Submissions

Original articles

Full-length reports of current research in either basic or clinical science. Original articles undergo a double-blind peer review process prior to acceptance.

Review articles

Systematic reviews

A systematic review article offers a comprehensive analysis of a specific topic with reference to all the available literature. Systematic reviews are evidence-based, have a clearly described methodology, include meta-analysis where appropriate and provide a quantitative summary.

Narrative reviews

Narrative reviews describe and discuss broad scientific topics with reference to selected literature. They can be evidence-based but generally provide a qualitative summary of the topic.

Case reports

Case reports describe interesting or unusual cases and provide clinical insight into patient care. The generally accepted format for a case report includes a title, introduction/background, case, discussion, conclusion and references. Case reports undergo a double-blind peer review process prior to acceptance.

Case series

Case series describe interesting or unusual cases involving one to five patients in similar situations and provide clinical insight into patient care, such as strategies for treatment and management where applicable. The generally accepted format for a case series includes a title, introduction/background, case, discussion, conclusions and references. Case series undergo a double-blind peer review process prior to acceptance.

Editorials

Editorials present views and perspectives related to published articles, current issues or journal policy. They are concise, scholarly, insightful and thought-provoking. Editorials are commissioned by the editors-in-chief from members of the editorial board or by invitation.

Features

Features are commissioned by the editors-in-chief. They can be on any topic that is of interest to readers that is related to current issues or journal policy. Features are typically articles but other submission types may be commissioned at the discretion of the editors-in-chief.

Letters to the editors

A letter to the editor is a brief communication, concisely written, about content published in the journal. Letters offer a perspective or provide information pertinent to a particular topic. For letters responding to another letter, use the title format ‘Response to [title of letter]’ to ensure that readers can track the discussion.

Perspectives

Perspectives are welcome on any topic within the field of medicine/public health. These can be overview statements, personal views or studies based on surveys. Perspectives should contain a tight linear argument and be more than just a mini-review. Perspectives are evaluated by the editors-in-chief and may be subject to peer review.

'How to do it' guides

'How to do it' guides are focused descriptions of key aspects of operative technique. The title should start with ‘How to do…’ followed by the technique (eg ‘How to Rhinoplasty’). Articles may be accompanied by supplementary material. 'How to do it' guides are evaluated by the editors-in-chief and may be subject to peer review.

Supplementary text Up to 3000 words with a maximum of 30 references.
Supplementary video Up to 10Mb in either QuickTime, MPEG or AVI format. Video files should be uploaded to the author’s Google Drive or Dropbox and a link sent to the Managing Editor journal@plasticsurgery.org.au

Practical non-clinical skills for surgeons

Articles on non-clinical, professional skills for surgeons may include topics relating to academic research (such as funding, conferences, reports and presentations, research groups) or practice management (business skills). These articles will be evaluated by the editors-in-chief and may not be subject to peer review. Practical, non-clincial, skills for surgeons are evaluated by the editors-in-chief and may be subject to peer review.

Media reviews

Reviews of any media in print or digital format (such as books, apps, podcasts, films) that are of interest to surgeons may be submitted to the editors-in-chief. Media reviews should offer an appraisal as well as telling readers something new or interesting. Material should be relevant to medicine/public health. Book reviews are usually commissioned by the editors. Media reviews are evaluated by the editors-in-chief and may be subject to peer review.

last updated 20/11/2019

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MANUSCRIPT PARTS

Save the title page separately to the main manuscript. Number manuscript pages consecutively in the top right hand corner. Use double spacing for text. Place tables at the end of the manuscript following the references. Supply figures and any other supporting information separately. 

Remove all identifying information from the main text and reference list. Use ‘[Anonymous]’ to replace references to own publications or affiliations. Remove author names and affiliations from the document properties dialogue box. Save electronic files anonymously (no author names or initials) for example, ‘Text.docx’, ‘Title page.docx’, ‘Fig1.jpg’, ‘Fig2.jpg’ etc.

Title page

Title pages should be uploaded separate to the main text file to ensure anonymity during the peer review process. Manuscript titles should be concise, relevant and accurate. Avoid the use of abbreviations. For greater search engine optimisation, place keywords toward the beginning of the title.

The title page should include the following:

Title

• full title—no more than 80 characters, including spaces
• short title—no more than 40 characters, including spaces
• to optimise search engine results, place keywords toward the beginning of title

Authors’ names, qualifications and affiliations

• maximum of three qualifications eg MBBS PhD FRACS
• institutional affiliations for each author

Contact details

• corresponding author’s full name, postal addresses, email, telephone number

Disclosures

• whether the paper is based on a previous communication to a society or meeting
• whether the corresponding author is a recipient of a research scholarship
• whether the authors have any relevant financial or commercial conflicts of interest to disclose

Acknowledgements

Authors must acknowledge anyone who contributed to the manuscript who is not an author. Corresponding authors are responsible for obtaining permission to acknowledge individuals and should confirm this in writing by forwarding email acceptance to AJOPS.

Word count

• Total word count for main text document
• Total word count for abstract (limited to 250 words for articles and 100 words for cases)
• Number of figures and tables included (equivalent to 250 words each for all articles)
• Number of references (not included in word count)

Keywords

• AJOPS has adopted the use of medical subject headings or MESH terms. MESH terms are the US National Library of Medicine's (NLM) controlled vocabulary of biomedical terms that are used to describe the subject of each journal article indexed in MEDLINE. MeSH terms are arranged hierarchically by subject categories with more specific terms arranged beneath broader terms. MeSH terms in PubMed automatically include the more specific MeSH terms in a search. For more information, please visit this PubMed help webpage. If you have any questions about the use of MESH terms versus keywords, please contact the journal office.

• Include 5 MESH terms for articles and 3 for cases.

Copyright license information

This is an open access journal: all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Authors will retain copyright of their article and have a choice of publishing under the following Creative Commons Licence terms:

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) (recommended)
Lets others distribute and copy the article, create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), include in a collective work (such as an anthology), text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honour or reputation.

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence (CC BY-NC)
Lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes and they credit the original creator/s (and any other nominated parties). 

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
For non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article. 

Equal authorship

Equal authorship is indicated by a ‘*’ placed after the name of relevant authors and is followed by the statement: ‘* authors contributed equally to this paper’.

Abstract and keywords

Abstracts are limited to 250 words with the exception of a case series where the word count is limited to 100 words. To index the content of articles, 5 keywords must be selected from the US National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list.

Statistics

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their work, including all statistical calculations and drug doses. For more information, refer to the ICMJE’s uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, found here.

Authors are advised to:

• Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results.
• When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals).
• Avoid relying solely on statistical hypothesis testing, such as P values, which fail to convey important information about effect size.
• References for the design of the study and statistical methods should be to standard works when possible (with pages stated).
• Define statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols.
• Specify the computer software used.
• Give numeric results as derivatives (eg, percentages) and as absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated and specify the statistical methods used to analyse them.
• Avoid nontechnical uses of technical terms in statistics such as ‘random’ (which implies a randomising device), ‘normal’, ‘significant;, ‘’correlations’ and ‘sample’).
• Where scientifically appropriate, include analyses of the data by such variables as age and sex.

Figures

All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Each figure should:

• be supplied as a separate file, not embedded in the text
• incorporate the figure number in the file name
• be accompanied by permission from the copyright holder
• be cited in consecutive order in the text using Arabic numerals
• be colour, where possible (illustrations and photographs)
• be high-resolution (at least 300 dpi) and saved as a .eps, .tiff or .jpg file and
• be complete with legends included at the end of the text.

Figure legends should be:

• self-explanatory
• incorporate definitions of symbols and
• identify statistical measures of variation, such as standard deviation and error of the mean.

Tables

Each table should:

• be numbered using Arabic numerals
• be cited consecutively throughout the text
• be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text
• be presented on a separate page at the end of the main document
• be double-spaced, with no outlines, and limited to one data point to each cell
• have column brief headings with units of measurement in parentheses and
• have a comprehensive but concise legend below the table.

Table legends should:

• include abbreviations used in the table
• use the following symbols, in sequence: †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, ††, ‡‡ (*, **, *** should be reserved
  for P values) and
• identify statistical measures of variation, such as standard deviation and error of the mean.

References

The journal uses the Vancouver referencing style, that is, references are:

• numbered sequentially as they occur in the text
• ordered numerically in the reference list at the end of the text
• all information is cited, including all author names (‘et al’ is no longer used).

For in-text citations, use:

• Arabic numerals set in superscript
• no surrounding brackets and
• place reference marker after punctuation.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. For the purpose of double-blind peer review, avoid citing personal communications and abstracts. See Appendix A for details on how to cite references.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material, such as computer code and datasets, may be submitted with manuscripts for the purpose of reproducing results. In such cases, authors should indicate which results in the manuscript can be reproduced using the submitted materials. Material should be unedited, with limited document formatting.

Supplementary material will be critically reviewed by the editorial team and will only be accepted if deemed essential. Material will be placed in an appendix and made accessible within the website via a hyperlink from the final published article (PDF and HTML version).

Supplementary text

Up to 3000 words, maximum 6 figures/tables and 30 references.

Supplementary video

Up to 10Mb in either QuickTime, MPEG or AVI format. Video files should be uploaded to the author’s Google Drive or Dropbox and a link sent to the Managing Editor at journal@plasticsurgery.org.au

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MANUSCRIPT STYLE

Spelling

The Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery (AJOPS) is an English language publication. Please refer to the Macquarie Dictionary for spelling and usage.

Measurements

• Give all measurements in SI units (excepting blood pressures, which should be given in mmHg). Please refer to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website for more information about SI units.
• Abbreviate common measurements such as mm (millimetres) and cm (centimetres).

Trade names

• Use generic names for chemical substances and materials wherever possible. See https://www.who.int/medicines/services/inn/innquidance/en/
• Provide the name and address of manufacturers in parentheses following the use of trade names for specific materials, software, equipment and proprietary drugs.

Italics

• Use italics for titles of publications and Latin scientific names (full genus and species, for example, Staphylococcus aureus but not A streptococcus) and non-English words or phrases that are not in common usage.
• Use italics for quotes, emphasis or non-English words that are the names of organisations.

Capitalisation

• Use sentence case (initial capital only) for headings and subheadings and title case (each word capitalised) for official titles.
• Don’t use capitals for common names (even when derived from Latin terms) or plurals (for example, ‘figures 2 and 3’ not ‘Figures 2 and 3’).

Punctuation

The Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery (AJOPS) uses minimal punctuation, as follows:

Full stops

• Use full stops at the end of sentences and references.
• Don’t use full stops in abbreviations or after initials.

Apostrophes

• Use apostrophes for contractions, to indicate possession* and for expressions of time (one year’s or two years’). * For joint ownership, only the last name has an apostrophe otherwise each name has an apostrophe.
• Use apostrophes in place names, for possessive pronouns.

Commas

• Use commas to indicate pauses, to mark both sides of a parenthetical clause in a sentence and to separate a series of words or phrases in a list (see also Numbers)
• Don’t use the Oxford comma (‘…x, y, and z’) instead use ‘…x, y and z’.

Colons and semicolons

Where possible, avoid using colons and semicolons. Consider rewriting or dividing the sentence or use an em-dash (see Em-dashes).

Hyphens

Use hypens (without spaces either side,)to connect words in compound adjectives and adverbs and to link prefixes to words. If in doubt, check the Macquarie Dictionary. See also En-dashes and Em-dashes.

En-dashes (–)

Use en-dashes, without spaces either side, to indicate date and number ranges.

Em-dashes (—)

Use em-dashes, with a space either side, to mark a parenthetical clause in a sentence or to indicate a pause.

Abbreviations

See also ‘Accepted usage’.

Common phrases

In text, spell out commonly abbreviated phrases such as ‘for example’ and ‘that is’. In tables, captions and parentheses, use the abbreviations ‘eg’ (for example), ‘ie’ (that is), ‘et al’ (and others) followed by a comma.

Per cent or degrees

In text, spell out ‘per cent’ or ‘degrees’(angles). Use the abbreviation,‘%’ or ‘°’, in tables and figures. Please note, the exception is for temperature: in text and in tables/figures, use °C or °F.

Et al

Don’t use ‘et al’ (meaning ‘and others’) in references—list all authors.

Ampersands

Avoid using ampersands; use ‘and’.

Parentheses

Parentheses enclose material that is not essential to a sentence. Use the same punctuation around parentheses that a sentence would require without them. See also ‘Em-dashes’.

Quotation marks

Use single quotation marks in text and double quotation marks inside single quotes. Block quotes (quotes over two sentences) are indented from the text and do not need quotation marks.

Single quotation marks can be used to indicate unfamiliar concepts or terms but only in the first instance.

Numbers

Numerals

In text, write out numbers up to nine and use numerals for numbers from 10 onwards. Always write out numbers at the beginning of a sentence; if the number is too large, consider rephrasing the sentence.

Use numerals for unit measurements (8mmol/l), percentages and decimals (however small). Insert commas in numbers greater than 9999 (for example, 11,953).

Ranges (for dates and page numbers)

Dates

Use the date format DD MMM YYYY and the following abbreviations:

• 2017–18 instead of 2017–2018
• 2006–07 instead of 2006–7.

Always spell out centuries.

Page numbers

Page numbers use the following format:

• 66–68 vs 66–8
• 106–07 vs 106–7
• 2359–472 etc.

Money

Money is expressed using accepted currency symbols such as AU$, US$ and GB£.

Use commas in amounts greater than four digits and spell out ‘million’ and ‘billion’ in the first instance, then abbreviate to ‘m’ and ‘b’.

Measurements

Abbreviate common measurements such as mm (millimetres) and cm (centimetres). Include a space after the number and before the degree sign in temperatures for example, 31 °C.

Give all measurements in SI units, except blood pressure measurements; use mmHg. See Bureau International des Poids et Mesures website for more information about SI units.

Fractions

In text, spell out and hyphenate fractions;in tables, use numerals.

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APPENDIX A: Vancouver referencing style

The Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery uses the Vancouver referencing style, that is:

• References are sequentially numbered as they occur in the text.
• Reference markers follow punctuation and are set in superscript with no brackets.
• References are numerically ordered in the reference list .
• Citations contain full information including names of all the authors (please note, ‘et al’ is
  no longer used).

Recommended reading

These guidelines should be read in conjunction with:

• Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers. 2nd ed. Wendling DL, technical editor. Marylands, USA: National Library of Medicine; 2007 [updated 2018; cited 2019 April 12]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine.
• US National Library of Medicine. Samples of formatted references for authors of journal articles [web resource]. Marylands, USA: Department of Health and Human Services. [Cited 2019 April 12]. Available from: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.
• Caltech Library. Journal title abbreviations [web resource]. California, USA: California Institute
  of Technology. [Cited 2019 April 12]. Available from: https://www.library.caltech.edu/journal-title-abbreviations.
• National Library of Medicine Catalog. Journals referenced in the NCIB [web resource]. Maryland, USA: National Center for Biotechnology Information. [Cited 2019 April 12]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.

Journal article

Sasaki A, Nakajima J, Nitta H, Obuchi T, Baba S, Wakabayashi G. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with a history of gastrectomy. Surg Today. 2008;38:790–94.

Kalantar-Hormozi A, Mozafari N, Rasti M. Adverse effects after use of polyacrylamide gel as a facial soft tissue filler. Aesthet Surg J. 2008;28(2):1139–142.

Dorfman D, Pu LL. The value of color duplex imaging for planning and performing a free anterolateral thigh perforator flap. Ann Plast Surg. 2014 Suppl 1;72:s6–8.

Journal references should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• list all authors separated by commas (et al no longer used)
• author surnames followed by their initials (no punctuation or spaces)
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for article titles
• italicise and abbreviate journal titles (no punctuation, see ‘Common journal abbreviations’)
• year of publication followed by ; volume number followed by : OR
• year of publication; volume number followed by (issue number) then:
• page range is separated by an en-dash with no space either side
• if citing a supplement, insert after year and before ; using abbreviation Suppl followed by number
• letters included in page numbers should be in lower case.

Book

Tjandra JJ, Clunie GJA, Kaye AH, Smith JA. Textbook of surgery, 3rd ed. Melbourne: Blackwell Science Asia, 2006. p 52.

Book references should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• list all authors (and/or editors) separated by commas (et al no longer used)
• author (and/or editor) surnames are followed by their initials (no punctuation or spaces)
• use italics and sentence case (initial capital only) for book titles (not abbreviated)
• note the edition after the title, separated by a comma (abbreviate, no punctuation)
• list place of publication (followed by :), publisher (followed by ,) and date (followed by .)
• page range is separated by an en-dash with no space either side.

Chapter in a book

Alexander JP. Spinal surgery. In: Barrow DW (ed). Anaesthesia and related subjects in orthopaedic surgery. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 1982; ch 4.

References to chapters in a book should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• list all authors separated by commas (et alno longer used)
• author surnames are followed by their initials (no punctuation, or space)
• for editors, insert ‘ed’ in parenthesis (followed by .)
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for book chapter
• insert ‘In:’ followed by author and/or editor (for editors, insert ‘ed’ in parenthesis, followed by .)
• use italics and sentence case (initial capital only) for book titles (not abbreviated)
• list place of publication (followed by :), publisher (followed by ,) and date (followed by .).
• end with abbreviation of chapter (lowercase, no punctuation) and number.

Web reports

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Procedures and healthcare interventions (ACHI 2nd-8th editions), Australia, 2000-01 to 2014-15 [web report]. Canberra: Australian Government [Updated 5 July 2018; cited 1 September 2017]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/hospitals/procedures-data-cubes/contents/data-cubes.

Reports should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for report title followed by [web report]
• list place of publication (followed by :), publisher
• list date page was last updated and date cited in [ ] divided by (;) and ending with (.)
• end with Available from (followed by :), URL and ending with (.)

Document on the internet

National Health and Medical Research Council. Clinical practice guidelines for the management of early breast cancer. Second Edition [PDF on Internet]. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. [Updated 6 September 2003; cited 3 March 2004]. Available from: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/cp74syn.htm.

Documents on the internet should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for title followed by [document format (eg PDF)
  on the Internet]
• list place of publication (followed by :), publisher (followed by ,) and date (followed by .)
• list dates in square brackets, divided by (;) and ending with (.)
• end with Available from (followed by :), URL and ending with (.)

Web page

New South Wales Government Health. Cosmetic surgery [web page]. Sydney: New South Wales Government. [Cited 15 February 2018] Available from: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Hospitals/privatehealth/Pages/cosmetic-surgery-class.aspx.

Web pages should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for report title followed by [web page]
• list place of publication (followed by :), publisher
• list date page was last updated and date cited in [ ] divided by (;) and ending with (.)
• end with Available from (followed by :), URL and ending with (.)

Newspaper article online

Hennessy, A. Concerns about safety of Sydney’s booming cosmetic surgery industry [Internet]. Sydney: The Daily Telegraph. 23 Sep 2017 [Cited 20 January 2018]. Available from: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/concerns-about-safety-of-sydneys-booming-cosmetics-industry/news-story/b4c89342b30722bc215317e93ad91b59

Newspaper articles should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for report title followed by [newspaper on the Internet]
• list place of publication (followed by :), publisher
• list date of publication
• list date page was last updated and date cited in [ ] divided by (;) and ending with (.)
• end with Available from (followed by :), URL and ending with (.)

Conference paper

Makino Y, Furuyama Y, Inoue S, Shinoda H. HaptoClone (Haptic-Optical Clone) for mutual tele-environment by real-time 3D image transfer with midair force feedback. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; 2016 May 7–12; San Jose, California, USA. New York, New York: ACM 2016: 1980–990.

Conference papers in published proceedings should use the following style:

• use a full stop to separate the parts of a citation
• list all authors separated by commas (et alno longer used)
• author surnames are followed by their initials (no punctuation, or space)
• use sentence case (initial capital only) for conference paper
• insert ‘In: Proceedings of the’ followed by the title of the conference followed by ;)
• list date of conference (followed by ;), place and ending with (.)
• list place of publication (followed by :)
• list publisher followed by (:) and the page numbers, ending with (.)

Patents

For patents, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7260/

Examples of how to cite other types of
references can be found here.

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APPENDIX B: Accepted usage

Accepted abbreviations 

Hyphenated words:

• pre-surgical
• post-treatment
• x-ray

Unhyphenated words:

• healthcare
• intraoperative 
• perioperative
• postoperative
• preoperative
•  wellbeing 

 Preferred usage:

• used not utilised
• while not whilst

Common journal abbreviations

Commonly referenced scientific databases

Last updated 7 July 2020