ACCEPTED DOCUMENT TYPES
Original Article: The journal ABC Cardiol accepts all types of original cardiovascular research, including research in humans and experimental research. Clinical trials should follow specific recommendations. Note: Systematic analyses and meta-analyses are considered original manuscripts, not reviews.
Review Article: The editors send out invitations for most reviews. However, high-level studies conducted by authors or groups with previous publications on the subject will be welcome. In this section, any manuscripts whose main author does not have a comprehensive academic or publication background verified by Lattes (CNPQ), PubMed or SciELO will not be accepted. Note: Systematic analyses and meta-analyses are considered original manuscripts, not reviews.
Guideline: The guidelines present relevant evidence to help healthcare professionals assess the benefits and risks of a particular diagnostic or therapeutic procedure. They must be essential to making daily clinical decisions. It is a document that covers a body of evidence.
Statement: A document that is intended to support professionals in making a decision; however, it does not contain a sufficient body of evidence to be called a guideline.
Updated Guideline: A document containing innovations and updates on a specific subtopic of a published guideline, with an annual update.
Viewpoint: It presents the authors’ stance or opinion on a specific scientific theme. This stance or opinion must be sufficiently corroborated by the literature or their personal experience. These aspects will be the basis of the opinion being issued.
Case Report: Any cases including original descriptions of clinical observations or representing the originality of a given diagnosis or treatment or illustrating situations that do not occur very often in the clinical practice, which deserve a deeper understanding and more attention from cardiologists.
Brief Communication: Original experiences whose relevance to the knowledge of a subject justifies the presentation of initial data of small series, or partial data of clinical trials.
Editorial: Subjects or manuscripts critically addressed by a subject-matter specialist. All ABC Cardiol editorials are published upon invitation. We will not accept editorials submitted spontaneously.
Short Editorial: Also published upon invitation, it includes comments on original articles published in ABC Cardiol with scientific content and opinion from subject-matter specialists.
Letter to the Editor: Correspondence of scientific content related to manuscripts published in ABC Cardiol. The authors of the original manuscript will be invited to respond.
Research Letter: These are concise reports focused on original study, clinical case or opinion. The letters must not duplicate other material published or sent for publication.
Image: Clinical or basic research imaging, or complementary tests showing interesting aspects of imaging methods explaining cardiovascular disease mechanisms and emphasizing relevant aspects of physiopathology, diagnosis or treatment.
Correlations:
Anatomopathological Correlation: Presentation of a clinical case and discussion of aspects of interest related to clinical, laboratory and anatomical-pathological contents.
Clinical-Imaging Correlation: Presentation of a case of cardiopathy, emphasizing the importance of the imaging and/or clinical elements for consequent correlation with other tests that substantiate the diagnosis. It derives the course of action adopted.
Preprints: ABC Cardiol accepts manuscripts published on preprint platforms. At the time of submission, authors must provide the name of the server and the link to the preprint publication. If the author of a manuscript under peer review at ABC Cardiol wishes to deposit it on a preprint server, they must inform the journal via email at: revista@cardiol.br. Please read the journal’s Editorial Policy carefully.
ORGANIZATION OF MANUSCRIPTS AND TECHNICAL STANDARDS
LANGUAGE
ABC Cardiol is a bilingual publication. The manuscripts must be submitted, preferably, in English. If possible, it is suggested to send the article in both languages, Portuguese and English.
COMPOSITION
Note: The texts must be edited in a word processor (example: Microsoft® Word, Google Docs®, Writer®).
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
The authors can submit supplementary material attached to their manuscript, the publication of which will be online only if there is not enough space to include it in the printed article. The supplementary material must be relevant to the understanding and interpretation of the manuscript and must not repeat information from the printed article. The inclusion of supplementary material — which must be original and unpublished — must be limited and reasonable.
The supplementary material will undergo editorial and peer review along with the main manuscript. If the manuscript is accepted for publication and if the supplementary material is considered suitable for publication by the editors, it will be published online upon publication of the manuscript as additional material provided by the authors. The material will not be edited or formatted, so the authors are responsible for the accuracy and presentation of the entire material. Each supplementary material must be identified as such upon submission of the manuscript and cited in the manuscript.
CENTRAL ILLUSTRATION
For original and review articles, submitting a central figure is mandatory. Below are some guidelines to assist with creating the image:
Purpose of the Central Illustration:
- Summarize the main message of the scientific article.
- Encourage viewing and promote interdisciplinary research.
- Help readers quickly identify the relevance of the article to their interests.
- Capture the reader’s attention and spark curiosity.
- Not to replace the article or written abstract but to briefly introduce and summarize the topic.
Ideal Characteristics:
- Self-Explanatory: Should be quickly understood by the reader.
- Concise and Direct: Use minimal words and impactful graphics.
Creation Process:
- Conceptualize: Define the main message and target audience.
- Conceptualize: Define the main message and target audience.
- Design: Use graphic design software to assist with production.
Tips for Creating a Graphical Abstract:
- Focus on Uniqueness and Clarity:
Clear beginning and end.
Visual indication of the biological context.
Distinction from figures or model diagrams in the article.
Emphasize new findings and avoid excessive detail.
Avoid including too much data; the content should be graphical and visual. - Keep It Simple:
Use simple labels and minimal text.
Highlight a single, clear process or point.
Avoid distracting or cluttered elements. - Sketch First:
Make hand-drawn sketches to organize ideas.
Prefer illustrations and visual icons.
Arrange elements visually, avoiding overcrowding. - Design Software:
Use tools like PowerPoint if professional software is unavailable.
Tools like Canva and Mind the Graph can assist with figure creation. - Characteristics of an Effective Abstract:
Accurate: Reflects the article’s content correctly.
Self-Sufficient: Defines abbreviations and acronyms.
Concise and To the Point: Informative and succinct.
Non-Evaluative: Avoids personal comments.
Coherent and Easy to Read: Clear, readable, and accessible.
Example of a central figure published in the journal:
Access to the article: https://abccardiol.org/en/article/position-statement-on-cardiovascular-safety-of-vaccines-against-covid-19-2022/
GUIDELINES/STATEMENTS/RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY TABLE OF THE STRUCTURING OF ARTICLES
Click here to see the Summary Table
SUBMISSION AND REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
SUBMISSION
To submit your article, visit https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/abc-scielo and register as an author. If you already have a reviewer login, use the same access. Follow the steps below to submit your article.
When registering as an author, it is essential to link your ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) number. ORCiD is a unique, free, and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes one academic/researcher from another and solves the issue of author name ambiguity and similarity, replacing name variations with a single numeric code. To register your ORCiD ID, visit: https://orcid.org/register.
When uploading files related to the article, the author must also submit the Mandatory Publication Form. In this form, the corresponding author or the first author must declare the following information regarding:
- Copyright Confirmation;
- Potential Conflict of Interest;
- Ethics Committee (Not applicable to articles whose research does not involve humans, animals, or sensitive data);
- Use of Artificial Intelligence;
- Compliance with Open Science;
- Author Contribution (Not applicable for Editorials, Letters to the Editor, Scientific Letters, and Mini-editorials).
MANDATORY PUBLICATION FORM
COPYRIGHT: The corresponding author must declare that the article is original, does not infringe on any third-party copyright or other property rights, and has not been submitted for publication in any other journal. All manuscripts published by the journal remain the permanent property of the authors, with the journal retaining the right of first publication and the right to display, store, copy, and reuse the content.
POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Potential conflicts of interest include any relationship of an author, directly or indirectly, through the research’s sponsoring institution, with companies that might benefit from the study results.
For this reason, all authors must disclose any relationships with industry or other relevant entities—financial or otherwise—over the past two years that might represent a conflict of interest concerning the submitted article. All relevant industry relationships, academic affiliations, and funding sources for the work must be declared in the form, as well as all institutional affiliations of the authors (including corporate commitments). This includes, but is not limited to, consultancies, stock ownership or other equity holdings, or patent licensing agreements.
The following types of relationships are considered potentially conflicting and must be declared:
If, in the past two years, any author:
- Received consulting fees, lecture fees, writing fees, or any other type of compensation for services provided by the product manufacturer.
- Received support from the product manufacturer (research funding, equipment supply, drugs, labor) related to the project under review or another project involving the same product.
- Received support from the product manufacturer to attend conferences.
- Received support from the product manufacturer to attend conferences.
- Had the product manufacturer involved in data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing.
- Was employed by a company that could directly or indirectly benefit from the study results.
ETHICS COMMITTEE: For articles involving research on humans and animals, the corresponding author must declare in the form the name of the Research Ethics Committee, approval number, and date. Additionally, whenever possible, upload the Research Ethics Committee approval alongside the form.
USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The corresponding author must declare the use of generative AI in scientific writing at the time of article submission. See the “Use of Artificial Intelligence” section, as well as the journal’s Ethics Policy.
COMPLIANCE WITH OPEN SCIENCE: The corresponding author must provide information regarding the manuscript’s compliance with Open Science communication practices. Authors are asked to indicate: (a) whether the manuscript is a preprint and, if so, its location; and (b) whether data, program codes, and other materials underlying the manuscript text are properly cited and referenced.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION: The corresponding author must declare the contribution of each co-author according to the participation types below:
- Research conception and design.
- Data acquisition.
- Data analysis and interpretation.
- Data analysis and interpretation.
- Funding acquisition.
- Manuscript writing.
- Critical review of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
TYPES OF STUDY – CONFORMATION FOR APPROVAL
CLINICAL TRIAL/EXPERIMENTAL STUDY (CONSORT COMPLIANT)
Reports of randomized trials must conform to the revised CONSORT guidelines and should be submitted with their protocols and a completed CONSORT checklist. All reports of clinical trials must include a summary of previous research findings and explain how the submittedtrial affects this summaryof previous findings. Cluster randomized trials should be reported according to extended CONSORT guidelines. Randomized trials reporting harms must be described according to extended CONSORT guidelines. All reports of randomized trials
should include a section entitled “Randomization and masking” within the methods section. For information regarding CONSORT guidelines, please visit http://www.consort-statement.org.
OBSERVATIONAL STUDY (STROBE COMPLIANT)*
Observational research comprises several study designs and many topic areas. The STROBE statement should be used when reporting such research. The STROBE recommendations apply to the three main analytical designs usedin observational research: cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies. The STROBE statement consists of a 22-item checklist. For information regarding STROBE guidelines, please visit http://www.strobe-statement.org.
*Please note that ABC Cardiol uses a customized version of the STROBE checklist, available only at http://www.editorialmanager.com/mdin the “Files & Resources” section of the home page.
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS (PRISMA COMPLIANT)
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines, an evidence-based minimum set of items createdto help authors improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The PRISMA Statement consists of a 27-item checklist and a four-phase flow diagram. For information regarding PRISMA guidelines, please visit http://www.prisma-statement.org.
META-ANALYSIS OF OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY (MOOSE COMPLIANT)
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology should be reported according to MOOSE guidelines. For more information regarding MOOSE guidelines, please visit http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/meta-analysis-of-observational-studies-in-epidemiology-a-proposal-for-reporting-meta-analysis-of-observational-studies-in-epidemiology-moose-group/.
DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY STUDY (STARD COMPLIANT)
Investigators reporting studies of diagnostic accuracy should adhere to the STARD statement, partof the STARD initiative to improve the accuracy and completeness of reporting of studies of diagnostic accuracy, to allow readers to assess the potential for bias in astudy (internal validity) and to evaluate a study’sgeneralizability (external validity). The STARD statement consists of a 25-item checklist and recommends the use of a flow diagram to describe the design of the study and the flow of patients. For information regarding STARD guidelines, please visit http://www.stard-statement.org.
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT STUDY (SQUIRE COMPLIANT)*
The SQUIRE statement helpsauthors write excellent, usable articles about quality improvement in healthcare so that findings may be easily discovered and widely disseminated.The SQUIRE statement consists of a 19-itemchecklist. The SQUIRE guidelines are not exclusive of other guidelines. For example, an improvement project or effectiveness study that used a randomized controlled trial design should consider using both the CONSORT and the SQUIRE guidelines.In these cases, both checklists should be uploaded as a single document.For more information regarding SQUIRE guidelines, please visit http://squire-statement.org/.
*Please note that ABC Cardiol uses a customized version of the SQUIRE checklist, available only at http://www.editorialmanager.com/mdin the “Files &Resources” section of the home page.
ECONOMIC EVALUATION STUDY (CHEERS COMPLIANT)
Developed by the ISPOR Quality Improvement in Cost-Effectiveness Research Task Force, the CHEERS statement supports the quality, consistency, and transparency of health economic and outcomes research reporting in the biomedical literature. The CHEERS statement includes a 24-item checklist. For more information regarding CHEERSguidelines, please visit http://www.ispor.org/taskforces/EconomicPubGuidelines.asp.
CLINICAL CASE REPORT (CARE COMPLIANT)
The CARE guidelines provide a framework to support the need for completeness, transparency and data analysis in case reports and data from the point of care. The main tools of CARE are the CARE Statement, CARE checklist, and a Case Report Writing Template. These products offer a rationale and a standardized format for authors to prepare more complete and transparent case reports. For more information regarding CARE guidelines, please visit http://www.care-statement.org/.
ETHICS: HUMAN STUDIES
Studies on patients or volunteers must be receive ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper, including the approval number. Patients have a right to privacy. Authors should remove information from photographs and manuscripts that might identify a patient. Where this is impossible, submissions must be accompanied by a written release from the patient. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that patients’ privacy is protected. Authors should pay close attention to images that contain identifiable individual patient characteristics or data such as eyes, date of birth, case number, initials, birthmarks, etc. Informed consent should be obtained in writing from the patient if there is concern that a patient’s anonymity cannot be maintained in written text or with use of photographs or video.
Written consents must be provided to the editorial office on request. Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note. If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.
ANIMAL RESEARCH AND STUDIES
In experiments involving animals, the standards established in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1996) and the Ethical Principles in Animal Experiments of the Brazilian Council of Animal Experimentation (COBEA) must be respected. Research must conform the following items: 1) animal care and use by qualified individuals, supervised by veterinarians, and all facilities and transportation must comply with current legal requirements and guidelines; 2) research involving animals should be done only when alternative methods to yield needed information are not possible; 3) anesthesia must be used in all surgical interventions, all unnecessary suffering should be avoided and research must be terminated if unnecessary pain or fear results; and 4) animal facilities must meet the international standards.
SAGER GUIDELINES
The ABC Cardiol journal recommends the application of the SAGER guidelines to all research with humans, animals or any material originating from humans and animals, as well as other disciplines whose results will be applied to humans, such as mechanics and engineering.
| General principles | ||||||||||
| • Authors should use the terms sex and gender carefully in order to avoid confusing both terms. | ||||||||||
| • Where the subjects of research comprise organisms capable of differentiation by sex, the research should be designed and conducted in a way that can reveal sex-related differences in the results, even if these were not initially expected. | ||||||||||
| • Where subjects can also be differentiated by gender (shaped by social and cultural circumstances), the research should be conducted similarly at this additional level of distinction. | ||||||||||
Recommendations per section of the article
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Access the full document of the SAGER guidelines: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6.
EXCLUSIVE SUBMISSION/PUBLICATION POLICYS
Manuscripts are considered for review only under the conditions that they are not under consideration elsewhere and that the data presented have not been previously published (including symposia, proceedings, transactions, books, articles published by invitation, and preliminary publications of any kind, excepting abstracts that do not exceed 500 words). As mentioned earlier, the journal accepts articles made available on preprint platforms, and the copyrights belong exclusively to the authors, with the journal retaining exclusivity for the first publication. All published articles are licensed under the CC-BY license.
STATISTIC GUIDELINESS
Proper use of statistical methods as well as their correct description is of paramount importance for manuscripts published in ABC Cardiol. Therefore, some general guidelines apply to the information to be provided regarding statistical analysis (for further details, we suggest reading the European Heart Journal’s statistical guidelines).
1) About the sample: Details of both the population of interest and the procedures used to define the study sample.
2) Under Methods, there must be a subtopic exclusively addressed to the description of the statistical analysis used in the study, containing:
- Presentation of continuous and/or categorical variables: continuous variables with normal distribution should be presented as mean and standard deviation and continuous variables with non-normal distribution should be presented as median and interquartile range. Categorical variables should be presented by absolute numbers and percentages, with the relevant confidence intervals.
- Description of statistical methods used. If more complex statistical methods are used, some reference literature should be provided for them;
- As a general rule, statistical tests should always be bilateral rather than unilateral;
- The significance level adopted; and
- Specifications of the software used in the statistical analyses, including its version.
3) As for the presentation of the results from statistical analyses:
- The main results should always be described with their relevant confidence intervals;
- Do not repeat in the body of the manuscript the data found in tables and figures;
- Instead of presenting excessively long tables, use charts as an alternative to make it easier for the readers to understand the contents;
- In tables, even if the p-value is not significant, state its value instead of “NS” (e.g., p = 0.29 instead of NS).
PLAGIARISM
PLAGIARISM POLICY
Plagiarism is not accepted in ABC Cardiol. It compromises the true meaning of Science. Plagiarism is defined when an author attempts to use someone else work as his or her own. Another form of plagiarism is self-plagiarism, ou duplication: it occurs when an author reuses significant parts of his or her own published work without appropriate references. Plagiarism is a scientific misconduct and will be addressed as such. When plagiarism is detected at any time before publication, the editorial office will take appropriate action as directed by the standards set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For additional information, please visit http://www.publicationethics.org.
ABC Cardiol uses the iThenticate software to verifiy the originality of content submitted before publication. iThenticate checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Authors, researchers and freelancers can also use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting http://www.ithenticate.com.
PLAGIARISM DETECT BEFORE PUBLISHING
ABC Cardiol editors will evaluate any case of plagiarism on its limits. If plagiarism is detected before publishing then we will inform the author(s) and will ask them to rewrite the content or use appropriate references from where the content has been taken. If more than 25% of the paper is plagiarized, then the article will be rejected and authors notified.
HOW PLAGIARISM IS CHECKED?
All the submitted manuscripts for publication are checked for plagiarism with online tools after submission and before starting review.
HOW IS PLAGIARISM HANDLED?
The manuscripts in which the plagiarism is detected are handled based on the extent of the plagiarism.
10-25% Plagiarism: The manuscript is sent back to the author for content revision without entering the review process.
> 25% Plagiarism: The manuscript will be rejected without the entering the review process. The authors are advised to revise the manuscript and resubmit the manuscript.
PLAGIARISM DETECTION AFTER PUBLICATION
If a case of plagiarism is detected after ABC Cardiol had published the article we will contact the author’s institute and funding agencies.
A determination of misconduct will lead the ABC Cardiol to publish a statement, linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and to provide a reference to the plagiarised material. In severe cases (> 50% of plagiarism) the paper will be formally retracted.
WORD COUNT LIMITS
The electronic word count should include the title, the cover page, abstract, text, references and figures/tables legends.
PUBLICATION FEE
As of 04/01/2024, ABC Cardiol will implement a publication fee for the first author of the approved article according to the following conditions:
- If the first author, whether national or international, is not a member of SBC; or
- If the first author is a member but is in arrears.
The first author, whose SBC membership is current at the time of article approval, will be exempt from any payment.
It is emphasized that no fee will be charged at the time of article submission, only after approval.
Articles submitted before the date mentioned above will not incur any charges; only those submitted after this date.
Authors invited by the journal to write a certain type of article (e.g., short editorials, editorials, letter to the editor, etc.) will be exempt from any payment.
RATES AND PAYMENT
| Rates | |
| Value for SBC Members | Free |
| Value for Non-Members/Arrears | R$ 2.000,00* |
*For residents outside Brazil, the amount will be converted to dollars based on the exchange rate of the day.
After article approval, the editorial secretary will contact the first author if payment is required, providing the link for fee payment. The article will only proceed to editorial production upon payment. Current members will have their articles automatically forwarded for editorial production.
REVIEW AND APPROVAL PROCESS
ANALYSIS (PEER REVIEW)
ABC Cardiol uses a double-blind peer-review system, meaning that the reviewers of the paper will be blind to the identity of the author(s), and the author(s) will be blind to the identity of the reviewer. At initial submission, a manuscript is reviewed by editorial staff for compliance with journal style and to make sure the submission is clear and legible for reviewers and editors. Once the editorial staff have checked in the paper, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who will assign it to an Associate Editor. The Associate Editor then determines if it should be sent for peer review or if it is not of sufficient priority for ABC Cardiol. All reviewers and editors are asked to report any potential conflicts of interest, and when those exist the manuscript is reassigned to a different editor or reviewer. The manuscripts are submitted to statistical review, whenever necessary. Once at least to 2 reviews have been completed, the submission is reviewed by the associate editors and Editor-in-chief, who come to one of the six decisions below. Reviewers have 15 days to review the manuscript.
- Accept: The manuscript is acceptable for publication in its current form. However, minor edits may be made by the medical editors, illustrators, or the editorial staff, and authors will need to work with the appropriate contacts to ensure these changes are incorporated post-acceptance.
- Minor Revision: It is important to note that this decision does not guarantee acceptance. However, less significant edits are required than a Revision Required decision. Authors have 15 days to make the changes requested.
- Major Revision: In this case, more significant edits are required. Authors have 30 days to make the changes requested. It is important to note that this decision does not guarantee acceptance.
- Reject & Resubmit: The manuscript is unacceptable for publication in its current form. However, the editors are willing to reconsider a thoroughly revised manuscript. The authors must respond to all reviewer and editor comments and the submission will be re-reviewed and treated as a new submission.
- Reject: The manuscript is unacceptable for publication and/or is not an appropriate fit for ABC Cardiol.
- Reject & Transfer: the article is recommended for another journal in the family of journals of the SBC. The author must accept or decline the transfer when receiving the denial email.
If the article is accepted, the journal will include the name of the editor responsible for the evaluation in the article.
The responsibility for the content of the journals and articles lies with the authors and editors, as per agreements established between the parties.
APPROVAL
1- Acceptance will be based on originality, significance and scientific contribution to the body of knowledge in the area.
2- The final formatted version (in Portuguese and English) will be sent to the author, who must return it within 5 days with minimal spelling adjustments. If the author does not respond in 5 days, these will be considered the final versions for publication.
PUBLICATION
After the author’s approval, the versions are sent to indexation, when the DOI and the XML versions are generated for indexing in the main indexers. The manuscript will be allocated to a volume and an issue, and published online on the journal website (PDF and HTML versions).