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For Authors

The International College of Surgeons (ICS) invites original research and review article submissions to International Surgery of Open Access (OA) manuscripts. Submission on developments in clinical, experimental, cultural, educational and historical topics pertinent to surgery and related fields. A key focus is to publish research on humanitarian surgery undertaken throughout the world. The journal is a means to disseminate surgical research to underpin the ICS force for achieving greater knowledge, good will and peace worldwide. International Surgery provides readers with critically peer-reviewed, rigorously chosen, edited and the latest articles about advances in surgery.

International Surgery is a peer reviewed gold open access journal published by ICS under a Creative Commons (CC) license and the author retains the copyright. Manuscripts should be prepared as described in the following instructions and addressed to:

Prof. Christopher Chen
Editor-in-Chief, International Surgery
6A Napier Road #05-35, Annexe Block
Gleneagles Hospital
258500 Singapore
[email protected]

Payment is required on acceptance of the article following peer review:

Article-processing charge - US$1,900 (refunded if your paper is rejected after peer review)
Article-processing charge for International College of Surgeons members - US$1,600
Authors invited to submit articles will not be charged.
All submission and Open Access fee are due on the acceptance of the manuscript. If payment is not received within 20 days, we regret that your article will be removed from the system.

Research4Life

ICS offers full or partial equitable waivers for accepted articles from low-income and middle-income economies. Eligibility is based on the Research4Life eligibility criteria. Countries listed in Group A are eligible for the full waiver and countries listed in Group B are eligible for the partial (50%) waiver. The waiver is automatically applied based on the Corresponding Author's country information provided during submission. To determine your eligibility, visit the Research4Life criteria page at https://www.research4life.org/access/criteria/

Payment on acceptance of the article:

PayPal - (preferred payment method) Payments can be made via PayPal by selecting the “Credit Card” payment option when submitting your manuscript to the Online Manuscript System.
Credit Card - Email Jennifer ([email protected]) the credit card number and expiration date
Check - Check payable to the International College of Surgeons. The check has to be in US currency and is drawn in a US bank. Please mail the payment to: International College of Surgeons 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60610. USA Attn: Accounting Department
Wire/ Bank Transfer - contact: Jennifer at [email protected] for more details.

Important Reminders for Authors:
*Authors need to supply the institution name, manuscript number/title and their own name in English when making payments or contacting journal staff.
*For those paying by check, email Jennifer once the check has been sent.
*For those paying by Wire/Bank Transfer, email Jennifer the Name of Sender and Manuscript Title.

Data sharing policy:
ICS encourages authors to follow FAIR Data Principles. Namely, data must be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. If the data is to be deposited in a repository, it must be done prior to acceptance. Please include a URL link to that repository as well as a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI for the data, or an accession number).ICS encourages authors to cite underlying or relevant databases in manuscripts, including data references in the Reference section of the manuscript. By paying the Article Processing Charge, authors can post the final, published PDF of their article on a non-commercial website, institutional repository or other non-commercial free public server, immediately on publication.

Checklist:

The following is a checklist for submitting your manuscript to the Online Manuscript System available: http://www.editorialmanager.com/intsurg/

Abstract:

An abstract will be added during the manuscript submission process online. Prepare a structured abstract of 250 words to summarize the data and findings in the manuscript. The format should include:

FOR RESEARCH MANUSCRIPTS

Objective: one or two sentences. Summary of Background Data: a short paragraph describing the scientific context for the study.
Methods: a statement of the methods used in undertaking the study.
Results: a concise summary of findings, as verified by the data.
Conclusions: a brief statement of what can be concluded from the findings of the study.

FOR CASE REPORTS AND CASE SERIES MANUSCRIPTS

Introduction: Why the case report/case series is important and needs to be reported. Please describe why the case report/case series is significant in relation to what is already published in the literature.

Case presentation: Concise details on the patient(s) condition, including age, sex and ethnic background details.

Conclusion: A brief conclusion and a description of the clinical impact. Is the case report/case series of interest to a particular clinical specialty or will it have a broader impact across surgical fields? Please include information on how it will significantly advance knowledge of surgical area(s).

Emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations. Use only approved abbreviations. Uninformative abstracts (e.g. 'the data will be discussed') are not acceptable.

Keywords:

Three - six key words or short phrases that describe the key concepts of your research will be added during the submission process online. Use terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) thesaurus whenever possible.

Each of the following should be uploaded to http://www.editorialmanager.com/intsurg

Title Page
Manuscript (DOC or RTF copy of your manuscript)
Figures
Tables
Supplementary material (for example, permission to reproduce published material)
Cover Letter
Statistical Review
Author CRediT-Contributor Roles

1. Title Page:

The title page should contain the following: (1) the title of the article, which should be concise but informative; (2) a short running headline of no more than 55 characters (including letters and spaces) placed at the foot of the title page; (3) first name, middle initial, and last name of each author, with highest academic degrees; (4) name of department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed; (5) disclaimers, if any; (6) name, address and email of author responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript and; (7) the source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these.

2. Manuscript:

Preparation of manuscript:
Manuscripts should be submitted as Word doc or rtf files. Please use 1 inch margins – 8.5 x 11 inch or 21.6 x 28 cm or A4 (paper size). International Surgery regrets it will have to decline consideration of any article that does not conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals available: http://www.icmje.org/ The EQUATOR Network http://www.equator-network.org has resources to assist with planning and reporting studies. Use double spacing throughout. Begin each of the following sections on a separate page: title page, abstract and key words, text, acknowledgments, references, images, tables, and captions. Page numbering is not necessary.

A consent form must be signed by the patient or their guardian/relative if the patient is identifiable from the text or any images used in the manuscript. The consent form must be produced upon request by the International College of Surgeons.

Introduction:
Acquaint the readers with the problem and with the findings of others. Quote the most pertinent papers. It is not necessary to include all the background literature. State clearly the nature and purpose of the work.

Materials and Methods:
Explain clearly yet concisely your clinical, technical or experimental procedures. Previously published methods should be cited, with appropriate references.

Results:
Describe your findings without comment. Include a concise textual description of the data presented in tables, charts, and figures.

Discussion:
Comment on your results and relate them to those of other authors. Define their relevance to experimental research or clinical practice. Arguments must be well founded.

Informed Consent Policy:
We require every research article submitted to include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval (or a statement that it was not required), including the name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s), the number/ID of the approval(s), and a statement that participants gave informed consent before taking part. Further details are available from the International Surgery Ethics Statement.

Creative Commons Statement:
Please add the following statement at the end of your manuscript before the references in order to verify that you understand that your article will be published as Open Access with a Creative Commons license:

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

References:
Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numbers. References cited only in tables or in captions to figures should be numbered according to a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration. Use the form of references adopted by the NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the NLM Catalog. If more than six authors are involved, only the first six author names are to be listed. Journal issue numbers should be included in references.

Personal communications, unpublished data, or articles published without peer review, including material appearing in programs of meetings or in organizational publications, should not be included. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references.

Example reference:
Nozawa H, Kawai K, Sasaki K, Emoto S, Murono K, Sonoda H, et al. Impact of procedure time of preceding endoscopic submucosal dissection on the difficulty of laparoscopic rectal surgery. Int Surg. 2021;105(1-3):528-32. doi: 10.9738/INTSURG-D-20-00030.1. Further reference examples are available from The National Library of Medicine’s website.

3. Figures:

Illustrations (line drawing and photographs) are classified as figures. For submission and review, acceptable figure file formats are AI, BMP, DOC, EPS, JPG, PDF, PPT, PSD, TIF AND XLS. Figures should be loaded as separate files. If photos are taken with a digital camera please ensure the highest quality and save the image as a TIFF file. Images must be at least 300 pixels per inch at final production size. Use only those images that clarify and increase understanding of the text. All figures must be numbered and cited in the text. Captions of figures must be double spaced, starting on a separate page, with Arabic numerals corresponding to the figure. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the figure, identify and explain each clearly in the caption. Explain internal scale and identify the method of staining in photomicrographs.

4. Tables:

Tables should be self-explanatory and should supplement the text without duplicating it. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals and supply a brief title for each. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all nonstandard abbreviations that are used in each table. Tables should be double-spaced, without internal lines and saved as separate files. Do not create tables as an image file and import them into the word file. Please submit tables as Excel or Word files.

5. Other Supplementary Material:

Permission to reproduce any published material included with the submission must be provided.

6. Cover Letter:

A cover letter can be submitted in the cover letter section online. The cover letter, from the author responsible for all communications regarding the manuscript, should contain a statement that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors. A statement on the originality of the submission is required. Include a manuscript summary which describes the following four areas as clearly and briefly as possible:
The major finding(s) from the study
What the findings add to existing knowledge
What is already known in the field
What should change as a result

7. Statistical Review:

Include a statement that reports on the statistical and epidemiological methodology in the manuscript.

8. Author CRediT-Contributor Roles

ICS follows the authorship criteria of the ICMJE. To be an author of a manuscript you should fulfil all four criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors must adhere to the CRediT-Contributor Roles Taxonomy and publish each author’s contributions to the study in the manuscript.

Conceptualization
Data curation
Formal analysis
Funding acquisition
Investigation
Methodology
Project administration
Resources
Software
Supervision
Validation
Visualization
Writing-original draft
Writing-review & editing

Please assign each author to one or more of these categories based on their contribution to the study and manuscript. Not all categories may be appropriate for your study and manuscript, and authors can appear in as many categories as they contributed to.

The statement should be written in the following format:

CRediT category: Authors initials (each separated by a period); CRediT category: Authors initials (each separated by a period); etc

An example of an Authors’ Contribution statement using CRediT with degree of contribution: John Smith: Review and editing (equal). Keryl Jones: Conceptualization (lead); writing – original draft (lead); formal analysis (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Louie Lee: Software (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Yik-Hong Hi: Methodology (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Melissa Wu: Conceptualization (supporting); Writing – original draft (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal).

Other Information for Authors:

Pre-submission English-language editing:
Editing services are available to help with authors who may need help with writing their manuscript. Contact: [email protected] for more information.

Withdrawal of Manuscripts:
After the manuscript is accepted for publication withdrawal is not permitted by International College of Surgeons.

Reprint Permissions Statement:
An author version (PDF post print) is emailed to the corresponding author on publication, with permission to:
(i) Send copies to individual colleagues for non-commercial purposes
(ii) Print out and distribute copies to colleagues attending any conference presentation you make
(iii) Include the PDF in a course pack, subject to the usual copyright licensing agency arrangements
(iv) Link to the journal site http://internationalsurgery.org/ from an institutional repository to the journal’s Open Access content made freely available after twelve months from the date of publication

All papers are available from the International Surgery website.

Please contact [email protected] if you wish to use the PDF for any purpose other than those listed above.

Rights and Permissions

Open-access publishing: involves acceptance of payment in return for making the article freely available via the internet. Such articles will be published on acceptance after peer review in the next available issue. The author will retain the copyright of the article. International Surgery will retain a non-exclusive right to the content, receive proper attribution and citation as journal of first publication and the authority to migrate the work to future formats and include the article in collections.

Open access

All Research articles published by ICS are published by default as open access (irrespective of who funded the research) and reuse is permitted in accordance with the terms of the relevant applicable open access licence.

Open Access licences for International Surgery

CC BY-NC

By default, we publish our Open Access articles under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0). CC BY-NC articles allow the author, and any non-commercial bodies, to reuse the material for non-commercial uses in any other way they choose, subject to being in accordance with the CC-BY-NC licence, without acquiring permission from ICS. Any reuse must give attribution to the author(s) and the journal and adhere to our requirements in clause 6.4.2 if our author licence. Commercial users or commercial use will require permission from ICS for any reuse.

CC BY-NC articles can be identified by the following statement that appears at the end of the article:

“This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0.”

CC BY

Articles funded by organisations that mandate publication with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence are published with this licence. CC BY 4.0 permits reuse for commercial purposes subject to the article being fully attributed (see the requirements in clause 6.4.2 of our author licence).

CC BY articles can be identified by the following statement that appears at the end of the article:

“This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.”

If you cannot submit online for any reason or have other questions about manuscript submission, please contact the International Surgery editorial office,

email: [email protected]
address: 6A Napier Road, #05-35, Annexe Block, Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore 258500

Updated 24 September 2024