Article Types

Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications publishes research articles, review articles, case reports, study protocols, commentaries, letters to the editor, research letters, consensuses and guidelines, and editorials.

Research Articles

The text of research articles should be divided into sections with the headings:

Graphical Abstract
Abstract
Key words
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements
Conflict of interest
References

The prescribed word count for research articles is no more than 5000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures, and Tables).

Review Articles

It is expected that these articles would be written by individuals who have done substantial work on the subject or are considered experts in the field.

The manuscript should have a Graphical Abstract, an unstructured English abstract (250 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles will depend upon the topic reviewed.

Authors submitting review articles should include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting, and analyzing data. These methods should also be summarized in the abstract.

Post-publication updates on the subject of review covering the advances in the areas should be sent as a letter to the editor, as and when major developments occur in the field.

The prescribed word count is no more than 10,000 words excluding tables, and the Abstract, Acknowledgements, References, figures, and Tables sections.

Case reports

The text of Case report should be divided into sections with the headings:

Abstract (unstructured, approximately 150 words)

Keywords (3 to 10)

Introduction

Case presentation

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Conflict of interest

References

The prescribed word count for Case report is no more than 1,200 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 15 references can be included.

Study Protocols

CVIA publishes Study Protocols for any study design. This includes experimental design of basic and translational research, clinical and epidemiological studies, or clinical trials, as well as qualitative and observational studies.

All protocols for randomised clinical trials must be registered and follow the SPIRIT guidelines. Protocols for systematic reviews should be registered and must follow the PRISMA-P guidelines.

Peer review will focus on whether the paper has full academic merit and whether adequate detail has been provided to enable others to assess and use the protocol.

The text of study protocols should be divided into sections with the headings:

Authors

Title

Abstract

Keywords

Main Body – to include background and rationale; trial design.

Data and Software Availability

Reporting Guidelines (if applicable)

Author Contributions

Competing Interests

Grant Information

Acknowledgments (optional)

References

Figures and Tables (if applicable)

Mathematical Scripts (if applicable)

Images (if applicable)

Special Characters (if applicable)

The prescribed word count for research articles is no more than 7,000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures, and Tables).

Commentaries

The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (less than 200 words) representing an accurate summary of the article.

The prescribed word count for Commentaries is no more than 2,000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 20 references can be included.

Letters to the Editor

The manuscript should have an unstructured English abstract (150 words) representing an accurate summary of the article. The section titles will depend upon the topic presented.

The prescribed word count for Letter to the Editor is no more than 1,000 words (excluding Abstracts, Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 15 references can be included.

Research Letters

Research Letters provide rapid and concise report of a novel finding that is brief in nature but is of general interest to the field. You may submit original research of a focused nature as a research letter. Address the manuscript’s clinical questions and findings on the first page of your submission as follows:

What is the scientific question being addressed?
What is the main novel finding?

The prescribed word count for a Research Letter is no more than 1000 words, excluding references and figure legends.

References: No more than 5

Figures/Tables: One simple table or one figure

Supplemental Material: Not permitted.

Consensuses and Guidelines

Consensuses and Guidelines are official recommendations from professional organizations on issues related to clinical practice and health care delivery. CVIA is flexible with length, reference, and other format requirements given the variability in the format of guidelines developed by different organizations. A concise table or concise graphic summarizing the recommendations and other key points is desirable.

Editorials

Editorials are by invitation only, and free contributions are not accepted. The manuscript should not have an abstract.

The prescribed word count for Editorials is no more than 2,000 words (excluding Acknowledgements, References, figures and Tables). Approximately 20 references can be included.

Online Article Submission

Submissions to CVIA are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system.

Registration and access is available at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/cvia-journal.

Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts is available here http://mchelp.manuscriptcentral.com/gethelpnow/

Along with the submission, please provide a cover letter declaring any potential conflicts of interests.

Distinguish yourself with ORCID

ORCID iD is a unique and persistent identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and connects you to your research activities, so you always get the credit for your work. We encourage submitting authors to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. Including your ORCID iD with your article submission improves the discoverability of your work and creates more opportunity for recognition.

Text

Presentation and Format

Double spacing
Margins 2.5 cm from all four sides
Page numbers included at bottom
Title page contains all the required information
Running title (not more than 50 characters)
Abstract page contains the full title of the manuscript
Abstracts: For all articles, structured abstracts of 200 words or fewer; Letters to the Editor do not require an abstract.
Key words in English (three to eight)
Introduction (of 75–100 words)
Headings in title case (not ALL CAPITALS)
References cited in the text should be before punctuation marks, within square brackets
References listed according to the journal’s instructions, punctuation marks checked
Send the article file without ‘Track Changes’
Uniformly American English
Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure
Spell out numerals from 1 to 10, unless used in conjunction with an SI unit.
Spell out numerals at the beginning of the sentence
Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
If a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer’s name and address (city and state/country)
Species names should be in italics
Length of articles: 4,000 words; case reports 1,500

Main Text

Certain types of articles should be structured using the IMRAD format.

Language and Grammar

Uniformly American English
Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a standard unit of measure
Spell out numerals from 1 to 10, unless used in conjunction with an SI unit.
Spell out numerals at the beginning of the sentence
Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors
Species names should be in italics

Title

The title page should include a clear and concise title (please avoid abbreviations), author names and affiliations, as well as corresponding author information (email address must be included).

Authorship

A researcher should make substantive intellectual contributions to each of the following aspects to qualify for authorship:

Concept and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
Critically drafting or revising of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Final approval of the version to be published. Each author should participate sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not justify authorship.

Graphical abstracts

A Graphical Abstract must be submitted with all Original Articles and Review Articles. A Graphical Abstract (GA) is a self-contained image that succinctly represents the key findings of the paper It should convey the core message of the work visually, serving as a quick overview for readers.

The GA should effectively introduce the research context, highlight the methodology, and present the primary outcome. A clear, simple, and visually engaging GA enhances an article’s impact, facilitating faster comprehension, encouraging interdisciplinary interest, and increasing the visibility of the work, including on social media.

The image must be original and uniquely tailored to the paper, submitted as a separate file by selecting “graphical abstracts” in the submission system. Ensure the GA has a logical flow, either top-to-bottom or left-to-right, and avoid clutter or distractions.

Specifications:

Image Size: Minimum 1328 x 531 pixels (width x height) with a resolution of 300 dpi. If submitting a larger image, maintain a 500:200 width-to-height ratio.

File Type: Acceptable formats include TIFF, EPS, PDF, or MS Office files.

Avoid adding extra text, outlines, or headings like “Graphical Abstract” within the image. All necessary labels should be embedded directly in the image, minimizing white space.

Data and Materials Sharing

CVIA is committed to improving scholarly communications and as part of this commitment, authors may make materials, data and associated protocols available to readers. The preferred way to do this is to publicly deposit the data as noted below. Supplemental material can mean anything from tables to datasets, filesets to presentations, video to audio files. Including supplemental material with your article makes it more discoverable, and CVIA will ensure it is effectively linked to, within your article abstract.

Why include supplemental material with your journal article?

It makes your article more discoverable, giving people another route to find your research.
Other researchers can cite your supplemental material, increasing the impact of your work.
Funders are able to identify clear links to data, ensuring you meet your funding requirements.
Your supplemental data is effectively preserved.
Research shows that articles with supplemental material are downloaded and cited more often.

To support this, if you wish, CVIA can include links on your article abstract to the associated data.

How do I link my article to its data?

If you are considering publishing an article with us, and wish to link to supplemental material hosted in a particular data bank, please follow these steps:

Submit your datasets to an appropriate public data repository. Data should be submitted to discipline-specific, community-recognized repositories where possible, or to generalist repositories if no suitable community resource is available.
Where suitable domain-specific repositories do not exist, authors may deposit in, for example, Dryad, Dataverse, the Open Science Framework, or an institutional repository and provide the correct access information with the manuscript. Alternatively, authors may choose to deposit non-standard data (including figures, posters, rich media) on Figshare for example. In all cases, the correct data DOI reference (where applicable) should be provided when submitting the final version of your article.
In all cases, the correct accession/deposition reference numbers/data DOIs must be provided in the manuscript.
Remember to check that the licensing policies of the data repository that you choose are suitable for your purposes. The DataCite organisation has a growing list of repositories for research data.
Please remember to update your chosen data bank with the article DOI on publication.

Are my data files subject to peer/editorial review?

No, we don’t expect that the data files will be subject to any special data review or scrutiny.

Abstract

A structured abstract includes four sections:

Objective, the purpose of the study;
Methods, the study process and statistical methods;
Results, the main findings of the study;
Conclusion, the significance and implications of the findings.

Please minimize use of abbreviations and avoid using references in the abstract.

The abstract should not exceed 250 words.

Papers by Chinese authors may also be accompanied by a Chinese translation of the abstract which will be used to promote the article on Chinese language social media platforms.

Key words

Please list three to eight key words representing the main content of the paper.

Introduction

The author should provide background knowledge in the related field and important literature on the issue under discussion. The section should end with a brief statement on what is being reported in the article and the expected contribution to the study.

Methods

The author should clearly state the study design, the setting, any materials and/or subjects involved, any sampling and/or grouping methods, any interventions, and methods for statistical analysis. The author should generally use generic names instead of trade names. However, if there are critical differences among proprietary products, trade names should be used followed by generic descriptions, both in parentheses.

If human subjects are involved in the study, an ethical approval by the appropriate committee should be noted and an “informed consent” statement should be included in the manuscript.

Results

The author should state only the main findings of the study in a clear and simple way, always remembering to avoid repetitive presentation of the data through text and tables.

Results of statistical analyses should include, where appropriate, relative and absolute risks or risk reductions, and confidence intervals.

Mean differences in continuous variables, proportions in categorical variables and relative risks including odds ratios and hazard ratios should be accompanied by their confidence intervals.

Specify the computer software used. For all P values include the exact value, not < 0.05 or 0.001.

Discussion

The author should give an interpretation of the results, and point out the relevance and significance of the implications.

You may also modestly admit the limitations of the study and point out a direction for further research in the related field.

Acknowledgements

Major contributors to the study who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be given thanks in the Acknowledgements section.

Make sure to obtain permissions prior to citing any names/organizations here. Please also include the sources of funding for the study.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose any and all conflicts of interest they may have with the publication of the manuscript or an institution or product that is mentioned in the manuscript and/or the outcome of the study presented.

Authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript.

For more detailed information on our Conflict of Interest Policy please click here.

References

All references should be numbered consecutively in the order that the citations appear in the text.

Up to six of the author names can be listed and followed by “et al.”.

The journal titles should be abbreviated according to the style used in the list of Journals Indexed for MEDLINE.

Examples of References

Standard journal article: Shukla N, Husain N, Agarwal GG, Husain M. Utility of cysticercus fasciolaris antigen in Dot ELISA for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis. Indian J Med Sci 2008;62:222–7.
Standard journal article (for more than six authors): List the first six contributors followed by “et al.”.
Volume with supplement: Shen HM, Zhang QF. Risk assessment of nickel carcinogenicity and occupational lung cancer. Environ Health Perspect 1994;102 Suppl 1:275–82.
Issue with supplement: Payne DK, Sullivan MD, Massie MJ. Women’s psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol 1996;23(1, Suppl 2):89–97.
Books and Other Monographs
Personal author(s): Ringsven MK, Bond D. Gerontology and leadership skills for nurses. 2nd ed. Albany (NY): Delmar Publishers; 1996.
Editor(s), compiler(s) as author: Norman IJ, Redfern SJ, editors. Mental health care for elderly people. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1996.
Chapter in a book: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995. pp. 465–78.

Electronic Sources as Reference

Journal article on the Internet

Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12]; 102(6): [about 3 p.]. Available from: http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm

Monograph on the Internet

Foley KM, Gelband H, editors. Improving palliative care for cancer [monograph on the Internet]. Washington: National Academy Press; 2001 [cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074029/html/.

Homepage/Website

Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000–01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Part of a Homepage/Website

American Medical Association [homepage on the Internet]. Chicago: The Association; c1995–2002 [updated 2001 Aug 23; cited 2002 Aug 12]. AMA Office of Group Practice Liaison; [about two screens]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1736.html

Figures and Tables

Please number tables consecutively in the order of their appearance in the text.
Provide a clear and concise title above the table and use footnotes for explanatory matters below the table.
Please use double-spacing and do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines.
Make sure each column has a short heading.
Use the following symbols in footnotes in sequence: *, †, ‡, §, ‖, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ‖‖, ¶¶, etc.
Please also number the figures consecutively in the order of their appearance in the text.
The figures should be of high quality and be self-explanatory with symbols, arrows or letters indicating the important areas in the figure.
Provide titles and detailed explanations in the legends below the figures.

Units of Measurement

Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be in metric units (meter, kilogram, or liter).
Temperatures should be in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be in millimetres of mercury.
Please refer to International System of Units (SI) for more information.

Abbreviations and Symbols

Use standard abbreviations. In the case of non-standard abbreviations, on first mention please write out the term in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.

Manuscript Preparation

Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) supports the ethical principles set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

All journal stakeholders and authors are required to observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Authorship

It is important that appropriate credit is awarded to the authors of a manuscript. In accordance with ICMJE guidelines to qualify as an author, a researcher should make substantive intellectual contributions to each of the following aspects:

Concept and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
Critically drafting or revising of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Final approval of the version to be published. Each author should participate sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not justify authorship.
Be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Conflict of Interests

All authors are required to complete a standard conflict of interests/competing interests form. This form will be sent to all authors of accepted papers at the end of the peer review process. This should be returned together with your revised manuscript. Authors must declare any competing interests by completing our standard form. Conflict of interests/competing interests can be defined as factors which could influence the judgment of an author, reviewer or editors, and may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial in nature. Put simply, they are interests which, if revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived.

Writers of letters and editorials must also declare competing interests. Reviewers are also required to declare competing interests and in most cases these reviewers with competing interests will not be asked to proceed with the review.

Statements of competing interests are included in the online versions of research articles.

For additional guidance and information on the topic of conflict of interests and competing interests please refer to the ICMJE recommendations on author responsibility and COPE’s “Responsible research publication: international standards for authors” document.

A sample of our Authorship Form is available for download here.

For more detailed information on our Conflict of Interest Policy please click here.

Funding Acknowledgements

From 2015 Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) requires all research articles to have a funding acknowledgement statement included in the manuscript. The statement should be placed under a heading entitled ‘Funding’ directly after your Acknowledgements and Declaration of Conflicting Interests, if applicable.

We require details of the funding agency to be supplied in full, followed by the grant number in square brackets. Multiple grant numbers should be separated by comma and space, see following example:

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxx, yyy, zzz].

Where the research was supported by multiple sources, the different agencies should be separated by semi-colon, with “and” before the final funder. Such as:

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the National Science Fund [grant number zzzz]; and the International Research Body [grant number xxxx].

Where the research is not funded by a specific project grant, but from other resources available to a university, college or other research institution, such as the block grant, the following statement should be used:

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Text Recycling

“Text Recycling” or “self-plagiarism” as it is sometimes called occurs when an author reuses passages of text from his/her own previously published work in a new submission. As Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) is a member of CrossCheck’s plagiarism detection initiative, all instances of text recycling will be detected. When such instances are detected the COPE Guidelines on text recycling will be followed.

Duplication

All manuscripts submitted to Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) should be original and not under consideration by another publication. Apart from causing potential problems from an ethical and international copyright law perspective, the duplicate publication of original research is problematic in a medical context because it can result in inadvertent double-counting of data or inappropriate weighting of the results of a single study, which can distort the available evidence. In instances where substantial parts of the text in the submission may overlap, we ask our authors to be open and let us know of any concerns when they submit their manuscripts. Each issue will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis in accordance with ICMJE recommendations on overlapping publications.

In the event that Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) becomes aware of violations of publication ethics after the article has already been published, then the article may warrant retraction with or without the author’s explanation or approval. In any such event Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) will adhere to the COPE flowcharts when dealing with the suspected violations.

Plagiarism

Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) is a member of CrossCheck’s plagiarism detection initiative and uses plagiarism detection software. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

Clinical Trials Registration

Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) adheres to ICMJE’s Clinical Trials Registration Statement. All clinical trials published in the journal must be registered in a public trials registry at or before the onset of participant enrolment. Manuscripts should include the exact URL and unique identification number for the trial registration at the time of submission. This information will be published in the article and we ask that you include the URL and identification number on the title page of your manuscript.

For any clinical trials commencing prior to 2008, retrospective registration will be accepted. 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 prior publication if they are presented in the form of a brief abstract (500 words or less) or a table.

Registration of Systematic Reviews

The prospective registration of systematic reviews is welcomed and we encourage all authors to register their systematic reviews in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). Please include the registration number in the last line of the manuscript abstract.

Standards of Reporting

Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) requires all authors to follow the correct standards of reporting regarding biomedical research. Please refer to EQUATOR for guidelines for health research and MIBBI for guidelines and tools for bioscience reporting. Authors are strongly encouraged to use these guidelines as a checklist when writing their manuscripts.

Other available checklists include CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews, STROBE for observational studies, MOOSE for meta analyses of observational studies, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, RATS for qualitative studies, and CHEERS for economic evaluations.

Authors of systematic reviews must provide a link in the Methods section that shows all details of the search strategy. Refer to Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook for examples of the presentation of search strategies.

Authors must use standardized gene nomenclature. The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee details human gene symbols and names. Information on other species can be found at https://www.genenames.org/help/faq/ the Human Genome Variation Society provides guidelines on mutation nomenclature.

Authors are expected to comply with current field-specific standards regarding the preparation and recording of data (https://fairsharing.org/search?fairsharingRegistry=Standard), while also maintaining strict patient confidentiality. In addition, when using unpublished data, authors must make contact with the owners of the data before starting their own research.

Human and Animal Testing

All human or animal studies should be approved or exempted by the appropriate institutional human and/or animal subject review committee, or if no formal ethics committee is available, are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. This approval or exemption should be stated in the Methods section of the article.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals are followed. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.

Patient Consent

All authors must declare that, where relevant, patient consent has been obtained (or the consent of their parent or guardian in the case of children under 16) and that all reasonable steps have been taken to maintain patient confidentiality, including illustrations, which should be anonymized as far as possible.

Research and Publication Misconduct

Any allegations of potential research or publication misconduct will be investigated in adherence with the COPE guidelines on how to deal with cases of suspected misconduct.

For more detailed information on our Misconduct Handling Policy please click here.

Appeals and Complaints

Appeals

All authors have the right to appeal the rejection of their manuscript. Authors can appeal directly by contacting the editorial office. Appeals will be reviewed in the context of the manuscript’s scientific content and its suitability for publication. The co-Editors-in-Chief decision on the appeal will be final.

Complaints

All complaints can be made directly to the editorial office. They will be happy to outline the complaint procedure in full.