Submission Guidelines

General Guidelines

• No Protected Health Information
  Your submission must not contain any individual identifying information from which a patient could reasonably believe they might be identified. Examples of information that should not be visible in any part of a submission include but are not limited to: images of a patient’s face or other identifiably distinctive feature, names, birth date, admission or discharge date, and hospital identification numbers. For additional information on how one might de-identify patient information, view the US HIPAA guidelines here. An exception may be granted if the author provides written consent from the patient for use of the patient’s name, likeness, or other information. In this case, a clear disclaimer must be present at the beginning of the video.

• Copyright
  If you are not the copyright holder of any portion of your submission (e.g., illustrations, images, cartoons, music, video snippets, etc.), you must obtain permission to publish the item(s) from the copyright holder before proceeding with your submission. Written permission to publish copyrighted item(s) must be included with submission materials.
• Text
  In general, both the summary and narrative portions of your submission should be pasted into the CTSNet content submission form (you may submit a Word document to demonstrate suggested figure and/or video locations, if you wish).
• Figures/Images
  Please submit any figures/images as high-quality .jpg files with adequate pixel density (of at least 480 x 480 pixels) to facilitate good rendering on the screen.
• Video
  When utilized as part of a larger manuscript, videos should generally be brief and must always contain voice narration (unless they are less than 15 seconds in length).

Video-Centered Submissions

• Any submitted video must be of high quality and must include voice narration.
• Videos should generally not exceed 30 minutes; the ideal duration is typically 5-10 minutes.
• Background music should not be used.
• CTSNet will accept video submissions in a variety of different formats, but the .mp4, .mov, and .wmv formats are preferable.
• Videos should be oriented horizontally.
• The minimum accepted video resolution is 480 pixels with an 854×480 aspect ratio.

Resident Video Competition

Each year, CTSNet’s Resident Video Competition showcases the talent, creativity, and ingenuity of residents from across the world in their respective cardiothoracic surgical specialties. All qualifying entries will be published on CTSNet.org and given the chance to compete for the winning spot—all in pursuit of learning and best practice patient care.

For more information, visit the Resident Video Competition homepage.

Submit to JANS

Thank you for submitting to the CTSNet Journal and News Scan. Your contribution will aid in CTSNet’s mission to inform and educate cardiothoracic surgeons around the world. Please see the guidelines below and make sure your submission meets the criteria.

1. JANS articles can be pulled from any reputable medical journal, academic journal, or news website. The subject must pertain to cardiothoracic surgery in some way.
2. The submitter must fill out each required field of the submission form to the best of their ability.
3. In the brief summary, please include a few sentences describing the article’s main takeaways and at least one sentence that outlines why the article is important to a cardiothoracic surgery audience.

To submit to JANS, select “JANS Note” in the drop down menu on the submission form.

Expert Techniques

The text of an expert technique submission should provide sufficient detail to permit an experienced surgeon to follow the proposed guidelines, while including no extraneous background material. Please write to the level of the practicing cardiothoracic surgeon.

Special headings are recommended to standardize the presentation and to ensure that specific points are addressed in each description. For most headings, a single paragraph or a number of bullet points should suffice. Headings to use include:

• Patient selection
  A brief paragraph describing which patients are particularly good candidates for the procedure. When appropriate, specific exclusion criteria should be listed.
• Operative steps
  List as completely as possible the unique operative steps that are required to successfully perform the procedure.
• Preference card
  List any unusual instrumentation, specific suture material, instructions for the allied health staff, etc.
• Tips and pitfalls
  This section involves perhaps the most personal expression of the author and is often the most useful to the reader. Tricks of the trade and potential challenges to be aware of are very important. Describe what you look for that determines whether things are going well, or whether the procedure should be altered or aborted.
• References or Suggested Reading
  A short list (5-10) of recently published and important articles should be provided and cited/listed in AMA Style. Please be sure to include appropriate articles from your own bibliography. Please reference other CTSNet published articles/videos, if appropriate and pertinent.
• Images and videos
  Images and/or video clips are an essential component of expert technique submissions. Expert technique submissions should typically include no more than five video clips and eight images. A video clip included with an expert technique should feature narration, unless it is less than 15 seconds in length. Please suggest where illustrations, images, and/or video clips should be placed within the published text.