Instruction to Authors

The Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal is the official publication of Malaysian Orthopaedic Association (MOA). It is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes reviews, articles, original research papers and case reports. The manuscripts will be blinded and reviewed by independent group of reviewers.

Disclaimer

Though the Journal has been compiled with great care, the Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal disclaim any duty to investigate any information, procedures, design and the like which may have been described in the Journal. The appearance of any information in this Journal does not guarantee the publication is free from errors and the opinion and statements expressed do not necessarily be the endorsement of the Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal.

Copyright

All materials accepted for publication will become the permanent property of the Journal and may not be reproduced elsewhere without the written permission of the Editor. The Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal retains the copyright in all materials published in the Journal. No part of this Journal may be reproduced and transmitted in any form, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without the prior written permission of the Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal.

Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically in Microsoft WORD for windows to our email address and images as JPEG files. The manuscript should also be submitted as hard copy (in duplicate) accompanied with a CD ROM / floppy disk containing the electronic copy of the text to our mailing address. Authors are requested to ensure that the manuscript strictly comply with the format of the Journal to facilitate editorial process.

A cover letter will be required in addition to the manuscript. The letter should contain the following paragraphs: "The article is original and has not been submitted to other journals for consideration. The author(s) undersigned hereby transfer all copyright ownership to the Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal". This letter should be sent together with the hard copy manuscript or sent separately in the case of electronic submission to the mailing address of the journal. The editor may require authors to justify the assignment of authorship.

Format of Manuscript

General

The manuscript should be prepared on A4 size paper.. Size 12 point Times New Roman font with double-spacing are to be used throughout (including title page, abstracts, references, tables and illustrations). The margin should be 2.5 cm on all sides and the text should be left handed justified only. All pages should be numbered on the top right corner.

Measurement should use SI units. Spell out "one" to "ten" at the beginning of a sentence, and "one" at all times. Arabic numerals should be used otherwise. Each of the following manuscript components should begin with a new page.

Title page

This component should contain the following

• Title of the article
• Author(s) name (initials and family name) followed by academic qualifications
• Author’s institution in the form of footnotes
• Name and address of the corresponding author (including email and handphone numbers if available)
• Short Caption (running head) not more than 40 characters

Abstract

• Should consist not more than 150 words.
• Both structured and unstructured abstracts can be accepted.
• For original articles, result and conclusion should be included.
• Below the abstract, provide not more than 5 keywords or short phrases to assist in cross indexing of the article.

Introduction

• Provide only relevant information and references
• Do not review the subject extensively.
• Do not include results or conclusion of the study.
• State the purpose of the study clearly.

Material and method

• Specify the selection of subjects or study groups clearly.
• Describe the methods, apparatus (including manufacturer’s name in parenthesis) and procedures in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the study.
• Provide references to established methods, brief descriptions for methods that are not widely used.
• Describe new or substantially modified methods, giving reasons for using them and evaluate their limitations
• Describe the chemicals and drugs used (including generic names, dosages and routes of administration).
• Describe statistical methods used with adequate details to enable a knowledgeable reader to verify the reported results.
• Ethics:
  • When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983.
  • Do not use patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material.
  • When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for, or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.