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European Surgery

Acta Chirurgica Austriaca

Publishing model:

Submission guidelines

Contents

Instructions for Authors

TYPES OF PAPERS

European Surgery publishes original research articles, case reports, reviews, and short communications in English on current developments in surgical practice and research.

Full papers and Reviews

Full papers and Reviews should be written as concisely as possible without impairing the clear and precise presentation of the subject matter. Both form and content of the paper should be carefully checked to exclude the need for corrections in proof. A charge will be made for changes introduced after pagination of the manuscript.

Short Communications

Short Communications should be prepared as described above except for the following: the average length of Short Communications should not exceed 1,500 words and a maximum of 2 figures or tables is accepted. The summary should not exceed 80 words. Short Communications can only be accepted or rejected.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are welcome, should be a maximum of 750 words, and may include a table or figure and references.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Manuscripts containing original material are accepted for consideration on the understanding that the material has neither been published previously (except in form of an abstract), nor is under consideration for publication elsewhere and that its publication is approved by all coauthors.

With delivery of the manuscript for publication and the subsequent acceptance by the Editor, the author transfers all necessary copyrights for publication and distribution to the publisher.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Ethical standards

Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. It should also be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study should be omitted.

The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.

Conflict of interest

Authors must indicate whether or not there is a financial relationship between them and the organization that sponsored the research. This note should be added in a separate section previous to the reference list. If no conflict exists, authors should state: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. A separate statement is required for every individual author of a manuscript and should be submitted together with the manuscript.

The editor in chief reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfil the requirements.

Every paper is assessed by two independent referees on whose recommendations the editor’s decision on acceptance or rejection will be based.

Online Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online using the Editorial Manager website of European Surgery.

Please login directly on the site at www.editorialmanager.com/eusu and upload your manuscript following the on-screen instructions.

In case you encounter any difficulties while submitting your manuscript online, please get in touch with the responsible Managing Editor by clicking on “Contact us” from the tool bar. Please do not send any hard copies of the manuscript.

STRUCTURE OF THE MANUSCRIPT

The presentation of the typescript should be in accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals” (see N Engl J Med 1991;324:424–8 or Br Med J 1988;296:401–5).

Arrange the elements of the manuscript in the following order: (1) Title, (2) Summary, (3) Keywords, (4) Introduction, (5) Material and methods, (6) Results, (7) Discussion, (8) Acknowledgments, (9) References, (10) Figure captions, (11) Tables.

Spelling should follow Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and be consistent throughout the paper. Pharmaceutical products have to be given with their international generic names. Protected registered trade names should appear with the symbol ® (e.g., Aspirin®).

Title Page

The Title Page of the manuscript must provide:

• The title of the paper (without abbreviations)

• running head (condensed title, not exceeding 60 characters and spaces)

• The name(s) of all author(s)

• Affiliation(s)

• Acknowledgments

• Details of the corresponding author: Full name, affiliation, full postal address, e-mail address, fax and telephone numbers

• footnote(s) indicating the present location of any author no longer at the institution at which the work was performed. By superscript numbers key affiliations to authors’ names

Abstract

The Abstract must not exceed 250 words and should not contain references or abbreviations. It should be formatted according to the following headings:

“Background”, “Methods”, “Results”, “Conclusions”.

Please list the paper’s main novel aspects (1-3 points) – pointing out the differences compared to previously published content – after the conclusion.

Key Words

Five Key words should be listed after the abstract. Key Words should be self-sufficient to allow the classification of the paper by subject area and to function as heads in a volume’s index of keywords. Choose them according to Index Medicus, do not merely duplicate words from the title

References

References may be made to published work and papers in press. Reference citations are not permitted in the abstract of a paper. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all literature citations. Work in progress, in preparation, unpublished work, and personal communications should be cited as footnotes to the text. References should be listed numerically in the text in the order of appearance as parenthesized consecutive numbers, e.g., [1, 2]. Where there are more than two references, the citation should appear as hyphenated numbers, e.g., [1–3]. References should be typed double-spaced in numerical order of citation. Abbreviations of journals should conform to those used in Medline. The following formats must be used:

• Journal article with one, two, or three authors: all of the authors are listed.

• Journal article with more than six authors: only the first three authors are listed following “et al”.

• Journal article in press (manuscript has been accepted for publication): Journal name (in press).

• Abstracts: Authors, Title, Journal, Volume, Page, year, abstract number (e.g., Proc Am Soc Clin Oncol 2007;25:215s (abstr 4571))

References should be quoted according to the Vancouver Format (Ref.) e.g.

• Journal article

Smithline HA, Mader TJ, Ali FM, Cocchi MN. Determining pretest probability of DVT: clinical intuition vs. validated scoring systems. N Engl J Med. 2003;21(2):161–2.

Gao SR, McGarry M, Ferrier TL, Pallante B, Gasparrini B, Fletcher JR, et al. Effect of cell confluence on production of cloned mice using an inbred embryonic stem cell line. Biol Reprod. 2003;68(2):595–603.

• Article published online with DOI

Vitzthum K, Mache S, Quarcoo D, Groneberg DA, Schöffel N. Interdisziplinäre Strategien der Dopingbekämpfung. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2010;122:325–33. doi:10.1007/s00508-010-1383-4.

• Books

Brooks A, Mahoney P, Rowlands B, editors. ABC of tubes, drains, lines and frames. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd; 2008.

• Book chapter

Speroff L, Fritz MA. Clinical gynaecologic endocrinology and infertility. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2005. Chapter 29, Endometriosis; p.1103–33.

• Online document

Merzouk H, Bouchenak M, Loukidi B, Madani S, Prost J, Belleville J. Fetal macrosomia related maternal poorly controlled type 1 diabetes strongly impairs serum lipoprotein concentrations and composition. J Clin Pathol [Internet]. 2000 [cited 2010 Apr 15]; 53:917–23. Available from: http://jcp.bmjjournals.com/content/53/12/917.full.pdf+html

Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php

TEXT

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

• The work’s formatting must be in keeping with the respective journal’s guidelinesUse a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.

• Use italics for emphasis.

• For special purposes, such as for mathematical vectors, use bold-face type.

• Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.

• Do not use field functions.

• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.

• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.

• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

• Note: If you use Word 2007, do not create the equations with the default equation editor but use the Microsoft equation editor or MathType instead.

Headings

Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.

Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.

Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

TABLES

• Tables must each be typed on a separate sheet and inserted between the reference list and the figure legends.

• All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

• Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.

• For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.

• Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.

• Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

ARTWORK

Figures must be numbered consecutively and submitted on separate sheets. The number of figures must be kept to a minimum consistent with clarity of the text and should not repeat numerical data presented in tables or text. Color illustrations will be accepted without extra costs for reproduction. Numbers, symbols and lines must be of a size sufficient for easy reading after appropriate reduction of the figure to fit the column width. Each figure must be accompanied by a brief selfexplanatory legend, which includes a definition of all symbols and abbreviations used in the figure. The legends should be listed on a separate sheet.

Technical instructions

Submit all figures as separate files and do not integrate them into the text file; the file names should include the relevant number of the figure.

Halftone figures: For an acceptable reproduction in color a resolution of 300 dpi is necessary. The figures must be converted in CMYK-model and stored as tiff-file (24 bit). Monotone figures must be stored in grayscale model (8 bit) with the same final resolution.

Line drawings: All figures (colored or black & white) including line arts and text labellings created with a drawing programme (Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, CorelDraw) should be stored in eps-format. Scanned images should be stored as bitmap-file with a resolution not less than 800–1200 dpi. The used fonts must be embedded in the file to avoid changes or lost characters.

Do not use presentation programmes (e.g., PowerPoint) or files downloaded from the internet to submit figures; in most cases data cannot be processed.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

  • The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
  • The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
  • A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
  • Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
  • Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
  • No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

  • Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
  • Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
  • Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
  • Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
  • Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

  • If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
  • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

    - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

    - an expression of concern may be placed with the article

    - or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

  • The author’s institution may be informed
  • A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

Authorship principles

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

All authors whose names appear on the submission

1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

3) approved the version to be published; and

4) agree 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.

* Based on/adapted from:

ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

  • ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
  • managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
  • providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
  • making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Example: CRediT taxonomy:

• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

  • Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

Open Choice

Open Choice allows you to publish open access in more than 1850 Springer Nature journals, making your research more visible and accessible immediately on publication.

Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

Benefits:

  • Increased researcher engagement: Open Choice enables access by anyone with an internet connection, immediately on publication.
  • Higher visibility and impact: In Springer hybrid journals, OA articles are accessed 4 times more often on average, and cited 1.7 more times on average*.

  • Easy compliance with funder and institutional mandates: Many funders require open access publishing, and some take compliance into account when assessing future grant applications.

It is easy to find funding to support open access – please see our funding and support pages for more information.

*) Within the first three years of publication. Springer Nature hybrid journal OA impact analysis, 2018.

Open Choice

Funding and Support pages

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Find more about the license agreement

Editing Services

English

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Chinese (中文)

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Japanese (日本語)

発表に備えて、論文を改善するにはどうすればよいでしょうか?

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これらのツールや他のサービスをご利用いただくことは、論文を掲載するための要件ではありません。また、編集者が論文を受理したり、査読に選定したりすることを示唆または保証するものではないことにご注意ください。

Korean (한국어)

게재를 위해 원고를 개선하려면 어떻게 해야 할까요?

여러분의 작품을 체계적인 원고로 발표하는 것은 편집자와 심사자가 여러분의 연구를 이해하고 공정하게 평가할 수 있는 최선의 기회를 제공합니다. 많은 연구자들은 어느 정도 독립적인 지원을 받는 것이 가능한 한 최선의 방법으로 자신의 결과를 발표하는 데 도움이 된다고 합니다. Springer Nature Author Services 전문가들은 영어 편집, 발전적인 논평, 원고 서식 지정, 그림 준비, 번역 등과 같은 원고 준비를 도와드릴 수 있습니다.

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이러한 도구 또는 기타 서비스를 사용하는 것은 게재를 위한 필수 요구사항이 아니며, 편집자가 해당 논문을 수락하거나 피어 리뷰에 해당 논문을 선택한다는 것을 암시하거나 보장하지는 않습니다.

Open access publishing

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in European Surgery, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page.

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