Submissions | European Gynecology & Obstetrics

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission is original: it has not been published in whole or in significant part in any peer-reviewed publication and is not under consideration by any other journal. Deposit of a preprint version does not constitute prior publication, provided that it is disclosed in the cover letter.
2. The main manuscript file is fully anonymized: it contains no author names, affiliations, funding sources, acknowledgments or self-identifying citations.
3. A separate title page has been uploaded as a distinct file, containing all the elements listed in Section 10 of the Submission Guidelines, including the running title, the body text word count and the number of figures and tables.
4. The main manuscript file is in .docx, .doc or .rtf format, double-spaced, in 12-point type, with margins of at least 2.5 cm, continuous line numbering activated and consecutively numbered pages.
5. All figures are uploaded as separate files and are not embedded in the main manuscript file; figure legends appear at the end of the main file, after the references; all tables appear at the end of the main file, after the figure legends.
6. The article type has been selected and the formal limits applicable to it, for abstract, body text, figures and tables, videos and references, have been verified.
7. The abstract follows the structure and word limit prescribed for the article type, and 4 to 8 keywords, drawn from Medical Subject Headings where possible, have been provided.
8. A cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief that includes all mandatory elements listed in Section 5 of the Submission Guidelines.
9. All listed authors meet all 4 ICMJE authorship criteria; no person meeting those criteria has been omitted, and the contribution of every author has been specified using the CRediT taxonomy in the submission form.
10. The ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form has been completed and uploaded for each author, and a conflict of interest statement appears in the main manuscript file.
11. The ethical declarations required by Section 14 of the Submission Guidelines are reported in the Methods section: the full name of the approving ethics committee, the reference number and date of approval, or the reason for exemption; and whether, and in what form, informed consent was obtained.
12. Where the manuscript reports data from individual patients or contains clinical images, written informed consent for publication has been obtained and the consent documentation has been uploaded as a supplementary file.
13. For interventional clinical trials, the registry name and the trial registration number are reported at the end of the abstract and in the Methods section, and registration preceded the enrolment of the first participant. For systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the PROSPERO or equivalent registration number is reported in the abstract and in the Methods section.
14. A Data Availability Statement, drawn from the standard templates of the Data Availability and Sharing Policy, appears as a standalone section immediately before the references.
15. Any use of artificial intelligence tools in the preparation of the manuscript has been disclosed in the cover letter and, where applicable, in the main manuscript; where no such tools were used, a declaration to that effect has been provided.
16. The reporting checklist required for the study design has been completed with page numbers and uploaded as a supplementary file, and the references follow the Vancouver/ICMJE style with NLM journal title abbreviations and DOIs in the form https://doi.org/10.xxxxx wherever available.

Author Guidelines

Scope of the Journal

European Gynecology and Obstetrics is the official journal of the European Society of Gynecology. It publishes original work across all areas of gynecology, obstetrics and women's health, including basic science, pathophysiology, clinical medicine, therapeutics, surgery, prevention, epidemiology, social medicine, and the ethical and legal dimensions of women's health.

The complete formal, technical and ethical requirements applicable to every submission are set out in the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines). Authors are required to read that document in full before submitting: the guidance below is a working summary and does not replace it. Manuscripts that do not meet the formal requirements are returned to the corresponding author without editorial assessment.

Choose the article type and verify its limits

The Journal accepts 14 article types. Word counts refer to the body text only and exclude the abstract, the references, the figure legends and the content of tables. All limits are maxima, not targets.

Original Article: structured abstract, 300 words; body text 3,000 words; 6 figures and tables; 4 videos; 50 references; peer reviewed.
Systematic Review: structured abstract, 300 words; body text 4,000 words; 8 figures and tables; 4 videos; 80 references; peer reviewed.
Meta-analysis: structured abstract, 300 words; body text 4,000 words; 8 figures and tables; 4 videos; 80 references; peer reviewed.
Narrative / Short Review: structured abstract, 300 words; body text 2,500 words; 5 figures and tables; 4 videos; 50 references; peer reviewed.
Protocol: structured abstract, 300 words; body text 4,000 words; 6 figures and tables; 2 videos; 60 references; peer reviewed.
Case Report: structured abstract, 200 words; body text 2,000 words; 4 figures and tables; 4 videos; 40 references; peer reviewed.
Guideline / Consensus: structured abstract, 300 words; no limit on body text; 8 figures and tables; 4 videos; no limit on references; peer reviewed.
Position Paper: structured abstract, 300 words; no limit on body text; 6 figures and tables; 4 videos; no limit on references; peer reviewed.
Statement: structured abstract, 300 words; no limit on body text; 6 figures and tables; 4 videos; no limit on references; peer reviewed.
Data Note: unstructured abstract, 150 words; body text 1,500 words; 4 figures and tables; 2 videos; 20 references; peer reviewed.
Commentary: unstructured abstract, 150 words; body text 1,500 words; 1 figure or table; no videos; 20 references; expedited peer review.
Letter to the Editor: no abstract; body text 500 words; 1 figure or table; no videos; 10 references; editorial review.
Editorial: no abstract; no limit on body text; 2 figures and tables; no videos; 20 references; by invitation.
Opinion / Opinion Corner: no abstract; no limit on body text; 1 figure or table; no videos; 20 references; by invitation.

The requirements specific to each type, including the headings of the structured abstract and the mandatory reporting checklists, are set out in Sections 7, 11 and 12 of the Submission Guidelines. Abstracts of communications presented at the congresses of the European Society of Gynecology are published as supplements and are handled through the Conference Abstracts section.

Prepare the files

Main manuscript file, in .docx, .doc or .rtf format. It must be fully anonymised: no author names, affiliations, funding sources, acknowledgements or self-identifying citations. PDF is not accepted for the main file.
Title page, uploaded as a separate file and not anonymised, containing the full title, a running title of no more than 60 characters, the article type, the full name, degrees, affiliation, city, country and ORCID iD of every author, the corresponding author's postal and email address, the funding statement, the acknowledgements, the body text word count, and the number of figures and tables.
Figures, uploaded as separate files, never embedded in the main manuscript. Photographs and halftone artwork in TIFF at a minimum of 300 dpi; line art in TIFF or EPS at a minimum of 1,200 dpi; combination figures in TIFF at a minimum of 600 dpi; colour in CMYK. PDF figures are accepted during peer review only and must be replaced with TIFF or EPS before acceptance. JPEG is not accepted for production, and figures created in Word, Excel or PowerPoint are not accepted.
Tables, prepared with the table function of the word processor and placed at the end of the main manuscript file, after the figure legends.
Cover letter, addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, containing the mandatory elements listed in Section 5 of the Submission Guidelines.
ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form, completed by each author.
The reporting checklist required for the study design, completed with the page numbers on which each item is addressed.
Supplementary materials and videos, where applicable, labelled sequentially and cited in the main manuscript. Videos in .avi, .mov or .mp4, no longer than 4 minutes each, no more than 1 GB in total.

Format the manuscript

Manuscripts must be double-spaced, in 12-point type, with margins of at least 2.5 cm on all sides, line numbering activated and pages numbered consecutively. Both British and American spelling are acceptable, provided that one convention is applied consistently throughout. Abbreviations are defined at first use in the abstract and again at first use in the main text, and are introduced only where the term appears at least 3 times. Drug names follow the International Nonproprietary Names; quantities are expressed in Systeme International units.

Original Articles follow the IMRAD structure. Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses follow the PRISMA 2020 structure and include the flow diagram. Case Reports include Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion and Conclusions. Data Notes include Introduction, Data Description, Technical Validation and (Re)Use Notes. Protocols follow the SPIRIT 2013 framework. For the remaining types the section headings are at the authors' discretion, subject to Editorial Office approval.

A minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 keywords are required for every article type that carries an abstract, drawn from Medical Subject Headings where possible and not replicating terms already present in the title.

Complete the mandatory declarations

Authorship. All listed authors must meet all 4 ICMJE authorship criteria, and no person meeting them may be omitted. Contributions are declared for every author using the CRediT taxonomy in the submission form. Contributors who do not meet the criteria, including professional medical writers, are named in the Acknowledgements with a description of their contribution.
Conflict of interest. Each author completes the ICMJE Conflict of Interest disclosure form and uploads it at submission; a conflict of interest statement appears in the main manuscript. Disclosable interests cover the 3 years preceding the month of submission. Completed forms are published as supplementary material if the manuscript is accepted.
Ethical approval. Research involving human participants, human biological material or identifiable human data requires approval by an institutional review board or research ethics committee obtained before the study began. The Methods section must state the full name of the approving body, the reference number and the date of approval, or the reason for exemption where a formal review was not required under applicable law.
Informed consent. The Methods section must state whether informed consent was obtained and in what form. Where identifiable patient data or clinical images are reported, written consent for publication must be obtained, confirmed in the figure legend where relevant, and the consent documentation uploaded as a supplementary file for editorial review; the consent form is not published.
Animal research. Research involving non-human animals requires approval by the relevant institutional animal care and use committee, reported in the Methods section, and follows the ARRIVE 2.0 guideline.
Study registration. Interventional clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible registry before the enrolment of the first participant; retrospective registration is not accepted. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be registered in PROSPERO or an equivalent prospective register before data extraction begins. In both cases the registry name and the registration number are reported at the end of the abstract and in the Methods section.
Data availability. A Data Availability Statement, drawn from the standard templates of the Data Availability and Sharing Policy (https://www.egojournal.eu/policies/data-availability), is mandatory for every article type subject to peer review and appears as a standalone section immediately before the references.
Artificial intelligence. Every use of artificial intelligence tools in the preparation of the manuscript must be disclosed in the cover letter and, where applicable, in the Methods section or in the Acknowledgements. Where no such tools were used, a declaration to that effect is required. Artificial intelligence tools may not be listed as authors and may not be cited as sources.
Preprints. Deposit of a preprint on a recognised server is encouraged and does not constitute prior publication. Where a preprint exists, the cover letter must state the server, the DOI and whether the preprint differs from the submitted manuscript. Authors are required to update the preprint record with a link to the published article upon acceptance.
Funding. All sources of financial support, with grant numbers, are declared on the title page, together with the funder's role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation and writing, or a statement that the funder had no such role. Where the work received no external funding, this must be stated.

Apply the reporting guideline for your study design

The completed reporting checklist must be uploaded as a supplementary file, with the page numbers on which each item is addressed. CONSORT 2010 or CONSORT 2025 for randomised controlled trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA 2020 for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, CARE for case reports, STARD 2015 for diagnostic and prognostic accuracy studies and ARRIVE 2.0 for animal research are mandatory. SPIRIT 2013 for study protocols, COREQ or SRQR for qualitative research, SAGER for sex and gender analysis and CHEERS 2022 for economic evaluations are strongly recommended. All checklists are freely available from the EQUATOR Network (https://www.equator-network.org). Where no established guideline exists for the study design, authors should state this in the Methods section.

Format the references

The Journal uses the Vancouver/ICMJE reference style. References are numbered consecutively in the order of first citation, with in-text citations as superscript Arabic numerals placed after the relevant statement and before any punctuation. Journal titles follow the NLM abbreviations. A DOI, in the form https://doi.org/10.xxxxx, must be given for every reference where one is available. List all authors up to and including 6; for more than 6, list the first 3 followed by et al. Unpublished data and personal communications are not included in the reference list and may be mentioned in the text in parentheses. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all references; unnecessary self-citation should be avoided.

Author and institution identifiers

All authors are strongly encouraged to enter their ORCID iD (https://orcid.org) and the ROR identifier of their institution (https://ror.org) in the submission system. Neither is a condition of submission, and their absence does not affect the editorial decision. ORCID iDs are published with the article and improve the accuracy of the metadata deposited with Crossref and with indexing services.

Submit

All manuscripts are submitted exclusively through the Journal's online submission system. Submissions by email or by any other channel are not accepted. Registration is free of charge. The corresponding author completes the 5 steps of the submission wizard: selection of the article type; upload of all required files; entry of the metadata, including title, abstract, keywords, author details, ORCID iDs, ROR identifiers and CRediT contributor roles; completion of the submission declarations; final review and confirmation. A submission is received only once the Submit button has been clicked; the system then issues a confirmation email and a unique manuscript identifier.

What happens next

The Editorial Office carries out a formal check within 2 working days. Manuscripts that do not pass it are returned with a detailed list of deficiencies, and resubmission resets the submission date. Manuscripts that pass proceed to similarity screening and then to editorial pre-screening by an Associate Editor, who may recommend desk rejection, external peer review, or preliminary revision.

Manuscripts sent for review are assessed under a double-anonymized model: the identity of the authors is not disclosed to the reviewers and the identity of the reviewers is not disclosed to the authors at any stage. As a rule 3 to 5 reviewers are invited, with the aim of obtaining at least 2 complete reports. The target time from submission to first editorial decision is 30 to 45 days. The decision is taken by the Editor-in-Chief and may be acceptance, minor revision, major revision, reject and resubmit, or rejection.

Authors have 30 calendar days to return a minor revision and 60 calendar days to return a major revision, in both cases with a point-by-point response letter and the changes made visible. Extensions may be requested through the submission system before the deadline expires. A manuscript may undergo at most 2 consecutive rounds of major revision. Authors who consider a decision unjustified may lodge a reasoned appeal with the Editor-in-Chief within 30 days. The full process is described in the Peer Review Policy (https://www.egojournal.eu/policies/peer-review).

At the submission stage authors may suggest up to 3 potential reviewers and request the exclusion of up to 3 named individuals, with mandatory justification. Such indications are not binding on the Editorial Office.

After acceptance

A Digital Object Identifier is assigned at the moment of acceptance and communicated in the acceptance notification. The manuscript is copyedited and typeset, and page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who is asked to return corrections within 48 hours. Proof correction serves to verify the accuracy of typesetting, not to introduce new content.

Every accepted article is then published Online First as the Version of Record, in advance of its assignment to a numbered issue. The article published Online First is definitive, immediately citable and carries no provisional status; its metadata are deposited with Crossref and with the Journal's indexing and preservation services from that date. Upon assignment to an issue the article retains the same Digital Object Identifier and the same address, and only volume, issue and page range are added.

Fees

The Journal operates a Diamond Open Access model. No submission fee, article processing charge, page charge or colour charge is levied on authors, their institutions or their funders at any stage of the editorial or production process. Full details are set out in the Author Fees and Publication Charges Policy (https://www.egojournal.eu/policies/author-fees).

Copyright and licensing

Authors retain copyright in their published work; no transfer of copyright is required or accepted. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), with no embargo. Full details are set out in the Copyright and Licensing Policy (https://www.egojournal.eu/policies/copyright-licensing) and in the Copyright Notice below.

Editorial policy framework and contact

These guidelines form part of the Journal's editorial policy framework, which governs authorship, peer review, publication ethics, research ethics, corrections and retractions, conflicts of interest, data availability, artificial intelligence, preprints, copyright and licensing, open access, and every other aspect of the editorial process. All policies are available at https://www.egojournal.eu/policies. Queries concerning a submission may be addressed to the Editorial Office at info@egojournal.eu.

Articles

Section default policy

Editorial

Editorials present the Editor-in-Chief's or the Editorial Board's perspective on a topic of current relevance to gynecology and obstetrics. Editorials are commissioned by invitation only, unless otherwise indicated in a specific call for contributions, and are not subject to external peer review. No abstract is required. There is no limit on body text length, with up to 2 figures and/or tables, no videos, and up to 20 references. Manuscripts follow a free structure, with clearly demarcated paragraphs. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 ("Article types and formal limits") of the Journal's Submission Guidelines.

Original Article

Original Articles report the results of primary empirical research in the field of gynecology and obstetrics. A structured abstract (Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions) of up to 300 words is required, concluding with a statement of the level of evidence for clinical studies, or of the clinical relevance for basic science studies. Body text is limited to a maximum of 3,000 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends and table content, with up to 6 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and up to 50 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) and Section 11.1 (required abstract headings) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Case Report

Case Reports describe novel clinical observations in gynecology and obstetrics. A structured abstract of up to 200 words is required, as specified in Section 11.1 of the Submission Guidelines. Body text is limited to a maximum of 2,000 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends and table content, with up to 4 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and up to 40 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts must follow the CARE checklist and include Introduction, Case Presentation, Discussion and Conclusions. Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from the patient or their legal guardian, the consent documentation must be uploaded at submission, and patient details must comply with Section 14.3 of the Submission Guidelines. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Systematic Review

Systematic Reviews synthesize evidence from multiple primary studies on a defined clinical question in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, following a pre-specified and reproducible methodology. The review must be registered in PROSPERO or an equivalent prospective register before data extraction begins, and the registration number must be reported in the abstract and in the Methods section. The PRISMA 2020 checklist and flow diagram are mandatory. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 4,000 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends and table content, with up to 8 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and up to 80 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Narrative / Short Review

Narrative / Short Reviews provide a focused narrative or scoping review on a defined topic in the field of gynecology and obstetrics. Authors are not required to follow systematic review methodology. The terms Narrative Review and Short Review are used interchangeably within this category, consistent with the Journal's Peer Review Policy. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 2,500 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends and table content, with up to 5 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and up to 50 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Section headings are at the authors' discretion, subject to Editorial Office approval. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Meta-analysis

Meta-analyses statistically synthesize the quantitative results of multiple primary studies on a defined clinical question in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, following a pre-specified and reproducible methodology. The review must be registered in PROSPERO or an equivalent prospective register before data extraction begins, and the registration number must be reported in the abstract and in the Methods section. The PRISMA 2020 checklist and flow diagram are mandatory. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 4,000 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends and table content, with up to 8 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and up to 80 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Protocol

Protocols describe a planned or ongoing study in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, including its design, objectives, methods and analysis plan. The SPIRIT 2013 framework is strongly recommended. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 4,000 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends and table content, with up to 6 figures and/or tables, up to 2 videos, and up to 60 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Where the protocol describes an interventional clinical trial, the trial must be prospectively registered and the registration number reported in the abstract and in the Methods section. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Opinion / Opinion Corner

Opinion / Opinion Corner presents the author's personal viewpoint on a topic of current relevance to gynecology and obstetrics. "Opinion" and "Opinion Corner" are treated as equivalent article subtypes within this category, consistent with Peer Review Policy Section 4. Pieces are published by invitation only, unless otherwise indicated in a specific call for contributions, and are not subject to external peer review. No abstract is required. There is no limit on body text length, with up to 1 figure or table, no videos, and up to 20 references. Manuscripts follow a free structure, with clearly demarcated paragraphs. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 ("Article types and formal limits") of the Journal's Submission Guidelines.

Guideline / Consensus

Guidelines and Consensus documents present a formal clinical practice guideline or consensus statement in the field of gynecology and obstetrics. Where produced by or on behalf of a professional society, the society's name and formal endorsement must be stated. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. There is no limit on body text length, with up to 8 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and no limit on references. Section headings are at the authors' discretion, subject to Editorial Office approval. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Position Paper

Position Papers set out and argue a considered position of the Journal's Editorial Board, of the European Society of Gynecology or of another professional organization on a defined topic in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, supported by a critical appraisal of the available evidence. The endorsing body must be named, and the process by which the position was adopted must be described. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. There is no limit on body text length, with up to 6 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and no limit on references. Section headings are at the authors' discretion, subject to Editorial Office approval. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Statement

Statements are concise formal declarations of the Journal's Editorial Board, of the European Society of Gynecology or of another professional organization on a defined and circumscribed question in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, issued where a brief and prescriptive text is required rather than an extended argument. The issuing body must be named. A structured abstract of up to 300 words is required. There is no limit on body text length, with up to 6 figures and/or tables, up to 4 videos, and no limit on references. Section headings are at the authors' discretion, subject to Editorial Office approval. Manuscripts are subject to double-anonymized peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 (Article types and formal limits) of the Journal's Submission Guidelines (https://www.egojournal.eu/for-authors/submission-guidelines).

Data Note

Data Notes describe a dataset deposited in a public repository relevant to the field of gynecology and obstetrics, without presenting new analyses. The dataset DOI must be provided. An unstructured abstract of up to 150 words is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 1,500 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends, and table content, with up to 4 figures and/or tables, up to 2 videos, and up to 20 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts must include Introduction, Data Description, Technical Validation, and (Re)Use Notes. Manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 ("Article types and formal limits") of the Journal's Submission Guidelines.

Commentary

Commentaries offer a substantive academic comment on a topic of current relevance to gynecology and obstetrics. If responding to a published article, the DOI of the article being discussed must be provided. An unstructured abstract of up to 150 words is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 1,500 words, excluding abstract, references, figure legends, and table content, with up to 1 figure or table, no videos, and up to 20 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts follow a free structure, with clearly demarcated paragraphs, and are subject to expedited peer review. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 ("Article types and formal limits") of the Journal's Submission Guidelines.

Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor provide a brief response to a recently published article, or address a topic of immediate clinical relevance to gynecology and obstetrics. Letters responding to a published article must be submitted within 60 calendar days of online publication. No abstract is required. Body text is limited to a maximum of 500 words, excluding references and figure legends, with up to 1 figure or table, no videos, and up to 10 references. Limits indicate maxima, not targets. Manuscripts follow a free structure, with clearly demarcated paragraphs, and are subject to editorial review only; letters with substantial scientific content may undergo expedited external peer review at the Editor-in-Chief's discretion, in accordance with Peer Review Policy, Section 4. The Journal's policy on post-publication letters is set out in the Post-Publication Discussions Policy. Full formal requirements are set out in Section 7 ("Article types and formal limits") of the Journal's Submission Guidelines.

Copyright Notice

Authors retain full copyright in their published work. No transfer of copyright is required or accepted as a condition of publication.

Upon acceptance, the corresponding author, acting on behalf of all authors, grants Edikta S.r.l., publisher of European Gynecology and Obstetrics on behalf of the European Society of Gynecology, a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to publish the article in all formats, to reproduce, distribute and publicly display it, to sublicense it to repositories, aggregators, indexing services and preservation networks, to deposit it in the repositories required or recommended by funders, indexers or preservation services, and to make it available to all readers under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. This licence does not restrict the authors' own rights to use, reproduce, distribute and adapt their article.

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), with no embargo. The licence attaches to the Version of Record at the moment of online publication and is irrevocable. The statement carried by every published article reads: © [Year] [Author name(s)]. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the CC BY 4.0 licence is provided (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), and any changes made are indicated.

Third-party material included in an article is not covered by the article's CC BY 4.0 licence unless expressly stated. Authors are solely responsible for identifying such material, for obtaining the permissions necessary for publication, and for ensuring that any element which cannot be licensed under CC BY 4.0 is clearly identified as excluded in its caption, credit line or footnote. Material that cannot be so identified and excluded must not be included in the article.

By submitting, the corresponding author warrants, on behalf of all authors, that the article is an original work which does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party; that the authors hold, or have obtained all necessary authorisations to grant, the rights described above; that the article has not been published previously in a peer-reviewed journal in substantially the same form and is not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere; and that the article contains no content that is unlawful, defamatory or in breach of any applicable regulation.

The full provisions on copyright, licensing, third-party materials, text and data mining, moral rights and the rights retained by authors are set out in the Journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy (https://www.egojournal.eu/policies/copyright-licensing).

Privacy Statement

Edikta S.r.l., Via della Balduina 311, 00136 Rome, Italy, publisher of European Gynecology and Obstetrics on behalf of the European Society of Gynecology, acts as Data Controller for the personal data processed through this platform, within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and of Italian Legislative Decree No. 196 of 30 June 2003, as amended by Legislative Decree No. 101 of 10 August 2018.

The names, email addresses, affiliations and other data entered on this site are processed exclusively for the editorial purposes of the Journal, namely the management of user accounts, submission, peer review, editorial decision-making, publication and the associated communications, and for the deposit of publication metadata with Crossref and with the Journal's indexing and preservation services. They are not made available for any other purpose or to any other party, and are not used for marketing.

The legal bases for processing are Article 6.1.b GDPR, for the steps taken at the request of the data subject and the performance of the publishing agreement, and Article 6.1.f GDPR, for the legitimate interest of the Journal in maintaining an accurate and accessible scientific record. The session cookies set by this platform for authenticated users are essential technical cookies required for the operation of the submission system and do not require consent.

Personal data are retained for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which they were collected, according to the retention periods set out in the Journal's Privacy and Data Protection Policy.

Data subjects have the rights laid down in Articles 15 to 22 GDPR: access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, objection, and the right not to be subject to automated decision-making. Requests should be submitted in writing to edikta@edikta.it and are answered without undue delay and in any event within 1 month of receipt, extendable by a further 2 months where the request is complex, in accordance with Article 12.3 GDPR. Data subjects also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, Piazza Venezia 11, 00187 Rome, Italy (garante@gpdp.it, https://www.garanteprivacy.it).

The Journal website and the manuscript management platform are hosted within the European Economic Area. The limited transfers to third countries described in the Privacy and Data Protection Policy are carried out under the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the European Commission pursuant to Article 46.2c GDPR.

The full description of the processing operations, the categories of data, the recipients, the retention periods and the rights of data subjects is set out in the Journal's Privacy and Data Protection Policy (https://www.egojournal.eu/legal/privacy).