Ethics and consent

When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. Papers including animal experiments or clinical trials must be accompanied by an approval by the local ethics committee. Please give date of issue and registration number.

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.

Submission   - now only online

All submissions should be made online at the Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal's Manuscript Central site, which can be accessed via: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scar

New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.

Your submission will be acknowledged by an e-mail which includes the Manuscript ID number for your paper. Remember to refer to this number in the subject line of any correspondence with the Editorial Office. You can view of the status of your manuscript via your author center. Please note that Case Reports are not accepted for publication in Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal.

Manuscript layout

Type manuscript double-spaced throughout (including title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and legends). Type the last name of the first author in the upper right-hand corner of each page, including the title page. Arrange manuscript file as follows: (1) title page, (2) abstract and keywords (3) text, (4) references, (5) tables, and (6) legends.  All text files must be submitted as MS word files. Figure images should be submitted as separate files.

The average-length original article is 5 printed pages. In manuscript form, this is the equivalent of 20 double-spaced manuscript pages: a title page, 1 page for the abstract, 10 pages of text (2,500 words), 4 tables or illustrations including 1 page of figure legends, and, generally, not more than 20 references (approximately 3 pages).

Title Page

The title should be as short as possible (fewer than 95 letters and spaces) and should indicate the conclusion rather than the theme of study. Avoid abbreviations. Also submit a short title of 40 characters to be used as a running head. Include only the names of the authors directly affiliated with the work and single highest academic degree. The maximum number of authors for original articles is 7. A larger number will have to be justified to the Editor, through the cover letter. Include the name and location of no more than two institutional affiliations where the work was actually done. If more than one department or institution are given, indicate which authors are affiliated with each.

If the paper has been or will be presented at an international meeting, provide a footnote giving the name, location, and dates of the meeting.

At the bottom of the page, type "Address reprint requests to Dr . . ." followed by the last name, exact postal address with zip code, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the author to whom communications, proofs, and requests for reprints should be sent.

Abstract

Provide a structured abstract no longer than 200 words for an original article. The abstract should be divided into four sections in the following order: Objectives, Design, Results, and Conclusions. The abstract should be included in the main manuscript file, but also entered in the designated area in the online submission process to be used for correspondence with reviewers.

Text

References

Only papers closely related to the author's work should be quoted. Exhaustive lists should be avoided. References should follow the Vancouver format. State the references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, using Arabic numerals within parentheses, eg. (1). List all authors when 6 or fewer, when 7 or more, list the first six and add 'et al'. Abstracts and letters must be identified as such. Articles that have been accepted for publication but not yet published should be listed as 'in press'.

Abbreviations of journal titles: please consult the List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus, published annually as a list in the January issue of Index Medicus - for more information: www.nlm.nih.gov

For journal articles in electronic format use the following style: Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun 5]; 1(1): [24 screens]. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/index.htm

For more examples of how to refer to different sources, consult the uniform requirements for biomedical journals online: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Tables

Tables should be typewritten double-spaced on separate pages, each with a table number (Arabic) and title above the table and explanatory notes and legends below. Provide a key in alphabetic order to each table to identify all abbreviations used; this key should be placed below any explanatory notes. Tables should be self-explanatory, and the data should not be duplicated in the text or illustrations. If a table provides redundant information, it will be deleted.

Legends

Type legends double-spaced sequentially on a separate page but within the main manuscript file. Numbers should be Arabic and correspond to the order in which the illustrations occur in the text. Identify (in alphabetic order) all abbreviations appearing in the illustrations at the end of each legend. Give the type of stain and magnification power for all photomicrographs. Include the legends within the main manuscript text file.

Figures

Graphic elements and illustrations are accepted if providing unique data that can not be described in the text, and should be clearly marked with Arabic numbers as they appear in the text. To ensure correct placement in the journal layout, note the figure reference (abbreviated) within brackets when referring to the figure in text, e.g. (Fig. 1).

Figure files should be kept as separate files, in TIF, EPS, PDF or JPG format. Providing these formats will guarantee that the quality of the graphics is good throughout the publishing process, if provided with sufficient resolution. Photographic illustrations should be rendered with at least 300 DPI; please use CMYK color conversion if possible. Graphs made with Office software such as Microsoft Excel, can be provided in their original format to facilitate conversion into printable format with preserved quality. Any other line graphs/illustrations should preferably be provided in EPS format with a resolution of at least 600 DPI to prevent ragged lines when printed.

Costs for colour illustrations must be borne by the authors. The cost for this is currently 750 USD per printed page

Author proofs - final approval

Authors will be notified via e-mail when a manuscript is ready for final approval before publication. This e-mail provides instructions on how to log on to the online author service, where the final version of the manuscript can be downloaded as a printer ready PDF file.

To avoid delays of publication, proofs should be checked immediately and returned electronically through the online service, following the instructions given. Corrections submitted via the telephone are not accepted. Authors are advised that they are responsible for proof-reading of the text, references, tables and figures for absolute accuracy.

Additional material or major corrections cannot be accepted at this stage, nor is substantial rewriting of paragraphs permitted. Such extensive changes may result in a delay or withdrawal of the article from publication. Any costs arising from major additional changes may also be charged to the authors.

Copyright

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights of the contents of their articles, including abstracts, to Informa Healthcare. This enables full copyright protection and dissemination of the article and the Journal, to the widest possible readership in electronic and print formats. A document to verify this will be sent upon acceptance for publication. This document should be signed by the corresponding author and returned to the publisher for archiving. To read more about Informa Healthcare's policy and guidelines regarding copyright, consult the online author service pages: ./authors_journals_copyright

Permissions

E-mail: gerd.halvorsen@informa.com