Journal of Advanced Spine Surgery (JASS) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal committed to adhering to the following policies to enhance and maintain its high standards.
All papers (including supplementary materials) are subject to peer review, typically involving at least two external expert reviewers. JASS uses a double-blind process, in which the identities of both the authors and reviewers are kept anonymous to each other throughout the review process. Reviewers interact only with an editor, ensuring an 'independent review.' Reviewers must inform the Editor-in-Chief if they have a conflict of interest with the manuscript.
The initial decision is typically made within 2 months of receiving a manuscript. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and cannot share manuscript details without prior permission from the Editor-in-Chief. Manuscripts are not returned to authors, regardless of the publication decision, and no review process details are published on the article page.
Manuscripts from editors or editorial board members are processed like other unsolicited manuscripts, with those authors excluded from the review and decision process. Editors do not handle their manuscripts, even if commissioned.
• Screening after submission: After submission, manuscripts undergo a screening process. If a manuscript does not fit the journal's aims and scope or fails to follow the author guidelines, it may be returned immediately without review. All submissions are checked for plagiarism using 'Similarity Check powered by iThenticate' (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/).
• Peer review process: Submitted manuscripts are reviewed by two or more field-specific reviewers who assess relevance, originality, importance, academic significance, clarity, and compliance with medical ethics. In cases of review discrepancies, the editorial board will conduct an additional review to make a final determination. Authors are expected to revise their manuscripts based on reviewer feedback and provide explanations for any feedback they choose not to implement. The editorial board makes the final publication decision and may request further changes. Rejected manuscripts will not be reconsidered for review.
• Appeals of decisions: Appeals against editorial decisions must be made within 2 weeks of the decision letter. Authors should contact the Editor-in-Chief with detailed reasons for the appeal. Appeals are discussed with at least one associate editor and, if needed, at a full editorial meeting. The process follows COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance). JASS does not consider second appeals.
• Use of AI during peer review: Manuscripts under peer review are confidential and must not be shared with generative AI tools. AI tools must not replace a reviewer’s independent evaluation or professional judgment.
• Copyright: The copyrights for all published materials are owned by The Korean Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery. The corresponding author must submit a signed copyright transfer agreement form on behalf of any and all co-authors. The paper will not be published until the copyright transfer is complete.
• Open access license: JASS is an open access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original work is properly cited. All contents of the journal are immediately available upon publication without an embargo period.
Authors who wish to reproduce tables or figures published in JASS for scholarly and educational purposes do not need to obtain permission. However, proper acknowledgment must be given for the reuse of any borrowed material, by including a footnote on the reproduced table or in the figure legend (e.g., “Reprinted from J Adv Spine Surg Year;Vol:Page, available under the Creative Commons License.”) and in the reference list.
Authors who wish to reproduce tables or figures published in JASS for COMMERCIAL uses must obtain permission from JASS (E-mail: office@e-jass.org). Commercial use refers to ANY type of reuse for commercial benefit to the user, their place of employment, another entity. Examples of commercial use include (1) reuse by a non-authors, third parties, or other publishers of parts of or all of an article or articles in another publication (journal or book) for sale; (2) systematic distribution of multiple print or electronic copies of items taken from the journal to third parties for marketing purposes; and (3) reuse by an author of portions or all of an article in other publications from commercial organizations.
JASS allows authors to submit preprints to the journal. A preprint refers to a version of a scholarly paper that precedes formal peer review and publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Submitting a preprint to JASS will not be considered as duplicate submission or publication. JASS advises authors to mention the existence of the preprint, along with its DOI, in the cover letter during the submission process. The preprint will go through the same peer review process as any other submission. If accepted for publication, the authors are encouraged to update the preprint with a link to the published article in JASS, including the DOI. It is highly recommended that authors cite the published article in JASS instead of the preprint in their future submissions to other journals.
JASS is an open access journal, which means that authors who publish with us are able to freely share their research in various ways, including preprint servers, social media platforms, conferences, and educational materials, in accordance with our open access policy.
• Accepted version
The accepted version, which incorporates all peer review amendments prior to final publication, may be shared on non-commercial websites and repositories. Authors who previously uploaded their article to a preprint server should update the preprint with the accepted manuscript following peer review.
• Published version
The final, published version can be shared immediately upon publication. Under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, this version permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
JASS ensures the electronic backup and long-term preservation of journal content by archiving it in the National Library of Korea (https://www.nl.go.kr/). This allows for permanent preservation of JASS papers and ensures access in the event the journal ceases publication.
JASS encourages data sharing wherever possible to promote openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research. Subject to ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
The journal maintains transparency in AI usage and will update these policies as the technology evolves.
JASS does not accept any commercial product advertisements until policy changes otherwise.
