Endorsements Policy

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ENDORSEMENT OF ISHLT S&G DOCUMENTS BY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

When warranted due to the need for common patient care approaches among the memberships of related organizations, ISHLT may desire endorsement of ISHLT S&G Documents by other organizations. Such organizations are limited to not-for-profit organizations and governmental agencies with similar and/or complementary interests in advanced heart failure and transplantation, advanced lung failure and transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and/or pulmonary vascular disease.

Plans for endorsement of ISHLT S&G Documents by other organizations will ideally be considered and approved by the Publications Oversight Committee (POC) and Board during the annual S&G Document planning process. If not, a decision to seek endorsement may be made by the POC and Board at any time prior to or after publication of the document, with the understanding that endorsements made after the final document has been approved by the Board for publication will not be acknowledged in the final published document.

Once an S&G Document is ready for Expert Review, staff will communicate with the Executive Director(s) of the organizations whose endorsement is sought to:

  • Invite their consideration of the document for endorsement
  • Advise them that no changes may be made to the document as a condition of endorsement
  • Advise them that they will be acknowledged as having endorsed the document
  • Advise them that they may provide a link to the document from their website (joint or subsequent publication of the document is not permitted)
  • Advise them that a maximum of three (3) weeks will be provided for their decision to be made.

For those organizations who agree to consider the document for endorsement, staff will send the Executive Director a clean word version of the final Board-approved document, accompanied by an Endorsement Acknowledgment Form and a deadline for response. Endorsement will not be considered final until the completed Endorsement Acknowledgement Form is received by ISHLT staff.

Information regarding formal endorsements by other organizations will be provided by staff to the Project Lead and JHLT Editor for incorporation into the final published manuscript. Endorsing organizations will be acknowledged beneath the title of the document and above the author list as follows, “Endorsed by (full name of organization)”. Endorsing organizations will be listed in alphabetical order.

As soon as possible, staff will provide a link to the published S&G Document to all endorsing organizations.

Full S&G Document Development Policies and Procedures

ISHLT ENDORSEMENT OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS’ S&G DOCUMENTS

When warranted due to the relevance of the topic to ISHLT members’ interest or due to the need for common patient care approaches among the memberships of related organizations, ISHLT will consider endorsing documents developed by other organizations.

  1. The Standards & Guidelines Committee and Publications Oversight Committee are responsible for reviewing initial requests for endorsement consideration. All requests must meet the criteria listed below in order for ISHLT to consider the final product for endorsement.
     
    1. Qualifying Content
      1. The topic of the document must be of relevance to at least one ISHLT Professional Community (preferably more than one) and one Interdisciplinary Network.
      2. Documents with international relevance are preferred.
      3. ISHLT must NOT have already developed, or be currently developing, its own document to address the topic.
      4. ISHLT may endorse more than one document on a particular topic, provided that:
        • The documents each meet the requirements in this policy.
        • The documents do not in any way contradict one another, or create confusion or ambiguity.
        • The documents provide additional information or are targeted to a region or professional group that has not been reached by the other documents ISHLT has endorsed.
           
    2. Qualifying Organizations
      To consider a document for endorsement:
      1. The authoring organization(s) must be non-profit or governmental agencies with similar and/or complementary interests in advanced heart failure and transplantation, advanced lung failure and transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and/or pulmonary vascular disease.
      2. There may be no commercial support associated with the document.
      3. Statements from individual hospitals or universities will not be considered for endorsement.
    3. Turn Around Time
      1. ISHLT will be provided sufficient time to review the document and make a decision regarding endorsement, ideally a minimum of 4 weeks.
    4. Credit and Publication
      1. ISHLT will be acknowledged in the published document as having endorsed the document.
      2. ISHLT will have the right (but not the obligation) to publish a link to the endorsed document on the ISHLT website.
  2. ISHLT will not appoint writing committee members for any project for which endorsement is sought, even if invited to do so by the authoring organization.

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  3. Expert Reviewers (appointed by the Interdisciplinary Network Steering Committees), the S&G Committee, and the Publications Oversight Committee are responsible for reviewing final documents to determine whether they meet the following quality standards of ISHLT S&G Documents and are thereby suitable for ISHLT Endorsement. Such review is limited solely to a recommendation to endorse or not endorse the document as written. No recommendations for revisions will be accepted.
    1. Content and Quality
      1. Content must be approved by subject matter experts from ISHLT to verify the validity of the statements.
      2. Content may not conflict with any information published by ISHLT in other S&G documents.
      3. The document must be suitable for publication and free of errors or typos.

        4.  
  4. The Publications Oversight Committee will make the final decision regarding endorsement and will advise the Board regarding that decision.

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  5. Staff will notify the authoring organization in writing regarding ISHLT’s endorsement decision.

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  6. Staff will follow-up with the authoring organization to obtain a link to the published document as soon as it is available and to add it to the ISHLT website.

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Full S&G Document Development Policies and Procedures