The ISGE Board does invite members and non-members to send in articles for the Open Access Journal.
The reason being that ISGE has the aim to bring Minimal Invasive Gynecologic Surgery (MIGS) to all patients and all colleagues all over the world. Therefore, ISGE does invite especially members and non- members who have not yet published an article on their clinical experience or beginning scientific research to try and publish. ISGE will assist in the editing of papers for those who are not used to publish in English and do not have the necessary experience. ISGE did create an e-learning platform for its members “How to publish scientific papers in English” on isge.org. The edited papers will then be peer reviewed and if accepted these will be published to make your research or clinical experience visible for your colleagues.

Types of papers

Papers are published in the following categories:

  • Editorials
  • Original Research
  • Reviews
  • Case Reports & Video Articles
  • Position Statements and Guidelines
  • New Operative Techniques
  • Letters to the Editor

Specification of the different types of papers

1: General ruling

  • The Title page of each submitted papers does include the number of words, figures and tables included in the manuscript.
  • Original articles to include a “Take to Work” message. This has to summarise what the manuscript adds to the current knowledge.

2: Editorials

  • Editorials must not include an abstract. These are not to exceed 1.000 words. These can contain one or two tables and up to a maximum of 15 references.

3: Original Articles

  • The structure of the text starts with an Abstract followed with 5 (five) Keywords. Preferably terms not included in the title.

    • An Introduction
    • A Section on Material and Methods
    • A Section on Results
    • A Section on Discussion
    • A Section on Conclusion
  • Original Articles should not:

    • Exceed 3.000 words.
    • They do not include more than six to eight (6-8) tables.
    • References should be restricted to 50 (fifty).
  • In case of a Prospective Study the Consort Checklist should be uploaded together with the manuscript. CONSORT Checklist.

4: Reviews

  • The journal is primarily interested in systematic reviews.

    • These should use meta-analysis that use high – quality methodology.
    • These should include:
      • Pre-registered published protocol.
      • Systematic search.
      • Selection of the reported papers.
    • The review should address clinically relevant topics not already completely covered in the current literature.
    • The Review has to include
      • An Abstract.
      • Up to five (5) Keywords.
    • The Review not to exceed 4.000 words.
    • Up to ten (10) tables are allowed.
    • Up to a maximum of 70 references are allowed.

5: Case reports and Video Articles

  • The structure of the text starts with an Abstract followed with 5 (five) Keywords. Preferably terms not included in the title.

    • A short introduction stating the aim of the case report or video.
    • A Section describing the aim of the case report or the video.
    • A section on the Value or why the authors did send in the case report or make the video.
    • A section to discuss the topic.
    • A section with a conclusion
    • A section with references to a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20.

6: Position Statements and Guidelines

  • A position statement or guideline should not exceed 5.000 words. Up to 10 figures and 70 references are allowed. Exception at the discretion of the editor in chief and deputy editors in chief.
  • An abstract and five Keywords have to be included.

7: New Operative Techniques

  • The structure of the text starts with an Abstract followed with 5 (five) Keywords. Preferably terms not included in the title.

    • An Introduction
    • A Section on Material and Methods
    • A Section on Results
    • A Section on Discussion
    • A Section on Conclusion
  • Articles on New Operative Techniques should not:

    • exceed 3.000 words.
    • They do not include more than six to eight (6-8) tables or photographs.
    • References should be restricted to 50 (fifty).

8: Letters to the Editor

  • The purpose of the letters to the editor is to focus om important issues.
  • Letters to the editor:

    • Should not exceed 1.000 words.
    • These can include a figure or a table.
    • An abstracts and keywords are not required.

It is the Corresponding Author’s responsibility to ensure that she/he sends in the correct name of all authors, the correct affiliations, the correct addresses and the correct sequence of the singular authors within the final proof submitted. After the first publication corrections are no longer possible All additional corrections need the approval of the Editor -in-Chief and would result in the publication of an erratum that will appear linked to the article in the subsequent issue of the journal.

Editorial Procedure

The Journal uses a single blind reviewing process.

Peer Review

Fast and rigorous peer review ensures content value and provides expert guidelines for researchers. Articles are submitted for peer review to members of the editorial board with similar competences as the authors of the article. At least two members of the editorial board review the submitted article and formulate querries to be send to the authors. The authors have to respond to these querries and if needed rewrite parts of their article before the article is accepted for publication in the journal.

Manuscript Submission

Dear author,
to upload your manuscript to TheTrocar for the review process, please follow the link https://trocar.manuscriptmanager.net/.
TheTrocar’s Manuscript Manager will open now. Please prepare a cover sheet. Please use the following template (TheTrocar_general_template.docx) which you can download here. Please use the default for the title entry as well as authors and affiliations.

Use this template also for the main document. Please add tables and images at the end of the document in the order of appearance. Leave captions for pictures or tables in the planned text position.

The following documents are also required for the submission. These are also available for download. TheTrocar_disclosure_and_statement.docx and TheTrocar_copyright_transfer.docx.

Please follow the instructions of the manuscript manager. For the upload you only need the 4 documents listed above. We can only accept manuscripts that were created with the templates. Before you start uploading, have the email addresses of your co-authors available, as these are required for notification. We will automatically notify them after the submission has been finalized. There is also the option of sending a cover letter to the editors. However, this is not required for the submission.

For Video publication use (TheTrocar_general_template.docx) for the abstract and any additional data. TheTrocar_disclosure_and_statement.docx and TheTrocar_copyright_transfer.docx are also needed for Videopublication. You can upload your video (mpeg4) also in the manuscript manager upload section.

For the weight of the videos the authors have to strictly adhere to the indications of Manuscript Manager and reduce the weight before uploading the video.
Authors whose primary language is not English should have their papers checked for linguistic accuracy. ISGE could provide a translation service for a fee.

1: Author Contribution

All persons listed as authors must meet the criteria for authorship outlined in the American Medical Association Manual of Style4 and/or Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Authorship requires substantial participation in the work, with the ability to take public responsibility for the content. Substantial contribution must be made.

Each author has to be listed by surname and the description of each authors contribution has to be mentioned according to:

  • Protocol/Project Development
  • Data collection and or management
  • Data Analysis
  • Manuscript writing/editing
  • Other (describe briefly using maximum five (5) words

2: Statements and Declaration

  • Submission
    Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all Authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without written consent of the Publisher.
  • Permissions
    Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
  • ORCID ID
    The Journal requires that the corresponding author provides her/his ORCID ID before proceeding with the submission. Provided he/she has an ORCID number. It is highly advisable to obtain an ORCID number. The number is easily obtainable on the https://www.orcid.org website main page.

3: Author information

TheTrocar is completely open access and thus makes the content accessible worldwide. Members can publish completely free of charge.
Please read our Authors’ Guide for information on submitting articles. If you need more information or assistance, please visit our Support Center for publishing instructions. Submitting the article means for the corresponding author:

  • Clear indication and an active e-mail of the corresponding author.
  • If available the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s).

4: Title page

Authors have to use TheTrocar-general-template.docx (download on this page).
Stating clearly:

  • the full name of each and every author
  • followed by a number by X 1
  • the number corresponds with the detailed name and address of the specific author’s association – e.g. university, hospital, foundation

5: Abstract

The abstract has to be:

  • Structured
  • 150 – 200 words
  • Divided into the following:

    • Purpose stating the main purpose or research question
    • Methods and Material
    • Results
    • Conclusion

6: Keywords

Key Words (from the standard Index Medicus MeSH terminology) in maximum number of five (5).

7: Text formatting

  • Manuscripts have to be submitted in Word.
  • Normal plain fond sans-serif Calibri 12.
  • The automatic page numbering has to be used to number the pages.
  • Use tab stops or other commands for indents NOT the space bar.
  • Field functions are not to be used.
  • Table functions are to be used to produce tables NOT Spreadsheets.
  • The files have to saved in docx format ((Word 2007 or higher)

8: Headings

No more than three levels of headings are allowed.

9: Abbreviations

  • Abbreviations can only be used when defined prior in the text and have to be constant.
  • Keep abbreviations and acronyms within the text to a minimum and spelled out, in parentheses, when first used

10: Acknowledgements

  • Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds etc. have to be placed in a separate section at the end of the article as a separate entity mentioning the names of funding organizations if applicable.
  • Acknowledge only those from whom permission to acknowledge has been obtained. For individuals, include their full names and highest academic degrees.

11: References

  • References

    • references have to be mentioned in the text at the end of the sentence where these apply to.
    • Have to follow a subsequent numbering sequence in numbers between NORMAL brackets e.g. (5).
  • Reference list

    • The list can only contain
      • Published or accepted for publication work cited in the text.
      • Personal work can only be cited within the text
      • Unpublished work can only be cited within the text
    • The name of all authors of a publication has to be mentioned
      • Do not bring …. et al.
    • DOI
      • If the article cited has a DOI do mention this. e.g., https://doi.org/10.1007/s001090000086
    • Book chapters have to be mentioned
      • e.g., Bradley L. D. “Saline infusion sonography the essentials” in Ambulatory Hysteroscopy. Diagnosis and treatment (2004) Bruno J Herendael, Rafael Valle, Stefano Bettocchi (Eds) Blandon Medical Editing OX 7 5LJ UK. p 74-83
    • Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations. ISSNE.org LTWA http://www.issn.org/services/online-services/access-to-the-ltwa/

12: Tables

  • All tables have to be numbered using Arabic numerals e.g., tab 1, tab 2
  • Tables have to appear in the text in consecutive order.
  • Table have to be foreseen of an explanatory caption explain the components of the table.
  • Footnotes to tables are to be written in lower-case letters than the article.

13: Artwork and Illustrations

  • All figures have to be supplied electronically.
  • Screenshots of the original artwork can be supplied provided these are high definition.
  • The graphic program of original artwork has to be supplied.
  • Preferred formats are EPS for vector graphics and TIFF for half tone graphics. MSOffice files can be accepted.
  • If vector graphics contain fonts these have to be embedded in the graphic.
  • Figures have to be named fig and numbered using Arabic numerals e.g., Fig 1
  • Definition

    • Black and white
    • No shading.
  • Faint lines are not to be used.

    • All lines and lettering within the figure must be legible at the final size.
  • The lines have to be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 points) wide.
  • Scanned line drawings have to have a resolution of at least 1200 dpi.
  • Halftones need to have a definition of at least 300 dpi.

Color Art

  • Color art is free of charge.
  • Color illustrations are to be submitted in RGB (8 bits per channel)
  • If color figures are rendered in black and white authors have to make sure that the embedded text is still visible. The reason being that many colors are not distinguishable when converted to black and white.

Figure Lettering

  • When adding lettering to figures best use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif) fonts.
  • Lettering must be consistent in the final art work 2 – 3 mm (8-12 points)
  • Avoid variance in type size in the an art work.

Figure Placement and Size

  • Figures have to be submitted in the body of the text. If the manuscript causes problems in uploading then the large figures have to be submitted separately.
  • Figures have to be sized to fit the column width.
  • Permissions: If figures have already been published in other journals permission from the copyright owners needs to be obtained.

14: Audio, Video and Animations

  • Aspect ratio has to be 16:9 or 4:3.
  • Maximum file size for uploads in ManuscriptManager is 50Mb

  • Supported video format mp4
  • For upload bigger files, please contact the managing editor

15: Supplementary Information

All writers must disclose all financial and personal relationships with other persons or organizations that may unreasonably affect their work. For example: employment, consulting firms, stock ownership, fees, paid expert opinions, patent applications/registrations and scholarships or other financing. Authors must disclose any interests: There is a special template for this in the manuscript manager. If there are no interests to declare, please indicate: “Declarations of interest: none”.

  • Funding:

    • The funding must be described and also the origin.
    • The details of any grant have to be revealed and accurately described including the name of the funding agency and the grant number.
  • Competing Interests:

    • Authors have to disclose financial and non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publishing in The Trocar. Interests in the last three (3) years of beginning the work – conducting research and preparing the work for submission – has to be reported.
    • Indicate who funded the research and/or the preparation of the article and briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s) in the study, if any.