Editorial Policies
Aims and Scope
Russian medical journal is intended for physicians of all specialties, healthcare professionals, drug developers and regulators, researchers of scientific, medical and educational organizations
Being the Central national medical publication, the journal primarily covers the practical problems of diagnosis and treatment of diseases, as well as information on the most important and actual theoretical and practical problems of health care and medical science in Russia and other countries
The reader will find on the pages of the journal reviews, lectures and original articles that have priority and deserve to be published in the national Russian medical journal.
Peer Review Process
Procedure for peer reviewing the manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal
All the manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal are peer reviewed by two independent experts who are non-members of the Editorial Board of the journal.
The journal provides peer reviewing of all the submitted materials that are within the remit of the journal for expert evaluation. All peer reviewers are the acknowledged experts who specialize in the field relevant to the reviewed materials and have had publications relevant to the topic of the article being reviewed over the past 3 years. The peer reviews are stored in the publishing and editorial office for 5 years.
The article is sent to reviewers without names or contact information of the authors (the so-called blind review).
Reviewers treat the article as confidential material and strictly follow the author’s right for non-disclosure of the data reported in the manuscript before the article is published. The reviewer may engage additional experts only with permission from the Editorial Board and on a confidential basis.
Reviewers’ comments are sent to the author without disclosing the reviewers’ identity. The Editorial Board makes a final decision whether to publish the manuscript or not after the peer reviews and authors’ answers were received. The Editorial Board sends copies of peer reviews or a substantiated rejection to the authors and also sends copies of the peer reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation if a request has been received by the Editorial Board.
In some cases, the Editorial Board can send the article for an additional peer review, including statistical and methodological reviewing.
The Editorial Board constantly monitors the quality of peer review using the Russian version of the Review Quality Instrument questionnaire (Version 3.2), van Rooyen S., Black N., Godlee F. J Clin Epidemiol 1999;52:625-9.
The Editorial Board of the journal expects that the review process will help to:
- prevent publishing poor-quality articles and reject the studies that have not been designed and conducted properly;
- make sure that the data reported in the article are accurate, sufficient, and, where applicable, are presented in compliance with the current international standards CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA, CARE, STARD (http://www.equator-network.org);
- check whether the previous key studies in the corresponding field of science have been cited;
- make sure that the authors have properly interpreted the data and drawn substantiated conclusions;
and, hence:
- make a decision whether to publish an article or not and offer suggestions to the authors on how to improve the article (where necessary).
Publication Frequency
Medical Journal of the Russian Federation is a bimonthly journal.
Circulation: 500 copies.
Author Self-Archiving
This journal does not permit authors to post items submitted to the journal on personal websites or institutional repositories.
Issue Purchase
Readers without a subscription may still purchase individual issues. The following payment options and fees are available.
Access for an Issue: 35.00 (USD)
You can purchase the access for all articles published in one issue. Access to articles will be provide for an unlimited time.
Access to issue allows you to read, download and print full text (PDF and HTML) of all articles, but does not allow to distribute, copy or reproduce articles materials until the end of the embargo period (3 years) since the publication of the article).
Article Purchase
Readers without a subscription may still purchase individual articles. The following payment options and fees are available.
Access for an Article: 5.00 (USD)
You can purchase the access for the article to read, download and print its fulltext (PDF, HTML). Access to article will be provide for an unlimited time.
Purchased access does not allow to distribute, copy or reproduce article's materials until the end of the embargo period (3 years) since the publication of the article).
Archiving
The journal uses the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) to digitally preserve all the published articles. The PKP PN is a part of LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program offers decentralized and distributed preservation, seamless perpetual access, and preservation of the authentic original version of the content.
Also, the journal makes full-text archives on the Russian Science Electronic Library (http://elibrary.ru/) platform.
Publishing Ethics
Responsibilities of the Editorial Board
The Editorial Board of the journal complies with the ethical standards approved by the international scientific community. The Editorial Board uses the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Editorial decision-making
The Editorial Board is responsible for making decisions which of the submitted manuscripts will be accepted for publication. The Editorial Board makes the decision regarding a publication based on the journal’s policy, taking into account the current authors’ rights legislation and avoiding defamation and plagiarism. The editorial evaluation of the manuscript is independent of race, ethnicity and gender, religion, citizenship, or political views of the authors. Decision whether to publish an article or not is based exclusively on its scientific relevance, originality, clarity of presentation, and correspondence of the topic to journal’s specialization.
Confidentiality
All the Editorial Board members are responsible for disclosing any information about the submitted manuscript to individuals other than authors, peer reviewers, potential peer reviewers, or publishers.
Conflict of interest
The unpublished materials disclosed in the submitted manuscript cannot be used by the Editorial Board members for their own research without written permission from the authors.
Plagiarism, data falsification, and error correction
In case of an ethical complaint or a conflict situation regarding the manuscript or the published article, the Editorial Board should undertake reasonable countermeasures, together with the publisher, to restore the violated rights. If errors are revealed, the Editorial Board should assist in publishing corrections or refutations. Each reported case of unethical behavior will be considered, even if submitted several years after the article had been published.
Reviewer responsibilities
Contribution to editorial decision-making
The review process is aimed at facilitating the Editorial Board in editorial decision-making and may also help the author to improve the manuscript.
Timeliness (promptness)
If a reviewer selected by the Editorial Board does not feel competent for reviewing the manuscript or feels that it is not possible to meet the deadline of the review, he/she should promptly notify the Editorial Board and decline to perform the review.
Confidentiality
Any material under review should be regarded as confidential. The material should not be shared or discussed with anyone outside the review process unless approved by the editor.
Objectivity standards
Reviewing should be objective. Subjective critique of the author is not allowed. Reviewer’s opinion should be stated clearly and supported by arguments.
Confirmation of the resources
The reviewer is responsible for determining the cases when the relevant publications have not been cited in the manuscript or listed in the References section. Furthermore, the reviewer should determine whether all the statements, conclusions, and ideas borrowed from other publications had the corresponding references. If the reviewer detects that the manuscript under review significantly coincides with or is similar to another known publication, he/she should notify the Editorial Board.
Disclosure of information and conflict of interest
Non-disclosable information and ideas must be regarded as confidential and cannot be used for one’s personal advantage. Experts should not review manuscripts if they have any possible conflict of interest due to competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the manuscript authors, as well as companies or institutions related to the manuscript.
Author responsibilities
Credibility and study standards
If the manuscript is based on an original study, the authors must submit the reliable results of their work and an objective discussion of significance of the study. The manuscript should contain all the key data, accurate description of the study details and references in order to ensure reproducibility of the results. Data falsification or the intentionally invalid statements in the manuscript are regarded as unethical and are inappropriate.
Data availability
The Editorial Board can request the authors to submit raw data in addition to the manuscript. The author must be ready to provide public access to these data, provided that public access to the data violates neither confidentiality of the research participants nor rights of an individual or a company owning these data.
Originality, plagiarism, and citing the sources
Authors must submit only original studies. Authors must properly and accurately acknowledge the work of others. Publications that had significantly contributed to preparing the study or underlied its design should also be acknowledged.
Multiple, duplicate, or competing publications
In general, materials describing the contents of the same study should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the manuscript to more than one journal is considered unethical and inappropriate. Copyrighted materials that have already been published cannot be submitted to the journal. Furthermore, materials under consideration by the Editorial Board must not be submitted to be published elsewhere. When submitting an article, the author must inform the editor about all the previous presentations of the study that can be regarded as a duplicate publication. The author must notify the editor if the manuscript contains the information published by the author in previous reports or submitted for publication elsewhere. In this case, the new article should contain references to the previously published material.
Authorship criteria
Authorship is limited to the individuals that have made a significant contribution to 1) conception and design of the study; data acquisition and interpretation; 2) preparing the first draft of the article or editing the article to improve its quality; and 3) final approval of the manuscript for publication. Each author must participate in the study to an extent sufficient to take public responsibility for the corresponding part of the content of his/her article. Involvement consisting in funding or selecting material for the article is not sufficient reason for inclusion in the list of authors. General guidance of the research group is not sufficient for including in the list of authors.
All the authors must approve the final manuscript and its submission to the journal for publication.
Conflict of interest
When submitting an article to the journal, all authors must sign the form disclosing financial or any other substantive conflict of interest that can be considered to have influenced the study results or their interpretation. All funding sources of the submitted studies must be specified.
Involvement in the peer review process
After the peer review process, the article can be sent to the author for improvement. Authors should be actively involved in the review process: promptly answer the questions and, if necessary, correct the manuscript in accordance with the reviewer’s comments.
Appeal procedure
Authors have a right to appeal editorial decisions to adopt or reject articles.
1. In case of disagreement with the editorial decision of acceptance or rejection of the article, the author refers to the relevant journal editors in writing indicating the reasons for treatment
2. Committee on Conflict Resolution of the respective journal considers the appeal
3. Change in editorial decisions regarding an article possible in cases where: – Author gave more actual results, which are not taken into account during the primary reviewing of the article – Author provided with information about conflict of interest that was not provided in the primary reviewing of this article – Author expresses his concern about biased reviews
4. If there are sufficient grounds the Committee on Conflict Resolution of the relevant journal makes a proposal for editorial board to change or to uphold the initial decision regarding the publication of the article
5. If necessary, editors may involve additional reviewer for final decision
6. Editorial board of the journal makes a decision regarding acceptance or rejection on the basis of reviewing of the initial decision
7. Editorial decision following its review of the initial decision is final and is not subject to appeal.
Article Retraction
Retraction of a published article is a measure of the last resort and may occur under circumstances such as:
– infringements of law and defamation;
– more than 20% of direct quotes or paraphrased material;
– false or inaccurate data that, if acted upon, would pose a serious health risk;
– a vague and incomplete description of conflicts of interests.
Article Retraction Procedure
1. Retraction of an article shall be initiated upon a written request by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, or publishers that shall be submitted to the journal in which the article was published.
2. The journal’s Commission on Conflict Resolution shall examine the request.
3. The Commission on Conflict Resolution shall decide to retract the article if there is sufficient evidence to do so.
4. Upon consideration of the request, the Commission on Conflict Resolution shall notify the person who initiated article removal of its decision.
5. Should the Commission decide to retract the article, this shall be agreed on with the authors, and the journal shall publish a retraction statement that shall include the article’s metadata.
6. If the journal’s articles are indexed in databases, the journal shall notify the databases that the article has been retracted and should not be cited, identifying the reasons for the retraction.
Adverticement and reprint policy
Our advertising policy is consistent with the principles mentioned in the Recommendations on Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals which issued by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
http://www.wame.org/recommendations-on-publication-ethics-policie
- The Eco-Vector’s journals generate revenue from advertising, which creates a potential conflict of interest. Editors’ decisions do not depend on the cost of advertising or producing reprints. Advertisers and sponsors have no influence over the editor’s decisions, regardless of the terms of advertising or other agreements.
- All advertisements are subject to the approval of the Eco-Vector’s staff, which reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time.
- The functions of editors and advertising managers in Eco-Vector’s journals are separate.
- In Eco-Vector’s journals professional (physician-directed) publications and web sites, the intentional placement of advertising adjacent to articles discussing the company or product that is the subject of the advertisement is prohibited. Advertising content must be distinguished from editorial and other materials so that the difference between them is obvious.
- Eco-Vector will not publish “advertorial” content, and sponsored supplements must be clearly indicated as such. If a supplement did not undergo peer review or underwent a peer review-process different from the rest of the journal that should be explicitly stated.
- All Eco-Vector’s journals have the right to refuse any advertisement that, in its sole discretion, is incompatible with its mission or inconsistent with the values of members, the publication/web site or the organization as a whole, and to stop accepting any advertisement previously accepted. Advertisements are subject to review by the editors and others at the Eco-Vector’s journals. In no case shall separate agreements with Eco-Vector’s journals or its subsidiaries supersede this policy.
- Once an advertisement has been deployed online, it will be withdrawn from the journal site at any time if the Editor(s)-in-Chief or Eco-Vector’s staff request its removal.
- Advertising for the following categories is prohibited:
- Alcohol
- Tobacco
- Weapons, firearms, ammunition
- Fireworks
- Gambling and lottery
- Pornography or related themes
- Political and religious advertisements
- Advertisements that claim to have a “miracle” cure or method
- Advertisements that make unsubstantiated health claims for the products advertised
- Advertisements directed at children
- Advertisements may not be deceptive or misleading, and must be verifiable. Advertisements should clearly identify the advertiser and the product or service being offered. Exaggerated or extravagantly worded copy will not be allowed. Advertisements will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent or offensive in either text or artwork, or if they relate to content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious nature.
- All advertisements are accepted and published by Eco-Vector on the warranty of the advertisement agency and advertiser that both are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter of the advertisement.
- In consideration of publication of an advertisement, the advertiser and the advertisement agency, jointly and severally, agree to indemnify and hold harmless Eco-Vector, its officers, agents and employees against expenses (including legal fees) and losses resulting from the publication of the contents of the advertisement, including, without limitation, claims or suits for libel, violation of privacy, copyright infringement, or plagiarism.
- Any references to Eco-Vector or its products or services in advertisements, promotional material, or merchandising by the advertiser or agency is subject to Eco-Vector’s written approval for such use.
- All advertisements for drug-specific campaigns must comply with the relevant Russian legislation that regulates advertising. Advertisers should make available to Eco-Vector the marketing authorization and summary of product characteristics when submitting their advertisement. In the case of drug advertisements, proprietary names of pharmaceutical products must be accompanied by the chemical, generic, or official name; the quantity of all active substances must be stated along with the recommended dosage. Each page of an advertisement for a prescription-only medicine should be clearly labeled as intended for health professionals.
- Advertisements for products not approved by the FDA or the Ministry of Health of Russian Federation that make any kind of health claims must carry the following disclaimer: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and/or the Ministry of Health of Russian Federation. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
- While Eco-Vector’s journals welcomes and encourages information-rich advertising, advertisements, advertising icons and advertiser logos must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content and may require special labeling to distinguish them as such. All advertisements must clearly and prominently identify the advertiser by trademark or signature.
- Reprints should be published only in the form in which they were originally published in the journal (including subsequent corrections), so there should be no additions or changes in them.
- Publisher is not responsible for incidental or consequential damage for errors in displaying or printing an advertisement.
- Advertisements may not imply endorsement by the Eco-Vector’s journals or its publications/web sites except as may be provided for under a separate agreement — in which case advertising must be pre-approved to ensure adherence to the letter and spirit of that separate agreement.
- The full rules for any market research or promotion associated with an advertisement must be displayed in the advertisement or available via a prominent link.
- The following online advertising formats are prohibited:
- Pop-ups and floating advertisements.
- Advertisements that collect personally identifiable information from visitors without their knowledge or permission.
- Advertisements that extend across or down the page without the visitor having clicked or rolled-over the advertisement.
- Advertisements that send visitors to another site without the visitor having clicked the advertisement.
Eco-Vector’s journals published advertising policies are not exhaustive and are subject to change at any time without notice.
We partner with third-party advertising companies to serve ads and/or collect certain information when you visit our website. These companies may use cookies or web beacons to collect non-personally identifiable information [not including your name, address, email address or telephone number] during your visit to this website to help show advertisements on other websites also likely to be of interest to you.
For contact with the Advertisement department of the Publisher, please, follow the link https://eco-vector.com/
Open Submissions
Peer Reviewed