Editor
Fred A. Crawford, Jr., MD

Electronic submission via http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ottcvs/ is mandatory.

Author _____________________________________

Article Topic_________________________________

Deadline_____________________________________

Page limit_________ printed pages.



The purpose of Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery: A Comparative Atlas is to provide technique-based articles in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery by renowned surgeons in the field, presented in atlas format. An issue contains two articles each in adult, congenital, and general thoracic surgery that explore a single topic each in a point/counterpoint approach. The two articles in each area compare, through a number of illustrations and summary comments, techniques that achieve similar results.

Note: The format of this Journal is distinctly different from that of other publications. Introductory and Summary text are minimized; the focus of the article is the narrative description of the procedure within the figure legends. Please see the sample article that accompanies this form: All articles must be submitted in a format like that in the sample.

Your manuscript should consist of the following elements, each starting on a separate page:
• Title page
• Body of the manuscript consisting of short introduction, 10 to 15 drawings with detailed legends (with permission for re-use, if required), and short closing section
• References if applicable

All parts of the manuscript (including references and legends) should be double-spaced—that is, with a full line of space after every line.

On the TITLE PAGE, please include all of the following information:
• The names, degrees, and professional affiliations (position, department, institution, place) of all authors
• The name of the institution where the work reported was done ("From...")
• Acknowledgment of grant support when appropriate ("Supported in part by...")
• A complete mailing address (including U.S. zip code or postal code for other countries) for reprint requests as well as telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address

ALL DRUG NAMES cited in the manuscript should be generic, followed by brand name, manufacturer, city and state or country in parentheses.



The body of your article should consist of three parts:

1. A short introductory section of no more than three double-spaced manuscript pages: Its purpose is to provide the reader with brief background information about the procedure under discussion from your prospective. This would be an appropriate time to mention any specific anatomic considerations or unique technical problems inherent in the procedure. This section of the manuscript should also provide the reader with an understanding of the steps you take in selecting appropriate candidates for the procedure as well as any particular diagnostic challenges or potential pitfalls. Inclusion of photographic reproductions of pertinent imaging studies is encouraged.
2. The main section of 10 to 15 drawings or photographs of the surgical procedure in a step-by-step format, accompanied by highly detailed and descriptive legends, through which the reader can follow the exact procedure from incision to closure. Authors should feel free to use their own artist, although the publisher cannot cover these costs. Authors wishing to use the illustrator provided by the publisher must inform the editorial office of this request as soon as possible after accepting their invitations.
3. A short closing section of no more than two double-spaced manuscript pages that includes any special considerations for postoperative care and follow-up, the results you expect to obtain with this procedure, and your conclusions regarding its place vis-à-vis other approaches to the treatment of the same or similar conditions. Opinions regarding the comparison of this procedure to others are encouraged. This section may include a short list of selected references. Illustrations of postoperative imaging studies or tables describing results obtained with this technique may be included in this section.

Submit the text files for your manuscript via http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ottcvs/ as described in the document "Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery: Article Submission Process for Authors" that accompanies this proposal.

Although not required, references may be included if appropriate. Reference numbers in the text follow numerical order and are enclosed in parentheses. References are listed in the order in which they are referred to in the text, not in alphabetical order; they must follow the style of the samples below. Please note that manuscripts in press may be referenced; however, manuscripts that have been submitted for publication but not yet accepted should not be referenced. All references must be complete when the manuscript is submitted.

Journal article, one author:

Doty DB: Aortic valve replacement with homograft and autograft. Semin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 8:249-258, 1996.

Journal article, two or three authors:

Cooper JD, Patterson GA, Trulock EP: Results of single and bilateral lung transplantation in 131 consecutive patients. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 107:460-471, 1994.

Journal article, more than three authors:

Elkins RC, Knott-Craig CJ, Ward KE, et al: Pulmonary autograft in children: Realized growth potential. Ann Thorac Surg 57:1387-1394, 1994.

Journal article in press:

Alvarez JM, Quiney NF, McMillan D, et al: The use of ultra-low aprotinin to reduce blood loss in cardiac surgery. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth (in press).

Complete book:

Kirklin JW, Baratt-Boyce BG: Cardiac Surgery (ed 2). New York, NY, Churchill Livingstone, 1993.

Chapter of book:

Castenda AR, Jonas RA, Mayer JE Jr, et al: Pediatric valve replacement, in Cardiac Surgery of the Neonate and infant, Philadelphia, PA, Saunders, 1994, pp 387-395.

Book that is a new edition and is volumes:

Sabiston DC Jr, Spencer FC: Surgery of the Chest, vol 1 (ed6). Philadelphia, PA, Saunders 1995.

Chapter of book that is part of published meeting:

Poirier VL, Frazier OH: Portable electric systems for long-term use, in Akustsu T, Koyanagi H (eds): Heart Replacement, Artificial Heart 4. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Artificial Heart and Assist Devices, August 7-8, 1992, Tokyo. New York, NY, Springer-Verlag, 1993, pp 103-114.

Paper presented at a meeting:

Bachet JE, Termignon J-L, Dreyfus G, et al: Aortic dissection: Prevalence, cause and results of late reoperations. Presented at the Seventy-third Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Chicago, IL April 25-28, 1993.

Journal article in journal that is a supplement:

Mavroudis C, Zales VR, Backer CL, et al: Fenestrated Fontan with delayed catheter closure: Effects of volume loading and baffle fenestration on cardiac index and oxygen delivery. Circulation 86:85-89, 1992 (suppl 2).

Abstracts:

Kendall K, Sharp JW, McCarthy PM: Quality of life for hospitalized implantable LVAD patients. J Heart Lung Transplant 13:S72, 1994 (abstr).

Editorials:

Cox JL: Anatomy of the posterior septal space. Am J Cardiol 68:675-677, 1991 (editorial).

You may use your own illustrator or ask the editorial office for one provided by the publisher. See additional instructions for preparing and submitting illustrations in the document "Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery: Article Submission Process for Authors" included with the proposal.

The majority of illustrations in each manuscript relate to the surgical procedure itself and appear in the body of the manuscript. Additional illustrations relating to preoperative or postoperative imaging studies, or other figures not depicting the procedure itself, may be included in the introductory or concluding elements of the manuscript. All illustrations should be numbered with Arabic numerals (Fig 1, Fig 2) in the order in which they appear in the text.

Legends should be typed double-spaced, numbered with Arabic numerals (Fig 1, Fig 2), in the manuscript document and should not be attached to the illustrations themselves. Legends should be sufficiently detailed to allow understanding of the entire procedure without reference to the text. A maximum of one manuscript page per figure may be used for these legends, although most legends will probably be only one-third to two-thirds of a page in length. Legends referring to the introductory or concluding elements of the manuscript should be brief and should be provided on a separate page following the references.

Submit your figures in electronic format via http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ottcvs . Images should be provided in EPS or TIF format. Graphics software such as Photoshop and Illustrator, not presentation software such as PowerPoint, CorelDraw, or Harvard Graphics, should be used to create the art. Color images must be CMYK, at least 300 DPI. Gray scale images should be at least 300 DPI. Combinations of gray scale and line art should be at least 1200 DPI. Line art (black and white or color) should be at least 1200 DPI.

Maximum width of illustrations after reduction: 7 inches. Color prints are not acceptable for reproduction as black and white prints. If the author wishes to include color figures that have not been approved by the Associate Editor, the cost of color plates must be borne by the author. The publisher can provide estimates for this option.

See Multimedia Supplements at the end of this document.

For any materials that have been borrowed from another copyright holder, authors are responsible for applying to the original copyright holder for permission to reprint in both print and electronic versions. A sample Permission Request Form is attached. Authors must submit copies of letters granting permission with the submitted manuscript. All reprinted figures and tables should be accompanied with the line "Reprinted with permission" followed by the appropriate reference number (e.g., "Reprinted with permission 23"). Authors are responsible for bearing any costs associated with granting print or electronic rights.

Be cautioned not to submit the same figure or table simultaneously to two publishers on the assumption that one article will publish before the other and that the publisher of the first article will grant permission for reuse of the material. Publication of one article may be delayed unexpectedly, necessitating withdrawal of material from the other article.

It is of utmost importance to submit (1) the outline of your manuscript and (2) the files for each of your preliminary sketches for the illustrator by the author submission date. The date by which the final submission is due will be in your letter of invitation.

The corresponding author is sent first proofs via e-mail and is asked to proofread them for typographical errors and return them to the publisher within 48 hours. Important changes in data are accepted, but authors are charged for excessive alterations in proofs. Substantive changes to illustrations are strongly discouraged.

Authors contributing a manuscript do so with the understanding that, once it is accepted for publication, copyright in the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms of media now and hereafter known, shall be assigned exclusively to the publisher. The author will be asked to sign a copyright release form to this effect.

If you have any questions related to the content or organization of your manuscript, please contact your Associate Editor (see contact information on first page of this document).

If you have any questions regarding deadlines, manuscript preparations, or other production issues, please contact:

Nicole Noyes
Associate Managing Editor
AATS Scientific Publications
900 Cummings Center
Suite 221-U
Beverly, MA 01915
Tel: 978-299-4520
Fax: 978-524-8890
E-mail: nnoyes@prri.com





Electronic submission via http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ottcvs/ is mandatory.

_____Electronic file of manuscript including

_____Title page with

•_____Title of manuscript

•_____Complete names, academic degrees, departments, and professional affiliations of all authors

•_____Full name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of corresponding author

_____Body of article, including figure legends

_____References in order of citation, double spaced (not alphabetical order), if necessary

_____Figures with figure numbers, TIF or EPS file, separate file for each

_____Supplementary multimedia material, appropriately marked

_____Permission from copyright holders to use previously published materials and from institutions to use forms, protocols, etc.

_____Informed consent for patient photographs

NOTE: Authors are requested to keep a copy of their final manuscript!





Electronic submission via http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ottcvs/ is mandatory.

General Submission Requirements

• Initial submission: (1) an outline of your article and (2) files for each of your preliminary sketches for the illustrator electronically via http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ottcvs/ .
• Final submission: Final version of manuscript and illustrations approved by the editor.

Software Recommendations

• Preferred word processing software is Microsoft Word or Word Perfect.
• Preferred illustration format is TIF or EPS file.

File Organization

Please make sure your manuscript is in the following order:

• Title Page
• Text
• Acknowledgement
• Appendix
• References
• Figure Legends
• Figures

Note: Do not import the Figures into the text file.

Figures
For most types of figures TIF or EPS files are the preferred format. The resolution for line art must be at least 1000 dpi; photographs and shaded drawings must have a finished resolution of 300 dpi. A hard copy of the figure must accompany each file.

Please do not submit Microsoft Word documents with embedded images. All image files must be separate files. The following file formats are not acceptable because they are low resolution: PowerPoint, JPG, GIF, ONG, PCX, PNG, XBM, and Excel.

Authors are required to submit text files and figure files electronically.

Document Formatting
Typographical formatting is handled by the publisher. This pertains to the design specifications for the final printed product, such as column widths, page depths, and type styles. Please refrain from using this type of formatting.

Editorial formatting may be included in the disk file. This refers to attributes such as italics, superscripts, subscripts, and Greek letters. The coding scheme for each such element must be consistent throughout the file.

Text Style

• Type text flush left (i.e., do not indent paragraphs) in upper/lowercase letters as appropriate.
• Enter only one space between words and sentences.
• For line breaks within a paragraph, use the automatic "wraparound" feature of your work processor (also referred to as "soft return"); do not use the carriage return (or "hard return").
• Use two hard returns at the end of each paragraph (i.e., one blank line should appear between paragraphs).
• Use two hard returns between headings and text.
• Do not use the word processor's indenting or margin setting features. (These will be handled during typesetting.)

Supplementary files will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article.

Supplementary and/or multimedia files should be referred to (from the text) in the same way as for figures and tables. (E.g., "...see Movie 2...or E Figure 1").

Any supplementary material that is not directly referred to from within the text of your manuscript should be referred to via use of a footnote to the article title.

Please provide a short description for each supplementary file supplied. When published online, the descriptive texts will appear as captions alongside links to the relevant supplementary files.

Supplementary movies or animation files should be provided in one of the formats listed in the table below:

Format	Extension	Details
MPEG	.mpg	• Preferred movie format • MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format required • Highest possible quality required
Apple QuickTime	.mov	• Acceptable movie format • Highest possible quality required
Compuserve GIF	.gif	• Preferred format for animation of rasterised (pixel-based) images • Highest possible quality required

Supplementary image files should be provided in one of the formats listed in the table below:

Format	Extension	Details
Compuserve GIF	.gif	• Preferred format for max. 256 colour bitmap and greyscale images
JPEG	.jpg	• Preferred for 16 million colour photographs and other high-quality artwork involving halftones
Scalable Vector Graphic	.svg	• Preferred format for vector-based images
Portable Network Graphic	.png	• Allowed image format, should be converted to a preferred format if possible
Tagged Image File Format	.tif	• Allowed image format, should be converted to a preferred format if possible
Encapsulated PostScript	.eps	• Allowed image format for vector-based images

For more detailed information about requirements for supplemental multimedia items, go to http://www.elsevier.com/artwork .

Your cooperation in complying with these guidelines will expedite the production process.





From:

Date:

Dear Permissions Coordinator:

I am preparing for publication an article entitled:

To be published in:

I hereby request your permission to reprint the following material:

Author/Editor:

Title of book or article:

Journal, Volume, and Issue (if applicable):

Material to be reproduced:

Page numbers:



Permission is sought to reprint the above mentioned material in all forms and media now or hereafter known, in all languages, throughout the world and to license such rights to others. Sincerely,

I/We hereby grant permission to reprint the material(s) requested above:

Signed:_________________________________________________________