2009 NEW INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Scandinavian Journal of Surgery is a quarterly journal which publishes original papers and review articles of surgery and closely related topics. The journal does not publish case reports.

The journal is issued in one volume. Each volume consists of four numbers.

Original articles in British English are published after acceptance by reviewers on condition that they are contributed solely to Scandinavian Journal of Surgery. The journal does not perform linguistic revisions of original articles. All contributions should conform with the recommendations stated in the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association (1964).

Manuscript
Manuscripts should be written double spaced with 3 cm margins and submitted electronically to the Editorial Office:
sjs@fimnet.fi

Length of manuscript:
Articles should be short, the total length (all included) must not exceed a maximum of 4500 words.

Style
Define an abbreviation when you use it for the first time.
Avoid capitalisation of words. Only the first word begins with a capital letter.

Use italics sparingly. Do not use bold type, do not underline words.

All numbers from one to ten should be written as words, except when speaking about units (1 mm, 50 kg). Numbers from 11 onwards should be written as digits, except in the beginning of a sentence.

Body of Paper
The paper should be organised with the following subtitles:

Title, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Figure Legends

Title
Title should be short and specific. A capital letter is used only in the first word. Short running title should follow.

Authors should be stated by including name and institution (First name initials, Surname, Department, Hospital or University, City and Country) of all authors, each separately listed with complete information. Do not add any degrees like “Prof” or “ PhD”. Example:

A. Viinikainen1, H. Göransson2, J. Ryhänen3
1 Department of Hand Surgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
2 Department of Hand and Microsurgery, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
3 Department of Hand Surgery, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

Address and email of the corresponding author should be included under the title Correspondence. Example:

Correspondence:
Gianfranco P.D. Caminiti 3rd, M.D.
Health Service
Rava University School of Medicine
2, Dolphin Street, St Teresa of Greenfields, CT 11207, U.S.A.
Email: gianfranco.caminiti@rava.edu

Abstract and Key words
The second page should consist of a short structured abstract. The abstract should be organised according to the following headings: Background and Aims, Material and Methods, Results and Conclusions.

A minimum of six to ten Key words (according to Index Medicus) should be included.

Text
Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion

Acknowledgements
Significant scientific and/or financial support should be acknowledged.

References
References, a maximum of 30, should be numbered in order of appearance in the text using numbers in carved parentheses placed on the writing line, and listed in the following style under the title References: names of three first authors and “et al”, full title of the paper, name of journal abbreviated in accordance to Index Medicus, year, volume, first and last page number. Only relevant references should be used.

The following example illustrate the form to be used:

1. Rich NM, Leppaniemi A. Vascular trauma: a 40-year experience with extremity vascular emphasis. Scand J Surg 2002;91:109–126

Other sample references:
Book chapter:
Philip Sandblom: Relationship between illness and creativity. In: Philip Sandblom. Creativity and Disease. How Illness Affects Literature, Art and Music. Bohusläningens Boktryckeri AB, Uddevalla, 1991: 15–33

Entire book:
A. Hirshberg, K. Mattox. Top Knife. The Art and Craft of Trauma Surgery. tfm Publishing Ldt, Harley, 2005

Online journal:
Boone J, Livestro DP, Elias SG, Borel Rinkes IH, van Hillegersberg R. International survey n esophageal cancer: part I surgical techniques. Dis Esophagus. 2009 Jan 23. [Epub ahead of print]

World Wide Web:
What´s hot in … Science Gateway- Journal and Academic Rankings
http://www.sciencegateway.org/rank/index.html

Figures and Tables
A maximum of 3 figures and 3 tables will be allowed. Please add any presentation (illustration, photo, table or figure) in the manuscript immediately in the end of the manuscript after the references and not as separate attachment.

All illustrations, such as photographs, line drawings, graphs, charts and tracings should be legible after reduction to one (8,3 cm) or two (17,1 cm) column widths. Figure legends should be written below the presentation.

Black and white illustrations will be reproduced free of charge. Colour illustrations will be published at the contributor’s expense. Tables should be self-explanatory and they should supplement, not duplicate, the text. Table number and title should appear above the table, each table on a separate sheet.

For numbering figures and tables, use arabic numerals.