About the Journal

About the Journal

International Journal of Wound Research (IJWR) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal dedicated to advancing research, clinical practice, education, and innovation in wound prevention, assessment, treatment, and management.

The journal promotes the development and dissemination of evidence relevant to acute and chronic wounds, pressure injuries, diabetic foot complications, burns, surgical wounds, skin integrity, tissue regeneration, wound-related technologies, and interdisciplinary models of care.

IJWR supports clinically relevant research and encourages collaboration among nurses, physicians, surgeons, dermatologists, podiatrists, rehabilitation professionals, researchers, educators, policymakers, and other professionals involved in wound care.

The journal welcomes studies evaluating complex wound care interventions, healthcare policies, clinical pathways, emerging technologies, therapeutic strategies, and patient outcomes using rigorous and appropriate research methodologies. IJWR also supports methodological advancement by publishing contributions that develop or evaluate measurement instruments, analytical approaches, research methods, and outcome assessment tools relevant to wound care.

IJWR is a fully open-access journal published in English by iEditore, Italy. All published content is freely and immediately accessible to readers worldwide without subscription or access fees.

Mission and Audience

IJWR aims to strengthen the connection between scientific evidence and real-world wound care practice.

The journal welcomes research that:

  • evaluates wound prevention, assessment, treatment, and follow-up strategies;
  • examines complex clinical interventions and multidisciplinary care pathways;
  • investigates wound-healing mechanisms, biomaterials, dressings, medical devices, and emerging technologies;
  • improves methodological quality in wound care research;
  • explores patient experiences, quality of life, clinical education, health equity, and access to care;
  • evaluates healthcare organization, implementation, sustainability, and policy in clinical and community settings.

The journal’s readership includes healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, healthcare managers, policymakers, scientific societies, and other stakeholders involved in wound care, tissue viability, skin integrity, and wound-healing research.

For a detailed description of the journal’s disciplinary coverage and accepted topics, please refer to the Aim and Scope page.

External Peer Review

Research articles and other scholarly submissions designated as peer reviewed undergo an initial technical and editorial assessment followed by double-anonymous peer review by at least two independent external reviewers with relevant subject expertise.

The journal’s standard external peer-review process applies to:

  • Original Research Articles;
  • Quality Improvement Reports;
  • Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses;
  • Scoping, Integrative, Rapid, and Narrative Reviews;
  • Study Protocols;
  • Case Reports and Case Series;
  • Brief Reports;
  • Procedure Updates and other scholarly clinical contributions designated as peer reviewed.

The initial assessment considers the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s scope, completeness, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, competing interests, financial disclosures, data availability, and conformity with the journal’s submission requirements.

Editorials, Commentaries, Letters to the Editor, Conference Abstracts, translations, and other specified non-research content do not necessarily undergo the journal’s standard external peer-review process. These contributions may undergo editorial review or evaluation by the relevant Scientific Committee. Their review status is clearly identified in the published article or section.

Reviewers involved in evaluating a manuscript do not make the final editorial decision on that manuscript. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief or by an independent editor when the Editor-in-Chief, an Associate Editor, or another member of the editorial team has a conflict of interest.

All submitted manuscripts are screened for originality using Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate).

For full details, please refer to the Guidelines for Reviewers and Editorial Policies.

Open Access Policy

International Journal of Wound Research is a fully open-access journal. All published articles are made immediately and permanently available online without subscription barriers, registration requirements, or embargo periods.

Authors retain copyright in their work. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction, including for commercial purposes, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and source, a link to the licence is provided, and any changes are indicated.

For detailed information on copyright, licensing, and reuse conditions, please refer to the Open Access Policy page.

Publication Frequency

International Journal of Wound Research is published quarterly, with four regular issues released each year in March, June, September, and December.

The journal was published semiannually during its inaugural year in 2025 and adopted a quarterly publication schedule beginning with Volume 2 in 2026.

Manuscripts may be submitted throughout the year through the journal’s online submission system.

Online First Publication

Following acceptance and completion of copyediting, typesetting, author proofreading, metadata verification, and final editorial quality checks, articles may be published online as Versions of Record before assignment to a regular issue.

Online First articles receive their final DOI and are fully citable. When an article is subsequently assigned to an issue, its bibliographic record is updated without altering the scientific content of the Version of Record.

Non-final accepted manuscripts are not presented as definitive published articles.

Publication Fees

International Journal of Wound Research operates as a diamond open-access journal and does not charge fees to authors or readers.

The journal does not charge:

  • article processing charges;
  • submission fees;
  • publication fees;
  • page charges;
  • colour figure charges;
  • supplementary material fees;
  • fees based on article length.

Readers are not required to pay subscriptions, pay-per-view charges, or access fees.

Fees, advertising, sponsorship, and other financial considerations do not influence manuscript evaluation, peer review, or editorial decisions.

Business Practices

International Journal of Wound Research operates in accordance with internationally recognized principles of transparency, editorial independence, and responsible scholarly publishing.

The journal’s commercial and organizational activities are separated from:

  • manuscript submission;
  • reviewer selection;
  • peer review;
  • editorial evaluation;
  • acceptance or rejection decisions;
  • correction and retraction procedures.

Scientific and editorial decisions are based on the quality, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance of the submitted work.

Revenue Sources

The journal is primarily supported by its publisher, iEditore.

Additional financial support may derive from:

  • institutional partnerships;
  • scientific and educational collaborations;
  • sponsorships;
  • clearly identified advertising relevant to the journal’s scientific and professional readership;
  • print publication activities;
  • other publication-related services.

The journal does not receive revenue from article processing charges, submission fees, subscriptions, or pay-per-view access.

No source of revenue influences editorial policies, reviewer selection, peer review, manuscript acceptance, or publication decisions.

Sponsorship

The journal may receive financial or institutional support from external organizations, including academic institutions, scientific societies, research bodies, healthcare organizations, industry partners, and other collaborators.

Sponsorship and institutional support do not confer any right to influence manuscript selection, the appointment of editors or reviewers, the content of review reports, editorial decisions, or the interpretation and presentation of scientific findings.

Sponsored issues, supplements, thematic collections, conference content, and other supported publishing initiatives are clearly identified and remain subject to the journal’s applicable editorial and ethical policies.

Editorial Independence

The Editor-in-Chief and the journal’s independent editorial structure retain full authority over scientific and editorial decisions.

The publisher, advertisers, sponsors, institutional partners, commercial organizations, and other external parties have no influence over reviewer selection, peer review, manuscript evaluation, acceptance or rejection decisions, or post-publication editorial actions.

Direct Marketing

Any direct marketing or promotional communication undertaken on behalf of International Journal of Wound Research, including calls for papers, calls for reviewers, invitations to submit manuscripts, and announcements concerning special issues or thematic collections, must be truthful, professional, appropriately targeted, and unobtrusive.

The journal does not engage in indiscriminate, persistent, or misleading mass-email solicitation. Communications must accurately represent the journal’s aims and scope, peer-review process, publication fees, open-access model, indexing status, and editorial services.

Submission invitations do not guarantee acceptance, accelerated review, or preferential editorial treatment. All submissions remain subject to the journal’s standard editorial screening and peer-review procedures.

Recipients may request not to receive further promotional communications. Personal information used for journal communications is processed in accordance with the journal’s Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection legislation.

Advertising

International Journal of Wound Research may accept a limited amount of advertising and sponsorship relevant to its scientific, clinical, and professional readership.

Advertising and sponsored material are clearly identified and visually separated from editorial and scientific content. The acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement of any advertised product, service, organization, or therapeutic claim by the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board, or Publisher.

Advertising and sponsorship do not influence peer review, manuscript selection, reviewer appointment, editorial policies, or publication decisions.

For full details, please refer to the journal’s Advertising Policy.

Publication Ethics

International Journal of Wound Research is committed to maintaining the accuracy, integrity, and transparency of the scholarly record.

The journal maintains policies concerning:

  • authorship and contributorship;
  • conflicts of interest;
  • research misconduct;
  • plagiarism and duplicate publication;
  • citation manipulation;
  • peer-review manipulation;
  • data availability and research reproducibility;
  • ethical approval and informed consent;
  • patient confidentiality and clinical photography;
  • clinical trial registration;
  • funding disclosure;
  • artificial intelligence and automated technologies;
  • complaints and appeals;
  • post-publication discussion.

Suspected ethical or research-integrity concerns may be investigated before or after publication. The journal may request original data, ethics documentation, consent forms, original clinical images, author contribution information, or other supporting materials where necessary.

Responsibilities of editors, reviewers, and authors concerning publication ethics, research integrity, and publication misconduct are set out in the journal’s Editorial Policies.

The use of generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies is governed by the journal’s Artificial Intelligence Policy.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

International Journal of Wound Research is committed to preserving an accurate, complete, and transparent scholarly record.

The journal may publish:

  • corrections;
  • corrigenda or errata;
  • retraction notices;
  • expressions of concern;
  • editorial notices;
  • updated article versions accompanied by a transparent version history.

Corrections

A correction may be published when an error affects the accuracy, interpretation, discoverability, authorship, licensing information, ethical declarations, or bibliographic record of an article without invalidating its principal findings or conclusions.

Correction notices are openly accessible, assigned their own publication information where appropriate, and linked bidirectionally to the affected article.

Where an article file or metadata record is updated, the date, nature, and reason for the change are clearly disclosed. Corrections to the published record are not made silently.

Retractions

In accordance with the Retraction Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics, IJWR may retract a published article when:

  • there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable because of misconduct or major error;
  • the findings have previously been published elsewhere without appropriate disclosure, permission, cross-referencing, or justification;
  • the article contains plagiarism or substantial unattributed material;
  • the article reports unethical research;
  • the peer-review or publication process has been materially manipulated;
  • authorship, data, images, ethical approval, or other essential elements of the scholarly record have been fabricated or misrepresented.

Retraction notices are freely accessible, identify the reasons and responsible parties where appropriate, and are linked to the affected article.

Retracted articles normally remain available with a clear retraction notice or watermark in order to preserve the scholarly record. Removal may occur only in exceptional circumstances involving legal obligations, serious privacy concerns, or a substantial risk of harm.

Expressions of Concern

An Expression of Concern may be published when substantial concerns have been raised about the reliability, ethics, authorship, peer review, or integrity of an article, but the available evidence is not yet sufficient to support a correction or retraction.

Expressions of Concern are linked to the relevant article and may be updated or replaced when an investigation has been completed.

Abstracting, Indexing, and Scholarly Visibility

International Journal of Wound Research (IJWR) supports the widest possible dissemination and discoverability of its published content through scholarly registries, indexing and discovery services, open-access infrastructures, and library catalogues.

The journal reports inclusion in a service only where a current and publicly verifiable record exists. The services listed below are grouped according to their principal function.

The Editorial Office periodically verifies and updates journal records with relevant services to ensure the accuracy of bibliographic information, ISSN data, DOI metadata, and scholarly discoverability.

Archiving

The journal is committed to the long-term preservation and continued accessibility of its published content.

IJWR uses recognized digital preservation systems and permits authors to deposit submitted, accepted, and published versions of their manuscripts in institutional or subject repositories without embargo, in accordance with the applicable copyright and licence conditions.

For full details, please refer to the Archiving Policy.

Publisher

International Journal of Wound Research is published and owned by iEditore.

Information concerning the publisher’s legal identity, registered office, operational office, contact details, and commitment to editorial independence is available on the Publisher and Contact pages.