Journal of Perioperative Practice

Author instructions

The Journal of Perioperative Practice (JPP) welcomes unsolicited articles on various perioperative care issues. The journal publishes literature reviews, care studies and original research.

All articles submitted to JPP are subject to double-anonymize peer review. The journal is indexed on: The International Nursing Index, PubMed and CINAHL. 

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Perioperative Practice does not accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 11.3 below.

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/periop to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned, this includes manuscripts that are not following the Harvard reference style.

1. Article types
2. Title Page
3. Abstract
4. Key phrases and keywords
5. Illustrative figures
6. Tables
7. Abbreviations and Units
8. References
9. Copyright
10. Editorial policies
    10.1 Peer review policy
    10.2 Authorship
    10.3 Acknowledgements
    10.4 Funding
    10.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
    10.6  Research ethics and patient consent
    10.7 Reporting guidelines
    10.8 ORCID
11. Publishing policies
    11.1 Publication ethics
    11.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
    11.3 Open access and author archiving

1. Article Types

Please ensure all articles submitted are directly relevant to perioperative practice and that all claims made are backed up with appropriate and up to date referencing. Articles should be approximately 3000 words inclusive of abstract, references and any text in tables and figures, although this can be exceeded in special cases when agreed in advance with the Editor.

All tables and figures should be included and numbered. Author identification should only appear on the title page (and not in any headers, footers, article text, etc). If you have any queries relating to potential articles, please contact the Editor at julie.quick@afpp.org.uk.

All articles should be typed using double line spacing with wide margins on both sides of the page and leaving a space between paragraphs. It should be saved in Microsoft Word. The article should be accompanied by an abstract of 100-150 words and a minimum of three keywords.

CLINICAL FEATURE

Word limit 2000–2500
A discussion of a clinical condition or an aspect of clinical practice that perioperative practitioners encounter, focusing on diagnosis, treatment, referral, clinical governance or best practice. It may refresh readers’ understanding, bring them up to date with new knowledge or treatments, or challenge current thought.

RESEARCH ARTICLES

Word limit 3000–3500
Longer research articles may be submitted following prior agreement with the Editor.
A report of a primary research project concerning perioperative care or a report of a service development pilot or audit. Primary research articles should include an abstract, introduction and literature review, methods, results, discussion, limitations of the study, and conclusions and suggestions for further research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Word limit 2500 -3000
A comprehensive summary of the literature using a systematic approach which aims to inform practice.  

CASE STUDY

Word limit 2500-3000
A detailed study of a real-life patient (or group of patients) with the aim of informing practice.

CLINICAL AUDIT OR SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REVIEW

Word limit 2500-3000
A succinct report that evaluates care or treatment in relation to a set standard or the identification and evaluation of the steps taken to improve an aspect of service delivery.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

 Word limit 650-750 (No abstract or keywords)

A written letter to the editor sharing a personal view on an important topic within perioperative practice or education.

 VIEWPOINT

 Word limit 650-750 (No abstract but requires keywords)

A short article or discussion/investigation of an issue concerning the professional development of perioperative practitioners.

 REACH

The Journal of Perioperative Practice Editorial Board are promoting researcher(s) contribution to improving perioperative practice and progressing safer surgery by encouraging authors to publish summaries of their research studies which have been published within the past 12 months. 

Summaries should be no more than 90 words long, including the original author name(s), date published, paper title, journal title, volume and issue number according to the Journal of Perioperative Practice's reference style.

2. Title Page 

The title page should contain only the title of the manuscript and the list of authors, and should be prepared as a separate file. Please ensure that the main manuscript contains no information that could identify the authors.

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3. Abstract

An abstract of between 100 and 150 words must be submitted giving a brief outline of the content of the article, including major findings (this must not be a copy of the article’s introduction). There should be no abbreviations, references or statistical results reported on in the abstract. 

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4. Key phrases and key words

You must supply four to six full sentences that adequately summarise the major themes of your article, as well as four to six key words/phrases to serve as database search terms for your article.

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5. Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.  

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version.

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6. Tables

Provide each table separately and clearly typed out. Be sure all tables are cited in the text, e.g. see Table 1. Place references and explanatory matter within a table in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain all abbreviations in these footnotes. Authors must obtain permission to reproduce data from another published or unpublished source.

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7. Abbreviations and units

Abbreviations must be defined at first mention. JPP encourages authors to keep abbreviations to a minimum.

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8. References

JPP uses a modified Harvard system of referencing. Other referencing will not be accepted. References should be the newest available for your needs, unless it is a noted historical reference. Please include a DOI with a reference whenever possible. 

In the text
 a. Use the name(s) and year (Harvard) system for references in the text:

• As Black and White (2005) have shown…
• As already reported (Black & White 2005)

 b. For three or more authors, print the first author’s name then add et al:

• As Black et al (2004) have shown…

 c. When several references are cited, the order in the text should be chronological.

In the reference list
 a. List references alphabetically.
 b. Print the names and initials of works with six or fewer authors, e.g.: Black B, White W, Green GR, Red R, Tan T (2004)
 c. For seven or more authors print the first three then add ‘et al’: Black B, White W, Green GR et al (2003)…
 d. The format/layout for a standard journal article is:

• Surname and initials of author(s), year of publication, title of article, name of journal (in full and in bold and italics), volume number, part number in brackets and page numbers. Author(s) (year) Article title. Journal (abbreviated as in Index Medicus). Volume (Issue number): first and last page numbers. DOI.
• For example: Gill A, Randell R 2016 Robotic surgery and its impact on teamwork in the operating theatre Journal of Perioperative Practice 26 (3) 42-45

 e. The sequence, layout and punctuation for books are:

• Flin R, O’Connor P 2013 Safety at the Sharp End: A guide to non-technical skills Boca Baton, Florida, CRC Press
• If referencing a chapter in a book: Chumbley G 2009 Patient-Controlled Analgesia. In: Cox F (ed) Perioperative Pain Management Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell

 f. Websites: In text, cite as for articles. In reference list as: National Patient Safety Agency 2007 PSA 21 Safer Practice with Epidural Injections and Infusions [online] Available from: www.npsa.nhs.uk/alerts- and-directives/alerts/epidural-injections-and- infusions/?locale=en [Accessed November 2009]

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9. Copyright

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Authors of accepted articles are required to assign copyright in their article to Sage, the publisher of JPP, before publication. This enables the publisher to ensure that the published article is used correctly, and to prevent unauthorised or inappropriate use of it. Please complete the copyright assignment form and submit it with your article through ScholarOne. If the article is not accepted, the copyright assignment will be void.

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10. Editorial policies

10.1 Peer review policy

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. 
Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

•  The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
•  The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
•  The author has recommended the reviewer
•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

10.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. 

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

10.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support. 

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

10.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

10.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

10.4 Funding

Journal of Perioperative Practice requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

10.5 Declaration of conflicting interests 

It is the policy of Journal of Perioperative Practice to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

This is any possible interest, financial or otherwise, which may embarrass the author or the journal if highlighted at a later date. If you feel this applies to you, please provide a statement to run at the end of the article.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here

10.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

10.7 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives

10.8 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

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11. Publishing Policies

11.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway 

11.1.1 Plagiarism

Journal of Perioperative Practice and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

11.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

11.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

11.3 Open access and author archiving

Journal of Perioperative Practice offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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