Guide for Authors

A forum that includes basic science, the failing heart, and advanced lung disease

The Official Publication of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
Full Text Online FREE to ISHLT members and paid personal subscribers at www.jhltonline.org.

Online Manuscript Submission!
To serve its authors, reviewers, and readers, and to expedite the peer review process, The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation uses an online manuscript submission and peer review system called EES. Please see the Information for Authors and additional guidelines for the submission of manuscripts online at http://ees.elsevier.com/jhlt.





JHLT websites:
http://www.jhltonline.org or http://ees.elsevier.com/jhlt/


The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, the official publication of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, brings readers essential scholarly and timely information in the field of cardiopulmonary transplantation, mechanical and biological support of the failing heart, advanced lung disease (including pulmonary vascular disease) and cell replacement therapy; Importantly, the journal also serves as a medium of communication of pre-clinical sciences in all these rapidly expanding areas

Editorial policies
Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Editor(s) or publisher, and the Editor(s) and publisher disclaim any responsibility or liability for such material. Neither the Editor(s) nor the publisher guarantees, warrants, or endorses any product or service advertised in this publication. Neither do they guarantee any claim made by the manufacturer of such product or service.

Copyright policies
SSubmission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright holder.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright to the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript, and a form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided.

If excerpts from other copyright works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the articles. Copies of letters granting permission must be submitted with the manuscript.

Authorship
Each person designated as author should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. The cover letter should state the participation level of each author.

Conflict of Interest and Funding Sources
Each manuscript regardless of its type must include a financial conflict of interest disclosure. This statement should be included AFTER the conclusions and BEFORE the references in a separate section. Such a section must also include any funding sources or acknowledgements of contribution of any material nature. The conflict of interest statement should describe ALL authors' relationships with companies or relevant entities that make products pertinent to the paper. The statement should specify the type of relationships (e.g., consulting, paid speaking, grant support, equity, patents) EACH author has with EACH company. This item is of serious concern to the editorial office and no manuscripts will move forward for processing if this data is not available.

The role(s) of the funding organization, if any, in the collection of data, its analysis and interpretation, and in the right to approve or disapprove publication of the finished manuscript must be described in the section as indicated above.

Informed consent
Reports describing data obtained from research conducted in human subjects must contain a statement in the Methods section indicating approval by the institutional review board or Ethics board and affirming that informed consent was obtained as required by the study authorizing entity.

Humane animal care
All manuscripts reporting experiments using animals must include a statement in the Methods section giving assurance that all animals received humane care in compliance with the 'Principles of Laboratory Animal Care' formulated by the National Society for Medical Research and the 'Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals' prepared by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources and published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH Publication No. 86-23, revised 1996).

Manuscript submission
The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation will accept online submissions of original manuscripts through the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) at http://ees.elsevier.com/jhlt. Manuscripts submitted through this online system can easily be tracked by the authors, editors, and reviewers through final disposition. The corresponding author involved with a specific manuscript will receive automatic e-mail notification as the manuscript proceeds through the system. To begin using this system, go to http://ees.elsevier.com/jhlt. Click the 'Register' link on the toolbar at the top left to input author demographics and set up an account. After registration is complete, a notice will be sent via email indicating a user ID and password. Use this information to log in as an author by choosing the 'Login' link on the toolbar and select 'Submit New Manuscript.' Follow the prompts to complete the submission according to the specifications below. Please be aware that you will need to prepare the manuscript (with abstract included within), each table, and each figure as separate files following the guidelines listed below. Further questions may be directed to our office by e-mail to JHLTEDITOR@medicine.umaryland.edu. The user ID and password can be changed at any time by logging into http://ees.elsevier.com/jhlt with your username and password and then clicking the 'change details' link at the top of the page.

Please note that we ONLY accept online manuscript submissions.

Abstracts
All manuscripts MUST contain an abstract of no more than 250 words that briefly summarizes the content. The abstract should be divided into four sections: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Abstracts must be typewritten, double spaced, single columned with a minimum of 1-inch margins on all four edges using an 11 point font. Manuscripts submitted without an abstract will NOT be considered for publication. Abstracts will not count toward the total manuscript page count.

Manuscript Categories
For Original Research Communications we ask authors to adhere to the following policy in order to maximize the number of articles available in each issue. A 3000 word limit for text plus abstract (excluding tables, figures, and references), on average 10 journal pages per article, will be permitted. A total of 12 figures/tables will be allowed. Brief Communications and Clinical Dilemmas and Innovation articles should be no more than 1500 words. The entire double-spaced, typewritten manuscript, including tables, figures, and references should be five to seven pages, and the abstract should be no more than four sentences. Research Correspondence and Comments and Opinions should be no more than 750 and 500 words respectively. The research correspondence papers must contain substantive information concerning experimental or clinical studies, accompanied by a brief reference list (of no more than five references) and one or two tables and/or figures. It should be titled, and double-spaced. This communication is retained and indexed in the Cumulated Index Medicus. We must limit the number of authors in this series to no more than 5. Please note that papers submitted in this category are reviewed directly by the editors and a decision provided rapidly with the process for publication greatly accelerated. We also welcome receiving State-of-the-Art reviews (2500 words) and Perspective pieces (1500 words) for publication in the journal. The editorial process would be greatly enhanced if prospective authors would contact the editors for questions regarding such submissions. We shall be glad to provide you direction on whether the journal would be interested in reviewing your work or if a similar line of work has already been processed or commissioned by the editorial office. Typically, a Perspective piece can be a discussion or debate on any ongoing clinical or scholarly issue in the field or a look into the future. Please note that your experience and scholarly standing will be paramount in our review process of these areas of work.

Any prospectively initiated Clinical Trial (any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention and comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome) must be registered before the start of patient enrollment. Trials in which the primary goal is to determine pharmacokinetics are exempt. A list of acceptable registries may be found at www.icmje.org. You must indicate the trial registry and its access mechanism at the time of submission. Exceptions are granted on a case-by-case basis by the Editor-in-Chief.

Style, abbreviations, and references
References must contain the full title of the citation. Authors are encouraged to refer to the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 10th Edition as a specific style guide. The manuscript must be typewritten, double spaced, single columned with a minimum of 1 inch margins on all four edges. Only standard size type in 11 point font may be used. The first page of the manuscript should begin with the title of the paper in capital letters, followed by the names of the authors. Please be sure to leave sufficient space at the bottom of the first page to provide for the name of the institution, as well as grant support. It is not necessary to create a separate title page. The abstract should be prepared according to the guidelines listed above. Double space the manuscript, footnotes, and references. The editorial office strongly recommends that authors use tables and/or figures to document the findings described in the manuscript. Abbreviations should be used sparingly unless they are commonly accepted such as RNA, CsA, etc. When such a word appears for the first time, it should be written out in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. This abbreviation may then be used subsequently when referring to the same term. All hematologic and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI). Abbreviations for titles of medical periodicals should conform to those used in the latest edition of Index Medicus. (A 'List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus' - with abbreviations is obtainable from the Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 at a modest charge.) References should be listed by number in the body of the text, and should be listed in the reference section in the same order in which they appear in the manuscript. Include authors' last names and initials, journal, volume, page, and year. Include the city and the publisher's name for books. Authors MUST submit the entire manuscript, including the abstract and any graphics, using EES in a format programmed for PCs in Word Format (.doc).

Reference examples
(List all authors when six or fewer; when seven or more, list first three and add et al.)

Journal article: Salvatierra O, Vincenti F, Armend W, et al. Four-year experience with donor-specific blood transfusions. Transplant Proc 1983;15:924-6.
Books: Eisen HN. Immunology: an introduction to molecular and cellular principles of the immune response. 5th ed. New York: Harper & Row; 1974. p. 406.
Chapters: Fromer PL. Workshop on congestive heart failure. In: Braunwald E, Mock MB, editors. Congestive heart failure. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1982. p. 1-2.

Tables and figures
All figures should be submitted in final form ready for publication (this includes all labeling, shading, arrows, and other aspects of the figure). Prepare the figures for reduction in size of at most 50% and ensure that the lettering does not vary in size. The final font size (after reduction) should be 6-8 point. The physical dimensions of the figures should match the dimension of the journal. Most figures will be reduced to fit one-column width (31.4 inches). Computer-generated illustrations and halftones/line/ tones (either color or black & white) are acceptable. Figures should be submitted in a Graphics Format for PCs (.tif) on EES along with the manuscript. Please note that there is an additional charge for color printing. Therefore, please ensure that color illustrations are essential to the paper to avoid unnecessary charges. Color figures that are accepted for publication will appear in color online even if the figures print in black & white. EACH figure and EACH table should be submitted as separate files. Uniform lettering, sizing, type of software used, and logical naming for the artwork files is strongly encouraged when submitting electronically. Files must be submitted with the manuscript through EES. Line graphs and bar charts should be sent in bitmap TIFF files with a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi, or as EPS files, with a preferred line width of 1 pt (minimum line width of 0.5 pt). Bitmap images should be sent as TIFF files and not placed within EPS files. Pictures, photographs and micrographs should be sent as Grayscale TIFF files with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi without lettering, and 500 dpi with lettering. Color images should be sent as CMYK-encoded TIFF images. RGB-encoded color images will be difficult to match for color. Graphs produced in software such as Excel or Word should be submitted in black and white with different types of dashed lines for total clarity. Please visit the publisher's website ( http://www.elsevier- .com/locate/authorartwork ) for detailed instructions and visual guidelines.All illustrations should show optimal clarity of detail. All illustrations should be accompanied by a suitable descriptive text.

Review
Manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial office, typically in consultation with a senior editor. A decision to move forward into the review process is then made and comments from experts at large are invited. Please note that the editorial office process has cut the time to first decision substantially with typical times ranging between 2-3 weeks. Authors will receive automatic communication from EES regarding the manuscript status and outcome of review. Please note that this editorial review process results in rapid decisions on nearly one third of the submissions.

Author Agreement
The authors must include a cover letter with the manuscript submission that indicates the manuscript has not been published previously and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. It should be stated that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript. In addition, the authors must also include a statement indicating that all funding sources, financial conflicts and acknowledgements have been written into the main body of the manuscript in a separate section as previously described. We would certainly welcome your explanation of any potential conflict of interest, if you believe that it will help the editorial process.

Checklist

• A cover letter of submission
• Title page
• Title of article
• Full name(s) and academic degrees and affiliation of authors
• Name, address and business
• Business telephone, home telephone and fax number of corresponding author
• Reprint request line
• Abstract (double spaced)
• Article proper (double spaced)
• References (double spaced) on separate sheet
• Tables (double spaced) on separate sheets
• Legends (double spaced) on separate sheet
• Illustrations (Each figure and Each table must be separate file attachments)
• Author Agreement
• Permission to reproduce published material
• Informed consent for patient photographs
• Statement of humane animal care in the Methods section



Updated May 2009