ASCI CVIA Register My Manuscripts
Instructions for Authors

General information

Cardiovascular Imaging Asia (CVIA), the official English language journal of the Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASCI), publishes original contributions valuable to advancements in imaging diagnosis and medical treatments. The abbreviated journal title is ¡®Cardiovasc Imaging Asia.¡¯ The journal is published four times annually in January 31, April 30, July 31, and October 31 and reports clinical and other investigations related to the cardiovascular imaging fields and its allied sciences. The journal includes original articles, review articles, pictorial essays, case reports, and letters to the editor. We will undertake the evaluation of your manuscript with the understanding that the study followed the journal¡¯s policies and guidelines explained hereinafter. Studies submitted to CVIA should also follow established guidelines for reporting research studies (http://www.equator-network.org), including the STARD (Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy) checklist for studies dealing with diagnostic accuracy, the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) statement for randomized controlled trials, the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement for meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, and the CARE guidelines for case reports.

The journal is simultaneously published in print and on the official website (http://www.asci-cvia.org or http://www.e-cvia.org).

Aims and scope

The journal aims to produce and propagate knowledge on cardiovascular imaging and related sciences. A unique feature of the articles published in the journal is their reflection of global trends in cardiovascular imaging field combined with an Asian perspective.

The journal publishes technical and clinical communications associated with cardiovascular imaging. The technical communications include research, development, and evaluation of novel imaging methods in the various imaging domains. These domains include magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, X-ray imaging, interventional imaging, applications in nuclear cardiology and echocardiography, and any combination of these techniques. Clinical applications of such imaging techniques include improved diagnostic approaches, treatment, prognosis, and follow-up of cardiovascular patients.

Readership

The journal targets physicians and other healthcare practitioners with an interest in cardiovascular diseases and imaging, such as general diagnostic cardiologists and radiologists, cardiovascular radiologists, imaging cardiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, pulmonologists, internists, cardiothoracic surgeons, pathologists, and physicians-in-training. It is also directed at medical physicists, scientists, engineers, and informatics specialists working on the development of imaging tools, contrast agents, or data processing for the study of cardiovascular diseases, as well as representatives from industries, organizations, and governments involved in providing products or policies for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Editorial and peer review process

Manuscripts are examined by the editorial staff and re-evaluated by expert reviewers assigned by the editors. The acceptance criteria for all papers are based on the quality and originality of the research, its clinical and scientific significance, and the topical balance of the journal. An initial editorial decision will normally be made within 3 weeks of receipt of a manuscript, and the reviewers' comments are sent to the corresponding author via e-mail. If any corrections have been made, the corresponding author must submit the revised manuscript via the E-Submission System. The corresponding author must indicate item by item the alterations that have been made in response to the referees' comments. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 8 weeks of the editorial decision is considered to be a withdrawal.

Editorial policies

CVIA is an open access, peer-reviewed international journal. It publishes high-quality original articles, editorials, review articles, case reports, and short comments regarding all aspects of cardiovascular imaging including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography, nuclear cardiac imaging, and interventional imaging. These include myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies, valvular heart disease, and congenital heart disease, etc.

The Mission of the journal is to bring together scientists and scholars who are interested in promoting a research environment for scientific knowledge in the cardiac imaging field. The best features of the journal are rapid editorial decision within 3 weeks with the maintenance of a quality review process, open to all global readers, and no author fee. All articles can be uploaded as Word files. The articles published in CVIA will be rapidly circulated.

Prospective authors should note that only original and previously unpublished articles will be considered. All articles submitted will be forwarded to the Editorial Review Board of the journal for peer review. Final decisions for acceptance, revision, or rejection will be based on the reviews recommended from the reviewers. All submissions must be forwarded electronically.

Publication and research ethics

The manuscripts published by CVIA should follow the ethical guidelines specified in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication (http//www.icmje.org), established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

The following principles of ethical and professional conduct apply to all persons who submit manuscripts for review or publication by CVIA and to those individuals who review or edit manuscripts for publications related to CVIA. The general policy of CVIA rules includes: 1) Author Inclusion and Exclusion; 2) Data and Copyright Issues; 3) Editor and Reviewer Roles; 4) Research Misconduct; 5) Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest; 6) State of human and animal rights, and 7) Statement of Informed Consent.

Author inclusion and exclusion: Recognition of authorship should indicate a substantive contribution to the intellectual content of the publication, and all substantive contributors should have the option of being listed as coauthors. Author order in the byline is a collective decision of the authors or study group. The authors should resolve disagreements about author order before the article is submitted for publication. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published articles. According to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html), authorship credit should be based on the following 4 criteria:

  • a) substantial contributions to conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and
  • b) drafting of the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  • c) final approval of the version to be published; and
  • d) 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. Each author should be accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done. In addition, each author should be able to identify which coauthors are responsible for specific other parts of the work and should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of any coauthors.
All those designated as authors should meet all 4 criteria for authorship, and all who meet the 4 criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all 4 criteria should be acknowledged. In addition, authors are required to identify their specific contributions to the work described in the manuscript. Requests by authors to designate equal contributions or shared authorship positions (e,g., co-first authorship) may be considered if justified and within reason.
For reports of original data, authors¡¯ specific contributions will be published in the Acknowledgment section. All other persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in this manuscript (e.g., data collection, analysis, or writing or editing assistance) but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria should be named with their specific contributions and affiliations in an Acknowledgment in the manuscript. Written permission to include the names of individuals in the Acknowledgment section must be obtained.

Corresponding author(s): The corresponding author(s) is(are) the one individual(s) who take(s) primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, and typically ensures that all the journal¡¯s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and gathering conflict of interest forms and statements, are properly completed, although these duties may be delegated to one or more coauthors. The corresponding author(s) should be available throughout the submission and peer review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

Data and copyright issues: All submitted manuscripts should be original and should not be under consideration by other scientific journals for publication at the same time. CVIA does not publish articles as original material if the underlying ideas have been previously published. Authors frequently wish to reuse previously published images and other copyrighted material. Authors will not submit for publication any manuscript containing data they are not authorized to use. It is each author's responsibility to follow journal or publisher guidelines for the reuse of copyrighted material and to provide proper attribution. This aspect includes the author's own work if the copyright was transferred to a publisher or journal.

Editor and reviewer roles: Progress in science relies heavily on effective communication of trusted information. Review by objective, impartial, and competent reviewers represents the fundamental basis for maintaining this trust. As such, editors and reviewers play important roles in CVIA¡¯s mission and have special responsibilities. Editors or reviewers will treat manuscripts under review as confidential, recognizing them as the intellectual property of the author(s). Scientists will not serve as editors or reviewers of a manuscript if present or past connections with the author or the author¡¯s institution could prevent objective evaluation of the work. Scientists will not purposely delay publication of another person¡¯s manuscript to gain advantage over that person.

Research misconduct: As a society responsible for communication of the most important science in cardiac imaging, CVIA is dedicated to integrity in its research products and publications. CVIA considers research misconduct a serious offense; such offenses include data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism or duplicate/multiple submission. Detailed discussion of issues of misconduct is well beyond the scope of this statement. In general, however, CVIA follows the best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics. These practices for specific cases of research and publication misconduct are available at http://publicationethics.org.

Disclosure of conflicts of interest: Any financial support associated with the study, including stocks or consultation arrangements with pharmaceutical companies, should be stated, and any political pressure from special interest groups or academia-related issues should be clearly declared in the acknowledgement before the reference section of manuscript, under a subheading entitled ¡°Conflicts of interest.¡± If no financial support or political or academic pressures affect the study, a statement declaring no conflicts of interest should be included under the aforementioned subheading.

Statement of human and animal rights: When reporting studies that involve humans, authors should include a statement that the studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals have been followed and that the studies have been approved by a research ethics committee at the institution in which the studies were conducted. The CVIA will not consider any studies involving humans or animals without the appropriate approval.

Statement of informed consent: Human study must conform to the current ethical standards and should be approved by the appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB). A statement concerning IRB approval and consent procedures must appear in the ¡°Materials and Methods¡± section. Authors can be questioned about the details of consent forms or the consent process, if necessary. On occasion, the Editor-in-Chief might request a copy of the approved IRB application from the author(s).

Guidelines for Manuscript Formatting

General guidelines

The manuscript must be written in English.

For medical terms such as proper nouns, generic names of medicines, and units of measurement, use the original term. The use of acronyms and abbreviations is discouraged and should be kept to a minimum. When used, they are to be defined where first used, followed by the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses. Measurements and laboratory values should be in accordance with the International System of Units (SI) (resources: "SI Units in Radiation Protection and Measurements, NCRP Report no. 82" [August 1985]; "Now Read This: The SI Units Are Here," JAMA 1986;255:2329-2339).

Report p values to three decimal places (i.e., 0.xxx). For p values less than 0.001, report as "p < 0.001."

The names and locations (city and state or country) of manufacturers of equipment and non-generic drugs should be provided.

All text files should be in Microsoft Word format (doc or docx). Do not upload texts files as pdfs.

The manuscript should use 10- or 11-point font size and be double-spaced on 21.6 cm by 27.9 cm (letter size) or 21.0 cm by 29.7 cm (A4) paper, with approximate 3-cm margins.

Please make sure to number the pages in your main document to facilitate the review process. Line numbers for each page will be created automatically in the PDF of your manuscript.

CVIA performs double-blinded review of the submitted manuscripts. Authors' names or initials, their affiliations, or any other remarks that can identify the authors should not appear in the blinded Main Document, Figures, or any other materials for review. If such information is included, the editorial office will ask the authors to re-upload the files after removing the data or will delete it on behalf of the authors before sending the manuscript for peer review.

Do not mix tables with the text. Tables should be placed collectively in the Main Document after References on separate pages.

All figures need to be uploaded as separate files in jpg/jpeg format for initial submissions and tif/tiff format for revised manuscripts. Do not embed images in the Word file.

1. Title page

On the title page, the titles of manuscripts and the names and affiliations of all authors should be included in English only.
The title page should be limited to one page only.

The title page should include:

The name(s) of the author(s)

A concise and informative title

The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)

The e-mail address(es) and telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author(s)

ORCID iDs (all authors)

Author contributions by CRediT

2. Abstract

Please provide a structured abstract consisting of no more than 250 words, which should be divided into the following sections.

Purpose: Purpose should include reasons for carrying out this work and its main objectives, stated clearly and concisely in 1 or 2 sentences. The objectives listed in this section should be in concordance with those stated in the Title and Introduction.

Materials and Methods: Experimental methods carried out to achieve the objectives of the study should be described here in detail. The specific methods of data collection, data analysis, and bias adjustments should be sufficiently explained.

Results: The results of the work should be presented in a logical fashion by providing detailed data.

Conclusion(s): The conclusions of the work should be provided clearly in 1 or 2 sentences according to the study purpose.

3. Keywords

In order to aid online searching, five keywords should be listed using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database of the National Library of Medicine.

4. Main document

1) Original Article

Original article submissions should be no longer than 3,000 words. Longer manuscripts can be approved for submission by the Editorial Staff.

The Main Document should be submitted as a separate single Microsoft Word file and should include a blinded title page, Abstract (word limit of 250 words), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, and Figure legends, in that order.

On the blinded title page, write only the title and type of the manuscript. Do not include the authors' names or other details.

Abstract should start on a separate page and should be structured to include the Objective, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion. Do not use reference citations in the Abstract. Abbreviations should be minimized and, if used, must be defined within the Abstract using full terminology followed by abbreviation in parentheses. At the bottom of the abstract, include 4-6 keywords (index terms).

The first paragraph of Materials and Methods should address whether the study was conducted under approval by the Institutional Review Board (with or without patient informed consent) or Animal Care Committee of the study institution for any investigation involving humans or animals, respectively.

If the study includes reuse/overlap of materials previously published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, clearly state the reuse/overlap in Materials and Methods.

2) Review Article

The Main Document for a Review should be submitted as a separate single Microsoft Word file and should include a blinded title page (which includes only the title and the type of manuscript), an unstructured abstract (word limit of 150 words), body text, references, tables, and figure legends, in that order. The body text does not require a structured format. Use section headings appropriately to separate and organize the text. However, an introductory paragraph and a summary or conclusion paragraph at the front and at the end, respectively, should be clearly distinguished.

3) Pictorial Essay

The Main Document for a Pictorial Essay should be submitted as a separate single Microsoft Word file and should include a blinded title page (which includes only the title and the type of the manuscript), an unstructured abstract (word limit of 150 words), body text, references, tables, and figure legends, in that order. The body text does not require a structured format. Use section headings appropriately to separate and organize the text. However, an introductory paragraph and a summary or conclusion paragraph at the front and at the end, respectively, should be clearly distinguished.

4) Case Report

The Main Document for a Case Report should be submitted as a separate single Microsoft Word file and should include a blinded title page (which includes only the title and the type of the manuscript), unstructured abstract (word limit of 130 words), Introduction, Case report, Discussion, References, Tables, and Figure legends, in that order. No more than 7 references and 2 figures (below 8 images) will be accepted, and the total length including all elements (title page, abstract, text, acknowledgement, references, and figure legends) should not exceed 1,000 words.

5. Acknowledgments

These should be as brief as possible. Any grant that requires acknowledgement should be mentioned. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. In particular, authors must acknowledge those companies who have supported the department(s) where the work was carried out or who have sponsored the study in any way.

6. References

Start on a separate page in the Main Document, numbering the references consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text.

All references must be cited in the text.

Unpublished data should not be cited in the reference list but parenthetically in the text; for example, (Smith DJ, personal communication), (Smith DJ, unpublished data).

Journal names should be abbreviated according to the Index Medicus.

All authors are to be listed when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, the first six should be listed, followed by "et al."

Inclusive page numbers (e.g., 111-114) are to be used.

The style and punctuation for journal articles, books, or book chapters should follow the format illustrated in the following examples:

Journal article: Hwang SH, Choi EY, Park CH, Paek MY, Greiser A, Kim TH, et al. Evaluation of extracellular volume fraction thresholds corresponding to myocardial late-gadolinium enhancement using cardiac magnetic resonance. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 2014;20: 137-144.

Journal Article Published Online Ahead of Print: Lee SH, Cho N, Chang JM, Koo HR, Kim JY, Kim WH, et al. Two view versus single-view shear-wave elastography: comparison of observer performance in differentiating benign from malignant breast masses. Radiology 2013 Sep 12 [Epub]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/radiol.13130561.

Book: Han MC, Kim CW. Sectional human anatomy. 3rd ed. Seoul: Ilchokak, 1991.

Chapter in a book: Grant EG. Liver. In: Mitterlstaedt CA, ed. General ultrasound. 1st ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1992;173-248.

Web content: Best preps are tailored to VC reading method. AuntMinnie. com Web site. http://www.auntminnie.com/. Published November 16, 2005. Accessed August 6, 2007

7. Tables

Tables should be provided in Arabic numerals and English. The title of each table should be stated concisely using phrases or clauses. The first letter of the title should be capitalized.

Vertical lines must not be used, and excessive utilization of horizontal lines is not recommended for tables.

Tables should include more than 4 lines of data and occupy less than 1 page.

When abbreviations are used, they should be spelled out at the bottom of the corresponding table.

When annotation is necessary, symbols should be used in the order *, ¢Ó, ¢Ô, ¡×, ||, ¢Ò, **, ¢Ó¢Ó, and ¢Ô¢Ô with their explanations included in footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Tables should be easy to understand and self-explanatory.

Tables similar to other tables that have been published elsewhere cannot be used.

8. Figures and video clips

Send all figure parts as separate image files. Do not embed images in the Word file.

Use jpg/jpeg for initial submissions and tif/tiff for revised manuscripts.

All figure parts related to one patient should have the same figure number and use English letters after the numerals to distinguish each figure part, e.g., Fig. 1A, 1B, 1C. Do not label figure numbers directly on the figures. Match the figure number with the name of the image file, e.g., Fig _1A.jpg.

Labels/arrows should be of professional quality and touch the edge of the feature being labeled. Do not use equilateral triangles for arrowheads.

Remove all names and all other identifiers of the patient, authors, and authors' institutions from the figures.

After cropping to the area of interest, images should be at least 300 dpi in resolution and a minimum of 3 inches to a maximum of 7 inches both in width and height.

Written permission from the prior publisher should be obtained for the use of all previously published illustrations, and copies of the permission letter should be submitted.

Video clips can be submitted for placement on the journal website. All videos are subject to peer review and can be uploaded as supplementary materials. A video file submitted for consideration for publication should be in complete and final format and at as high a resolution as possible. Any editing of the video will be the responsibility of the author. CVIA recommends Quicktime, AVI, MPEG, MP4, or RealMedia file formats not exceeding 30 MB and less than 5 minutes in duration.

9. Figure Legends

The figure legends should start on a separate page. Legends should be numbered in the order in which they are cited, using Arabic numerals.

The figure title should include patient age and diagnosis, followed by a description using one complete sentence rather than a phrase or paragraph for each figure part.

For a description of the features in the figure, the sentence should be in present tense. For a description regarding features not appearing in the figure, the sentence should be in past tense.

For microscopic findings, the staining method and the scale should be included in parentheses (e.g., H&E, ¡¿100).

When using previously published figures, the original source must be named in the figure legend.

Review Process and Manuscript Decision

Submitted manuscripts will first be evaluated at the editorial office regarding the completeness and suitability for Cardiovascular Imaging Asia. Modifications/corrections can be requested of the authors at this stage before starting the peer review.

Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two peer reviewers, who are experts in the submitted subject matter and make suggestions to the editor(s), as well as by the editor(s).

If a Case Report is submitted, it will initially undergo a screening process for potential suitability prior to peer review. Only those cases judged to be sufficiently novel and with sufficient clinical impact will undergo a full peer review process.

Cardiovascular Imaging Asia performs double-blinded peer review of the submitted manuscripts. The peer reviewers and the authors are not aware of the identities of the others.

Authors can monitor the progress of the manuscript throughout the review process at http://www.asci-cvia.org or http://www.e-cvia.org.

Submitted manuscripts will receive one of the following decisions:

Accept: The manuscript is accepted for publication.

Minor Revision: A revision needs to be submitted within 60 days of the decision. Otherwise, the manuscript will be treated as a new submission.

Major Revision: A revision needs to be submitted within 90 days of the decision. Otherwise, the manuscript will be treated as a new submission.

Reject: Resubmission allowed: Authors are allowed to resubmit their work. However, it is effective only when they are able to respond to the various reviewer comments and make substantial changes to the study. This type of manuscript is generally not suitable for publication unless the authors conduct further research or collect additional data. The resubmitted manuscript will be treated as a new submission.

Reject: No further consideration: The paper will no longer be considered for publication.

A decision to accept a manuscript is not based solely on the scientific validity and originality of the study content; other factors are considered, including the extent and importance of new information in the paper compared with that in other papers being considered, CVIA¡¯s need to represent a wide range of topics, and the overall suitability for Cardiovascular Imaging Asia.

Decision letters usually, but not always, convey all factors considered for a particular decision. Occasionally, the comments to the authors might be inconsistent with the editorial decision, which takes into consideration reviewers' comments to the editor, as well as the additional factors listed above.

If, as the author(s), you believe that we have rejected your article in error, perhaps because we have misunderstood its scientific content, please send an appeal by e-mail to the editorial office. However, appeals are ineffective in most cases and are discouraged.

Submitted manuscripts can be withdrawn by authors' request at any time before they are formally accepted for publication. However, any withdrawal after a manuscript has entered "under review" status will not be allowed a resubmission.

Instructions for Submission of a Revised Manuscript

A Major Revision and a Minor Revision should be submitted within 90 days and 60 days, respectively, of the decisions. Otherwise, the manuscript will be treated as a new submission.

Please carefully read and follow the instructions written here and those included in the manuscript decision e-mail.

Please submit point-by-point responses to the editor/reviewer comments by directly pasting them in the box provided in "View and Response to Decision Letter" page and by uploading the same as a Microsoft Word document file (DOC/DOCX) on the "File Upload" page.

Any changes in the authorship should be reported to the editor in the cover letter.

For file uploading, if you have updated a file, please delete the original version and upload the revised file. To designate the order in which your files appear, use the dropdowns in the "order" column on the "File Upload" page.

For a revision, we require two copies of the Main Document. Each should be a Microsoft Word document. The FIRST COPY should represent the final "clean" copy of the manuscript. The SECOND "annotated" COPY should have changes tracked using the track changes function in Microsoft Word with marginal memos indicating changes (e.g., E-1 indicates a response to comment #1 of the Editor; R2-3 indicates a response to comment #3 of Reviewer #2).

Copyrights

The manuscript, when published, will become the property of the journal. Copyrights of all published materials are owned by Cardiovascular Imaging Asia and must not be published elsewhere without written permission. They also follow the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License available from: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

Publication Fee

There is no author's submission fee or other publication-related fee since all costs of the publication process are underwritten by the ASCI. CVIA is an open access journal that does not charge author fees.

Copyright¨Ï Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging. All right reserved.
#202,7, Angol-ro 11beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 13572, Korea
TEL : +82-31-704-4261   FAX : +82-504-095-5290    E-mail : cvia@asci-heart.org      Developed in M2PI