“Cardiovascular Medicine” publishes contributions intended for further education and original articles drawn from the entire spectrum of cardiovascular medicine.
These author guidelines are based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (“Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”; http://www.icmje.org/index.html).
All contributions are peer-reviewed by external specialists.

Submission of manuscripts
The language of original articles is English; other contributions should preferably be submitted in English, but will also be accepted in German or French. The complete manuscript is submitted online: Submission website.
A correspondence address will be published with the article, providing the following details: title, first name(s), surname(s), address of institution and e-mail address.
Conflicts of interest: Any external financial contributions or any financial or personal relationships entered into in connection with the article submitted are mentioned in a footnote on the first page of the article. The authors’ form should be signed by the corresponding author. Any conflict of interest should also be indicated on the form.
Publications partly duplicating material in the submitted paper should be enclosed with it.
For the reproduction of material protected by copyright the copyright owner’s (publisher, author) permission must be obtained and enclosed with the manuscript on submission.
Patients have a right to privacy. Identifying information should not be published unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient’s written consent has been obtained (“informed consent”; also for illustrations). Authors should disclose to these patients that the material will be accessible via the Internet. An informed consent form can be downloaded here. False indications to protect anonymity are not permitted.

Preparation of manuscript
Customary abbreviations (eg ACTH, ECG) are permitted. All other abbreviations should be used sparingly and an alphabetical list of abbreviations with explanations should be supplied. Abbreviations that are used only once should be avoided. Always use SI units. Results in other units may be added in parentheses.
Tables and figures must be commented on in the text and their position marked at the appropriate point. Lengthy tables should be avoided. Figures and tables should be provided with captions, numbered consecutively and appended to the manuscript on separate sheets (not incorporated into the text). All abbreviations employed should be explained in the caption if not already included in the list of abbreviations. Captions should be formulated so as to allow the figure to be understood without reference to the text. Important findings should be indicated by arrows or the like. Colour illustrations are welcome. The following graphic formats are possible: tif, resolution 300 lpi; eps; jpeg. Attachments exceeding 2 MB in size should be submitted on CD-ROM. If it is technically impossible to meet these requirements, colour illustrations can be sent to the publisher in the form of glossy prints or slides.
The list of references should be arranged and numbered in order of appearance in the text, not alphabetically. The appropriate number should be inserted in square brackets [ ] in the text. The full titles of the quoted publications should be listed. List the first six authors followed by “, et al”.

Exemples

1 Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med 2002;347(4):284-7.

2 Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.

3 Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: www.cancer-pain.org.

A full list of examples can be found at the National Library of Medicine website: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html.

Copyright
The copyright in the accepted article is transferred to Swiss Medical Publishers Ltd, Basel, for the duration of the statutory copyright term. The publishers thereby acquire the right to use the article in Switzerland and abroad, without time limitation, to adapt it (eg for the purpose of abstracts), to translate it, duplicate it, communicate it, make further use of it, publish or distribute it, in any form and via any medium (including the Internet) and to grant to the author himself, to third parties and to the general public the corresponding rights of use, adaptation etc. The authors consent to transfer of the copyright.

Publisher’s address
EMH Swiss Medical Publishers Ltd.
Editorial office Kardiovaskuläre Medizin
Farnsburgerstrasse 8
CH-4132 Muttenz
Switzerland
E-Mail Editorial office

Special remarks concerning individual sections
Editorials / Viewpoint
Editorials present topics of current interest, special issues of the journal or particular viewpoints. Maximum length 8500 characters (3–4 A4 pages).

Review articles/Reviews
Review articles are primarily intended for further education of the medical profession and should be drafted in readily accessible language, include 4–6 illustrations and/or tables, and be adequately illustrated and documented by 20–40 literature references. The text itself should not exceed 10–12 manuscript pages in length (total approx. 25 000 characters, all data including spaces but excluding illustrations and references). Articles should include a summary in the original language of not more than 1⁄2–1 A4 page (1250–2500 characters) with key words and a summary in English with key words of not more than 1⁄2–1 A4 page. If the article was a congress presentation this is mentioned in a footnote.

Original articles
These papers should be based on scientific standards as published in the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Publishers (Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. Website: http://www.icmje.org/index.html) and be submitted in English. They include a summary (1⁄2–1 A4 page or 1250–2500 characters) with key words, an introduction (not more than 1 A4 page, 2500 characters), information on the methods and results and a discussion. The introduction and the discussion should refer to other publications in the literature and as a rule not exceed 20–30 references. The total length should not exceed 25000 characters.

Case reports
This section is intended for the publication of unusual or surprising and significant observations (individual cases, also recurrent findings if any). Length: not more than 10 000 characters (3–4 A4 pages); short, precise title; not more than 5 literature references. Structure: summary and key words in English and in the original language; description of case; test results and course should be incorporated into the text or – exceptionally – presented in tabular form. Case description and diagnosis are followed by brief targeted comments (clinical, epidemiological significance if any; special problems if any; current state of knowledge; new findings; therapeutic aspects).

The new compound
In this section newly developed active substances, recently introduced drugs or new findings on existing active substances are described and their effects, side effects and interactions discussed. The text itself should not exceed 8–10 manuscript pages in length (total approx. 20000 characters, all data including spaces but excluding illustrations and references). It includes a summary in the original language, an English summary (each 1⁄2–1 A4 page, 1250–2500 characters) with key words, an introduction (not more than 1 A4 page, 2500 characters), a discussion and data on interactions, and should be documented with 20–30 literature references.

New devices
This section is devoted to newly developed tools in interventional cardiology and rhythmology, or new findings concerning existing tools. The text itself should not exceed 8–10 manuscript pages in length (total approx. 20000 characters, all data including spaces but excluding illustrations and references). It includes a summary in the original language, an English summary (each 1⁄2–1 A4 page, 1250–2500 characters) with key words, an introduction (not more than 1 A4 page, 2500 characters), a discussion and data on advantages and drawbacks, handling and a comparison with conventional procedures. Not more than 20–30 literature references.

Evidence-based cardiology
In this section the background, goals, methodology and results of evidence-based publications are explained on the basis of a brief discussion, illustrations or tables. Contributions should not exceed 4 A4 pages in length (not more than 10000 characters).

The interesting ECG
This section is devoted to ECG findings of special interest. The ECG itself should be accompanied by a presentation of the clinical findings(2 questions, 1⁄2–1 A4 page, not more than 2500 characters) plus a caption for the ECG, the solution (not more than 1⁄2 A4 page, 1250 characters) and 2–3 literature references.

Images in cardiovascular medicine
This section publishes interesting findings from clinical investigations using echocardiograhy, MRI, angiography or other imaging techniques. In addition to the actual imaging material (usually 2–3 illustrations), the clinical background should be described (1⁄2–1 A4 page, maximum 2500 characters) and the diagnosis and findings explained (not more than 1⁄2 A4 page of text; captions to the illustrations). These contributions may also include a short list of literature references (maximum 3).

News from associations and working groups
The main purpose of the section “News from associations” is to inform members on questions of general interest to the profession. It consists primarily of contributions to further education, position papers, reports from working groups, recommendations and consensus documents on clinical work. As a rule these texts should not exceed 2–4 manuscript pages in length (total approx. 5000–10000 characters, all data including spaces but excluding illustrations and references [maximum 10]).

Letters to the Editor
The editorial board reserves the right to select, abridge and edit letters to the editor. The shorter the letter, the greater the chance of publication. The text should not exceed 500 words in length, including references if any. This represents approx. 11⁄2 typescript pages (3500 characters).