JCF utilizes Double Blind Peer Review, where the identities of both reviewers and authors are concealed from each other throughout the review. To facilitate this, authors must ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in such a way that they do not reveal their identities to reviewers, either directly or indirectly.
Submission Requirements for Double Blind Review
The title page will remain separate from the manuscript throughout the peer review process and will not be sent to the reviewers. It should include:
- The manuscript title
- All authors' names and affiliations
- Active email address for the corresponding author
- Acknowledgements
- Conflict of interest statement
- Remove any identifying information, such as authors' names or affiliations.
- Make sure that figures and tables do not contain any reference to author affiliations.
- Ensure that supplemental materials do not contain references to author names or affiliations.
- Use the third person to refer to work the authors have previously published. For example, write "Black and Hart (2015) have demonstrated" rather than "we/the authors have previously demonstrated (Black and Hart, 2015)".
- Exclude acknowledgements and any references to funding sources.
- Use the title page, which is not sent to reviewers, to detail these and to declare any potential conflicts of interest to the editor.
- Choose file names with care and ensure that the file's "properties" are also anonymized.
- If using Microsoft Office 2007 or later, consider using the Document Inspector Tool prior to submission.
- Take care to ensure that you do not inadvertently upload identifying information within any of the files that will be shared with reviewers.
- All file types except title page, cover letter and LaTeX source files are typically included in the version of your manuscript shared with reviewers.
Peer Review Process
All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Selected papers are then typically sent to a minimum of one independent expert reviewer to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. For more information on how JCF approaches peer review, please see Participating in the Peer Review Process: The Journal of Cardiac Failure Construct.
To ensure that manuscripts receive unbiased evaluation, it is the Journal's policy that papers in which the Editor in Chief, Deputy Editor or an Associate Editor at Journal of Cardiac Failure is an author will be assigned to a Guest Editor. Papers that are handled by a Guest Editor will include a statement at the bottom of the article. More information on types of peer review.