Types of Articles and Scope

Swiss knife is the official publication of the Swiss College of Surgeons and the Swiss Surgical Society (SGC/SSC). The journal is published quarterly and is sent to all surgeons practicing in Switzerland. Swiss Knife accepts articles on the following topics:

• Editorial: Invited articles from surgical leaders in Switzerland on relevant topics in the field of surgery.

• Politics: Contributions discussing relevant policy changes that affecting Swiss surgeons.

• Education: Articles highlighting specialty training in Switzerland, innovations in the field of surgical education, surgical innovations, emerging technologies, techniques and methods.

• Surgical Research: Research from Swiss surgical research groups and recent abstracts published by Swiss surgeons

• Focus: Articles discussing “hot topics” or topics addressing an ongoing discussion in the surgical world.

• “Blick über den Tellerrand”: Thinking outside the box:  surgical topics from a different perspective.

• Images in Surgery: Short case reports together with a surgical, anatomical or radiological image (see detailed description below).

Submit your manuscript  

Article Preparation and Organization

Articles may be written in English, German or French and should be between 15 000 - 18 000 characters for a full length articel or 5 000 - 6 000 for an articel that is more limited in its scope (editorial, journal club). Please submit your articles in a word format, using a plain font for text, double space the text, include page numbers and using italics for emphasis. Please submit a concise, informative title with a short introductory paragraph of not more than 50 words. The article should be structured logically with different sub-headings. No more than four authors may be listed per article. Full names with a valid e-mail address for correspondence must be submitted. Authors will be listed without academic titles. Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could have direct or potential influence or impart bias on their article.

Relevant references are to be cited using the Vancouver system (Dindo D, Demartines N, Clavien P-A. Classification of Surgical Complications. Annals of Surgery. 2004;240(2):205-13). Number the references in order of their first appearance in the text (not alphabetically). Once a reference is cited, all subsequent citations should be to the original number. References may not appear in your reference List unless they have been cited in the text.

Tables and Figures

Tables, figures and illustrations are a welcome adjunct to any submitted article and are strongly encouraged. All figures should be submitted in a separate file and should not be embedded in the word document. Please provide high quality images in a commonly used file format (.tiff, .jpg, .eps, .ppt, .png). All submitted illustrations should have a resolution of at least 300dpi.

Finally, please also provide a current photo of all submitting authors.

Images in Surgery

General information

The first author ideally is member of a residency program of a surgical department in Switzerland; however, we accept submission of all authors. The report is preferably written in English, in exceptional circumstances, reports in German or French will be excepted. 

The report describes a novel, interesting or important aspect (an "image to remember") of a clincial presentation, diagnostics or treatment of a disease relevant in surgical practice in one or several patients encountered in their department.

The text is limited to 4000 characters, a maximum of 2 tables or figures of good quality, and up to 10 references. The report begins with a brief summary of not more than 50 words. Case reports are reviewed by two members of the editorial board. Revisions must be resubmitted within 90 days.

The patient(s) or next of kin need to provide written or oral (documented telephone call) consent for presentation of the case in “Swissknife – Images in Surgery”. The consent needs to be documented with the attached document. 

Case Description:

• Provide a case description according to the guidelines below with max. 3000 characters including spaces.
• Provide 1 Figure or Figurepanel with up to 5 subfigures to illustrate the case description. No legend is necessary, refer to the essential points in the text. Label subfigures with letters starting with A, B, C….

• Present the history of the current illnes/injury, main symptoms and the inital presentation at your department (emergency, elective, referal, etc.) in 2-3 sentences.
• Give relevant information of systemic anamnesis (Nausea/Vomiting ? Stool frequencey ? Weight loss ? Cardiopulmonary symptoms ?, etc) if necessary in 2-3 sentences.
• Describe relevant information regarding personal, social & family anamnesis (Occupation ? Personal situation ? Family history of disease) if necessary
• Provide information on relevant drug intake, C2/nicotine/drug abuse and allergies if relevant.
• Describe the relevant findings of physical examination (1-2 sentences)
• Provide relevant laboratory / serology findings.
• Provide relevant imaging information, if possible use Figures to provide illustrative radiological finding.
• Give information on further examinations (e.g. gastroscopy, coloscopy) if relevant.

• At the end of the case description, provide a relevant question for the reader (e.g. what is the correct diagnosis? What is the best next step in diagnosis/treatment?)
• Provide up to five possible answer options.

Case Solution:

• Provide the solution to the question asked in a text with max. 1000 characters including spaces.
• If possible, provide 1 expressive Figure or Figurepanel with up to 5 subfigures to illustrate the solution. No legend is necessary, refer to the essential points in the text. Label subfigures with letters starting with A, B, C….
• Shortly describe how the correct answer can be concluded.
• If necessary provide 1-2 sentences on the further course of the illness/injury of the patient.

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Surgical research: Submit the abstract of your published article

SWISS KNIFE publishes abstracts of recent publications by swiss surgeons.
Please submitt the complete reference and abstract (PubMed) to find your work in one of the next editions and/or in our online database.

Selection criteria
Due to a high number of submissions per issue, it is not possible to print all abstracts. Therefore, after submission by the authors, the editorial board considers the most important contribution of every institution for publication in the Journal. All other submitted abstracts will be published online.

Submit your abstract

 

Announce your course/meeting

SWISS KNIFE is an ideal platform to announce important information about courses, meetings or a congress.

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