Guidelines for Authors
www.karger.com/dsu_guidelines
 Submission
’Submission Essentials‘
Conditions
Types of Articles
Conflicts of Interest
Ethics
How I Do It
Clinical Images
Statistics
Arrangement
Color Illustrations
References
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Author's ChoiceTM, NIH-Funded Research, Self-Archiving
Page Charges
Proofs
Reprints
Submission
Manuscripts written in English are considered and should be submitted online:
Should you experience problems with your submission, please contact:
S. Karger AG
Editorial Office 'Digestive Surgery'
PO Box
CH–4009 Basel (Switzerland)
Tel. +41 61 306 1356
Fax +41 61 306 1434
E-Mail dsu@karger.ch
’Submission Essentials‘
The form 'Submission Essentials' must be submitted along with the manuscript, duly filled out and signed by the corresponding author.
Conditions
All manuscripts are subject to editorial review.
Manuscripts are received with the explicit understanding that they are not under simultaneous consideration by any other publication. Submission of an article for publication implies transfer of the copyright from the author to the publisher upon acceptance. Accepted papers become the permanent property of ‘Digestive Surgery’ and may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the publisher.
Types of Articles
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce illustrations, tables, etc. from other publications.
The journal consists of the following sections:
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1. Editorials – 1,000 words (max. 10 refs)
2. Review Articles – 5,000 words (max. 150 refs)
3. How I Do It – 2,000 words
4. Original Papers – 2,700 words
5. Historical Reviews – 2,000 words (incl. abstracts, without refs and tables)
6. Clinical Images – 200 words
7. Announcements
8. Short Reports – 1,000 words (max. 10 refs).
In all articles the total word count (including the abstract, excluding tables or references) should be given on the front page. The word count for the abstract should be given at the end of the abstract. With the exception of Editorials and Clinical Images, all articles must have an abstract.
The Case Reports section has been discontinued.
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How I Do It
‘Digestive Surgery’ is publishing articles which describe modern operative techniques in the field of gastrointestinal surgery. The manuscript should be short and precise (maximum 10 typewritten double-spaced pages) and should contain 1–4 figures to explain the surgical procedure. Decisions of submitted papers within 6 weeks: A decision will be reached within 6 weeks for manuscripts submitted to the ‘How I do it’ section.
Clinical Images
Clinical Images is a feature of ‘Digestive Surgery’ that wants to give the gastrointestinal surgeon the possibility to share an exceptional clinical condition encountered during his or her daily work with fellow surgeons. Readers are invited to send their contributions to the address given under Submission.
Images must be original, unpublished, high-quality black-and-white photographs. Each print should be labeled with the last names of the contributors and an arrow indicating the top of the image. The legend/short text should explain the uniqueness of the depicted image and provide relevant clinical information including a short description of the patient’s history, relevant physical and laboratory findings, clinical course, response to treatment (if any) and condition, or both. This text should not exceed 200 words.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors are required to disclose any sponsorship or funding arrangements relating to their research and all authors should disclose any possible conflicts of interest. Conflict of interest statements will be published at the end of the article.
Ethics
Published research must comply with the guidelines for human studies and animal welfare regulations. Authors should state that subjects have given their informed consent and that the study protocol has been approved by the institute’s committee on human research. Further, they should also state that animal experiments conform to institutional standards.
Statistics
Authors must conform to these guidelines or any work submitted to ‘Digestive Surgery’ will be returned without review.
The advice of a statistician is required for any analysis beyond simple data description or comparisons and must be mentioned in the ‘Methods’.
All data should be described non-parametrically: median, interquartile range, 95% CI, range.
The use of parametric descriptors including mean, SEM and SD must not be used unless clearly justified in the ‘Methods’.
Analysis of simple comparisons should also be undertaken using non-parametric methods, including the chi-square, Fisher’s Exact Probability and Spearman’s Rank Correlation tests for categorical data and the Rank-Sum and Mann-Whitney U tests for continuous data. All analyses should be two-sided ‘p’ unless justified in the ‘Methods’.
Arrangement
Title page: The first page of each paper should indicate the title, the authors’ names, the institute where the work was conducted, and a short title for use as running head.
NB: Authors wishing to preserve the phonetic meaning of diacritics (PubMed reduces diacritics to their root characters) must spell their names accordingly when submitting manuscripts (e.g. Müller should be Mueller).
Full address: The exact postal address of the corresponding author complete with postal code must be given at the bottom of the title page. Please also supply phone and fax numbers, as well as e-mail address.
Key words: For indexing purposes, a list of 3–10 key words in English is essential.
Abstract: Each paper needs an abstract of up to 200 words. It should be structured as follows:
Background/Aims: What is the major problem that prompted the study?
Methods: How was the study performed?
Results: Most important findings?
Conclusion: Most important conclusion?
Footnotes: Avoid footnotes.
Abbrevations: All non-essential abbrevations should be removed and replaced by the full term.
Tables and illustrations: Tables and illustrations (both numbered in Arabic numerals) should be prepared on separate pages. Tables require a heading and figures a legend, also prepared on a separate page. For the reproduction of illustrations, good drawings and original photographs are preferred; slides may also be accepted; negatives or photocopies cannot be used. Due to technical reasons, figures with a screen background should not be submitted. When possible, group several illustrations in one block for reproduction (max. size 180 x 223 mm) or provide crop marks. On the back of each illustration, indicate its number, the author’s name, and ‘top’ with a soft pencil. Electronically submitted b/w half-tone and color illustrations must have a final resolution of 300 dpi after scaling, line drawings one of 800–1,200 dpi.
Percentage values: Percentage values must never be given alone. They must be accompanied by the actual numbers.
Color Illustrations
Online edition: Color illustrations are reproduced free of charge. In the print version, the illustrations are reproduced in black and white. Please avoid referring to the colors in the text and figure legends.
Print edition: Up to 6 color illustrations per page can be integrated within the text at CHF 760.00 per page.
References
In the text identify references by Arabic numerals [in square brackets]. Material submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be noted as ‘unpublished data’ and not be included in the reference list. The list of references should include only those publications which are cited in the text. Do not alphabetize; number references in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. The surnames of the authors followed by initials should be given. There should be no punctuation other than a comma to separate the authors. Preferably, please cite all authors. Abbreviate journal names according to the Index Medicus system. (Also see International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med 1997;336:309–315. www.icmje.org)
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Examples
(a) Papers published in periodicals:
Chatel J-M, Bernard H, Orson FM: Isolation and characterization of two complete Ara h 2 isoforms cDNA. Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2003;131:
14–18.
(b) Papers published only with DOI numbers:
Theoharides TC, Boucher W, Spear K: Serum interleukin-6 reflects disease severity and osteoporosis in mastocytosis patients. Int Arch Allergy Immunol DOI: 10.1159/000063858.
(c) Monographs:
Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Understanding Medical Statistics, ed 3, revised. Basel, Karger, 1996.
(d) Edited books:
DuBois RN: Cyclooxygenase-2 and colorectal cancer; in Dannenberg AJ, Dubois RN (eds): COX-2. Prog Exp Tum Res. Basel, Karger, 2003, vol 37, pp 124–137.
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Reference Management Software: Use of EndNote is recommended for easy management and formatting of citations and reference lists.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
S. Karger Publishers supports DOIs as unique identifiers for articles. A DOI number will be printed on the title page of each article. DOIs can be useful in the future for identifying and citing articles published online without volume or issue information. More information can be found at www.doi.org
Author's ChoiceTM
Karger's Author's ChoiceTM service broadens the reach of your article and gives all users worldwide free and full access for reading, downloading and printing at www.Karger.com. The option is available for a one-time fee of CHF 2,750.00, which is a permissible cost in grant allocation. More information can be found at www.karger.com/authors_choice.
NIH-Funded Research
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandates under the NIH Public Access Policy that final, peer-reviewed manuscripts appear in its digital database within 12 months of the official publication date. As a service to authors, Karger submits the final version of your article on your behalf to PubMed Central. For those selecting our premium Author's ChoiceTM service, we will send your article immediately upon publishing, accelerating the accessibility of your work without the usual embargo. More details on NIH's Public Access Policy is available here.
Self-Archiving
Karger permits authors to archive their pre-prints (i.e. pre-refereeing) or post-prints (i.e. final draft post-refereeing) on their personal or institution's servers, provided the following conditions are met: Articles may not be used for commercial purposes, must be linked to the publisher's version, and must acknowledge the publisher's copyright. Authors selecting Karger's Author's ChoiceTM feature, however, are also permitted to archive the final, published version of their article, which includes copyediting and design improvements as well as citation links.
Page Charges
Original Papers exceeding the first 3 printed pages which are free will cost CHF 310.00 per extra page.
Proofs
Unless indicated otherwise, proofs are sent to the first-named author and should be returned with the least possible delay. Alterations made in proofs, other than the correction of printer’s errors, are charged to the author.
Reprints
Order forms and a price list are sent with the proofs. Orders submitted after the issue is printed are subject to considerably higher prices.
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For non-native English speakers and international authors who would like assistance with their writing before submission, we suggest American Journal Experts for their scientific editing service. |
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Online Manuscript Submission
Guidelines
