KjG is the official journal of The Korean Society of Gastroenterology, published monthly. The Journal publishes original articles of clinical and fundamental researches on gastrointestinal tract, liver, and pancreatobiliary tract, to contribute further development of gastroenterology. This regulation is revised based on the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (https://www.icmje.org) and are supplemented ethical principles and rules for references.
1. TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT
- 1) The types of manuscripts include editorials, original papers, review articles, case reports, image of the month, research update, and special articles
- 2) Review articles, image of the month, and research update are generally limited to manuscripts solicited by the editorial board.
2. LANGUAGE OF MANUSCRIPT
- 1) All manuscripts must be in either Korean or English. Hangul (.hwp) or MS Word (.doc) may be used for Korean manuscripts, and MS Word for English manuscripts. The manuscripts must be double-spaced in A4 size.
- 2) The glossary issued by Korean Medical Association shall apply for the use of medical terms in Korean manuscripts. If translations in Korean are not available, such as for proper nouns, names of medicine, and units, English may be used in Korean manuscripts. If translationsare likely to cause confusions, the term should be presented in its original language in parentheses at the first appearance, and then only translated term should be used.
- 3) For English abbreviations, authors can refer to the "list of English abbreviations" provided by the journal. Other abbreviations, which are not listed on it, and used for 3 times or more must be defined at the first mention in the text using parentheses.
3. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT
1) Apply for publication
- ① All manuscripts must be submitted through the online submission system of the Society's website (https://www. gastrokorea.org). The peer review afterward is conducted through the system as well.
- ② Authors should read carefully the checklist posted on the Society's website and submit after checking each items. There is no submission fee.
- ③ Only the first author and/or corresponding author can submit the manuscript through the online system.
- ④ The decision to publish will be made by the editorial board of the journal after the peer review. The board has the right to reject and demand the revision of the submitted manuscripts if the board believes that the manuscripts do not stand to the rules of the regulations.
- ⑤ The editorial board has the right to revise and edit the styles and structures of submitted manuscripts within the context if necessary.
2) Authorship and copyright
- ① As stated in the ICMJE recommendations, credit for authorshiprequires (a) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work, (b) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (c) final approval of the version to be published, (d) 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.
- ② Upon the submission of manuscripts, all authors must sign and submit the "Copyright Transfer Agreement Form", and it is not allowed to change the first or corresponding author, or to add or remove co-author(s) once the manuscript is submitted to the Society.
- ③ The Copyright Transfer Agreement Form must be submitted via mail (to the main office of the Society), fax, or e-mail as scanned file.
- ④ The editorial board may return the submitted manuscripts if they are not correctly composed according to the “checklist” for technical reasons. Authors should revise their manuscripts according to the regulations before resubmission.
- ⑤ Authors should clearly identify the fact that there is conflict of interest, if any, related to the submitted articles.
3) Principles on overlapping publication
- ① The Society do not accept any manuscripts that are identical or significantly similar to studies already published or going to be published in other journals.
- ② It is not allowed for authors to publish their articles already appeared in KJG without permission from the board. Multiple or duplicate publication is only limited to the cases specified in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Ann Intern Med 1997; 126:36-47). This does not apply to the publication of abstracts or posters.
- ③ Authors are subject to penalties and/or unfavorable outcomes if unauthorized duplicate publication is discovered.
4. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
- 1) When reporting experiments on human subjects, authorswho submit manuscripts to KJG should acquire the permission from the ethical committee on human experiment and indicate all possible physical and psychological damages on subjects and/or their guardians before the experiment is conducted, in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.
- 2) Any information that could have revealed subjects’ identities, such as name and initials, should not appear in the text. If a photo is presented, proper measures should be taken not to reveal the subject’s identity, or a written consent must be presented for the photo and possible disclosure of subject’s identity.
- 3) When reporting experiments on animals, authors should describe the measures they have taken to ease pains and inconvenience on the subjects, and indicate whether the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or corresponding guideline was followed.
- 4) For unspecified yet necessary guidelines on the issues of legitimacy and ethics on the submitted manuscripts, authors may consult the International Standards for Editors and Authors by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which is available at https://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards-for-editorsand-authors.
- 5) When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, an undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and so on, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Editorial Board.
- 6) Description of sex or gender of study subjects: Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex 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).
5. REVIEW OF MANUSCRIPT
- 1) All manuscripts submitted to the KjG are initially reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief to make an initial determination regarding suitability for external peer review.
- 2) After the manuscript passes through the initial review, it is sent out to at least two reviewers with relevant expertise who are selected by the editorial board.
- 3) The editors make the decision of publication based on the result of peer review. Once the decision on publication as accept, revision or reject is made, it is directly noticed to the corresponding author. With respect to the revision of manuscripts, it is the journal's policy to allow a couple of revision only, which should be received within 8 weeks for original articles, and 4 weeks for case reports, otherwise it is decided to be rejected. Rejected manuscripts are not considered for publication again.
- 4) After the final draft of the manuscript is proven to be appropriate according to the publication policies and styles of the journal, the decision of publication is finalized and expected publication date will be given.
6. PREPARING A MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION
1) General principles
- ① The text of original articles is organized in the following order; title page, English abstract, introduction, subjects and methods, results, discussion, summary, acknowledgement, references, figure legends, tables, and figures or images.
- ② Names and affiliations of authors must appear on the title page only.
- ③ When a superscript is used at the end of a sentence, the superscript is located after a comma or a period.
ex) ... followed by a superscript.1,3(O)
... followed by a superscript1,3. (X)
2) Title page
- ① The title page should have the following information in order. Article title, Authors (name, affiliation, position), shortened title in English, contact information for corresponding authors (name, mailing address in Korean and/or English, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript). (Do not include authors' final degree. Names of multiple authors are separated by a comma(,) and insert 'and' in front of the last author's name without a comma before it.)
- ② A shortened title must be provided if the article title is longer than 12 words in English. The first letter of all nouns and adjectives of English title should be capitalized. The pages of manuscripts must be numbered consecutively, beginning on the title page and located at the center of the footer.
- ③ When authors have multiple affiliations, list the affiliation where most of the research was conducted. Other affiliations should be following the major affiliation with superscripts on each of them. The superscripts should be referring to the author of that affiliation.
- ④ Fund: Authors must declare all financial, if relevant, any editorial assistance received to support the underlying research project and/or the preparation of the article for submission.
- ⑤ Conflict of interest: Authors must identify any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.
3) English abstract
- ① Do not state authors' names and affiliations.
- ② The abstract must be no more than 250 words and should be composed of Background/Aims, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
- ③ Abbreviations should follow the conventional rule and citations are not allowed for the abstract.
- ④ A list of key words no more than five should be provided. Each key word starts with a capitalized letter, separated by a semi colon, and using MeSH terms.
4) Introduction
- ① Provide a context or background for the study, which must be explicitly related to the aims of the study.
- ② Deduct research hypothesis systematically and describe the aims of the study briefly and clearly.
- ③ Do not repeat the contents of the result and discussion in the introduction.
5) Subjects and Methods
- ① Describe the plan of research, characteristics of subjects, and the length and methods of observation in as much details as possible.
- ② Indicate that the study has received the permission from the ethical committee for experiments on human subjects, and from animal experiments committee for experiments on animals.
- ③ When reporting the use of reagents or machine, indicate the name of company, city, state, country of the used.
- ④ The use of units according to the International System of Units (SI) is encouraged, and the p-value for confidence level should be used in lowercase.
6) Results
- ① Present authors' results in a logical and clear way. If experimental results which often tend to have variations in actual measurements are to be reported, use statistical analyses for biological indices.
- ② All data in the text must be presented consistently.
7) Discussion
- ① Explain the result of the study in relation to the hypotheses mentioned in the introduction, and avoid overlaps with the result session.
- ② Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them in the context of the aim of the study.
- ③ State the shortcommings and limitations of the study.
8) Summary
- ① For only Korean manuscript, summarize the study with respect to objective(s), subjects and methods, results, and conclusion within 1,000 characters in Korean.
- ② The Korean list of key words should have no more than five words, separated by a semi colon. The order should be identical with the English list of key words.
- ③ Summary is not necessary for the English manuscript.
9) Acknowledgements
Briefly acknowledge persons who made a genuine contribution, yet not active and sufficient enough to be co-authors.
10) References EndNote Style
- ① References should be numbered consecutively as a superscript in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, and listed at the end of the manuscript.
- ② All references, including documents in Korean, should be written in English.
- ③ The names of all authors should be cited up to 6 authors; in case there are more than 6 authors, the first three authors should be cited, followed by the expression“, et al.”.
- ④ Journal titles are abbreviated in accordance with the style of Index Medicus.
- ⑤ List author’s last name first, followed by the first letter of the first name.
ex) Kim YS, Marrelli D, Gupta AK
- ⑦ Follow the style of PubMed for supplementary volumes, online journals, and unpublished manuscripts.
- ⑧ Examples of reference style:
- ● Journal articles
- 1. Jeon EJ, Lee KM, Jung DY, et al. Clinical characteristics of 17 cases of eosinophilic gastroenteritis. Korean J Gastroenterol 2010;55:361-367.
- 2. Foroughi S, Foster B, Kim N, et al. Anti-IgE treatment of eosinophil-associated gastrointestinal disorders. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007;120:594-601.
- ● Books
- 1. Day RA. How to write and publish a scientific paper. 3rd ed. Phoenix: Oryx, 1988.
- ● Book chapters
- 1. Costa M, Mery S. History of diarrhea. In: Smith JR, ed. Medical history and perspective. 2nd ed. New York: Raven, 1987:1-40.
- ● Websites
- 1. ASA physical status classification system. [Internet]. Park Ridge (IL): American Society of Anesthesiologists; 1995 Jan 1 [updated 2010 Jun 8; cited 2010 Oct 10]. Available from: https://www.asahq.org/clinical/physicalstatus.htm.
11) Figure legends
- ① Figures should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.
- ② Provide with a subtitle and explanation for the figure in English as brief as one paragraph.
- ③ When presenting a microphotograph, report stain methods and magnification.
12) Tables
- ① If possible, do not include more than 7 tables.
- ② All tables should be written in English and Arabic numbers only, and avoid repeating the content in the text.
- ③ Each table should have a clear and self-explanatory title (a form of clause or phrase is encouraged) without a period. Capitalize the first letter of nouns and adjectives.
- ④ All tables should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.
- ⑤ If abbreviations are used, provide with a note showing the original terms at the bottom of the table.
- ⑥ Footnotes should be indicated by lowercase alphabets in the order of a, b, c, d as a superscript to the item to be further explained. Note should be provided at the bottom of the table.
13) Figures
- ① Each figure should be submitted in a separate single file, named as the number of figures. Do not use authors' names for the file name.
- ② Figures should be submitted as photographic-quality digital prints formats, such as JPG, JPEG. The authors should pay for the cost of color-printing the figures in their works.
- ③ Color images should be at least as fine as 300 dpi, and x-ray films and other black-and-white images at least 600 dpi.
- ④ If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the figure. The authors should state at the bottom of the figure that they received the permission.
7. OTHER TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT
General rules for original articles apply to other types of manuscripts as well.
1) Review articles
Review articles, focused on specific topics of research, are submitted only if requested by the editorial board. The format and structure of review articles follow those of original articles, but authors can change them freely, if necessary.
2) Case reports
- ① Title page: Follow the guidelines for original articles.
- ② Abstract: English abstract should not be longer than 200 words and list key words no more than five.
- ③ Introduction: Describe briefly the aims and relevant contents of the report.
- ④ Case: Describe briefly case and other issues that are only directly related to the case.
- ⑤ Discussion: Avoid an exhaustive literature review, but provide a focused discussion on the aspects of interest that the reported case brings in.
- ⑥ References: List no more than 20 references.
8. EDITING AND CORRECTION
The submissions can be edited and corrected for technical purposes. Once edited, the author will be asked to review the edited manuscript and return the revised manuscript as soon as possible. The failure to return the final revision to the Board within the next 48 hours after receiving final proof may result in the delay of publication
9. SIMILARITY CHECK
Similarity Check is a multi-publisher initiative to screen published and submitted content for originality. To find out more about Similarity Check, visit https://www.crossref.org/crosscheck/index.html. All manuscripts submitted to Korean Journal of Gastroenterology may be screened, using the iThenticate tool, for textual similarity to other previously published works.
10. PUBLICATION AND REPRINTS CHARGE
Costs of manuscript publication (KRW 10,000/page) will be charged to authors except solicited manuscript. When an author wants printed copies of published manuscript, the author is responsible for additional publication costs for copies.