Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int) is a peer-reviewed, open-access international journal published every quarter at the end of March, June, September, and December in printed version. In electronic version, each article is published online as soon as accepted for better accessibility. It includes original articles, review articles, case reports, technical notes, editorials, letters to the editor, invited commentaries, rapid communications, and images of vascular surgery in the field of vascular specialties. The journal is open to all research related to the peripheral vascular and lymphatic system, including vascular surgery, endovascular intervention, hybrid surgery, vascular medicine, angiology, basic research, diagnostic imaging, functional outcomes, and rehabilitation, among others.
Vasc Specialist Int adheres to the guidelines and best practices published by professional organizations, including the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” (http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf) by the ICMJE and the “Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing” (joint statement by the COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA; http://doaj.org/bestpractice). The journal reserves the right to reject any manuscripts that do not meet the standards for publication.
Submission to Vasc Specialist Int are done online via the web submission system for this journal (http://www.vsijournal.org/submission). Authors must first register before logging into the online system, and once logged in, the system will guide them through the submission process step-by-step. Once the uploading is completed, the system automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including the editor’s decision and request for revisions, will be done via e-mail. For any questions and concerns regarding the submission process, please contact the editorial office.

• 1) Recommended research reporting guidelines
  

  We recommend to use the six most widely used guidelines for reporting medical research findings. PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, STROBE for observational studies, STARD for diagnostic accuracy studies, CARE for case reports, and ARRIVE for animal research.

• 2) Disclosure of conflict of interest
  

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

• 3) Statements of human and animal rights, informed consent, and Institutional Review Board approval
  

  All research submitted to the journal must be conducted in accordance with high ethical norms. These include the 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 (approval number) should be obtained. Written informed consent must be obtained from all subjects involved and should be included in the submitted article. Patient anonymity must be preserved and confidential information should never be published. If revealing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is necessary for scientific purposes, then authors must provide a signed statement from the patient, granting approval for the publication of identifying materials, including photographs.
  If a study involves a clinical trial, the latter should be registered in a public database (e.g., 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) prior to the enrollment of the first patient.
  For animal experiments, authors should confirm 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-oflaboratory-animals-eighth).

• 4) Data sharing policy
  

  This journal follows the data sharing policy stipulated in the “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors” (https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.7.1051). As of July 1, 2018, manuscripts submitted to ICMJE journals that report the results of interventional clinical trials must contain a data sharing statement, as described below. Clinical trials that begin enrolling participants on or after January 1, 2019, must include a data sharing plan upon registration. Any changes to the data sharing plan after registration must be ref lected in the statement submitted and published with the manuscript, and updated in the registry record. All authors of research articles that deal with interventional clinical trials must submit a data sharing plan. Depending on the extent of their data sharing plan, authors should deposit their data after deidentification and report the DOI of the data and the registered site.

• 5) Originality and publication ethics
  

  All manuscripts should be original in nature and must not have been previously published 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 issues concerning 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 detection tool. If a significantly high degree of similarity score is found, then the editorial board will perform a more in-depth content screening. Any violation of publication ethics may lead to automatic rejection (at the time of submission) or withdrawal (for previously published articles).

• 6) Authorship
  

  Vasc Specialist Int follows the 2019 recommendations for authorship by the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/). Authorship credit should be based on the following: (1) substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; (2) drafting the work or making crucial revisions for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published; and (4) acceptance of full accountability for all aspects of the work in ensuring that any questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are properly investigated and resolved. All authors should meet the four aforementioned criteria. In addition, each author should be accountable for the respective sections of the work they have done and should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for other specific sections of the work. Authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All those who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. The purpose of these authorship criteria is to reserve authorship status for those who deserve credit and take responsibility for the work.
  It may be considered as improper authorship if any of the authors have not made a substantial contribution to one of the nine core contributions (i.e., concept and design, analysis and interpretation, data collection, writing the article, critical revision of the article, final approval of the article, statistical analysis, obtained funding, and overall responsibility).
  Unjustified authorship includes ghost authorship or guest authorship. Ghost authorship refers to when an individual makes a substantial contribution to the research or writing of the report, but is not listed as an author. Ghost authorship is considered problematic because it may be used to conceal the participation of researchers with conf licts of interest. A ghostwriter may be concealed to obscure the industry sponsoring the research, improving the apparent objectivity of an article while maintaining the company’s control over its content. It is also considered as ghost authorship when mentors publish their students’ academic theses or doctoral dissertations without the students’ name.
  Other forms of unjustified authorship include “gift authorship,” “guest authorship,” “honorar y authorship,” “gratuitous authorship,” “loose authorship,” and more. This pertains to the inclusion of publication bylines of colleagues who have done little or no work in the conceptualization or development of a scientific project. For students and residents, participation in only a portion of a project considerably diminishes the educational experience and renders them ineligible for authorship at a certain point. Authorship should not be a reward for any form of participation, although individuals with less participation can and should be noted in the Acknowledgments. Mentors should ensure that students have the opportunity to be involved in and learn from the entire process.

  Generative AI including language models, chatbots, image creators, machine learning, or similar technologies do not qualify for authorship. The technologies listed above may be used in enhancing readability and language accuracy in scientific writing. The responsibility for the manuscript's integrity ultimately rests with the human authors, and the authors employing generative AI tools in manuscript preparation are required to disclose their use in the acknowledgments section. Such disclosure should detail the specific tools used, including the model name, version, and manufacturer, and explain the capacity in which they were employed. Should the use of AI extend beyond language enhancement, the methods and tools used must be detailed in the Methods section as a formal part of the research design.

  Changes in authorship (such as the order, addition, or deletion of authors) should be discussed and approved by all authors. All requests for such changes in authorship after the initial manuscript submission and prior to publication must be submitted to the editor in a letter or email signed by all authors.

• 7) Secondary publication
  

  Manuscripts can be republished if they satisfy the following condit ions of secondar y publication st ipulated in the “Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals” by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/):
  (1) 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).
  (2) The priority of the primary publication is respected by a publication interval negotiated by the editors of both journals and authors.
  (3) The manuscript for secondary publication is intended for a different group of readers; an abbreviated version could be sufficient.
  (4) The secondary version faithfully ref lects the data and interpretations of the primary version.
  (5) The secondar y version informs readers, peers, and documenting agencies that the manuscript has been published elsewhere in whole or in part—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.”
  (6) 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 as “republications” and does not cite or index them when the original article was published in a journal that is indexed in MEDLINE. Process to manage the research and publication misconduct.

• 8) Managing cases of research and publication 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 conf licts of interest, ethical concerns with the submitted manuscript, appropriation of an author’s idea or data by a reviewer, complaints against the editors, and other issues— it conducts a resolution process, which follows the flowchart provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The editorial board shall discuss suspected cases and reach a decision. Any manuscripts that do not follow the guidelines for research and publication ethics are subject to sanctions, which are to be decided by the editorial board, and may include restriction on future submissions to the journal.
  For other policies on research and publication ethics not stated above, the journal follows the policies established by the Good Publication Practice Guidelines for Medical Journals from the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.kamje.or.kr), or the guidelines regarding research and publication ethics from either the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org) or the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards-for-editors-and-authors).

• 1) Style and language
  

  The entire manuscript should be written in English. Abbreviations should be defined and placed in parentheses when they first appear in the text. Subsequently, the abbreviation can be used instead of the full term. The first letter of names, places, and proper nouns should be capitalized. Numbers should be written in Arabic numerals. All units of measure should be in SI units, and temperatures in degrees Celsius (˚C). Species names and gene names should be italicized. Words of Latin origin such as et al., in vivo, etc., need not be italicized.

• 2) File formats
  

  The preferred file formats for manuscripts are .doc or .docx. Manuscripts must be double-spaced in A4 (210×297 mm) size paper with at least 2.5 cm margins and a font size of 12 pt. The preferred font styles are Times New Roman, Arial, Courier, and Helvetica. All pages should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals at the bottom of each page, and line numbers should be inserted on the left-hand side of each page.

• 3) Type of manuscript
  
  1. (1) Original articles
     

     Original articles should contain the results of clinical, translational, or basic research, and should be sufficiently well documented to be acceptable to critical readers. A structured abstract with a maximum of 350 words is required. The length of the manuscript should not exceed 4,000 words, excluding the abstract, references, tables, and legends of figures and illustrations. The number of references should not exceed 30. Original articles should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements (if necessary), Funding, Conflicts of Interest, ORCID, Author Contributions, References, Figure Legends, Figures (including video clips), and Tables.

  2. (2) Case reports and Technical notes
     

     The main text of case reports are composed of three sections: Introduction, Case, and Discussion. The main text of technical notes are composed of four sections: Introduction, Technique, Discussion, and Conclusion. The recommended total number of references for case reports is 20 or less. The word count of the main text of case reports should be 3,000 words or less.

  3. (3) Review articles
     

     Review articles are solicited by the editor and should not be submitted without prior approval. The format of the abstract and manuscript may be structured or unstructured. Review articles also undergo the standard peer-review process. The length of the manuscript should not exceed 5,000 words, and the number of references should not exceed 100.

  4. (4) Editorials
     

     Editorials are usually solicited by the editorial board. They provide a brief review of the articles in the journal, and comments on recent developments and events in the field of vascular specialists. Editorials may also deal with a change in the journal’s style and format and any communication with an outside organization or professional. In addition, the editorial board deals with a variety of topics. Divisions in the editorial body are not required. The recommended total number of references is 10 or less. The word count of the main text should be 2,000 words or less.

  5. (5) Letters to the editor
     

     Any opinion or inquiry on a published paper may be addressed to the editor. The title, author, affiliation, main text, and references are required fields. The recommended total number of references is 10 or less. The word count of the main text should be 1,500 or less. If accepted, the “Author’s Reply” could be published at the same time as the letter.

  6. (6) Invited commentaries
     

     Invited commentaries are solicited by the editor and should not be submitted without prior approval. The content must include expert opinions on published papers. An unstructured abstract with a maximum of 150 words is required. The length of the manuscript should not exceed 2,000 words, and it should not have more than 20 references.

  7. (7) Rapid communications
     

     Rapid communications cover a wide variety of topics related to current important issues in vascular surgery. Unsolicited submissions are also considered. An unstructured abstract with a maximum of 150 words is required. The length of the manuscript should not exceed 2,000 words, it should not have more than 20 references.

  8. (8) Image of vascular surgery
     

     Images of vascular surgery are meant to share interesting and impressive vascular surgery-related images that have not been submitted or published elsewhere. The descriptions of images should not exceed 330 words, and a maximum of five figures and five references are acceptable. Images must be of professional quality and meet the basic requirements for resolution specified in the “Figure preparation” section.

     Type of article	Word count of abstract	Word count of main texta)	Number of references	Number of tables and figures
     Original article	350 (structured)	4,000	30	7
     Case report/ Technical note	150 (unstructured)	3,000	20	7
     Review	350	5,000	100	7
     Editorial	Not required	2,000	10	5
     Letter to the editor	Not required	1,500	10	5
     Invited commentary	150 (unstructured)	2,000	20	5
     Rapid communication	150 (unstructured)	2,000	20	5
     Image of vascular surgery	Not required	330	5	5

     ^a)Maximum word count is exclusive of the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.
• 4) Organization of manuscript
  
  1. (1) Title page
     

     The title page should include the type of manuscript; the full title of the article; the full names of all authors, their positions, and respective affiliations; a running title (that should not exceed 12 words); and the contact details of the corresponding author. The affiliations should include the city and country of location, and for different affiliations between authors, superscript Arabic numerals without parentheses should be placed behind each author’s name and before the affiliation for identification. The contact details of the corresponding author should include the name of the institution, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, and ORCID. Previous presentations in scientific meetings can also be mentioned, including the place and date of the presentation.

  2. (2) Abstract
     

     Structured abstracts should be organized with the following subheadings: Purpose, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion (each subheading should start in a new line). Around three and five keywords should be listed at the end of the abstract, and the use of terminology indexed in MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search) is strongly recommended.

  3. (3) Introduction
     

     Introductions should clearly state the background information and the purpose of conducting the study.

  4. (4) Materials and Methods
     

     Methodologies should provide sufficient scientific basis and be described in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the work. For the devices, reagents, or drugs used, the name of the manufacturer should be included in parentheses. When reporting experiments with human subjects, the authors should indicate whether they received approval from the institutional ethics review board with the corresponding approval number. For studies that involve animal subjects, authors should confirm the approval for the study from the appropriate ethics committee with the approval number. See the “Research and Publication Ethics" section for further information.
     Statistics should be described in detail. If the reviewers wish to analyze the data to confirm the results, the raw data may be provided to the Editorial Office. Computer programs used for statistical analysis should be indicated along with the name, manufacturer, and software version. Providing the measurement error or uncertainty, such as confidence intervals, in addition to P-values in statistical results is highly encouraged.
     Please ensure the correct use of the terms, sex (i.e., when reporting biological factors) and gender (i.e., identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, please report the sex and/or sex of the study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. Authors should provide a justification for conducting studies on exclusive populations (e.g., those involving only one sex), except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer).

  5. (5) Results
     

     All data suited to the purpose of the study should be described objectively and logically in accordance with the Methods section. It is recommended that tables and figures present the results in a clear and straightforward manner. Do not duplicate the content of a table or figure in the Results section. Provide a brief description for core results related to the conclusion in the text when data are provided in tables or figures. In the Results section, audio or video files are also welcome. Supplementary results can be indicated in the appendix.

  6. (6) Discussion
     

     Discussions should only describe the subjects pertinent to the purpose or hypothesis of the study and emphasize any new or significant observations. It is important to deduce the conclusion from the results while avoiding statements not discussed in the Methods and Results sections. A comparison with other literature, including arguments, justifications, and accuracy concerns, should be included. Please do not repeatedly mention the results of previous relevant studies, but do mention any differences or concordances. Emphasize the core findings and conclusions drawn from them with the strongest evidence available. Discuss the limitations of the study and future research plans in the last part of the Discussion section.

  7. (7) Conclusion
     

     Conclusions should be related to the purpose of the study, and new hypotheses or recommendations may be stated when warranted. Unqualified statements and conclusions that are not supported by the obtained data should be avoided.

  8. (8) Acknowledgements
     

     Please acknowledge anyone who has contributed significantly to the study, but is not eligible for authorship. All sources of financial support should also be included. Please obtain written permission from any persons or organizations mentioned.
     AI tools in manuscript preparation are required to disclose their use in the acknowledgments section. Such disclosure should detail the specific tools used, including the model name, version, and manufacturer, and explain the capacity in which they were employed. Should the use of AI extend beyond language enhancement, the methods and tools used must be detailed in the Methods section as a formal part of the research design.

  9. (9) Funding
     

     Funding for the research should be provided. It is advisable to provide a FundRef ID, including the name of the funding agency, country, and, if available, the number of grants provided by the said funding agency. If the funding agency does not have a FundRef ID, please request the agency to contact the FundRef registry (e-mail: fundref.registry@crossref.org).

  10. (10) Conflicts of Interest
      

      Any potential conflicts of interest that may influence the results or the conclusions derived from a study should be disclosed. If the authors have nothing to disclose, please state: “No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.”

  11. (11) ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
      

      All authors are recommended to provide an ORCID. To obtain an ORCID, authors must register on the ORCID website (http://orcid.org). Registration is free for all researchers around the world. Below is a sample of an ORCID description:
      Seung-Kee Min: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1433-2562

  12. (12) Author contributions
      

      To qualify for authorship, all contributors must meet at least one of the nine core contributions (i.e., concept and design, analysis and interpretation, data collection, writing the article, critical revision of the article, final approval of the article, statistical analysis, obtained funding, and overall responsibility).
      
      Example: Concept and design: CC, SKM. Analysis and interpretation: CC, RS. Data collection: CC, RS. Writing the article: CC, SKM. Critical revision of the article: SA, SM, MA, JH, SKM. Final approval of the article: HJY, SKM. Statistical analysis: CC, HJY, RS, SHC. Obtained funding: none. Overall responsibility: CC, HJY, SKM.

  13. (13) References
      

      Reference numbers should be cited in the text using Arabic numerals in parentheses, either after the last name of an author or before a period/comma. References should be listed in the order they are cited in the text. When listing authors’ names, the last name should be written first, followed by the initials of the other given names. For six or fewer authors, all author names should be included in the references, while for more than six authors, only the first six authors are listed followed by “et al.” The journal title should be abbreviated according to the “NLM Catalog: Journals referenced in the NCBI databases” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals). The number of references should not exceed 30 for original articles and 20 for case reports/technical notes, respectively.
      
      Examples:
      - Journal Article
      Min SK, Kim YH, Joh JH, Kang JM, Park UJ, Kim HK, et al. Diagnosis and treatment of lower extremity deep vein thrombosis: Korean Practice Guidelines. Vasc Specialist Int 2016;32:77-104. https://doi.org/10.5758/vsi.2016.32.3.77
      
      - Journal Article (online only)
      Zarrintan S, Yavari N, Tadayon N, Majidi F, Hosseini SM, Haghighatkhah H, et al. Iliofemoral vein stenting in a patient with pelvic metastasis. Vasc Specialist Int 2021. https://doi.org/10.5758/vsi.200080
      
      - Entire Book
      Kim SJ, Min SK. Vascular access for hemodialysis. 1st ed. Biomedi Book; 2012.
      
      - Chapter in a Book
      Cho JS, Makaroun MS. Endovascular treatment of thoracic and thoracoabdominal aneurysms. In: Cronenwett JL, Johnston KW, editors. Rutherford’s vascular surgery. 7th ed. Saunders; 2010. p. 2054-2074.
      
      - Webpage
      American Medical Association: helping doctors help patients. [Internet]. American Medical Association; C 1995-2011 [cited 2011 Jan 22]. Available from: http://www.ama-assn.org/
      
      Reference styles not described above should follow Citing Medicine; The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/).

  14. (14) Table preparation
      

      Manuscripts for publication should have a maximum of seven figures and tables. Tables should be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. Table citation in the text should be done in parentheses before a period/comma (e.g., “~ is shown (Table 1)”). Tables should be embedded in the manuscript file, and each table should start on a separate page and have a concise and explanatory title at the top. Only the first letter of the title should be capitalized, and there should be no punctuation marks at the end. Tables should be configured so as not to include borders (i.e., horizontal and vertical rows) inside the table. Any abbreviations used should be defined below the table as a footnote. Any symbols used should follow the order a, b, c, d, e, f, and the significance of each symbol should be stated below the table as a footnote.

  15. (15) Figure preparation
      

      The preferred file formats for the figures are .tif or .eps, although other formats, including .ppt, .jpg, .gif, .pdf are also acceptable. Each figure should be uploaded as a separate file with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch). Figures should be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text, and figure citation in the text should be done in parentheses before a period/comma (e.g., “~ is good (Fig. 1)”). For figures with multiple panels, uppercase letters are used after each figure number (e.g., Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B). Figure legends should be provided separately and embedded in the manuscript. Each figure legend should have a short title and provide a full explanation of the figure. For microscope figures, the staining method and magnification power should be indicated in the legends, and scale bars should be embedded in the figures.

      Using AI technologies in creating or altering figures, images, and artwork are discouraged unless such use is part of the research design or methods. If authors deem it necessary to use AI tools for these purposes, they must provide a clear description of the content generated, including the name of the tool, version, and manufacturer. This information should accompany the submission. In line with our commitment to maintain the highest ethical standards, we discourage the submission or publication of materials solely created by AI technologies without the necessary human oversight. We hold authors accountable for the integrity of the content generated by these AI models and tools, reiterating that authorship brings with it responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work.

  16. (16) Appendix
      

      Additional material relevant to the research (e.g., questionnaires) can be included in the Appendix.

  17. (17) Supplemental files
      

      Any supplemental files, including methodologies, video clips, or appendices that could improve the understanding of the readers or reviewers should be uploaded separately through the online submission system.

• 5) Manuscript checklist
  

  A manuscript checklist is provided to help authors prepare the necessary materials for submission and make the online submission process as straightforward as possible (http://www.vsijournal.org/file/checklist.pdf). Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements will be returned to the author without a review.

• 1) Screening before review
  

  Manuscripts that do not fit the aims and scope of the journal or do not adhere to the instructions to the authors may be immediately returned to the author after receipt without a review. Some articles may require English editing to meet the standards of an international journal, which could not only delay the publication process, but also be a major reason for rejection. Therefore, authors who are less fluent in English writing are strongly advised to have their manuscripts proofread by Englishlanguage editing companies to improve the quality of the manuscript and increase the probability of acceptance.

• 2) Peer review process
  

  The journal adheres to a double-blind peer review policy wherein the authors’ names and affiliations are not disclosed to the reviewers, and the reviewers’ identities are kept confidential. All manuscripts are reviewed by at least two reviewers appointed by the editors and shall be informed of one of the following decisions: Accept, Major revisions, Minor revisions, and Reject. The peer review period is two weeks. The first decision is usually made within 1~2 weeks after the completion of the review. The editor-in-chief is responsible the final decision whether the manuscript is accepted or rejected.
  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.

• 3) Submission of revised manuscripts
  

  Manuscripts that require major or minor revisions should be resubmitted through the online submission system. Any revisions (if applicable) should be resubmitted within four weeks for reconsideration of publication at Vasc Specialist Int. Authors should indicate the changes made in the document by either using the “Track changes” function (preferred) in Microsoft Word (for .doc or .docx files) or by crossing out deleted phrases with a straight line (strikethrough) and using a red font for new phrases. The reviewers’ comments should also be addressed on a point-bypoint basis.

• 4) After acceptance
  

  If a manuscript is finally accepted, it will be sent back to the corresponding author for another round of proofreading after it undergoes professional manuscript editing and/or English proofreading. Proofreading should be conducted again for any misspellings or errors by the authors.

• 5) Feedback after publication
  

  The authors or readers could inform the Editorial Board regarding any errors or content that should be revised. The Editorial Board may consider the erratum, corrigendum, or retraction. If there are any revisions to the article, there will be a CrossMark description to announce the final draft. Any reader’s opinion on the published article in the form of a letter to the editor will be forwarded to the authors. The authors may reply to readers’ letters. Subsequently, the letter to the editor and the author’s reply may also be published.

• 6) Process for appeals
  

  The policy of the journal is primarily aimed at protecting the authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers of the journal. Appeals may be submitted to office@vsijournal.org. Appeals received by the editorial office are discussed by the editorial board members, and the results are subsequently dispatched to the submitter. The process of handling complaints and appeals follows the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/appeals).

There are no author submission fees or other publication-related charges. All costs for the publication process are shouldered by the publisher. Authors may request additional reprints of their articles, in which case additional charges may be applied. The cost of colored figures for paper offprints will be shouldered by the authors.

The corresponding author is required to download and sign the Author Submission Requirement Form on behalf of all authors. It includes a statement for the full transfer of copyright to the Korean Society for Vascular Surgery, and must be submitted along with the manuscript. 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:

• The person using Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int) Online may use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open- access version of the content from this journal for non-commercial purposes.
• ANY USE of the open-access version of this journal in whole or in part must include customary bibliographic citations, 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 (i.e., only in part or as a derivative work), this must be clearly indicated.
• Permission MUST be obtained from Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int; E-mail: office@vsijournal.org) prior to any commercial use of material from the openaccess version of the journal.
  • - Reuse by a non-author/third party/other publisher of an article or articles in part or in whole 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.
  • - Reuse by an author of an article in part or in whole in other publications for commercial organizations.

Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int) is an openaccess journal. Every paper published in the journal is available on its website (http://www.vsijournal.org/) for free. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited. Permission requests to the Vasc Specialist Int publisher need not be made for the use of its tables or figures in other periodicals, books, or media for scholarly or educational purposes. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. It also follows the open access policy of PubMed Central by the United States National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/).

The full text of Vascular Specialist International (Vasc Specialist Int) has been archived in PubMed Central (PMC) since its first volume was published in 2014. According to the deposit policy (self-archiving policy) of Sherpa/Romeo (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/), authors cannot archive pre-prints (i.e., pre-refereeing); however, they can archive post-prints (i.e., final draft postrefereeing). Authors can also archive the publisher’s version/PDF. Vasc Specialist Int provides electronic backups and preservation of access to the journal content in the event that a journal is no longer published by archiving in PubMed Central.

Editorial Office Contact Information
Vascular Specialist International
#1724, Yongsan Prugio Summit Officetel, 69 Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04378, Korea
Tel: +82-10-8717-2752, Fax: +82-2-6455-3770
E-mail: office@vsijournal.org, https://www.vsijournal.org

Editor-in-Chief
Hyung-Kee Kim, M.D., Ph.D.
Rm 13608, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, 807, Hoguk-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu 41044, Korea
Tel: +82-53-200-5605, Fax: +82-53-421-0510
E-mail: hkkim6260@knu.ac.kr