controversial issues in an even-handed manner. The review should thoroughly describe the mechanisms of injury and disease, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. Use appropriate subheadings as needed.
Conclusion: The conclusion should include a brief summary of the article and a clear indication of future research.
References: Bone Materials has adopted the 10th edition of American Medical Association (AMA) citation style.
Figures and Tables

Letters to the editor

-An in-depth analysis of an issue published in this or other journals.
-Evaluation of novel techniques, methods, and theoretical studies of concern to readers.
-Issues must meet the journal’s publishing criteria and be of interest to its readers.
Structure
-Maximum of 2,000 words, excluding references. No abstract, tables, or figures.
Title
-Maximum of 90 characters (20 words).
Correspondence/Findings
Author information
References
-Maximum of 5. Use the 10th edition of American Medical Association (AMA) citation style

Sending a revised manuscript
The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the “First Page” or “Covering Letter” file while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, contributors are requested to include, the ‘referees’ remarks along with point to point clarification at the beginning in the revised file itself. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article.

Reprints and proofs
Journal provides no free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

Publication schedule
The journal publishes articles on its website immediately on acceptance and follows a ‘continuous publication’ schedule. Articles are compiled for ‘print on demand’ semiannual issues.

Acceptance and Publication
After acceptance, the authors are free inquiry regarding the progress of their manuscript online using the account number assigned to the corresponding author at any time. Generally, manuscripts will be published within 3 months after acceptance.

Plagiarism
• Each Bone Materials paper will be checked twice, using ithenticate to verify originality after submission and prior to publication. The check report will be sent to the authors.
• The similarity of any Bone Materials paper should not be over 5% against one single published paper, not over 20% against all published papers.
• Similarity between new submitted manuscript and the published by the same research team or author should be not over 50%.
• No retracted articles should be cited.
• For dishonorable events including redundant (duplicate) publication, suspected plagiarism, and undisclosed conflicts of interest, Bone Materials will abide by COPE guidelines (http://publicationethics.org/resources).

Publication

The publisher retains all rights concerning assembling, printing, reproducing, translating, disseminating, exhibiting, publishing, retrieving and indexing part or of all the contents of the article.
• After signing transfer of copyright with the journal, the authors still retain the rights.
• In not-for-profit circumstances, the use, dissemination and reproduction of part or of all contents of the article is permitted when cited properly.

Reprints/Subscriptions
We are committed to providing two hard copies and five high-quality reprints to authors for free. Reprints can be purchased as print or electronic reprints and as translated articles, and will be customized to your specific requirements and shrink-wrapped

Data Availability
Bone Materials encourages authors to upload original experimental data on journal website or Figshare prior to or after publication, including original data, images, or tables. Open access of data will increase study transparency, accelerate the scientific research pace, and establish credibility of scientific research.

Figshare is an internationally respected data repository that can upload, store, and share original data of the study. With the permission of open-access copyright, the authors can display and share their data, which facilitates retrieval, reading, download, and sharing.

Data-Sharing Statement in Clinical Trials
As of 1 January 2018, manuscripts submitted to Bone Materials that report the results of clinical trials must contain a data-sharing statement.

Contributors' form

Click here to download instructions

Click here to download copyright form

These ready to use templates are made to help the contributors write as per the requirements of the Journal.

Save the templates on your computer and use them with a word processor program.
Click open the file and save as the manuscript file.

In the program keep 'Document Map' and 'Comments' on from 'View' menu to navigate through the file.

Download Template for Original Articles/ABSTRACT Reports. (.DOT file)

Download Template for Case Reports. (.DOT file)

Download Template for Review Articles. (.DOT file)

Download Template for Letter to the Editor. (.DOT file)

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