Submissions
Author Guidelines
FOR AUTHORS
General information and journal policy
Polish Heart Journal (Pol Heart J, Kardiologia Polska) is the official journal of the Polish Cardiac Society (PTK, Polskie Towarzystwo Kardiologiczne). This monthly journal aims to provide a platform for sharing knowledge in cardiology, from basic science to translational and clinical research on cardiovascular diseases. All accepted articles will be fully citable with a DOI (digital object identifier) number and will be indexed on PubMed.
Papers that do not adhere to the instructions listed below will be returned for revision before assessment.
Copyright information and journal policy
The copyright to the submitted manuscript is held by the Author, who grants the Polish Cardiac Society a non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, and distribute the work, including for commercial purposes.
The Licence Terms can be downloaded here: https://journals.viamedica.pl/public/journals/48/Licence_terms.pdf
Pol Heart J is an open access journal applying the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), allowing third parties to download articles and share them with others, provided the original work is properly cited, not changed in any way, distributed under the same license, and used for noncommercial purposes only. For commercial use, please contact the journal office: polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl.
If submitted work has been funded by institutional grant, the applicant may optionally choose to release the work under Creative Commons licence: attribution (CC BY) to meet the requirements of funding party, if applicable.
Authorship
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. All authors should have contributed substantially to all or any of the following: the concept and design of the study, data collection, data analysis (including statistics) and interpretation, drafting the manuscript, and revising it critically for essential intellectual content. Each author should approve the final version of the manuscript. Additional authors or contributors who do not fulfil the above criteria, e.g. technicians, persons involved in patient recruitment or figure drafting, should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section. If required, the first two authors may be listed as the authors who equally contributed to the submitted work and may be considered the „first” authors; this should be clearly indicated on the title page with an asterisks next to the authors’ names and the following statement below the affiliations: "Both authors equally contributed to the study".
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication no changes to the authorship will be allowed.
Conflict of interest
All authors must declare any conflicts of interest during the submission of their manuscript via the online submission system. The corresponding author is responsible for highlighting any conflicts of interest in their manuscript accordingly, i.e. as a statement of conflict of interest.
Any potential conflict of interest should be declared, including (but not limited to) author shareholding in or receipt of lecture honoraria, travel expenses coverage, research grants or consultancy fee from a company whose product features in the submitted manuscript or which manufactures a competing product.
If no conflict of interest is declared, this will be stated in the article using the following wording: "Conflict of interest: none declared".
Article Processing Charge
The publication of manuscripts submitted to the Polish Heart Journal as of March 16, 2022 will be associated with the obligation to pay an Author Publication Charge (APC), in the amount of:
— 500 EUR for original papers or review papers not commissioned by the editorial office,
— 250 EUR for short communications or clinical vignettes.
Review process
All submitted manuscripts are initially reviewed by the editors (initial in-house takes up to 5 days). Manuscripts considered to be unsuitable for the journal will be rejected without peer review. Manuscripts deemed to have sufficient priority and quality will be forwarded to our external referees for peer review. Manuscripts that do not comply with the Author Guidelines will be returned for revision prior to further evaluation.
Language considerations
Manuscripts should be written in scientific English, using American spelling. Authors who are not native speakers of English are strongly encouraged to use professional language editing services prior to submission. The journal does not provide translation services. Manuscripts written in poor English will be rejected without peer review.
After a paper is accepted for publication, it is copyedited by in-house editors to ensure maximum clarity and reach and enhance the value of the papers. Edited papers are typeset and sent to the corresponding author for approval before publication.
Plagiarism detection
All manuscripts submitted to Pol Heart J are checked for plagiarism using Similarity Check, a service enabling the editors to screen published and submitted content for originality by providing access to the iThenticate software. Cases of suspected scientific misconduct, including plagiarism and duplicate publications, are handled according to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ Core Practices.
Submission of manuscripts
All articles must be submitted using our online submission system and will not be accepted if sent by post or e-mail. All correspondence from the journal will be sent via e-mail.
First-time users must click "Register Now" on the navigation menu and enter the required information. The system will send an automatic e-mail to the user with the username and password. Detailed guidelines are available at the editorial system site.
On submission, the authors should specify the category for which their manuscript is intended.
The author will be asked to provide information about the manuscript and attach files containing the text and any figures and tables. The system will create a PDF from the data submitted, which is the format in which the manuscript will be made available to the editors and referees during the peer-review process.
The manuscript text, references, tables, and figure legends should be prepared in a single file. Papers should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents.
Any appendices must be supplied separately and will be published as online-only supplementary data. Please use the word "Supplementary" for any references to appendices in the manuscript, e.g. Supplementary Table S1, Supplementary Video S1.
Tables should be included in the manuscript file and must appear at the end of the text on separate sheets (and not embedded in the text). Tables should be created using the Microsoft Word table function.
Figures should be submitted as separate files. They should be in high resolution and in one of the following formats: .tiff, .gif, or .jpg.
For selected article types, the author will be required to enter the abstract and key words during the submission process. These may be copied and pasted from the manuscript document but must still appear in the manuscript itself.
The authors are asked to provide the full names and e-mail addresses of two preferred referees to whom their manuscript may be sent for peer review. Reviewers from authors’ own institution or investigators being co-authors of the authors' submitted article within recent 3 years should not be suggested as preferred reviewers. The authors may also provide the names of non-preferred referees and ask for their exclusion from the peer review process.
For assistance with the electronic submission process and any other enquiries, please contact the editorial office (polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl).
Use of copyrighted material
If illustrations or tables used in the manuscript originate from other papers or published sources, written permission must be obtained from the owner of copyright, usually a publisher or author, and a credit line giving the source should be added to the legend. In the case of short quotations, it is sufficient to add a bibliographic credit. Permission letters for reproduced text or illustration must accompany the manuscript. The inability to obtain permission should be clearly stated.
Permissions
Authors can reuse their own figures and tables published in Pol Heart J provided that they include the appropriate citation. There is no need to contact the editorial office for permission. If you are not one of the authors and would like to use figures or tables published in Pol Heart J, please contact the editorial office (polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl).
ARTICLE CATEGORIES
Pol Heart J accepts the following categories of articles:
Original Articles: This category contains innovative interesting studies with appropriate methodology and statistical analysis, ranging from observational to large-scale clinical trials. Papers dealing with trial designs or confirmatory studies are not encouraged. Articles are limited to 4000 words (excluding abstract but including references as well as tables and figure legends), up to eight figures or tables, and up to 50 references.
Authors should include one unstructured paragraph on a separate page, outlining the key novel findings with their potential relevance to clinical practice or pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, intended for non-specialists in cardiology. The paragraph should come under the heading "WHAT’S NEW?" following the title page and should have no more than 150 words.
All original articles should contain the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. The Methods section of the paper should clearly state that the study was approved by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee and that patients provided written informed consent to participate in the study. The decision number should be provided if applicable. A statistical analysis subsection is required at the end of the Methods section. Power calculation should be presented whenever necessary.
The abstract (maximum 250 words) should be structured using the following headings: Background, Aims, Methods, Results, and Conclusions, followed by a list of three to five key words listed in alphabetical order. All abbreviations used in the abstract should be spelled out at first mention in the text. The number of abbreviations should be restricted to a minimum.
Reviews: This category contains comprehensive reviews that summarize and critically evaluate research in the field addressed and identify future implications. Review articles will be solicited by the Editor-in-Chief. However, unsolicited reviews with up to 6 authors will be considered if they are submitted by experts in the field with a strong track record of publications related to the topic and indexed in PubMed. Presubmission enquiries should be sent to the editorial office (e-mail: polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl). They should contain the title of the manuscript, an abstract, and a list of publications for each individual author.
Reviews should not exceed 5000 words (excluding abstract and references, but including tables and figure legends), 10 figures or tables, up to 100 references. They should contain an unstructured abstract (maximum 250 words) and up to 5 key words.
Short communications: This category ranges from case series to preliminary results or subgroup analysis from large-scale clinical trials or observational studies. Short communications do not contain an abstract or key words and should have no more than 1500 words (including references), one figure or table, and no more than 15 references. All short communications should contain the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion (preferably combined). They should contain a clear statement that the study was approved by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee and that patients provided written informed consent to participate in the study. The decision number should be provided if applicable. A statistical analysis subsection is required at the end of the Methods section. Power calculation should be presented whenever necessary. For clinical trials, the name of the trial registry, registration number, and URL of the registry should be included on the title page.
Clinical vignette: This category is intended for brief highly informative cases illustrated with interesting or rare images with detailed captions. Electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, CT scans, X-ray scans, pathology specimens, and other imaging techniques may be described in this category. Due to space considerations, only 1 figure is allowed for publication in print, any additional figures may be published as online-only supplementary data. The figure should contain no more than six panels in total (labeled A, B, C, and so on) and arrows illustrating and abnormal findings should be used where possible to improve clarity. The main body of the manuscript should not exceed 500 words (excluding title page, references and figure legend) and up to 5 references. Submission of videos is encouraged; these will be hosted as supplementary data. The videos may be submitted as .mp4 or .avi files, their size should not exceed 10 MB.
Editorials: Papers in this section will provide a comment, context, and critique of articles published in the current issue of the Pol Heart J. Editorials will be solicited by the editors. Editorials should not exceed 1000 words (without references) and up to 15 references, including a reference to the original article commented on. Editorials should have up to 3 authors. An abstract and key words are not required.
Letters to the Editor: Papers submitted in this category must not exceed 750 words and should focus on a specific article published in Pol Heart J within the preceding 3 months. No original data may be included. Letters should have no more than five references. The authors of the article cited will be invited to reply within 14 days. If they decline the invitation or do not respond to it, this information will be provided at the end of the manuscript.
Similar requirements should be met by articles in the In memoriam format celebrating the anniversary related to important dates from the life or work of eminent scientists and cardiologists. Photos are encouraged in this type of articles.
Case reports: Case reports are currently not accepted for peer review and publication.
Manuscript preparation
Text
All manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the journal's formatting style based largely on the AMA Manual of Style and described in detail below.
All manuscripts should be prepared using Microsoft Word software. The manuscript should be typed on one side, double spaced using 2.5 cm wide margins all around with the right margin left unjustified. The Times New Roman font (12 pt) should be used in the whole manuscript, including references, tables, and figure legends, with the Symbol font used for Greek and special characters. Abbreviations should be used only if necessary and if they appear at least three times in the manuscript. Generic names should be used for drugs and instruments whenever possible. Please avoid providing the same data in the text and tables. Options such as automatic word breaking, double columns, or automatic paragraph numbering should not be used. Periods instead of commas should be used throughout the manuscript in decimal numbers.
The manuscript should contain the following sections: 1) title page; 2) What’s new? section (original articles); 3) structured/unstructured abstract (if applicable); 4) up to 5 key words (if applicable); 5) main text; 6) acknowledgments (if applicable); 7) tables; and 8) figure legends. Figures should be attached as separate files. Abbreviations used in tables or figures should be spelled out below tables or figure legends.
Title page
All submissions should contain the title page as the first page of the manuscript. The title page should contain: 1) title (abbreviations should be avoided); 2) short title (max. 70 characters including spaces); 3) name(s) of the author(s); 4) affiliations of all authors; 5) details of corresponding author to whom proofs should be sent, including full name, academic degrees, institutional details (institution's name in English, postal address and institutional phone number with area and country code), and an e-mail address (students cannot serve as corresponding authors; senior authors should be preferably corresponding authors); 6) conflict of interest statement.
Abstract and key words
Structured abstracts (original papers) should include the following subheadings: Background, Aims, Results, and Conclusions. Structured abstracts should provide enough detail to allow the reader to quickly understand the objective and findings of the study. Unstructured abstracts (review articles) should summarize the article, including salient observations and conclusions. The abstract should be followed by up to five key words in alphabetical order. Do not use abbreviations as key words.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and defined separately upon the first occurrence in the "What's new?" section, the abstract, and the main body of the manuscript. Abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least 3 times in the text. Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided. Do not use abbreviations in manuscript titles (except when space considerations require otherwise) or figure legends and table titles. In rare cases when the abbreviation is more familiar than the expansion, the abbreviation alone can be used (e.g. DNA). Abbreviations without expansion can also be used for statistical terms listed in the Statistical analysis section below. For more information on the use of abbreviation in tables, see Tables section below.
Units of measure
Laboratory values should be expressed using System International (SI) units in lowercase letters (e.g. mmol/l), with the exception of blood pressure, the value of which is to be reported in mm Hg. Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius. If conventional units are used, relevant SI conversion factors should be given in parentheses only at first mention and in table footnotes (e.g. "Conversion factors to SI units are as follows: for glucose [in mg/dl] — 0.0551; ...").
Statistical analysis
P-value: When any P-value is expressed, it should be clear to the reader what parameters and groups were compared, what statistical test was performed, and whether the test was 1-tailed or 2-tailed (if relevant). For P values, the actual value of P should be expressed to 2 digits for P ≥0.01, whether or not P is significant. However, when rounding a P value expressed to 3 digits would make the P-value non-significant (such as P >0.049 rounded to 0.05), the P-value can be left as 3 digits. If P <0.01, should be expressed to 3 digits. The actual P-value should be expressed (P = 0.04), rather than expressing a statement of inequality (P <0.05), unless P <0.001. P-values of less than 0.001 should be designated as P <0.001 rather than the exact value, e.g., P = 0.00005. Avoid reporting P-values simply as not significant (NS).
Standard deviation: Use the format mean (SD) to describe data with standard deviation, rather than the ± construction, i.e.: "The mean (SD) age of patients was 34 (43) years", not: "The age of patients was 34 ± 43 years". Please note that this convention should be used for data presented both in the manuscript and in tables and figures.
Abbreviations: The following abbreviations of statistical terms may be used without expansion: SD for standard deviation, SE for standard error, SEM for standard error of the mean.
Multivariate vs. multivariable: Be careful about the use of the terms "multivariate" and "multivariable", as they are not synonymous. To be accurate, multivariable refers to multiple predictors (independent variables) for a single outcome (dependent variable). Multivariate refers to 1 or more independent variables for multiple outcomes.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments, including any support in the form of grants, equipment, or drugs, should be provided at the end of the main body of the manuscript before References.
References
References are identified in the text by Arabic numerals in square brackets and numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the manuscript. They should be double spaced on sheets separate from the text. Complete information should be given for each reference, including the title of the article, abbreviated journal title, and inclusive page numbers (in full range). The modified Vancouver style of citation should be used. The first 3 authors of a cited article should be listed, followed by "et al.".
A few examples of articles in the proper reference style in Pol Heart J are presented below:
Feldman T, Kar S, Elmariah S, et al. EVEREST II Investigators. Randomised comparison of percutaneous repair and surgery for mitral regurgitation: five-year results of EVEREST II. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015; 66(25): 2844–2854, doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2015.10.018.
Marijon E, Mirabel M, Celermajer D, et al. Rheumatic heart disease. Lancet. 2012; 379(9819): 953–964.
Personal communications, manuscripts in preparation, and other unpublished data that cannot be found in available databases are not cited in the reference list but are mentioned in the text in parentheses; the main author's name should be provided. Articles published in languages other than English should contain their titles in English and presented in square brackets.
Figures
All illustrations should be referred to as figures and should be numbered in a single sequence in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Abbreviations in figures or legends should be kept to a minimum and spelled out to make figures self-explanatory. The text should include references to all figures, and the references should be positioned as close to the relevant text as possible. Each figure or panel should be submitted as a separate file. The first word in all figure labels should be capitalized.
There is no charge for color figures in Pol Heart J. However, the publisher may redraw any charts or graphs using the color palette where necessary during the production process. Authors will have the opportunity to correct any inappropriate changes at the proof correction stage. The color of charts and graphs will be adapted to the journal's style by the production team.
Photographs and other images: Photographs and other images should have a resolution of at least 300 DPI at a width of 65 mm. For clinical images that contain markers such as labels or arrows identifying relevant structures, a second version of the image with no markers should be provided. Submission item "Figure(s) without markers" should be used.
Graphs and charts: Graphs and charts should be submitted as editable drawing files from the program where they were originally created. Only original files should be submitted, rather than, i.e., a .jpeg or .tiff file saved as an .eps. Any text that is part of the figure should also be fully editable, not converted to curves. Please note that Corel files (.cdr) cannot be submitted and should be resaved as an accepted format such as .pdf.
If there is difficulty in submitting figures electronically, please contact the editorial office (polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl).
Tables
Tables should be fully editable and present additional data rather than duplicate from the text. They should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables, and the references should be positioned as close to the relevant text as possible. Each table should be on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. It should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Vertical and horizontal lines should be used to separate all rows and columns. Avoid very large tables, colored text, and cell shading. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over 2 or more tables. Any explanation essential to the understanding of the tables as well as a list of abbreviations (in alphabetical order) should be provided at the bottom of the table (e.g., Abbreviations: BP, blood pressure; RBC, red blood cell). If the abbreviations appeared in two or more tables, they may be presented below the second table using a phrase: "Abbreviations: see Table 1". Then additional abbreviations should be presented if they were absent in previous tables.
For footnotes, use the following designations: a, b, c, in a superscript. Do not use numbers or symbols to designate footnotes. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added for each laboratory parameter, following a comma (e.g. BMI, kg/m2). The first word in all column and row headings, as well as footnotes, should be capitalized.
Supplementary data
Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript but would nevertheless benefit the reader can be made available by the publisher as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. The material should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content, for example, detailed methods, extended data analysis, or additional figures.
All text and figures must be prepared as required for the full text and submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication. Please indicate clearly the material intended as Supplementary data upon submission. The Supplementary data should be referred to in the main manuscript, for example by citing consecutively supplemental tables and figures (i.e. Supplementary material, Table S1). Please note that the responsibility for scientific accuracy and file functionality of supplementary material remains entirely with the author(s), as the material remains unedited. A disclaimer to this effect is displayed with any publisher supplementary material.
The use of videos showing echocardiography or angiography images (or other images) as a supplementary material is strongly encouraged. In manuscripts prior to acceptance for publication, addition of such materials will be possible following the letter of the Editor.
Experimental ethics and reporting
Studies should comply with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the research protocol must be approved by the locally appointed Ethics Committee. Informed consent must be obtained from the subjects (or their legally authorized representative). The data regarding this issue must be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript. In the case of animal experimentation, authors should also obtain ethical and/or legal approval before conducting the research.
Clinical trials
Randomized clinical trials should be reported according to CONSORT guidelines. All clinical trials, particularly those involving pharmaceuticals, devices, or aspects related to nutrition, should be registered prospectively in publicly accessible databases (such as www.clinicaltrials.gov and www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu), and the paper should include registration numbers and the name of the register.
Informed patient consent
Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and ICMJE recommendations for reporting on patients. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without prior informed consent.
Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires the patient to be presented in the manuscript.
Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential, but patient data should never be altered or falsified to attain anonymity.
The Editor in Chief reserves the right to reject papers for which the ethical aspects may raise doubts. Please contact the Editorial Office if you have any queries regarding consent.
Funding
In order to meet your funding requirements, authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process.
Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in the 'Acknowledgments' section.
The following rules should be followed:
- The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by…’
- The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e., ‘National Institutes of Health’ not ‘NIH'. Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’.
- Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’.
- Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency).
- Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number: ‘to [author initials]’.
PROOFS
PDF proofs will be e-mailed to the corresponding author. The accepted manuscript will be edited by in-house editors to ensure consistency with the journal formatting style and a sufficient level of English. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to check proofs carefully, in particular to check typesetting, editing, and the completeness and correctness of the text, tables, and figures. Major alterations (other than corrections of typesetting errors) instigated by the author at proof stage are not allowed. Proofs should be returned to the publisher within three working days of receipt. Proofs are also read by the Editor-in-Chief, who reserves the right of final decision. Requests to publish corrections of errors after the manuscript has been published should be sent to the editorial office (polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl). Requests will be reviewed by editors and if legitimate, the article will be revised, and a list of corrections will be published in a subsequent issue of the journal.
Copyright Notice
The copyright to the submitted manuscript is held by the Author, who grants the Polish Cardiac Society a nonexclusive licence to use, reproduce, and distribute the work, including for commercial purposes.
Polish Heart Journal (Kardiologia Polska) is an open access journal that applies the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), allowing third parties to download articles and share them with others, provided the original work is properly cited, not changed in any way, distributed under the same licence, and used for non-commercial purposes only. For commercial use, please contact the journal office: polishheartjournal@ptkardio.pl.
If submitted work has been funded by institutional grant, the applicant may optionally choose to release the work under Creative Commons licence: attribution (CC BY) to meet the requirements of funding party, if applicable.
Licence Terms can be downloaded here.
Privacy Statement
Author Fees
This journal charges the following author fees.
Article Publication: 500,00 EUR
If this paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay an Article Publication Fee to cover publications costs.
If you do not have funds to pay such fees, you will have an opportunity to waive each fee. We do not want fees to prevent the publication of worthy work.
