Table of Contents
Archives of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (Arch Aesthetic Plast Surg, AAPS) is the peer-reviewed official journal of the Korean Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Manuscripts on any aspect of aesthetic plastic surgery-original clinical or laboratory research, operative procedures, review articles, discussions as well as selected ideas and innovations, case reports and communications are invited for publications. This journal is published quarterly at the 30th of January, April, July, and October.
Manuscripts for submission to AAPS should be prepared according to the following instructions. AAPS follows the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication (http://www.icmje.org/) if not otherwise described below. Any physicians or researchers throughout the world can submit a manuscript if the scope of the manuscript is appropriate. Only those manuscripts which are original, have not been published elsewhere, and are not currently being considered for inclusion in another publication will be considered for publication in AAPS.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All manuscripts should be submitted online via the journal’s website (http://submit.e-aaps.org) by the corresponding author. Submission instructions are available at the website. All articles submitted to the journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication. Send all correspondence regarding submitted manuscripts to:
Seung Min Nam, M.D., Ph.D.
Seung Yong Song, M.D., Ph.D.
Co Editors-in-Chief
Archives of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
Address: 101-2003, Lotte Castle President, 109 Mapodaero,
Mapo-gu, Seoul 04146, Korea
Tel: +82-2-3472-4243, Fax: +82-2-3472-4254
E-mail: ksaps@ksaps.or.kr
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS
- All of the manuscripts should be prepared in strict observation of research and publication ethics guidelines recommended by the Council of Science Editors (CSE, http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/), International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME, http://www.wame.org/) and the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE, https://www.kamje.or.kr/). AAPS will follow the guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, http://publicationethics.org/) for settlement of any misconduct.
- Registration of Clinical Trial Research
It is recommended that any research that deals with a clinical trial be registered with a primary national clinical trial registration site, such as https://cris.nih.go.kr, or other sites accredited by the WHO as listed at http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/.
- Data Sharing Statement
AAPS accepts the ICMJE Recommendations for data sharing statement policy (http://icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). All manuscripts reporting clinical trial results should submit a data sharing statement following the ICMJE guidelines from 1 January 2020. Authors may refer to the editorial, “Data Sharing statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,” in JKMS Vol. 32, No. 7:1051-1053 (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051).
- Conflict of Interest Statement
The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.
- Statement of Informed Consent
Copies of written informed consent should be kept. If necessary, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents. In addition, for studies conducted with human subjects, the method by which informed consent was obtained from the participants (i.e., verbal or written) also needs to be stated in the Methods section.
- Patient Photographic and Videographic Consent
Patients introduced in the manuscripts should be informed and aware that their photographs, videotapes, and other images (imaging records) will be released by the authors, and the authors should attach the Authorization and Release Form available at the AAPS website (http://submit.e-aaps.org) including each patient’s signature.
- Statement of Human and Animal Rights
All human investigations must be conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html), and appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee approval is required. All animal experiments also should be reviewed by an appropriate committee (IACUC) for the care and use of animals. Such approval should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript.
- Authorship
Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, 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 the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet these 4 conditions. If the number of authors is greater than six, there should be a list of each author’s role for the submitted paper.
After the initial submission of a manuscript, any changes whatsoever in authorship (adding author(s), deleting author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) must be explained by a letter to the editor from the authors concerned. This letter must be signed by all authors on the paper. Copyright assignment must be completed by every author.
- Originality and Duplicate Publication
All submitted manuscripts should be original and should not be considered by other scientific journals for publication at the same time. No part of the accepted manuscript should be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board. The duplication will be checked through Similarity Check (https://www.ithenticate.com/) or eTBLAST before submission. If duplicate publication related to the papers of this journal is detected, the manuscripts may be rejected, the authors will be announced in the journal, and their institutes will be informed. There will also be penalties for the authors. A letter of permission is required for any and all material that has been published previously. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher for any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to text, illustrations, and tables.
- Secondary Publication
It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the conditions of secondary publication of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.
PEER REVIEW PROCESS
This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.
All manuscripts will be evaluated by three peer reviewers who are selected by the editors. The acceptance criteria for all papers are based on the quality and originality of the research and its clinical and scientific significance. An initial decision will normally be made within 3 weeks after the agreement of review by the reviewers, and the reviewers’ comments will then be sent to the corresponding authors.
Revised manuscripts must be submitted online by the corresponding author. The corresponding author must indicate the alterations that have been made in response to the referees’ comments item by item in a response note and the submitted original file with tracing. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 8 weeks of the editorial decision is regarded as a withdrawal. The editorial office should be notified if additional time is needed or if an author chooses not to submit a revision. The editorial committee makes decisions concerning editing, revision, and acceptance or rejection, and editing may include shortening an article, reducing the number of illustrations or tables, or changing the paper’s format or the order of the manuscript.
Authors can track the progress of a manuscript on the journal’s website. Articles that are accepted for publication are moved from the “Manuscripts Accepted” to the “Manuscripts in Publication” section of the journal’s website.
COPYRIGHTS AND CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION LICENSE
The manuscript, when published, will become the property of the journal. All published papers become the permanent property of the Korean Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Copyrights of all published materials are owned by the Korean Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. They also follow the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License available from: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
PUBLICATION PROCESSING CHARGES
For unsolicited manuscripts, the corresponding author is asked to pay for a portion of the costs of article processing. The processing charge is US $300.00 (300,000 Korean won) for an original article, US $250.00 (250,000 Korean won) for a case report, and US $200.00 (200,000 Korean won) for other types of article regardless of number of pages.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
- Publication Type
AAPS publishes editorials, original articles, review articles, discussions, special topics, case reports, ideas and innovations, and communications.
- 1. Editorials are invited perspectives on an area of plastic surgery, dealing with very active fields of research, current surgical interests, fresh insights, and debates.
- 2. Original articles are papers reporting the results of basic and clinical investigations that are sufficiently well documented to be acceptable to critical readers.
- 3. Review articles will be requested by the editors. Review articles address a specific question or issue that is relevant for clinical practice and provide an evidence-based, balanced, patient-oriented review on a focused topic.
- 4. Discussions should present information and perspective based on the experience of the discussant, who may agree or disagree with an author’s hypothesis, methodology, discussion, or conclusions.
- 5. Special topics cover areas of aesthetic plastic surgery. The authors provide a global perspective on each topic, critically evaluated recent works in the field, and apply it to clinical practice.
- 6. Case reports/ideas and innovations deal with clinical cases of surgical interest or innovation.
- 7. Communications are interesting and instructive information for readers.
- General Guidelines
- 1. The main document with the manuscript text and tables should be prepared with in an MS Word or RTF format in English.
- 2. The manuscript should be written in 10-point font with double line spacing on A4 sized (21.0×29.7 cm) paper with 2.5 cm margins on the top, bottom, right, and left.
- 3. There should be no mention of the institution where the work was carried out, especially in the Abstract and Methods section. If the institution should be inserted, include it after acceptance of an article.
- 4. The use of acronyms and abbreviations is discouraged and should be kept to a minimum. When used, they are to be defined where first used, followed by the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses.
- 5. Drug and chemical names should be stated in standard chemical or generic nomenclature.
- 6. Units of measure should be presented according to the International System of Units (SI). All units must be preceded by one space except percentage (%) and degree (°).
- 7. Descriptions of genes or related structures in a manuscript should include the names and official symbols provided by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee.
- 8. Statistical expression: mean and standard deviation should be described as mean ± SD, and mean and standard error as mean ± SE. P-values should be described as P < 0.05 or P = 0.003.
- 9. Generic and brand name of medicine: for medicine, use generic names. If a brand name should be used, insert it in parentheses after the generic name.
- Reporting Guidelines for Specific Study Designs
For the specific study design, such as randomized control studies, studies of diagnostic accuracy, metaanalyses, observational studies, and non-randomized studies, it is recommended that the authors follow the reporting guidelines listed in the following table.
- ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- Manuscripts will not be acceptable for publication unless they meet the following editorial requirements. Manuscripts must include 1) Title page, 2) Structured abstract and Keywords, 3) Main text (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion), 4) Conflict of interest, 5) Acknowledgments, 6) References, 7) Tables, and 8) Figure legends. Each component should begin on a new page in the following sequence. Manuscripts on original work should contain a maximum of 3,000 words for the contents of the text, 25 figure pieces, and 25 references.
- 1) Title page
Prior to launching AAPS, thorough checks are made to ensure that no journals with a similar title exist.
A running title (no more than 40 characters in length), manuscript title, and each author’s full name and affiliation including the name of the country, should be provided. For a multicenter study, indicate each individual’s affiliation using a superscript Arabic number (1, 2, 3…). All persons designated as authors should be qualified for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. A ‘corresponding author’ for reprints should be indicated, and full contact information (including address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail) should be provided. Any financial disclosure or support (grant number, institution, location, and acknowledgment), thesis article (title and reviewers’ page), and presentation history (name of the meeting and date) at a meeting should be included if relevant.
- 2) Abstract and Keywords
The abstract should contain the following components in the order listed: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. It should not exceed 250 words. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) authorized words should only be used for the keywords, and 3 to 5 keywords should be listed just after the abstract. The first letter of a keyword should be capitalized (e.g., Plastic surgery / Breast reconstruction / Free flap).
- 3) Main Text
Introduction: The purpose of the investigation, including relevant background information, should be briefly described.
Methods: The research plan, the materials (or subjects), and the methods used should be described, in that order. How the disease was confirmed and how subjectivity in observations was controlled should be explained in detail. When the experimental methodology is the main issue of the paper, the process should be described in detail so as to recreate the experiment as closely as possible. The sources of the apparatus or reagents used should be given along with the source location (name of company). If relevant, information on the IRB approval and informed consent should be included. Methods of statistical analysis and criteria for statistical significance should be described.
An ethics statement should be placed here when the studies are performed using clinical samples or data, and animals. An example is shown below.
(Example for clinical study)
The present study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of PPP National University College of Medicine (approval No. 2018001). Informed consent was submitted by all subjects when they were enrolled.
(Example for animal study)
The procedures used and the care of animals were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee in xxx University (approval No. 2018002).
(Example for clinical trials)
This is a randomized clinical trial on the second phase, registered at the Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS, http://cris.nih.go.kr), number KCT0002018. Or other international registration is acceptable. Manuscripts reporting interventional clinical trial should include data sharing plan following the ICMJE statement by referring to the ICMJE Statement on Data Sharing (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html).
(Description of participants)
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). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance.
Results: The results should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations. The text should not repeat all the data in the tables or figures, but describe important points and trends.
Discussion: Observations pertaining to the results of research and other related materials should be interpreted for your readers. New and important observations should be emphasized; the contents in the Introduction or Results should not be simply repeated. The meaning of the observed opinion, along with its limits, should be explained, and within the limits of the research results, the conclusion should be connected to the purpose of the research.
- 4) Conflict of Interest
The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the editor of the authors’ potential conflicts of interest possibly influencing their interpretation of data. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the manuscript even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. Such conflicts may be financial support or private connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academic problems (e.g., employment/affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, stock ownership or options, royalties, or patents filed, received, or pending).
- 5) Acknowledgments
Persons who have contributed intellectually to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be named and their function or contribution described, e.g., “scientific adviser,” “data collection,” or “participation in clinical trial.” All sources of funding applicable to the study should be stated here explicitly.
- 6)References
References should be obviously related to the content of the submitted paper. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Each reference should be cited as [1] or [1,4,7] or [1-3] at the end of the related sentence in the text. The abbreviated journal title should be used according to the List of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals). If there are three or fewer authors in a reference, then all the names of the authors should be listed. If the number of authors is greater than three, list the initial three authors, and then abbreviate the rest of the authors with ‘et al.’. Unpublished observations and personal communication should not be used as references, although references to written, not oral communication may be inserted (in parentheses) in the text. Abstracts published in a citable journal may be cited. To cite a paper accepted but not yet published, state the paper’s DOI number. References must be verified by the author(s) against the original documents.
Other types of references not described below should follow Citing Medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).
Sample references are given below:
-
Journal Article
- 1. Lee MC, Lee DW, Rah DK, et al. Reconstruction of a total soft palatal defect using a folded radial forearm free flap and palmaris longus tendon sling. Arch Plast Surg 2012;39:25-30.
- 2. Chang CC, Allori AC, Wang E, et al. A quantitative 3D analysis of coronoid hypertrophy in pediatric craniofacial malformations. Plast Reconstr Surg 2011 Oct 7 [Epub]. https://doi.org/10.1097/ PRS.0b013e31823aea5b
-
Books
- 3. Weinzweig J. Plastic surgery secrets plus. Mosby Elsevier; 2010.
- 4. Thorne CH. Otoplasty and ear reconstruction. In: Thorne CH, Bartlett SP, Beasley RW, et al., editors. Grabb and Smith’s plastic surgery. 6th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2006. p. 302-24.
-
Website
- 5. American Society of Plastic Surgeons. 2010 Plastic surgery procedural statistics [Internet]. The Society; c2011 [cited 2011 Nov 1]. Available from: http://www.plasticsurgery.org/News-and-Resources/Statistics.html
- 7) Tables
Tables should be typed double-spaced on separate pages within manuscript, and they should be titled and numbered in Arabic numerals in the order of their first citation in the text. Each column should be given a short heading. Only the first letter of the first word in each row and column should be capital letters. If numerical measurements are given, the unit of measurement should be included in the column heading. The statistical significance of observed differences in the data should be indicated by the appropriate statistical analysis. All nonstandard abbreviations should be defined in footnotes. For special remarks, lower case letters in superscripts a), b), c), d), e)…. should be used.
[sample]
Table 1. Treatment modality
Valiables |
TRAM-LR group |
MRM-LR group |
Total |
P-valuea) |
Wide excision |
4 (22.2) |
7 (18.4) |
11 (19.6) |
0.73 |
Wide excision + RT |
12 (6.0) |
24 (63.2) |
36 (64.3) |
0.79 |
Wide excision + skin graft + |
1 (5.6) |
4 (10.5) |
5 (8.9) |
1.0 |
RT |
1 (5.6) |
3 (7.9) |
4 (7.2) |
1.0 |
Values are presented as number (%).
TRAM, transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous; LR, local recurrence; MRM, modified radical mastectomy; RT, radiotherapy
a)χ2 test.
- 8) Figures
Each figure should be submitted in a separate file, at a resolution of 600 dpi for photos and 1,200 dpi for line art. Lettering and identifying marks should be clear, and the type size should be consistent on each figure. Capital letters should be used for specific areas of identification in a figure. Symbols, lettering, and numbering should be distinctly recognizable so that when the figure is reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the figure legends, not on the illustrations themselves. Figure legends should not be included in the same file as the figure, but placed instead on a page at the end of the manuscript. The figures should be numbered in the form Fig. 1, Fig. 2, and Fig. 3. Only the first letter of the first word in the title and data should be capital letters. Related figures should be combined into one figure, with each subfigure denoted by the letters, A, B, C, and so on, following the Arabic number of the main figure (ex: Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B). The illustrations of pathological tissue should state clearly the type of stain (ex: H&E, ×400), and the main contents should be marked by signs or arrows on the picture. The Editorial Committee may request that hand-drawn illustrations be redrawn by a graphic designer.
- 9) Videos
Any video clip over 30 seconds in length should have English-language narration or subtitles, formatted with a screen size no smaller than 320×240 pixels. Each video clip should be submitted under 200 MB in size and in MP4 formatting. It should be no longer than 5 minutes in length.
- EDITORIAL
- Editorials are invited by the editor and should be commentaries on articles published recently in the AAPS. Editorial topics could include active areas of research, fresh insights, and debates in all fields of aesthetic plastic surgery. Editorials should not exceed 2,000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures.
- REVIEW ARTICLES
- Review papers will be requested by the editors. Review articles are generally prepared in the same format as original articles, but the details of the manuscript format may be flexible according to the contents. Manuscripts are limited to 3,000 words of text and include a 250-word unstructured abstract. References should not exceed 100.
- DISCUSSIONS
- This section of the journal is set aside for critical comments directed to a specific article that has recently been published in the journal. Discussions should be brief (800 words), double-spaced, and limited to a maximum of 5 citations and 5 figures. The discussions should be prepared according to journal format. Illustrative material can be accepted only with the permission of the editor. The authors should include a complete mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address with their correspondence. The editor reserves the right to shorten letters, delete objectionable comments, and make other changes to comply with the style of the journal.
- SPECIAL TOPICS
- Special topics will be determined by the editors. Special topics are generally prepared in the same format as original articles, but the details of the manuscrips format may be flexible according to the contents. Manuscripts are limited to 3,000 words of text and include a 250-word unstructured abstract. References should not exceed 25.
- CASE REPORTS/IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS
- Case reports should be unique, that is, never reported or similar to previously reported cases but with unique characteristics related to location, presenting different symptoms, or using a new diagnosis or management modality. They should include an abstract, introduction, case reports or ideas, discussion, references, tables, and figures legend in that order. The case report and idea innovation should not exceed 2,000 words, 8 sheets of figures, and 15 references. The abstracts should be unstructured and its length should not exceed 200 words.
- COMMUNICATIONS
- Communications are interesting and instructive information for readers. Manuscripts should not exceed 250 words, excluding references, tables, and figures. They should be limited to a maximum of 3 citations and 4 figures.
MANUSCRIPTS AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Accepted manuscript will be converted to PDF format. The PDF file will be dispatched to the author for proofreading. Any changes should be returned within 48 hours after receipt of the PDF files. No significant changes should be made to alter the interpretation of the results. Only minor changes, such as correcting typographical errors or critical changes to maintain article’s accuracy, are allowed. If there are too many changes during the author’s proofreading process, those changes will not be accepted and the paper can be considered for re-submission. Authors should do their best to ensure the accuracy of the proofs. After the publication, if there are critical errors, they should be corrected as Corrigendum or Erratum.
RETRACTION AFTER PUBLICATION
Journal editors can consider retractiong a publication if
1) They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable
2) The findings have previously been published without proper crossreferencing, permission or justification
3) It constitutes plagiarism
4) It reports unehtical research