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Introduction



Progress in Pediatric Cardiology seeks to publish manuscripts that 1) describe significant and novel findings and 2) advance knowledge in the field via original research articles, reviews of medical progress in pediatric and congenital cardiology and related fields, novel case reports, commentaries, editorials, and invited special issues articles.

Manuscripts should adhere to the American Medical Association's (AMA) Manual of Style and conform to the guidelines outlined in the "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations).

Additional layout and length guidelines for specific article types are outlined below.

All text should conform to standard American English style and usage. Authors for whom English is not their native language are strongly encouraged to seek the aid of a professional English language medical editing service. Authors may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Author Services.

Submit your manuscript online at https://www.editorialmanager.com/PPC/default.aspx

Article Types

Please choose the appropriate Article Type when creating your submission. See the Manuscript Content below for specific requirements of the various article sections.

1. Original Research: Original research articles are expected to represent an in-depth, scientific analysis of an issue within the discipline of pediatric and congenital cardiology. Original research articles should report the methodology and outcomes of novel studies not previously published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. Original research articles are expected to meet high standards of scientific rigor and integrity and include up-to-date references. See Manuscript Content section below for specific submission criteria.

2. Reviews: PPC publishes Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analyses (SR/MA) and Narrative Reviews. Special attention will be paid to the educational value of Review articles as well as the perceived interest to PPC readership. See Manuscript Content section below for specific submission criteria.

3. Case Reports: Case Reports provide a concise description of a particular condition that offers insights into diagnosis or clinical management. Case reports must make a distinct, novel contribution to the understanding of the etiologic agents, its clinical manifestations, and/or its diagnosis and treatment. See Manuscript Content section below for specific submission criteria.

4. Commentary: Commentaries are occasionally published regarding manuscripts published in PPC or recent reports of activities the Board believes will be of interest to readers. Commentaries are typically solicited by the Editorial Board from specific authors, often Key Opinion Leaders; but unsolicited Commentaries will be considered. See Manuscript Content section below for specific submission criteria.

5. Editorial: Editorials comprise topical, position papers of interest relating to any aspect of pediatric and congenital cardiology. Authors must effectively document the evidence that corroborates their position. See Manuscript Content section below for specific submission criteria.

6. Special Issue Articles: PPC periodically publishes special thematic issues devoted to areas of current interest to the pediatric and congenital cardiology community. These Special Issue articles are by invitation. Guest Editors with expertise in the specific content area lead the development of these Special Issues from planning to completion. This includes, but is not limited to, inviting international leaders in the field to contribute, providing guidance and oversight for authors, reviewing articles, and working closely with the managing editor to ensure deliverables are met. Special Issue articles should follow the instructions for the specific article type being submitted e.g., reviews, research, etc. See Manuscript Content section below for specific submission criteria.

SUBMISSION ELEMENTS
Use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before sending it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

  • E-mail address
  • Full postal address
All necessary files have been uploaded:
  • Cover Letter: Required for all new submissions. Include a short paragraph in the cover letter telling the editors why the paper merits publication. Potential reviewers may be suggested in the cover letter, as well as reviewers to avoid. However, final reviewer assignments are determined by the editors.
  • Rebuttal Letter (revisions or appeals only): When revising your manuscript, consider all issues mentioned in the reviewers' comments carefully, itemize and outline every change made in response to their comments, and provide suitable rebuttals for any comments not addressed. Please see specific criteria in the revision submission section of this Guide.
  • Highlights: Required for PPC as they help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. Highlights should consist of a short list of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Examples can be found here: example Highlights. Highlights should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).
  • Manuscript file (see Manuscript Content below for specific formatting).
  • Upload the entire manuscript (including tables) as a Microsoft Word document, with 1-inch margins and 12-point Arial font. The title and abstract pages, including keywords and abbreviations, should be single-spaced. All text from the introduction to the end (including tables) should be double-spaced. Page numbering should start with the title page as
    1. Title page (including Abbreviations)
    2. Abstract
    3. Key Words
    4. Text
    5. Declarations of competing interest
    6. Acknowledgements
    7. Financial support
    8. References
  • Figure Captions
  • Tables/Legends
  • Figures
  • Supplemental material

MANUSCRIPT CONTENT
The main manuscript must be organized in the following order. Title Page
  • Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulas where possible.
  • Author names and affiliations. Clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author. Ensure accurate spelling. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script after the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author. Note that a "Present" or "Permanent" address may be included as a footnote (using a superscript Arabic numeral) if an author moved or was visiting the institution where the work was conducted. As above, the address for the institution where the work was conducted must be listed as the main affiliation address.
  • Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
  • Abbreviations. A list of abbreviations and acronyms that appear should be included in the manuscript on the first page, along with the expansion of each. All abbreviations and acronyms should be expanded, followed by the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses, upon first use in the body of the manuscript. All subsequent uses, including tables and figures, should use the abbreviation or acronym. Because abbreviations and acronyms are designed to assist readers, they should be limited to those defined in the AMA Manual of Style, those that are commonly used by general pediatricians, and those that shorten the names of study groups.
  • Funding (See Funding section)
  • Disclosures (See Disclosure section)

Abstracts
A structured abstract is required for Original Research and Review Articles (see below). Nonstructured abstracts are required for case reports. Complete sentences should be used for all abstract types; abbreviations (other than units of measurement) should not be used. All data in the abstract should also appear in the text, tables, or figures.

Structured Abstracts for Original Research Articles Abstracts should present essential data and are limited to 300 words. Abstracts must be written in complete sentences. All data in the abstract must also appear in the manuscript text and/or tables. Abstracts must be structured with the following headings:
Background: Describe the topic's mechanisms, history, and/or how it relates to a problem.
Objectives: Explain the purpose. What does the study try to demonstrate?
Methods: Briefly describe the experimental design.
Results: Report your findings.
Conclusion: Analyze your results and link them back to the purpose.

Structured Abstracts for Review articles should provide the context or background for the review, why it was carried out, and emphasize any new and important findings. Abstracts must be written in complete sentences. All data in the abstract must also appear in the manuscript text and/or tables. Structured abstracts should not exceed 300 words and be arranged under the following headings:
Background
Aim of Review
Key Scientific Concepts of Review

Non-structured Abstracts for Case reports of 100 to 300 words should be provided, summarizing the elements of the submission. Complete sentences should be used; abbreviations (other than units of measurement) should not be used. All data in the abstract also appear in the text, tables, or figures.

Keywords
Authors are asked to provide (4 to 6) keywords, separated with semicolons. These keywords are used for indexing purposes.

Manuscript Text
Every reference, figure, and table should be cited in the text in numerical order according to the order of mention in the text. Also, additional subheadings (e.g., in the Methods, Results, and/or Discussion sections of an Original Research article) are encouraged to optimize clarity and readability. Finally, the Editorial Board strongly encourages authors to follow word limits below, but special exceptions may be made based on article quality.

Original Research

Text should be structured as Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. Use headings and subheadings in the Methods, Results, and, particularly, in the Discussion sections. Articles should include clear rationale, logical study aims, sufficiently detailed methods, and well-supported conclusions. The methods section should be detailed enough to ensure reproducibility. If the study involved human subjects, human-derived materials, or human medical records, please include one of the two following statements in the Methods section: "Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee approval was obtained" and include the approval number OR "IRB/Ethics Committee ruled that approval was not required for this study." Authors must include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The Editors reserve the right to refuse publications where the required ethical approval/patient consent is lacking. There is a suggested word limit of 3-5,000 words, though the Editorial Board may consider exceptions if a well justified request is made. Concise language is encouraged.

  • Suggested Word Limit: 3-5000 words (excluding title page, tables, figures, legends, and references)
  • Abstract: Mandatory (Structured abstract limited to 300 words. Criteria detailed in Abstract section above.)
  • Figure Limit: None
  • Table Limit: None
  • Central Illustration: optional
  • Graphical abstract: optional

Reviews

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SR/MA) are critical assessments of published literature and data sources. The Editorial Board strongly recommends following PRISMA guidelines for SR/MA, though at the very least, all articles and data sources must be systematically selected and critically evaluated for inclusion in the review. The article selection process must be described in the article. The Editorial Board expects authors to meet high standards of rigor and integrity, conducting comprehensive literature searches during the process of article selection and employing appropriate statistical analyses for the MA.

Narrative reviews are particularly useful for topics with a limited evidence base, such as emerging diagnostics/therapies, singular events, or new approaches. Text should be structured as Introduction, Methods, Review, Limitations, Conclusion. Reviews typically comprise less than 4,000 words, though the Editorial Board may consider exceptions.

  • Abstract: Mandatory (Structured abstract limited to 300 words. Criteria detailed in Abstract section above .)
  • Suggested Word Limit: 4,000 words (excluding title page, tables, figures, legends, and references)
  • Figure Limit: None
  • Table Limit: None


Case Reports

The Editorial Board strongly recommends following CARE guidelines for case reports. The CARE Checklist is available online. Abstracts should present a focused and concise overview of the case and key points. Case Report abstracts are limited to 200 words, must be written in complete sentences, and may be non-structured. Main text of case reports should consist of Introduction, Case, Discussion. Case Reports typically comprise less than 2,000 words, though the Editorial Board may consider exceptions.

Informed patient consent is required to publish a case report or case study. Authors must obtain appropriate consents and permissions from a patient or their legal representative in order to include case details or other personal information or images of the patient in their article and must include a statement on their paper confirming that informed consent was obtained. Additional editorial information can be found here.

The Editorial Board strives for appropriate ethical considerations for the publication of Case Reports. Authors should include one of the two following statements if the report involves human subjects, human-derived materials, or human medical records: "Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee approval was obtained" or "Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Ethics Committee ruled that approval was not required for this report." If the institution's IRB does not require approval for Case Reports, authors are requested to provide an exemption letter or public URL confirming the policy that approval is not needed.

  • Abstract: Mandatory (nonstructured abstract limited to 200 words. Criteria detailed in Abstract section above.)
  • Suggested Word Limit: 2,000 words (excluding title page, tables, figures, legends, and references)
  • Figure Limit: None
  • Table Limit: None

Commentaries

Commentaries are typically text only, though the Tables and Figures of notable value may be included per the Board's discretion. Commentaries are published alongside the selected articles. Given their focus, Commentaries typically do not contain an abstract.

  • Abstract: n/a
  • Suggested Word Limit: 2,000 words
  • Main Text: structured per author's discretion

Editorials

Editorials typically comprise less than 1,500 words, though the Editorial Board may consider exceptions. Given the nature of the work, Editorials typically do not contain an abstract. Editorials do not have to have an introduction, methods, results, or discussion section. Editorials are typically text only, though the Tables and Figures of notable value may be included per the Board's discretion. Declarations of interest statement must be included.

  • Abstract: n/a
  • Suggested Word Limit: 1,500 words
  • Main Text: structured per author's discretion
  • Figure Limit: None
  • Table Limit: None


For research involving animals, ARRIVE guidelines are recommended. 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.

For articles reporting clinical trials, CONSORTguidelines are recommended. Clinical Trial Registration should be provided in the Methods section. At manuscript submission, authors should provide the CONSORT checklist accompanied by a flow diagram that illustrates the progress of patients through the trial, including recruitment, enrollment, randomization, withdrawal and completion, and a detailed description of the randomization procedure. The CONSORT checklist and template flow diagramare available online.

Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.

Declaration of competing interest (Mandatory)

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors should complete the declaration of competing interest statement using this template and upload to the submission system at the Attach/Upload Files step. Note: Please do not convert the .docx template to another file type. Author signatures are not required. If there are no interests to declare, please choose the first option in the template. More information.

Articles addressing issues that may include potential for Conflicts of Interest (i.e., drugs to treat obesity) may require more thorough competing interest statements which include funding for the author(s). This will be determined by the assigned editors.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.


Acknowledgments
Collate acknowledgments in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List those individuals who provided help during the research or manuscript development (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).

Financial Support
Authors must disclose all funding sources, public and private, including the agency name and city, company name and city, and grant number. Also, provide one of the two following statements, "The sponsor or funding organization had no role in the design or conduct of this research." OR "The sponsor or funding organization participated in (list those that are appropriate, e.g., the design of the study, conducting the study, data collection, data management, data analysis, interpretation of the data, preparation, review or approval) of the manuscript." If there is none, please state "Financial Support: None".

References
References should be identified in the text by Arabic numerals in parentheses on the line. References need to be typed double-spaced on sheets separate from the text and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Journal references contain inclusive page numbers; book references contain specific page numbers. Full papers, rather than abstracts, are cited when possible. Abstracts more than 2 years old should not be cited. Abstracts are identified by the abbreviation (abstr) and letters by the word letter in parentheses. Abbreviations of journal conform to those used in Index Medicus, National Library of Medicine.
Personal communications, manuscripts in preparation, and other unpublished data are not cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text in parentheses.

Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables/Legends
Tables are typed double-spaced on separate sheets with the table number and title centered above the table and explanatory notes below the table. The table numbers are Arabic and correspond with the order in which the tables are presented in the text.
A footnote to each table identifying in alphabetical order all abbreviations used must be provided. Footnote references in tables should have superscript letters. In tables containing statistical data, asterisks may be used to denote confidence intervals. Tables should be self-explanatory and the data should not be duplicated in the text or figures.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify compliance, your article may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check and other originality or duplicate checking software.

Preprints
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).

Preprint posting on SSRN

In support of Open Science, this journal offers its authors a free preprint posting service. Preprints provide early registration and dissemination of your research, which facilitates early citations and collaboration.

During submission to Editorial Manager, you can choose to release your manuscript publicly as a preprint on the preprint server SSRN once it enters peer-review with the journal. Your choice will have no effect on the editorial process or outcome with the journal. Please note that the corresponding author is expected to seek approval from all co-authors before agreeing to release the manuscript publicly on SSRN.

You will be notified via email when your preprint is posted online and a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned. Your preprint will remain globally available free to read whether the journal accepts or rejects your manuscript.

For more information about posting to SSRN, please consult the SSRN Terms of Use and FAQs.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Author contributions
CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) was introduced with the intention of recognizing individual author contributions, reducing authorship disputes and facilitating collaboration. We encourage authors to submit an author statement file outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CrediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing − original draft; Writing − review & editing. Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and CrediT role(s) following. More details and an example can be found here..

Author contributions

For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) 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.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Article transfer service
This journal uses the Elsevier Article Transfer Service to find the best home for your manuscript. This means that if an editor feels your manuscript is more suitable for an alternative journal, you might be asked to consider transferring the manuscript to such a journal. The recommendation might be provided by a Journal Editor, a dedicated Scientific Managing Editor, a tool assisted recommendation, or a combination. If you agree, your manuscript will be transferred, though you will have the opportunity to make changes to the manuscript before the submission is complete. Please note that your manuscript will be independently reviewed by the new journal. More information.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are 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.

For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Elsevier Researcher Academy
Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Language (usage and editing services)
Manuscripts must be written in English in a clear and concise manner. Any author who is not fluent in idiomatic English is urged to seek assistance with manuscript preparation prior to submission. Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Author Services.

Preparation

General

The submitted manuscript conforms to the guidelines presented in the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals," prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors and published in The New England Journal of Medicine 1991;324:424-428.

The manuscript is typed double-spaced throughout with 3-cm margins all around (8 cm at bottom of title page)

The manuscript is arranged as follows: The manuscript is arranged as follows: (1) title page, (2) structured abstract, (3) key words, (4) introduction, (5) text, (6) acknowledgments (if any), (7) Declarations of interest (8) references, (9) figures/legends, (10) tables/legends. Pages are numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page 1.

Queries

For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) or for technical support on submissions, please visit our Support Center.

Peer review
Peer review
PPC is committed to a rigorous and fair peer review process. This journal operates a single anonymized review process. All submissions undergo an automatic plagiarism check and are assigned to a corresponding associate editor (AE). All contributions will be initially assessed by the AE for journal suitability. Papers deemed suitable are then sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. AEs make a recommendation based on reviewers' comments and their decisions are sent to the managing editor (ME) and editor-in-chief (EIC) for a final decision.

Special Issues
For special issues, reviews are conducted by the guest editor(s) (GE) or independent expert reviewers selected by the GEs. GEs make a recommendation based on reviewers' comments and their decisions are sent to the ME/EIC for final decision. All articles undergo at least 2 or more reviews.

Inhouse submissions from Editors:
Editors are not involved in decisions about papers that they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.

Papers written by Editors should have a standard footnote like this:
Given his role as [Guest] Editor [in Chief], [NAME of Editor] had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to [NAME of delegated editor].

Revision Submission
It is the corresponding author's responsibility to check periodically the status of his/her manuscript. An email with a decision will be sent with instructions to the corresponding author to go to the online submission site if a revision is warranted.
Typically, two and occasionally additional reviewers and Editorial Board members will participate in the review of a manuscript. The journal does not reveal the identity of its reviewers but does provide pertinent comments to the corresponding author. Re-review may be required after revision if in the judgment of the assigned Associate Editor, sufficient modification of the manuscript or data justifies another review cycle or if one (or more) of the reviewers requested to see the revision.

A point-by-point response is required to the reviewers' comments. Authors should upload two versions of the revised manuscript - one showing "track changes" to show where revisions have been made and a "clean" copy. Revised manuscripts are due within 60 days. The assigned, associate editor makes a final recommendation that is sent to the managing editor and Editor-in-Chief to process. The Editor-in-Chief has final authority on all editorial decisions unless the editor has been recused, e.g., if the editor is an author, in which case the review process is overseen and the decision made by a designated editorial board member.

If invited to revise a manuscript, the corresponding author will receive an email that contains the revise decision as well as the reviewers' and/or editors' comments. Log on as an author to https://www.editorialmanager.com/PPC with your user name and password. The manuscript will be in the author menu under "Submissions Needing Revision"

Review the editor/reviewer comments and, as appropriate, make changes to files based on these comments. Authors will upload two new versions of the manuscript file - one showing "track changes" and the other a clean copy with all changes accepted and remove the original manuscript.


If you elect to withdraw your paper rather than submit a revision, please log on to the system and select "Decline to Revise."

PLEASE REMEMBER:

  1. Point-by-point response: Please include a point-by-point, itemized, and detailed response to each of the comments from the reviewer(s), editor(s), and/or editorial office; outline every change made in response to their comments; and provide suitable rebuttals for all comments not addressed. Please ensure that revisions in the text are also changed in any relevant tables or figures.
  2. Figures: Please note any changes to figures in the point-by-point response.
  3. Authors: Please ensure the manuscript title on the cover page matches the title entered into the submission system. Any changes to authors require written explanation, as detailed above under "Authorship."
  4. File submission: Please upload two versions of your revised manuscript -- one showing "track changes" and one that is "clean."

Rejection of Manuscripts
Appeals Regarding Rejected Manuscripts

Progress in Pediatric Cardiology is able to accept a relatively small percentage of submissions received. Therefore, many good manuscripts are declined, oftentimes despite favorable peer reviews. If your paper is rejected but the reviews are accurate, please do not appeal the decision and request additional reviews. Doing so distracts the journal's editors and reviewers from evaluating submissions and editorial staff from processing other manuscripts and is unfair to the authors of those papers. If, however, the reviewer or editor assessments are reconsidered, the Editor-in-Chief will entertain an appeal and reopen the manuscript's file.

Any appeal must be made by the corresponding author to the Editorial Office by email prior to resubmitting the manuscript. Please do not resubmit a revised version of a rejected manuscript without an appeal to the Editorial office. Please do not resubmit until your original manuscript is released back to you. By waiting for the manuscript release, it ensures that your paper is processed under the same manuscript number, keeping the manuscript history intact.

Essential title page information

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal as they help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the example Highlights.

Highlights should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Graphical abstract
Although a graphical abstract is optional, its use is encouraged as it draws more attention to the online article. The graphical abstract should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. You can view Example Graphical Abstracts on our information site.

Formatting of funding sources
List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa].

It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

If no funding has been provided for the research, it is recommended to include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Artwork

Image manipulation
Whilst it is accepted that authors sometimes need to manipulate images for clarity, manipulation for purposes of deception or fraud will be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly. For graphical images, this journal is applying the following policy: no specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.

Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
• Ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.
Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.
TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color online (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or online only. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

Tables/Legends

Tables are typed double-spaced on separate sheets with the table number and title centered above the table and explanatory notes below the table. The table numbers are Arabic and correspond with the order in which the tables are presented in the text.
A foot note to each table identifying in alphabetical order all abbreviations used is provided.
Footnote references in tables should have superscript letters. In tables containing statistical data, asterisks may be used to denote confidence intervals. Tables are self-explanatory and the data are not duplicated in the text or figures.

Reference links
Increased discoverability of research and high quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, Crossref and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Please note that incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year and pagination may prevent link creation. When copying references, please be careful as they may already contain errors. Use of the DOI is highly encouraged.

A DOI is guaranteed never to change, so you can use it as a permanent link to any electronic article. An example of a citation using DOI for an article not yet in an issue is: VanDecar J.C., Russo R.M., James D.E., Ambeh W.B., Franke M. (2003). Aseismic continuation of the Lesser Antilles slab beneath northeastern Venezuela. Journal of Geophysical Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JB000884. Please note the format of such citations should be in the same style as all other references in the paper.

Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

Data references
PPC encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

[dataset] [5] Oguro M, Imahiro S, Saito S, Nakashizuka T. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions, Mendeley Data, v1; 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

Preprint references
Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Reference formatting
There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission. References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. The reference style used by the journal will be applied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct. If you do wish to format the references yourself they should be arranged according to the following examples:

Data visualization

Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking
If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Mendeley Data
This journal supports Mendeley Data, enabling you to deposit any research data (including raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols, and methods) associated with your manuscript in a free-to-use, open access repository. During the submission process, after uploading your manuscript, you will have the opportunity to upload your relevant datasets directly to Mendeley Data. The datasets will be listed and directly accessible to readers next to your published article online.

For more information, visit the Mendeley Data for journals page.

Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

After acceptance

Availability of accepted article
This journal makes articles available online as soon as possible after acceptance. This concerns the Journal Pre-proofs (both in HTML and PDF format), which have undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but are not yet the definitive versions of record. A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is allocated, thereby making it fully citable and searchable by title, author name(s) and the full text. The article's PDF also carries a disclaimer stating that it is an unedited article. Subsequent production stages will simply replace this version.

Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Offprints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

Author inquiries



Visit the Elsevier Support Center to find the answers you need. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch.
You can also check the status of your submitted article or find out when your accepted article will be published.