Editor:
Nancy S. Redeker, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN
Yale University, New Haven, CT

Editorial Assistant:
Ardis O'Meara
Towson, MD

heartlungjournal@gmail.com

Publisher:
Mercedes Simoncelli
Elsevier Inc.
1600 JFK Blvd, Suite 1800
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2899

Journal Manager:
Joanne Jesberg
Ephrata, PA
Tel: (717)738-9323
fax: (717)738-9479 or (717)738-9478

Heart and Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care, the official publication of The American Association of Heart Failure Nurses, presents original, peer-reviewed articles on techniques, advances, investigations, and observations related to the care of patients with acute and critical illness and patients with chronic cardiac or pulmonary disorders.

The Journal's acute care articles focus on the care of hospitalized patients, including those in the critical and acute care settings. Because most patients who are hospitalized in acute and critical care settings have chronic conditions, we are also interested in the chronically critically ill, the care of patients with chronic cardiopulmonary disorders, their rehabilitation, and disease prevention. The Journal's heart failure articles focus on all aspects of the care of patients with this condition. Manuscripts that are relevant to populations across the human lifespan are welcome.

We are interested in publishing articles representing a broad range of science and clinical practice in a variety of settings as it pertains to our target population. Because health care and the health sciences are global, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary, we encourage authors to submit manuscripts that reflect these perspectives. Many articles also provide nurses with a framework for applying research results in clinical practice.

We publish original research, case reports, reviews, and observations that are on the cutting edge of science and clinical practice. Reports of well-designed clinical trials and systematic reviews are especially welcome. Discussions of translational research and implementation and improvement science, as well as costs of care, patient education, and health policy are of high relevance to our focus.

AUTHOR INQUIRIES
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles or to articles currently being reviewed, please contact the editorial office at heartlungjournal@gmail.com. Visit Elsevier's Authors Home at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors to track accepted articles, find detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions, and more.

EXCLUSIVE SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION POLICY
Manuscripts should contain timely and accurate information of interest to readers according to the Journal's Aims and Scope. Manuscripts are considered for review under the condition that they are not under consideration elsewhere and that the data presented have not appeared on the internet or have not been previously published in print, or online in electronic format. If you have other manuscripts in press, in review, or published either from the same data set or on the same topic from another data set, include them as Supplementary Files (not for peer review) on the "attach files" page. Manuscripts become the permanent property of Heart & Lung and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the author and Journal publisher. Upon acceptance, written transfer of copyright will be required.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATON
Manuscript submissions should conform to the guidelines set forth in the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication," available from http://www.ICMJE.org. Please refer to http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/ for CONSORT guidelines for clinical trials. The CONSORT Statement is intended to improve the reporting of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), enabling readers to understand a trial's design, conduct, analysis and interpretation, and to assess the validity of its results.

The following components should comprise the manuscript submission:

Cover Letter
This page introduces your manuscript to the editor and should include any specific information you would like the editor to know.

Title Page
The title page must include the manuscript title and list each author. Include: author's name, credentials, current professional position(s), and contact information (ie, address and phone number, e-mail address). The title page should designate a corresponding author (ie, lead contact) who will work directly with the editorial staff members throughout process.

Authorship includes the following: 1) conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data, or both; 2) drafting of the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the manuscript submitted. Participation solely in the collection of data does not justify authorship but may be appropriately acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.

Abstract & Key Words
Provide a structured abstract of no more than 150 words, essential data should be presented in 5 paragraphs under separate headings in the following order: Objectives, Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. A non-structured abstract is appropriate for review articles.

Identify five (5) key words related to your article. These key words help categorize your article in search engines after it is published. The corresponding author will be prompted to enter the abstract and key words during the submission process via the EES system.

Manuscript Components
The manuscript should be arranged as follows: 1) title; 2) structured abstract and key words; 3) abbreviations list; 4) text; 5) references; 6) figure titles and legends; and 7) tables. Page numbering should begin with the first page.

Manuscript style should follow the AMA Style, 10th edition. Articles should be no more than 15 pages in length, not including title page, figures, tables, and references. Case studies should be no more than 10 pages in length. Author(s) name and credentials should be listed according to the AMA-10 recommendations.

Text
Manuscript text should be double-spaced, left-aligned (unjustified), and in a 12-point font. The body of text should be structured with the following headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Sub-headings may be used as appropriate. Each reference, figure and table should be cited in the text in numerical order according to order of first mention.

To ensure anonymity during the peer review process, avoid using any author identifiers (eg, names of individuals, institutions, etc.) in the body of the manuscript. Generic drug names should be used; however, proprietary names may be inserted in parentheses after the generic name. If equipment must be identified by its proprietary name, the manufacturer name and city/state should be provided.

Figures and Tables
All figures, including diagrams, flow charts, line drawings, and photographs, must be cited within the text. Tables should be self-explanatory, include a brief title, and not duplicate information in the text. Where possible, data should be listed in tables and not in the text. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order of text citation. Each table must be typed on a separate sheet.

Figures should be submitted electronically as separate files at the time of manuscript submission. For detailed information related to artwork, see artwork instructions at http://www.elsevier.com/framework_authors/Artwork/Artwork_2010.pdf. All full-color figures will be published in print in black and white and full-color online. Authors may choose to pay to publish color illustrations.

Videos
Video clips that are relevant to an article and enhance the information in the text may be submitted with a manuscript. A separate page with concise legends must accompany each video clip. When submitting multiple videos, each clip should be saved in a separate file. If the article is accepted, the video will be permanently archived on the Journal web site.

If the video includes footage of people, the author must obtain signed video consents from each identifiable individual. Video clips should be between one (1) and three (3) minutes in length, and should not exceed five (5) minutes in length or 10 MB in file size. The Journal can accept only video submissions that meet the Journal's formatting and image quality requirements.

Permissions
Permission must be obtained to reproduce or closely adapt previously published figures, tables, and illustrations. Credits for the reproduced work are included in the figure caption and must include author(s), title, either publisher and city (and country, if other than the United States) or periodical name, volume, page, and year. All costs associated with permission requests shall be borne by the author.

Conflict of Interest
Authors are required to disclose any relationship(s) with industry and/or financial associations that potentially pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted manuscript. When prompted in EES, all sources of funding for the work should be acknowledged, as well as author's corporate affiliations. Other associations, such as consultancies, stock ownership, or equity interests or patent-licensing arrangements, should also be disclosed to the Editor at the time of submission. If no relationship with industry exists, please state that this is so.

Acceptable File Formats
Manuscripts - Manuscripts should not be submitted in PDF format.

o Microsoft Word

o Rich Text Format (RTF)

o TIFF

o EPS

o JPG

o PDF

o MS Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

o MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 (.mpg)

o MPEG-4 (.mp4)

o Microsoft Audio/Video Interface (.avi)

o Apple QuickTime (.mov)

o CompuServ GIF (.gif)

References
References should be contextually relevant, pertinent, and supportive of your topic. Please check to make sure references reflect the most currently available resources (eg, most current edition of textbooks). Verify and denote references consecutively in the text with superscript numerals. Include a double-spaced, numbered reference list on a page appearing at the end of the manuscript. Resources that are pertinent to the article but are not cited in the text can be listed in a resources section following the References.

References to journal articles must contain, in order, the following information: authors' names (last names, initials); title of article (initial capital and lower case, no quotation marks); journal name abbreviated as in Cumulated Index Medicus; and year of publication, volume number, and inclusive page numbers. If six or fewer authors, list all; if seven or more, list first six and et al.
Examples follow:

Journal Article

1. Miller CB, Rowlings PA, Zhang MJ, Jones RJ. The effect of graft purging with 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide in autologous bone marrow transplantation for acute myelogenous leukemia. Exp Hematol. 2001;29:1336-46.

2. Lemen R, Jones JG, Cowan G, Schultz AA, Kent RT, Whiting M. A mechanism of pulmonary artery perforation by Swan-Ganz catheters [letter]. N Engl J Med. 1975;292:212-4.

Book

Palmer RJ, Moncada S. Vascular Endothelial Cells. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Science Publishers; 1996.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
Gross SS, Aisaka K, Jaffe EA, Botvinick E, Morimoto M. Nitric oxide synthesis. In: Levi R, Griffith OW, eds. Biochemistry Basics. New York, NY: Biopub Inc.; 1990:131-58.

URL
Health Care Financing Administration. 1996 statistics at a glance. Available at: http://www.hcfa.gov/stats/stathili

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research
All manuscripts that involve human subjects or animals in research must conform to the principles of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, available at http://www.icmje.org/ethical_6protection.html.

ARTICLE CATEGORIES

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor raising some point of current interest or commenting on an article that appeared in the Journal will be considered for publication. The Editor reserves the right to accept, reject, or excerpt letters without changing the views expressed by the writer. The author of an original article will have an opportunity to reply to published comments. All such letters should be sent to Dr. Redeker.

Reports of Original Research

Systematic Reviews
Reports of analyses of healthy policy, education, economic or organizational issues pertaining to the care of patients with acute and critical illness and patients with chronic cardiac or pulmonary disorders.

Case Studies
Case Studies describe unusual clinical problems and their management.

"Special Issue: Care of the Critically Ill and Their Family Caregivers

Special Issue Editor; Linda Chlan, PhD, RN, FAAN

We invite manuscripts on all aspects of the care of the critically ill and their caregivers across the trajectory of critical illness from the acute phase to recovery. Manuscripts reporting original research or systematic reviews are of particular interest. The issue is planned for November-December 2014. In order to be considered for this issue, manuscripts must be submitted no later than January 1, 2014 and prepared according to the Heart and Lung editorial guidelines, http://www.heartandlung.org/authorinfo. Please submit online through the Heart and Lung online editorial system, http://ees.elsevier.com/hl/ under the article type 'Special issue: Care of the Critically Ill.'Queries may be submitted to Dr. Linda Chlan, Special Issue Editor, chlan.1@osu.edu."

Checklist for Authors:

__Cover Letter
__Title page
o Title or article
o Full name(s) (on title page only), academic degrees(s), affiliation(s) and title(s) of author(s)
o Author to whom correspondence and reprint requests are to be sent, including address, E-mail address if available, and telephone number
o Acknowledgements (if applicable)
__Abstract
__Manuscript
__References
__Tables
__Legends
__Illustrations, properly labeled
__Permission to reproduce previously published material or identifiable subjects in photos

Elsevier may direct authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please visit http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting for further information.

Updated November 2011