Author Guidelines

Radcliffe's journals endeavour to publish unbiased content. All articles must be of an impartial nature.

Invited contributors are assessed by the editor-in-chiefs with the support of the section editors, and guidance from the editorial boards. Following acceptance of an invitation, the authors and journal managing editor, in conjunction with the editor-in-chief, formalise the working title and scope of the article.

We consider uninvited submissions provided they meet our publication criteria.

Following submission, articles are subject to independent double-blind peer review and copy-editing prior to publication. All articles must receive final approval of the editor-in-chief and/or section editors before they are published.

Articles must be submitted using our electronic peer review system, Editorial Manager. Please select the relevant journal below to submit a paper:

Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Review (AER)

Cardiac Failure Review (CFR)

European Cardiology Review (ECR)

Interventional Cardiology Review (ICR)

US Cardiology Review (USC)

Vascular and Endovascular Review (VER)

If you are interested in submitting a manuscript and wish to discuss it further, or have any editorial queries, please email the editorial contact for the relevant journal: ashlynne.merrifield@radcliffe-group.com for AER, CFR, ECR, ICR and VER and mirjam.boros@radcliffe-group.com for USC.

All authors involved should be listed and are accountable for the content should it be published and must meet the following conditions to be considered an author:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Those meeting the above criteria are eligible to participate in reviewing and drafting the final manuscript. The corresponding author will be responsible for key communication with the publisher. Those not meeting the above criteria should be acknowledged as a contributor in the acknowledgments section rather than an author. The editor is not held responsible for identifying authors on the manuscript. This information must be supplied at submission.

Articles accepted for publication include the following content types and may be solicited or unsolicited:

Articles should be supplied in Microsoft Word, with all pages clearly numbered. The work should not be already submitted for consideration elsewhere nor have been previously published.

Title page: Should include the title of the article; author(s)’ full name, position and institution; an abstract and keywords; any relevant conflicts of interest; corresponding address; and article word count (excluding references).

Keywords: Keywords capture the essence of your paper and help others to find your content when they are conducting a search on a particular topic. The below guidelines aim to ensure that the maximum number of people possible will be able to find your article:

1. Write a list of keywords or keyphrases that you believe healthcare professionals would type into a search engine when trying to find content such as yours. Write down as many as possible, we suggest a minimum of seven.
2. Group these words into logical themes.
3. Write down semantic keywords that could be used as alternatives across these themes.
4. Try to insert both keywords and the sematic keywords into the content, but only if the keywords can be inserted in a way that will be natural to both your writing and to the reader. The reader should always be the focus.
5. Include some of these keywords in the title of your work: use one or two of the words that you believe are the most popular, while also being highly relevant to your content.
6. If you have any questions about keywords while writing your work, we have a dedicated marketing department that can assist you; please ask.  

Article length: Each article type has its own word limit. Articles submitted with word counts exceeding the limit will either be returned for reduction by the author or be reduced in length by the editor. Please refer to table above for guidance on word limits based on content type.

Layout: Use headings within the text to make it easier to read and understand. Subdivide the text into main sections with subheadings. Keep these short and succinct and similar in sense and style.

Language: All articles should be written in UK English, free from jargon, and the writing should be clear and direct. All acronyms and abbreviations must be explained in full at first mention. We use UK spelling (unless the submission if for US Cardiology Review, which uses US spelling).

Figures: Tables, illustrations, screenshots and photographs – A maximum of six may be used. Anything above this number should be supplied as supplementary data. These are welcome where they add emphasis, clarity and/or interest to articles and should be clearly labeled with relevant captions. They must be referred to in the main text and numbered sequentially. All symbols and abbreviations used in figures must be defined.

Illustrations: Digital files must be saved as .tiff, .pdf or .jpeg format and be at least 300dpi. Original figures may be redrawn as necessary.

Videos: May be published in the online article with a still image of the video in the print file/PDF. Videos to be submitted in mp4 or avi format. Please ensure the video is accurately labeled. Any additional videos submitted but not included in the main article may appear as supplementary data.

Clinical Perspective: If applicable to the content type, include a Clinical Perspective section at the end of the article, summarising the clinical implications of your review in two to five bullet points.

Supplementary data: Supplementary material may be submitted to the journal if it is necessary to the integrity and excellence of the manuscript. It may take form of figures, tables, datasets, videos, slide sets, formulas, podcasts etc. Supplementary material must be submitted at the time of manuscript submission as a separate file and will be published as a pdf file (unless in audio or video format).

Please note: Supplementary material will be subject to the same peer-review standards as the manuscript but will not be edited by the journal staff. Therefore, please take care to ensure that supplementary content is labeled and presented correctly, that grammar is corrected and that the journal style is followed throughout, especially in the references. Supplementary references must be cited in the main article and referenced at the end of the manuscript/acknowledgements.

If a figure, table or illustration has been previously published, please ensure the original source is acknowledged as a figure legend and written permission from the copyright holder is sought. All figures/tables must have one of the below statements if they are not original:

If it is data taken from and no permissions are required – Data from: XXX et al. YEAR,^RefXXX et al. YEAR,^RefXXX et al. YEAR.^Ref
If it is reproduced – Source: XXX et al. YEAR.^Ref Reproduced with permission from PUBLISHER.
If it is adapted – Source: XXX et al. YEAR.^Ref Adapted with permission from PUBLISHER.

Original images that are the authors own and that have not been published elsewhere, do not require permission. If applicable, please indicate this as a legend in your submission. If all images are original, please include a statement to this effect in the manuscript/at submission.

Our journals are open access. Please ensure that open access reuse permission is sought where possible. If it if not, please highlight this by adding ‘This content is not covered by the Creative Commons license of this publication. To reuse, please contact the rights holder.’

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for all copyrighted material, including tables, figures and images. Permission is required irrespective of ownership. Permission proof is required at the time of submission. Papers cannot be accepted for publication until all necessary permissions are sought.

A conflict of interest exists when an opinion may be influenced or biased by a secondary interest such as financial gain. Conflicts of interest may occur from commercial or financial interests and/or personal relationships, beliefs and or rivalries such as research funding, consultancy services, serving on speakers’ bureaus, travel expenses, appearance fees, the receipt of share options, or direct employment by a commercial entity.

We make it clear in our publications where any conflicts of interest occur and inform readers when research has been funded. All authors, peer reviewers and editors must declare any conflicts of interest pertaining to the article when submitting a manuscript. All sources of support for the work where a conflict exists will be publicised. Conversely, please state clearly should there be no conflicts of interest to declare.

The authors must complete the questions asked in our electronic submission system (Editorial Manager), which follows the ICMJE recommendations. These answers will be stored, and a disclosure statement will appear on every manuscript published within the journal based on your response. The purpose of this statement is to provide readers of your manuscript with information about your other interests that could influence how they receive and understand your work. For more information and to download a Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest, which can be submitted with your manuscript, please visit: https://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest.

Reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest before conducting a peer review of a manuscript. Reviewers should decline to review if a potential conflict of interest is present.

Editorial staff employed by Radcliffe Group, editors-in-chief and guest editors, will not handle manuscripts where a potential conflict of interest exists.

Acknowledgements: The author(s) should acknowledge substantive contributions to the article, including receipt of financial assistance, materials and other resources.

Informed consent: Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained, if experimentation with human subjects was conducted. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed. For more information please read: https://www.radcliffecardiology.com/privacy-statement

Human and animal rights: If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for research involving humans https://www.wma.net or the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments https://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm.

All articles must be fully referenced. References must be numbered in order of the first mention. They must be indicated in the text by a number with the full list at the end of the article in numerical order. They must not be used to promote self-interests.

Journal Articles
Journal abbreviations are used as per Medline. If there are more than three authors, list the first three followed by et al., unless there are four authors, in which case list all four. Details should be ordered as: Surname Initials. Article title. Journal name year;volume:page numbers. doi: [doi number]. PMID: [PMID number].

Example: Delpón E, Cordeiro JM, Núñez L, et al. Functional effects of KCNE3 mutation and its role in the development of Brugada syndrome. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol 2008;1:209–18. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCEP.107.748103; PMID: 19122847.

Book Chapters
Example: Mansbach H. Sumatriptan: looking back and looking forward. In: Humphrey P, Ferari M, Olesen J (eds). The Triptans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001;183–9.

All peer reviews are conducted within the Editorial Manager platform.

On submission, items submitted to the journal are assessed by the Editor-in-Chief to assess their suitability for inclusion. Items that are deemed unsuitable, fail a technical check or that are deemed more suitable for another journal are returned at this stage.

The Review Editor, following consultation with the Editor-in-Chief, Section Editors and/or a member of the Editorial Board, sends the manuscript for peer review. All peer reviews are conducted independently, treated confidentially and are double-blinded. The peer reviewers are selected on the basis of their expertise in the article subject matter and have no conflicts of interest. Peer reviewers are not part of the editorial staff and are independent from the article.

The peer review feedback is used to critically assess the quality of the article, to assess its suitability for inclusion in the journal and to ensure its credibility of scientific information.

Following review, manuscripts are either accepted without modification, accepted pending modification, or may require further revision, in which case the manuscripts may be returned to the author(s) to incorporate required changes, or may be rejected outright. Not all articles that are revised are subsequently accepted. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to accept or reject any proposed amendments.

Once the authors have revised a manuscript in accordance with the reviewers’ comments, the manuscript is returned to the reviewers to ensure the revised version meets their quality expectations. Once approved, the manuscript is sent to the Editor-in-Chief for final approval prior to publication. We aim to complete the peer review process with the average time from submission to first decision within 6 weeks and submission to final decision within 10 weeks.

It is our aim to ensure authors are notified of any rejection or retraction as soon as possible. An editor can reject an article at any time before publication, including after acceptance if there are concerns over the work. In the event that a journal is no longer published, access to all articles will be available via alternative platforms, such as PubMed Central, ESCI or Scopus.

All accepted manuscripts will be subject to editorial revisions for clarity, punctuation, syntax and conformity to house style.

Laid-out proofs will be sent to the corresponding author following the first stage of editing. Any requests for changes must be returned by the deadline given. Articles are considered final once an author approves the corrected proofs. Only minor changes can be made at the proofing stage; major changes will not be accepted.

Articles published in our Journals are open access, which means the content is freely available, immediately upon publication, without charge, and allows users to read, download, copy, redistribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is cited correctly. The author retains all non-commercial rights for articles published under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial CC-BY-NC 4.0 license. After your manuscript is accepted the corresponding author will be asked to sign a mandatory copyright transfer agreement (CTA) to grant us permission to publish the manuscript under these terms.

Radcliffe Medical Media retains all commercial rights for articles herein unless otherwise stated. Permission to reproduce an article or any of its contents for commercial purposes, either in full or in part, should be sought from the publication's Managing Editor.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for all copyright material, including tables, figures and images. Evidence will need to be provided for all permissions granted.

To support open access publication costs, Radcliffe Cardiology and Radcliffe Vascular charge an Article Publication Charge (APC) to authors upon acceptance of an unsolicited paper, as follows:
 

Submissions from the UK will be subject to VAT. A VAT registration number should be supplied if applicable. If you are not registered for VAT, your invoice will still have VAT added.

After manuscript acceptance, the corresponding author will be contacted, and an invoice will be sent. Accepted articles will not be published until payment has been received.

A 100% waiver is applicable under the following circumstances:

• For all content solicited by Radcliffe Cardiology/Radcliffe Vascular.
• For all unsolicited content submitted to a non-indexed journal.
• For all letters and editorials submitted to the journal.
• For all content submitted by an editorial board member.
• If the corresponding author is from a low-income country (as defined by the World Bank).

A 50% waiver is applicable under the following circumstances:

• If the corresponding author is from a middle-income country (as defined by the World Bank).

A 25% waiver is applicable under the following circumstances:

• If the corresponding author submits a paper within 12 months of completing their most recent peer review for a Radcliffe journal.

Discretionary waivers may also be considered.

Radcliffe Cardiology/Radcliffe Vascular remains dedicated to helping researchers to disseminate scientific information globally and is working to partner with individual institutions to offer full or partial APC discounts. If you are an institution looking to partner with us, or think your institution should, then please contact the Publishing Director.

To ensure editorial integrity, the waiver process is not handled by the managing editors. Authors should submit a waiver request during the electronic submission process.

We take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where misconduct has occurred. In no case shall we as the publisher or our editors encourage or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place to published and unpublished papers. 

Our journals use similarity checking software to detect unoriginal material and to avoid plagiarism. Where duplication is highlighted, the concerns will be raised with the author.

We do not permit the manipulation of research data through data falsification or data fabrication. Where data falsification or fabrication is suspected, the concerns will be raised with the author.

We reserve the right to reverse decisions to accept a submission where we believe our editorial policies have been infringed and papers suspected of misconduct will not be considered for publication. We reserve the right to inform the author’s co-authors and/or institution/regulatory body when such instances occur.

We take strive to ensure the academic integrity of our journals and to ensure that all content is reproduced correctly. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information and cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use thereof. Occasionally circumstances may arise were an article is published that must later be retracted or removed. We commit to retract, correct and apologise for any inaccuracies or misleading statements with due prominence through errata which are issued as needed. Any errors should be reported to the journal’s Managing Editor. In all cases, our archives at The British Library and the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries retain all versions.

Advertising is not permitted to influence editorial decisions. Advertisements cannot be carried by the journal that juxtapose editorial content on the same product. Adverts may appear at the front and back of a journal (never within text). Misleading adverts may be refused. 

Any complaints should be first directed to the Editorial Office/Managing Editor of the Journal in writing. If they are the subject of the complaint, please raise this with the Publishing Director. We as the Publisher will aim to deal with any complaints or allegations of misconduct as appropriately and as swiftly as possible. If not resolved satisfactorily, any complaints can be passed to the overseeing body or ombudsmen where one exists. Complaints may be referred to COPES within six months if it cannot be resolved through the journal's complaints procedure and only if it pertains to procedural complaints rather than editorial content.

Reprints of all published articles are available to authors, institutions and commercial organisations. Reprints are published as they appear in the journal unless a correction is to be added. Please contact Rob Barclay at rob.barclay@radcliffe-group.com

We protect an individual's data and will not publish any patient data that might identify an individual without their written consent. For detailed information on our data sharing policy please click here.