Guidelines for Contributing Authors

TCM Editorial Policy

Articles appearing in this journal are generally commissioned. Prospective authors who have not been asked to write should first approach the Editor in Chief, an Executive Editor, or the editorial office with a brief outline of the proposed article. The Editor in Chief will decide whether to commission the proposed article. Authors should note that all manuscripts are subject to peer review, and that commissioning does not automatically guarantee publication.

Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine provides state-of-the-art reviews on the application of scientific advances to the development of new prognostic, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies for heart and vascular diseases. The areas covered include basic and clinical research, including genetic studies of human cardiovascular diseases, therapeutic angiogenesis, cardiovascular gene therapy, cardiac development and congenital heart disease, channel regulation and arrhythmogenesis, coagulation disorders, novel therapeutic targets and agents, thrombotic disorders, molecular advances in hypertrophy and heart failure, genetically engineered animal models of human disease, and new insights into atherosclerotic heart disease.

Length and Format

Your manuscript should be approximately 1,800 words (8-10 pages typed double-spaced), with references, tables, figures, and figure legends additional. We can accept most word processing formats (ideally Microsoft Word or WordPerfect). Most formatting codes are removed or replaced when we process your article, so there is no need to use excessive layout styling. Please do not use options such as automatic word breaking, justified layout, double columns, or automatic paragraph numbering (especially for numbered references). Do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts, etc., as appropriate.

Tables

When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, please use only one grid for each separate table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is being used, use tabs to align columns instead of spaces.

Illustrations

We welcome the use of illustrations, and prefer submission of figures via digital files. If submitting hard copies for scanning, please supply at least two sets of original slides or prints.

You will receive one complimentary page of color illustration (to fit suitably on an 8½" x 11" page). If you wish to submit more than 1 page of color with your article, please note that you will be charged for the cost of reproduction ($650 for the first figure outside the complimentary page; $100 for each additional color figure). At no cost to authors, figures may appear in black and white in print and in color online.

Electronic Artwork Guidelines

For full artwork and multimedia guidelines, please see http://www.elsevier.com/locate/artworkinstructions.

Preferred formats are TIFF, EPS, and PDF. MS Office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) are also accepted, provide the following points are adhered to: (1) Minimum acceptable resolution is 300 dpi for halftones, 500 dpi for line art/halftone combinations, and 1000 dpi for line art; (2) Do not reduce or enlarge images after placement in the MS Office application, as this can lead to loss of image quality; (3) Use only truetype fonts (preferred fonts include Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Symbol, Times).

Please provide all illustrations as separate files. Artwork should be numbered according to sequence in the text. Captions for figures, schemes, and plates should be included after the references. Please make sure illustrations are referred to in the text.

Please use CMYK color coding instead of RGB to ensure accurate reproduction of colors.

References

Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine uses the standard 'Vancouver' system with name and year in the text.

Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: "as demonstrated in wheat (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:
Reference to a journal publication: Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2000;163:51-9.
Reference to a book: Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1979.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book: Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age. New York: E-Publishing Inc.; 1994. p. 281-304.

Note shortened form for last page number. e.g., 51-9, and that for more than 6 authors the first 6 should be listed followed by 'et al.' For further details you are referred to "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals" (J Am Med Assoc 1997;277:927-34), see also http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/terms_cond.html

PDF Proofs

The corresponding author for your article will receive an email containing proofs in PDF format, as well as instructions for reviewing the proofs. Please review these proofs very carefully, as you will not receive a second set.

Additional Online Content

TCM Online is able to host content that is not suitable for print, such as video clips, extensive tables, and supplementary data. Please contact Liz van der Poel-Russell (l.poel@elsevier.com) if you are interested in this option.

Permissions

In order to reprint a figure or table that has already been published, we need permission from the copyright holder. Include any necessary permissions at the time of submission. Please ensure that all copyrighted material is properly acknowledged. Authors are responsible for any permissions fees.

Track Your Manuscript Online

After your manuscript has been accepted, you can check the status at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/trackpaper. To track your paper, you will need the manuscript reference number from the acknowledgment or receipt email sent to you from Elsevier Production. This number will start with "TCM," followed by a 4-digit number (ex. TCM 5602), and is different than the number assigned to your manuscript during peer-review. You will also need to enter the surname of the corresponding author.

Conflict of Interest

Please refer to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals for ethical considerations (http://www.icmje.org ). At the time of submission, authors must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. Conflict of interest exists when an author (or their institution) has a financial or personal relationship that inappropriately influences his or her actions. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist.

Submission Checklist

Please make sure your submission includes the following elements:
• Complete manuscript, including:

• Title page (with authors' complete names, affiliations, and addresses, and telephone/fax number and email address for corresponding author)
• A substantive, four-sentence abstract
• Complete main text
• References (limited to 40)
• Figure legends

Please email your manuscript by the accepted due date with three potential peer reviewers to:

Frances Nakamura, Editorial Coordinator
Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine
Fax: 310-544-3975
Email: nakamuraf2@cox.net

Ms. Nakamura will conduct the peer review and return the reviewers comments to you. She will notify you when the revised manuscript has been accepted. Email submission of the final manuscript, as per instructions above.

Additional Information

TCM Online is available to institutional subscribers through ScienceDirect and to individual subscribers at http://www.tcmonline.org .

Please direct further questions to:
Liz van der Poel-Russell l.poel@elsevier.com

Updated September 2012