Focus and Scope
Russian Journal of Surgery is a multidisciplinary journal which publishes current achievements in almost all sections of surgical specialties.
The goals of the journal are to improve the professional level of researchers, doctors, tutors in medical universities, educational institutions; to provide practitioners with verified scientific and practical information reflecting the global trends in the development of a specialty to improve the quality of surgical treatment of patients; to create an expert platform for evaluation and generalization of clinical experience and scientific research of the main surgical centers in Russia.
The objectives of the journal are to present the results of scientific research, clinical observations; to consider the effectiveness of surgical treatment of various diseases, new instrumental methods of patient examination; to introduce modern methods of surgical treatment of various pathologies into Russian clinical practice; to discuss new directions of surgery development and ways to improve its efficacy; to inform readers about the current state of affairs in all areas of surgery, as well as the key moments of the history of surgery, and the achievements of the great surgeons of the past. The journal provides authors in Russia and abroad with the opportunity to publish the results of their research and to exchange views. The editorial board attaches great importance to the high level of preparation of scientific articles, and increasing authors' literacy on the issues of scientific publication culture.
These tasks meet the basic general criteria for the selection of articles for publication in the journal which include the relevance of the research topic, originality, scientific and/or practical novelty of the material, its value in theoretical and/or applied aspects.
The journal is intended for the general surgical community and specialists in related fields.
Section Policies
Russian Journal of Surgery publishes articles in the following areas:
The journal rubrics are:
Publication Frequency
6 issues per year.
Archiving
Subscription
Open access
The content of each issue of the journal goes to open access 12 months after publication (delayed open access).
Peer-Review
The order of peer-review
The scientific articles submitted to the editorial office undergo primary examination, and then are sent for peer-review.
The editors and the members of the editorial board are not denied to be published in the journal, but in this case they do not interfere the review process.
The journal uses a single-blind peer-review system: the authors do not know the reviewers.
Primary examination
At initial submission, a manuscript is reviewed by editorial manager, executive secretary and the technical editor for the following:
At the stage of primary examination, the article may be returned to the authors for the revision. The papers qualified for the further review are assigned to the Editor-in-Chief to determine the scientific value of the manuscript and to appoint the reviewers.
Peer-reviewing
The reviewing of the articles is carried out by the editorial board of the journal, as well as by the external reviewers, leading specialists in this area. External reviewers have to be practicing and publishing in the scientific areas corresponding to the subject of the article during the last 3 years. The ethical aspects of peer-review are set out in the section Responsibility of the reviewers.
The reviewers adhere to the following criteria:
A reviewer's memo was developed in order to obtain the most complete and objective review of the manuscript. The memo contains the list of issues to be assessed by the reviewer. Based on the above assessment, the reviewer comes to one of the four decisions below: a) the manuscript is acceptable for publication in its current form; b) the manuscript is recommended for the publication, taking into account the correction after the reviewing process; c) the manuscript is recommended for the additional review to another specialist; d) the manuscript is unacceptable for publication.
The mean review period is 2 weeks. This date is controlled by the editorial board. The review deadline can be extended at the request of the reviewer.
The copies of the reviews or a motivated refusal must be sent to the authors. The editorial board is responsible to send the copies of the reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon the admission.
It is important to note that a positive review does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript. The final decision on the publication is made by the editorial board. In case of conflict situations, the decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief. The decision of the editorial board for each article is recorded in the protocol of the editorial board meeting.
Original reviews are stored in the journalТs editorial office for 5 years.
Correcting the manuscript
The editors carry on correspondence with the author indicated in the cover letter as сorresponding author. The editors carry on correspondence with the author indicated in the cover letter as contact author. If the review contains recommendations for correcting and finalizing the article, the editorial team sends a comment to the contact author. The authors must respond to all reviewer and editor comments and the submission will be re-reviewed and treated as a new submission.
The manuscript finalizing process should not take more than 2 months from the moment of sending a message to the authors. The refined article is sent again for the review.
If the author and the reviewer have unresolved contradictions regarding the article, the editorial board has the right to send the article to another reviewer. In conflict situations, the article may be submitted to one of the members of the editorial board. The final decision in such cases is made by the Editor-in-Chief.
Refusal to correct the manuscript
In case of refusal to correct the article, the authors must notify the editorial office in writing or verbally. If the authors do not return the revised version after 2 months from the date of sending the review, the manuscript is removed from the registration, even if there is no feedback from the authors.
Rejection of publication
The decision to refuse the publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board in accordance with the reviewerТs recommendations. An article not recommended for the publication is not reviewed repeatedly.
Appeal
If the authors do not agree with the editorial decision, they can write to the editorial office within 30 days from the date the article was rejected.
The appeal should include all the editors' and reviewers' comments that the authors disagree with. The editorial board can change the initial decision if the injustice of the comments is proved by the authors and the authors will provide additional information confirming their point of view. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief.
Indexation
Articles in the journal are indexed by Russian Scientific Citation Index (
Since 2016 the journal is included in the core collection of RSCI integrated with the Web of Science platform.
Author fees
Publication in the journal is free of charge for all the authors.
The journal doesn't have any Arcticle processing charges.
The journal doesn't have any Article submission charges.
The editors do not pay the authors and do not provide authorsТ copies.
Publishing Ethics
Editorial responsibility
Responsibility to readers
Responsibility to authors
Responsibility to the objects of research
Responsibility to organizations funding the research and publications
Responsibility to reviewers
Responsibility of reviewers
Reviewers are required to:
Authors' responsibility
By submitting an application for the publication of the manuscript, the authors confirm that the publication was prepared in accordance with the requirements, published on the journal's website, and at the end of each issue of the paper version.
Authors should understand that the article may be rejected if the following is not met:
EQUATOR Network Recommendations
In describing the results of studies (randomized and observational, reviews and meta-analyzes, clinical observations), authors should be guided by the recommendations of the International Initiative Group for Enhancing of Quality and Transparency of Medical Research (
Randomized controlled trials:
Cohort studies and case-control studies:
Systematic reviews and meta-analyzes:
Clinical observations: рекомендации
Following the principles of EQUATOR Network will help to perform the study structurally, fully describe the process of the study and avoid unconfirmed results.
The recommendations of the research group EQUATOR Network are recognized by all conscientious medical Russian and foreign journals.
Conflicts of interest disclosure
The journal follows the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (
Public confidence in the process of reviewing and authenticity of published articles partially depends on clear conflict of interest disclosure. We do not seek to eradicate competing interests: they are inevitable. The presence of a conflict of interest is not an ethical violation. The reader must independently evaluate the results presented in the article. If the hidden competing financial or personal interests are identified after publication, the editorial office acts in accordance with the recommendations of the International Ethics of Scientific Publications Committee (
What is a conflict of interest?
Conflict of interest arises when the author, reviewer or editor has financial or personal relations that impede impartial perception, review, and decision to publish research results (ambiguous obligations, competing interests or beliefs). Interests can be financial or personal. Conflicts of interest arise in relations with the organization or another person.
Financial and personal interests
Financial relations (hiring, providing consulting services, owning shares, paying fees, paying expert opinions, patent application or patent registration, grants and other financing) is the most common cause of conflict of interest, which can undermine the credibility of the journal, authors and science as such. However, the conflict of interests can be caused by other reasons Ц personal relationships and beliefs (political, religious, ideological), scientific rivalry and intellectual predilections, financial and non-financial relations with organizations and funding bodies.
Who and how declares the presence or absence of a conflict of interest?
All participants in the review and publication process (authors, editors, reviewers) should report on the relationship that may contribute to the conflict of interest.
Authors
When submitting an article, authors are responsible for disclosing all financial or personal relationships that can influence their research. All authors are required to report potential conflicts of interest which may be perceived as influencing the results or conclusions presented in the work. Information on the conflict of interest is indicated at the end of the article (before the list of literature) under the heading УConflict of interestФ, as well as in the cover letter. If there is no conflict of interest, the author should indicate: УThe authors declare no conflict of interestФ. Information on conflict of interests is published in the full text of the article. Materials without information on the conflict of interest will not be directed to peer-review.
TO BE NOTICED! The author's disclosure of an obvious or potential conflict of interest (including the financial interest), as well as funding for scientific research and/or writing an article by an organization, is not an excuse for refusing publication, but gives the authors additional advantages in the review process and reflects the responsible approach of the authors to the research and publication of the results.
Reviewers
Reviewers should not review manuscripts in case of conflict of interest due to competitive, collaborative and other interactions and relationships with authors, companies or other organizations. Unpublished data obtained from the manuscripts can not be used in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas received during the review and related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.
If there is a suspicion of a conflict of interest, the editorial board is guided by the COPE algorithms:
Financing
Appeal
The authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles.
Appeal mechanism
Article Retraction
The retraction (recall, withdrawal) of an already published article is an extreme measure and is applied in case of the disclosure of facts that were not known in the course of the review. The editorial board is considering retraction if:
The main purpose of the exemption is to correct the published information and ensure its integrity, and not to punish the authors who committed the violations.
Retraction mechanism
Borrowing and Plagiarism
Authors should make sure that the data presented in the article are original; all the studies of other authors cited in the work are accompanied by references to primary sources and are included in the list of references.
TO BE NOTICED! Fragments of borrowed text without specifying the source are unacceptable.
There are different forms of plagiarism Ц from representing someone else's work as an author's work to copying or paraphrasing essential fragments of other's works (without attribution) and claiming their own rights to the results of other people's research. Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and unacceptable.
The editorial office checks manuscripts for uniqueness with the Antiplagiat service www.antiplagiat.ru/. In case of detection of multiple borrowings, the editors act in accordance with the COPE algorithms:
Preprint and Postprint Policy
In the submitting process, the author must confirm that the article was not published or was not accepted for publication in another scientific journal. When referring to the article published in the journal, the publisher asks to place a link (the full URL of the material) on the official website of the journal.
Articles posted earlier by authors on personal or public websites that are not related to other publishers are allowed for consideration.