formerly Computers in Cardiology
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the visual quality of the papers so important?
They are well referenced in cardiology papers, and we want them to look professional. That way they will be cited more.
When is CinC posted on-line?
As soon as the review and editing process is complete each year, usually in November. Until then, preprints (posted by their authors but not necessarily in final form) are available.
When will the printed volumes be published?
We aim to publish each year in early December (about 10-12 weeks after the conference).
Technical difficulties caused by multi-layer figures in about 8% of papers submitted for CinC 2006 have delayed general availability of the print version. Authors can help us avoid such problems in the future by flattening figures before including them in their papers (see below).
How can authors help?
Authors can help most by following the layout instructions fully, and taking special care to follow the instructions exactly for the title/authors/address and font styles and sizes. We have to edit well over half the papers we receive, and this is a huge task.
Can I submit a paper to a peer review journal as well?
Yes, but not exactly the same paper. Remember that your CinC paper is your preliminary paper, and you only have 4 pages. Do not cram everything into these 4 pages. Authors often resort to such small illustrations that they cannot be read! So include the information relevant to CinC. Expand the paper with different illustrations and additional data for the peer review journal, and quote the CinC paper.
How do I cite a CinC paper?
At the foot of the first page of all CinC papers we give the most usual medical journal style (the Vancouver style) for your paper.
Are abstracts or papers on the web?
Beginning with volume 28 (2001), complete proceedings (full papers) are freely available on-line here. The full text of this archive can be searched:
How can I view and print the example layout with correct dimensions and margins?
If you have not done so already, you may wish to download the free Adobe Reader. To print PDF documents such as the example layout with the correct dimensions, choose "Page Scaling: None" and uncheck "Auto-Rotate and Center" (or uncheck "Shrink oversized pages to paper size" and "Expand small pages to paper size") in Adobe Reader's Print dialog.
The margins will be correct only if the document is printed on US letter-sized paper (see the next question).
The margins look wrong!
CinC's page layout is designed for US letter-sized pages (8.5 x 11 inches, or 216 x 279 mm), as used in the printed proceedings. If you follow the instructions above to print your paper or the example layout on standard A4 paper, the margins will be unequal, but those in your paper should match those in the example layout.
If you want to print a copy of your paper with even margins on A4 paper, check "Auto-Rotate and Center" in Adobe Reader's Print dialog. This will not be useful for checking that the margins in your PDF paper are correct, however; for that, you should follow the instructions above.
Why is it important to use a customized template?
The PDF converter and the manuscript collector can identify manuscripts that were created without using a customized template, and they may reject them. This policy was established in 2007 to improve the uniformity of appearance of the published papers.
When you create a template using the CinC template generator, you can modify your paper's title, list of authors, and the authors' affiliations, and this information will be properly entered into the title block. In the future, this information will also be used to generate the table of contents and the index of the Proceedings.
Why is it essential to flatten all figures and eliminate transparency?
Although you may be able to print a PDF containing multi-layer images on a desktop printer, or view it properly on a computer display, high speed printers such as those used to produce volumes of CinC have a strict upper bound on the time needed to rasterize each page, in order to keep paper flowing through the printers at a constant speed. The time needed to rasterize a multi-layer figure is proportional to the number of layers, which may be arbitrarily large. For this reason, these printers reject pages containing multiple layers.
It is difficult or impossible to flatten multi-layer PDF files in a way that preserves the intended appearance. Usually the result is either a completely black rectangle in place of the figure, or a very blurry image with poor detail. For best results, the software used to create the figure should be used to flatten it, before including it in your manuscript.
Eliminating transparency in figures is usually done by the same software used to flatten them. If this step is omitted, the image will be flattened onto the default background, which is usually black or grey, resulting in an illegible image.
How can I use LaTeX to prepare my manuscript?
See instructions here, or in the README file included in the LaTeX kit (latex.tar.gz or latex.zip).
How can I use MS Word to prepare my manuscript?
Get a customized template for your paper in MS Word format, then type your manuscript into it, and save it as a .doc file. Submit the .doc file to the CinC PDF conversion service to generate a PDF file. Finally, submit the PDF file to the CinC manuscript collection site.
Please note that the CinC PDF conversion service checks the format of your .doc file very thoroughly to ensure its compliance with the CinC style guidelines. Bill Sanders, who created and maintains the CinC PDF conversion service, has written an author's guide to working with paragraph styles in MS Word that will help you to avoid having your .doc file rejected by the PDF converter, and can also be useful in understanding what needs to be corrected if your .doc file has been rejected. If, despite following these instructions carefully, you are unable to obtain a PDF from the CinC PDF conversion service, write to Bill for help, attaching a copy of your .doc file.
How can I use OpenOffice to prepare my manuscript?
Get a customized template for your paper in MS Word format, then type your manuscript into it using OpenOffice. Use OpenOffice's Export as PDF facility (in the File menu) to generate a PDF file to submit to the CinC manuscript collection site.
How can I use the CinC PDF conversion service
The CinC PDF conversion service allows you to enter your email address and to upload a .doc (MS Word) or .ps (PostScript) file using your web browser. If your file passes the service's formatting checks, you will receive a PDF that can be submitted to the CinC manuscript collector; otherwise, you will receive a report of any formatting errors detected.
If successful, the PDF will be sent to you by email, as an attachment. Use your email reader's "Save" or "Save as" feature to save the PDF attachment. Don't view and then save the PDF using Adobe software! Current versions of Adobe's Reader and other Adobe software will remove necessary metadata from the PDF you receive and will then rewrite it, and a PDF missing the metadata will be rejected. It is safe to look at the PDF using Adobe software, but do not allow it to be rewritten before submitting it. Submit the copy that you saved using your email reader.
To use the service, follow the instructions here to upload your file. In most cases, you can expect to receive an email reply from the service within a minute (although the reply may be delayed by your ISP or by network congestion). If you have waited to submit your paper until the deadline is close, the service may be very busy, and its email reply may be delayed much longer, up to an hour in some cases.
Check the PDF that you have received carefully before submitting it to the CinC manuscript collector (look at figures, tables, mathematical expressions, accented characters, use of color, etc.).
Note that submitting a paper to the CinC PDF conversion service is not sufficient to get it into the proceedings! PDFs produced by the service are sent to the email address you specify and are then deleted from the server; the Editor does not receive them. You will need to submit your PDF to the CinC manuscript collector so that it can be reviewed by the Editor.
Please send questions about the CinC PDF conversion service to its creator and maintainer, Bill Sanders.
The PDF converter rejected my paper!
Most rejected manuscripts have been formatted for A4 paper rather than US letter paper. If you start with a template and follow the instructions in the Author's kit, this shouldn't happen.
If you submitted an MS Word .doc file that was rejected by the converter, the author's guide to working with paragraph styles in MS Word may help you to discover what needs to be corrected.
Occasionally a figure (or less often, text) may extend into a margin. The PDF converter detects such cases and rejects them, with a detailed explanation of which margin(s) were too narrow. Correct the layout so that the margins are of the proper size.
If you have written your manuscript using MS Word, and the PDF converter has warned you that one or more headings or sections have the incorrect style, these tips may be helpful in diagnosing and correcting the problem.
It may be helpful to produce a PDF locally (using, for example, GhostScript or Adobe Distiller) in order to see what the problem is, and to verify that it has been corrected. Such PDFs cannot be submitted directly to the manuscript collection site.
If, despite having followed all of the instructions carefully, you have been unable to resolve a problem with the CinC PDF converter, please write to Bill Sanders for help.
The manuscript collector rejected my paper!
In most such cases, the paper is not a PDF. See this note if this is your problem.
Most rejected PDFs have been formatted for A4 paper rather than US letter paper. If you start with a template and follow the instructions in the Author's kit, this shouldn't happen.
In other cases, this problem is caused by Adobe Reader and other Adobe software that reads and rewrites PDF files. See "How can I make a PDF..." above.
Unless you use one of the methods specified above to create your PDF file, it will be rejected. If you have not used the template generator, or if you have generated your PDF using Adobe Distiller or another unapproved method, your manuscript will not include the necessary metadata.
If, despite having followed all of the instructions carefully, you have been unable to resolve a problem with the CinC manuscript collector, please write to George Moody for help.
Where is the copyright transfer form?
When you submit your paper to the CinC manuscript collection site, you will be asked to grant permission to publish your paper as the final step. You may do so without relinquishing your copyright, so there is no copyright transfer form to sign. See this note for further information.
Where is the reprint order form?
Since all CinC papers published after 2005 are freely available on the web, you may print them yourself without charge and in any quantity. Reprints of papers from CinC 1988 through 2005 may be purchased from IEEE Xplore; current prices are US$35 per article (or US$13 per article for IEEE members).
Return to the CinC Author's Kit
Last revised 29 September 2008 (GBM)