Any article submitted to this journal must follow the guidelines outlined in the "Ethics and Policies" section of this author’s guide. It is essential to consult it before submitting manuscripts.
For any article type of this journal, except Letters to the Editor, the three headings: Ethical Considerations, Funding, and Conflicts of Interest, should be included on the first page.
Ethical Considerations:
If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author must ensure that the described work has been carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki for experiments involving human beings; and in accordance with uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Authors should include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from human subjects and that all ethical procedures were followed. The rights to privacy of human subjects must always be respected. Approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or the relevant ethics committee should be indicated in this section.
Funding:
Authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if applicable, in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript drafting, and decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, this should be stated.
Conflicts of Interest:
All authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could influence their work, even if they are not directly related to the current manuscript.
Possible conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, other funding, travel grants, and participation in courses and conferences as paid experts. If none of these conditions apply, the statement should read: "Conflicts of Interest: None."
For any of the article types, the content of the accepted manuscripts including text, images, tables, etc. will be susceptible of being used in the journal social media channels with the aim of providing greater visibility to the article.
Editorials: Without exception, editing will be the responsibility of the Editorial Committee on a current topic, which may or may not refer to an article that is published in the same volume number of Cirugía Española. They normally are between 800 and 1000 words with a maximum of 15 bibliographical references. A single author is preferred.
Original Articles: Description of clinical studies, experiments, or techniques that contribute to broadening understanding of surgery. The original articles must follow the format of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The maximum length of the text will be 2,500 words and up to 6 images or tables will be allowed. The inclusion of a structured abstract is required, in Spanish and English, with a length no greater than 250 words. After the abstract, 3 to 8 keywords will be included. The maximum number of authors will be 8. In the case of manuscripts with more than 8 authors, the reason must be justified in the letter of presentation to the Editorial Committee.
The investigators who develop a randomised prospective trial must consult the latest version of the CONSORT criteria (see more details later).
A Graphical abstract is mandatory in this section, please see more details below.
Systematic Reviews: Cirugía Española will give priority to systematic reviews and Meta-analysis. The maximum length of the text will be 3,500 words and up to 6 figures or tables will be allowed. The inclusion of an unstructured abstract is required, in Spanish and English, with a length no greater than 150 words. After the abstract, 3 to 8 key-words will be included.
The authors must adhere to the recommendations laid out by PRISMA (http://www.prisma-statement. org).
A Graphical abstract is mandatory in this section, please see more details below.
Special Articles: This section will include articles related to General and Digestive Tract Surgery that, because of their characteristics, cannot be considered for the Original Articles or Review sections. The maximum length of the text will be 3,500 words and up to 6 figures or tables will be allowed. The inclusion of an unstructured abstract is required, in Spanish and English, with a length no greater than 150 words. After the abstract, 3 to 8 keywords will be included.
Case reports are not allowed in this section.
Innovation in surgical technique: This type of manuscript can describe a new surgical technique or original modifications or new indications of a technique already known. The manuscript must have a summary in Spanish of no more than 150 words, unstructured and translated into English. The manuscript should be divided into the following sections: introduction, surgical technique (indications and technical details), discussion (relevant aspects, justification, advantages and disadvantages in the context of other techniques and published studies that are the antecedent of the proposed technique) and bibliography. In the surgical technique section it is worth mentioning the number of patients in whom the technique has been performed as well as its indications.
The number of words in the text (excluding summary and bibliography) should not exceed 1,500. The maximum number of authors is 4. It is very convenient that the article is illustrated with quality images, diagrams, drawings or original frames that detail the technical aspects. Once the manuscript has been accepted, the Editorial Committee will invite an expert to comment on the proposed technique and its relevance.
Scientific Letters: In this section the Cirugía Española Editorial Committee will evaluate case series studies of patients in which new aspects are described or relevant assessments are added on the mechanisms of the disease, its diagnosis or treatment. Only those unique clinical cases that provide a very outstanding exceptionality will be admitted for evaluation. The maximum length will be 850 words and the test will not be structured into sections. Two images or tables will be accepted. The bibliography should be no longer than 10 references. Scientific articles will not be accompanied by an abstract. The maximum number of authors will be 5.
Letters to the Editor: Letters with objections or comments related to articles published recently in the Journal and, in some cases, on relevant articles published in other journals, will evaluated. This correspondence must contain interesting ideas and commentar-ies that will always be supported by data and bibliographic references. All of the letters will be reviewed by the Editorial Committee and, if they are accepted, will be published in the Journal. Whenever possible, the letter will be published simultaneously with the response from the author of the article mentioned. The maximum length will be 450 words. The maximum number of authors will be 4.
Image of the Month and Videos: Included in this category are medical or surgical images that have educational value. The maximum length of the text will be 100 words. The resolution of the image must be at least 600 dots per inch (dpi) in TIFF or JPEG format. The diagnosis of the case must be indicated at the end of the text and differentiated from it. The maximum number of authors will be 4. In the case of the videos, the authors will send a short text of a maximum of 100 words. The duration of the video will not exceed 4 minutes, see detailed instructions later. For the videos, two files will be sent, one with audio in Spanish and the other with audio in English.
Surgical Perspectives
These articles will address in a practical way any relevant and current topic related to health or medicine in general and that are of specific interest to the profession of surgery. Topics in these articles may include surgical quality or safety, surgical reimbursement, surgical education, or other issues facing the profession. Like all articles published in the journal, these articles will be peer-reviewed.
Articles should not have more than 3 authors. Maximum length: up to 1200 words of text, or 1000 words of text with 1 table or small figure, and no more than 10 references.
Study Protocolos
These manuscripts will describe in detail a research project or study protocol to be developed prospectively. It is recommended that the study is officially registered, including in the manuscript the registration number and date of registration. The study should not have exceeded the 50% of the recruitment of cases over the calculated sample size.
The maximum word length should be 3000 words and the number of authors should not exceed 8. If it is essential to exceed 8 authors, the contribution of each of them should be justified.
Study protocols will have a maximum of 4 figures and tables.
The title should be presented both in Spanish and English. The abstract will have a maximum of 250 words (including registration number) and should be accompanied by key words defining the study (3 to 8). The protocol should include an introduction, main and secondary hypothesis, methods and design (where the statistical methods and sample size should be justified, clearly specifying inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study), discussion and bibliography with a maximum of 15 references.