The American Surgeon™
General Surgery
The American Surgeon is a monthly peer-reviewed publication published by the Southeastern Surgical Congress. Its area of concentration is clinical general surgery, as defined by the content areas of the American Board of Surgery: alimentary tract (including bariatric surgery), abdomen and its contents, breast, skin and soft tissue, endocrine system, solid organ transplantation, pediatric surgery, surgical critical care, surgical oncology (including head and neck surgery), trauma and emergency surgery, and vascular surgery.
| Don K. Nakayama, MD, MBA | Chapel Hill, NC |
| Jessica Roseberry Edelen, MPA | Louisville, KY |
| Karen Woo, MD, PhD | Los Angeles, CA, USA |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: The American Surgeon
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 American Surgeon’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/americansurgeon to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.
Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of The American Surgeon will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
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, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in The American Surgeon and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that The American Surgeon will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in The American Surgeon. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to The American Surgeon's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.6 English language editing services
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
6. On acceptance and publication
6.3 Access to your published article
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
What do we publish?
Before submitting your manuscript to The American Surgeon, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope https://journals.sagepub.com/aims-scope/ASU.
The American Surgeon is a monthly peer-reviewed publication published by the Southeastern Surgical Congress. Its area of concentration is clinical general surgery, as defined by the content areas of the American Board of Surgery: alimentary tract (including bariatric surgery), abdomen and its contents, breast, skin and soft tissue, endocrine system, solid organ transplantation, pediatric surgery, surgical critical care, surgical oncology (including head and neck surgery), trauma and emergency surgery, and vascular surgery.
Technical articles on the performance of core operations of general surgery are encouraged, especially those that include video content.
Basic science articles are normally not considered, but general articles on epidemiology, anatomy, physiology, clinical presentation, and pathology (including neoplasia) of surgical conditions will be considered if they are relevant to the clinical practice of surgery.
It also publishes articles on surgical education, health policy, access to care, advocacy, ethics, global surgery, and surgical history. Poems, personal essays, and remembrances will be considered, with approval if they have general interest or particular insight into the practice of surgery.
Contributions by residents in training and medical students are encouraged. Co-authorship by a senior surgeon is expected.
American English spelling and grammar are used. Contributors from foreign nations may consider using an English editing service, such as that offered through the Sage Author Services website.
A copyright release form that is signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all contributors is required before a manuscript can be published.
Surgical Reflections: The journal welcomes poems, artwork with accompanying explanatory text, essays on surgical history, and personal experiences relevant to surgery and the practice of surgery. Accepted work must be well-written, focused on a specific theme, and reveal a unique perspective on the field and those who practice surgery.
Manuscripts, figures, and tables follow the formatting requirements of the journal. Essays should be 1,500 words or less in length, and no longer than 2,000. An unstructured abstract of fewer than 250 words is required. The number of figures and tables is limited to a total of four.
Specific instructions
All submissions must be sent online through The American Surgeon SageTrack site (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/americansurgeon). Registration as an author is required to use the system.
Use 12-point standard font (Cambria, Times, Calibri). Justify left margin only. Indent each paragraph one-half inch. Double-space using 1" margins. Number pages beginning with the Abstract page. Send submissions in Microsoft Word format. Do not send pdf versions. Do not embed figures and tables in the body of the text; send them as separate files as noted below.
Follow the American Medical Association (AMA) style guidelines for style, usage, and references. Dorland's Medical Dictionary and Webster's International Dictionary are standard references for spelling and definitions.
Scientific names for drugs, equipment, and devices must be used, followed by (in parentheses) its copyright or trade name and the name of the manufacturer; as, ketorolac (Toradol, Hospira); plastic adherent drapes (Ioban, 3M).
First use of terms that are later abbreviated must be first spelled out, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses; as, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), alanine aminotransferase (ALT). The AMA Manual of Style has a list of accepted standard abbreviations of selected terms that are more known by their abbreviations (e.g., AIDS, ARDS).
Title page
Submit the title page as a separate file. Please order the files so that the title page precedes the manuscript file. Please provide the first name, middle initial, and full last name of all authors. Note the highest academic titles received for each; as, MD; PhD; BSN. Do not use FACS or honorary degrees. For each coauthor give the academic affiliation with city and state; as, Department of Surgery, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA. If the authors are from different institutions use superscript numbers to indicate the affiliation for each.
Add contact information on separate lines: mailing address and email.
Add word count of the body of the manuscript (excluding title page, abstract, references, legends, and tables).
Abstract
Enter the abstract into the SageTrack site. There is a limitation of 250 words. For clinical and scientific studies use a structured format with the following headings: Background, methods, results, and discussion.
Submit an unstructured 150-word abstract for brief reports, reviews, and articles that do not fall into the traditional structured format. Please notify the editor if an abstract is not appropriate to the piece (such as a personal essay, poem, etc.) and make a brief notation in the Editorial Manager system within brackets; as, [no abstract].
Highly recommended to increase the reach of your article, please submit an optional visual abstract using the following template.
Key Take-Aways
Provide two or three bulleted points, each one sentence long, to give the reader the key finding and main conclusion from your paper. The Key Take-Aways section must be on a separate page that follows the abstract and precedes the body of the manuscript. This is intentionally brief and is not considered a substitute for the abstract or the main body of the paper. Key Take-Aways are for original communications only and not for brief reports, reviews, history, surgical reflections, or editorials.
Manuscript
Scientific contributions. For scientific contributions the manuscript file should have the entire file in the following order, each starting with a new page: title page, abstract, key take-aways, body of the text, references, tables, and legends for figures. The body of the text should be fewer than 2,500 words. The text should be divided into sections identified by titles in bold type: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. A separate conclusion section is not necessary.
Introduction. This section should be at most one to one-and-a-half pages. It begins with brief description of the clinical problem being discussed, followed by a summary of relevant studies in the recent literature. A sentence or two summarize the specific question being addressed by the study, followed by the essential findings.
Methods. Methods must begin with a statement of Institutional Review Board review and approval, with the home institution where approval was granted. Description of demographic characteristics of study groups must include a summary of all indices evaluated. This should be in the body of the text and not presented as a table.
The last paragraph must include the statistical indices (mean, median, SEM, CI, etc.) the statistical tests (Student t, Chi-square, etc.) and the statistic software used, along with the brand name, version, and vendor; as (SAS Access Version 9.4, SAS).
Results. The first paragraph must describe the comparability of study groups along with statistical similarities and differences with relevant P values. Rather than a stand-alone table, describe the study groups in the text along with descriptive statistics (eg, mean ± SEM). State that all indices are statistically the same except the specific areas where they differ.
Data presented as graphs and figures are preferred to tables. Call-outs for figures should be placed in the section of text where it is most appropriate. Legends for figures and tables themselves are in separate sections at the end of the text. Please double check before submission that each figure and table is cited in the body of the manuscript.
Discussion. A brief summary of significant findings should begin the discussion, in the context of the original research question. The rest of the discussion should summarize how the paper adds to the understanding of the clinical problem being addressed as stated in the introduction. There should be a statement on the limitations of the research conducted in the paper. A short conclusion on further areas of research closes the discussion. This should be no more than four pages in length, preferably three.
Nonscientific contributions. For nonscientific contributions, the traditional structure described above (introduction, methods, results, discussion) does not apply but an abstract is still required. Avoid restating the abstract in the first paragraphs of the article. Use subheadings at appropriate intervals to break up the text.
Acknowledgements
It is appropriate to add a short statement of thanks to others who contributed to the research but who were not coauthors.
Figures
Figures are loaded into SageTrack as separate individual files. Color images will be converted to black and white for print, though the author may pay an additional fee for color printing. Avoid composite images (i.e., multiple images combined in a single figure).
Send each figure electronically using standard image formats (jpg, tiff, pdf) with sufficient dpi for reproduction (at least 300 dpi for photographs, 600 dpi for line art). Send each figure as a separate file, clearly identified in its label by number in the manuscript. Provide documentation of copyright release of copyrighted images. List figure legends in numerical order (1, 2, 3…) in a section that begins on a separate page after the body of the main text.
Figures must be in vector mode (editable format) or raster mode above 300 dpi.
Tables
Tables follow the figure legend page. They must be submitted as a Word document so they can be edited. Do not send tables as images.
Each table must be on a separate page. Tables shall be numbered in the order it appears in the text. Place the title of the table on a line positioned above the table itself. Beneath the table include a legend that includes expansions of all abbreviations used in the table.
References
Please limit references to twenty (20).
Format references according to American Medical Association (AMA) style. Each reference should be cited in the text, tables, or figures in consecutive numerical order by means of superscript Arabic numerals.
Include surnames and unpunctuated initials of authors in references. List up to six authors. If there are more than six authors, list the first three followed by “et al.” Use standard abbreviations for journal names. Do not use periods or commas in the names of the authors. Use a period at the end of journal abbreviations, not within the abbreviation itself; as, Am Surg. for The American Surgeon, N Engl J Med. for the New England Journal of Medicine.
For journals: authors, article title (sentence case), journal abbreviation, year, volume number, issue number, page range.
Example: Lauerman MH, Herrera AV, Albrecht JS, et al. Interhospital transfers with wide variability in emergency general surgery. Am Surg. 2019;85(6):595-600.
For books: Authors, chapter title, editors, book title, edition (if more than one), publisher, year of publication. Add page number(s) after year to direct readers to a specific section.
Example: Chandler NM, Colombani PM. The esophagus. In Holcomb GW III, Murphy JP, Ostlie DJ, eds. Ashcraft’s Pediatric Surgery. 6th ed. Saunders; 2014: 351-64.
Brief Reports
Instructions for authors – Original communications
General
The American Surgeon welcomes brief reports in clinical general surgery in two broad categories: First, clinical studies that involve small groups of patients and come to one major conclusion. Second, case reports that are illustrative of the biology of a surgical condition or provide clinical insight into the treatment of a difficult surgical problem. See “instructions for authors” for original contributions for the scope of topics covered by The American Surgeon.
Acceptance depends on the potential of the communication to be of interest to the readership of The American Surgeon. Unusual locations of metastatic cancer and late or neglected complications of surgical conditions generally are not accepted as subjects of case reports.
Specific instructions
Brief reports have the same instructions for authors as those listed for original communications with the following specific instructions.
When submitting the paper, choose "Brief Report" as the Article Type.
Do not include the phrase “case report” in the title.
The abstract of a brief report is on a separate page from the main text. It is limited to 150 words and is unstructured. It starts with a statement of the background of the study or case report, includes a brief precis of the methods and results, and ends with a conclusion.
The main text does not have subheadings in the body of the text (e.g., the traditional divisions of introduction-materials and methods-results-background). The total length of the manuscript is limited to four double-spaced pages of 12-point type. There is a limit of four references (see “instructions for authors” for original contributions for reference style).
Brief reports are limited to two figures or one table.
Reviews
The American Surgeon encourages the submission of literature reviews of the current controversies in the content areas of clinical general surgery. Authors are encouraged to contact a member of the editorial board to confirm that the topic is current and relevant to readership of The American Surgeon. See the general instructions for authors of original communications for a list of content areas of general surgery and other subjects of interest.
An unstructured abstract of 250 words is required.
The manuscript should be 4,000 words or less and have a limit of 80 references. A brief historical perspective is encouraged, but major articles cited should have a publication date within the past 10 years, and preferably 5 years.
Pro-con and symposiums
The American Surgeon encourages the submission of paired pro-con articles and symposiums of three or more original communications and literature reviews that cover different aspects of a condition or topic in the content areas of clinical general surgery. Authors are encouraged to contact a member of the editorial board to confirm that the topic of the symposium is current and relevant to readership of The American Surgeon.
Identify a single coordinator to collect all manuscripts before their submission as a single collection submitted as individual contributions through the online author gateway. Participants are responsible for alerting the editor through the cover letter that the submission is part of a paired pro-con article or symposium.
All contributions follow the instructions for authors for original contributions and reviews, including the requirement for an abstract and word limitations.
Letters to the Editor
A letter to the editor format is for communications that reference a previously published article and for those that express an opinion about the journal or some topic of interest to surgeons.
The title of the letter to the editor must include the title of the original article and use the following format: “Letter re: “(full title of the article)”, with the title enclosed in double quotation marks as shown (and without the parentheses).
The submission is limited to two standard pages (8-1/2 x 11 inches, one-inch margins), double-spaced, 12-point standard font size, four references, without figures or tables, and without subheadings. The first reference must be the article to which the letter is responding.
The letter must respond to the validity of the data in the article and its conclusions. It must extend or refute its assertions. Alternative hypotheses may be briefly offered, but extensive presentations belong in a separate independent article.
The letter is shared with the original author, who on occasion may be invited to respond to controversial statements. Responses to letters to the editor follow the same format listed above. The title of responses to a letter of the editor must use the following format: “Response to letter to the editor re: “(full title of the article)”.
Video submissions
Video submissions are encouraged. Use the brief report format for the manuscript, with a 150-word unstructured abstract, four 8-1/2 by 11 inch 12-point font (Times or equivalent) full double space format for the body of the manuscript without subheadings (e.g., introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion). Describe what is shown in the video in sufficient detail that the reader understands the steps of the procedure shown in the video.
Video clips that contribute significantly to the manuscript may be submitted in either avi, mov, or mpeg formats. Videos should be submitted at the desired reproduction size and length but should not exceed 10MB in size. If submitting avi files, the files must be compressed. Authors are solely responsible for all editing of video clips.
As there are restrictions to the video file size, we recommend compressing the file and uploading it to the ASU Sage Track platform. The manuscript review system ScholarOne has a file size limit of 350MB for video files. If the video you wish to submit for review is larger than this, please follow these instructions on compressing the video file to fit within this limitation.
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.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Editorial policies
The editorial board and the panel of reviewers are comprised of experts in the content areas covered by the journal. The goal is efficient review of articles with a decision on acceptance, rejection, or request for revision within 15 days of receipt of the original manuscript.
Acceptance of a manuscript is based on the following factors:
- Documentation of approval of the study by an Institutional Review Board or its equivalent in the country from which the study is conducted.
- Appropriate statistical validation.
- Conclusions supported by the facts presented in the study.
- Readability and use of clear, concise American English grammar.
- Figures and tables that are relevant to the study and its discussion.
- Findings that are novel and advance the field.
- Studies that establish standards of care and document techniques and procedures that improve patient care.
- Observations that provide insight into human surgical pathology and the clinical practice of surgery.
Submissions that do not reach the standards for acceptance listed above are rejected. Some may be rejected without the involvement of the editorial board. Submissions with a clear misuse of the English language will be returned for revision by an English editing service before resubmisson as a new article.
As standard practice, Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested reviewers.
The American Surgeon 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 The American Surgeon 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 American Surgeon. 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.
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:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- 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.
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.
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.
2.3.1 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.
2.3.2 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.
The American Surgeon 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.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of The American Surgeon 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.
2.6 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 do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The American Surgeon requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.
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 American Surgeon endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, 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. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline. If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Publishing Policies
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.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
The American Surgeon 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 American Surgeon against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized 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.
3.1.2 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.
3.2 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.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
The American Surgeon offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. 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.
Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word.
4.2 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.
Where a journal uses double-anonymize peer review, authors are required to submit:
- A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymised. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
- A separate title page which includes any removed or anonymised material. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.
See https://sagepub.com/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-anonymize-journal for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
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 supplemental files.
The American Surgeon adheres to the AMA Manual of Style. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.
4.6 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit The American Surgeon’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Submitting your manuscript
The American Surgeon is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/americansurgeon 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 American Surgeon 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.\
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 recognized.
We encourage all authors and co-authors to link their ORCIDs 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. We collect ORCID IDs during the manuscript submission process and your ORCID ID then becomes 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.
5.2 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. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. 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).
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.
On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us 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.
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.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final 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.
Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the The American Surgeon editorial office as follows:
Jessica Edelen, managing editor, The American Surgeon, by email: amsurg@sesc.org.
7.1 Appealing the publication decision
Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.
If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com