Journal of Spine Practice

Author Style Guide

This is a style guide for the articles published by the Journal of Spine Practice (JSP). Ideally, the authors should adhere as closely as possible to these rules, but there may be cases where this might not be possible, or the style guide might be silent on a given point; should this be the case, please try to maintain consistency.

Please proof-read all work prior to submission to ensure a good standard of written English and the accuracy of references, and ensure you adhere to this guide when submitting the final version of your article (following peer review) as otherwise it might be returned to you for further alterations.

General Overview

Manuscript format

The manuscript must be typewritten in Microsoft Word, with margins of 2.5 cm. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page and continuing through the last page of typewritten material. Avoid underlining. Manuscripts should be written using clear and concise English. Note that a title page with author details should be submitted separately (authors’ details should not be included in the main manuscript).

Types of articles

• Original articles
  • The reporting should adhere to the CONSORT guidelines for randomised trials, the STROBE guidelines for observational studies, and STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy.
  • A maximum of 4000 words
    
• Systematic reviews
  • The protocol of these studies should adhere to PRISMA guidelines (for systematic reviews of RCTs) or MOOSE guidelines (for observational studies)
  • A maximum of 5000 words
    
• Non-systematic reviews (narrative reviews)
  • It should be written by experts and contain a critical assessment of the current knowledge of the field.
  • A maximum of 5000 words
    
• Short communication / brief reports
  • It can be in the form of a research article, systematic review or ongoing research report which discusses its interesting findings
  • A maximum of 2000 words
    
• Letter to the Editor
  • It should be about previous articles, criticism, review of books, analysis of a related topic in spine practice, or expansion and explanation about an idea or a complicated problem.
  • 1000-1500 words
    
• Case reports
  • The reporting of case reports should adhere to CARE guidelines
  • Necessary documentation of the case(s), like pathology reports, laboratory test reports, and images, should be included in the submission package, along with 1-4 figures
  • A maximum of 3000 words

Article metadata

Article title

Casing: Sentence case and bold

For sentence case, capitalise the first letter of the first word of the title, the first word after a dash or colon in the title and proper nouns.

There should be no abbreviations in the title.

The title should include the type of study.

Example: Occupational therapy treatment time during inpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation: A retrospective study in Riyadh

Authors

First and last names should be provided, followed by an affiliation superscript and the last academic degree with periods after each letter.

The authors should be separated by a comma.

The authors should provide their ORCID iD.

Example: Kaivalya Gongadashettia M.D., Pankush Guptaa M.D., Rima Dadaa,b M.D., Neena Malhotrab M.D.

Affiliations

Full affiliations should be provided below the names, including the name of the institution, city and country.

Please use superscripted letters where there is more than one affiliation.

Contact details for the corresponding author

For a paper with more than one author, the corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk (*), which should be separated from the affiliation superscript with a comma.

• The following contact details should be provided:
• Postal address (including name of st., ave., blvd., etc.) and postal code
• Cell number with country code, written as (+…) …..
• Email address
• ORCID iD
• Twitter account name, where available, to allow for social media promotions

Where possible the corresponding author should use their institutional email address, not a personal one.

Providing ORCID iDs allows us to better promote this research to the international academic community by linking it with other research by the author(s).

Abstract

Should be no more than 250 words and should be structured as follows, depending on the type of article:

Original articles and systematic reviews

• Background
• Objective
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

Non-systematic reviews and Letters to the Editor

(Non-structured)

Case reports

• Background
• Case description or presentation
• Conclusion

Keywords

Please provide a minimum of 5 keywords. These should be specific and relevant to the paper.

Capitalise the first word of each keyword phrase and any proper nouns.

All words should be in italics, separated by commas, and with a period at the end.

Keywords should be based on the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms of Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ mesh/MBrowser.html).

Structuring your article

Structure of the body text

The following structure should be used based on the type of article:

Original articles, systematic reviews, short communication / brief reports

1. Introduction
2. Materials and methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
   Acknowledgements
   Conflict of interest
   Authors’ contribution
   References
   Figure legends
   Table titles

Non-systematic review

1. Introduction
2. Discussion
3. Conclusion
   Acknowledgements
   Conflict of interest
   Authors’ contribution
   References
   Figure legends
   Table titles

Case Reports

1. Introduction
2. Case presentation (this should include an ethical consideration section)
3. Discussion
4. Conclusion
   Acknowledgements
   Conflict of interest
   Authors’ contribution
   References
   Figure legends
   Table titles

Letter to the editor

(Unstructured)

Introduction section

This should summarise the purpose and the rationale for the study. It should neither review the subject extensively nor should it include the data or conclusions of the study. Please explain the purpose of the study at the end of the Introduction section.

Materials and methods section

This should include the study design and exact methods of the experiment or observations, definitions such as for diagnostic criteria, the population samples, and laboratory and statistical methods. If an apparatus was used, its manufacturer’s name and address should be given in parentheses. If the method used is an established method, give the reference, but if the method is new, give enough information so that another author can perform it.

The type of study should be mentioned in this section. This should be the same as the type of study mentioned in the title, abstract and rest of the body text.

A statistical analysis section should also be included (except for review articles which only review the literature without any statistical analyses). The statistical methods must be mentioned, and any general computer program that was used should be specified. Inadequate or incorrect statistical analyses frequently cause rejection or delays in the review of manuscripts. Where appropriate, authors should seek advice from a professional statistician before the manuscript is submitted.

Results section

This section should include the pertinent findings in a logical sequence with tables and figures as necessary. The contents of the tables should not be fully repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given. Long articles may need subheadings to clarify their contents. Unnecessary overlap between tables, figures and text should be avoided.

Discussion section

The discussion should emphasise the present findings and the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other researchers. Conclusions based on the findings, evidence from the literature that supports the conclusions, applicability of the conclusions, and implications for future research should be included in this section. The detailed data should not be repeated. Emphasise the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. It must be mentioned whether the hypothesis mentioned in the article is true, false or whether no conclusions can be derived.

Conclusion section

In this section, authors should state the final conclusion that they have reached. The results of other studies should not be stated here.

Acknowledgements section

The authors must use this section to thank contributors who helped them with completing the studies or preparing the paper but who do not meet the criteria for authorship. This can include anyone who provided technical assistance to the author or someone who had a helpful discussion with them, etc.

The source(s) of financial and material support should also be mentioned in this section. If the study had no financial support, then this should be stated. (However, review articles which do not need funding are not required to state this in the Acknowledgements section).

Personal acknowledgement should precede those of institutions or agencies.

Conflict of interest section

Conflicts of interest must be declared in this section, such as receiving funds or fees from or holding stocks and shares in, an organisation that may profit or lose through the publication of your paper. If there are none, then this should be stated.

Authors’ contribution

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Formatting your article

References

All of the sources of information that you use in your own research, both ideas and direct quotations, need to be acknowledged in the text as a citation. Each citation requires a reference containing all of the details of the source, which is included in a separate list.

References to other publications should be carefully checked for completeness, accuracy and consistency.

The Vancouver referencing style should be used.

Original articles should include 30-35 references. For systematic reviews, up to 40 references can be stated. Non-systematic reviews should contain at least 60 references. 10-15 references should be stated for short communications / brief reports. Editorial articles should have at least five references, and case reports should have 5-10 references.

In-text citations

References should be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text according to the Vancouver style.

Each reference number should be in rounded parentheses (2), immediately after the citation and before the sentence’s period. Where multiple citations are listed together, include them all in the same parentheses, separated by a comma (2, 3, 4).

When citing authors in the text, acknowledge only the first author when there are three or more authors (e.g., Williams et al. (1) stated that…). When there are two authors cite both (e.g., Jones and Smith (2) reported that…).

References List

• In the References list at the end of the document, citations should be arranged by number and follow the Vancouver style.
• Author’s name
  • Last name/surname followed by the initials, with no space or period between the surname and initials or between the initials; for example:
    • Darwin CR
  • Separate multiple author names with a comma, and the final name should end in a period; for example:
    • Attenborough D, Darwin CR, Curie MS.
  • Include the surnames and initials of all authors when there are six or fewer.
  • In the case of seven or more authors, the names of the first six authors, followed by et al. should be listed.
  • Note: authors should be listed in the order that they are listed in the text that is being referenced (not alphabetically)
• Titles
  • Titles of articles, books and book chapters should be in sentence case with only the first letter of the title, the first letter after a dash or colon and proper nouns capitalised.
• Journal names
  • Journal names should be written in title case, in italics with no full stops, an abbreviations should conform to Index Medicus.
• Organisation names
  • Names of organisations are spelt out, not abbreviated.
• Dates
  • For the year, use the 4-number format (e.g., 1990).
• Accessed online
  • When URLs are provided, this should be preceded with ‘Available at:’
• General formatting
  • There should be spaces between the year, volume and page numbers.
  • Inclusive page numbers should be given for all references.
  • The reference should end with a period unless it ends with a URL or language name.
• Language
  • If the source is in a language other than English, include the English translation of the title in square brackets as the title. At the end of the reference, include the name of the language in rounded parentheses, without a period; for example: (In Arabic)

Examples of different source types

Journal:

Author(s). Title of article (sentence case). Title of Journal Year; Volume number(issue number): Page numbers.

• Example:
  Weiner JA, Swiatek PR, Johnson DJ, et al. Learning from the past: Did experience with previous epidemics help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 among spine surgeons worldwide? [published correction appears in Eur Spine J 2020 Nov; 29(11): 2852]. Eur Spine J 2020; 29(8): 1789-1805.

Book:

Author(s). Title: Sub-title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; Year.

• Example:
  Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.

Chapter in a book:

Author(s) of chapter. Title: Sub-title of chapter. In: Author(s) (or editors) of the book. Title: Sub-title of book. Place of publication: Publisher; Year; Page numbers.

Report:

Author(s). Title of report. Place of publication: Publisher; Year. Page numbers.

• Example:
  Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age. New York: EPublishing Inc; 2009. 281-304.

Paper accepted for publication, but not yet published:

Author(s). Title of article. Title of Journal Year, in press.

• Example: Sepriano A, Ramiro S, Landewé R, et al. Inflammation of the sacroiliac joints and spine and structural changes on magnetic resonance imaging in axial 13 spondyloarthritis: Five-year data from the DESIR cohort. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 2022, in press.

Tables

Tables should be submitted in an editable format.

Please ensure that you are consistent with the number of decimal places in each table.

Each table should have a title above the table. This should be in sentence case with no period mark at the end.

The first left column should be in bold and aligned left. The titles of the other columns should be aligned in centre with only the first letter capitalised.

Variables should have units.

The complete form of abbreviations should be included in the legend below the table.

Tables are numbered with Roman numerals (Table I, Table II, Table III) and should be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.

Figures

Each figure should have a title as a caption below the figure. This should be in sentence case with a period at the end.

The magnification of the figure (if relevant) must be cited at the end of the figure title (e.g., x400 magnification). The complete form of abbreviations should also be included. Figures which contain diagrams or bar charts should be in black and white with different shading or hatching for different variables.

Figures are numbered as Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, etc. and should be cited in consecutive numerical order.

Figures should also be sent separately as a JPEG or GIF.

Supplementary materials

Supplementary materials such as video clips, questionnaires, etc. may be published.

Basic styling

Spelling

Use UK spelling.

Dictionary

Follow the Oxford Dictionary (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com).

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined with the complete form the first time that they are
mentioned in the body text.

Abbreviations should only be used to shorten phrases not words.

Phrases that appear fewer than three times in the body text should not be abbreviated.

Numbers

Numbers 1–9: Spelled out (one, two, three… etc.)

Numbers 10 and above: Numerals (10, 11, 12… etc.)

For exact measurements, use only figures (34km, 4%)

The number of decimal places included should be consistent.

Fractions: Spelled out in full in text (half, three-quarters, one-third), but written in digits in
tables

Thousandth separator: Use a comma for 5 digits and above; for example: 1000 but 10,000

Emphasis

Single inverted commas

Hyphenation

As per the UK dictionary followed

Quotation marks

Single inverted commas need to be used, and double quotations only within single inverted commas.

Use double quotes if the quoted matter is a direct quote made by someone.

Quotations with 45 words or more should be pulled out as a separate paragraph and indented. Please provide the source name for each block quote.

Parentheses

Use rounded parentheses ( ) for in-text references, p-values and when providing additional information or numbers within a sentence.

Italics

Use only for foreign words; for other terms, please follow the dictionary.

Names of journals, newspapers, books, etc. should always be in italics (except within the references where only journal names should be).

Date style

Use this style: March 14, 2018

Period: 2016–2017 (do not truncate)

Use twentieth century, but 1980s. However, remember to hyphenate if referring to an object; for example, a twentieth-century approach.

Equations

Equations should be displayed on a separate line.

These must be submitted in an editable format.

If they are numbered, it should be in the format: (1), (2), (3).

Note to authors

If you have any questions or are unsure on any points, look at the most recent published issue and use the articles there as a guide. In addition, please feel free to email the journal and publisher if further clarification is required. When multiple alternatives in phrases or formatting can be appropriate, please try to maintain consistency in which you choose to use.