Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aan to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
   2.7 Clinical trials
   2.8 Reporting guidelines
   2.9 Data
   2.10 Abstract presentations from ASCVTS conferences
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.3 Supplementary material
   4.4 Reference style
   4.5 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 Sage Production
   6.2 Online First publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information

 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article Types

Manuscripts are considered for publication with the understanding that they have not been published previously and are not under consideration by another publication.

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals is a peer-reviewed journal which welcomes new techniques and findings of special significance to Asia and the Pacific Rim:

• Original clinical manuscripts (including research reports)
• Case studies
• “How to do it” short discussions on surgical techniques
• Images/illustrative examples of surgical cases
• Reviews
• Letters to the Editor and regional news/events

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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2. Editorial policies

At the end of your article the following declaration statements should be included in the order listed below: 

Funding

Declaration of Conflicting interests

Ethical approval

Informed consent

Please see the below points 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 for full information.

Examples of a completed declarations section:

DECLARATIONS

Funding: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number XXX]/The research received no specific grants from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or non-for-profit sectors.

Declaration of Conflicting interests: MS is an employee of XXX/BF has received grants from XXX/None declared.

Ethical approval: The ethics committee of XXXX approved this study (REC number: XXXX)/Not applicable.

Informed consent: Written/Verbal informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study/Not applicable.

Please read the following information carefully for additional information regarding these declarations.
 

2.1 Peer review policy

Submissions are reviewed by invited referees and selected editors. It is our policy to provide “anonymized” 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 changing the meaning. One set of proofs is sent to the contact author for final confirmation (only minor alteration is permitted). Rejected articles are disposed of properly to preserve confidentiality.

2.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

(i)    Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii)    Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii)    Approved the version to be published,
(iv)    Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input 
•    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance 
•    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

2.4 Funding

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, 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 a patient who is identifiable be shown the manuscript to be published.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

2.7 Clinical trials

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

2.8 Reporting guidelines

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives

2.9 Data

Sage acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles [“alongside their article submissions” or “if the articles are accepted”] to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. [The editor(s) may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data.] The editor(s) [can/will] also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations.

2.10 Abstract presentations from ASCVTS conferences

All authors of oral/abstract presentations are required to submit an expanded, full manuscript to the journal prior to the annual ASCVTS conference. This includes all abstracts for competition and award sessions. The authors/presenters will not be permitted to present their papers if they do not produce submission acknowledgements from the Asian Annals. Abstracts for the competition and award sessions will not be processed through the scientific committee if not accompanied by a full manuscript. 

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

A structured abstract should be included, comprising approximately 250 words for an original article. You should also list four to six key words.

Manuscript structure should be in the following order: title page, abstract and key words, text, acknowledgments, references, tables, figures, figure legends. It is important to ensure that you submit the title page, abstract and main text, images, tables and figures as separate files.

TITLE PAGE

The complete title should contain no abbreviations and must not exceed 80 characters, including spaces for both the original and any revisions of the article. A short title to be used as the running head should not exceed 40 characters including spaces. Authors' names should be listed in full, with the surnames (family names) underlined, followed by one single highest academic degree. We recommend no more than 6 authors and for submission to be handled by the primary or corresponding author. If there are more than 6 authors their details should be listed on the submission title page. All authors must fulfil 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). The name and location (city, country) of the institution where the work was performed should be stated in English. If the paper has been or is to be presented at a conference, provide the name, location and dates of the meeting. State the telephone number, email address and postal address of the contact author. Any conflict of interest must also be stated on the title page. The title page of all article types, should include a total word and reference count which should be update if a revision is submitted. 

ABSTRACT AND KEY WORDS

Original articles must contain a structured abstract using the heading format: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions, and not exceeding 250 words. A brief abstract no more than 100 words must be included for case reports. No abbreviations are allowed in the abstract. Four to six key words must be listed 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 main text should be anonymous - containing no author information. The text should be written concisely. It must be continuous and should not contain lists. Original Contributions 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 fewer 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 clinicalchemistry data must be in Systeme International (SI) units. If in doubt, refer to a recently published article.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgements 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 co-author should contain an acknowledgment indicating the name and a single highest academic qualification of the consultant statistician. Individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the paper but do not fulfil the criteria for authorship may be named in this section.

REFERENCES

The maximum number of references is 20 for Original Contributions, 8 for Case Studies and How-To-do-it articles, 60 for review articles and 5 for Letters 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 solely responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the references. References should conform 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).

For Image Papers the manuscript should be no longer than 150 words, contain up to three images and must not list any references.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines. 

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

Figures should be supplied as TIFF or JPEG and contain no text or graphs. 

Graphs and line art should be supplied in EPS format. 

4.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

4.4 Reference style

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file

4.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aan to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Help.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals editorial office as follows:

Editor-in-chief: Professor Yutaka Okita (yutakaokita@gmail.com)