ISSN 0102-7638 printed version
ISSN 1678-9741 online version

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Information for Authors
• General Information
• Manuscript Sections

The materials sent to Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Cardiovascular - Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery for publication should deal with themes related to cardiovascular surgery or other pertinent areas. All scientific contributions are revised by the editor, associated editors, members of the editorial board, and guest revisers, and must relate to at least one of the sections. These sections include: Original Articles, Editorials, Review Articles, Updating, Case Reports, "How-to-do-it,” Brief Communications, Advance Notes, Experience in Service, Clinical-Surgical Correlations, Experimental Work and Letters to the Editor. Acceptance is based on originality, relevance and scientific contribution. All articles, letters and communications must be sent to the address above.

Manuscripts should be submited to the website www.rbccv.org.br. If the author is not registered, he/she must do it following the instructions in the website. Texts are to be edited in Word, and graphics, photos, tables and illustrations should have a .jpeg extension and minimum resolution of 300dpi. Printed copies of text and illustrations may also be attached to a written correspondence.

All articles should be sent together with a submission letter, mentioning the section in which the article is to be included (see list above). The submission letter must have a statement from the author and co-authors attesting to the fact that all are in agreement with the contents mentioned in the material, clarifying a conflict of interest or lack thereof, and verification of the absence of any related ethical problems. The letter must be sent by fax (55 17 2136-7045) or by mail. In the case of Doubled Publication, see the details below.

Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Cardiovascular - Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery adopts the Vancouver Norms - uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, which are maintained by the International Committee of Medical Editors - The Vancouver Group. (www.icmje.org).

Evaluation by Peer Reviewers: All manuscripts sent to the Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery will be submitted for evaluation to at least three peer reviewers selected from the associated editors and members of the editorial council. The reviewers complete a questionnaire on which the classification of the manuscript will be based. They use a rigorous appraisal process to verify that the submission meets all the criteria for a scientific work, assigning a score for each criterion on the questionnaire. At the end of the questionnaire, they give general comments about the work and inform the Journal as to whether they think it should be published or corrected with their recommendations, whether it complies with the scope of the journal, or if it should be definitively rejected. Using these reviews, the editor will make the final decision. In cases of discrepancies between the reviewers, a new opinion may be requested to better judge the work. When modifications are suggested, they are sent to the primary author for revision, and the reviewers then verify if their doubts have been resolved or not. After editing, the manuscripts are sent to the authors to verify that there are no errors. This process is completed via the internet (e-mails), and each stage is given a strict deadline. In the case of delay, a new reviewer will be appointed, which is also the case if any reviewer refuses to analyze the work.

In exceptional cases, when deemed necessary for the appraisal of a particular manuscript, the editor can request the collaboration of a professional who is not a member of the associated editors or the editorial council.

Language: Articles should be written in Portuguese (using the current spelling) and also in English. In the case of material that does not have an English translation, or material for which such translation is considered inadequate by the editorial board, the Journal will provide translation at the expense of the author(s). The English translation will be published in its entirety on the Scielo site (www.scielo.br). It will be online, available, and at the disposal of the international community with specific links in our organization's site in Brazil, as well as on our site under CTSNET (www.ctsnet.org) in the United States of America.

Research with Human Beings and Animals: In the Methods section, authors must mention that the research has been approved by the Ethics Committee on Research, from its Institution, according to the Helsinki Declaration (see electronic address: http://www.ufrgs.br/HCPA/gppg/helsin5.htm). In experimental works involving animals, the norms set up by the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (D.C., 1996) as well as the Ethical Principles on Animal Experimentation from the Colégio Brasileiro de Experimentação Animal (COBEA), must be respected. More information about COBEA can be found at www.meusite.com.br/COBEA/etica.htm.

Articles should be saved as a Word 97 document or higher (A4 format), using size 12 font; 1.5-line spacing, and Times New Roman font (in case of mathematics or greek symbols, authors should use Symbol font), with page numbers.

The translation into Portuguese needs:

a) Title in Portuguese and English;
b) Full name(s) of the author(s) and the name of the organization where the work has been done;
c) Abstract in Portuguese and English (maximum 250 words each; 100 words in each language for the Case Report and the "How-to-do-it" section);
d) Introduction;
e) Method;
f) Results;
g) Comments;
h) Acknowledgments;
i) References;
j) Legends of illustrations; and
k) Tables.

First page

The first page should have:

a) The title of the material in a concise and descriptive way, in Portuguese and English;
b) The full name(s) of the author(s);
c) The name and address of the institution(s) where the work has been completed;
d) The name of the primary author, along with this author's address, phone, fax and e-mail; and
e) A statement of the number of words in the document. The electronic counting of words is to include the initial page, abstract, text, references and legends of illustrations.

If the work has already been presented in a conference, the name, address and date of the presentation should be mentioned.

Second page - Abstract

The abstract must be divided into four sections: Objective, Method, Results and Conclusion(s).

Abbreviations should be avoided.

The maximum number of words should follow the recommendations in the table below. In the Case Reports and the "How-to-Do-It" sections, the abstract is to be non-structured (informative or free). Three to five descriptors (key words) should also be included, as well as the corresponding translation. Terms in Portuguese, Spanish and English can often be found at http://decs.bvs.br, and www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh can be used for English terms.

Text. The text should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. References are to be cited numerically by order of appearance in the text, and between brackets. If more than two references are mentioned in sequence, only the first and the last one should be keyed in, and separated by a dash (Example: [6-9]). In the case of alternate citations, all references should be keyed in, and separated by a comma (Example: [6,7,9]). Abbreviations are to be defined the first time they appear.

Acknowledgments. Acknowledgments must come after the text.

References. The Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery adopts the Vancouver Norms. References should be numbered sequentially according to their appearance in the text. References cannot have indented paragraphs, and should be justified to the left. Personal communications and data that have not been published should not be included in the list of references, but simply mentioned in the text and in the footnotes on the corresponding page. Include the names of all authors if there are six or fewer. Use “et. al.” for any extra authors (the 7^th and beyond).  The abbreviations of any journals must be in conformity with Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Examples:

Journal Article

 Dallan LA, Gowdak LH, Lisboa LA, Schettert I, Krieger JE, César LA et al. Terapia celular associada à revascularização transmiocárdica a laser como proposta no tratamento da angina refratária. Rev Bras Cir Cardiovasc 2009;23(1):46-52.

An Institution as the Author

The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Clinical exercise stress testing. Safety and performance guidelines. Med J Aust 1996;116:41-2.

Unknown Author

Cancer in South Africa. [editorial]. S Af Med J 1994;84-15.

Book Chapter

1. Mylek WY. Endothelium and its properties. In: Clark BL Jr, editor. New frontiers in surgery. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1998. p.55-64.

Book

1. Nunes EJ, Gomes SC. Cirurgia das cardiopatias congênitas. 2a ed. São Paulo: Sarvier; 1961. p.701.

Thesis

1. Brasil LA. Uso da metilprednisolona como inibidor da resposta inflamatória sistêmica induzida pela circulação extracorpórea [Tese de doutorado]. São Paulo: Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Medicina, 1999. 122p. A EPM virou Universidade em 20 de dezembro 1994, de lá para cá se faz necessário colocar Unifesp e EPM.

Events

Silva JH. Preparo intestinal transoperatório. In: 45° Congresso Brasileiro de Atualização em Coloproctologia; 1995; São Paulo. Anais. São Paulo: Sociedade Brasileira de Coloproctologia; 1995. p.27-9.

Minna JD. Recente advances for potential clinical importance in the biology of lung cancer. In: Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association for Cancer Research; 1984 Sep 6-10. Proceedings. Toronto: AMA; 1984;25:293-4.

Electronic Material

Journal article

Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 1995 Jan-Mar [cited 1996 Jun 5]; 1(1):[24 screens]. Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Book

Tichenor WS. Sinusitis: treatment plan that works for asthma and allergies too [monograph online]. New York: Health On the Net Foundation; 1996. [cited 1999 May 27]. Available from: URL: http://www.sinuses.com

Book chapter

Tichenor WS. Persistent sinusitis after surgery. In: Tichenor WS. Sinusitis: treatment plan that works for asthma and allergies too [monograph online]. New York: Health On the Net Foundation; 1996. [cited 1999 May 27]. Available from: URL: http://www.sinuses.com/postsurg.htm

Thesis

Lourenço LG. Relação entre a contagem de microdensidade vasal tumoral e o prognóstico do adenocarcinoma gástrico operado [tese online]. São Paulo: Universidade Federal de São Paulo; 1999. [citado 1999 Jun 10]. Disponível em: URL: http://www.epm.br/cirurgia/gastro/laercio

Events

Barata RB. Epidemiologia no século XXI: perspectivas para o Brasil. In: 4° Congresso Brasileiro de Epidemiologia [online].; 1998 Ago 1-5; Rio de Janeiro. Anais eletrônicos. Rio de Janeiro: ABRASCO; 1998. [citado 1999 Jan 17].

Legends of Illustrations

Legends of illustrations should be double spaced, each on its own numbered page, ordered after the references, with one page for each legend. Abbreviations used in the illustrations must be explained in the legends.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures should be numbered sequentially according to their appearance in the text. They should have titles and should each be on a separate page. Tables should not have redundant data (data already cited in the text). They should be open on the sides (without frames), and should have a completely white background. Abbreviations used in the illustrations must be explained in the legends in alphabetical order (see example below).

Tables and figures will be published in color only if the authors agree to pay for the printing costs.

The manuscripts become property of the Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, with their reproduction being prohibited without written consent from the editor. The material approved and published by the Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery will not be returned to the author(s). Those not approved will be systematically returned.

For the reproduction of any material previously published or available in electronic media (including tables, figures or photos), a letter should be attached with written permission from the editor or copyright holder.

Duplicated Articles

The Vancouver Convention establishes that duplicated articles, whether in the same or in another language, and especially in different countries, can be justifiable and even beneficial. Therefore, articles published by authors in scientific journals from other countries may be accepted. The editor will take relevance and the need into consideration. In a footnote on the first page of the second publication, the authors must inform readers and researchers that the article has previously been published wholly or partially, presenting the reference of the first publication. The footnote should say, "This article is based on study previously in (title of the journal with complete reference)".

Limits for Each Type of Article

In order to rationalize the space of the journal and to allow for a higher number of articles per issue, the criteria below for each type of publication should be observed. The electronic counting of words is to include the initial page, the abstract, references, and legends of illustrations. Titles have a limit of 100 characters (including spaces) for Original Articles, and 80 characters (including spaces) for all other sections.