2009 PROGRAM

Meeting Info| Program | Author | Discussant | Directions

Dear NPSA Authors:

Congratulations on having your paper accepted to the upcoming NPSA meeting in Portland. This year you will be submitting your paper directly on line to the American Journal of Surgery (AJS). That means that you will no longer need to bring hard copy and disk to the meeting. You will be receiving an e-mail invitation to submit your paper from the AJS, along with directions on how to submit and respond to editorial input on line. This invitation will arrive as we get closer to the meeting, and the paper will need be submitted just before the meeting.

In the meantime, please begin preparing your paper. As always, the paper should be prepared according the directions for Affiliated Societies, which are available on-line on the AJS homepage or in the back of each issue of the AJS. We are striving to stay within our page restrictions, so that everyone’s paper can get published. To do this we need to keep our submissions as concise as possible. Papers should be no longer than 4 pages of journal length (approx 14 pages of text, references, and tables/figures). Here are some guidelines for keeping your paper concise:

Writing a concise (4 journal pages) paper for the American Journal of Surgery (AJS)

Title: no more than 15 words

Authors: No more than 5. All must have contributed to both paper and study. Eliminate, e.g. mentors who did not contribute to both, statisticians who did not contribute to both, people who only reviewed manuscript, surgeons who provided patients but no other input, etc. Put these people in a short sentence of acknowledgement at the end of the text.

Abstract: 250 words or less-strictly enforced!

Intro: 1 or 2 paragraphs that quickly get to why study was done.

Methods: whenever possible refer to, rather than reiterate, previously published methods, instruments, etc.

Results: Reduce text by putting data in text and figures-use Results section to refer to data trends shown in tables and figures. In short, when it comes to data, text should not be redundant with tables and figures.

Comments: Six or seven paragraphs max. Suggested outline:

1. What the study showed (1 paragraph)
2. How a few key findings support or contradict what is already published (2-3 paragraphs-1 for each key point)
3. Limitations of the study (if appropriate; 1 paragraph max)
4. Implications/Future plans (1 paragraph)

References: limit to 20 (instructions say 40, but this is usually many more than needed). Use AJS references whenever possible-this raises the Journal’s impact factor.

Tables and Figures: No duplication with text. “Boil down” tables-remove all extraneous words and symbols. Use as few photos as possible to make the point.

You will be notified of a discussant for your paper. On behalf of the NPSA membership, we are looking forward to hearing your paper at the meeting in November and seeing it in the Journal. Thank you.