publishes original papers on topics in thoracic and
cardiovascular surgery and features such as case reports, "how to do
it" articles, review articles, articles on our surgical heritage,
book reviews, invited editorials, correspondence, commentary and updates.
All manuscripts, correspondence, and editorial material must be submitted to the online editorial office at http://www.atseditorialoffice.org. Authors will have to be registered with an email address and password to submit manuscripts containing text, tables and images (figures) online. Unregistered authors can "create a new account" (ie, register) by following the instructions at the editorial office website.
Every submission, regardless of category, must include: a cover letter, indicating the category of article (see below); the complete manuscript, including title page, abstract, text, tables, acknowledgments, required disclosures (see below), references and illustrations. All of this material is entered via the editorial office website, http://www.atseditorialoffice.org.
A Conditions for
Publication Form, which includes disclosures of individual conflicts of interest; sources of funding; scientific responsibility; and freedom of investigation must be signed by all authors.
Written permission from the publisher (copyright holder) is required to
reproduce any previously published table(s), illustration(s) or photograph(s)
in both print and electronic media. Written permission from unmasked patients
appearing in photographs is also required.
The signed Conditions for
Publication Form, permission letters and other supplemental material (but not a cover letter) should be sent by surface mail or fax to the editorial office at the address above.
General Information
- Submit manuscripts, preferably prepared in Microsoft Word, through the editorial office website after signing in or creating a new account. Enter the "Author area" and follow the instructions for submitting "Entry Data" and a complete manuscript, including abstract, tables, figures and the cover letter.
- Under "Entry Data," indicate the number of authors in the box and justify more than 7 authors. If you wish to publish color figures and agree to pay the "color charge" check the appropriate box. Otherwise, do not submit your figures in color.
- Manuscript should be typed double-spaced throughout (including title page, abstract,
text, references, tables and legends) with one (1) inch (2.5 cm) margins all around.
- Arrange
manuscript as follows: (1) title page, (2) abstract, (3) text,
(4) acknowledgments, (5) disclosures if required, (6) references (do not use EndNotes), (7) tables and (8) legends.
Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page as page 1 and ending
with the legend page.
- Microsoft Word is the preferred software program. Manuscripts written in 11 point Arial or Times New Roman fonts are preferred and more reliably convert to PDF files during electronic submission. (Note: Do not submit your manuscript in PDF format because it will cause problems in processing your submission.)
- Note: The online submission process requires separate entry of some information which is also required to appear in the manuscript that you will be uploading into the system, eg, the manuscript title, author names, and abstract (if applicable). Therefore, in addition to filling in all of the data entry fields, make sure that the text file you upload into the system is complete as well. The PDF generated by the system must include your entire manuscript for the purposes of review. Please see “Sections of the Manuscript” below for all of the elements to be included in the manuscript you submit for review.
- American rather than British spelling should be used throughout the manuscript,
including in illustrations.
Word Limits by Category of Manuscript
- Original articles should not exceed 4500 words including title page, abstract, text,
figure legends and references. The combined total of illustrations and tables
should not exceed 10 and the number of references should not exceed 40.
- New Technology articles are limited to 2500 words including title page, abstract, text, figure legends and references. The number of tables should not exceed three; the number of illustrations should not exceed six if tables are included; eight if there are no tables. The number of references should not exceed 10.
- Case reports and "how to do it" articles are limited to a total of 1500 words
including title page, abstract, text, references and figure legends. For each
illustration subtract 100 words and for each table subtract 300 words from the word limit.
References are limited to eight. A "how to do it" article should be a description of a useful
surgical technique and contain descriptive, illustrative material.
- Images in cardiothoracic surgery are limited to 350 words including
title and text and to two, possibly three figures. The entire contribution
must fit on one printed page of The Annals.
- Review articles are limited to 6500 words including
title page, abstract, text, figure legends and all references. The
total number of references should not exceed 80. Subtract 100 words for each
illustration and 300 words for each table. More specific guidelines about the
content of review articles are available from the editorial
office upon request.
- Our surgical heritage articles are limited to 2500 words including
title page, abstract, text, figure legends and references. Subtract 100 words
for each illustration and 300 words for each table.
- Correspondence (Letters to the Editor), commentaries and updates
are limited to 500 words. Subtract 100 words for each illustration and 300
words for each table.
- Editorials are limited to 2500 words including references. Subtract 100
words for each illustration and 300 words for each table.
Sections of the Manuscript
(Items in order from top to bottom)
- Title Page (first page)
Title. The title is limited to 100 characters (including spaces) for original
manuscripts and to 80 characters (including spaces) for all other categories of
manuscripts. The title may not contain acronyms or abbreviations. All
submissions, including correspondence, must have a title.
Running Head. Supply a short title of 40 characters (including spaces).
Authors. List all authors by first name, all initials, family name and
highest academic degree using "MD, PhD" for holders of both degrees.
Institution and Affiliations. List the name and full address of all
institutions where the work was done. List departmental affiliations of each
author affiliated with that institution after each institutional address.
Connect authors to departments using numbered superscripts.
Meeting Presentation. If the paper has been or is to be presented at
the annual meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons or the Southern
Thoracic Surgical Association, provide the name, location and dates of the
meeting.
Keywords. Provide up to 5 keywords selected from the appended list to describe the manuscript. Do not use any keywords that are not on the list. Be sure to enter the same keywords when you submit the manuscript electronically.
Word Count. Provide the electronic total word count of the entire
manuscript including title page, abstract, text, figure legends and entire
reference list.
Corresponding Author. Provide the name, exact postal address with zip
or postal code, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address of the author
to whom communications, proofs and requests for reprints should be sent after publication. (It does not have to be the same person you have designated in the online submission system to handle pre-publication correspondence.)
- Abstract (second page)
Original articles. Provide a structured abstract, no longer than 250
words, divided into four sections: Background, Methods, Results,
Conclusions. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms. Indicate the abstract word
count below the abstract.
New Technology. Provide a structured abstract, no longer than 175
words, divided into four sections: Purpose, Description, Evaluation and Conclusions. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms. Indicate the abstract word count below the abstract.
Case reports, "how to do it" articles,
review articles and our surgical heritage articles. Provide an unstructured
abstract of no more than 100 words.
Images, correspondence, commentaries, editorials and
updates. No abstract is required.
- Text (third page and continuing up to "Acknowledgments")
Text should be organized as follows: Introduction, Material (or
Patients) and Methods, Results, and Comment.
Cite references, illustrations and tables in numeric order by order of
mention in the text.
Avoid abbreviations. Consult the American Medical Association Manual of
Style, 9th edition, for recommended abbreviations. Define abbreviations at
first appearance in the text. If 8 or more abbreviations or acronyms are used, provide a separate table of abbreviations and acronyms.
Measurements and weights should be given in standard metric units.
Statistical nomenclature and data analysis. Follow the "Guidelines
for Data Reporting and Nomenclature" published in The Annals of
Thoracic Surgery (1988;46:260-1) and found in the program book for the
annual meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
Footnotes. Type footnotes at the bottom of the manuscript page on which
they are cited.
Suppliers. Credit suppliers of drugs, equipment and other brand-name
material mentioned in the article within parentheses in text, giving company
name, city and state or city and country if outside the United States.
- Acknowledgments
Grants, financial support and technical or other assistance are acknowledged
at the end of the text before the references. All financial support for the
project must be acknowledged and will be printed in the article.
- Disclosures and Freedom of Investigation (New Technology Articles Only)
The disclosure statement, which is published after the text before references, must state the source(s) of all funds used to perform the evaluation and whether or not the tested technology was purchased, borrowed, or donated to the study. In addition, the authors must state that they had full control of the design of the study, methods used, outcome parameters, analysis of data and production of the written report. These statements are mandatory for all New Technology articles and are published after the text. These statements are not published for other categories of articles.
- References
Identify references in the text using Arabic numerals in brackets on
the line (do not use superscript or EndNotes). Do not cite personal communications, manuscripts in preparation and
other unpublished data.
Type references double-spaced after text or acknowledgments
beginning on a separate sheet. Number consecutively in the order in which they
appear in the text. The references must not be linked to the manuscript with EndNotes because that formatting is not compatible with automated publication production processes.
Journal references should provide inclusive page numbers; book
references should cite specific page numbers.
Authors are solely responsible for accuracy, completeness, and
non-duplication of references.
Journal abbreviations should conform to those used in Index Medicus.
The style and punctuation of the references should follow the formats outlined
below:
Journal Article
- Jones DR, Stiles BM, Denlinger CE, Antippa P, Daniel TM. Pulmonary segmentectomy: results and complications. Ann Thorac Surg 2000;76:343-9.
(List all authors if 6 or fewer; otherwise list first 3 and add "et al.")
Chapter in Book
- Vinten-Johansen J, Zhao Z-Q, Guyton RA. Cardiac surgical physiology. In: Cohn LH, Edmunds LH Jr, eds. Cardiac Surgery in the Adult. 2nd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 2003:53-84.
Internet Address
- 1996 NRC Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Available at: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/contents.html. Accessed October 20, 2003.
- Tables
Tables should be typewritten double-spaced on separate sheets (one to each
page). Do not use vertical lines. Each table should be numbered (Arabic) and have a title above. Legends
and explanatory notes should be placed below the table. Abbreviations used in
the table follow the legend in alphabetic order. Lower case letter
superscripts beginning with "a" and following in
alphabetic order are used for notations of within-group and between-group
statistical probabilities.
Tables should be self-explanatory, and the data should not be
duplicated in the text or illustrations.
- Figure Legends
Figure Legends should be numbered (Arabic) and typed double-spaced in order of appearance beginning on a separate sheet. Identify (in alphabetical
order) all abbreviations appearing in the illustrations at the end of each
legend. Give the type of stain and magnification power for all photomicrographs.
Cite the source of previously published (print or electronic) material
in the legend and indicate permission has been obtained. Proof of permission must be surface mailed or faxed to the editorial office once the manuscript is submitted online.
- Illustrations
Images or figures are submitted online as one or more separate files that may contain one or more images. Within each file containing images, use the figure number (eg, Figure 1A) as the image filename. The system accepts image files formatted in TIFF and EPS. Powerpoint (.ppt) files are also accepted, but for line drawings only and you must use a separate Powerpoint image file for each Powerpoint figure. Please obtain technical help if you are unfamiliar with image files. Call The Annals editorial office (215-349-5542) during business hours 8-6 PM, Eastern time U.S., Monday through Friday, if you cannot obtain technical help.
Symbols, letters, numbers and contrasting fills must be distinct,
easily distinguished and clearly legible when the illustration is reduced in
size. Most illustrations will be reproduced at a width of one column (8.25 cm;
3 1/4 inches).
Black, white and widely crosshatched bars are preferable; do not use
stippling, gray fill or thin lines.
Written permission from unmasked patients appearing in photographs must
be obtained by the authors and must be surface mailed or faxed to the editorial office once the manuscript is submitted online.
Color illustrations incur a color charge of $650 for the first color illustration in a manuscript and $100 for every additional color illustration in the same manuscript. The authors agreement to assume this cost should be indicated by checking the appropriate box on the "Entry Data" web page. Images should not be submitted in color unless the author is willing to pay the color charge.
Original illustrations. If your manuscript is accepted for publication and the electronic art you have submitted online is not acceptable for reproductive purposes, you may be required to send a set of original illustrations to the editorial office. You will be instructed accordingly by the staff. Original illustrations will not be returned.
Protection of Human and Animal Subjects
- Human Investigation
When human subjects are involved, indicate whether or not your Institutional Review Board (IRB) (or Ethics Committee or comparable group) approved this study and whether or not individual consent (for the study) was obtained or waived. This information should be stated in the first paragraph under "Patients and Methods." Include the dates of IRB approval. This policy applies for both prospective and retrospective studies; however, often IRBs waive the requirement for individual patient consent for retrospective studies.
When no formal ethics review process is available, authors must state that informed consent to participate in prospective studies was obtained from each human subject in accordance with relevant guidelines.
- Humane Animal Care
When animals are used as subjects, institutional approval of the protocol is necessary and authors should include a statement in "Methods" indicating that investigators complied with the 1996 "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" (See http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/contents.html), recommended by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, or with equivalent guidelines administered by the author’s governmental regulatory body.
When no formal ethics review process is available, authors must state that humane care was provided in animal experiments, in accordance with relevant guidelines.
Policies
- Scientific Responsibility Statement
Before publication of an accepted manuscript, each author is required to
certify by signing the Conditions for Publication Form that he or she has participated sufficiently in the work to take responsibility
for a meaningful share of the content of the manuscript, and that this
participation included:
(a) conception or design of the experiment(s), or collection and analysis or
interpretation of data;
(b) drafting the manuscript or revising its intellectual content; and
(c) approval of the final version of the manuscript to be published.
In addition, each author must indicate whether or not he or she has had full "freedom of investigation" before, during and after this study. "Freedom of investigation" is defined as freedom from outside interests in controlling the design of the study, acquisition of data, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and having freedom to fully disclose all results.
- Exclusive Publication Statement
Each author must certify that none of the material in this manuscript has been
published previously in either print or electronic form, and that none of this
material is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. This
includes symposia, transactions, books, articles published by invitation,
posting in electronic format and preliminary publications of any kind except
an abstract of 400 words or fewer.
- Disclosures: Conflicts of Interest; Sources of Funding; Scientific Responsibility; and Freedom of Investigation
The Annals requires that all authors disclose all relationships within the past three years of submission of an article which can be construed as influencing information within the article. Individual disclosures will appear in a boxed Conflict of Interest statement on the first page of the printed article. See the "Conditions for
Publication Form" for the definition of "Conflicts of Interest."
Disclosures relating to funding of research appear in "Acknowledgments" at the end of the text before the references. See the "Conditions for
Publication Form" for details. All original scientific articles, editorials, reviews, and New Technology articles must state sources of funding for the work described in the article in "Acknowledgments."
Except for New Technology articles, statements regarding Scientific Responsibility and Freedom of Investigation do not appear in the published manuscript, but are required of every author on the "Conditions for
Publication Form." In addition, the corresponding author is required to name any undisclosed authors of the manuscript.
- Copyright
Authors of articles submitted to The Annals must transfer copyright to The
Society of Thoracic Surgeons by signing the "Conditions for
Publication Form." This transfer becomes binding upon acceptance of the article for
publication. Elsevier, Inc. maintains copyright records for The Society
of Thoracic Surgeons. No part of the published material may be reproduced
elsewhere without written permission from Elsevier, Inc.
- NIH Initiative
Although not a requirement, the National Institutes of Health "requests" that all authors, whose paper describes research wholly or in part supported by NIH, post the "final version" of their accepted paper to Pub Med Central: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov within 12 months of publication or sooner (http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/Enhanced_Public_Access.pdf/). The final version is defined as "the final version accepted for journal publication, and includes all modifications from the publishing peer review process."
- Randomized Controlled Trials
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery endorses the CONSORT Statement regarding randomized controlled trials (http://www.consort-statement.org) and recommends that investigators who plan to publish their work in The Annals review the CONSORT E-Flowchart (http://www.consort-statement.org/Downloads/flowchart.pdf) and Checklist (http://www.consort-statement.org/Downloads/checklist.pdf) before enrollment of subjects begins. Randomized controlled trials should be free of bias and of misleading information due to, for example, insufficient numbers of subjects and failure to define primary and secondary endpoints. The Checklist succinctly and comprehensively defines the attributes of a well designed and reported randomized controlled trial. Authors who submit reports of randomized controlled trials to The Annals should also submit a completed CONSORT Flowchart and Checklist, leaving blank the page number of any item that wasn't done as part of the study; no study is expected to have addressed all the items on the checklist. These documents are intended to be used for review purposes only, and will not be published.
- Registration of Clinical Trials
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery supports mandatory registration of all publicly or commercially funded clinical trials, including Phase I and II trials, as a condition for publication. Information regarding requirements for registration of a clinical trial may be found at http://www.icmje.org/#clin_trials. Information for registering a clinical trial is available at prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov. The trial registration number should appear at the end of the abstract.
- Archiving Online Submissions
The editorial office will delete unpublished manuscripts from the online system 6 months after the final decision is rendered. Published manuscripts will be deleted 12 months after acceptance.
| Required supplementary data to be surface mailed or faxed to the Editorial Office:: |
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- Written permission from the publisher to reproduce previously published illustrations or tables.
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- Written permission from unmasked patients appearing in photographs.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
