Mission & Vision

ASCR’s mission is to accelerate high-quality surgical knowledge with a focus on methodological rigor, clinical relevance, and reproducibility. We welcome studies that improve patient outcomes, clarify mechanisms underlying perioperative care, and foster evidence-based practice—including confirmatory, negative, and replication studies where design is sound. As an open-access venue, we aim to reduce barriers to reading, mining, and reusing surgical science by applying permissive licensing and machine-readable metadata throughout the publication stack. The legacy site emphasizes our open-access stance and journal identity within HSPI’s portfolio.

Journal Identity & Persistent Metadata

Every ASCR article is assigned a Crossref Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and is rendered with clear, canonical DOI links (https://doi.org/). We encourage authors to supply ORCID iDs at submission and to align institutional affiliations with persistent ROR identifiers. JSON-LD schema for Periodical and ScholarlyArticle is embedded in article pages to enhance indexability by search engines and scholarly aggregators. These practices strengthen the provenance and citability of the version of record and help downstream services match affiliations, funding, and references with greater precision. (Standards alignment: DOAJ transparency principles; COPE Core Practices; ICMJE Recommendations). 

Scope & Article Types

ASCR covers general surgery and subspecialties (minimally invasive, trauma, oncologic, endocrine, transplant, vascular, colorectal, hepatopancreatobiliary, thoracic), perioperative medicine, anesthesia interfaces, surgical technology, and clinical outcomes research. We consider Research Articles, Reviews, Systematic Reviews/Meta-analyses, Short Communications, Technical Notes, Protocols, Registered Reports, Data Notes, and selected Case Reports with educational value. The legacy site’s “Explore” and “About Journal” sections position the journal within clinical surgery and related research. 

Ethics, Authorship & Integrity

ASCR’s policies align with globally recognized community standards to protect the scholarly record and participants involved in research. We integrate guidance on authorship, contributorship, conflicts of interest, data integrity, image manipulation, human/animal research protections, and clinical trial registration. (References: COPE Core Practices; ICMJE Recommendations).

Authorship & contributorship

Authorship requires substantive contributions to conception/design, data acquisition/analysis, drafting or critical revision, and final approval. We capture CRediT roles during submission and encourage corresponding authors to ensure all contributors are appropriately acknowledged. (ICMJE guidance). 

Conflicts of interest & funding transparency

All authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose relevant relationships or activities that could bias the work. Funding sources and grant identifiers should be listed in the manuscript and metadata. (ICMJE/COPE). 

Misconduct handling & corrections

Allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, unfair authorship practices, or peer-review manipulation are evaluated confidentially and fairly. Where needed, corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions are issued with DOIs and clear notice text for full traceability. (COPE). 

Peer Review Model

Submissions undergo editorial triage for scope, completeness, and minimum reporting standards, followed by external peer review by specialists with no conflicts. We primarily operate a double-blind model to mitigate bias. For suitable article types, we may offer a transparent peer-review pathway—publishing reviewer reports and author rebuttals with their own DOIs—when participants consent. Reviewers are evaluated for expertise, responsiveness, and constructive feedback; we recognize review contributions via certificates and optional annual acknowledgments. (Standards background: community best practices guided by COPE/ICMJE).

Open Access, Licensing & Reuse

ASCR is an open-access journal. Content on the legacy site indicates a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, enabling sharing, adaptation, and text-and-data mining with attribution to authors and the journal. Third-party materials within an article must be properly credited and may carry different terms; authors are responsible for obtaining permissions as needed. We embed machine-readable license metadata in HTML/PDF outputs and register license information with Crossref deposits to support compliance with funder mandates and discovery services.

Publishing Model & Fees

ASCR does not charge submission fees. If a manuscript is accepted after peer review, an Article Processing Charge (APC) is levied to support editorial management, production, hosting, indexing, and long-term preservation. The legacy APC page states there are “no submission charges” and that APCs apply upon acceptance; discounts or waivers may be considered based on clear criteria described on our APC and Waiver pages.

Indexing, Discoverability & Archiving

ASCR structures article-level metadata for harvesting and discovery. The journal is listed with the ISSN Portal (ISSN-L 2576-9537), and we align with transparency and best-practice principles to meet expectations of discovery and indexing services. We support OAI-PMH for metadata harvesting and register DOIs with Crossref; participation in preservation networks ensures fixity and long-term access to the record. (Legacy site: “Indexing/Archiving” & directory listings).

• ISSN: 2576-9537 (online). Country of record: United States.
• Transparency framework: DOAJ Principles of Transparency & Best Practice. 
• Editorial ethics: COPE Core Practices inform our handling of corrections and allegations. 
• Reporting standards: ICMJE Recommendations shape authorship and disclosures. 

Governance & Editorial Independence

ASCR is guided by an Editor-in-Chief and an international Editorial Board of practicing surgeons and clinician-scientists. The editorial team operates independently from commercial considerations and publisher interests; the Editor-in-Chief has final authority over editorial decisions. The legacy site provides an “Editorial Board” area and “Policies” hub that outline the structure of our governance and the policies we follow (Publication Ethics, Copyright & Publishing Rights, Licensing, Peer Review, Plagiarism, Digital Archiving, and Open Access). 

Feedback, Appeals & Complaints

Authors may appeal editorial decisions by presenting a focused rationale that addresses specific methodological or interpretive issues. Appeals are handled by a senior editor not involved in the original decision. Ethical complaints should include manuscript IDs and documented details; we follow a stepwise, time-bounded process and provide written outcomes. When warranted, we issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions with DOIs to maintain the integrity of the record, following COPE guidance. 

Accessibility & Inclusive Publishing

We aim to meet WCAG 2.1 AA criteria for web content and use semantic HTML, meaningful headings, skip links, keyboard-navigable elements, sufficient color contrast, accessible tables, and descriptive link text. Figures and decorative images include appropriate alt text or role="presentation" as needed. PDFs are tagged with reading order and structure for assistive technologies; legacy PDFs are remediated on request. Our editorial templates encourage inclusive language and accessible data visualizations with clear legends and units.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you accept preprinted manuscripts?

Yes. Preprints are welcome with full disclosure of preprint DOI and any substantive changes since posting. We link the version of record to the preprint and encourage authors to upload updated datasets or code where applicable.

How are reviewers selected?

Editors select reviewers based on subject expertise, methodological familiarity, and absence of conflicts. When inviting, we share the abstract, decision timeline, and review focus areas (methods, ethics, statistics, clarity, and reproducibility assets).

What are your data and code expectations?

We ask for a Data Availability Statement and, where feasible, deposit to trusted repositories with persistent identifiers. When data cannot be openly shared (e.g., patient privacy restrictions), authors should provide controlled-access details, de-identification steps, or synthetic data where appropriate.

Which licenses do you offer?

CC BY 4.0 is preferred for articles; alternative Creative Commons licenses may be considered in exceptional cases or for third-party content with constraints. Legacy pages show CC BY 4.0 applied to journal content.

Where can I read your detailed policies?

Visit the Policies hub for Publication Ethics, Licensing, Peer Review, Plagiarism, Digital Archiving, and Open Access; see Editorial Board for roles and responsibilities.

Contact

General queries: editorial@clinsurgeryjournal.com | Production: production@clinsurgeryjournal.com | Ethics: ethics@clinsurgeryjournal.com

Publisher/Imprint: Heighten Science Publications Inc., (address as per imprint).