Recently revised on 2023, October

  The Journal of Chest Surgery (JCS), the official journal of the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (KTCVS), is a peer-reviewed, open access journal which publishes outstanding articles in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and related fields. The journal is published bimonthly on the 5th day of January, March, May, July, September, and November. The abbreviated title is J Chest Surg. JCS is committed to providing a place of active communication for all thoracic surgeons, advancing our knowledge on thoracic and cardiovascular surgery including physiology, diagnosis, and treatment, and offering effective treatment and cure to the public ultimately.
  Manuscripts submitted to JCS should be prepared according to the following Instructions for Authors. For issues not addressed in these instructions, authors should refer to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

• I. ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE

  •   JCS is an open access journal that does not charge authors any fees. All costs associated with publishing, including article processing charges, are supported by the publisher.

• II. RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

  •   JCS adheres to the guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations, including ICMJE Recommendations and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://doaj.org/bestpractice), and the Good Publication Practice Guideline for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13). Furthermore, all processes of handling research and publication misconduct (or when faced with cases of suspected misconduct) shall follow the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). Any attempts to duplicate publications or engage in plagiarism will lead to automatic rejection, may prejudice the acceptance of future submissions, and may be highlighted within the pages of the journal.

    
    

    1. Statement of Human and Animal Rights

      Clinical research should be conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies that do not meet the Declaration of Helsinki will not be considered for publication. For human subjects, identifiable information, such as 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.

    
    

    2. Statement of Informed Consent and Ethical Approval

      Copies of written informed consents should be kept for studies on human subjects. If the participant is not capable of providing it, a legal guardian, or parent can provide instead. For copies of informed consent, authors can submit the form used in their institutions or use the form provided by JCS. This form is available as a PDF at the JCS website or submission system. Scan the signed and completed form into your computer and then email it to us as an attachment when requested.
      All clinical studies involving human participants should include a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. For clinical studies with animal subjects, there should be a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB/IACUC approval and study conduct.

    
    

    3. Conflicts of Interest Statement

      All participants in the publication and peer review process—not only authors but also peer reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members of the journal—must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. All authors should disclose their conflicts of interest, i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion.
      These conflicts of interest must be included as a footnote on the title page. Authors should certify the disclosure of any conflict of interest with their signatures. Peer reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists. Further guidance is available from COPE (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). If undisclosed conflict of interest is suspected in a submitted manuscript or published article, a committee composed of Editorial Board members will be held and discussed, and JCS will follow the process of the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).

    
    

    4. Authorship

      According to the ICMJE recommendation, authorship credit should be based on the following four criteria: (1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND (2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND (3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND (4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authorsshould meet all four criteria.

    • A list of each author’s role should accompany the submitted paper. The contributions of all authors must be described using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT; https://credit.niso.org/).
    • Correction of authorship: Any requests for such changes in authorship (adding author(s), removing author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) after the initial manuscript submission and before acceptance of the paper should be explained in writing to the editor in a letter or email from all authors. This letter must be signed by all authors of the paper. Each author must complete the copyright assignment.
    • Role of corresponding author: The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all of the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing the details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and conflicts of interest forms and statements, are properly completed, although these duties may be delegated to one or more coauthors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely manner and after publication should be available to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information or questions about the article.
    • Contributors: Any researcher who does not meet all four ICMJE criteria for authorship discussed above but contribute substantively to the study in terms of idea development, manuscript writing, conducting research, data analysis, and/or financial support should have their contributions listed in the Acknowledgments section of the article.
    • Recommendations for working with people with personal connections: Authors who intend to include minors (under the age of 19) or their family members (such as spouse, children, and relatives) in their research, including when publishing or presenting papers jointly with them, should clearly indicate this in the cover letter. For further information, please refer to the “Guidelines for Preventing Illegitimate Authorship” by the National Research Foundation of Korea (https://www.cre.re.kr/).
    
    

    5. Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

      Redundant or duplicate publication refers to the publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published. Upon receipt, submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication using Crossref Similarity Check. If a paper that might be regarded as duplicate or redundant had already been published in another journal or submitted for publication, the author should notify the fact in advance at the time of submission. Under these conditions, any such work should be referred to and referenced in the new paper. The new manuscript should be submitted together with copies of the duplicate or redundant material to the editorial committee. If redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification, the submitted manuscript will be rejected immediately. If the editor was not aware of the violations and of the fact that the article had already been published, the editor will announce in the journal that the submitted manuscript had already been published in a duplicate or redundant manner, without seeking the author’s explanation or approval.

    
    

    6. Secondary Publication

      Secondary publication of material published in other journals or online may be justifiable and beneficial, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language). Secondary publication may also be justifiable in conditions provided by ICMJE Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations).

    
    

    7. Process for Managing Research and Publication Misconduct

      When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, a fraudulent undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, and complaints against editors, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Editorial Board.

    
    

    8. Editorial Responsibilities

      The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: provision of guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publication of corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and exclusion of plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; confirmation of no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promotion of publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.

    
    

    9. Research Ethics Council and Role of the Council

      Research Ethics Council is composed of a chairperson of the Publication Committee of the KTCVS and the members of the Committee. The Research Ethics Council is responsible for ensuring that research published in the JCS adheres to ethical standards. They review papers and investigate any issues found, reporting the results to the Board of Directors. The Council members also promote ethical practices by providing education for editors and authors.

• III. COPYRIGHTS AND LICENSE

  • 1. Copyright

      Authors must declare that the submitted work is their own and that copyright has not been breached in seeking its publication. Copyright in all published material is owned by the KTCVS. Copyright Release and Author Agreement form must be signed by every author and be submitted with other manuscripts during the first online submission process. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting this form during the submission process. In addition, it is the authors’ responsibility to obtain written permission to reproduce (in all media, including electronic) any material that has appeared previously in another publication. Authors should provide copies of permission letters for any material reproduced from copyrighted publications. Submitted material will not be returned to the author unless specifically requested.

    
    

    2. Open Access Policy

      JCS is an open access journal. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium if the original work is properly cited. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. For any commercial use of material from the open access version of the journal, permission must be obtained from the KTCVS (Email: office@jchestsurg.org).

    
    

    3. Article Sharing (Author Self-Archiving) Policy

      JCS is an open access journal, which means that authors who publish with us are able to freely share their research in various ways, including on preprint servers, social media platforms, at conferences, and in educational materials, in accordance with our open access policy. However, it should be noted that submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals is strictly prohibited.

• IV. EDITORIAL POLICY

  • 1. Registration of Clinical Trial Research

      Any research that deals with a clinical trial should be registered in the primary national clinical trial registry site, such as the Korea Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS; https://cris.nih.go.kr), any other primary national registry site accredited by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform), or ClinicalTrials. gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/), a service of the US National Institutes of Health.

    
    

    2. Data Sharing

      JCS encourages data sharing wherever possible, unless this is prevented by ethical, privacy, or confidentiality matters. Authors wishing to do so may deposit their data in a publicly accessible repository and include a link to the digital object identifier (DOI) within the text of the manuscript. JCS accepts the ICMJE Recommendations for data sharing statement policy (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Authors may refer to the editorial, “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,” in J Korean Med Sci 2017;32(7): 1051-1053 (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051).

    
    

    3. Archiving Policy

      JCS ensures the long-term accessibility and preservation of our journal content by archiving it in the National Library of Korea and PubMed Central from the 44th volume, 2011 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/4000/). This ensures that even if the journal is no longer published, the content will still be available for researchers and scholars.

    
    

    4. Preprint Policy

      A preprint can be defined as a version of a scholarly paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer reviewed scholarly journal. JCS allows authors to submit the preprint to the journal. It is not treated as duplicate submission or duplicate publication. JCS recommends authors to disclose it with DOI in the letter to the editor during the submission process. Otherwise, it may be screened from the plagiarism check program—Similarity Check (Crosscheck) or Copy Killer. Submissions of preprints to JCS will undergo the same thorough peer review process as regular submissions. This means that the submissions will be evaluated by experts in the field to ensure the quality and accuracy of the research before they are accepted for publication. If the preprint is accepted for publication, authors are recommended to update the information in the preprint with a link to the published article in JCS, including DOI at JCS. It is strongly recommended that authors cite the article in JCS instead of the preprint in their next submission to journals.

    
    

    5. Peer Review Policy

      All papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to a rigorous peer review process. JCS has adopted a double-blind peer review policy, in which the identities of both the authors and reviewers are kept anonymous to each other throughout the review process. However, the editor managing the review process will have visibility of the authors and reviewers’ identities. The Editorial Board selects reviewers based on expertise, publication history, and past reviews. During the peer review process, reviewers can interact directly or exchange information (e.g., via submission systems or email) with only an editor, which is known as “independent review.” An initial decision will normally be made within 4‒6 weeks of receipt of a manuscript. No information about the review process or editorial decision process is published on the article page.

• V. SUBMISSION & PEER REVIEW PROCESS

  • 1. Online Submission

      All manuscripts should be submitted online via the journal’s website (https://jchestsurg.org/submission) by the first or corresponding author. Once you have logged into your account, online system will lead you through the submission process in a step-by-step orderly process. Submission instructions are available on the website. In case of any trouble, please contact the editorial office (Email: office@jchestsurg.org).

    
    

    2. Screening Before Review

      All papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to peer review. JCS only publishes papers that fit its aims and scope, and adhere to the Instructions for Authors. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be returned to the author immediately after submission, without undergoing the review process. Submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check upon arrival. The title page will remain separate from the manuscript throughout the peer review process and will not be sent to the reviewers. It is essential that authors anonymize their manuscripts by removing any identifying information, such as author names or affiliations, before submission to the journal.

    
    

    3. Peer Review Process

      After screening, a manuscript is sent to the most two relevant reviewers of the field. In addition, if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be requested. JCS recommends peer reviewers to follow JCS Review Regulations or the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/cope-ethical-guidelinespeer-reviewers). The journal uses a double-blind peer review process: the reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and vice versa. An initial decision will normally be made within 4‒6 weeks of receipt of a manuscript. Revised manuscripts must indicate the alterations that have been made in response to the reviewers’ comments item by item. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 30 days of the editorial decision is regarded as a withdrawal. After the peer review process, the JCS Editorial Board will make the final determination on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication or not. Once a manuscript has been rejected by JCS, it will not be considered for another round of review as a new submission.

    
    

    4. Submission by Editors

      Final decisions regarding manuscript publication are made by the editor-in-chief or a designated editor who does not have any relevant conflicts of interest. In the event that an editor has a conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript or with the authors, the manuscript will be handled by one of the other editors who does not have a conflict with the review and who is not at the same institution as the submitting editor. In such circumstances, full masking of the process will be ensured so that the anonymity of the peer reviewers is maintained.

    
    

    5. Appeals of Decisions

      Any appeal against an editorial decision must be made within 2 weeks of the date of the decision letter. Authors who wish to appeal against a decision should contact the editor-in-chief, explaining in detail the reasons for the appeal. All appeals will be discussed with at least one other associate editor. If consensus cannot be reached thereby, an appeal will be discussed at a full editorial meeting. The process of handling complaints and appeals follows the guidelines of COPE available from (https://publicationethics.org/appeals). JCS does not consider second appeals.

• VI. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

  • 1. General Requirements

      The entire manuscript should be written in English. Medical terminology should be written based on the most recent edition of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. The main document with manuscript text and tables should be prepared with an MS-word program.

    • The manuscript for a major paper should be organized in the following order: title page, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, references, tables, figure legends, and figures.
    • The manuscript should be double-spaced on 21.6 × 27.9-cm (letter size) or 21.0 × 29.7-cm (A4) paper with 3.0-cm margins at the top, bottom, right, and left margin.
    • All manuscript pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the abstract as page 1. Neither the authors’ names nor their affiliations should appear on the manuscript pages.
    • The use of acronyms and abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the manuscript. The spelled-out abbreviation followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis should be used on the first use.
    • The names of manufacturers of equipment and non-generic drugs should be given.
    • Name for microorganism is fully stated at the first appearance (e.g., Escherichia coli), then the abbreviation for the genus is used (e.g., E. coli). Scientific name of species is italicized. Do not italicize if the calling of a species is not a scientific name (e.g., E. Coli, Papovaviridae, Hepadnavirus, streptococci, coagulase negative staphylococci, Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus). Gene nomenclature is written in italics, whereas protein product of certain genes is not italicized (e.g., BCR-ABL mutations, HER2 gene, BCRABL kinase domain, HER2-positive).
    • P-value from statistical testing is expressed as a lowercase “p”.
    • When quoting from other sources, a reference number should be cited after the author’s name or at the end of the quotation.
    • The title page and manuscript should be provided as separate files and the manuscript should be anonymized for double-blind peer review. Please make sure that any identifying information, such as authors’ names or affiliations, is removed from your manuscript before submission. Authors should use the third person to refer to an article that the authors have previously published. Authors should make sure that figures and tables do not contain any reference to author affiliations. If the manuscript includes any identifying information, it may be returned to the author immediately after submission without review.
      Manuscript preparation is different according to the publication type, including basic/clinical research, case reports, how-to-do-it, brief communications, correspondences (letters to the editor), editorials, reviews, historical notes, and commentaries. Other types are also negotiable with the Editorial Board.
    
    

    2. Cover Letters

      The cover letter should inform the editor that the submitted material or any portions thereof have not been published previously or are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. It should state any potential conflict of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data, such as financial support from or connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academically related issues.

    
    

    3. Manuscript Type Size Limit & Format

      Table 1 shows the recommended maximums of manuscripts according to publication type; however, these requirements are negotiable with the editor.

    
    
    Table 1. Recommended maximums for articles submitted to JCS

    Categorya)	Text(word)b)	Abstract(word)	Tables & Figures	References	Keywords
    Editorial	2,000	-	2	5	-
    Basic/Clinical research	5,000	SA, 250	10	30	5
    Case report	1,500	UA, 150	3	10	5
    How-to-do-it	1,500	UA, 150	3	10	5
    Review	7,500	UA, 250	10	-	5
    Brief communication	1,000	-	3	10	-
    Correspondence   (Letter to the editor)	1,000	-	3	5	-
    Historical note	5,000	-	10	20	-
    Commentary	1,000	-	2	10	-

    The size of the manuscript should not exceed its limit according to the article type.
    SA, structured abstract (background, methods, results, conclusion); UA, unstructured abstract.
    ^a)The category of complying with the Editorial Board’s decision. ^b)Maximum number of words is exclusive of the title page, abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
    
    

    4. Manuscript Type

    • Basic/clinical research are full-length manuscripts, which are expected to contain original scientific discovery. The manuscript for basic/clinical research should be organized in the following sequence: title page, abstract (including keywords), main text (introduction, methods, results, discussion), references, tables, figure legends, and figures. Manuscript limitations are 5,000 words, 10 tables/figures, and 30 references. References, tables, and figure legends are not counted as the manuscript word count.
    • Case reports will be published only in exceptional circumstances, when they illustrate a rare occurrence of clinical importance. Case reports should address issues of importance to medical researchers and preferably should have helpful illustrations. The manuscript for a case report should be organized in the following sequence: title page, abstract and keywords, main text (case report, discussion), references, tables, figure legends, and figures. The abstract should be unstructured and its length should not exceed 150 words. There should be no more than three figures, including tables, and no more than 10 references. For case reports, authors should follow the CARE guidelines (https://www.care-statement.org). Authors should upload a completed checklist for the appropriate reporting guidelines during initial submission.
    • Reviews are invited by the editor and should be comprehensive analyses of specific topics. They are organized as follows: title page, abstract and keywords, introduction, body text, conclusion, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. There should be an unstructured abstract equal to or less than 250 words. The length of the text excluding references, tables, and figures should not exceed 7,500 words. Tables/figures are limited to 10, and there is no limitation to the number of references. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be submitted as review articles but require a structured abstract, and should follow the PRISMA guidelines (http://www.prisma-statement.org/).
    • Editorials are invited perspectives on the area of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, discussing topics such as recent research, current medical concerns, new insights, and ongoing debates. No abstract is required. The length of the text should not exceed 2,000 words. There should be no more than two figures, including tables, and no more than five references.
    • Brief communications report new and important findings that are considered to be of particular interest to the research community, but that do not warrant a fulllength article. Manuscript limitations are 1,000 words, three tables/figures, and 10 references.
    • Correspondences (letters to the editor) are comments from readers regarding a published article with a reply from the authors of the article. Manuscript limitations are 1,000 words, three tables/figures, and five references.
    • A how-to-do-it is a description of a useful surgical technique or innovative concept, and contains descriptive, illustrative material. The body of these manuscripts should consist of introduction, technique, discussion, references, tables, figure legends, and figures (if applicable) with no more than 1,500 words. References should not exceed 10. A maximum of three tables/figures are allowed.
    • Historical notes describe breakthrough achievements that led to the development of thoracic surgery in Korea. These articles may include biographical heritage of the KTCVS. These articles must be proved by official organization. Manuscript limitations are 5,000 words, 10 tables/figures, and 20 references.
    • Commentaries are normally by invitation only, and provides the importance of an accepted paper to outline its strengths and weaknesses. The length should not exceed 2,000 words, and there should be no more than two figures, including tables, and no more than 10 references.
    
    

    5. Title Page

      The title page must include a title, the authors’ names, affiliations, corresponding author’s name and contact information, a running title, and additional information. The corresponding author’s contact information must include the name, address, and email.

    • Meeting presentation: If the paper has been or is to be presented at the meeting of an academic society or association, the name, location, and date of the meeting should be provided.
    • Additional information: In addition to basic information, information that requires disclosure should be mentioned here. This will be included at the end of the published article.
      • a) ORCID: We recommend that the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) of all authors be provided. To obtain an ORCID, authors should register at the ORCID website (https://orcid.org). Registration is free for all researchers.
      • b) Authors contributions: The work authors have conducted for the study should be described in this section. The contributions of all authors must be described using CRediT (https://credit.niso.org/). To qualify for authorship, all contributors must meet at least one of the seven core contributions by CRediT (conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, and data curation), as well as at least one of the writing contributions (original draft preparation, review and editing, and visualization). Authors may also satisfy the other contributions; however, these alone will not qualify them for authorship. Contributions should accurately reflect contributions to the work. The submitting author is responsible for completing this information at submission, and it is expected that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions ahead of this time. The information concerning sources of author contributions should be included in this section at the submission of the final version of the manuscript (at the first submission, this information should be included in the title page).
      • c) Conflict of interest: A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the manuscript even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. Such conflicts may be financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academic problems (e.g., employment/affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, stockownership or options, royalties, or patents filed, received, or pending).
      • d) Funding: All sources of funding applicable to the study should be stated here explicitly. All original articles, editorials, reviews, and new technology articles must state sources of funding for this study.
      • e) Acknowledgments: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an additional contribution section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
    
    

    6. Abstract & Keywords

      A structured abstract is required for original articles and the format should consist of four sections, labeled as “Background,” “Methods,” “Results,” and “Conclusion.” The length should be less than 250 words for original articles and review articles, and less than 150 words for case reports and how-todo-it articles. Up to five keywords should be listed immediately after the abstract to be used as index terms. We strongly recommend the keywords within Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) in Medline (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search).

    
    

    7. Main Text

      The main text of the paper may have separate Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections.

    • Introduction: Concisely state the specific purpose or research objective of, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation. Cite only directly pertinent references, and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported.
    • Methods
      • - Ethical statements: All articles using clinical samples or data and those involving human/animal subjects must include information on the IRB/IACUC approval or waiver and informed consent. An example is shown below. “We conducted this study in compliance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study’s protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of OO (No. OO). Written informed consent was obtained or Informed consent was waived.”
      • - Study design: Whether it is a descriptive analysis, randomized controlled study, cohort study, or meta-analysis, the study design type should be provided.
      • - Sex and gender reporting: Authors should 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/or 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: The results should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables and figures, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or figures in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. The results should not include material appropriate to the discussion.
    • Discussion: Observations pertaining to the results of research and other related materials should be interpreted for your readers. Emphasize new and important observations; do not merely repeat the contents of the results. Explain the meaning of the observed opinion along with its limits, and within the limits of the research results connect the conclusion to the purpose of the research. In a concluding paragraph, summarize the result and its meaning.
    
    

    8. References

      In the text, references should be cited with Arabic numerals in brackets (e.g., [1], [2,3], [4-6]), numbered in the order cited. In the references section, the references should be numbered and listed in order of appearance in the text. List all authors if there are less than or equal to six authors. List the first three authors followed by “et al.” if there are more than six authors. For every reference, if it has a DOI, the DOI should be included at the end of the reference. References to unpublished material, such as personal communications and unpublished data, should be noted within the text and not cited in the references. Personal communications and unpublished data must include the individual’s name, location, and date of communication. Journal titles should be abbreviated in the style used in Medline. Other types of references not described below should follow Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).

    • Examples of JCS references style
      • - Journal articles
        • 1. Urabe M, Yagi K, Shiomi S, Toriumi T, Okumura Y, Seto Y. Implications of liver-directed therapy for postoperative hepatic metastasis from esophageal cancer. J Chest Surg 2022;55:397-404. https://doi.org/10.5090/jcs.22.031
        • 2. Toth GG, Collet C, Thuesen AL, et al. Influence of fractional flow reserve on grafts patency: systematic review and patient-level meta-analysis. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2022;99:730-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/ccd.29864
        • 3. Heiden BT, Eaton DB Jr, Chang SH, et al. Association between surgical quality metric adherence and overall survival among US veterans with early-stage nonsmall cell lung cancer. JAMA Surg 2023 Jan 18 [Epub]. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2022.6826
      • - Books & Reports
        • 4. Topol EJ, Teirstein PS. Textbook of interventional cardiology. 6th ed. Elsevier Saunders; 2012.
        • 5. Korman SH, Keren A. Metabolic heart failure. In: McDonagh TA, Gardner RS, Clark AL, Dargie H, editors. Oxford textbook of heart failure. Oxford University Press; 2011. p. 55-76.
        • 6. National Cancer Center; Ministry of Health and Welfare. Cancer facts & figures 2014 in the Republic of Korea. National Cancer Center; 2014.
      • - Online sources
        • 7. Statistics Korea. Causes of death statistics [Internet]. Statistics Korea; 2020 [cited 2022 Dec 11]. Available from: https://kosis.kr/eng/
        • 8. National Cancer Institute. General information about non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) [Internet]. National Cancer Institute; 2020 [cited 2023 Jan 20]. Available from: http://cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/non-small-cell-lung/healthprofessional
      • - Dissertation
        • 9. Hong GD. The relationship between low serum cholesterol level and cancer mortality [dissertation]. Seoul National University; 2009.
      • - Conference paper
        • 10. Leonard KJ, Winkelman W. Developing electronic patient records: employing interactive methods to ensure patient involvement. In: Ferreira de Oliveira MJ, editor. Accessibility and quality of health services. Proceedings of the 28th Meeting of the European Working Group on Operational Research Applied to Health Services (ORAHS); 2002 Jul 28-Aug 2; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Peter Lang; 2004. p. 241-55.
    
    

    9. Tables

    • Tables should be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text.
    • A table title should concisely describe the content of the table so that a reader can understand the table without referring to the text.
    • Each table should be clear and concise, and must be placed on a separate page with its heading displayed above it.
    • Explanatory matter is placed in footnotes below the tabular matter and not included in the heading. All abbreviations are explained in the footnotes.
    • Footnotes should be indicated by ^a), ^b), ^c)…. in superscript.
    • Statistical measures such as standard deviation (SD) or standard error (SE) should be identified.
    • In tables, remove internal horizontal or vertical lines. The horizontal line is only used for the title field and the bottom line.
    
    

    10. Figures and Figure Legends

    • Figures should be submitted as separate files during submission process.
    • Preferred formats are TIFF for photographic, raster images, and EPS or line-arts. The following formats may be suitable in selected images: JPEG/PNG/BMP (suitable for images if the original file format is JPEG/PNG/BMP), PPTX (only for diagrams made in PowerPoint file). Contact the editorial office for other formats.
    • Microscopic images should be described with staining method and magnification rate (e.g., H&E, ×400). Electron microscopic photographs should have an internal scale marker. Figures can be marked with arrows, letters, or other indicators, if necessary.
    • Figures should have a minimum width of 107 mm, and a minimum resolution of 300 dpi for color figures, 500 dpi for black and white figures, and 1,000 dpi for line art figures.
    • Figures should be numbered, using Arabic numerals, in the order in which they are cited.
    • Figure legends must be precise and written in English on a separate page. If a figure contains more than two pictures, they must be labeled as A, B, C, and so on. The description of the entire figure as well as the individual explanation of A, B, and C must be included. All abbreviations introduced in the figure legends must be defined as their first use.
    • If any tables or figures are taken or modified from other papers, authors should obtain permission through the Copyright Clearance Center (https://www.copyright.com/) or from the individual publisher, except where the materials concerned have been published in an open access journal under the Creative Commons License. For tables or figures from an open access journal, simply verify the source of the journal precisely in the accompanying footnote. Please note the distinction between a free access journal and an open access journal: it is necessary to obtain permission from the publisher of a free access journal for using tables or figures published therein. Examples are shown below:
      Reprinted (Modified) from Tanaka et al. [48], with permission of Elsevier.
      Reprinted (Modified) from Weiss et al. [2], according to the Creative Commons license.
    
    

    11. Supplementary Material

      Supplemental material refers to files related to a specific article, which authors supply for publication alongside their article. They should generally be additional pieces to the article that could not be included in the issue or print version, such as appendices, tables, and video material that is impossible to produce within the article. All supplemental materials will be available online, alongside the full-text article. During the submission process, please select “Supplement” for your uploaded file. A listing of supplementary materials must be submitted at the end of the manuscript file and must be cited consecutively in the text of the submitted manuscript.

    
    

    12. Adherence to Reporting Guidelines

      For specific study designs, such as randomized controlled trials, studies of diagnostic accuracy, meta-analyses, observational studies, and non-randomized studies, we strongly recommend that authors follow and stick to the reporting guidelines relevant to their specific research design. Authors should upload a completed checklist for the appropriate reporting guideline during original submission. Some reliable sources of reporting guidelines are the EQUATOR Network (https://www.equator-network.org/) and NLM (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).

• VII. FINAL PREPARATION FOR PUBLICATION

  • 1. Final Version

      After the paper has been accepted for publication, the author(s) should submit the final version of the manuscript. The names and affiliations of the authors should be double-checked, and if the originally submitted image files were of poor resolution, higher resolution image files should be submitted at this time. Symbols (e.g., circles, triangles, squares), letters (e.g., words, abbreviations), and numbers should be large enough to be legible on reduction to the journal’s column widths. All symbols must be defined in the figure caption. If references, tables, or figures are moved, added, or deleted during the revision process, renumber them to reflect such changes so that all tables, references, and figures are cited in numeric order.

    
    

    2. Manuscript Editing

      Before publication, the manuscript editor will make necessary corrections to ensure that the manuscript adheres to the standard publication format. The corresponding author must respond to the manuscript editor’s revisions within 2 days. If there is a delay in response, the publication of the manuscript may be delayed until the next issue.

    
    

    3. Galley Proof

      The author(s) will receive the final version of the manuscript as a PDF file. Upon receipt, the author(s) must notify the editorial office (or printing office) of any errors found in the file within 2 days. Any errors found after this time are the responsibility of the author(s) and will have to be corrected as an erratum.

    
    

    4. Errata and Corrigenda

      To correct errors in published articles, the corresponding author should contact the journal’s editorial office with a detailed description of the proposed correction. Corrections that profoundly affect the interpretation or conclusions of the article will be reviewed by the editors. Corrections will be published as corrigenda (corrections of the author’s errors) or errata (corrections of the publisher’s errors) in a later issue of the journal.

• VIII. CONTACT INFORMATION

  •   Editor-in-Chief: Han Ki Park
      Email: editor@jchestsurg.org
    
      Editorial Office:
      The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 101-401 Seoul Station Liga, 21 Mallijae-ro 33-gil, Jung-gu, 04501, Korea
      Tel: +82-31-709-0918
      Email: office@jchestsurg.org