Peer-Review and Ethics

Peer-Review

Editorial policies of the journal adhere to the rules advised by the Council of Science Editors and are reflected in uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: writing and editing for biomedical publication (http://www.icmje.org/).

Submitted manuscripts are subjected to double-blind peer review. The scientific board, which guides the selection of papers for potential publication in the journal, consists of elected experts of the Journal and, if necessary, may be selected from national and international experts in the relevant field of research. All manuscripts are reviewed by the editor, section editors, and at least three internal and external expert reviewers.

The authors of the accepted manuscripts should consent that the editor and section editors can make corrections without changing the main text of the paper. The manuscript format should follow uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: writing and editing for biomedical publication (http://www.icmje.org/).

Ethics

Approval of the Ethics Committee and a statement on the adherence of the study protocol to international guidelines (Declaration of Helsinki revised in 2013 [www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.html]) are required for experimental and clinical studies as well as studies on drug–human interactions. In experimental animal studies, the authors should indicate that the procedures were followed in accordance with animal rights (Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals [https://www.nap.edu/catalog/5140/]) and should obtain approval from the Animal Ethics Committee.

The approval of the Ethics Committee, statement on the adherence to international guidelines, and patient’s informed consent should be indicated in the “Materials and Methods” section. These are also required for case reports whenever data/media used could reveal the identity of the patient. The declaration of a conflict of interest between authors and institutions and acknowledgment of any financial or material support and aid is mandatory for submission of the manuscript. Relevant statements should be written at the end of the manuscript. Reviewers are required to report if any potential conflict of interest exists among reviewers, authors, and institutions.

We disapprove unethical practices such as plagiarism, fabrication, duplication, and salamisation, as well as efforts to influence the review process with practices such as gifting authorship, inappropriate acknowledgments, and references. Additionally, authors must respect participants’ right to privacy. Moreover, short abstracts published in congress books that do not exceed 400 words, present preliminary research data, and are presented in an electronic environment are not accepted as pre-published work. Authors in such a situation must declare this status on the first page of the manuscript and in the cover letter. (The Committee on Publication Ethics flowchart is available at: http://publicationethics.org) All responsibility of the published articles belongs to the authors.

Submitted manuscripts are also subjected to the evaluation of plagiarism and duplicate publication by an automated software. Authors are obliged to acknowledge if they published study results in full or in part in the form of abstracts.