Instructions for Authors

China Journal of General Surgery (CJGS) is a peer-reviewed journal that considers publication articles in general surgery. Manuscripts must be prepared following the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (N Engl J Med 1991; 324:424-428). Manuscripts submitted must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

All authors must have materially participated in the research and/or article preparation. The Journal's policy is that each manuscript must be accompanied by an authorship contribution form. This will identify each author's substantive intellectual contribution to the manuscript. Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission.

Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://www.zpwz.net with a cover letter in which the corresponding author’s address, telephone number, mobile phone, and e-mail address are included. New authors will have to register. Once registered, the same login area can be utilized for multiple submissions.

The CJGS publishes six types of manuscripts: (1) original articles, (2) review articles, (3) systematic reviews (Meta-analysis), (4) brief reports, (5) clinical practice guidelines, and (6) invited commentary. Except for the brief reports, all types of manuscripts are not limited in length, but the authors are encouraged to write succinctly and avoid repetitions, jargon, neologisms, and abbreviations.

Original articles are full-length reports of original research, either clinical or basic science. They should contain a structured abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgment (if applicable), conflict of interest, and references. Submissions reporting an observational cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional study must include the completed STROBE Checklist. Additional information can be found on the STROBE website. Randomized clinical trials must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the CONSORT and investigators must include a completed CONSORT checklist and flow diagram in their submission. Randomized clinical trials should be identified in both the title and the abstract.

Each issue of the CJGS may contain one or more review articles. Review articles undergo the same peer-review and editorial process as original articles. The abstract for reviews should be unstructured. The review should include a broad update of recent developments (from the past 3-5 years) and their likely public health relevance. Reviews should stimulate thinking and further reading, indicating other sources of information, including web-based information. There is no designated structure for the body of review articles.

Systematic reviews (Meta-analysis) of RCTs or observational studies will be accepted by CJGS and should conform to the normal manuscript format of the original articles, including a structured abstract. The study protocol should adhere to PRISMA or MOOSE guidelines for systematic reviews of RCTs or observational studies, respectively.

Brief reports should contain a structured abstract, 3-6 keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgment (if applicable), conflict of interest, and references. The word count should not exceed 3000 words, excluding the references.

Clinical practice guidelines include recommendations intended to optimize patient care that are informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options. The CJGS cannot consider any clinical practice guidelines published previously in full or in part, online or in print.

Case reports that show originality or have educational implications for diagnosis and treatment are welcomed. Authors should be aware that the Journal publishes only a few case reports per issue.

The editors may request an invited commentary, usually from one of the reviewers, which will accompany a highlighted original article.

Manuscripts in general, should be organized in the following order:

• Title (should be clear, descriptive, and not too long)
• Name(s) of author(s)
• Complete postal address of affiliations
• Full telephone and email address of the corresponding author
• Complete correspondence address and email address to which the proofs should be sent
• Abstract, structured as Background and Aims, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.
• Keywords (indexing terms), a list of 3-5 keywords must be provided with every article
• Introduction
• Material studied, area descriptions, methods, techniques
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Conflict of interest statement, acknowledgment of the contributor (s) that do not meet the criteria for authorship, and/or role of the funding source in the study.
• References (Vancouver style)
• Tables and Figures

All manuscripts received towards CJGS are scanned for plagiarism. If potential plagiarism is detected, authors will be contacted for clarification. The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, it is necessary to indicate the source of the information within your paper using an internal citation.

Only manuscripts of high relevance and suitability will enter into the peer review process, which includes at least three experts in the field, to ensure that all published manuscripts provide new scientific knowledge. We adopt the double-blind principle when the manuscripts enter the peer review process. Authors may suggest that a peer reviewer or a specific individual not be involved in the review process, but the editorial board retains the final decision to choose a peer reviewer.

All revised submissions must include the following: (1) a full response to all of the reviewers’ comments; (2) a copy of the revised manuscript with all changes tracked throughout the text; (3) a clean copy of the revised manuscript.

The copyright of articles published in CJGS is transferred from all authors to the CJGS publisher. Authors must submit a signed copyright transfer form at the time of acceptance. The form can be printed from the official website of the CJCS (http://www.zpwz.net). The signed CTF must be sent by post or faxed to the editorial office (FAX: +86-073184327400).

Proofs are mailed electronically after formally accepting the article and must be returned within three business days of receipt. Late return of proofs will cause considerable delay in the article's publication. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure all information given is accurate.

After the manuscript is accepted, the authors will be required to pay the APC according to the notification amount (1000 RMB/page and 300 RMB/piece for image production; guidelines, expert consensus, and invited review are exempted from the APC), which can be paid by the author's fund, scientific research fee, or other expenses. After the publication of the manuscript, the author will be remunerated per the relevant national regulations (including the remuneration for other publications contracted with the journal), and two copies of the journal's current issue will be given.

If the author requests to withdraw the manuscript for any reason, the editorial department will handle the manuscript according to the following rules:

• When the paper has been assembled, the editorial department decides whether to withdraw the manuscript according to the assembly situation. If the withdrawal is approved, 50-60% of the paper processing fee will be deducted according to the manuscript typesetting and editing progress. If an invoice for a paper processing fee is issued, the author shall return the invoice.
• When the publication plan has been determined, and the layout cannot be coordinated, the manuscript will not be withdrawn. Therefore, the author shall bear the responsibility for multiple publications of one manuscript.

For the published manuscripts, the reviewers and the editorial department have done a lot of work and have been published in more than 20 databases at home and abroad. The cancellation of manuscripts will hurt the magazine, the author, and their units. If the manuscript must be withdrawn due to major problems in the author's writing, the editorial department shall decide after discussion whether the reasons for withdrawal are sufficient.

For the manuscript that the editorial department agrees to withdraw, the author needs to complete the following procedures:

• The author wrote a withdrawal statement and issued it in recent journals.
• The withdrawal consent signed by all authors shall be sent to our journal.
• The informed consent sealed by the scientific research office of the first author unit shall be sent to our journal.
• The journal will no longer receive manuscripts signed by the first author within three years (it depends on the author's unit and cannot be generalized)
• The author shall not ask for a refund of the APC in addition to the withdrawal fee of 500-yuan Charge.

After the author completes the above procedures, the editorial department sends a withdrawal letter to databases at home and abroad. Suppose the withdrawal of some databases is not implemented. In that case, the author's contribution to other journals in the future will be regarded as academic misconduct, and the author shall be responsible for it. This journal assumes no responsibility.