As an open access journal, Vascular Specialist International follows the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
(https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing) developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

• 1. Website

  i. The URL of official journal web site is http://www.vsijournal.org/.

  ii. 'Aims & Scope' statement: Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int, VSI) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal open to everyone involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and/or prevention of vascular diseases. VSI takes a multidisciplinary approach to vascular diseases by all “vascular specialists”, including vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, interventional cardiologists, angiologists, vascular technologists, and nurses. Vascular specialists with a profound knowledge of diseases and advanced therapeutic skills are required for the modern practice of vascular diseases, and this journal aims to provide a space for sharing new knowledge between these specialists, irrespective of their affiliated departments. VSI also seeks to provide knowledge of vascular diseases from all around the world, especially—but not entirely—in Asia. The journal deals with disease characteristics from different ethnicities and backgrounds, including epidemiology, clinical manifestation, and treatment outcomes in different populations. The journal also welcomes challenging/informative case reports or innovative technical notes, through which authors can share different experiences and demonstrate how everyday practices are performed in the real world. VSI publishes Original Articles, Review Articles, Case Reports, Technical Notes, Editorials, and Letters to the Editor, with a focus on the following areas of expertise:

  • Precision Surgery or Patient-tailored Vascular Surgery
  • OncoVascular Surgery
  • Robotics/Laparoscopic Vascular Surgery
  • Open, Endovascular or Hybrid Surgery
  • Vascular Trauma
  • Surgeon-Reconstructed Graft or Physician-Modified Endograft
  • Novel Antithrombotic drugs, Anticoagulants, and Antiplatelets
  • Rare or low-frequency vascular disease
  • Novel vascular imaging
  • Lymphatic disease and endolymphatic interventions
  • Lymphedema/phlebolymphedema
  • Vascular malformation
  • Clinical Trials
  • Basic/Translational Research
  • Aneurysmal disease
  • Peripheral arterial occlusive disease
  • Venous thrombosis or reflux disease
  • Vascular access, catheters, and arteriovenous fistula
  • Therapeutic angiogenesis and wound healing

  iii. Readership: The target readers of VSI include any academicians, scientists, practitioners, and students from all disciplines of vascular surgery. VSI also welcome all vascular specialist interested in vascular diseases, including vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, interventional cardiologists, angiologists, vascular technologists, and nurses.

  iv. Authorship criteria: Vasc Specialist Int follows the recommendations for authorship by the ICMJE, 2019 (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Authorship credit should be based on (1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND (2) drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND (3) final approval of the version to be published; AND (4) agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Authors should meet conditions of 1, 2, 3, and 4. In addition, an author should be accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done and should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. Authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. These authorship criteria are intended to reserve the status of authorship for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work.

  v. Duplicate submission and redundant publication
  All manuscripts should be original in nature and must not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication in other scientific journals at the time of submission. All manuscripts should follow the publication ethics at all times. These include plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, citation manipulation, improper authorship contribution, duplicate submissions and redundant submissions. All submitted manuscripts are inspected by Similarity Check powered by iThenticate (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/), a plagiarism-screening tool. If a too high a degree of similarity score is found, the Editorial Board will do a more profound content screening. Any infringements of publication ethics are subject to immediate rejection (at the time of submission) or withdrawal (for already published articles).

  vi. pISSN: 2288-7970 eISSN: 2288-7989

• 2. Name of Journal

  The official journal title is the Vascular Specialist International (VSI), the abbreviation of ISO is Vasc Specialist Int.

• 3. Peer Review Process

  The VSI has on online submission and peer review system at http://www.vsijournal.org/submission/Login.html
  All submissions, including those invited by the editors, are first screened by the manuscript editor. If the manuscript does not adhere to the instruction for authors, it is immediately returned to the author as an incomplete submission. If the manuscript passed the check-in process, managing editor and editor-in-chief first review the manuscript and decide immediate rejection or sending to peer review, according to its adherence to the aims and scope of the journal. Manuscripts are reviewed by at least two reviewers appointed by the editors. The journal uses a double-blind peer-review process: the reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and vice versa. Editors who are involved in an article as authors or have any conflict of interest are excluded from the process of peer review and decision making regarding acceptance. If the editor-in-chief is involved, an associate editor takes on the former’s role and makes the final decision on acceptance.
  VSI’s average turnaround time from submission to decision is 3-4 weeks . The editor-in-chief is responsible the final decision whether the manuscript is accepted or rejected.

• 4. Ownership and Management

  i. Information about the ownership:
  This journal is owned by the publisher, The Korean Society for Vascular Surgery (KSVS) (http://ksvs.org/).

  ii. Management team of a journal
  Journal management team
  - Manuscript Editor: Jihye Bang, MEDrang Inc., Korea
  - Layout Editor: Min Young Lee, MEDrang Inc., Korea
  - Website and JATS XML File Producer: Seon Woo Lim, INFOrang Inc., Korea

• 5. Governing Body

  The governing body is the journal's editorial board.

• 6. Editorial Team and Contact Information

  Editor-in-Chief
  Hyung-Kee Kim | Kyungpook National University, Korea

  Senior Editors
  Yang Jin Park | Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
  Woo-Sung Yun | Kyungpook National University, Korea

  Associate Editors
  - Aneurysm & Aortic disease
  Nabil Chakfe | University of Strasbourg, France
  Jae S. Cho | Case Western Reserve University, USA
  Sukgu Han | University of Southern California, USA
  Hyuk Jae Jung | Pusan National University, Korea
  Hyung Sub Park | Seoul National University, Korea
  
  - Carotid disease & Peripheral arterial disease
  Cheong J. Lee | Northshore University, USA
  Jimmy Wei-Hwa Tan | An-Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Taiwan
  Tae H. Cho | Westmead Hospital, Australia
  Shin-Seok Yang | Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
  Uijun Park | Keimyung University, Korea
  
  - Venous thrombosis, Varicose vein & Lymphatic disease
  Kursat Bozkurt | University of Istanbul, Turkey
  Yi Soo Robert Kim | Northwest Vein & Aesthetic Center, USA
  Yee Lai Lam | Erasmus MC Rotterdam, Netherlands
  Jaehoon Lee | Daegu Catholic University, Korea
  
  - Vascular access, miscellaneous
  Benjamin SY Chua | Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
  Nektarios Galanis | Kantonsspital St. Gallen, Switzerland
  Nguyen Huu Uoc | VIET DUC University Hospital, Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam
  Young-Nam Roh | Yeungnam University, Korea
  Suh Min Kim | Chung-Ang University, Korea
  

  Editorial Board
  Byung-Boong Lee | George Washington University, USA
  Kamphol Laohapensang | Chiang Mai University, Thailand
  Shinsuke Kikuchi | Asahikawa Medical University, Japan
  Robbie K. George | Narayana Institute of Vascular Sciences, India
  Raghuram Sekhar | Kokilaben Dhirubhani Ambani Hospital, India
  Surat Temirov | Central Hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Uzbekistan
  Kareem Raouf Sallam | Helwan University, Egypt
  Raden Suhartono | University Indonesia, Indonesia
  Seung-Kee Min | Seoul National University, Korea
  Sanghyun Ahn | Seoul National University, Korea
  Youngjin Han | University of Ulsan, Korea
  Hong Pil Hwang | Chonbuk National University, Korea
  Hyangkyung Kim | Ewha Womans University Medical Center, Korea
  Ho Kyun Lee | Chonnam National University, Korea
  Je Hoon Park | Catholic Kwandong University, Korea
  Taejin Park | Gyeongsang National University, Korea
  Young Sun Yoo | Chosun University, Korea
  Jun Gyo Gwon | University of Ulsan, Korea

  Ethic Editor
  Sangil Min | Seoul National University, Korea

  Statistical Editors
  Joongyub Lee | Seoul National University, Korea
  Inkyung Jung | Yonsei University, Korea

  Language Consultant
  Donald Samulack | Editage / Cactus communications (USA)

  Managing Editors
  Ahram Han | Seoul National University, Korea
  Seon-Hee Heo | Yonsei University, Korea

  Manuscript Editor
  Jihye Bang | MEDrang Inc., Korea

  Contact information
  #1724, Yongsan Prugio Summit Officetel, 69 Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04378, Korea
  Phone: ++82-10-8717-2752 Fax: ++82-2-6455-3770 E-mail: office@vsijournal.org

• 7. Copyright and Licensing Information

  Copyright to all published materials is owned by the The Korean Society for Vascular Surgery (KSVS) (http://ksvs.org/). All authors should agree to the copyright transfer during the submission process.
  
  The corresponding author is required to download and sign the Author Submission Requirement Form on behalf of all authors. It includes a statement for full transfer of copyright to The Korean Society for Vascular Surgery, and must be submitted at the time of submission. As an open access journal, copyrighted material from Vasc Specialist Int can be freely used according to the following conditions under the Creative Commons License:

  1. 1. The person using Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int) Online may use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of content from this journal for non-commercial purposes.
  2. 2. ANY USE of the open access version of this journal in whole or in part must include the customary bibliographic citation, including author and publisher attribution, date, article title, Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int), and the URL http://www.vsijournal.org/ and MUST include a copy of the copyright notice. If an original work is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work, this must be clearly indicated.
  3. 3. For any commercial use of material from the open access version of the journal, permission MUST be obtained from Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int; E-mail: office@vsijournal.org).
     - Re-use by a non-author/third party/other publisher of parts of or all of an article or articles in another publication (journal or book) to be sold for commercial purposes.
     - The proactive supply of multiple print or electronic copies of items taken from the Journal to third parties on a systematic basis for marketing purposes.
     - Re-use by an author of parts of or all of an article in other publications from commercial organizations.
• 8. Author Fees

  VSI uses the Open Access publishing model in which all published articles are freely available to readers directly from the Journal's website. So, there are no author submission fees or other publication-related charges. All cost for the publication process is supported by the Publisher. Authors may request for additional reprints of their article, in which case additional charges may apply. And the cost of colored figures for the paper offprints will be assigned to the authors.

• 9. Process for Identification of and Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct

  When the Journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolving process will follow the flowchart provided by the COPE (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The editorial board of VSI will discuss the suspected cases and reach a decision. VSI will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

• 10. Publication Ethics

  i. Conflict-of-Interest statement
  Conflict of interest has become a prominent issue in medical journal publications. All authors are required to report potential conflicts of interest that could inappropriately influence the author’s work. This includes any financial (employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications, travel grants) or other relationships (academic or even personal) with commercial entities whose products or services are related to the subject matter in the manuscript, or sociopolitical issues that can cause conflict. Such conflicts should be disclosed at the end of the manuscript, and the editor may use such information as a reference for editorial decisions.

  ii. Statements of human and animal rights, informed consent, and Institutional Review Board approval
  All research submitted to the journal must be conducted with high ethical norms. These include protection of human and animal rights, confidentiality and written informed consent. For human investigations, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/) should be followed and approval from the institutional review board (with approval number) should be obtained. A written informed consent must be obtained from all subjects involved and should be indicated in the submitted article. Patient anonymity must be preserved and confidential information should not be published. If identifying information is essential for scientific purposes, authors must provide a signed statement from the patient granting approval for the publication of identifying materials, including photographs. For experiments on animal subjects, the author should state that the use of animals was approved by the Institutional Animal Ethical Committee or equivalent, and that the animal care complied with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council (https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12910/guide-for-the-care-and-use-oflaboratoryanimals-eighth).

  iii. Registration of the clinical trial research
  For studies involving clinical trials, the trial should be registered in a public database prior to enrollment of the first patient, such as the registration sites of the National Library of Medicine (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov) or the Korean National Institute of Health (http://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/index.jsp).

  iv. Secondary publication
  It is possible to republish manuscripts if the manuscripts satisfy the condition of secondary publication of the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), available from http://www.icmje.org/. These are:

  • The authors have received approval from the editors of both journals (the editor concerned with the secondary publication must have access to the primary version).
  • The priority for the primary publication is respected by a publication interval negotiated by editors of both journals and the authors.
  • The paper for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; an abbreviated version could be sufficient.
  • The secondary version faithfully reflects the data and interpretations of the primary version.
  • The secondary version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the paper has been published in whole or in part elsewhere—for example, with a note that might read, "This article is based on a study first reported in the [journal title, with full reference]"—and the secondary version cites the primary reference.
  • The title of the secondary publication should indicate that it is a secondary publication (complete or abridged republication or translation) of a primary publication. Of note, the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) does not consider translations to be "republications" and does not cite or index them when the original article was published in a journal that is indexed in MEDLINE.
• 11. Publishing Schedule

  VSI is published Quarterly (the end of March, June, September, and December) a year in printed version. In electronic version, each article is published online as soon as accepted for better accessibility.

• 12. Access

  This is an open access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

• 13. Archiving

  Full text of Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int) has been archived in PubMed Central (PMC) from the 1st volume, 2014. According to the deposit policy (self-archiving policy) of Sherpa/ Romeo (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/), authors cannot archive pre-print (i.e. pre-refereeing), but they can archive post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing). Authors can archive publisher's version/PDF. Vasc Specialist Int provides the electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content in the event the journal is no longer published by archiving in PubMed Central.

• 14. Revenues Sources

  Revenue sources of journal are from the support of publisher (The Korean Society for Vascular Surgery) and the Korean Federation of Science Technological Societies granted by Korean Government., and advertising rates.

• 15. Advertising

  i. All advertisements are subject to approval of Vascular Specialist International, which reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time.

  ii. Publisher is not responsible for incidental or consequential damage for errors in displaying or printing an ad.

  iii. For advertising in VSI, please contact our office (E-mail: office@vsijournal.org).

• 16. Direct Marketing

  There are no marketing activities since it is non-profit scholarly journal published by the non-profit organization publisher, the Korean Society for Vascular Surgery. No article is for profit purpose.