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Failure to submit a paper in accordance with these instructions may result in a delay in processing of a manuscript and its subsequent publication. The Editorial Board does not necessarily agree with the views expressed in articles published in The Surgeon.
Authors submitting manuscripts do not have to be Fellows of either College and The Surgeon welcomes submissions from authors of diverse clinical and scientific interests and expertise, provided the article has relevance (current or projected) to the science and practice of surgery, in its widest sense.
A manuscript is reviewed for publication in The Surgeon, Journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland on the understanding that it has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal, has not been accepted for publication elsewhere, and has not already been published. On acceptance a manuscript becomes the copyright of The Surgeon. Manuscripts are subject to peer review but the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to make the final decision regarding publication and to make literary amendments were considered necessary.
The Surgeon accepts the criteria for authors proposed in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 1994; 308:39-42). A covering letter signed by all authors must accompany submissions, stating that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript and are fully conversant with its contents. Authors must disclose in the covering letter any potential or actual personal, financial or political interest they may have in the material. It should be disclosed if an abstract of the work has previously been published or if any papers using the same data set or relating to the same topic have been published or submitted by any of the authors for consideration elsewhere. Results of multi-centre studies should be reported under the name of the organising study group.The Surgeon has agreed to use the 1997 ICMJE Uniform Requirements (Vancouver Guidelines) for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. A copy of the Guidelines can be accessed from
http://www.windsor.igs.net/~nhodgins/uniform_requirements.html, or the Publications Department will supply a copy on receipt of a stamped addressed envelope. We aim to reach a decision on submitted articles within eight weeks. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned.
All manuscripts must be supplied as follows:
The Surgeon requires articles to be provided on disk, plus three copies of the manuscript as follows: text should be in 12pt font size, double spaced, and the hard copies supplied on A4 paper
Please ensure that the disks are made after any final corrections. Label your disks clearly. Text must be in PC compatible for, preferably in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. Please provide details of the software used and the name and content of all files.
Tables, references and legends should be at the end of the text file both on disk and in the manuscript.
Illustrations and equations should be in separate files on the disk and appear in the manuscript. Please submit all photographs in colour whenever possible.
If submitting artwork in electronic files please provide standard TIFF or EPS formats. Photographic images must be submitted in non-compressed files with 300-dpi resolution. Place each illustration in a separate file. Three high-quality copies of any artwork must still be supplied.
Authors are encouraged to submit multimedia material for inclusion in the electronic format of the Journal. Please provide a floppy disk or CD ROM. Include moving images, sound and hypertext links where appropriate.
Manuscripts
The Surgeon requires articles to be provided on disk as described above. Each of the following sections should begin on a new page:
Title page
Abstract
Text
Acknowledgement(s)
References
Tables
Legends for illustrations
Title page
The title page should give the following information:
Title of the article
Names and initials of each author
Department and institution to which the work should be attributed
Name, address, telephone and fax number, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence
Sources of financial support
Category in which the article is being submitted (case report, original article etc.)
Keywords
And a short title
Words appearing as Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in the supplement to the Index Medicus may be used as key words.
Abstract
The second page of the manuscript should carry an abstract of no more than 250 words. It should include the four following sections:
The background and purpose of the study
Methods used, including a description of the subjects, research materials, and analytical methodology
The main findings, with specific data and their statistical significance wherever possible
Conclusions.
Text
A suggested outline would be
Introduction
Methods and materials
Results
Discussion, which should be concise and not digress from the direct results
Conclusion.
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) should be clearly identified as such. Text should be gender-neutral. Patient confidentiality must be maintained in articles and illustrations unless specific written consent has been provided and can be copied to the Journal. Papers reporting studies that relate to human investigation (e.g. controlled trials) or animal experimentation are published only if the design of the work has been approved by local/ hospital and/or national ethics committees. Research on humans must conform to the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki (see BMJ 1964; 2057: 177).
Tables and illustrations
Three copies of all illustrations and tables must be submitted. Ensure that all units of measurement are included and that all tables are cited in the text. If a table or illustration has been reproduced from a published work the source thereof must be given in full, written permission having been granted by the author and by the publisher. Figures should be submitted in the form of glossy prints. Each illustration should have a label pasted on the reverse side giving its reference number in the text.
References
Where relevant, authors must supply the complete URL for each reference as cited on MedLine.
All types of articles, except review articles, should have a maximum of 20 references.
The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author and articles found to contain inaccuracies in references will be returned. Authors must not cite references to works they have not read without explicitly stating that their information derives from a secondary source. Authors must also ensure that the material is quoted with the approval of the originator. References, numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text, should be listed on a separate page. Journal abbreviations should be as listed in Index Medicus.
References to journals should give:
name(s) of author(s)
title of paper
title of journal
date
volume number
page numbers
For example:
Soter NA, Wasserman SI, Austen KF. Cold urticaria: release into the circulation of histamine and eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis during cold challenge. N Engl J Med 1976; 78: 687-90
References to books/monographs should give:
name(s) of author(s)
chapter title
editors
title of book
place of publication
publisher's name
date
page numbers
For example:
Rhodes AJ, Van Rooyen CE. Textbook of Virology; for Students and Practitioners of Medicine and the other Health Sciences 5th edn. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1968: 125-40
Reference to unpublished material is not recommended.
Statistics and units of measurement
Decimal points, not commas, should be used. All measurements should be expressed in SI (Syst¨¨me Internationale) units. Numerical data should be analysed by appropriate statistical methods and these should be stated clearly in the methodology section of the text. Authors are required to ensure the validity of any statistical data presented as a significant component of a submitted article. The Surgeon encourages authors to use Br J Surg 1991; 78 : 782-4 for guidance on the presentation of statistics.
Reviews
The Surgeon usually solicits reviews relating to the scientific basis and clinical practice of surgery in general, as well as sub-speciality areas of surgery. The Editorial Board, however, will consider unsolicited articles, and will publish these after the appropriate refereeing process, provided they are an up-to-date, critical, comprehensive and well-referenced review. Reviews with a strong educational emphasis are encouraged.
Case reports
It is the policy of The Surgeon to be very selective in the acceptance of case reports and clinical notes, although the Editor-in-Chief welcomes the submission of these on topics of significant clinical relevance, important educational content and interest to journal readers. The Editorial Board reserves the right to publish on-line any case report not published within 12 months of acceptance. These articles should consist of: (1) an abstract; (2) key words; (3) an introduction; (4) the main body of the text and discussion; and (5) a conclusion.
Surgeon-in-Training papers
Surgeons-in-Training articles should be tightly produced and statistically robust. There can be no more than three authors, only one of whom may not be a surgeon in training. A manuscript must be no more than five A4 sides long, including artwork and tables.
A manuscript should include:
an abstract that states the objective of the study and the methodology
a short introduction including up to four key references
a description of the design of the study including a specific paragraph detailing statistical handling
the main outcome tools
the results
discussion and conclusions.
For further details see the Surgeons-in-Training page.
Matters for debate
In order to provide a forum for discussion, The Surgeon encourages submission and commissions articles regarding issues of general interest and concern to surgeons across the specialties. Previous articles have included the drawbacks of overspecialisation, the role of nurses in surgery, and the changing role of anatomy in surgical training. Connected with this will be the development as part of the electronic Journal of discussion groups, open to Fellows.
"How I do it"
In the "How I do it" article, a leading surgeon describes in detail how a specific procedure is
performed. Authors to date have included Sir Alfred Cuschieri, Professor Robert Steele, Mr Alastair Munro, Mr Leslie Moffat, Mr Colin Fergusson and Mr Alastair Thompson.
Surgical technique
Articles on new surgical techniques and developments in existing techniques
are a regular feature of The Surgeon and it is planned to publish at least
one such paper each issue.
General articles
The Surgeon is aware of the need to encourage general article submissions from a wider range of specialties so that the Journal is of value and interest to its whole Fellowship. The Editorial Board commission high quality articles from experts in their field, and encourages submissions from the surgical profession throughout the world.
Book reviews and correspondence
Letters to the Editor appear in every issue and it is hoped that the "Matters for Debate" section and on-line discussion forum will encourage a livelier and more informative correspondence.
A disk containing the manuscript plus three copies of the manuscript and three copies of all artwork as set out above, should be submitted to:
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Address |
Miss Z. Meredew
The Surgeon
Journal of the Royal Colleges Edinburgh & Ireland
Publications Department
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Nicolson Street
Edinburgh
EH8 9DW |
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E-mail |
z.meredew@rcsed.ac.uk |
Failure to submit a manuscript in accordance with these instructions will result in a delay in processing of a manuscript and its subsequent publication. | 
