JACC (JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY)
Official Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Guide for Authors
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) publishes peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of cardiovascular
disease, including original clinical studies, experimental investigations with clear clinical relevance, state-of-the-art papers, and
viewpoints. In general, case reports will not be considered for publication.
We request that all manuscripts be submitted online
at www.jaccsubmit.org.
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 and most recently updated in February 2006.
English language
help service: Upon request, Elsevier will direct authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper (before
submission). Please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for further information.
AUTHOR ENQUIRIES
For enquiries
relating to the submission of articles or to articles currently being reviewed, please contact the Journal's editorial office
at jaccsd@acc.org. For information on articles that have been accepted for publication, please visit www.elsevier.com/authors. Elsevier's Authors Home also provides the facility to track accepted articles and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when
an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions, and more.
EXCLUSIVE SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION POLICY
The manuscripts are considered for review only under the conditions that they
are not under consideration elsewhere and that the data presented have not appeared on the internet or have not been previously published
(including symposia, proceedings, transactions, books, articles published by invitation, and preliminary publications of any kind except
abstracts not exceeding 400 words). On acceptance, written transfer of copyright to the American College of Cardiology Foundation, signed
by all authors, will be required. Elsevier Inc. will maintain copyright records for the College.
PERMISSIONS
No part of
materials published in JACC may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Permission may be sought directly
from Elsevier's Global Rights Department. Phone: 215-239-3804 or 44-1865-843-830. Fax: 44-1865-853-333. E-mail: healthpermissions@elsevier.com.
Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier home page (http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY
The Editors require authors to disclose any financial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted
article in both the cover letter and on the title page. All sources of funding for the work should be acknowledged in a footnote on the
title page, as should all institutional affiliations of the authors (including corporate appointments). Other kinds of associations,
such as consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interests or patent-licensing arrangements, should be disclosed to the Editors
in the cover letter at the time of submission. If no conflict of interest exists, please state this in the cover letter and on the title
page. Conflict of interest guidelines apply to authors of all the following: Original Research Papers, State-of-the-Art Papers, Expedited
Publications, Editorials and Viewpoints, Editorial Comments, and Letters to the Editor.
ETHICS
Studies should be in compliance
with human studies committees and animal welfare regulations of the authors' institutions and Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
Human studies must be performed with the subjects' written informed consent. Authors must provide the details of this procedure and
indicate that the institutional committee on human research has approved thestudy protocol. If radiation is used in a research procedure,
the radiation exposure must be specified in the Methods.
Animal investigation must conform to the ''Position of the American Heart
Association on Research Animal Use,'' adopted by the AHA on November 11, 1984. If equivalent guidelines are used, they should be indicated.
The AHA position includes: 1) animal care and use by qualified individuals, supervised by veterinarians, and all facilities and transportation
must comply with current legal requirements and guidelines; 2) research involving animals should be done only when alternative methods
to yield needed information are not possible; 3) anesthesia must be used in all surgical interventions, all unnecessary suffering should
be avoided and research must be terminated if unnecessary pain or fear results; and 4) animal facilities must meet the standards of the
American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC).
AUTHORSHIP/COVER LETTER
Each author must have
contributed significantly to the submitted work. If there are more than 4 authors, the contribution of each must be substantiated in
the cover letter. If authorship is attributed to a group (either solely or in addition to 1 or more individual authors), all members
of the group must meet the full criteria and requirements for authorship. To save space, if group members have been listed in JACC,
the article should be referenced rather than reprinting the list. The Editors consider authorship to include all of 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 Acknowledgment section.
Manuscripts must be submitted with a cover letter
stating that: 1) the paper is not under consideration elsewhere; 2) none of the paper's contents have been previously published; 3) all
authors have read and approved the manuscript; and 4) the full disclosure of any potential conflict of interest (see ''Conflict of Interest
Policy''). Exceptions must be explained.
The corresponding author should be specified in the cover letter. All editorial communications
will be sent to this author. The corresponding author will be whom we contact for submission queries.
A short paragraph telling the
editors why the authors think their paper merits publication priority may be included in the cover letter. Potential reviewers may be
suggested in the cover letter, as well as reviewers to avoid.
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS
Because of the printed page limitations, the Editors require that manuscripts not exceed 4,500 words (including references and figure
legends). Note that if you are asked to revise your paper an alternate word limit may be specified by the Editors. Illustrations and
tables should be limited to those necessary to highlight key data. Please provide gender-specific data, when appropriate, in describing
outcomes of epidemiologic analyses or clinical trials; or specifically state that no gender-based differences were present.
For original
research dealing with genetic associations authors should read "Taking Cardiovascular Genetic Association Studies to the Next Level"
by G. Ginsburg et al. which they can access by clicking
here.
The manuscript should be arranged as follows: 1) title page; 2) structured abstract and key words; 3) condensed
abstract; 4) abbreviations list; 5) text; 6) acknowledgments (if applicable); 7) references; 8) figure titles and legends; and 9) tables.
Page numbering should begin with the title page.
OTHER PAPER CATEGORIES The following information should be noted for
these paper types:
State-of-the-Art Papers. The Editors will consider both invited and uninvited review articles.
Such manuscripts must adhere to preferred length guidelines and require an unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words. Authors should
detail in their cover letters how their submission differs from existing reviews on the subject.
Expedited Publications.
Manuscripts in this category should report important original findings of high-potential clinical impact or research significance. They
can be either a full-length paper or a short report presenting early findings. Authors must apply for expedited publication consideration
in their cover letter at the time of submission. The Editors commit to a decision regarding suitability for expedited publication processing
within 5 days, and an initial decision within 14 days. Those manuscripts not deemed appropriate for the expedited publication track will
be eligible for consideration according to the standard review process. Print publication of an expedited publication will be accomplished
within 6 weeks of receiving the approved galley proofs. Online publication will occur within 10 days of receiving the approved galley
prints.
Editorials and Viewpoints. Succinct opinion pieces will also be considered. These papers should have a brief
unstructured abstract.
Editorial Comments. The editors invite all Editorial Comments published in the Journal.
Letters to the Editor. A limited number of letters will be published. They should not exceed 500 words and should focus
on a specific article that has appeared in JACC. Letters must be submitted within 3 weeks of the print issue date of the article.
No original data may be included. Type letters double-spaced and include the cited article as a reference. Provide a title page that
includes authors' names and institutional affiliations and a complete address for correspondence. These can be submitted online at www.jaccsubmit.org. Replies will generally be solicited by the Editors.
Images in Cardiology
The editors will consider
original, high quality images showing novel or "classic" findings for publication, subject to editing and revision. The image(s) should
not contain any material published elsewhere. Motion studies (i.e., videos) are encouraged. All submissions should be accompanied by
a cover letter as well as a concise description of no more then 150 words including the title page and references. Please see the Figures
and Video Requirements sections elsewhere in the Instructions for Authors for details on figure and video specifications. At the discretion
of the Editors, images may appear in either the print or electronic version of JACC or both.
MANUSCRIPT CONTENT
TITLE PAGE
Include the title, authors' names (including full first name and middle initial, degrees and, where applicable, FACC),
total word count, and a brief title of no more than 45 characters. List the departments and institutions with which the authors are affiliated,
and indicate the specific affiliations if the work is generated from more than one institution (use the footnote symbols given under
"Tables"). Also provide information on grants, contracts, and other forms of financial support, and list the cities and states of all
foundations, funds and institutions involved in the work. Include any potential conflicts of interest (see "Conflict of Interest Policy").
If there are no conflicts of interest, this should be stated. Under the heading, "Address for correspondence," give the full name and
complete postal address of the author to whom communications, printer's proofs, and reprint requests should be sent. Also provide telephone
and fax numbers and an e-mail address.
STRUCTURED ABSTRACT
Provide a structured abstract of no more than 250 words, presenting
essential data in 5 paragraphs introduced by separate headings in the following order: Objectives, Background, Methods, Results, and
Conclusions. Use complete sentences. All data in the abstract must also appear in the manuscript text or tables. For general
information on preparing structured abstracts, see ''Haynes RB, Mulrow CD, Huth EJ, Altman DG, Gardner MJ. More informative abstracts
revisited. Ann Intern Med 1990;113:69-76.'' A nonstructured abstract is appropriate for review articles.
CONDENSED ABSTRACT
Provide a condensed abstract of no more than 100 words, stressing clinical implications, for the expanded table of contents. Include
no data that do not also appear in the manuscript text or tables.
TEXT
The text should be structured as Introduction,
Methods, Results, and Discussion. Use headings and subheadings in the Methods, Results, and, particularly, Discussion sections. Every
reference, figure and table should be cited in the text in numerical order according to order of mention.
To save space in the Journal,
up to 10 abbreviations of common terms (e.g., ECG, PTCA, CABG) or acronyms (GUSTO, SOLVD, TIMI) may be used throughout the manuscript.
On a separate page following the condensed abstract, list the selected abbreviations and their definitions (e.g., TEE = transesophageal
echocardiography). The Editors will determine which lesser known terms should not be abbreviated. Consult ''Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication,'' available from http://www.ICMJE.org
and most recently updated in February 2006, for appropriate use of units of measure.
STATISTICS
All publishable manuscripts
will be reviewed for appropriateness and accuracy of statistical methods and statistical interpretation of results. We subscribe to the
statistics section of the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical
Publication," available from http://www.ICMJE.org and most recently updated in February 2006. In the Methods section, provide
a subsection detailing the statistical methods, including specific methods used to summarize the data, methods used for hypothesis testing
(if any), and the level of significance used for hypothesis testing. When using more sophisticated statistical methods (beyond t
tests, chi-square, simple linear regression), specify the statistical package, version number, and nondefault options used. For more
information on statistical review, see "Glantz SA. It is all in the numbers. J Am Coll Cardiol 1993;21:835-7."
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Acknowledgments or appendices must contain 100 words or less. Anything exceeding this limit will appear in the online version only. Letters
of permission from all individuals listed in the acknowledgments are the responsibility of the corresponding author.
REFERENCES
Identify references in the text by arabic numerals in parentheses on the line. The reference list should be typed double-spaced on pages
separate from the text; references must be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
Do not
cite personal communications, manuscripts in preparation, or other unpublished data in the references; these may be cited in the
text in parentheses. Do not cite abstracts that are older than 2 years. Identify abstracts by the abbreviation "abstr" in parentheses.
If letters to the editor are cited, identify them with the word "letter" in parentheses.
Use Index Medicus (National Library
of Medicine) abbreviations for journal titles. It is important to note that when citing an article from the Journal of the American
College of Cardiology, the correct citation format is J Am Coll Cardiol.
Use the following style and punctuation for references:
Periodical
List all authors if 6 or fewer, otherwise list the first 3 and add et al.; do not use periods after the
authors' initials. Please do provide inclusive page numbers as in example below.
5. Glantz SA. It is all in the numbers. J Am
Coll Cardiol 1993; 21:835-7.
Chapter in book
Provide authors, chapter title, editor(s), book title, publisher
location, publisher name, year, and inclusive page numbers.
27. Meidell RS, Gerard RD, Sambrook JF. Molecular biology of thrombolytic
agents. In: Roberts R, editor. Molecular Basis of Cardiology. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1993:295-324.
Book (personal author or authors)
Provide a specific (not inclusive) page number.
23. Cohn PF. Silent Myocardial
Ischemia and Infarction. 3rd edition. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker, 1993:33.
Online media
Provide specific
URL address and date information was accessed.
10. Henkel J. Testicular Cancer: Survival High With Early Treatment. FDA Consumer
magazine [serial online]. January-February 1996. Available at: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/196_test.html . Accessed
August 31, 1998.
Material presented at a meeting but not published
Provide authors, presentation title,
full meeting title, meeting dates, and meeting location.
20. Eisenberg J. Market forces and physician workforce reform: why
they may not work. Paper presented at: Annual Meeting of the Association of Medical Colleges; October 28, 1995; Washington, DC.
FIGURE LEGENDS
Figure legends should be typed double-spaced on pages separate from the text; figure numbers must correspond
with the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
All figures must have a title as well as a caption. For example, Figure 1:
Title - Caption, etc.
All abbreviations used in the figure should be identified either after their first mention in the legend or
in alphabetical order at the end of each legend. All symbols used (arrows, circles, etc.) must be explained.
If previously published
figures are used, written permission from the original publisher and author is required. Cite the source of the figure in the legend.
FIGURES
Figures and graphs submitted in electronic format should be provided in EPS or TIF format. Graphics software such
as Photoshop and Illustrator, NOT presentation software such as Powerpoint, CorelDraw, or Harvard Graphics, should be used to create
the art. Color images must be at least 300 DPI. Gray scale images should be at least 300 DPI. Line art (black and white or color) should
be at least 1200 DPI and combinations of gray scale images and line art should be at least 1200 DPI. Lettering should be of sufficient
size to be legible after reduction for publication. The optimal size is 12 points. Symbols should be of a similar size. Figures should
be no smaller than 13 cm x 18 cm (5"x7"). Please do not reduce figures to fit publication layout. If the manuscript is accepted for publication,
the publisher will re-size the figures accordingly.
ALL FIGURES MUST HAVE A TITLE AND CAPTION.
THERE IS NO FEE FOR THE PUBLICATION
OF COLOR FIGURES. Our editors encourage authors to submit figures in color, as we feel it improves the clarity and visual impact of the
images. If your original submission contains any line art or black and white figures that you would like to change to color, please mail
two sets of high quality, glossy prints of all color figures to the JACC editorial office during the revision process. Be sure
to include correspondence, with the manuscript number, explaining the change.
Decimals, lines, and other details must be strong enough
for reproduction. Use only black and white, not gray, in charts and graphs. Place crop marks on photomicrographs to show only
the essential field. Designate special features with arrows. All symbols, arrows, and lettering on half-tone illustrations must contrast
with the background.
Upon provisional acceptance, we may request 2 sets of glossy or laser prints (clean copies will suffice).
Two sets of glossy prints should be provided for all half-tone or color illustrations. All graphs and line drawings must be professionally
prepared on a computer and reproduced as high quality laser prints. Indicate the first author's last name (and the corresponding author's
last name within parentheses, if different) and the figure number on the back of each figure, preferably on an adhesive label. Figure
title and caption material must appear in the legend, not on the figure. Note: if we request hardcopies, they will not be returned
to authors.
TABLES
Tables should be typed double-spaced on separate sheets, with the table number and title centered
above the table and explanatory notes below the table. Use arabic numbers. Table numbers must correspond with the order cited in the
text.
ALL TABLES MUST HAVE A TITLE.
Abbreviations should be listed in a footnote under the table in alphabetical order. Footnote
symbols should appear in the following order: *,†, ‡, §, ||, ¶, #, **, ††, ‡‡, §§, etc.
Tables should be self-explanatory, and the data presented in them should not be duplicated in the text or figures.
If previously published tables are used, written permission from the original publisher and author is required. Cite the source of the
table in the footnote.
VIDEO REQUIREMENTS
Inclusion of videos in the published paper is at the discretion of the Editors.
Video submissions for viewing online should be one of the following formats: Audio Video Interleave (.avi), MPEG (.mpg), or
Quick Time (.qt, .mov).
Videos should be brief whenever possible (<2-5 min). Longer videos will require longer download times and may have
difficulty playing online. Videos should be restricted to the most critical aspects of your research. A longer procedure can be restructured
as several shorter videos and submitted in that form.
It is advisable to compress files to use as little bandwidth as possible
and to avoid overly long download times. Video files should be no larger than 5 megabytes. This is a suggested maximum. If files are
larger please contact the JACC office.
A video legends page giving a brief description of the video content should be provided
for each video.
If your paper is accepted for publication you may wish to supply the editorial office with several different
resolutions of your video files. This will allow viewers with slower connections to download a lower resolution version of your video.
Please do not send hard copy manuscript submissions. If the manuscript absolutely cannot be submitted online, mail a disk containing
all files to: Anthony N. DeMaria, MD, MACC, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 3655 Nobel Drive,
Suite 630, San Diego, CA 92122. Tel: [+1] [858] 558-3411; Fax: [+1] [858] 558-3148. This disk must include files for the cover letter,
manuscript, tables, and figures. If supplementary materials such as "in press" references are included, these files must also be on the
disk.
It is important to note that when citing an article from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the correct
citation format is J Am Coll Cardiol.
