Peer review process

The peer review process is of paramount importance for Vascular Cell. In this sense our journal endorses the peer review principles as reiterated in the “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: Writing and editing for biomedical publication” published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (2010). As such, peer review improves the overall quality of Vascular Cell and helps its Editors in accepting or rejecting a manuscript.

In order to comply with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) peer review direction, Vascular Cell relies on independent scientists with significant experience to select the best manuscripts for publication.

Vascular Cell endorses the Editorial Freedom as stated by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) according to which the Editor-in-Chief bear full responsibility for the published content and the” recommendations of the Editors should base editorial decisions on the validity of the work and its importance to the journal’s readers, not on the commercial implications for the journal, and editors should be free to express critical but responsible views about all aspects of medicine without fear of retribution, even if these views conflict with the commercial goals of the publisher” http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/journal-owners-and-editorial-freedom.html

Journal editors propose publication topics and in collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief are responsible in selecting the reviewers for the manuscripts that need to be evaluated. Once the manuscript is received by Vascular Cell it will be assessed for the required criteria by one of the Editors. Subsequently if the evaluation is positive, the Editor-in-Chief or one of the Editors will contact the best potential reviewers, professionals of high international standing and ethics.

Our journal employs a “double-blind” peer-reviewing system. As such, the author’s and reviewers’ team will not be known to each other. Moreover, the reviewers will be selected from different institutions than the authors or the editors. The feed-back received from the reviewers will be conveyed to the authors as soon as possible. If necessary, the authors will have to submit an updated version of their draft. This process may be repeated several times until the reviewers’ team will be satisfied. The accepted manuscripts will be edited and the proofs will be sent for final verification to the corresponding author. However, after this final validation of the manuscript, no corrections will be possible in the actual manuscript but the authors will be able to submit an erratum if they wish to do so.

How we handle cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern

Regarding the handling cases requiring corrections, retractions and editorial expression of concern, Vascular Cell as adopted the policies of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), UK as described in:

We endorse the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) policies related to:

  • redundant (duplicate) publication
  • plagiarism
  • fabricated data
  • changes in authorship
  • ghost, guest or gift authorship
  • undisclosed conflict of interest
  • ethical problems
  • appropriation of ideas
  • dialogue with anonymous and non-anonymous whistleblowers

Vascular Cell endorses the Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines on Corrections and Retractions. Therefore, it is possible to addresses various inaccuracies related to the actual research that have not been detected before publication. Readers that have identified issues/error related to any of our published articles are encouraged to send an email to the Editor-in-Chief describing the actual problem. The Editor-in-Chief will address the issue in collaboration with all the parties involved. Vascular Cell will address the errors/inaccuracies by publishing several types of materials which will receive separate DOIs. All of these are linked to the initial published article.

  1. Erratum represents a commentary regarding an important error/inaccuracy made by the journal. It will be addressed thoroughly as it may interfere negatively at several levels (authors, editorial board, journal).
  2. Addendum represents a short but informative material about a previously published article and it is requested by the Editorial Board, when some parts of on article are not very well explained or when some additional information have come to light.
  3. Author Correction- Corrigendum addresses a significant error/inaccuracy which is made by the author(s) and may be related to any part of the manuscript.
  4. A retraction is necessary after publication if significant misconduct or experimental error (honest error) has been identified. Also, retraction is necessary in cases of plagiarism or when serious ethical issues have been reported upon publication of the manuscript.

Our journal publishes also published Letters to the Editors-Refutations which are determined by our readers’ analysis of the published manuscripts. However these types of materials are peer-reviewed by the same team of reviewers that have evaluated the initial manuscripts.

In order to provide consistency, any issue related to errors/inaccuracies will be addressed by the initial Editor in collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief. Our journal has a “no time limit “policy regarding the errors/inaccuracies. However, we encourage both the readers and the authors to notify us as soon as possible.

Ensure compliance of Vascular Cell with the ICMJE

Vascular Cell complies with the recommendations, the principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing as described by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf as well as with the principles of transparency as described by the The 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).

https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing

  1. Website

    Vascular Cell maintains a website (www.vascularcell.com) which has been created professionally to the highest standards. All the published materials adhere to the highest standard of ethics. The “Aims and Scope” are described on the first page of our website which displays also links towards relevant information for “Readers, Authors, Editors, Types of Manuscripts and the Peer-Review Process”. In addition, there is also easy access with links towards “Current Issue, Archive, Affiliation and Management of the Journal”.

  2. Name of journal

    Vascular Cell is a unique and original name and cannot be confused with any other journal. It is not associated with any other biomedical journal.

  3. Peer review process

    All the manuscripts published by Vascular Cells except the Editorial notes are peer-reviewed. As stated on the website site the journal endorses a double-blind peer review policy. Vascular Cell believes the peer review process is of paramount importance for the quality of the manuscripts and endorses the selection of expert reviewers as stated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) in “Writing and editing for biomedical publication”(2010): http://vascularcell.com/index.php/vc/information/peerreviews. Once the manuscript is received by Vascular Cell it will be evaluated for the required criteria after which if the evaluation is positive, the Editor-in-Chief along with his team will select and contact the best potential reviewers, professionals of high international standing and ethics. Vascular Cell employs a “double-blind” system of peer-review. According to this system the authors are not provided with the name or institutions of the reviewers while the reviewers will not be provided with the names or the institutions of the authors. Vascular Cell does not guarantee the acceptance and publication of any material without favourable peer review. Also, Vascular Cell does not guarantee an overall fast review of any type of manuscripts.

  4. Governing body, Editorship, Ownership/Management

    The Vascular Cell website contains clear information about Governing body, Editorship, Ownership/Management: http://vascularcell.com/index.php/vc/about/editorialTeam The full name and affiliation of all the members of the Editorial Board as well as the editorial contact number is mentioned on the website. All the members of the Editorial Board are well known experts in the field including areas within the scope of Vascular Cell.

  5. Authors' processing charges

    The authors’ processing charges are mentioned on http://vascularcell.com/index.php/vc/about#h2_article-processing-charges These charges are explained and all the pertinent information is provided before the authors could start preparing their material for submission.

  6. Copyright and Licensing

    The policy for copyright is clearly indicated on journal’s website. Authors of articles published in Vascular Cell will retain the copyright of their materials. In this context the authors are free to share their materials as well as re-publish any part of their manuscripts subject to the original publication been fully cited and to any requirements of third-party copyright owners. Any other type of materials apart from the published articles, such as graphic design etc. created and belonging to Vascular Cell or the Publisher, which could be under a certain type of copyright will be protect by copyright notices. These will be visible and will not be deleted or totally/partially hidden.

  7. Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct

    The Editorial Board, Management Board and the Publisher (Publiverse) Publishers and editors are taking active reasonable steps to ensure the originality of the published manuscripts. As stated on the journal’s website we are actively trying to prevent and to address publication of papers characterized by data falsification/fabrication, citation manipulation as well as research misconduct including ethical problems. More specifically, in the event of identification of such cases, Vascular Cell will follow the policies are reiterated in the recommendation of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf as well as in the principles of transparency as described by the The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

  8. Publication Ethics

    As shown on the website, Vascular Cell has a strict policy related to publishing ethics. More specifically, Vascular Cell has adopted the rules of ICMJE and COPE regarding the following: policies on authorship; on conflicts of interest; on data sharing and reproducibility; ethical oversight; on copyright; for post-publication discussions and corrections and regarding the handling of complaints and appeals

  9. Publishing schedule

    As stated on the journal’s website, the journal is published online quarterly.

  10. Access

    As stated on the website the journal is published as a free access online publication. The articles may be freely read and downloaded without any hidden costs.

  11. Archiving

    Vascular Cell’s provides free access to its archive stored by the Publisher (Publiverse) . This archive is also stored (including the articles published until December 2017) by BioMedCentral and PubMed Central. This will continue even if the journal is no longer published.

  12. Revenue sources

    The revenue source is represented by authors’ fees. There are no subscriptions, advertising, reprints fees or any financial institutional support, and organizational support. This is evident from the journal’s website. Publishing fees and special discounts fees do not influence the decisions taken by the Editorial Board of Vascular Cell.

  13. Advertising

    Vascular Cell is not accepting any commercial advertisement from any type of biomedical, pharmaceutical, medical device manufacturing entity or any other company/industry which may commercialise any other type of product which could be related more or less related to biomedical research, clinical therapy or healthcare and wellbeing in general. As such, we believe that the scientific content of our journal will not be compromised by any bias which could potentially be generated by commercial advertising. However, please note that Vascular Cell advertises free of charge relevant educational meetings and vacant positions in biomedical science and research. Vascular Cell is affiliated with the Australasian Immunohistochermistry Society and with North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO). However, it does not receive any financial support from these organisations

  14. Direct Marketing

    Vascular Cell does not solicit manuscripts from potential authors or institutions/organisations. However, various special topics for potential articles which may interest various groups of scientist are mentioned on the journal’s website.