Peer Review Policy Statement, International Surgery, Official Journal of the International College of Surgeons

International Surgery is owned by the International College of Surgeons (ICS) and is the official Journal for the ICS. The position of Editor-in-Chief is approved by the governing body of the International College of Surgeons, the International Executive Council. International Surgery has the important role in the International College of Surgeons of fulfilling the educational mission of the College. The Editor-in-Chief provides semi-annual reports on the functioning of International Surgery to the governance of the College, the International Executive Council.

International Surgery publishing standards are based on the principles and guidelines outlined by the following:

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

• Council of Scientific Editors (CSE)

• National Information Standards Organization (NISO), in particular Recommended Practices for the Presentation and Identification of E-Journals (PIE-J)

Peer review is the critical assessment of manuscripts submitted to International Surgery by respected academic reviewers. These manuscripts are treated as privileged communications that the authors' private, confidential property.

The Editorial Review Board is comprised of respected academic reviewers. Members of the Editorial Review Board are selected by the Editor-in-Chief based on field of specialty in surgery and on their related expertise. The selections made by the Editor-in-Chief are reviewed and approved by the International College of Surgeons governance, the International Executive Council.

The International Surgery publication staff works closely with members of the Editorial Review Board, who provide peer reviews for International Surgery. The objective of the editorial review process is to assess the validity, quality, and originality of submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts based on case studies are considered, with only highest quality case studies being accepted.

All manuscripts are read and reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and publication staff. Acceptance by the Editor-in-Chief and publication staff is based on submitted strong evidence supporting conclusions in the manuscript, original research results, importance to scientific and medical scientists, and interest to researchers in other related fields of scientific medical science.

Manuscripts preliminarily approved by the Editor-in-Chief and publication staff are then submitted to two or more members of the Editorial Review Board for consideration. Peer Reviewers accept, suggest minor revisions, suggest major revisions, or reject the manuscript. The peer review process is completed within 21 days following submission to the peer reviewers.

Strict confidentiality standards exist. Single blind reviews are conducted. No exchanges of information pertaining to the submitted manuscript between authors and members of the Editorial Review Board, who review the information in the submitted manuscript, are allowed under any circumstances. Author names are not allowed in the manuscript text, figures, and tables.

Submitting authors are provided alternatives pertaining to the amount of time expended for a review. Should submitting authors request a review of their respective manuscript to occur in a lesser amount of time, such a request is generally accepted and is associated with an incremental fee.

Submitting authors are provided alternatives pertaining to having their respective manuscripts, which have been approved by the reviewing members of the Editorial Review Board, to have their unedited manuscript to appear in unedited form at a location on the publisher's website. This alternative is associated with an incremental fee.

All peer review procedures associated with International Surgery are rigorously followed to maintain the highest scientific and medical research publishing standards. The objective of the peer review process is to serve and support authors of submitted manuscripts in the best manner possible.