Author Guidelines

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AUTHOR GUIDELINES

Manuscript Preparation Instructions

The Journal of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Diseases (JPCHD) welcomes scientific contributions in the field of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Diseases. All manuscripts are subject to review by the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Invited Reviewers and a Statistician when appropriate. Acceptance is based on the originality, significance, and validity of the material presented.

This page outlines instructions for submitting your manuscript to JPCHD. For information on journal policies, please visit our policies page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorial Office

Submission

Redundant (duplicate) publication

Statistical and data reporting guidelines

Clinical trials

Language editing pre-submission

Manuscript types

Manuscript format and style

Figures and videos

Permission to reproduce figures and extracts

Funding and conflict of interest statements

Copyright and licence

Proofs

 

EDITORIAL OFFICE

Journal of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Diseases

Address: Kifissias Avenue 37-39,

Marousi, Athens, Greece

Email: jpchd@kalangosfoundation.com

Tel: 0030 210 6383551

Working hours: Monday to Friday 0900 – 1300 EET

 

SUBMISSION

All material to be considered for publication in the Journal Pediatric and Congenital Heart Diseases should be submitted electronically via the journal’s online submission system.

 

Cover letter

All new manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter (to be filled in online), including the following statements:

 

The manuscript has not previously been published in print or electronic form and is not under consideration by any other publication

All authors have contributed significantly to the content of the article - see authorship criteria recommended by ICJME.

All authors have read and approve the submission of the manuscript to JPCHD

Subject to acceptance, authors will sign an exclusive license to publish.

There is no ethical problem or conflict of interest (see below). For publication ethics, experimental ethics etc. see our policies page

Revised manuscripts

When submitting revised manuscripts, respond to all points raised by the Editor’s, Referees’ and Statistician in the ‘Response to reviews’ field, outlining any changes that have been made. All changes should be highlighted in red in the revised manuscript to facilitate editorial reevaluation.

 

REDUNDANT (DUPLICATE) SUBMISSION

It is recommended that Authors read the updated version of the statement on redundant submission, jointly published with other journals in 2015.

 

STATISTICAL AND DATA REPORTING GUIDELINES

It is highly recommended that Authors consult the guidelines on Statistical and data reporting; see also the corrigendum.

 

CLINICAL TRIALS

Registering clinical trials

In accordance with the Clinical Trial Registration Statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) all clinical trials published in the journal must be registered in a public trials registry at or before the onset of participant enrolment. For any clinical trials commencing prior to 1st July 2005, retrospective registration will be accepted.

 

The registry must be accessible to the public at no charge, searchable, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a not-for-profit organization, and include all the necessary information as specified by the ICMJE. A list of recommended registries can be found on the ICMJE website. Results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the primary registration resides will not be considered as prior publication if they are presented in the form of a brief abstract (<500 words) or a table.

 

Authors are requested to provide the exact URL and unique identification number for the trial registration at the time of submission on the manuscript’s title page. This information will appear later in the published article.

 

Reporting clinical trials

Clinical trials should comply with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials Statement (CONSORT), which is available here. Authors reporting on randomized clinical trials (RCT) should consult the CONSORT checklist when preparing their manuscripts. All RCT data will be evaluated in accordance with the rules and checklist of the CONSORT statement.

 

Other types of studies should follow guidelines where available. These include STARD (Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies), STROBE (Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology), PRISMA (Transparent Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and MOOSE (Meta-analyses of observational studies). For further information on good reporting of health research studies please go to the EQUATOR network.

 

The relevant checklist should be duly filled in and uploaded as "Supplemental files".

 

Data sharing statements for clinical trials

This journal will require the following as conditions of consideration for publication of a clinical trial report:

 

As of 1 July 2018 manuscripts submitted to ICMJE journals that report the results of clinical trials must contain a data sharing statement. Full details can be found in Taichman et al Ann Intern Med. 2017;167:63–65. The data sharing statement should be mentioned in the text and uploaded as a Supplemental file.

Clinical trials that begin enrolling participants on or after 1 January 2019 must include a data sharing plan in the trial's registration. The ICMJE's policy regarding trial registration is explained here. If the data sharing plan changes after registration this should be reflected in the statement submitted and published with the manuscript, and updated in the registry record.

LANGUAGE EDITING PRE-SUBMISSION

If your first language is not English, we recommend that you consult an English language editing service so that your manuscript will be accepted for publication.

 

MANUSCRIPT TYPES

The journal publishes the following types of papers:

 

Original Articles

Review Articles

Surgical Techniques

Case Reports

Images in Cardiology, Angiology, Cardiovascular surgery

Letters to the Editors

 

 

And by invitation only:

Editorials

Editorial Comments

 

 

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT AND STYLE

Manuscripts should be prepared using a word-processing package (save in .doc, .docx or .rtf format). The font type and font size should preferably be Arial or Times New Roman 12 points. The manuscript should be double-spaced and should include line and page numbers. The lines of the reference list do not need to be numbered; include a section break before.

 

Order of the manuscript contents

Manuscripts should be organized as follows in bold letters: (a) Title page; (b) Abstract and Key words; (c) Text with the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgement (optional), Funding statement, Conflict of interest statement; (d) Figure (and Video) legends; (e) Tables; (f) References.

 

Specifications for each article type

Each article type must include a title page and 3-6 keywords.

IMPORTANT: the total number of words specified below comprises words on the title page, abstract, keywords, main text, figure and video legends, tables and references. All manuscripts must respect these following specifications.

 

Original Article

Authors: unlimited

Abstract (structured): 300 words (sections should be: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions)

Figures/tables combined: 8

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 40

Total number of words: 6000

 

Review Article (a review article should not include unpublished cases/data)

Authors: 10 maximum

Summary (unstructured): 300 words

Figures/tables combined: 8

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 80

Total number of words: 6500

 

Surgical Techniques

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract (unstructured): 250 words

Figures/tables combined: 2 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 10

Total number of words: 1500

 

Case Report

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract (unstructured): 200 words

Figures/tables combined: 2 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 10

Total number of words: 1500

 

Images in Cardiovascular Surgery(an Image article should contain no text, only a description of the figure)

 

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract: none

Figures (no tables allowed): 1 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)

Videos: none

Total number of words: 50 for the legend

 

Letters to the Editor (should comment on recent JHCVM articles only).

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract: none

Figures/tables: none

Videos: none

References: 10

Total number of words: 750

 

Editorial (by invitation only)

Authors: 4

Abstract: none

Figures/tables combined: 4

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 10

Total number of words: 3000

 

Editorial Comment (by invitation only)

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract: none

Figures/tables: none

Videos: none

References: 10

Total number of words: 1500

 

 

The manuscript should be organized as follows:

 

Title page

 

Title

Should be brief and descriptive (100 characters) with no abbreviations

 

Authors

List all authors by full first name, initial of or full middle name and family name. Qualifications are not required.

 

Institution(s)

Include the name of all institutions with the location (department, institution, city, country) to which the work should be attributed (in English). Use superscript numbers to connect authors and their department or institution.

 

Corresponding author

The full name, full postal address, telephone/fax numbers and the e-mail address should be typed at the bottom of the title page.

 

Meeting presentation

If the manuscript was (or will be) presented at a meeting, include the meeting name, venue, and the date on which it was (or will be) read; also indicate if you have submitted an Abstract of this manuscript for the Global Humanitarian Forum biannual meeting and whether it has been accepted (if known).

 

Word count

The total number of words of the whole article (including title page, abstract, main text, legends, tables and references) must be specified on the title page.

 

Clinical registration number

Include name of registry and registration number. See section above

 

Abstract

An abstract should be a concise summary of the manuscript. Reference citations are not allowed. The abstract should be factual and free of abbreviations, except for SI units of measurement. A structured abstract must have four sections:

 

Objectives: should describe the problem addressed in the study and its purpose.

Methods: should explain how the study was performed (basic procedures with study materials and observational and analytical methods).

Results: should describe the main findings with specific data and their statistical significance, if possible.

Conclusions: should contain the main conclusion of the study.

 

Keywords

Following the abstract, 3-6 keywords should be given for subject indexing.

 

Main text

 

Introduction

Should state the purpose of the investigation and give a short review of pertinent literature.

 

Materials and methods

Should be described in detail with appropriate information about patients or experimental animals. Use of abbreviations is forbidden. Generic names of drugs and equipment may be used in the manuscript, with brand names (proprietary name) and the name and location (city, state, country) of the manufacturer in brackets when first mentioned in the text.

 

Results

Results should be reported concisely and regarded as an important part of the article. They should be presented either in tables and figures, and briefly commented on in the text, or in the text alone.

 

Discussion

The discussion is an interpretation of the results and their significance with reference to pertinent work published by other authors. It should be clear and concise. The importance of the study and its limitations should be discussed.

 

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgements and details of non-financial support must be included at the end of the text before the references.

 

Funding statement

See Funding and conflict of interest section below.

 

Conflict of interest statement

See Funding and conflict of interest section below.

 

Figure (and video) legends

A list with legends for each figure (and each video) must be included.

 

 

Tables

All tables must be included in the manuscript file, as part of the text, not as images. All tables should start on separate pages and be accompanied by a title, and footnotes (use superscript a,b,c….) where necessary. The tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Abbreviations and their full definitions should be listed in alphabetical order at the bottom of the table. Avoid overcrowding the tables and the excessive use of words. The format of tables should be in keeping with that normally used by the journal; in particular, vertical lines, coloured text and shading should not be used. Please be certain that the data given in tables are correct. All tables must be cited in the text.

 

References

References should be numbered in order of appearance in the text (in Arabic numerals in parentheses) and must be listed numerically in the reference list. Journal titles and author initials should be abbreviated and punctuated according to PubMed. If an automatic referencing system has been used in the preparation of the paper, the references must not be left embedded in the final text file submitted. The citation of journals, books and articles published online should conform to the following examples:

 

Journals
[1] Sousa-Uva M, Head SJ, Milojevic M, Collet JP, Landoni G, Castella M et al. 2017 EACTS Guidelines on perioperative medication in adult cardiac surgery. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2018;53:5-33.

Books
[2] Cooley DA. Techniques in cardiac surgery. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1984:167-76.

Multi-author books
[3] Rastan AJ, Borger MA, Haensig M, Kempfert J, Mohr FW. Recent developments in transcatheter aortic valve implantation in Moorjani N, Ohri SK, Wechsler A (eds). Cardiac Surgery: Recent Advances and Techniques. CRC press 2013.

Online-only publications (please give the doi wherever possible)
[4] Durko A, Mahtab E, Romeo J, Bogers A. Skeletonized internal mammary artery harvest with diathermy and cold dissection. Multimed Man Cardiothorac Surg 2017 Dec 12; doi: 10.1510/mmcts.2017.023

or

[5] National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: Cancer-associated Venous Thromboembolic Disease; Version 2.2018. 2018 https://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/vte.pdf (10 July 2019, date last accessed).

Preprints
[6]  Morales, F. The unusual habits of Mexican hummingbirds. bioRxiv, doi:XXXXX, 2 July 2017, preprint: not peer reviewed.

Reference to a journal publication:

[1] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. J Sci Commun 2010;163:51–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.Sc.2010.00372.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number:

[2] Van der Geer J, Hanraads JAJ, Lupton RA. The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon. 2018;19:e00205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205

Reference to a book:

[3] Strunk Jr W, White EB. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Longman; 2000.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

[4] Mettam GR, Adams LB. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones BS, Smith RZ, editors. Introduction to the electronic age, New York: E-Publishing Inc; 2009, p. 281–304.

Reference to a website:

[5] Cancer Research UK. Cancer statistics reports for the UK, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/; 2003 [accessed 13 March 2003].

Reference to a dataset:

[dataset] [6] Oguro M, Imahiro S, Saito S, Nakashizuka T. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions, Mendeley Data, v1; 2015. https://doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

All authors and co-authors should be mentioned. Personal communications (author, personal communication) must be authorized in writing by those involved, and unpublished data should be cited in the text as (unpublished data). References to manuscripts submitted, but not yet accepted, should be cited in the text as (authors, manuscript in preparation) and should not be included in the list of references. Authors are encouraged to cite web URLs in parentheses at the appropriate mention in the text.

 

FIGURES AND VIDEOS

All figures and videos require a legend and must be cited in the text.

 

Figures

Note: The requirements for online submission and for reproduction in the journal are the same.

Minimum resolutions are 300 dots per inch (dpi) for colour or tone images, and 1000 dpi for line drawings, supplied at a minimum width of 16.8 cm.

JHCVM does not redraw figures of accepted manuscripts. Figure preparation is the author's responsibility. See guidelines or go to http://cpc.cadmus.com/da.

 

The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material. Any photomicrographs, electron micrographs or radiographs must be of high quality. Photomicrographs should provide details of staining technique and a scale bar, and must be in colour. Patients shown in photographs should have their identity concealed or should have given their written consent to publication. When creating figures, make sure any embedded text is large enough to read. Many figures contain miniscule characters such as numbers on a chart or graph. If these characters are not easily readable, they will most likely be illegible in the final version.

 

Colour illustrations

JPCHD encourages the use of colour figures when colour helps with the understanding of the figures. JPCHD does not charge for the publication of colour figures but the Editor may use his discretion when deciding which figures to publish in colour.

 

Videos

Where appropriate, video sequences may be submitted using standard digital video formats. Videos must be relevant and contain only vital/novel information. The total playback time for the videos should not exceed 5 minutes. Videos should be numbered in the order they appear in the text.

 

Format

Videos can be submitted in any standard format : wmv, avi, mpeg, mov, etc. Videos must be of high quality and must have a minimum size of 640x480 pixels (preferably higher as all videos will be converted to MP4 to JHCVM specifications). The aspect ratio can be: 4:3 or 16:9.

 

PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE FIGURES AND EXTRACTS

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS and similar licensing agencies where appropriate. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder must be made available to the editors. It is also the author's responsibility to include acknowledgements as stipulated by the particular institutions. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. Should you require copies of this then please contact the editorial office of the journal in question.

For a copyright prose work, it is recommended that permission is obtained for the use of extracts longer than 400 words; a series of extracts totalling more than 800 words, of which any one extract is more than 300 words; or an extract or series of extracts comprising one-quarter of the work or more.

 

FUNDING AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENTS

 

Funding statement

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’
• 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 full name]'

 

 

 Conflict of interest statement

Declarations of conflicts of interest must be included in the manuscript. Place them at the end of the text before the references, and include the section even if none are declared, using the following format:

Conflict of interest: none declared.

Articles

Original Article

Authors: unlimited

Abstract (structured): 300 words (sections should be: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions)

Figures/tables combined: 8

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 40

Total number of words: 6000

Make a new submission to the Articles section.

Editorials

Editorial (by invitation only)

Authors: 4

Abstract: none

Figures/tables combined: 4

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 10

Total number of words: 3000

Make a new submission to the Editorials section.

Review Articles

Review Article (a review article should not include unpublished cases/data)

Authors: 10 maximum

Summary (unstructured): 300 words

Figures/tables combined: 8

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 80

Total number of words: 6500

Make a new submission to the Review Articles section.

Surgical Techniques

Surgical Techniques

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract (unstructured): 250 words

Figures/tables combined: 2 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 10

Total number of words: 1500

Make a new submission to the Surgical Techniques section.

Case Report

Case Report

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract (unstructured): 200 words

Figures/tables combined: 2 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)

Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)

References: 10

Total number of words: 1500

Make a new submission to the Case Report section.

Images in Cardiovascular Surgery

Images in Cardiovascular Surgery(an Image article should contain no text, only a description of the figure)

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract: none

Figures (no tables allowed): 1 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)

Videos: none

Total number of words: 50 for the legend

Make a new submission to the Images in Cardiovascular Surgery section.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor (should comment on recent JHCVM articles only).

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract: none

Figures/tables: none

Videos: none

References: 10

Total number of words: 750

Make a new submission to the Letters to the Editor section.

Editorial Comment

Editorial Comment (by invitation only)

Authors: 5 maximum

Abstract: none

Figures/tables: none

Videos: none

References: 10

Total number of words: 1500

Make a new submission to the Editorial Comment section.