The AJCS adheres to Uniform by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. If a manuscript does not meet these requirements, the Editors expect the authors to revise the manuscript promptly and to make the respective changes.
Requirements for specific submission types
Original article
Consist of scientific reports that show the results of an original surgical or clinical research. It must include an abstract in Spanish and English (250 words each). The manuscript body is limited to 2700 words. It should be divided into 4 sections:
a) Introduction and objectives
b) Methods
c) Results and
d) Conclusions.
It must be understandable and not contain references or abbreviations. A maximum of 5 tables/figures is allowed and the number of references should not exceed 80. A maximin of 10 authors is permitted.
Special article
Provide data and personal conclusions. It should focus on areas such as economic policy, ethics, laws or provision of health care. It must include an abstract in Spanish and English (250 words each). The manuscript body is limited to 2700 words. A maximum of 5 tables/figures is allowed and the number of references should not exceed 40.
Review articles
Review articles are often by invitation but the AJCS will also consider manuscript not requested. Please submit your proposal to us and you will receive an answer either declining or confirming an invitation to submit your manuscript. You will be inform about the specific requirements for your submission. Review articles wrote by physicians of other specialists will also be considered but topics should be focused on cardiovascular disease. The article must include an unstructured abstract in Spanish and English (200 words each). The manuscript body is limited to 4000 words. A maximum of 6 figures/tables is allowed.
Conflict of interest: since a review article aims to the selection and interpretation of current literature, AJCS expects that the authors have no financial interest.
Brief communication
It should be an original investigation. It must include an abstract in Spanish and English (250 words each). The manuscript body is limited to 1,300 words. A maximum of 3 tables/figures is allowed and the number of references should not exceed 15. A maximin of 6 authors is permitted.
Other types of manuscript submission
Editorial
The Editors may solicit an Editorial about a topic to emphasize or explain the significance and relevance for a vascular disease specialty audience or an expert commentary to accompany an accepted original article. The editorial is limited to 1000 words and the number of references should not exceed 15.
Opinion
It may not be related to an article published on the journal. The manuscript body is limited to 2000 words.
Letter to the editors
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the Editor regarding recently published AJCS articles. Letters should not exceed 500 words and 5 references. Only one illustration or table may be included if it amplifies a recent AJCS article by extending or clarifying the original manuscript content. A maximum of 3 authors is allowed.
Cardiovascular images
Submissions accepted for this section must present interesting vascular images associated with a short educational summary in a case report format. Illustrations and text must be confined to one printed page (250 words max). A maximum of 3 authors is allowed.
Historical notes
Brief manuscripts related to historical aspects (surgeons, techniques, etc) of cardiovascular surgery. Abstract or keywords are not required. The manuscript body is limited to 1000 words. A maximum of 2 tables/figures are allowed and the number of references should not exceed 3. A maximum of 2 authors is permitted.
Case reports
It should have high clinical and educational value and should contain novel information for our readers. It must include an unstructured abstract and keywords in Spanish and English (250 words each). The manuscript body is limited to 1200 words. A maximum of 2 figures/tables is admitted and the number of references should not exceed 6.
Surgical technique
Manuscripts should be a description of a useful surgical technique and contain descriptive, illustrative material describing the innovation. It must include an unstructured abstract limited to 150 word in Spanish and English. The manuscript body is limited to 1500 words. A maximum of 9 figures/tables is allowed and the number of references should not exceed 10.
Preparing your manuscript file
The manuscript file for most submissions includes a title page, article highlights, table of contents summary, abstract, manuscript body and references.
Detailed instructions for how to format the manuscript file are described below.
Title page: A complete title page is required for all submissions and must appear at the beginning of the manuscript file. The title page must include:
Manuscript title: Must be concise and accurately reflect the content of the manuscript. The text is limited to 50 words.
Authors: Complete first name, middle initial and last name, degrees, corresponding institutions, departments, and divisions, in the order that they should appear in the final printed article
Corresponding Author (s): Include the name(s), mailing address, phone number and email address for the corresponding author.
Authorship Criteria
To qualify for authorship, each author must have made a significant contribution to the conception or completion of the manuscript and is willing to share the responsibility for the content of the paper. A corresponding author must be designed. The corresponding author acts as the pre-publication spokesperson for the co-authors in all communications with the Editorial Office and the Publisher. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have reviewed, agreed to the policies of AJCS and approved the manuscript files, disclosed conflicts of interest, and verified their contributions prior to submission and before each subsequent resubmission. Once the paper has been submitted, the corresponding author responses to queries by to the Editorial Office, receiving and relaying the results of the peer review process to the co-authors, and working with the co-authors to revise and approve the manuscript before resubmitting it. Finally, the corresponding author must also relay the co-authors’ proof corrections once the manuscript is accepted. Contributions who do not meet the criteria for authorship must be included at Acknowledgments.
Abstract
The abstract must be written in Spanish and English. It must clearly state the main factual points of the article; the basic study design and setting (the patient/subject selection method and number, eligibility criteria, proportion withdrawn, and the exact treatment or interventions); main outcome measure(s) (it should be stated with statistical significance) and main conclusions supported by the study.
Keywords
Authors may use any five terms they choose to help readers identify this work. They may use the U.S. National Library of Medicine's MeSH Tools for Finding Keywords (Available at https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search) or Spanish version at Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud (http://decs.bvs.br/E/DeCS2018_Alfab.htm).
Manuscript body
The usual sections for a clinical science manuscript include: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.
Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Material and methods
Should be described in detail with appropriate information about the basic study design and setting (i.e., community referral center, ambulatory or hospitalized patients), the patient/subject selection method and number, eligibility criteria, proportion withdrawn, and the exact treatment or interventions Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Generic names of drugs and equipment should be used throughout 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.
Ethics
If the work involves human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them. The authors should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans in 1975, corrected in 1983 and reviewed in1989.
Do not include patients names or medical ID.
Statistics
Statistical methods must be adequately described since results may be correctly interpreted by readers. Methods may include multivariable modelling, matched pairs analysis and propensity score methodology. You must provide details about the randomization, statistical methodology and complications during development study. When data is summarized in the Results section, statistical methods, abbreviations and symbols must be defined in the text.
Results
Results should be reported concisely and regarded as an important part of the manuscript. They should be presented either in tables and figures, and briefly commented on in the text, or in the text alone. Repetition of results should be avoided. The number of tables or figures will depend on each type of article. You may use graphics as alternative to tables.
Discussion
The discussion is an interpretation of the results and their significance with reference to pertinent work by other authors. It should be clear and concise. The importance of the study and its limitations should be discussed. Do not repeat data presented on Introduction or Results. Authors should avoid giving information about economic costs unless the manuscript refers and includes data on this issue. Priority claim or referral to another incomplete manuscript should be avoided. The development of other hypotheses are justified, but they must be explained clearly. Recommendations can be included where they are appropriate.
Disclosures
A disclosure statement is required for all studies. The disclosure statement must state the source(s) of all funds used to support the study or to perform an evaluation and whether or not property or tested technology was purchased, borrowed, or donated to the study. If a company's product is mentioned in a manuscript, all authors are expected to declare whether they have a consulting or employment arrangement or a royalty or stock agreement with the company.
If the authors did not received any financial, property, or intellectual aid of a commercial source, it must be indicated.
Acknowledgment
This section can be used to acknowledge contributions of other individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship. It must be included at the end of the text before the references. Type of contribution must be detailed: a) e.g those who provided administrative support, writing assistance, language editing, or b) grants, financial support, technical or other assistance.
References
References should be cited consecutively in the text by superscript Arabic numbers in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, a table, or a figure. References should not be cited alphabetically. For Original article, the number of references should not exceed 40. For Review article should not exceed 20.
The format for references is based on Index Medicus. If there are six or fewer authors, list all; if seven or more, list only the first six, then et al.
Examples:
Format for Journal Articles: Cribier A, Eltchaninoff H, Bash A, Borenstein N, Tron C, Bauer F, et al. Percutaneous transcatheter implantation of an aortic valve prosthesis for calcific aortic stenosis: first human case description. Circulation 2002;106:3006-8.
Format for Books: Brouwer W, Rutten F, Koopmanschap M. Costing in economic evaluations. En: Drummond M, McGuire A, editors. Economic evaluation in HEALTH care: merging theory with practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001; p. 68-93.
References must be checked and supervised by the authors.
Tables
Tables should enhance, not duplicate, the text. All tables must be cited. Number your tables consecutively in Roman numerals according to the order of citation in the text and have a title above. Legends and explanatory notes should be placed below the table. Abbreviations used in the table must be clarify by using symbols *, †, ‡, §, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, etc. Statistical measures such as standard deviation and average should be identified. If data is used by another source (published or not), permission must be obtained and source informed. Do not include vertical lines in the tables. Use only horizontal lines to facilitate a better comprehension and easy eligibility of data.
Figures
For our staff to evaluate the quality of your images, each one must be submitted electronically via the Editorial Manager system as separate TIFF, JPEG, or EPS files. Each image must have a minimum of high 300 DPI at 3 inches wide. Cite each figure in the manuscript text. Number your figures consecutively in Arabic numerals according to the order that they are cited in the manuscript. Ensure that each figure has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description. If an image includes text, it must be a minimum of 10-point font that make sure that text is readable. Symbols and abbreviations used must also be clarified. If a figure has already been published, original reference must be informed and permission for publication must be attached. You may not submit more than the maximum number of figures permitted for the selected article type. Please review the instructions for the specific article type before proceeding. Publication consent is required for all patient images. The authors must be able to provide publication consent forms if requested by the Editorial Office, but they SHOULD NOT upload them in Editorial Manager.
Units of measure
Measurements of height and weight should be stated in metric units, temperature in degrees Celsius and blood pressure in mm Hg. Hematologic and clinical chemistry measurements can be stated in System International (SI) units or non-SI units.
Orcid (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
ORCID number should be provided by all authors. To obtain an ORCID the authors may register on the website: http://orcid.org.
Registration is free for all researchers.