Manuscript Submission Requirements

The following minimum submission requirements have been developed for the full AHA/ASA journal portfolio. Please review the guidelines carefully as manuscripts that do not adhere to the submission requirements may be returned to the authors. Our goal in developing these guidelines is to reduce the burden on authors of extensive reformatting while ensuring that manuscripts are complete and relatively uniform to allow for consistent and thorough review by editors and reviewers.

Online submission is required for all AHA/ASA journals. A full list of all 12 journal submission sites and links to individual journal authors instructions is available here.

Submission Files

Please provide the following items with submission:

1. Full Manuscript PDF: PDF containing all parts of the manuscript including references, legends, figures and tables.
2. Manuscript Text File: For word count and reference extraction, please provide a manuscript text file (eg, MS Word)
3. Figures: For initial review, it is preferred that each figure and its corresponding legend should be presented together on its own page within the full PDF. Full resolution figure files are not required at initial submission; figures for review can be uploaded as a single PDF or as part of a complete manuscript PDF.
4. Supplemental Material: Supplements should be uploaded as a complete PDF file containing all supplemental text and figures; video files and large datasets in Excel file format can be uploaded separately. Videos must be provided in a filetype that is playable on both PC and Mac computers. We recommend the use of MP4 video files (.mp4, .m4v, .mp4v extensions) or the .mov filetype.
5. If applicable, any overlapping publications or previously published abstracts, along with a copy of any submitted or in press references mentioned in the manuscript.

Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

The following are additional manuscript preparation guidelines for the AHA/ASA journal portfolio. Please note that these guidelines are provided as an aid and authors that adhere to the Minimum Submission Requirements provided above will have their manuscript considered for review.

Organize manuscripts in this order:

1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Methods
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Acknowledgments
8. Sources of Funding
9. Disclosures
10. References
11. Tables
12. Figures with Figure Legends

Number all pages—including Figures with legends and Tables. Abbreviations must be defined at first mention.

It is recommended for manuscripts to be typed, double-spaced using a 12-point font, including references, figure legends, and tables. Leave 1-inch margins on all sides.

Title Page

The first page of the manuscript (title page) should contain these elements:

• Full title
• Authors’ names, academic degrees, and affiliations
• Author names can also include the native language along with the English version. Use standard Microsoft fonts for these characters
• Short title (not to exceed 50 characters, including spaces)
• Name, email address, and complete address of corresponding author
• The total word count of the manuscript (including Title Page, Abstract, Text, References, Tables and Figures Legends)

Author Information

Authorship Criteria and Responsibilities: The AHA Journals follow the recommendations of the ICMJE on authorship and contributorship. Credit for authorship requires substantial contributions to: conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and final approval of the version to be published. Prior to publication, authors will need to attest that they fulfil the authorship criteria and identify their contributions to the work described in the manuscript.

If a revision is requested, all authors must complete an Author Conflict of Interest Disclosure Questionnaire and Copyright Transfer or License Agreement prior to acceptance and publication. As of May 2021, all AHA Journals use Convey to facilitate the disclosure process; for more information, please review the support page on Conflict of Interest Disclosures for Authors. If an author dies prior to completing these forms, a policy has been developed to address how to handle potential issues and is available online.

One author should be designated as the corresponding author for the submission, peer review, and production process, and they will be identified as such in the published article.

NEW Name Change Policy: AHA/ASA Journals will consider name change requests without requiring a correction notice for reasons including, but not limited to, gender identity, marriage, divorce, and religious conversion. For more information and instructions for submitting a request, please visit the AHA/ASA Journal Name Change Policy page.

ORCiD: All corresponding authors of articles accepted to AHA Journals will be required to link an ORCID iD to their profile in the AHA Journal submission system prior to publication. 

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier) is an international, not-for-profit organization created for the benefit of researchers, research organizations, funders, and publishers. An ORCID iD is a 16-digit persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. The AHA Journals will join other journal portfolios and grant funders (including the AHA and NIH) in enacting this requirement, which will disambiguate authors and will help authors maintain a persistent record of their publications.

To register with ORCID or link your profile to your ORCID iD, please go to “Modify Profile/Password” on the submission site homepage of any AHA Journal, and click the link in the “ORCID” section. We encourage all authors to create and/or link their ORCID iD to their profile.

Any collaborators who need to be indexed in PubMed should be listed either as authors or, for author/study groups, in the main manuscript file in an Appendix Section. Include the Appendix section immediately before the Reference section and include only names of authors listed in the byline or names of group or committee members where the group or committee is listed in the byline. The Appendix section should contain the names of such individuals only; no contact information should be provided. If contributors do not need to be listed as authors or indexed in PubMed, then they may be included in the PDF Supplemental Material File. To confirm, any author/study groups listed in Supplemental Material will not be indexed in PubMed.

Abstract

• Do not cite references in the abstract.
• Limit use of acronyms and abbreviations. Define at first use with acronym or abbreviation in parentheses.
• When applicable, Clinical Trial Registration information should be included at the end of the Abstract with the URL and Unique Identifier, for the publicly accessible website on which the trial is registered.
• Please see individual journal author instructions for specific abstract requirements.

Abbreviations

Please create a list of nonstandard abbreviations and nonstandard acronyms used in the manuscript text. The list should be included in the manuscript and placed after the abstract, before the Introduction. The list should be entitled “Non-standard Abbreviations and Acronyms.” Its content will not count toward the word limit. AHA Journals follow AMA style for standard and non-standard abbreviations and acronyms (http://www.amamanualofstyle.com). All abbreviations and acronyms should be expanded upon first use in the text, and thereafter the abbreviation/acronym should be used.

Methods

The methods section should provide sufficient detail for the experiments to be reproduced and should provide sufficient information for the reader to understand the basic methods of the study and to review the fundamental findings in a mechanistic way; as needed, additional methods and information may be included as Supplemental Material. Please refer to the AHA Journals Research Guidelines for additional guidance as needed.

The following information should be included as appropriate:

• Use SI units of measure. A more conventionally used measurement may follow in parentheses. Make all conversions before manuscript submission.
• Statistics: A subsection on statistics should be included in the Methods section and the measures of variance, such as standard deviation or standard error, should be indicated. Please refer to the AHA Statistical Reporting Recommendations for additional information.
• Experimental animals: State the species, strain, number used, and pertinent descriptive characteristics. All studies in animals should be conducted in accordance with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, or the equivalent. When describing surgical procedures, identify the preanesthetic and anesthetic agents used and the amounts, concentrations, routes, and frequency of administration of each. Paralytic agents are not considered acceptable substitutes for anesthetics. For other invasive procedures on animals, report the analgesic or tranquilizing drug used. If none were used, provide justification for exclusion.
• In experiments involving genetically engineered mice, inbred strain background effects have become an important concern. Detailed descriptions of the source and strain background are critical to the interpretation of data from genetically manipulated mice. The description of the mice must include the number of backcrosses and the source of the mice. Stock numbers should be supplied for commercial suppliers. Imprecise descriptions such as "mice are on a C57BL/6 background" are not acceptable. In general, it is preferable for genetically manipulated mice to be compared to wild-type littermates.
• Human studies: Indicate that the study was approved by an institutional review board along with the name of the IRB, and that the participants gave written informed consent (or that no informed consent was required).  Describe the characteristics of human subjects or patients and indicate that the procedures followed were in accordance with institutional guidelines.
• As noted in AHA Journals Research Guidelines, please provide sex-specific and/or race/ethnicity-specific data when appropriate in describing the outcomes of epidemiologic analyses or clinical trials, or specifically state that no sex-based or race/ethnicity-based differences were present.
• Authors submitting scientific manuscripts that primarily focus on reporting health differences by race and/or ethnicity should follow the Disparities Research Guidelines. For additional context, please see “The Groundwater of Racial and Ethnic Disparities Research. A Statement from Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes.”
• Independent data access and analysis: As noted in AHA Journals Research Guidelines, a specific comment in the manuscript is required attesting that one author had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for its integrity and the data analysis. The Editors reserve the right to ask for additional information from the corresponding author regarding measures that were taken to minimize bias and verify the integrity of the primary data and any analyses performed.
• Studies of medications, biologics and devices: Generic rather than trademark names of all therapeutics should be used.
• Materials and Data Availability: Please ensure that your manuscript adheres to the AHA Journals' implementation of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines.

Acknowledgments, Sources of Funding, & Disclosures

The following should be formatted as three distinct sections:

a) Acknowledgments: This area is to acknowledge contributions to the manuscript. All persons acknowledged must have seen and approved mention of their names in the article, as readers may infer their endorsement of data and conclusions; as such, acknowledged individuals must provide written (email) acknowledgment of their agreement to be included before acceptance. Emails from persons acknowledged can be forwarded to the editorial office or sent directly from the person. Please ensure the manuscript number is included in all correspondence.

b) Sources of Funding: State funding that supported the studies. Please include all sources of research support, including public and private entities, commercial or institutional support, and any substantial contributions by individuals. All grant funding agency abbreviations should be completely spelled out, with the exception of NIH.

c) Disclosures: All actual or potential perceived conflicts of interests should be stated as outlined in the AHA’s Conflict of Interest Procedures. If authors have nothing to disclose, they must state "None".

References

AHA Journals use a numbered endnote style for references (examples below), which should be cited in numerical order according to first mention in the text, including Figure and Table legends, followed by references that are cited in the Supplemental Material only. When possible, list any reference cited in a table or figure legend in the reference list according to where the table or figure is cited in the text.

NEW: Supplementary Materials should not include a separate reference list and all citations in the Supplemental Materials should be included in the main reference list.

• Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the author.
• Abstracts may be cited only if they are the sole source and must be identified in the reference as "Abstract."
• Reference citations should be to the most recent full-length publication in a peer-reviewed journal, when applicable.
• Personal communications, unpublished observations, and submitted manuscripts must be cited in the text only (not in the reference list) as follows: author name, degree(s) held, unpublished data, year.
• References to retracted or potentially problematic sources without proper context should be avoided.
• Manuscripts posted to a preprint server may be cited only if they are the sole source and must be identified in the reference as “Preprint.” If a peer-reviewed version of the article is available, authors should consult that version and the reference should be updated to cite the final published version when appropriate.
• "In-press" citations must be accepted for publication and must include the name of the journal or book publisher. Note that all such articles must be uploaded online with the manuscript submission.
• List the first 10 author names, followed by “et al.”
• AHA/ASA style is available for download on endnote.com. The style applicable to all AHA Journals may be found listed under Stroke. The download link is: https://endnote.com/style_download/stroke/
• Example of journal reference style: Smith VA, Zhang J, Jones K. Article Title. Journal Name. 2015;100:555–559.

Figures

For initial review, it is preferred (but not required) that each figure and its corresponding legend should be presented together on its own page within the manuscript PDF, if possible. Full resolution figure files are not required at initial submission; figures for review can be uploaded as a single PDF or part of a complete manuscript PDF. For additional information on preparing figures for revisions and/or accepted manuscripts, please refer to individual journal author instructions and the AHA Journals Figure Guidelines.

In general, authors should adhere to the following guidelines when preparing their figures:

• Figure parts should be clearly labeled. Letters and locants must be uniform in size and style within each figure, and when possible, between figures. (The font size must be 10 point or higher.) Avoid headings on the figure; heading information should appear in the figure legend.
• Limit white space between the panel and panel label.
• Symbols and abbreviations must be defined in the figure or its legend.
• Linear adjustment of contrast, brightness or color must be applied equally to all parts of an image.
• Blots and gels need to be presented with a much context as possible (ie, panels should not to be cut up into individual blots).
• Supply a scale bar with photomicrographs.
• Authors must be prepared to submit the original, unaltered files from which the submitted figures were derived, if requested by the editorial office.

Tables

All table(s) in the main manuscript document should be included as text, not as an image. Table(s) are counted in the word limit.

• Number tables using Arabic numerals, and supply a brief, informative title for each table.
• Table text must be consistent in size and style with main manuscript text.
• Supply brief column headings.
• Use only horizontal borders above and below the column headings and at the bottom of the table. Use extra space to delineate rows and columns.
• Indicate footnotes in this order: *, †, ‡, §, ||, #, **
• Abbreviations used in the table must be defined in a footnote to the table.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material must be submitted at the time of original manuscript submission.

All original Supplemental Material should be provided as a combined PDF labeled accordingly. Please note that this single PDF would include all of the supplemental material related to your manuscript, except for file types that cannot be converted to PDF such as video files or large data sets. Videos must be provided in a filetype that is playable on most devices, including PC and Mac computers and mobile. We recommend the use of MP4 video files (.mp4, .m4v, .mp4v extensions) or the .mov filetype.

Supplemental Materials should not include a separate reference list and all citations in the Supplemental Materials should be included in the main reference list.

In the manuscript text, following the Acknowledgments, Sources of Funding, & Disclosures section, please include a list of the supplemental materials  with a callout to any references that are in the Supplemental Material only, for example:

Supplemental Material
Supplemental Methods
Tables S1–S3
Figure S1
Videos S1–S4
Data Set
Major Resources Table
References #–#

Additional supplemental material provided for review only, such as any overlapping publications, previously published abstracts, and submitted or in press references mentioned in the manuscript, should be provided a separate PDFs.

Author Services

If you need help preparing a manuscript for submission, our publishers, Wolters Kluwer and Wiley, offer a unique range of editorial services for a fee. Please note that use of Wolters Kluwer Author Services or Wiley Editing Services does not in any way imply a guarantee, or even a likelihood, of acceptance of your manuscript.

In partnership with Editage, Wolters Kluwer, offers the following services:

• Premium Editing: Intensive language and structural editing of academic papers to improve the clarity and impact of your manuscript.
• Advanced Editing: A complete language, grammar, and terminology check to give you a publication-ready manuscript.
• Translation with Editing: Write your paper in your native language and Wolters Kluwer Author Services will translate it into English, as well as edit it to ensure that it meets international publication standards.
• Plagiarism Check: Helps ensure that your manuscript contains no instances of unintentional plagiarism.
• Artwork Preparation: Save precious time and effort by ensuring that your artwork is viewed favorably by the journal without you having to incur the additional cost of purchasing special graphics software.

Wiley Editing Services offers:

• English Language Editing: English editing from a native English-speaking editor, with expertise in your subject area.
• Academic translation: Communicate your research in clear and correct English.
• Manuscript formatting: Format your manuscript to your chosen journal’s guidelines.
• Figure illustration: Turn your ideas into quality figures and illustrations for your article.
• Figure formatting: Ensure your figures meet the artwork guidelines of your chosen journal.
• Graphical abstract design: Draw readers to your research story with a visually engaging and scientifically precise graphical abstract.