All research papers in the Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery (ACS) are published in Open Access thanks to the generous sponsorship from the Collaborative Research (CORE) Group. Moreover, ACS immediately fulfills the requirements of the US National Institutes of Health, the UK Medical Research Council, the Welcome Trust, and other funding bodies by making the full text of publicly funded research freely available on www.annalscts.com and forwarding it directly to be indexed on PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine's full-text archive.

1. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES

Systematic Reviews with or without Meta-analyses

A comprehensive, scholarly, balanced, systematic review of evidence-based literature including all findings; these are not opinion submissions. Submissions should be state-of-the-art science confined mostly to the best available evidence. All meta-analyses of randomized trials must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the PRISMA statement, designed to improve manuscript quality ¹ . Authors must include a suitable PRISMA flow chart in their submission. Further advice on suitability is available from the Editorial Office. Useful resources for authors of review articles include the article 'Systematic reviews and meta-analysis for the surgeon scientist' by Galandiuk and colleagues ², and the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions ³.

ACS will consider for publication Cochrane review articles that have been substantially shortened and re-written for a surgical audience, but such submissions must state this on the title page of the manuscript, and copies of the original article must be sent to the Editorial Office for consideration. You must also apply for permission from the Cochrane Library – further information on how to do this is available in the Cochrane Manual ⁴ . Submissions must relate to important clinical subjects and be accompanied by author analysis leading to conclusions. The structured review must be no more than 6000 words, excluding the title page, abstract, text, tables, figures, figure legends, and references. Structured abstracts are limited to 300 words.

For more details, please read through the submission guidelines for ACS Systematic Reviews with or without Meta-analyses, and browse previous examples.

Keynote Lecture

The review of the topic must be submitted together with the Keynote Lecture video file. The submitted article must contain two components – a written manuscript and a PowerPoint presentation.

The manuscript should be educational and authoritative, representing the state-of-the-art review of the topic. Your expert opinions and recommendations are strongly encouraged. The PowerPoint should be approx. 20mins duration and must have narration. Further guidelines are attached to this email.

For more details, please read through the submission guidelines for ACS Keynote Lecture Series, and browse previous examples.

Featured Articles

Featured articles must be original scientific reports of clinical research, including randomized controlled trials, prospective studies and large institutional or multi-institutional reports, etc. Articles must be written in proper narrative prose and should follow the IMRaD style (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion). Submissions that solely summarise bodies of existing published work will not be accepted. The word limit is 3000 words.

For more details, please read through the submission guidelines for ACS Featured Articles, and browse previous examples.

Editorials

Editorials are generally viewpoint articles that provide new information or opinions from acknowledged experts and can be more subjective, forward-looking, or speculative. Re-tabulations of the existing literature, without insightful discussion and analysis, are discouraged. Editorials should be structured with an Introduction and Conclusion, but do not necessarily need subheadings. The word limit is 800-1000 words, with no abstract, no figures or tables, and 10 references maximum.

For more details, please read through the submission guidelines for ACS Editorials.

Art of Operative Techniques

This is an invited section that publishes illustrated articles. The body of the article should include 8-12 medical drawings or photographs, accompanied by detailed legends, describing the operative procedure in a step-by-step format. Your expert opinions regarding possible pitfalls and the comparison of the described procedure with other methods are encouraged. To ensure consistency of style, the ACS medical illustrator will work with the authors to produce the artwork.

For more details, please read through the submission guidelines for ACS Art of Operative Techniques, and browse previous examples.

Masters of Cardiothoracic Surgery

"Masters of Cardiothoracic Surgery" is a featured section that publishes narrated videos provided by renowned surgeons. This section is designed to be presented as a detailed "how to" multimedia manual for operative procedures. The submitted videos of each article must have a maximal limit of one hour in duration and it must be accompanied by descriptive text. The text should include three subheadings – Case Presentation, Surgical Techniques, and Comments. The main section on Surgical Techniques should include detailed descriptions of the procedures in a step-by-step format. Expert opinions regarding possible pitfalls and the comparison of the described procedure with other methods are encouraged. We will accept digital files in MP4, Flash video (.flv), MPEG (MPEG video file), mov, avi, and wmv formats or videos on CD/DVD. The corresponding author must confirm in the Copyright Transfer Agreement, that he/she has received a signed release form from each patient recorded on the submitted video. Patients must not be identifiable in these videos. If required, additional video editing by the authors, including the insertion of a voice-over, may also be requested by the ACS Editorial Office.

For more details, please read through the submission guidelines for ACS Masters of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and browse previous examples.

Your Comments

The Editors welcome letters related to papers and multimedia articles previously published in ACS. These can be submitted online in response to a specific article. The authors of the original publication may be given the opportunity to respond in the same issue of ACS. Letters and responses must not exceed 500 words in length, must be limited to three authors and five references, and should not have tables or figures.

2. STRUCTURE OF THE MANUSCRIPT

The length of manuscripts must strictly adhere to the specifications under the section Manuscript Categories. Manuscripts should be presented in the following order: (i) title page, (ii) abstract and keywords, (iii) text, (iv) acknowledgments, (v) disclosure, (vi) references, (vii) supplementary material, (viii) figure legends, (ix) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes) and (x) figures. Footnotes to the text are not permitted and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

Title Page

The title page should contain (i) the title of the manuscript. Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific. (ii) the full names of the authors and (iii) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out together with (iv) the full postal and email address, plus facsimile and telephone numbers, of the corresponding author. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should also be supplied. In keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, each author's contribution to the paper is to be quantified. The title should be short, informative, and contain the major keywords so that readers and online users will identify the article easily in an online search. Do not use abbreviations in the title. A short running title (less than 40 characters) must also be provided.

Abstract and Keywords

The length of all abstracts is limited to 300 words and should be either structured or non-structured according to the Submission Guidelines for the specific categories. It must be factual and comprehensive. The use of abbreviations and acronyms should be limited and general statements (e.g. "the significance of the results is discussed") should be avoided.

Three to five keywords should be supplied below the abstract and should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.

Text

Authors should follow the recommended headings to standardize article structures. This will ensure consistent formats and styles between articles, as well as improve ease of readability. Suggested discussion points are also provided in the Guidelines.

Acknowledgments

This should include sources of support, including federal and industry support. All authors who have contributed to the manuscript must be acknowledged. Medical writers, proofreaders, and editors should not be listed as authors but acknowledged at the end of the text.

Disclosure

At the time of submission, each author must disclose and describe any involvement, financial or otherwise, that might potentially pose a conflict of interest. The disclosure must be included in the text of the manuscript.

References

Sources should be referenced according to the Vancouver reference style.

In the text, references should be identified using numbers in round brackets. Where more than one number is required, they should appear consecutively [e.g., "cancer-related mortality (19)”; “adenocarcinoma (29,30)”; “raised significantly (15, 20, 31-33)”]. References (including in the text, tables, and figure legends) should be numbered consecutively and consistently according to the order in which they first appear in the text.

In the reference list, the titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. For reports with up to three authors, all the author names should be listed. However, if a report has more than three authors, the first three authors should be listed followed by “et al.”

• McLeer-Florin A, Lantuéjoul S. Why technical aspects rather than biology explain cellular heterogeneity in ALK-positive nonsmall cell lung cancer. J Thorac Dis 2012;4:240-1.
• Lin X, Li W, Lai J, et al. Five-year update on the mouse model of orthotopic lung transplantation: Scientific uses, tricks of the trade, and tips for success. J Thorac Dis 2012;4:247-58.

For other styles of publication (e.g., books, Internet articles, website links, etc.), please refer to samples here: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.

Below are two examples for the management of the reference:

a. If you manage references manually or in another way, you could refer to the reference example below:

Lin X, Li W, Lai J, et al. Five-year update on the mouse model of orthotopic lung transplantation: Scientific uses, tricks of the trade, and tips for success. J Thorac Dis 2012;4:247-58.

b. If you use “Endnote” (a commercial reference management software package produced by Clarivate Analytics, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles), the reference style file for the Annals can be directly downloaded here: https://cdn.amegroups.cn/static/public/reference-style.ens.

Tables

Tables are recommended to be provided in separate files. Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, the information contained in the text. All tables should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Each table should be on a separate page; tables must be typed and editable in a tabular format that is convenient for copyediting and typesetting; they should not be inserted as images. Please refer to the examples for different cases.

Each column must have an appropriate heading and, if measurements are given, the units should be provided in the column heading. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in this order), and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

If the tables have been reproduced from another source, a letter or permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) authorizing the reproduction of the material must be submitted as supplemental material along with the manuscript.

Figures

Figures should be provided in separate files. All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in which they appear in the text. Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration.

• File types, resolution, size: Please refer to the specification (file types, resolution, image size, file size, etc.) for more detailed requirements. For the flow diagram of a study/trial (e.g. CONSORT diagram), please provide the diagram in an editable form, e.g. Word (.doc) or PowerPoint (.ppt) file, etc. For photographs, clinical images, photomicrographs, gel electrophoresis, and other types that include labels, arrows, or other markers, please submit 2 versions: one version with the markers and one without. An explanation for all labels, arrows, or other markers should be included in the figure legend.
• Figure legends: Legends should be provided for figures, including the figure title, the full name of any abbreviation in the figure, a detailed description of any symbol in the figure (e.g., some color notation or arrows), and a separate description of each figure if it is a combination of several figures, etc.
• Copyright: If the figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) authorizing the reproduction of the material must be attached to the cover letter (see the "COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION" section).
• Patient Privacy: Where illustrations include recognizable individuals, living or deceased, great care must be taken to ensure that consent for publication has been given (see the "ethical consideration" section). A statement like “This image is published with the patient/participant’s consent.” should be included at the end of the figure legend. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. For example, photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects from being recognized and the eyes and eyebrows (at a minimum) must be masked using Coarse Pixilation to make the individual unrecognizable. However, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are de-identified, authors should assure that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.

In-text citations

• Cite figures with the format: Figure 1A, Figure 1B, Figure 2, Figure 3, etc. When consecutive subparts of a figure are cited, they should be cited as Figure 1A-1D, Figure 2B-2L, etc.
• Cite figures in ascending numeric order upon the first appearance in the manuscript file. This includes citations to text boxes and tables. In the published article, figures are inserted according to the placement of their first citation and caption in the article.
• Lettered subparts of whole figures may be cited in any order in the text if the first mention of each whole figure is in numerical order. For example, Figure 1 contains 4 subparts (i.e. Figure 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D). These subparts should be cited consecutively unless Figure 1 as a whole is already cited before Figure 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D.

Videos

Videos should be provided in separate files. The journal will accept digital files in mp4, flash video (flv.), MPEG (MPEG video file), DVD video, mov., avi., and mwv. formats or videos on CD / DVD. Contributors are asked to be succinct, and the editorial office reserves the right to request a shorter video if necessary. Video files can be submitted online at: https://www.annalscts.com/author/submitYourMultimediaFiles.

• Duration: Video files should be limited to 30 minutes. For keynote lecture series, the presentation video is expected be within 20 mins.
• Quality: Please set the video aspect ratio as 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen). The original video should be of high quality with the resolution ≥1280×720, the frame rate ≥24 frames per second, and the bit rate ≥5 Mbps.
• In-video text and audio: Videos should have text or symbols or audio descriptions. All text notes, explanations, descriptions, etc. in the video must be provided in English. Any patient information should be erased from the video.
• Video legends: Legends should be provided for the video files. The video files should be numbered consecutively in their order of reference in the text.
• Copyright: If the videos have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) authorizing the reproduction of the material must be attached to the cover letter. It is especially worth noting that if background music appears in a video, the author should also obtain authorization from the copyright owner of that music if that music is involved in copyright licensing (see the “COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION” section).
• File name: please name the videos as Video 1, Video 2, Video S1, Video S2, etc. upon submission.

In-text citations

• Cite videos with the format: Video 1, Video 2, Video S1, Video S2, etc.
• Cite videos in ascending numeric order upon the first appearance in the manuscript file.

Equations

Equations should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals; these should be ranged right in parentheses. All variables should appear in italics. Use the simplest possible form for all mathematical symbols.

Supplementary Files

The Supplementary Appendix should be paginated, with a table of contents, followed by the list of investigators (if there are any), text (such as methods), figures, tables, and then references. The supplementary appendix should not be included in the article’s reference list.

The Appendix must be submitted in a Word file. The Appendix will not be edited for style. It will be presented online as additional information provided by the authors.

The published article will contain a statement that supplementary material exists online and will provide the reader with a URL and/or link. Refer to the following example for how to reference the supplementary appendix in the text of the article: "Many more regressions were run than can be included in the article. The interested reader can find them in a supplementary appendix online."

3. DISCLOSURE

At the time of submission, the submitting author must include a disclosure statement in the body of the manuscript. The statement should include whether the authors have published or submitted the manuscript elsewhere. The statement will also describe all of the authors’ relationships with companies that may have a financial interest in the information contained in the manuscript. This information should be provided under the heading titled 'Disclosure', which should appear after the ‘Acknowledgment’ section and before the 'References' section. The absence of any interest to disclose must also be stated. In addition, any financial interests must be detailed in the Financial Disclosure form, which will be provided to the corresponding author upon acceptance for distribution to each author.

4. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000), available at: http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm. The Annals retains the right to reject any manuscript based on unethical conduct of either human or animal studies. All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subjects gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects from being recognized (or an eye bar should be used).

In general, submission of a case report should be accompanied by the written consent of the subject (or parent/guardian) before publication; this is particularly important where photographs are to be used or in cases where the unique nature of the incident reported makes it possible for the patient to be identified. While the Editorial Board recognizes that it might not always be possible or appropriate to seek such consent, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that this exception applies in their case. Any experiments involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and where relevant conform to national guidelines for animal usage in research.

5. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRY

We require, as a condition of consideration for publication, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at, or before, the onset of patient enrollment. This policy applies to any clinical trial starting enrollment after January 1, 2006. For trials that began enrollment before this date, we require registration by April 1, 2006, before considering the trial for publication. We define a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase 1 trials) are exempt.

We do not advocate one particular registry, but registration must be with a registry that meets the following minimum criteria: (1) accessible to the public at no charge; (2) searchable by standard, electronic (Internet-based) methods; (3) open to all prospective registrants free of charge or at minimal cost; (4) validates registered information; (5) identifies trials with a unique number; and (6) includes information on the investigator(s), research question or hypothesis, methodology, intervention and comparisons, eligibility criteria, primary and secondary outcomes measured, date of registration, anticipated or actual start date, anticipated or actual date of last follow-up, target number of subjects, status (anticipated, ongoing or closed) and funding source(s).

Registries that currently meet these criteria include (1) the registry sponsored by the United States National Library of Medicine (www.clinicaltrials.gov); (2) the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry (http://www.controlled-trials.com); (2) the Australian Clinical Trials Registry (http://www.actr.org.au); (4) the Chinese Clinical Trials Register (http://www.chictr.org); and (5) the Clinical Trials Registry - India (http://www.ctri.in).

6. RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

Reporting of randomized controlled trials should follow the guidelines of The CONSORT Statement: http://www.consort-statement.org

7. COPYRIGHT

Papers accepted for publication in the Annals become copyright of ACS and the corresponding author will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form on behalf of all authors. In signing the transfer of copyright, it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the Copyright Assignment Form, and the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Acceptance of a manuscript is contingent upon receipt of a signed Copyright Assignment Form.

8. STYLE OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Manuscripts must follow the style of the Vancouver agreement detailed in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ revised 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication', as presented at: http://www.ICMJE.org/.

1) Author name: Each author’s given name should be followed by their surname. The first letter of the surname should be capitalized. A hyphen can be used in the surname depending on the rule in the author’s region.
Note: Author names will be published exactly as they appear in the manuscript file. Please double-check the information carefully to make sure it is correct. If applicable, an ORCID should be placed after the name of the author.

2) Abbreviation of an author’s name: The first letter of each capitalized word will be used for the name’s abbreviation, i.e., "Shaoling Li" becomes "SL." The first letter of the second name SHOULD NOT be capitalized, or else it will be included in the abbreviation. However, if the author wishes to use an abbreviation that includes their second name, they should write their second name using a hyphen to connect it with its anterior word, i.e., "Shao-Ling Li" to become "SLL."

3) Spelling: The Annals uses US spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

4) Numbers: for numbers below 10 and used at the beginning of a sentence, use the full English spelling, e.g., "nine" instead of "9"; for numbers ≥10, use the Arabic numerals; for numbers ≥1,000, use the thousand separator, i.e., "1,000" instead of "1000".

5) Italics: Medical Latin words and gene names need to be italicized, e.g., in vivo, in vitro.

6) Units: All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units. For more information about SI units, please go to the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website at: https://www.bipm.org/en/about-us.

7) Abbreviations: Must be used sparingly – only where they ease the reader’s task by reducing the repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.

8) Trade names: Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name, and the name and location of the manufacturer, in parentheses.

9) Format: Text should be double-spaced throughout. The pages should be numbered.

10) Font: A readable font (e.g., Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, or Verdana) with 10 or 12 pt. font size.

9. SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Supporting Information is provided by the authors to support the content of an article but they are not integral to that article. They do not appear in the print version of the article. Supporting Information must be submitted together with the article for review; they should not be added at a later stage. They can be in the form of tables, figures, appendices and video footage. Reference to Supporting Information in the main body of the article is allowed. However, it should be noted that excessive reference to an item listed as. Supporting Information may indicate that it would be better suited as a proper reference or fully included figure/table. The materials will be published as they are supplied and will not be checked or typeset in any way. All Supporting Information files should be accompanied by a legend, listed at the end of the main article. Each figure and table file should not be larger than 5MB, although video files may be larger.

10. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

General Requirements

All articles submitted to the Annals must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in the return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication.

• Submissions must be double-spaced.
• All margins should be at least 30 mm.
• All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.
• Do not use Enter at the end of lines within a paragraph.
• Turn the hyphenation option off; include only those hyphens that are essential to the meaning.
• Specify any special characters used to represent non-keyboard characters.
• Take care not to use l (ell) for 1 (one), O (capital o) for 0 (zero) or ß (German esszett) for (Greek beta).
• 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 (i.e. do not use carriage returns within cells).

Each figure should be supplied as a separate file, with the figure number incorporated in the file name. For submission, low-resolution figures saved as .jpg or .bmp files should be uploaded, for ease of transmission during the review process. Upon acceptance of the article, high-resolution figures (at least 300 dpi) saved as .eps or .tif files should be uploaded. Digital images supplied only as low-resolution files cannot be used for publication.

Cover Letter

Papers are accepted for publication in ACS based on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium. This must be stated in the cover letter. The cover letter must also contain an acknowledgment that all authors have contributed significantly and that all authors agree with the content of the manuscript. In keeping with the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, each author’s contribution to the paper is to be quantified.

11. REVIEW PROCESS

The reviewers' evaluations and Associate Editor's comments are compiled by the Editor-in-Chief for disposition and transmission to the authors. A decision is usually made within four weeks of the submission of the manuscript.

The Editor-in-Chief will advise authors whether a manuscript is accepted, should be revised, or is rejected. Minor revisions are expected to be returned within two weeks of the decision; major revisions within four weeks. Manuscripts not revised within these time periods are subject to withdrawal from consideration for publication unless the authors can provide proof of extenuating circumstances.

A number of manuscripts will have to be rejected on the grounds of priority and available space. A manuscript may be returned to the authors without external review if the Editor-in-Chief and the Associate Editor find it inappropriate for publication in the Annals. Similarly, the Editors may expedite the review process for manuscripts felt to be of high priority to reach a rapid decision. Such ‘fast-track decisions’ will normally occur within one week of receipt of the manuscript.

Authors may recommend preferred reviewers by providing the Editor-in-Chief with the names, addresses, and email addresses of up to three suitably qualified individuals of international standing. However, the Editor-in-Chief will not be bound by any such nomination. Likewise, authors may advise of any individual who for any reason, such as a potential conflict of interest, might be inappropriate to act as a referee, again without binding the Editor-in-Chief.

The Editor-in-Chief's decision is final. However, if the authors dispute a decision and can document good reasons why a manuscript should be reconsidered, a rebuttal process exists. In the first incidence, authors should write to the Editor-in-Chief.

All manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication, the Editor and the Publisher reserve the right to modify manuscripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition to improve communication between the author and the reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

12. PROOFS

It is essential that corresponding authors supply an email address to which correspondence can be emailed while their article is in production. Notification of the URL from where to download a Portable Document Format (PDF) typeset page proof, associated forms, and further instructions will be sent by email to the corresponding author. The purpose of the PDF proof is a final check of the layout tables and figures. Alterations other than the essential correction of errors are unacceptable at the PDF proof stage. The proof should be checked, and approval to publish the article should be emailed to the Publisher by the date indicated, otherwise, it may be signed off by the Editor or held over to the next issue. Acrobat Reader will be required to read the PDF. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following website: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen, and printed out for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof.

13. OFFPRINTS

Minimum orders of 50 offprints will be provided upon request, at the author's expense. Please email sales@amegroups.com.

14. ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE

NO CHARGE FOR INVITED ARTICLES.

Free submissions will incur an article processing charge if the manuscript is accepted. This charge is 2390 USD. This article processing charge policy is valid from March 1st 2019.

15. TRACKING MANUSCRIPTS

Author Services enables authors to track their article, once it has been accepted, through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production so they do not need to contact the production editor to check on progress.

16. EPUB AHEAD OF PRINT (ACCEPTED ARTICLES)

ACS offers Accepted Articles service for selected articles. Accepted Articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Articles are therefore available as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next scheduled print issue. Accepted Articles have been fully reviewed and approved for publication, but have yet to undergo copy-editing and proof correction. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article. More information about DOIs can be found at http://www.doi.org/faq.html

17. ACS ONLINE

For more information, visit the journal home page at: www.annalscts.com. For any questions, please contact our Editorial Office by e-mail: editor@annalscts.com.

References

1. Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. Open Med 2009; 3(3): 123-130.
2. Mahid SS, Hornung CA, Minor KS, Turina M, Galandiuk S. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses for the surgeon scientist. Br J Surg 2006; 93: 1315-1324.
3. The Cochrane Collaboration. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (formerly the Reviewers' Handbook). http://www.cochrane.org/resources/handbook/ [accessed 2 July 2007].
4. The Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Manual, Issue 3, 2007. http://www.cochrane.org/admin/manual.htm) [updated 24 May 2007].