# PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Article Type

1. Original Research Original research articles present new research with reportable findings in the field of surgical education. Requirements: ≤ 3500 words, ≤ 75 references; ≤ 7 tables and/or figures 2. Review articles Review articles give an overview of existing literature in the surgical education field, often identifying specific problems or issues and providing a balanced analysis derived from available published work on the topic. Review articles can be one of two types: narrative literature reviews or systematic reviews. Requirements: ≤ 3000 words, ≤ 50 references; ≤ 5 tables and/or figures 3. Surgical History Surgical history articles give a review of important events and contributions that have impacted the field of surgery and surgical education. Requirements: ≤ 2500 words, ≤ 30 references; ≤ 5 tables and/or figures; ≤ 3 authors 4. Commentaries Commentaries are invited by a journal editor and are generally not peer reviewed. They should provide insight or context around: A recent article(s) in the International Journal of Surgical Education; or an issue relevant to the journal’s mission. Requirements: ≤ 1000 words, ≤ 10 references; no tables and/or figures; ≤ 3 authors 5. Perspectives Perspectives should explore the existing knowledge on a topic related to IJSED’s mission in an original and/or thought-provoking way, and/or present substantial ideas for moving this field forward. Requirements: ≤ 1000 words, ≤ 10 references; ≤ 2 tables and/or figures; ≤ 3 authors 6. Surgical Education - Country Profile A narrative or systematic review of the surgical education and research system in your own country, from medical schools and surgical training to transition-to-practice and continued professional development. Profiles should contain no more than 2000 words. 7. My Life, My Story A first-person narrative telling your inspiring personal journey as a surgical educator, researcher, and/or learner with a focus on how you developed your passion for your work and how you accomplished it. Requirements: ≤ 2000 words, ≤ 5 references; ≤ 2 tables and/or figures 8. Letters to the Editor Letters are responses to articles published in IJSED within the last six months. If the author of the published article chooses to comment, then the letter and the response will be published in the same issue of the journal. Requirements: ≤ 650 words; ≤ 5 references (1 of which should be to the recent published article); ≤ 3 authors

Submission Requirements

1. Manuscript Format IJSED accepts submissions in the English language prepared in conformity with the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition [https://www.amamanualofstyle.com/], and the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals [http://icmje.org/recommendations/] Submissions are not edited for style and language prior to review, but reviewers may recommend rejection if a manuscript is compromised by grammatical errors. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and have their article reviewed by colleagues prior to submission. Non-native English speakers may elect to use outside copy-editing services. Submissions must be submitted by an author prepared to take responsibility for the entire review and publication process. Manuscripts should not exceed 5000 words and have no more than six figures and/or tables. IJSED uses a double-blind review, so do not include the list of authors in the body of the manuscript. The author list is already required in the title page, which is not accessible to reviewers during review. The text of the manuscript should be double-spaced and 12-point standard font. The file types acceptable for submission are .doc/docx and .pdf. 2. Cover Letter Authors should submit a cover letter to support the submission request. The letter must outline each of the author’s contributions and declare any potential conflicts of interest. IJSED encourages authors to submit the names, institutions, and email addresses of two potential reviewers for the manuscript within their cover letter. To give appropriate credit to each author, individual contributions to the manuscript should be specified in the cover letter accompanying the submitted manuscript. IJSED complies with the recognized ethical standards for publications and authorship, including Section II “Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research” of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors [http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html]. An ‘author’ is someone who made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study: * Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work. * Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content. * Final approval of the version to be published. * 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. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group does not justify authorship. The cover letter should list each author’s contributions using the following format reporting the authors initials (with each author initials separated by a semicolon): Author contributions: * Conception and design of study: author’s initials * Acquisition of data: author’s initials * Analysis and/or interpretation of data: author’s initials * Drafting the manuscript: author’s initials * Revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content: author’s initials * Approval of the version of the manuscript to be submitted: author’s initials Manuscript contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgement section. Contributors to acknowledge include those who provided technical help, writing or editing assistance, or a department chair who provided general support. In addition, please acknowledge anyone who contributed to the manuscript’s conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include the source(s) of funding for each author, and for the manuscript preparation. Authors must describe the role of any funding body in the design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in the writing of the manuscript and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study. Language editors who made significant revisions should also be acknowledged. Authors should also obtain permissions to acknowledge the participants mentioned in the acknowledgements section. Finally, you may suggest a list of two experts in the field who would provide an objective review of the manuscript. You should not include potential reviewers who have published with any of the authors of the manuscript within the past 5 years or are members of the same research institution. Suggested reviewers will be considered alongside potential reviewers recommended by the IJSED editorial team. 3. Title Page The required title page must include: * the title of the manuscript (should be specific, descriptive, concise, and comprehensible to readers outside the field. It should include or hint at the research question. Titles should not declare the results of the study. The title should be capitalized, except for articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. Special abbreviations are not recommended). * list the full names, institutional affiliations, and email addresses for all authors; * indicate the corresponding author and complete contact information; * provide 5-7 keywords representing the main content of the manuscript; each keyword should be separated by a semicolon. * manuscript word count (not including title, abstract, acknowledgment, references, tables, and figure legends). * provide a LEDE: a 30 word description which gives the essence of the article and contains the most important points readers need to know. 4. Abstract Abstracts are only required for Orginal Research and Review Articles. The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Abstracts should include the following four sections: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The abstract should follow the title page and should be numbered page two of the manuscript. Abstracts are only necessary for Original Research and Reviews. 5. Main Manuscript Text The manuscript should should include the following sections: Background, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. All references, including URLs, must be numbered consecutively in superscript, in the order in which they are cited in the text, and listed under the reference section. Each reference must have an individual reference number. If automatic numbering systems are used, the reference numbers must be finalized, and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission. Citations in the reference list should include all named authors, up to the first 3 before adding “et al.” Footnotes are not allowed, but endnotes are permitted. Abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. _Use of inclusive language_ Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should not contain language which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture, or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. 6. Figures and Illustrations Figures and illustrations and figures should be provided in JPEG/JPG or PNG format and should be included in the main article body, not as separate files. Figures with sub-parts must be supplied as one figure that contains all sub-parts appropriately labeled. All figures should be supplied with at least 300dpi for the best resolution in the published article. 7. Figure Legends: Figure titles and legends should be included should be included in the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permissions to use previously published figures and tables. 8. Tables Tables should be embedded inside the main article file. Tables must be editable, cell-based objects. Text formatting guidelines for tables - Use only separate cells, ordered lists, or unordered lists to separate content within the same cell into individual lines. Do not use spaces, tabs, html tags, or manual line breaks inside a table. - Symbols indicating statistical significance should appear in the same cell as the value and should not have their own column. - To highlight individual values in tables, you may use boldface type, italic type, or a single color of shading (note: the shading color is standardized so will not exactly match what you provide). Do not use multiple colors of shading, underline, or font size to highlight values in tables. Do not use color to indicate meaning. - Text color is limited to black 9. Data Sharing IJSED encourages authors to make the data generated by research openly and publicly available upon the publication of their manuscript, wherever legally and ethically possible. We encourage authors to submit as much data as possible, but require authors submit at least the minimum data required to reproduce the results presented in the article. Data should not be shared in any way that could compromise participant anonymity or privacy, and data should not be shared if that would require the authors to break any laws or licensing agreements. 10. Supplemental Materials Authors may submit supplemental materials to accompany their manuscript. These supplemental materials may include datasets, tables or figures that are too wide to fit in the main manuscript; coding; questionnaires; videos; audio files; or other information. Supplemental material should be important to the understanding and interpretation of the manuscript but should not repeat material. The amount of supplemental material should be limited, justified original and not previously published. The supplemental material will undergo editorial and peer review with the manuscript.

EDITORIAL AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Once a submission is cleared by journal staff, the manuscript enters a double-blind peer review process. The editors will consider author-suggested reviewers, but they may assign the manuscript to other experts also. Two or more reviewers will evaluate the manuscript in a timely manner and submit their recommendations. Once the reviews are submitted, the Editor-in-Chief considers the reviewer feedback and issues a decision. The authors may be asked to revise the manuscript and resubmit in a timely fashion for re-review. In this case, authors should provide a detailed point-by-point response to the decision letter. Authors will be notified of all editorial decisions by email, but they can also check the status of their paper by accessing their author accounts on the Scholastica journals website. 1. Conflict of Interest A conflict of interest exists when the interpretation of data or the presentation of information may be influenced by the author’s personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors must disclose any financial and non-financial conflicts that may cause harm or embarrassment were they to become public after publication. All declared conflicts of interest will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no conflicts of interest, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no conflicts of interest." 2. Human and Animal Rights All study must have been conducted in accordance with established ethical guidelines. Editors may reject a submission and/or contact the author(s)' ethics committee if there is a suspicion that work was done outside of an approved ethical context. Even if clearance from an ethics committee has been acquired, the paper may be rejected on ethical grounds if the Editor has substantial reservations about the study's ethics. Animal and human ethical committees should be consulted before any animal or clinical studies are conducted, and research should be conducted in such a way that animals are not harmed unnecessarily. Articles conducting any animal or clinical studies should contain a statement in accordance with the animal and human ethics committee. Registration is required for all clinical trials. 3. Informed Consent In the International Journal of Surgical Education, patients and other study subjects have a right to privacy, which should not be breached without informed consent. Identifying information, such as names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in written descriptions, images, or pedigrees unless it is necessary for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given written informed consent. After publication, authors should inform these patients whether any potentially identifiable material will be available on the Internet as well as in print. It should be stated in the published paper when informed consent has been received. Written consents must be retained by the author, but copies should not be provided to the journal. Only if specifically requested by the journal in exceptional circumstances (for example if a legal issue arises) the author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained.

REVISIONS AND ACCEPTANCE

## Revised Submissions _Response to the Decision Letter After Peer Review_ It is possible that once an author’s manuscript has come back from the peer review process, revisions will be needed. Authors will then have the opportunity to improve their manuscript through the expert insights of the reviewers and the editor. _Manuscript Text_ The revised manuscript should be submitted through Scholastica and should be accompanied by a summary of responses to the reviewers’ comments. Authors are asked to provide a copy of the manuscript with all changes highlighted, as well as a clean copy that will be used for publication. ## Figure Files Requirements for Publication Illustrations and figures must be uploaded as separate files. Each file should include a single illustration and should fit on a single page in portrait format. For figures consisting of multiple parts, a single composite file should be submitted containing all the parts of the figure. ## Proofs After the manuscript is accepted, a set of PDF page proofs will be available. The proof should be used to check for omissions or any typesetting and editing errors. Significant changes by the authors at this stage will require permission from the editor. The proof must be returned with needed corrections within 48 hours. Subsequent corrections after this period cannot be guaranteed. Please note that IJSED may proceed with publication if no response is received after the 48-hour period. ## Article Processing Charges There is no fee to submit an article to IJSED. The submission process is completely free. There will be no publication fee until June, 2025. Afterwards, there will be a publication fee of $300 if the manuscript is accepted for publication. This fee will cover immediate, worldwide open access to the full article text as well as the day-to-day process of developing and maintaining an effective peer review system and publication process. Accepted manuscripts will not be published until the payment is received. ## Publication Fee Exemptions Articles with a medical student as the first author, or a retired physician as a first or last author are always exempted from paying the publication fee. ## Publication Fee Waivers Waivers for the publication fee are available at the editors’ discretion. Authors wishing to apply for these waivers should contact the editors at editor@ijsed.com. In support of point 1.2 of the Plan S guidelines, authors from low income economies are eligible for waivers of the full publication fee, and authors from lower middle-income economies are eligible for partial waivers. Authors should exhaust all alternative funding sources before applying for a waiver. Waiver requests should include authors’ institutional affiliations, countries of residence, and information on the authors’ attempts at acquiring alternative funding through sources like the authors’ institutions, institutional libraries, government agencies and research funders.

COPYRIGHT

All articles accepted for publication in IJSED are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/] Under this Open Access license: • Author(s) grant permission for any third-party to copy, distribute, reuse, or build on the work, even commercially, without permission provided that the original author(s), citation details, and journal are properly identified. • Copyright of articles published by the International Journal of Surgical Education is retained by the author(s). • Author(s) grant the International Journal of Surgical Education to identify itself as the original publisher and agree to an Open Access Licensing Agreement to publish the article.

ARTICLE WITHDRAWAL POLICY

IJSED recognizes the importance of the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record to researchers and librarians and attaches the highest importance to maintaining trust in the authority of its electronic archive. It is a general principle of scholarly communication that the editor of a learned journal is solely and independently responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal shall be published. In making this decision the editor is guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. An outcome of this principle is the importance of the scholarly archive as a permanent, historic record of the transactions of scholarship. Articles that have been published shall remain extant, exact and unaltered as far as is possible. However, very occasionally circumstances may arise where an article is published that must later be retracted or even removed. Such actions must not be undertaken lightly and can only occur under exceptional circumstances. It is the absolute right of the Editorial Board to decide on article withdrawals. Withdrawals of articles after publication will only occur when there are infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, and fraudulent use of data, etc. The article will be replaced with a PDF file stating that the article has been removed because of an infringement of professional ethical codes. It is sometimes the case that any author would like to request a withdrawal after their manuscript has been submitted to IJSED. To request a withdrawal before publication, the corresponding author of the article should submit a request on behalf of all co-authors of the article explaining the reason for the withdrawal request. An article will only be considered for withdrawal if the article has not been published yet by IJSED, contains substantial errors, is discovered to be an accidental duplicate of other published article(s), and/or is determined to violate our publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like, etc.). It is unadvised for authors to withdraw their manuscript(s) due to lack of agreement with reviewer comments. In the case of withdrawal before publication, no penalty will be levied against the author(s). However, if the publication fee of $300 has already been paid for any article already accepted for publication, then it shall not be refunded to the author(s) in any case. Depending upon the severity of the errors, the author(s) may also be banned from submitting any other articles to IJSED. If an article is withdrawn after publication, a penalty will be levied against the author. Additionally, the publication fee will not be refunded to the author(s).

Article Type

Submission Requirements

EDITORIAL AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS

CONFLICT OF INTEREST, HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS, AND INFORMED CONSENT

REVISIONS AND ACCEPTANCE

COPYRIGHT

ARTICLE WITHDRAWAL POLICY

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