Editorial policy of the journal "Vitebsk Medical Jornal"
Editorial ethics
The editorial board of the journal "Vestnik Vitebskogo gosudarstvennogo Meditsinskogo Universiteta"/ "Vitebsk Medical Jornal" follows "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals" developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Publisher does everything possible for the creation and dissemination of accurate, clear and easily understood reports on biomedical research, ethical practices, adopted by the international scientific community.
The journal "Vitebsk Medical Jornal" represents audience original works of the scientists of Vitebsk State Medical University, Belarus, CIS and other countries which are of great importance for medicine, normal life as well as for training improvement at medical universities.
The journal "Vitebsk Medical Jornal" examines a wide range of issues of biology, pathophysiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, clinical medicine. It is open to all interested individuals and organizations. One of the most important aspects of the editorial board work is active involvement of new authors and broad discussion of new materials.
The editorial board is aware of the responsibility for the proper presentation of research results, analysis findings and reviews.
One of the highlights of the journal policy is a thorough review of the materials placed in publication. Reviewing of all incoming manuscripts the editorial board carries out in accordance with the established procedure of reviewing and publishing. Based on a review, the editorial board may decide to publish, to recommend the author of an article to modify it or reject the article. The decision on publication depends on accuracy, scientific and practical importance and relevance of the work in question. There is no fee for publishing an article in a journal.
The editorial board makes every effort to ensure that "Vitebsk Medical Jornal" is accessible and readable. The editorial board constantly works on improving the journal, takes all possible measures to ensure the quality of the published material.
All the participants of the process of preparation of materials for publication in the journal - authors, reviewers, editorial board members, representatives of the publishing house - must follow the standards of publication ethics outlined below.
Publications of the journal "Vitebsk Medical Jornal" archived in depository: National Library of Belarus, Republican scientific medical library, eLIBRARY.RU, Institutional Repository of Vitebsk State Medical University Library
Duties of the editorial board
Decision on publication and reviewing
• Editorial board has the exclusive right to accept the manuscript for publication or reject it.
• Editorial board guarantees that no financial interests can affect the requirements for considered and published materials.
• The manuscript may be rejected by the editorial board at the stage prior to reviewing, if there is a good reason for it (the subject of an article does not correspond to the subject of the journal, the article has obviously low scientific quality; the article has been previously published in another publication, the submitted article has a fundamental contradiction to the ethical principles which the journal adheres to).
• Editorial board assesses articles basing on their intellectual content, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, nationality or political views of the author.
• Editorial board decides on the publication of materials with their compulsory reviewing by experts on the subject of the article.
• Editorial board guarantees high quality of the materials published in the journal and the integrity of their contents, the board also publishes corrections, explanations, apologies of editors as well as authors, when the need arises.
Confidentiality
• Manuscript materials are the private property of authors, and they contain the information not subject to disclosure.
• Editorial board does not disclose the information about the submitted manuscript to anyone else, except the author, reviewers or potential reviewers.
• Editorial board keeps secret the names of reviewers and does not inform the reviewers about the names of authors. Thus, the reviewers are able to express their motivated criticisms freely concerning the level and clarity of the material presented, its correspondence to the profile of the journal, novelty and reliability of results.
• Reviewers neither come into the public discussion of the presented work nor express their views and ideas before the manuscript is published.
Disclosure of information and conflict of interests
• Unpublished materials contained in the work submitted for consideration, can not be used in the work the chief editor, members of the editorial board, reviewers and other staff involved in work on the material submitted for the consideration, without prior written consent of the author.
• Chief editor assures that he will not consider the work presented in case of the presence of a conflict of interests arising out of competition, cooperation or a different kind of relationships with authors and institutions associated with this work (chief editor’s functions can be accepted by his deputy or another member of the editorial board).
Duties of authors
Authorship of the work
• The authors of the publication can be only those who have made significant contribution into the concept and structure of the research or analysis and interpretation of data, writing the text of the article or introducing any fundamental changes in the approval of the final version.
• The order in which the authors are listed is determined by their joint decision.
• Those involved in the implementation of the study but do not meet the requirements of the authorship are indicated by the authors in the "Acknowledgements".
• It is also necessary to specify individuals and organizations funding the research and providing other financial assistance.
• The authors retain the copyright.
Originality and plagiarism
• Authors should indicate that their work is published for the first time. If the elements of the manuscript have been previously published in an another article, the authors are obliged to refer to the earlier work and specify what a significant difference is between the new work from the previous one.
• The author can not publish the manuscript for the most part dedicated to the same survey in more than one journal as an original publication. Presentation of the same manuscript simultaneously in more than one journal is perceived as unethical and unacceptable.
• Word for word copying of their own articles and their paraphrasing are unacceptable, they can only be used as the basis for new findings.
• Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and unacceptable.
Requirements for manuscripts
• The article must contain accurate information confirming the results. Submission of false facts is considered a violation of the code of ethics and is unacceptable;
• The authors may be requested raw data pertaining to the manuscript for reviewing the article. Authors should be prepared to provide public access to such information and store the data for one year after publication.
Recognition of primary sources
• Bibliographic references to the works used are required.
• When using text or graphic information obtained from the works of other authors, references to the relevant publications or written permission of the author are necessary.
Conflict of interests
• All authors must disclose the information about their grants obtained as well as the information on any financial and other material conflicts of interests that could affect research results or their interpretation. In case of funding sources and other forms of support, authors are required to specify them correctly.
• The author should make a statement about a possible conflict of interests in a cover letter when submitting articles to the editorial board. In this case the author can ask to exclude a specific reviewer from considering his article.
Respect for the rights of patients
• If the work supposes participation of people as objects of study, authors should ensure that the manuscript states that all stages of the study are of relevant legislation and regulations of research organizations and approved by the relevant committees. The manuscript should clearly state that of all the people, who have become objects of study, informed consent was obtained. The rights to privacy must always be ensured.
Ethical aspects of the use of animals in medical research
• When describing experiments on animals authors are required to reflect the in the article the information concerning compliance of management and use of laboratory animals in the study with international, national rules or the rules of ethical treatment of animals in the institution in which the work was performed.
Significant errors in published works
• If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the publication, the author must immediately notify the editor of the journal for an early error correction or removal of publication, the timely correction of errors and inaccuracies identified by a reviewer or editor.
• If the chief editor gets to know from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, the responsibility of the author is to disprove immediately or correct the article, or to present the evidence of accuracy of the published article to the editor.
Duties of reviewers
Every article is reviewed by independent experts who are all free to express motivated criticisms regarding the level and clarity of the material presented, its correspondence to the profile of the journal, novelty and accuracy of results.
Reviewing procedure helps editors decide on publication, and may help the author improve the quality of the work.
The reviewer who thinks that he is not qualified enough to review the manuscript or does not have time for quick execution of work must notify the Editor about this fact and ask to exclude him from the process of reviewing of the relevant manuscript.
Objectivity
• The reviewer is obliged to give an objective assessment of the manuscript, avoiding personal criticism of the author.
• The reviewer should assess the intellectual contents of the manuscript, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, nationality or political opinions of its author.
• The reviewer is obliged to express his opinion clearly and supply it with appropriate arguments.
Recognition of the primary sources
• Reviewers should identify relevant published works corresponding to the subject of the manuscript and not included in its bibliography. Any claim (observation, conclusion or argument) published earlier must have a corresponding bibliographic reference in the manuscript.
• The reviewer is obliged to draw attention of the chief editor to similarity of the article presented with any other one known to the reviewer.
Confidentiality
• Any manuscript received for reviewing must be seen as a confidential document. This work can not be open and discussed with any persons who do not have proper authority from the editors.
• Reviewers must not use the information obtained for reviewing for personal reasons or interests of other persons.
Disclosure Policy and conflicts of interests
• Reviewers should declare a possible conflict of interests between the reviewer and the reviewed article, its authors or the organization funding this research and must give up the review of the work presented. If there is a conflict of interests between the author and the reviewer, the article should be transferred to another reviewer.
Conflict of interests
A conflict of interest concerning a particular manuscript may occur if one of the participants in the reviewing process or publication - author, reviewer or editor - has obligations, which could affect its opinion. The reasons for the conflict of interests arising in the course of the publication of articles can be financial and personal relationships, academic competition, intellectual passions of immediate participants of publishing (authors, reviewers, editors), as well as their close relatives.
All participants of preparing process of the manuscript for publication are obliged to inform the editorial board of a potential cause for conflict of interests.
Public confidence in reviewing process and credibility of published articles depends in part on how well conflict of interests problem was solved during their writing, reviewing and editing.
Complaints about ethical issues in relation to the manuscript or articles
Chief editor takes reasonably quick actions in response to complaints of ethical character for submitted manuscripts or published articles. In the case of confirmation of the complaint validity, the correction, disproof or any other appropriate statement is published. Each ethical complaint shall be considered, even if received a few years after publication.
