Editor's Choice – European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Publication Standards for Reporting Vascular Surgical Research

Abstract

Objective: Manuscripts submitted to the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (EJVES) often contain shortcomings in baseline scientific principles and incorrectly applied methodology. Consequently, the editorial team is forced to offer post hoc repair in an attempt to support the authors to improve their manuscripts. This repair could theoretically have been prevented by providing more clear definitions and reporting standards to serve researchers when planning studies and eventually writing their manuscripts. Therefore, the general principles for EJVES publication standards are summarised here. Methods: These publication standards did not follow a systematic approach but reflect the common opinion of the current Senior and Section Editors team. This team decided to only include recommendations regarding the most common pathologies in vascular surgery in this first edition of publication standards, namely carotid artery disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD), and chronic venous disease. In future editions, the plan is to expand the areas of research. Results: Presented are (1) a common set of minimum but required publication standards applicable to every report, e.g., patient characteristics, study design, treatment environment, selection criteria, core outcomes of interventions such as 30 day death and morbidity, and measures for completeness of data including outcome information, and (2) a common set of minimum publication standards for four vascular areas. Conclusion: The editors of the EJVES propose universally accepted definitions and publication standards for carotid artery disease, AAA, PAOD, and chronic venous disease. This will enable the development of a convincing body of evidence to aid future clinical practice guidelines and drive clinical practice in the right direction. These first ever publication and reporting standards for EJVES aim to improve future research published in the journal.