Affiliated with the International Society for Adult Congenital Cardiac Disease

SCOPE
The International Journal of Cardiology is a world journal of cardiology. Articles relating to clinical cardiology and cardiovascular medicine in its widest sense are welcome. Articles relating purely to experimental or theoretical topics will be considered if they demonstrate major scientific importance and clinical relevance. The journal aims to present all aspects of cardiovascular medicine of relevance to the clinician from genes to populations.
Preference for publication will be given to articles reporting original observations or research. The journal commissions high quality review articles from distinguished authors; unsolicited reviews which pass the peer review process will also be accepted. Letters to the editor are welcome. Case reports can only be considered if formatted as a letter.

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT
The journal invites Original Articles, Editorials, Letters to the Editor, Reviews, Case Reports in the form of Letters to the Editor, and notifications of Meetings and Courses.
Original Articles should report original research not previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere. There is no maximum word count. See below for the standard layout. Submission of a manuscript to this journal gives the publisher the right to publish that paper if it is accepted. Manuscripts may be edited to improve clarity and expression.
Editorials and Letters to the Editor. Readers are encouraged to write about any topic that relates to cardiology; clinical, scientific, educational, social or economic.
Letters should be no longer than 1000 words and may include discussions on material previously printed in the Journal. The International Journal of Cardiology publishes Letters to the Editor as either printed pages following an original contribution, or in the on-line correspondence section. On-line letters will have a volume/issue and e-number and will be citable and searchable via Medline. Authors will be informed at the time of acceptance as to the publication format for their letters.
Editorials are written on invitation but unsolicited topical commentaries of interest of maximum 1500 words will also be welcomed for consideration. Editorials should have an Abstract of up to 250 words.
Reviews of recent developments are welcome, and will undergo peer review. Reviews should have an abstract of up to 250 words.
Case Reports will be considered if formatted as a letter with 2 figures maximum. Maximum length is up to 1000 words with up to 6 references and 2 tables or figures.
Meetings and Courses. Course directors should send information about educational events to the Editors.
Books which are to be considered for review should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief.

LAYOUT OF LETTERS, EDITORIALS, REVIEWS
These should have a title page, a short abstract, a main body of text and references. They do not require a structured abstract, an introduction, materials and methods, results or discussion sections. Type double-spaced.

LAYOUT OF ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Divide the manuscript into the following sections: Title page, Structured Abstract, Key words (3-6), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References. The editors will consider the use of other sections if more suitable for certain manuscripts. Type double-spaced.

The Title Page should include authors' names, highest earned degrees, academic addresses, address for correspondence, and grant support. Authorship should be assumed only by those workers who have contributed materially to the work and its report. Colleagues who have otherwise assisted or collaborated should be recognized in the Acknowledgment section. The title should be informative and not exceed 85 characters, including spaces.
The Structured Abstract, of no more than 250 words, should be written with particular care since this will be the only part of the article studied by some readers. The preferred subheadings are: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions.
The Introduction should be brief and set out the purposes for which the study has been performed along with relevant previous studies only where essential.
The Materials and Methods should be sufficiently detailed so that readers and reviewers can understand precisely what has been done without studying the references directly. The description may be abbreviated when well accepted techniques are used.
The Results should be presented precisely. Keep discussion of their importance to a minimum in this section of the manuscript.
The Discussion should directly relate to the study being reported. Do not include a general review of the topic.

References should be numbered consecutively (with brackets) as they appear in the text. Type the reference list with double spacing on a separate sheet. References should accord with the system used in Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (N Engl J Med 1991; 324: 424-428). Examples:
[1] De Soyza N, Thenabadu PN, Murphy ML, Kane JJ, Doherty JE. Ventricular arrhythmia before and after aortocoronary bypass surgery. Int J Cardiol 1981; 1:123-130.
[2] Akutsu T. Artificial heart: total replacement and partial support. Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, 1975.
[3] Goldman RH. Digitalis toxicity. In: Bristow MR, editors. Drug-induced heart disease. Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland, 1980:217-40.
Please note that all authors should be listed when six or less; when seven or more, list only the first three and add et al. Do not include references to personal communications, unpublished data or manuscripts either "in preparation" or "submitted for publication". If essential, such material may be incorporated into the appropriate place in the text. Recheck references in the text against reference list after your manuscript has been revised.
Tables should be typed with double spacing and each should be on a separate sheet. They should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, and contain only horizontal lines. Provide a short descriptive heading above each table with footnotes and/or explanations underneath.
Figures should ideally be submitted in high-resolution TIF format, or alternatively in GIF, JPEG/JPG, or EPS format. The figures should be placed in separate files, named only with the figure numbers (e.g. "Figure1.tif".) The cost of colour figures will be paid by the author.
Please ensure figures have the appropriate resolution:
Line art: 1000 dpi
Halftones: 300 dpi
Combinations: 500 dpi
Colour: 300 dpi
Colour combinations: 500 dpi.

Colour illustrations online
If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures (original photographs, high-quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides; polaroid colour prints are not suitable) then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour in the electronic version of the journal. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.
Legends for Figures should be typed with double-spacing on a separate sheet.

Language Editing
The language of the Journal is English.
International Science Editing and Asia Science Editing can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who want to publish in scientific, technical and medical journals and need assistance before they submit their article or, before it is accepted for publication. Authors can contact these services directly: International Science Editing ( http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) and Asia Science Editing ( http://www.asiascienceediting.com) or, for more information about language editing services, please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com who will be happy to deal with any questions.

Please ensure that the following statement appears in the Acknowledgement section of all articles:
'The authors of this manuscript have certified that they comply with the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology'.

Please cite the following reference at the end of the Acknowledgement section:
(Coats AJ. Ethical authorship and publishing. Int J Cardiol 2009; 131: 149-50.)

Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our terms and conditions: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing.

BEFORE SUBMISSION
Ethical considerations. Manuscripts reporting data obtained from research conducted in human subjects must include a statement of assurance in the Methods section of the manuscript that (1) informed consent was obtained from each patient and (2) the study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institution's human research committee. Manuscripts reporting experiments using animals must include a statement giving assurance that all animals received humane care and that study protocols comply with the institution's guidelines.
Style. Abbreviations: please keep use to a minimum. These may be used after the terms are spelled out once each in the abstract and text. Accepted abbreviations may also be used for units of measurement. Headlines and Sub headlines should be liberally employed in the Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Use short paragraphs whenever possible. Clarity of expression, good syntax and the avoidance of medical jargon will be appreciated by the editors, reviewers and readers.
Suggested referees. Names and addresses of 3 suggested referees must be included with the submission.

For each and every gene accession number cited in an article, authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised. Example: (GenBank accession nos. AI631510, AI631511, AI632198, and BF223228,) a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048,) and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117).

PROCESS OF SUBMISSION
The International Journal of Cardiology is a fully electronic journal. All manuscripts should be submitted via the Internet to the following Elsevier website: http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ijc/.

Author Agreement Form
All authors and contributors should submit a form stating their role in the article. This form is available to download directly from the submission site.
The International Journal of Cardiology will ask for signed copies of these forms at the peer review stage. Articles will not be published until this agreement form is received.

Preparation of supplementary data
International Journal of Cardiology now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Proofs will be sent to the authors to be carefully checked for printer's errors. Changes or additions to the edited manuscript cannot be allowed at this stage. Corrected proofs should be returned to the publisher within 2 days of receipt.
Page Charges will not be made.

Reprints. The journal provides free PDF offprints for authors. The publisher will send authors a form enabling further reprints to be ordered at prices listed on the form.

Patient consent
Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in your paper.
Patients have a right to privacy. Therefore identifying information, including patients? images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request.
Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.
If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies