Submissions

Author Guidelines

The International Cardiovascular Forum Journal (ICFJ) is an international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing high quality reports, studies, trials, investigations and theories covering all aspects of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health and disease. The journal commissions high quality review articles and editorials from distinguished authors and also welcomes full length original research and review articles, concise case reports and letters.

ICFJ aims at establishing a platform for international researchers to meet and exchange findings, opinions and ideas. It features regular publishing of editorials concerning contemporary controversial issues aimed at stimulating comprehensive research in those fields.

ICFJ invites Original articles, Reviews, Editorials, Letters to the Editor and Case Reports. Case Reports will only accepted if formatted as a Letter to the Editor.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES: These should contain only original research findings not previously published or being considered for publication elsewhere. There is no maximum word count for original articles.  Manuscripts should follow the following layout with the following section headings: Title page, Structured Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Limitations, Conclusions, Declarations of Interest, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Figures (descriptions below).

Title Page should include:
1) The title (not to exceed 20 words)
2) The full list of authors and their academic affiliations (no degrees please)
3) Corresponding author and contact details including email address
4) List of up to 5 keywords separated by semicolons

Structured Abstract should include the following subheadings: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions

Introduction should be brief and outline the state of knowledge relevant to the manuscript and why the submitted paper has been performed and which question(s) it has been designed to answer.

Methods should be detailed enough to answer the readers queries as how precisely the work was done. Manuscripts reporting data obtained from research conducted in human subjects must include a statement of assurance in the Methods section of the manuscript that (1) informed consent was obtained from each patient and (2) the study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institution’s human research committee. Manuscripts reporting experiments using animals must include a statement giving assurance that all animals received humane care and that study protocols comply with the institution’s guidelines.

Statistical Methods should be in detail, stating different methods used, power calculations (if relevant) and how the authors handled any potential bias in the data acquisition and interpretation.

Results should be presented precisely. Present 95% confidence intervals with p values where relevant for parametric statistics and interquartile ranges for non parametric statistics. When describing normal distributions, denote the standard deviation and when describing uncertainty of a mean, use the standard error of the mean.

Discussion should be directly related to the study being reported rather than a general review of the topic.

Limitations should be a brief discussion of the weaknesses of the report. 

Conclusions should be a brief discussion of the main signifcance of the paper and its takeaway messages.

Declarations of Interest List all related consultancies, shareholdings and funding grants for each author and if there are none, append the following statement: "The authors declare no conflicts of interest."

Acknowledgements All funding sources, professional writing services and other significant assistance should be added.  The following statement must also be added at the end of the acknowledgements section:  The authors agree to abide by the requirements of the "Statement of publishing ethics of the International Cardiovasular Forum Journal.

and cite the following citation at the end of the reference list: (Shewan LG, Coats AJS, Henein MY. Authors’ Responsibilities and Ethical Publishing. International Cardiovascular Forum Journal 2018;13:3-4, DOI: 10.17987/icfj.v13i0.525).  

References style used by ICFJ is Vancouver Numbered and should be cited in the text in square brackets like this [1] in the appropriate place in the text. The maximum number of references is 40 for an original article and 80 for a review. They must include Author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume and issue/book chapter and the pagination must be present, all single spaced. The article DOI must be added to the end of each reference if one exits. DOI numbers exist for most papers published since the year 2000.

These can be searched for on the following website: http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/  or you can copy the citation into google search and the doi can often be seen on the seaRch result or the journal page or article pdf.

Tables should each be placed on a separate page after the references and be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Provide a short descriptive heading above each table with a legend to the table underneath including an explanation of any footnotes and/or abbreviations.

Figures should ideally be submitted in high-resolution TIF format, or alternatively in GIF, JPEG/JPG, or EPS format. The figures should be placed in separate files, named only with the figure numbers (e.g. “Figure1.tif”.). Please ensure figures have the appropriate resolution: Line art: 1000 dpi Halftones: 300 dpi Combinations: 500 dpi Colour: 300 dpi Colour combinations: 500 dpi. Legends for Figures should be added to the end of the manuscript

REVIEW ARTICLES: Reviews should have an unstructured abstract of up to 250 words. There is no maximum word count. The abstract should contain a sentence outlining the academic and/or clinical relevance of the manuscript.

EDITORIALS: Editorials should have an unstructured abstract of up to 250 words, and a maximum of 12 references and 2 figures/tables and a maximum word count of 1500 words.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letters and case studies (only accepted as Letters to the Editor) may include up to 1000 words, 2 figures/tables and 10 references. These may have a short highlights section where an abstract would normally be (150word max) with no sub-headings. If the letter contains original research findings a short description of methods, results and conclusions is required in the text.

Process of submission: ICFJ is a fully electronic journal.

Cover Letter and Author Agreement Declarations: Before the article can be considered by the Editorial Office, all authors must signed and upload a letter stating: 1. their role in the article, 2. that they each agree to its submission and 3. that they each consent to their names, emails, contact details and research interests being held by the journal for the sole purpose of the journal's activities and functioning. The letter(s) should be uploaded at the time of submission and ALL authors names and emails must be entered in the Metadata section.

Authorship: All authors (and email address) of the manuscript MUST be entered during the submission process at Step 3 (Entering Metadata). Every author must agree to the submission of the manuscript and must declare he/she satisfies the criteria as listed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) to be considered an author. The Journal requires documentation that each author satisfies these criteria as listed at the ICMJE web-site (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html). 

Changes to Authorship: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written signed confirmation from ALL authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. This includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Publication of an accepted manuscript is suspended until authorship has been agreed.

Language Editing: The language of the ICFJ is English. ICFJ welcomes abstracts submitted in the authors native language provided they are checked, to match the English translation, by a reliable body and a proof is submitted.

After acceptance: Proofs will be sent to the authors to be carefully checked for printer’s errors. Changes or additions to the edited manuscript cannot be allowed at this stage. Corrected proofs should be returned to the publisher within 2 days of receipt.

Patient consent: Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent which should be documented in the paper. Identifying information, including patients’ faces, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). Written consents must be provided to the Editorial Office on request. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning. If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.