Editorial policies of Medical Ethics stipulate requirements for submitted manuscripts and responsibilities of the parties involved in the preparation of the manuscript for publication. We understand that editorial policies cannot cover the whole range of possible questions, therefore do not hesitate to contact as at bioethics@rsmu.ru if you have any concerns or doubts.

Manuscripts are submitted online on our website. After completing the registration procedure, the author should use the “Submit a manuscript” tab in their user account. A step-by-step article submission guide is available in the section “For Authors”. To contact tech support, please email to bioethics@rsmu.ru.

No publication fee applicable.

Manuscript title should not be longer than 12 words.

Research quality requirements

A good manuscript is always a result of a good research study. We recommend that the study should be scrupulously planned according to the international guidelines published on EQUATOR Network website. Guidelines on the planning of biological and biomedical research are available on the BioSharing searchable portal. Our science editors check the submitted manuscripts for compliance with international standards.

Research studies involving human subjects must be approved by a local ethics committee or, in the absence thereof, must comply with the 2013 revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. Any deviations from the standards established by the Declaration must be well-reasoned by the author and discussed and approved by the Academic Board of the institution that carries out or hosts the study.

A clinical trial should be registered with the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare or any of the registries accredited by WHO prior to the selection of participants. The trial ID must be specified in the Methods section of the article. If the trial has not been registered, the author must explain the reason to the science editor.

Trial participants have a right to privacy, and their personal data can be disclosed only after obtaining written informed consent from each participant. Participants have a right to familiarize themselves with the article text and photographs before giving their consent. If the study involves children, informed consent must be obtained from their parents. Written consents must be retained by the author and provided to the Editorial Board upon request. Information on the informed consent must be provided in the Methods section of the article.

Animal studies must be approved by a local Ethics Committee. We recommend that researchers should follow the ARRIVE guidelines (Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) suggested by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals In Research (NC3Rs). If the experiment is carried out in the species for which no ethical requirements have been stipulated, the author must provide reasons for his/her choice of the species.

Style requirements

The article should be written in plain language to be comprehensible to a non-specialist reader. Generally accepted terms should be used and scientific jargon should be avoided: it is not the convoluted language, but the quality and the importance of the study that make it a true science. Copy-editing is used to correct mistakes and improve the style of the manuscript.

Manuscript structure

Manuscript sections must be presented in the following order:

• Title page (contains information about the author(s), title, abstract, and keywords)
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• References in Russian and English («Литература» and References).

For articles of other types, such Opinion, the structure and section names can be different. Requirements for section content are included in the manuscript template.

Formatting

The manuscript must be submitted as a .doc file. Formatting specifications are provided in the template. Tables, images and captions should be arranged in separate files.

Tables should be provided as .xls (Microsoft Excel) files, one table per sheet. Table titles and legends should be provided as a separate .doc file (all tables in one file). All columns and rows must be titled; measurement units must be specified for each parameter presented in the table. Bulleted lists should be avoided. Tables must be referred to in the manuscript as (Table 1), (Tables 1, 2) or (Tables 1-3).

Images should be provided as .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, or .eps files, at 300 dpi resolution. The image can be in color or black and white, but it must be clear and sharp. If there is a graph, it must be provided with an .xls table it is based on. Titles and captions (legends) should be provided as a separate .doc file (all images in one file). Images must be referred to in the manuscript as (Fig. 1), (Fig. 1, 2) or (Fig. 1-3).

The reference list should be compiled as shown in the Sample References recommended by ICMJE and accepted (with slight modifications) by PubMed. Our journal does not use the Russian GOST (All-Union State Standard) Р 7.0.5 – 2008. References must be cited in the article body as [1], [1, 2], [1–3]. Cited sources must be included in the reference list in the order they appear in the manuscript. It means that reference [10] cannot come earlier in the text than references [1-9]. The reference list should be provided in both Russian and English. If there is a translation for a Russian article, it must appear on the reference list of an English version instead of the original Russian source. Otherwise, the author can provide a translated title of the original source in square brackets or transliterate the title. For transliteration, we recommend the online service Транслит по-русски (select BGN from the menu Варианты). Examples of properly formatted reference lists are given in the manuscript template.

Manuscript requirements: summary

Author Agreement

Author Agreement stipulates the terms of collaboration between the journal and the authors.

In this Agreement, the authors confirm that they meet the criteria for authorship and specify the contribution each of the authors have made to the study and manuscript preparation; the authors disclose funding sources; the authors confirm that the study complies with ethical requirements, give their consent for the distribution of the published article under CC BY 4.0 license, etc.

Criteria for authorship are described in Section 4 of the Editorial Policies.

Note that a signed Agreement should be sent to the Editor right after the article has been approved for publication. We recommend that the authors familiarize themselves with the Agreement before receiving the approval in order to save time.

Conflict of Interests Statement

A conflict of interests occurs when professional judgment of the researcher is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain, family ties, academic competition or opposing scientific views. Authors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest so that readers could recognize biases in their work.

Note that each author must fill in a separate copy of the Conflict of Interests Statement. Statement forms are attached to the Author Agreement.

Copy of the expert report of the Ethics Committee

Studies involving animals or humans must be approved by a local Ethics Committee. If there is no such committee in the area where the study is going to be conducted, researchers must follow the guidelines of the 2013 revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. Any deviation from these guidelines must be explained by the authors and approved by the Academic Board of the institution that carries out or hosts the study. In this case, the authors are expected to provide a copy of the expert report approved by the Academic Board.

Responsibilities of authors

An author of a publication is a person who:

• has largely contributed to the study design, data collection, data analysis or interpretation of study results; AND
• has taken part in the preparation of the manuscript draft or made edits in the manuscript; AND
• has taken part in the preparation of the final version of the article; AND
• is ready to take responsibility for all aspects of the work.

A person who does not meet any of these criteria cannot be designated as the author of the article and should be credited in the Acknowledgements section. Deciding on who qualifies for authorship is up to the team of authors who worked on the manuscript. The Editorial Board does not arbitrate conflicts between the authors.

Note that if authors request addition or removal of an author after the manuscript has been submitted, they will be asked to provide a statement of agreement signed by all authors, including those to be added or removed.

Note that the author must obtain a written permission from all individuals or organizations to be acknowledged because acknowledgement suggests that those acknowledged endorse the research. Although such permission does not have to be attached to the submitted manuscript, it must be sent over to the editor upon request.

Authors must adhere to the ethical standards of the journal, including those stipulating the disclosure of the conflicts of interests.

One of the authors is designated as a corresponding author and is expected to communicate with the Editorial Board on behalf of all other authors. The corresponding author must respond to the queries of the Editorial Board within 3 days, otherwise the manuscript may be rejected.

Responsibilities of peer reviewers

Peer reviewers consent to be unbiased, honest and polite in giving their professional opinion and to offer constructive criticism. They guarantee confidentiality: manuscripts cannot be discussed with third parties without informing the Editor-in-Chief; manuscript ideas cannot be appropriated or used, e.g. for personal gain, prior to publication. Should a conflict of interests arise, a peer reviewer must excuse himself/herself from the review process. A peer review must be prepared according to the journal standards within the established time limit. A peer reviewer must be able to respond to each question related to their review.

Responsibilities of editors

Editors must ensure confidentiality of the process of manuscript preparation for publication. Editorial staff cannot share ideas proposed in the submitted manuscript with third parties. Editors must ensure that peer reviewers understand the importance of confidentiality.

If a manuscript has been rejected before peer reviewing, it will be removed from our database. If the article has been rejected based on the expert assessment, it will be stored in the database for 5 years.

Editors must ensure timely peer review and publication. If a manuscript receives approval, Editors should make any effort to publish the article within the agreed time limit. Any delay must be agreed on with the authors. If a manuscript is rejected, Editors must contact the authors as soon as possible.

Editors must ensure that peer review of the submitted manuscripts is arranged in accordance with established peer review standards and criteria for the selection of peer reviewers.

Note that the Editor-in-Chief is ultimately responsible for the publication of articles and journal content. He is entitled to decide in favor of the publication of the article that received negative feedback from peer reviewers.

Unintended mistakes are a part of the publication process, and Editors are obliged to publish information about any factual inaccuracies right after they are detected. Withdrawal of the published work or its part is regulated by the ethical guidelines of the journal.

Ethical standards we adhere to are based on the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Our standards cannot cover the whole range of possible issues and in controversial cases we will follow the COPE guidelines.

Authorship

Bulletin if RSMU follows ICMJE criteria for authorship specified in Section 4 of the Editorial Policies. Authors should bear in mind that any researcher who is involved in research planning or data collection, analysis or interpretation is eligible to prepare a draft or a final version of the article and cannot be excluded from the list of authors on formal grounds.

Originality of submitted work

Editors of Medical Ethics accept manuscripts that have not been previously published elsewhere, in whole or in part and/or in other languages, or are not under consideration by other journals. If the manuscript presents the results that were used for the preparation of other manuscripts in which the authors were designated as co-authors, the authors must inform the editors and provide links to such articles.

We can accept a manuscript that has been previously published in other languages only if the information it contains is extremely important and needs to be spread as widely as possible and the journal that has initially published the work can give permission for republication. Such article must contain an explicit reference to the original.

A manuscript that presents a reanalysis of previously published data must include a reference to the original source.

Scientific misconduct

Violation of regulations for research planning

Any inconsistencies with international guidelines for research planning or the use of methods/techniques that have not found application in routine practice can lead to the distortion of study results or manipulation of research data or statistical analysis data. The editors of Medical Ethics insist that researchers should follow international guidelines for research planning and design and timely notify the editors of any deviations from international standards providing a rationale for their decision.

Authors must abide by the laws of the Russian Federation while conducting their research.

Authorship conflicts

Violation of crediting authorship occurs in case of the unreasoned removal/addition of an author from/to the list of authors or manuscript submission without receiving consent from each listed author. Deciding on who qualifies for authorship is up to the team of authors who worked on the manuscript. The Editorial Board does not determine who qualifies as an author and does not arbitrate authorship conflicts. However, the Editor-in-Chief reserves a right to refuse publication if this kind of misconduct is discovered.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s published or unpublished ideas, thoughts, expressions or other intellectual property without consent or full acknowledgement of their author as one’s own, new and original . If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript will be refused immediately with no right of resubmission, and the Editorial Board will issue a warning to the research institution the author is affiliated with.

Self-plagiarism is presenting one’s own previously published work, in whole or in part, as new and original. The most common violations here are: changing the text of the article without improving its informative value in comparison with the previously published work; submission of a manuscript that contains data presented at a conference over a year ago; submission of a manuscript that contains data presented in the dissertation that was defended over a year ago. Such works are not novel and cannot be published.

Self-citation is citation of a previously published manuscript on the same subject without using a proper citation format. Self-citation is not considered plagiarism, but is also unacceptable. If self-citation is extensive, the article will not be refused, but the author will be asked to introduce necessary edits to their work.

Falsification of data

Falsification of data is fabrication or intentional distortion or concealment of data that contradict to author’s hypothesis or conclusions. If fabrication or intentional data distortion are detected, the manuscript will be refused with no right of resubmission. In this case, the Editorial Board will issue a warning to the research institution the author is affiliated with. If some data are concealed, the manuscript may be rejected, but is still eligible for resubmission if the authors submit the data in full and make necessary corrections to their conclusions.

Conflict of interests

A conflict of interests occurs when professional judgment of the researcher is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain, family ties, academic competition or opposing scientific views. Authors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest so that readers could recognize biases in their work. If a conflict of interests is declared, it will be published along with the article. If a conflict of interests is discovered after manuscript publication, the journal will publish this information separately, and the authors will be required to write an explanation letter.

Full or partial withdrawal of a publication

Should the Editorial Board have any concerns about the ethical aspect of the entire publication or its part, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the research institution that carried out or hosted the study requesting clarification. If ethical misconduct is detected, the journal will publish a rejection note and launch an investigation of all previously published works submitted by the authors in question. If ethical misconduct cannot be proved, the journal may still publish a notification of the ethical misconduct and appeal to the scientific community to discuss the issue.

The Editor-in-Chief is accountable for the content and quality of the journal. However, to ensure that his decisions are unbiased and all aspects of various research areas are taken into account, the Editorial Board was established.

To become a member of the Editorial Board, an applicant must be a researcher with the Candidate or Doctor of Sciences degree who has been publishing his/her work in Russian or foreign scientific journals on a regular basis (no less than 3 works a year on his/her field of interest) and has never violated regulations for publication ethics. If a member of the Editorial Board is caught violating the author code of conduct, he/she will be immediately dismissed from the Board with no right to reenter.

Members of the Editorial Board peer review submitted manuscripts, give their expert opinion on the articles of dubious quality, give feedback to the Editor-in-Chief after an issue has been published, and suggest topics for publication. Peer review and expert assessment of the articles of dubious quality are performed upon the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

Membership can be terminated following the decision of the Editor-in-Chief. The number of members is not limited. If he/she is willing to, a member is free to quit the Board. This position is volunteer and is not paid for.

If you would like to become a member of the Editorial Board of Medical Ethics, please contact us at bioethics@rsmu.ru. Please specify Editorial Board in the subject line, provide information on your area of interest and tell us about your most significant scientific achievements.

All submitted manuscripts are peer reviewed. For each manuscript, peer reviewers are selected by the Editor-in-Chief.

We use a blind peer review model: the peer reviewer and the author do not know each other’s names. The authors have a right to familiarize themselves with the review of their work. To improve quality of peer review, the Editor-in-Chief can forward the review prepared by one peer reviewer to another peer reviewer. In this case, a review is anonymous. Copies of peer reviews may be forwarded to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon request.

A peer review is styled according to the established template. It must be compiled by a peer reviewer and then sent from the email that allows to identify the reviewer to bioethics@rsmu.ru along with the original .doc copy of the manuscript. A signature and a seal of the research institution the author is affiliated with are not required. A review must be prepared within the agreed time limit, but no later than within 10 days after the manuscript was received by a peer reviewer. The reviewer must timely respond to the questions of the author and the editor giving comments and detailed explanations for his edits.

Based on a peer review, a manuscript may be rejected, published as is or revised; based on the decision of the Editor-in-Chief, additional peer review of the revised manuscript can be carried out. The final decision on the publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Reviews are stored in our database for 5 years.

Rules for peer review

A peer reviewer must be a researcher who has published no less than 3 works on the subject of a reviewed manuscript over the past year. When deciding on the right candidate, the Editor-in-Chief takes into account their reputation, recommendations of the authors and members of the Editorial Board, his own experience of working with the reviewer, etc.

Once the author is notified that his manuscript will be subject to peer review, he/she can recommend a peer reviewer or provide a list of those reviewers he/she would not like to work with. Although the Editor-in-Chief can consider the author’s wishes, the final decision is up to him.

Become a reviewer

To become a reviewer, please write to bioethics@rsmu.ru: specify Become a Reviewer in the subject line, provide information on your area of interest and tell us about your most significant scientific achievements.