The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Nature Reviews Cardiology are partnering to provide opportunities for final-year students on the BHF-funded PhD programme to publish short articles in the journal.
Nature Reviews Cardiology is the leading cardiovascular journal (2022 Impact Factor 49.6), publishing a range of long articles (Reviews, Consensus Statements and Evidence-based Guidelines) and shorter news articles (Comments, Clinical Outlooks and Research Highlights) across the breadth of basic, translational and clinical cardiovascular research and medical practice.
Objectives
The purpose of this partnership is to provide early-career researchers (final-year PhD students) with experience of the academic publishing process and the opportunity to publish either a Journal Club or a Tools of the Trade article (see page 2) in our high-impact journal.
Applications
Calls for applications will be made at regular intervals, with submission deadlines throughout 2024: 1 February, 1 May, 1 August and 1 November. Candidates may submit a maximum of one proposal for each deadline. Candidates are encouraged to discuss their proposal with their PhD supervisor before submission of the online form.
Successful applicants will be selected by the journal editors and invited to write the article for submission in 1 month’s time. Please note that the editorial team will not be able to provide feedback on proposals that are not selected.
Authors will be provided with support and guidance throughout the writing and submission process, and the article will be edited by the journal team before publication. Note that an invitation to submit an article does not guarantee publication if the article does not meet the journal’s requirements and standards. These articles are not usually peer-reviewed, and the decision whether to accept an article for publication is made by the journal editors. The journal envisages publishing approximately 10 articles arising from this partnership over the course of 2024. Dr Gregory Lim Chief Editor, Nature Reviews Cardiology g.lim @nature.com.
Journal Club
Journal Club articles focus on one research paper, usually a seminal historical article, highlighting how it influenced the author’s personal research project and/or why it is important to the field in general. Authors are encouraged to write in an informal, anecdotal style to convey why the paper was influential and merits attention.
Tools of the Trade
Tools of the Trade articles are focused on a specific technique or tool, discussing the scientific question, the approach used and how it was applied, and what insights the tool has provided. The article can be used to introduce a new method that has been developed by the researcher or to provide tips/advice for using an established method.
For both article types, the broad specifications are as follows:
● Preference for one author (the PhD student, who will be the corresponding author) and strictly no more than two authors
● Word count approximately 500–800 words
● A small, non-cited image can be included (no other display items such as Tables, Boxes or complicated Figures)
● Journal Club articles have one reference (the original article being discussed); Tools of the Trade articles should not include references
● Authors must declare any competing interests
Successful applicants will be provided with a Word document template in which to write their article and a link to submit the article via the journal’s online manuscript tracking system.
Deadline: May 1, August 1, November 1.
