The Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, which is published on behalf of the International Society for Heart Research by Elsevier, publishes original full papers and short communications in English dealing with cellular, subcellular, and molecular studies of the heart and cardiovascular system. Papers are published on molecular biology and genetic aspects of the heart and circulatory system; genetically engineered mammalian models of cardiovascular disease; physiology, biochemistry and biophysics of cardiac and vascular smooth muscle; cardiovascular patho-physiology and cardiac and smooth muscle electrophysiology; experimental aspects of human heart disease that report altered molecular and cellular properties of the heart and cardiovascular system. Review articles, editorials and rapid communications are also accepted.

Journal Categories

Regular Articles
To accelerate publication, preference is given to manuscripts no longer than approximately 6,000 words containing 6-8 Figures and/or Tables. Regular articles are reviewed on average within 23 days of receipt by the editorial office.

Rapid Communication
To provide for the rapid publication of data of special interest (including preliminary data and novel methods), short papers may be submitted for review within seven days of receipt by the editorial office. Rapid Communication manuscripts should not exceed 2,000 words plus no more than 15 references. Results and Discussion sections may be combined. No more than 2 Figures and/or Tables should be included. A brief statement explaining the general importance of the results and why rapid publication is desired must accompany the manuscript. Decisions on Rapid Communications may be on a 'yes-no' basis and detailed referee's opinion may not be obtained.

Letters to the Editor
These will normally be comments on a paper previously published in YJMCC and should be no more than 2,000 – 3000 words in length including references. Letters will be reviewed by the Editor and the author of the original paper may be invited to respond.

Review Articles
Review Articles may be requested by the Editor, but authors are encouraged to submit Review Articles after consultation with the Associate Editor for Special Issues and Review Articles (Donald Bers). All such articles are subject to normal review process for regular articles. Review Articles should generally be no longer than 6,000 words and should include an abstract.

Submission of manuscripts

1. General Instructions

Manuscripts must be submitted online at http://ees.elsevier.com/jmcc/. Step-by-step online submission instructions are available at this website through the Instructions to Authors link. See also the Journal's website: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/0022-2828

The following items are required for submission and should be uploaded as individual files: abstract, cover letter and manuscript. Authors should also upload any potentially overlapping work, either in preparation, already published, or in press. Acceptable file formats include Word, WordPerfect, RTF, laTeX2e, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, EPS, Postscript, PICT, and PDF.

Revised manuscripts must include a file containing the point-by-point response to reviewer comments. Changes within the text of revised manuscripts must be indicated with underlining or italics. the text of revised manuscripts must be uploaded as Word or WordPerfect file so word processible documents are available to the publishers upon acceptance.

Questions regarding submission should be directed to the editorial office:

Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology
Elsevier
525 B Street, Suite 1900
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: (619) 699-6791
Fax: (619) 699-6859
Email: jmcc@elsevier.com

Authors are encouraged to select carefully the best way to present data-stated in text, plotted in Figures, or listed in Tables. Repetition of the same data in different presentations should be avoided. Manuscripts that are overly long or overdocumented may be subject to condensation and delay, even after acceptance. Authors are responsible for providing a manuscript written in clear English. Delay, or even rejection, may result when papers are poorly written. Where appropriate, authors should obtain the help of someone expert in scientific English so as to perfect the presentation of the study. Copy editors, where expert in English language and usage, can misrepresent data and misstate ideas; thus, authors must be responsible for submitting a clear and accurate manuscript.
The international character of the journal and the absence of page-charges make it impossible to return typescripts and figures to authors, regardless of the disposition of the article.

Language Editing

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.

Terms of Submission

Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that no substantial portion of the study has been published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that its submission for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the institution where the work was carried out. Manuscripts that do not meet the general criteria or standards for publication in Developmental Biology will be immediately returned to the authors, without detailed review.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided after acceptance.

If material from other copyrighted works is included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.

If revisions are requested, the revised manuscript must be submitted within three months of the request; otherwise it is regarded as a new submission.

2. Preparation of Manuscripts

Papers should be typed double-spaced throughout the text, legends and tables; references must be triple- spaced. All pages, including those on which tables and figures appear, should be numbered in sequence. Margins of about 3 cm should be allowed. Regular papers, Brief and Rapid Communications should contain the following sections, each beginning on a separate page; Review Articles should include a title page, abstract, acknowledgements if necessary and references:

Title Page including the title of the paper, the authors' names and affiliation and the name and address of the person to whom proofs are to be sent.The title of the paper should be brief; no longer than 100 characters in length, and should capture and communicate the key message of your research to a broader audience. To aid this, abbreviations, unless familiar to a broad audience, should be avoided. A Running Head of up to 50 characters should also be included on the Title Page.

Abstract of not more than 250 words (avoid abbreviations) along with 5-15 Key Words for indexing. As key words are indexed, such general or self-evident words as 'heart' should be avoided.

Introduction, generally no more than 1-2 pages stating the problem addressed in the paper with no more than 10-15 references. This section may end with a one-sentence statement of the major finding of the study.

Materials and Methods, which should include details as to sources of chemicals and special apparatus, must provide descriptions of general procedures in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the experiments. Methodological details of individual experiments may be included in Figure or Table legends, referring to 'Materials and Methods' for general procedures. Statistical methods must be described in full, and standard error (?S.E.) must be distinguished from standard deviation (?S.D.). Results and Discussion are generally best presented as separate sections but may be combined. Brief, tightly focussed Discussions are more useful than overly long Discussions.

Acknowledgements

References
As reference style the 'Vancouver' system with numbers in the text is used. In the text indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given. In the References list number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text.
Examples: Reference to a journal publication:
[1] Kudo M, Wang Y, Wani MA, Xu M, Ayub A, Ashraf M. Implantation of bone marrow stem cells reduces the infarction and fibrosis in ischemic mouse heart. J Mol Cell Cardiol 2003; 35: 1113-9. Reference to a book:
[2] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed New York: Macmillan; 1979. Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
[3] 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; 1999, p. 281-304. Note shortened form for last page number, e.g., 1113-9, 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.nejm.org/general/text/requirements/1.htm References to abstracts should be made only when essential, and then only if the abstract is from a readily accessible periodical. When listed in the bibliography, such references should contain the word (Abstract) after the title.

Digital Object Identifier

The Publisher assigns a unique digital object identifier (doi) to every article it publishes. The doi appears on the title page of the article. It is assigned after the article has been accepted for publication and persists throughout the lifetime of the article. Due to its persistence, it can be used to query The Publisher for information on the article during the production process, to find the article on the Internet through various Web sites, and to cite the article in academic references. When using an Elsevier article in a reference section, it is important to include the article's doi in the reference as volume and page information is not always available for articles published online.
Tables should be titled, numbered in series, and provided with appropriate headings and explanations of data. Where possible refer to Materials and Methods for explanations of experimental procedures.
Figure Legends should contain brief titles followed by explanations that, where possible, should refer to Materials and Methods for explanation of experimental procedures.

3. Abbreviations and Units

While authors should avoid unfamiliar abbreviations, a limited number of clearly defined abbreviations may be used. Such abbreviations must be defined in a footnote that lists all abbreviations in the manuscript; this footnote should be placed at the point the first abbreviation is used. When in doubt, avoid unfamiliar abbreviations.
Measurements should be expressed in metric units wherever possible, and along with physical and chemical quantities should be abbreviated as recommended in the Instructions to Authors of the current volume of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

4. Illustrations

Authors will normally be limited to four pages of half-tones. The Publisher will not charge authors for colour figures where its use is integral to useful illustration of the data. For enquiries on the preparation of electronic artwork, consult http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/0022-2828, and then click on Artwork Instructions.
Use of previously published illustrations requires written permission of the original author and copyright holder, along with precise reference to the original source.

5.Colour Figures:

If together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures, then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions [Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise in converting colour figures to “grey scale” (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print), please submit in addition usable black-and-white files corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

Authors should note that a request to revert from full colour to colour only in the electronic publication at the stage of typesetting and proof correction, will require separate editorial agreement, with possible re-review if necessary, and may significantly delay publication of your manuscript.

6. Manipulation and Editing of Figures
It is important that any editing of figures (particularly gels and fluorescence images) be done in a way that does not distort the meaning of the results. The same processing must be performed on all parts of the image or gel. Any cropping of images to selectively remove parts of gels or blots should be explicitly noted in the legend and discontinuities should be visibly apparent in the figure. It is not permissible to add or remove data from figures. Any image processing used in preparing the figure (other than simple changes of brightness and contrast) should be described in the legend. Finally, the Editors may request copies of original, unprocessed data. 7. Additional points to note

The directives for preparing the paper in the style of the journal as set out in the Instructions to Authors must be followed; i.e. ensure the document is in the following order: Title; Authors; Addresses; Short title; Abstract; Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; References. Tables, Figure legends and Footnotes should be saved in a separate file.
Use two carriage returns to end headings and paragraphs. Type text without end of line hyphenation, except for compound words.
Do not use lower case "l" for "1" (one) or "O" for "0" (zero). (They have different typesetting values.) Footnotes, Abbreviations, Tables and Figure legends should be saved in a separate file from the main text. Be consistent with punctuation and only insert a single space between words and after punctuation. Please include a list of any special characters you have had to use, e.g. Greek, maths. Figures drawn using Aldus Freehand (Apple Macintosh) are preferred. Figures should be saved as Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) or TIFF files.

8. Supplementary material:

Electronic supplementary material is now accepted 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 peer reviewed, and should the article be accepted, be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our Corporate Website at http://www.elsevier.com/authors.

9. Copyright

Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if it is accepted for publication, copyright in the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media, shall be assigned exclusively to the publisher. The transfer of copyright does not take effect until the manuscript is accepted for publication.

US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting (" Public Access") policy

Elsevier facilitates author response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy"; see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm) by posting the peer-reviewed author's manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication. Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com) that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you will have responded fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMed Central, and any such posting is prohibited.

Exceptions: It is the policy of Elsevier that authors need not obtain permission in the following cases only: (1) to use their original figures or tables in their future works; (2) to make copies of their papers for use in their classroom teaching; and (3) to include their papers as part of their dissertations.

10. Proofs

Authors have 48 hours to respond to proofs unless otherwise requested. If no response occurs within this time, the manuscript will be published exactly as the proof reads.

10. Offprints

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a pdf offprint. .

11. Guiding principles for research involving human beings and animals

The International Society for Heart Research endorses the Recommendation from the Declaration of Helsinki and the Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals and insists that all investigations involving man and all animal experimentation reported in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology be conducted in conformity with these principles. Adherence to these principles must be documented and disclosed directly in the manuscript. Papers in which evidence of the adherence to these principles is not apparent will be rejected.

12. Conflict of interest policy

All authors must disclose any relationship that may be perceived as an actual or possible conflict of interest with the content of an accepted manuscript to be published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. Such relationships may include but are not limited to full or part-time employment in industry, stock ownership or options, industry advisory committees, grants, honoraria or consulting fees. This should be included in the acknowledgment section of the manuscript.

13. Author enquiries:

For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as copyright information, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication

14. Disclaimer:

Whilst every effort is made by the publishers and editorial board to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement appears in this journal, they wish to make it clear that the data and opinions appearing in the articles and advertisements herein are the sole responsibility of the contributor or advertiser concerned. Accordingly, the publishers, the editorial board and editors and their respective employees, officers and agents accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the consequences of any inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement.