Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

1. Aims and Scope

Journal of Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Science (JOFAS) is an official peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal of the Japanese Society for Surgery of the Foot. The journal publishes Review Articles, Original Articles, Case Reports, Technical Notes, Practice/Clinical Guidelines, and Letters to the Editor. It focuses on clinically relevant research in foot and ankle science, covering basic, clinical, and applied studies. Submissions are welcomed on topics such as surgical and non-surgical treatments, biomechanics, rehabilitation, and sports-related injuries. The journal is intended for orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals involved in foot and ankle science and clinical practice. It aims to advance knowledge in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of foot and ankle conditions by providing a platform for findings and scientific advances.

All articles receive a full and extensive peer review by recognized experts from the subject of research field. The journal is published twice a year (January and July). JOFAS requires that all manuscripts be prepared in accordance with the “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). There are no submission or publication fees.

2. Article Types

JOFAS publishes a variety of different article types. Please read the Manuscript Preparation section before you submit your manuscript:

Review Articles

Review Articles are summaries of specific research areas or themes with information accessible to researchers.

Original Articles

Original Articles presents the detailed new and compelling findings of original experimental or, clinical research that are impactful to other medical practitioners and researchers.

Practice/Clinical Guidelines

Guidelines present recommendations intended to optimize patient care that is informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options.

Case Reports

Case Reports present the details and observation of novelty and rare medical or clinical cases. Case Report will not be accepted unless they are extremely instructive/informative.

Technical Notes

Technical Notes present the tips pertaining to surgical techniques for traditional/novel surgical procedures with their clinical outcomes.

Letters 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 number of authors is limited to three (3).

3. Manuscript Preparation

• Checklist for submissions
• Title page template

Information provided here on manuscript preparation and formatting is based, in part, on the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” as published by for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” as published by the ICMJE. For any information that is not mentioned in this guideline, 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 peer review.

Copyrighted Materials

• Authors must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for any copyrighted figures, tables, or text passages before submission to JOFAS.
• A full credit line should be added to the copyrighted material in the manuscript.

Language-editing before Submission

If authors are non-native speakers of English, the manuscript must be edited by a professional medical English editor before submission.

3.1 General Formatting for All Manuscripts

• Language: English
• Font Size: 12
• Font type: Times New Roman
• Spacing: Double-spaced
• Line Numbers: Required (Number them consecutively throughout the article)
• Page numbers: Required

The organization of the manuscript should be in the following order:

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Key Words (regardless of the Article Type, should contain <2-8> key words.)
• Main Text
• References
• Figure Legends
• Figures
• Tables and footnotes
• Supplemental Files (e.g., videos, if applicable)

3.1.1 Title Page

The title page should be prepared separately from the main document and must include the following information:

• Article type
• Title of the manuscript (No abbreviations except for gene names or in common use)
• Full names of all authors
• Institutional affiliations of all authors:
  • Indicate each affiliation by numbers (not symbols),
  • include city and country
• Corresponding author’s name and institutional e-mail address
• Conflicts of interest
• Sources of financial support that require acknowledgment
• Type of contribution of the authors. Please visit the ICMJE website for more information on authorship.
• Approval code issued by the institutional review board (IRB) and the name of the institution(s) that granted the approval.
• Acknowledgements (other than sources of financial support)
• A statement that appropriate informed consent was obtained. If the consent from the participants was waived for your study, the reason(s) must be stated explicitly.

3.1.2 Main Document

Abstract and Key Words

• Word Limit:
  Up to 300 words
• Clarity:
  Must be precise, clear, and fully comprehensible on its own.
• Keywords:
  2–8 keywords must follow the Abstract.
• Clinical Trials:
  The Abstract must include the registration number and the name of the registration database. See the Clinical Trials section for details.
• Structured Abstract (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions):
  • Systematic Reviews/Meta-analysis
  • Original Articles
• Structured Abstract (Introduction, Technical Note, Conclusions):
  • Technical Notes
• Unstructured Abstract:
  • Narrative Reviews (Structured or Unstructured)
  • Practice/Clinical Guidelines
  • Case Reports
• Not Required:
  • Letters to the Editor

Main Text

• Use MS Word (.doc or .docx).
• For each Article Type, organize and order their content using the following formats:

3.2 References

• The References section should follow immediately after the conclusion of the main text under the heading "References".
• The authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.
• Including AI-generated material as the primary source in the reference is NOT allowed.
• Authors must cite references in the text in the order of their appearance, showing the citations as superscripts (for example, show in superscript¹).
• Three or more consecutive citations should be indicated as a range using a hyphen, e.g. "3-5".
• If there are more than three authors, name only the first three authors and then use “et al.”

Examples:

1. Journal article

   Guiot BH, Khoo LT, Fessler RG. A minimally invasive technique for decompression of the lumber spine. Spine. 2002;27(4):432-8.

2. Journal article in a language other than English

   Paroussis D, Papaoutsopoulou C. [Porcelain laminate veneers (HI-ERAM)]. Odontostomatol Proodos. 1990;44(6):423-6. Greek.

3. Homepage

   Complementary/Integrative Medicine [Internet]. Houston: University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; c2007 [cited 2007 Feb 21]. Available from: http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/CIMER/.

4. Entire book

   Jenkins PF. Making sense of the chest x-ray: a hands-on guide. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005. 194 p.

5. Book chapter

   Riffenburgh RH. Statistics in medicine. 2nd ed. Amsterdam (Netherlands): Elsevier Academic Press; 2006. Chapter 24, Regression and correlation methods; p. 447-86.

6. Preprints

   Bar DZ, Atkatsh K, Tavarez U, et al. Biotinylation by antibody recognition- A novel method for proximity labeling. BioRxiv 069187 [Preprint]. 2016 [cited 2017 Jan 12]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1101/069187

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).

Abbreviations of Journal Names

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 for standard abbreviations of journal names (If you are uncertain, please use the full journal name)

3.3 Units of Measurement

• All measurements should follow the International System of Units (SI).
• Length, height, weight, and volume: metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.
• Temperatures: Celsius.
• Blood pressures: millimeters of mercury.
• Leave one space between each number and unit, except for ℃ and %.
• Use a capital letter "L" for liter in the Text, Figures, and Tables (e.g., g/dL, mg/dL, IU/L, and mEq/L).

3.4 Abbreviations

• Do not include the abbreviations in the title except for gene names or in commonly used abbreviations.
• Define abbreviations at their first appearance in the text and in each Table and Figure and use the abbreviations consistently thereafter.

3.5 Names of Drugs, Devices, and Other Products

Use descriptive name. Do not use the specific brand names of drugs, devices, and other products and services, unless it is essential to the discussion.

3.6 Figures and Tables

• Numbered in the order they are cited
• Use Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, Table 2) in bold fonts.

Use of Copyrighted Materials

See further details on Copyrighted Materials section.

3.6.1 Figures

All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures.

• Accepted format: JPEG (.jpg), or Tagged Image Format (.tiff).
• Figures must be submitted as separate files, do not include them in the main manuscript Word document.
• Upload the original images. Scanned or copy-and-pasted images are not accepted, Tone art, or photographic images should be produced at the minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
  Include the scale (bar) in images captured with scanning electron microscopes.

3.6.2 Figure Legends

• Legends must be prepared for all Figures presented in the manuscript.
• Do not include figure titles and legends in the image. (List them after the References section in the main manuscript file)
• Legends should be clearly descriptive and understandable without reference to the text.

3.6.3 Tables and Footnotes

• Accepted format: MS Word (.doc/.docx) or PowerPoint (.ppt/.pptx). Do not use MS Excel or comparable spreadsheet software.
• Layout must be horizontal.
• The Table captions should be understandable without reference to the text.
• Column headings should be brief and indicate units.

3.6.4 Supplementary Materials

JOFAS publish supplementary materials that may contain additional figures, tables or supporting movies.

• Submit the supplementary materials as “Supplemental File” in the manuscript submission system.
• All video files should be submitted in MPEG-4 (.mpg) format.
• Use S1, S2 (e.g. Fig. S1, Table S1, Movie S1) in the manuscript's main text.
• Supplementary materials will not be edited by the journal published exactly as they are received and not edited by the journal.

4. Clinical Trials

In accordance with ICMJE’s policy on trial registration, JOFAS requires all clinical trials to be registered with a public trials registry before the time of first patient enrollment.

All clinical trials must 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 abstract as evidence of registration. The name of the registration database must also be provided.

The journal accepts registration from the following list of registries as well as others listed at ICMJE site:

• Clinical Trials (https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/)
• Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (http://anzctr.org.au)
• ISRCTN Register (http://isrctn.org)
• UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (https://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/)
• EudraCT (https://eudract.ema.europa.eu/)

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”.

5. Reporting Guidelines

Various reporting guidelines have been developed for different study designs. Authors are encouraged to follow published standard reporting guidelines for the study discipline.

• CONSORT for randomized clinical trials (http://www.consort-statement.org/)
• CARE for case reports (http://care-statement.org/)
• STROBE for observational studies (http://strobe-statement.org/)
• PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (http://prisma-statement.org/)
• STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy (http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/)
• SAGER for reporting of sex and gender information (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/sager-guidelines/)

Please access https://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 that you consider amending your manuscript to ensure your article addresses all relevant reporting criteria issues delineated in the appropriate reporting checklist.

6. Data Sharing

JOFAS 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:

• Available types of data,
• Available documents (study protocol, statistical analysis plan, informed consent form, clinical study report, or analytic code)
• Available dates
• With whom the data are available.
• Types of analyses the authors are willing to share the data
• Method of requesting the data.

The statement is published alongside their paper.

7. Online Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts may only be submitted electronically via the journal’s ScholarOne system. Upon completion of submission process a confirmation e-mail to will be send to all authors listed in the submission system. If there are any objections, the authors contact the editorial office as soon as possible.

• Order of submitted files: 1) Title Page, 2) Main Document, 3) Tables, and Figures (≥300 dpi).
• Maximum total file size: 100 MB.
• Upon submission, the manuscript will be automatically checked for plagiarism.

8. Peer Review Process

Every article dispatched for full peer review will receive a comprehensive, fair, unbiased critical assessment.
JOFAS 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:

• Not include the name of the affiliation anywhere in the manuscript, including the Figures and Tables.
• Refer to the authors’ previous work as that of a third person. e.g., “…as we have reported in our previous study¹⁹” → “as it has been reported previously¹⁹”
• Not include the references to funding sources, such as identifier of the government-related funds.
• Acknowledgments should be on the title page.
• Declare the Conflicts of Interest (COI) on the title page (if applicable).

8.1 Peer Review Process

1. All submitted manuscripts will be reviewed by the editors to evaluate eligibility for the full review.
2. The editors will assess the importance and originality of the research, suitability and interest to the readership of the journal, and the quality of the manuscript.
3. Any manuscripts that satisfy our screening criteria will generally be sent to two independent external experts in the field of the study for peer review.
4. The editors will review the peer review comments and make all decisions on the manuscript publication, which include acceptance, major or minor revisions, and rejection.

JOFAS adheres to Committee on Publication Ethics’ Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Reviewers are not allowed to contact the authors directly before, during, or after the peer review 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 contained within the manuscript to a third party. The guidelines for the reviewers are available here.

The decision letters along with the comments by the editors and reviewers will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail.

8.2 Revised Manuscript

It is expected that any manuscripts receiving a revision decision will be fully amended according to the comments of both the reviewers and the editors.

Authors are required to:

• Include a detailed point-by-point response letter.
• Submit the revised manuscript within 8 weeks from the date of prior decision.
• To obtain the approval from all authors prior to submission of the revised manuscript.

8.3 Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

Manuscripts submitted by editors, Editorial Board 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 anonymize a person in other roles (editor/reviewer) from any paper he/she has authored. The manuscript submitted by editors, Editorial Board, and journal staff of JOFAS should include a statement that declares their personal conflict of interest with the journal.

9. Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics

9.1 Overview

JOFAS observes the highest standards in journal publication. The journal supports and adheres to the guidelines and best practices including Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by the Committee of Medical Journals Editors (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/).

9.2 Authorship/Contributorship

All authors listed in the manuscript must meet the following four contribution criteria as defined by the ICMJE in their Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the research or the acquisition and analysis of data; and
2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who do not meet all four criteria above should not be listed as authors.

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 a single heading within the “Acknowledgements” on the title page.

e.g. acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group; 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. Any authorship changes such as order, addition, and deletion of authors between the initial manuscript submission and the final decision should be discussed and approved by all authors.

Adding, deleting, or changing the author names and their order is not permitted after the acceptance of the manuscript for publication.

Group Authorship

If a manuscript lists a group name as the author, it must clearly identify the individual members of the group and specify whether they are considered authors or collaborators. These names should be included in the title page to ensure transparency and proper acknowledgment.

Example:
Members of the XXX Study Group
Authors: Dr. A, Dr. B, Dr. C
Collaborators: Dr. D, Dr. E, Dr. F

9.3 Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Tools/Technologies

In consonance with the COPE’s position statement, WAME’s recommendations, and ICMJE’s Recommendation, JOFAS 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.

For example, if AI was used for writing assistance, describe this in the acknowledgment section. Authors who used AI technology to conduct the study (such as data collection, analysis, or figure generation) should describe its use in the methods section in sufficient detail to enable replication of the approach. Including the tool used, version, and prompts where applicable.

9.4 Exclusive Submission

Articles that have been previously published or are being considered for publication in another journal in any language will not be accepted. Submission of a manuscript implies that:

• the work described has not been previously published;
• it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
• its publication has been approved by all co-authors.

9.5 Confidentiality

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.

9.6 Redundant or Duplicate Publication

Articles that are being considered for publication in another journal including advanced publications such as “in-press” or “E-pub ahead of print” articles in any language might be regarded as redundant or duplicate publication.

• Notify the editor formally about all submission and the previous reports that could be regarded as redundant or duplicate publication of the same or similar work.
• Any such material must be referred to and referenced in the new work.
• Copies of such work should be included with the submission.
• Abstracts or posters presented at scientific meetings are not considered previously published work.
  e.g. For studies that have been presented at a scientific meeting, “Acknowledgements” should include a sentence, such as "A part of this study has been presented at the XXth Annual Meeting of XXXXX (Month Year, City)".

Editorial actions should be expected if redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification. Editorial actions may include: immediate rejection of the submitted manuscript; retraction of published work; published notice of violation, and revocation of publishing privileges.

For acceptable secondary publication JOFAS accepts secondary publications of only those that meet the criteria and conditions described in the ICMJE Recommendations.

9.7 Conflicts of Interest and Sources of Funding

According to the ICMJE Recommendations, a conflict of interest (COI) exists “when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain).”

All authors are required to disclose any financial relations, activities, relationships and affiliations that exist, or have existed with any commercial organizations, groups, institutions, or any other entities that has any interest in the subject matter, materials, or process(es) discussed in the manuscript. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Research support (including research funding and provision of equipment or materials)
• Honoraria (such as lecture fees)
• Consulting
• Employment
• Promotional fees
• Advisory or directing role
• Stock and share ownership
• Patent/licensing fees
• Travel and accommodation expenses
• Any other financial, institutional or personal relationships

Authors are also required to disclose any other financial activities outside of the submitted work prior to 36 months of submission.

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) during the conduct of the study and holds an advisory role in Y outside of the submitted work; B is an employee of Company X during the conduct of the study.”

If the 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” on the title page.

All sources of funding from entities such as government or non-profit organizations, which are relevant to the study, should be acknowledged on the title page under the heading “Sources of Funding.”

• You must use the following word format to describe any funding: “This work was supported by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]”.
• If your work did not receive funding you must use the following wording: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors”.
• You must ensure that the full, correct, details of your funder(s) and any relevant grant numbers are included.

9.8 Research Ethics

Clinical research included in articles that report on human subjects or materials of human origin, must comply with the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki.

• A) IRB Approval
  The “Materials and Methods” section must include a statement that the research was approved by the IRB of the authors’ affiliated institutions, and be prepared to provide documentation when requested by editors. Those researchers who do not have access to an ethics review committees should follow the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. JOFAS employs a double-anonymized review process. This means the identities of the peer reviewers and the authors remain anonymous to each other. Authors must not include the name of the affiliation in the “Materials and Methods” section.
• B) Animal Research
  Articles reporting on data from animal testing must indicate in the “Materials and Methods” section the approval of the testing design by the affiliated institution’s Animal Care and Use Committee.
• C) Reporting New DNA Sequences
  Authors must furnish that data to the GenBank and include the accession number for it in the article.
• D) Informed Consent
  For any studies involving human subjects it should be stated clearly in the text that written consent has been obtained from all patients (or parent or legal guardian) to publish the information, including their photographs.
• E) Protection of Personal Data
  Any data or information such as patient names, initials, hospital patient identification codes (patient IDs), specific dates, or any other information which may identify patients must not be presented anywhere in the manuscript, including the Figures and Tables unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or legal guardian). All pictures should focus on the affected areas only.

9.9 Misconduct and Breach of Publication Ethics

• All members of the Editorial Board of JOFAS promote and abide by the COPE International Standards for responsible research publication for authors, reviewers and editors when dealing with allegations of misconduct. Please see our Ethical Polices for the information.
• All manuscripts submitted to JOFAS must represent the authors’ original work and not duplicate any other previously published work in any language. The authors must understand, and guarantee, that the same manuscript is not simultaneously submitted to, or not under consideration in, another journal.
• All authors are fully responsible for the originality and contents of their submitted manuscripts. All records and data presented in the manuscript must be accurate, without any fabrication, manipulation, or falsification.
• Authors certify that the single research or dataset is not intentionally divided into several parts to increase the number of submission or publication with JOFAS or other journals over time (“salami publication”).
• All information and contents, such as data, text, ideas, or theories that originate from other resources must be credited and cited, as guided in the “References” of Manuscript Preparation section.
• Any misconduct that is identified is subject to investigation by the Editorial Board according to the guidelines recommended by COPE. If the allegation raises any valid concerns after the investigation, the author will be contacted to address the issue. The Editor-in-Chief may decide to publish an “Expression of Concern” if suspicion is raised after the article has already been published. Should misconduct or the breach of publication ethics be established, regardless of the level or seriousness, this may result in retraction, publication of formal notice of the misconduct, formal notice to the author's institution, and a formal embargo on future contribution to JOFAS.

10. Proofing and Revision after Acceptance

After the acceptance of a manuscript for publication, authors will receive the galley proof and are expected to perform the proofing, as instructed by the Editorial Office. The steps are as follows:

• Corresponding author will receive a galley proof. Portions of the manuscript requiring corrections will be noted with comments indicating that the material must be rewritten.
• 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 Board of JOFAS.

After publication, further changes, or corrections, can only be made in the form of an Erratum which will be hyperlinked to the original article.

11. Copyright and Permissions

Copyright to articles and their contents published in JOFAS belong to the Japanese Society for Surgery of the Foot. However, JOFAS applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) to all works published by the journal. Anyone may download, reuse, copy, reprint, distribute, or modify articles published in the journal, if they cite the original authors and source. No permission is required from the publisher. The license can be found on the last page of the published PDF of the article.

12. Charges

JOFAS is fully funded by the Japanese Society for Surgery of the Foot. There is no charge to submit to or publish a manuscript in the journal.

For inquiries:
Journal of Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Science Editorial Office
E-mail: jofas@seekl.jp