Journal Information

VASCULAR ACCESS, the official journal of the Australian Vascular Access Society (AVAS), advances research and education in the emerging multi-disciplinary vascular access specialty.

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief
Linda Verde

Deputy editor
Gillian Ray-Barruel, RN, PhD, MACN, Endeavour Leadership Award Fellow 

Board members

State Representative – NSW 
Tanya Flynn

State Representative – QLD   
Penny Stevens

State Representative – VIC      
Kerrie Curtis

State Representative – ACT    
Kerry Taliaferro

State Representative – SA       
Colin Ireland

State Representative – WA     
Linda Coventry

State Representative – NT     
Rebecca Schultz

State Representative – TAS     
Michael Sullivan

 

VASCULAR ACCESS
ISSN online 2204-9762
is the official journal of the 
Australian Vascular Access Society (AVAS)
and is published by


10 Walters Drive
Osborne Park, WA 6017
Tel (08) 6314 5222
Fax (08) 6314 5299
www.cambridgemedia.com.au

Copy editor Rachel Hoare
Graphic designer Gordon McDade
Advertising sales Simon Henriques

Advertising
To advertise in Vascular Access,
contact Simon Henriques at 
Cambridge Media at the
address above, or via email
simonh@cambridgemedia.com.au


Vascular Access Author Guidelines


Scope
The Australian Vascular Access Society (AVAS) is an association of healthcare professionals founded to promote the vascular access specialty. Today, it’s multidisciplinary membership advances research, professional and public education to shape practice and enhance patient outcomes, and partners with about evidence-based innovations in vascular access. 

The journal Vascular Access was founded as the official publication of AVAS, and as a venue for national and international scholars and practitioners to publish high-quality peer-reviewed research and educational reviews relevant to vascular access in Australia and globally. The journal also seeks to provide a space for evidence-based discussions and debate on issues of importance to patients requiring vascular access. 

Prospective authors are asked to adhere to the following guidelines when compiling a manuscript they wish to submit for consideration for publication in Vascular Access.

Terms of submission
Vascular Access is published twice a year and manuscripts pertaining to this specialty are invited. The editor welcomes manuscripts in the form of research findings, clinical papers, case studies, reports, review articles, letters and product appraisals. Submissions will be accepted from any country but must be in English.

All work will be sub-edited to the journal’s style. The editor reserves the right to modify the style and length of any manuscript submitted, so that it conforms to journal format. Changes to a manuscript will be referred to the author for approval prior to publication.

Once published, the manuscript including associated photographs, videos, tables and figures and its illustrations become the property of Cambridge Publishing and the Australian Vascular Access Society unless rights are reserved before publication.

Authorship
All authors must make a substantial contribution to the manuscript and will be required to indicate their contribution. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding, collection of data or supervision of such does not justify authorship. All participating authors must be acknowledged as such: proof of authorship may be requested by the editors. Cambridge Publishing follows the recommendations of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). It is recommended that all authors review the ICMJE guidelines - The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals - and the ICMJE statement - Defining the roles of authors and contributors - before submitting papers.

The first-named author is responsible for ensuring that any other authors have seen and approved the manuscript and are fully conversant with its contents. If the author wishes to reproduce material subject to copyright, it is the responsibility of that author to obtain written permission from the copyright holder and to acknowledge this permission within the manuscript.

Conflict of interest
It is the responsibility of the submitting author to disclose to the Editor any significant financial, corporate or other interests that they or any co-authors may have pertaining to their manuscript that may be perceived to influence their opinion in regards to the published work.

Ethics
Investigations in human and animal subjects must conform to accepted ethical standards. Authors must provide a statement within the text that the research protocol was approved by a suitably constituted ethics committee of the institution within which the work was carried out and that it conforms to the National Statement on Human Experimentation or the Statement on Animal Experimentation by the NH&MRC.

Preparation of manuscripts
A title page must be included as page 1 that includes title, authors with their qualifications, job title, institution and a current email address. For research articles, the title should include the study question and design. The corresponding author should be nominated with a telephone number and mailing address given. Manuscripts are to be no more than 4000 words and include an abstract of no more than 250 words on the next page after the title page. (State if the study is registered on a public registry and provide the study number as well as which registry (e.g. ANZCTR).

Manuscripts should be created as follows:
•    Word document using minimal formatting (please unlink endnote references)
•    Include total word count and up to five keywords, after the Abstract. 
•    Include title of work on the abstract page and also on the first page of introduction. 
•    In the introduction, include key points on what is already known on the topic and what your manuscript contributes.
•    Define abbreviations and acronyms on first mention in the text. 
•    Ensure each page is numbered in the bottom right hand corner. 
•    Font should be no smaller than TNR 12 or Arial 11 or equivalent size.
•    Margins should be set to no smaller than 2 cm and spacing should be set at 1.5.
•    For research articles the standard content headings are: 
›    Introduction (includes targeted literature review), 
›    Methods, 
›    Results and 
›    Discussion (includes conclusions)

Tables are to be presented on separate pages, one per page. Tables should be clearly typed, showing columns and lines. Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Place explanatory matter in a legend under the table, not in the heading. Explain in the legend all non-standard abbreviations used in each table.

Videos, photographs, figures and illustrations are encouraged be included in the submission. Illustrations and figures must be clear, well-drawn and large enough to be legible when reproduced. The title and legend for figures should be on a separate page after the references. Each figure must include its place, its number and the orientation of figure. Patients or other individual subjects should not be identifiable from photos unless they have given written consent for their identity to be disclosed; this must be supplied.

Photographs are to be supplied in RGB colour at 96dpi. Do not outline, rasterise or flatten text. Animated objects and layers are to be supplied as separate assets with text in a Word or InDesign document including all fonts. Animation can be sullied in HTML5. Embedded video footage to be supplied in MP4 video format.

REFERENCING GUIDELINES
The Reference List must start on a new page after the main body of the text. The referencing format is Vancouver style, the main feature of which is the use of numbers at the point of reference so as not to interfere with the flow of words. Each number corresponds to a single reference provided in the reference list at the end and, once assigned a number, a reference retains that number throughout the text, even if cited more than once. If more than one work is quoted in a reference, each work must be assigned a number. At any point in the text, the reference may be one1 or several2-4 numbers. Following are some examples of references from different sources:

Journal: A complete journal reference includes: name(s) of author(s)(up to 6 then hereafter “et al.” in italic font or if the cited reference is authored by an official study group then the first 3 authors should be named followed with the words “and the ‘X’ study group” included), title of article, journal name, year of publication, volume and edition number and inclusive page numbers.

Hyer W & Fell JM. Screening for familial adenomatous polyposis. Arch Dis Child 2001; 8:377–381.

Book: A complete reference to a book includes name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), book title, edition number, name of publisher, place of publication, year of publication, specific page numbers and internet reference if applicable.

Blaxter PS & Farnsworth TP. Social health and class inequalities. In: Carter C, Peel JR, eds. Equalities and Inequalities in Health. 2nd edn. London: Academic Press, 1976, pp. 165–78.
Websites and electronic references: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Chronic diseases and associated risk factors [document on the internet]. Canberra: The Institute, 2004 [updated 23 June 2005]. Available at: http://www.aihw.gov.au/cdarf/index.cfm. Retrieved 12 February 2009.

It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that all references are correct. Please double check all citations with an electronic database to ensure accuracy in the reference list. Manuscripts submitted with multiple errors will be returned for correction before being accepted for peer review.

PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
All manuscripts are initially reviewed by the editor before being sent for peer-review. If the manuscript does not conform to the submission guidelines the author will be asked to amend it prior to peer review.

All manuscripts are then blind reviewed by content and writing peers for relevance, construction, flow, style and grammar. This process can take up to eight weeks. Reviewers spend considerable time in reviewing the manuscripts and providing feedback to the authors. The length of time of the publication process may vary and depends on the quality of the work submitted. Several revisions may be required to bring the manuscript to a standard acceptable for publication. The editorial team undertake the final review and may have different questions for the author(s) to consider. Proofs of articles about to be published will be sent to the corresponding author for review. The final decision about publication is made by the editor.


Australian Vascular Access Society
PO Box 576
Crows Nest NSW 1585
Australia
Phone +61 2 9431 8650
Fax +61 2 9431 8677
Email: info@avas.org.au for manuscript submission (Subject: Manuscript submission VA)
info@avas.org.au for general enquiries