Author's Guidelines

Authors' Guidelines

Dear author,

welcome to Thieme!  

We are pleased that you intend to publish an article in a Thieme journal.

Thieme is an international medical and science publisher of books, journals, electronic products and services. For many decades now, Thieme represents reliable quality and integrity. With your publication, you will benefit from a double-blinded peer review on the highest level and you will reach a broad professional audience. 

To make the submission process as efficient as possible, some important information is given below.

We are looking forward to the submission of your manuscript!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Important changes to the manuscript guidelines

Please note the following information regarding changes to the manuscript guidelines effective from March 2026:

NEW as of March 2026: ScholarOne Prefill Tool

During submission, authors will be offered the option to use the ScholarOne Prefill Tool to streamline the submission process. By including a well-structured title page (including the title, abstract, keywords, author names, affiliations, and funding details) as the first page of the non-anonymized main manuscript file, the tool is capable of automatically extracting this information to prefill the submission form, reducing manual entry and improving consistency. If you use the Prefill Tool, please review the populated fields carefully and make any necessary corrections to ensure all information is accurate.

NEW as of March 2026: Manuscript Versions for Double-Anonymized Peer Review

To ensure double‑anonymized peer review, authors must submit two versions of their manuscript:

1. An anonymized version for review, with all identifying information removed (such as author names and affiliations, statements and link(s) addressing a preprint version of your submitting manuscript, if applicable).

2. A non‑anonymized version, including full author details and statements and link(s) addressing a preprint version of your submitting manuscript, if applicable; this version will be used for publication should the manuscript be accepted.

Please ensure that both versions are identical in content, differing only in the removal of identifying information.

NEW as of March 2026: ORCID required for submitting author

The submitting author is required to provide their ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor iD) during submission. For all other authors listed on the manuscript, we recommend linking their existing ORCID iD to their own user account in the submission system. If an author does not yet have an ORCID iD, we recommend creating one and linking it accordingly. Linking your ORCID ensures accurate author identification, improves discoverability and recognition of your research, and supports consistent attribution across publications.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Publication Languages

English or German.

English Version of accepted Articles in German 

Thieme offers the opportunity to our authors of accepted manuscripts of HaMiPla to publish a translation of their manuscript into English “online only”.

The option of bilingual publication is available if, after your manuscript has been accepted (not before!), you provide the publisher with an English version of your accepted German-language manuscript. If you are interested, please wait for the information in the email informing you of the acceptance of your manuscript.

This following section does inform you about:

• Thieme’s Journal Policies
• Artificial Intelligence and Authorship
• General Information for Authors
• Special Authors' guidelines for HaMiPla
• Submission – online submission system

Please note: We only accept manuscripts that have not yet been published or submitted elsewhere.

If the content of your article has already been presented orally at a conference, please note this with reference to the type, place, and date of the meeting. The corresponding author has to make sure that the remaining authors agree with the publication of the article in the version presented. With the acceptance of the manuscript, the publisher acquires rights of use for the duration of the legal protection period.

Thieme's Journal Policies

For the Thieme Group, the integrity of our content and publishing process is of the utmost importance. When preparing your manuscript for submission, please ensure that you have read and understood Thieme's  Journal Policies in all its parts. Our specific guidelines and policies for authors on research integrity and ethics are based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and, where appropriate, the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) and other relevant industry agencies.

Artificial Intelligence and Authorship

Thieme aligns itself with the  COPE Position Statement on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Authorship.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools must not be listed as authors, as they do not fulfil all criteria for authorship. They cannot take responsibility for the integrity and the content of paper, and they cannot take on legal responsibility. Instead, GenAI use must be transparently documented in the Acknowledgements or Material and Methods sections.

General Information for Authors

In addition to the specific author guidelines for HaMiPla (see below), please note the following general author information.

Journal Authors Lounge

Our Author Lounge will provide you with all the useful information you’ll need- from finding a journal to publishing and promoting your article.

In the author's lounge, we have summarized all the information step by step on the following aspects:

1. Find a journal
2. Prepare your manuscript
3. Open Access
4. Submission
5. Peer Review
6. Publication
7. Promotion

Please follow the Link Author Lounge.

General author guidelines (pdf-file for download)

The formal requirements your manuscript must meet are explained in our general author guidelines for original contributions, review articles or scientific case reports. You can download our general author guidelines as a PDF document Please, follow the link ARL_Wiss_Publikation_engl.pdf

In this document, we have compiled the formal requirements for the following points:

• Figures: rights of use / copyright / personal rights
• Scientific vocabulary
• Code names / fake names / fictional personal data
• Bibliography (If you are working with citation management software (Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley), please use the output style "Thieme-English". It is available in the relevant software or can be downloaded here.)
• Open Access
• Legal aspects
• Ethical aspects
• Financial support
• Submitting your manuscript
• Peer review of your manuscript
• Author’s proofs and approval
• Electronic reprint for personal use
• Check List — Structure of your article

The most important general guidelines are summarized next:

Figures

Unfortunately, we cannot accept images that have already been published in books, journals, or electronic products of other publishers. That is because it is almost impossible to obtain the necessary rights of use even when licensing fees are paid. Therefore, please do not pay any licensing fees (e.g. to "RightsLink" / Copyright Clearance Center). Standard license contracts from “Creative Commons" are unfortunately also insufficient for our purposes. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the use of images.

We cannot accept or store illustrations in which personal data of third parties are included. Please submit images in completely anonymous form, free of personal data only! Such data may not only be directly visible in the image (e.g., a patient name or a date of birth in an X-ray image); they can also be included in the metadata of the image, which is accessible with the appropriate software. They may also be obscured by a cropping feature (such as Powerpoint or Word), but can be made visible underneath. If you have questions about data protection regulations, please contact us before submitting your manuscript.

File format und general requirements

Please submit your material in the following form:

• Text and tables: MS Word (*.doc, *.docx)
• Figures: each figure as separate image file (*.jpg, *.tif, *.png). Minimum resolution: 300 dpi at 8,5 cm width (1000 pixel width)
• Videos: preferred file format *.mp4, *.avi or *.mov, file size max. 5 MB per video
• Audio files: preferred file format *.wav
• The text may contain enumerations in max. 3 levels.
• Boxes: please always provide a title

Forms

Please indicate possible conflicts of interest by downloading, filling in and sending the following signed form to the publisher:

• Conflict of interest declaration (PDF)

The personal rights of people who are recognizable on images must be protected. Please provide a written consent form for publication signed by every recognizable person. For persons under 18 years of age / persons supervised, please provide the signature of both parents / the legal guardian /supervisor. A suitable declaration of consent form can be obtained in our authors’ lounge.

Special Authors' guidelines for HaMiPla

Aims and Scopes

Our journal HaMiPla aims to contribute to the field of hand surgery, microsurgery, plastic surgery by publishing original research that contributes to the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment in these fields.

HaMiPla publishes Original papers, Reviews, Technical Notes, The interesting Case, Letters to the Editor / Comments

For details on structure see section “Special Authors' guidelines for HaMiPla” below the following section.

Original papers

Original papers present novel findings, are well-structured, and include comprehensive data and analysis. They follow a format that includes an abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and references.

Review

Review articles provide comprehensive, critical assessments of existing literature in the field of HaMiPla. They aim to summarize current knowledge, identify gaps, and propose future research directions. These articles are valuable for synthesizing information and guiding both clinical practice and further research.

The interesting Case

Case reports will be published as short communications. Therefore, strict guidelines and limitations are necessary. The case should be presented in a manner that clearly highlights its uniqueness. Extensive introductions and discussions should be avoided.

Technical Note

A Technical Note is a short communication that presents a specific development, technique or procedure.

Letter to the Editor / Comment

Letters to the Editor or Comments are short communications on articles recently published in HaMiPla

Special Authors' guidelines for HaMiPla

You can download the HaMiPla-specific guidelines as a PDF document. Please, follow the link document (PDF).

In this document, we have compiled the specific requirements for “Original Paper”, “Review”, “The interesting Case”, “Technical Note”, and “Letter to the Editor/Comment” which cover the following points:

• Authors and Institutions
• Abstract (yes/no)
• Keywords (yes/no)
• Text size
• Main Document Structure and Size
• Conflict of Interest
• Acknowledgement
• Legends
• Figures Limitations
• Tables
• References for cited literature

References for cited literature

Citing Preprints

Authors are permitted to cite any preprints under the conditions outlined below:

Thieme follows the recommendations of the NLM for citing preprints. When citing a preprint, authors should include the following information: author names, title, indication that it is a preprint, preprint server name, date posted, date accessed, and DOI/URL. In line with good scientific practice, authors are required to verify at the article proof stage whether a preprint has since been published and cite the published version.

Example:

Klebel T, Reichmann S, Polka J, et al. Peer review and preprint policies are unclear at most major journals [Preprint]. OSF Preprints. Posted January 10, 2023. Accessed March 31, 2024. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239518 

The necessary components of your manuscript and formal guidelines are listed in the following document (PDF).

NEW as of March March: ScholarOne Prefill Tool

During submission, authors will be offered the option to use the ScholarOne Prefill Tool to streamline the submission process. By including a well-structured title page (including the title, abstract, keywords, author names, affiliations, and funding details) as the first page of the non-anonymized main manuscript file, the tool is capable of automatically extracting this information to prefill the submission form, reducing manual entry and improving consistency. If you use the Prefill Tool, please review the populated fields carefully and make any necessary corrections to ensure all information is accurate.

NEW as of March 2026: Manuscript Versions for Double-Anonymized Peer Review

To ensure double‑anonymized peer review, authors must submit two versions of their manuscript:

1. An anonymized version for review, with all identifying information removed (such as author names and affiliations, statements and link(s) addressing a preprint version of your submitting manuscript, if applicable).

2. A non‑anonymized version, including full author details and statements and link(s) addressing a preprint version of your submitting manuscript, if applicable; this version will be used for publication should the manuscript be accepted.

Please ensure that both versions are identical in content, differing only in the removal of identifying information.

NEW as of March 2026: ORCID required for submitting author

The submitting author is required to provide their ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor iD) during submission. For all other authors listed on the manuscript, we recommend linking their existing ORCID iD to their own user account in the submission system. If an author does not yet have an ORCID iD, we recommend creating one and linking it accordingly. Linking your ORCID ensures accurate author identification, improves discoverability and recognition of your research, and supports consistent attribution across publications.

Submission – online submission system

Important Change in the Journal's Review System

We would like to inform scientific authors who wish to submit an article for review about an important change in the journal’s peer review process:

From now on, CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) will be used to specify the involvement and contributions of each author to the work.

During the submission process, authors will be asked to provide their CRediT roles via a dedicated section. Corresponding authors are responsible for accurately assigning contributions to each listed author. The assigned CRediT roles will be automatically consolidated and published as part of the manuscript.

Authors and Institutions

CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) should be used to describe each author's contribution to the paper. During the submission process, authors will be asked to provide their CRediT roles via a dedicated section in the submission form. The corresponding author is responsible for accurately assigning contributions to each listed author. The assigned CRediT roles will be automatically combined and published as part of the manuscript.

Authorship Change

and must be approved by all authors. If any authors are removed or added during revision, all authors will be notified via email and must approve or deny the change before the submission can proceed further. Any changes will be subject to a final approval by the Publisher.

Author’s correction, imprimatur, specimen copy

The corresponding author will receive the galley proofs as a PDF file. He is fully responsible for the correctness of the final version that he / she releases for publication. After sending in the copyright transfer agreement, changes by the authors are no longer possible.

After publication, the corresponding author receives a free electronic reprint (PDF file). Authors may use it for the professional exchange with colleagues and are free to upload the file on their personal homepage. Please note that all further use of this PDF is subject to approval by the publisher. Especially any commercial use or deposition of the file in repositories (e.g. document servers of libraries and other institutions) is prohibited.