Adherence to ethical standards in publishing scientific articles: a statement from the International Journal of Cardiology.

All authors of manuscripts in the International Journal of Cardiology are required to make a binding statement that they as authors adhere to the following principles: 1. That the corresponding author has the approval of all other listed authors for the submission and publication of all versions of the manuscript. 2. That all people who have the right to be recognised as authors have been included on the list of authors and everyone listed as an author has made an independent material contribution to the manuscript. 3. That the work submitted in the manuscript is original and has not been published elsewhere and is not presently under consideration of publication by any other journal other than in oral, poster or abstract format. 4. That the material in the manuscript has been acquired according to modern ethical standards and has been approved by the legally appropriate ethical committee. 5. That the article does not contain material copied from anyone else without their written permission and that all material which derives from prior work, including from the same authors, is properly attributed to the prior publication by proper citation. 6. That all material conflicts of interest have been declared including the use of paid medical writers and their funding source. 7. That the manuscript will be maintained on the servers of the journal and held to be a valid publication by the journal only as long as all statements in these principles remain true. 8. That if any of the statements above ceases to be true the authors have a duty to notify the journal as soon as possible so that the manuscript can be withdrawn.