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All submitted articles must be unpublished. No published material may be partially or totally reproducedwithout the prior authorization of the Editorial Committee of the Journal
The opinions expressed in the works are the sole responsibility of the authors. The Editorial Committee reserves the right to make grammatical, stylistic and other corrections depending on printing needs.
Incomplete works will not be accepted for editorial review.
The papers accepted for publication can be subject to editorial comment.
The Argentine Journal of Surgery follows the instructions of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals written by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. See www.icmje.org or consult the Instruction page to send an article from the Revista Argentina de Cirugía, where the instructions of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors can be found.
The different articles considered for publication will be listed firstand, then the stepsto prepare a manuscript.
About how to prepare an article to be sent to the Argentine Journal of Surgery, follow the Instructions to send an article strictly.
If the articles prepared by the authors are not in compliance with the regulations, the editors of the Argentine Journal of Surgery will return them for the pertinent changes to be made.
The correct form of abbreviation to cite the publication is: Rev Argent Cirug
Different Articles Considered for Publication
Original Article
They are scientific reports of the results of anoriginal basic orclinical investigation. The text is limited to 2700 words, with an abstract in Spanish and one in English, each of up to 250 words, a maximum of 5 tables and figures (total), up to 40 bibliographical references and a maximum of 10 authors.
Brief Communication
It is an original investigation. The introduction and the discussion are shorter than those of an original article. The text is limited to 1300 words,one in Spanish and another in English, each of up to 150 words, a maximum of 3 tables and / or figures (total), up to 15 bibliographicalreferences and a maximum of 6 authors.
Special Article
It includes data and personal conclusions; They are usually focused on areas such as economic policy, ethics, laws or the provision of health care. The text is limited to 2700 words, with anabstract in Spanish and another in English, of up to 250 words each, a maximum of 5 tables and figures (total) and up to 40 bibliographic references.
Clinical cases (see Scientific Letters)
Review articles
The review articles are usually requested by the publishers to well-known authors, both national and foreign, but we will consider unsolicited material. Before writing a review article for the Journal, contact the Editorial Office. All review articles have the same process of peerand editorialreview asthe original research articles. It could be written by different types of doctors (no more than 3 authors), not specifically specialists in surgery. Accordingly, they may include material that could be considered an introduction for specialists in the field that is being covered.
Conflict of Interests: As the essence of the review articles is the selection and interpretation of the literature, the Journal expects the authors of these articles not to have a financialrelationship with a company (or its competitor) responsible for any product that is discussed in the article.
The different forms of "review articles" are listed below.
Clinical Practice
The articles included in Clinical Practice are evidence-based reviewsof topics relevant to doctors, both for primary or general care and for specialists. The articles in this series will include the following sections: clinical context, strategies and evidence, areas of uncertainty, guidelines of professional societies and recommendations bythe authors. The text is limited to 2500 words and a small number of figures and tables. They include asummary of no more than 150 words and the same summary translated into English.
Current Concepts
Current Concept articles focus on surgical clinical topics, including those corresponding toareas of subspecialties but of wide interest. The text is limited to 2500 words, with a maximum of 4 figures and tables (total) and up to 50 bibliographical references. They include a summary of no more than 150 words and the same summary translated into English.
Disease Mechanisms
The articles included in Disease Mechanisms analyze the cellular and molecular mechanism of a disease or disease categories. The text is limited to 3000 words, with a maximum of 6 figures and tables (total) and up to 80 bibliographical references. They include a summary of no more than 150 words and the same summary translated into English.
MedicalBreakthroughs
The articles in this section provide a comprehensive erudite review of important clinical, surgical and multidisciplinary topics, focused mainly (but not exclusively) on the development during the past five years. Each article detailshow the perception of a disease or disease category, diagnostic investigation or therapeutic intervention have been developed in recent years. The text is limited to 3000 words, with a maximum of 6 figures and tables (total) and up to 80 bibliographical references. They include an abstract of no more than 150 words and the same abstract in english.
Other Admissions for Review
Editorials
They usually provide comments and analysesconcerning an article of the Journal number where it appears.They can include a figure or a table. They are almost always requested, although, on an occasional basis,an unrequested editorial could be considered. The editorials are limited to 1200 words with up to 15 bibliographical references.
Perspectives
They are almost always requested, but we are willing to consider unsolicited proposals. Perspectives provide the basis and context for an article of the Journal number in which it appears. The section is limited to 800 words and usually includes a figure. It does not have citations of bibliographical references.
Controversies
They are almost always requested. An approach to or a question about a relevant medical problem is made and two authors, appointed by the Editorial Committeemake the(agonistic) defense or do(antagonistic) criticism.
Opinion articles
They are opinion essay articles. They are similar to editorials, but are not related to any particular article of the number. They are often opinions about health policy problems and, in general, are not requested. The text is limited to 2000 words.
Images in surgery
It presents common and classic images of different aspects of surgery. Visual images are an important part of how much we do and learn in surgery. This feature attempts to capture the sense of discovery and visual variety experienced by the surgeon.
The images in surgery will be signed by a maximum of three authors.
Occasional notes
They are accounts of personal experiences or descriptions of material beyond the usual areas of medical research and analysis.
Review of books
They are usually requested. We are willing to consider proposals for book reviews. Before sending a review, please contact the Editorial Office.
Readers’ letter
It is an opinion about an article published in the last issue of the Journal. The text will have a maximum of 500 words and will usually not contain figures or tables (at most one approved by the Editorial Committee); It can not have more than 5 bibliographical references and will be signed by a maximum of 3 authors.
Scientific letter
Clinical cases that do not exceed 6 authors, 1200 words, 2 figures or tables and 6 bibliographical references will be accepted in a format called Scientific Letter.
Surgical technique
This section includes articles on novel surgical techniques. The technique must be described as thoroughly as possible, and accompanied by appropriate illustrationsso that it can be reproduced; drawingsof professional qualityshould be used instead of intraoperative photographs. It is necessary that the technique has been practiced in several cases and with good results. The interventions carried out only once do not correspond to this section, but to Scientific Letters. The text will be limited to 1500 words, with a maximum of 9 figures and tables (in total) and up to 10 bibliographical references. A summary of no more than 150 words and the same summary translated into English should be included.
Instructions to send an Article
Instructions
To prepare the articles, follow the instructions detailed below and the international requirements described in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, written by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
Duplicate a publication
A duplicate publication is one whose material substantially coincides with a previous publication.
The Revista Argentina de Cirugía / The Argentine Journal of Surgery will not accept work material whose content has been published in whole or in part, or whose content has been previously submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere, with exceptions (see Admissible secondary publication).
When the author presents the material, he should always make a statement to the editor about all previous presentations and reports that could be considered duplicate publications of the same or a similar work.
Attempting a duplicate publication, without prior notification and without the consent of the Editorial Committee, will cause it to be rejected.
If the article has already been published, the Editorial Committee will publish a notice about the characteristics of the duplicate material, even without the consent of the authors.
The preliminary disclosure, in public or scientific information media, of all or parts of an article that has been accepted but not yet published will not be accepted (except in exceptional cases).
Admissible Secondary Publication
The secondary publication of the same article in the same or another language is justifiable provided that:
The editors approve the publication.
A footnote to the second version will inform readers, reviewers and reference agencies that the article has been previously published in whole or in part and should be quoted in full.
Protection of patient privacy
Descriptions, photographs or other details that contribute to identifying the patient can not be published, unless this information is indispensable for publication, in which case the patient or the parent or guardian, in the case of minors, must express their written consent.
Preparation of the article
The original articles will be divided into the following sections: introduction, material and methods, results and discussion.
Longer articles may need subtitles in some of the sections (results and discussion) in order to clarify their content.
The publication of cases, review articles, updates and editorials do not require this format.
The manuscript must be sent in Microsoft Word® file.
The pages should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title, in the upper right corner of each page.
The pages will be of A4 format, including the text of the figures and legends, while the letter size must be 12.
Title
1. Title of the article, concise but informative.
2. Give the article a title that does not exceed 2 lines of 50 characters each.
3. Name, middle initials and last name of each of the authors with the highest academic degree, indicating if theyMAAC (a sitting member of the Argentine Association of Surgery) and the institution to which they belong.
4. Name of the department and the institution to which the work is attributed.
5. Name and email address of the author to whom correspondence about the article should be addressed (corresponding author).
6. Name and address of the corresponding author to request reprints.
7. Sources of support (donations, equipment, etc.).
8.Include the number words, only for the text, on the page that has the title of the work. Exclude title, summary, references, tables and legends of the figures.
Authorship
All persons designated as authors must be qualified for authorship.
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content.
Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to:
- Conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data.
- Drafting the article or revising it critically for its intellectual content.
- Final approval of the version to be published.
Authors should meet the three conditions.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.
At least one author should be responsible for any part of an article that is critical to its main conclusions.
All authors of multicenter works should fully meet the above criteria.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, if they agree, in the acknowledgments or appendix
Abstract and keywords
The second page should contain an abstract of up to 250 words.
The summary should inform about the purposes of the study or research, the basic procedures (selection of people or laboratory animals for the study,analytical and statistical observation methods), the main findings (specific data and their statistical significance if possible) and the main conclusions. It should emphasize important and new aspects of study or observation.
At the bottom of the summary, authors must provide or identify 3 to 10 keywords that help index the article. These keywords should preferably be selected from the list published by Rev Argent Cirug (available at www.aac.org.ar/revista) derived in turn from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the National Library of Medicine (available at www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/entrez/meshbrowser.cgi).
Summary in English (abstract)
It must be a true translation of the summary in Spanish and must follow the same guidelines.Please have the abstract in English reviewed by a professional translator with experience in scientific writing.
Text
It will be divided into sections called: a) Introduction, b) Material and Methods, c) Results and d) Discussion. The length of the text should not exceed 2700 words; they do not include the Abstract (maximum 250 words) or the bibliography (maximum 40 references).
Introduction
It provides the background, the purpose of the article and makes the summary of the logical foundations for study observation.
It provides only strictly pertinent references and does not include data of the conclusion from the work. Finish the Introduction clearly stating the work objective (s).
Material and methods
It clearly describes the selection of subjects for observation and experimentation (patients or laboratory animals, including the control group).
It must identify age, sex and other important characteristics of the subjects.
The Identification of the methods, devices (provide product name, manufacturing company name and city) and procedures must be sufficiently detailedso asto allow other researchers to reproduce the results.
Statistical methods used, drugs and chemical substances, including chemical name, dosage and drug administration routes should be mentioned.
Randomized clinical trials should present information on the most important elements of the study, containing the protocol and the flow sheet of patient inclusion, and should also follow the CONSORT guidelines (see the article on instructions provided by the Journal web page).
Authors presenting reviews should include a section describing the methods used for the location, selection and synthesis of data; these methods should be abbreviated in the summary.
Ethics
When conducting clinical studies in humans, the procedures carried out must be explicitly in accordance with the ethical standard of the committee responsible forinstitutional or regional human experimentatio; and with the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, corrected in 1983 and revised in 1989, which must be explicitly included in the work methodology.
Do not use patients’ names, their initials or their corresponding number in the hospital, especially in the illustrative material.
All research works that include experimental animals must have been carried out following the instructions of the "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals" (http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/) belonging to the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of North America and updated by the American Physiological Society(APS) (http://www.the-aps.org/ committees / animal / index.htm).
Statistics
The description of the statistical methods should be sufficiently detaied to allow readers to verify the results. When possible, the findings should be quantified and presented with appropriate indicators of measurement, error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Avoid relying solely on statistical tests of hypotheses, such as the use of the "p" value, which fails to communicate important quantitative information.
Provide details about randomization, descriptions of the method for the success of blind observation and if there were any complications in the treatment.
When the dataaresummarized in the Resultsection, the analytical method used must be specified to analyze it.
Statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols must be defined.
When a series of data presents a parametric distribution (small dispersion) it is recommended to present them as an average ± standard deviation, but if they present non-parametric distribution, it is recommended to provide a median and range. Likewise, the use of SEM (standard error of the mean) is discouraged as a measure of dispersion, unless its need is clearly stated.
Resultsdo not interpret the observations made. They should be presented with a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the important observations.
The tables and figures must be used in the number that is strictly necessary to explain the material and to assess its support. Graphs can be used as an alternative for tables with numerous entries.
Discussion
Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusion that emerges from them.
Do not repeat data that already appear in the Introduction or in the Results section.
In the Discussion sectioninclude the findings, their implications and limitations, including what future research would imply. Link the observations with those of other important studies.
The conclusions should be related to the objectives of the study. Unqualified reports and conclusions that are not fully supported by the data should be avoided.
Authors should avoid giving economic cost-benefit information unless the article includes economic data and analysis.
Avoid claiming priority or alluding to work that has not been completed.
State new hypotheses when warranted, but label them clearly as such.
Include recommendations when appropriate.
Conflict of interests
At the end of the text, under the subtitle Declaration of Conflict of Interest, all authors (of original articles, reviews, editorials or any other type of article) mustdisclose any relationship with any type of organization with direct or indirect financial interests, in the topics, issues or materials discussed in the manuscript (eg, consulting, employment, expert testimony, fees, hired lecturer, advances, subsidies, reimbursements, royalties, share option or property) that may affect the conducting or the reportof the admitted work within 3 years of its start.
If there is uncertainty about what should be considered a potential conflict of interest, the authors should communicate it for consideration. If there is no conflict of interests, the authors must declare in writing that they do not have any.
As the editorials and reviews are based on the selection and interpretation of the literature, the Journal expects that the author of these articles will have no financial interest in the company (or its competitors) that manufactures the product that is discussed in thearticle.
Information about potential conflicts of interest should be available to the reviewers and will be published with the manuscript at the discretion of the Editorial Committee. Authors who have questions about these problems should contact the Editorial Office.
Acknowledgements
Place them in the appendix of the text. Specify:
1) Contributions that need acknowledgement but do not justify authorship as general support of the chair or the department.
2)Acknowledgement for financial and material support; the nature of the support should be specified.
People who have contributed intellectually to the material but whose intervention does not justify authorship can bementioned; their role and contribution can also be described. For example: "scientific adviser", "critical review of the purposes of the study", "data collection", or "participation in clinical work". Suchpersons must give their written consent to be mentioned.
The authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from the people mentioned in the acknowledgments, because the readers can infer their approval from the data and the conclusions. The technical legend should beacknowledged in a separate paragraph.
Bibliography
Citationsshould be numbered in the order in which they are first mentioned in Arabic numerals between brackets in the text, tables and legends. The bibliographical citations can not be more than 40 in the original works and up to a maximum of 80 in the review articles.
The style will be used as shown in the examples which are based on the formats used by the IndexMedicus.
Avoid using abstracts as references; and references or material accepted but not yet published will be designated "in press" or "in preparation", with the corresponding written permissions to cite such material. Information from articles that have been submitted but not yet accepted is cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source
The bibliography should be verified and controlled in the original articles by the authors.
Examples
Article
When the authors are more than six (6), the first six (surname followed by the initials of the names) are cited and "et al." Is added.
Oria A, Cimmino D, Ocampo C, Silva W, Kohan G, Zandalazini H, Szelagowski C, Chiappetta L. Early endoscopic intervention versus early conservative management in patients with acute gallstone pancreatitis and biliopancreatic obstruction. Ann Surg 2007; 245: 10-17.
If the publication were in Spanish, "y col."is added.
Book Chapter
Tisi PV, Shearman CP. Systemic consequences of reperfusion. In: Grace PA, Mathie RT, eds.Ischaemia-reperfusioninjury. London: Blackwell Science; 1999: 20-30.
Complete Book
Courtney M. Townsend, Jr., MD, R. Daniel Beauchamp, MD, B. Mark Evers, MD and Kenneth L. Mattox, MD. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, 19th Edition. Elsevier; 2012
Electronic publication before printing
4. Authors. Title.Journal.; [on-line]. Consulted the dd / mm / yyyy. Available at: website (exact or sufficient website to guide the reader to the link).
Personal communication
"Personal communication" should be avoided unless there is essential information not available from another source. The person´s name and the date of the communication will be cited in parentheses in the text. Authors must obtain written permission and confirmation of the accuracy of a personal communication.
Software
Epi Info [computer program]. Version 6. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 1994.
Online journals
Friedman SA Preeclampsia: a review of the role of prostaglandins. ObstetGynecol [serial online]. January 1988; 71: 22-37.Available from: BRS Information Technologies, McLean, VA. Consulted on December 15, 1990.
Databases
CANCERNET-PDQ [database online]. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; 1996. Consulted on January 20, 2010.
WWW
Helman A. Air pressure and Mount McKinley. At: http://www.cohp.org/ak/notes/pressure_altitude_simplified_II.html; consulted on 10/19/2009.
Tables
The tables must be sent so that they can be modified in order to give them the design of the Journal.
Number the tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each.
Placean abbreviated heading in each column and the explanatory notes at the end of the table. (not in the headings).
All non-standardized table abbreviations must be explained at the bottom of the same table.
For footnotes, use the following symbols in this sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, etc.
Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.
Be sure that each table is cited in the text.
If data from another published or unpublished source are used, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.
Do not include vertical lines; use only horizontal lineswhich are strictly necessary to understand their content clearly.
The use of too many tables in relation to the length of the text can cause difficulties in the lay out of the pages.
The Argentine Journal of Surgery will accept 5 tables and figures (in total).
Figures
The "figures" for the Argentine Journal of Surgery are: schemes, drawings, photographs, microscopy, algorithms, flow diagrams, etcétera.
Numbers, letters and symbols must be clear and large enough to remain legible when reduced for publication
Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends–not on the illustration itself.
If photographs of people are used, either the person must not be identified or written permission must be given to use the photograph (see Protecting the privacy of patients).
If microscopy photographs are sent, the magnification used (eg 40x, and the staining method) should be recorded. Also, each structure that is described must be clearly marked with an arrow. The arrow types to use will be, in the following order: black arrow, black arrow head, white arrow, white arrow head, short black arrow, long black arrow, hollow black arrow head, hollow white arrow head). Avoid pointing out structures with asterisks, stars, circles or other unconventional symbols.
The figures must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they have been previously mentioned in the text. If a figure has already been published, the clarification of the original source must appear and written permission must be attached for its publication.
The permission must be requested from all authors and the publisher, except in the case of public domain documents.Color illustrations will only be published if the authors pay the extra cost.
Units of measurement
Measurements of length, weight, height and volume must be given in units of the metric system, the temperature in Celcius degrees (° C) and the blood pressure in mm of Hg (mm Hg), according to the units and symbols used by the International System of Measurement (Système International d'Unités)
All clinical, hematological and chemical measurements must be expressed in units of the metric system and / or IU.
Abbreviations and symbols
Use only standardized abbreviations. Do not use abbreviations in the title or summary; when used in the text, the full word must be quoted before being abbreviated, unless it is a standard unit of measure.
All numerical values must be accompanied by their unit. Decimals will be separated with a comma. The numbers of up to 4 figures will be written without space, period or comma (for example: 1357, 6893 and 3356). From 5 figures, a space will be left every 3 digits (for example: 24 689, 163 865 and 9 786 432). The years will be written without separation, periods or commas.
Sending the manuscript
The authors must send the manuscript through the OJS system. They can be guided by the instructions available in "Journal Help" in the same web page.
For the moment, authors should send the article in .docx or .doc format to the email address
revista@aac.org.ar.
Peer Review
The Journal editor assigns each work for reading to one of the members of the Editorial Committee, who in a very short time must return it with the notification of whether the publication is of interest to the journal.
If the answer is affirmative, the article, without the authors’names or the centers’names, is sent to 2 or 3 external peer reviewers experts on the subject, who in a maximum period of 14 days must carry out their analyses and comments.
The work can be rejected, accepted with major changes, accepted with minor changes or approved; If the article needs changes, the comments by the reviewers will be sent to the author responsible for the correction by their authors. The written comments by the reviewer will be anonymous.
The authors should send the corrected version and a letter with the detailed answers to the reviewers’ comments, point by point. Once received, these corrections may be forwarded again to the reviewers for acceptance.Whether accepted by them or the Editorial Committee, follow the steps of the publication process (style correction, English correction, galley proof, etc.).
Rapid publication
It is the Editorial Committee´s sole decision to consider if the article that has been accepted will have the category of "rapid publication".
TheEditorial Committee will make that decision by virtue of the subject presented, which must be novel or highly topical. The aim pursued by the Argentine Asociation of Surgery /Asociacion Argentina de Cirugia (AAC) is to quickly publish original topics with impact on clinical practice.
For this purpose, the reviewers must be issued within a period of no more than a week and, if approved, for the necessary changes in the article, thereviewerswill maintain daily contact with the authors by e-mail or directly by telephone and will request the authors to make these changes within 48 hours of communication. |
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