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Start SubmissionThe Sri Lanka Journal of Surgery publishes peer reviewed articles in the categories of leading articles, review articles, scientific articles, continuing medical education, research letters, case reports and selected abstracts in the field of surgery and broadly related surgical sciences. The editor welcomes clinical and experimental surgery, descriptions of modem operative techniques (technical note) and letters to the Editor. All manuscripts will be sent to one or more independent referees for peer review.
An article is reviewed for publication on the assumption that its contents have not been submitted simultaneously to another journal, have not been accepted for publication elsewhere and have not already been published.
The editor encourages submission of manuscripts via the SLJS page at the Sri Lanka Journals Online website http://sljs.sljol.info/. Authors can also send articles by e-mail to collsurgjournal@gmail.com, which is the official address of the journal. Articles could also be submitted as hard copies to "The Editor, Sri Lanka journal of Surgery, College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka, No 6, Independence Avenue. Colombo 7", along with a cover letter and an electronic copy on a CD.
Charges and Fees:
There are NO article processing charges (APCs) or article submission fees.
All manuscripts submitted to the SLJS undergo a review, internally and/or externally.
Original research articles authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team are independently peer reviewed; an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for their own article. Editorials and obituaries written by the journal’s editor do not undergo external peer review.
Peer review process:
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are initially reviewed by the editor/editorial board. If these are found to be worthy of consideration for publication, these will be assigned for internal and external review, from a list of generalists and specialists related to the field of interest. Certain manuscripts, if found to be clearly not suitable for publication, will be rejected by the editor/editorial board at this first stage of review.
The journal has a double blind peer review process. Two reviewers are allocated for original articles and brief reports; one each for case reports and invited reviews. Statistical review is obtained as required.
The SLJS strives to maintain a timeline of 6 weeks from submission to first response following editorial and peer review. The SLJS gives the option of the author/s specifying 2 reviewers/units to which an author may prefer the manuscript NOT to be sent for peer review.
The Sri Lanka journal of surgery is a peer reviewed journal. It follows a double blind process of peer review. The editorial board selects and invites experts in the field to review articles and to advice the editorial board on the quality of manuscripts submitted to the journal. Please find below a few guidelines regarding this peer review process.
Confidentiality
All unpublished manuscripts are confidential documents. If we invite you to review an article please do not discuss it even with a colleague: if you would like to pass it on to someone else to review please email collsurgjournal@gmail.com first.
Peer review
We ask reviewers to sign their reports and declare any competing interests on any manuscripts we send them. Reviewers advise the editors, who make the final decision. The SLJS has a double blind peer review process.
As a reviewer you will be advising the editors, who make the final decision. We will let you know our decision. Your comments are kept confidential. Only the comments specifically mentioned by you to be conveyed to the authors, will be so forwarded. Even if we do not accept an article we would like to pass on constructive comments that might help the author to improve it.
Writing your review
The SLJS provides reviewers with a standard appraisal form. But we do ask all reviewers to consider this general guidance. We encourage reviewers to give further detailed comments on the authors paper itself by highlighting.
Before writing your review you may find it helpful to browse the author guidelines at our journal. The BMJ’s resource on training materials for peer reviewers is useful if you need further assistance. Patients are asked to review our articles from the patient perspective and it may be helpful to also see their training materials.
Please give detailed and constructive comments (with references, whenever possible) that will both help the editors to make a decision on the article and the authors to improve it.
For all articles
For research articles
Not all of these points will be relevant for non-research articles. Please use your discretion about the above list when reporting on other types of article.
The SLJS allows authors (or their employers) to retain their copyright in their work. SLJS only requires an exclusive licence that allows us to publish the article in the journal and allows us to sub-licence such rights and exploit all subsidiary rights.
The corresponding author should on behalf of all authors send the following statement at the point of submission:
"The Corresponding Author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence on a worldwide basis to the SLJS, and its Licensees to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in the SLJS and to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our licence."
Articles in the Sri Lanka Journal of Surgery are Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY License.
This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce illustrations, tables, etc. from other publication.
All authors are requested to read the journal's Policies on Publication Ethics before reading through these guidelines.
The Sri Lanka Journal of surgery subscribes to the policy of uniform requirements for manuscripts: this facilitates resubmission of papers to journals without extensive recasting. Authors are advised to consult the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) web site (www.icmje.com).
The entire manuscript including references should be typed doubled-spaced, on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper with 1-inch margins and should not exceed a total of 15 pages, excluding simple tables and figures.
Abbreviations should be used only if essential and must be defined at the first mention in the title, abstract, text, tables and figure legends.
Use generic names whenever possible. When it is necessary to mention the name of an instrument or equipment the name of the supplier, city or country must be given and the trade name given as the trademark ®.
Statistics: All calculations in the manuscript should be statistically correct and the editor may request for review of the article by a statistician if needed. Define statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols used. Mention the name of the statistical software if used. Statistical methods not in common usage must be referenced.
The file format for text and tables is .doc. Please note: use the "Save As" option in Microsoft Word to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.
Images should be .jpg or .tif.
Cover letter: All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter from the author who is responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript. The letter should contain a statement of the following details:
All authors must disclose any affiliations that they consider to be relevant and important with any organization that has a direct interest on the article in concern.
Title page: This should contain:
The name of the ethical clearance board if experimental work had been done on human subjects.
Images: Only illustrations that increase the understanding of the text should be submitted. The best form of reproduction for pen and ink drawings or black and white line art with no grey tones is photomechanical transfer (PMT). Decimals, broken lines, and lettering must be clear enough for reproduction. Only high-quality computer-generated figures will be considered. Radiographs must be of extremely high quality to reproduce adequately and generally should be enhanced with arrows etc.
The journal will only accept a maximum of 2 colour images and a total (including the colour images) of 5 images. For any queries, please contact the journal.
All images must be mentioned in the text in consecutive order. The editor reserves the right to limit the number of illustrations.
Tables / graphs: All tables and graphs should be provided as .doc files. They should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1) and be cited in the main text. All tables and graphs should be attached separately at the end of the main text. Each table should have fully explanatory, concise note of the table. The use of abbreviations should be avoided and if used should be defined in a footnote to the table.
Numbers and units: Use the decimal point, not a comma: for example 5.7. Authors should follow the SI system of units including for haematological and clinical chemistry measurements (except for blood pressure which will continue to be expressed in mmHg). Temperatures are given in degrees Celsius. Subjects should be rounded off: for example 1.2% of patient ≈ 1 %
Previously published material: The inclusion of total paragraphs of more than 250 words, tables and figures previously published by different authors, should be accompanied with a letter from the original publisher and the main author.
References: These should confirm to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (formerly 'Vancouver style'). The references in the text should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear and indicated by Arabic numerals in parentheses. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be provided for all references. It is suggested that authors use Crossref metadata search - https://search.crossref.org/?q= to obtain the doi.
Examples are given below.
Journal articles:
Zhang M, Holman CD, Price SD, Sanfilippo FM, Preen DB, Bulsara MK. Comorbidity and repeat admission to hospital for adverse drug reactions in older adults: retrospective cohort study. BMJ. 2009 Jan 7;338:a2752. doi: 10.1136/bmj.a2752.
Hubbard AR. von Willebrand factor standards for plasma and concentrate testing. Semin Thromb Hemost. 2006 Jul;32(5):522-8.
Rentoul E, Smith H (eds): Glaister's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. 13th edition. London: Churchill Livingstone; 1973.
Chapters in books:
Calenoff L, Rogers L: Oesophageal complications of surgery and life-saving procedures. In: Mayers M, Ghahremani G (eds): Iatrogenic Gastrointestinal Complications. New York: Springer, 1981; 23-63.
Abstracts:
Burstein I, Steinberg R, Zer M. Small bowel obstruction and covered perforation in childhood caused by bizarre bezoars and foreign bodies (Abstract). Journal of the Israeli Medical Association, 2000 Feb; 2(2): 129–31.
Website with author:
Fehrenbach MJ. Dental hygiene education [Internet]. [Place unknown]: Fehrenbach and Associates; 2000 [updated 2009 May 2; cited 2009 Jun 15]. Available from: http://www.dhed.net/Main.html.
Website without author:
American Dental Hygienists’ Association [Internet]. Chicago: American Dental Hygienists’ Association; 2009 [cited 2009 May 30]. Available from: http://www.adha.org/
Leading Articles: These are solicited by the editors by experts in the field, which are approximately 1500 words in length and addresses topics of current interest. They should be supported by no more than 15 references. Submissions may be subjected to external review before acceptance.
Review Articles: The editor encourages authors who would like to contribute to this category to discuss potential topics before submission. In-depth reviews of recent developments are welcome, and will undergo peer review. Reviews should have an abstract of up to 350 words, less than 3000 words in the main text and with no more than 30 references.
Scientific articles: These should normally be in the format of an introduction section, materials and methods, results and a discussion. Each manuscript must have a structured abstract of less than 250 words. The text should comprise of less than 2500 words. Limit up to 20 references.
Case reports: should not exceed 1000 words with 2 illustrations and 5 references. No abstract is required. 2-4 key learning points must be included at the end highlighting the learning aspects from the case report.
Case series (3-5 cases): should not exceed 1500 words with a maximum of 5 illustrations and 5 references. No abstract is required. 2-4 key learning points must be included at the end highlighting the learning aspects from the case series.
Selected Abstracts: The editors will invite experts in the field to select current abstracts from leading international journals and for a commentary on the abstract.
Technical note: “How I do it”
We welcome focused descriptions of key aspects of operative technique. Summary articles in the print journal will be supplemented by online publication of the full text and pictures. 'How I do it' articles should occupy one page of the print journal e.g., contain between 550 and 600 words, one illustration and up to 6 references. These articles do not require an abstract and should not contain any headings. The supplementary text file may contain up to 5,000 words and 30 references with high quality pictures. The supplementary file will be stored on DVD in the journal library and made available for review if required. Please note that supplementary file is optional.
Images in Surgery: We consider surgical images in colour that are of educational value to surgeons. It should contain a brief case report followed by a question(s). The answers need to be provided along with a discussion. It should contain about 750 words, up to 10 references, no headings, and up to three high-quality illustrations each displaying different aspects of the case. Where appropriate, use labels/arrows to indicate the abnormalities in the supplied images to orientate the reader. Abstracts are not required. All illustrations must be in colour and of a high quality (>5 mega pixel, preferably .jpg or .tiff), and they must not have been previously published.
Brief reports: This category includes preliminary reports, novel patient management methods and reports of new techniques and devices. They should be limited to 1000 words, 3 tables/illustrations and 10 references, and should include an unstructured abstract of less than 100 words.
Letters to the editor: The editor welcomes topical correspondence from readers relating to articles published in the Journal. Letters should not exceed 250 words including no more than five references, typed double-spaced and must have a title page showing the name(s), qualifications, and contact details. The editor reserves the right to shorten or to delete objectionable comments. The letter may be forwarded to the author of the article under discussion to provide an opportunity for confutation.
Perspectives: These are often commissioned by the editors to discuss timely clinical or health topics, or studies published in the current literature. The articles are approximately 1500 words in length, with no more than 15 references and, if needed, a single display item (table, figure, or box).
Please note: Manuscripts that do not confirm to these requirements will be returned for amendments.
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
The SLJS allows authors (or their employers) to retain their copyright in their work. SLJS only requires an exclusive licence that allows us to publish the article in the journal and allows us to sub-licence such rights and exploit all subsidiary rights.
The corresponding author should on behalf of all authors send the following statement at the point of submission:
"The Corresponding Author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence on a worldwide basis to the SLJS, and its Licensees to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in the SLJS and to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our licence."
Articles in the Sri Lanka Journal of Surgery are Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY License.
This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.