Publication Process

Before publication

Manuscripts must be submitted via our platform Publishing Manager, where authors will receive all the communications regarding the evaluation of their article.

JOINTS operates a single-blind review process. All submissions first undergo a preliminary quality check conducted by the editorial team. This includes verification of compliance with the journal’s ethical and technical standards through plagiarism detection and image integrity screening using specialized software. Papers submitted for consideration must adhere to the editorial criteria outlined in the Authors’ guidelines.

All contributions are initially handled by the Editor-in-Chief (or by a handling Editor on behalf of the Editor-in-Chief), who conducts the first assessment of the manuscript, considering the scientific content and overall relevance by verifying that the research falls within the journal’s aims and scope and if it adheres to journal guidelines and policies.

Contributions deemed suitable are subsequently sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the manuscript. The journal usually recruits both internal and external reviewers for each article undergoing peer review. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding the rejection or acceptance of articles. Editors are not responsible for decisions regarding the rejection or acceptance of papers that they have written themselves or have been written by colleagues or family members or which relate to services or products in which the Editor has an interest. Such submissions will be subject to all of the journal’s usual procedures, with peer review usually handled by external reviewers and independently of the relevant Editors and their research groups.

As 2 up to 4 expert peer reviewers are recruited by the Editor-in-Chief, and they are asked to complete and submit their review report via the Publishing Manager within 21 days. By using Publishing Manager, reviewers can also save their progress and decide to submit the final review report at a later stage. For more details on the peer review process, visit the page “Policies, Licensing and COI”.

Revised articles

Authors must resubmit the revised version of their article as a unique Word document (.doc, .docx). Authors must revise their manuscripts using a word processing program and mark the changes within the document by using red text or highlighting the revised text in yellow. Authors must not use the “Track Changes” option in Microsoft Office documents to highlight the changes made in the revised version of their manuscript. Authors are also required to add continuous line numbering throughout the document to facilitate the review process.

The revised version of the article must always be accompanied by a Word document containing the point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments.

Authors must resubmit the revised version of their article within 2 months after the receipt of the complete report from our reviewers. Articles that are not resubmitted within 2 months after the receipt of the complete reviewer reports will be deemed as withdrawn. However, authors can contact the Editorial Office at submission.joints@verduci.it if they need to request a deadline extension for the resubmission of the revised manuscript.

After acceptance

The accepted articles from non-SIAGASCOT members must be paid before publication. Payment is due within 30 days from acceptance. Upon the authors’ request, the journal may grant an extension for payment completion. Please be aware that if no communication is received from the authors within two months from the acceptance date, the journal retains the right to withdraw the manuscript from consideration.

NOTE: The publication fee is only required for accepted articles. The payment will only be processed after official acceptance and the journal will never require any prior deposit during the review process. Additional information regarding publication costs at Article Processing Charge (APC).

Proofreading and Final Check

In our dedication to upholding scientific integrity, JOINTS adheres to a rigorous proofreading process following peer review, ensuring thorough scrutiny before publishing a paper. At this stage, publishing editors meticulously review the manuscript, identifying and addressing editorial inconsistencies, ambiguities, and any grammatical mistakes. Any remaining queries are resolved through discussion with the author. This meticulous process is designed to minimize errors that could require post-publication corrections. If minor revisions are necessary, the article will only be published once the identified issues are satisfactorily addressed by the authors.

The Editor-in-Chief retains the right to overturn the article’s acceptance if evidence of scientific misconduct is discovered during the production or copyediting process. This includes issues such as ethical violations.

Galley Proofs

To ensure a fast publication process for the articles accepted for publication, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within three days. The Corresponding Author will receive an email containing the galley proofs. The galley proofs can be downloaded as a PDF file. Authors must annotate and upload their edits to the PDF version. We discourage excessive changes made to the proofs by the authors (usually exceeding 300 characters). After acceptance, authors cannot apply major corrections to the manuscript, Figures, Tables, or authorship. Before publication, we send galley proofs twice to authors, who are asked to carefully check them and send their approval for publication.

Authors must check the typesetting, editing, correctness, and completeness of the text (including author names, affiliations, and corresponding author information), figures, and tables carefully. At this stage, significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered with permission from the Editor. All corrections must be returned to us at submission.joints@verduci.it. The Editorial Office will do everything possible to get accepted articles published quickly and accurately.

Withdrawal Policy

Authors may request to withdraw their manuscripts at different stages of the submission and publication process. The authors must submit an official withdrawal request to the editorial office, providing a detailed explanation to submission.joints@verduci.it.

Requests for withdrawals can only be considered valid if the authors receive an official confirmation email from the journal.

Unethical Withdrawal

Maintaining an open-access model relies on a mutual commitment from both the Publisher and the Authors, with respect for the work and resources invested by all parties.

Examples of unethical and illicit withdrawal include but are not limited to:

Multiple submissions to different journals: Submitting the same article to different journals to receive different opinions from reviewers or increase the possibility of acceptance is considered unethical.
Withdraw to submit to a journal with an Impact Factor: Authors are responsible for verifying, prior to submission, whether the journal they intend to submit to meets the publication criteria they are seeking.

After publication

Post-Publication Corrections

We follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) regarding the correction of published content.

There is no time limit for notifying errors or publishing corrections. All correction requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the editorial team and Editorial Board, who will assess the impact of the amendment on the scientific content and determine the appropriate course of action.

Minor mistakes (e.g., typographical errors, formatting inconsistencies, or non-substantive language corrections) that do not affect the scientific meaning of the manuscript may be corrected by updating the online version of the PDF. For transparency, a note will be added below the abstract in the PDF file, indicating the updated version (e.g., “Updated version posted on: XXX”) and in the publication history. No formal correction notice is issued for such updates.
Significant errors (e.g., incorrect data in tables, factual inaccuracies, or spelling mistakes that alter scientific interpretation) may require a formal correction notice (Erratum), which will be linked to the original article.

If authors discover a mistake during the galley proof stage, the editorial office will normally correct the article in the final online version to ensure accuracy.

Erratum

Honest errors require the publication of a correction when they are detected. The journal publishes errata when a significant error has been detected in a published article and some changes are required. Significant errors include incorrect data in tables, factual inaccuracies, or spelling mistakes that alter the scientific meaning or interpretation of the manuscript. Corresponding authors should send an email stating the type of error and the requested corrections. All authors have to agree with the erratum by signing a formal document.

To issue an erratum, the journal follows the ICMJE guidelines.

An erratum notice linked to the article to be corrected will be published.
The erratum notice will clearly state the title and authors, the DOI, and the PMID in the erratum heading.
Corrections will be clearly stated in the erratum notice from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made.
The erratum notice will be freely available to all readers online.
We will post a new article version with details of the changes.
The journal will archive all prior versions of the manuscript.

Should the error arise from the journal or publisher, it will be distinctly identified through a specified publisher’s note.

Serious errors that invalidate the results and conclusions of the study may require retractions.

Publishing schedule

Rather than publishing conventional complete online issues at fixed intervals, starting from March 2023, JOINTS has moved to a continuous publication model, with articles being published on an ongoing basis. Special issues and supplements do not have a fixed publication date.

Post-Publication Concerns

Post-publication critiques may be submitted to the journal as “letters to the editor” and “commentaries” via Publishing Manager, providing a foundation for the raised criticisms. The journal provides original authors with the opportunity to respond to criticisms through a “reply letter.” Both the critique and response letters are peer-reviewed.

To report serious post-publication concerns, you can write to submission.joints@verduci.it. When complaints are raised, applicants should provide evidence to support the claims. The journal adheres to COPE guidelines for addressing significant post-publication concerns, such as errors, substantial mistakes leading to invalidated conclusions, plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Specifically, the journal adheres to COPE guidelines to handle whistleblower concerns submitted via email. Upon becoming aware of this, the journal adheres to COPE guidelines when addressing concerns raised about a published article on a social media platform.

The Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board Members may start an independent investigation with a new set of reviewers to establish any errors and/or malpractice. The authors are promptly informed about the investigation and may be required to provide a detailed and official reply letter to concerns. Original data must be available for journal review if any concerns arise post-publication. If the investigation yields a result, such as a correction or retraction, the journal will promptly notify both the individual who initially raised the concern and the authors involved. Instances of suspected misconduct will be reported to the author’s affiliated institution and/or university.

Retractions

In case a third party informs us about mistakes, problems or manipulation related to data or research itself, the Editor-in-Chief can decide to conduct an independent peer-review to establish whether the published data are reliable or accurate.

Retractions will be considered by the journal in case of evidence of unreliable data (i.e., experimental error), plagiarism, unethical research, and misconduct (i.e., data fabrication and image manipulation). In particular, the Editor in Chief may consider retracting a publication following guidelines on Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE and in ICMJE guidelines.

A retraction notice will be published with a direct link to the original retracted article.
The retraction notice will clearly state the title and authors, the DOI, and the PMID in the retraction heading.
The retraction notice will be freely available to all readers and will state who is retracting the article and the detailed reason(s) for retraction.
The original retracted article will be flagged as retracted with a red label on the original PDF file.

All requests for retractions by authors must be sent by the corresponding author, who should provide detailed reasons for retraction. Authors should also provide a signed document stating that all authors agree with the retraction and related reasons. The Editor in Chief reserves the right to start an investigation after the authors’ request to retract the manuscript to assess the article’s results and validity.

Expressions of Concern

Following guidelines on Good Publication Practice as reported in COPE, the Editor in Chief may consider issuing an Expression of Concern if well-founded concerns arise after publication to warn readers that an investigation is ongoing and in case the investigation may take more time to be concluded.

Expressions of Concern may also be issued in case an investigation has proved inconclusive and if there remain strong indicators that the concerns are valid.

An expression of concern with a direct link to the original article will be published.
The expression of concern will clearly state the title and authors, the DOI, and the PMID in the expression of concern heading.
The expression of concern notice will be freely available to all readers, and the reason for the investigation will be stated.