Journal of
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (JPRS) is the official peer-reviewed and open-access journal of the Japan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The Journal’s aim is to advance knowledge of plastic and reconstructive surgery-related studies, and to promote the standards in research and conduct of physicians, surgeons, researchers and all other professionals engaged in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery worldwide. JPRS publishes original research, review articles, case reports, technical notes, brief reports, and letters to the editor. The Journal is published 4 times each year (January, April, July and October).
JPRS requires that all manuscripts be prepared in accordance with the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.” by the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) .
Peer review is a critically important process of evaluation for any manuscript submitted to JPRS. Every article dispatched for full peer review will receive a comprehensive, fair, unbiased critical assessment. All submitted manuscripts will be reviewed by an editor of JPRS to evaluate the eligibility for possible publication. Thereafter, the manuscripts will be sent to two to three expert reviewers in the field of the study for peer review. The editor will review the peer review comments and make a decision for acceptance or rejection, or request that the authors revise the manuscript based upon the reviewers’ comments. JPRS employs a double-anonymized review process. This means the identities of the peer reviewers and the authors remain anonymous to each other.
The main document of the submitted manuscript should adhere to the following requirements:
JPRS adheres to Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Reviewers must remain anonymous and are not allowed to contact the authors directly before, during, or after the reviewing process to discuss any information that is presented in the manuscript. Reviewers must keep the manuscripts and information obtained strictly confidential and must not publicly discuss or disclose the contents and any other information of the manuscript to a third party. The guidelines for the reviewers are available at the Journal’s Guidelines for Reviewers .
The decision letters, along with the comments of the editors and reviewers, will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail.
Revised manuscripts must be fully amended to address the comments of both the reviewers and the editors. Authors must include a detailed point-by-point response to the reviewers’ and editors’ comments when submitting a revised manuscript. Authors should submit the revised manuscript within 90 days from the date of the prior decision. All authors must approve every revision, correction and amendment prior to re-submission of the revised manuscript.
Manuscripts submitted by Editorial Committee members or journal staff will follow the same process as outlined above. However, they are excluded from any editorial decision process of their own manuscript and have neither access to that manuscript nor any information about the review process other than what is provided in the editor’s decision letter. Additionally, ScholarOne, the Journal’s online submission and peer review system is designed to blind a person in other roles (editor/reviewer) from any paper he/she has authored. The manuscript submitted by Editorial Committee members and journal staff of JPRS should include a statement that declares their personal conflict of interest with the Journal.
JPRS publishes the following article types. Once you have determined the correct article type, it is imperative that you read and follow the descriptions provided in the Manuscript Preparation guidelines before you submit your manuscript:
a) Original Research
Original research articles include manuscripts that encompass the broad range of innovative and impactful clinical and basic research in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery.
b) Review Article
Review articles should provide a comprehensive and scholarly account of a topic that has direct relevance to plastic and reconstructive surgery.
c) Case Report
Case reports present rare and novel clinical cases that show originality or have educational implications for diagnosis and treatment.
d) Brief Report
Brief reports may report on early clinical data or studies that are not sufficiently developed as Original Research but have the potential to make a significant impact on the research areas.
e) Technical Note
Technical Notes should be brief descriptions of a new method or technique.
f) Letter-to-the-Editor
Letters to the editor are brief, constructive commentaries that can be submitted in response to a recently published article in the Journal.
The information provided below is based in part on “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals,” as published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For any information that is not mentioned in these guidelines, authors should refer to the ICMJE Recommendations.
Manuscripts that do not follow the instructions below WILL BE RETURNED to the corresponding author for technical revision before undergoing further review.
If authors are non-native speakers of English, their manuscript must be edited by a native English speaker who is specialized in medical editing prior to submission.
The corresponding author, on behalf of co-authors, must complete the Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form and upload the form to the submission system.
All articles should be written in English and formatted as per the standard letter size [8 1/2 × 11 inch (21 × 28 cm)] paper with at least 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides. All elements of the manuscript, including abstract, main text, references, tables, and figure legends, should be typed double spaced. Line numbers and page numbers on each page are required to make it easier for reviewers to provide their comments.
To facilitate the manuscript preparation process, article templates for each article type are available to quickly format your research paper for submission.
JPRS Article Templates can be downloaded:
The organization of the manuscript should be in the following order:
Each of the sections should begin on a separate page.
Hence double-anonymized peer review is employed, the title page should be prepared and saved in a separate file from the main document, and will not be sent to the reviewers.
The title page must include the following information:
a) Brief, specific, and informative title
b) Name(s) of the author(s)
c) Institutional affiliation(s) and the location (city, country/state) of the institution
d) Corresponding author’s name, address and e-mail address
e) Contributions to the submitted work from each author. Please visit the ICMJE website for more information on authorship
f) Conflicts of Interest for all authors
g) Sources of financial support that require acknowledgment
h) Acknowledgements
i) Approval code issued by the institutional review board (IRB) and the name of the institution(s) that granted the approval
j) A statement that informed consent is obtained
Manuscripts should include an abstract in the following formats:
Original Research:
Headings: Structured (Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions)
Word limit: 250 words
Review Article:
Headings: Unstructured
Word limit: 250 words
Case Report:
Headings: Unstructured
Word limit: 150 words
Brief Report:
Headings: Structured, or unstructured if appropriate
Word limit: 250 words
Technical Note:
Headings: Unstructured
Word limit: 150 words
Letter-to-the-Editor:
Abstract is not necessary.
At least two (2) to six (6) key words should be listed below the Abstract.
JPRS operates a double-anonymized peer review process. Do not include any information in the abstract that may reveals the identity of the authors.
Reports of clinical trials must include the registration number and name of the registration database in the title page. See further information on clinical trials below.
The main text should be prepared in MS Word (.doc or .docx). For each article type, authors must organize and order their content using the following formats:
Original Research:
Word limit: 4,000 words (excluding references)
Headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion
References: No more than 70 references
Review Article:
Word limit: 5,000 words (excluding references)
References: No more than 120 references
Case Report:
Word limit: 2,000 words (excluding references)
References: No more than 30 references
Brief Report:
Word limit: 1,500 words (excluding references)
References: No more than 20 references
Technical Note:
Word limit: 1,500 words (excluding references)
References: No more than 20 references
Letters-to-the-Editor:
Word limit: 500 words (excluding references)
References: No more than 5 references
Tables and figures: Not required
Hence double-anonymized peer review will be employed, do not include any information which may leads to the identities of the authors.
The authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.
For reference styles pertaining to other media formats or further details, please refer to Citing Medicine, which is published by the National Library of Medicine (US).
Reference examples follow:
Journal article
1. Rastan S, Hough T, Kierman A, et al. Towards a mutant map of the mouse--new models of neurological, behavioural, deafness, bone, renal and blood disorders. Genetica. 2004 Sep;122(1):47-9.
Book chapter
2. Riffenburgh RH. Statistics in medicine. 2nd ed. Amsterdam (Netherlands): Elsevier Academic Press; 2006. Chapter 24, Regression and correlation methods; p. 447-86.
Entire book
3. Eyre HJ, Lange DP, Morris LB. Informed decisions: the complete book of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. 2nd ed. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2002. 768 p.
Software
4. Nelson KN. Comprehensive body composition software [disk]. Release 1.0 for DOS. Champaign (IL): Human Kinetics, 1997. 1 computer disk: color, 3 1/2 in.
Online journals
5. Terauchi Y, Takamoto I, Kubota N, et al. Glucokinase and IRS-2 are required for compensatory beta cell hyperplasia in response to high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance. J Clin Invest [Internet]. 2007 Jan 2 [cited 2007 Jan 5];117(1):246-57. Available from: http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/117/1/246
Database
6. MeSH Database [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US). 2003 Apr - [cited 2011 Jul 8]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh
Journal article in a language other than English
7-1. in a roman alphabet
Berrino F, Gatta G, Crosignani P. [Case-control evaluation of screening efficacy]. Epidemiol Prev. 2004 Nov-Dec;28(6):354-9. Italian.
7-2. in a non-roman alphabet
Zhao L, Li H, Han D. [Effects of intestinal endotoxemia on the development of cirrhosis in rats]. ZhonghuaGanZang Bing ZaZhi. 2001 Jul;9 Suppl:21-3. Chinese.
Journal names should be abbreviated in the standard form as they appear in the NLM catalog. If the journals are not included in the NLM catalog, use the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations for standard abbreviations of journal names. If you are uncertain, please use the full journal name.
Define abbreviations in parentheses when they first appear in the text, and use the abbreviations consistently thereafter. For tables and figures, abbreviations may be used if they are defined in the table title or footnotes and in the figure legends.
All measurements should be in the metric system and follow the International System of Units (SI). Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury. Use a capital letter “L” for liter in the units of measurements in the text, figures, and tables (e.g., g/dL, mg/dL, IU/L, and mEq/L).
Legends must be prepared for all figures presented in the manuscript. Authors must list figure legends on a separate page after the references.
The use of figures and tables is encouraged for research articles with no limit to their number.
Tables:
Figures:
JPRS encourage submission of supporting supplementary materials and videos. They should be additional information to the article that is not essential but useful to understand the will not be included in the issue, such as appendices, tables, and audio and video material that is impossible to produce within the article.
Authors must obtain written consent from any patient whose photographs or videos are submitted to the Journal if the person is identifiable. The signed consent must be submitted along with the manuscript. A consent form can be downloaded here.
Specifications by Article Types
The main text does not include title page, abstract, references, figure legends and table titles.
In accordance with ICMJE’s policy on trial registration, all clinical trials must be registered with a public trials registry before the time of first patient enrollment. ICMJE defines clinical trials 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 cause-and-effect relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions include but are not limited to 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.
JPRS requires all clinical trials to be registered with databases that are accessible to the public at no charge, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a not-for-profit organization, have a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data, and are electronically searchable.
Submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the title page as evidence of registration. The name of the registration database must also be provided. For details regarding the required minimal registration data set, please go to the ICMJE website.
The Journal accepts registration from the following list of registries as well as others listed at ICMJE website:
In reporting randomized clinical trials, authors must comply with published CONSORT guidelines
(http://www.consort-statement.org/). The recommended checklist must be completed and provided to the Journal at the time of manuscript submission. The recommended trial flow diagram should be presented as “Supplementary File”.
Various reporting guidelines have been developed for different study designs. Authors are encouraged to follow published standard reporting guidelines for the study discipline.
Please access http://www.equator-network.org/ to find the guideline that is appropriate for your study.
It is extremely important that when you complete any Reporting Guideline checklist, you consider amending your manuscript to ensure your article addresses all relevant reporting criteria issues delineated in the relevant reporting checklist prior to submission. The purpose of a reporting guideline is to guide you in improving the reporting standard of your manuscript. The objective is not to solely complete the reporting checklist, but to use the checklist itself in the writing of your manuscript. Taking the time to ensure your manuscript meets these basic reporting needs will greatly improve your manuscript, while also potentially enhancing its chances for eventual publication.
JPRS encourages the authors of manuscript which includes clinical trials to share their de-identified research data including, but not limited to raw data, processed data, software, algorithms, protocols, methods, materials, study protocol, statistical analysis plan, informed consent form, clinical study report, analytic code.
As required by ICMJE, all manuscripts that report the results of clinical trial must include a data sharing statement with a link to the trial registration. The statement should include the following information:
The statement is published alongside their paper.
Submit manuscript files electronically via the ScholarOne system in the following order: title page, main document, tables and figures. The total size of the uploaded files should be within 100 MB. Upon submission, the manuscript will be automatically checked for plagiarism by the Similarity Check plagiarism screening service by CrossRef to determine both textual overlap and manuscript originality. The submitted manuscript can be sent back to the corresponding author for rewriting if the detected text overlap rate is 30% or higher.
JPRS observes the highest standards in journal publication ethics. The Journal supports and adheres to the industry guidelines and best practices, including “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.” by ICMJE and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (a joint statement by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the World Association for Medical Editors (WAME) and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA); https://doaj.org/apply/transparency/).
Articles that have been previously published or are being considered for publication in another journal in any language will not be accepted. The editors make all decisions on the acceptance of the peer-reviewed manuscripts.
JPRS considers publication of manuscripts that contain information of primary research previously posted on a recognized non-profit preprint server. However, authors are not allowed to submit their paper to any preprint servers after it has been submitted to JPRS.
Authors must acknowledge, during submission, preprint server deposition with a link to your published manuscript and provide the associated accession number or DOI. No revisions must be posted to the preprint server after the manuscript submission to JPRS. If the manuscript is accepted for publication in JPRS, the authors must indicate on the preprint server that the final peer-reviewed version of the article is published in JPRS and are responsible for updating the archived pre-print with a DOI and link to the published version of the article in JPRS. Violation of this preprint policy will be considered grounds for article retraction.
All manuscript details, author information, reviewer identities, comments to the editors and the authors, and the content of the decision letter are considered privileged information and will never be disclosed to third parties.
All authors listed in the manuscript must meet the following criteria of contribution described by the ICMJE in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.
Contributors who do not meet all four criteria for authorship above should not be listed as authors. Guest or honorary authorship is not permitted.
The corresponding author must ensure that a manuscript is read and approved by all authors prior to submission.
Those who do not qualify for authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under the single heading, “Acknowledgements,” in the title page. Examples of activities that do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquisition of funding, general supervision of a research group, or general administrative support and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.
Authors should discuss, determine and (if they exist) settle any disagreements about the order of authorship before submitting their manuscript. Final author order must be established by the end of the revision phase of the peer review process.
Adding, deleting, or changing the author names and their order is not permitted after the acceptance of the manuscript for publication.
In consonance with the COPE’s position statement, WAME’s recommendations, and ICMJE’s Recommendation, JPRS does not allow artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted tools/technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs), chatbots, or image creators to be listed as author or co-author. As described in the ICMJE, those tools cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, thus they do not meet the ICMJE’s criteria for authorship listed above.
The authors (humans) are fully responsible for any materials of the submitted work, including the use of AI-assisted tools or technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors (humans) are also responsible for plagiarism including in text and AI-produced images.
Authors must disclose, upon submission and in the Methods (or similar section), any use of AI-assisted tools or technologies in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data.
Authors must explicitly state whether potential conflicts of interest (COI) exist or not. This includes, but is not limited to, agreements for research support (including research funding and provision of equipment or materials), honoraria (such as lecture fees), consulting, employment, promotional fees, advisory role, stock ownership, patent/licensing fees, and any other financial, institutional or personal relationships with biotechnology manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that have any interest in the subject matter, materials, or process(es) discussed in the manuscript. Any possible COI related to the study presented in the manuscript must be disclosed on the title page under the heading “Conflicts of Interest” using the following examples for each author:
“A (author name) received honoraria from Z (entity name); B holds an advisory role in Y; C is an employee of Company X.”
If a manuscript is accepted for publication, the disclosures will be published as they appear in this section. If there are no COIs, the authors should state, “The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest” in the title page.
All sources of funding from entities such as governmental or non-profit organizations, that are relevant to the study, should be acknowledged in the title page under the heading “Source of Funding”. You must ensure that the full, correct details of your funder(s) and any relevant grant numbers are included.
The corresponding author, on behalf of co-authors, must complete the Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form and upload the form to the submission system.
The Editorial Committee of JPRS follows the recommended procedures outlined by COPE International Standards for responsible research publication for authors and editors when dealing with allegations of misconduct. Please see our Ethics Polices for the information.
After the acceptance of a manuscript for publication, galley proofs will be available to the authors for corrections of minor errors such as spelling errors and omitted characters or letters. Any other corrections and revisions after the acceptance of a manuscript are not permitted unless requested by the Editorial Committee of the Journal. Authors are expected to perform the proofing, as instructed by the Editorial Office. Upon completion of the proofing, authors should immediately e-mail the revised proof to the publisher.
The Journal is fully funded by the Japan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. There is no charge to submit to or publish in the journal.
Copyright to articles and their contents published in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery belong to the Japan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. However, the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery applies the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) to all works published by the journal. Anyone may download, reuse, copy, reprint, or distribute articles published in the journal for not-for-profit purposes if they cite the original authors and source properly. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. For for-profit or commercial use, written permission by the Editorial Committee of Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is mandatory.
Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Editorial Office
c/o Kyorinsha
3-46-10, Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo, 114-0024, Japan
E-mail: jprs@kyorin.co.jp