Open Access

BJCVS adopts a copyright policy aligned with the recommendations of the SciELO Criteria. These recommendations are essential to protect authors’ interests, while promoting the open and ethical dissemination of scientific knowledge.

• Copyright Ownership: Authors who publish in BJCVS retain the copyright to their works. This means that although the article is published under the aegis of the BJCVS, the intellectual property of the work remains with the author.
• Creative Commons Licensing: To facilitate the reuse and distribution of works, articles in BJCVS are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license. This license allows third parties to use and share the published works, provided they attribute the appropriate credit to the original author and acknowledge the publication in BJCVS. This approach promotes the dissemination of scientific knowledge in an ethical and accessible manner, allowing works to be widely distributed and reused without restrictions.
• Correct Citation of Original Work: In compliance with the CC-BY license, any reuse or distribution of articles published in the BJCVS must include the correct citation of the original work. This ensures that authors receive due recognition for their work and maintains the academic integrity of the publication process. BJCVS’s copyright policy reflects our commitment to promoting Open Science and respecting authors' rights and contributions. By publishing in BJCVS, authors gain visibility and recognition for their work, while contributing to the advancement of knowledge in cardiovascular surgery.

BJCVS follows the Green Open Access model. The Open Science movement advocates for collaborative, transparent, and public scientific practices.

BJCVS undergoes a rigorous peer-review process, and adheres to the principles of Open Science. This commitment is reflected in our editorial policy, which promotes transparency and free access to knowledge. We adopt practices such as publishing preprints and providing open access to all articles, ensuring that discoveries and innovations in cardiovascular surgery are accessible to researchers, clinicians, and the general public without barriers.

BJCVS adopts various measures, to uphold integrity and transparency, including a code of good practices for authors, reviewers, and editors, as well as an open access policy. Additionally, it requires the precise attribution of author roles in multi-authored articles and encourages the sharing of datasets and supplementary materials through open online repositories.

Upon manuscript submission, authors are asked to complete the Open Science Compliance Form , in which authors share manuscript information in accordance with Open Science communication practices.

BJCVS is committed to the Guidelines for promoting openness, transparency and reproducibility of research published by SciELO journals (TOP Guidelines), aiming to improve the quality and transparency of published research. These guidelines emphasize the importance of clarity in the evidence supporting study conclusions.

To align with these principles, BJCVS requests that all datasets associated with submitted manuscripts be accompanied by the Open Science Compliance Form. This form must be completed in detail by the authors, highlighting how the research adheres to Open Science standards, and submitted as a Supplemental File with the manuscript.

This practice ensures that all relevant data is available for review and analysis, contributing to the integrity and reproducibility of scientific research. Adherence to these guidelines reinforces BJCVS's commitment to transparency and excellence in scientific publishing.

Clinical Trial Data: For manuscripts reporting clinical trial data, BJCVS adopts the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on the sharing of such data. Data availability statements should be clear and detailed, including the following information:

• Data Availability with Controlled Access:
  • The statement should explain the reasons for controlled access, such as privacy issues or ethical and legal considerations.
  • Access conditions must be accurately described, including contact information for access requests and deadlines for response.
  • Any restrictions on data usage, such as data use agreements, must be clearly indicated. A copy or link to the data use agreement must be available if requested by the editors.
  • Restrictions on data reuse or authorship requirements must be explicitly described in the manuscript and communicated to the editors at the time of submission.
  • Editors retain the right to refuse manuscript consideration if data access restrictions are excessively restrictive.
• Third Party Data:
  • Where data obtained from third parties cannot be shared, specific restrictions should be clearly stated in the data availability statement.
  • Authors must make data available for peer review, if requested, respecting the terms of any data use agreement and in compliance with ethical and legal requirements.
• Citation Standards: All data, program codes, and methods must be appropriately cited using DOIs, journal citations or other persistent identifiers. Exceptional situations that require different treatment, such as confidential information under non-disclosure agreements, must be communicated to the editor up to the manuscript review stage and clearly mentioned in the Acknowledgements (see Citations and References).
• Data Standards: All data used must be accessible to any researcher for the purpose of reproducing or expanding the analysis. Data should either be included in the article or deposited in specialized community repositories or general-purpose repositories. Some examples include Dryad, Figshare, Zenodo, Mendeley Data, OSF, and the SciELO Data repository. Special situations, such as privacy protection or the acquisition of data from third parties, should be discussed with the editor as early as possible and clearly indicated in the Acknowledgments.
• Transparency in Analytical Methods (Code): The Methods section should provide sufficient detail to allow study replication. Materials or samples used in the analysis must be available to any researcher for direct replication. Any restrictions on material availability, as well as Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), must be disclosed to the editor until the manuscript review stage and specified in the Acknowledgments.

Website’s Responsibility:

Copyright terms applied to the content published on BJCVS must be clearly stated and differentiated from the copyright terms applied to the website itself. This ensures transparency and a clear understanding of rights and obligations related to the journal content and website.

Author's Responsibility:

The use of generic names, trade names, and trademarks, among others, in this publication does not imply that such names are exempt from copyright restrictions and applicable regulations. Authors are responsible for obtaining necessary permissions for the reuse of copyrighted materials included in their manuscript.

The views expressed by the authors are solely their own responsibility.

License Adopted by the Journal:

All journal content and articles published by BJCVS, unless otherwise specified, are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license. Authors retain the copyright of their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, as long as the original work is correctly cited.

Self-Archiving by Authors:

BJCVS encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts by posting them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social media platforms. Authors can also post their papers on personal social media accounts, as long as they include the full citation to the version published on the journal's website.