New policy for publication of Sponsoring Society manuscripts

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Since the inception of the Journal of Vascular Surgery, each Sponsoring Society has had one issue per year designated for the publication of manuscripts presented at the Society's annual meeting. In the past, such manuscripts were submitted together at the time of the Society annual meeting and reviewed and edited as a group, with efforts made to finish this process in time to publish the accepted manuscripts in the “Society Issue.” However, because of variation in the length of the review process (primarily due to variation in the time required for authors' revisions), Sponsoring Society manuscripts are now accepted at various times following the annual meeting, ranging from one month to more than one year. In fact, on average, only 75% of Sponsoring Society manuscripts that are ultimately accepted are actually published in the annual Society Issue, with the remainder published sporadically as they are subsequently accepted. In addition, publication of Society manuscripts that are accepted soon after the annual meeting is delayed for several months, since the timing of the Society Issue is designed to allow most accepted manuscripts to be published together. This process results in a very uneven workflow for the Journal, with periodic boluses of manuscripts and intervening periods with fewer manuscripts available for publication. To make monthly issue sizes comparable, we must maintain a larger backlog of accepted articles, which further delays publication. A major goal for any scientific journal is to publish new information as soon as possible. Thus, we are pleased to announce a new policy regarding the publication of manuscripts from Sponsoring Society meetings. Effective for Sponsoring Society meetings in 2004, accepted manuscripts, including presidential addresses, will be published as soon as possible after the annual meeting of each Society. With the introduction of the Journal's Web-based manuscript submission and review process last year, manuscripts are now submitted individually by each author, and therefore can be submitted and reviewed in advance of the Sponsoring Society meeting, further speeding publication of such manuscripts. Thus, the tradition of Society Issues will be eliminated in favor of rapid publication. However, to continue to identify manuscripts from each Sponsoring Society, a banner with the Society name will be published above the title of each such article, a practice that has already begun. In fact, with their agreement, several articles from the 2003 meeting of the Western Vascular Society appear in this issue, three months in advance of its traditional July Society Issue. In order to allow readers to easily search for papers that were presented at a given Sponsoring Society meeting, the first page of the Journal Website now allows selection of “Sponsoring Society Papers,” which allows readers to access a list of all accepted manuscripts from any Sponsoring Society annual meeting from each year. This Web page will list all of the published papers from that Society meeting, regardless of when they were accepted, and selecting any title directly opens that paper. We believe that these additions will preserve Sponsoring Society identity and allow members to easily find papers that were presented at the annual meeting. To further reduce publication delays, we encourage authors to submit manuscripts as soon as they are notified of acceptance of an abstract for a Sponsoring Society meeting. These manuscripts will then be reviewed prior to the Society meeting and potentially be ready for publication immediately thereafter. In fact, the Journal review process might improve the presentations at the Society annual meetings. This system could allow publication of manuscripts within several months of their presentation, a substantial reduction in the current delay associated with Society Issues. We appreciate the cooperation of the Sponsoring Societies with this change in policy, which we believe will add further value to the Journal.