EDITORIAL POLICY AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

Scientific medical peer-reviewed "Avicenna Bulletin" journal publishes articles only after a positive evaluation as a result of blind reviews. By releasing Journal, the editorial office creates a scientific platform for the exchange of knowledge and their discussion in the field of medical sciences. Misuse by both editors and authors, creates obstacles to the development of medical knowledge. Therefore, it is very important to prevent these misuses by the authors, reviewers, and editors. In this regard, the editorial board of the journal "Avicenna Bulletin" has developed current document on "Editorial policy and publication ethics".

This document is based on:

  1. Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Editors (Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Editors)

  2. Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers (Code of Conduct for Journal Publisher)

  3. Recommendations for introduction, reporting, editing, and publishing scientific works of medical journals (Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals).

I. Editor-in-chief and Editorial Board (link, avicenna@tajmedun.tj)

The founder of the "Avicenna Bulletin" journal is the administration of Avicenna Tajik State Medical University (ATSMU). Therefore, the general supervision of the journal is assigned to the rector of ATSMU; thus, the university rector holds a function of the Editor-in-chief. In managing journal activities, the Editor-in-chief is guided by the legislator of the Republic of Tajikistan and current Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics. The Editor-in-chief is responsible to maintain the following tasks:

  • preparation, release and distribution of the journal;

  • making the final decision regarding the release of the journal;

  • representing the journal in scientific events, educational institutions at the state level, public associations, the press media and other organizations;

  • following the requirements of editorial policy and publication ethics along with the necessities of media by the legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The Editor-in-chief organizes the activities of the Editorial Board, which provides operational management of the journal. Leading local and foreign scientists are invited to the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board holds meetings in accordance with the number of issues of the journal per year.

The Editorial Board undertakes the following tasks:

  • development and enhancement of a strategic direction for the development of the journal, determination of thematic areas;

  • changes to the editorial policy and publication ethics of the journal;

  • supervision over the activities of the editorial staff and the implementation of these editorial policy and publication ethics;

  • making decisions on the publication or rejection of materials received in the journal;

  • consideration and approval of the contents of the next issues of the journal.

The Editorial Council is a public organization, which provides an interconnection between the journal and interested scientific, educational and managing institutions and professional associations. Participation in the Editorial Council is voluntary. The Editorial Council of the journal "Avicenna Bulletin" includes leading experts from various fields of medicine and pharmacy, from various research medical institutions and medical associations around the world. Members of the Editorial Council participate in:

  • the examination and peer-review of materials received by the editorial office;

  • the provision of scientific, methodological and legal information support of authors;

  • participation in promoting the dissemination of the journal and the implementation of scientific developments in research, practical and educational programs, with the aim of creating a sustainable relationship between science and practice;

  • the debriefing, annual reports of the editorial board;

  • the development of recommendations for both authors and the Editorial Board for the strategic development of the journal. 

II. Authors and Authors responsibilities

Authorship provides recognition and entails important academic, social and financial implications. There is no any fee for authors to get published articles in the "Avicenna Bulletin" journal.

Authorship criteria:

  • Substantive contribution to the development of the concept or planning of scientific work, or obtaining, analysis or interpretation of the results of this work

  • Drafting a manuscript or revising it critically with valuable intellectual content

  • Final approvals of the published version of the manuscript

  • Agreeing to take responsibility for all aspects of the work and ensuring that all issues related to the accuracy and integrity of any part of the work can be properly investigated and resolved

All participants of the scientific publication specified as authors should correspond to all four aforementioned criteria. The authors of the scientific manuscript are collectively responsible for the compliance of all participants in the publication with the criteria for authorship. In this connection, together with the manuscript, it is necessary to submit to the editorial office information on the contribution of individuals in writing article (https://vestnik-avicenna.tj/upload/global/coverletter.pdf).

Selection of contact person responsible for communication with the journal editorial throughout the process proceed among the authors – from the moment of submission of the article to its publication in the journal. This given person is obliged to ensure fulfillment of technical requirements of the journal, including information about the authors, documents from the Ethics Committee and the statements of the conflict of interest.

Other contributions, not allowing claiming authorship implies seeking funding, administrative support and/or management of research group, technical text typing, proofreading, technical and language editing. 

III. Peer-review process (link)

Authors must follow the criteria of authorship and submit the statements of conflict of interests.

Editors Responsibility:

  • Privacy. The manuscripts presented in the journal have the status of respecting the intellectual and property rights of the authors. Therefore, it is forbidden to divulge any parts of the manuscript before it is published. Manuscripts should be kept in the editorial office confidentially. Reviewers are also obliged to confidentially follow the regulation, not to discuss or divulge information with anyone. After the review, all the author's materials are subject to or return to the editorial office or refusal. In case of acceptance of the manuscript for publication, all materials concerning this article (reviews, corrections, correspondence with the author) should be kept in the archive of the journal. Confidentiality can be withdrawn if confirming all the facts of plagiarism, fraud, and dishonesty on the part of the authors.

  • Timeliness. Managing Editor should organize their work in such a way as to publish the article as quickly as possible. In case of rejection, it is also necessary to give quickly the answer of the Authors that they could find another edition.

  • Peer reviewing – is a critical evaluation submitted for publication of a manuscript. The reviewer during the work has the right to request the primary research material (study protocol, maps, plans for statistical analysis, etc.). The main goal is to improve the manuscript quality. The Managing Editor chooses reviewers, but, despite the positive or negative review, the Editor-in-chief takes the publication decision. The reviewer must be notified of the editorial decision on the publication.

  • Conscientiousness. The Managing Editor accepts the manuscripts, regardless of whether the research results are positive or negative. Negative research results in a compartment with other stu

dies at meta-analysis can help to get answers to important questions.

Reviewers have no right to publicly condemn the work being reviewed and to divulge the Author's ideas before publishing the article. If the reviewer agreed to the review of the article, hence, he is obliged to provide feedback within the prescribed period. Comments should be honest, polite and constructive. After reviewing, the author's material must be returned to the Managing Editor or destroyed (erase all copies from the PC). Reviewers are obliged to declare their conflict of interests, and, if so, refuse to give reviewing.

IV. Publication ethics

The authors are obliged to indicate whether the procedure for evaluating the study protocol was conducted by the Ethics Committee, and in its absence, whether the study meets the requirements of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration (with recent changes made in October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil). Patients have the right to protect the personal information that cannot be disclosed without their consent. If the possibility of using the information is agreed, a written agreement must be provided.

1. Conflict of interests

All participants in the peer-review and publication process, including authors, reviewers, Editorial Board, and Editorial Council must take into account the conflict of their interests and disclose all links that may be considered as potential sources of a conflict of interest.

Authors are obliged to disclose all financial and personal relationships that may affect the outcome of their work.

Reviewers are required to inform editors of any conflict of interest that may affect their opinion of the article, and they themselves should waive reviewing if they formed a basis for bias based on conflict of interest.

Editors, members of the Editorial Board, members of the Editorial Council must refuse to make a decision and inform the Editor-in-chief and other colleagues about a conflict of interest or other financial interest.

Reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board and the Editorial Council should not use the information obtained while working with the manuscript in their own benefit before the article is published.

The conflict of interest message should contain the following statements:

Conflict of interest with the authors;

Sources of support for the work, including sponsors, and if they have a role in developing a research plan with more analysis and interpretation of the data; or a statement that the source of support did not consider;

Authors' access to research data, the scope of access and nature; availability in the present.

For information, authors are obliged to provide with a manuscript the Uniform of disclosure of information on potential conflicts of interest, developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

2. Unfair scientific practice

The unfair scientific practice involves the fabrication data, falsification data, including the deceptive manipulations of the images, plagiarism. In the case of evidence of unfair scientific practice, the manuscript is rejected; if the article has already been published, it is withdrawn (retarded) and indicated in the next issue.

3. Plagiarism (PEMS)

Plagiarism – the process or practice of using another person’s ideas or work and pretending that it is your own (Cambridge English Dictionary).

To avoid plagiarism in articles, the editorial office conducts a plagiarism check procedure. The Managing Editor reports to the Editorial Board for this procedure. Manuscripts with signs of plagiarism are rejected.

The object of plagiarism can be (PEMS):

  • text, musical quotations, mathematical derivations, computer code, etc.;

  • architectural projects, engineering drawings, photographs, drawings, paintings, book and web illustrations, etc.;

  • material downloaded from websites or drawn from manuscripts or other media;

  • published and unpublished material, including lectures, presentations and literature.

  • In a manuscript, plagiarism may look like (PEMS):

  • quoting someone else’s work without due acknowledgement of the source;

  • paraphrasing another person’s text by rearranging words, matching synonyms without due acknowledgement of the source;

  • using other people's ideas and hypotheses without reference to the source;

  • cutting and pasting from the Internet to make a pastiche of online sources;    

    submitting another person’s work as part of one’s own without identifying clearly who did the work.

If readers of the "Avicenna Bulletin" journal find signs of plagiarism in an already published article, they need to report the facts of plagiarism to the editorial office by e-mail avicenna@tajmedun.tj. If the Editorial Board confirms the fact of plagiarism, the article will start the retraction procedure.

4. Recurring publications

Authors must not submit the same manuscript in one or different languages at the same time in more than one journal.

Multiple publication is a publication of a manuscript, largely duplicates a previously published article without a clear, visible reference to the previous publication. If multiple publications are issued on and off, during the editing phase the manuscript is rejected. If the article has already been published, the Editorial Board withdraws (retracts) the article, and publishes information about the retraction in the next issue, and notifies the authors in the publicity.

5. Retractions and Corrections

The process of retraction and correction is carried out according to COPE Retraction guidelines.

Retractions are subject to published articles containing falsification of data, a large amount of plagiarism or published repeatedly regardless of the language of publication.

In the case of small amounts of self-citation or the presence of plagiarism in the form of several sentences in the relevance or in the discussion of the article, the article is best corrected.

After finalizing the process of retraction or correction, information about this process is published in the next issue of the journal and posted on the website of the journal. 

V. Copyright and access

Since February 14, 1994, Tajikistan has been a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). As part of the WIPO membership, in accordance with the Berne Convention, the Republic of Tajikistan has developed and adopted a "Law on copyright and related rights of the Republic of Tajikistan" (No. 726, November 13, 1998; last edited by No. 1172 dated December 31, 2014).

Copyright is intellectual property right. According to the above Law, copyright applies to works of science, literature and art that are the result of creative activity, regardless of purpose and dignity, as well as the way the work is expressed.

Copyright applies to works:

  • authors are citizens of the Republic of Tajikistan or have a permanent residence in the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan;

  • first published in the Republic of Tajikistan;

  • which are protected in the Republic of Tajikistan in accordance with international legal acts recognized by the Republic of Tajikistan. In this case, the works of the copyright holders of foreign states that are parties to international legal acts recognized by the Republic of Tajikistan follows the protection in Tajikistan that the Republic of Tajikistan provides to its citizens.

According to Article 20 of the above-mentioned Law, the use of a work without the consent of the author and without payment of royalties, but with the obligatory indication of the name of the author and the source of borrowing, is allowed when quoting in the original and translated for scientific, research, polemical, critical and informational purposes from legally published works in the amount of justified by the purpose of citation, including reproducing passages from newspaper and journal articles in the form of print reviews.

The "Avicenna Bulletin" is an open access journal. All articles are made freely available to readers immediately upon publication.

 VI. Archiving

An electronic journal archive has been created. It contains all the articles published since 2008. Retracted articles are marked "retracted". All articles in archive are made freely available to readers.