Author Guidelines for
Sri Lankan Journal of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery (SLJCTS)

 

Focus and Scope
The Sri Lankan Journal of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery (SLJCTS) publishes peer reviewed articles in 10 categories (see below). All manuscripts will be sent to one or more independent referees for peer review. An article is reviewed for publication on the assumption that its contents have not been submitted simultaneously to another journal, have not been accepted for publication elsewhere and have not already been published. Authors should send articles by e-mail to the Editor palindab@yahoo.com

General requirement and guide
The entire manuscript including references should be typed doubled-spaced, on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper with 1-inch margins and should not exceed a total of 15 pages, excluding simple tables and figures.
Abbreviations should be used only if essential and must be defined at the first mention in the title, abstract, text, tables and figure legends.
Use generic names whenever possible. When it is necessary to mention the name of an instrument or equipment the name of the supplier, city or country must be given and the trade name given as the trademark ®.
Statistics: All calculations in the manuscript should be statistically correct and the editor may request for review of the article by a statistician if needed. Define statistical terms, abbreviations and symbols used. Mention the name of the statistical software if used. Statistical methods not in common usage must be referenced.
File format: The file format for text and tables is .doc. Please note: use the "Save As" option in Microsoft Word to save your document as an older (.doc) file type.
Images should be .jpg or .tif.
Numbers and units: Use the decimal point, not a comma: for example 5.7. Authors should follow the SI system of units including for haematological and clinical chemistry measurements (except for blood pressure which will continue to be expressed in mmHg). Temperatures are given in degrees Celsius. Subjects should be rounded off: for example 1.2% of patient ≈ 1 %

 

Copyright Notice
The SLJCTS allows authors (or their employers) to retain their copyright in their work. SLJCTS only requires an exclusive licence that allows us to publish the article in the journal and allows us to sub-licence such rights and exploit all subsidiary rights.
The corresponding author should, on behalf of all authors, state the following at the point of submission:
"The Corresponding Author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence on a worldwide basis to the SLJCTS, and its Licensees to permit this article (if accepted) to be published in the SLJCTS and to exploit all subsidiary rights, as set out in our licence."
Articles in the SLJCTS are Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY License.
This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

Plagiarism

The authors are required to do a similarity check before submission and the cut off limit for direct copying/ similarity is 20%. The submitted manuscripts may be checked by the editorial team and any submission failing to reach the above limit will be rejected.

Statistical Analysis

The manuscripts submitted should report statistical methods in adequate detail for well-informed readers to replicate the analysis performed. Authors should make sure that the results are rigorously reported in accordance with community standards and the statistical methods employed are appropriate for the study design.The authors are adviced to consult an expert in statistics when appropriate. The editorial board may proceed with re-evaluation of the statistical methods with expert assistance before accepting for printing.

 

Required documents:
1 Cover letter: All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter from the author who is responsible for correspondence regarding the manuscript. The letter should contain a statement of the following details:

• That the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors
• Details of author commitments
• Confirm that the material has not been previously published.
• Any conflicts of interest, biases or funding

All authors must disclose any affiliations that they consider to be relevant and important with any organization that has a direct interest on the article in concern.

It is required to upload a scanned copy of the ERC (ethics review committee) approval if the manuscript is based on primary research. Let us know your reasons if you are unable to upload this document.

2 Title page: This should contain:

• The title of the article
• Last names of each author and a maximum of four initials each,
• The name(s) of their institution(s)
• The name(s) of the institution(s) the study was performed in

The name of the ethical clearance board if experimental work had been done on human subjects.

 

3 Main manuscript: according to category (see below)

4 Images: Only illustrations that increase the understanding of the text should be submitted. The best form of reproduction for pen and ink drawings or black and white line art with no grey tones is photomechanical transfer (PMT). Decimals, broken lines, and lettering must be clear enough for reproduction. Only high-quality computer-generated figures will be considered. Radiographs must be of extremely high quality to reproduce adequately and generally should be enhanced with arrows etc. The journal will only accept a maximum of 2 colour images and a total (including the colour images) of 5 images. For any queries, please contact the journal. All images must be mentioned in the text in consecutive order. The editor reserves the right to limit the number of illustrations.

5 Tables / graphs: All tables and graphs should be provided as .doc files. They should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1) and be cited in the main text. All tables and graphs should be attached separately at the end of the main text. Each table should have fully explanatory, concise note of the table. The use of abbreviations should be avoided and if used should be defined in a footnote to the table.

6 References: These should confirm to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (formerly 'Vancouver style'). The references in the text should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear and indicated by Arabic numerals in parentheses. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be provided for all references. It is suggested that authors use Crossref metadata search
- https://search.crossref.org/?q= to obtain the doi.

 

Examples are given below.
Journal articles:
Zhang M, Holman CD, Price SD, Sanfilippo FM, Preen DB, Bulsara MK. Comorbidity and repeat admission to hospital for adverse drug reactions in older adults: retrospective cohort study. BMJ. 2009 Jan 7;338:a2752. doi: 10.1136/bmj.a2752.
one to use:
Hubbard AR. von Willebrand factor standards for plasma and concentrate testing. Semin Thromb Hemost. 2006 Jul;32(5):522-8.

Books:
Rentoul E, Smith H (eds): Glaister's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology. 13th edition. London: Churchill Livingstone; 1973.
Chapters in books:
Calenoff L, Rogers L: Oesophageal complications of surgery and life-saving procedures. In: Mayers M, Ghahremani G (eds): Iatrogenic Gastrointestinal Complications. New York: Springer, 1981; 23- 63.
Abstracts:
Burstein I, Steinberg R, Zer M. Small bowel obstruction and covered perforation in childhood caused by bizarre bezoars and foreign bodies (Abstract). Journal of the Israeli Medical Association, 2000 Feb; 2(2): 129–31.
Website with author:
Fehrenbach MJ. Dental hygiene education [Internet]. [Place unknown]: Fehrenbach and Associates; 2000 [updated 2009 May 2; cited 2009 Jun 15]. Available from: http://www.dhed.net/Main.html.
Website without author:
American Dental Hygienists’ Association [Internet]. Chicago: American Dental Hygienists’ Association; 2009 [cited 2009 May 30]. Available from: http://www.adha.org/

 

Charges and Fees: There are NO article processing charges (APCs) or article submission fees.

 

Manuscript categories
1 Leading Articles: These are solicited by the editors by experts in the field, which are approximately 1500 words in length and addresses topics of current interest. They should be supported by no more than 15 references. Submissions may be subjected to external review before acceptance.
2 Review Articles: The editor encourages authors who would like to contribute to this category to discuss potential topics before submission. In-depth reviews of recent developments are welcome, and will undergo peer review. Reviews should have an abstract of up to 350 words, less than 3000 words in the main text and with no more than 30 references.
3 Scientific articles: These should normally be in the format of an introduction, material and methods, results and discussion. Each manuscript must have a structured abstract of less than 250 words. The text should comprise of less than 2500 words. Limit up to 20 references.
4 Case reports: should not exceed 1000 words with 2 illustrations and 5 references. No abstract is required. 2-4 key learning points must be included at the end highlighting the learning aspects from the case report.
5 Case series (3-5 cases): should not exceed 1500 words with a maximum of 5 illustrations and 5 references. No abstract is required. 2-4 key learning points must be included at the end highlighting the learning aspects from the case series.
6 Selected Abstracts: The editors will invite experts in the field to select current abstracts from leading international journals and for a commentary on the abstract.
7 Technical note: “How I do it”
We welcome focused descriptions of key aspects of operative technique. 'How I do it' articles should contain between 550 and 600 words, one illustration and up to 6 references. These articles do not require an abstract and should not contain any headings.
8 Images in Surgery: We consider surgical images in colour that are of educational value to surgeons. It should contain a brief case report followed by a question(s). The answers need to be provided along with a discussion. It should contain about 750 words, up to 10 references, no headings, and up to three high-quality illustrations each displaying different aspects of the case. Where appropriate, use labels/arrows to indicate the abnormalities in the supplied images to orientate the reader. Abstracts are not required. All illustrations must be in colour and of a high quality (>5 mega pixel, preferably .jpg or .tiff), and they must not have been previously published.
9 Brief reports: This category includes preliminary reports, novel patient management methods and reports of new techniques and devices. They should be limited to 1000 words, 3 tables/illustrations and 10 references, and should include an unstructured abstract of less than 100 words.
10 Letters to the editor: The editor welcomes topical correspondence from readers relating to articles published in the Journal. Letters should not exceed 250 words including no more than five references, typed double-spaced and must have a title page showing the name(s), qualifications, and contact details. The editor reserves the right to shorten or to delete objectionable comments. The letter may be forwarded to the author of the article under discussion to provide an opportunity for confutation.

 

Please note: Manuscripts that do not confirm to these requirements will be returned for amendments.

 

Peer Review:
All manuscripts submitted to the SLJCTS undergo a review, internally and/or externally.
Original research articles authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team are independently peer reviewed; an editor will have no input or influence on the peer review process or publication decision for their own article. Editorials and obituaries written by the journal’s editor do not undergo external peer review.

Peer review process:
Manuscripts submitted to the journal are initially reviewed by the editor/editorial board. If these are found to be worthy of consideration for publication, these will be assigned for internal and external review, from a list of generalists and specialists related to the field of interest. Certain manuscripts, if found to be clearly not suitable for publication, will be rejected by the editor/editorial board at this first stage of review.
The journal has a double blind peer review process. Two reviewers are allocated for original articles and brief reports; one each for case reports and invited reviews. Statistical review is obtained as required.

 

Guidance for peer reviewers
The SLJCTS is a peer reviewed journal. It follows a double blind process of peer review. The editorial board selects and invites experts in the field to review articles and to advice the editorial board on the quality of manuscripts submitted to the journal. Please find below a few guidelines regarding this peer review process.
Confidentiality
All unpublished manuscripts are confidential documents. If we invite you to review an article please do not discuss it even with a colleague.
Peer review
We ask reviewers to sign their reports and declare any competing interests on any manuscripts we send them. Reviewers advise the editors, who make the final decision.
As a reviewer you will be advising the editors, who make the final decision. We will let you know our decision. Your comments are kept confidential. Only the comments specifically mentioned by you to be conveyed to the authors, will be so forwarded. Even if we do not accept an article we would like to pass on constructive comments that might help the author to improve it.
Writing your review
The SLJCTS provides reviewers with a standard appraisal form and ask all reviewers to consider this general guidance. We encourage reviewers to give further detailed comments on the authors paper itself by highlighting.
Please give detailed and constructive comments (with references, whenever possible) that will both help the editors to make a decision on the article and the authors to improve it.

For all articles

• Is the article important?
• Will it help our readers to make better decisions and, if so, how?
• Will the article add enough to existing knowledge?
• Does the article read well and make sense? Does it have a clear message?

For research articles

• Originality — does the work add enough to what is already in the published literature? If so, what does it add? Please cite relevant references to support your comments on originality.
• Importance of the work to general readers — does this work matter to clinicians, researchers, policymakers, educators, or patients? Will it help our readers to make better decisions and, if so, how?
• Scientific reliability

1. Research question — clearly defined and appropriately answered?
2. Overall design of study — appropriate and adequate to answer the research question?
3. Participants — adequately described, their conditions defined, inclusion and exclusion criteria described? How representative were they of patients whom this evidence might affect?
4. Methods — adequately described? Main outcome measure clear? Is the study fully reported in line with the appropriate reporting statement or checklist? Was the study ethical (this may go beyond simply whether the study was approved by an ethics committee or Institutional Review Board)?
5. Results — answer the research question? Credible? Well presented?
6. Interpretation and conclusions — warranted by and sufficiently derived from/focused on the data? Discussed in the light of previous evidence? Message clear?
7. References — up to date and relevant? Any glaring omissions?
8. Abstract/summary/key messages/what this paper adds — reflect accurately what the paper says?

Not all of these points will be relevant for non-research articles. Please use your discretion about the above list when reporting on other types of articles.

 

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