The Journal of Acute Care Surgery (J Acute Care Surg), is the official publication of The Korean Society of Acute Care Surgery(KSACS) and The Korea Association of Trauma Nurses(KATN), and is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal, that is published 3 issues(the last day of March, July and November) a year. This journal aims to provide a platform for modern, cutting-edge research at the forefront of evolving developments in acute care surgery in the Asia-Pacific area, with three essential components; trauma, critical care, and emergency surgery.
The emphasis for articles in this journal is placed on promoting the advancement and optimization of patient care through discussion and clarification of relevant acute care surgery issues. This includes the outcomes of existing practices, and the application of new procedures, or novel treatment concepts of acute care surgery, and the challenges they present in the progression of improving patient clinical outcomes.
The content of the J Acute Care Surg includes original clinical and basic research articles, review articles, case reports, and brief reports, that may challenge traditional practice and educate the advancement of change in clinical practice for surgeons, physicians and allied healthcare professionals alike, that are involved in acute care surgery.
We welcome research from both developed and developing countries to contribute to the advancement of acute care surgery (trauma, non-traumatic emergency surgery, and surgical critical care), with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region, and invites the submission of high quality, manuscripts in the following topics:
Acute Care Surgery is a blinded peer-reviewed (according to international standards) journal where each article submitted will be evaluated by two or more referees and a biostatistical consultant.
The JACS adheres to the ethical guidelines for research and publication described in Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines) and the ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org).
1. Editorial Responsibilities
The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and excluding plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promoting publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.
2. Double Blind Peer Review Process
The Editorial Office of Journal of Acute Care Surgery receives and reviews all submitted manuscripts, and all submitted manuscripts are considered confidential. The submitted manuscripts are initially screened for the format. All submitted manuscripts are screened for duplication through Crosscheck (https://app.ithenticate.com). Once the manuscript is provisionally accepted, it is sent to the two most relevant referees for review. The referees are selected by the editor from the Editorial Board's database or the board members' recommendation. The referees are then requested to evaluate based on originality, validity, presentation, and importance and interest, and, when considered necessary, statistics.
Acceptance of a manuscript depends on the evaluation, critiques, and recommended decision made by the referees. A referee may recommend 'accept', 'minor revision', 'major revision' and 'reject'. Upon opposing recommended decisions between referees, or author and referee(s), the Editor-in-Chief has the full right to decide whether the manuscript will be published in the journal. Three repeated decisions of 'major revisions' are regarded as a 'reject' and rejected papers will not be considered further.
The reviewed manuscripts with comments, recommended directions, and revisions are returned to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is to submit the revised manuscript accompanied by point-to-point replies to the comments given by the editor and how the revisions have been made. There should be a reasonable explanation for any noncompliance with the recommendations. In cases where references, tables, or figures are moved, added or deleted during the revision process, renumbering must be done so that all references, tables, and figures are cited in numeric order. If the revised paper is not received within 2 months of decision, the manuscript is considered to have been withdrawn.
When the final decision on the acceptance of the manuscript is made, the Editorial Office notifies the corresponding author. The peer-review process takes approximately 8-12 weeks.
3. Manuscript Originality
Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that no part of the work has been published previously in print or electronic format and the paper is not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. All in press or submitted works that are pertinent to the manuscript under consideration by the journal (including those cited in the manuscript under consideration) must accompany the submission. Related manuscripts that have been submitted elsewhere during the period of revision must accompany revised manuscripts. Failure to provide copies of related manuscripts under consideration elsewhere may delay the review process and may be grounds for rejection. Under no circumstances will any paper be considered that contains any data that have been submitted for publication elsewhere.
4. Secondary Publication
It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the conditions of secondary publication of the ICMJE Recommendations (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html).
5. Funding Source
Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/
6. Similarity Check
Similarity Check is a multi-publisher initiative to screen published and submitted content for originality. To find out more about Similarity Check, visit http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck.html. All manuscripts submitted to Journal of Acute Care Surgery may be screened, using the iThenticate tool, for textual similarity to other previously published works.
JACS adheres completely to the ethical guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations, including Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Journals(http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines) from ICMJE and Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA: (http://doaj.org/bestpractice).
1. Research Ethics
All manuscripts should be prepared under strict observation of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors(http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors(ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/), and the World Association of Medical Editors(WAME, http://www.wame.org/),. Any study including human subjects or human data must be reviewed and approved by a responsible institutional review board (IRB). For further information on investigations involving human material, please refer to the principles in the Declaration of Helsinki. (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/).
2. Authorship
Authorship credit must be based on the ICMJE, 2013 (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). Author credit should be based on (1) substantial contributions to the conception and design, or acquisition, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) 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. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. These authorship criteria are intended to preserve the status of authorship for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work.
Group authorship should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship and should complete an authorship form. The corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name.
3. Redundant Publication and Plagiarism
Redundant (or duplicate) publication is publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published in print or electronic media.
If all or part of the subject population has been reported previously, it should be declared in the Materials and Methods and must be appropriately referenced. . This requirement applies to text, figures, and tables．In cases where authors are concerned with any potential overlap with published manuscripts or manuscripts being reviewed, the authors must include a letter explaining how the manuscript submitted to JACS significantly differs from other materials. For more information, please refer to ‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication’ (Available at:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3142758/).
4. Conflicts of Interest
Any potential conflict of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data, such as financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academically related issues, must be stated.
Conflict of interest statements will be published at the end of the text of the article, before the ‘References’ section. Please consult the COPE guidelines (http://www.publicationethics.org/) on conflict of interest. Even when there is no conflict of interest, it should also be stated. When the manuscript is accepted for publication Journal of Acute Care Surgery will decide whether the disclosure will be communicated in the published paper (after consulting with the corresponding author).
5. Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential.
6. Human and Animal Rights
Animal experiments should also be reviewed by an appropriate committee (IACUC: Institutional Animal Care and use Committee) for the care and the use of animals. Studies involving pathogens requiring a high degree of biosafety should pass review of a relevant committee (IBC: Institutional Biosafety Committee). The editor of JACS may request submission of copies of informed consents from human subjects in all studies or IRB approval documents. Articles where human subjects can be identified in descriptions, photographs or pedigrees must be accompanied by a signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) the descriptions, photographs and pedigrees from each subject who can be identified. Articles covering the use of human samples in research and human experiments must be approved by the relevant review committee. Articles covering the use of animals in experiments must be approved by the relevant authorities.
7. Role of the funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.
8. Policy on Ethical Oversight
When the Journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as falsification of data, plagiarism, improprieties of authorship, misappropriation of the ideas of others, violation of generally accepted research practices, material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affection research, inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The Editorial Board will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. We will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
World Association of Medical Editors gives a definition of scientific misconduct and useful overview of the following issues:
Falsification of data
This ranges from fabrication, the deceptive reporting of findings, and the omission of conflicting data to willful suppression and/or distortion of data.
Plagiarism
The appropriation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another without crediting their true source—representing them as one’s own original work.
Improprieties of authorship
The improper assignment of credit, for example, by excluding others, presenting the same material in more than one publication, including individuals as authors who have not made a definite contribution to the work, and publishing or submitting multi-authored publications without the concurrence of all authors.
Misappropriation of the ideas of others
An important aspect of scholarly activity is the exchange of ideas among colleagues. Scholars can acquire novel ideas from others during the process of reviewing grant applications and manuscripts. However, the improper use of such information can constitute fraud. The wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
Violation of generally accepted research practices
This category includes serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, the improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, and the improper reporting of results.
Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research
This includes but is not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, and willful violations of local regulations and laws involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biological, or chemical materials.
Inappropriate behavior in relation to misconduct
This includes unfounded or knowingly false accusations of misconduct, the failure to report known or suspected misconduct, the withholding of information relevant to a claim, and any kind of misconduct or retaliation against persons involved in an allegation or investigation.
9. Complaints and appeal
How the journal will handle complaints and appeals; The policy of the journal is primarily aimed at protecting the authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher of the journal. If not described below, the process of handling complaints and appeals follows the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics available from https://publicationethics.org/appeals.
Who is responsible to resolve and handle complaints and appeals?
The Editor, Editorial Board, or Editorial Office is responsible for them.
What may be the consequence of remedy?
It depends on the type or degree of misconduct. The consequence of resolution will follow the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE).
10. Secondary publication
It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the conditions of secondary publication of the ICMJE Recommendations (http://www.icmje.org/urm_main.html).
11. Copyright
JACS applies the Creative Commons Attribution license to works it publishes. Under this license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), although publisher retains ownership of the copyright for content, it allows anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the content.
12. Open Access and Creative Commons Attribution license
Every peer-reviewed article appearing in this journal will be published open access. This means that the article is universally and freely accessible via the internet in perpetuity, in an easily readable format immediately after publication.
All articles will be published under the following license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Author Rights
For open access publishing, this journal uses an exclusive licensing agreement. Authors will transfer copyright to Journal of Acute Care Surgery, but will have the right to share their article in the same way permitted to third parties under the relevant user license, as well as certain scholarly usage rights.
13. Researching Reporting Guideline
JACS requires that manuscripts adhere to recognized reporting guidelines relevant to the research design used and requires author(s) to submit a checklist verifying that essential elements have been reported for all primary researches and systematic reviews.
Reporting guidelines endorsed by the journal are listed below:
14. Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential.
Please submit manuscripts, figures, copyright transfer and conflict of interest disclosure form (Journal Publishing Agreement) via online at http://www.jacs.or.kr/submission/Login.html(Journal of Acute Care Surgery online submission system) to follow the guideline. The entire process of manuscript submission, peer-review, and resubmission to Journal of Acute Care Surgery is done through online system (http://www.jacs.or.kr/submission/Login.html).
Any inquiry concerning manuscript submission should be directed to editorial Office: ksacs@ksacs.org
All manuscripts must be in grammatically correct English and should be created using MS Word. Manuscripts must be typed in English, double-spaced and 11 point type, and all pages must be numbered consecutively. Only a single font (preferably Times New Roman) should be used in 11 point.
Journal of Acute Care Surgery publish original research articles, review articles, case reports, and brief reports.
Editorials
Editorials provide invited perspective on an area of Journal of Acute Care Surgery, dealing with very active fields of research, current interests, fresh insights and debates. An abstract is not required and a brief unstructured text should be prepared. Although editorials are normally invited or written by an Editor, unsolicited editorials may be submitted.
Typical length: 1,000 words, 20 references.
Original articles are papers containing results of basic and clinical investigations, which are sufficiently well documented to be acceptable to critical readers. The content should be helpful for the diagnosis and treatment of emergency, trauma surgery or surgical critical care.
Section headings should be written in the following format: title page; abstract and keywords; introduction; materials and methods; results; discussion; conclusion (if any); acknowledgments; references; and tables and figures.
Typical length: Up to 5,000 words excluding Abstract, References, and Figure/Table Legends.
Review articles provide concise reviews of subjects important to medical researchers, and can be written by an invited medical expert. These have the same format as the original articles but the details may be more flexible depending on the contents.
Typical length: One paragraph with maximum of 200 words for the abstract; maximum of 6,500 words from introduction to conclusion; maximum of 100 references, 10 figures and 10 tables.
These are clinical cases that are rarely reported or make a significant contribution to diagnosis and treatment.
Typical length: One paragraph with maximum of 150 words for the abstract; maximum of 1,500 words from introduction to conclusion; maximum of 20 references, 6 figures and 5 tables.
Short communications are short original research articles on issue important to JACS researches.
Typical length: One paragraph with maximum of 3,000 words from introduction to; maximum of 20 references.
Cover Letter
It should include the following information.
Title page
The title page should include the following information.
The main text file should be presented in the following order.
1) The title of article
2) Abstract
An abstract should be concise and not exceed 250 words. Abstracts for Original Articles should be structured, with the section headings: Purpose, Methods, Results, Conclusion.
Unstructured abstracts are allowed for review article, case report and other types of articles
3) Keywords
3-6 relevant keywords are required. Keywords should be selected from main headings listed in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Index Medicus published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). if suitable MeSH terms are not yet available, current terms may be used.
4) Main Text Section
The main text of the manuscripts should have sections for the Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion.
(1) Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
(2) Materials and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors). Unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex or gender. If the study involved an exclusive population (only one sex, for example), authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity, and justify their relevance. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of #### (IRB no. ##-##-###). Informed consent was confirmed (or waived) by the IRB.
(3) Results
Results should be clear and concise.
(4) Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
(5) Conclusion
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusion section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
Conflicts of interest and Acknowledgments paragraphs may be included following conclusion.
(6) Conflicts of Interest
Any potential conflict of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data, such as financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academically related issues, must be stated.
Conflict of interest statements will be published at the end of the text of the article, before the ‘References’ section. Please consult the COPE guidelines (http://www.publicationethics.org/) on conflict of interest. Even when there is no conflict of interest, it should also be stated. When the manuscript is accepted for publication Journal of Acute Care Surgery will decide whether the disclosure will be communicated in the published paper (after consulting with the corresponding author).
(7) Acknowledgment If any
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgment section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
(8) Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc.
(9) References
All references in the text should be cited in English. In text, tables, and legends, identify references with Arabic numerals in square brackets, such as [1], [2]. Authors’ last names should be cited in English.
The reference number should be cited in the main text in squared brackets in the order they appear in the text ('style of NLM (the National Library of Medicine, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html'), e.g., [1].
The journal title should be abbreviated according to the NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/journals).
In the main text, tables and figure legends
In the references list
Examples
Journal Articles
Author(s) – Family name and initials. Title of article. Title of journal – abbreviated Publication year, month, day (month & day only if available); volume:pages.
[1] Kim YH, Cho HR, Ko BK, Nah YW, Nam CW, Park SJ, etal. Prevalence of infection and appropriate antibiotic treatment in brain-dead organ donors. J Acute Care Surg 2015;5:15-8.
[2] Nilsson H, Stranne J, Stattin P, Nordin P. Incidence of groin hernia repair after radical prostatectomy: a population-based nationwide study. Ann Surg 2013 Jun 6 [Epub]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0b013e3182975c88.
Books
Author(s) – Family name and initials, Multiple authors separated by a comma. Title of book. Edition of book if later than 1st ed. Place of Publication: Publisher Name; Year of Publication. Pages.
[1] Townsend CM Jr, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox KL. Sabiston textbook of surgery: the biological basis of modern surgical practice. 19th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders; 2012.
[2] Neumayer L, Vargo D. Principles of preoperative and operative surgery. In: Townsend CM Jr, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox KL. Sabiston textbook of surgery: the biological basis of modern surgical practice. 19th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders; 2012. p.211-39.
Reports
Author(s). Title of report. Place of publication: Publisher; Date of publication – year month if applicable. Report No.: (if applicable). Total number of pages if applicable eg. 24 p.
[1] Page E, Harney JM. Health hazard evaluation report. Cincinnati (OH): National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (US); 2001. Report No.: HETA2000-0139-2824. 24 p.
Web Sites
Author(s). Title of publication [type of medium – Internet]. Place of publication (if available): Publisher (if available). Date of publication – year month day (supply year if month and day not available) [updated year month day; cited year month day]. Available from: web address.
[1] PeriStats [Internet]. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Perinatal Data Center. 2007 [cited 2007 Feb 1]. Available from: http://www.marchofdimes.com/peristats/.
[2] WHO[Internet]. Essential surgical care manual: Resuscitation and anesthesia, important medical conditions for the anesthetist. [cited 2015 Mar 30].Available from: http://www.steinergraphics.com/surgical/005_13.8.
The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.
TablesTables are to be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. A table title should concisely describe the content of the table so that the reader can understand the table without referring to the text. Each table must be simple and typed on a separate page with its heading above it. All units of measurements and concentrations must be indicated. Footnotes should be indicated with superscript symbols in the following sequence; *; †; ‡; §; ||, ¶; **; ††; ‡‡.
Figures
Figures contain graphs, line drawings, photographs or video files etc. Each figure should be supplied as a single file. The images must not be interfered and must be clearly seen. The legend for each light microscopic image should include name of the stain and magnification. For figures with multiple panels, use a uppercase letter after the numeral to indicate the order of the panels, e.g., Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B. Label each illustration with the figure number. Indicate the scale of size for photomicrographs. Include brief, but comprehensive, footnotes. The contrast of figure files should be at least 500 dpi (dots per inch) or 5 million pixels. Refer to the Guidelines for Digital Art (http://art.cadmus.com/da/guidelines.jsp). Written permission should be obtained for the use of all published illustrations and copies of permission letters should be included.
Journal of Acute Care Surgery will not take responsibility for the quality of the images that appear in the journal.
Any abbreviation must be used consistently and must be defined at the first use. Commonly used abbreviations would be described in article without explanation.
Gene NomenclatureCurrent standard international nomenclature for genes should be adhered to. Genes should be typed in italic font and include the accession number. For human genes, use genetic notation and symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (http://www.genenames.org/) or refer to PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez).
UnitsSystème International (SI) units must be used, with the exception of blood pressure values which are to be reported in mmHg. Please use the metric system for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. There should be a space between the numerals and the unit symbol. When indicating time, the 24 hour system is to be used.
If an article is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will receive the proof and typeset for the publication.
Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process – authors should check proofs carefully. Journal of Acute Care Surgery recommends authors to keep the corrections to a minimum.
Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of first proof.
