The Journal of Digestive Cancer Research (J Dig Cancer Res, JDCR) is the official journal of Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research, published three times per year on April 20th, August 20th and December 20th. The Journal publishes original articles of clinical and fundamental researches on gastrointestinal tract, pancreatobiliary tract, and liver, to contribute further development of gastroenterology.
This regulation is revised based on the “Uniform Require-ments for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (https://www.icmje.org/) and are supplemented ethical principles and rules for references.

The JDCR is published three times per year on April 20th, August 20th and December 20th. It has been published since 2013. JDCR is indexed in KoreaMed and KoMCI. Full text is accessible at: https://www.jdcr.org/submission/Login.html. Submitted manuscripts must be original and unpublished by other journals or publications. Manuscripts published by JDCR publishes articles of clinical and fundamental researches on gastrointestinal tract, liver, and pancreatobiliary tract (Original Articles, Reviews, and Case Reports). Papers of other fields and topics may be published upon approval of the Editorial Board.

• Types of Manuscript
  • 1) The types of manuscripts include original articles, review articles, case reports, research trend, educational series, and cancer image of the issue.
  • 2) Review articles, research trend, and educational series are limited to manuscripts solicited by the editorial board.
• Language of Manuscript
  • 1) All manuscripts must be in either Korean or English. Hangul(.hwp) or MS Word(.doc) may be used for Korean manuscripts, and MS Word for English manuscripts. The manuscripts must be double-spaced in A4 size.
  • 2) The glossary issued by Korean Medical Association shall apply for the use of medical terms in Korean manuscripts. If translations in Korean are not available, such as for proper nouns, names of medicine, and units, English may be used in Korean manuscripts. If translations are likely to cause confusions, the term should be presented in its original language in parentheses at the first appearance, and then only translated term should be used.
  • 3) Abbreviations, which are not listed on it, and used for 3 times or more must be defined at the first mention in the text using parentheses.
• Submission of Manuscript
  1. 1) Apply for Publication
     • ① All manuscripts must be submitted through the online submission system of the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Research website (http://www.gicancer.or.kr). The peer review afterward is conducted through the system as well.
     • ② Authors should read the “Checklist for Submission” carefully posted on the journal’s website and submit after checking each items.
     • ③ Only the first author and/or corresponding author can submit the manuscript through the online system.
     • ④ The decision to publish will be made by the editorial board of the journal after the peer review. The board has the right to reject and demand the revision of the submitted manuscripts if the board believes that the manuscripts do not stand to the rules of the regulations.
     • ⑤ The editorial board has the right to revise and edit the styles and structures of submitted manuscripts within the context if necessary.
• Review of Manuscript
  • 1) The Editor-in-Chief reviews all submissions and makes an initial determination regarding suitability for peer review.
  • 2) All manuscripts undergo peer review by at least two reviewers with relevant expertise who are selected by the editorial board.
  • 3) The editors make the final decision of publication based on the result of peer review.
  • 4) Once the decision on publication as accept, revision or reject is made, it is directly noticed to the corresponding author.
  • 5) After the decision, revised manuscripts should be submitted usually within 8 weeks for original articles, and 4 weeks for case reports, otherwise it may be decided to be rejected. Resubmission is limited to no more than 3 times.
  • 6) When the manuscript is resubmitted after revision, the author should submit the file describing how the reviewer's pointed out was corrected with revised manuscript. At this time, the author's edits in the file should be highlighted in red.
  • 7) After the final draft of manuscripts are proven to be appropriate according to the publication policies and styles of the journal, the decision of publication is finalized and expected publication date will be given. Rejected manuscripts are not to be considered again.
• Appeals of Decisions

  Any appeal against an editorial decision must be made within 2 weeks of the date of the decision letter. Authors who wish to appeal against a decision should contact the editor-in-chief, explaining in detail the reasons for the appeal. All appeals will be discussed with at least one other associate editor. If consensus cannot be reached thereby, an appeal will be discussed at a full editorial meeting. The JDCR Journal of Digestive Cancer Research Instructions for Authors process of handling complaints and appeals follows the guideline of COPE available from: https://publicationethics.org/appeals. JDCR does not consider second appeals.

• Advertising Policy

  Advertisements are reviewed in light of appropriate ethical considerations before being accepted for publication. The publication of advertisements relies on the responsibility of the advertiser to comply with all legal requirements relating to the marketing and sale of the products or services advertised. The publication of an advertisement neither constitutes nor implies a guarantee or endorsement, by the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research of the product or service advertised, or the claims made for it by the advertiser. The Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research reserves the right to discontinue any advertisement it so wishes.

For issues not addressed in these instructions, the author is referred to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” (https://www.icmje.org). Cases that require editorial expressions of concern or retraction shall follow the COPE flowcharts available from: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts. If correction is needed, it will follow the ICMJE Recommendation for Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control available from: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html.

• Authorship and Copyright
  • 1) Authorship should be based on one of following contributions:
    
    • (a) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work, (b) drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content, (c) final approval of the version to be published, (d) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Any persons who do not meet the 4 criteria above should be placed as contributors in ACKNOWLEDGMENTS section.
  • 2) Upon the submission of manuscripts, all authors must sign and submit the “Copyright Transfer Agreement Form”, and it is not allowed to change the first or corresponding author, or to add or remove coauthor(s) once the manuscript is submitted to the journal website. The Copyright Transfer Agreement Form must be submitted via mail (to the main office of the Society), fax, or e-mail as scanned file.
  • 3) The Copyright Transfer Agreement Form must be submitted via mail (to the main office of the Society), fax, or e-mail/online submission system as scanned file.
  • 4) If the each item of “Checklist for Submission” do not match the actual paper received, the manuscript can be resubmitted after returning the manuscript without reviewing.
  • 5) Authors should clearly identify the fact that there is conflict of interest, if any, related to the submitted articles.
  • 6) The copyright for the manuscript published in this journal is owned by the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research. However, the legal responsibility for the content lies entirely with the authors. It is a violation of the regulations to present data on a paper that has been decided to be published but has not been published, and the use of published papers for commercial advertising purposes is prohibited. However, in case of an emergency in public health, prior consultation can be made with the society.
• Conflict of Interest

  The corresponding author of an article is asked to inform the Editor of the authors' potential conflicts of interest possibly influencing their interpretation of data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. A potential conflict of interest should be disclosed in the manuscript even when the authors are confident that their judgments have not been influenced in preparing the manuscript. The disclosure form should be the same as the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest (http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf).

• Ethical Considerations
  • 1) When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors who submit manuscripts to Journal of Digestive Cancer Research should acquire the permission from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) on human experiment and indicate all possible physical and psychological damages on subjects and/or their guardians before the experiment is conducted, in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/; revised in 2013). When posting identifiable images of patients, it is necessary to describe obtaining prior consent for image publication within the paper. However, cases where the IRB exempts patient consent may be excluded. Identifying information such as the patient’s name, initials, hospital number, date of birth, etc., should not be included in images, written descriptions, videos, photographs, pedigrees, etc., unless necessary for scientific purposes. While anonymity can be protected by methods such as cropping images, they should not be altered in any other way. If changes to identifying characteristics are made to protect anonymity, the author must ensure to the editor that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
  • 2) Any information that could have revealed subjects’ identities, such as name and initials, should not appear in the text. If a photo is presented, proper measures should be taken not to reveal the subject’s identity, or a written consent must be presented for the photo and possible disclosure of subject’s identity.
  • 3) When reporting experiments on animals, authors should describe the measures they have taken to ease pains and inconvenience on the subjects, and indicate whether the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of laboratory Animals or corresponding guideline was followed. Research involving animals must receive approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), and studies utilizing pathogens requiring high biological safety levels must obtain approval from the relevant committee.
  • 4) One must adhere to the research and publication ethics guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (KAMJE). For unspecified yet necessary guidelines on the issues of legitimacy and ethics on the submitted manuscripts, authors may consult. International Standards for Editors and Authors by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which is available at https://publicationethics.org. The editor-in-chief is responsible for investigating all misconduct and taking necessary actions. After reviewing and determining suspected cases, appropriate measures are implemented and disclosed.
  • 5) Research Ethics for Artificial Intelligence
    Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology is only permitted for spelling, grammar, data collection, analysis processes and figure generation. Authors must disclose in their cover letter and submitted manuscript whether they used AI-assisted technologies (e.g., Large Language Models, chatbots, etc.) and how they used them. Authors should describe the use of AI for writing assistance in the Acknowledgements section. The Materials and Methods section should describe any AI used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation. The responsibility for the manuscript’s accuracy, integrity, and originality ultimately rests with the authors, and chatbots or other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors. Any submission or publication that does not adequately disclose the use of AI assistance may be rejected during the review process or retracted after publication.
  • 6) Ethics in Big Data Research
    Before embarking on big data research, authors should verify obtaining written consent from research subjects or their legally authorized representatives, ensuring that there are no special permit regulations or laws regarding consent. Additionally, authors should confirm whether IRB approval for the research has been obtained and whether the need for written consent from research participants or their representatives has been waived, as well as whether the IRB is informed about disclosing personal information acquired for research purposes to third parties. Authors should also ascertain their awareness of safety measures developed through evaluations of the impact of big data research on research subjects and the environment, and whether they understand the need for record retention and deletion of personal information after the storage period expires, and whether they are aware of the right to apply for an extension of the storage period. Furthermore, authors should ensure their understanding of the responsibility and transparency of big data research, as well as the rights of research subjects to request explanations and access to the research, and guarantee that authors are aware of these rights.
• Registration of the Clinical Research and Data Sharing Policy

  Any research that deals with clinical trial should be registered to the primary national clinical trial registration site such as https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/index/index.do, or other sites accredited by World Health Organization or ICMJE. This journal follows the data sharing policy described in “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors”. The ICMJE's policy regarding trial registration is explained at https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html. If the data sharing plan changes after registration this should be reflected in the statement submitted and published with the manuscript, and updated in the registry record.

• Principles on Overlapping Publication
  • 1) The Society do not accept any manuscripts that are identical or significantly similar to studies already published or going to be published in other journals.
  • 2) It is not allowed for authors to publish their articles already appeared in JDCR without permission from the board. Multiple or duplicate publication is only limited to the cases specified in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Ann Intern Med 1997;126:36-47). This does not apply to the publication of abstracts or posters.
  • 3) Authors are subject to penalties and/or unfavorable outcomes if unauthorized duplicate publication is discovered.

• Preparing a Manuscript for Submission (Original Article)
  1. 1) General Principles
     • ① The text of original articles is organized in the following order; title page, English abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conflict of interest, acknowledgement, references, figure legends, tables, and figures or images.
     • ② Names and affiliations of authors must appear on the title page only.
     • ③ When a superscript is used at the end of a sentence, the superscript is located after a comma or a period.
       ex) ... followed by a superscript [1,3]. (O)
       ... followed by a superscript. [1,3] (X)
  2. 2) Title Page
     • ① The title page should have the following information in order. Article title, authors (affiliation, name), shortened title in English, contact information for corresponding authors (name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, and ORCID [Open Researcher and Contributor ID] of the author responsible for correspondence about the manuscript). Do not include authors’ final degree. Names of multiple authors are separated by a comma (,) and insert ‘and’ in front of the last author's name without a comma before it.
     • ② A shortened title must be provided if the article title is longer than 12 words in English. The first letter of all nouns and adjectives of English title should be capitalized. The pages of manuscripts must be numbered consecutively, beginning on the title page and located at the center of the footer. Abbreviations cannot be used in the title except in special cases.
     • ③ When authors have multiple affiliations, list the affiliation where most of the research was conducted. Other affiliations should be following the major affiliation with superscripts (only Arabic numerals) on each of them. The superscripts should be referring to the author of that affiliation.
     • ④ Fund: Authors must declare all financial, if relevant, any editorial assistance received to support the underlying research project and/or the preparation of the article for submission.
     • ⑤ Conflict of interest: Authors must identify any conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.
  3. 3) Abstract
     • ① Do not state authors’ names and affiliations.
     • ② The abstract must be no more than 250 words and should be composed of Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions.
     • ③ Abbreviations should follow the conventional rule and citations are not allowed for the abstract.
     • ④ A list of key words no more than five should be provided. Each key word starts with a capitalized letter, separated by a semi-colon, and using MeSH terms.
     • ⑤ The abstract of the case reports and review article should be described in one unstructured paragraph.
  4. 4) Introduction
     • ① Provide a context or background for the study, which must be explicitly related to the aims of the study.
     • ② Deduct research hypothesis systematically and describe the aims of the study briefly and clearly.
     • ③ Do not repeat the contents of the result and discussion in the introduction.
  5. 5) Materials and Methods
     • ① Describe the plan of research, characteristics of subjects, and the length and methods of observation in as much details as possible.
     • ② Studies performed using clinical samples or data must include information on the IRB approval or waiver with an approval (waiver) number, and written informed consents from the subjects. Also, studies involving animals must include information on the IACUC approval with approval number.
     • ③ When reporting the use of reagents or machine, indicate the name of the company of the used.
     • ④ The use of the International Standardized (SI) units is encouraged, and the p-value for confidence level should be used in lowercase.
     • ⑤ For the subject of study, use correct terms for the biological meaning of sex and the sociocultural-meaning of gender. The sex of the clinical study participant or the animals, cells, etc. used in the preclinical study should be described along with the method of identification. If possible, the study should be conducted using both sex and gender, and if necessary, it should be considered that sex/gender differences can be identified in the study results. If it is performed on only one sex without an obvious reason (eg., prostate cancer, cervical cancer, etc.), clarify the reason or describe the evidence. In addition, in the case of multiracial studies, the definition of criteria and specific data by race/ethnicity should be submitted. It should be stated that there are no differences between gender and race/ethnicity, even if there are no significant differences by gender or race/ethnicity,.
  6. 6) Results
     • ① Present authors’ results in a logical and clear way. If experimental results are to be reported, use statistical analyses for biological indices, which often tend to have large standard variations in actual measurements.
     • ② All data in the text must be presented consistently.
  7. 7) Discussion
     • ① Explain the result of the study in relation to the hypotheses mentioned in the introduction, and avoid overlaps with the result session.
     • ② Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them in the con- text of the aim of the study.
     • ③ State the shortcommings and limitations of the study.
  8. 8) Acknowledgements

     Persons or institutes who contributed to the papers but not enough to be coauthors may be introduced.

  9. 9) Funding

     Financial support, including foundations, institutions, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, private companies, or intramural departmental sources, or any other support should be described.

  10. 10) Conflicts of Interest

      The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors interpretation of the data. Example of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. Conflicts of interest statements will be published at the end of the text of the article, before the 'References' section. Even when there is no conflicts of interest, it should also be stated.

  11. 11) Author’s Contributions

      Authors must include a statement to specify the contributions of each co-author. The statement can be up to several sentences long, describing the specific contributions made by each author (list the authors’ initials, e.g., ABC). The name of each author must appear at least once in any of the following categories; conception and design of study, acquisition of data, analysis and/or interpretation of data, drafting the manuscript, revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content.

  12. 12) References
      • ① References should be numbered consecutively as a brackets in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, and listed at the end of the manuscript.
      • ② All references should be written in English.
      • ③ The names of all authors should be cited up to 6 authors; in case there are more than 6 authors, the first three authors should be cited, followed by the expression “, et al.”.
      • ④ Journal titles are abbreviated in accordance with the style of Index Medicus.
      • ⑤ List author’s last name first, followed by the first letter of the first name. ex) Kim YS, Marrelli D, Gupta AK
      • ⑥ Authors are responsible for the correct citation.
      • ⑦ When specifying them, follow the Vancouver groups follows: NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (Patrias K. Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers [Internet]. 2nd ed. Wendling, DL, technical editor. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US); 2007 [updated 2009 Jan 14; cited 2009 May 1]. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).
      • ⑧ Examples of reference style:

      ▶ Journal articles
      1. Jeon EJ, Lee KM, Jung DY, et al. Clinical characteristics of 17 cases of eosinophilic gastroenteritis. Korean J Gastroenterol 2010;55:361-367. https://doi.org/10.4166/kjg.2010.55.6.361
      2. Foroughi S, Foster B, Kim N, et al. Anti-IgE treatment of eosinophil-associated gastrointestinal disorders. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007;120:594-601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2007.06.015

      ▶ Books
      1. Day RA. How to write and publish a scientific paper. 3rd ed. Oryx, 1988.

      ▶ Book chapters
      1. Costa M, Mery S. History of diarrhea. In: Smith JR, ed. Medical history and perspective. 2nd ed. Raven, 1987:1-40.

      ▶ Websites
      1. Worldometer. COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. 2020.
      https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ (accessed May 28, 2020)
      2. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19-7 September 2020. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---7-september-2020 (accessed September 23, 2020)

  13. 13) Figures
      • ① Figures should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.
      • ② Provide with a subtitle and explanation for the figure in English as brief as one paragraph.
      • ③ When presenting a microphotograph, report stain methods and magnification.
      • ④ If possible, include 7 or less figures, and each figure should be less than 8 cm in the width.
      • ⑤ Each figure should be submitted in a separate single file, named as the number of figures. Do not use authors’ names for the file name.
      • ⑥ Figures should be submitted as photographic-quality digital prints formats, such as JPG, JPEG. The authors should pay for the cost of color-printing the figures in their works.
        Color images should be at least as fine as 300 dpi, and X-ray films and other black-and-white images at least 600 dpi.
      • ⑦ If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the figure. The authors should state at the bottom of the figure that they received the permission.
      • ⑧ If necessary, arrows and symbols can be used to mark parts of the figures.
      • ⑨ Journal editors can enlarge or reduce the size of figures.
      • ⑩ If more than one figure is required from the same number, mark it by writing alphabet letters after Arabic numerals (eg., Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B).
  14. 14) Tables
      • ① If possible, do not include more than 7 tables.
      • ② All tables should be written in English and Arabic numbers only, and avoid repeating the content in the text.
      • ③ Each table should have a clear and self-explanatory title (a form of clause or phrase is encouraged) without a period. Capitalize the first letter of nouns and adjectives.
      • ④ All tables should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text.
      • ⑤ If abbreviations are used, provide with a note showing the original terms at the bottom of the table.
      • ⑥ Footnotes should be indicated by lowercase alphabets in the order of *, †, ‡, §, ∥, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡ as a superscript to the item to be further explained. Note should be provided at the bottom of the table.
• Other Types of Manuscripts

  General rules for original articles apply to other types of manuscripts as well.

  1. 1) Review Articles

     Review articles, focused on specific topics of research, are submitted only if requested by the editorial board. The format and structure of review articles follow those of original articles, but authors can change them freely, if necessary.

  2. 2) Case Reports
     • ① Title page: Follow the guidelines for original articles.
     • ② Abstract: English abstract should not be longer than 200 words and list key words no more than five.
     • ③ Introduction: Describe briefly the aims and relevant contents of the report.
     • ④ Case: Describe briefly case and other issues that are only directly related to the case.
     • ⑤ Discussion: Avoid an exhaustive literature review, but provide a focused discussion on the aspects of interest that the reported case brings in.
     • ⑥ References: List no more than 20 references.
  3. 3) Research Trend

     Research trend is summaries on article that describing clinical or experimental finding of great advancement.
     The format and structure of research trend should be organized in following order; title page, main text, conflict of interest, acknowledgement, references, figure legends, tables and figures if included. The total number of tables and figures should not exceed two. The main texts are not separated by subheadings. The number of references should be less than 10.

  4. 4) Educational Series

     Educational series should provide new insights or experience. The manuscript should be composed of question part and answer part the present a summary of educational cases of GI cancers. The number of references should be less than 5. Up to 3 images are accepted.

  5. 5) Cancer Image of the Issue

     Cancer image of the issue present unusual, challenging or interesting images in the GI cancer. The format should include the title page, case summary, references and image. The number of references should be less than 5. Up to 3 images are accepted.

• Editing and Correction

  The submissions can be edited and corrected for technical purposes. Once edited, the author will be asked to review the edited manuscript and return the revised manuscript as soon as possible. The failure to return the final revision to the Board within the next 48 hours after receiving final proof may result in the delay of publication.

• The revised “INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS” will take effect from August 2024.