Author Information

 

What to Expect When Submitting Your Manuscript

Before submitting your manuscript to the AAOJ, review it carefully to ensure it conforms to the AMA Manual of Style, and follow the AAOJ’s submission checklist updated for 2025. The Council of Science Editors provides a list of manuscript services on their website for any author, but especially for novice authors or authors whose first language is not English.

Click here for the AAOJ manuscript submission website

Submission Information

Please use the following forms when submitting your manuscript to The AAO Journal. If you already have a similar form from your institution, please feel free to use that one; this is a resource center for all of our forms in case you need it. Please note that the AAOJ Checklist is required for each manuscript and must be uploaded as File Type: AAOJ Checklist.

You've submitted your manuscript. What are the next steps?

Congratulations on submitting your manuscript to the AAOJ, the official journal of the American Academy of Osteopathy. The submission will be reviewed by at least 3 osteopathic medicine experts in the fields or topics relevant to your manuscript. The AAOJ typically notifies authors of manuscript acceptance, revision requests, or rejection in 3-4 months after acknowledging receipt of the manuscript.

Please note that the time from submission to article publication (including time for requested revisions) is typically 6-9 months.

Although tentative publication dates are provided to corresponding authors in advance as a courtesy, all dates are subject to change until you receive a galley copy in Step 4 (below).

The AAOJ is published quarterly in March, June, September (special FAAO issue featuring works by Fellows of the American Academy of Osteopathy), and December.

1. Quality Check

After you submit your manuscript, AAO staff conduct a quality check to ensure that all files are complete and abide by the AAOJ Checklist. If anything is missing or needs fixing, you will receive an email listing the items to be addressed.

The most frequent failure on a quality check is the authors’ names or identifying information in the manuscript. Identifying information for the author(s) should appear only on the Cover Letter and Title Page uploads, not in the Manuscript or Supplemental Information uploads. See Manuscript Preparation for additional details.

Once your manuscript passes this stage, it is sent to the editor-in-chief for evaluation if the manuscript is ready for peer review.

2. Peer Review

If accepted for peer review, the editor-in-chief assigns at least 3 peer reviewers who critically assess the manuscript and who may suggest revisions. The AAOJ employs a double-anonymous peer review process, which means that the author identities are concealed from the reviewers and vice versa throughout the review process. Reviewers submit their comments and decision recommendations to the editor, who makes the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript and may make additional requested changes. View the current AAOJ editorial board.

3. Revision

After you receive a response from the peer review, you have the opportunity to revise the manuscript and address any feedback from the peer reviewers and editor.

This process may be repeated until the manuscript content is suitable for publication, and often manuscripts have 1-3 revisions before acceptance. The corresponding author may withdraw the submission at any time.

4. Production

Prior to production, all files including title page, manuscript file, table and figure files (such as JPG, PNG, PDF, and XLSX), signed acknowledgements and permissions, and alt text for all non-text elements are emailed to the AAOJ staff editor.

All accepted manuscripts are subject to copyediting and abridgment after manuscripts undergo peer review and author revision for clarity, editorial style, and consistency. During the copyediting process, the AAOJ’s staff editors revise all accepted manuscripts for conformity to AMA Manual of Style, the Glossary of Osteopathic Terminology, Third Edition, and formatting.

The corresponding author will be sent both the edited manuscript file with Track Changes listed and the digital proof (Galley Copy) for final revisions. During this stage, it is essential that you address any topics that arose during peer review or additional editor notes, and address all new topics or issues the authors, editors, or staff note for review. Staff editors conduct basic fact checking, including verifying referenced statements. Consequently, they may request copies of reference materials that were not previously provided. Failure to provide copies of reference material upon request may result in delayed publication.

Corresponding authors are responsible for responding to peer reviewer comments and concerns and staff editor queries. Failure to respond fully to comments and concerns before manuscript acceptance, staff editor queries, or to verify statements may result in publication delay.

5. Publication

Accepted manuscripts are scheduled for publication based on:

  1. Date of accepted submission and receipt of files;
  2. Article type;
  3. The timeliness of the manuscript’s topic;
  4. The priority assigned by the AAOJ’s editors or staff;
  5. Available space in future issues.

Accepted manuscripts will be assigned a digital object identifier (DOI) and indexed in Google Scholar, where they will be searchable and citable.

Authors who are considering submitting multiple manuscripts that convey the progression of a study or manuscripts that are part of a series of articles intended to be published at the same time are strongly encouraged to contact the AAOJ in advance of submitting such articles at communications@academyofosteopathy.org.