Instructions to Authors

New for 2010 – Please note that the journal now encourages authors to complete their copyright licence to publish form online

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 the abstract, manuscript text, references, and figure legends. 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). Manuscripts submitted to the journal may be checked for originality using anti-plagiarism software.

(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 and should be 250 words or less. It should be structured into the subsections "Aims," "Methods and 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 allowed. 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. This section should 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.

(6a) NEW: For investigations involving procedures with animals or animal tissues, the main Methods section should provide the generic name of the anaesthetic and analgesic agent(s) used, the dose, and the route and frequency of administration. Note also that neuromuscular blocking or paralytic agents should never be used without general anaesthesia. Methods used for monitoring of the adequacy of anaesthesia must be described. Methods used for euthanasia should likewise be explicitly described. For experiments involving isolated tissues or primary cell cultures, the procedures used for their isolation should be described, including methods of anaesthesia and/or euthanasia. Finally, it should be stated whether the investigation conforms to either the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published by the United States National Institutes of Health or the Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament. Please see the editorial statement of this journal for more specific information on anesthetics.

(6b) If human subjects or tissues are used, you should state whether the investigation conforms with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

(6c) 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 available). All manuscripts will be sent to an ethics subeditor for approval, if applicable, before the peer-review process is initiated.

(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 beyond the scope of the study. Four manuscript pages should in general be enough to compare and interpret the data with regard to previous work by yourself and others.

(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. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]'
Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’
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 [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.].’

Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. See http://www.oxfordjournals.org/for_authors/repositories.html for details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.

(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 figures on 6 pages is allowed. These may have multiple panels, but they must be able to withstand reduction by up to 50%. Additional figures may be uploaded as a supplement. 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/$600/€525. 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. Manuscripts submitted in colour will be published in colour , both online and in print. Note also that you are required to make a statement in your covering letter whether you agree to pay the cost of printing your colour figures (see below under "Submission").

Because of the high cost of colour, authors are advised to submit figures where the colour is not essential in black and white. In line graphs, different lines can be indicated with dots, dashes or symbols (♦ ◊ V X + and so on) or with labels and arrows . Bars in bar charts can be black, white, and grey, or include cross hatching.

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.

Online copyright licence form

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. Please notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

Open access option for authors

Cardiovascular Research authors have the option to publish their paper under the Oxford Open initiative; whereby, for a charge, their paper will be made freely available online immediately upon publication. After your manuscript is accepted the corresponding author will be required to accept a mandatory licence to publish agreement. As part of the licensing process you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay for open access. 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.

You can pay Open Access charges using our Author Services site. This will enable you to pay online with a credit/debit card, or request an invoice by email or post.

Open access charges can be viewed here in detail; discounted rates are available for authors based in some developing countries (click here for a list of qualifying countries). Please note that these charges are in addition to any colour/page charges that may apply.

Orders from the UK will be subject to the current UK VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the European Union, OUP will assume that the service is provided for business purposes. Please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.

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?