International Journal of Cardiology

International Journal of Cardiology - Guide for Authors

The International Journal of Cardiology is a global journal of cardiology, cardio-metabolic and vascular sciences. Articles reporting clinical observations and interventions, experimental studies and theoretical concepts are all welcome provided they are of major scientific importance and clinical relevance. The journal covers all aspects of cardiology from genes to populations. The journal commissions high quality review articles from distinguished authors; unsolicited reviews will also be considered and will be subject to peer review. Letters to the editor are welcome. Case reports can only be considered if formatted as a letter.

The International Journal of Cardiology requires the highest standards of scientific integrity in order to promote reliable, reproducible and verifiable research findings. All authors are advised to consult the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology: Coats AJS and Shewan LG. Statement on Authorship and Publishing Ethics in the International Journal of Cardiology. Int J Cardiol 2011; 153: 239-40". Before submitting a manuscript. 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.

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT

The journal invites Original Articles, Reviews, Editorials and Letters to the Editor. Case Reports will be considered only in the form of Letters to the Editor. Please follow the instructions relevant to type of manuscript being submitted.

If the article to be submitted reports a randomized trial the authors are requested to consult the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) Statement (see web link www.consort-statement.org) for advice on specific features of the trial to report on in the manuscript.

1. ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Original Articles should report original research not previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere, meeting high standards of scientific integrity. There is no maximum word count. The standard layout is given below.

Layout Of Original Articles
Divide the manuscript into the following sections: Title page, Structured Abstract, Key words (3-6), Introduction, 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:
1. The title (not to exceed 25 words)
2. The full list of authors and for each author a numbered footnote. The footnote should state the author's academic affiliation and the following statement of authorship: "This author takes responsibility for all aspects of the reliability and freedom from bias of the data presented and their discussed interpretation". Any author unable to make this statement must instead state their specific contribution to the manuscript.
3. Corresponding author and contact details
4. Acknowledgement of grant support
5. Any potential conflicts of interest, including related consultancies, shareholdings and funding grants
6. A list of up to 6 keywords

The Next Page Should Include:
A Structured Abstract, of no more than 250 words. As this may be the only part of the article read by some readers it must include sufficient detail for an adequate summary of the whole manuscript. The preferred subheadings are Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions, although a merged Methods and Results subheading is also permitted if this permits more economical expression.

The Next Page should commence the main article subdivided into the following sections:

The Introduction should be brief and set out why the study has been performed along with a review of relevant previous work only where essential.

The Methods should be sufficiently detailed so that readers and reviewers can understand precisely what has been done. Standard methods can be referenced. 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. The following statement must be included: The author(s) of this manuscript have certified that they comply with the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology: reference: Coats AJS and Shewan LG. Statement on Authorship and Publishing Ethics in the International Journal of Cardiology. Int J Cardiol 2011; 153: 239-40.

A Statistical Methods Section must be included where relevant. This should include the statistical methods used with sufficient clarity for the findings to be reproduced by independent analysis of the dataset, a statement on how the data presented were selected including prospective sample size calculations, the reasons for including/excluding subjects or data points, and what steps the authors have taken, if any, to exclude intentional or unintentional bias in recruitment, measurement, data retention, analysis, reporting and comment.

The Results should be presented precisely. Keep discussion of their importance to a minimum in this section of the manuscript. Present 95% confidence intervals with p values. When describing normal distributions, denote the standard deviation explicitly, e.g. with the abbreviation SD, rather than a ± sign. When describing uncertainty of a mean, denote the standard error of the mean explicitly, e.g. with the abbreviation SEM, rather than a ± sign. It is a condition of final acceptance of manuscripts, for the purpose of scientific integrity, that for each figure, raw numerical values should be uploaded in an Online Data Supplement. These supplement files should be one or more standard spreadsheet files. Raw x and y values for all scatterplots should be given. For bar charts and histograms, underlying raw values and categories should be given. For each Kaplan-Meier survival curve, for each patient a time-to-event-or-censoring and censor status should be given. Authors may additionally optionally upload comprehensive numerical datasets of the study.

The Discussion should directly relate to the study being reported rather than a general review of the topic.

A Study limitations subsection must be included and should disclose any reasons the findings may not be applicable more broadly.

Conclusions should be limited to a brief summary and the implications of the data presented.

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.

Figures can appear in colour in the online journal at no additional cost to the author, but if the author requires the paper journal to show the figures in colour there is an additional cost to pay.
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.

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 ).

2. REVIEW ARTICLES
Reviews of recent developments are welcome, and will undergo peer review. Reviews should have an unstructured abstract of up to 250 words. Authors are encouraged to use section headings for ease of reading. They do not have an introduction, methods, results or discussion sections. Type double-spaced. For instructions on references and figures please refer to the section on original manuscripts.

3. EDITORIALS
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 unstructured abstract of up to 250 words and a maximum of 12 references and 2 figures/tables. They do not have an introduction, methods, results or discussion sections. Type double-spaced. For instructions on references and figures please refer to the section on original manuscripts.

4. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Readers are encouraged to write about any topic that relates to cardiology: clinical, scientific, educational, social or economic 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 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. Case Reports will only be considered if formatted as a letter.

Letters may include up to 1000 words, 2 figures/tables and 10 references. These should have no abstract and no sub-headings. Type double-spaced. If the letter contains original research findings a short description of methods, results and conclusions is required. Letters reporting data obtained from research conducted in human subjects must include a statement of assurance 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. Letters 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. If the letter contains original research findings the following statement must be included: "The author(s) of this manuscript have certified that they comply with the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology: reference: Coats AJS and Shewan LG. Statement on Authorship and Publishing Ethics in the International Journal of Cardiology. Int J Cardiol 2011; 153: 239-40". For instructions on references and figures please refer to the section on original manuscripts.

PROCESS OF SUBMISSION
The International Journal of Cardiology is a fully electronic journal. All manuscripts MUST be submitted via the Internet to the following Elsevier website: http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ijc/. DO NOT email the manuscript to the journal or editors.

Author Agreement Form
All authors and contributors must submit a form stating their role in the article. This form is available to download directly from the last screen in the submission process. The International Journal of Cardiology requires all authors to sign this form. Articles will not be published until these are received.

Changes to Authorship
This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written signed confirmation from ALL authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article already published online must follow the same policies as noted above. If accepted, the change will be noted by the publication of a corrigendum.

Preparation of supplementary data
International Journal of Cardiology publishes electronic supplementary material to enhance your scientific research presentation, increase transparency, and support scientific integrity. It is required that raw data for figures should be presented, and the author is invited voluntarily to publish in full the detailed dataset of the study. Supplementary files may also include supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips or other helpful items. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com.

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.

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 levied.

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' faces, 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.

Scientific integrity. If any author suspects that data is inaccurate, incompletely reported, edited, manipulated, distorted or for any other reason unrepresentative, the Editorial Office should be contacted immediately.

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