Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

Marine Medicine is a peer-reviewed scholar journal designed as a platform for the discussion of various issues of maintaining and strengthening the health of sailors and marine industry specialists as well as studying the influence of maritime climate on the health of the population of various coastal regions of the world. Reviews, original articles, case reports, and letters prepared in Russian or English language are accepted for publication in the Marine Medicine journal. The submitted materials must be of scientific merit, novelty, and integrity.

The intended readership of the journal comprises the Russian and international scientific and academic experts, organizations of biomedical and marine areas, shipbuilding and shipbuilding enterprises, health authorities in coastal regions, and manufacturers of medical devises and drugs.

The aim of the publication is to inform  the target audience about promising scientific (organizational, clinical, physiological and hygienic, treatment and preventive, sanitary and anti-epidemic, environmental, medical and biological, medical and social, medical and psychological, pharmacological, psychophysiological, engineering and psychological and ergonomic) developments in the field of life support, efficiency, reliability, maintenance of professional health and expansion of the professional aptitude of ship specialists and other subjects of maritime activities, as well as the population of coastal regions.

The subject scope of the Journal:

1. Organization of maritime health. Development of medical system and sanitary support for personnel engaged in the use, research and development of resources and spaces of the World Ocean. New approaches to organizing the work of marine medical centers. Regulations in marine medicine in terms of general healthcare.
2. Maritime climate Influence on health of the indigenous and alien population of coastal territories. Medical and demographic situation in coastal regions. Improving the public health system in coastal regions.
3. Medical-environmental and medical-social issues of health protection of specialists in the maritime industry and the population of coastal territories. Occupational pathology.
4. Theory, methodology and practice of assessing and managing health risks for ship specialists, including using modern information technologies. Telemedicine.
5. Innovative developments and implementation of the latest methods for diagnosing, treating and preventing health disorders modified by environmental, industrial and other risk factors.
6. Physiology, psychophysiology and ergonomics of professional human activity in water transport, sea, river and lake facilities, sea shelves, coastal areas. Issues of habitability at naval facilities.
7. Ensuring the safety of life and health at sea. Medical and sanitary support during the liquidation of the consequences of emergencies at the objects of marine activities and coastal territories, during search, rescue, diving and deep-water operations. Diving medicine.
8. Naval medicine. Theory and practice of medical and sanitary support in the Navy.
9. Preventive issues: a comprehensive assessment of the habitability of marine and river objects, social and hygienic monitoring, occupational health of the crew of sea and river vessels, radiation hygiene, ship toxicology, anti-epidemic measures in emergency situations, foci of especially dangerous infections.
10. Infrastructural development of objects of marine activities in the field of healthcare. Provision of ships, vessels and other objects of maritime activities with modern medical equipment and property. New developments of medical equipment and medicines in the interests of marine medicine. Robotics for marine healthcare.
11. History of the origin, formation and development of marine medicine. Memorable dates of marine medicine and the contribution of prominent scientists and practitioners to the development of marine medicine in Russia and abroad. Achievements of marine medicine in the world.
12. Improving the system of training medical personnel, training and education of young people for the fleet. Preservation of medical labor resources, attraction of qualified personnel to the seafarers and the sphere of management of maritime activities.
13. Operational review of new legal and methodological materials in the field of healthcare for seafarers, the working population at maritime facilities, and personnel of the Navy.
14. Operational review of documents regulating marine medicine in the field of public health in the developed maritime countries of the world.

The journal also accepts articles on related issues that are directly related to the main topic: innovative methods for identifying chemical, physical, biological hazards, methods of statistical processing, modeling and forecasting processes, software development, organization and tactics of medical support at sea and in coastal areas.

Each manuscript is checked with plagiarism detection software “Antiplagiat”. Please see more information about peer-review and other journal policies in the relevant site sections.

Sections

LECTURE

REVIEW

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

CLINICAL CASE

SHORT MESSAGES

BOOK REVIEW

CHRONICLE

EDITORIAL

JUBILEE

OFFICIAL RECORDS

CORRESPONDENCE

SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION

Peer Review Process

• Key principles of peer review
• Internal regulations on reviewing policy
• Recommended reviewer’s check-list

Key principles of peer review

1. The review policy is designed to comply with the best practices and ethical standards set out by the COPE and ICMJE guidelines
2. DOUBLE BLIND peer review is used (reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, including their affiliations, and the authors do not know the reviewers). Blinding is performed by the scientific editor
3. Double-blind peer review is also applied for the manuscripts submitted by of the editorial board members.
4. Authors may propose reviewers themselves. However, the final decision on the choice of a particular reviewer is made by editor-in-chief or his deputies.
5. Reviewing is carried out by the editorial board members and invited reviewers (leading experts in the relevant scientific area in Russia and other countries).
6. Each reviewer has the right to refuse a review if there seem to be any conflict of interest that affects the perception and interpretation of the manuscript materials.
7. Reviewing is performed free of charge.
8. Peer review is designed to establish the manuscripts meeting the stated goals and objectives, as well as the subject area of ​​the journal. Manuscripts will be checked for scientific novelty and clinical significance, absence of plagiarism, correctness of statistical analysis, clarity and comprehensibility of presentation, as well as compliance with all ethical standards in the field of biomedical research. Other goals include supporting transparency, reproducibility, and data sharing (including proper registration of clinical trials).
9. Peer-reviewing is performed according to the internal forms and checklists for reviewers and members of the editorial board, requiring a detailed reasoned presentation, the necessary information about the terms and conditions of reviewing, confidentiality and personal data protection (including GDPR), etc.
10. As part of the author's disagreement procedure with the decision of the editorial board, the author has the right to raise a reasoned and stated claim (once in relation to one manuscript). The editorial board is obliged to consider it no later than 3 weeks and to make a final decision that is final and not a subject to revision.
11. The Publisher and the Founders do their best for constant retraining of the editorial board, as well as holding open seminars for potential authors on biomedical ethics, best world practices and recommendations. The journal is a member of the RASEP (Russian Association of Science Editors and Publishers affiliated with the European Association of Science Editors), which, at the request of the Journal, audits it for compliance with international and national standards of publication ethics and best world practices.

For more information on the ethical policy and practice regarding malpractices in the field of peer review, as well as relationships with the editorial board and reviewers, see the relevant section

 

Internal regulations on reviewing policy

(Approved at the meeting of the editorial board on 06/25/2015)

1. According to the Authors Guidelines, all papers reaching the editorial board of the journal are reviewed. Reviews of the received manuscripts are kept in the editorial office for 5 years.
2. The reviewer is selected by the executive secretary of the journal among the members of the editorial board, the editorial board (in agreement with the editor-in-chief of the journal) or leading specialists in the profile of this work.
3. The term for writing a review is set by agreement with the reviewer, but should not exceed three weeks.
4. Reviews should be presented according to a specific Review Form (see Criteria for evaluating the manuscript).
5. With a positive review, the paper is submitted to a meeting of the editorial board to  discuss possible publication.
6. If the reviewer has comments on the work that require the participation of the author, it is sent to the authors for correction.
7. The term for correction of an article by the author in accordance with the comments of reviewers is set no more than three weeks.
8. The revised article is sent for second review. In this case, the reviewer gives a conclusion on the possibility of its publication.
9. With a positive conclusion, the paper is submitted to the meeting of the editorial board to resolve the issue of publication.
10. In the case of a negative review, the work is additionally sent to another reviewer.
11. With two negative reviews, the author is sent a reasoned refusal to publish the work.
12. If the second review is positive, the issue of publishing the paper is brought up for discussion at the meeting of the editorial board.
13. The content of each issue of the journal is approved at a meeting of the editorial board, where the issue of accepting each paper for publication is decided taking into account the opinions of reviewers.
14. Reviewing of papers is carried out confidentially. Reviewers are notified that the manuscripts sent to them are the intellectual property of the authors and relate to information not subject to disclosure. The editor is the only person who can allow the reviewer to communicate directly with the author.

The editorial board of the journal expects effective and significant help in generation of decision of manuscript adoption from the reviewer as well as an evaluation and detailed guidance that may help author to improve the manuscript.

Review comments must be full, rational, reasoned and directed at provision of assistance in the course of collaborative work on the manuscript.

 

Recommended reviewer’s check-list

 

Publication Frequency

The journal issues quarterly, 4 regular issues per year.

Open Access Policy

The Journal is available online free of charge under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly.

Archiving

The journal uses the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) to digitally preserve all the published articles. The PKP PN is a part of LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program offers decentralized and distributed preservation, seamless perpetual access, and preservation of the authentic original version of the content.

Also the journal preserved all published issues in Russian State Library (RSL).

Author Self-Archiving

The journal is compliant with Platinum Open Access mode for articles distribution that includes Open Self-Archiving policy.

You can find Articles Sharing Policy and Research Data Sharing Policy on the Publisher's webpage. Below you can find the journal's policy on self-archiving.

Indexation

Articles in "Morskaya Meditsyna" ("Marine Medicine") are indexed by several systems:

• Russian Scientific Citation Index (RSCI) – a database, accumulating information on papers by Russian scientists, published in native and foreign titles. The RSCI project is under development since 2005 by “Electronic Scientific Library” foundation (elibrary.ru).
• Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest scholarly publishers, plus scholarly books and other non-peer reviewed journals.
• Ulrich's Periodical Directory
• Dimensions
• Crossref

Publishing Ethics & Malpractice

Publishing Ethics & Malpractice

For authors and researchers

Authors and researchers should follow the guidelines listed below.

1. Requirements to manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
2. COPE Code of Conduct.
3. Recommendations of the World Association for Medical Editors (WAME).

AUTHORSHIP AND CONTRIBUTORSHIP

The Journal adopts ICMJE recommendations that authorship shall be based on the following 4 criteria: 1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; 2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) Final approval of the version to be published; 4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.”

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) lists the following examples of undeserved authorship.

A “ghost author” is someone who is omitted from an authorship list despite qualifying for authorship.

A “guest author” is someone who is listed as an author despite not qualifying for authorship. Guests are generally people brought in due to their reputation or estimated influence to make the list look more impressive.

“Gift authors” are usually not qualifying for authorship, but they have been brought in due to personal relations and for mutual CV enhancement (i.e., including colleagues on papers in return for being listed on theirs).

In case of any authorship disputes, the editor-in-chief of the Journal will investigate the issue in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Contributors are those who do not comply with the authorship criteria, i.e., meet fewer than all 4 of the above ICMJE criteria. They should be acknowledged with their written consent (the corresponding author shall obtain written permission to be acknowledged from all acknowledged individuals). Those who can be acknowledged include people providing acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, proofreading, patient care, etc. Their role and contribution should be specified. However, authors should not mislead readers by acknowledging people who has not been involved or who has provided no support.

Group authors. When a large multi-author group has conducted the work, the group should decide who will be an author before submitting the manuscript for publication. This person should meet all of the above ICMJE criteria.

DUPLICATE SUBMISSION OF A MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLISHING

The Editorial Board of the Journal does not consider manuscripts submitted to other journals for publication. A manuscript cannot be submitted to several journals except in cases of joint publication. At the same time, the Editorial Board of the Journal does not exclude consideration of a paper which has been rejected by other journals. If a duplicate submission is suspected during the peer review stage or after the paper has been already published, the Journal will act in accordance with an algorithm provided by COPE.

DUPLICATE PUBLICATIONS

In accordance with recommendations prepared by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, multiple (or duplicate publication) is defined as publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one or several already published (in printed or electronic form) publications without clear and visible citations of the original sources.

The Journal considers though papers for publications, that are Russian translation of international organizations guidelines/recomendations.

FAIR USE

If authors use any findings published previously, including numerical data, figures or images, these materials must be properly cited. If the cited materials are not under the CCBY license, authors must also obtain permissions to reuse them from the copyright owners. At the same time, authors should not copy references from other papers unless they are familiar with them.

PLAGIARISM

The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) considers plagiarism to include both the theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s work. Based on this definition, the Journal will define plagiarism as verbatim copying of sentences and larger text portions, as well as images, tables, schemes, and plots without acknowledging the authorship, citing the source, and using quotation marks; inappropriate paraphrasing of a text from recently published works without appropriate citations. Materials taken from other sources should not be presented as materials belonging to the author of the paper.

Each manuscript submitted to the Journal is subject to a mandatiry checking for possible duplicate publication and plagiarism via the ANTIPLAGIAT software.

Each author bears the responsibility for the information presented by him/her in the paper. However, if plagiarism is suspected, an appropriate investigation will be carried out in accordance with an algorithm proposed by the COPE.

RESEARCH DATA: ITS VALIDITY, INTERPRETATION AND SHARING

The manuscripts submitted to the Journal should be correct and objective; the should contain sufficient information and references for possible verification of the data presented.
Researchers should check their papers carefully at all stages in order to ensure that all their methods and results are accurately described. The results should be presented clearly, and honestly, without fabrication, falsification or dishonest manipulation of the data.

Case reports should be complete, i.e., they should include the results of all clinical trials. They should not omit information about unexplained facts, conflicting data and data that contradict to the authors’ or sponsors’ theories and hypotheses. New results should be linked to previous studies. Reviews and conclusions of existing studies should be complete and contain data whether they support authors’ hypotheses and interpretations or not.

The methodology of the statistical analysis should be determined in the beginning of the study; the plan for data analysis to obtain raw data should be prepared beforehand; and the procedures should be followed closely. Researchers should strive to describe their methods and present their findings clearly and unambiguously. Data and reports on the performed trial should be retained and made available  upon request.

Editing of published images (e.g., micrographs, X-ray images, and electrophoresis images) should not look like an attempt of misleading of readers.
If authors find a mistake in any paper submitted, accepted for publishing or already published, they should notify the Editor-in-Chief immediately. If juggling with facts is suspected during the peer reviewing stage or after the paper has been already published, the Journal will act in accordance with an algorithm provided by COPE.

DATA AVAILABILITY AND SHARING.

In its efforts to ensure research reproducibility and open science standards, the Journal supports and encourages the authors to share their research data where appropriate (e.g., keeping the patient personal information undisclosed) at the earliest opportunity both on the Journal’s website or any 3d party repositories. Please see further details on the “Guidelines for Authors” section on how to share research data and to provide compliance with FAIR protocol.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors defines a conflict of interest as follows, “A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain).”

Any situation (financial relationships, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, etc.) that may affect the author(s) opinion, assessment, and interpretation of results and lead to information hiding and biases or their misrepresentation may be considered a conflict of interest.

When submitting a manuscript, the authors are responsible for transparency and disclosure of all relationships/collaborations/interests listed on the February 2021 ICMJE form [https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/]

If hiding of a conflict of interest is revealed, it may be a reason for rejecting a manuscript.

The information about the Conflict of Interests is published in each article.

The Journal follows the COPE guidelines in investigation of an undisclosed conflict of interest.

HUMAN RIGHTS, PERSONAL SECRET, CONFIDENTIALITY

If the study is performed in humans, authors should obtain patient’s written informed consent from patients to participate in the study. If there is any doubt about the procedure for obtaining the consent, the authors will be requested to provide further information about how this consent was obtained.

Any information that could identify the patient’s personality, including surname, initials, and hospital and case history number should not be published in written descriptions, photos, and genealogies. Such images as X-ray, laparoscopic, and sonographic photos, slides with abnormalities or images of body parts without distinct features may be used without obtaining a preliminary consent, because they comply with the confidentiality requirements due to removal of all distinctive features; they also are not accompanied with a text permitting to identify the patient.

A black band covering patient’s eyes on photos is not a sufficient guarantee of anonymity.

An article containing data that permit to identify the patient require obtaining patient’s written consent for publishing prior to publication of the paper.

If the consent for distribution of the information has been obtained, this fact will be mentioned in the article published.

In exceptional cases, publication in the field of public healthcare without patient’s consent may be justified, if the permission has been impossible to obtain despite all efforts, and the value of the paper overweighs the possible damage.

If the patients are babies, authors should obtain the consent from their parents or custodians. However, authors must assess, whether the child may regret about the publication of his or her identification data, when he or she grows up. If children are capable of making decisions, authors should obtain their personal consent. If the patients are handicapped people, a person responsible for making decisions on behalf of the patient may give his/her consent. In any case, the decision should be made taking into account patient’s interests. Even if the permission has been obtained, any personal information should be hidden in accordance with the anonymity policy or it should not be published at all.

The signed Informed Consent Form is to be kept in patients’ medical records and is not sent to the Journal (for maximum protection of data and confidentiality).

If there are doubts that patient’s consent for publication has been obtained, the Journal reserves the right to reject the material on its own discretion.

HUMAN STUDIES

At submission to the Journal, a manuscript reporting the results of medical human studies should be accompanied by a statement that the Ethics Committee has approved the trial and that this trial complies with accepted standards:

• Declaration of Helsinki,
• European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice.

It should be state whether the study protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee and the name of the appropriate company, its location, the protocol number and date of the committee meeting, as well as the registration study number should be indicated. All clinical trials should be registered; researchers should mention the registration study number in all papers related to these trials.

Corresponding approvals, licenses, and registrations should be obtained prior to the initiation of a trial, and this information should be included in the study report.

If there are doubts, additional requests will be sent to the authors for further evidence of the corresponding permission for trials and the ethical grounds for trials.

ANIMAL STUDIES

The Editorial Board encourages authors to use study methods without involvement of animals. If it is impossible, authors should apply methods which reduce the number of animals used in the trial and improve the state of the animals involved. While composing reports on animal studies, the authors should follow the guidelines for editors and peer reviewers published by the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science.

Prior to initiation of the trial, authors should obtain approval of the institutional expert council and the committee for study ethics to use animals in the trial. The study protocol should be approved by the Ethics Committee (and the name of the appropriate company, its location, protocol number and date of the committee meeting should be indicated).

While submitting the paper, authors should specify what ethic requirements and guidelines they followed during the study and how discomfort, suffering and physical pain were reduced. Authors must confirm that the animals have not suffered unnecessarily at any stage of the experiment and provide evidence that corresponding approvals, licenses, and registrations have been obtained prior to the initiation of trials. This information, as well as the protocol number and date should be included in the study report.

If there are doubts that the trials have been performed in accordance with ethic documents, the Journal may ask authors to provide further evidence of ethicality of the trial.

For editors

Editors of the journal should follow the guidelines listed below.

1. Principles of the COPE Editor’s Code of Conduct .
2. Recommendations of the World Association for Medical Editors (WAME).

RESPONSIBILITY

Editors of the Journal are responsible for all materials published and must ensure their high quality and reliability. This includes high-quality peer reviewing and proofreading, timely publishing of corrections, explanations, disclaimers, article recalls, and apologies, when necessary.

OBJECTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE

The Journal considers all manuscripts received. The decision to publish of a manuscript is made solely on the basis of its quality, importance for readers, its value, originality and clarity of the account, reliability of the information, and its compliance with the aims and scope of the Journal. All editorial decisions are made without any publisher’s intervention and irrespective of financial, political or personal relations of the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board Members. The decision is made without any bias to authors, irrespective of their nationality, religion, or official position.

The sponsored materials is subject to the peer review quality control as any other material in the Journal. The fact of sponsorship and sponsor’s role must be clearly disclosed to readers. Any advertising material published in the Journal complies with the policy of the Journal and is placed apart from any editorial paper thus permitting readers to identify it easily. The Editor-in-Chief has full rights and deciding vote in the approval of advertising materials.

CORRESPONDENCE

Readers of the Journal may send their comments, questions, and notes related to articles published, as well as brief reports and comments unrelated to previously published articles.

The editors have the exclusive right to select correspondence which is inappropriate, uninteresting or insufficiently grounded. At the same time, they have a responsibility to rpovide the opportunities to present different viewpoints.

CONFIDENTIALITY

The Editorial BoardMembers shall keep confidential all materials obtained during the preparation of the manuscript for publishing, including information obtained during the trials; at that, authors’ papers will not be discussed publicly and their ideas will not be disclosed prior to publication of the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board Members do not disclose information about the article, its date of receipt, its current status, the process of peer reviewing, critical notes, and the decision made to anyone except for the authors and eviewers. Copies of manuscripts accepted for publishing are stored in the editorial board of the Journal for 5 years.

The Editor-in-Chief keeps  the personal data of reviewers confidential and does not disclose their names to the authors.

If any violation of ethical principles made by authors, peer reviewers, and other editors is suspected, the Editor-in-Chief shall keep the investigation process confidential by involving the minimally required number of requests and persons.

RELATIONS WITH AUTHORS

The Editor-in-Chief must inform the authors about any comments made by reviewers on their work, ensuring that they do not contain offensive or defamatory statements.

The Editor-in-Chief should consider the authors’ requests regarding who should not review their works, if such requests are justified and can be fulfilled.

Editors of the Journal pay attention to issues related to the intellectual property and check the papers (images, numbers, and tables) for violation of ethics (plagiarism, duplicate and multiple publication, authorship, etc.).

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board Members will ensure that the authors provide the registration study number and state that ethic principles have been followed during the study on humans and animals; whether the necessary measures have been taken to protect confidential information and Informed Consent Forms; whether approval by the ethics committee has been obtained (with the protocol number and registration specified). All necessary approvals, licenses, and registrations should be obtained prior to the initiation of a trial, and this information should be provided by the authors.

RELATIONS WITH REVIEWERS

Peer reviewers are selected from persons who can provide a competent opinion and who do not have a conflict of interest related to the work.

In order to ensure high quality peer review, the Editor-in-Chief may grant access to publications related to the article to be reviewed (e.g. links to the articles cited and the reference retrieval).

If a reviewer is suspected of dishonest behavior, the Editor-in-Chief will investigate the case in accordance with the COPE guidelines. During the investigation, the reviewers will be suspended from the review process.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The Editor-in-Chief, as well as the Editorial Board Members who make decisions on the manuscript should not have any personal, professional or financial interest in any issue they are involved in. Therefore, if they are working or have worked in the same institution and have cooperated with authors, possess holding of shares in a certain company or have personal relations with authors, they will not participate in making decisions on the manuscript.

HANDLING OF COMPLAINTS AND ALLEGATIONS

The Journal embraces post-publication discussion and debate in various formats: its social media accounts, during regular webinars and through letters to the editor.

The Editorial Board of the Journal processes all complaints submitted. The Editors are responsible for the scientific data presented to the public and  therefore they take seriously allegations of misconduct pre-publication and post-publication and act immediately in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Since the Journal is widely presented on social media, it has a dedicated team responsible for responding to allegations from whistleblowers, according to relevant COPE flowchart recommendations.

If readers, reviewers or other persons rise questions about carrying out, reliability or publishing of a scientific paper, then the Editor-in-Vhief will first contact the authors and give them an opportunity to answer the accusations. If their response is not satisfactory, the issue will be referred to the research institution with a request to hold an investigation. If suspicions are confirmed, the article will be rejected.

The final  decision of the editor and the reasons for it are clearly reported to authors, reviewers, and readers. If the authors disagree with the decision, they may submit an appeal which will be properly considered.

RETRACTION

The present document is based on Retraction Guidelines prepared by COPE ((https://publicationethics.org/files/cope-retraction-guidelines-v2.pdf) and the national “Guidelines on article retraction” of the Russian Association of Science Editors and Publishers (RASSEP).

Definition

Article retraction is a mechanism for correcting published information correction and informing readers that the publication contains serious flaws or invalid data that should not be relied upon; it also serves to warn the readers on redundant publications (when authors present the same data in several publications), plagiarism, and failure to disclose conflict of interest  that could influence data the interpretation or recommendations for their use.

Rationale for article retraction:

• detection of inappropriate borrowing (plagiarism) in the publication;
• duplication of a manuscript (or its part) in several journals;
• detection of falsifications or fabrications in the publication (for example, experimental data fabrication);
• detection of major errors (for example, results misinterpretation) that cast doubt on the publication scientific value;
• incorrect authors list (a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included);
• concealed conflict of interest (and other publication ethics violations);
• article republication without author’s approvement;
• article has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process.
• If the paper has been already published, but it may affect the clinical practice or public healthcare, the editorial board of the Journal will inform readers about such suspicions by expressing doubts during the investigation. When the investigation is completed, readers will be notified of its results.

The procedure of article retraction

The article and abstract remain on the journal website in the relevant issue, but an electronic version of the text is marked with a RETRACTED sign and retraction date, the same marking is placed on the article in the contents list.

For peer reviewers

Peer reviewers involved in reviewing articles of the Journal should follow the guidelines listed below.

1. Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines (Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers).
2. Recommendations of the World Association for Medical Editors (WAME).

If a peer reviewer disagrees with the policy of the Journal, which may affect the quality of the review because of failure to comply with the policy, the reviewer should decline to review the article.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

Reviewers must inform the Editor-in-Chief about any conflicts of interest that may affect their unbiased opinion about a manuscript prior to agreeing to review it.If a reviewer discovers a conflict of interest that he/she overlooked when agreeing to review a article (or any other circumstances that may affect the fair and unbiased manuscript assessment), the reviewer should inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Information sent to peer reviewers is the intellectual property of the authors, which should not be disclosed. Peer reviewers are prohibited from discussing unpublished manuscripts with colleagues and from using data contained therein for their personal benefit or the benefit of other persons or institutions. Peer reviewers must remove the manuscript submitted for publication and all related materials (including a peer review report) upon completion of the review.

HONESTY AND OBJECTIVITY

Peer reviewers must agree to review only those manuscripts that fall within their area of expetise. If, in the course of peer reviewing, they find out that their knowledge is insufficient to evaluate all aspects of the manuscript, they should inform the Editor-in-Chief as soon as possible, without waiting for the date of review submission. If the review (at the request of the Editor-in-Chief) will focus only on only some aspects of the manuscript, this should be stated at the beginning of the review and these aspects should be listed. Reviewers should not agree to review a manuscript in order to read it without any intention of reviewing it.

The review should be accurate, honest, unbiased, and constructive;; national, political, and religious views or commercial interests that may affect the conclusion should be avoided. If the reviewer realizes that he/she cannot perform unbiased assessment, he/she must decline to peer review the manuscript.

Reviewers are encouraged to cooperate with the editorial board closely in the case of any questions a lack of information required to perform a high-quality peer review. Reviewers should express their views clearly and unambiguously, supporting them with facts and relevant references (if necessary) to help editors to make correct assessment and decisions. All suggestions to the authors should be based only on their scientific or technological value.

Reviewer’s comments and recommendations addressed to the Editor-in-Chief should comply with the report addressed to the authors.

CORRECTNESS IN COMMENTS

Peer reviewers are prohibited from using offensive, insulting, hostile, discrediting, or humiliating expressions. Any libel is unacceptable. The Journal will refuse to cooperate with reviews who write rude reviews.

For publishers

Publisher seeks to follow the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. The Publisher of the Journal is commited to:

• inform authors, readers, and peer reviewers about the policy of the Journal;
• maintain the confidentiality of all unpublished data, as well as personal information about study subjects, authors, reviewers, or other information obtained during th editorial process;
• protect the intellectual property and the copyright;
• contribute to editors’ independence;
• ensure timely publication of the Journal;
• inform readers about conflicts of interest and study funding;
• cooperate with the editorial board of the Journal regarding complaints, claims related to manuscripts considered or articles published, as well as regarding corrections, disclaimers, and retractions;
• take all necessary steps to recover violated rights;
• review the policy of the Journal from time to time, particularly in light of new COPE recommendations.

Author fees

Publication in "Morskaya Meditsyna" ("Marine Medicine") 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.

Preprint and postprint Policy

Prior to acceptance and publication in "Morskaya Meditsyna" ("Marine Medicine"), authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites.

As part of submission process, authors are required to confirm that the submission has not been previously published, nor has been submitted. After a manuscript has been published in "Morskaya Meditsyna" ("Marine Medicine")  we suggest that the link to the article on journal's website is used when the article is shared on personal or public websites.

Glossary (by SHERPA)

Journal advertising and Reprints

Text was prepared on the base of Recommendations on Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals WAME.

Marine Medicine Journal may publish reprints of archived articles as well as advertising in the current journal issues. The publications are commercial.

Reprints are published only as they were initially presented in journal (including the following amendments), so no additions and changes shall be made in them.

List of contents of special additional issues (if it is necessary) is regulated only by a decision of Chief Editor.

Advertising volume should not exceed 10% of the whole journal volume. Papers published for advertisement shall pass standard editing procedure.

All advertisements shall give a unique identification of advertiser and proposed product or service. A full name of each active ingredient shall be specified in the pharmaceutical advertisement.

A commercial advertisement is placed on the covers or as colored inserts in a journal. Advertorial should be placed at the back of an issue.

Presented advertising content shall differ from editorial and other materials and the difference is to be evident.

An advertisement should not cheat or mislead. An advertisement should not exaggerate real properties of promoted product. There is to be no insulting ethic and religious expressions in an advertisement.

Advertising products shall be oriented on medical practice, medical education and healthcare services.

A journal is at liberty to refuse any advertising placement by any reason. Decision on the publication is made by Chief Editor and Journal Editorial Board.

Reprints

The Publisher retains the rights for commercial reprints. Any requests for reprints intended for commercial use shall be e-mailed to r154ao@gmail.com.

Authors’ responsibility

Significance and study standards. If a manuscript is based on an original research, authors shall present trustworthy results of the work and objective discussion of study significance. The manuscript shall contain all key data, accurate description of study details and references in order to provide reproducibility of results. The falsification of information or knowingly incorrect claims in the manuscript are deemed unethical and are unacceptable.

Data availability. In addition to the manuscript, an editorial board may inquire of authors basic data. The author shall make the data accessible providing that it will not violate confidentiality of study participants and rights of the person or company being the owner.

Originality, plagiarism and indication of sources. Authors shall send only original works to the editorial. When mentioning works of other authors, it is necessary to observe accuracy in citation and indication of the source. Publications that had significant value in the preparation of the study or defined its scope shall also be mentioned.

Multiple, repeated or competing publications. Materials describing the content of one and the same study shall not be published more than in one journal. Sending of the manuscript to more than one journal is considered unethical and is unacceptable. Copyrighted materials that were published previously shall not be sent to the journal for publication. Besides, materials that are pending by the editorial board shall not be sent to another journal for publication as a copyright article. When filing an article, the author shall inform the editor about all previous work presentations that may be considered as duplicate or double publication. The author shall warn the editor if the manuscript contains information that was published by the author before or presented for another publication. In such cases, the new article shall provide references for previous material.

Regulation on human rights. When presenting results of experimental human subject studies, authors shall indicate if conducted procedures were compliant with ethical norms of Declaration of Helsinki. If the study was conducted without reference to norms of Declaration of Helsinki, authors shall justify the chosen approach to conducted study and guarantee that it was approved by the Ethics Committee that conducted the research.

Authorship criteria. The list of authors is restricted to those who contributing to 1) the conception and design of the study, data acquisition and interpretation; 2) the preparation of the first edition of the article or its processing for improvement of quality; 3) final approval for printing. Each author shall take part in the work to bear public responsibility for corresponding part of the article content.

Participation involving only funding provision or selection of materials for article is not enough for integration in authors’ group.  General management of the study personnel is also not enough for authorship.

All persons indicated in authorship shall approve the summarized version of the manuscript and its sending to journal for publication. The consent of all authors for publication is essential.

Conflict of interests. For sending the article to the journal, all authors shall sign the covering letter that contains information about financial and other significant conflicts of interests that may be assessed as affecting the results of the study or their interpretation. All funding sources of the work shall be given.

Participation in reviewing. By the results of reviewing, the article may be sent to the author for improving. Authors shall actively participate in reviewing responding to questions in time and introducing corrections to the manuscript according to reviewer’s requirements if it necessary.

Privacy declaration. Publication of information about the author who is responsible for correspondence with editorial staff (surname, name, patronym, affiliate, company address, email address, contact number for communicating of readers with the author) given by him for publication in the journal is performed in the interests of authors for the purpose of full and correct account of publications and their citation by corresponding bibliography organizations and provision contacts of authors with academia.

Private information given by authors to the journal besides mentioned above including additional email addresses and contact numbers will be used only for contacts with authors while preparation of article for publication. The editorial staff shall not transfer this private information to third parties who may use it for other purposes.

post-publishing changes

As part of the policy of post-publishing changes, the following types of articles are published in the journal.

Clarification

A variety of Erratum. The article does not report errors but clarifies the data of a previously published article.

Comment

Work consisting of a critical or explanatory note written to discuss, support, or dispute an article or other presentation previously published. It may take the form of an article, letter, editorial, etc. It appears in publications under a variety of names: comment, commentary, editorial comment, viewpoint, etc.

Correspondence

Letter to the editor or a reply to the letter.

Correction

An article describing the corrections made in an article previously published in the same journal. This type of publication is not a variant of Erratum.

Corrigendum

Article in which errors are reported that were made by authors in an earlier publication in the same journal.

Duplicate

Accidental duplication of an article in another Eco-Vector's journal. The text of the article is retracted. The HTML pages are replaced by a single page with citation details and an explanation. The PDF pages remain with a watermark on every page to notify it is a duplicate.

Editorial

Work consisting of a statement of the opinions, beliefs, and policy of the editor or publisher of a journal, usually on current matters of medical or scientific significance t

Erratum

Article in which errors are reported that were made in an earlier publication in the same journal. Can be Erratum (publishing error) but also Corrigendum (author error).

Expression of Concern

A notification about the integrity of a published article that is typically written by an editor and should be labelled prominently in the item title. It is the responsibility of the editor to initiate appropriate investigative procedures, discover the outcome of the investigation, and notify readers of that outcome in a subsequent published item. The outcome may require the publication of a retraction notice.

Removal

Editorial notice of the removal of a previously published article.

The text of the article is removed. The HTML pages and PDF pages of the article are completely removed and replaced by a single page with citation details and an explanation.

Retracted publication

The text of the article is retracted. The HTML pages are replaced by a single page with citation details and an explanation. The PDF pages remain with a watermark on every page to notify it is retracted.

Retraction of Publication

Editorial notice of the retraction of a previously published article.

Withdrawal

Refutation of an article previously published in the same journal (in a situation where retraction cannot be performed).

For details see Crossmark Policy.