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Reviewer Instructions
Table of Contents
SECTION A: How to use Editorial Manager to submit a review
Software requirements
Log in as a Reviewer
Verify account information and update username/password
Select Personal Classifications
Reviewer invitations
Submit your review
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SECTION B: Guidelines for Reviewing Manuscripts
Comments to the authors
Confidential comments to the editors
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SECTION A: How to Use Editorial Manager to Submit a Review
Software requirements
As a Reviewer using Editorial Manager, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your
system. If you need to install this software, you can download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader at
the following address:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/
Log in as a Reviewer
New Reviewers who do not already have a user account in Editorial Manager are pre-registered
by the Editorial Office. If you have been invited to become a new Reviewer, you will have
received your username and password via e-mail. If you are interested in becoming a Reviewer
for the Journal of Vascular Surgery, please e-mail your curriculum vitae
to [email protected]. The Editors will review your qualifications and notify you if
you are selected to become a Reviewer.
Go to www.editorialmanager.com/jvs and log in as a REVEIWER using your username and
password.
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Verify account information and update username/password
Once you log in, you will be taken to your Reviewer Main Menu . Select “Update My
Information” from the menu bar.
Complete all of the required information in your profile. Note that information fields marked with
red asterisks (*) cannot be left empty. You may change your username and password in the
“Login Information” box. You may also enter “Unavailable Dates” in the “Additional
Information” box anytime you plan to be unavailable to review.
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Select Personal Classifications
Selecting Personal Classifications allows the Editor to quickly identify qualified Reviewers. It is
very important that you select Personal Classifications so that you are invited to review
manuscripts in your areas of expertise.
1. From the “Update my Information” page, scroll down to the “Areas of Expertise” box
2. Click “Select Personal Classifications”
3. A pop-up window will appear and you will be able to select and add all of your personal
classifications.
4. When you are finished, click “Submit”.
5. When you are satisfied with the information you have provided on the “Update my
Information” page, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Submit”.
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Reviewer invitations
Once you are selected as a Reviewer for a manuscript, you will need to indicate whether you
choose to accept or decline the assignment. You may log in and review your assignments from
the Editor Main Menu. Click “New Reviewer Invitations” to view a list of assignments that you
have yet agreed or declined to review (see below).
From the Action link column, shown below, click “Download Abstract and Title Page”. Before
agreeing to review the manuscript, you must review the abstract and title page to make sure that
you are qualified to assess the paper, and that you do not have any conflict of interest. By clicking
“Agree to Review”, the manuscript will move out of your “New Reviewer Invitations” folder and
into your “Pending Assignments” folder, where you can begin the review process. Clicking
“Decline to Review” will alert the Journal office that you will not be reviewing the paper, and
you will be able to provide a reason for declining.
Once you have agreed to your review assignment, you can access the manuscript by clicking on
“Pending Assignments” on the Reviewer Main Menu. There are several actions you can perform
from this menu. You can download the PDF to your desktop by selecting “View Submission”. To
print out a copy of the manuscript from the PDF file, select the “File” menu in the upper left
corner of the Acrobat window and select “Print”. You may search the MEDLINE database to
view articles that may be similar to a particular manuscript by using “Similar Articles in
MEDLINE”. Clicking this link displays a new browser window featuring the Knowledge
Finder® MEDLINE search engine.
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Submit your review
When you are ready to submit your recommendation, click “Submit Recommendation”. This will
bring you to the “Reviewer Recommendation and Comments” screen.
Use the “Recommendation:” drop-down menu at the top of the form to select your decision term:
Accept: Accept manuscript without modification.
Revise Minor: This implies intended acceptance, assuming the requested revisions are made
appropriately, which are usually reviewed only by the Editor.
Revise Major: This does not imply acceptance, but rather indicates that the revised manuscript
will likely require re-review by the original Reviewers.\
Reject: Reject manuscript without recommendation for re-review
Enter your numeric rating for the manuscript in the box next to ‘Manuscript Rating’ (1-100):
80-100: Outstanding new contribution of major value that warrants publication.
60-80: Warrants publication, but not as novel; or in need of major revision first.
40-60: Borderline for publication. Premature, low interest, or small part of larger work.
20-40: Not for publication. Major problems with experiment, not interesting/correctable.
0 – 20: Fatal flaws and/or ethical issues that prevent publication independent of other
Reviewers’ opinions.
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Comments to Author and Editor
Enter your review comments to the author and Editor in the fields provided. For your
convenience, and to take advantage of word processing features (eg, spell check, bullets,
numbering), please use Microsoft Word when typing your review. You should then copy and
paste your comments into the boxes provided. Click the “Save & Submit Later” button to save
your comments in Editorial Manager and continue working. Be sure to save any review that is
partially finished, since it will be lost if you simply close your Internet browser without saving it.
Clicking the ‘Open in New Window” button at the top right of the data-entry fields will open the
field in a new browser window. This provides you with a larger view of the review field. Clicking
“Proof and Print” will open a window containing all of the review information you have provided
as a way for you to make a printout of your review for your records. Click “Submit Now” to
proceed. This will bring up a screen that shows you your review. Please carefully proofread your
review, and ensure that you have numbered your comments to the author before sending it to the
Journal office. If you need to make further edits, click “Edit Review”. If you are satisfied with
your review, click “Submit Review to Journal Office”.
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SECTION B: Guidelines for Reviewing Manuscripts
Comments to the authors
In your comments to the authors, please include specific critiques of the study design, methods,
data analysis, results and discussion; and/or suggestions and questions that will clarify and
improve the manuscript for the reader, should this manuscript be accepted for publication.
Significant omissions should also be identified. Do not spend time correcting the
English/grammar. Also, be careful not to ask the authors to expand their data to such a degree
that they would essentially have to complete another study. Finally, remember that comments to
the authors should be constructive and point out ways to improve or clarify the manuscript. If
you believe there are fatal flaws in the study design, performance, or analysis, point these out and
ask the authors to correct these problems. Then, place your conclusions concerning these
problems in the confidential comments to the Editor.
Remember to:
1.
Number your comments to the authors and include only one key suggestion or question per
comment.
2.
Place a red asterisk (*) after each number for comments that you think are critical to the
revision of the manuscript. Please consider carefully which points represent essential, versus
desirable, suggestions in this regard. The Editor will pay special attention to these and be
certain they do not conflict between Reviewers.
Confidential comments to the Editor (not shared with authors)
Manuscripts appropriate for publication in the Journal of Vascular Surgery should report results
of well designed, performed and analyzed studies that contribute significant new information to
the field. Manuscripts that are premature (containing only a minimal amount of data), are a small
part of a larger work, or have serious faults that might result in misleading conclusions are not
acceptable. Even well done studies that add little new information to our field and those with
results likely to be of little interest to our readers should be given low priority.
Remember to:
1.
Recommend a disposition for the manuscript:
Accept (without modification)
Revise Minor (This implies intended acceptance, assuming the requested revisions are
made appropriately, which are usually reviewed only by the Editor.)
Revise Major (This does not imply acceptance, but rather indicates that the revised
manuscript will likely require re-review by the original Reviewers.)
Reject
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Score each manuscript on a 0-100 point scale, based on its overall value.
80-100: Outstanding new contribution of major value that warrants publication
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60-80: Warrants publication, but not as novel, or in need of major revision first.
40-60: Borderline for publication. Premature, low interest, or small part of larger work.
20-40: Not for publication. Major problem with experiment, not interesting/not correctable.
0 – 20: Fatal flaws, ethical issues that prevent publication independent of other Reviewers’
opinions.
3.
Indicate whether the article contains important new concepts or an excellent educational
discussion that is appropriate for CME credit and listing on the Journal cover.
4.
Indicate whether the manuscript is sufficiently important, novel or controversial to
warrant a short commentary by an Editorial Board member to be published with the
article.
5.
Indicate whether there are questionable conclusions based on sufficiently complex
statistics that would require a separate statistical review.