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Instructions to Authors

Policy

Cardiovascular Research is the International Basic Science Journal of the European Society of Cardiology. The Journal is concerned with both basic and clinical research in the field of cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology. The Journal welcomes submission of papers both at the molecular, subcellular, cellular, organ and organism level and of clinically oriented papers offering insight into (patho)physiological mechanisms. Manuscripts may be submitted as Original Articles, Rapid Communications or Reviews. Moreover, the Journal publishes Letters to the Editor and Editorials (the latter are usually invited). An author should indicate whether his/her manuscript should be considered for one of the Spotlight Issues that address particular themes. Manuscripts are normally evaluated by three members from an international panel of reviewers, and an editorial decision is made on average within 22 days of receipt of a manuscript.

Preparation of manuscripts (for regular papers)

The manuscript should be typed double-spaced and pages should be numbered. Original articles should not exceed 5750 words, including words in the references section. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and should not appear in the Abstract unless they may be understood by non-expert readership. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically (see below, under Submission). Authors presently unable to take advantage of online submission should fax the Editorial Office for further instructions (+49 641 99 47 209).

(1) Title page. This is the first page of the manuscript submission file. Title length should be no longer than 120 characters, including spaces. Provide the names of all authors including first name, department where the work was performed, all authors' affiliations, name of corresponding author with address, telephone number, fax and e-mail. Also give current addresses of any authors who have moved since the work was finished. If there are more than 10 authors, a statement of the contribution of each to the study should be provided in your cover letter. The number of words should be mentioned on the title page.

(2) Abstract. The abstract should be submitted as a separate file. Repeat in normal sized, but bold font, names of the authors and the title of the manuscript at the top of the page. The abstract should not exceed one page of the manuscript. It should be structured into the subsections "Aims," "Methods," "Results" and "Conclusion(s)." Give the name of the animal species, if applicable, in the subsection "Methods."

(3) Keywords. These will be published with your article. During online submission, they are typed into a window. A maximum of 5 keywords is required for publication of the manuscript. Keywords can be selected from the linked alphabetically formatted list or can be of your own choice.

(4) Classifications. These are used for administration purposes and selection of reviewers. During online submission they are chosen by ticking boxes in a formatted list. Authors should first choose classifications concerning Discipline, Object of Study, Level, and Expertise from the linked list and then specific classifications, listed here alphabetically. Please tick as many keywords as you feel necessary to characterize your manuscript.

(5) Introduction. This section should position the study with regard to objective, rationale, and preceding work of other authors.

(6) Methods. If pertinent, this section may be divided into headed subsections. To reduce a lengthy methods section, experimental details (buffer compositions, primer sequences, etc.) may be included in a separate supplementary file for online publication. However, each method must be briefly described and thoroughly referenced in the main article. For investigations involving animals, the methods section should contain the following statement, if it can be applied: "The investigation conforms with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH Publication No. 85-23, revised 1996).” If human subjects or tissues are used, you should state that "The investigation conforms with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki" (see Cardiovascular Research 1997;35:2-4). In addition, for both animal and human research, you should declare whether approval was granted by a local or university ethics review board (approval reference number to be given, if applicable).

(7) Results. If pertinent, the section may be divided into headed subsections. For presentation of data, figures are preferred to tables. Also, extensive numerical data should appear in legends to the figures rather than in the main body of text. SI units should be used.

(8) Discussion. This section should not contain paragraphs dealing with topics that are beyon

(9) Funding. Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.

The following rules should be followed:

  • The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
  • The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxx
  • Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
  • Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
  • Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].’

(10) Acknowledgements.

(11) Conflict of Interest. All authors must make a formal statement indicating any potential conflict of interest that might constitute an embarrassment to any of the authors if it were not to be declared and were to emerge after publication. Such conflicts might include, but are not limited to, shareholding in or receipt of a grant or consultancy fee from a company whose product features in the submitted manuscript or which manufactures a competing product. If none of the authors has a conflict of interest, then type: ‘Conflict of Interest: none declared.’

(12) References. Note: This format has been recently changed – journal names should be in italics, volume numbers in bold, and page numbers should be fully written out. In-text citations should be numerical and superscripted.
Regular papers:
Coronel R, Opthof T, Taggart P, Tytgat J, Veldkamp M. Differential electrophysiology of repolarisation from clone to clinic. Cardiovasc Res 1997;33:503-517.
Books:
Wit AL, Janse MJ. The Ventricular Arrhythmias of Ischemia and Infarction. Electrophysiological Mechanisms. Mount Kisco, NY: Futura Publishing Company, Inc, 1992.
Chapter in book:
Weber KT. Cardiac Interstitium: Extracellular Space of the Myocardium. In: Fozzard HA, Haber E, Jennings RB, Katz AM, Morgan HE, eds. The Heart and Cardiovascular System. Scientific Foundations, 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press, 1991:1465-1480.
Thesis:
Dekker L.R.C. Role of intracellular calcium in ischemic damage and preconditioning in cardiac muscle. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam. 1996 (Thesis).
Abstract:
Like regular paper, but add (Abstract) at end.

Please note: If the bibliography contains more than six authors, et al. should be added following the sixth author.

(13) Figure Legends. Figure legends should start on a new page of the manuscript, but one page may contain legends to more than one figure.

(14) Figures/Tables. A maximum of 6 multi-panelled figures or 8 single-panelled figures or combination thereof may be included. Tables can be included in the manuscript file. Figures should be attached as a separate file(s) during the submission process and labelled (entitled "Figure 1", for example, in the box marked "Description" visible during submission). Electronically submitted figures should be of high resolution (300 dpi or greater) and in one of the following formats: tiff (.tif), bitmap (.bmp), jpeg (.jpg), portable data format (.pdf), or postscript (.ps or .eps). Any lettering in the figures should be large enough to stand photographic reduction. You should prepare your figures for either one column width (84 mm) or the entire page width (175 mm). The maximum height is 240 mm. Photomicrographs should contain a scale bar that represents a given length in the figure (e.g. 5 µm). The Publisher will determine the degree of any reduction or enlargement required and in general, line drawings will be reduced to one column width if possible.

(15) Colour Figures. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Oxford Journals after receipt of your accepted article. Each colour page in print costs approx. £350 (approx. €520). For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://cpc.cadmus.com/da.
Please note: If you choose to avoid the costs of colour printing, then you must submit black and white versions of your figures with your manuscript at the initial submission stage so that these figures are reviewed in this format.

Supplementary Data

Supplementary material can be submitted to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article online and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. Regarding supplementary methods, please note that a reader should be able to understand what techniques were used, with at least a simple description or adequate reference to another source in the literature. Buffer components, SDS gel composition, primer sequences, etc., may be placed in supplementary methods.

Preparation of Review Articles

Review articles should be divided into the following sections: a short abstract (unstructured) followed by various subsections that may include an introduction and may also be further subdivided, and a summary or similar concluding section. The maximum number of words is 7500, including references.

Rapid Communications

These are high priority manuscripts that report major advances or provide important, novel insight into the field of cardiovascular medicine and basic science. They are organized like regular manuscripts (above) but are relatively short and concise (no longer than 4000 words, including references, and 5 display items, preferably no colour figures). An accompanying covering letter should justify why it belongs in this category. The decision to admit a manuscript to this track rests with the Editor.

Open access option for authors

Starting in September 2007, Cardiovascular Research authors have the option, at an additional charge, to make their paper freely available online immediately upon publication, under the Oxford Open initiative. After your manuscript is accepted, as part of the mandatory licence form required of all corresponding authors, you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay to have your paper made freely available immediately. If you do not select the Open Access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.


For those selecting the Open Access option, the charges for Cardiovascular Research vary depending on the institution at which the Corresponding author is based:

Optional Oxford Open charges:
For a Corresponding author based at an institution with an online subscription to Cardiovascular Research:
Regular charge per paper – £900 / $1800 / €1350
List B developing country charge* – £450 / $900 / €675
List A developing country charge* – £0 / $0 / €0

For a Corresponding author based at an institution that does not subscribe to the online journal:
Regular charge per paper – £1500 / $3000 / €2250
List B developing country charge* – £750 / $1500 / €1125
List A developing country charge* – £0 / $0 / €0

*Visit http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jnls/devel/ for list of qualifying countries

Orders from the UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from elsewhere in the EU you or your institution should account for VAT by way of a reverse charge. Please provide us with your or your institution’s VAT number.

The above Open Access charges are in addition to any page charges and colour charges that might apply.

If you choose the Open Access option you will also be asked to complete an Open Access charge form online. You will be automatically directed to the appropriate version of the form depending on whether you are based at an institution with an online subscription to Cardiovascular Research. Therefore please make sure that you are using an institutional computer when accessing the form. To check whether you are based at a subscribing institution please use the Subscriber Test link for Cardiovascular Research.

Self-archiving and post-print policy

Authors may deposit the post-print of their article into PubMedCentral, other subject repositories or institutional repositories, but must stipulate that public availability be delayed until 12 months after the first online publication. For further details of this policy please visit: Author Self-archiving Policy

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically by the corresponding author at the URL http://www.editorialmanager.com/cardiovascres/default.asp. Three files are required to be uploaded for the submission process: (1) the abstract; (2) the manuscript (with title page, not as a PDF file); and (3) the covering letter including the following declarations: (i) That "the manuscript, or part of it, has neither been published (except in form of abstract or thesis) nor is currently under consideration for publication by any other journal"; (ii) The submitting author should declare that the co-author(s) has (have) read the manuscript and approved its submission to Cardiovascular Research; (iii) In the case of colour figures, the authors should declare that they agree to pay for the cost of printing. A specification of costs will be sent by publisher after final acceptance of the manuscript.

Checklist

Covering letter?
Length of Title?
Addresses and affiliations?
Number of words?
Title and authors repeated at top of Abstract?
Abstract structured?
Abstract length one page?
Species mentioned in Abstract?
Ethics statement?
Figures OK?
Reference format?
Double spacing?