Reviewing publications on all parts of cardiovascular surgery and related subjects is a delight for the British Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery (bjcts). We contribute to the advancement of cardiothoracic surgery policies, clinical practise, research, teaching, and patient care. Our articles are written with the intention of enlightening readers and expanding their knowledge of science and medicine. The British Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery publishes original research on a variety of clinically relevant subjects, cutting-edge surgical methods, and contentious issues and procedures for adult and congenital cardiovascular disease, thoracic surgery, cardiothoracic transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, assisted circulation, perioperative medicine, arrhythmia, oesophagus, thoracic oncology, thoracic non-oncology, transplantation, coronary, valves, and We urge general and specialty cardiologists to pursue their education in secondary and primary care, as well as other medical professionals with an interest in cardiovascular medicine. Access to the manuscripts should be available to any healthcare practitioner with an interest in this field. The bjcts is committed to providing all cardiothoracic surgeons with a place to exchange experiences that will improve patient care. It is a reputable, clinically focused resource.

Each author must meet the following requirements set forth by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in order to be recognised as an author in the British Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

The corresponding author is in charge of making sure that all administrative requirements, including author roles, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration information, conflict of interest declarations, and funding sources, are complete and accurate both in the submission system and in the manuscript. The corresponding author is also accountable for ensuring that all authors comply with the requirements for authorship and that their names and affiliations are properly formatted and spelled. The accuracy of the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT from CASRAI) chosen by the related author will be verified by all authors. The article will include a list of the CRediT jobs. Contributors who don’t fit the aforementioned requirements ought to be acknowledged. After the updated version has been submitted, no writer may be dropped without the Editorial Office’s blessing and the written consent of all authors.

On the title page of the publication, authors are asked to include the precise URL and unique identification number for the trial registration. The article that is published will have this information.

Submission of manuscript

To be considered for publication in the British Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, all content must be submitted electronically via the journal’s online submission system.

Statistical and data reporting

During the review process and/or after publication, the complete set of data in its entirety must be easily accessible upon request from reviewers or editors.

Availability of Data and Materials

We highly encourage writers to make any data and software code used to support the paper’s conclusions available to readers whenever it is morally possible. When possible, data should be included in the main manuscript, any supplementary supporting files, or stored in a public repository.

Data Availability Statement

A data availability statement must be attached to the manuscript file by the authors. The statement will appear in the article that is published.

Initial data

In the course of the review process and/or after publication, the complete set of data in its entirety must be easily accessible upon request from reviewers or editors.

Citation of data

We comply with the Force 11 Data Citation Principles, and every publicly accessible dataset must be fully cited in the reference list with an accession number or other distinctive identifier, such as a digital object identifier (DOI). The following details, as recommended by DataCite, should be included in data citations:

Clinical trial registration and reporting

According to the ICMJE’s Clinical Trial Registration Statement, all clinical trials that are published in the journal must be registered in a public trials registry that has been approved by the WHO at or before the start of participant enrollment.

The registry must be run by a non-profit organisation, be free to the public to use, searchable, open to all potential registrants, and contain all the data required by the ICMJE. If the results are given as a brief abstract (500 words) or a table and posted in the same clinical trials registry as the primary registration, they will not be regarded as prior publications.

The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Studies Statement (CONSORT), which is available on the website, should be followed for clinical studies. When writing their articles, authors of randomised clinical trials (RCT) should refer to the CONSORT checklist. All RCT data will be assessed using the CONSORT statement’s guidelines and check list.

Where criteria are provided, other sorts of studies should abide by them. These consist of:

1. Standard for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (Standards for STARD)
2. Stronger Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology, or STROBE
3. Transparency in Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, or PRISMA
4. Meta-analyses of Observational Studies, or MOOSE
5. Artificial intelligence extension for CONSORT

Visit the EQUATOR network for further information on the proper reporting of medical research findings. The appropriate checklist needs to be properly completed and uploaded as the “Prisma or Consort checklist.”

The manuscript should be set up in the following manner:

Title page

Title
1. Brief and descriptive

2. 100 characters)
3. No abbreviationsAuthors
   1. List all authors
4. Full first name, initial of or full middle name and family name
5. Qualifications are optional
6. Make that the author names match the system’s metadata in both spelling and appearance order
7. Keep in mind that each author ought to have made a significant contribution to the manuscript
8. Corresponding author (The full name, full postal address, telephone number and the e-mail address)

Institutions
1. Name of all institutions

2. Department
3. Location
4. City
5. Country
6. To link authors to their institution or department, use superscript numerals.Conference or meeting abstracts

Include the conference’s name, location, and date the manuscript was (or will be) read if it was (or will be) presented at a meeting.

Word count
The title page must include a word count for the entire manuscript, which must include the title page, abstract, main text, legends, tables, and references.

Visual abstract
Include the key question (no more than 120 characters), critical findings (no more than 120 characters), and conclusion (no more than 140 characters). Included in the utmost number of characters are spaces.

Clinical registration number
It is recommended to include the name of the registry and registration number in the Clinical Trial Registration Statement as per the guidelines provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Abstract

The abstract is expected to provide a brief and succinct overview of the manuscript. The use of reference citations is prohibited. The abstract ought to be objective and devoid of acronyms, with the exception of International System of Units (SI) of measurement. The structured abstract should adhere to the PICO framework and encompass the following components:

The objectives of a study should delineate the issue being examined and its intended aim.

The Methods section of a research paper should provide a detailed account of the procedures used to conduct the study, including information on the materials used, as well as the observational and analytical methods employed.

The results section should provide a quantitative description of the primary outcomes, including specific data and any associated statistical significance, if applicable.

In the conclusions section, it is recommended to include the primary conclusion of the research without any accompanying discussion.

Key words
After the abstract, it is recommended to provide 3-6 keywords for the purpose of subject indexing.

Main text

Abbreviations and acronyms
In the case of Original Articles, Meta-Analyses, and Reviews, it is recommended that any abbreviations or acronyms utilised within the text be compiled into a comprehensive list and presented at the outset of the article, prior to the introduction. The utilisation of abbreviations can impede the readability of a text, thus it is advisable to restrict their usage solely to the International System of Units (SI) and to those that are extensively employed within the article’s content. It is recommended that complete definitions are provided upon initial mention within the text, as well as in any accompanying tables and figures. The utilisation of abbreviations in headings is not recommended.

Introduction
Describe the investigation’s goal and include a brief summary of relevant literature.

Materials and methods (or patients and methods)
1. Describe patients or experimental animals in detail with the required information

2. Complete the subsection “Ethical statement” at the beginning of the methods section.

A brief declaration stating that the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee (EC) of the institution or institutions where the work was done approved the study. Included information must contain the institution’s name, the date, and the IRB permission ID number. It should also be stated whether the IRB or EC got or waived the patient’s written informed consent.

It is recommended to utilise generic names of drugs and equipment in the manuscript. When first mentioned in the text, brand names (proprietary name) and the name and location (city, state, country) of the manufacturer should be included in brackets.

Results
Concise reporting of results is crucial and should be considered a significant component of the manuscript. The data ought to be exhibited in either tables or figures, and concisely expounded upon in the text, or solely within the text. It is advisable to refrain from repeating results. To conduct statistical analysis, it is recommended to adhere to the guidelines for statistical and data reporting. It is imperative that the complete set of unprocessed data is readily accessible in the event that reviewers or editors require them for a comprehensive evaluation during the review phase or subsequent to publication.

Discussion
The interpretation of the findings and their importance with regard to important work by other writers is provided in the discussion. It ought to be concise and straightforward. Discussions about the study’s significance and constraints are necessary.

Acknowledgement
This segment may serve the purpose of recognising the contributions made by individuals who do not fulfil the authorship criteria set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)., such as those who rendered administrative aid, writing assistance, or language editing.

Author contributions statement
The Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) developed by CASRAI will be utilised to identify the roles of authors in all accepted articles. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to meticulously and precisely select these roles during the submission of the revised manuscript. Please refer to the following for an overview of the CrediT roles.

Funding statement

Conflict of interest statement

Figure and video legends
It is necessary to incorporate a catalogue featuring explanatory captions for every image and video.

Tables
It is imperative that all tables are incorporated within the manuscript document, as an integral component of the written content, and not as visual representations. It is recommended that each table be allocated a distinct page and be accompanied by a title, as well as footnotes denoted by superscript letters as deemed necessary. It is recommended that the tables be sequentially numbered using Arabic numerals. The table should contain a list of abbreviations along with their corresponding full definitions, arranged in alphabetical order at the bottom of the table. It is recommended to refrain from overcrowding tables and utilising an excessive amount of words. It is recommended that the tables adhere to the standard format typically employed by the respective journal. Please ensure the accuracy of the data presented in the tables. It is imperative to provide citations in the text for all tables.

References
It is the responsibility of authors to ensure the precision of all cited sources. In the event that one utilises EndNote or Reference Manager to aid in the referencing of citations, it is worth noting that this particular journal’s style is readily accessible for employment. It is important to note, however, that such employment is not mandatory for submission. The numerical listing of references in the reference list should correspond to the order of their appearance in the text. The references should be numbered using Arabic numerals enclosed in brackets. According to PubMed guidelines, it is recommended to abbreviate and punctuate journal titles and author initials. In the event that an automated referencing system has been employed during the composition of the manuscript, it is imperative that the references are not retained within the submitted final text document. The guidelines must be adhered to when citing journals, books, multi-author books, and articles published online.

When citing sources with more than six authors, it is recommended to list the first six authors and then use “et al.” to indicate the remaining authors. In academic writing, it is necessary to obtain written authorization from individuals involved in personal communications. Additionally, when referencing unpublished data, it is appropriate to cite it within the text as unpublished data. Citations of manuscripts that have been submitted but not yet accepted should be included in the text as (Jones and Smith, manuscript in preparation) and should not be listed in the references. It is recommended that authors include web URLs in brackets when referencing them in the text.

Figures and Videos

A legend and text citation are required for every figure and video.

Figures

Original Articles, Meta-Analyses and Reviews: Each figure should contain no more than 4 parts Case report, Surgical Technique and Images-in-Cardiothoracic Surgery: 6 parts in total are allowed.

The requirements for online submission and peer review: either embed the figures at the end of the word processing file, before the list of references, or upload separately as low-resolution images (.eps, .jpg, .pdf, .ppt or. tif);

Minimum resolutions are 300 dots per inch (dpi) for colour or tone images, and 1000 dpi for line drawings, supplied at a minimum width of 16.8 cm. We advise that you create high-resolution images first as these can be easily converted into low-resolution images for online submission.

EJCTS does not redraw figures of accepted manuscripts. Figure preparation is the author’s responsibility. See guidelines, or go to the Digital Art Support page.

The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material. Any photomicrographs, electron micrographs or radiographs must be of high quality. Photomicrographs should provide details of staining technique and a scale bar, and must be in colour. Patients shown in photographs should have their identity concealed or should have given their written consent to publication. When creating figures, make sure any embedded text is large enough to read. Many figures contain miniscule characters such as numbers on a chart or graph. If these characters are not easily readable, they will most likely be illegible in the final version.

Colour illustrations
EJCTS encourages the use of colour figures when colour helps with the understanding of the figures. EJCTS does not charge for the publication of colour figures but the Editor may use his discretion when deciding which figures to publish in colour.

Videos
Where appropriate, video sequences may be submitted using standard digital video formats. Videos must be relevant and contain only vital/novel information. The total playback time for the videos should not exceed 5 minutes. Videos should be numbered in the order they appear in the text.

Recording
Use the highest possible resolution when creating the original. The use of a standard thoracoscopic camera (digital preferred) fixed on the table and manipulated by an assistant gives excellent magnification and high quality recording. Filming with a head-mounted recording camera is not recommended.

Audio
To improve the understanding of the procedure described, short and clear commentaries can be incorporated into the video file. Commentaries should supplement the complete description given in the legend of the video.

Format
Videos can be submitted in any standard format: wmv, avi, mpeg, mov, etc. Videos must be of high quality and must have a minimum size of 640×480 pixels (preferably higher as all videos will be converted to MP4 to EJCTS specifications). The aspect ratio can be: 4:3 or 16:9.

Video size
The maximum file size of a video submitted for review in the online submission system is 100 MB.  If your article is accepted and you have a higher resolution version of the video, please send it to the Editorial Office via a transfer service such as WeTransfer.

Permission to reproduce figures and extracts

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS and similar licensing agencies where appropriate. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder must be made available to the editors. It is also the author’s responsibility to include acknowledgements as stipulated by the particular institutions. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing online permissions: please see Rights & Permissions or the Oxford Journals Rights department on journals.permissions@oup.com.

For a copyright prose work, it is recommended that permission is obtained for the use of extracts longer than 400 words; a series of extracts totalling more than 800 words, of which any one extract is more than 300 words; or an extract or series of extracts comprising one-quarter of the work or more.

Third-Party Content in Open Access papers
If you will be publishing your paper under an Open Access licence but it contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content, Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Supplementary data

Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available by the publisher as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures.

All supplementary text, figures and tables must be submitted in suitable electronic formats in preferably one file. However, if there are several supplemental figures and tables as well as supplementary text material, these can be provided in a maximum of 3 files. Each individual file should be clearly named (e.g. Supplementary Tables S1 to S6, Supplementary Figures S1 to S4, Supplementary material. For a quick download, the file size should not exceed 5 MB.

All material to be considered as supplementary data must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. Supplementary material must be referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as ‘(see Supplementary material)’ or ‘(see Supplementary Figure S1)’. Supplementary material should be uploaded as ‘Supplemental files’ only.​

Authors should make sure that supplementary material is clearly and consistently presented and that the final version is unmarked. Supplementary material cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication. It is recommended that authors spell-check the contents of all supplementary files before submission as no editing will be done by the typesetter.

Funding and conflict of interest statements

Funding statement
Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled ‘Funding’. This should appear before the ‘Acknowledgements’ section.

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply ‘National Institutes of Health’ not ‘NCI’ (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or ‘NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies)
• Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number ‘to [author full name]’

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to John Smith] and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [HFY GR667789].

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.

Conflict of interest statement
Declarations of conflicts of interest must be included in the manuscript. Place them at the end of the text before the references, and include the section even if none are declared, using the following format:
Conflict of interest: none declared.

Further guidance on conflicts of interest is available on the Journal Policies page.

Copyright and licence

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be required to complete an online copyright licence to publish form. Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press (“OUP”) may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process.

Work submitted for publication must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published figures, tables, or parts of text are to be included, the copyright-holder’s permission must have been obtained prior to submission. For more information on how to obtain permissions, please consult Rights and Permissions .

Open Access
EJCTS authors have the option to publish their paper under the Oxford Open initiative; whereby, for a charge, their paper will be made freely available online immediately upon publication. After your manuscript is accepted the corresponding author will be required to accept a mandatory licence to publish agreement. As part of the licensing process you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay for open access. If you do not select the open access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.

Oxford Open articles are published under Creative Commons licences. Authors publishing in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery can use the following Creative Commons licence for their articles:

• Creative Commons licence (CC BY)*
• Creative Commons Non-Commercial licence (CC BY-NC)

*Please note that CC BY licence as a default option will be available only to authors who have funding body mandates to publish CC BY.

Visit the licensing website to find out more about Creative Commons licences.

You can pay Open Access charges using our Author Portal site.  The Open Access charges applicable are:

European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
Standard APC EUR 3,147;
EACTS/ESTS Member rate APC EUR 2,202
*Short item APC EUR 1,574;
*Short item EACTS/ESTS Member rate APC 1,102
*Surgical technique; Case report; Images in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery; Letter to the editor

Orders from the UK will be subject to the current UK VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the world, OUP will assume that the service is provided for business purposes. Please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution, and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.

Proofs

Corresponding authors are sent a link to their page proofs by email, here they may download the proof, make corrections, answer any queries and then upload the annotated PDF. Corrections should be returned within 3 working days (further details are supplied with the proof). It is the author’s responsibility to check proofs thoroughly.

Advance Access

Advance Access articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). When an article appears in an issue, it is removed from the Advance Access page.

Articles posted for Advance Access have been copyedited and any corrections included.  Once an article appears in an issue, the article is accessible from the issue page or the article page.

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

If the paper has been deposited on a preprint server, the authors are requested to mention this on the title page of their manuscript file upon submission.

This page was updated on 06 January 2023.

Types of articles

1. Original Articles

1. Meta-Analysis Articles
2. Review Articles
3. Surgical Technique
4. Case Reports
5. Images in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
6. Letters to the Editors
7. Videos
8. Photographs

By invitation:

• Editorials
• Great Debates
• Guidelines
• Reports
• Invited Commentaries
• In Memoriam
•  

Manuscript Format and Style

It is recommended to use a word processing programme to create manuscripts.

Main content should be double-spaced. Pages and lines should be consistently numbered.

Font: Calibri or Arial

Size of font: 11 or 12 points

Manuscript contents
The following is how manuscripts should be arranged:

1. Title page
2. Visual abstract
3. Abstract and Keywords
4. Text with the following sections

• Introduction
• Materials
• Methods

5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Conclusion
8. Acknowledgement (optional)
9. Funding statement
10. Conflict of interest statement
11. Author contribution statement
12. Figure
13. Video
14. Legends
15. Tables
16. References

Article type specifications

1. Original Article

• Authors: At the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief
• Abstract (structured): 250 words (sections should be: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions)
• Figures/tables combined: 8 (preferably no more than 6 parts/graphs – at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief)
• Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)
• References: 30
• Total number of words: 5000

2. Meta-Analysis Article

• Authors: 8 maximum (at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief)
• Abstract (structured): 250 words (sections should be: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions)
• Figures/tables combined: 8 (preferably no more than 6 parts/graphs – at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief)
• References: 80
• Total number of words: 6500

3. Review Article(should not include unpublished cases/data)

• Authors: 8 maximum
• Abstract (structured): 250 words (sections should be: Objectives, Methods, Results and Conclusions) 
• Figures/tables combined: 8 (preferably no more than 6 parts/graphs – at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief)
• Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)
• References: 80
• Total number of words: 6500

4. Surgical Technique

• Authors: 4 maximum
• Abstract (unstructured): 200 words
• Figures/tables combined: 2 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)
• Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)
• References: 8
• Total number of words: 1000

5.Case Report

• Authors: 4 maximum
• Abstract (unstructured): 200 words
• Figures/tables combined: 2 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)
• Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)
• References: 5
• Total number of words: 1000

1. Images in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (should only contain a figure and its corresponding legend)

• Authors: 4 maximum
• Abstract: none
• Figures (no tables allowed): 1 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)
• Videos: none
• Total number of words: 50 for the legend

2. Videos in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (should only contain a figure and its corresponding legend)

• Authors: 4 maximum
• Abstract: none
• Figures (no tables allowed): 1 (A total of 6 figure parts is permitted)
• Videos: none
• Total number of words: 50 for the legend

3. Letters to the Editor (should comment on recent EJCTS articles only).

• Authors: 4 maximum
• Abstract: none
• Figures/tables: none
• Videos: none
• References: 6
• Total number of words: 500

By invitation only: 

Editorial

• Authors: unlimited
• Abstract: none
• Figures/tables combined: 4
• Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)
• References: 10
• Total number of words: 3000

Great Debate 

• Authors: unlimited
• Abstract: none
• Figures/tables combined: 8
• Videos: 2 (total playback time: 5 min)
• References: 80
• Total number of words: 5000

Invited Commentary

• Authors: 4 maximum
• Abstract: none
• Figures/tables: none
• Videos: none
• References: 10
• Total number of words: 1000

In Memoriam 

• Authors: Unlimited
• Abstract: none
• Figures/tables combined: 4
• Videos: 2
• References: 10
• Total number of words: 3,000

Medical students and residents

This part of the publication is intended to highlight academic and scientific work created by medical students, junior doctors and trainees and resident surgeons that is pertinent to cardiothoracic specialty.

Submissions on the following are welcomed:

1. Research/academic work
2. Articles about cardiothoracic surgery education and training
3. Surgical residents should read these articles
4. Cardiovascular and respiratory science
5. Public health related to Cardiovascular and respiratory science

School students

Submissions on the following are welcomed:

1. Research/academic work
2. Cardiovascular and respiratory science
3. Public health related to Cardiovascular and respiratory science

Visual abstract

 For original articles and review articles, a graphical abstract is necessary.

The graphical abstract ought to have two sections:

1. A summary of the main conclusions Use the PICO structure, if at all possible (Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome). (380 characters total, including spaces)
2. Graphical display of the key conclusions (with an emphasis on data, statistics, etc.)

High-quality drawings that succinctly and succinctly summarise the key results of the paper must be utilised as the images in the graphical abstract; language should be reduced to a minimum. It should ideally be made just for this use and not used again in the article.

A 120-character legend can be added to the graphic to help with comprehension.

Information about the main picture:

• Minimum resolution is 600 dots per inch; Arial font, 10 points
• File types: PDF, TIF, or EPUB

The image needs to be included into the online submission system as a “Central image.”