Articles submitted to JBJS undergo double-blinded peer review, with the Editorial Office removing all author and institution identifiers before sending papers to reviewers.

JBJS is currently indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, CrossRef, Portico, and the Web of Science.

Submission Overview

Authors should follow the ICMJE's "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals."

All authors must register with ORCID and include their ORCID identifier in their Editorial Manager profile. Authors can obtain this identifier through Editorial Manager when they submit their article; it will not be possible to submit an article without such an identifier for each author.

JBJS does not consider manuscript proposals or abstracts submitted online or via e-mail. If you are interested in publishing a supplement, please contact editorial@jbjs.org.

Article Types

Required Items

• Title Page including (1) article title, (2) authors' names, in the order in which they should appear, and academic degrees, (3) institution(s) at which the work was performed, (4) institution (and city and state or country) with which each author is affiliated in numerical order, and (5) corresponding author and their e-mail address.
• Manuscript Text: See "Manuscript Structure" below.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval: For clinical studies involving patients, a copy of the letter granting approval from the institutional review board is required. For basic science studies involving animals, a copy of the animal utilization study committee approval is required. A translated version must be provided for either if the original approval is not written in English.
• Permission to Use Figures, Tables, and Videos Owned by Another Party: Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions. Provide (1) a full citation for the previous publication and (2) a letter from the owner of the copyright granting permission for JBJS to reproduce the copyrighted material OR a completed permissions form stating the date when permission was requested and the approximate date when the permission is expected to be received. Copyright Clearance Center is a useful resource for obtaining permissions.

See our Concise Format Guidelines for reporting the longer-term follow-up status of patients reported on in a previous study.

Submission Fee

A non-refundable submission fee of $299 is due at the time of submission for all Randomized Controlled Trials, Observational Clinical Studies, Basic-Science Studies, Survey Studies, and Evidence-Based Systematic Reviews. Waivers are available in some circumstances.

Quick References

Author New Submission Checklist
Author Revised Submission Checklist

• A Structured Abstract consisting of 5 paragraphs, totaling no more than 325 words, with the headings: Background (stating the primary research question), Methods, Results, Conclusions, and Level of Evidence or Clinical Relevance. The Level of Evidence should be assigned according to the definitions in the Level of Evidence  table. This rating will be reviewed by a JBJS Editor, who will make the final determination. Note: the word limit is increased to 350 words for articles  that include summary demographic information as described below in the section “The Reporting of Race and Ethnicity Data”
  • Some article types do not require an abstract or require a bulleted abstract outlining 3-5 key takeaways instead. See Article Types table above.
• The body, consisting of: 
  • Introduction: State the problem that led to the study, including a concise review of only the relevant literature. State your hypothesis and the purpose of the study. It is preferable that this be done in the form of a research question that describes the setting of the study, the population or sample studied, and the primary outcome measure.
  • Materials and Methods: Describe the study design in detail using standard methodological terms. 
    • Randomized Trials: Follow the CONSORT Group 25-item checklist and include that checklist on submission. Also include a flow diagram as Figure 1 for the article.
    • Animal studies: Follow the ARRIVE Guidelines Essential 10 Checklist and include that checklist on submission. More information on this policy can be found in the 2019 editorial by Bauer et al.
    • Cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies: Use the format suggested by the STROBE panel.
    • Observational studies using routinely collected health data: Use the guidelines outlined in the RECORD statement.
    • Meta-analyses (reviews of three or more articles with Level-I and II evidence) should conform to the PRISMA Statement criteria
    • Refer to our detailed guidelines for writing a Materials and Methods  section for additional guidelines.
  • Results: Provide a detailed report on the data obtained during the study. All measurements should be presented in metric values. Results of many reconstructive procedures, such as total joint arthroplasty, should be based on at least a 2-year follow-up of each patient. An average of two years of follow-up is generally not sufficient. If the follow-up is shorter, provide a strong scientific justification for why the focus on shorter follow-up is clinically relevant.
  • Discussion: Be succinct. What does your study show? Is your hypothesis affirmed or refuted? Discuss the importance of this article with regard to the relevant world literature; however, a complete literature review is unnecessary. Analyze your data and discuss their strengths, their weaknesses, and the limitations of the study.
• A references section, in PubMed/Index Medicus format, must be included after the manuscript text. Number the references according to the order of citation in the text (not alphabetically) and cite all references in the text. Papers posted on preprint servers may not be used as references. Note that journal citations must include all authors (not "et al.") and complete page numbers (not just the first page), per journal style. 
• Figure legends (if the manuscript includes figures) must be included at the end of the manuscript text file, after the References section, for all images. Explain what each figure shows. Identify machine settings for magnetic resonance images and give the magnification of all photomicrographs. Define all arrows and other such indicators appearing on the figure.
• Figures (if included) must be submitted in TIFF or EPS format. Cite all figures, in order, in the text. See Guidelines for Figures for detailed instructions.
• Tables (if included) should be submitted in Word or Excel format with a descriptive title. All tables should be cited in the manuscript text by table number, in order. Table file names should contain the table number (e.g., Table 1.docx).
• Videos (if included) must be uploaded to the Audio and Video Submissions Site according to our Author Video Guidelines. Instructions for upload can be found here.
• Appendices (if included) can be uploaded in any format.

Authorship

• Effective January 1, 2018, each author must indicate his/her contributor roles on the "Add/Edit/Remove Authors" screen in Editorial Manager in accordance with the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).
• Each author must have contributed significantly to, and be willing to take public responsibility for, one or more aspects of the study: its design, data acquisition, and/or analysis and interpretation of data. All authors must have been actively involved in the drafting and critical revision of the manuscript, and each must provide final approval of the version to be published. If a research group is designated as the author of an article, see our Group Authorship instructions for guidance.
• Individuals who have contributed to only one section of the manuscript or have contributed only cases should be credited in an acknowledgment footnote. See the ICMJE author definitions page for additional guidance regarding authors and non-author contributors.
• A non-author writer who is employed by a commercial organization must be identified, along with the name of his or her employer, in an acknowledgment footnote. The non-author writer must also submit an ICMJE Conflict of Interest form.
• The order of names reflects only the preference of the authors, and the corresponding author is not designated in the final published version of an article. Any change in authorship after the initial review process necessitates a signed letter, generally from all authors, agreeing to the change.
• If an author of the paper is deceased, the corresponding author is responsible for submitting written permission from the next of kin in order for the author to remain on the byline.
• JBJS prefers not to publish equal contribution statements or denote first and/or senior authors. Although we do occasionally allow it regarding first and second authors, we do not expand this practice to more than 2 authors.​

Appeals Process

JBJS conducts workshops several times per year where contested decisions may be arbitrated.

An author who wishes to appeal a decision should contact editorial@jbjs.org with a detailed letter that explains the reason for the appeal. This letter will be considered by the handling editor, and the author will be notified of the final decision. Decisions on appeals are final, without exception. Priority is given to new submissions, so the appeal process may take longer than the original submission process.

The Reporting of Race and Ethnicity Data

In accordance with the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style Committee's Updated Guidance on the Reporting of Race and Ethnicity in Medical and Science Journals published in August 2021, all authors must adhere to the below requirements for any clinical research submitted to JBJS. For more detailed information and best practices on the reporting of race and ethnicity data, please refer to the Editorial published in JBJS in February 2023. Note that JBJS does not require authors to conduct post hoc analyses of outcomes by participant race or ethnicity.

• Aggregate, deidentified demographic information (e.g., age, sex, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic indicators) should be reported for research reports along with all prespecified outcomes.
• The demographic variables that were collected for a specific study should be indicated in the Methods section of the Abstract (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.), and summary demographic information (i.e., baseline characteristics of study participants) should be reported in the first line of the Results section of the Abstract (e.g., "There were 14,277 patients in the final sample [median age 82, 70% female, 80% White..."]). For studies in which race and ethnicity are specifically analyzed as a focus of the investigation, a more complete description of the study sample in the abstract may be appropriate (e.g., "Of 72,755 patients in the study sample, 79.1% were White, 8.2% Black, 8.5% Hispanic, and 4.2% Asian..."). Complete demographic information should be reported in the Results section of the manuscript.
• In the Materials and Methods section, state who identified participant race and ethnicity as well as the source of the classifications used (e.g., self-report, database, electronic health record).
• The reporting of race and ethnicity should not be considered in isolation and should be accompanied by reporting of other sociodemographic factors and social determinants, including concerns about racism, disparities, and inequities, and the intersectionality of race and ethnicity with these other factors.

Occasionally, authors may find that it is not possible to describe the race or ethnicity of the individuals comprising their study population (for example, if using a data set that does not include this information). In those cases, authors should state the reason for the omission in the Materials and Methods section and also explicitly state in the Discussion section that the absence of these descriptive data is a limitation that may affect the study's generalizability.​

The Reporting of Sex and Gender Data  

Authors are strongly urged to adhere to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) Guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist (as well as this article on the rationale for these guidelines) during study design, data analysis, outcome reporting, and research interpretation. Specifically, we recommend that authors do the following: 

• Design studies that are sufficiently powered to answer research questions for both males and females (or men and women) if the health condition being studied occurs across sex or gender groups.
• Provide disaggregated sex and/or gender-specific data where relevant in all clinical, basic science, and epidemiological studies.
• Analyze the influence (or association) of sex or gender on the results of the study or indicate in the Materials and Methods section why such analyses were not performed. If such analyses were not performed, this should be included as a limitation in the Discussion section. It is important for readers need to know whether the results are generalizable by sex or gender.
• If sex or gender analyses were performed post hoc, indicate that these analyses should be interpreted cautiously because they may be underpowered (leading to a false conclusion of no difference). If there are many such analyses, indicate that they may lead to spurious significance, and an erroneous conclusion of a sex or gender-related difference.
• When ascertaining gender and sex, use a two-step process: (1) ask for gender identity allowing for multiple options and (2) if relevant to the research question, ask for sex assigned at birth.
• Use the term “sex assigned at birth” (rather than “biological sex,” “birth sex,” or “natal sex”) as it is more accurate and inclusive.
• Describe the methods that were used to gather and report sex and/or gender-related data (e.g., self-report or physician-report, specific biological attributes, current sex/gender, sex assigned at birth, etc.) and discuss the potential limitations of those methods.

Additional information on the preferred terminology related to gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation can be found in the Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Publishing, as recommended by the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communication (C4DISC).

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Writing Manuscripts

Concerning AI applications that create text, tables, figures, images, computer code, and/or video (such as ChatGPT), these applications cannot be listed as authors, and whether and how they were used in the research or reporting of findings must be described in detail in the Methods section, and should be mentioned again in the Acknowledgments section.

See our June 2023 Editorial for more information.

Other Policies

General Policies (including Preprint Servers, Public Access, Open Access, and Embargo Policies)
Ethics Policy

Supplementary Links

Materials and Methods
Level of Evidence
Figure Guidelines
Concise Format Guidelines
Video Guidelines
Audio and Video Submission Site
Reference Formatting Guidelines
Group Authorship Guidelines
Hybrid Open Access Option
New Submission Checklist
Revision Checklist

Forms

Conflict of Interest Form 
Figure Permissions Form
Open Access License Agreement