Editorial process (workflow)

All articles submitted to the Journal are reviewed, evaluated, and corrected, as detailed below and summarized in the figure.

1. Submission: To submit an article for publication in the Revista Colombiana de Ortopedia y Traumatología (Rev. Colomb. Ortop. Traumatol.) authors must use the Journal’s Open Journal System (OJS) platform (see Submissions). The article must fully comply with the requirements of our  Author Guidelines, and the submission must be complete (metadata and supplementary documents).
2. Screening: The editorial team will thoroughly review each article, taking into account compliance with the most important aspects of our Authors Guidelines, such as addressing a topic relevant to the Journal's editorial line, being approved by an institutional ethics committee or having obtained informed consent from the patient, using the Vancouver citation style, and having the structure requested for the type of article, among other factors. Articles that do not meet these requirements will be rejected, and an e-mail will be sent explaining the rationale behind the decision. Depending on the case, authors will be notified if the article can be resubmitted after the manuscript has been revised following the observations made. Articles approved at this stage will undergo a thorough methodological review.
3. Methodological review (initial adjustments): The editorial team will conduct an in-depth methodological review of all the article's sections, evaluating, among others, the relevance of the sources cited in the introduction and discussion sections (how old the source is, study type, etc.), the accurate reporting of information from external sources, the organization of the content in the various sections of the article, the clarity of the objective and its relation to the contents of the other sections, the inclusion of a detailed and comprehensive description of the methodology used, the clarity and consistency of the results, the relevance of the findings addressed in the discussion and the studies referenced in that section, the consistency of the comparisons made with other studies, and the relevance of the conclusion as outlined in our Authors guidelines.
   This review varies depending on the type of article; for example, case reports must comply with the CARE guidelines for the presentation of clinical cases. The editorial team will make the necessary adjustments and request clarifications or modifications from the authors using the track changes and comments tools in Microsoft Word, respectively. The document will be returned to the authors, together with a summary of the initial review (Word document) for them to review the modifications and comments made by the editorial team and make the requested adjustments within 20 calendar days. Upon submission of the updated article by the authors (by e-mail), the editorial team will verify whether all the requested corrections were made. If it is found that not all the requested corrections were made and there is no clear reason for this, the article will be returned to the authors with specific points asking for clarification or improvement. After the article has been properly corrected, the peer review process will begin.
4. Peer review: The editorial team will conduct a search on the Internet (Google Scholar and other academic article databases) and its internal databases to identify 12-14 or more experts on the topic(s) discussed in the article. Authors may propose up to 4 experts to evaluate the article, and the editorial team will assess their relevance. Subsequently, invites for evaluating the article will be sent by e-mail, and reviewers must submit their concepts within 20 calendar days. Every time an evaluation concept is received from a peer reviewer, it will be systematized both in OJS and in the Journal's internal databases. If no concepts are received, it is necessary to carry out a new search for experts and repeat the previous process. Once enough evaluation concepts are received (minimum 2), the editorial team, based on the decision of the peers and after reading their concepts and the article, will conclude whether the article is accepted (with or without changes) or rejected. This decision will be notified to the authors, and the concepts, duly anonymized, will be attached. For conditionally accepted articles, authors will have 20 calendar days to resubmit the article with the revisions. The editorial team will subsequently review again the manuscript to verify that all the corrections requested by the peers have been made or that the changes that were not made are properly justified. If the article does not comply with the aforementioned criteria, it will be returned to the authors so that they can make the necessary adjustments. Once the article passes this stage, it will be assigned to proofreading.
5. Proofreading: The editorial team will hand over the article to the proofreader. The proofreading process comprises two revisions. Initially, all pertinent adjustments are made (including text coherence and cohesion, citation style, use of standard terminology, and appropriate use of specialized terms, among others) and, if necessary, comments or questions for the authors are included. After reviewing these changes, authors have three working days to resubmit their article. If they fail to respond with all the requested clarifications or modifications, the article will be returned to the authors asking them to make the remaining revisions and/or provide the remaining requested clarifications. Then, in order to obtain the final version of the article, the proofreader will make a second revision (final adjustment based on the authors' responses and adjustments, as well as the indications made by the editorial coordination) and will submit this version to the editorial coordination to continue with the publication process.
6. Translation: The editorial team will hand over the article to the Journal's translator, who is an official translator specializing in biomedical texts. Similar to the proofreading process, the translation process consists of two revisions: translation into English and final revision after the authors and the editorial coordination have read and approved the article. Authors will have three working days to review and approve the translation. Once the second revision is completed, the translator will send the final version of the article to the editorial coordination to continue with the publication process.
7. Layout: The editorial team will send the translated article to the graphic designer, who will layout the PDF version of the article using the Journal's template. This version will be reviewed by the proofreader, the editorial coordinator, and the authors to identify minor errors (orthotypography, lexical, or layout errors). Authors will have two calendar days to complete this review. Then, the PDF file containing the comments made by all parties will be sent to the designer, who, after incorporating the requested corrections, will submit the final version of the article (PDF and HTML) to the editorial coordinator. It should be noted that, since articles are published both in Spanish and English, the Spanish version of the article also undergoes this process.
8. Publication: After confirming that all requested corrections have been made, the editorial team will upload the PDF and HTML versions of the article (Spanish and English) to the OJS platform and update the corresponding metadata in the submission. Once it is verified that the files were uploaded correctly, the article is published and a notification is sent to the authors. Finally, the editorial team sends an e-mail to the editorial manager of the OJS platform (Biteca) requesting the activation of the DOI.

It should be noted that an article may be rejected at any stage if authors fail to respond to the requested corrections within the stipulated deadlines and after the request has been sent twice in the same stage of the editorial process. However, in the final stages, this decision will depend on the nature of the requested corrections.