Instructions to Contributors

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
If you have any questions or are unable to submit your manuscript online, please contact the Editorial Ofﬁce at:
Annals of Surgical Oncology
Editorial Ofﬁce
3233 Eleanor Way, N. Fort Myers, FL United States
Telephone: 239-217-0704
Email: info@asoeditorial.org

Annals of Surgical Oncology is the ofﬁcial journal of the Society of Surgical Oncology. Annals publishes original and educational manuscripts about oncology for surgeons from all specialties in academic and community settings.

The mission of the journal is to serve its readers by 1) representing and advancing the profession of surgical oncology throughout the nation and the world; 2) promoting the highest quality multidisciplinary patient care and practice management; 3) providing relevant cancer education and research training materials using print and electronic media; 4) promoting clinical and translational cancer research, with an emphasis on clinical trials; 5) facilitating the career development of surgical trainees and their transition into academic and community-based practice; and 6) promoting public policy and patient advocacy issues related to surgical patient with cancer.

All manuscripts submitted to Annals must be original; i.e., not published elsewhere (except in abstract form) and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The Annals accepts manuscripts prepared according to the ‘‘Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication.’’

EDITORIAL OFFICE UPDATES
Manuscript Processing Fee: There is a processing fee of $50 USD for each initial new submission of an Annals article, excluding editorials. Submitted new manuscripts are not entered into the review process until payment of the submission fee is completed. There is no processing fee associated with resubmitted manuscripts.

Word Limit: Manuscripts must adhere to a 2,500 word limit (not including the title page, abstract, and references) and cannot contain more than 5 ﬁgures and tables combined.

PEER REVIEW
All manuscripts submitted to Annals are subject to peer review. The decision of the Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor is ﬁnal. Authors are notiﬁed of the decision with reviewer comments if applicable.

AUTHORSHIP
All authors must have made substantive intellectual contribution to the article for which they are listed on the byline. Any author afﬁliation with or ﬁnancial involvement in any organization with a direct ﬁnancial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript must be disclosed to the Editorial Ofﬁce.

PERMISSIONS
If a ﬁgure or table has previously appeared in copyrighted material, or if extensive material is quoted, the corresponding author must obtain written permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher, not the author, of the original work) to reprint it in Annals in both the print and the online format. Full credit to the original publication must be included in the legend of the ﬁgure or footnote to the table. All letters granting reprint permission must be provided to the Editorial Ofﬁce. Authors are responsible for payment of applicable fees for reprinting previously published material. The use of photographs that identify patients require a written release form from the patient (or guardian) to do so. Obtaining this release is the authors’ responsibility, and a copy of the release must be provided to the Editorial Ofﬁce.

EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS
All authors are expected to abide by accepted ethical standards. In investigations that involve human subjects or laboratory animals, authors should provide an explicit statement in the ‘‘Materials and Methods’’ section that the experimental protocols were approved by the appropriate institutional review committee and meet the guidelines of their responsible governmental agency. In the case of human subjects, informed consent is essential.

ONLINE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Manuscripts are submitted online to the Annals of Surgical Oncology via Manuscript Central:
https/:mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aso

Preparing Electronic Files for Submission
After entering all the information about manuscript title, abstract, authors and other details, authors will be prompted for uploading ﬁles. For review purposes, text and ﬁgure ﬁle(s) will be converted into HTML to be easily viewed with a browser on the Internet. Electronic ﬁles will also be converted into a PDF document. The ﬁles will be presented in the order speciﬁed. Authors should save each ﬁgure as a single image ﬁle in either uncompressed TIFF (Tag Image File Format) or EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format. The JPEG format is acceptable if the image is saved at the highest quality (without or with lossless compression). Images created in slide presentation programs, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, are not recommended. Charts created with Microsoft Excel are not acceptable in any circumstances.

If you are unable to submit your manuscript via Manuscript Central, please contact the Editorial Ofﬁce (info@asoeditorial.org; 239-217-0704 tel).

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND SPECIFICATIONS
Manuscripts must adhere to a 2,500 word limit (not including the title page, abstract, and references) and cannot contain more than 5 ﬁgures and tables combined.

The manuscript should conform to the following order: title page, synopsis, abstract, text of manuscript, acknowledgements, references, ﬁgure legends, and tables. Manuscript should be written in high-quality English suitable for effective communication to a professional medical audience. Authors who have difﬁculty writing in English may seek assistance with grammar and style to improve the clarity of their manuscript. Medical writers and editors who assist authors can be found through the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA); information about freelance medical editors is also available. In addition, many companies provide substantive editing via the Web, including the following: Editorial Rx, Inc.; BioScience Writers; Boston BioEdit; ScienceDocs, Inc.; Professional Editing Services; American Journal Experts; Blue Pencil Science; and Stallard Scientiﬁc Editing.

Authors should prepare manuscript submissions as follows:

Title Page
The title page should include:

Full names, degrees and afﬁliations for all authors
Full mailing and e-mail address; telephone; and fax number of the author to whom correspondence and proofs should be sent
Title and subtitle of the paper
A shortened version of the title for the running head (no more than 45 characters, including spaces)
Disclosure of any commercial interest that they may have in the subject of study and the source of any ﬁnancial or material support
Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text
Double-space the text
Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages
Do not use ﬁeld functions

Synopsis
Authors must provide a brief 1-3 sentence explanation, not to exceed 40 words, of their manuscripts (except editorials and Letters-to-the-Editor). This synopsis will appear in the table of contents.

Abstract
Each manuscript must include a structured abstract of no more than 250 words, divided into the following subheadings: (1) Background or Purpose, (2) Methods, (3) Results, and (4) Discussion or Conclusions.

Appendixes/Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of grant support and assistance of others in the study or in the preparation of the manuscript should be made in a separate paragraph following the text and preceding the References. Acknowledgments should be as concise as possible.

Manuscript Text
Manuscript Text should be structured in the following order:

Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text
Double-space the text
Do not use ﬁeld functions
Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar

References
Annals uses the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 10th Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). References must be cited in consecutive numerical order at ﬁrst mention in the text and arranged numerically, not alphabetically, on pages preceded by the head ‘‘References.’’ In each reference, list all authors’ names when there are seven or fewer; if there are more than seven, list the ﬁrst three authors followed by et al.

The author is responsible for the accuracy of the references. References must be printed double-spaced. Material cited in the reference list ‘‘in press’’ must have been accepted for publication, not merely submitted for review. Ibid references are not permitted.

Unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list; rather, this information may be included in the text, with pertinent identiﬁcation (A. Author, unpublished data) or (B. Author, personal communication). The unpublished data of others and personal communications can be used only when written authorization from the data owner or communicator is submitted with the original manuscript.

Sample References for Style Reference
Journal
1. Badgwell B, Cormier JN, Xing Y, et al. Attempted Salvage Resection for Recurrent Gastric or Gastroesophageal Cancer. Ann Surg Oncol 2009; 16:42-50.

Journal Article with DOI Reference
2. Xing M: BRAF Mutation in Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: The Promise of Better Risk Manage-ment. Ann Surg Oncol DOI: 10.1245/s10434-008-0298-z [Online January 22, 2009].

Book
3. Bland KI, Sarr MG, Bu¨ chler MW, et al. General Surgery Principles and International Practice, Second Edition. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2009.

Book Chapter
4. Jones SM, Roh MS. Results of Surgical Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma. In: Talamonti MS, Pappas SG, eds. Liver-Directed Therapy for Primary and Metastatic Liver Tumors. Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001:59-76.

Web-Based Resource
5. Society of Surgical Oncology (2007). Position Statement on Prophylactic Mastectomy. Available: http://www.surgonc.org/default.aspx?id=47 [accessed January 28, 2009].

Figures
Manuscripts must adhere to a 2,500 word limit (no including the title page, abstract, and references) and cannot contain more than 5 ﬁgures and tables combined.

All ﬁgures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals
Figure parts should be reasonable in number and denoted by lowercase letters
Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order
For each ﬁgure, authors should supply a ﬁgure caption
Authors need to identify all elements found in the ﬁgure in the caption as well as any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the caption
Original magniﬁcation and staining methods should be included
Acknowledgement of previous publication must be noted (see ‘‘Permissions’’ above)

Tables
Manuscripts must adhere to a 2,500 word limit (no including the title page, abstract, and references) and cannot contain more than 5 ﬁgures and tables combined.

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals
Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order
For each table, authors should supply a table heading
The table title should explain clearly and concisely the components of the table
Spell out all abbreviations found in the table or footnotes
Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table heading
Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for signiﬁcant values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body
Footnotes to the table should be limited, and extensive description included in the text, not in footnotes, as appropriate

For more information about preparing your illustrations, please go to artwork instructions.

Spreadsheet/Presentation Graphics
Most presentation programs (Excel, PowerPoint, Freelance) produce data that cannot be stored in an EPS or TIFF format. Therefore graphics produced by these programs cannot be used for reproduction.

Multimedia Articles and Streaming Videos
Multimedia articles are papers that include video with an accompanying abstract and references. Dynamic articles are regular articles that include a supplementary video. Upon submission of multimedia or dynamic articles, the authors are required to submit the video in the following format:

For multimedia articles, video clips should not exceed 9 minutes. For dynamic articles, video clips should not exceed 3 minutes and each manuscript should not contain more than 3 video clips
• Videos should include narration in English
Multimedia articles should include with the video submission a title page, abstract as well as references if needed

Dynamic Manuscript
A dynamic manuscript is a text-based article with imbedded video material. Up to 3 (one minute maximum each) videos per manuscript submission will be accepted. Make sure to note in text-based manuscript the placement of the video clips. All standard instructions for manuscript and video submission should be followed for a dynamic manuscript submission.

To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized ﬁles may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading. Please contact the Editorial Ofﬁce (info@asoeditorial.org) for further information if needed.

REPORTING OF RANDOMIZED TRIALS
The CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) Statement offers a standard way for authors to prepare reports of trial ﬁndings, facilitating their complete and transparent reporting, and aiding their critical appraisal and interpretation.

Authors are recommended to review the following references for further information regarding the CONSORT Statement:

Schulz KF, Altman DG, Moher D, for the CONSORT Group. CONSORT 2010 Statement: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials. BMJ 2010;340:c332.

Moher D, Hopewell S, Schulz KF, Montori V, Gøtzsche PC, Devereaux PJ, Elbourne D, Egger M, Altman DG, for the CONSORT Group. CONSORT 2010 Explanation and Elaboration: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trial. BMJ 2010;340:c869.

CONSENSUS STATEMENT ON SURGERY JOURNAL AUTHORSHIP
In the majority of clinical and research studies submitted to surgery journals for possible publication, many individuals participate in the conception, execution, and documentation of each of those works. However, recognition of work in the form of authorship has varied widely.

Authors are recommended to review the following consensus statement for further information regarding these issues regarding surgical journal authorship.

Consensus Statement on Surgery Journal Authorship 2006. Ann Surg Oncol 13:(6) 757-758.

FURTHER INFORMATION
Authors are encouraged to contact the Editorial Ofﬁce for further information (info@asoeditorial.org; 239-217-0704 tel.).