Instructions to Authors

Updated March 13, 2024

Koşuyolu Heart Journal (Koşuyolu Heart J) is a scientific, open access periodical of the Health Sciences University Kartal Koşuyolu High Specialization Training and Research Hospital. The journal is published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blinded peer-review principles. The journal publishes three issues per year in April, August and December. The journal accepts articles in English language. However, the articles have the titles and abstracts written in English and Turkish language. Terms written in another language should be indicated within quotation marks in articles.

Koşuyolu Heart Journal aims to contribute to the literature by publishing manuscripts at the highest scientific level on a wide range of topics including cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, congenital cardiac surgery and cardiovascular anesthesia to the readers. The journal publishes original clinical and experimental research articles, case reports, reviews and interesting images pertinent to cardiovascular diseases, letters to the editor, and abstracts presented at national cardiology meetings. All manuscripts must be submitted electronically to https://submit.kosuyoluheartjournal.com/

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION
Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the ICMJE-Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (updated in December 2015 - http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf). Authors are required to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines for randomized research studies, the STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines for observational original research studies, the Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) guidelines, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines for experimental animal studies, and the Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomised Designs (TREND) guidelines for non-randomized behavioral and public health evaluations.

Manuscripts may only be submitted through the journal’s online manuscript submission and evaluation system, https://submit.kosuyoluheartjournal.com/. Manuscripts submitted via any other medium will not be evaluated. Manuscripts should be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript.  Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be accepted.

Artificial Intelligence (Ai)–Assisted Technology
At submission, the journal should require authors to disclose whether they used artificial intelligence (AI)– assisted technologies (such as Large Language Models [LLMs], chatbots, or image creators) in the production of submitted work. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, how they used it. Use of AI for writing assistance should be reported in the acknowledgment section. Authors who used AI technology to conduct the study should describe its use in the methods section in sufficient detail to enable replication to the approach, including the tool used, version, and prompts where applicable. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work, and these responsibilities are required for authorship. Therefore, humans are responsible for any submitted material that included the use of AI-assisted technologies. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AIassisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations.

Manuscripts will first be submitted to a technical evaluation process in which the editorial staff will ensure that the manuscript has been prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal’s guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to the journal’s guidelines will be returned to the author with requests for technical correction.
The quality and clarity of the language used in a manuscript is very important. The editors may request that authors have the manuscript professionally edited if the language of the submission does not conform to the journal standards. Koşuyolu Heart Journal uses American English. Please submit text of a quality ready for publication. Information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission may contact Kare Media at kare@karepb.com.
Please refer to specific formatting requirements noted in the submission checklist and elsewhere in this document.

MANUSCRIPT TYPES

Original Investigations : This is the most valued type of article, since it provides new information based on clinical and experimental research. The main text of an original article should be structured with Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion subheadings. Original articles are limited to 3500 words and 30 references.

Review article: Two kinds of review are accepted for publication in the Koşuyolu Heart Journal : invited review and systematic review. Reviews of relevant topics not recently discussed in this format that will be helpful to readers are welcomed.

  • Invited review: These reviews are prepared by authors who have extensive knowledge of a particular field and whose scientific background has been widely recognized. These authors may be invited by the journal staff to provide a contribution. A narrative review should describe, discuss, and evaluate the current level of knowledge of a topic in clinical practice and should guide future studies. The main text should contain introduction, clinical and research consequences, and conclusion sections. At the end of the introduction, a short description of how the articles reviewed have been selected (keywords, time period of the search, etc.) should be included. The abstract is to be unstructured with a maximum 250 words. The text is limited to 4000 words, excluding references. A maximum of 40 references is permitted.
  • Systematic review: These reviews address a clear question and use predefined methods to identify and refer to studies, appraise their methodological rigor, and extract data. A meta-analysis is optional. Systematic reviews will be evaluated as original articles. Details of the expectations for systematic reviews can be found in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, available at http://training.cochrane.org/handbook. The submission should contain a structured abstract of a maximum 250 words and the text should include the following sections: introduction, methods (data sources, study eligibility criteria, participants, interventions, etc. and statistical analysis), results, discussion, and conclusion. These reviews are limited to 4000 words. The number of references will depend on the frame of the review subject, but is not to exceed a total of 60.


Case report: There is limited space for case reports and therefore the journal selects reports of rare cases or conditions that reflect challenges in diagnosis and treatment, those offering new therapies or revealing knowledge not in the literature, or present something otherwise particularly interesting and educative. The abstract with structured of background, case and conclusion, is limited to 150 words and the report must include the subheadings of introduction, case report, and discussion, which includes a conclusion. A case report is limited to 1500 words and 20 references.

Editorial comment: Editorial comments provide a brief critical commentary offered by reviewers with experience and standing in the topic of a research article previously published in the journal. The authors are selected and invited by the journal to provide the benefit of their expertise. The submission should not include an abstract, keywords, tables, figures, and images. The word count is limited to 1200 and 15 references may be included.

Image: Original, high-quality clinical or laboratory images will be considered for publication. If a photo of an identifiable patient is used, a consent form for its use must be completed and signed by the patient and enclosed with the submission. All printed information that might identify the patient or the authors’ institution (including, but not limited to the hospital or patient name, date, or place) should be removed from images. The submission should have no more than 3 authors, the case description is limited to a maximum of 200 words, the discussion section may contain no more than 200 words, and only 3 references and 3 figures are permitted.

Letter to the Editor: This type of manuscript discusses important observations, overlooked aspects, or details lacking in a previously published article in Koşuyolu Heart Journal. Noteworthy articles on subjects within the scope of the journal, particularly educative cases, may also be submitted in the form of a “Letter to the editor.” No abstract, keywords, tables, figures, images, or other media should be included. The article that is the subject of commentary must be properly cited within the manuscript. The text should be unstructured and is limited to 500 words. No more than 5 references will be accepted.

Table 1. Limitations for each manuscript type


Type of
manuscript

Word
limit

Abstract
word limit

Reference
limit

Table
limit

Figure
limit

Original 
article

3500-4000

250 (Structured)

30

6

6

Invited review

4000

250

40

6

6

Systematic review

4000

250 (Structured)

Depends on review frame (60 maximum)

6

6

Case report

1200

150 (Structured)

10

1

3

Editorial comments

1200

No abstract

15

No tables

No figures

Image

400

No abstract

3

No tables

3

Letter to the editor

500

No abstract

5

No tables

No figures

Cover Letter: The cover letter should include the article title, article type, and the full name of the corresponding author and a statement declaring the absence or presence of any conflict of interest. The corresponding author should briefly summarize the paper and affirm that it has not already been published, accepted, or is under simultaneous review for publication elsewhere. It should be stated that if the manuscript is accepted by the Koşuyolu Heart Journal, the paper will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language.

Title page: A separate title page should be submitted with all submissions and this page should include:

  • The full title of the manuscript as well as a short title (running head) of no more than 50 characters
  • Name, affiliation, ORCID ID number, and highest academic degree of the author(s)Funding and other material support
  • Name, address, phone number(s), fax number, and email address of the corresponding author
  • Acknowledgment of the individuals who contributed to the preparation of the manuscript but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria
  • Manuscripts that have been presented orally or as a poster should include the name, date and place of the event

Abstract: An English and Turkish-language abstract is required with all submissions except editorial comments, images, and letters to the editor. Systematic reviews and original articles should contain a structured abstract of maximum 250 words with the subheadings of objectives, methods, results, and conclusion.

Keywords: Each submission must be accompanied by a minimum of three and a maximum of six keywords for subject indexing included at the end of the abstract. The keywords should be listed in full without abbreviations. The keywords should be selected from the National Library of Medicine, Medical Subject Headings database (https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html). 

Statistical analysis
A detailed description of the statistical analyses performed should be provided with a separate subheading in the materials and methods section.

Tables
Tables should be uploaded as separate files and not embedded in the main text. They should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text. A descriptive title must be placed above the tables. Abbreviations used in the tables should be defined below the table with footnotes, even if they are defined within the main text. Tables should be created using the “insert table” command of the word processing software and they should be designed for easy reading. Data presented in tables should not be a repetition of the data presented within the main text but should support the main text.

Figures and figure legends
Figures, graphics, and photographs should be submitted as separate files in TIFF or JPEG format through the article submission system. The files should not be embedded in a Word document or the main document. When there are figure subunits, the subunits should not be merged to form a single image. Each subunit should be submitted separately through the submission system. Images should not be labeled (a, b, c, etc.) to indicate figure subunits. Thick and thin arrows, arrowheads, stars, asterisks, and similar marks can be used on the images to support figure legend. Like the rest of the submission, the figures should be blind. Any information within the images that may identify an individual or institution should be blinded. The minimum resolution of each submitted figure should be 300 DPI. To prevent delays in the evaluation process, all submitted figures should be clear in resolution and large in size (minimum dimensions: 100x100 mm). Figure legends should be listed at the end of the main document.
All acronyms and abbreviations used in the manuscript should be defined at first use, both in the abstract and in the main text. The abbreviation should be provided in parentheses following the definition. Units should be prepared in accordance with the International System of Units (SI). When a drug, device, hardware, or software program, or other product is mentioned within the main text, the name of the product, the manufacturer/copyright holder of the product (not simply the vendor), and city and the country of the company (including the state, if in USA), should be provided in parentheses in the following format: “Discovery St PET/CT scanner (General Electric Co., Boston, MA, USA)”
All references, tables, and figures should be referred to within the main text, and they should be numbered consecutively in the order they are referred to within the main text.
Limitations, drawbacks, and shortcomings of original articles should be mentioned in the Discussion section before the conclusion paragraph.

References
The editorial team may request that the authors cite related recently published articles (preferably within the last 10 years) in their manuscripts, with the exception of historical papers.
If an ahead-of-print publication is cited, the digital object identifier (DOI) number should be provided. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with the journal abbreviations in the Index Medicus /MEDLINE/ PubMed. When there are six or fewer authors, all authors should be listed. If there are seven or more authors, the first six should be listed followed by “et al.” In the main text of the manuscript, references should be cited using Arabic numerals in parentheses. The reference styles for different types of publications are presented in the following examples.

Journal article: 
Lamelas J, Nguyen TC. Minimally invasive valve surgery: When less is more. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2015;27(1):49-56. https://doi. org/10.1053/j.semtcvs.2015.02.011

Eqbal AJ, Gupta S, Basha A, Qiu Y, Wu N, Rega F, et al. Minimally invasive mitral valve surgery versus conventional sternotomy mitral valve surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 119 studies. J Card Surg 2022;37(5):1319-27. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocs.16314

Gammie JS, Zhao Y, Peterson ED, O’Brien SM, Rankin JS, Griffith BP. Maxwell Chamberlain Memorial Paper for adult cardiac surgery. Less-invasive mitral valve operations: Trends and outcomes from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database. Ann Thorac Surg 2010;90(5):1401-8,10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2010.05.055

Epub ahead-of-print article: Cai L, Yeh BM, Westphalen AC, Roberts JP, Wang ZJ. Adult living donor liver imaging. Diagn Interv Radiol. 2016 Feb 24. doi: 10.5152/dir.2016.15323. [Epub ahead-of-print].

Manuscript published in electronic format: Morse SS. Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerg Infect Dis (serial online) 1995 Jan-Mar (cited 1996 June 5): 1(1): (24 screens). Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidodlElD/cid.htm. Accessed Sep 21, 2020.

Book section: Suh KN, Keystone JS. Malaria and babesiosis. In: Gorbach SL, Barlett JG, Blacklow NR, editors. Infectious Diseases. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams; 2004.p.2290-308.

Books with a single author: Sweetman SC. Martindale the Complete Drug Reference. 34th edition. London: Pharmaceutical Press; 2005.

Editor(s) as author: Huizing EH, de Groot JAM, editors. Functional reconstructive nasal surgery. Stuttgart-New York: Thieme; 2003.

Conference proceedings: Bengisson S. Sothemin BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy and security in medical informatics. In: Lun KC, Degoulet P, Piemme TE, Rienhoff O, editors. MEDINFO 92. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Medical Informatics; 1992 Sept 6-10; Geneva, Switzerland. Amsterdam: North-Holland; 1992. pp.1561-5.

Scientific or technical report: Cusick M, Chew EY, Hoogwerf B, Agrón E, Wu L, Lindley A, et al. Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study Research Group. Risk factors for renal replacement therapy in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS), Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study Kidney Int: 2004. Report No: 26.

Internet documents and online materials: World Health Organization. Global Health Estimates: Life expectancy and leading causes of death and disability. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimates. Accessed June 8, 2021.

REVISIONS
When submitting a revised version of a paper (include a clean copy and a highlighted copy), the author must submit a detailed response to the reviewers that replies to each issue raised by the reviewers and indicates where changes can be found (each reviewer’s comment, followed by the author’s reply and line number where changes have been made) as well as an annotated copy of the main document. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 30 days from the date of the decision letter. If the revised version of the manuscript is not submitted within the allocated time, the revision option may be withdrawn. If the submitting author(s) believe that additional time is required, they should request this extension within the initial 30-day period.
Accepted manuscripts are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, format, and clarity. Once the publication process of a manuscript is completed, it is published online on the journal’s webpage as an ahead-of-print publication before it is included in the scheduled issue. A PDF proof of the manuscript is sent to the corresponding author and their publication approval is requested within 2 days of receipt of the proof.

PUBLICATION PROCESS 
Accepted manuscripts will be made available and citable online as rapidly as possible. The stages of publication are as follows;
Uncorrected publication: A PDF of the final, accepted (but unedited and uncorrected) paper will be published online on the journal web page under the “Accepted Articles” section. A DOI will be assigned to the article at this stage.

Ahead-of-print publication: After copy editing, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof, the final corrected version will be added online in the “Ahead-of-Print” section.

Final publication: The final corrected version will appear in an issue of the journal and added to the journal website. To ensure rapid publication, we ask authors to provide your publication approval during the proofreading process as quickly as possible, and return corrections within 48 hours of receiving the proof.

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST 
Please use this list and the following explanations to prepare your manuscript and perform a final check before submission to ensure a timely review.
Formatting of text

  • Text should be written in 12-point Times New Roman font
  • Main headings and subheadings should be in 12-point and bold font
  • Type a single space at the end of each sentence
  • Do not use bold face for emphasis within the text
  • Numbers one to ten are written out in words unless they are used as a unit of measurement, except in figures and tables
  • Use a single hard return to separate paragraphs. Do not use tabs or indents to start a paragraph
  • Do not use software options for hyphenation, headers, or footers
  • Use page numbering
  • Use line numbers
  • Use US English

Ensure that the following items are present:

  • Cover letter
  • Title page including:
    • Article type
    • Article title
    • Running title
    • All author names and affiliations
    • One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details
      • Full postal address, phone number(s), and email address
    • Acknowledge
    • Manuscripts that have been presented orally or as a poster must include the name of the event, the date, and the location
    • State financial or other support for the study
    • Word count
      • Abstract word count
      • Text word count
  • Main text of the manuscript must include:
    • Article title
    • Abstract
    • Keywords
    • Text with required subheadings 
    • References (ensure written according to journal rules)
    • Figures and tables
  • Numbered according to text citation
  • Descriptive legends/titles and abbreviations
  • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
  • Figures:  to be submitted separately.
  • Tables:  to be submitted separately
  • Ensure that the following forms have been properly completed and submitted:
  • ICMJE Potential Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (completed by all contributing authors), AND
  • Copyright Transfer Form, AND
  • Author Contributions Form, AND
  • Statistics tables: General Principles for Reporting Statistical Methods and General Principles for Reporting Statistical Results

These forms are available for download at; Copyright Transfer Form, Author Contribution Form, ICMJE Conflict of Interest Form

  • Further review
    • Check the statistical analysis
    • Use the US English spell check and grammar check software functions
    • Check that all references cited in the text are correctly listed in the reference list
    • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
    • All abbreviations have been identified
    • All figures and tables are correctly labeled
    • Journal policies detailed in this guide have been followed