Journal Formatter
Format an orthopedic manuscript to a target journal in minutes — deterministic formatting, verified references, and a transparent compliance report. Built by OSCRSJ.
Journal-compliant formatting, without touching your words
The Journal Formatter takes a finished orthopedic manuscript in Microsoft Word and returns a version that already follows your target journal’s house style. Upload your .docx, choose one of the supported orthopedic journals and your article type, and in a few minutes you get back a clean, journal-compliant Word file, a reference list that has been checked against Crossref and PubMed, and a plain-language compliance report that tells you exactly what changed and what still needs your attention before you submit.
It exists because formatting is the tedious, error-prone part of getting published — margins, fonts, line spacing, heading case, title-page order, blinding, Vancouver reference style, DOIs, figure callouts. Every journal wants something slightly different, and getting it wrong triggers a desk rejection or a frustrating round of technical revisions. This tool applies each journal’s rules deterministically, from a validated rule set encoded directly from that journal’s published Guide for Authors, so you can spend your time on the science instead of the style sheet.
Three steps, a few minutes
Upload your manuscript
Drop in your blinded manuscript as a Word .docx (up to 15 MB). Optionally attach your figures as separate high-resolution image files. Nothing is published — your files are used only to produce your formatted output.
Pick a journal and article type
Choose your target orthopedic journal and the article type you are submitting — case report, case series, original research, review, technical note, and more. The formatter loads that journal’s exact requirements.
Download and review
Get a journal-formatted manuscript, a separate title page where the journal requires one, your reference list verified and renumbered, and a compliance report. Read the report, apply anything flagged for your attention, and submit with confidence.
What it never does
It never rewrites your science
Content immutability is guaranteed. The engine only restyles, reorders sections, and renumbers citations — every word of your body text stays byte-for-byte identical. A built-in immutability gate compares the text before and after and refuses to ship if anything other than a citation marker moved.
The AI is used for understanding only
A language model is used to read structure — to recognize which lines are the title, the authors, the affiliations, and the reference strings. It never writes, paraphrases, or "improves" your prose. All formatting is applied by deterministic code from the journal’s rules.
It never upscales your figures
Figures are checked against the journal’s accepted formats and minimum resolution and are flagged in your report if they fall short. They are never re-rendered, upsampled, or artificially sharpened — a low-resolution image is reported honestly, not disguised.
It never invents a requirement
Where a journal’s guide is silent on a setting, the formatter preserves your original choice rather than imposing a guess. Fields the journal does not specify are left as you wrote them and noted in the report.
Supported journals
14 orthopedic journals are supported today, each encoded from its live Guide for Authors. The date on every card is when those rules were last verified against the journal's published guidelines.
Orthopedic Surgery Case Reports & Series Journal (OSCRSJ)
OSCRSJ (independent, open access)
Article types: Case Report, Case Series, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Narrative Review, Technical Note / Surgical Technique, Letter to the Editor
The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (American Volume)
The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. (Wolters Kluwer / Lippincott)
Article types: Original Research, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Narrative Review, Technical Note / Surgical Technique, Editorial, Letter to the Editor
The Bone & Joint Journal
The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery
Article types: Original Research
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research (CORR)
Wolters Kluwer / Lippincott (for the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons)
Article types: Original Research, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis
The American Journal of Sports Medicine
SAGE Publications
Article types: Original Research, Review, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Case Report, Case Series, Letter to the Editor
Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery
Elsevier
Article types: Original Research, Review, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Technical Note / Surgical Technique, Case Report, Letter to the Editor, Editorial
The Journal of Arthroplasty
Elsevier
Article types: Original Research, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Review, Letter to the Editor, Editorial
Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery
Elsevier (for the Arthroscopy Association of North America)
Article types: Original Research, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Case Report, Letter to the Editor, Editorial
Injury: International Journal of the Care of the Injured
Elsevier
Article types: Original Research, Review, Letter to the Editor
Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma
Wolters Kluwer (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)
Article types: Original Research, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis, Technical Note / Surgical Technique, Letter to the Editor
Spine
Wolters Kluwer / Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Article types: Original Research, Case Report, Letter to the Editor
Foot & Ankle International
SAGE Publications
Article types: Original Research, Case Report, Technical Note / Surgical Technique
The Journal of Hand Surgery (American Volume)
Elsevier (on behalf of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand)
Article types: Original Research, Review, Technical Note / Surgical Technique, Letter to the Editor
Journal of Orthopaedic Case Reports
Indian Orthopaedic Research Group (IORG)
Article types: Case Report, Case Series, Original Research, Review, Technical Note / Surgical Technique
Before you submit
This tool applies formatting rules encoded from each journal’s published Guide for Authors, verified as of the date shown on every journal card below. Journal requirements change without notice. Always confirm your manuscript against the journal’s current Guide for Authors before you submit. The Journal Formatter is a free beta provided by OSCRSJ on an as-is basis; it does not guarantee acceptance and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any of the journals listed.
New to OSCRSJ formatting conventions? See the Guide for Authors.