Instructions to authors

Manuscripts for submission to the Journal of Gastric Cancer (J Gastric Cancer) should be prepared according to the instructions given below. J Gastric Cancer follows the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication [1].

1. General Requirements

A. Submission qualification
J Gastric Cancer focuses on clinical and experimental researches on gastrointestinal neoplasms. Any physician or researcher throughout the world can submit a manuscript if the scope of the manuscript is appropriate.
B. Language
Manuscripts should be written in Korean, but manuscripts in English are also acceptable after revision by a professional linguistic reviewer.
C. Manuscript categories
J Gastric Cancer publishes original articles, case reports, review articles, how I do it articles, editorials, and letters to the editor.
– Original articles: Original articles are full-length reports on basic and clinical investigations of neoplasms of the stomach.
– Case reports: Only the cases that are reported for the first time or collections of rare cases are accepted for reviewed.
– Review articles: Review articles are usually requested by the Editor-in- Chief. However, unrequested reviews may be     considered after contacting the Editor-in-Chief by e-mail (hansu@ajou.ac.kr) to determine the appropriateness of the     review article for J Gastric Cancer.
– How I do it: These brief reports describe an author’s revolutionary clinical or research technique that simplifies the     procedures or improves the outcome of treatment. Authors should briefly describe the solution and give a short summary     of the results.
– Editorials: Editorials are invited articles that accompany the original article for publication.
– Letter to the editor: Letters to the editor are brief reports related to articles published in J Gastric Cancer. The editor     forwards the letter to the corresponding author of the article for discussion. The corresponding author can then respond in     an “Author reply.”
D. Peer review and publication process
All submitted manuscripts are subject to editorial peer review. After a manuscript undergoes peer review, its acceptance for publication and order are decided by the Editorial Board. If authors are asked to revise the manuscript, they should submit the revised manuscript along with the response to reviewers within the proposed time period. If the author misses the deadline given for resubmission, the resubmitted article will be regarded as an initial submission.
E. After acceptance
All submitted manuscripts are subject to The editor will send page proofs to the author, and authors are permitted inappropriate phrase and grammar. Authors should submit their corrected proofs within the stipulated time.
F. Copyright
On acceptance, all authors should transfer copyright of the article to J Gastric Cancer. Accepted articles are the permanent property of J Gastric Cancer, and use of the article for commercial purposes without written consent from the publisher is prohibited.

2. Online Submission Process

All manuscripts for J Gastric Cancer must be submitted through the KGCA Submission System at the website (www.jgc-online.org). Authors must log into their account in the online system, which will guide the authors through the submission process. To start submission, select “New Manuscript.”

3. Manuscript Preparation

A. Content
i. Manuscripts must be submitted in Word format (2003 or higher). Manuscripts should be typed on double-spaced, A4-sized pages, using a font size of 10 or more (Times New Roman or Arial for English, 명조체 or 고 딕체 for Korean) with 2.5-cm side margins and 3-cm upper and lower margins. The manuscript should be arranged in the following sequence: 1) title page, 2) structured abstract, 3) text, 4) acknowledgments, 5) references, 6) tables, 7) figure legends, and 8) appendix. Each section should begin on a separate page. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page. Page numbers should be placed in the center of the bottom of the page.

ii. In Korean articles, terminology should follow the Medical Dictionary published by the Korean Medical Association in 2001. If there is no suitable translation from English to Korean, the English term can be used in Korean articles.

iii. Terms that are presented frequently may be abbreviated in English. Abbreviations must be defined at first mention and thereafter used consistently.

iv. Numbers should be represented using Arabic numerals, and all units should follow the SI system (International Systemic of Units). Use a comma after thousands (i.e., 10,000).

v. The name and location of the manufacturer (city and nation) should be given in parentheses after the name of the device, reagent, or drug used.
B. Title page
i. The article title should be concrete and should indicate the contents of the study. Titles like “Study about…” should be avoided, and titles that are too short may lack important information, such as design (particularly in identifying randomized, controlled trials).

ii. Authors’ names and affiliations should be provided. Different affiliations of authors should be identified by means of a superscript Arabic numeral given without parentheses in front of each affiliation and behind each author’s name.

iii. Designate a corresponding author and include his/her complete mailing address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Specify the address to which requests for reprints should be sent. iv. A short title (40 characters or less) to be used as a running head should be provided.

v. If the manuscript was presented at an official scientific meeting, the name of the meeting should be specified along with the city where it was held.

vi. All sources of financial and material support should be presented at the bottom of the title page.
C. Abstract
i. In original and review articles, the abstract should not exceed 250 words. The abstract in original articles should be arranged with the following subheadings: Purpose, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The other categories do not require subheadings. Abstracts for case reports and how I do it articles should not exceed 150 words. Editorials and letter to the editor do not require an abstract.

ii. Do not use abbreviations in the abstract.

iii. Up to 5 keywords should be listed after the abstract. These words should be drawn from the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terminology in the United States National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) MEDLINE database [2]. The first letter of the keyword should be capitalized and the remaining letters lowercased; they should be separated by a comma, with a period at the end of the last word.
D. Text
i. Original articles The main text of original articles should include Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Introduction should provide a brief background and describe the aims of the study. Methods should clearly describe how observational or experimental participants were selected, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population in the case of clinical researches. In addition, statistical methods should be described, and brief descriptions of methods that have been published previously should be provided with references. If new or modified methods are described, the reasons for using them should be explained. Methods for clinical trials should include a statement regarding approval from the institutional review board (IRB) and informed consent from patients enrolled in that trial. Results are listed according to the order of figures and tables that present the results of the study. Do not repeat data already mentioned in the Results section in the figures or tables; instead, emphasize the important results. Discussion should be limited to important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or information previously given in the Results section. Avoid content unrelated to the results.

ii. Case reports Case reports should contain the following subheadings: Introduction, Case Report, and Discussion. The number of figures or illustrations should not exceed 5.

iii. Review Introduction, Body or other subheading suggested by authors and Conclusions should be listed.

iv. Citation of references in text References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables, and legends by using Arabic numerals in parentheses.
E. Acknowledgments
Persons or institutions that contributed to the papers but not at a level to be named as coauthors may be introduced in the Acknowledgements section.
F. References
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. All international or domestic references should be listed in English and should be represented in the Vancouver style. The abbreviated journal title should be written according to the List of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE [3] and the List of KoreaMed Journals [4]. The number of references should be limited to 30 in original articles, 40 in review articles, and 15 in case reports.
References to books or journals with 6 or fewer coauthors must list all authors. References with 7 or more authors should list only the first 6 followed by “et al.” Names should be separated by a comma and 1 space. References should follow the rules of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals [1]. References to manuscripts accepted but not published at the time of submission should be designated as “In press.” References to manuscripts accepted but only electronic published at the time of submission should be designated as “In print” References to websites should be limited to official government websites. Personal communications or unpublished data must be cited within the text and not in the references and should use the following format: “(Name, personal communication)” or “(Name, unpublished data).” For reference material not described here, follow the NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers [5].
[ Examples ]

i. Journal
Coia LR, Engstrom PF, Paul AR, Stafford PM, Hanks GE. Longterm results of infusional 5-FU, mitomycin-C, and radiation as primary management of esophageal cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1991;20:29-36.
ii. Book
DeVita VT Jr, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. Vol 2. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1998.
iii. Chapter in Book
Ginberg RJ, Kris MG, Armstrong JG. Cancer of the lung. In: DeVita VT Jr, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. Vol 2. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1993:673-758.
iv. Website
http://www.nso.go.kr/Accessed November 18, 2004
G. Tables and figures
i. Tables and figures are numbered in the order in which they appear in text. Tables and figures are cited in the text in English using Arabic numerals. For example, –-있다 (Table 1). –- 이다 (Fig. 1). Table 2 는 —.

ii. Tables and figures should capture information concisely and display it efficiently. They should provide additional detailed information.

iii. Each table and figure should have a brief title above the table and before the figure legend, respectively. Only the first character of the title should be capitalized. The first character of each cell in a table also should be capitalized.

iv. Figure legends must describe all abbreviations and acronyms used in the figure. Figure legends should be given on a separate page.

v. Explain all nonstandard abbreviations with “=” in footnotes, and use the following symbols, in sequence for other explanations: *, †, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, **. For example: Rad = radiation; Chemo = chemotherapy; NS = not significant. *P<0.001.

vi. Upload each illustration as a separate file in a specific format (e.g., JPEG or TIF). Compounding figures (1a, 1b, etc.) should be submitted as a single file. Line drawings are acceptable as clear black-on-white graphics and must be of high quality. All figures must be supplied at the correct resolution.
1200 dpi for black-and-white line art
600 dpi for a black-and-white photograph
300 dpi for a color photograph

vii. Written permission should be obtained for the use of all previously published materials, and authors should give full credit to the source in the figure legend.

viii. For photomicrographs, indicate the staining method and a measure of magnification in figure legends (e.g., H & E stain, × 400).

ix. Each table should be given on a separate page.

4. Ethical Issues

A. Conflict of interest statement
If there are any conflicts of interest, authors should disclose them in the manuscript.
B. Statement of informed consent
Copies of written informed consent and IRB approval for clinical research should be maintained. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB approval and study conduct.
C. Statement of human and animal rights
Clinical research should be performed in accordance with the Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, as outlined in The Declaration of Helsinki [6]. Clinical studies that do not meet the Helsinki requirements will not be considered for publication. Human subjects should not be identifiable; patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other protected healthcare information should not be disclosed. For animal subjects, research should be performed based on the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the ethical treatment of all experimental animals should be maintained.
D. Authorship
Authorship of the manuscript submitted in J Gastric Cancer should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically; or 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors must meet at least one of these 3 conditions.
E. Originality and duplicate publication
All submitted manuscripts should be original and should not be under consideration for publication by other scientific journals at the same time. Any part of the accepted manuscript should not be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board of J Gastric Cancer. If duplicate publication related to materials in this journal is detected, the authors will be held responsible and their institutions will be informed; there also will be penalties for the authors. Abstracts and posters from scientific conferences and results presented at meetings are not considered as prior publication.
F. Secondary publication
It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the condition of secondary publication of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals [1].

5. References

1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editor: Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication [Internet]. International Committee of Medical Journal Editor; 1979 [Updated 2008 Oct; cited 2009 Aug 1]. Available from: http://www.icmje.rg/.

2. National Library of Medicine (US): MeSH [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 1954 [updated 2009, cited 2009 Aug 1]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=mesh.

3. National Library of Medicine (US): Journals [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2009 [cited 2009 Aug 1]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=journals.

4. Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors: KoreaMed: List of Journals [Internet]. Seoul (Korea): Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors; 1997 [updated 2009, cited 2009 Aug 1]. Available from: http://www.koreamed.org/JournalBrowser.php.

5. National Library of Medicine (US): Journals [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2009 [cited 2009 Aug 1]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=journals.

6. World Medical Association: Declaration of Helsinki [Internet]. Ferney-Voltaire (France): World Medical Association; 1964 [updated 2008 Oct; cited 2009 Aug 1]. Available from: http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm.