Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors need to register with the journal as an Author prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

For any technical problems, please contact -  scholar@sun.ac.za

Download the Author Manual with regards to the Submission of articles, Re-submission.

Instructions for authors

SA Heart publishes peer reviewed articles dealing with cardiovascular disease, including original research, topical reviews, state-of-the-art papers and viewpoints. Regular features include an ECG quiz, image in cardiology and local guidelines. Case reports are considered for publication only if the case or cases are truly unique, incorporates a relevant review of the literature and makes a contribution to improved future patient management.

Publication policy

Articles must be the original, unpublished work of the stated authors. Written permission from the author or copyright holder must be submitted with previously published material including text, figures or tables. Articles under consideration elsewhere or previously published (except as abstracts not exceeding 400 words) may not be submitted for publication in SA Heart. On acceptance transfer of copyright to the South African Heart Association will be required. No material published in SA Heart may be reproduced without written permission. Permission may be sought from the Chief Editor (Email: afd@sun.ac.za).

Disclosures

Authors must declare all financial disclosures and conflicts of interest in the cover letter and on the title page of the manuscript.

Ethics

All studies must be in compliance with institutional and international regulations for human and animal studies such as the Helsinki declaration (2008) (http://www.wma.net/

en/30publications/10policies/b3/17c.pdf) and the South African MRC ethics guidelines (http://www.sahealthinfo.org/ethics/index.htm). Human studies require ethics committee

approval and informed consent which must be documented in your manuscript. Animal studies require ethics committee approval and must conform to international guidelines for

animal research, as well as the South African National Standard for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes. Compliance with these requirements must be documented in your manuscript.

Content

1. Title page: It should contain the title of the manuscript, the names of all authors in the correct sequence, their academic status and affiliations. If there are more than 4 authors, the contribution of each must be substantiated in the cover sheet. The main author should include his/her name, address, phone, fax and email address.

2. Authors are solely responsible for the factual accuracy of their work.

3. Articles should be between 3 000 and 5 000 words in length.

4. A 200-word abstract should state the main conclusions and clinical relevance of the article.

5. All articles are to be in English.

6. Abbreviations and acronyms should be defined on first use and kept to a minimum.

7. Tables should carry Roman numeral, I, II etc., and figures Arabic numbers 1, 2 etc.

8. References should be numbered consecutively in the order that they are first mentioned in the text and listed at the end in numerical order of appearance. Identify references in the text by Arabic numerals in superscript after punctuation, e.g. ...trial.

9. Articles are to be submitted directly via the journal. The text should be in MS Word. Pages should be numbered consecutively in the following order wherever possible: Title page, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, tables and illustrations, references.

10. Where possible all figures, tables and photographs must also be submitted electronically. The illustrations, tables and graphs should not be imbedded in the text file, but should be provided as separate individual graphic files, and clearly identified. The figures should be saved as a 300 dpi jpeg file. Tables should be saved in a MS Word or PowerPoint document. If photographs are submitted, two sets of unmounted high quality black and white glossy prints should accompany the paper. Figures and photographs should be of high quality with all symbols, letters or numbers clear enough and large enough to remain legible after reduction to fit in a text column. Each figure and table must have a separate self-explanatory legend.

11. Remove all markings such as patient identification from images and radiographs before photographing.

The following format should be used for references:

Articles

Kaplan FS, August CS, Dalinka MK. Bone densitometry observation of osteoporosis in response to bone marrow transplantation. Clin Orthop 1993;294:73-8. (If there are more than six authors, list only the first three followed by et al.)

Chapter in a book

Young W. Neurophysiology of spinal cord injury. In: Errico TJ, Bauer RD, Waugh T (eds). Spinal Trauma. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott; 1991:377-94.

Online media

Norback JS, Lwellyn DC and Hardin JR (2001). Shoptalk 101. Integrating workplace communication into undergraduate engineering curricula [online]. Retrieved February 15, 2012: http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-8-01/norback.html.