The Clinical Transplantation and Research (CTR) is the official journal of The Korean Society for Transplantation (KST), launched in 1987. CTR is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal, published quarterly on the last day of March, June, September, and December. The manuscript submitted to the journal should present information and knowledge related to transplantation that is scientifically sound, innovative, and ethical. CTR focuses on research topics including clinical investigations in transplantation, basic research in transplantation immunology, and the translation of research findings into practical applications.
Manuscripts submitted to CTR should be prepared according to the following Instructions for Authors. For issues not addressed in these instructions, authors should refer to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/) from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

• ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES
• RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS
• COPYRIGHTS AND LICENSE
• EDITORIAL POLICY
• SUBMISSION AND PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
• MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
• FINAL PREPARATION FOR PUBLICATION
• CONTACT US

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES

CTR is an open access journal that does not charge authors any fees. All costs associated with publishing, including article processing charges, are fully covered by the publisher.

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

CTR adheres to the guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations, including ICMJE Recommendations and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (https://doaj.org/bestpractice), and the Good Publication Practice Guideline for Medical Journals (https://www.kamje.or.kr/board/view?b_name=bo_publication&bo_id=13). Furthermore, all processes of handling research and publication misconduct (or when faced with cases of suspected misconduct) shall follow the applicable Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). Any attempts to duplicate publications or engage in plagiarism will lead to automatic rejection, may prejudice the acceptance of future submissions, and may be highlighted within the pages of the journal.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights

Clinical research should be conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Clinical studies that do not meet the Declaration of Helsinki will not be considered for publication. For human subjects, identifiable information, such as patients’ names, initials, hospital numbers, dates of birth, or other protected healthcare information, should not be disclosed. For animal subjects, research should be performed based on the National or Institutional Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and the ethical treatment of all experimental animals should be maintained.

Statement of Informed Consent and Ethical Approval

Studies involving human subjects must retain copies of written informed consent. If the participant is unable to provide it, a legal guardian or parent may provide it instead. Authors may submit any legally recognized form used to obtain the patient's consent as a copy of the informed consent.
All clinical studies involving human participants must include a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and manuscripts reporting such research must include a statement detailing the name of the ethics committee and reference number where appropriate. For clinical studies involving animal subjects, a certificate, agreement, or approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required. In case of questions about IRB/IACUC approval and study conduct, the editor or reviewers may request copies of these documents.

Conflicts of Interest Statement

All participants in the publication and peer review process—not only authors but also peer reviewers, editors, and Editorial Board members of the journal—must consider their conflicts of interest when fulfilling their roles in the process of article review and publication and must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts of interest. All authors should disclose their conflicts of interest, i.e., (1) financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony), (2) personal relationship, (3) academic competition, and (4) intellectual passion.
These conflicts of interest must be included on the title page. Authors should certify the disclosure of any conflict of interest with their signatures. Peer reviewers must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript, and should recuse themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if the potential for bias exists. Editors who make final decisions about manuscripts should recuse themselves from editorial decisions if they have conflicts of interest or relationships that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration. Other editorial staff members who participate in editorial decisions must provide editors with a current description of their financial interests or other conflicts (as they might relate to editorial judgments) and recuse themselves from any decisions in which a conflict of interest exists. Further guidance is available from COPE (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). If undisclosed conflict of interest is suspected in a submitted manuscript or published article, a committee composed of Editorial Board members will be held and discussed, and CTR will follow the process of the applicable COPE flowchart (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).

Authorship

According to the ICMJE recommendation, authorship credit should be based on the following four criteria: (1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND (2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND (3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND (4) 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. Authors should meet all four criteria.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication

Redundant or duplicate publication refers to the publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published. Upon receipt, submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication using Crossref Similarity Check. If a paper that might be regarded as duplicate or redundant had already been published in another journal or submitted for publication, the author should notify the fact in advance at the time of submission. Under these conditions, any such work should be referred to and referenced in the new paper. The new manuscript should be submitted together with copies of the duplicate or redundant material to the editorial committee. If redundant or duplicate publication is attempted or occurs without such notification, the submitted manuscript will be rejected immediately. If the editor was not aware of the violations and of the fact that the article had already been published, the editor will announce in the journal that the submitted manuscript had already been published in a duplicate or redundant manner, without seeking the author’s explanation or approval.

Secondary Publication

Secondary publication of material published in other journals or online may be justifiable and beneficial, especially when intended to disseminate important information to the widest possible audience (e.g., guidelines produced by government agencies and professional organizations in the same or a different language). Secondary publication may also be justifiable in conditions provided by ICMJE Recommendations (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations).

Process for Managing Research and Publication Misconduct

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fraudulent or fabricated data, changes in authorship, a fraudulent undisclosed conflict of interest, ethical problems with a submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, and complaints against editors, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts). The discussion and decision on the suspected cases are carried out by the Editorial Board and Research Ethics Council.

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: provision of guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publication of corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and exclusion of plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; confirmation of no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promotion of publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.

Research Ethics Council and Role of the Council

The Research Ethics Council, chaired by the CTR editor-in-chief, is responsible for upholding ethical standards in research published in CTR. The council investigates and reviews any issues related to ethical violations and reports the findings to the Korean Society for Transplantation Board of Directors. Additionally, the council members promote ethical practices by educating editors and authors. For more detailed information, please refer to the CTR Research Ethics Council Regulations.

COPYRIGHTS AND LICENSE

Copyright

Authors must declare that the submitted work is their own and that copyright has not been breached in seeking its publication. Copyright in all published material is owned by The Korean Society for Transplantation. Copyright Release and Author Agreement forms must be signed by every author and submitted with the manuscript during the first online submission process. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting this form during the submission process. In addition, it is the authors’ responsibility to obtain written permission to reproduce (in all media, including electronic) any material that has appeared previously in another publication. Authors should provide copies of permission letters for any material reproduced from copyrighted publications. Submitted material will not be returned to the author unless specifically requested.

Open Access Policy

CTR is an open access journal. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium if the original work is properly cited.
For any commercial use of material from the open access version of the journal, permission must be obtained from The Korean Society for Transplantation (Email: journal@ctrjournal.org). Requests for reprints after the journal is published should be emailed to the editorial office. Copy reprints will be charged after committee approval and color prints needs an additional charge.

Article Sharing (Author Self-Archiving) Policy

CTR is an open access journal, which means that authors who publish with us are able to freely share their research in various ways, including on preprint servers, social media platforms, at conferences, and in educational materials, in accordance with our open access policy. However, it should be noted that submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals is strictly prohibited.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Registration of Clinical Trial Research

Any research that deals with a clinical trial should be registered in the primary national clinical trial registry site, such as the Korea Clinical Research Information Service (CRIS; https://cris.nih.go.kr), any other primary national registry site accredited by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform), or ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/), a service of the US National Institutes of Health.

Data Sharing

CTR encourages data sharing wherever possible, unless this is prevented by ethical, privacy, or confidentiality matters. Authors wishing to do so may deposit their data in a publicly accessible repository and include a link to the digital object identifier (DOI) within the text of the manuscript. CTR accepts the ICMJE Recommendations for data sharing statement policy (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Authors may refer to the editorial, “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,” in J Korean Med Sci 2017;32(7):1051-1053 (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051).

Archiving Policy

CTR provides the electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content in the event the journal is no longer published by archiving in PubMed Central (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/4212/; from the 33rd volume, 2019), National Library of Korea (https://seoji.nl.go.kr/archive).

Preprint Policy

A preprint can be defined as a version of a scholarly paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer reviewed scholarly journal. CTR allows authors to submit the preprint to the journal. It is not treated as duplicate submission or duplicate publication. CTR recommends authors to disclose it with DOI in the letter to the editor during the submission process. Otherwise, it may be screened from the plagiarism check program—Similarity Check (Crosscheck) or Copy Killer. Submissions of preprints to CTR will undergo the same thorough peer review process as regular submissions. This means that the submissions will be evaluated by experts in the field to ensure the quality and accuracy of the research before they are accepted for publication. If the preprint is accepted for publication, authors are recommended to update the information in the preprint with a link to the published article in CTR, including DOI at CTR. It is strongly recommended that authors cite the article in CTR instead of the preprint in their next submission to journals.

Peer Review Policy

All papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to a rigorous peer review process. CTR has adopted a double-blind peer review policy, in which the identities of both the authors and reviewers are kept anonymous to each other throughout the review process. However, the editor managing the review process will have visibility of the authors and reviewers’ identities. The Editorial Board selects reviewers based on expertise, publication history, and past reviews. During the peer review process, reviewers can interact directly or exchange information (e.g., via submission systems or email) with only an editor, which is known as “independent review.” No information about the review process or editorial decision process is published on the article page.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted Technologies

The journal has adopted policies, as specified by the ICMJE, regarding the use of AI in the preparation of materials intended for publication in the journal. Generative AI, including language models, chatbots, image creators, machine learning, or similar technologies, may be employed to enhance readability and language accuracy in scientific writing. However, chatbots or other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors.

SUBMISSION AND PEER-REVIEW PROCESS

Online Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted online via the journal’s website (https://www.ctrjournal.org/submission) by the first or corresponding author. Once you have logged into your account, online system will lead you through the submission process in a step-by-step orderly process. Submission instructions are available on the website. In case of any trouble, please contact the editorial office (Email: journal@ctrjournal.org).

Screening Before Review

All papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to peer review. CTR only publishes papers that fit its aims and scope, and adhere to the Instructions for Authors. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be returned to the author immediately after submission, without undergoing the review process. Submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check upon arrival. The title page will remain separate from the manuscript throughout the peer review process and will not be sent to the reviewers. It is essential that authors anonymize their manuscripts by removing any identifying information, such as author names or affiliations, before submission to the journal.

Peer Review Process

After screening, a manuscript is sent to the most two relevant reviewers of the field. In addition, if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be requested. CTR recommends peer reviewers to follow CTR Review Regulations or the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers). The journal uses a double-blind peer review process: the reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and vice versa. An initial decision will normally be made within 4 weeks of receipt of a manuscript. Revised manuscripts must indicate the alterations that have been made in response to the reviewers’ comments item by item. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 30 days of the editorial decision is regarded as a withdrawal. After the peer review process, the CTR Editorial Board will make the final determination on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication or not. Once a manuscript has been rejected by CTR, it will not be considered for another round of review as a new submission.

Submission by Editors

Final decisions regarding manuscript publication are made by the editor-in-chief or a designated editor who does not have any relevant conflicts of interest. In the event that an editor has a conflict of interest with a submitted manuscript or with the authors, the manuscript will be handled by one of the other editors who does not have a conflict with the review and who is not at the same institution as the submitting editor. In such circumstances, full masking of the process will be ensured so that the anonymity of the peer reviewers is maintained.

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 process of handling complaints and appeals follows the guidelines of COPE available from (https://publicationethics.org/appeals). CTR does not consider second appeals.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

General Requirements

The entire manuscript should be written in English. Medical terminology should be written based on the most recent edition of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. The main document with manuscript text and tables should be prepared with an MS-word program.

Cover Letters

The cover letter should inform the editor that the submitted material or any portions thereof have not been published previously or are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. It should state any potential conflict of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data, such as financial support from or connections to pharmaceutical companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academically related issues. Information about posting of a preprint server and a link to the preprint also should be included.

Manuscript Type Size Limit & Format

Table 1 shows the recommended maximums of manuscripts according to publication type; however, these requirements are negotiable with the editor.

NL, no limits.
^a)Includes abstract and main text only.

Manuscript Types

Title Page

The title page should contain the manuscript's title, a list of authors with their affiliations, the name and contact information of the corresponding author, and a running title (50 characters maximum, including spaces). The corresponding author's contact information must include their name, address, and email. Any information that requires disclosure, such as funding sources, potential conflicts of interest should also be included under the "Additional Information" section, which will appear at the end of the published article. Below are items that should be included under "Additional Information".

Abstract & Keywords

Structured abstracts, labeled "Background," "Methods," "Results," and "Conclusions," should be included if applicable. For original articles, the length should be less than 250 words, while for special articles, review articles, case reports, and study protocols, the length should be less than 200 words. Abstracts are not required for editorials, letters, or symposium presentations. To be used as index terms, up to five keywords should be listed immediately after the abstract. It is strongly recommended to use keywords within the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Medline (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search).

Highlights

All papers must include 3-5 short sentences that provide a concise summary of the most significant findings or implications of the study. These highlights should be limited to 100 words or fewer, including spaces, and placed in the manuscript file.

Main Text

The main text of the paper may have separate Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections.

References

When citing references in the text, use Arabic numerals in brackets (e.g., [1], [2,3], [4-6]), numbered in the order they appear in the text. In the References section, list the references in numerical order, according to their appearance in the text. If there are 6 or fewer authors, list all of their names. If there are more than 6 authors, list the first 6 followed by "et al." For articles published online but not yet assigned an issue or page numbers, include. Do not include references to unpublished material in the References section; instead, note them within the text and include the individual's name, location, and date of communication. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the style used in Medline. For other types of references, follow the guidelines in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine).

Tables

Figures and Figure Legends

Supplementary Material

Supplemental material refers to files relates to a specific article, which authors supply for publication alongside their article. They should generally be additional pieces to the article that could not be included in the issue or print version, such as appendices, tables, and video material that is impossible to produce within the article. All supplemental materials will be available online, alongside the full-text article. During the submission process, please select “Supplement” for your uploaded file. A listing of supplementary materials must be submitted at the end of the manuscript file and must be cited consecutively in the text of the submitted manuscript.

Adherence to Reporting Guidelines

For specific study designs, such as randomized controlled trials, studies of diagnostic accuracy, meta-analyses, observational studies, and non-randomized studies, we strongly recommend that authors follow and stick to the reporting guidelines relevant to their specific research design. Authors should upload a completed checklist for the appropriate reporting guideline during original submission. Some reliable sources of reporting guidelines are the EQUATOR Network (https://www.equator-network.org/) and NLM (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).

FINAL PREPARATION FOR PUBLICATION

Final Version

After the paper has been accepted for publication, the author(s) should submit the final version of the manuscript. The names and affiliations of the authors should be double-checked, and if the originally submitted image files were of poor resolution, higher resolution image files should be submitted at this time. Symbols (e.g., circles, triangles, squares), letters (e.g., words, abbreviations), and numbers should be large enough to be legible on reduction to the journal’s column widths. All symbols must be defined in the figure caption. If references, tables, or figures are moved, added, or deleted during the revision process, renumber them to reflect such changes so that all tables, references, and figures are cited in numeric order.

Manuscript Corrections

Before publication, the manuscript editor will make necessary corrections to ensure that the manuscript adheres to the standard publication format. The corresponding author must respond to the manuscript editor's revisions within 2 days. If there is a delay in response, the publication of the manuscript may be delayed until the next issue.

Galley Proof

The author(s) will receive the final version of the manuscript as a PDF file. Upon receipt, the author(s) must notify the editorial office (or printing office) of any errors found in the file within 2 days. Any errors found after this time are the responsibility of the author(s) and will have to be corrected as an erratum.

Errata and Corrigenda

To correct errors in published articles, the corresponding author should contact the journal’s editorial office with a detailed description of the proposed correction. Corrections that profoundly affect the interpretation or conclusions of the article will be reviewed by the editors. Corrections will be published as corrigenda (corrections of the author’s errors) or errata (corrections of the publisher’s errors) in a later issue of the journal.

CONTACT US

Editor-in-Chief: Dongho Choi, MD, PhD
E-mail: crane87@hanyang.ac.kr

Editorial Office
The Korean Society for Transplantation
206, 86 Tongil-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 04517, Republic of Korea
Tel: +82-31-709-0918
E-mail: journal@ctrjournal.org