HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

The Asian Cardiovascular & Thoracic Annals Instructions for Authors

The Asian Cardiovascular & Thoracic Annals is an international peer-reviewed journal pertaining to cardiovascular and thoracic medicine. Besides original clinical manuscripts, we welcome research reports, case studies, product reviews, reports of new techniques, and findings of special significance to Asian and the Pacifice Rim. Workshop proceedings, meeting and book reviews, regional events/news, letters to the editor, and meeting announcements are encouraged along with relevant articles from authors.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submitting manuscripts in the correct format will expedite the review process and prevent undue delay in publication. The editors reserve the right to reject incomplete submissions and those that do not comply with the specified submission guidelines. Please adhere to the requirements.

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION

Authors are required to make submissions on the Asian Annals website. Steps: 1. Register on the website; 2. Receive your Username and Password by email; 3. Login to the website with the Username and Password and make submission. Manuscript must be written in American English; spelling should conform to Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary for medical terms and Webster's New International Dictionary for lay terms. Manuscript files must be in Microsoft Word Format. Tables and graphic illustrations must be in Microsoft Word or Excel format. Images must be in JPEG format. Figures must be submitted as separate files.

COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AND PUBLICATION STATEMENT

All manuscripts must be accompanied by a set of "Copyright Transfer and Publication Statement" and "Disclosure Statement". They are available for download on our website. Both documents must be sent to the Editorial Office by post with original signatures of all authors. No submission will be reviewed or published without such documents.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors are required to disclose any commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted manuscript, including (but are not limited to): employment, consultancy, direct payment, retainer, stock ownership, honorarium, paid expert testimony, equity interest, patent licensing arrangements; and all sources of funding or grant support for the work. Grant or contract numbers must be disclosed whenever possible, including the complete name of the funding institution or agency along with the city, state, and country in which it is located; and any commercial interest in a competitor company. If the submitted manuscript concerns a device or a specific drug, author(s )must disclose that they do not have any financial interest or other interest in the manufacturer or distributor of the device/drug; or state the nature of any relation between author(s and the manufacturer or distributor of the device/drug. The editors and publisher reserve the right to disclose and publish any such information wherever deemed necessary.

ETHICAL ISSUES

Reports of research carried out in human subjects must contain a statement indicating approval by the relevant ethical committee or in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983, as well as affirmation that informed consent was obtained from each patient. Do not use patients' names, initials or hospital numbers in the text or illustrations. Any details, especially photographs, which might identify a patient will be published only if they are considered to be scientifically essential. Written permission is required for the use of identifiable photographs of patients. It is not sufficient to cover the patients' eyes to mask the identity.

MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION

Manuscript structure should be in the order of title page, abstract and key words, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, figures, and figure legends.

TITLE PAGE

The complete title should contain no abbreviations and must not exceed 80 characters including spaces. A short title to be used as the running head should not exceed 40 characters including spaces. List authors' full names, with the surnames (family names) underlined, followed by one single highest academic degree. A maximum of 6 authors is allowed. All authors must fulfill the criteria for authorship described in "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" (JAMA 1997;277:927-34. Available at http://www.icmje.org). State in English the name and location (city, country) of the institution where the work was performed. If the paper has been or is to be presented at a conference, provide the name, location and dates of the meeting. State telephone, fax, email and address information of the contact author. State any conflict of interest on the title page.

ABSTRACT AND KEY WORDS

An unstructured abstract must precede the text, except for editorial, commentary and letter to the editor. The abstract should be no more than 200 words for Original Contribution and Review Paper, 75 for Case Study and How-To-Do-It articles. No abbreviations are allowed in the abstract. List up to 5 key words for subject indexing. Keywords should be taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus; if suitable MeSH terms are not yet available for recently introduced terms, present terms may be used.

TEXT

The text should be written concisely. It must be continuous and should not contain lists. Original Contribution should include Introduction, Material/Patients and Methods, Results and Discussion. Case Study and How-To-Do-It articles should not exceed 750 words, excluding abstract and references. Do not abbreviate terms used less than 4 times. Full terms of abbreviations or acronyms should be stated at first mention, with the acronym following in parentheses. Use standard abbreviations only. Generic names for drugs should be used, unless brand names are essential to the discussion. At the mention of drugs, equipment and other brand-name material, indicate the manufacturer's name and location (city, state, country ) in parentheses. Measurements should be in metric units (meter, kilogram, liter). Temperature must be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressure should be in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). all hematological and clinical chemistry data must be in Systeme International (SI) units.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments of financial or personal assistance should be placed at the end of the text. All papers prepared in consultation with a statistician who is not a coauthor should contain an acknowledgment indicating the name and a single highest academic of the consultant statistician. Individuals who have made substantial intellectual contrubitions to the paper but do not fulfill the criteria for authorship may be named in this section.

REFERENCES

The maximum number of reference is 20 for Original Contribution, 8 for Case Study and How-To-do-it articles, and 5 for Letter to the Editor. References cited should be from journals which are Medline indexed. Works accepted for publication but not yet released should be indicated by "in press" in parentheses after the name of the publication concerned. Do not cite personal communications or unpublished work. Avoid using abstracts as references. References must be numbered and cited in the text. Authors are soley responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the references. References should conformt to the format outlined below.

Journals - list the first 6 authors' surnames and initials, followed by "et al." (if more than 6 authors), full title of the article, correct abbreviation of the journal name (conform to that used in Index Medicus), year, volume number, first and last pages.

Books - list authors' surnames and initials, chapter title, editor's name(s) and initial(s), book title, edition, city, publisher, date, first and last pages.

Other materials - format according to Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www/icmje.org).

ILLUSTRATIONS AND IMAGES

Cite all tables (Table 1) and figures (Figure 1) in the text. Tables should be self-explanatory, supplementing but not duplicating THE text. Abbreviations must be defined in alphabetical order in the table footnotes. All columns must have headings.

Photographs must be sent to the Editorial Office in camera-ready form or as glossy prints at least 3 X 5 inches. Letters and symbols must be clear and consistent when reproduced for publication. Photocopies are not acceptable. Do not send original art work, radiograph films or EKG strips. The back of all photographs should be labeled with the figure number as mentioned in the text, the contact author's name and an arrow showing the correct orientation. Do not secure the photographs with staples or paper clips. No photographs will be returned.

For soft copies of images, it is preferable to provide 2 resulutions: one for reviewing and the other for publishing. Color images should have a minimum resulution of 150 DPI for reviewing and 600 DPI for publishing; black and white images should have a minimum resolution of 300 DPI for reviewing and 1,200 DPI for publishing.

COLOR ILLUSTRTATIONS AND IMAGES

All operative illustrations, histology images and color Doppler echocardiogram are to be printed in full color. This incurs a charge of USD400.00-800.00 that must be paid by the authors(s). The author(s) should inidcate their agreement on the "Disclosure Statement".

LEGENDS

Figure legens should be provided at the end of the manuscript. Define all abbreviations in alphabetical order at the end of each legend.

REVIEW

Submissions are reviewed by invited referees and selected editors. It is our policy to provide "blinded" reviews. Neither reviewers nor authors will be identified, so there is no possibility of bias in any editorial decision. Accepted material may be revised by editors for clarity, length, and style, without altering the meaning. One set of proofs is sent to the contact author for final confirmation (only minor alterations are permitted at this stage). If a submission is accepted for publiction, no part of the material therein may be reproduced without the written permission from Asia Publishing Exchange Ltd. No submitted materials will be returned. Rejected articles are disposed of properly to preserve confidentiality.

REPRINTS

Reprints are to be ordered in lots of 100 through Asia Publishing Exchange Ltd. An order form will be sent to the contact author before publication. Reprints will be mailed approximately 4 weeks after publication.