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Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia

Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia


eISSN: 19405596 | ISSN: 10892532 | Current volume: 28 | Current issue: 1 Frequency: Quarterly
Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia is a quarterly journal that serves the educational needs of clinicians practicing cardiothoracic and vascular anesthesia, thoracic and abdominal transplant anesthesia, pediatric/congenital cardiothoracic anesthesia, and related specialties including critical care medicine. SCVA provides the anesthesia practitioner with access to timely reviews that summarize the data and expert opinion supporting evidence-based medicine and current best practices. It fulfills an important niche as one of only two journals devoted to the anesthetic and perioperative care of patients with heart, lung, vascular, and pediatric/congenital heart disease as well as patients requiring thoracic or abdominal organ transplantation. The Journal adheres to a rigorous double-anonymized reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

Have a question for the editorial office? Contact Benjamin Abrams at the University of Colorado, Aurora, or Miklos Kertai at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt.

Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia is a quarterly, peer-reviewed publication devoted to the dissemination of educational material involving the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems relevant to the perioperative care of the surgical patient. As of 2017, SCVA expands its scope to transplant anesthesia and critical care, aiming to become a comprehensive academic forum for all physicians involved in thoracic and abdominal organ transplantations.

Presentations feature a multidisciplinary approach with contributions from anesthesiologists, surgeons, internists, specialists in critical care medicine, and other health care practitioners interested in perioperative medicine. Clinical education material centers around topic-based Review Articles, Original Research, Technology Communications, along with case reports and Clinical Challenges which are clinical case based didactic articles. SCVA strives to present internationally relevant subject material and innovative scientific submissions from all continents.

In addition to these efforts to engage scholarship globally, Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia is committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in our publications. We encourage submissions from a broad range of international authors with a wide variety of backgrounds. Furthermore, we have recruited a diverse group of Editorial Board members to maintain an inclusive community within the journal’s leadership.

Editors-in-Chief
Benjamin Abrams, MD University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA
Miklos D. Kertai, MD, PhD Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Associate Editor- Cardiac Anesthesia and Echocardiography
Ross S. Hanson, MD University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM and Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, WA, USA
Associate Editor- Cardiac Anesthesia and International Affairs
Jiapeng Huang, MD, PhD, FASA, FASE University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
Associate Editor- Cardiothoracic Surgery
Jessica Rove, MD University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
Associate Editor- Congenital Cardiac
Gregory J. Latham, MD Seattle Children's Hospital and University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
Associate Editor- Critical Care Medicine
Martin Krauss, MD University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
Associate Editor- Digital Content
Ross S. Hanson, MD University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM and Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, Spokane, WA, USA
Associate Editor- Mechanical Circulatory Support
Sreekanth Cheruku, MD UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
Associate Editor- Thoracic Anesthesia
Domagoj Mladinov MD, PhD Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Associate Editor- Thoracic Transplant Anesthesia
Nirvik Pal, MD, MBBS Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Associate Editor- Transplant Anesthesia Forum
Tetsuro Sakai, MD, PhD University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Statistics Editor
Alex Kaizer, PhD University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA
Editorial Board Members
Ferenc Puskas, MD, PhD University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA
Bryan Ahlgren, DO University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA
Warwick Aubrey Ames, MBBS, FRCA Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Jae-Hyon Bahk, MD, MS, PhD Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Mary Beth Brady, MD Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Lu Cai, MD, PhD University of Louisville, USA
Vladimir Cerny, MD, PhD, FCCM Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Albert T. Cheung, MD University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Joseph C. Cleveland, Jr., MD University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA
CDR Chris Cornelissen, MC, USN Naval Medical Center San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
Brett Cronin, MD University of California San Diego and VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, USA
David Daly, MBBS, FANZCA, Senior Staff Anaesthetist Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Laurie Davies, MD University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA
Dawn Desiderio, MD Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
James A. DiNardo, MD, FAAP Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Steven Edelstein, MD, FASA Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL, USA
Michael Fanshawe, MBBS(Hons I), FAZNCA Anaesthesiology University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
David Faraoni, MD, PhD, FAHA University of Toronto, Sick Kids Research Institute, and The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
Bing Feng, MD Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA
Wei Dong Gao, MD, PhD Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Jeremy M. Geiduschek, MD Seattle Children’s Hospital and University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA
Hilary P. Grocott, MD, FRCPC, FASE University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Fabio Guarracino, MD Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy
Jacob Gutsche, MD University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Nina A. Guzzetta, MD Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
Nazish Hashmi, MD Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Kevin W. Hatton, MD University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, USA
Eugene A. Hessel University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
Thomas L. Higgins, MD, MBA, FAC,P MCCM, FAAPL The Center For Case Management, Natick, MA, USA
Nian Chih Hwang, MBBS, FFARCSI, FAMS, GDAcu Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Richard J. Ing, MB, BCh, FCA(SA) University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA
Gregory M. Janelle, MD University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville , FL, USA
Justin Sangwook Ko, MD, PhD Sungkyunkwan University and Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
Barry D. Kussman, MBBCh, FFA(SA) Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Geoffrey Lighthall, MD, PhD Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
Frederick W. Lombard, MBChB, FANZCA Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Michael W. Manning, MD, PhD Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Timothy Maus, MD, FASE University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Stuart A. McCluskey, MD, PhD, FRCPC University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
John D. Mitchell, MD University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA
Mona Momeni, MD, PhD UCLouvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Tjorvi E. Perry, MD, MMSc University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Ernesto A. Pretto, Jr., MD, MPH University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL, USA
George Silvay,MD, PhD Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Mark S. Slaughter, MD University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA
Alan Smeltz, MD University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Kathirvel Subramaniam, MD, MPH, FASE University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Kenichi Tanaka, MD, MSc University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
Deepak Tempe, MD Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India
Lian Kah Ti, MBBS, MMed, FAMS National University of Singapore, Singapore
Mark D. Twite, MD The Children's Hospital and University of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA
David F. Vener, MD Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA
Luigi Vetrugno, MD University of Udine, Udine, Italy
Joseph Woo, MD Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Rick Sai-chuen Wu, MD China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
Jeron Zerillo, MD Mount Sinai Health System, New York, NY, USA
  • CINAHL
  • Clarivate Analytics: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
  • EMBASE/Excerpta Medica
  • MEDLINE
  • Ovid: Allied and Complementary Medicine Database
  • ProQuest
  • This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

    This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

    Please read the guidelines below then visit Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia (SCVA)'s submission site to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

    SCVA is committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in our publications. We encourage submissions from a broad range of international authors with a wide variety of backgrounds. Furthermore, we have recruited a diverse group of Editorial Board members to maintain an inclusive community within the journal’s leadership.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of SCVA will be reviewed.

    There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

    As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that SCVA may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

    If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal.

    1. What do we publish?
    1.1 Aims & Scope
    1.2 Article types
    1.3 Writing your paper

    2. Editorial policies
    2.1 Peer review policy
    2.2 Authorship
    2.3 Acknowledgements
    2.4 Funding
    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
    2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
    2.7 Clinical trials
    2.8 Reporting guidelines
    2.9 Research Data

    3. Publishing polices
    3.1 Publication ethics
    3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    4. Preparing your manuscript
    4.1 Formatting
    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
    4.3 Supplemental material
    4.4 Reference style
    4.5 English language editing services

    5. Submitting your manuscript
    5.1 ORCID
    5.2 Information required for completing your submission
    5.3 Permissions

    6. On acceptance and publication
    6.1 Sage Production
    6.2 Online First publication
    6.3 Access to your published article
    6.4 Promoting your article

    7. Further information

    1. What do we publish?

    1.1 Aims & Scope

    Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia is a quarterly, peer-reviewed that serves the educational needs of clinicians practicing cardiac, thoracic, and vascular anesthesia and related specialties. It fulfills an important niche as one of only two journals devoted to the anesthetic and perioperative care of patients with heart, lung, and vascular disease.

    1.2 Article types

    Upon submission, provide a title page that includes all contributing authors and their affiliations. Please select the correct file type designation when uploading your title page, manuscript, supplementary files, etc.

    Please cite relevant SCVA articles whenever possible.

    Clinical Challenges

    Clinical Challenges are a report that describes a clinically challenging case, but focuses on the clinical decision making process in an educational / didactic format. Roughly ¼ to 1/3 of the article can be devoted to the case description, with the majority of the manuscript focused on key didactic points relevant to the case. The word count for these reports should be 1500 – 3000 words. This type of manuscript should include relevant clinical imaging. This manuscript can include echocardiography rounds if it meets the above criteria, and should include 2-3 movie clips of the imaging findings as well as associated still image clips. Please use MP4, MOV, or WMV files and preview the clips to make sure they are visible on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. Still images should be in high resolution JPEG or TIFF files. Please format the movies in at least 480 x 360 pixels or 640 x 480. Limit clips to 20 seconds.

    Narrative Reviews

    Narrative Reviews should consist of 2000-6000 words, and can include a 20-50 reference limit. A maximum of 4 tables and 4 figures are permitted. Co-authorship with up to four colleagues is acceptable.

    Review Articles

    Review Articles should be written for a targeted length of 4000-6000 words, and can include a wide range of references (typically 30-80). These articles are either by invitation, or open to free submission. Please contact the Editors, Miklos D. Kertai and Benjamin Abrams, if you are interested in writing a review and provide a proposed topic and timeline for submission. Please look through the existing review database on the SCVA website for previous topic coverage to avoid repeating any recently reviewed items. Tables, Figures, and clinical imaging are encouraged as part of these manuscripts.

    1.3 Writing your paper

    The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

    1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

    When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

    2. Editorial policies

    2.1 Peer review policy

    SCVA adheres to a rigorous double-anonymized reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

    As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of 2 peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Two reviewers must complete reviews for each manuscript before a decision is reached. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

    • The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
    • The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
    • Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

    You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).

    SCVA is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Web of Science (previously Publons). Web of Science is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for the journal can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Web of Science website.

    2.2 Authorship

    Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

    The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

    (i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,

    (ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,

    (iii) Approved the version to be published,

    (iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

    Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

    Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

    Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

    2.3 Acknowledgements

    All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

    Upon submission, you will be asked to confirm that if any content is AI-generated, it is clearly identified within the text and acknowledged within your Acknowledgements section. Please note that AI bots such as ChatGPT should not be listed as an author. For more details on this policy, please visit this page.

    Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

    2.3.1 Third party submissions

    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
    • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
    • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    2.3.2 Writing assistance

    Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

    2.4 Funding

    SCVA requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    It is the policy of SCVA to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

    Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.

    2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

    Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki

    Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

    For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

    Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series must be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required confirming that informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

    Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

    All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The Journal has adopted the ARRIVE guidelines.

    2.7 Clinical trials

    SCVA conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

    2.8 Reporting guidelines

    The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.

    Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives

    2.9 Research Data

    The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

    Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

    • share your research data in a relevant public data repository
    • include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
    • cite this data in your research

    3. Publishing policies

    3.1 Publication ethics

    Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

    3.1.1 Plagiarism

    SCVA and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

    3.1.2 Prior publication

    If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

    3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement        

    Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    SCVA offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission                                       

    4.1 Formatting

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

    For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines 

    Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

    4.3 Supplemental material

    This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files

    4.4 Reference style

    SCVA adheres to the AMA reference style. View the AMA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

    4.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

    5. Submitting your manuscript

    SCVA is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/scva to login and submit your article online.

    IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

    5.1 ORCID

    As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage has become a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

    The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

    If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

    5.2 Information required for completing your submission

    You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

    5.3 Permissions

    Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

    6. On acceptance and publication           

    6.1 Sage Production

    Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

    6.2 Online First publication

    Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

    6.3 Access to your published article

    Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

    6.4 Promoting your article

    Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

    Follow and tag @SCVA1997 and @SageClinMed on Twitter to promote your paper and stay up-to-date on the latest news from the journal.

    7. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the SCVA editorial office as follows:

    Editor-in-Chief, Benjamin Abrams benjamin.abrams@cuanschutz.edu

    Editor-in-Chief, Miklos Kertai miklos.kertai@vumc.org

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