General Considerations
ACS Case Reviews in Surgery will publish educational materials in various surgical specialties. To be eligible for peer review, all submissions must meet at least one of the following requirements:
- Describes a topic of interest or important education value to practicing surgeons
- Describes experiences that may not be routinely seen or that were uniquely treated
- Involves patients with common surgical problems where the clinical presentation and/or challenges of management produced knowledge and insights that have significant educational value
Submissions will be reviewed with the understanding that they have not been published by and are not under consideration at any other publication venue. Additionally, all submissions must strictly adhere to the ACS Case Reviews Author Instructions, SCARE Guidelines, and all legal and ethical considerations as noted below in this instructions document.
Submitting Manuscripts
- Review the ACS Case Reviews Author Instructions and the SCARE Guidelines.
- Ensure that the submission fully satisfies all requirements.
- Submit online
Please note: Medical students and residents are encouraged to submit to ACS Case Reviews; however, to do so, a practicing surgeon or attending surgeon must be included as one of the authors.
Upon completion of the peer-review process and the decision to accept the manuscript for publication, a non-negotiable publication processing fee of $1250 must be paid in full prior to publication.
Case Report Requirements
ACS Case Reviews in Surgery publishes case reports in various surgical specialties. All case reports must meet at least one of following requirements:
- Focus on a topic of interest and especially educational value to practicing surgeons
- Describe experiences that may not be routinely seen or that were treated in a unique way.
- Involve patients with common surgical problems where the clinical presentation and/or challenges of management produced knowledge and insights that have substantial educational value
Only original, previously unpublished case report manuscripts should be submitted. All submissions will be reviewed with the understanding that the submitted work has not been published by and is not currently under publication consideration at any other journal, website, or any other content platforms. Additionally, all manuscripts will be peer-reviewed.
Authors are encouraged to review the author instructions in their entirety as well as the published articles that appear on the ACS Case Reviews in Surgery Issue Page.
Submitted case reports should be approximately 1,000 words (excluding the reference list). All manuscript formatting requirements must be strictly followed, and all designated manuscript sections must be included. Failure to strictly follow the author instructions may result in the immediate rejection of the paper.
Medical students and residents are encouraged to submit to ACS Case Reviews in Surgery; however, to do so, a practicing surgeon/attending surgeon must be included as one of the authors.
Please note: On receiving a written acceptance for publication notification via e-mail, the corresponding author will be required to pay a nonnegotiable $1,250 publication fee; to complete this process, an ACS username and password are required.
If you have any questions, please contact the ACS Case Reviews in Surgery editorial team at casereviews@facs.org.
How to Submit
After ensuring that the manuscript adheres to all stated requirements, submit online.
Editors of ACS Case Reviews in Surgery will review each submission and decide if it is appropriate for publication in this journal. All case reports will be checked for plagiarism. If accepted for peer evaluation, any recommended edits will be sent to the authors, along with a request for changes. Once the paper is accepted for publication, the case report will be considered the property of the American College of Surgeons, subject to all applicable copyright laws, and not publishable again in any form.
SCARE Checklist
The Surgical Case Report (SCARE) checklist is structured to correspond with key components of a case report and capture useful clinical information (including "meaningful use" information mandated by some insurance plans).
Although case reports are popular and are frequently published, there are minimal instructions on the most essential elements to be reported for publication. According to reported evidence, incomplete description of methodologies and clinical details can lead to incomplete understanding and erroneous conclusions. To further help create a foundation for the more effective reporting of surgical case studies, the SCARE Checklist was developed through a Delphi consensus exercise, published in 2016, and updated in 2020 (Agha RA, Franchi T, Sohrabi C, Mathew G, Kerwan A; SCARE Group. The SCARE 2020 Guideline: Updating Consensus Surgical CAse REport (SCARE) Guidelines. Int J Surg. 2020 Dec;84:226-230. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.10.034. Epub 2020 Nov 9. PMID: 33181358.).
The ACSCRS editorial team requires all authors to review the below checklists prior to creating their case reports and to attest that all guidelines have been entirely fulfilled. Failure to do so will result in the immediate rejection of the submission.
Corresponding Author
Clearly indicate the author designated to handle all correspondence at all stages of review. Only one author is allowed to be designated as the corresponding author, with the following contact details provided:
- Complete postal address
- Valid e-mail address
- Valid phone number (with country and area code)
The corresponding author must confirm that all authors have reviewed and agree regarding any and all indicated revisions.
Manuscript Format
All case report submissions will include the following sections, and all sections will be completed as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible (all sections should at least contain no less than 50 words and not contain language that is copied word for word from other sections (e.g., the Conclusion and Lessons Learned sections should be distinct from each other). Failure to provide this information will result in immediate rejection of the submission.
Title Page
The title page must be the first page of the manuscript; all pages should be numbered. The title of manuscript should include the report's key concepts so that search engines will locate the manuscript. No abbreviations are allowed in the titles unless they are standard acronyms (for example, NSQIP).
Author Names and Affiliations
List the name(s) of all authors beginning with the last name and followed by the first initials of the first and middle name. No more than five names should appear.
Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names, including department and institution, city, state, and country. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate affiliation.
Authors
Smith GHa; Elliot QLab; Hill BCac
Author Affiliations
- Department of Surgery, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL, 60153
- Burn Shock Trauma Institute, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL 60153
- Surgical Service Line, Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, Hines IL 60141
Corresponding Author
As previously noted, clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of review, revision, publication, and post-publication.
Gerald H. Smith, MD, FACS
Department of Surgery
Loyola University Medical Center
2160 S First Avenue
Maywood, IL, 60153
Phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
E-mail: gsmith@loyola.edu
Acknowledgements
Additional contributors should be listed in an acknowledgments section on the title page (for example, people who provided purely technical help/writing assistance, department chairs who provided only general support, etc.)
Present/Permanent Address
If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main affiliation address.
Meeting Presentations
Include meeting presentation information: the name (spelled out) of the sponsoring organization, city and state, and month and year of the meeting.
Disclosure of Conflicts
All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding." See Conflict of Interest below for further details.
Financial Relationships
All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding." See Conflict of Interest below for further details. If there are no financial relationships to disclose, please include the sentence "The authors have no financial relationships or in-kind support to disclose."
Abstract
Structured abstracts are required. Abstract should contain about 300 to 500 words. Briefly summarize the article by stating the clinical challenge(s), the results/findings, problems presented by the case, conclusion(s), recommendations, lessons learned, and, in retrospect, what alternative steps the authors would have taken. Do not cite references in the abstract. The format for the abstract is:
- Background
- Summary
- Conclusion
- Key Words
Immediately after the conclusion, provide a maximum of six (6) keywords. These keywords will be used for indexing and searching purposes.
Case Description
Abbreviations
Abbreviations/acronyms should be in parentheses immediately after the words for which they stand and must be spelled out completely at first use in the abstract and again at first use in the text. Abbreviations/acronyms used in figures must be spelled out in the figure legend. Up to 10 abbreviations of common terms (for example, DCIS, HBV, TIA) or acronyms (for example, SPECT, TRISS, SEER) may be used throughout the manuscript. On a separate page after the abstract, list the selected abbreviations and their definitions (for example, DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ). The editors will determine which lesser-known terms should not be abbreviated.
Units and Drug Names
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI. Whenever possible, generic names should be used for drugs or materials (e.g., for sutures); if a proprietary (trade) name must be used, please include in parentheses the company, city, state, and country associated with the product, if necessary. Do not use patient names, initials, or hospital numbers.
Discussion
This section should include a brief review of the literature as well as a discussion of the management and decision making involved in the case. Demonstrating an understanding of the existing literature related to the case study topic is also highly encouraged but should not be exhaustive. The discussion section should also evaluate the patient case for accuracy, validity, and uniqueness; compare the case report with the published literature; derive new knowledge; summarize the essential features of the report; and draw recommendations. If, in retrospect, any decisions made were not optimal, or were wrong, this information must be indicated in this section as well as in the Lessons Learned section for the sake of optimal surgical educational value.
Conclusion
Briefly reiterate evidence-based recommendations and applicability to surgical practice.
Lessons Learned
Authors must provide a summary of essential points, statements, or facts (minimum 100 words) summarizing both the findings of their manuscript as well as what the authors would have done differently regarding treatment steps if presented with the opportunity to revisit the presented case. As previously stated above, if any decisions made were not optimal, or were wrong, this information must be indicated in this section as well as in the Discussion section for the sake of optimal surgical educational value.
References
If automated reference numbering software (such as EndNote) or bibliography software is used, turn it off before submitting the manuscript.
Citation in Text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but they may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication. In-text citations should appear as superscript numbers. Please do not cite published abstracts, including those that have been published in meeting program books.
Reference Links
Increased discoverability of research and high-quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, CrossRef, and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Please note that incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year and pagination may prevent the creation of a usable link. When copying references, please be careful as they may already contain errors. Use of the DOI is encouraged.
Reference Style
All references should follow the AMA format.
Number consecutively in the order mentioned in text. The citation number is placed in the text after the name when the reference is cited; if no name is mentioned, the citation is placed in the text at the end of the material referred to (for example, "Meakins and Jones13 have shown that..." and "A group of oncologists has proved that if….13"). When referring to an article by the names of the author(s), if there are two authors, both names should be used; if there are more than six authors, then the first author should be named followed by the phrases "et al" or "and colleagues." References to manuscripts accepted but not published at time of submission can be designated in the format shown in this example: "J Am Coll Surg. In press 2008." Please also include the DOI if at all possible. Any personal communication must be cited within the text (and followed with the phrase "personal communication"), not in the reference list. Authors must obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of personal communication before submission. References must be verified against original documents; authors are responsible for completeness and accuracy of all citations.
The reference list should follow the text, and begin on a separate page, double-spaced and numbered consecutively. If there are more than six authors, list only the first three authors, followed by "et al." If there are six authors or fewer than six, list all authors.
Order of reference parts for a journal article: [Authors]. [Title]. [Journal name] [Year];[Volume]:[Pages].
Example: Valabussa P, Bonadonna G, Veronesi U. Patterns of relapse and survival following radical mastectomy. Cancer. 1978;41:1170-1178.
Figures, Tables, Images, Artwork, Etc
All images should be high-quality, original works or reproductions with appropriate permissions obtained. Adjustments to a figure may not highlight, misrepresent, obscure, or eliminate specific elements in the original figure, including the background.
Photographs, clinical images, micrographs, etc. must include arrows, as appropriate, or other markers to point out and elucidate important findings. Any violation of this requirement will be subject to penalties to include artwork removal, immediate rejection of the submission, banishment from submitting articles in the futures, etc.
Figure 1. Left Hydroureteronephrosis and Suspicious Mass within the Pelvis. Published with Permission
