All surveys must have a BASK member as an author / supervisor
Surveys should answer questions of relevance to knee surgeons
Surveys must use SurveyMonkey – the free trial version of the system is satisfactory for the initial design
Surveys should be clear and concise
Surveys should contain in the first page a brief summary of why the survey is being undertaken; whether it is part of a formal research project or not; confirmation that personal information will be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act; a list of the authors and their current employment post
Surveys must be thoroughly tested before a request is made for acceptance (this is the commonest reason for rejection of surveys by the Executive)
Once designed please request a review of the survey by mailing the link to the survey to the BASK Administrator
The survey will be reviewed by the BASK webmaster and the Editor of The Knee
Approval will be given following review by BASK Executive representatives (usually the BASK webmaster, the Editor of The Knee, the President and one other Exec member) providing any amendments requested are made and the survey topic is felt to be of concern to knee surgeons

After approval the survey will be transferred to the BASK SurveyMonkey account (instructions will be given at the time). Any editing will be undertaken by the BASK webmaster and checked with the authors before opening the survey
Once approved payment of £400 should be made to BASK c/o The Treasurer, BASK, The Royal College of Surgeons, 35-43, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. WC2A 3PN.
After payment has been received BASK will send out the survey using the SurveyMonkey mailing system. This will permit reminders to be sent only to non-responders etc. The mailing will be timed so as not to conflict with other bulk mailings.
After completion of the survey a summary and a detailed set of responses will be sent to the authors by the BASK webmaster. This information will have identifiers removed.

Following the survey the authors are at liberty to present their findings in a formal peer reviewed setting if they wish. However, if not published elsewhere the findings may be submitted as a brief report for publication in The Knee in the BASK pages of the journal. Submissions for this should be submitted for review to the BASK webmaster NOT via Elsevier’s on-line submission system. In this setting the article should comply with the following:

The report should fit on 1-2 pages of journal print
The response rate to the survey MUST be quoted (rates of less than 30% will not be published)
The date the survey was first mailed must be included
There should be no Abstract
The Introduction and Methods should comprise of a short paragraph each only
The Results should be presented as the main section of the article in a form that is easy to interpret (text, charts or graphs)
There should be no Discussion or Conclusions drawn by the authors, only a brief Summary at the end. The purpose of these surveys is to permit the reader to make their own assessment of the results.
Clearly the results of the survey may be quoted in other articles in the usual way – Results / text however may not be duplicated as this constitutes salami slicing and is checked for by most publishers
Only 5 references will be permitted

For further information on creating a surgical survey please read:
A review of how to conduct a surgical survey using a questionnaire. Hing et al. The Knee, 2011; 18: 209-13.