Editorial Policy

Journal Overview

The Nigerian Journal of Orthopaedics and Trauma (NJOT) is an official publication of the Nigerian Orthopaedic Association (NOA). The journal serves as a national and international platform for the dissemination of high-quality scholarly research relevant to orthopaedics, trauma, musculoskeletal sciences, and allied surgical and rehabilitation disciplines in Nigeria, Africa, and globally.

NJOT publishes original scholarly works that have not been previously published and are not under consideration elsewhere. The journal accepts the following article types: original research articles, review articles, case reports and case series, communications, letters to the editor, and conference papers. The journal may consider additional article formats in the future as its scope evolves.

NJOT is an open-access journal.
Manuscripts must be submitted in UK English.
The journal is published biannually.
The journal is discoverable through Google Scholar.
Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are assigned to published articles, and article metadata are deposited with Crossref.

EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The Editor-in-Chief, with support from Associate Editors, is responsible for deciding which manuscripts submitted to NJOT are accepted for publication. Editorial decisions are guided by the journal’s Editorial Policy and are constrained by legal requirements relating to libel, copyright infringement, plagiarism, and ethical misconduct.

The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to decline manuscripts that fail to meet the journal’s standards regarding scope, content quality, ethical compliance, or formal presentation. Authors will be informed of editorial decisions within 4–6 weeks of submission, subject to reviewer availability.

The Editor-in-Chief must declare and avoid conflicts of interest in handling manuscripts. Where a conflict exists, the manuscript will be managed independently by an Associate Editor. Members of the Editorial Board and Editorial Advisory Board may submit manuscripts to the journal; however, they shall not participate in editorial decision-making concerning their own submissions. Such manuscripts will be handled under strict double-blind conditions. Where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, an Associate Editor will assume full editorial responsibility.

All editorial decisions are made without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or political belief.

Editors and editorial staff must treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential. Unpublished material disclosed in manuscripts must not be used without the authors’ express written consent, and privileged information obtained through editorial processes must not be used for personal gain.

The editorial team shall ensure that double-blind peer review is maintained throughout the review process.

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors warrant that submitted manuscripts represent original work, have not been previously published, and are not under consideration elsewhere. Parallel submission constitutes misconduct. Posting manuscripts on recognised preprint servers does not constitute prior publication; however, authors must disclose preprint posting at submission and provide a link. Upon publication, authors must update preprint records with the final citation and DOI.

Authors should disclose prior submissions of the manuscript to other journals and describe how reviewer feedback was addressed, where applicable.

Where manuscripts arise from funded research projects or conference presentations, full disclosure must be provided in a footnote or acknowledgements.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts adhere to ethical standards, do not contain unlawful or defamatory material, and do not infringe third-party rights.

REPORTING STANDARDS

NJOT requires manuscripts to contain sufficient methodological and analytical detail to allow verification and reproducibility of findings. Authors are encouraged to follow appropriate reporting guidelines available through the EQUATOR Network, depending on study design. Deliberate misrepresentation or fabrication of data constitutes serious misconduct.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that permissions for data, figures, and supplementary materials have been obtained where necessary.

AUTHORSHIP

Authorship must reflect substantive intellectual contributions. All listed authors must meet the ICMJE authorship criteria and approve the final manuscript. Contributions by non-authors should be acknowledged appropriately.

NJOT requires authors to include a CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) statement at the end of the manuscript, specifying individual contributions across recognised roles.

Changes to authorship after submission require written justification and editorial approval. Ghost, gift, or honorary authorship constitutes misconduct.

PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable. All submissions may be screened for text overlap using available similarity-checking tools. Manuscripts demonstrating significant unattributed overlap may be rejected or investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial competing interests that could influence interpretation of their work. Where none exist, authors must state:
“No competing interests were disclosed.”

ORCID

All authors are required to provide ORCID iDs, which will be published alongside accepted articles to ensure accurate attribution and discoverability.

FUNDING DISCLOSURE

Funding sources must be fully disclosed in accordance with funder requirements.

REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Reviewers must provide objective, timely, and constructive evaluations. They must declare conflicts of interest, maintain confidentiality, and refrain from using unpublished material for personal advantage.

Reviewers should alert editors to ethical concerns, plagiarism, redundant publication, or undisclosed conflicts. Reviews must be evidence-based and respectful.

PEER REVIEW

All submissions undergo double-blind peer review. Typically, three to four reviewers are invited. Editorial decisions are based on reviewer reports and editorial judgement, not numerical voting.

Reviewers are expected to submit reviews within two weeks, with a one-week grace period. NJOT aims to complete peer review within 4–6 weeks.

Editors may request additional data where necessary to assess scholarly merit.

POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSION

NJOT encourages scholarly debate through letters to the editor and moderated external platforms such as PubPeer.

USE OF AI AND GENERATIVE TOOLS

NJOT follows COPE and WAME guidance on AI tools. AI systems may not be listed as authors. Any use of AI tools must be transparently disclosed, including the tool used and its purpose. Editors and reviewers must not use AI tools in ways that compromise confidentiality.

COMPLAINTS, APPEALS, AND MISCONDUCT

Allegations of misconduct will be investigated confidentially, following COPE flowcharts. Outcomes may include correction, retraction, notification of institutions, or submission bans, depending on severity.

RETRACTION POLICY

Retractions will be issued where necessary due to ethical breaches, data fabrication, plagiarism, undisclosed AI use, or serious error. Retracted articles will remain accessible with clear labelling.

RESEARCH DATA POLICY

NJOT supports open data under the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” Authors are encouraged to deposit data in FAIR-compliant repositories (e.g., Zenodo, OSF). Editors may request data during review. Failure to provide justified access may result in rejection.

DIGITAL PRESERVATION AND ARCHIVING POLICY

NJOT is committed to long-term content preservation. Published articles are preserved through recognised digital preservation mechanisms compatible with Open Journal Systems, including distributed preservation networks. DOI registration and metadata deposition with Crossref ensure persistent access and citation integrity.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

NJOT provides immediate open access to all content. Articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence.

SELF-ARCHIVING POLICY

Authors may deposit preprints, accepted manuscripts, and versions of record in repositories or personal websites, provided appropriate citation and DOI linkage are included.

METADATA POLICY

Journal metadata are openly available under the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in published articles are those of the authors. NJOT, its editors, and publisher accept no legal responsibility for claims arising from published content.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This policy is informed by:

• COPE Core Practices
• DOAJ Principles of Transparency
• EIFL journal policy frameworks