Author guidelines

Scope and purpose

As the official publication of the American Burn Association, the Journal of Burn Care & Research is the only U.S. journal devoted exclusively to the treatment and research of patients with burns. Original, peer-reviewed articles present the latest information on surgical procedures, acute care, reconstruction, burn prevention, and research and education. Other topics include physical therapy/occupational therapy, nutrition, current events in the evolving healthcare debate, and reports on the newest tools for diagnostics and treatment. The goal of the Journal is to provide the latest information on advances in burn prevention, research, education, delivery of acute care, rehabilitation, and research to all members of the burn care team. Authors are encouraged to submit original articles on any aspect of burn care for publication. 

Authors should submit manuscripts online through the Journal's submission site.

How we publish

Journal of Burn Care & Research is a peer-reviewed journal publishing 6 issues per year online and in print.

Once a paper is accepted and the publishing agreement is signed, the Journal will publish the Accepted Manuscript version of the paper (before copyediting and review of the final proof) within one week on the Advance articles page. This will be replaced in Advance articles with the Version of Record of the paper (after copyediting and proof review process) when it is available. The Version of Record will be removed from Advance articles when it is published in an issue. Substantial changes to the published Accepted Manuscript may require a correction notice. The Version of Record requires a correction notice for any changes after it is published, even if it is not yet placed in an issue. See the definitions of the Version of Record and other versions of the paper for more details.

Article Types

Original Article

Original Articles present original research findings in the burn field. There is no minimum or maximum length for Original Articles. They must include an abstract.

Case Report

These articles report conditions that provide new insight, or present new treatments or understanding relevant to the burn community. Must not exceed 2,000 words, (excluding references, figures and tables), 25 references and a total of 3 figures or tables. No abstract.

Summary Article

Critical, timely and balanced evaluations of material that has already been published

Short Communication

A brief report of research findings relevant to the journal's scope and of particular interest to the community. They can represent either a preliminary report or provide the publication of potentially important results and up to date information.  Must include an abstract and a maximum of 1,500 words. 

Editorial 

Uninvited Editorials may address standards of research or clinical practice, funding agency priorities, or public policy issues of relevance to the field. There is no length limit.

Letter to the Editor

These are letters published in response to articles published in JBCR and should be submitted within 3 months of the online publication date of the article the letter refers to. The letter will be shown to the authors of the original article, who will be offered the chance to reply. A reference to the original article must be included in the paper.  Maximum 300 words and 6 references, no figures or tables.

Peer review process

The Journal operates double-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is hidden from reviewers, and the reviewers’ identities are hidden from the authors. The editors know the identity of both the reviewers and the authors.

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, it will then be passed to a handling editor, who will oversee peer review and recommend a final decision. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the submitted manuscript.  The Editor-in-Chief may also serve as a handling editor.

Editors and reviewers must not handle manuscripts if they have a conflict of interest with an author or the content. Editors make every effort to avoid potential conflicts of interest in the assignment of other editors and peer reviewers. For more information, please see the section on Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. During the peer review phase, your manuscript is typically sent to 2 reviewers.  Case Reports are sent to at least one reviewer. You may suggest potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their field and able to provide an objective assessment of your manuscript without financial or interpersonal conflicts of interest with any authors. We encourage you to consider reviewers from a diverse range of backgrounds, including those from under-represented communities. 

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, no information about the review process or editorial decision process is published, unless one of the authors has a role on the journal. See the Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest section for more information in that case.

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review. 

Screening for misconduct

Manuscripts will be screened using iThenticate to help detect publication misconduct including plagiarism and redundant publication.

Appeals and complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision. To do so, please contact the editorial office at [email protected], providing as much specific detail as possible about why the original decision should be reconsidered. Every appeal will receive a response within a reasonable timeframe. Please do not resubmit your manuscript in the interim.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact us. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes and/or sanctions will be enacted if deemed appropriate.

Publication and research ethics

Authorship

Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. The Journal will contact all listed authors at the point of submission to confirm their role. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on ghost, guest, or gift authorship. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made unless there is a substantive reason to do so. The editor and all co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office at [email protected]. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

After submission, changing who is designated as the corresponding author will be permitted only where there is a substantive reason to do so. For the avoidance of doubt, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open access charges section.

ORCiD

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) at submission and take advantage of the benefits of participating in ORCID. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website. 

As ORCID identifiers are collected, they are included in papers and displayed online, both in the HTML and PDF versions of the publication, in compliance with recommended practice issued by ORCID.

ORCID functionality online allows users to link to the ORCID website to view an author’s profile and list of publications. ORCID iDs are displayed on web pages and are sent downstream to third parties in data feeds, where supported.

If you have registered with ORCID, you can associate your ORCID iD with your submission system account by going to your account details, entering your ORCID iD, and validating your details. Learn more about ORCID and how to link it to your account.

CRediT

The Journal uses the contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT), which allows authors to describe the contributor roles in a standardized, transparent, and accurate way. Authors should choose from the contributor roles outlined on the CRediT website and supply this information upon submission. You may choose multiple contributor roles per author. Any other individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and made less substantive contributions should be listed in your manuscript as non-author contributors with their contributions clearly described. Following manuscript submission, any changes to contributor roles require the approval of the editor

Group Authorship

Groups (also known as corporate, organization, or collective names) who meet authorship criteria should be included in the main author list. Every individual in the group should fully meet the criteria for authorship. At least one individual must be designated on behalf of the group as the primary point of contact during the peer-review and production processes, as well as for correspondence following publication. You may list this individual separately in the main author list if desired. A complete list of the individual members of the group must be included in the manuscript under Acknowledgments.

The group name will be entered for a PubMed citation. The names of the individual members of the group will be entered as collaborator names for PubMed citation, in the order in which they are published in the paper. If an individual is named both in the main author list and as a member of the group, they will appear in PubMed as both an author and a collaborator.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

Authors

The Journal requires all authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest at the point of submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that conflicts of interest of all authors are declared to the Journal.

A conflict of interest exists when the position, activities, or relationships of an individual, whether direct or indirect, financial or non-financial, could influence or be seen to influence the opinions or activities of the individual. For more information, refer to OUP’s definition of conflict of interest.

The Journal follows the COPE guidance for any undisclosed conflict of interest that emerges during peer review, production, or after publication.

Instructions for the author(s):

• The corresponding author submits their conflicts of interest declaration by answering the mandatory COI questions in the submission system at the time of submission. The questions are adapted from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (COI) form.
• Any co-authors listed will be contacted by email to confirm their co-authorship and to submit their COI declaration by answering a series of mandatory questions in the submission system.
• Authors are still required to provide a response to the COI questions even if there are no conflicts of interest to declare (state “none declared”).
• The corresponding author must submit a concise and accurate summary of any conflicts of interest declared in the manuscript’s title page under the heading “Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding.” If there are no conflicts of interest, state “none declared”. The text will be included in the article when published.

For example:

Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: “Author A” has received honoraria from “Company 1.” “Author B” is currently receiving a grant (#12345) from “Organization Y” and is on the speaker’s bureau for “Organization X” – the CME organizers for Company 1. For the remaining authors none are declared.

Reviewers

Individuals that have a conflict of interest relating to a submitted manuscript should recuse themselves and will not be assigned to oversee, handle, or peer review the manuscript.

If during peer review an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

Editors

At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled. The statement will read “[Author name] holds the position of [role] for Journal of Burn Care & Research and has not peer reviewed or made any editorial decisions for this paper."

Previously published material

You should only submit your manuscript(s) to the Journal if:

• It is original work by you and your co-author(s).
• It is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any other publication.
• It has not been published in any other publication.
• It contains nothing abusive, defamatory, derogatory, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

The submitting author must disclose in their cover letter and provide copies of all related or similar preprints, dissertations, manuscripts, published papers, and reports by the same authors (i.e., those containing substantially similar content or using the same, similar, or a subset of data) that have been previously published or posted electronically or are under consideration elsewhere at the time of manuscript submission. You must also provide a concise explanation of how the submitted manuscript differs from these related manuscripts and papers. All related previously published papers should be cited as references and described in the submitted manuscript.

The Journal does not discourage you from presenting your findings at conferences or scientific meetings but recommends that you refrain from distributing complete copies of your manuscripts, which might later be published elsewhere without your knowledge.

For previously published materials including tables and figures, please see the Reusing copyrighted materials section.

Preprints

As an author, you retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels and this does not prevent submission to the Journal. If accepted, you are required to update the status of any preprint, including adding your published paper’s DOI. For full details on allowed channels and updating your preprint, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Reusing copyrighted material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, images, data, or software. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following:

• Nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in Journal of Burn Care & Research
• Rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
• Lifetime rights to use the material
• Worldwide English-language rights

If you have chosen to publish under an open access license but have not obtained open access re-use permissions for third-party material contained within the manuscript, this must be stated clearly by supplying a credit line alongside the material with the following information:

• Title of content
• Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rightsholder]
• This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons license of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Our publisher, Oxford University Press, provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information.

Misconduct

Authors should observe high standards with respect to research integrity and publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data including inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Allegations of ethical misconduct, both directly and through social media, are treated seriously and will be investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE guidance.

If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in one or more of the following outcomes, among others:

• If a submitted manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If a paper has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either a correction notice will be published and linked to the paper, or retraction of the paper will occur, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
• The relevant party’s institution(s) and/or other journals may be informed.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal may be screened with plagiarism-detection software. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose that part or all the of the manuscript has been previously published.

COPE defines plagiarism as:

“when somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were their own and without proper acknowledgment.”

COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as: 

“when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification,
or
when the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the findings have been published before.”

COPE defines citation manipulation as: 

“behaviours intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, and excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner.”

Data fabrication is defined as intentionally creating fake data or misrepresenting research results. An example includes making up data sets.

Data falsification is defined as manipulating research data with the purpose of intentionally giving a false representation. This can apply to images, research materials, equipment, or processes. Examples include cropping of gels/images to change context and omission of selected data.

If notified of a potential breach of research misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

Ethical research

The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on ethical oversight. We take research integrity seriously, and all research published in the Journal must have been conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, the Journal requires that all research be done according to international and local guidelines.

Human participants

When reporting on human participants, you should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration, which were developed by the World Medical Association. For non-interventional studies, where ethical approval is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Otherwise, manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section that the research was performed after approval by a local ethics committee, institutional review board and/or local licensing committee, or that such approval was not required. The name of the authorizing body and any reference/permit numbers (where available) should also be stated there. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

Human participants must give written informed consent, or if they are minors or incapacitated, such consent must be obtained from their parents or guardians. Consent forms should cover not only study participation but also the publication of the data collected and deposition in databases and/or biobanks. Also, any patient or provider information should be anonymized to the extent possible; names and ID numbers should not be used in the text and must be removed from any images (X-rays, photographs, etc.). Please note blanking out an individual’s eyes in a photograph is not an effective way to conceal their identity. In studies where verbal, rather than written, informed consent was obtained, this must be explained and stated within the manuscript. If informed consent is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be included in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. The Journal does not routinely collect consent forms, but authors should be prepared to provide written consent forms signed by the participants or other appropriate documentation to the editorial office upon request. For further guidance and examples, please refer to COPE’s guidance on consent.

 A signed release is required for any image of a recognizable subject and must be submitted with the manuscript. Please use the patient release form if the patient will sign and the copyright holder form if the patient has already signed a release and an institution will sign.

Clinical trials

Clinical trials should be registered before enrollment of the first participant in accordance with the criteria outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). When reporting primary or secondary analyses from a clinical trial, follow these criteria:

• Provide the trial registration number at the end of the Abstract.
• When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference.
• If your data have been deposited in a public repository and/or are being used in a secondary analysis, please state at the end of the Abstract the unique, persistent data set identifier, and repository name and number.
• When submitting the manuscript, you must disclose any protocol alterations and all posting of results of the submitted work or closely related work in registries.

Where available, registration numbers should be provided not only for the trial you are reporting but also for any other trial mentioned in the manuscript. When the trial acronym is first used in the manuscript, provide the registration number and a link to the trial registration, which should be cited as a reference. 

Animals

Studies involving animals require approval from the relevant institutional ethics committee or institutional animal use and care committee, and the research must be conducted in accordance with applicable national and international guidelines. All such manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section providing details of the name of the committee(s) that approved the study, as well as the permit or animal license numbers where available. Where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be stated in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

Manuscripts describing research involving laboratory-based animals must include details on housing, husbandry, and steps taken to reduce suffering. In studies where experimental animals were euthanized, details must be provided on humane endpoints. Details on the planned behavioral observations or physiological measurements used to determine the humane endpoint must be described. You are advised to consult the NC3Rs guide on Humane Endpoints and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Guidelines for the Humane Slaughter of Animals.

Disclaimer

Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the editors, publisher, or the American Burn Association and the editors, publisher, and the American Burn Association, disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material. Neither the editors, publisher, nor the American Burn Association, guarantees, warrants, or endorses any product or service advertised in this publication, nor do they guarantee any claim made by the manufacturer of such product or service.

C4DISC partnership

The Journal, American Burn Association, and OUP aim to create a community that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of our commitment to these principles, OUP is a proud partner of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC). C4DISC works with organizations and individuals within the scholarly communications landscape to foster equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility across the publishing industry and its published outputs.

Inclusive language and images

As defined by the Linguistic Society of America: 

“Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities”

We encourage you to consider using inclusive language and images when preparing your manuscript. For guidelines, please see the Bias-free language guidelines from APA Style. 

Accessibility

Written, visual, and audio content in your submission should be accessible to all. Please see the C4DISC guidelines for making text, images, charts, tables, and audio and video accessible.

Availability of data and materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Data Citation

Journal of Burn Care & Research supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Digital preservation

Content published in the Journal will automatically be deposited into digital preservation services, including CLOCKSS, the Global LOCKSS Network, and Portico. This ensures the long-term preservation of your work. Through LOCKSS, participating institutions can sustain access to content if the Journal were to otherwise be unavailable, even for a short period of time. Should the Journal ever cease to publish, or content would otherwise become permanently unavailable, long-term access to the archives of CLOCKSS and Portico would be triggered. Until such a trigger event were to occur, this content is not available to the public through CLOCKSS and Portico.

Self-archiving

Self-archiving refers to posting a copy of your work on a publicly accessible website or repository. Under certain circumstances, you may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. For information about the Journal's policy, and to learn which version(s) of your paper are acceptable for self-archiving, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Publishing agreement and charges

Authors, please read each section on the publishing agreement and charges carefully. 

If you have any questions relating to your publishing agreement or charges please contact OUP Support.

Publishing agreement

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a license to publish through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris. The Journal offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (standard) license or an open access (Creative Commons) license. There is a charge to publish under an open access license, which allows your paper to be freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. The standard license makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is no license charge. This license grants OUP an exclusive license to publish and distribute the content. There is no transfer of ownership of the copyright. You, the author, retain copyright for the content.

Papers can be published under the following:

• Standard license to publish (Oxford University Press (OUP) Journals, Standard Publication Model)
• Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC)
• United States Government License
• Crown Copyright License
• For ABA official publications and Clinical Practice Guidelines, a copyright transfer agreement is used. American Burn Association holds the copyright in this case.

Please see the OUP guidance on Licences, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Complying with funder mandates

Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution before selecting your license.

Further information on funder mandates and direct links to a range of funder policies.

Charges

Open access charges

Please see the details of open access licences and charges. If you select an open access license, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through our licensing and payment portal, SciPris.

OUP has a growing number of open access agreements with institutions and consortia, which provide funding for open access publishing (also known as Read and Publish agreements). This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution has an open access agreement.

To be eligible for one of OUP’s Read and Publish agreements, the corresponding author must provide their qualifying institution as their primary affiliation when they submit their manuscript. After submission, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible.

Color charges

You must pay any applicable color charges through the Journals Licencing and Online Payments portal when production of your manuscript is complete.

The Journal charges $600 per printed color image. The price is exclusive of value added tax, goods and services tax, and any similar sales or excise taxes. Any applicable taxes will be added to the invoiced charge at the prevailing rate. Color charges can be avoided by submitting grayscale images for print along with full color images for the online paper.

If you choose to publish under an open access license, color charges still apply.

Page charges

The Journal does not have page charges.

Member discounts

Corresponding authors who are members of the American Burn Association may be eligible for a 20% discount on open access publication charges. Please provide your member identifier when prompted as you submit your manuscript.

Changes to published papers

The Journal will only make changes to published papers if the publication record is seriously affected by the academic accuracy of the published information. Changes to a published paper will be accompanied by a formal correction notice linking to and from the original paper.

As needed, we follow the COPE guidelines on retractions.

For more information and details of how to request changes, including for authors who wish to update their name and/or pronouns, please see OUP’s policy on changes to published papers.

Promoting your work

As the author, you are the best advocate for your work, and we encourage you to be involved in promoting your publication. Sharing your ideas and news about your publication with your colleagues and friends could take as little as 15 minutes and will make a real difference in raising the profile of your research.

You can promote your work by:

• Sharing your paper with colleagues and friends. If your paper is published open access, it will always be freely available to all readers, and you can share it without any limitations. Otherwise, use the toll-free link that is emailed to you after publication. It provides permanent, free access to your paper, even if your paper is updated.
• Signing up for an ORCID iD author identifier to distinguish yourself from any other researchers with the same name, create an online profile showcasing all your publications, and increase the visibility of your work.
• Using social media to promote your work. To learn more about self-promotion on social media, see our social media guide for authors.

Find out how Oxford University Press promotes your content. 

Preparing your manuscript

General guidelines on preparing your manuscript for publication can be found on OUP’s Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Specific instructions for Journal of Burn Care & Research can be found below.

General guidance

Original articles, editorials, historical and current reviews, case reports, and descriptions of clinical care, rehabilitation, and surgical techniques are sought. Readers are urged to respond to articles and to share ideas about burn care in Letters to the Editor. Editors reserve the right to edit letters without changing meaning. All letters must be signed; no anonymous correspondence will be published.

Please use standard 12-point font, double spacing and page numbers throughout the manuscript. Pattern the manuscript style after the American Medical Association Manual of Style (10th edition). Stedman’s Medical Dictionary (28th edition) and Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) should be used as standard references.

All manuscripts must meet applicable length limits, have required formatting, and be organized as detailed below. Those that do not adhere to these guidelines will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision.

Title page

The title page should be saved and submitted as a separate file. Include the following on the title page:

1. Complete manuscript title
2. All authors’ full names, highest academic degrees, and affiliations including country
3. Name and address for correspondence, telephone number, and email address
4. Address for reprints if different from that of the corresponding author
5. All possible conflicts of interest, as described in the Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest section
6. Disclosure of funding received for the work from any source including the following: National Institutes of Health, Welcome Trust, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
7. Acknowledgements
8. Any other sections that would disclose author identity
9. Total word count if a Case Report or Letter to the Editor

Anonymized title page

The anonymized title page should be the first page of the manuscript. Include on this page only the complete manuscript title. No author or institutional information identifying the authors or supporting institution should appear on this page. This title page will be the one sent with the manuscript to the reviewers.

Abstract and keywords

Provide an unstructured abstract written in English that does not exceed 250 words. It must be factual and concise. Do not use abbreviations and acronyms. After the abstract, list 3 to 5 keywords or phrases. Abbreviations and acronyms are not permitted. Letters and editorials do not require abstracts.

Text

Organize manuscripts into journal-specific main headings: anonymized title page, abstract and key words page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Supplementary Material, References, tables, and figure legends. All direct references to the parent institutions or specific individuals involved in the project (except for solicited papers) must be removed from the text of the manuscript.

Abbreviations

Write out the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in text as well as in each table and figure, unless it is a standard unit of measure. Use generic names, whenever possible. If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer’s name and city, state/country. For a list of standard abbreviations, consult Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (CBE Style Manual) 6th Edition or other standard sources.

Drugs and therapeutic agents

Refer to drugs and therapeutic agents by their accepted generic or chemical names, and do not abbreviate them. Use code numbers only when a generic name is not yet available. In that case, supply the chemical name and a figure giving the chemical structure of the drug. Capitalize the trade names of drugs and place them in parentheses after the generic names, only when necessary. To comply with trademark law, include the name and location (city and state in the U.S.; city and country outside the U.S.) of the manufacturer of any drug, supply, or equipment mentioned in the manuscript. Use the metric system to express units of measure and degrees Celsius to express temperatures and use SI units rather than conventional units.

References

The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. List and number the references (double-spaced) at the end of the manuscript. Cite references in text in the order of appearance. Incorporate unpublished data, such as papers submitted but not yet accepted for publication or personal communications, in parentheses in the text. If there are more than 7 authors, name only the first 3 authors and then use et al. Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list.

Figures

Creating Digital Artwork

• Create, scan, and save your artwork and compare your final figure to the Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist (below).
• Upload each figure to Editorial Manager in conjunction with your manuscript text and tables.

Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist 

Here are the basics to have in place before submitting your digital artwork:

• Artwork should be saved as TIFF, EPS, or MS Office (DOC, PPT, XLS) files. High resolution PDF files are also acceptable.
• Crop out any white or black space surrounding the image.
• Diagrams, drawings, graphs, and other line art must be vector or saved at a resolution of at least 1200 dpi. If created in an MS Office program, send the native (DOC, PPT, XLS) file.
• Photographs, radiographs, and other halftone images must be saved at a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
• Photographs and radiographs with text must be saved as postscript or at a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
• Each figure must be saved and submitted as a separate file. Figures should not be embedded in the manuscript text file.

Remember:

• Cite figures consecutively in your manuscript.
• Number figures in the figure legend in the order in which they are discussed.
• Upload figures consecutively to the Editorial Manager Web site and enter figure numbers consecutively in the Description field when uploading the files.

Figure Legends

Legends must be submitted for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and they should appear on a separate manuscript page after the references. Use scale markers in the image for electron micrographs and indicate the type of stain used.

Color Figures

The Journal will consider publishing a limited number of color figures that enhance an article. The Journal’s editors will let the author know whether the Journal will cover the cost of color reproduction if an author chooses to submit color art with a manuscript. See Color charges for more information.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Graphical and video abstracts

Authors are encouraged to consider including a graphical abstract or video abstract, collectively referred to as “multimedia abstracts” as part of the article, in addition to the text abstract.

Multimedia abstracts are a visual summary of the main article findings and often take the form of graphical images or videos. They display in addition to the text abstract and offer readers a quick browsing method, in addition to providing you with an asset to share and discuss your findings. The abstract is considered a part of the article and should be submitted with the full article. They are peer reviewed and published online and in PDF.

An effective multimedia abstract should convey the key question addressed in your research and a summary of the outcomes using universal visual cues and succinct data points. Consider including the following:

• Summary of outcomes, key data points with units
• Prose should be consistent with usage in the title and body of the article, but with minimal text
• Color, image, and symbol use to translate your findings visually
• Author name, journal, and year of publication
• If using video, this should not simply be reading your text abstract—it should demonstrate something key to your findings and be a maximum of five minutes long

A free primer on producing visual abstracts, including examples, can be found at the popular scientific publication blog, A Surgeon’s Journey Through Research & Design.

The graphical/video abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. When you upload the file on the “Attach Files” step in Editorial Manager, please select “Graphical Abstract” or “Video Abstract,” as applicable, in the Item Type dropdown.

The file should be clearly named to show it is a multimedia abstract, as opposed to a figure that is part of the article body. Some examples:

• graphical_abstract.tiff
• video_abstract.mp4

See Preparing and Submitting your Manuscript for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics and videos—abstract media file formats follow the same requirements as article media placed in the content.

Please ensure graphical abstracts are in landscape format. Graphical abstracts should preferably be submitted in color. As with other submitted figures, graphical abstracts will be free in color online, although it may be converted to black and white for print publication if you choose to forego color charges, since standard print color rates apply.

Study funding

You must fully declare all funding information relevant to the study, including specific grant numbers, under a separate subheading following the acknowledgements.

Include pharmaceutical and industry support.

Pre-submission language editing

You may wish to use a language-editing service before submitting to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. Our publisher, Oxford University Press, partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Through the OUP-Enago partner page, prospective authors are entitled to a discount for language editing, abstract and layperson summary writing, rejected manuscript editing, and creation of graphical abstracts, illustrations, and videos.

Enago is an independent service provider, which will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing and other services from Enago are optional and do not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will undergo the regular review process of the Journal. For more details and a list of additional resources, please see OUP’s page on language services.

Contact us

For questions regarding submission and review, including appeals, you can reach the editorial office by email at [email protected].

After your paper has been sent to production, you can contact [email protected] for questions regarding publishing agreements and charges, the production process, or publication. Please see Changes to published papers if you need to request a substantive change to your published paper.

To register a complaint regarding non-editorial decisions, the Journal’s policies and procedures, editors, or staff, please contact us at [email protected]. Complaints will be taken seriously and will be carried forward following COPE guidelines and processes and/or sanctions will be enacted if deemed appropriate.