Authors - World journal of Minimal Access Surgery

Instructions to Authors

Conflict Of Interest
Authorship and Contributorship
Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research
Type of Articles

Instruction For Authors

Research
Case Report
Review articles
Technical Innovations

World journal of Minimal Access Surgery welcome articles from laparoscopic and robotic surgeons, gynecologists, urologists, orthopedicians, neurosurgeons and other specialties practicing minimally invasive surgery. The journal focuses on Laparoscopic, robotic, endoscopic surgery both in clinical and laboratory settings. The journal aims to publish peer reviewed original research, Clinical trials, timely reviews, extensive meta analysis, technical innovations and case reports of unusual cases or complications of Minimal Access surgery

Each article type published by World journal of Minimal Access Surgery follows a specific format that is detailed in the instructions for authors; please choose an article type from the list to view the instructions for authors.

The instructions for authors includes information about preparing a manuscript for submission to World journal of Minimal Access Surgery criteria for publication and the submission process..

Conflicts of Interest

http://www.icmje.org/ethical_4conflicts.html

Public trust in the peer-review process and the credibility of published articles depends in part on how well conflict of interest is handled during writing, peer review, and editorial decision making.

Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties). These relationships vary from being negligible to having great potential for influencing judgment. Not all relationships represent true conflict of interest. On the other hand, the potential for conflict of interest can exist regardless of whether an individual believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself. However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion.

All participants in the peer-review and publication process must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. Disclosure of such relationships is also important in connection with editorials and review articles, because it can be more difficult to detect bias in these types of publications than in reports of original research. Editors may use information disclosed in conflict-of-interest and financial-interest statements as a basis for editorial decisions. Editors should publish this information if they believe it is important in judging the manuscript.

Potential Conflicts of Interest Related to Individual Authors' Commitments

When authors submit a manuscript, whether an article or a letter, they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. Authors should do so in the manuscript on a conflict-of-interest notification page that follows the title page, providing additional detail, if necessary, in a cover letter that accompanies the manuscript. The NPPL web journals uses the uniform disclosure form (PDF) developed by the ICMJE for this purpose.

Authors should identify individuals who provide writing or other assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance.

Investigators must disclose potential conflicts to study participants and should state in the manuscript whether they have done so.

Editors also need to decide whether to publish information disclosed by authors about potential conflicts. If doubt exists, it is best to err on the side of publication.

Potential Conflicts of Interest Related to Project Support

Increasingly, individual studies receive funding from commercial firms, private foundations, and government. The conditions of this funding have the potential to bias and otherwise discredit the research.

Scientists have an ethical obligation to submit creditable research results for publication. Researchers should not enter into agreements that interfere with their access to all of the data and their ability to analyze them independently, and to prepare and publish manuscripts. Authors should describe the role of the study sponsor, if any, in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; and the decision to submit the report for publication. If the supporting source had no such involvement, the authors should so state. Biases potentially introduced when sponsors are directly involved in research are analogous to methodological biases. Some journals, therefore, choose to include information in the Methods section about the sponsor’s involvement.

Editors may request that authors of a study funded by an agency with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome sign a statement, such as “I had full access to all of the data in this study and I take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.” Editors should be encouraged to review copies of the protocol and/or contracts associated with project-specific studies before accepting such studies for publication. Editors may request a statistical analysis of all data by an independent biostatistician. Editors may choose not to consider an article if a sponsor has asserted control over the authors’ right to publish.

Please read the following to know what may constitute a conflict of interest.

Financial competing interests

In the past five years have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future? Is such an organization financing this manuscript (including the article-processing charge)? If so, please specify.
Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future? If so, please specify.
Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of the manuscript? Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript? If so, please specify.
Do you have any other financial competing interests? If so, please specify.

Non-financial competing interests

Are there any non-financial competing interests (political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) to declare in relation to this manuscript? If so, please specify.

If you are unsure as to whether you, or one your co-authors, has a competing interest please discuss it with the editorial office.

Authorship and Contributorship

Byline Authors

An “author” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study, and biomedical authorship continues to have important academic, social, and financial implications.

An author must take responsibility for at least one component of the work, should be able to identify who is responsible for each other component, and should ideally be confident in their co-authors’ ability and integrity. In the past, readers were rarely provided with information about contributions to studies from persons listed as authors and in Acknowledgments

NPPL journals will request and publish information about the contributions of each person named as having participated in a submitted manuscript.

While contributorship and guarantorship policies obviously remove much of the ambiguity surrounding contributions, they leave unresolved the question of the quantity and quality of contribution that qualify for authorship. The ICJME has recommended the following criteria for authorship; these criteria are still appropriate for journals that distinguish authors from other contributors.

http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html

Authorship credit should be based on

Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
Final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.

All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

When a large, multicenter 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/contributorship defined above, and editors will ask these individuals to complete journal-specific author and conflict-of-interest disclosure forms. When submitting a manuscript authored by a group, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and identify all individual authors as well as the group name. World Journal of Surgical Medical and Radiation Oncology (ISSN 2277-3479) will name other members of the group in the Acknowledgments. The NLM indexes the group name and the names of individuals the group has identified as being directly responsible for the manuscript; it also lists the names of collaborators if they are listed in Acknowledgments.

NPPL journals now also request that one or more authors, referred to as “guarantors,” be identified as the persons who take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article, and publish that information.

Increasingly, authorship of multicenter trials is attributed to a group. All members of the group who are named as authors should fully meet the above criteria for authorship/contributorship.

The group should jointly make decisions about contributors/authors before submitting the manuscript for publication. The corresponding author/guarantor should be prepared to explain the presence and order of these individuals. It is not the role of editors to make authorship/contributorship decisions or to arbitrate conflicts related to authorship.

Contributors Listed in Acknowledgments

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chairperson who provided only general support. Editors should ask corresponding authors to declare whether they had assistance with study design, data collection, data analysis, or manuscript preparation. If such assistance was available, the authors should disclose the identity of the individuals who provided this assistance and the entity that supported it in the published article. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under such headings as “clinical investigators” or “participating investigators,” and their function or contribution should be described—for example, “served as scientific advisors,” “critically reviewed the study proposal,” “collected data,” or “provided and cared for study patients.” Because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions, these persons must give written permission to be acknowledged.

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008 [http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/]

If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. Further information may be obtained from http://icmr.nic.in/bioethics/Appr_guide_ani.pdf

Type Of Articles

Research
Review
Technical Innovation
Case Report
Correspondence
Meeting Report

Authors are asked to declare financial or nonfinancial conflict of interests or any competing interests.

Copyright rests with the authors. For more information on copyright of articles, see our publisher's copyright and license policy.

Instructions for authors

Research

Submission process

Manuscripts must be submitted by corresponding author of the manuscript, and not by someone else on their behalf. The submitting author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review, APC and proof correction.

Please note that World journal of Minimal Access Surgery levies an article-processing charge on all accepted articles; the information on the current APC is available on "about the journal" page.

To facilitate rapid publication World journal of Minimal Access Surgery accepts only online submissions at present. The examples of the text and graphic file formats that are accepted are mentioned below. If the authors require they may also submit movies, animation, flash, or data files as well in prescribed format.

During submission you will be asked to provide a cover letter explaining why your manuscript should be published in the journal, to elaborate on any issues relating to our editorial policies, and to declare any potential competing interests or conflict of interests. You may suggest potential peer reviewers for your manuscript by providing their name, contact address and email addresses. These should be experts in their field, who will be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please ensure that the names suggested as peer reviewers should not have published with any of the authors of the manuscript within the past five years, should not be current collaborators, and should not be members of the same research institution. You can also suggest the names of the reviewers who should not review your manuscript (exclude reviewers), these are usually the researchers with who you may have potential conflict of interests. Suggested reviewers will be considered alongside potential reviewers recommended by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Editorial Board members.

File formats

The following word processor file formats are acceptable for the main manuscript document:

Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007
Rich text format (RTF)
TeX/LaTeX

Users of other word processing packages should save or convert their files to RTF before uploading.

Note that figures must be submitted as separate image files, not as part of the submitted manuscript file. Following formats are acceptable

JPEG
TIFF
PPT
PNG

If you are submitting movie files please ensure that they are preferably in FLV format or in MPEG4 formats to allow maximum compression and display on web page.

The data files should be submitted either in Excel format or in dbase format. If you are submitting an output from a statistical package please ensure that this should be either in HTML or text format.

The Accession Numbers of any nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences, genes, SNP or atomic coordinates cited in the manuscript should be provided, in square brackets and include the corresponding database name; for example, [Accession: NP_001082294.1; GI: 148227006; NC_006090.2].

Preparing main manuscript text

Overview of manuscript sections for Research

Manuscripts for Research articles submitted to World Journal of Surgical, Medical and Radiation Oncology should follow the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/ ) uniform requirement for manuscript submitted to biomedical journals and follow standard IMRAD format.

Title page
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Patients and Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Learning points (if any)
List of abbreviations used (if any)
Competing interests Authors' contributions
Acknowledgements
References
Legends for Illustrations and figures (if any, the figures and legends need to be submitted separately, do not imbed them in the manuscript)
Tables
Additional files

Title page

The title page should contain the following:

Title of the article
List the full names of all authors, their affiliation, institutional addresses and email addresses name and address of corresponding author, with email, fax and phone number
Word count for the abstract and the text
Number of figures and tables
Previous presentations in a conference (if any)
Funding source (if any)

Please note:

the title should be explanatory and should include the study design, abbreviations within the title should be avoided
If you are reporting on a clinical trial that is registered please include the registration number in you title. e.g. " A randomized double blind case control study comparing the effect of A verses B in management of breast cancer [NCI23456]

Abstract

The Abstract should be less than 250 words and must be structured into separate sections:

Introduction
Study design
Material and methods
Results
Conclusions

Introduction should outline the context and purpose of the study (include aim and objectives here); Study design should state what design has been employed e.g. retrospective, prospective, case control, cohort etc. Material and Methods, should state as to how the study was performed and what are the statistical tests used; Results, section repots the main findings; Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract.

Keywords

Three to five keywords representing the main content of the article should be provided. You can use MESH terms here, please do not repeat terms that are already used in the title of the manuscript.

Introduction

The Introduction section must clearly state and illustrate the background to the research (why?) and its aims and objectives, in a way that is interpretable to researchers without specialist knowledge. It is recommended to include the review of literature here to indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. The section should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article.

It is recommended that this section may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Methods

The methods section should include the design of the study, the setting, the type of participants or materials involved, a clear description of all interventions and comparisons, and the type of analysis used, including a sample size and power calculation if appropriate.

For studies involving animal or human participants a statement detailing ethical approval and consent should be included in the methods section. For further details on the subject of ethics and consent please read the journal policy.

Results

In this section report the results of your study. Results of statistical analysis should include, where appropriate, relative and absolute risks or risk reductions, and confidence intervals. It is recommended that this section may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Discussion

Please discuss your results in this section. It is recommended that this section may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings. Discussion should be limited to the results being reported in the manuscript, please try not to go beyond the results and please try to refrain from being speculative.

Conclusions

This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance.

Learning points

Please innumerate 3-5 learning points, in form of short sentences highlighting the research contribution.

Competing interests and conflict of interests

Please read the journal policy on declaration of conflict of interest (financial and non financial). A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors must disclose any financial competing interests; they should also reveal any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript. All financial or non financial interests will be published along with the article. If the authors declare no competing interests a statement of this effect will also be published.

Authors' contributions

In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. Please read the ICMJE guidelines on uniform submission to know more about authorship credits and who can be an author. If some of the contributors do not meet authorship criteria be acknowledged in acknowledgement section.

The authorship credit be reported in following format

CD carried out the literature search and prepared the draft manuscript, GB carried out the experiments and interpreted the results, DT designed the study and performed the analysis, KT conceived the study, participated in design and edited the final manuscript. It is important to state that all authors read and approved the final manuscript for submission.

Acknowledgements

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Acknowledgment to the funding should not be made here but should be on the title page on separate section. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.

References

Only articles and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited. All references, must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Each reference must have an individual reference number, irrespective of how many time it appear in manuscript, please do not repeat numbering or create duplicate. Please avoid excessive referencing. If automatic numbering systems are used, the reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission.

Unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text and referred to as "unpublished observations" or "personal communications" giving the names of the involved researchers. Obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited colleagues is the responsibility of the author. Journal abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Citations in the reference list should include all named authors, up to the first 30 before adding 'et al.'.

Examples of the World journal of Minimal Access Surgery reference style are shown below. Please ensure that the reference style is followed precisely; if the references are not in the correct style they may have to be retyped and carefully proofread.

All web links and URLs, including links to the authors' own websites, should be given a reference number and included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, in the following format: NCCN: evidence based guidelines for supportive care [http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/f_guidelines.asp#supportive] last accessed on December 15, 2011.

If an author or group of authors can clearly be associated with a web link, such as for weblogs, then they should be included in the reference.

Examples of the World journal of Minimal Access Surgery reference style

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Article within a journal

Sato M, Grasser W, Endo N, Akins R, Simmons H, Thompson DD, Golub E, Rodan GA. Bisphosphonate action. Alendronate localization in rat bone and effects on osteoclast ultrastructure. J Clin Invest. 1991;88:2095–2105.

In press article

Kovalaski BJ, Knock C. Seroma formation in breast cancer. Eur J Surg Oncol, in press.

Electronic publication ahead of print

Brown P, Brody JG, Morello-Frosch R, Tovar J, Zota AR, Rudel RA. Measuring the Success of Community Science: The Northern California Household Exposure Study. Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print]

Optional addition of a database's unique identifier for the citation: [Edited 12 May 2009]

Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7. PubMed PMID: 12140307.

Forooghian F, Yeh S, Faia LJ, Nussenblatt RB. Uveitic foveal atrophy: clinical features and associations. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009 Feb;127(2):179-86. PubMed PMID: 19204236; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2653214.

Optional addition of a clinical trial registration number

Trachtenberg F, Maserejian NN, Soncini JA, Hayes C, Tavares M. Does fluoride in compomers prevent future caries in children? J Dent Res. 2009 Mar;88(3):276-9. PubMed PMID: 19329464. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT00065988.

Organization as author

Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002;40(5):679-86.

Both personal authors and organization as author (List all as they appear in the byline.)

Vallancien G, Emberton M, Harving N, van Moorselaar RJ; Alf-One Study Group. Sexual dysfunction in 1,274 European men suffering from lower urinary tract symptoms. J Urol. 2003;169(6):2257-61.

Margulies EH, Blanchette M; NISC Comparative Sequencing Program, Haussler D, Green ED. Identification and characterization of multi-species conserved sequences. Genome Res. 2003 Dec;13(12):2507-18.

No author given

21st century heart solution may have a sting in the tail. BMJ. 2002;325(7357):184.

Article not in English

Ellingsen AE, Wilhelmsen I. Sykdomsangst blant medisin- og jusstudenter. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2002;122(8):785-7. Norwegian.

Optional translation of article title (MEDLINE/PubMed practice):

Ellingsen AE, Wilhelmsen I. [Disease anxiety among medical students and law students]. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2002 Mar 20;122(8):785-7. Norwegian.

Volume with part

Abend SM, Kulish N. The psychoanalytic method from an epistemological viewpoint. Int J Psychoanal. 2002;83(Pt 2):491-5.

Issue with part

Ahrar K, Madoff DC, Gupta S, Wallace MJ, Price RE, Wright KC. Development of a large animal model for lung tumors. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2002;13(9 Pt 1):923-8.

Issue with no volume

Banit DM, Kaufer H, Hartford JM. Intraoperative frozen section analysis in revision total joint arthroplasty. Clin Orthop. 2002;(401):230-8.

No volume or issue

Outreach: bringing HIV-positive individuals into care. HRSA Careaction. 2002 Jun:1-6.

Pagination in roman numerals

Chadwick R, Schuklenk U. The politics of ethical consensus finding. Bioethics. 2002;16(2):iii-v.

Type of article indicated as needed

Tor M, Turker H. International approaches to the prescription of long-term oxygen therapy [letter]. Eur Respir J. 2002;20(1):242.

Published abstract

Alamouti R, Lancaster K, HoAsjoe M. Acellular dermal matrix in immediate implant based breast reconstruction - A single surgeon's experience. Eur J Surg Oncol 2011; 37(5):S1.

Article containing retraction

Feifel D, Moutier CY, Perry W. Safety and tolerability of a rapidly escalating dose-loading regimen for risperidone. J Clin Psychiatry. 2002;63(2):169. Retraction of: Feifel D, Moutier CY, Perry W. J Clin Psychiatry. 2000;61(12):909-11.

Article containing a partial retraction

Starkman JS, Wolder CE, Gomelsky A, Scarpero HM, Dmochowski RR. Voiding dysfunction after removal of eroded slings. J Urol. 2006 Dec;176(6 Pt 1):2749. Partial retraction of: Starkman JS, Wolter C, Gomelsky A, Scarpero HM, Dmochowski RR. J Urol. 2006 Sep;176(3):1040-4.

Article retracted

Feifel D, Moutier CY, Perry W. Safety and tolerability of a rapidly escalating dose-loading regimen for risperidone. J Clin Psychiatry. 2000;61(12):909-11. Retraction in: Feifel D, Moutier CY, Perry W. J Clin Psychiatry. 2002;63(2):169.

Article partially retracted

Starkman JS, Wolter C, Gomelsky A, Scarpero HM, Dmochowski RR. Voiding dysfunction following removal of eroded synthetic mid urethral slings. J Urol. 2006 Sep;176(3):1040-4. Partial retraction in: Starkman JS, Wolder CE, Gomelsky A, Scarpero HM, Dmochowski RR. J Urol. 2006 Dec;176(6 Pt 1):2749.

Article republished with corrections

Mansharamani M, Chilton BS. The reproductive importance of P-type ATPases. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2002;188(1-2):22-5. Corrected and republished from: Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2001;183(1-2):123-6.

Article with published erratum

Malinowski JM, Bolesta S. Rosiglitazone in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a critical review. Clin Ther. 2000;22(10):1151-68; discussion 1149-50. Erratum in: Clin Ther. 2001;23(2):309.

Personal author(s)

Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

Editor(s), compiler(s) as author

Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.

Author(s) and editor(s)

Breedlove GK, Schorfheide AM. Adolescent pregnancy. 2nd ed. Wieczorek RR, editor. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Education Services; 2001.

Organization(s) as author

Advanced Life Support Group. Acute medical emergencies: the practical approach. London: BMJ Books; 2001. 454 p.

American Occupational Therapy Association, Ad Hoc Committee on Occupational Therapy Manpower. Occupational therapy manpower: a plan for progress. Rockville (MD): The Association; 1985 Apr. 84 p.

National Lawyer's Guild AIDs Network (US); National Gay Rights Advocates (US). AIDS practice manual: a legal and educational guide. 2nd ed. San Francisco: The Network; 1988.

Chapter in a book

Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

Conference proceedings

Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.

Conference paper

Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, Lutton E, Miller J, Ryan C, Tettamanzi AG, editors. Genetic programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer; 2002. p. 182-91.

Dissertation

Borkowski MM. Infant sleep and feeding: a telephone survey of Hispanic Americans [dissertation]. Mount Pleasant (MI): Central Michigan University; 2002.

Patent

Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible endoscopic grasping and cutting device and positioning tool assembly. United States patent US 20020103498. 2002 Aug 1.

Other Published Material

Newspaper article

Tynan T. Medical improvements lower homicide rate: study sees drop in assault rate. The Washington Post. 2002 Aug 12;Sect. A:2 (col. 4).

Audiovisual material

Chason KW, Sallustio S. Hospital preparedness for bioterrorism [videocassette]. Secaucus (NJ): Network for Continuing Medical Education; 2002.

Journal article on the Internet

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 1 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htmArticle

Optional presentation (omits bracketed phrase that qualifies the journal title abbreviation):

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12];102(6):[about 1 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htmArticle

Homepage/Web site

Cancer-Pain.org [Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Part of a homepage/Web site

American Medical Association [Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995-2002 [updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12]. AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison; [about 2 screens]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html

Database on the Internet

Open database

Who's Certified [Internet]. Evanston (IL): The American Board of Medical Specialists. c2000 - [cited 2001 Mar 8]. Available from: http://www.abms.org/newsearch.asp

Closed database

Jablonski S. Online Multiple Congenital Anomaly/Mental Retardation (MCA/MR) Syndromes [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); c1999 [updated 2001 Nov 20; cited 2002 Aug 12]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/archive//20061212/mesh/jablonski/syndrome_title.html

Part of a database on the Internet

MeSH Browser [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2002 - . Meta-analysis [cited 2008 Jul 24]; [about 2 p.]. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/mesh/2008/MB_cgi?mode=&index=16408&view=concept MeSH Unique ID: D017418.

Blogs

Holt M. The Health Care Blog [Internet]. San Francisco: Matthew Holt. 2003 Oct - [cited 2009 Feb 13]. Available from: http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/.

KidneyNotes.com [Internet]. New York: KidneyNotes. c2006 - [cited 2009 Feb 13]. Available from: http://www.kidneynotes.com/.

Wall Street Journal. HEALTH BLOG: WSJ's blog on health and the business of health [Internet]. Hensley S, editor. New York: Dow Jones & Company, Inc. c2007 - [cited 2009 Feb 13]. Available from: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/.

Contribution to a blog:

Mantone J. Head trauma haunts many, researchers say. 2008 Jan 29 [cited 2009 Feb 13]. In: Wall Street Journal. HEALTH BLOG [Internet]. New York: Dow Jones & Company, Inc. c2008 - . [about 1 screen]. Available from: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/29/head-trauma-haunts-many-researchers-say/.

Campbell A. Diabetes and alcohol: do the two mix? (Part 2). 2008 Jan 28 [cited 2009 Feb 13]. In: Diabetes Self-Management Blog [Internet]. New York: Diabetes Self-Management. [2006 Aug 14] - . 2 p. Available from: http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/Amy_Campbell/Diabetes_and_Alcohol_Do_the_Two_Mix_Part_2

Reider J. Docnotes: Health, Technology, Family Medicine and other observations [Internet]. [place unknown]: Jacob Reider. 1999 - . CRP again ...; 2004 Apr 2 [cited 2009 Feb 13]; [about 1 screen]. Available from: http://www.docnotes.com/2004/04/crp-again.html

Tables

Tables capture information concisely and display it efficiently; they also provide information at any desired level of detail and precision. Including data in tables rather than text frequently makes it possible to reduce the length of the text.

Type or print each table with double-spacing on a separate sheet of paper. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines. Give each column a short or an abbreviated heading. Authors should place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes, and use the following symbols, in sequence:

*, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ||||, ¶¶, etc.

Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.

Be sure that each table is cited in the text.

If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.

Additional tables containing backup data too large to publish in print may be appropriate for publication in the electronic version of the journal, deposited with an archival service, or made available to readers directly by the authors. An appropriate statement should be added to the text to inform readers that this additional information is available and where it is located. Submit such tables for consideration with the paper so that they will be available to the peer reviewers.

Illustrations (Figures)

Figures should be either professionally drawn and photographed, or submitted as photographic-quality digital prints. In addition to requiring a version of the figures suitable for printing, some journals now ask authors for electronic files of figures in a format (for example, JPEG or GIF) that will produce high-quality images in the Web version of the journal; authors should review the images of such files on a computer screen before submitting them to be sure they meet their own quality standards.

For x-ray films, scans, and other diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, send sharp, glossy, black-and-white or color photographic prints, usually 127 x 173 mm (5 x 7 inches). Although some journals redraw figures, many do not. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should therefore be clear and consistent throughout, and large enough to remain legible when the figure is reduced for publication. Figures should be made as self-explanatory as possible, since many will be used directly in slide presentations. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends--not on the illustrations themselves.

Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.

Photographs of potentially identifiable people must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.

Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been cited in the text. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the figure. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.

For illustrations in color, ascertain whether the journal requires color negatives, positive transparencies, or color prints. Accompanying drawings marked to indicate the region to be reproduced might be useful to the editor. Some journals publish illustrations in color only if the author pays the additional cost.

Authors should consult the journal about requirements for figures submitted in electronic formats.

Figure legends

Include legends in the main manuscript text file. For each figure provide the figure number in Arabic numerals, short title and a detailed legend upto 250 words. If reproducing the previously publishing figures or tables, it is authors responsibility to take the permission from the copyright owners.

Style and language

World journal of Minimal Access Surgery accepts manuscripts written only in English. Spelling should either be US English or British English, but not a mixture.

There is no limit on the length of articles submitted, but authors are encouraged to be concise. There is also no restriction on the number of figures, tables or additional files that can be included with each article.

World journal of Minimal Access Surgery may edit submitted manuscripts for style or language, articles requiring extensive editing may be sent back to authors for correction or can be edited in house on charge basis. The charges for these services at present are US $ 100 for upto 3000 words, 120 US$ for upto 5000 words and 150 $ for articles lengthier than that.

Typography

Please use double line spacing.
Type the text unjustified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.
All pages should be numbered.
Please do not use Footnotes, but endnotes may be used.
Please do not format the text in multiple columns.
Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full. Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise they will be lost during conversion to PDF.

Units of Measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.

Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, unless other units are specifically required by the journal.

Journals vary in the units they use for reporting hematologic, clinical chemistry, and other measurements. Authors must consult the Information for Authors of the particular journal and should report laboratory information in both local and International System of Units (SI). Editors may request that authors add alternative or non-SI units, since SI units are not universally used. Drug concentrations may be reported in either SI or mass units, but the alternative should be provided in parentheses where appropriate.

Abbreviations and Symbols

Use only standard abbreviations; use of nonstandard abbreviations can be confusing to readers. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on first mention unless the abbreviation is a standard unit of measurement.

Case report

Criteria

World journal of Minimal Access Surgery welcomes well-described reports of cases that include the following:

Important clinical lesson
Findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect (Unreported or unusual side effects or adverse interactions involving medications)
Learning from errors
Unusual presentation of more common disease/injury
Unusual or new association of diseases/symptoms
New and emerging diseases
Novel diagnostic procedure
Novel treatment new drug/intervention or established drug/procedure in new situation(off label indications)

Consent

All case reports should be accompanied with a signed written consent from the patient for release of his data for publication in World journal of Minimal Access Surgery . A template for the same can be downloaded from here(consent form).The manuscript should also contain a statement to the effect that the written consent was obtained from the patient. It can be submitted as additional file or sent to editorial office by fax or email. More details on the consent can be found in the section on ethics.

Overview of manuscript sections for Case report

Manuscripts for Case report submitted to should be divided into the following sections (in this order):

Title page
Abstract
Keywords
ntroduction
Case presentation
Discussion
Conclusions
Consent
Competing interests
Authors' contributions
Acknowledgements
References
Illustrations and figures
Tables (if any)
List of additional files

Title page

The title page should contain the following:

Title of the article
list the full names of all authors, their affiliation, institutional addresses and email addresses
name and address of corresponding author, with email, fax and phone number
Word count for the abstract and the text
Number of figures and tables
Previous presentations in a conference (if any)
Funding source (if any)

Please note:

the title should be explanatory and should include the study design, abbreviations within the title should be avoided
If you are reporting on a clinical trial that is registered please include the registration number in you title. e.g. " A randomized double blind case control study comparing the effect of A verses B in management of breast cancer [NCI23456]

Abstract

The Abstract should be less than 250 words and must be structured into separate sections:

Introduction
Case presentation
Conclusions

Introduction should outline the context and purpose of the study (include aim and objectives here); Case presentation should state positive and negative history, findings on physical examination, laboratory investigations, radiological and pathological investigations, treatment and outcome in brief. Conclusions, should provide brief summary and potential implications. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract.

Keywords

Three to five keywords representing the main content of the article should be provided. You can use MESH terms here, please do not repeat terms that are already used in the title of the manuscript.

Introduction

The Introduction section must clearly state and illustrate the background to the case (why?) and its aims and objectives, in a way that is interpretable to researchers without specialist knowledge. It is recommended to include the review of literature here to indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. The section should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article.

It is recommended that this section may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Case report

In this section describe positive and negative history, findings on physical examination, laboratory investigations, radiological and pathological investigations, treatment and outcome in detail.

Discussion

Please discuss your case in this section. It is recommended that this section may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings. Discussion should be limited to the results being reported in the manuscript, please try not to go beyond the results and please try to refrain from being speculative.

Conclusions

This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance.

Learning points

Please innumerate 3-5 learning points, in form of short sentences highlighting the research contribution.

Competing interests and conflict of interests

Authors' contributions

The authorship credit be reported in following format

Acknowledgements

References

If an author or group of authors can clearly be associated with a web link, such as for weblogs, then they should be included in the reference.

Examples of the World journal of Minimal Access Surgery reference style

(see section on reference style)

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Tables

*, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ||||, ¶¶, etc.

Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.

Be sure that each table is cited in the text

If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.

Illustrations (Figures)

Photographs of potentially identifiable people must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.

Authors should consult the journal about requirements for figures submitted in electronic formats.

Figure legends

Style and language

World journal of Minimal Access Surgery accepts manuscripts written only in English. Spelling should either be US English or British English, but not a mixture.

Typography

Please use double line spacing.
Type the text unjustified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.
All pages should be numbered.
Please do not use Footnotes, but endnotes may be used.
Please do not format the text in multiple columns.
Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full. Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise they will be lost during conversion to PDF.

Units of Measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.

Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, unless other units are specifically required by the journal.

Abbreviations and Symbols

Review articles

Criteria

Review articles are summaries of recent insights in specific research areas within the scope of World Journal of Surgical, Medical and Radiation Oncology. The reviews aim to provide a systematic coverage or critical assessment of subjects. We suggest that the reviews be exhaustive and follow the guideline of Cochrane (http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/)

In essential they should include the names of the data base searched and the search strategy employed, the date search was made, criteria for inclusion of exclusion of articles and quality of included articles.

Overview of manuscript sections for Review

Manuscripts for Research articles submitted to World Journal of Surgical, Medical and Radiation Oncology (ISSN 2277-3479) should follow the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/ ) uniform requirement for manuscript submitted to biomedical journals and follow standard IMRAD format.

Title page
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Patients and Methods
Results • Discussion
Conclusions
Learning points (if any)
List of abbreviations used (if any)
Competing interests
Authors' contributions
Acknowledgements
References
Legends for Illustrations and figures (if any, the figures and legends need to be submitted separately, do not imbed them in the manuscript)
Tables
Additional files

Title page

The title page should contain the following:

Title of the article
list the full names of all authors, their affiliation, institutional addresses and email addresses
name and address of corresponding author, with email, fax and phone number
Word count for the abstract and the text
Number of figures and tables
Previous presentations in a conference (if any)
Funding source (if any)

Please note:

the title should be explanatory and should include the study design, abbreviations within the title should be avoided
If you are reporting on a clinical trial that is registered please include the registration number in you title. e.g. " A randomized double blind case control study comparing the effect of A verses B in management of breast cancer [NCI23456]

Abstract

The Abstract should be less than 250 words and must be structured into separate sections:

Introduction
Study design
Material and methods
Results
Conclusions

Introduction should outline the context and purpose of the study (include aim and objectives here); Material and Methods, should state as to how the study was performed and what are the statistical tests used. This section should include the literature search strategy, inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and methods for evaluation of quality of study beside statistics if applied; Results, section repots the main findings; Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract.

Keywords

Three to five keywords representing the main content of the article should be provided. You can use MESH terms here, please do not repeat terms that are already used in the title of the manuscript.

Introduction

It is recommended that this section may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Methods

This section should state as to how the study was performed and what are the statistical tests used. This section should include the literature search strategy, inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and methods for evaluation of quality of study beside statistics if applied.

If the review reports the finding of meta analysis then the funnel plots should also be produced.

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance.

Learning points

Please innumerate 3-5 learning points, in form of short sentences highlighting the research contribution.

Competing interests and conflict of interests

Authors' contributions

The authorship credit be reported in following format

Acknowledgements

References

Examples of the World journal of Minimal Access Surgery reference style are shown above. Please ensure that the reference style is followed precisely; if the references are not in the correct style they may have to be retyped and carefully proofread.

If an author or group of authors can clearly be associated with a web link, such as for weblogs, then they should be included in the reference.

Examples of the World journal of Minimal Access Surgery reference style

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Tables

*, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ||||, ¶¶, etc.

Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean.

Be sure that each table is cited in the text.

If you use data from another published or unpublished source, obtain permission and acknowledge that source fully.

Illustrations (Figures)

Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.

Photographs of potentially identifiable people must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.

Authors should consult the journal about requirements for figures submitted in electronic formats.

Figure legends

Style and language

World journal of Minimal Access Surgery accepts manuscripts written only in English. Spelling should either be US English or British English, but not a mixture.

Typography

Please use double line spacing.
Type the text unjustified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.
All pages should be numbered.
Please do not use Footnotes, but endnotes may be used.
Please do not format the text in multiple columns.
Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full. Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise they will be lost during conversion to PDF.

Units of Measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter) or their decimal multiples.

Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimeters of mercury, unless other units are specifically required by the journal.