The aim of Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery is to serve as an international forum for hand and plastic surgeons from all over the world, with special reference to Nordic researchers.
Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery accepts articles on all subjects related to hand surgery and plastic surgery. The type of articles published are listed below. Please note that case reports are rarely published in this journal.
All content in JPHS is published fully Open Access, and according to a continuous publication model, ensuring that the valuable and clinically relevant content published by Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery is published swiftly and that it is freely accessible to all. For information pertaining to article processing fees for new submissions, please click here.
All authors submitting to medicine, biomedicine, health sciences, allied and public health journals should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).Please note that submission of a manuscript is held to imply that it has not previously been published and is not otherwise submitted for publication (except as an abstract presented at a meeting).
Authorship: All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. If available, please also include ORCIDs. All persons designated as authors in a paper must participate sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility in its contents. Everyone meeting the ICMJE requirements for authorship should be included as an author of a paper. Individuals who have contributed to the article but who do not meet these criteria for authorship should be listed by name and affiliation in an ‘Acknowledgments’ section instead. The journal may require authors to justify assignments of authorship. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted.
Length: The length of a manuscript depends on the article type. Word limits of the main text (excluding abstract, references, figures, and tables) and limitations in the number of references are as follows:
Please include a word count for your paper
Language: High-quality English language is of primary importance when submitting your manuscript so that reviewers and editors can fully understand the content and give your work a fair review. All papers should be written in English (British English is preferable but American English can be accepted if written by Americans). Before you submit your manuscript, we strongly recommend that you have it checked by an English-speaking colleague and/or use a professional language editing service.
Structure: Your paper should be compiled in the following order:
Title page (including author affiliations and ORCID)
Abstract (structured with Background, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions)
Keywords
Introduction (including a clear statement of the aim of the study)
Materials and methods
Ethics
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Declaration of interest statement
References
All tables and figures should appear on their own respective pages which should appear at the end of the manuscript file after the references.
Figure legends should be included on the last page of the manuscript file.
Appendices/supplementary material is to be uploaded as a separate submission file.
Style guidelines: Please use British or American spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
Abbreviations/Acronyms: All abbreviations/acronyms (with the exception of standard units of measurement) should be written in full the first time they are used and their use should be consistent throughout the rest of the paper. Please avoid using non-standardised two and three letter acronyms as far as possible as they decrease readability. For example, “BP” should be written out as “breast reduction”, or “CLP” should be written out as “cleft lip and palate”. Accepted acronyms and in special cases where non-standardised acronyms are deemed to be necessary, such as in cases where expressions are very wordy, for example; Deep inferior epigastric artery perforator flap (DIEP flap), they should be written in full the first time they are used in the abstract as well as in the manuscript each section.
References: References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. No abstracts from proceedings or submitted manuscripts not in press are allowed. Identify references in the text using Arabic numerals in parenthesis (NOT in superscript). The style of references must follow the Vancouver system, and for the abbreviations of journal titles please use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word available at www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php.
Author details. Please see above for details.
Title: Please consider incorporating at least two of the keywords within the first 65 characters in order for the title to appear in search engines. The title should also be easily understood by laymen. Avoid abbreviations, formulae, and numbers. One-liners and titles that divulge the main result should also be avoided.
Abstract: Abstracts should be unstructured and no more than 250 words. Make sure that your abstract provides a concise summary that makes sense on its own. Include keywords throughout, but make sure the writing still flows naturally. Avoid background information and technical terms.
Graphical abstract (optional): This is an image to give readers a clear idea of the content of your article. For the optimal online display, your image should be supplied in landscape format with a 2:1 aspect ratio (2 length x 1 height). Graphical abstracts will often be displayed online at a width of 525px, therefore please ensure that your image is legible at this size. Save the graphical abstract as a .jpg, .png, or .tiff file and ensure that g"GraphicalAbstract" appears in the file name. Please do not embed it in the manuscript file.
Keywords: Please include between 3 and 10 keywords. Keywords are used to index your article on search engines and are therefore vital for good visibility of your work. Read through your paper and highlight any keywords that are most relevant to the focus of your work. Narrow down your keywords to make sure they are as accurate as possible and are effective at indexing the article. Search with your keywords to make sure the results fit with your article and will be useful when others when conducting searches.
Ethics: Please include the ethical clearance number (if applicable) as well as details surrounding your ethical considerations in following the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Funding details: Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
For single agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].
For multiple agency grants
This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx], and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].
Disclosure statement: This is to acknowledge any financial or non-financial interest that has arisen from the direct applications of your research. If there are no relevant competing interests to declare please state this within the article, for example: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Figures: Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale, and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size). Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: EPS, PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
Tables: Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Please supply editable tables.
Equations: If you are submitting your manuscript as a Word document, please ensure that the equations are editable.
Supplementary material can include for example video and audio files but also figures, tables, and datasets that are of relevance to the main article. Including supplementary material with your article can make it more discoverable and help maximize downloads and citations.
Video abstracts can be a good way of getting others to engage with your research, ultimately increasing the visibility and impact of your work. Through a video abstract you can introduce the article in your own words, telling readers what the unique contribution of your article is and why they should read it. We recommend keeping a video abstract short and to the point (no more than a few minutes) and that you use images, charts or tables to help explain the focus of your article. Consider the aim of the video throughout – to get people to read your article. The best video format is MP4 although other video formats such as MOV and MPEG4 are also supported. The minimum dimension is 426 x 240 and the max dimension is 3840 x 2160.
Please make sure to include any supplementary files at the same time as submitting your manuscript, although a video abstract can be sent upon acceptance instead.
Supplemental material will be published as submitted, and will thus not be checked for scientific content, will not be copyedited, and will not be typeset. Please note that publishing supplementary material involves a fee of 25 €/file to cover administration costs, but video files will be published free of charge.
• There is no paywall - All journal content is freely available immediately upon publication
• Your work has increased impact – Global dissemination of your work increases as everyone can access it
• Increased chance of citations – The potential of published content being cited is optimized
• You retain copyright - Authors retain copyright to their work and are free to disseminate it
• You reach beyond academia
Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery (JPHS) is an international, non-profit and Open Access journal. Owned by the Acta Chirurgica Scandinavica Society, JPHS aims to be a leading forum for hand and plastic surgeons from all over the world. Contributions from all parts of the world are welcome.
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SCAPLAS members, corresponding authors who are members of the Scandinavian Association of Plastic Surgery (Nordisk plastikkirurgisk förening; SCAPLAS) receive 50% discount on the APC until the end of 2026.
For further details regarding APC fees and discounts, go to Publication Fees
