Instructions for authors

OBLIGATORY 3 DECLARATION FORMS TO BE COMPLETED, SIGNED AND ATTACHED WHEN SENDING THE ARTICLE THROUGH đź“©THE EDITORIAL PANEL:

Rules for the publication of papers

„Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” is a peer-reviewed platinum open access quarterly journal published by the Polish Association of Wound Management (Poland) and maintained by Moc Media Publishing House (Poland). This Journal is the official organ of the Polish Association of Wound Management. This Journal accepts for publication original research, reviews, case-based reviews, practice guidelines, and expert opinion pieces – both from Poland and abroad, and letters to the Editor. All research and review submissions are subject to double-blind peer review with at least two external experts.

The Journal editors prioritize articles with well-formulated evidence-based points that influence the science growth in wound management, from pathophysiological foundations, through diagnostic methods and new technologies to practical and clinical treatments. Editorials and letters are occasionally published to draw the readers’ attention to innovative areas in field of wound management. Individual case studies and case series can be considered for publication provided there is an extensive review of similar published cases which are discussed in view of comprehensive and systematic analyses of the literature. The Journal also publishes information articles and meeting reports of interest to Polish and other rheumatology societies of specialists dealing with all aspects of issues related to the wound healing process.

Access to all articles is open in line with the “Platinum Open Access” publishing model. The journal is published in print (ISSN: 1733-4101) and electronic version (eISSN: 1733-7607). The online version is accessible at: https://pjwm.mocmedia.eu/.

„Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” is currently indexed in the following bibliographic databases and online platforms: Index Copernicus, Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego (MNiSW), Główna Biblioteka Lekarska (GBL).

Submissions are processed through an online editorial system on the website of: https://czasopisma.mocmedia.eu/.

All submissions should be drafted in either American or British English, or Polish. From 1 September 2023, priority will be given to papers submitted in English. The authors for whom English is not their first language should seek the advice of a native English-speaking expert to ensure linguistically and stylistically correct submission.

AIMS AND SCOPE

„Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” aims to publish evidence-based research and reviews of interest to rheumatology researchers and clinicians in Poland and elsewhere in the world. Submissions with properly formulated working hypotheses, innovative ideas, comprehensive source analyses, and correct statistical methods are prioritized.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of priority research topics:

  • innovations in pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of wounds of different causes,
  • Polish and international practice guidelines for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of wounds,
  • comorbidities and multimorbidities and wound management,
  • scars rehabilitation.

RESEARCH REPORTING RECOMMENDATIONS

The authors of narrative reviews are advised to consult recommendations on comprehensive and systematic searches through multidisciplinary and specialist bibliographic databases and report their search strategy details related to the keywords and datelines of document retrieval in their search strategies. In this regard, the following recommendations could be consulted: https://rdcu.be/cimCN.

The authors have to retrieve and cite primary, rather than secondary references. They should read full texts of all cited references to be familiar with all cited points and to validate the referencing. The Journal Editors adhere to the principles of San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA; https://sfdora.org/), that can also be useful for authors.

The authors of systematic reviews are advised to prospectively register protocols of their reviews with the PROSPERO registry (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/), plan comprehensive and systematic searches through Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; https://www.cochranelibrary.com/central) and reliable specialist databases. Analysis of retrieved sources using PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) framework and reporting in line with the PRISMA standard are strongly advisable (http://www.prisma-statement.org/).

Original research papers and abstracts should include Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion (IMRAD structure). The following global editorial recommendations are essential for authors who plan to submit their works to this Journal:

Reporting original research in line with the following EQUATOR Network standards and related extensions is also strongly recommended (https://www.equator-network.org/):

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Cover letter

The submitted work should be preceded by the cover letter and should be of no more than 1 page (1800 characters). Authors have to explain the aims and relevance of the results of the original work or literature review (in a few sentences).

Title page

Personal data of authors, containing authors, an order of authors, and their affiliations are entered separately. Please not to provide data concerning authors in the work content file. When entering authors’ data in the application panel, please provide ORCID IDs (Open Researcher and Contributor ID).

The Journal editors endorse principles of integrity and visibility of pre and post-publication communications presented by Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and Visibility of Scholarly Publications (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5209927/). In line with this Declaration, authors are advised to provide their ORCID IDs with publicly available information about correct first, middle, and last names, biographical notes, publication records, reviewer, and other scholarly accomplishments. The registration with ORCID platform is free at: https://orcid.org/.

Abstracts

Abstracts of original research and narrative and systematic reviews should be sufficiently informative, structured (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion) and limited to 300 words. For other types of articles, non-structured abstracts. Editorials, letters, and meeting reports should not include abstracts.

Copying different parts of the manuscript and providing references in the abstracts is unacceptable. Abstracts should disclose main key words of the manuscript.

▶ Abstracts of original papers – minimum 200 and maximum 300 words, should be structured (Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Conclusions). Abstract should briefly describe background, aim, subject characteristics, inclusion and exclusion criteria, employed methods, important results (reporting essential statistical data, means or medians, absolute numbers with percentages, p-values with 95% confidence intervals, avoiding unnecessary precision in digits after decimal points), and conclusions based on the obtained results.

▶ Abstracts of review papers – minimum 150 and maximum 200 words, can be structured similarly. Abstracts of narrative reviews should describe search strategies (databases, key words, datelines).

▶ Abstracts of case reports – minimum 150 and maximum 200 words, should be structured (Introduction, Case report, Conclusions).

Editorials, letters, and meeting reports should not include abstracts.

Key words

Relevant key words (3–5) should be retrieved from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the National Library of Medicine of the US (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/).

The manuscript body

Text requirements: 12 pt font, spacing of 1.5 cm between the lines, margins of 2.5 cm. The text should not be formatted. Tables and figures should be placed in the text, after References section. Appropriate information should be provided in the place proposed by the author, such as Table 1, Fig. 3, etc.

The type of work, authors and their affiliations, as well as the title, abstract and key words should be entered in appropriate fields in the electronic submission panel. We strongly advise not to provide data concerning authors (personal information and affiliations) in the work content file.

The main content of the work without an abstract, authors names and their affiliations should begin with the Introduction. The abstract is introduced in a separate “window”. Data in the text, that can identify authors, should be masked with XXXX.

▶ Editorial paper – is usually ordered by the editorial office, do not contain abstract, should not exceed 1000 words and 15 references, may contain 1 table, 2 figures or photos.

▶ Original paper – up to 15 pages, up to 80 references; 8 tables and/or figures in total. The original work should be divided into following sections: introduction and purpose of the work, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusions. Following should be provided:

  • a bioethics committee approval with a consent number and/or date of receipt,
  • a source of financing,
  • a potential conflict of interest.

▶ Review paper – up to 15 pages, up to 80 references; 8 tables and/or figures in total. A layout is mostly discretionary (apart from the case-based review).

▶ Case-based review – up to 15 pages, up to 60 references, 8 tables and/or figures in total; review works based on case or cases analysis should have an indication of their relevance and the applied strategy for searching literature items (e.g. key words, concepts) and the databases stated.

▶ Recommendations or practice guidelines – maximum 10 pages, 70 references, maximum 8 tables and/or figures.

▶ Case report – should not exceed 6 pages and include more than 15 references, and may include 8 tables and/or figures/photographs.

▶ Short communication – maximum 2 pages, 30 references, no more than 4 tables and/or figures in total.

▶ Letter to Editor – maximum of 2 pages, 15 references, 1 table or figure.

Tables, figures and photographs

Tables, figures (photographs) should be placed in the text (regardless of the type of work the total number of tables/figures/photographs must not exceed 8).

â–¶ Tabele should be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the article (Tab. 1). The information contained in the tables should not be repeated in the text. The table description and explanations to the table, e.g. expanding abbreviations, are given in the footers below the table.

â–¶ Figures/photographs Figures and photographs should be numbered with Arabic numerals and placed in the text, after References section. The size of the figure (photo) together with the markings and legend should not be larger than 16 by 12 cm. Figures and photographs are placed in the article in the form in which they were provided, so please ensure their good quality. If the figure (photo) has already been published, its source should be provided along with a written permission from the copyright owner for its re-publication. In case images of persons (patients) are used, the author of the article should provide the consent of the photographed person and of the author of the photograph for publishing of that photograph.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be explained the first time they appear in the text and should not be used if a term appears only once in the work. Abbreviations should not be used in the title of work, unless the abbreviation is better known than its extension, e.g. RNA, DNA.

References

References cited in the text should be numbered in order of their citation; references should be placed in square brackets; provide the names of the first three authors (if there are 4 authors, you must provide all of them) and the abbreviation “et al.” when necessary, the title of the work, the abbreviation of the letter (according to Index Medicus), volume, pages from-to. The established principle for citing articles in the journal „Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” is the AMA (American Medical Association) standard. Each reference should have a DOI number.

Examples

▶ Journal papers (initials and names of the first three authors and the abbreviation „et al.”, full title of paper, journal abbreviation according to Index Medicus, year of publication, volume, first and last page of the publication, DOI number):

De Maeseneer MG, Kakkos SK, Aherne T, et al. Editor’s Choice – European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) 2022 Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Management of Chronic Venous Disease of the Lower Limbs. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg 2022; 63: 184–267. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejvs.2021.12.02.

Mościcka P, Szewczyk MT, Cwajda-Białasik J, Jawień A. The role of compression therapy in the treatment of venous leg ulcers. Adv Clin Exp Med 2019; 28: 847–852. DOI: 10.17219/acem/78768.

â–¶ Books and monographs (initials and names of the first three authors of the book, title of the book or monograph, publisher, place and year of publication should be provided):

Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. Ed. 2. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers, 1996.

â–¶ Chapter in a book (initials and names of the first three authors of the chapter and the abbreviation „et al.”, chapter title, monograph title, scientific editor of the book, publisher, place and year of publication, pages from-to should be provided): 

Barański M, Szumska A. Rany pourazowe. In: Szewczyk MT, Jawień A (eds.). Leczenie ran przewlekłych. Ed. 2. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Lekarskie PZWL, 1995; p. 108–127.

â–¶ Conference proceedings:

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1996.

Laboratory values and measurements

The results of laboratory tests, as well as the relevant standards and standard deviations, should be expressed in units adopted by the International System of Units (Systéme International d’Unités). The temperature should be expressed in Celsius degrees.

Acknowledgments and funding

Acknowledgments for the people whose contribution to the work was significant, but not sufficient to meet the criteria for an authorship, and an indication of sources of funding should be included at the end of the article in the section before the references.

PLAGIARISM, DUPLICATION OF ARTICLES AND OTHER DEVIATIONS FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS IN SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

All manuscripts submitted to „Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” are checked to avoid plagiarism. The following anti-plagiarism software are routinely employed to detect textual similarities: plagiat.pl.

In the event of a suspected misconduct, including plagiarism and duplication of publications, the matter is dealt with in accordance with the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) recommendations: https://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20English%20flowcharts_9Nov2016.pdf.

STATEMENTS

The authors are obliged to comply with the rules and highest ethical standards for conducting scientific research and publications.

Author or co-author should participate, according to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), in:

A – research planning or analysis and interpretation of results,

B – writing the article or correcting it in important matters of substance,

C – accepting the final version sent to the journal,

D – agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work and certainty that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work were appropriately investigated and resolved by the author.

Authorship is considered to meet simultaneously these four conditions (A + B + C + D).

Detailed information on Role of Authors and Contributors can be found at the link: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html.

â–¶ Statement on the scope of work performed

The journal uses procedures to safeguard the originality of scientific publications in accordance with the criteria of ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors) and WAME (World Association of Medical Editors), therefore it is also necessary to provide information on the scope of work performed by each author in creating the publication – including who is the author of the concept of the work, assumptions, methods, research protocol, etc. – as well as on the affiliations of each of the authors. A form of the statement on the scope of work is available on the journal’s website: https://pjwm.mocmedia.eu/ and Open Journals System. We would like to inform our contributors that the Editorial Board adheres to the highest standards for scientific publications and cooperates with the authors basing on transparency of information about the real contribution of persons/entities in the creation of the publication. All cases of “ghostwriting” and “guest authorship”, as a manifestation of scientific misconduct, will be subject to customary penalties.

â–¶ Statement on the transfer of copyright, funding for research

For each work sent to the editor it is required to attach a statement, signed by all authors, on the transfer of copyright and publishing rights to the Polish Association of Wound Management (the publisher of „Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management”), and a confirmation, that the article has not been previously published or submitted for printing in another publishing house.

â–¶ Statement on the disclose conflicts of interest (COI)

A conflict of interest arises when one of the authors of a given work is subject to such circumstances, that they could raise reasonable doubt as to her/his impartiality in presenting the subject of the study. This applies particularly to the case of any author’s connections – be it of personal or material nature – with entities interested in proving the theses presented in a given article.

The conflict of interest is considered to arise, in particular, in case of circumstances listed below:

  • ownership of shares in entities that will benefit in any way from a given test result,
  • work or consultancy – regardless of their legal form – provided to such entities,
  • charging royalties, grants or other personal or financial benefits from such entities.

A conflict of interest is also considered to arise when any of situations described above involves author’s connection with any subsidiaries of entities, that may directly benefit from the theses presented in the work.

For the transparency of the conflict of interest situations, authors are required to provide any sources of funding for their research.

It is necessary to send a statement about the absence or existence of a conflict of interest, with an indication, when necessary, of what conflict of interest is occurring, and an indication of any source of funding for the research being published.

In the case of a Conflict of Interests (COI) statement, you can attach a completed and saved PDF file ready to download and complete on the ICMJE website at: http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/.

â–¶ Statement on source of financing

The authors, submitting their work, fill in the statement about the source of financing of the presented work, with an indication of the form of financing, such as: grant, research institution, association, other entity.

Samples of declarations are available on the Journal website at: https://pjwm.mocmedia.eu/ and in electronic panel https://czasopisma.mocmedia.eu/. After completing and signing the statements, authors are required to attach (scanned) forms when placing the article in the electronic submission system.

Clinical trials

„Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” is published in view of the ICMJE policies and recommendations. The ICMJE recommends that all medical journal editors enforce the registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry before the patient enrollment.

The ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions are those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-care changes. Health outcomes are any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events.

The ICMJE accepts publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) that includes the minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration data set or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP.

In accordance with the ICMJE recommendations, the Editors of this Journal ask the authors to provide all necessary information regarding the registered study when submitting the article for publication: name of the register, Main ID, Public Title, Date of Registration. The data provided by the author are verified by the editors.

More information on this can be found at: www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html.

Ethical standards and the ethics committee consent/approval

Authors are required to report in the methods section of their original research ethics

approval protocol number, date, and name of the approving institution. Statement about written informed consent should accompany any study involving humans. Ethics approval of a longitudinal and archival study should be dated prior to the start of the research. Studies involving human subjects should meet the requirements of the WMA Declaration of Helsinki (https://bit.ly/2rJdF3M). Privacy of human subjects involved in research studies should be observed. Case studies of patients should not disclose their identity. Animal experimentation requires adherence to globally recognized guidelines and the EU directives (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm).

Consent of ethics committees is also required for a work on human biological material (also in retrospective work). Authors of works are obliged not to disclose the personal details of the patients described.

PEER REVIEW

The articles are subject to the peer review by the Editor-in-Chief of „Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” (peer review). If an article does not meet the requirements and is inconsistent with the journal scope of interests or obtained a negative result in the anti-plagiarism system, it is rejected. In the work presents other formal shortcomings, the editor sends the article to be corrected before further evaluation of the manuscript. If the corrected paper meets the formal requirements – it is forwarded for further reviews.

Reviewer comments are drafted by experts in a given thematic field on the basis of double-blind peer review, which means that the reviewer and author identities are masked. Papers are evaluated by at least two external reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief selects reviewers based on the submission topic and experts’ academic credentials (based on their academic achievements and review experience).

The rules for reviewing papers are presented at: https://pjwm.mocmedia.eu/ – the rules comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Science (www.nauka.gov.pl). Additional guidance on peer review is available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7944958/

All reviewers are offered an option to be automatically credited for their reviewer accomplishments by Web of Science Reviewer Recognition Service (formerly Publons crediting https://publons.com/).

IMPROVEMENT OF WORK AFTER REVIEW

The work after reviews made by external reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief of this Journal is sent to the authors for revisions and corrections. Revised text passages, information in tables, descriptions of tables or figures should be marked in the text of the work with a different color or in the “track changes” mode, so that it would facilitate further development of the text at the stage of a preparation for publication. The improvement of the work should be sent via an electronic panel with a letter attached as a commentary for reviewers, responding to reviewers’ questions and explaining the changes made.

AUTHOR CORRECTIONS BEFORE PUBLICATION

After accepting the article for publishing, it is prepared by internal editors and sent in a PDF file to the author for correspondence, who is required to carefully review the text, accept any changes already made and respond to the editor with comments necessary in order to correct any errors in the text and graphic material. The author’s comments should be properly marked on the PDF as a comment in the appropriate place or sent in a separate letter (MS-Word) with the place in the text (column, verse, proposed change) or in the table or figure clearly designated. All comments should be given in a clear and legible manner. If the Publisher receives no response from the authors after 5 days, it will be assumed that there are no errors to correct and the article will be published.

ERRATUM

In exceptional cases, when the article has already been published, it is possible to send the Editor-in-Chief a correction request. After the Editor-in-Chief has checked and accepted the application, the changes will be published in the form of an errata in the next issue of the Journal.

WITHDRAWAL OF PUBLISHED ARTICLE (RETRACTION)

If unethical action in science is revealed after publication of the work (see above: plagiarism, duplication of work, fabrication of data), a retraction procedure will be initiated. The authors will be immediately notified of this situation. The withdrawn work will be properly described on the journal page and the information of the withdrawal and a reason for it will be presented on the index database pages. The retraction procedure is carried out in accordance with the COPE recommendations: https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction-guidelines.pdf.

OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION AND CHARGES

The Journal editors adhere to the latest editorial recommendations on transparency and best practice open access publishing. The following document is consulted on a regular basis for updating the Journal website and editorial policies:

Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME; updated September 15, 2022: https://publicationethics.org/node/19881)

The following Open Access Declarations are enforced by the Journal Editors:

„Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management” employs the Platinum Open Access publishing model.

The authors of the journal do not bear any fees for considering papers or for their publication.

All contents are available freely, fully, and immediately upon publication.All articles are archived at: https://pjwm.mocmedia.eu/.

FINAL REMARKS

The authors do not bear any costs or receive any remuneration for the articles published in „Leczenie Ran | Polish Journal of Wound Management”.

The editors reserve the right to make language corrections without consulting the authors. Other changes are consulted with the authors.

Compliance with the requirements presented above is a prerequisite for an article publication in the Journal. Articles that do not meet formal requirements cannot be reviewed and published.

Published articles can be picked by the Journal editors for post-publication promotion on social media provided there is no sensitive information in the articles and no direct promotion of pharmaceutical agents and medical technologies. The authors themselves are encouraged to promote their articles on social media platforms in line with widely publicized ethical and other recommendations: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103414/.

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