Instructions for authors

The Polish Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery („Kardiochirurgia i Torakochirurgia Polska“) is a quarterly publishing original, (experimental, clinical, and laboratory), demonstrative, and casuistic papers from the field of adult and paediatric cardiosurgery, thoracic surgery, cardiology, cardiac anaesthesia, pulmonology and transplatology. The Journal also publishes Letters to the Editor, reports and materials from scientific conferences, reviews of books and messages on scheduled scientific congresses and conferences. Papers presented by the Polish authors are published in the Polish language, papers sent from abroad – in English. Papers published in „Kardiochirurgia i Torakochirurgia Polska“ belong to the Editor. The quarterly does not take any responsibility for the statements, opinions and data included in articles and advertising materials.

Principles of manuscript review
1. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two independent reviewers who do not belong to the unit from which the manuscript originated.
2. For manuscripts written in a foreign language, at least one of the reviewers is affiliated with a foreign institution other than the author’s nationality.
3. Reviewing is double-blind, i.e. the authors do not know the names of the reviewers of their papers, and the reviewers do not know the names of the authors.
4. Each review has a written form and is concluded with an unequivocal opinion as to whether the article should be allowed for publication or rejected.
5. The review form can be found: KITP Review form _ENG.pdf
6. The list of reviewers cooperating with the Journal is published once a year.

Manuscript
The manuscript should be sent in triplicate to:
„Kardiochirurgia i Torakochirurgia Polska“,
Śląskie Centrum Chorób Serca,
ul. Szpitalna 2,
41-800 Zabrze, Poland.

The submission should be accompanied by a cover letter stating that the manuscript has not been submitted or published elsewhere. The papers (saved in the MS Word for Windows format) as well as figures should be submitted an electronic version: 3 1/2“ magnetic disk and/or CD-ROMs in the PC format. The computer media should be checked with the updated anti-virus software and delivered in a special protective package, preventing mechanical damage.
The volume of original and demonstrative papers should not exceed 15 pages. Casuistic papers are limited to 8 pages including references, figures, tables and abstracts. The text should be written with at least 12-point-sized letters, leaving double spacing between the lines, a 2.5 cm wide margin should be on all four sides. The pages should be numbered.

Title page
The title page should include the title of the article (both in Polish and English), names and surnames of the authors, the full name of the centre of all authors. Moreover, a shortened title in Polish (to be used as the running head), and potentially the title and place of the conference at which the paper was presented should also be included. The author’s name and surname (including the scientific degree) as well as the address at which the author wishes to receive the correspondence (including his/her scientific degree, phone, fax and e-mail address) should be placed at the bottom of the page. The first author is obliged to send his/her photograph (a photograph or *.jpg file) which will be printed on the first page of the article.

Abstract
The abstract (both in Polish and English) should be from 200 to 250 words long in the case of original papers, and maximum 150 words in demonstrative and casuistic papers. The abstract of an original paper should be structured i.e. it should consist of the following parts: background, aim, material and methods, results and conclusions. The abstract should be followed by not more than five keywords – in compliance with the Index Medicus (Medical Subject Reading) - in English and Polish. Translation of the paper by the editorial staff is possible only at the author’s expense.

Text
The text should be structured in the following way: background, aim, material and methods, results, discussion and conclusions. In the Background, authors present the current state of knowledge in the given subject. In the Aim, they define explicitly their scientific hypothesis and purposes of their work. In Material and methods, they include a detailed description of all the research methods used. The names of the software and statistical methods used to analyze the results should be given. In the part entitled Results, the obtained results should be presented in a comprehensible way, remembering that curves and bars are more readable than tables or data included in the text. Results of biochemical and other determinations should be given in the SI units. In Discussion, the authors inform to what extent the assumed scientific aims have been achieved, to what extent the findings are original and what are their potential methodological limitations. The obtained results should be compared with the results of other investigators. In Conclusions, the authors should refer to the aims of the work and discuss them, using a particularly precise language. References to literature should be included in square brackets, e.g. [3-7, 12, 14-17]. Automatic numbering should not be used for literature and references.

References
References should be ordered in the order of the quoted papers. In original and demonstrative papers, the references should not exceed 30 items, whereas in casuistic papers - 10. References should include only published works. Bibliographic descriptions of articles from journals should include: surnames of all authors along with the first name’s initials, paper’s title, journal title abbreviations (in compliance with the Index Medicus), year of publication, volume (annual) number, numbers of the pages on which the article starts and ends, with the punctuation strictly according to the example below:
l Wierup P, Andersen C, Janciauskas D, Bolys R, Sjoberg T, Steen S. Bronchial healing, lung parenchymal histology, and blood gases one month after transplantation of lungs topically cooled for 2 hours in the non-heart-beating cadaver. J Heart Lung Transplant 2000; 19: 270-276.
Descriptions of monographs (books) should include surnames of the authors with first name’s initials, title, name of the publisher, place and year of publication, in the case of collaborative works, the surname(s) of the responsible editor(s) is/are stated after the title of the book and the abbreviation „ed(s)“, e.g.:
l Pijls NH, De Bruyne B. Coronary pressure. Kluwer Academic Publishers, London 2000. l Poole-Wilson PA. Chronic heart failure causes pathophysiology, prognosis, clinical manifestations, investigation. In: Julian DG, Camm AJ, Fox KM, et al. (eds). Disease of the Heart. Bailliere-Tindall, London 1989; 48.

Tables and figures
Tables and figures should not be included in the text, only their location in the text should be indicated. Tables should be included in consecutive pages (each table on a separate page) and numbered with consecutive Roman numerals (i.e. III). Each table should be provided with a title in Polish and English as well as suitable abbreviations.
Figures and photographs must be made in a professional way; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. In the case of figures made with computer graphics software, using only original reprints from laser or high quality bubble jet printer are accepted. Figures and photographs should be sent in the electronic version, in one of the following formats: *.cdr, *.tif, *.eps lub *.jpg (resolution 300 dpi). Each figure should indicate the author’s name, the title of the paper and number of the figure, top and bottom of the figure written in soft pencil at the back. Figure descriptions, in Polish and English, must be sent on separate pages. Figures should not be sent in the MS Word (*.doc) format.
Figures and photographs are included in the article in the form in which they have been submitted, so careful execution is requested.
When publishing the data, the author(s) should bear in mind the requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki (an international medical ethics act, signed in 1975, which stipulates that it is prohibited to name the patients, give their initials or hospital record numbers). The ethical committee’s declaration of approval for the study, along with the patients’ informed consent to participate should be included in the Materials and methods section for all papers in which the diagnostic and therapeutic actions do not follow from standard procedures. For photographs, the patient’s written permission to publish must always be obtained. The section Discussion should be followed by brief information stating the sources from which the study was financed (e.g. grants, individual sponsors).
Authors presenting results of clinical studies of drugs and medical procedures are expected to describe in detail how the study was financed, the sponsor’s role was in the planning and execution of the study and in the analysis of the results, and the influence of the sponsoring institution on the contents of the paper. Irrespective of the topic of the submission, international drug names should be used in the text. Abbreviations used in the text should be always explained at first mention (this also applies to the abstract). Other than in exceptional situations, abbreviations should not be used in the title of the submission.
Original papers are subject to review. The review process is fully anonymous, reviewers do not know the names of authors or the name of the centre from which the article is submitted. The papers are often printed together with the reviewer’s comments. If the authors wish to issue an opinion to the reviewer’s comments, they can send their reply which will be published in the section Letters to the Editor.

Authors receive no payment for publishing their manuscripts in the Polish Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. No presentation copies are provided.