All journals, of any standing, will have instructions for authors. This is to ensure the quality of published articles and to maintain the journals standards and reputation. This in turn attracts papers from important authors, the whole process driving up citations as well as scientific and social impact. It is therefore necessary for a journal to have standards which are maintained. These standards should aim for a unified set of ‘rules’ including language, layout, title, references, keywords and so on. International Orthopaedics, as the mouth piece of SICOT, also has the role of education in orthopaedics in the developing world. This also extends to education in language and scientific expression. It is therefore very important for a paper to be expressed in terms the readership would understand but also in a way which completely educates the reader [
1]. Journals will vary in the styles they adopt and therefore it is mandatory for authors to first read and to appreciate the target journal’s style and to read the relevant journal’s instructions for authors. Failure to do so risks the paper’s rejection at the first stage. [
2] …
