1992. 5. 13. Enacted
2017. 2. 22. Revised
2017. 5. 17. Revised
2018. 5. 21. Revised
2018. 11. 23. Revised
2021. 12. 1. Revised
2024. 12. 3. Revised
2025. 5.28. Revised
Acute and Critical Care (Acute Crit Care, ACC) is the official scientific journal of the Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine (KSCCM), with the purpose of publishing research and therapeutic achievements in the field of critical care medicine. ACC is published quarterly on the last day of February, May, August, and November. Manuscripts submitted to ACC should be written according to the following instructions for authors. The Editorial Board will make all final decisions regarding acceptance of submitted manuscripts and the publication order of accepted manuscripts. The Editorial Board considers ethics, rationality, originality, and scientific impact when accepting submitted manuscripts, and may request further revision of articles when necessary.
ACC adheres to the recommendations and policies on research and publication ethics established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org). ACC also follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, jointly developed by the COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing). In cases of research or publication misconduct, editorial decisions are made in accordance with COPE flowcharts.
Any investigations involving humans or animals must be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the institution where the study was conducted. Human research must follow the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects) and animal research must comply with national or institutional guidelines for animal care and use. ACC does not consider any studies involving humans or animals that do not have appropriate ethical approval.
Informed consent must be obtained from all human participants unless this requirement is waived by the relevant IRB. Authors should indicate whether informed consent was obtained, and specify its form (e.g., written or verbal). For studies involving vulnerable populations (such as children or individuals with cognitive impairment), consent must be obtained from legally authorized representatives, and appropriate ethical safeguards must be described.
Identifiable personal information (e.g., names, initials, hospital numbers, or dates of birth) should not be included. Images of human subjects may be used only when scientifically necessary and when explicit permission has been obtained. Even with consent, identifying features should be removed unless essential. If images are modified to ensure anonymity, the authors must confirm that such modifications do not compromise scientific integrity. Formal consent is not required for fully anonymized images (e.g., radiographs or pathology slides) with no identifying features or accompanying text. However, partial anonymization (e.g., eye bars or blurring) is not sufficient if consent has not been obtained.
For case reports or case series, written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or the patient’s legal representative regardless of whether identifying information is included. A statement confirming this must be included in the manuscript.
All original articles must clearly state whether the study received approval from an IRB and/or IACUC, and whether informed consent was obtained. ACC may request supporting documentation if necessary. Authors are fully responsible for the content and ethical integrity of their work.
Any research involving clinical trials should be registered with the primary national clinical trial registry such as the Korea Clinical Research Information Service (http://cris.nih.go.kr) or other sites accredited by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/tools/clinical-trials-registry-platform) or International Committee of Medical Journal Editor such as ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov).
Conflicts of interest exist when authors, reviewers, or editors have financial, personal, or professional relationships that could inappropriately influence—or be perceived to influence—their actions or judgments.
Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that are directly or indirectly related to the submitted work. Relevant conflicts include, but are not limited to: research grants or funding (e.g., from industry, government, or foundations); consulting or advisory roles for related companies; ownership of stocks or shares in related entities; patent applications or licenses related to the subject matter; honoraria; travel support; paid expert testimony; and personal or professional relationships, including academic rivalry or intellectual bias.
All disclosures must be included in a dedicated "Conflicts of Interest" section in the manuscript and clearly indicated on the title page. All sources of financial support—including the name of the funding agency, grant number, and country—should be listed in the funding section on the title page. Authors must also complete and submit the ICMJE Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest). If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state: “The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.” Disclosed conflicts should be described objectively and separately from scientific content. Disclosure does not imply bias but rather ensures transparency so that editors, reviewers, and readers can interpret the work in context.
As stated in the ICMJE recommendations, credit for authorship requires: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design or to data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation; (2) drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content; (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 accuracy or integrity of any part of the article are appropriately investigated and resolved. Only those who meet all four criteria should be listed as authors. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all criteria (e.g., those providing technical support, general supervision, or writing assistance) should be acknowledged as contributors, not listed as authors.
If the number of authors is equal to or greater than 2, each author’s specific contribution must be described at submission. Authors are encouraged to use CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to define their contributions (e.g., conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, writing original draft, etc.). Any requests to change authorship (e.g., addition, deletion, or rearrangement) before publication must be submitted to the editorial office with following: (1) a letter explaining the reason for the change, signed by all authors including those being added or removed, and (2) a revised title page reflecting the change. After publication, authorship changes will be allowed only under exceptional circumstances and must comply with COPE guidelines.
In the cover letter, the corresponding author must confirm that all listed authors fulfill the ICMJE authorship criteria and that no eligible contributor has been omitted.
All submitted manuscripts must be original and not under review or published elsewhere. Duplicate submissions will not be accepted. No part of materials published in ACC may be reproduced without prior permission from the Editorial Board.
Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright when reusing figures or tables from other sources. Reuse without permission is allowed only for materials under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) with proper citation (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0). For materials from non-open-access publications or those not covered by a Creative Commons license, authors must obtain written permission and clearly indicate the original source.
ACC allows secondary publication if it complies the ICMJE guidelines (https://www.icmje.org). This applies to articles such as clinical guidelines, consensus statements, or educational materials with public health or professional importance intended for a broader or international audience. Secondary publication is permitted when all of the following conditions are met:
(1) Approval must be obtained from the editors of both the primary and secondary journals; (2) The primary publication should be clearly identified and cited in the secondary version; (3) A sufficient publication interval—typically at least one week—should be observed unless both editors agree otherwise; (4) The secondary version must accurately reflect the data and interpretation of the original; and (5) The secondary version should be intended for a different group of readers, such as through translation or regional adaptation. The title page of the secondary publication must include a footnote, for example: “This article is based on a study first published in [journal title, full reference].”
In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct—such as duplicate publication, plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, authorship disputes, undisclosed conflicts of interest, ethical concerns, reviewer misconduct, or complaints against editors—ACC follows the flowcharts provided by the COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance). All cases are reviewed and decided by the Editorial Board.
The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor/safeguard publication ethics, including guidelines for retracting articles; maintaining the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and ensuring that there is no plagiarism and no fraudulent data in publications. Editors maintain the following responsibilities: the responsibility and authority to reject/accept articles; ensuring there are no conflicts of interest with respect to articles; accepting papers only when reasonably certain of their validity; promoting the publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preserving the anonymity of reviewers.
Manuscripts should be written in English. Medical terminology should conform to the most recent edition of Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary.
1) Word processors and format of manuscript
Manuscripts should be submitted in the file format of Microsoft Word 2003 or higher. Manuscripts should be typed on an A4-sized document, be double-spaced, and use a font size of 12 point with margins of 2 cm on each side and 3 cm for the upper and lower ends. Double spaces should be left between the lines.
2) Abbreviation of terminology
Abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible. One word should not be expressed through an abbreviation, although more than two words may be expressed through an abbreviation. The full term for which the abbreviation stands should be used at its first occurrence in the text. Abbreviations should not be present in the title. Common abbreviations, however, may be used, such as DNA.
3) Units
The use of International Standardized (SI) units is encouraged. These are available at https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html or https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/sp811.pdf.
4) Machine and equipment
When the use of reagents or devices is reported in the text, the name of the manufacturer should be indicated.
5) Statistics
Statistical methods must be described and the program used for data analysis, and its source, should be stated.
6) Arrangement of manuscript
The article should be organized in the order of Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgments, Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), Authors’ contributions, References, Table, Figure, and Figure Legends.
The title of each new section should begin on a new page. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the abstract page. Page numbers should be placed at the middle of the bottom of each page.
7) Reporting guidelines for specific study designs
Research reports frequently omit important information. As such, reporting guidelines have been developed for a number of study designs that some journals may ask authors to follow. Authors are encouraged to also consult the reporting guidelines relevant to their specific research design. A good source for reporting guidelines is the EQUATOR Network (http://www.equator-network.org/home/) and the United States National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).
All articles must be organized in the following order:
The Title page and Main page files should be uploaded separately.
The Editorial Board requests review articles of particular titles and text. Author can describe text that is not itemized. Review articles should include unstructured abstracts equal to or less than 250 words in English. Key words should follow ordinary processes. The length of the text excluding references, tables, and figures should not exceed 5,000 words.
Letters to the Editor should include brief constructive comments that concern a published article; a short, free-standing opinion; or a short, interesting case. Letters to the Editor should be submitted no more than 6 months after the relevant paper has been published. The main text should not exceed 1,000 words and the total number of references is limited to 5. Letters may be edited by the Editorial Board, and if necessary, responses from the author of the relevant paper may be provided. The responses should have the same format of Letters to Editor.
The images section must be of high scientific quality and value and provide didactic and self-explanatory lessons. Images must be unique and adhere to ethical standards with patient/relative approval when appropriate and ensure protection of patient identity and privacy.
The total text should not exceed 200 words. A maximum of five authors is permitted. Up to 5 references are allowed. No abstract is required.
The legend for the image should concisely present relevant clinical information, including a short description of the patient’s history, relevant physical and laboratory findings, clinical course, response to treatment (if any), and condition at last follow-up. All labeled structures in the image should be described and explained in the legend.
Other publication types such as guidelines, brief reports, and history articles may be accepted. The recommended format can be discussed with the Editorial Board.
There are no author submission fees. All costs for the submission process are supported by the Publisher.
For queries about manuscript submission, please contact:
Editorial Office
#805-806, Yongseong Biztel, 109 Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04376, Korea
Tel: +82-2-2077-1533, Fax: +82-2-2077-1535,
E-mail: acc@accjournal.org
Under no circumstances will the identities of the reviewers be disclosed.
Additionally, the reviewers will remain blinded to the names of the authors and their affiliated institutions.
If the manuscript is finally accepted, the proofreading will be sent to the corresponding author after professional manuscript editing and/or English proofreading. Proofreading should be performed again for any misspellings or errors by the authors.
Before final proofreading, the manuscript may appear at the journal homepage as an epub ahead of print with a unique DOI number for rapid communication. The epub ehead of print version will be replaced by the replacement XML file and a final PDF.
There is no article processing charge but an additional fee for reprints or color prints will be charged to authors. However, this policy could be changed in the future.
Copyrights ownership is to be transferred to the KSCCM. The authors should submit “Authorship Responsibility and License Agreement Form” at the time of manuscript submission. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ACC accepts the ICMJE recommendations for data sharing statement policy (http://icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). All manuscripts reporting clinical trial results are recommended to submit a data sharing statement following the ICMJE guidelines from 1 January 2019. Authors may refer to the editorial, “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,” in JKMS Vol. 32, No. 7:1051-1053 (http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2017-06-05).