Authors of will be required to fill in a 10-item "Submission CONSORT" questionnaire as part of the submission process. If the paper receives a decision of "Revise," then the authors must include the a completed copy of the full CONSORT checklist and flow chart, designated as supplemental digital content items. Please follow the guidelines in the current CONSORT statement (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), which you can access via the following website http://www.consort-statement.org/. Word and reference limits: Text: 3,500 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Abstract: 250 words; References: 50 maximum. A maximum combined number of 7 tables & figures may be included for publication in print. Additional tables and figures may be included as online-only supplemental data content. Published in print and online.

Review Paper

These articles are state-of-the-art reviews on specific topics within surgery. Word and reference limits: Text: 7,000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Abstract: 250 words; References: 75 maximum. A maximum combined number of 7 tables & figures may be included for publication in print. Additional tables and figures may be included as online-only supplemental data content. Published in print and online.

These articles are systematic, critical assessments of current literature pertaining to clinical topics, emphasizing factors such as cause, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, or prevention. All articles should be searched for and selected systematically for inclusion and critically evaluated, and the search and selection process should be described in the manuscript. The specific type of study or analysis should be described for each article or data source.

We encourage authors of meta-analyses of clinical trials to submitted the PRISMA flow diagram and checklist. Authors of meta-analyses of observational studies are encouraged to submit the MOOSE checklist. The PRISMA and MOOSE items should be designated as supplemental digital content items. Word and reference limits: Text: 5,000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures; Abstract: 250 words; References: 75 maximum. A maximum combined number of 7 tables & figures may be included for publication in print. Additional tables and figures may be included as online-only supplemental data content Published in print and online.

Surgical Perspectives

These short articles are not a commentary on specific papers published in the Annals of Surgery but rather address important issues relevant to healthcare or medicine in general and which are of specific interest to the profession of surgery. The topics of these articles may include surgical quality or safety, surgical reimbursement, surgical education, or other issues facing the profession. Like all papers published in the Annals of Surgery, these papers will be peer-reviewed and, if accepted, they will be published both in print and online with free access to all. Word and reference limits: Text: 1,500 words, excluding title page and references; References: 10 maximum; Figures and Tables: 1. As of January 2021 Surgical Perspectives will exclusively publish online-only.

Article Types No Longer Accepted in Annals of Surgery

Surgical History

As of June 2020, Annals of Surgery will no longer accept Surgical History papers. Instead, we encourage potential authors to consider submitting to our companion journal Annals of Surgery Open: Perspectives on Surgical History, Education, and Clinical Approaches, which will publish high-impact surgical history content. Please click here for more information.

As of November 2021 Annals of Surgery will no longer be accepting Brief Clinical Reports for publication. We encourage potential authors to consider submitting to our companion journal Annals of Surgery Open: Perspectives on Surgical History, Education, and Clinical Approaches, which will consider Brief Clinical Reports for publication. Interested authors can submit a Brief Clinical Report on the Annals of Surgery Open Editorial Manager site.

Letters to the Editor

As of November 2021 Annals of Surgery will no longer consider Letters to the Editor for publication in the journal. Annals of Surgery Open: Perspectives on Surgical History, Education, and Clinical Approaches will consider Letters to the Editor for both Annals of Surgery and Annals of Surgery Open. Interested authors can submit a Letter to the Editor on the Annals of Surgery Open Editorial Manager site.

Editorial Policies

Preprints

Effective April 2020, we will consider articles that are published on preprint servers (e.g., bioRxiv).  Publication on a preprint server must be disclosed in the cover letter of the submission and included in a section on the title page labeled: "Publication history". Please use the following as an example: "Publication history: This manuscript was previously published in bioRxiv: doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/307788125". If the manuscript is ultimately published, copyright is assigned to the Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. The copyright licenses assigned to the pre-print and the published version will be mutually independent, so authors should review our Open Access policies related to available license types and potential Article Processing Charges. Finally, if published, the corresponding author is responsible for reporting the publication details to the preprint server administrators.

Duplicate Publication

Manuscripts are reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that they are being submitted only to the Annals of Surgery and have not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere.

This does not preclude consideration of a manuscript that has been rejected by another journal or a complete report that follows publication of preliminary findings elsewhere, usually in the form of an abstract. Copies of any possibly duplicate published material should be submitted with the manuscript under consideration, with a statement in the cover letter as to why the manuscript currently being submitted is not a duplicate publication.

Disclosure of Conflicts

Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading "Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:". For example: Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: A has received honoraria from Company Z. B is currently receiving a grant (#12345) from Organization Y, and is on the speaker's bureau for Organization X - the CME organizers for Company A. For the remaining authors none were declared.

In addition, each author/co-author must complete and submit the journal's copyright transfer agreement, which includes a section on the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" (www.icmje.org/update.html). Copyright forms are now collected electronically. The Additional Information submission step will lead you through the process.

In addition, an email will be sent to all entered co-authors automatically, providing a link that allows co-authors to confirm their status as coauthors and to complete the conflict of interest and copyright release questionnaire. Corresponding authors may track co-author responses via the 'Author Status' action item in their 'Submissions Being Processed' or 'Revisions Being Processed' folders.

Corresponding authors may edit a co-author's E-mail address if an undeliverable E-mail is received, may view their Form responses, or Resend the verification form to the co-authors.

It is the author's responsibility to ensure that a patient's anonymity be carefully protected and to verify that any experimental investigation with human subjects reported in the manuscript was performed with informed consent and following all the guidelines for experimental investigation with human subjects required by the institution(s) with which all the authors are affiliated. Authors should mask patients' eyes and remove patients' names from figures unless they obtain written consent from the patients and submit written consent with the manuscript.

Ethical and Humane Considerations

The Annals of Surgery is dedicated to the humane and ethical conduct of all studies involving living subjects. All clinical trials involving human subjects must be registered, retroactively if necessary, to be considered for publication. (Please see the information regarding mandatory clinical trial registration).

In studies with human subjects, indicate in the Methods section whether the procedures, including obtaining informed consent, were conducted in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.

For experiments with animal subjects, briefly explain the measures taken to insure compliance with established guidelines for humane use and care of laboratory animals, citing the origin of these guides (e.g. institution's Animal Care Committee, US Dept. Agriculture, NIH, National Research Council, other).

Authors must submit written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to use tables or illustrations that have appeared in copyrighted or published form elsewhere, along with complete details about the source. Any permissions fees that might be required by the copyright owner are the responsibility of the authors requesting use of the borrowed material, not the responsibility of Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Authorship 

The Annals of Surgery discourages the practice of "guest authorship" (giving co-authorship to individuals who have made no substantive contribution to the work being reported). All persons listed as authors are assumed to have been actively involved in one or more key aspects of the reported study.

The following guidelines should be used to identify individuals whose work qualifies them as authors as distinct from those who are contributors to the work. In general, each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Individuals claiming authorship should meet all of the following 3 conditions:

1. Authors make substantial contributions to conception and design, and/or acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Authors participate in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Authors give final approval of the version to be published.

Acquisition of data, contributing cases, or general supervision of the research group, of itself does not qualify for authorship. When a large, multi-center group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship defined above.

Groups of persons who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under a heading such as "clinical investigators" or "participating investigators," and their function or contribution should be described -- for example, "served as scientific advisors," "critically reviewed the study proposal," "collected data," or "provided and cared for study patients." Because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions, all persons listed as contributors must give written permission to be acknowledged.

Other contributors should be listed in an acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT

Type manuscript, double-spaced throughout, with margins of 2.5 cm (1 inch) on all sides. Pages must be numbered, starting with the Structured Abstract and continuing through the references. Place the number in the upper right-hand corner of each page. Please be sure to add a formal Title page to the manuscript. (See below for details)

Mandatory Clinical Trial Registration

Annals of Surgery requires all clinical trials that prospectively assign human subjects to medical interventions, comparison groups, or control groups for the purpose of examining the potential health effects of such interventions, to be registered in one of several free, publicly accessible, non-profit electronically searchable databases such as the one administered by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which is located at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Trials can be registered retroactively and submitted manuscripts must include the unique registration number in the abstract as evidence of registration.

For details regarding the required minimal registration data set, please go to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) site at http://www.icmje.org/#clin_trials.

Authors submitting manuscripts reporting on unregistered clinical trials may request consideration of their papers if they can provide sufficient evidence of merit, although we anticipate that all clinical trials will be registered after July 1, 2007.

For more information, please see the Consensus Statement on Mandatory Clinical Trial Registration, adopted by the members of the Surgery Journal Editors Group, published in the April 2007 issue of the Annals of Surgery (245(4): 505-506), which is available online at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1877041

Currently, there are six registries approved by the ICMJE:
clinicaltrials.gov/
www.ISRCTN.org
www.who.int/ictrp/about/details/en/index.html
www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm/
www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/index.asp
www.anzctr.org.au/default.aspx

Manuscript Guidelines

For study types other than Randomized Controlled Trials, the Editors request that you please check the following guidelines prior to submitting your manuscript to ensure that the highest ethical standards for research are maintained.

• PRISMA Checklist and Flow Diagram: for Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Randomized Controlled Trials. http://www.prisma-statement.org
  
• STROBE CHECKLIST: (from the Bulletin of the World Health Organization | November 2007, 85 (11)) for Observational Studies. Link: http://www.strobe-statement.org/Publications.htm
  
• MOOSE Guidelines: (PDF document ref JAMA, April 19, 2000-Vol 283, No. 15) - for Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Observational Studies. Please see Table 1 for the checklist.

Manuscript Components

Transfer of Copyright

​All published material becomes the sole property of Annals of Surgery, copyrighted by Wolters Kluwer. By submitting an article to Annals of Surgery, all authors agree to these conditions.

During the submission process, all authors will be asked to complete an electronic copyright transfer agreement (eCTA), aka “electronic author form." By completing the electronic copyright transfer agreement, you are transferring copyright of figures, tables, videos, and the content of the manuscript to the journal.
​
​​​In addition, an email will be sent to all entered co-authors automatically, providing a link that allows co-authors to confirm their status as coauthors and to complete the conflict of interest and copyright release questionnaire.

Cover Letter

The cover letter, from the author responsible for all correspondence regarding the manuscript, should contain a statement that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors. If color figures have been submitted, a statement should be included as to whether the authors are willing to meet possible costs of color reproduction.

Place as the first page of the manuscript text file. The Title Page should not be included in the word count. The title page should contain the following information:

• Title of paper including a description of the type of study conducted.
• Full name of each author (first name, middle initial and last name) followed by each author's highest academic degree(s). Name of department(s) and institution(s) with which each author is affiliated and to which work should be attributed.
• Name, address, telephone number, fax number, and E-mail (if available) of author responsible for correspondence concerning the manuscript.
• Name, address, and telephone number of author to who requests for reprints should be addressed, or a statement that reprints will not be available from the author(s).
• Cite all sources of support for the work being reported, including grants, equipment, and drugs.
• A short running head of no more than 40 characters, including spaces, placed at the bottom of the title page.

The title page must also include disclosure of funding received for this work from any of the following organizations: National Institutes of Health (NIH); Wellcome Trust; Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI); and other(s).

Mini-Abstract

The mini-abstract should be a short description of the study, no longer than about three sentences or 50 words. This will appear in the Table of Contents under the title of the paper.

Structured Abstract

The purpose of the structured abstract is to concisely present the data contained in the manuscript in an easily understood and comprehensive summary of about 250 words. The format should consist of:

Objective: one or two sentences.
Summary Background Data: a short paragraph describing the scientific context for the study.
Methods: a statement of the plan and/or methods used in conducting the study.
Results: a concise summary of findings, as verified by the data.
Conclusions: a brief statement of what can be deduced from the findings of the study.

Text of the Paper

Original papers are usually but not necessarily divided into sections with the following headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Subheadings are often helpful in clarifying the content. Please format main headings as bold, captial text; secondary headings as italics; and third-level headings as plain text.

Introduction: Clearly state the purpose of the article. Summarize the rationale for the study or observation, providing the scientific context for the study being reported. Give only strictly pertinent references, and do not review the subject exhaustively.

Methods: Clearly describe your selection of the observational or experimental subjects (human or nonhuman). Identify the methods, apparatus (manufacturer's name and address in parentheses) and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give the references to established methods, including statistical analyses. Provide references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published but are not well known. Describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations.

Include numbers of observations and the statistical significance of findings, when appropriate.
For studies involving living subjects, please see section, below, on Ethical and Humane Considerations and the information regarding mandatory clinical trial registration.

Results: Present results using text, tables, and illustrations. Use the format that most concisely and clearly presents the information. Data in table or illustration form should be referenced in the text, not repeated (eg, detailed information should not be given in text and tables).

Discussion: Emphasize new and important findings and aspects of the study, and the conclusions to be drawn. Include implications of the findings and the limitations, and relate the observations to other relevant studies. Link your conclusions with the study's goals. Avoid unqualified statements, and allusions to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when appropriate, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when called for, should be included.

Acknowledments

Acknowledge those who contributed to the manuscript, but who do not qualify for inclusion as authors. For example, those who provided purely technical help or writing assistance, or who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

References

The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Place the references (double-spaced) at the end of the manuscript. Cite the references numerically in the text in the order of appearance. Cite unpublished data, such as papers submitted but not yet accepted for publication or personal communications, in parentheses in the text. If there are more than three authors, name only the first three authors and then use "et al". Pages should be listed with all numerals (1081-1089, not 1081-9). Refer to the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus for abbreviations of journal names, or access the list at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/terms_cond.html. Sample references are given below.

Journal article
1. Tafra L, Lannin DR, Swanson MS, et al. Multicenter trial of sentinel node biopsy for breast cancer using both technetium sulfur colloid and isosulfan blue dye. Ann Surg. 2001;233:51–59.

Book chapter
2. Tisi PV, Shearman CP. Systemic consequences of reperfusion. In: Grace PA, Mathie RT, eds. Ischaemia-reperfusion injury. London: Blackwell Science; 1999:20–30.

Entire book
3. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1999.

Electronic Pre-print article
4. Author. Article title. Journal title. Year Month Day; [Epub ahead of print]. Accessed on mm/dd/yyyy. Available at: website (exact website, or enough to lead the reader to the link).

Software
5. Epi Info [computer program]. Version 6. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 1994.

Online journals
6. Friedman SA. Preeclampsia: a review of the role of prostaglandins. Obstet Gynecol [serial online]. January 1988; 71:22-37. Available from: BRS Information Technologies, McLean, VA. Accessed December 15, 1990.

Database
7. CANCERNET-PDQ [database online]. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; 1996. Updated March 29, 1996.

World Wide Web
8. Gostin LO. Drug use and HIV/AIDS [JAMA HIV/AIDS web site]. June 1, 1996. Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/ethics. Accessed June 26, 1997.

Figures, Images, and Tables

Tables

Each table, complete with title and footnotes, should be on a separate page, and should be constructed using the table function within a Word type document in order to prevent displacement of the data during print production. Submit tables separately from the manuscript text file.

Like figures, tables should be cited consecutively in the text and numbered in that order. Each must include the table title, appropriate column heads, and explanatory legends (including definitions of any abbreviations used). Tables should not be embedded within the body of the manuscript. They should be self-explanatory and should supplement, rather than duplicate, the material in the text. At the discretion of the editor, long tables may be reclassified as Supplemental Digital Content (online-only).

Creating Digital Artwork

1. Learn about the publication requirements for Digital Artwork: http://links.lww.com/ES/A42
2. Create, Scan and Save your artwork and compare your final figure to the Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist (below).
3. Upload each figure to Editorial Manager in conjunction with your manuscript text and tables.

Digital Artwork Guideline Checklist
Here are the basics to have in place before submitting your digital artwork:

• Artwork should be saved as TIFF, EPS, or MS Office (DOC, PPT, XLS) files.
• Crop out any white or black space surrounding the image.
• Diagrams, drawings, graphs, and other line art must be vector or saved at a resolution of at least 1200 dpi. If created in an MS Office program, send the native (DOC, PPT, XLS) file.
• Photographs, radiographs and other halftone images must be saved at a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
• Photographs and radiographs with text must be saved as postscript or at a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
• Each figure must be saved and submitted as a separate file. Figures should not be embedded in the manuscript text file.

Additional Figure Requirements 

• Cite figures consecutively in your manuscript.
• Number figures in the figure legend in the order in which they are discussed.
• Upload figures consecutively to the Editorial Manager web site and enter figure numbers consecutively in the Description field when uploading the files.
• Do not send original drawings or roentgenograms.
• Figures should be professionally drawn and photographed; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Again, convert figures to electronic TIFF or EPS format for submission. Photomicrographs must have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in the figures should contrast with the background.
• If photographs of persons are used, the subjects must not be identifiable, or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph.
• If a figure has been previously published, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material. Permission is required, regardless of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain.
  
• At the discretion of the editor, figures may be reclassified as Supplemental Digital Content (online-only).

Color figures

The journal accepts for publication color figures that will enhance an article. Authors who submit color figures will receive an estimate of the cost for color reproduction. If they decide not to pay for color reproduction, they can request that the figures be converted to black and white at no charge.

Supplemental Digital Content

Authors may submit SDC via Editorial Manager to LWW journals that enhance their article's text to be considered for online posting. SDC may include standard media such as text documents, graphs, audio, video, etc. On the Attach Files page of the submission process, please select Supplemental Audio, Video, or Data for your uploaded file as the Submission Item. If an article with SDC is accepted, our production staff will create a URL with the SDC file. The URL will be placed in the call-out within the article. SDC files are not copy-edited by LWW staff, they will be presented digitally as submitted. For a list of all available file types and detailed instructions, please visit http://links.lww.com/A142.

Supplemental Digital Content must be cited consecutively in the text of the submitted manuscript. Citations should include the type of material submitted (Audio, Figure, Table, etc.), be clearly labeled as "Supplemental Digital Content," include the sequential list number, and provide a description of the supplemental content. All descriptive text should be included in the call-out as it will not appear elsewhere in the article.
Example:
We performed many tests on the degrees of flexibility in the elbow (see Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, which demonstrates elbow flexibility) and found our results inconclusive.

A listing of Supplemental Digital Content must be submitted at the end of the manuscript file. Include the SDC number and file type of the Supplemental Digital Content. This text will be removed by our production staff and not be published.
Example:
Supplemental Digital Content 1.wmv

All acceptable file types are permissible up to 10 MBs. For audio or video files greater than 10 MBs, authors should first query the journal office for approval. For a list of all available file types and detailed instructions, please visit http://links.lww.com/A142.

Legends for Illustrations

Legends must be submitted for all figures. They should be brief and specific, and they should appear on a separate manuscript page after the references. Use scale markers in the image for electron micrographs, and indicate the type of stain used.

Abbreviations

Use only standard abbreviations for units of measurement, and approved abbreviations when citing journals in your manuscript's Reference section. The following sources contain complete listings of abbreviations.

• American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style.
• List of Serials Indexed for Online Users, published by The National Library of Medicine

Click on the heading titled "Databases and Resources", and then on the subheading "LocatorPlus".

Appendices

Annals of Surgery does not generally publish appendices. They may be included as supplementary material for review purposes, but appendices should be removed or converted to tables and numbered consecutively with any other tables included with the manuscript if accepted for publication.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Open Access

​​​ Authors of accepted peer-reviewed articles have the choice to pay a fee to allow perpetual unrestricted online access to their published article to readers globally, immediately upon publication. Authors may take advantage of the open access option at the point of submission. Please note that this choice has no influence on the peer review and acceptance process. These articles are subject to the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

The article processing charge (APC) is charged on acceptance of the article and should be paid within 30 days by the author, funding agency or institution. Payment must be processed for the article to be published open access. For a list of journals and pricing please visit our Wolters Kluwer Open Health Journals page.

Authors retain copyright
Authors retain their copyright for all articles they opt to publish open access. Authors grant Wolters Kluwer an exclusive license to publish the article and the article is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons user license. Please visit our Open Access Publication Process page for more information.

Creative Commons license
Open access articles are freely available to read, download and share from the time of publication under the terms of the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommerical No Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND) license. This license does not permit reuse for any commercial purposes, nor does it cover the reuse or modification of individual elements of the work (such as figures, tables, etc.) in the creation of derivative works without specific permission.

Compliance with funder mandated open access policies
An author whose work is funded by an organization that mandates the use of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license is able to meet that requirement through the available open access license for approved funders. Information about the approved funders can be found here: http://www.wkopenhealth.com/inst-fund.php

It is the responsibility of the author to inform the Editorial Office and/or LWW that they have RCUK funding. LWW will not be held responsible for retroactive deposits to PMC if the author has not completed the proper forms.

Compliance with National Institutes of Health Accessibility Requirements
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires authors to submit the “post-print” (the final manuscript, in Word format, after peer-review and acceptance for publication but prior to the publisher’s copyediting, design, formatting, and other services) of research the NIH funds to a repository that is accessible online by all without charge. As a service to our authors, LWW will identify to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) articles that require deposit and will transmit the post-print of an article based on research funded in whole or in part by the NIH to PubMed Central.

FAQ for open access​
https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/lippincott-journals/lippincott-open-access/faq

Page Proofs and Corrections

Corresponding authors will receive electronic page proofs to check the copyedited and typeset article before publication. Portable document format (PDF) files of the typeset pages and support documents (eg, reprint order form) will be sent to the corresponding author via e-mail. Complete instructions will be provided with the e-mail for downloading and printing the files and for faxing the corrected pages to the publisher. Those authors without an e-mail address will receive traditional page proofs. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that there are no errors in the proofs. Changes that have been made to conform to journal style should be allowed to stand if they do not alter the authors' meaning. Authors may be charged for alterations to the proofs beyond those required to correct errors or to answer queries. Proofs must be checked carefully and corrections faxed within 24 to 48 hours of receipt, as requested in the cover letter accompanying the page proofs.

Author Reprints

Authors will have the opportunity to order reprints after issue publication. An e-mail will be sent to each author with a valid e-mail address in Editorial Manager. Contact Customer Service ([email protected]) with any questions.

Commercial Reprints

For inquiries in the United States and Canada, please send your request to [email protected]; for inquiries regarding reprint use in other countries, please send your request to [email protected]. To search for articles that support your messaging, please visit https://lwwreprints.ovidds.com//

Publisher Contact

E-mail color letters and corrected page proofs to The Proof Manager, Health Learning, Research & Practice, Wolters Kluwer Health, Email: [email protected]. 

Production questions can be directed to Editorial Coordinator Kyle Overturf. E-mail: [email protected].

Submission 

All submissions for Annals of Surgery can be made at http://www.editorialmanager.com/annsurg.