Author Guidelines

Journal of Society of Surgeons of Nepal (JSSN)

JSSN is a multi-disciplinary, open-access, peer-reviewed, biannually published scientific journal.

JSSN adheres to the policy published by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and to publishing ethics guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

JSSN accepts original research papers, review articles, case reports, surgical education, letter to the editor related to General Surgery and any Subspecialty that are not published or not being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors will be asked to confirm that this is the case during the submission process. Any attempt at dual publication will lead to automatic rejection, may prejudice acceptance of future submissions. However, JSSN accepts papers based on a previous communication to a society or conference or a paper based on thesis work. This has to be disclosed during submission process whether the paper is based on a previous communication to a society or meeting or thesis work.

Editorial Process

Our aim is to provide all authors with a supportive, efficient, productive and quick editorial process.

Submitted manuscript will be first accessed for scope of journal, completeness, language, ethical and legal issues. If found appropriate for consideration it will be sent for external peer review.

Two independent external expert reviewers will review the manuscript individually for scientific and technical basis of the work.

Based upon the reviews received from the peer reviewers the paper may be accepted without changes, accepted with minor or major revisions or rejected with or without possibility of resubmission. However, independent from the comment received from peer reviewer final decision regarding the acceptance and rejection will be made by editorial board.

Authorship

JSSN adheres to the policy published and regularly updated by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).For detailed and updated information please visit – http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

All authors should meet all four following criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors.

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

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.

In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors.

The individual who had contributed to the study but do not meet all the above four criterias of authorship should be acknowledged in acknowledgement section.

The corresponding author has to confirm how all individuals listed as authors meet the appropriate authorship criteria, that no-one who qualifies for authorship has been omitted from the list, that written authorization has been received from all co-authors, that contributors and all funding sources (for authors and contributors) have been properly acknowledged and that authors and contributors have approved the acknowledgement of their contribution.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have seen, approved and are fully conversant with the contents of the manuscript. All authors are responsible for the accuracy of the manuscript, including all statistical calculations and drug doses.

License to Publish: Submission of manuscript to JSSN endows JSSN the right to publish it in print and online format.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

JSSN applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to all works we publish. Under the CC BY license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in JSSN, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

Publication Fee

At present JSSN does not charge a publication fee to the authors.

Submission Documents

The manuscript should be submitted along with following documents

1.            Cover Letter – Explaining why the manuscript is suitable for publication in JSSN. Address the following questions: Why will your paper inspire researchers or clinicians, and how will it improve patient care, or drive the understanding of disease forward?

2.            Authorship

3.            Declaration

4.            Manuscript

5.            Approval Letter from Institutional of National Review Board (All research involving humans and animals must have been approved by the authors’ institutional review board or equivalent committee(s), and that board must be named by the authors in the manuscript. For research involving human participants, informed consent must have been obtained or the reason for lack of consent explained, and all clinical investigations must have been conducted according to the principles expressed in the “Declaration of Helsinki”. The Methods section of the paper must state about the approval from the board and informed consent)

 Submission guidelines

The files should be submitted in .doc or .docs format. Files submitted in .pdf, .zip, .com will not be accepted.

Arial font size 12 should be used in manuscript. Texts should be typed in double space, margin 25 mm and page number should begin from title page bottom right side.

When starting a sentence with a number, please spell the number. For e.g. “Seventy one percent of subjects had…”

Single digit numbers should be spelled out. For e.g. “..was found in two percent..”.

When using drug names, generic names should be used. Trade names are not allowed.

Please do not write in contractions. For e.g. write “do not” instead of “don’t”.

A brief overview of the writing process for the manuscript is given below. Authors are advised to download the templates of individual manuscript (link to templates)

a) Title page

On the title page please state: (1) the title of the article; (2) the name and initials of each author; (3) the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed; (4) the name, postal and e-mail addresses, telephone and facsimile numbers of the author responsible for correspondence and to whom requests for reprints should be addressed; (5) sources of funding for research and/or publication; (6) the category in which the manuscript is being submitted (original article, review, randomized clinical trial); and (7) whether the paper is based on a previous communication to a society or meeting (with full details).

b) Abstract with keywords

Abstract must contain be in a structured format. Introduction: state why the study was done, the main aim and the nature of the study (randomized clinical trial, retrospective review, experimental study, etc.). Methods: describe patients, laboratory material and other methods used. Results: state the main findings, including important numerical values. Conclusion: state the main conclusions, highlighting controversial or unexpected observations.

Keywords: Provide 3 to 6 keywords in alphabetical orders separated buy semicolons. Use words listed in MeSH index.

c) Main Body

Main body of the paper should have separate Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion sections (these sections may not be applicable to all article types, e.g. Reviews).

d) Illustrations and Tables

Images: All images should be in greyscale.

Caption and Numbering: All images must be numbered as: Figure “number (in Arabic numerals)” with a title describing the image, placed below the image. The caption should read like “Figure 1: Figure title”.  The captions should be placed where the image is meant to be in the manuscript with one line spacing above and below the caption.

Graphs/Charts:  Caption and numbering: same as Images. If possible, please send us the graphs/charts as part of Microsoft Worksheet along with the data used to generate the graph/chart. • Units of measurements should be in SI units (International system of units) as far as possible.  • Submit each illustration as a separate file except compound figures e.g. 1a, 1b, 1c, etc., which should be supplied as a single file.

Tables: Title of table should be placed above the table. The title should read like “Table 1: Table title”. Table may be placed within the text of manuscript or attached as a separate file. In the latter case, the title of the table should be placed where the table is meant to be placed with a line spacing above and below the title.

e) Abbreviations

Avoid using abbreviations. Terms that are mentioned frequently may be abbreviated but only if this does not impair comprehension. Abbreviations must be used consistently and must be defined on first use.

f)  Numbers and units
Provide absolute numbers always; percentages may be given in addition but never on their own (percentages are not acceptable for sample sizes less than 50). Use SI units (International System of Units) as far as possible.

g) Statistics and design

Objectives of the study should be clearly defined. The primary and secondary hypotheses with end points must be clear.

Clearly describe methods used for analysis; methods not in common usage should be referenced. Report results of statistical tests by stating the value of the test statistic, the number of degrees of freedom and the P value. Actual P values should always be reported to three decimal places, especially when the result is not significant. The results of the primary analyses should be reported using confidence intervals instead of, or in addition to, P values.

g) References

JSSN follows modified Vancouver system as devised in the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers for referencing, which is available as a book: “Citing Medicine, 2nd edition”. The book can be downloaded free of cost at:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine and NLM quick reference can be found at http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/quickguides/nlm.

NLM Style Tips: NLM style has no bolding, italics, or underlines in the reference list. Journal titles should be abbreviated.  If you’re unsure of the official abbreviation, check your source in PubMed or search for the publication name here. Cite what you saw. If you used an online journal article, use the format for an online journal article.  If you used a print article, use the format for print article. No hanging indent is required. Start your reference list on a new page with the heading “references,” “cited references,” or “bibliography.” List first six authors on each reference, if there are more than six authors mention et al following first six authors.

In the text citation

Citation is done in form of Arabic numbers that correlates with the source in the reference list at the end of the document.

Following points illustrate the style JSSN follows for citing sources:

1. A number is allocated to a source in the order in which it first appears in the text. If the source is referred to again, the same number is used.
2. Citation numbers are placed in superscript format. No parenthesis is used.
3. The numbers are placed to the right of colons and semi-colons. Similarly they are placed after full-stops.
4. When multiple references are cited together, the numbers are separated by a comma. In case of more than two consecutive numbers, first and last numbers are separated by hyphen.

E.g. Similar results have been obtained in various studies.^{4-7, 15}

You need to give a reference even when the author’s name is stated in the sentence or in table.

If you refer to a source more than once, you should use the same number you used the first time you referred to that particular source.

References cited only in tables or figures should be numbered in sequence.

We encourage authors to use a computerized bibliographic program. For e.g. Mendeley, Endnote, Zotero etc.

We encourage authors to follow the reporting guidelines for different study designs. For e.g. CONSORT (www.consort -statement.org) for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies (http://strobe-statement.org/), PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (http://prisma -statement.org/), and STARD for studies of diagnostic accuracy (www.stard-statement.org/).  Authors of review manuscripts should describe the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data; this is mandatory for systematic reviews. Good sources for reporting guidelines are the EQUATOR Network (www.equator-network.org/home/) and the NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives (www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).

Guidelines for individual manuscript

Original Article

JSSN accepts original researches conducted in the field of General Surgery, Surgical Subspecialty, Surgical education, Basic science relevant to surgical practice, Surgical Critical Care.

Original articles should normally be in the format of Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion and should have maximum of 3500 words with a structured abstract of less than 250 words should be provided.

JSSN request all authors to register prospective clinical trials in a suitable electronic and freely accessible registry (e.g. www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.controlled-trials.com), according to the ICMJE guidelines.

It should be written under the following headings: 1. Title and authorship 2. Abstract 3. Introduction 4. Methods 5. Results 6. Discussion 7. Acknowledgement 8.  References.

Review Article (including systematic reviews and meta-analyses)

Review articles are which summarize the current state of understanding on a topic and analyzes or discuss research previously published by others, rather than reporting new experimental results.

They are very thorough literature reviews that identify historical and current trends in the research, important scholars in the field, foundational articles, major discoveries, gaps in the research (areas for further exploration), and current debates or controversies.

A review article should have maximum of 3000 words excluding abstract which should be of maximum 250 words and references (>50 and <100). It should be written under the following headings: 1. Title and authorship 2. Abstract 3. Introduction 4. Body 5. Discussion 6. Acknowledgement 7. References.

Case Reports

JSSN accepts case reports with literature review that includes, a rare case, an unexpected association between diseases or symptoms, an unexpected event in the course of treatment such as complications and other adverse events that are significant enough to share among scientific committee.

A case report should have maximum of 1000 words excluding abstract which should be of maximum 100 words and references (up to 10). A case report should be written in following sections: 1. Title with Author Information 2. Abstract with key words 3. Introduction 4. Case Report 5. Discussion 6. Acknowledgement 7. References.

Surgical Education

JSSN accepts perspective on undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing surgical education. The issues of training in surgery including curriculum development and reforms, innovation in surgical education, training and assessment are accepted with word limit up to 1500 words excluding abstract of 150 words.

Letter to the Editor

Critique/respond to a specific article that the journal has recently published. Letter must be timely and must be concise. It should be a thought provoking commentary of less than 1000 words without abstract and 1 table or figure with maximum of 5-10 references.