Abstract
The field of phlebology has evolved rapidly in recent years, with important advances in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with venous disorders, and in recognition in the field. Thus, it is no surprise that the journal is growing and changing. Here is a brief review of changes that have recently or will shortly be implemented.
Impact Factor
We're very pleased to report that the 2009 Impact Factor (IF) is 1.548 - nearly double that of the previous one of 0.877! The IF is a measure of importance of scientific journals, and is calculated yearly by Thomson Reuters (formerly the Institute for Scientifc Information) for those journals that it tracks.
The IF factor of a journal is a ratio calculated by dividing the number of current year citations to the source items published in that journal during the previous two years. For example, the 2009 impact factor of a journal would be calculated as follows:
A = the number of times articles published in 2007 and 2008 were cited by indexed journals during 2009;
B = the total number of ‘citable items’ published by that journal in 2007 and 2008. (‘Citable items’ are usually articles and reviews, but not letters to the editor, errata or editorials.)
Thus: 2009 impact factor = A/B.
Number of issues
The number of issues of the journal will increase from six to eight beginning in 2011, reflecting an increase in the number of quality manuscripts being submitted. Prior to 2007 there were four issues per year.
New Features
Drs Lowell S Kabnick MD and Peter J Pappas MD have recently implemented a ‘Reviewed Abstracts’ section. They select phlebology articles and write abbreviated abstracts, without editorial comment, on papers from journals that are PubMed listed.
Colette Smith, the journal's statistician consultant, will author a new series ‘Research design and statistics’. These will be short papers on sample size and power calculations, observational studies, randomized controlled trials, survival analysis, meta analyses, sources of bias and other relevant topics.
There was a significant backlog of manuscripts that had been accepted for publication, but not yet published. In view of this, the journal has instituted ‘E-pub ahead of print’, publishing accepted papers on the journal's website in advance of the journal release. This enables authors to get their articles published more quickly and readers to have much quicker access to them. These can be seen at
As a reminder, you can set up electronic alerts at
Policies and Procedures
The Editorial Board recently approved an updated Conflict of Interest (COI) Policy, adapted from the WAME Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics Committees. The approved policy provides a background, as well as definition, of conflict of interest. Types of competing interest are delineated. All authors, reviewers and editors will be asked to complete a COI form. This policy will be implemented shortly.
Reviewers serve a vitally important role for the journal, authors, readers and specialty. The quality of the peer-review process contributes significantly to the success and quality of the journal. In order to facilitate the review process we have created Reviewer Instructions, covering basic goals of a review, attributes of a good reviewer, manuscript evaluation, confidential comments to the editor, comments to authors, and ethics. When you agree to review a manuscript, you will receive an email that will include these instructions as an attachment. Please let us know if you are interested in reviewing for the journal.
We plan to implement a manuscript tracking system for authors in 2011. The anticipated key features will include the ability to track manuscript progress through the peer review and production process.
We hope you are pleased with these developments, and welcome your comments and suggestions.