Instructions for Authors

RELART, the Latin American Journal of Arthroscopy, Joint Reconstruction, and Sports Trauma (Online ISSN 3072-8010), published by the Latin American Society of Arthroscopy, Joint Reconstruction and Sports Traumatology (SLARD), the Argentine Association of Arthroscopy (AAA), the Argentine Association for the Study of the Hip and Knee (ACARO), the Argentine Association of Sports Traumatology (AATD), and the Mexican Association of Reconstructive, Joint, and Arthroscopic Surgery (AMECRA), is edited in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It is a triannual publication (released in April, August, and December), available online and in Spanish, that publishes original, relevant research in the field.

RELART follows an open-access model under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. It operates a double-blind peer-review process to ensure the quality and rigor of its content.

No fees are charged to authors for the evaluation or publication of manuscripts, as detailed in our editorial policies (link).

Beginning in 2025, RELART is the continuation of the journal Artroscopia (ISSN 1853-4759, 2010–2024).

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The journal upholds high standards of integrity and publication ethics. It adheres to the guidelines established by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) regarding ethical conduct and best editorial practices.

Research Involving Human Subjects

Articles involving research carried out on human beings must include a statement in the Materials and Methods section indicating approval by an Institutional Ethics Committee or relevant authority, and must specify that informed consent—and any other necessary consent—was obtained from each participant.

For reports involving human subjects, authors must ensure that: (a) the required and appropriate consent was obtained from each patient, and (b) the study protocol was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. Individual patients must be referred to by number, not by initials.

Animal Experimentation

Articles reporting experiments involving animals must include a statement in the Materials and Methods section confirming that animal care complied with the guidelines of the authors’ institution and all applicable national regulations regarding the care and use of laboratory animals.

General considerations for submitting a manuscript to the system

Authors interested in publishing in our journal must follow the instructions below. All manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the journal’s website, where authors must register before making a submission. The system will guide authors step by step through the submission process and will allow them to track the progress of their manuscript. All communications related to the submission will be conducted in writing through the system.

Although authors may return to the system to complete missing information, we recommend having all required data prepared in advance to complete the requested fields (see submission checklist).

For the policy on errata and retractions, please consult the corresponding section.

Files to be submitted

  1. Cover letter

A cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Dr. Luciano Rossi, must be submitted, requesting evaluation of the manuscript and including the following information:

Section to which the manuscript is submitted
(see section characteristics)

List of authors
The Journal adheres to the authorship criteria defined by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors).

Authors’ names must be written in full (format: first name, middle initial, last name/s). Please do not enter names in all capital letters. Academic degree should be included in the corresponding field (e.g., MD, PT, etc.).

If a research group is designated as the author of an article, one or more members of the group who fully meet the authorship criteria must be listed as authors, followed by “on behalf of [group name].” Other members of the group should be listed in the acknowledgments section at the end of the article. Alternatively, the list of authors may include only the group name, followed by an asterisk (*) referring to a list specifying the authors who meet the authorship criteria and mentioning other group members.

Include the ORCID URL for each author. If any author does not have an ORCID, it must be obtained at the corresponding link. Please complete this information carefully, as ORCID is a universal identifier.

Include the institutional email address of all authors.

Indicate the corresponding author, who will serve as the main contact with the Editorial Office at all stages of the publication process.

Affiliation

Each author must provide the affiliation corresponding to the institution where the work was conducted. Indicate the unit (section, division, or department) or the institution —including only one level, without subdivisions— together with the province (or equivalent) and country.

Affiliations must be listed sequentially according to the order of the authors. Academic or administrative titles (Head of, Coordinator, Professor, etc.) should not be included. Please verify the official name of the institution, avoid abbreviations, and if initials are used, provide the full name.

Author contributions
The role of each author must be declared according to the CRediT taxonomy.
Roles should be indicated in Spanish, followed by the initials of the authors involved (e.g., Conceptualization: JAM, ER, LAR; Formal analysis, Investigation: ER, LAR).

Funding
Authors must declare the financial support received for the study. If there was no funding, the following statement is recommended: “The authors declare that no funding was received for this study.”

Acknowledgments
See “non-author contributors” (ICMJE) to define this section.

[Authors may use the following template to ensure that all required information is provided. We recommend completing the cover letter in full before submitting the article, as this will facilitate data entry in the system.]

  1. Manuscript

The original manuscript must be written and submitted in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect format, in a single column, double-spaced, using Arial font size 12, with 3 cm margins. Pages and lines must be numbered.

Please do not include any identifying information in the manuscript text (such as author names or institution names). References should be made using neutral expressions such as “the author surgeon” or “our institution,” as inclusion of identifying information will prevent double-blind peer review.

[Authors may use the following template to ensure that all required information is provided.]

2.1 First page

Title / Subtitle / Running title

The title should be chosen with great care: the shorter and more concise, the greater its impact. The words used should facilitate indexing and retrieval in bibliographic databases. The title must be provided in Spanish and English.

Subtitles should be used only when strictly necessary.

A running title of 4–5 words in Spanish must be included.

Abstracts

  • Original articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses: Structured abstract of up to 350 words, in Spanish and English. It must include: introduction, objective, materials and methods, results, conclusions, level of evidence, study design, and keywords.
  • Narrative reviews: Unstructured abstract of up to 350 words, in Spanish and English.
  • Case reports and technical notes: Unstructured abstract of up to 200 words, in Spanish and English.

Keywords

Submit 4 to 6 keywords that accurately describe the content of the manuscript, in Spanish and English. Use of MeSH terminology is recommended to improve search engine retrieval.

Level of evidence
For clinical scientific studies, the type of study and level of evidence must be specified.

2.2 Second page

  1. a) Article text

Original articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses
These manuscripts must be divided into four sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each section should be developed in relation to the research question or hypothesis.

The Introduction formulates the research question; Materials and Methods describe how it was addressed; Results report the findings; and the Discussion compares results with existing literature, presents the authors’ considerations, and answers the research question.

Narrative reviews
Although a predefined structure is not required, the manuscript must include subtitles that facilitate comprehension. Each section should clearly analyze and describe the most relevant and current articles on the topic, providing a coherent and critical synthesis of the literature.

Case reports
Highly interesting clinical cases presenting novel surgical techniques, previously unreported complications, or innovative diagnostic methods (clinical or imaging) may be submitted. These should include clinical history, diagnosis, treatment, and corresponding photographs or illustrations.

New surgical techniques must follow the structure of a scientific manuscript, with limited statistical requirements.

Technical notes
Only technical notes describing novel procedures not previously reported in the literature will be accepted. To be considered for publication, the note must be innovative and provide new surgical tools or techniques.

The use of the appropriate checklist for the type of study submitted is recommended and must be uploaded as a separate file:

  1. b) Figures / Tables / Videos / Captions / Permissions

Figures / digital illustrations / images
Figures must be uploaded as separate files in TIFF or JPEG format, with the highest possible resolution and clarity (1–2 MB). File names must include the figure number in order of appearance (e.g., Figure 1).

Radiographs, MRI, and CT images must be in black and white.
Photographs of arthroscopic procedures or patients may be in color; patient anonymity must be preserved.

Images must be submitted without retouching, exactly as produced by the digital camera. If the image is a video capture, it should be extracted before editing and saved in JPG format without modification.

Professional arrows or markers may be used directly on the figure to identify relevant features. Figures may be cropped as necessary without losing essential information. Author names or institutional identifiers must not appear in the figures. Figure titles and legends must not be embedded in the image.

Tables
Tables must be uploaded as separate editable files (Word or Excel). File names must include the table number in order of appearance. Titles must not be part of the table. Very small tables should be avoided. Tables must be cited in the text, and data presented in tables should not be duplicated in the text. Tables must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals, and all abbreviations must be defined.

Videos
Videos are optional. Only one video per article will be accepted, with a maximum size of 100 MB and a maximum duration of four minutes. The video must be cited in the text and include subtitles describing the technique. Narration is optional. RELART does not edit videos but may request corrections to subtitles, narration, or inclusion of bibliographic references during the editing stage.

Figure captions and table titles
Captions must be numbered and submitted on a separate page or at the end of the manuscript. Figures and tables must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order cited in the text.

Figure captions must provide sufficient information to understand the image independently of the text. All symbols and abbreviations must be defined. Table titles should be brief and descriptive.

Permissions
For direct quotations, tables, or illustrations taken from copyrighted material, written permission from the copyright holder must be provided. The source must be fully cited in the caption or table footnote.

Photographs of identifiable individuals must be accompanied by a signed informed consent from the patient or legal guardian.

  1. c) Abbreviations, units of measurement, numerical notation, and drug/implant names

Abbreviations
The full term should be written out at first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.

Units of measurement
The International System of Units (SI) must be used.

Numerical notation
Numbers should preferably be written in words, except for percentages, calendar years, degrees, result data, or decimal numbers.

Drug and implant names
Generic names must be used. The manufacturer’s name may be included in parentheses with city and country. The registered trademark symbol (®) should be added when applicable.

  1. d) References

References must be numbered according to their order of appearance in the manuscript, not alphabetically. Citation numbers must appear in the text as superscript Arabic numerals (e.g., 1,3,5 or 2–6,10).

List all authors when there are six or fewer; for seven or more, list the first six followed by et al. Journal titles must be abbreviated according to Index Medicus. Page ranges and DOI URLs must be included when available.

If a cited work has been accepted but not yet published, it must be included in the reference list and the acceptance letter submitted with the manuscript.

Authors are encouraged to cite relevant articles previously published in RELART when applicable.

Only references that are relevant and have been read by the authors should be included. Do not cite unpublished material, conference abstracts, personal communications, or manuscripts not yet accepted for publication. If such information is essential, it may be mentioned in a footnote.

The reference list must be double-spaced and placed after the text and before figures and tables.

References must follow Vancouver style, as illustrated below:

  • Journal article
    Rodríguez DJ, Aguirre M. Lesiones inveteradas de ligamento cruzado anterior de la rodilla. Rev Asoc Argent Ortop Traumatol. 1984;51(3):207–29.
  • Book chapter
    Bandi W, Weber BG. Fracturas de rótula. In: Muller ME, Allgower M, Willenegger H, editors. Manual de Osteosíntesis. Barcelona: Editorial Científico-Médica; 1972. p. 175–7.

Authors may also consult the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Citing Medicine guide, which is freely available.

  1. Publication Consent

In a separate file, please submit the following text signed by the corresponding author:

Publication, Originality, and Conflict of Interest Consent

Date:
Article Title:
Section Submitted To:
Authors:

By submitting this manuscript, the author(s) retain the copyright of this work, including figures and tables, and grant RELART – Revista Latinoamericana de Artroscopía, Reconstrucción Articular y Trauma Deportivo a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to publish, reproduce, distribute, and publicly communicate the article in its final version, in any format or medium, for academic and scientific purposes.

The author(s) agree that, if published, the article will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

The content of the article reflects the results of the research conducted. All authors have participated in its development, have read and approved the manuscript, and assume responsibility for its content, declaring all sources of funding and any potential conflicts of interest, and confirming compliance with the Journal’s Publication Regulations.

The author(s) also declare that the manuscript is original, has not been previously published, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

As the corresponding author, I certify that all co-authors have been informed of the terms of this consent and that I act on their behalf.

  1. Instructions for Submitting Revisions

You must make the requested corrections using Track Changes (in Word: Review tab → Track Changes).
Prepare a document with responses to each reviewer comment, indicating how the correction was addressed and its location (line number), as well as the reasons for any suggested changes that were not accepted.

You must log into the system and, under the “Revisions” section, upload the following three documents:

  1. The Word file of the manuscript with tracked changes
  2. The document containing the responses to the reviewers
  3. A Word file with all changes accepted (final clean version)

[Figures and tables with corrections must also be uploaded, if applicable.]

Article Submission Checklist

  • Cover letter requesting publication
  • Section
  • List of authors with ORCID, email, and affiliation
  • Author contributions
  • Funding
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Acknowledgments
  • Author contributions (reiterated as required)