Scandinavian Journal of Surgery

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Scandinavian Journal of Surgery

Follow this link for the Journal’s general publishing guidelines and ethics:

Publishing Guidelines and Ethics

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sjos to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Scandinavian Journal of Surgery will be reviewed.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Please note that Scandinavian Journal of Surgery does not accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers.

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. What do we publish?
   3.1 Aims & Scope
   3.2 Article types
   3.3 Writing your paper
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer review policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   4.7 Clinical trials
   4.8 Reporting guidelines
   4.9 Data
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   5.3 Open access and author archiving
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Formatting
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplementary material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 ORCID
   7.2 Information required for completing your submission
   7.3 Permissions
   7.4 Revisions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.2 Online First publication
   8.3 Access to your published article
   8.4 Promoting your article
9. Further information

1. Open Access

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

2. Article processing charge (APC)

Since January 2022, SJS is a full open access journal. The APC for this Journal is $2,000. Many institutions have an agreement with Sage about a partial or full reduction of APC’s, we advise all authors to examine this prior to submission.

The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.

3. What do we publish

3.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Scandinavian Journal of Surgery, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

3.2 Article Types

Please see below for the article types. SJS does not publish case reports, pure laboratory based research, or animal research.

1. Original Articles:

a. Original investigation: max 3000 words and up 40 references (for RCTs max 3500 words). Up to a total of 7 tables or figures.

b. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis: max 5000 words and up to 70 references. Up to a total of 7 tables or figures.

2. Review Articles: max 5000 words and up to 70 references

a. Narrative reviews with a concise descriptive abstract (max 300 words, no headings)

b. Systematic reviews with or without a meta-analysis.

3. Guidelines: The Scandinavian Journal of Surgery encourages the publication of summaries of different guidelines. The format of a guideline summary follows the one of narrative reviews (max 5000 words and up to 70 references). Authors of a guideline summary are to guarantee that the entire guideline group supports the submission of the guideline summary by adding a statement of this at the end of the main document. The title needs to include both the information of the endorsing society and whether it is a summary.

4. Research letter: Max 650 words, up to 7 authors, 6 references, and one table or figure. Focused report of original research, the title does not include “Research letter”.

5. Letters:

a. Invited commentary: A viewpoint on a relevant topic commissioned by the Editor-in-Chief, includes editorials. Max 400 words, up to 3 authors and 6 references.

b. Letter to the editor: Correspondence to the journal on a recently published article. Max 300 words, up to 3 authors and 6 references.

6. Viewpoint: Max 650 words, up to 7 authors, 6 references, and one table or figure. An author viewpoint relevant to the readers of Scandinavian Journal of Surgery.

Context and relevance:

For original articles and reviews, please include a separate section called "Context and relevance" in the manuscript before the Abstract. This feature provides a quick summary of the key findings of your manuscript highlighting all of the three aspects: the evidence before your study with the focus on the added value of this study, and the implications of all the available evidence.  Limit this section to 100-120 words, no subheadings and no references.

A structured abstract for all original articles and systematic reviews:

The abstract is of high importance to Scandinavian Journal of Surgery. Authors are therefore encouraged to provide a concise abstract reporting the relevant information.

Max 300 words with the following headings

• Background and Aims
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions

Provide clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract, if applicable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. Scandinavian Journal of Surgery expects that clinical trials are registered in one of the recognized clinical trial registries at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. All manuscripts on clinical trials not confirming to these instructions will be returned to the authors for inclusion of the clinical trial registration information before proceeding to peer-review. The trial study protocol will be required as online only supplementary material for clinical trials, if the manuscript is accepted.

Title page:

1) Title of article: Short, specific, and informative. Please limit the length of titles to 150 characters for reports of research and reviews and 150 characters for Research letters and letters. For reports of clinical trials, cohort studies, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews, include the type of study in the title according to the appropriate guidelines. The editorial team has a strong focus on a short and concise title.

2) Short descriptive running head based on the title of the article (max 70 characters with spaces).

3) The full names, highest academic degrees, and affiliations of all authors.

5) Name and complete contact information for corresponding author.

6) Manuscript word count (not including title, abstract, acknowledgments, references, tables and figures legends).

7) Twitter handles and summary: We encourage to submit the Twitter handle of both the corresponding author and all other authors with a Twitter account. Regardless of the available Twitter handles, authors are required to provide a 200 character summary for the study to be used in Twitter, if your manuscript is accepted. The Scandinavian Journal of Surgery reserves the right to edit the summary prior to using it for promoting your article on Twitter.

After the title page, please provide the “Context and Relevance” (for original articles and reviews) before the structured abstract. The main text should be organised in the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References followed by Acknowledgements, Authors contributions, Declaration of conflict of interest, Funding statement and Figure Legends.

3.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

3.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

Independent reviews are obtained for each suitable submission. We use a single-blind reviewing process in which reviewers’ identities are concealed. Our reviewers are encouraged to provide substantive, constructive reviews that provide suggestions for improving the work. The editors do not perform linguistic revisions and submitted articles that do not comply with the submission guidelines, or are not written in good Standard American English, will be returned to the authors before initiating the review process. Articles that are clearly outside of the scope of the journal or otherwise considered unsuitable by the editors will be immediately rejected and authors will be notified as soon as the decision is made.

As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:

o    The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
o    The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
o    Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Scandinavian Journal of Surgery can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

1. Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
2. Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
3. Approved the version to be published,
4. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship. In case of authors not meeting the ICMJE authorship criteria, collaborative authorships are accepted at Scandinavian Journal of Surgery.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

         Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

4.4 Funding

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Scandinavian Journal of Surgery to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

4.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

4.7 Clinical trials

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery expects that clinical trials are registered in one of the recognized clinical trial registries at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. In general, all publications should follow publications guidelines available at the Equator website (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/).

4.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study:

• All randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file.
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file.
• Observational studies should include the completed STROBE checklist.
•  The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives

4.9 Data

At Sage we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Where relevant, Scandinavian Journal of Surgery encourages authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository subject to ethical considerations and where data is included, to add a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file. Authors should also follow data citation principles. For more information, please visit the Sage Author Gateway, which includes information about Sage’s partnership with the data repository Figshare. 

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles if the articles are accepted to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editor may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The editor can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office.

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5. Publishing Policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

5.3 Open access and author archiving

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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6. Preparing your manuscript for submission

6.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article. 

6.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

6.4 Reference style

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery adheres to the Vancouver reference style.

The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the authors. Limit citations to those that are pertinent and essential to your study. References should be numbered in order of appearance in the text using numbers in carved parentheses placed on the writing line.

View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file.

The following example illustrates the form to be used:

1. Impact of screening on short-term mortality and morbidity following treatment for colorectal cancer. Wilhelmsen M, Njor SH, Roikjær O, Rasmussen M, Gögenur I. Scand J Surg. 2021 Dec;110:465-471.

Other example references:

Book chapter:
Philip Sandblom: Relationship between illness and creativity. In: Philip Sandblom. Creativity and Disease. How Illness Affects Literature, Art and Music. Bohusläningens Boktryckeri AB, Uddevalla, 1991: 15–33

Entire book:
A. Hirshberg, K. Mattox. Top Knife. The Art and Craft of Trauma Surgery. tfm Publishing Ldt, Harley, 2005

Online journal:
Boone J, Livestro DP, Elias SG, Borel Rinkes IH, van Hillegersberg R. International survey on esophageal cancer: part I surgical techniques. Dis Esophagus 2009 Jan 23. [Epub ahead of print]
http://www.sciencegateway.org/rank/index.html [date accessed}

6.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information. 

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7. Submitting your manuscript

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sjos to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

All papers must be submitted via the online system. If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please refer to the contact details below.

7.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognised. 

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

7.4 Revisions

Any revised submission of an article should be in accordance with the suggestions of the editor and reviewers. A revised submission is done using the “track changes” function in Word, and the submission should include both a document including the tracked changes as well as “clean version”.

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8. On acceptance and publication

8.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

8.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

8.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

8.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

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9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Scandinavian Journal of Surgery editorial office as follows:

sjs@sagepub.com

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