Wound Central welcomes contributions on all aspects of wound care, from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews, to case series and studies. Our editors and the supportive review process often provide inexperienced authors with constructive advice on how to improve their articles.
All articles will be sent for peer review. Wound Central will not accept material submitted to, or published by, other journals or books.
Please ensure that anything you submit conforms to the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, and that the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on good publication practice are adhered to. For more information, visit: www.icmje.org/index.html and www.publicationethics.org.uk.
All research using human subjects must conform to the guidelines set out in the Declaration of Helsinki, and statements to this effect included in the report.
All research using animal subjects must adhere to the welfare standards set out by the appropriate body in the country where the research is carried out. Institutional ethical approval must have been obtained before commencing the research, and statements to this effect included in the report.
Wound Central welcomes unsolicited articles on all wound care issues. The journal publishes original research, literature reviews and clinical case studies. All articles submitted to Wound Central are subject to double-blind peer review. Following acceptance for publication, MA Healthcare will hold exclusive rights to articles.
If you have any queries relating to potential articles, please contact the editor on 0207 501 6348 or rachel.webb@markallengroup.com.
MA Healthcare Ltd, publishers of Wound Central, will hold copyright of all articles published in Wound Central.
Please ensure you selected the correct article type, e.g. original research, review, case study etc.
For case studies, case series and clinical practice articles please refer to the STROBE checklists for information to include.
If you are submitting a randomised controlled trial, please send a checklist and flowchart in accordance with the CONSORT guidelines. Please submit the checklist as a supplementary file and the flowchart as Fig 1 in the manuscript.
For systematic reviews please follow the guidance provided by PRISMA
Title page: The title page, which must be submitted as a separate file from the main manuscript, should include the following information: title, author details, acknowledgment, conflict of interest statement.
Anonymous manuscript: This document must contain the full text of the article including the abstract, keywords, key points and references (please see below). It must not contain any information that could identify the author(s).
Tables and figures: Included in the article must be uploaded as separate files even if they are already included in the original manuscript document.
Additional data/videos/audio may also be uploaded separately, if applicable.
An abstract of between 100 and 250 words must be submitted giving a brief outline of the content of the article, including major findings. This is a summary of the entire article, not an introduction. For research articles, the abstract should be structured in the following sections: Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusion.
Relevant subheadings should be used to structure the article.
Your conclusions should be succinct and logically ordered. Identify gaps in present knowledge and suggest future initiatives.
Please provide 5–6 searchable terms.
You must supply 4–6 full sentences that adequately summarise the major themes of your article.
Please supply 3–5 questions based on your article that readers can use for reflective notes or discussion.
Figures (illustrations, graphs, bar charts and photographs) and tables (information listed in a boxed off row-and-column format) are popular with readers and are encouraged:
In the text
References numbers in text: punctuation goes before superscript reference number. For example:
In the reference list
Please ensure that the reference list is under the subheading ‘References’ and any formatting from reference managing systems (e.g. EndNote or Reference Manager) has been removed.
Abbreviations are acceptable as long as they are defined at first mention. SI units should be used, except for measurement of blood pressure (mmHg) and haemoglobin (g/dl).
Statistical advice should be sought before data collection. Please provide full results of any tests used, giving complete test results (test statistic, degrees of freedom, p-value). Appropriate indicators of error or uncertainty, such as confidence intervals, should also be given. Include power calculations if appropriate and give the name and version of any software used.
Reprints are available for purchase only. However, copies of the journal containing the paper will be supplied for each author.
Please note that your submission is not complete until you have viewed and approved the PDF version of your article and received an email confirmation of completed submission.
It is the journal’s editorial policy to ask authors to declare any conflict of interest, including any possible interest, financial or otherwise, that may embarrass the author or the journal if revealed at a later date. If you believe that applies to you, please provide a statement when prompted during the submission process.
If your article involves the use of human subjects, you need to ensure that the article contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has/ve approved them.
Where there is an unavoidable risk of breach of privacy (e.g. in a clinical photograph or in case details) the patient’s written consent, or that of the next of kin, to publication must be obtained. We will ask you to include the signed consent form with your submission.