Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology

Official journal of the International Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology Society

Edited by:
John D.Fisher

Print ISSN: 0147-8389
Online ISSN: 1540-8159
Frequency: Monthly
Current Volume: 33 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 49/78 Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems; 32/51 Engineering, Biomedical
Impact Factor: 1.59

TopAuthor Guidelines

PACE - INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

PACE publishes clinical and research, peer-reviewed, original and review communications in cardiac pacing, clinical and basic cardiac electrophysiology, cardioversion-defibrillation, the electrical stimulation of other organs, cardiac assist, and, in general, the management of cardiac arrhythmias.
Submit online to: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pace
Complete instructions for preparing and submitting manuscripts online are provided at this submission site. Please use any major word processing software (PDF format is NOT acceptable). For assistance, please click "get help now" or contact our support staff by phone at 1-434-817-2040 - option 1 or via e-mail to Support@Scholarone.com.

Editorial Office: John D. Fisher, MD, Editor-in-Chief, c/o Rita Coetzee,
PACE Editorial Office, 487 E. Main Street, PMB 300, Mount Kisco, NY 10549
Tel: 914-238 9334 Fax: 914-238 9350 e-mail: pace@ny.blackwellpublishing.com.

Wiley-Blackwell Journal Customer Services:
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148
http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/
Tel: 1-800-835-6770

GENERAL INFORMATION

The letter of submission (cover letter) must affirm that the manuscript is not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere and has not been previously published in similar form. PACE policy is in accord with HEART Group Notification Regarding Redundant Publication, PACE 1997; 20: 1894-1895. No part of a paper, published by PACE, may be reproduced or published elsewhere without the written permission of the author(s) and the publisher. The author(s) is responsible for the entire manuscript. PACE (editor(s) and publisher) disclaims all responsibility for such material. No product or service advertised in this publication or any claims made by the manufacturers are guaranteed or warranted by the Editor(s) or the publisher. Authors must disclose all associations (either commercial or industrial) that may pose a conflict of interest. All individual affiliations should be acknowledged. Industrial employees may not evaluate or comment about the products of a competitor.
Claims of priority: Authors should make no claims of priority or novelty and avoid terms such as "new," "novel," or "first". The editor reserves the right to remove these claims. A manuscript concerning patients requires medical authorship; an animal study requires a medical or veterinary practitioner. In unusual circumstances the editor may grant a waiver. The name(s) and address(es) of the manufacturer(s) or supplier(s), and the generic name, should be supplied for a trademarked or registered item. Do not use a trademarked term as a generic, e.g., Marker Channel TM, a trademarked term and do not use any commercial name in the title.
An excellent reference is http://www.icmje.org/. Where Uniform Requirements differ from PACE Instructions, PACE prevails. The AMA Style Manual is a useful reference.

Copyright Information
Authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement Form (CTA). The form can be signed by the first author who then takes responsibility for informing the other authors. The CTA allows authors to retain copyright of their article while granting the publisher an exclusive license to publish the article in print and online, to administer rights, and to follow up on any infringements of copyright. Manuscripts will not be sent to the publisher for production until a CTA. Please submit a completed, signed CTA when submittan article for consideratio--FAX 1-914-238-9350. See instructions and Forms tab at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pace

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Online submissions follow the directions at http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pace. These do not supersede the general style and formatting detailed below. Please prepare the manuscript file as you would a paper copy for review with a title page, abstract, complete text, tables, figure legends, figures and references all together in a single electronic file before uploading. Manuscript should be submitted double spaced, with 1-inch margins, A4 paper size. Add page numbers and line numbers, in increments of 5, to the entire manuscript and any future revisions. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to seek appropriate linguistic help.

Title Page
Some information will be duplicated during the electronic submission. The manuscript title page should include a manuscript title (maximum 120 characters), short title (3-5 words) full name(s), highest academic degree(s), and work affiliation(s), and full disclosure of all information about financial support, i.e., applicable grants and contracts for each author. Include the name, full address, fax and e-mail of the person responsible for correspondence and reprints.

Structured Abstract
Full-length articles should include an abstract of fewer than 250 words which is a précis of the manuscript and contains all information and results and is not an introduction to the remainder of the manuscript. Organize in separate paragraphs as follows: Background; Methods; Results; and Conclusions. Provide a maximum of 6 key words suitable for indexing. Standard abbreviations should be used for all measurements.
List all but the most common abbreviations used in the manuscript for easy reference.

Text
The text follows the abstract. All but the most well known abbreviations (e.g., ECG) should be defined when first used; thereafter the abbreviation may be used. References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text, as should tables and figures. Use mathematical annotations that are standard in English-language medical journals, e.g. 'per' should be used instead of superscripts or other symbols except in per hundred, where % is acceptable. "Per" can be used as "per", "p", or a slash depending on context. Hence: use "per thousand" or "n/1000", NOT ‰. Beats per minute should be bpm or beats/min, NOT beats min-1, similarly use mph, kph, mg/min, etc.
Acknowledgments should follow at the end of the text, before references, which are listed in numerical order.

References
Abbreviate titles of periodicals in the style of Index Medicus. List first seven authors followed by et al. Follow the format (arrangement and punctuation) shown below:
Periodicals
1. Shaber JD, Fisher JD, Ramachandra I, Gonzalez C, Rosenberg L, Ferrick KJ, Gross JN, et al. Rate Responsive Pacemakers: A Rapid Assessment Protocol. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol 2008; 2:192-197.
Books (edited by other than author of article )
2. Hayes DL. Newest Developments in Rate-Adaptive Pacing. In I. Singer, et al. (eds.): Nonpharmacological Therapy of Arrhythmias for the 21st Century. Armonk NY, Futura Publishing Co., Inc., 1998, pp. 797-818.
Books (edited by identical author and editor )
3. Lüderitz B. History of the Disorders of Cardiac Rhythm, Second Revised and Updated Printing. Armonk NY, Futura Publishing Co., Inc., 1998, pp. 107-118.
Personal Communications
4. Smith I. December 10, 1986, Personal Communication. Only written Personal Communications, available upon request may be referenced.
Abstracts
5. As for periodicals but with (abstract) before the periodical title.

Tables
Number tables consecutively in order of appearance, each with a title placed at its top, which supplements, not duplicates, the text. Abbreviations and any material that is not self-explanatory should be footnoted and explained.

Figures
Please note acceptable formats. More information can be found at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/authors/digill.asp.
Black and white illustrations are published without charge. The author(s) may wish color printing of illustrations in the paper journal. The cost is $495 (US) per illustration and a color print agreement form is needed before publication. The publisher will send a final invoice for color print payments. All illustrations, whether submitted in color and/or black & white, are published in electronic format free of charge. Submit written permission from publisher(s) and author(s) for any figure that has been published previously. Permission must allow for electronic reproduction on CD-ROM. Photographs in which a patient or other person is identifiable must have written consent from that person.
Moving images (short video clips) may be uploaded as supplementary files for review. Accepted file types are .asf, .wmv, .avi, .mpeg, and .vob only.

Starting with September 2009 submissions: Accepted case reports and abbreviated cases will be pulbished online only.

Case Reports
Reports about one or two cases are defined as a case report. Please submit manuscripts with a title page (as for original articles) and do not exceed 6 pages for all other material, i.e., short abstract (50-100 words), text, references, legends, etc. In addition a maximum of three illustrations (figures and/or tables), all in standard PACE preparation format are allowed. Figures may be further reduced in size so please check legibility. If submitted outside of these constraints, the submission will be returned, unreviewed.

EP Rounds / Device Rounds
Follow the Case Reports format and begin by presenting the clinical problem and pertinent information to guide the reader to a solution. It is intended to be a 'puzzle' for the reader. Clearly label the manuscript "EP Rounds" or "Device Rounds" upon submission. No abstract necessary.

Multicenter Trials
Effective January 2008, PACE adheres to the international Heart Journals Group decision that all multicenter trials need to be registered with either the US Government at http://clinicaltrials.gov or the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry (http://www.who.int/ictrp/en/).
Documentation of such registration should accompany manuscript submissions. Trials begun prior to January 2008, that were not registered, will be considered on an individual basis by the editor, whose decision is final. Trials begun after January 2008 that were not registered, but are accompanied by a convincing and detailed waiver request, may only rarely be granted an exception at the discretion of the editor, whose decision is final.
Disclose all commercial affiliations/financial aid.
Commercial trials: Prepare such a manuscript of a single sponsor, commercial product or technique in PACE format. Commercial trials are limited to 2500 words of text (supply word count exclusive of abstract and references), 20 references, and 5 figures or tables.
Non-commercial trials: Page limits do not apply (e.g. NIH sponsored trials, etc.)
Consideration for publication is at the editor's discretion.

Policy conferences and proposed code revisions may be considered only with the written endorsement of a recognized professional society. Publication is not assured. The editor's decision will prevail.

Letters to the Editor
In most instances a letter should be about a specific article that appeared in PACE and be received within 6 weeks of its publication. Letters should not exceed 500 words (without a figure or table), even if describing a clinical or scientific event. A figure or table will correspondingly reduce the text of this letter. A response will be solicited from the authors of the original article. Other letters will be considered at the editor's discretion. In some cases the author may be asked to resubmit in another category such as a case report, viewpoint, etc.
Letters are edited and published at the editor's discretion.

NEW: Author Services and Language Editing
Online production tracking (Author Services) enables authors to track their article - once it has been accepted - through the production process to publication online and in print. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ for more details.
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have
their manuscript professionally edited before submission or during the
review process. Authors wishing to pursue a professional English-language editing service should make contact and arrange payment with the editing service of their choice. For more details regarding the recommended services, please refer to
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/english_language.asp.

Free access to the final PDF offprint or your article will be available via Wiley-Blackwell's Author Services. Please register to access your article PDF offprint and enjoy the many other benefits the service offers. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ to register.