Cardio-IT

Quality in CARDIOlogy
Medical Informational Technology
Working group

Authors’ Instructions

 

Cardio-IT (ISSN 2313-0318) publishes high quality original articles, reviews, bibliographies, clinical studies, case reports, news, and comment articles on information and innovative cardiac technologies. 

Publishing in Cardio-IT is free of chargeIf your paper is of good quality and fits the journal scope, we welcome it for peer reviewing. If you decide to submit your paper, please ease our work by carefully adhering to our journal requirements. 

We recommend that all manuscripts be submitted online (see page "Submit manuscript"). 

Manuscript submissions should conform to the guidelines set forth in the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication,” available from www.icmje.org.

Before sending manuscript for review to referees editor checks the adherence of the manuscript’s format to general guidelines. The spelling and grammar errors are required to be corrected before submission of manuscript. The revised versions of manuscripts should include incorporated revisions highlighted. Manuscripts that do not comply with Instructions to Authors will not undergo peer-review.

 

Description of Manuscripts Types

Cardio-IT welcomes manuscripts in the following categories:

  • Original articles will provide detailed description of scientific findings within the scope of the journal. This type of articles should contain structured abstract (200-250 words), divided asBackground-Objective-Methods and results-Conclusion or Aim-Material and Methods-Results-Conclusions, and up to five keywords. Original article should be organized following structure: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments and References.
  • Review articles will be focused on a significantly important topics. This type of articles should contain unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords and should incorporate a judicious use of tables, figures, schemes and references.
  • Authors' opinions will provide authors' position on a significantly important topics. Opinion maybe as hypotesis based on results of previous authors' research. This type of articles should contain unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords.
  • Short reports will provide short description of results of clinical trials, healthcare projects, etc. This type of articles should contain structured or unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords.
  • Public reports will provide detail description of results of clinical trials, healthcare projects, etc. This type of articles should contain structured or unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords.
  • Research letters will be short version of a Original article. Manuscripts which announce a new scientific invention, are clinically significant, and are in the form of a preliminary report are accepted for publication as scientific letters. The discussion could be integrated in the same section with the results as 'Results and Discussion' section; 'Conclusions and Future Directions' are optional. This type of articles should contain structured or unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords.
  • Case reports. Since a limited number of case reports is published, only reports which are related to rare cases and conditions that constitute challenges in diagnosis and treatment, offer new methods or suggest knowledge not included in books, and are interesting and educational are accepted for publication. This type of articles should contain unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords. Main Text should include Introduction, Case Report, Discussion and Conclusion sections and should not exceed 1000 words excluding the references. The reference list should follow the main text and the number of references should be limited to 10. Tables and figures would be included. Video images (in English soundtrack) can be included. Case reports that include video images have a better chance of publication.
  • Letter to the Editors. Letters to the Editor aim to discuss the importance of a manuscript previously published in Cardio-IT or other journals. This type of manuscripts should also include a comment on the published manuscript. Moreover, articles on topics of interest to readers within the scope of the journal, especially on educational issues, can be published in the format of a Letter to the Editor. This type of articles should contain unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords. Main text should not include subheadings and it should be limited to 1000 words. The reference list should follow the main text and the number of references should be limited to 10. Tables, figures and images, and other visuals are not included.
  • Publication Ethics. These articles include current information on research and publication ethics and also cases of ethical violation. This type of articles should contain unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words), up to five keywords. Main text should not exceed 1000 words. The reference list should follow the main text and the number of references should be limited to 10. Tables and figures can be included.

Note! Original Investigations and Reviews should be presented according to the guidelines: randomized study – CONSORT, observational study – STROBE, study on diagnostic accuracy – STARD, systematic reviews and meta-analysis PRISMA, animal experimental studies – ARRIVE, nonrandomized behavioural and public health intervention studies – TREND.

 

Authorship Criteria and Contributions and Authorship Form

Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article. Authorship credit should be based only on (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; and (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published.  

The authors also must certify that the manuscript represents valid work and that neither this manuscript nor one with substantially similar content under their authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors of manuscripts reporting original data or systematic reviews must provide an access to data statement from at least one named author, often the corresponding author If requested, authors should be prepared to provide the data and must cooperate fully in obtaining and providing the data on which the manuscript is based for examination by the editors or their assignees.

Role of the Corresponding Author. The corresponding author (or coauthor designee) will serve on behalf of all coauthors as the primary correspondent with the editorial office during the submission and review process. If the manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author will review an edited typescript and proof, make decisions regarding release of information in the manuscript to the news media, federal agencies, or both, and will be identified as the corresponding author in the published article. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript is complete. “Acknowledgment” is the general term for the list of contributions, disclosures, credits, and other information included at the end of the text of a manuscript but before the references. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the conflict of interest disclosures reported in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript are accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with the information provided for each author. The corresponding author must sign the Authorship Form confirming that all persons who have contributed substantially are identified as authors and that written permission from each author has been obtained.

Conflicts 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.

Authors must state all possible conflicts of interest in the manuscript, including financial, consultant, institutional and other relationships that might lead to bias or a conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, this should also be explicitly stated as none declared. All sources of funding should be acknowledged in the manuscript. All relevant conflicts of interest and sources of funding should be included on the title page of the manuscript with the heading “Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:”. For example:
"Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: A has received honoraria from Company Z. B is currently receiving a grant (#12345) from Organization Y, and is on the speaker’s bureau for Organization X – the CME organizers for Company A. For the remaining authors none were declared."

 

Manuscript Preparation

The manuscript should be written in English (US/UK spell) in a clear, concise and precise style.

Note, all abbreviations must be transcribed at first mention in the text.

The research articles (original articles, research letters) must be divided into the following sections:

  • Title: The title of the article should be precise and brief and must not be more than 15 words. Authors should avoid the use of abbreviations.
  • Title page: Title page should include paper title, author(s) full name and affiliation, corresponding author(s) names complete affiliation/address, along with phone, fax and email.
  • Abstract (Original articles): An abstract of maximum 250 words should be typed on a separate page in a form of a single paragraph and should be written in an informative style (purpose, basic methods, main results and principal conclusions). Abstract of original article should be divided as Background-Objective-Methods and results-Conclusion or Aim-Methods-Results-Conclusions. Abstract (Research letters): This type of articles should contain structured or unstructured abstract (100 – 150 words).
  • Keywords: he content of the paper should be characterized by at least 3 and not more that 5 keywords in English at the end of the abstract.
  • Introduction: Provide a context or background for the study (i.e., the nature of the problem and its significance). State the specific purpose or research objective of, or hypothesis tested by, the study or observation at the end of this section. Give only strictly pertinent references and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported. References are numbered in the list in the order they first appear in the text.
  • Material and Methods:

The Methods section should include only information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was written; all information obtained during the conduct of the study belongs in the Results section.

Technical information. Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other researchers to reproduce the study. Briefly describe for methods that have been published but are not well known (provide also the references). Describe in details new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations.

Statistics. Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals). Define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. Statistical analysis should be conducted in accordance with the guidelines on reporting statistical data in medical journals [Altman DG, Gore SM, Gardner MJ, Pocock SJ. Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals. Br Med J 1983: 7; 1489-93.; and Lang T, Altman D. Basic statistical reporting for articles published in clinical medical journals: the SAMPL Guidelines. In: Smart P, Maisonneuve H, Polderman A (editors). Science Editors’ Handbook, European Association of Science Editors, 2013.]. The software used for statistical analysis must be described. Data must be expressed as mean ± standard deviation when parametric tests are used to compare continuous variables. For non-parametric tests, data must be expressed as median (minimum-maximum) or percentiles (25th and 75th percentiles). In advanced and complex statistical analyses, relative risk (RR), odds ratio (OR) and hazard ratio (HR) must be supported by confidence intervals and P-values. The outcomes of statistical analyses and interpretation of the results must be in evidence-based scientific language [Editors of Heart Group journals. Statement on matching language to the type of evidence used in describing outcomes data.]. Other resources on "statistical analysis of medical data" can also be used for guidance.

  • Results: Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasize or summarize only important observations. Give numeric results not only as derivatives (for example, percentages) but also as the absolute numbers from which the derivatives were calculated, and specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as “random” (which implies a randomizing device), “normal,” “significant,” “correlations,” and “sample.”
  • Discussion: Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such.
  • Conclusion(s): Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not adequately supported by the data.
  • Ethical Issues: Provide clear statement on the ethical issues if clinical or animal research has been conducted if applied.  Institutional review board (IRB) approvals are required in Material amd Methods section for all submitted research articles. 

  • Conflict of interest: Conflict of interest statement, patient confidentiality issues, and permissions. Where an author gives no conflict of interest, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no conflict of interest'.

  • Acknowledgements (if any): Please acknowledge anyone (individual/company/institution) who has contributed to the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content. Please list the source(s) of funding for the study (if any), for each author, and for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements section.

  • References: All references should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and listed in the same numerical order in the Reference section.

Do not cite personal communications, manuscripts in preparation or other unpublished data in the references; these may be cited in the text in parentheses. If letters to the editor are cited, identify them with the word "letter" in parentheses. Do not cite abstracts that are older than two years. Identify abstracts by the abbreviation "abstr" in parentheses.

Use Index Medicus (National Library of Medicine) abbreviations for journal titles.

For general guide about style and punctuation of references, we recommend use The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition).

Use the following style and punctuation for references:

  • Periodical: List all authors if six or fewer, otherwise list the first three and add the et al.; do not use periods after the authors' initials. Please provide inclusive page numbers as in example below.

Example:

  1. Chen LH, Xi S, Cohen DA. Liver Antioxidant defenses in mice fed ethanol and the AIN-76A Diet.Alcohol 1995; 12(5): 453-457 (doi: 10.1016/0741-8329(95)00030-U) (PMID: 8519441). Note: for all articles in References list, DOI and/or PMID must be indicated!
  2. Kim E, Han JY, Moon TJ, Shaw B, Shah DV, McTavish FM, Gustafson DH. The process and effect of supportive message expression and reception in online breast cancer support groups. Psychooncology. 2011 Mar 17. doi: 10.1002/pon.1942. (journal article online first)
  3. Lemanek K. Adherence issues in the medical management of asthma. J Pediatr Psychol [Internet]. 1990 [cited 2010 Apr 22];15(4):437-58. Available from: URL:http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint /15/4/437. (electronic journal article)
  • Chapter in book: Provide inclusive page numbers, authors, chapter titles, book title, editor, publisher and year. Example: Meidell RS, Gerard RD, Sambrook JF. Molecular biology of thrombolytic agents. In: Roberts R, editor. Molecular Basis of Cardiology. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Scientific Publications; 1993: 295–324.
  • Book (personal author or authors): Provide a specific (not inclusive) page number. Example: Cohn PF. Silent Myocardial Ischemia and Infarction. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 1993:33.
  • Online Media: Provide specific URL address and date information was accessed. Example: Henkel J. Testicular Cancer: Survival High With Early Treatment. FDA Consumer magazine [serial online]. January–February 1996. Available at: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/196_test.html. Accessed August 31, 1998.
  • Conference paper: Example: Bolboacă S, Jäntschi L. Binomial distribution sample confidence intervals estimation for positive and negative likelihood ratio medical key parameters. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2005:66-70.

 

Tables. Number tables with Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text, e.g. (Table 3). Use titles that concisely describe the content of the table so that a reader can understand the table without referring to the text. Tables may contain abbreviations that we do not permit in the text, but the table should contain a footnote that explains the abbreviation. Give the units of measure for all numerical data in a column or row. Place units of measure under a column heading or at the end of a side heading only if those units apply to all numerical data in the column or row.

Figures. References to figures and tables should be made in order of appearance in the text and should be in Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g. (Fig. 2). Each figure should have a figure legend that begins with a short title. Reduce the length of legends by using phrases rather than sentences. Explain all abbreviations and symbols on the figure, even if an explanation appears in the text. For pictures of histologic slides, give stain and magnification data at the end of the legend for each part of the figure. If no scale marker appears on the figure, give the original magnification used during the observation, not that of the photographic print.

Most file formats are accepted, but PNG, JPEG, TIFF and EPS files, with fonts embedded, are preferred. If scanned, line art should be at a resolution of 800 dpi, and halftones and colour at 300 dpi. Colour illustrations are acceptable.