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Instructions for authors

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  • Instructions for authors

  • Enacted in May 2004
  • Revised in December 2017 (5th revision)
  • Revised in March 2019 (6th revision)

Aims and scope

Archives of Hand and Microsurgery (Arch Hand Microsurg) is the official journal of Korean Society for Surgery of the Hand, Korean Society for Microsurgery, and Korean Society for Surgery of the Peripheral Nerve. The journal publishes Original Articles and Reviewed Articles related to the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and condition of the upper extremity, microsurgery and peripheral nerve. The journal also publishes Case Reports, Technical Notes, and Clinical Perspective Reports. Accepted submissions will be published in the print journal as well as in the online version. It is published four times per year on the first day of March, June, September, and December.

For specifics not mentioned in the instructions, “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/)” can be applied.

Editorial policies

Statements and opinions expressed in Archives of Hand and Microsurgery are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Editor or Publisher. The Editor and Publisher disclaim any responsibility for such published material. Neither the Editor nor the Publisher guarantees, warrants, or endorses any product or service advertised in this publication; nor do they guarantee any claims made by the manufacturer of such product or service.

Ethical standards

Submitted manuscripts should not have been previously published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts containing same or similar contents should not be submitted for publication to other journals. Redundant or duplicate publication of a paper can be considered acceptable under specific circumstances according to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Articles involving research conducted in human subjects must include a statement that subjects provided informed consent and that the study was approved by an institutional review board. Manuscripts reporting animal experiments must include a statement in the Materials and Methods section that animal care complied with the guidelines of an animal utilization committee or a similar committee.

All authors should participate in planning and conducting a study, acquiring and analyzing data, drafting and revising a manuscript, and approving the final version of an article to be submitted. Authors should disclose any potential conflicts of interest and financial support. Statements on conflict of interest have no influence on the editorial decision to publish.

For policies on research and publication ethics not stated in the instructions, If the journal faces suspected publication misconduct, Archives of Hand and Microsurgery adheres to the flowchart described by the Committee on Publication Ethics (External link http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).

Copyright

All material published in Archives of Hand and Microsurgery is vested in Korean Society for Surgery of the Hand, Korean Society for Microsurgery, and Korean Society for Surgery of the Peripheral Nerve. The corresponding author of each manuscript will be required to complete a copyright assignment form on acceptance of the manuscript.

Peer review

The review process is strictly confidential. All submitted papers are peer-reviewed by more than two accredited experts in the corresponsive field. A decision on the publication of letters to the editor-in-chief is made by reviewers. A decision on acceptance or rejection for publication is sent to the corresponding author. When the final version of an accepted manuscript is prepared according to the requirements of the journal, the publication date is determined. Rejected manuscripts will not be reconsidered for publication.

Submission of manuscript

The manuscript submission and review process is entirely online at http://submit.handmicro.org. Authors should check the author checklist and sign the journal’s copyright transfer form in manuscript submission. Manuscripts should be submitted as MS-Word, or PDF files. Authors should check converted files before final submission.
If you have any questions about the online submission process, contact the Editorial Office by e-mail at journal@handmicro.org or by telephone at Tel: +82-31-249-7186.

Reporting guidelines for specific study designs

For the specific study design, such as randomized control studies,studies of diagnostic accuracy, meta-analyses, observational studies and non-randomized studies, it is recommended that the authors follow the reporting guidelines listed in the following table.


Initiative Type of study Source
CONSORT Randomized controlled trials http://www.consort-statement.org
STARD Studies of diagnostic accuracy http://www.stard-statement.org
PRISMA Preferred reporting items of systematic reviews and meta-analyses http://www.prisma-statement.org
STROBE Observational studies inepidemiology http://www.strobe-statement.org
MOOSE Meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/192614

Organization of the manuscript

Manuscripts not complying with these requirements will be returned to the author(s) for appropriate formatting modifications prior to review. Information on the authors and their affiliations should not be included in the manuscript other than the title page.

The manuscripts should be arranged in the following order

Title page, blinded title page (title only), English abstract, Korean abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. The text should be typed in 10-point font and double-spaced with 3 cm margins on all four sides. Each page should contain less than 100 characters per line and less than 30 lines. Original articles should not exceed 10 pages from the abstract to the references and case reports should contain no more than 5 pages. Pages should be numbered sequentially from the abstract page to figure legends. Every line should not be numbered because it is automatically created during pdf conversion. Author check list and Copyright transfer should be assigned to keep online submission.

Title page

The title page should contain the full title of the paper (in English), the names of the authors and of the institutions (in English), the full title of the paper (in Korean), the names of the authors and of the institutions (in English), and information on the corresponding author.
The title should be succinct and accurate, if possible and must include important words of the study. It should be avoided as much as possible to lead with expressions like “clinical research on~” or “the study on~”. The title should not have more than 30 Korean characters and 20 English words.
If authors are at different institutions, first present the institution where most of the work was carried out, and indicate individual departments and institutions by inserting a superscript letter immediately after the author’s name, and the same letter in front of the appropriate institution (when necessary, the superscript letters should be used in the following order: Arabic number 1,2,3 ...). The address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author should be placed in the lower portion of the title page both in Korean and English.
Every person listed as an author should have materially participated in the design, execution, and analysis of the study and should verify the accuracy of the entire manuscript before its submission. Lesser contributions are appropriately noted in an acknowledgment section on the title page. The first name and the last name should be written in this order for English names. The surname and the first name should be written in this order not separated by a space for Korean names.
In the blind title page, only the title of the manuscript should be written both in Korean and English. Information on the names of the authors and their affiliations should not be included.

Abstract

Information on the authors and their affiliations should not be included in the abstract. Also, do not include footnotes or references in the abstract. For organization of manuscripts, the English abstract and Korean abstract should be on the first page and the second page, respectively. The abstract should not exceed 500 characters and 250 words for Korean abstract and English abstract, respectively. The abstracts should contain the same contents. The abstract should state the purpose, methods, results, and conclusion in each paragraph in a brief and coherent manner. Under the Korean abstract, keywords should be inserted in Korean while under the English abstract, keywords should be written in English (maximum 6 words). They should be listed in the following order: anatomical name (illness), diagnosis (area), and treatment, for example, scaphoid, Fracture, Herbert Screw for a paper entitled, “Operative Treatment of Carpal Scaphoid Fractures with Herbert Screw”. Abbreviations or references are not allowed in the abstract. For the selection of keywords, refer Medical Subject Heading (MeSH, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh).
The abstract should be structured to include the following sections: Purpose: The rationale, importance, or objective of the study should be described briefly and concisely in one to two sentences. Methods: The procedures conducted to achieve the study purpose should be described in detail, together with relevant details concerning how data were obtained and analyzed and how research bias was adjusted. Results: Provide results, with data, p-values, and standard deviation of mean (or standard deviation). Present most important findings first. Please provide p-values and numbers to support your methods findings. Conclusion: State only what your study identified and what it demonstrated. Do not include extraneous information not backed up by the data of your study.

Main text

Materials and Methods

Institutional review board approval and informed consent from the human subjects, when applicable, must be stated. Describe the study design (prospective or retrospective, duration of the study, inclusion and exclusion criteria) and the demographics, length of follow-up, and followup methods. Explanations of the experimental methods should be concise, but yet enable replication by a qualified investigator. Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.

Results

Describe in detail the data obtained during the study following the order of the Methods. Data should be analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. All data in the text must be consistent with the rest of the manuscript, including data in tables, figures, and legends.

Discussion

In the Discussion, data should be interpreted to demonstrate whether they affirm or refute the original hypothesis. Care should be taken to avoid information obtained from historical facts and books and irrelevant to the purpose and results of the study. Discuss elements related to the purpose of the study and present the rationales that support the conclusion (summary) by referring to relevant literature. A discussion of study weaknesses and limitations should also be included.

Conclusion

The conclusion must be derived from your results. Here your new view of the problem you outlined in the introduction should be briefly stated.

References

To cite a reference with an author in the text, insert the author’s surname only and the citation number in a square brackets (e.g., Kim [1]). For a reference with two authors, list both names in the citation (e.g., Kim and Park [2]). For a reference with three or more authors, use ‘et al.’ (Kim et al. [3]). If two or more citation numbers are required, separate numbers with a comma (,) or a dash (-) (e.g., Boyes [1-3], Chapman [1,2,7]).
The number of references is limited to 40 for original articles and 10 for case reports. The references should be listed on a separate page according to the citation order in the text (not alphabetically). Papers published in domestic journals should also be written in English according to the citation order in the text. References to journal articles should conform to the journal title abbreviations used in the Index MEDLINE. If a reference has six or fewer authors, display all the author names. When more than seven authors, list the first three then add "et al." Use the author's surname followed by initials without periods.
Other types of references not described below should follow Citing Medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).

Examples of references are as follows:

Journal article
1. Han HH, Choi EJ, Oh DY, Moon SH. The usefulness of microsurgical pedicle lengthening in free anterolateral thigh flaps. Microsurgery. 2016;36:559-66.
2. Lipina M, Makarov M, Mukhanov V, et al. Arthroscopic synovectomy of the knee joint for rheumatoid arthritis. Int Orthop. 2019;43:1859-63.

Book
3. Canale ST, Beaty JH. Campbell's operative orthopaedics. New York, NY: Mosby; 2013.
4. Boyer MI. Flexor tendon injury: acute injuries. In: Green DP, Hotchkiss RN, Pederson WC, Wolfe SW, editors. Green’s operative hand surgery. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2005. p. 219-40.

Online publication
5. Mackenzie SP, Stone OD, Jenkins PJ, et al. Carpal tunnel decompression in patients with normal nerve conduction studies. J Hand Surg Eur. 2019 Aug 21 [Epub]. http://doi.org/10.1177/1753193419866646.

Online sources
6. National Cancer Information Center. Cancer statistics in 2017 [Internet]. Goyang, Korea: National Cancer Information Center; c2019 [cited 2019 Oct 15]. Available from: https://www.cancer.go.kr/lay1/S1T639C640/contents.do.

Tables

Tables should be prepared with English characters and Arabic numerals and given a brief title in a phrase or a clause. Tables should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. If an abbreviation is used in a table, it should be defined in a footnote below the table. The symbols should be used in the following order: a), b), c), d), e). Each symbol must be defined in a footnote. Do not give the same information in tables that you give in the text or in figures.

Figure Legends

Illustrations should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Each illustration should have a legend provided in a sentence (not in a phrase) on a separate manuscript page after references. Staining techniques used should be described. Photomicrographs with no inset scale should have the magnification of the print in the legend.

Figures

Papers containing unclear photographic prints may be rejected. Each figure should be prepared in a separate file. The name of an image file should not contain the name(s) of the author(s) and must match the figure number such as Fig1.jpg. If a figure contains two or more photographs, they should be assigned an Arabic numeral followed by capital letters in the English alphabet (example: Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B). Photographs of different patients should not be included in one figure and remove any writing that could identify a patient. When the release of confidential information is necessary, a written consent of the patient or the patient’s guardian should be submitted with photographs. Submit illustrations in JPEG, TIFF or GIF format. Color images will be accepted only when essential. However, photomicrographs are recommended to be prepared in color. Authors are responsible for the cost of color figures in print. Arrows or letters in figures should be inserted by Photoshop or Powerpoint. When accepted, the original figure files should be submitted. When using a digital camera, set the resolution to a minimum of 300 ppi (pixels per inch), and set the size of the image to 5×7 in (127×178 mm). Color and grayscale images, such as radiographs, must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, and line art drawings such as graphs must have a minimum resolution of 1,200 dpi. Any illustrations previously published should be accompanied by the written consent of the copyright holder which should be indicated below the figure. Authors explanation on the arrangement of figures can be inserted, if necessary.

Acknowledgements

Authors should acknowledge those who do not qualify as authors but who contributed to the research. Authors of manuscripts must disclose any potential conflicts of interest, research funding, and financial support in “Acknowledgements”.
Acknowledgements are appropriately noted in the title page.

Special features

Case Reports

A publication decision is based not on the rarity of a reported case but on its academic contribution.

Abstract

The English Abstract and the Korean abstract should not exceed 150 words and 350 characters, respectively. The abstract must be written as one unstructured paragraph.

Introduction

The reason for reporting the case and background should be stated in a clear and cohesive manner.

Case report

This section should include only relevant elements in a succinct manner.

Discussion

Discussion should focus on the case and pertinent literature.

Review Articles

Review articles should focus on a specific topic. Publication of these articles will be decided upon by the Editorial Board. Format of a review article is not limited.

Letters to the Editor

The journal welcomes readers comments or criticisms on articles published recently in the journal.

Article processing charge

There are no author submission fees or other publication-related charges. All cost for the publication process is supported by the Publisher. Archives of Hand and Microsurgery is a so-called platinum open access journal which does not charge author fees.





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Editorial Office
St. Vincent’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 93 Ji-dong, Paldal-gu, Suwon 16247, Korea
Tel: +82-31-249-7186    Fax: +82-31-254-7186    E-mail: journal@handmicro.org                

Copyright © 2024 by Korean Society for Surgery of the Hand, Korean Society for Microsurgery, and Korean Society for Surgery of the Peripheral Nerve.

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