Editorial independence

inFOCUS is completely editorially independent and prides itself on highlighting content of the highest available quality.

The RCVS Knowledge Library & Information Service produces inFOCUS and employs an independent Clinical Review Team to ensure all content is accurate, balanced and relevant to veterinary practitioners.

Members of the Clinical Review Team are chosen based on their professional experience and education. Reviewers are not accepted or rejected in relation to their personal opinions on any aspect of veterinary medicine.

Review process

The RCVS Knowledge Library & Information Service (LIS) is constantly ‘watching’ a list of over 100 veterinary journals for newly-published evidence. The publications tracked include all of the major peer-reviewed journals, as well as specialist sources and other outlets. Articles and papers highlighted in inFOCUS are chosen based on their individual qualities; not on the reputation of the publications publishing them.

Every two months, the LIS compiles a long list of possible articles and papers for inclusion in the next edition. They then narrow this down to a shortlist of up to 15 by assessing all articles for overall quality and relevance to the general practitioner.

The shortlist is sent to the Clinical Review Team, who score each article (from 1-6) on the following criteria:

Relevance

    • How relevant is it to the general practitioner?
    • Will it have an impact in practice?

Interest

    • Would the subject of the paper appeal to the general practitioner?
    • Is it interesting?

Quality

    • Is the paper of a good quality?
    • Are the conclusions/recommendations clinically sound?

The scores from the Clinical Review Team are collated and the top-scoring articles are selected for inclusion in the next issue of inFOCUS. A maximum of six articles will be highlighted. In the event of a tie, the articles with the highest scores for impact in practice and soundness of conclusions are selected.

With the best articles agreed upon, they are now summarised by the LIS and Clinical Review Team – all reviewers have the opportunity to comment on or make amendments to each proposed summary and take-home message until a general agreement is reached.

Summaries are then sent to subscribers by email and published on the inFOCUS website.

Conflicts of interest

inFOCUS strives to uphold best practice in relation to any potential conflict of interest with regard to inclusion of articles.

The LIS team does not consider any articles that have been brought to its attention by the authors or the journal in which they are published.

Members of the Clinical Review Team are asked to declare any conflict of interest relating to articles on the shortlist to ensure there is no potential for bias. A conflict of interest is any relationship that may affect a reviewer’s scientific judgement, including but not restricted to a financial relationship, academic competition personal relationships and/or intellectual passion.

Funding

inFOCUS is owned and published by RCVS Knowledge, the charity partner of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). inFOCUS’s revenue source is through organisational support from the RCVS.

inFOCUS disclaimer

inFOCUS – and content therein – is intended only for use as a tool to support making informed decisions and does not override the responsibility of the practitioner to use their clinical expertise and judgement.