Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission Guidelines & Policies 

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents, and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an ethics committee in accordance with the study country's legal requirements.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet the minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure the study design and research argument are properly structured and articulated. The title should be concise, and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood that reviewers will agree to review the paper. Once you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare it.

1. REQUIRED FILES

Each submission must include:

• Title Page File (separate Word document)

• Main Manuscript File (blinded)

• Tables File(s)

• Figures (high-resolution TIFF, EPS or PNG; PowerPoint source optional)

• Manuscript Highlights File

• ICMJE Disclosure of Interest form — one completed PDF per author

• Required Documentation (as applicable to study type)

2. TITLE PAGE FILE SPECIFICATIONS

1. Manuscript Title

• Clear, concise, and reflective of content

• No abbreviations unless standard

2. Author Information

• Full names with academic degrees

• Institutional affiliations

• Complete institutional addresses

• Email addresses

• ORCID identifier (mandatory for corresponding author, optional for others)

3. Corresponding Author Details

• Complete contact information

• Institutional address

• Telephone number

• Email address

• ORCID identifier (mandatory)

3. MANUSCRIPT TEMPLATES 

Please prepare your submission using the ASIDE templates: HERE

MAIN MANUSCRIPT STRUCTURE

1. Blinding Requirements

• Remove all author identification

• Delete self-referential phrases

2. Required Sections

a) Abstract (300 words maximum)

• Structured format: Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions

• No undefined abbreviations

• No citations

b) Keywords

• 3-6 keywords

c) Main Text

• Introduction

• Methods

• Results

• Discussion

• Conclusions

Declarations panel on the submission form (required). When you submit, you will see a Declarations step at For the Editors. It offers standard wording for each statement below that you can select and then edit. The following statements are required and the form will not let you submit until each is answered: Conflicts of Interest, Funding Sources, Ethics Approval/IRB Statement, Informed Consent Statement, Data Availability Statement, Use of Generative AI, and Authors Contribution Statement. Original Articles also require a Clinical Trial Registration statement (choose "Not a clinical trial" if it does not apply). Acknowledgements are optional. Nothing is pre-filled: every statement is your own declaration. Where a standard wording contains a slot in square brackets, such as [FULL NAME OF COMMITTEE], please fill it in; an unfilled slot publishes exactly as written. Please also keep the Declarations section in your manuscript as described here.

ICMJE Disclosure of Interest forms (required). Every listed author must personally complete the official ICMJE Disclosure of Interest form. The corresponding author uploads one completed form per author at submission, using the file component Disclosure of Interest (ICMJE form), named ICMJE - Surname Initials.pdf. A submission with a missing form for any author will be returned. We also encourage every author to connect an ORCID iD; the journal will email each author an ORCID verification request on acceptance.

d) Declarations

• Conflicts of Interest — if there are none, write: “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.”

• Ethics Approval/IRB Statement — give the full name of the approving committee and the approval number. If approval was waived or not required, say who determined that and why.

• Informed Consent Statement — if no identifiable individual patient data are reported, write: “Not applicable. No identifiable individual patient data are reported.”

• Funding Sources — name each funder and grant number. If there was no funding, write: “The authors received no specific funding for this work.”

• Acknowledgements — optional. Omit this heading entirely if there is nothing to acknowledge.

• Data Availability Statement (if not applicable, write the reason)

• Large-Language Model (LLM) – Generative AI Use Statement — if no AI tools were used, write: “The authors declare that no generative artificial intelligence tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript.”
  Example: We have employed an advanced Large Language Model (LLM) to enhance and refine the English-language writing. This process focused solely on improving the text's clarity and style, without generating or adding any new information to the content.

• Authors Contribution Statement (mandatory)
  Example: List each author's specific contributions using CRediT taxonomy (e.g., Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, etc.)

e) References

• Vancouver citation style formatting

• Every reference should have a DOI, and PMCID/PMID if available (if not available, please add URL)

• Chronological citation order

4. FIGURES AND TABLES SPECIFICATIONS

1. Figures

• Format: high-resolution TIFF or EPS (preferred), or high-resolution PNG; a PowerPoint source file is optional. Do not convert a low-resolution image into TIFF

• Dimensions:

  • Minimum: 1200 × 1200 pixels

  • Maximum: 3000 × 3000 pixels

  • Resolution: minimum 300 dpi at the final printed size (single column about 1000 px wide; full page width about 2100 px)

• Each figure as a separate file

• Legend requirements:

  • Place below figure

  • Define all abbreviations

  • Explain any symbols or markers

  • Include scale bars where applicable

  • Color usage must be scientifically justified

2. Tables

• Format: Word document

• Structure:

  • Clear, descriptive titles

  • No vertical lines

  • Consistent cell formatting

• Legend requirements:

  • Place below table

  • Define all abbreviations

  • Explain any symbols or statistical notations

  • Include additional notes if necessary

5. REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION BY MANUSCRIPT TYPE

• Editorial, Review, Frontier, Field of Vision, Minireview, Letter to The Editor, Correction, Retraction Note
  None required.

• Basic Science / Pre-Clinical Study

  • Clinical Trial Registration Statement (recommended where applicable)

  • Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Statement (required for research involving animals)

  • ARRIVE Guidelines (required for basic research using animals)

• Retrospective Study, Clinical Practice Study

  • Clinical Trial Registration Statement (required for any clinical research study)

  • Signed Informed Consent Form(s) (required for research involving human subjects where applicable)

• Case Control Study, Observational Study, Retrospective Cohort Study

  • Clinical Trial Registration Statement (required for clinical research studies)

  • Signed Informed Consent Form(s) (required for research involving human subjects where applicable)

  • STROBE Statement (required for observational, case control, and retrospective cohort studies)

• Clinical Trials Study, Prospective Study, Randomized Controlled Trial, Randomized Clinical Trial

  • Clinical Trial Registration Statement (required for any clinical research study)

  • Signed Informed Consent Form(s) (required for research involving human subjects where applicable)

  • CONSORT 2025 Statement (required for clinical trials and randomized studies)

• Evidence-Based Medicine, Scientometrics, Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis

  • PRISMA 2020 Checklist (required for systematic reviews and meta-analyses)

• Case Report

  • Signed Consent for Treatment Form(s) (required for case reports involving patient data where applicable)

  • CARE Checklist (required for all case reports)

REPORTING GUIDELINES

Prepare your manuscript using the reporting guideline that matches your study design and upload the completed checklist at submission:

• Randomised trials: CONSORT 2025
• Trial protocols: SPIRIT 2025
• Observational studies: STROBE
• Studies using routinely collected health data (EHR, claims, registries): RECORD
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA 2020 (protocols: PRISMA-P)
• Diagnostic accuracy studies: STARD
• Prediction model studies: TRIPOD (TRIPOD+AI where AI is used)
• Quality improvement studies: SQUIRE
• Economic evaluations: CHEERS
• Case reports: CARE
• Animal research: ARRIVE

Checklists are available from the EQUATOR Network.

6. REVISION REQUIREMENTS

1. Revised Manuscript Versions

• Version 1: Changes highlighted in yellow

• Version 2: Clean copy

2. Response to Reviewers

• Point-by-point response

• Page/line numbers for changes

• Justification for declined suggestions

7. SURGICAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Manuscripts reporting surgical interventions must also satisfy the following. Submissions that omit them will be returned before peer review.

• Reporting guideline. Follow and submit the completed checklist for the guideline that matches the design: CONSORT (randomised trials, with the extension for non-pharmacologic treatments), STROBE (observational studies), STROCSS (cohort, case-control and cross-sectional surgical studies), SCARE (case reports), PROCESS (case series), PRISMA (systematic reviews) or CARE where applicable.
• Stage of innovation. Studies of a new or modified operation, device or technique must state the IDEAL stage (Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment, Long-term study) and justify the design for that stage.
• Operative detail. Describe the procedure in enough detail to be reproduced: approach, key steps, instrumentation and implants or devices used, with manufacturer and model where relevant.
• Surgeon and centre factors. Report the number of surgeons and centres, their experience and annual case volume, and whether a learning curve was assessed and how.
• Complications. Grade postoperative complications with the Clavien-Dindo classification, and report the Comprehensive Complication Index where cumulative morbidity is a stated outcome. State the follow-up period and the denominator for every rate.
• Outcomes. Define primary and secondary outcomes a priori, including mortality window (in-hospital, 30-day or 90-day), length of stay, readmission, reoperation and, where used, patient-reported outcome measures with the instrument named and validated.
• Perioperative care. State the anaesthetic technique, antimicrobial and thromboprophylaxis protocols and any enhanced recovery pathway followed, where these could affect the outcomes reported.
• Consent for images and video. Intraoperative photographs, radiological images and operative video require written informed consent for publication when the patient could be identified; consent for video must cover audio. Faces, tattoos, surgical site markings and hospital identifiers must be removed. For a child, provide parental or guardian consent and, where the child is old enough, assent.
• Devices and industry. Disclose any relationship with the manufacturer of a device, implant or instrument studied, including proctoring, consultancy, royalties and equipment loans, and state the role of the manufacturer in design, analysis and drafting.
• Cadaveric, animal and simulation studies. State the source and ethical approval for cadaveric material, follow ARRIVE for animal studies, and describe the validity evidence for any simulation model used.
• Registration. Prospective registration is required for clinical trials and expected for prospective surgical cohort studies and systematic reviews; give the registry and registration number.

COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

Manuscripts that do not conform to these specifications will be returned without review. Authors must verify compliance with all requirements before submission. The editorial office maintains the right to reject manuscripts that do not meet these standards even after initial screening.

Author Charges Policy  

No Charges: Our journal does not impose any fees at any stage of the manuscript processing, from submission to publication, including:

• Submission fees

• Editorial processing charges

• Article processing charges (APCs)

• Page charges

• Color charges

Fee Waivers: We do not currently offer fee waivers, as no charges apply.

Withdrawal Charges: There are no fees for withdrawing an article post-submission. However, authors are encouraged to carefully consider their submissions to avoid unnecessary processing.

Plagiarism Policy — ASIDE Surgery

Commitment to Originality: We are committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. As part of this commitment, all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism before publication.

Similarity Screening: All submissions undergo similarity screening before peer review. Authors are encouraged to check their work for originality before submission. Screening output is interpreted by the editorial team alongside the manuscript itself; no single numerical score determines the outcome.

Acceptance Criteria: The similarity score must be below 25% to meet our publication criteria. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold may be rejected or returned to the author for modification after editorial assessment of flagged overlap.

Publication Timeline 

• Journal Frequency: quarterly (four issues annually). Manuscripts are screened editorially, then sent to at least two independent reviewers under a double-anonymous model. The time to a first decision varies with subject area, reviewer availability and the number of revision rounds required. The journal does not offer expedited, fast-track or paid-priority review of any kind. Authors may contact the editorial office at any time to ask about the status of a manuscript. Accepted articles are published online ahead of print.

Authors can submit manuscripts at any time throughout the year. Accepted articles will be published online ahead of print.

Repository & Self-Archiving Policy  

Authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their article in any institutional, subject, or general-purpose repository of their choice, as well as on personal or departmental websites: Preprint (Author's Original), Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM), and the Published Article/Version of Record (VoR). No embargo applies. Clearly label the deposited file with its version (e.g., "Preprint," "Accepted Manuscript," or "Version of Record").

Deposit may occur immediately upon submission, acceptance, or publication. No embargo is required or imposed by the journal.

Deposits may be made in institutional repositories (e.g., university repositories), subject repositories (e.g., discipline-specific servers), general repositories (e.g., Zenodo), and recognized preprint servers. Posting to an author's personal or departmental webpage is also allowed.

Deposited versions must display the article's open-access license and copyright notice exactly as shown on the journal website. Authors should include the full citation and DOI of the Version of Record wherever available.

Linking & citations

• For preprints and AAMs, authors must add a prominent link to the Version of Record (VoR) once it is available, using the article DOI and include a note such as: "Now published in ASIDE Surgery; see Version of Record."

• Cite the VoR when referring to the final publication.

Version terminology (NISO JAV)

• Preprint (Author's Original/Submitted Manuscript): before peer review

• Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM): after peer review, accepted, before publisher layout

• Version of Record (VoR): the final, formally published version on the journal site

Preprints & prior posting
Posting a preprint does not count as prior publication. Authors may submit manuscripts that have been previously posted as preprints; we ask that repository records be updated to link to the VoR after publication.

ASIDE Crossmark Policy 

Permanency of content:
All articles published in ASIDE Journals receive a DOI and are permanently published. This applies regardless of the outcome of the peer review following publication.

All content, including articles that have not (yet) passed peer review, is permanently archived. All versions of all articles that have passed peer review will be archived in databases.

By applying the Crossmark policies, ASIDE Journals is committed to maintaining its content and alerting readers to any changes as they occur.

Clicking the Crossmark logo displays an article's current status and directs you to the latest published version; it may also provide additional information.

To maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record, the following policies will be applied when published content needs to be corrected:

Correction to an Article
Where articles are peer-reviewed before publication, Corrections (or Errata) are published to alert readers to errors in the article that became apparent following the publication of the final article.

Retraction
Articles may be retracted for several reasons, including:

• honest errors reported by the authors

• research misconduct (data fabrication)

• duplicate or overlapping publication

• fraudulent use of data

• clear plagiarism

• unethical research

For any retracted article, the reason for retraction and who is instigating the retraction will be clearly stated in the Retraction notice. The retraction notice will be linked to the retracted article (which usually remains on the site), and the article will be clearly marked as retracted (including the PDF).

An article is usually only retracted at the author's request or by the publisher in response to an institutional investigation. In the context of ASIDE Journals' publication model, a retracted article is not "unpublished" or "withdrawn" in order for it to be published elsewhere.

Content removal is rare and occurs only where legal limitations apply (e.g., defamation, infringement, or a court order). In such cases, bibliographic information will be retained on the site with an explanation.

Under rare circumstances, if false or inaccurate data pose a serious health risk, incorrect version(s) may be removed and a corrected version published. The reason for partial removal will be clearly stated in the latest version.

Editorial Note
If there is a potential, not yet resolved, problem with an article, it may be appropriate to alert readers with an Editorial Note while investigations are ongoing, until a permanent resolution is reached (e.g., correction or retraction).

Confidentiality: reviewers and editors

Reviewers and editors must not upload submitted manuscripts, figures, supplementary files, unpublished data, reviewer reports or editorial correspondence to any external generative-AI tool or service. This protects the confidentiality of the authors' unpublished work and follows ICMJE recommendations. Reviewers remain personally responsible for the content of their reports.