Submitted manuscripts are first checked to ensure that they comply with instructions to authors and are in accordance with the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”, Annals of Internal Medicine, 1997,126, 36-47, and that all references, figures and tables meet the journal’s requirements.

All manuscripts sent to the journal are routinely screened using specialized anti-plagiarism soft-wares. In all cases where any possible irregularity exists, the editorial office will follow the principles stated in COPE (Committee on publication ethics) guidelines.

Only manuscripts complying with the above requirements and free of possible irregularities, will be entered into the review process. The author(s) will be informed that the manuscript has been accepted for review.

Authors are invited to suggest the names of potential reviewers and the Editor may choose, without obligation or explanation, to use one or more of these. Authors may also specify the names of a person(s) which they do not wish to review their manuscript, in which case a brief explanation should be given.

All articles will be reviewed by at least two colleagues with expertise in the manuscript’s subject matter. The identities of reviewers, chosen by the editor, will not be disclosed to authors.

The average time from submission to a decision following the first review is approximately 4-6 weeks.

Based on the reviewers’ opinion, the Editor will choose one of the following alternatives:

- Accepted;
- Minor revisions required;
- Major revisions required;
– Rejected.

In cases where revision is required, the author(s) will be invited to amend their manuscript which should be resubmitted as soon as possible, but not later than 6 weeks. The revised manuscript will be reappraised by the initial reviewers and notification of a final decision will be sent to the author in approximately three weeks.

After acceptance and prior to publication, authors will receive a pdf file with the edited version of their manuscript for final proofreading and will be asked to carefully check the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures.

Accepted articles will receive a DOI code and will be published ahead of print immediately after acceptance.

 

Corrections, retractions, complaints

Our policy is to consider corrections and to publish them only if the author provides compelling evidence that a major claim of the original paper was incorrect (name typing errors, affiliations, wrong numerical data, etc), or information was disclosed. Corrections that affect the methodology, data analysis, statistical results, conclusions, are not allowed. The corrections will be published as Erratum, in the next issue.

Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, fraudabel authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data will trigger a retraction procedure. A retraction note signed by the authors and/or the editor will be published in the next issue. The original article will not be removed, but marked as Retracted.

Complaints, disagreements over interpretation should be addressed to the editor of the journals or addressed in letter-to-editor.