Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. General Guidelines

The Indonesian Journal of Surgery, published by the Indonesian General Surgeons Society (Perhimpunan Ahli Bedah Indonesia – PABI), is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes high-quality scientific manuscripts in the field of surgery, focusing on clinical research, surgical innovation, and education.

The journal publishes original research articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, narrative or comprehensive reviews, case reports and case series, technical notes, selected ideas and innovations, as well as letters to the editor and responses to previously published articles. The journal covers clinical, translational, and scientific studies across a wide range of surgical subspecialties, including digestive and hepatobiliary surgery, surgical oncology, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, orthopaedic and musculoskeletal surgery, urology and andrology, plastic and reconstructive surgery, trauma and emergency surgery, neurosurgery, and pediatric surgery.

All manuscripts must be submitted online through the E-Journal portal: https://idjournalofsurgery.com/jbpabi/user/register. Authors must register as contributors to submit manuscripts. If you encounter any problems during submission, please contact the editorial office at: info@idjournalofsurgery.com. All submissions are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin, with a maximum similarity index of 25%. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will be returned to the authors for revision. Manuscripts must adhere to high ethical standards and must not contain plagiarism or data falsification.

Terms and Conditions of The Indonesian Journal of Surgery
Manuscripts can be written in English with a strong scientific basis and presented efficiently. Authors should avoid unnecessary medical jargon, wordiness, and overly long sentences.

1. Submission of a manuscript implies that the work is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration for publication in any other journal.
2. Copyright of articles published in The Indonesian Journal of Surgery belongs to the publisher (Perhimpunan Ahli Bedah Indonesia – PABI). Permission from the publisher is required for resale, distribution outside the institution, or for any derivative works, including compilations and translations.
3. Manuscripts involving human subjects or animals must be approved by an ethics committee. A copy of the ethical approval must be submitted together with the manuscript.
4. Authors are fully responsible for the content, accuracy, and statements made in their manuscripts.
5. Authors must sign and submit a statement of originality confirming that the work is their own.
6. Publication of the manuscript requires approval from all listed authors.

2. Manuscript Templates

The manuscript must be prepared according to the following author's guidelines in the article template (download the MS Word article template here).

3. Manuscript Types

The Indonesian Journal of Surgery publishes the following types of manuscripts :

• Original Research Articles: Clinical or experimental studies with novel findings.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Comprehensive, evidence-based literature reviews.
• Narrative Reviews: Critical discussions of specific surgical topics.
• Case Reports / Case Series: Rare or educational cases with clinical significance.
• Technical Notes / Innovations: Novel surgical techniques or procedural innovations.
• Surgical Procedures: Detailed step-by-step descriptions of operative techniques with clinical relevance.
• Letters to the Editor: Comments or responses to previously published articles.

4. Manuscript Revision

Manuscripts returned to the author for revision must be submitted back to the editor promptly. Revised manuscripts should be submitted via the Online Submission Interface. All revised manuscripts will be re-evaluated by the reviewers and/or editorial team. Manuscripts returned more than two months after the revision request will be treated as new submissions and will undergo full review.

5. Manuscript Format

The manuscript should be written concisely, consistently, and clearly. The length of the manuscript must not exceed 12 pages, including figures and tables. Manuscripts should be prepared single-spaced, on one side of A4-sized paper (210 × 297 mm), with normal margins (top, bottom, left, and right margins of 2.54 cm).

The manuscript must use Times New Roman font and be written entirely in English. The manuscript should be organized into the following sections: Introduction (including research objectives and hypothesis development, if applicable), Research Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, and References.

The manuscript consists of the following types and limitations:

1. Original article, surgical procedure, meta–analysis, systematic review, and comprehensive review: total words are up to 3000 and maximal to 20 figures.
2. Case report, serial case, selected ideas and innovations: total words are up to 1000 and maximal to 4 figures.
3. Letter to editor, comments / response to a published manuscript: total words are up to 500, 2 figures, and 5 recent references.

References must be written using the Vancouver citation style.

Title

The title should simply and clearly summarize the main idea, typed in uppercase at the beginning of the sentence and in lowercase (sentence case) in the left margin (align left). The recommended title length is no more than 16 words with a font size of 14 pt.

Author

All authors must be clearly identified with:

• Full name (without academic or professional titles)
• Institutional affiliation (department/faculty, university or hospital, country)
• Email address

ABSTRACT (11 pt, bold)

The abstract should clearly and concisely summarize the research, including the problem, research objectives, methods, results, and conclusions. It must be written in past tense and use clear, scientific language, avoiding jargon, unnecessary abbreviations, or overly long sentences. Abstracts for original clinical, experimental, or brief reports should be structured with labeled sections: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions; review articles should include Background, Data Sources, and Conclusions; and surgical pharmacology articles should have an unstructured abstract. The length should be 100–250 words, and no literature citations are allowed. Authors must also provide 3–6 relevant keywords on a separate page to facilitate indexing and discovery of the article. A well-prepared abstract allows readers to quickly understand the core content and relevance of the research.

INTRODUCTION (11 pt, bold)

The introduction should provide an adequate and concise background on the urgency or significance of the research topic, explain the relationship between the studied phenomenon and relevant theories or previous studies, and highlight the research gap and novelty of the study. The research objectives must be clearly and specifically stated. This section should avoid an extensive literature review or a summary of the results. The introduction may be divided into sub-sections if necessary, but its total length should not exceed two manuscript pages. All citations must be relevant to the bibliography, and the use of reference management software such as Mendeley, EndNote, Reference Manager, or Zotero is recommended. The manuscript should be written in clear, concise scientific language, using Times New Roman, 10 pt, single-spaced, with 2.54 cm margins on all sides, and may be written in English.

RESEARCH METHODS (11 pt, bold)

The Methods section should be concise yet detailed enough to allow the study to be reproduced by other researchers. It must include the type of research, research population, samples or subjects, and data analysis techniques. Only new or modified methods need to be described in detail; procedures that have been previously published should be cited with appropriate references. The manuscript should provide sufficient technical information to ensure transparency and reproducibility, while avoiding unnecessary details that do not contribute to understanding the methodology.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (11 pt, bold)

The Results section presents the main findings of the study derived from the applied research methods. The results are reported clearly and objectively and may be presented in the form of text, tables, and figures. All findings must be supported by adequate and reliable data and should directly address the research objectives and hypotheses.

The Discussion section provides an interpretation of the results rather than a repetition of the findings. This section explains the significance and implications of the results, relates the findings to existing theories and previous studies, and discusses any agreements or discrepancies with earlier research. Alternative explanations for the findings should be considered where appropriate. The discussion should also address the limitations of the study and propose recommendations for future research.

Results and discussion should be written in a coherent, descriptive paragraph format rather than as bullet points or numbered lists. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively following the previous sections, and each must be accompanied by a clear and descriptive title.

Table

The table is in the middle. Use Times New Roman and font sizes 8 to 11. Horizontal lines in the middle of the table do not need to be displayed; only display the heading and the very end, and there should also be no vertical lines. Make sure you create the table correctly via the Insert Table menu. Tables should be referenced in the text by writing something like: '... (Tables are written with a capital 'T').

Try not to truncate the table on different pages unless the size exceeds one page. If you have to truncate, don't forget to rewrite the header row for each column, given the same table serial number, and replace the title with Continuation. The table title does not end with a period. Tables do not need to use vertical lines.

Figure

Figures in a manuscript should be adjusted according to the type of article, such as original research, case reports, or reviews. Figures may include clinical or intraoperative photographs, radiological/imaging studies (X-ray, CT, MRI, USG), procedural diagrams or illustrations, charts/graphs (bar, line, pie, scatter), and flowcharts of research processes or surgical algorithms. All figures must be numbered sequentially (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and referenced in the text in order, with clear file names, for example, Figure1_AppendixTumor.jpg. Figure files should be in JPEG, JPG, TIFF, or PNG format with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Black-and-white (grayscale) figures are acceptable for print, while color may be used for online versions, ensuring sufficient contrast for readability. Each figure must include a concise caption of approximately 50–100 words, providing a description, scale or size, method, and any abbreviations used. Patient photographs must be anonymized, and figures adapted from other sources must include written permission and proper references; original research images are preferred. All figures should be clear and legible, with sharp labels, scales, arrows, or symbols, using a consistent font (Times New Roman, minimum 8 pt), and should avoid blurriness or excessive text.

CONCLUSION (11 pt, bold)

The conclusion must contain confirmation of the problems that have been analyzed in the results and discussion sections. Write a conclusion concisely and clearly. It is not recommended that the conclusion be written in several parts or points. The conclusion is intended to help readers understand why your research is important to them after they have finished reading the manuscript. A conclusion is not simply a summary of the main topics discussed or a restatement of your research problem, but rather a synthesis of the important points. It is important that the conclusion does not leave any questions unanswered.

REFERENCES (11 pt, bold)

References must follow the Vancouver citation style and be numbered consecutively in the order they first appear in the text, using superscript Arabic numerals. The same number should be used if a reference is cited more than once. References in tables or figure legends should continue the numbering sequence. Unpublished data or personal communications should be cited in the text as “unpublished data” and not included in the reference list.

At the end of the manuscript, list references on a separate page in numerical order. For articles with more than six authors, list the first six authors followed by “et al.” Journal titles must use their official abbreviated form (NCBI/Index Medicus). Issue numbers can be omitted if continuous pagination is used. References to books should include place of publication, publisher, and edition, and online sources must include the full URL and access date.

Authors are encouraged to cite primary, peer-reviewed sources and use reference management software (Mendeley, EndNote, Zotero, or Reference Manager) for accuracy and consistency.

Examples of correct forms of references are given below.

Journal Articles

1. Kimura Y, Sakamoto Y, Nakamura T, Tanaka H, Ito K, Suzuki M, et al. Long-term outcomes after laparoscopic liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma. Ann Surg. 2021;273:1021–1028.
2. Patel M, Jones T, Smith R. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols in colorectal surgery: a multicenter analysis. Colorectal Dis. 2020;22:1542–1550.
3. Li H, Zhang W, Chen Y, Wang J, Liu Q, Zhao X, et al. Comparison of robotic versus open pancreaticoduodenectomy: a propensity-matched study. Surgery. 2019;166:123–132.
4. Fernandez R, Gomez A, Torres L. Surgical management of complicated appendicitis in adults. World J Surg. 2018;42:2100–2108.
5. Tanaka K, Morimoto M. Thoracoscopic versus open surgery for esophageal cancer: a systematic review. Dis Esophagus. 2017;30:1–9.

Books and Monographs

1. Fischer JE, Bland KI, editors. Mastery of Surgery. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer; 2019.
2. Doherty GM, editor. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Surgery. 15th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2021.
3. Shackelford RT, editor. Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier; 2018.

Conference / Seminar Proceedings

1. Rossi M, Bianchi G. Innovations in minimally invasive orthopedic surgery. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Orthopedic Surgery; 2019 Sep 10–12; Rome, Italy. p. 55–62.
2. Smith J, Brown L. Trauma management in rural hospitals: lessons learned. In: Proc World Congress of Surgery; 2018 Aug 5–9; Tokyo, Japan. p. 112–118.

Theses / Dissertations

1. Hartono A. Perbandingan efektivitas teknik laparaskopi vs laparotomi pada pasien kolesistektomi: studi kohort retrospektif (thesis). Jakarta: Universitas Indonesia; 2020.

Online Sources / Guidelines

1. World Health Organization. Global Guidelines for Safe Surgery. 2018. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241511555 (accessed Jan 16, 2026).
2. American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. Clinical Practice Guidelines for Colon and Rectal Surgery. 2021. Available from: https://fascrs.org/guidelines (accessed Jan 16, 2026).