- » Aim and Scope
- » Section Policies
- » Publication Frequency
- » Open Access Policy
- » Archiving
- » Peer-Review
- » Indexation
- » Publishing Ethics
- » Founder
- » Author fees
- » Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
- » Plagiarism detection
- » Preprint and postprint Policy
Aim and Scope
The journal publishes articles with latest researches in the field of biomedicine, results of fundamental and clinical studies, experiments, reviews, and lectures, aimed at improvement of knowledge among practitioners, specialists, researchers, professors, and students. It presents promising and interesting new data on various areas of biomedicine, promotes the formation and development of promising areas of research practice, informs about breakthroughs in scientific research and achievements, manages the exchange of views between researchers from Russia and foreign countries; and contributes to the formation of a modern scientific, educational and methodological level among specialists in various fields of medicine.
Section Policies
Open Submissions
IndexedPublication Frequency
6 issues per year
Open Access Policy
"Acta Biomedica Scientifica" is an open access journal. All articles are made freely available to readers immediatly upon publication.
Our open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition - it means that articles have free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.
For more information please read BOAI statement.
Archiving
- Russian State Library (RSL)
- National Electronic-Information Consortium (NEICON)
Peer-Review
All submitted articles pass obligatory double blind review (the authors of the manuscript do not know the reviewers, the reviewers do not know the authors).
1. The review of articles is carried out by at least two members of the editorial board and the editorial council, as well as by external reviewers – leading experts in the corresponding field of medicine and biology of Russia and other countries. The editor-in-chief, deputy editors-in-chief, scientific editor, executive secretary decide on who will be reviewing the manuscript. The review period is 2-3 weeks, but at the reviewer’s request the period can be extended.
2. Any reviewer should refuse reviewing the article in the case of a conflict of interest, which can influence on the perception and interpretation of the manuscript materials.
After the manuscript being reviewed, the reviewer gives recommendations on the article (each decision of the reviewer is justified):
- the article is recommended for publication without changes;
- the article is recommended for publication after authors’ rectification based on the reviewer’s corrections advice without re-reviewing;
- the article is recommended for publication after authors’ rectification based on the reviewer’s corrections advice and further re-reviewing process;
- the article should be reviewed by more specialist;
- the article should not be published in the journal.
3. Copies of all reviews are sent to authors. If the review contains recommendations for the article rectification, the editorial board of the journal sends the author a text of the review with urging to take recommendations into account when preparing a new version of the article, or to refute them in a reasoned (partial or complete) way. The revision of the article should not take more than 2 months from the moment of sending an electronic message to the authors on the need to make changes.
4. In case of authors’ refusal to modify the materials, they should, in written or oral form, notify the editorial office of their refusal to publish the article. If the authors do not return the revised version after 3 months from the date of sending the review, even if there’s no information of authors’ refusal to modify the article, the editorial board removes it from the register. In such situations, the authors are notified of the removal of the manuscript from the registration in connection with the expiration of the time, allotted for revision.
5. If an author and reviewers have insoluble contradictions regarding the manuscript, the editorial board has the right to send the manuscript for additional reviews. If the conflict takes place, the decision is made by the editor-in-chief at a meeting of the editorial board.
6. The decision to refuse a manuscript is made at the meeting of the editorial board in accordance with the recommendations of reviewers. If the editorial board does not recommend the article for publication, the article will not be accepted for reconsideration. Substantiated refusal to publish the article is emailed to the author.
7. After editorial board accepted the article for publication, the editorial office informs the author about it and specifies the terms of publication.
8. Positive review is not a sufficient ground for the article publication. The editorial board makes the final decision about the article publication. In conflict situations, the editor-in-chief makes the decision.
9. Storage period of reviews is 5 years.
10. Reviews are available for the Higher Attestation Commission on request.
Indexation
Articles in "Acta Biomedica Scientifica" are indexed by several systems:
- Russian Scientific Citation Index (RSCI) – a database, accumulating information on papers by Russian scientists, published in native and foreign titles. The RSCI project is under development since 2005 by “Electronic Scientific Library” foundation (elibrary.ru).
- Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest scholarly publishers, plus scholarly books and other non-peer reviewed journals.
- Cyberleninka
- DOAJ
- EDS
- Oxford Library
- WorldCat
- SOCIONET
- Lens
- Research4life
Publishing Ethics
Publishing ethics principles have been developed in accordance with the international ethical rules of scientific publications: Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE); Recommendations on Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals by World Medical Association (WMA), and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), as well as Ethics Committee of Russian Association of Science Editors and Publishers.
The principles of editorial ethics are approved and accepted by the founders of the journal and members of the editorial board and council. The editors are responsible for compliance with the publishing ethics principles.
Ethical requirements
Editorial office responsibilities
- Act objectively and fairly without discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnicity or geographical origin of the authors;
- All submitted articles should be objectively evaluated from the point of view of their scientific significance without any commercial influence.
- All complaints and inconsistencies should be considered. It is necessary to give the author an opportunity to respond to any complaints and substantiate the existing contradictions;
- All complaints must be considered regardless of publication approval/disapproval date;
- Editorial office ensures the objectivity and impartiality of the work of reviewers, timely identifying cases of violations and taking measures to eliminate them;
- The journal has a double blind reviewing system, so the editorial office ensures the anonymity of the identities of reviewers.
Responsibilities of the reviewers
- A reviewer should act objectively and in a timely manner to make sure that an article is worth publishing and to help improve the quality of it;
- Confidentiality should be kept regarding any information presented by editors or authors. The reviewer should not keep a copy of the article;
- A reviewer is obliged to notify the editorial office and in case of a potential conflict of interest (financial, organizational or other relations between the reviewer and the author(s));
- In their work, reviewers are guided by the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity (2010).
Authors’ rights and responsibilities
- Author should adhere to ethical standards when conducting a research and preparing the results for publication. Especially it concerns the objects of research whether they are people or animals. The study must have the approval of the local ethics committee, the voluntary consent of the people participating in the research, a statement of compliance with the Helsinki Declaration;
- authors must observe the legislation of the Russian Federation;
- authors realize that they are personally responsible for the novelty and validity of scientific research results, which implies following the principles:
- the authors of the article should present valid results of the conducted studies. Obviously erroneous or falsified statements are unacceptable;
- the authors must ensure that the results of the study are authentic. Borrowed fragments or ideas must be prepared with a mandatory indication of the author and the source. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unformed quotes, paraphrasing or assignment of rights to the results of other people's research, is unethical and unacceptable and may be the basis for rejecting the manuscript from publication. The author fully assumes responsibility for the possible plagiarism of text, drawings, etc. Any copyright infringement will be examined according to the COPE algorithm.
- article authors can only be researchers who have made a significant contribution to the research and writing of the work (for example, design development, data collection, analysis and processing, direct writing of the article, etc.). Among co-authors, it is not necessary to indicate persons who have not made a significant contribution to the work (for example, editing, translation, assistance in writing / writing an article, etc.). In this case, it is recommended that these people be indicated in the Acknowledgments section. The practice of gift and ghost authorship is not allowed. It is necessary to provide the consent of all authors for the publication of the manuscript. As well as all changes in the content of the article, changes in the list of authors should be agreed with all authors with written confirmation.
- authors should not submit a manuscript that has been sent to another journal and is under consideration, as well as an article already published in another journal;
- if the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, s/he should notify the editors as soon as possible;
- The author is responsible for compliance with the Helsinki Declaration on the Ethical Principles of Medical Research, approved by the World Medical Association (WMA) in 1964 and revised at the 64th Congress of the WMA General Assembly in 2013; European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experiments and Other Scientific Purposes (ETS No. 123)), Strasbourg, 18 March 1986, and adopted on the basis of this document regulatory acts of the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union) and Russia. The author must obtain permission to publish from the person (s) who participated in the study and follow the confidentiality principles;
- The authors must provide information on the commercial organizations that supported the research or publication, for posting in the journal and on any other conflicts of interest that may have an impact on the content of the manuscript;
Authors should understand that an article may be rejected if the following facts are discovered:
- the article does not comply with the requirements for the publication of articles, published on the website of the journal Acta Biomedica Scientifica;
- the author’s refusal to follow the recommendations of the editorial board to eliminate errors during article preparation;
- there is a violation of the principles of the Helsinki Declaration on the Ethical Principles of Medical Research, approved by the World Medical Association (WMA);
- there is no report of the ethical committee for research, the results of which are contained in the article;
- the article contains plagiarism or faked data;
- the results of the study have already been published.
Procedure for considering ethical violations
To resolve issues and complaints related to possible violations of the principles of editorial ethics, a commission is formed. The chairman and members of the commission are elected from the members of the editorial board and the editorial council by voting. The composition, procedure of the commission and contacts of the person to whom complaints are addressed, are posted on the journal’s website. The commission considers complaints from authors, readers, reviewers, editors.
Identification of ethical violations
Illegal or unethical behavior should be identified and communicated to the editor and publisher at any stage of the publication process.
Anyone who informs the editor or publisher about violations should provide sufficient information and evidence. All applications and appeals will be accepted, reviewed and processed.
Investigation
The decision to investigate is taken by the editor, who, if necessary, can ask the publisher for help.
It is necessary to gather evidence avoiding any charges.
Minor violations: Consideration of minor violations does not require consultation of a large number of specialists, and in any case, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any charges.
Serious violations: In case of serious violations, the employer of the accused must be notified. The editor, together with the publisher or scientific society, decides whether to invite the employer, or the investigation is conducted by examining the available data, consulting with a limited number of experts.
The consequences may be:
- Indication to author or reviewer of violation;
- An official letter to the author or reviewer indicating deviations in order to prevent deviations from ethical standards in his subsequent articles;
- An official letter to the head of the author, reviewer or to the finance department;
- An official refusal to publish, as well as an official notification to the head of the author, the review department, the indexing and abstracting agency, and the readers of the publication;
- The ban on the publication of this author for a certain period of time;
Declaration of Privacy
The information about the authors (last name, first name, name of the affiliated organization, address of the organization, e-mail address, phone for communication with the author), provided for publication in the journal, becomes available to the indefinite number of persons, to which the authors give written consent signing the relevant application contained in the License Agreement, provided as part of the accompanying documents to the article (the license agreement form is posted on the website). The publication of the mentioned above information is carried out in the interests of the authors to fully and correctly consider publications and their citations by the relevant bibliographic organizations and to ensure the possibility of contacts between the authors and scientific community.
The personal information provided by the authors in addition to the information listed above, including additional e-mail addresses and telephone numbers, will be used only for contacts with authors during article preparation. The editorial board undertakes not to transfer this personal information to the third parties who may use it for any other purposes.
Founder
- Scientific Centre for Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems
Author fees
For articles, submitted in 2018 the price for 8 page paper is 2300 rubles (considering 12 type size, Times New Roman, 1.5 interline). Every additional page counts 150 rubles. Publication in colour is charged additionally.
Starting from 2019, the price for article publication will be 10000 rubles (this includes a paper up to 6 000 words excluding references; and coloured, and black and white illustrations)
Publication is free for postgraduates undergoing residency if he or she is the only author of the paper.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.
Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Plagiarism detection
"Acta Biomedica Scientifica" use native russian-language plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.
Preprint and postprint Policy
Prior to acceptance and publication in "Acta Biomedica Scientifica", authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites.
As part of submission process, authors are required to confirm that the submission has not been previously published, nor has been submitted. After a manuscript has been published in "Acta Biomedica Scientifica" we suggest that the link to the article on journal's website is used when the article is shared on personal or public websites.
Glossary (by SHERPA)
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