The Journal of Vascular Societies Great Britain and Ireland (JVSGBI) is an international open peer-reviewed, open-access medical journal which publishes relevant, high quality original research, reviews, case reports and news to support the vascular community.

JVSGBI is published quarterly (February, May, August and November) and available open access online at https://jvsgbi.com/.  Articles, when finalised for publishing, will appear online first, and then at the discretion of the Editor in Chief, included in an online issue. The journal may be printed for Vascular Society events.

The journal is owned and published by the Vascular Society of GB&I (VSGBI) and is affiliated to: British Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in limb Absence Rehabilitation (BACPAR); British Society of Endovascular Therapy (BSET); British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR); Rouleaux Club; Society of Vascular Nurses (SVN); Society for Vascular Technology of Great Britain and Ireland (SVT); Vascular Anaesthesia Society of Great Britain & Ireland (VASGBI); Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN).

All submissions are open peer-reviewed.

The journal is funded by advertising, sponsored supplements and financial sponsorship by the Vascular Society GB&I.

When authors submit a manuscript of any type or format they are responsible for disclosing all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work.

This can be done by completing the ICMJE Disclosure form which can be downloaded from http://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest.

This completed form MUST be included with your submission. Please contact the editorial office if you have any problems downloading the form

Download:  VS CF Privacy Policy V5- May 2020

Roles and Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

Nature of role

This is a voluntary position, and there is no remuneration related to the post.

Purpose of role

The role of the Editorial Board is to advise and support the Editor in Chief, who has overall responsibility for the content of the journal.

Peer-review

We expect that Editorial Board members:

• Review papers for the Editor on a regular basis
• Provide second opinions on papers (e.g. where reviews are incomplete, or rejection of a commissioned article has been recommended)
• Help identify suitable reviewers
• Possibly oversee the open review process for several papers in a particular stream– choosing reviewers and contributing to the final publication decision.

Providing input into strategy

The Board should provide advice on a range of subjects, for example:

• Feedback on past issues
• Future direction for the journal
• Subject-specific expertise (e.g. research progress in your particular community, new areas to look at, important conferences at which the journal should be promoted)
• Competitor comparisons
• Ideas and innovations
• Policy developments.

Financial and commercial aspects of the journal are the responsibility of the Publishing team and Vascular Society GB&I..

Contacts

The Editorial Board member will work closely with the Editor in Chief of the Journal and Assistant Editors with sub-editorial roles.

Affiliated Groups

A representative of each of the Affiliated Groups will be a member of the Editorial Board.

Term of office

The term of office will be three years in the first instance, subject to review by the Editor.

Travel and subsistence

All travel and subsistence expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with Vascular Society GB&I policy.

JVSGBI aims to ensure that all its published articles conform to the highest ethical standards.

The editors ask authors to provide information on how they justified their work ethically and/or any contact details for ethical committees that reviewed their work, or to explain what ethical considerations or justifications they made in the case that their work was not reviewed by an ethics committee or institutional review board.

The open peer review of manuscripts by the JVSGBI includes judgment as to whether or not the investigative methods conform to the standards of good research practice.

Any material published by the JVSGBI that involves use of animals must adhere to the highest ethical standards concerning animal welfare, including the meeting of any relevant legal requirements regarding the treatment of animals and those of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the National Research Council and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

It expects authors, and any studies which are cited, to adhere to the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, which relates to ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects.

JVSGBI operates an open peer review policy.

Initially, manuscripts are reviewed by the Editor in Chief.  A manuscript may be rejected and a reason for this will be provided straight away.

Otherwise, manuscripts that fit peer review criteria are sent out to at least two reviewers before publication.

Each reviewer is provided with 10 top tips for guidance, along with a proforma  to complete and submit with their response. Each reviewer is also referred to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for peer review, which provides information on how to be objective and constructive in their review.

JVSGBI requests feedback from reviewers within two weeks, as JVSGBI aims to return a decision to the author within four weeks from receipt of their manuscript. The author may be sent the completed proforma with a request to address and resubmit before acceptance can be made.

The following types of contribution to JVSGBI are peer-reviewed:

• Original research papers
• Clinical trials
• Reviews (including systematic reviews and meta-analyses)
• Cohort Study
• Clinical case reports
• Debate/commentary article

News items, conference reports, editorials, Q&A and letters are not externally peer reviewed.

Following final acceptance, the manuscript will be sent for copy editing and typesetting. A PDF proof of the manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author for approval, along with an author query form (minimal amends can be made at this time).

A Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright form will also be sent which must be completed and signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors of the paper.  The article will not be published online or in print without signed consent

Once in receipt of author approval, the article will be reviewed by the Editor in Chief and, if everything is in order, the article will be published online.  It will then be at the discretion of the Editor in Chief if it becomes part of an online issue and / or printed issue.

The JVSGBI policy in regards to study participants’ informed consent must conform with the guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations; such as Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from ICMJE and Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA).

If the JVSGBI receive a complaint, which may take the form of (i) a disagreement of an Editorial decision; (ii) believes there is a failure in the editorial process or (iii) a misjudgement.   The complaint must be regarding an issue that is within the responsibility of the journal.

Complaints should be made by e-mail to [email protected], and Editor in Chief will be responsible for overseeing the complaints procedure.   All complaints will be acknowledged within five working days.

All complaints will be reported and discussed with the Editor-in-Chief.  If possible, a definitive response will be made within two weeks. If this is not possible an interim response will be given within two weeks. Interim responses will be provided until the complaint is finally resolved.

If the complainant is not happy with the initial response he or she can ask for the complaint to be escalated to the Vascular Society GB&I.   If the complainant still feels that his or her complaint has not been dealt with satisfactorily, the complainant has the option of referring the complaint to a relevant external body.