Copyright

Manuscripts will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that neither the article, nor any part of its essential substance, tables or figures, has been submitted for publication or will be submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be clearly stated in the covering letter. Manuscripts accepted for publication become the copyright of the Journal and all authors are required to sign a Transfer of Copyright form.

Manuscripts not following the guidelines in the Instruction for Authors may be delayed in publication or rejected.

When the paper is the work of two or more authors, the author named first is responsible for ensuring that it has been seen and approved by all the authors.

Ethics

Style of Manuscripts

Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted in triplicate (including figures and tables) to:

The Editor,
Surgical Practice,
Editorial Office,
College of Surgeons of Hong Kong,
Room 601, 6th Floor,
Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Jockey Club Building,
99 Wong Chuk Hang Road,
Aberdeen,
Hong Kong.

Tel: (+852) 2871 8799
Fax:(+852) 2515 3198
Email:info@cshk.org (Fax is for urgent correspondence only, not for submission of manuscripts).

Authors should keep one set of text, tables and illustrations, as the Editors cannot accept responsibility for loss of or damage to manuscripts. Original material will not be returned to the author unless a specific request is made in the covering letter. Manuscripts should be clearly typed in double spacing on one side only of good quality A4 paper (30 × 21 cm). Dot matrix printer quality is unacceptable. Margins of 2.5 cm should be allowed on all sides. The right hand margin of the text should not be justified. Pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, commencing with the title page and including those containing acknowledgements, references, tables and legends to figures. The Editors reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

Manuscripts on Disk

Authors are required to provide their manuscript on disk. Authors should use a new disk rather than a reformatted disk and the disk should contain the relevant file(s) only. Authors should supply their accepted paper as formatted text (most word-processing formats can be handled). It is essential that the hardware and the word processing package are specified on the disk (e.g. IBM, Word 7), as well as the first author's surname, the Journal title and the manuscript number.

The entire article - (i) title page, (ii) text, (iii) acknowledgements, (iv) references, (v) figure legends, (vi) tables and legends, (vii) appendices - should be saved in a single file; only electronic figures should be supplied as separate files. The following instructions should be adhered to.

It is essential that the final, revised version of the manuscript and the file saved on disk are identical (i.e. authors should supply a new disk if the article is revised). Do not use the carriage return (enter) at the end of lines within a paragraph. Turn the hyphenation option off. Do not use l (ell) for 1 (one), O (upper case oh) for 0 (zero) or ß (German esszett) for ß (beta). Include all figure legends and tables with their legends, if possible. Use a tab, not spaces, to separate data points in tables. If you use a table editor function, ensure that each data point is contained within a unique cell; do not use carriage returns within cells. Complete and return the File Description Form (supplied by the Editorial Office) specifying any special characters used to represent non-keyboard characters.

On-line Guidelines

Conventional \Manuscripts

The manuscript should be arranged as follows, with each section beginning on a separate page.

Title page: The title page should include the following, in this order:
(1) Title: The title should be concise and informative not exceeding 80 characters and spaces. The main title should, where possible, contain the major key words used in the body of the paper.
(2) Running title: A short running title. No longer than 40 characters and spaces, should be provided.
(3) Both given and family name of each author (Chinese names if applicable), in full, position and highest academic degree(s)
(4) Name of Department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed, including complete postal address(es) and positions held by authors(s).
(5) Corresponding author: The full postal address, telephone and facsimile numbers and Email address of the author who will check the proofs and receive correspondence should be included, as well as the present address of any author if different from where the work was carried out.
(6) Sources of support in the form of grants.
Abstract: All manuscripts require an abstract. For original articles this should be a concise structured abstract of no more than 200 words. It should be factual, not descriptive and structured as follows:

• Objective: Why did you start the study?
• Methodology: The design of the study, its setting, description of subjects, interventions and outcome measures.
• Results: A summary of the findings with relevant statistical indices.
• Conclusions: A description of the meaning of the findings, which should be directly supported by the data, with equal emphasis on positive and negative findings.

Keywords: No more than five key words that will assist indexers in cross-referencing the article should be supplied. For reference use the medical subject headings (MeSH) list from Index Medicus. If suitable MeSH terms are not yet available for recently introduced terms, present terms may be used. Main text: This should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. Acknowledgements: Should only be made to persons who have made genuine contributions and who endorse the data and conclusions. Acknowledgement of grants or other financial interests should be made here.

References: Provide a list of references in double spacing after the text. The Vancouver system of referencing must be used. Cite references in numerical order by superscript Arabic numerals according to their first mention in the text. References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration. Cite unpublished data and personal communications in the text only. In the reference list, abbreviate the titles of journals according to Index Medicus. If the journal is not listed or Index Medicus is unavailable, the title should be written in full. List all authors for each reference when there are six or fewer; when there are more than six, list only the first three followed by et.al. Examples of correct reference format: Journal articles 1. Marasco S, Woods S. The risk of eye splash injuries in surgery. Aust. NZ J.Surg. 1998; 68: 785-787. Books 2. Yates DW, Moulton C, Redmund A. Lecture Notes on Emergency Medicine, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 1997. Articles of chapters in books 3. Deane SA. Principles of trauma management. In: Clunie, GJA, Tjandra, JJ, Francis, DMA, eds. Textbook of Surgery. Melbourne: Blackwell Science, 1997; 436-447.

Tables: Tables should be included on a separate page, numbered with Arabic numerals and accompanied by short titles at the top. Each table must be referred to in the text in consecutive order. Data presented should, in general, not be duplicated in the text or figures. Explanatory matter should be placed in footnotes below the tabular matter and not included in the title. All non-standard abbreviations should also be explained in the footnotes. Footnotes should be indicated by *, +, +, §. Statistical measures such as s.d. (standard deviation) or s.e.m. (standard error of the mean) should be identified in headings. Vertical rules and horizontal rules between entries should be omitted. If a table or an illustration has been reproduced from a published work, the source must be given in full, with permission having been granted by the author and by the publisher.

Figure legends: All illustrations require self-explanatory legends, typed on a separate sheet and double spaced. When symbols, arrows and numbers or letters are used to identify parts of illustrations, each one should be identified and explained in the legend (not in the figure). All illustrations are classified as figures and should be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text.

Figures: Line drawings and graphs should be professionally drawn. High contrast photographic copies of the original line drawings, reduced to final journal dimensions (single column 86 mm, double column 168mm), are preferred. All lettering should be done professionally and should be of adequate size to retain clarity after reduction. Laser printed line figures should be on good quality white paper. Photographs must be sharp, glossy black and white prints. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. If photographs of patients are used, either the subjects should not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission for their use. Figures should be numbered in Arabic and each figure should be identified clearly on the back using a self-adhesive label with its number, name of author(s) and orientation. Do not use ballpoint pens or paper clips. Titles and detailed explanations should be confined to legends and not included in illustrations. Supply legends for all figures on a separate sheet of paper, not with the illustration. The whole cost of reproducing colour figures will be charged to authors.

Case reports: English abstracts for case reports should be less than 200 words. A maximum of five references and one figure or table is permitted. The main text should not exceed 1200 words without any figures or tables, or 800 words with a figure or table.

Units and abbreviations: All measurements should be given in SI units. Statistics and measurements should always be given in figures (e.g. 10mm), except where the number begins a sentence. When a number does not refer to a unit of measurement it is spelt out, except where the number is greater than nine. Standard abbreviations may be used and should be defined in the Abstract and on first mention in the text. In general a term should not be abbreviated unless it is used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Avoid abbreviations in the title. Abbreviations such as e.g. and etc. should only be used in parentheses.

Drug names: In general, generic names should be used. Brand names may be inserted in parenthesis.

Proofs and offprints: Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author and should be returned to Blackwell within three days of receipt. Alterations should be limited to correction of typographical errors. The cost of excessive alterations will be charged to the author(s). Authors may order offprints on the appropriate form sent with the page proofs.