Procedure for peer reviewing the manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal
All the manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal are peer reviewed (double-blind peer review).
The journal provides peer reviewing of all the submitted materials that are within the remit of the journal for expert evaluation. We select reviewers from among the members of the editorial board and leading international/Russian experts in the relevant fields of medicine. All reviewers are recognized experts on the subject of peer-reviewed materials and have publications on the subject of the reviewed article for the last 3 years.
Within the next 7 days after submitting the article the editorial board will inform of receiving the manuscript. A decision on acceptance or rejection is usually taken within 3 weeks. The review period can be extended at the request of the reviewer.
The peer reviews are stored in the publishing and editorial office for 5 years.
For articles in which it would be difficult to achieve complete anonymity of the author, we allow semi-anonymous review, when only the place of work of the author is disclosed to the reviewer. In no case is the author's name reported to the reviewers.
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).
