1. Editor Role and Responsibility
The ethics policy of the Ulyanovsk Medico-biological Journal is based on the guidelines Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Editorial Board bears full responsibility for the publishing of submitted materials (other than promotional) in “Ulyanovsk Medico-Biological Journal”. Therefore, Editorial Board is responsible for observance of ethical principles in regard to:
• readers;
• author(s);
• objects of research;
• sponsor(s) of research and publications;
• reviewer(s).
Editorial Responsibility to the Readers
- the Editorial Board ensures readers that all the information published in the Journal is reliable, accurate, impartial and not biased by any interests of advertisers or other organizations;
- the Editorial Board provides readers with information about the authors of the articles published in the Journal and institutions where the research was conducted;
- the Editorial Board informs readers about the participation of commercial organizations and their role in research and/or publications, and about any other conflicts of interest, which may affect research results;
- the Editorial Board considers readers’ comments and suggestions, which can help to improve the quality of the Journal; issues of concern from the readers may be published in “Letters to the Editor”;
- the Editorial Board considers readers’ complaints about the materials published in the Journal and informs readers about the measures taken;
- the Editorial Board publishes corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed;
- the Editorial Board takes measures to correct or remove all errors if detected;
- the Editorial Board must do everything possible to prevent compromise of intellectual and ethical standards;
- the Editorial Board is not responsible for the content of announcements and promotional materials published in the Journal.
Editorial Responsibility to the Authors
- the Editorial Board has the right to accept or reject manuscripts submitted for publication, taking into consideration reviewers’ report on relevance, originality and validity of information contained in the manuscript, its relevance to the remit of the Journal and Policy of Ethical Standards;
- reviewing is conducted according to the procedure adopted in the Journal;
- procedure for reviewing manuscripts submitted for publication is available at: Rules for the authors;
- the Editorial Board may not be interested in acceptance or rejection of the manuscript; in case of abuse of position, a member of the Editorial Board is disqualified and the author is offered written apologies;
- manuscripts are accepted only if there is sufficient evidence in favor of their publication; manuscripts are rejected only if there is sufficient evidence in favor of their rejection;
- authors are notified of the reasons for rejection; they are sent recommendations on revising the manuscript;
- a copy of the review is send to the author on request; it can be also sent to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on request therefor;
- in the case the author disagrees with the reviewer(s) he/she may seek further review;
- the final decision on manuscript publication rests with the Editorial Board; it is recorded in the minutes of the board meeting;
- authors may appeal acceptance/rejection of their manuscript by the Editorial Board;
- information on Requirements for the Manuscripts Submitted is available at: http://medbio.ulsu.ru/index.php/en/;
- the Editorial Board ensure copyright compliance when considering applications for publication.
- the Editorial Board may retract from publication any published article in case some facts unknown in the course of review are disclosed.
Editorial Responsibility to the Objects of Research
- research involving animal or human subjects should meet the principles of international ethics.
- the Editorial Board is guided by WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, adopted in 1964 more detailed information is available at: WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects;
- the Editorial Board consults Dispute Commission report on the conduct of the trial if needed.
Editorial Responsibility to Organizations Sponsoring Research and Publications
- the Editorial Board shall publish information about business organizations supporting research and/or publication.
Responsibility to Reviewers
- the Editorial Board provides reviewer(s) with guidelines on their reports and a list of issues, which must be covered during the review process;
- the Editorial Board guarantees objectivity and impartiality of the reviewers’ work, identifies cases of breach of law and takes measures to eliminate them;
- the Editorial Board draws conclusions concerning acceptance/rejection of the manuscript on the basis of the reviewers’ report;
- the process of one-sided blind review is accepted in the Journal; editorial board prefers that reviewers remain anonymous throughout the review process;
- reviewer(s) must disclose to editors any conflicts of interest.
2. Authors Rights and Responsibilities
- submitting the manuscript for publication to “Ulyanovsk Medico-Biological Journal” the authors confirm that the publication is drawn in accordance with the Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted, available at: http://medbio.ulsu.ru/index.php/en/;
- author(s) must observe the legislation of the Russian Federation;
- author(s) shall be aware that the article may be rejected in the following cases: the publication does not meet the Requirements for the Manuscripts Submitted; the author refuses editors’ recommendations to revise the manuscript; the study violates WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects; the manuscript contains plagiarism or false data; research results have already been published;
- author(s) must provide information about business organizations supporting research and/or publication, and any other conflicts of interest, which may have an impact on the content of the manuscript;
- author(s) have the right to appeal editorial decisions regarding the publication according to appeal mechanism.
3. Dispute Resolution Commission
A special Commission may be organized by the Editorial Board in order to resolve issues and complaints related to possible violations of ethical standards. Commission chairman and members are chosen from the Editorial Board by a vote of Editorial Board members. The information on members of the Commission, rules of procedure, and the person responsible for processing of complaints is available at: http://medbio.ulsu.ru/index.php/en/.
4. Appeal Mechanism
Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions on accepting/rejecting manuscripts.
1. In case of disagreement with the Editorial Board decision on acceptance/rejection of the manuscript the author may appeal to Dispute Resolution Commission in a written form, indicating the reasons for application.
2. Dispute Resolution Commission considers the author’s appeal.
3. Editorial Board may change its decision on acceptance/rejection of the manuscript in the following cases: author provided additional factual information, which was not taken into account during the primary review; author provided additional material to the manuscript, which was not taken into account during the primary review; author provided information on the conflict of interest, which was not available during primary review; author expresses his/her concern about biased reviews.
4. If there are sufficient grounds Dispute Resolution Commission brings forward a proposal to amend or uphold the initial decision on submission of the manuscript.
5. The Editorial Board may call for one more reviewer to make the final decision if necessary.
6. The Editorial Board makes a decision on acceptance or rejection of the manuscript based on the results of revision of the primary decision.
7. The decision of the Editorial Board on the results of revision of the primary decision is final and not subject to re-appeal.
5. Article Retraction
Retraction of already published article is an extreme measure. It is used in case when certain facts, which were not known during the review, are disclosed: breach of legislation and defamation; fraudulent or inaccurate use of data, especially those that may pose a health risk, textual borrowing more than 20%.
1. Article retraction may be initiated by author(s), reader(s), reviewer(s) and member(s) of the Editorial Board by written request to Dispute Resolution Commission.
2. Dispute Resolution Commission considers all requests received.
3.The decision on article retraction is made by Dispute Resolution Commission if there is sufficient evidence in favor of retraction.
4. Dispute Resolution Commission should notify the initiator of the article retraction on his/her results of consideration of the request in the written form.
5. If the Commission decides to retract the article, the Journal publishes information on article retraction, indicating article metadata.
6. Information on retraction (including the reasons for retraction) is sent to the database where the Journal is indexed.