Editorial Policies
The Scientific Journal of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedical Faculty applies editorial, publishing and ethics policies in compliance with international standards set by ICMJE, NLM, CSE, WMA, WAME, EASE and COPE. It is a double-blind peer-reviewed international journal published in English language on cardiovascular surgery and transplantation, cardiovascular and internal diseases and all relevant disciplines.
.Editors and owners/ publishers of the journal exercise principle of editorial freedom, editors` decisions are not affected by influence of owners/publishers, sponsors and commercial advertisement providers or medical industry, etc. The decisions are made solely based on originality and quality of submitted manuscripts for consideration for publication.
Reviewers are responsible to decline to review manuscript in presence of any type of conflict of interest: awareness of the submitted research/case report, authors or their institutions; as well as not to use confidential data presented in manuscript in any current or future their own projects and publications. The journal provides the standard reviewer form to be filled by reviewers, including the recommendations for authors and report for editors.
Articles submitted to the journal undergo unbiased double-blind (authors`, editors`, reviewers` names or their institutions, cities and countries of origin are not disclosed in articles, all authors, editors, reviewers participating in peer-review process are blinded) review by editors and external international reviewers (usually 2, but in case of disparate opinions 3rd reviewer is invited) experts on the topic of the manuscripts and authors of published manuscripts in international indexed journals relevant to the topic of the submitted for consideration manuscript. After receipt of submitted article, Editor-in-Chief sends article for initial review to deputy/section editors: cardiovascular surgery and transplantation; cardiology and internal medicine; electrophysiology, arrhythmias, interventional cardiology; cardiovascular imaging; and deputy/associate editors also evaluate articles on relevant disciplines/public health policies/education according to their additional areas of expertise. Section editors return article to editor within 1 week with recommendation and suggested reviewers for the article. The reviewers are informed on the principles of unbiased approach, confidentiality of manuscripts sent for review, timeliness of fulfilling reviewer assignment and quality of report. Reviewers are responsible to disclose and decline to review manuscript in presence of any type of conflict of interest: awareness of the submitted research/case report and authors or their institutions as well not to use confidential data presented in manuscript and any current of future their own projects and publications. The journal provides the standard reviewer form to be filled by reviewers, including the recommendations for authors and report for editors. Reviewers of the manuscripts are kept informed on co-reviewers reports in blind manner and final editor`s decision on manuscript. The average duration of article peer-review evaluation by reviewers – 3 weeks. Research articles and brief reports, meta-analyses and systematic reviews undergo evaluation by statistics editor of the journal. After receipt of editors`, external independent reviewers` and statistics editor`s recommendation, Editor-in-Chief makes decision based on the section editors` advice and reviewers’ reports: accept for publication, accept with minor revision, major revision with re-evaluation and reject. In cases of decisions, accept with minor revision or major revision, authors are required to submit the revised according to recommendations of editors and reviewers manuscript, highlighting changes in the articles, list of responses to comments and list of changes and letter to the editor accompanying revised manuscript within 3 weeks of receiving decision letter.
Editor of the journal carries responsibility for the content of the journal and has right to reject article at any step of evaluation after submission and peer-review in presence of any type of scientific or ethical misconduct. We use Crosscheck/Ithenticate software for similarity check, to prevent any ethical misconduct - plagiarism, etc. The articles might also be rejected after ``in-house`` review by editor and section editors on priority basis or when submitted work is out of scope of the journal, the work is returned to authors with recommendation of submission to other journals.
Editors of the journal do not exercise policy to reject manuscripts with negative results of the study or inconclusive results, as both types of research with well-explained rationale and design might contribute to current scientific evidence and may be used in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Adherence of editorial policies to standards of international publications: ethics and authorship policies are fully endorsed with ICMJE, NLM, CSE, WAME, WMA, COPE rules; presentation of scientific research and case reports are endorsed with guidelines on presentation of research, systematic reviews/meta-analyses, case reports (CONSORT, STROBE, STARD, PRISMA, ARRIVE, SAMPL, CARE, Equator Network, NLM and Heart Group recommendations); editors responsibilities regarding use of drugs and medical tools are presented in detail in the Instructions for Authors and Aims and Scope of journal.
Prepared by Dr. Reza Ghanei Gheshlagh - Editor-in-Chief of Scientific Journal of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedical Faculty
References:
- Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Updated December 2016. Available at: URL: www.icmje.org.Accessed on 9.01.2017
- Scott-Lichter D and the Editorial Policy Committee, Council of Science Editors. CSE’s White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications, 2012 Update. 3rd Revised Edition. Wheat Ridge, CO: 2012. Available at: URL: www.councilscienceeditors.org.Accessed on 09.01.2017.
- NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives (www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide.html).
- COPE: Committee on publication ethics. Code of conduct and best practice guidelines for journal editors. 2011. Available at URL: www.publicationethics.org
- World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: http://www.wma.net/e/ethicsunit/helsinki.htm (https://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html)
- International Association of Veterinary Editors` Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare – 2010: http://www.veteditors.org/consensus-author-guideli...
- Editors of the Heart Group Journals. Statement of matching language to the type of evidence used in describing observational studies vs. randomized trials. Eur Heart J 2013; 34: 20-21.
- EQUATOR Network. http://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guideline...
- ClinicalTrials.gov
