MULTIMEDIA MANUAL OF CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY (MMCTS)

INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

The Multimedia Manual of Cardiothoracic Surgery (MMCTS) publishes invited Surgical Procedures and Critical Overviews in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. Unsolicited Surgical Procedures are also possible BUT the outline of the Surgical Procedure along with a film, preferably on DVD, must first be sent to the appropriate Editor to ensure that a similar Procedure is not already under consideration. On Editorial approval, an invitation will be sent. MMCTS also welcomes Comments on published Surgical Procedures. MMCTS is an on-line only publication using video clips, photos, schematics, graphs - supported by short text blocks (for easy reading on-screen). Authors should select the optimal media type to communicate the information treated. Permission to reproduce any kind of existing material, whether on-line or in print, must be obtained from the publisher. All submissions are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, Section Editors and Chapter Editors as well as invited referees and a statistician when appropriate.

Conflict of interest: The Editor requires authors to disclose any commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. All sources of funding for work should be acknowledged in a footnote on the title page, as should all institutional affiliations of the authors (including corporate appointments). Other kinds of associations, such as consultancies, stock ownership or other equity interests or patent licensing arrangements should be disclosed to the Editor in the covering letter at the time of submission. If no conflict of interest exists, please state this in the covering letter. The Editor reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements.

Video content: MMCTS has by necessity defined a standard presentation for the streaming video used on the site - Real Media. This is to give a consistent presentation across the site and assure rapid video streaming on-line. We realise that many authors will have difficulties preparing their videos to our required specification. Therefore we offer a Video pre-editing service (see below) - authors should provide us with their uncompressed source file(s) either in digital format or on tape - we will prepare the video content and upload the full manuscript on your behalf.

Content Types

The specification for each submission category is as follows:

Item	Surgical Procedure	Comment	Comment Specialist Editors	Critical Overview
Title page (manuscript)	yes	yes	yes	yes
Summary (max. 200 words)	yes	no	yes	n/a
Maximum text words	unlimited	500	unlimited	500
Key words (3-6)	yes	yes	yes	n/a
Maximum number of references	20 (if feasible)	5	20 (if feasible)	5
Maximum number of tables + visual components (i.e.: photos, schematics, graphs)	unlimited	5	unlimited	5
Maximum number of videos	unlimited	3	unlimited	n/a

Cover letter. A short covering letter should include the full web address (URL) of any company product equipment and/or drug cited in the text of the manuscript. A list with the exact sequences to be extracted from the video source file(s) should also be given.

Content Constituents

1. Preparation of Text

Document stucture. Text should be prepared using common word processing software (.doc or .rtf) and structured as follows: (a) Title page; (b) Summary and Key words; (c) Text with the following sections: Surgical technique, Results; Discussion; (d) Tables; (e) Visual components legends (Schematics, Photos, Graphs); (f) Video legends; and (g) References. Manuscripts may also include a short Introduction (optional) covering, for example, history, indications for surgery, alternative procedures. The text should be keyed double-spaced throughout. Pages should be numbered. Language: should be English. Spelling can be British or American, but consistent throughout. Any abbreviations should be defined on first usage in the text. Use SI units only.

Title page. The title page should include a brief and descriptive title of the article (no abbreviations allowed), the first name and last name(s) of the author(s) (but no qualifications), and the name and location of the establishment where the work was carried out (in English). The name, address, telephone and fax numbers and the e-mail address of the corresponding author should be given at the bottom of the title page. All sources of funding for the work should be acknowledged in a footnote.

Summary. The summary should give a short, self-contained description of the surgical procedure. It should not contain abbreviations or reference citations.

Key words. Following the summary, 3-6 key words should be given. They should be taken from Index Medicus or composed on similar lines. Key words will be used for auto-searching new important related literature (see 'Dynamic References' below).

Text. The text part should be arranged into short/sharp paragraphs, which are best suited for reading on-screen. MMCTS will not present lengthy text descriptions - use multimedia. The text should be considered as the matrix which cites and binds the multimedia components together. IMPORTANT: supporting description concerning the multimedia objects should be contained within the Legends only and NOT repeated in the text (MMCTS example).

Surgical technique: should describe the technique and the various steps used. Relevant and appropriate mentions of equipment or drug manufacturers can be made in the text or in the legend (direct http links onto company websites should be supplied in the Cover Letter only).

Results: should give data on mortality and morbidity and report risk assessment. They should be presented either in tables or graphs. For statistical analysis, follow the 'Guidelines for data reporting and nomenclature' (Ann Thorac Surg 1988;46:260-261).

Discussion: A critical overview of the latest relevant publications should be provided. A small comparative table is a good way to present this data.

Tables. Tables should be self-explanatory, supplementing but not duplicating the text. A brief title should be provided. Any abbreviations used in the Tables should be defined. Each Table should be on a separate page.

Legends. Legends are required corresponding to each individual visual component and video (do not repeat legend information in the text).

References. A list of references to the literature should be arranged sequentially following appearance in the text. The most recent - ideally not older than 5-years - key literature reviews are preferred to citations of individual research papers. Full text linking is optimized for publications hosted by HighWire Press and authors are encouraged to cite these journals.

References should be cited in the text as numbers in square brackets. Personal communications, websites and unpublished data should not be included in the list of references, but can be mentioned in the text. All authors should be listed (the use of 'et al.' is not acceptable). Journals should be indexed in, and their abbreviations conform to, Index Medicus. Please follow this reference style carefully as the reference list will be hypertext linked to enable the editors and reviewers to cross-reference on-line.

Presentation examples as follows:

Journals
[1] Prifti E, Bonacchi M, Frati G, Proietti P, Giunti G, Babatasi G, Massetti M, Sani G. Early and long-term outcome in patients undergoing aortic root replacement with composite graft according to the Bentall's technique. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2002;21:15-21.

Books
[2] Kouchoukos N, Blackstone E, Doty D, Hanley F, Karp R. Cardiac Surgery, WB Saunders, 2003:11-17.

Multi-author books
[3] Laine GA, Melhorn U, Davis KL, Allen SJ. Myocardial interstitium lymphatics: pathophysiology and effects on cardiac funtion. In: Reed RK, McHale NH, Bert JL, Winlowe CP, Laine GA, editors. Interstitium, connective tissue and lymphatics, London: Portland Press, 1995:271-282.

On-line-only publications (note: DOI is the only acceptable on-line citation)
[4] Zielinski M, Kuzdzal J, Nabialek T. Transcervical-subxiphoid-VATS "maximal" thymectomy for myasthenia gravis. Multimedia Man Cardiothorac Surg doi:10.1510/mmcts.2004.000836.

Dynamic references. This unique MMCTS feature incorporates pertinent new additions to the literature published AFTER posting of procedures on-line. Authors should select the most relevant new references from the alerts they receive regularly and send them periodically to the Editorial Office. These references will be added as a 'Dynamic References' appendix.

2. Preparation of Artwork (static)

Electronic artwork (photos, schematics, graphs) should be prepared to render high quality images when exploded to full screen width (see file specification below). All artwork and lettering must be of professional quality.

3. Preparation of Videos

Recording. Use the highest possible quality 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. Note that it will not be possible to add audio post-publication on-line.

Visual components should not duplicate information. Separate-out into the categories listed in the table below and number in the order in which they are cited in the text.

Visual components	Labelling in the text/legend	Recommended file name
Line drawings and static schematics	Schematic 1, 2, etc.	scheme1.jpg
Photographs (BW and colour)	Photo 1, 2, etc.	photo1.jpg
Graphs	Graph 1, 2, etc.	graph1.jpg
Videos (see below)	Video 1, 2, etc.	n/a

Submissions to MMCTS

STEP 1: Source files - ALL submissions

Video pre-editing and archiving service. Send the uncompressed source file(s) (CD, DVD or videotape) by post - we need the source file(s) to insert the copyright line. We might also need to use them to modify your videos or to replace the published version with a larger format in the future. The exact sequences to be extracted must be indicated in the cover letter (eg. Video 1: from 30 to 56 s and from 1:10 to 1:30; Video 2: from 1:15 to 1:40, etc.). Remember that each video sequence should run no longer than 60 seconds and should contain only vital/novel information pertaining to the surgical technique. Routine parts of the procedure such as standard incisions, cannulations etc., which are dealt with elsewhere, should be omitted. You may also include the manuscript text (.doc) and the artwork (.jpg) files. Send to:

Editorial Office MMCTS
av. Grand-St.-Bernard 69B (app. 6)
CH-1920 Martigny (VS)
Switzerland
Tel: +41 27 7236171
Fax: +41 27 7236173
E-mail: info@mmcts.org

When we have processed your video files to the correct specification we will complete STEP 2 on your behalf.

STEP 2: On-line submission - Manuscript and images only

First time users of MMCTS will need to register, BUT authors already registered with the EJCTS manuscript processing system can use their existing username and password. Submit via:

http://submit.mmcts.org/

Please complete the on-line submission form carefully and upload the following items as specified:

1. Text (including title page and Tables plus any embedded artwork - optional) combined into ONE word processor file (.doc or .rtf preferred) - upload as Manuscript file. (filename eg. text.doc)

2. Artwork: .jpg files preferred (specification: 72 dots per inch/1280 pixel screen width, grayscale for black and white, RGB for color). One file per figure - upload as Image files. (filename eg. scheme1.jpg, photo1.jpg, graph1.jpg)