General Information

THM is a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and follows the ICMJE recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journal and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s guidelines.
 
Manuscripts submitted must be the original work of the author(s) and must not be published previously or under consideration for publication elsewhere.
 
    
THM adheres to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals, issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (1), and the Cope of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (2), issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Please refer to the following guidelines to help you prepare your manuscript. Feel free to contact the editorial office by email editor@theheartmatrix.de should you have any questions. To ensure a swift peer review and publication process, manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions will be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision at preliminary review.
 
Authorship
It is the responsibility of every person listed as an author of an article published in THM to have contributed in a meaningful and identifiable way to the design, performance, analysis, and reporting of the work and to agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
As stated in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations, credit for authorship requires:

•    Substantial contributions to conception and design; or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
•    Drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content
•    Final approval of the version to be published
•    Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Before publication, each author must sign a statement attesting that he or she fulfills the authorship criteria of the ICMJE Recommendations.

At least one person’s name (or the names of writing committee members) must accompany a group name (e.g., Lais Kurt Hotz, The Sci Med Pro Berlin). As part of the submission process, authors must indicate whether any writing assistance other than copy editing was provided to them.
 
Co-first/Co-Senior authorship
The Journal will indicate when two authors contribute equally to a work. In print, this reads as, “Drs. XXX and YYY contributed equally to this article.” When submitting an equally coauthored paper, authors can indicate dual first or senior authorship with an asterisk on the manuscript title page.
 
Corresponding Authors 
THM permits only one corresponding author per manuscript submission. This person is solely responsible for all correspondence with the Journal and will receive all emails regarding forms, authorship issues, manuscript files, etc. THM editors will speak only with authors regarding manuscript submissions. However, after acceptance for publication, authors may designate more than one person to be contacted by readers.
For more information:
 
•    ICMJE Recommendations on Authors and Contributors.