Journal of Acute Care Surgery , (J Acute Care Surg, JACS), is the official journal of the Korean Society of Acute Care Surgery (KSACS) and the Korea Association of Trauma Nurses (KATN). As an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal, JACS aims to provide a platform for modern, cutting-edge research at the forefront of evolving developments in acute care surgery in the Asia-Pacific area, with three essential components: trauma, critical care, and emergency surgery. The scope of JACS includes surgical treatment and clinical outcome, perioperative patient care and rehabilitation, system organization for trauma and acute care surgery, surgical infections, nutrition, wound care techniques, military and major incident surgery, scientific laboratory research, surgical ethics, trauma nursing, multidisciplinary team approaches, and quality improvement initiatives. JACS primarily focuses on advancing the field of acute care surgery, including trauma, nontraumatic emergency surgery, surgical critical care, and trauma nursing. Our aim is to promote the enhancement and optimization of patient care through rigorous discussion and clarification of relevant acute care surgery and trauma nursing issues. This includes evaluating the outcomes of existing medical and nursing practices, applying new procedures, and exploring novel treatment concepts. JACS welcomes submissions from researchers worldwide, with a regional emphasis on the Asia-Pacific.
JACS publishes three issues per year, on the last day of March, July, and November. Our content features original research articles, review articles, case reports, editorials, and short communications, aimed at challenging traditional practice and educating surgeons, physicians, and allied healthcare professionals involved in acute care surgery. All or parts of JACS is indexed, tracked, or covered by the Korea Citation Index (KCI), KoreaMed, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), CrossRef, and Google Scholar.
The content of the J Acute Care Surg includes original clinical and basic research articles, review articles, case reports, and brief reports, that may challenge traditional practice and educate the advancement of change in clinical practice for surgeons, physicians and allied healthcare professionals alike, that are involved in acute care surgery.
Manuscripts submitted to JACS should be prepared according to the instructions provided. JACS adheres to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), if not otherwise indicated below.
JACS is a platinum open access journal that does not require author fees. Consequently, there are no charges for author submissions or other publication-related expenses. The publisher covers all costs associated with the publication process.
JACS publishes editorials, original articles containing clinical and experimental studies, review articles, case reports, and short communications. Manuscripts should be submitted in English. Medical terminology should be written in accordance with the most recent edition of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary.
The type of articles published in JACS are summarized in Table 1. Other publication types may be accepted (the recommended format can be discussed with the editorial board).
Table 1. Summary of article types
| Article type | Abstract | Texta) | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original article | Structured: Purpose, Methods, Results, Conclusion (≤250 words) | Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (≤5,000 words, ≤10 Tables and Figures) | ≤40 |
| Review article | Unstructured (≤200 words) | Introduction, Body Text, Conclusion (≤6,500 words, ≤10 Tables and Figures) | ≤100 |
| Case report | Unstructured (≤150 words) | Introduction, Case Report, Discussion (≤1,500 words, ≤6 Tables and Figures) | ≤20 |
| Short communication | Not required | Unstructured (≤3,000 words) | ≤20 |
| Editorial | Not required | Unstructured (≤1,000 words) | ≤20 |
Any exceptions require prior approval from the editor.
a)The maximum word count excludes the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
Table 2. Reporting guidelines for specific study designs
| Guideline | Type of study | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CONSORT | Randomized controlled trials | https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/consort/ |
| STROBE | Observational studies | https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe/ |
| PRISMA | Systematic reviews and meta-analyses | https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/prisma/ |
| AGREE | Clinical practice guidelines | https://www.agreetrust.org/resource-centre/agree-reporting-checklist/ |
| SRQR | Qualitative research | https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/srqr/ |
| CARE | Case reports | https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care/ |
The title page should include the following items:
Supplementary materials refer to files related to a specific article, provided by the authors for publication alongside their article. These materials typically include additional content that could not be included in the print version, such as appendices or extra tables. All supplementary materials will be available online alongside the full-text article. Include a listing of supplementary materials at the end of the manuscript file, and ensure they are cited consecutively in the text of the manuscript.
Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically using the online manuscript submission and peer review system (https://submit.jacs.or.kr/). Under this online system, only the corresponding author and the first author can submit manuscripts. The process of reviewing and editing will be conducted entirely through this system. Authors and reviewers may check the progress of reviews and related questions/answers on this system. The corresponding authors will be notified of all progress in the review process. Prior to submission, authors should also prepare the following documents, which will be asked to upload during electronic submission: copyright transfer agreement and conflict of interest disclosure form, cover letter, and English proofreading (nonobligatory) certificate.
All submitted papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to peer review. The peer review process also applies to the research data and supplementary materials submitted upon initial submission. Manuscripts are first reviewed for its format and adherence to the aims and scope of the journal. Prior to peer review, all submissions undergo plagiarism screening using Similarity Check (https://crosscheck.ithenticate.com/). Manuscripts are sent simultaneously to at least two reviewers with relevant expertise. A third reviewer will be assigned if there is a discrepancy between two reviewers. The initial decision is typically made within 2 months of receiving a manuscript. Authors will receive notification of the publication decision, along with reviewers' comments and instructions for revision. The editorial board is responsible for the final decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript after the peer review. 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.
All submissions from editors, employees, or editorial board members undergo the same review process, and are not involved in reviewer selection or decision-making. Editors do not handle their own manuscripts even if commissioned. 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.
Any appeals against the 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 Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance). JACS does not consider second appeals.
After a paper has been accepted for publication, the author(s) should submit the final version of the manuscript. The names and affiliations of 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. TIFF and PDF formats are preferred for submission of digital files of photographic images. 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, re-number them to reflect such changes so that all tables, references, and figures are cited in numeric order.
Before publication, the manuscript editor will correct the manuscript such that it meets the standard publication format. The author(s) must respond within 2 working days when the manuscript editor contacts the author for revisions. If the response is delayed, the manuscript’s publication may be postponed to the next issue.
The author(s) will receive the final version of the manuscript as a PDF file. Within 2 working days of receipt, authors must notify the editorial office (or the printing office) of any errors found in the file. Any errors found after this time are the responsibility of the author(s) and will have to be corrected as errata or corrigenda (depending on the responsibility for the error).
To correct errors in published articles, the corresponding author should contact the 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. Major errors that impact the article’s interpretation but do not compromise its overall integrity will be corrected with a separate correction notice. Minor errors, such as typographical mistakes that do not affect the article’s interpretation, are corrected online without a separate correction notice. An indication of the correction, along with the date it was made, will be added in both the HTML and PDF versions. For pervasive errors or concerns about research integrity, expression of concern or, if warranted, a retraction will be issued. All corrections and retractions are handled in accordance with the COPE Core guidelines.
ACS adheres to the guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations, including ICMJE Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/); the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://doaj.org/apply/transparency/), a joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA); and the Good Publication Practice Guideline for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/guide/books) by the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE). All processes of handling research and publication misconduct shall follow the applicable COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance).
Authorship credit should be based on the four ICMJE criteria: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; (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 it are appropriately investigated and resolved. All authors should meet all four criteria. The corresponding author must complete and sign the copyright transfer agreement and conflict of interest disclosure form.
Clinical research should be conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki: Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/). Clinical studies that do not meet the Declaration of Helsinki will not be considered for publication. All clinical studies involving human participants should include a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and identifiable information such as names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other protected healthcare information should not be disclosed. For clinical studies with animal subjects, there should be a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Research with animal subjects should adhere to the guidelines outlined in the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and must be performed with ethical consideration for all experimental animals. JACS will not consider any studies involving humans or animals without appropriate approval. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents to resolve questions about IRB/IACUC approval and study conduct.
Informed consent should be obtained from all patients who participated in the clinical investigations, unless waived by the IRB or the ethics committee. For individuals who cannot provide consent independently, including those from vulnerable populations—such as minors, the elderly, racial or ethnic minorities, individuals with certain health conditions, or those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged—consent should be obtained from a legally authorized representative or parent/guardian. For images of human subjects, explicit permission must be acquired as part of the consent process, and such images should only be included if essential for scientific purposes. Even when consent is obtained, identifying details should be omitted unless necessary. Authors must ensure that any modifications made to anonymize individuals in photographs do not compromise the scientific accuracy. If consent is not obtained, it is generally insufficient to anonymize an image simply by using eye bars or facial blurring.
Any research involving clinical trials should be registered with the primary national clinical trial registry site, such as the Korea Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS; https://cris.nih.go.kr/), a primary national registry site accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO; https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform/network/), or ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/), a service of the US National Institutes of Health.
A conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that inappropriately influence (bias) their actions (such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties). These relationships vary from being negligible to having great potential for influencing judgment. Not all relationships represent true conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, the potential for a conflict of interest can exist regardless of whether an individual believes that the relationship affects their scientific judgment. Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honorarium, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and science itself. However, conflicts can also occur from personal relationships, academic competition, or intellectual passion (https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/). Conflicts of interest may also arise during the research process; however, the important point is the disclosure itself. To ensure the credibility of the journal and the authors, it is essential that all conflicts of interest are disclosed. If there are any conflicts of interest, authors should inform the editor and disclose them in the manuscript. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated. Disclosing conflicts of interest allows editors, reviewers, and readers to approach the manuscript with an understanding of the situation under which the research work was performed.
All submitted manuscripts must be original and should not be under consideration for publication by other scientific journals at the same time. Duplication of any part of an accepted manuscript in another scientific journal without the approval of the editorial board is strictly prohibited. However, authors may freely use the figures and tables, provided that the original source is acknowledged according to the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license. Authors are responsible for resolving any copyright issues that may arise when citing figures or tables from another journal that is not open access. If any instances of duplicate publication are discovered, the authors will be publicly acknowledged in the journal, their affiliated institutions will be notified, and appropriate penalties will be imposed on the authors.
Manuscripts may be republished if they satisfy the conditions for secondary publication outlined in the ICMJE Recommendations for overlapping publications (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html).
In case the journal encounters 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 COPE guidelines. The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the editorial board in accordance with the Regulations of the Research Ethics Council.
The editorial board is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and will continuously work towards this goal by providing guidelines for retracting articles; preserving the integrity of academic record; prioritizing intellectual and ethical standards over commercial interests; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary; and preventing plagiarism and fraudulent data. The responsibilities of editors include the authority to accept or reject articles; ensuring that there is no conflict of interest with regards to the articles they accept or reject; promoting the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are discovered; and preserving the anonymity of reviewers.
All papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to a rigorous peer review process. JACS follows a double-blind peer review policy, in which the identities of both the authors and reviewers are kept anonymous 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 review, reviewers can interact directly with the editor alone (via the submission system or email), following the “independent review” approach. Certain publication types, including editorials, errata, corrigenda, retractions, withdrawals, and letters to the editor, are reviewed by the editorial board without external peer review.
Peer reviewers are requested to refrain from uploading manuscripts into generative AI tools, as these tools can lack up-to-date knowledge and could generate inaccurate or misleading information. Additionally, manuscripts may contain sensitive or proprietary information that should not be shared outside the peer review process. While the journal explores providing our peer reviewers with access to safe AI tools, we request transparency if any part of the evaluation was supported by an AI tool, and ask peer reviewers to declare such use in their peer review report.
The initial decision is typically made within 2 months of receiving a manuscript. If there is no correspondence from the editorial office regarding the manuscript’s status after 2 months, authors are encouraged to contact the editorial office. If the revised paper is not received within 2 months of decision, the manuscript is considered to have been withdrawn. The editorial board is responsible for the final decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript after the peer review.
All published articles in JACS display the dates of submission, revision, acceptance, and publication on their article page, but information regarding the review process and editorial decision are not published. JACS does not guarantee acceptance of initial manuscript submissions except for the invited articles.
The copyrights for all published materials (including graphical abstracts) of JACS are owned by KSACS and KATN. All authors must sign and submit the copyright transfer agreement form upon submission. The paper will not be published until the copyright transfer is complete. Copyright information is indicated on all published papers (HTML and PDF) and on the JACS website.
JACS is an open access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original work is properly cited. All contents of the journal are immediately available upon publication without an embargo period.
Licensing information is indicated on all published papers (HTML and PDF) and on the JACS website. As a platinum open access journal, all articles are available on the journal’s website to all users immediately upon publication and at no cost to readers or authors.
Authors who wish to reproduce tables or figures published in JACS for scholarly and educational purposes do not need to obtain permission in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. (https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read/) However, proper acknowledgment must be given for the reuse of any published material, by including a footnote on the reproduced table or in the figure legend (e.g., “Reprinted from J Acute Care Surg Year;Vol:Page, available under the Creative Commons license.”) and in the reference list.
However, authors who wish to reproduce tables or figures published in JACS for commercial uses must obtain permission. Commercial use refers to any type of reuse for commercial benefit to the user, their place of employment, another entity. Examples of commercial use include the following: (1) reuse by a non-authors, third parties, or other publishers of parts of or all of an article or articles in another publication (journal or book) for sale; (2) systematic distribution of multiple print or electronic copies of items taken from the journal to third parties for marketing purposes; and (3) reuse by an author of portions or all of an article in other publications from commercial organizations.
JACS 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 DOI within the text of the manuscripts. JACS adheres to the ICMJE Recommendations for clinical trials (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html). Authors may also refer to the editorial, “Data sharing statements for clinical trials: a requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,” in the Journal of Korean Medical Science (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051).
JACS is an open access journal, which allows authors to freely share their research in various ways, such as preprint servers, social media platforms, conferences, and educational materials, in accordance with our open access policy. However, authors are strictly prohibited from submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals.
JACS ensures the long-term availability of its contents, even if the journal is no longer in publication, through archiving in the Korea Citation Index (https://www.kci.go.kr). Authors can also archive the publisher’s version (in PDF format) available from the website (https://jacs.or.kr/).
JACS allows authors to submit preprints to the journal. A preprint refers to a version of a scholarly paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Submitting a preprint to JACS will not be considered as duplicate submission or publication. JACS advises authors to mention the existence of the preprint, along with its DOI, in the cover letter during the submission process. Failure to do so may result in a plagiarism check program (Similarity Check) flagging the submission for excessive duplication. The preprint will go through the same peer review process as any other submission. If accepted for publication, the authors are encouraged to update the preprint with a link to the published article in JACS, including the DOI. It is highly recommended that authors cite the published article in JACS instead of the preprint in their future submissions to other journals.
JACS accepts advertisements, which may be published in print or online, provided they are relevant to the field of medicine and healthcare. All advertisements are subject to editorial approval and must comply with applicable ethical and legal standards. Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement by the journal, its editors, or its affiliated organizations. Advertising content is clearly distinguished from editorial content and has no influence on editorial decisions, peer review, or published content. The advertisement price for a full page on the print copy or a banner page is subject to negotiation. For banner advertisements on the website, the price depends on the duration of its display on the journal homepage. The journal reserves the right to reject or remove any advertisement deemed inappropriate or misleading. Disclaimer: JACS assumes no responsibility for any claims made in advertisements and does not guarantee the accuracy, quality, or efficacy of advertised products or services.
Questions regarding manuscript submission may be sent to:
