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Official Journal of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
Updated: February 7, 2024
Aims and Scope
Publication Policies
Peer Review Process
Copyright, Open Access and Fees
Manuscript Submission
Manuscript Types and Specifications
Manuscript Preparation
Accepted Manuscripts
Contact
The Journal of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery (JPCCS) is a peer reviewed, open access publication devoted to all aspects of pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery. Basic and clinical approaches are welcomed in relevant topics, which can include congenital heart disease, Kawasaki disease, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, pulmonary hypertension, and other rare heart problems. The journal publishes a diverse range of article types that explore the diagnosis, management, treatment (medical, interventional, or surgical), and prevention of relevant diseases in fetuses, infants, children, adolescents and adults. The journal considers manuscripts that add to the archive of clinical and academic knowledge, including excellent reports on rare cases and studies with negative results.
Supported by the Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, JPCCS is published online twice per year to a broad international audience of clinicians and researchers. The journal’s Editorial Board oversees the rigorous peer review, ethical practice and quality control necessary to ensure that the journal best promotes patient care, clinical practice, research, education, and policy.
JPCCS upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing. Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the Editor believes may not comply with these policies.
The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in detail below. The journal adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines on ethical standards.
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’).
If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in the journal, they should first withdraw it from the journal.
The journal welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.
Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. The corresponding author will be asked to confirm the manuscript’s originality and unpublished status during the submission process. The journal may use iThenticate plagiarism software to screen manuscripts for unoriginal content. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to this screening. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the Editors’ discretion.
Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the editor.
Authors must adhere to the to consider the ICMJE Recommendations on ‘Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors’. The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on four criteria: making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; approving the final version of the manuscript for publication; and agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work. Any contributor who has met all four criteria should be an author on the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be authors of the manuscript but may be included in the Acknowledgments section instead.
Authors are required to include a statement that specifies the contribution of each author as per the ‘Author Contribution Statement’ section.
Given that artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as large language models (LLMs) and various openly available services cannot meet the requirements above, they cannot be listed as an author of a manuscript.
Authors must not falsify or fabricate data. Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.
If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.
If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.
Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is first submitted.
One of the main ambitions of the journal is to ensure the dissemination of knowledge, especially knowledge that which is inaccessible to the journal’s broad international audience. Following the ICMJE policy on overlapping publications, the journal therefore considers manuscripts that have been previously published in Japanese if the following conditions are met:
Secondary publications will include text that indicates they are fully peer-reviewed translations of an original publication. They will contain a statement such as: “This article is based on a study first reported in [journal title, with full reference].”
Authors are encouraged to disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.
Authors may make their own data and materials available by linking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories.
Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions. Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research.
Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines approved by the authors’ institution(s). Authors must include a statement in their manuscript that details the institutional review board (IRB), including the name of the ethics committee and the ethics approval reference number.
The journal requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network’s Reporting Guidelines for health research. Study types include, but are not limited to, randomized trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, case reports, qualitative research, diagnostic and prognostic studies, economic evaluations, animal pre-clinical studies and study protocols.
The use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools (also known as large language models, or LLMs) is not permitted for collecting or analyzing data, producing or amending images or graphics used in the manuscript, or writing all or part of the manuscript. Authors remain responsible and accountable for all content of their submitted manuscript and muse include a declaration section about AI tools (see the ‘Manuscript Preparation’ section for more details).
Authors should be aware that there are ongoing concerns about the copyright status of any AI-generated content. Authors must adhere to the instructions in the ‘Reproducing copyrighted material’ section and comply with relevant statutory and other copyright laws.
It is acceptable to use non-generative AI tools to improve the readability of a manuscript, such as through spelling and grammar checking.
After a manuscript is accepted, the journal, publisher and/or their authorized service providers may use AI tools to prepare the manuscript for publication.
When submitting a manuscript for publication, authors are required to disclose any financial relationship (within the past 12 months) with biotechnology manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial entity that has been involved in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. The corresponding author should submit the JPCCS Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement in order to disclose all authors’ relationships that could be perceived as real or apparent conflict(s) of interest.
Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgments in their manuscript.
The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.
Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access, enables authors to deposit a copy of their manuscript in an online repository. The journal encourages authors of original research manuscripts to upload their article to an institutional or public repository immediately after publication in the journal.
J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including the journal, with Portico in a dark archive. In the event that the material becomes unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.
The journal does not allow advertising on its articles, other journal pages, or websites.
The journal uses single-anonymized peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, the Editorial Board and Editor-in-Chief perform initial screening for content and style. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to an expert Associate Editor, who assigns two reviewers to assess each manuscript. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports varies by article type.
Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the Associate Editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors have 3 months to resubmit their revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions. The Associate Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgment to assess how closely the authors have followed the editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.
The Associate Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief may undertake further review and is responsible for making the final decision on each manuscript.
The members of the Editorial Board act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author on a manuscript submitted to the journal, a member of the Editorial Board is responsible for making the final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal.
Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation, recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal.
Reviewers are asked to submit their review within 2 weeks of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible.
When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer review process. The Associate Editor may consider these suggestions but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation and assignment of peer reviewers is at the Associate Editor’s sole discretion.
It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.
If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the published literature, the Associate Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.
Manuscripts must be:
If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Associate Editor may recommend rejection.
The Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The society will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.
Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.
Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed where and when relevant.
The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors and reviewers will not:
In addition, reviewers will not reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript or involve anyone else in the review (for example, a post-doc or PhD student) without first receiving permission from the Associate Editor.
A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an editor or reviewer’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.
Reviewers and members of the journal’s Editorial Board undertake to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An editor or reviewer who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor or reviewer.
Associate Editors try to avoid conflicts of interest when inviting reviewers, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias.
A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If an Erratum is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editorial Board will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board.
Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief, who is an author on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process. Within the journal’s online manuscript submission and tracking system, they will be able to see their manuscript as an author but not as an editor, thereby maintaining the confidentiality of peer review.
A manuscript authored by an editor of the journal is subject to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript considered by the journal.
The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of COPE.
Submission of a manuscript to the JPCCS implies that, in the event the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. The Copyright Transfer Statement form must be signed by all authors and uploaded with the initial submission.
JPCCS is an open access journal that uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND) License. This license allows users to share unmodified articles, non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given. For commercial use, please contact the Editorial Office to seek permission.
Articles published before January 1, 2022 are freely available under the stated copyright conditions. Articles published on or after this date are freely available under CC BY-NC-ND licenses.
There is no submission fee and no publication fee for papers published in JPCCS.
All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system: https://iap-jp.org/jspccs/journal_e.
If you encounter any problems with online submission, please contact the Editorial Office using the details provided in the ‘Contact’ section.
JPCCS publishes a range of article types:
1. Original Articles
Original Articles are full and comprehensive reports describing any type of original
research and studies on clinical advances, current methods, and controversial topics and
techniques.
2. Review Articles
The editors of the journal encourage specialists in their field to submit a Review
Article on current literature with cutting-edge information. Review Articles could also
have general educational contents for the benefit of the readers learning specific areas
of cardiology.
Instruction for submitting these types of articles is identical to that of the Original
Articles, except that the number of references should be 50 or less. Review Articles may
not need a fully structured Abstract or Text, depending on their content.
3. Case Reports
Case Reports highlight unique presentations in individual cases that contribute to the
understanding of etiology, pathophysiology, or patient care and treatment in congenital
heart disease and other circumstances mentioned above. The manuscript should not exceed
3,000 words in total. It should consist of the Title page and an Abstract (unstructured,
no more than 250 words) summarizing the case(s), followed by a brief Introduction,
Clinical documentation, and Discussion. The number of references should not exceed 15.
The general instructions for submission also apply to Case Reports.
4. New Technology and Imaging Articles
These manuscripts should contain documentation of new technology or novel images/movies
with outstanding scientific impact. The manuscripts must not exceed 1,000 words in
length, including a maximum of 5 references. The total number of figures is limited to 2
(less than 4 assembled figure parts are acceptable). Movies can be submitted as
supplementary material.
5. Editorial Comments (by invitation only)
Reviewers or other experts may be invited by the editors to write editorial comments.
The manuscript must not exceed 1,500 words and should include a maximum of 2
tables/figures and 10 references.
6. Letters to the Editor and Authors’ Reply
These letters provide a forum for discussing JPCCS’s published articles. They
should not exceed 500 words, 3 authors, and 5 references (1 of which must be the article
under discussion).
7. Data Articles (by invitation only)
Data Articles describe datasets available at a data center approved by the Japanese
Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. The provide details of data
collection, processing, file formats, etc., but do not include scientific analysis of
the data or any conclusions drawn from such analysis. Data Articles should allow the
reader to understand when, what, why and how the data was collected.
8. Guidelines and Consensus/Position Papers
These articles are mainly based on academic or social activities of the Japanese Society
of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery and associated societies/associations. Their
formats are flexible.
Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word or other appropriate software using double line spacing throughout, with margins of at least 3 cm.
Manuscripts should be written in clear and grammatically correct English. If a manuscript does not make sense appropriately due to linguistic errors , it may be rejected outright without undergoing peer review.
Define abbreviations at first appearance in the text. Keep the number of abbreviations to a minimum.
Units of measurement should be SI units, except for blood pressure (in mmHg). Do not spell out numbers and standard units of measurement, except at the beginning of sentences. Use Arabic numerals and standard abbreviations to indicate numbers and units.
Authors should briefly acknowledge those who have assisted in the work or preparation of the manuscript but who do not qualify for authorship, as defined in the ‘Authorship’ section.
The journal requires authors to include the sections below in submitted manuscripts, in this order, after the Acknowledgments and before the References.
Authors should list all funding sources for their work. Where possible and for each grant, include the receiving institution, the funding agency, the grant number, and the location (city and country) of the funding agency.
Authors are required to declare any competing financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described. Please see the ‘Author competing interests and conflicts of interest’ section in the Publication Policies for detailed information. If there are no declared interests, authors should include the following statement in this section of their manuscript: “The authors declare no competing interests.”
Authors are encouraged to include a Data Availability Statement in manuscripts that report results from research data. Following Hrynaszkiewicz et al. (2020, http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-017), statements should include information on where the manuscript’s data can be found and (where applicable) directly link to the data. If research data are not publicly available, this should be stated in this section along with any conditions for accessing the data.
Authors are required to include an Author Contribution Statement that follows CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). Each author’s contribution should be described using one or more of the 14 CRediT categories. For example (where ‘Author’ is replaced by the actual author names):
Conceptualization: Author 1.
Funding acquisition: Author 1.
Investigation: Author 1, Author 2.
Supervision: Author 1.
Visualization: Author 3.
Writing – original draft: Author 1, Author 2, Author 3.
Writing – review & editing: Author 1, Author 2.
Authors are required to declare that they have obtained and complied with relevant ethics approvals for any studies involving human or animal subjects. If such approvals are not relevant or applicable to a manuscript describing research involving human or animal subjects, authors should include the statement “Not applicable” under this section heading.
Authors are required to declare that they have obtained informed consents from participants for any relevant studies involving human subjects. If such consent is not relevant or applicable to a manuscript describing research that involves human subjects, authors should include the statement “Not applicable” under this section heading.
Authors must disclose any use of AI or AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by completing and including the following statement: “During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.”
This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, or references. If authors have nothing to disclose, there is no need to include this statement.
In the main text, references must be numbered consecutively in the order that they first appear in the text. They should be cited using superscript numerals, with a closing parenthesis placed after the last reference in any group of references, e.g. 1,2) and 3).
In the References list, the references should be listed in the same numerical order. When there are more than 4 authors, list only the first 3 authors and add “et al.”. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. If a reference article has only been published online, please state the DOI (digital object identifier) of the article.
Examples
1) Babu-Narayan SV, Diller GP, Gheta RR, et al.: Clinical outcomes of surgical pulmonary
valve replacement after repair of tetralogy of Fallot and potential prognostic value of
preoperative cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Circulation. 2014; 129: 18–27.
2) Becker AE, Anderson RH: Pathology of Congenital Heart Disease. London, Butterworths, 1981, pp62–66.
3) Meyer SL, Jongbloed MR, Ho SY, et al.: Intracardiac anatomical relationships and potential for streaming in double inlet left ventricles. PLoS One. 2017; 12: e0188048. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188048
Figures and tables should be submitted as Word, PowerPoint, or JPEG files. Letters and symbols in Figures should be in a size such that they are legible after being reduced to the width of one column.
Figures can be submitted in color with a resolution over 300 dpi. Publication of colored figures is free. Videos can be submitted (mpeg, mpg, mov, and avi files are accepted) as supplementary material at no charge.
Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript.
Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published 2 times per year. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them by the due date provided. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.
Editorial Office
Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Academy Center,
358-5 Yamabuki-cho, Shinju-ku,
Tokyo 162-0801,
Japan
E-mail: pccs-edit@bunken.co.jp
This page was created on 2024-03-19T17:13:56.11+09:00
This page was last modified on 2024-03-19T17:13:56.11+09:00
