Author Guidelines

• Before submission
• Ethical policies
• Research involving human
• Research involving animals
• Reporting guidelines
• Systematic reviews
• Case series
• Original articles
• Abbreviations and measurements 
• References
• Figures
• Tables

Before submission

About the Journal

Patologiya krovoobrashcheniya i kardiokhirurgiya (Circulation Pathology and Cardiac Surgery) is a peer-reviewed open access journal about advances in the treatment of heart disease. It is an official journal of Meshalkin National Medical Research Center (Novosibirsk, Russia) and is published quarterly since 1997.

The scope of the journal includes original research articles, reviews, and case reports on congenital heart disease, acquired heart disease, coronary artery disease, vascular and endovascular surgery, arrhythmias with emphasis on new findings and developments. The journal also accepts research on concomitant cardiac disease, cardiac anesthesiology, neurosurgery and oncology, materials on the history of Russian and Siberian cardiac surgery.

The journal aims to reflect the progressive clinical experience and scientific ideas of Russian and Siberian cardiac surgeons and cardiologists.

About the Guide for Authors

Authors submitting articles to the Patologiya krovoobrashcheniya i kardiokhirurgiya journal must prepare them in accordance with:

1. Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (Updated December 2017);
2. Reporting guidelines for main study types developed by the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network (example: CONSORT for randomised trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews, and PROCESS for case series);
3. WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects;
4. Basic Statistical Reporting for Articles Published in Biomedical Journals: The “Statistical Analyses and Methods in the Published Literature” or The SAMPL Guidelines”

Authors should read carefully and use the recommendations in their research activities. The Guide for Authors is based on the above requirements and is revised periodically by editors. Authors should comply with the Guide, otherwise, an article will be returned to authors for revision or denied.

Article Language

The editorial office accepts articles written in good Russian and/or in English. Russian language authors should translate in English article’s title, abstract, keywords, corresponding author’s details, figures legends, funding and conflict of interest statements, and Russian languages references. This English part of the article is assessed by the English editor.

In 2017-2019, the highest quality articles were translated into English to share the results of Russian scientists with the worldwide research community. Russian full text is published in print and electronic format, English full text is only available online on journal’s site.

English language authors do not need to provide abstract or full text in Russian.

Article Submission

Register and Log in to submit an article online and to check the status of current submissions.

Put title page in Russian and English, main text, references, tables and figures legends in one MS Word file. Authors could place figures in a text file or submit separately at the correct resolution and name according to the figure number.

Please do not send your manuscripts by email. Articles submitted by email and without supporting documents will not be accepted. For any queries during the submission and peer-review process please email journalmeshalkin@gmail.com or journal@meshalkin.ru.

Supporting Documents

Manuscripts should be accompanied by following supporting documents. All documents should be in PDF format and be uploaded at the time of manuscript submission.

1. Cover letter
The cover letter should be addressed to the editor-in-chief and include the following information:

• Article’s title, author’s names and affiliations;
• A statement that the article has not been previously published in the same or different languages and is not under consideration of another journal. A statement that the article is free from plagiarism and is not duplicate publication;
• A full statement about all previous publications that might be regarded as redundant, secondary or very similar work. Copies of such materials or links to online versions should be provided; 
• A statement that all potential and actual conflicts of interests and source of financial support are disclosed and included in the article;
• A statement that all named authors made a contribution, have seen and approved the paper. There are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. All authors have approved the order of authors listed in the manuscript.

The letter should give any additional information that may be helpful to the editor. If the manuscript has been submitted previously to another journal, it is helpful to include the previous editors' and reviewers’ comments with the submitted manuscript, along with the authors’ responses to those comments.

2. ICMJE Conflict of Interest form
All authors must complete the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest and send a completed form to the corresponding author. The corresponding author should combine all authors’ PDF files into one file and upload to the journal’s site at the time of manuscript submission.

3. Ethical approval (optional)
Articles involving human or animal experiments should be accompanied by a signed copy of approval by the relevant review committee or authorities.

4. Permission to reproduce previously published material (if relevant)
If the article includes previously published material, illustrations or tables, even if it was published in another language, the manuscript must be accompanied by permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce, adapt or translate the copyrighted sources.

5. Permission to report information about identifiable persons (if relevant)
Case reports where a human can be identified in descriptions, photographs or pedigrees must be accompanied by a signed informed consent of the identifiable patient to publish (in print and online) the article.

6. Permission to acknowledge people for their contributions (if relevant)
The corresponding author must obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged persons.

Ethical policies

Patologiya krovoobrashcheniya i kardiokhirurgiya journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices to reach the highest standards in publication ethics. The journal is also included on the list of journals that follow the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and follows its Recommendations. Meshalkin National Medical Research Center (founder and publisher) is a member of Association of Science Editors and Publishers (Russia).

The editorial board expects all authors to conduct and report their results in an ethical and responsible manner (authorship, originality, ethical approval and patient's informed consent, disclosure of conflict of interest and role of funding, etc).

Peer reviewers, editors, and editorial board members are also expected to declare all potential conflicts of interest and to evaluate manuscripts fairly and confidently. In cases of suspected misconduct, editors will follow the COPE flowcharts.

See Publishing Ethics section and ICMJE Recommendations for more information.

Disclosure of conflict of interest and role of funding

Conflict of Interest Statement

Download the ICMJE Conflict of Interest Form, complete and upload the Form at the time of article submission. Include a summary conflict of interest statement for all authors in the end of the manuscript. The statement should be the same as in the ICMJE Form and will be included in the published article. If there is nothing to declare, state: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

Funding Statement

Include sponsor names and describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If there was no sponsorship, state: “The study had no sponsorship.”

See Conflict of Interest section and ICMJE Recommendations for more information.

Author Contributions Statement

For original research articles provide an authorship contribution statement after Conflict of Interest, Funding, and Acknowledgement sections. Based on the four authorship ICMJE criteria indicate the contributions made by each author in the study.

Write the author's’ name against the following roles:

• Conception and study design
• Data collection and analysis
• Statistical analysis
• Drafting the article
• Critical revision of the article
• Final approval of the version to be published

All authors must read and approve the final version of the work.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

WAME Recommendation 2.2: “When an AI tool such as a chatbot is used to carry out or generate analytical work, help report results (e.g., generating tables or figures), this should be stated in the body of the paper, in both the abstract and the Methods section. In the interests of enabling scientific scrutiny, including replication and identifying falsification, the full prompt used to generate the research results, the time and date of query, and the AI tool used and its version, should be provided.”

Acknowledgment

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should be acknowledged with a description of the contribution (ex., technical or writing assistance, language editing and proofreading, general consulting). The corresponding author should obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged individuals. A copy of informed consent should be sent to the editorial office.

See Authorship section and ICMJE Recommendations for more information.

Clinical trial registration

As the journal is included in the list of publications that follow ICMJE guidance, editors follow ICMJE’s trial registration policy and encourage authors to register all their clinical trials in any public trials registry that is primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP.

The trial should be registered at or before the time of first patient enrollment.

The trial registration number (TRN) and the name of the register should be included in the article. The trial registration number is published at the end of the abstract.

See ICMJE Recommendations for the definition of clinical trial and more.

Ethical approval of studies and informed consent

Research involving human

For protection of research participants, Patologiya krovoobrashcheniya i kardiokhirurgiya journal follows Declaration of Helsinki, Journals’ Best Practices for Ensuring Consent for Publishing Medical Case Reports: guidance from COPE, and ICMJE policy on protection of research participants.

Ethics approval
Authors should ensure that human research are conducted in accordance with the the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (Protection of Research Participants). The research must be approved by local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board). In other cases authors should confirm that such approval was not required and explain why. A statement of ethical approval (ethics committee name and number of protocol) must be included in the Methods section of the article.

The editorial board is pleased to see clearly detailed explanations of ethical review process in the Methods section or in the cover letter and/or supporting documents if this information could not be placed in the article. The editorial board also wants to see the copy of approval by a responsible review body. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, editors may contact the responsible research ethics committee or authors’ institutions. The editorial board also asks peer reviewers to evaluate the ethical aspects of submitting research.

Consent for participation
All patients (or their legally authorised representative) should give voluntary written informed consent to participate in the study before enrollment. If the consent cannot be expressed in writing, the non-written consent must be formally documented and witnessed. Each potential subject must be adequately informed of the aims, methods, sources of funding, any possible conflicts of interest, institutional affiliations of the researcher, the anticipated benefits and potential risks of the study and the discomfort it may entail, post-study provisions and any other relevant aspects of the study. The potential subject must be informed of the right to refuse to participate in the study or to withdraw consent to participate at any time without reprisal.

All medical research subjects should be given the option of being informed about the general outcome and results of the study.

A statement of obtained consent must be included in the Methods section of the article.

Consent for publication
Consent for publication differs from consent for participation in research. Any article including personal medical information (i.e, names, date of birth, number of medical documents, etc) and/or identifiable patient’s images cannot be published without explicit consent of the patient or their legally authorised representative.

For any case report, authors should obtain explicit consent for publication. This consent should inform patients which journal and form (print or online) the work will be published in, make it clear that, although all efforts will be made to remove unnecessary identifiers, complete anonymity is not possible. The consent form should also state that the work will be freely available on the internet and may be seen by the general audience. A statement that written informed consent for publication was obtained must be included in the case report.

If the content is obtained the patient’s name and all nonessential identifying details should be omitted. The patient can revoke his consent at any time before publication, but once the information has been published, revocation of the consent is no longer possible.

The original of the signed informed consent is held and achieved by the treating institution.

If the consent can not be obtained the publication is possible only if the information is sufficiently anonymised and is essential for scientific purposes.

Patient’s images
If the patient can be identified from photo or from its legend or accompanying text, it is necessary to obtain informed consent for publication.

Xrays, ultrasound images, pathology slides or laparoscopic images can be published without consent if these (including legends and descriptions) do not contain any identifying marks. If consent has not been obtained, it is not enough to anonymise a photograph simply by using eye bars or blurring the face of the person. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that person can be identified.

Research involving animals

Patologiya krovoobrashcheniya i kardiokhirurgiya journal follows International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare (IAVE Guidelines). All material must adhere to high ethical standards concerning animal welfare. At the cover letter authors must state that legal and ethical requirements have been met with regards to the humane treatment of animals described in the study.

Animal ethics-based criteria for manuscript consideration:

1. All research involving animals must be approved by local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board). In other cases, authors should confirm that such approval was not required.
2. Authors reporting animal research must follow applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for humane animal treatment. A statement of ethical approval (full name of ethics committee and number of protocol) and the international, national, and/or guidelines followed must be included in the Methods section of the article.
3. Authors should specify efforts made to minimize pain, including methods of anaesthesia used and the assessment of the adequacy of anaesthesia.

Experiments involving animals should be reported in accordance with ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines.

Animal ethics-based criteria for manuscript rejection:

1. The study fails to meet ethical standards regarding animal welfare;
2. The study involves unnecessary pain, distress, suffering, or lasting harm to animals.

Manuscript preparation

The editorial office accepts for publication original research articles, case series, systematic reviews, and materials on the history of cardiac surgery.

Format 

Put title page, main text, funding statement, conflict of interest statement, acknowledgments (if any), references, tables and figures, their legends in one text document (MS Word). Place figures in the text file where they first mentioned or submit separately at the correct resolution and name according to the figure number (e.g., Fig. 1. Fig 2). Don’t use footnotes; use instead parentheses in brackets in the text. Mark in the text the approximate position of each figure and table. Do not repeat the data in the tables and figures in the text. Present in tables and figures the main and most important findings of the study.

Reporting guidelines

For the clear, complete and transparent reporting of research, authors should follow the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network guidelines for different types of biomedical study.

Reporting guidelines for main study types are:

• Randomised controlled trials: CONSORT
• Observational studies: STROBE
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA
• Case series: PROCESS
• Animal pre-clinical studies: ARRIVE

Systematic reviews

• Length: <3000 words (excluding abstract, references, tables and figures legends)
• Abstract: 250-300 words, structured
• Keywords: 5-7 from MESH that will assist in an online search for the review
• References: <80
• Tables: <4-6
• Figures: <4-6

The editorial board considers systematic reviews and meta-analyses on important subjects in cardiac surgery, cardiac anesthesiology, and concomitant heart disease. Systematic reviews of the most significant clinical results during the last five years are particularly encouraged. For reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses authors should follow the PRISMA guidelines.

The title must be short and informative; it is necessary to include study design.

Abstracts should be structured as it require PRISMA guidelines.

The text of review must be structured, include tables and figures explaining main ideas. It is necessary to describe in detail process of literature selection. All data sources must be critically evaluated.

Systematic reviews should also include statements of funding and conflict of interests (as in originals articles, read more below).

Case series

• Length: <2000 words (excluding abstract, references, tables and figures legends)
• Abstract: 200-250 words, structured
• Keywords: 2-5 from MESH that will assist in an online search for the case series
• References: >8 peer-reviewed literature
• Tables: <4-6
• Figures: <4-6

The editorial board considers series of similar case reports about new or rare disease, unusual presentation of common disease, novelty in diagnosis or treatment. Case series should focus on important clinical lessons and have educational value to healthcare professionals.

Authors are required to follow the PROCESS 2023 Guidelines when writing case series.

Patients described in the case series should provide informed consent. A statement of obtained informed consent should be included in “Informed Consent” section after main text. Despite obtained permission, all patient information must be de-identified. Read more about patient’s consent in Ethics section.

Case series should also include statements of funding and conflict of interests (as in originals articles, read more below).

• Length: <3000 words (excluding abstract, references, tables and figures legends)
• Abstract: 250-300 words, structured
• Keywords: 5-7 from MESH that will assist in an online search for the study
• References: 25-40
• Tables: <8
• Figures: <8

Original articles should include the following sections: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Funding Statement, Conflict of Interest Statement, Authors Contributions Statement, Acknowledgments (if any), List of Abbreviations, and References. All sections must be in one MS Word file. Each section should be on a new page.

Title Page

References

General information

List the references in the end of the manuscript in the References section. Number the sources in the order of citation in the text. In the body of the paper, write the references in square brackets. Unless it is a literature review, cite the references within the last 5 years. List references cited in the text only.

Citation sources include published or accepted material (e.g., journal articles, books and other monographs, electronic materials, databases, and repositories).

Do not include in the references:

• abstracts (unless they are the only available reference to an important concept);
• submitted but not accepted articles (cite in the text as “unpublished observations” with written permission from the source);
• retracted articles (except in the context of referring to the retraction.Retracted articles are identified in PubMed as "Retracted publication [pt]" and include in the PubMed's list of retracted publications);
• conference abstracts (cite in parentheses in the text);
• personal communication (cite a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication).

Accepted but not yet published works should be stated in references list as “forthcoming.”

Style and format

The Patologiya krovoobrashcheniya i kardiokhirurgiya journal follows Vancouver style for references summarized in the NLM’s Samples of Formatted References for Authors of Journal Articles.

List all authors in the reference, do not use “et al.” after first six authors. Use dots after the authors' initials. Abbreviations for journal names should be taken from NLM Catalog.

For all cited articles should be added database's unique identifiers for the citation, such as DOI, PMID and/or PMCID (if they have it). Do not cite more than 3–5 your previously published works. Avoid an inappropriate self-citation.

The proofreader checks the accuracy of all reference citations, but it is the authors primarily responsibility to check the accuracy of cited sources. To minimize citation errors in published articles, references should be verified using either an electronic bibliographic source, such as PubMed, or print copies from original sources.

Example formats of the main type of sources are listed below.

Figures

Artwork (black-and-white and color pictures, figures, diagrams, charts, graphs) should be submitted in a suitable format for print publication (jpg, more than 300 dpi). Radiological and other clinical and diagnostic images, as well as pictures of pathology specimens or photomicrographs, should be high-resolution. Before-and-after images should be taken with the same intensity, direction, and color of light. Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should be clear. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.

The figures’ titles must be short, informative and self-explanatory, containing information that allows readers to understand the figure's content without having to go back to the text. All additional information should be placed in footnotes, not on the figure.

Figures should be numbered and cited in the text in sequence (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). All abbreviations and symbols used in a figure must be explained in the legend.

Figures should be submitted separately and also could be placed in the text.

Permission to reproduce previously published figures

Tables

Present in tables the most important results. Data given in tables must conform to those in the text, but must not duplicate the text. Tables should be numbered and cited in the text in sequence (Table 1, Table 2).

The tables’ titles must be short, informative and self-explanatory, containing information that allows readers to understand the table's content without having to go back to the text. All additional information should be placed in footnotes, not in the heading. All abbreviations and symbols used in the table must be explained in the footnote.

Tables should be included in the text.

Permission to reproduce previously published data

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright holder to reproduce, adapt or translate tables previously published in non open access journals. A statement that a permission is obtained must be included in the table footnotes, and the original source must be included in the references.