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Author Guidelines

Author Agreement

Review template

Original article template

This topic was last updated: June 02. 2023

1. Copyright

Authors publishing manuscripts in this journal agree to the following:

1. Authors reserve the copyright to the work and grant the journal the right to first publish the work under the terms of the  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows others to distribute this work with the obligatory preservation of references to the authors of the original work and the original publication in this journal.

2. The authors reserve the right to conclude separate arrangements regarding the non-exclusive distribution of the manuscript version published here (for example, posting it in the institute’s repository, publication in a book), regarding its original publication in this journal.

3. Authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (for example, in the institute’s repository or personal website) before and during the process of reviewing it with this journal, as this can lead to a productive discussion and more references to this work.

2. Authorship 

2.1. The ICMJE Recommendations state that authorship credit requires:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
● Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
● Final approval of the version to be published; AND
● 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.

All of these conditions must be met.

Each author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for other specific parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All authors included in a paper must fulfil the criteria of authorship. Conversely, we also ask for assurance that there is no one else fulfilling the criteria who has been excluded as an author. Persons who do not meet all four criteria should be mentioned in the Acknowledgment section.

 2.2 When authors submit any type of manuscript, they are required to disclose any financial and personal relationships that have influenced or could affect their work.

Each author must be familiar with and agree in advance with the list and order of the authorship of the manuscript before sending it to the journal. The authors and co-authors of the submitted manuscript should sign “Author Agreement” of the Sechenov Medical Journal which contains forms for copyright assignment, financial disclosures and authorship. All authors of the manuscript should indicate their contribution to the work on the manuscript and the presence or absence of a conflict of interest.

In case the authors want to make changes to the list of authors after it has been sent to the editor, according to the direction on ethics of scientific publications (COPE) https://publicationethics.org/files/COPE_DD_A4_Authorship_SEPT19_SCREEN_AW.pdf., It is necessary to provide the editor with a written justification for making changes to the author's team, with a detailed statement of the contribution of the added and/or deleted authors to the work on the manuscript, which must be signed by ALL the authors of this manuscript. If there are disagreements between the authors, consideration of the manuscript stops before an agreed decision within the group of authors. In cases where an article has already been published any requests for change of authorship approved by the editors lead to the publication of corrections. The editors reserve the right to demand additional documents confirming the legality of the changes in authorship.

2.3. Submitted manuscripts are screened using Russian-language plagiarism detection software «Antiplagiat», https://www.antiplagiat.ru. English-language manuscripts are additionally checked in the plagiarism checker software "iThenticate".

 In case of detection of excessive self-citation and/or incorrect borrowing, the editors act in accordance with the provisions on international publications (COPE) https://publicationethics.org.

3. The author, is responsible for communication with the editors.

The correspondent author is the person responsible for communicating with the editors of the journal during the submission of the manuscript, peer review, and publication process. It is they who ensures the fulfilment of all technical requirements of the journal, such as providing detailed information about the authors, documents of approval from the ethics committee, documentation on the registration of clinical trials, the collection of forms and statements of conflict of interest. The correspondent author should be available throughout the process of submitting and reviewing the manuscript in order to respond to editorial requests on time. It should also be available after publication to respond to criticisms, requests from the editorial staff to provide additional data or other information if questions arise after publication.

Please note that in the electronic edition, the author who uploads the manuscript on the site from his personal account is considered as the author responsible for correspondence with the editors of the journal.

4. Preparing the manuscript

4.1. Only original works that have not been previously published, including those in another language, are accepted for consideration.

The journal does not publish materials of defended dissertations, graduation qualification works.

We accept submissions online, via the form available at our website: https://sechenovmedj.com. 

The journal publishes original articles, reviews, clinical cases, video articles, letters to editor.

4.2. Preparing the manuscript, authors should adhere to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Description, Editing and Publication of Scientific Results in Medical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) http://www.icmje.org.

 4.3. Cover letter

The Sechenov Medical Journal requires authors to submit a cover letter.

The cover letter should briefly discuss:

1. the importance of the submitted work 
2. why it is appropriate for the journal
3. type of manuscript (original study, clinical case, review) and design of the original study;

At the end of the letter, it is necessary to indicate that the work has not previously been published anywhere in any of the languages of the world, is not under consideration in other journals, and is not planned to be submitted to other journals until the completion of consideration in the Sechenov Medical Journal. Signatures of all authors of the manuscript under the cover letter are required.

4.4. Manuscript formatting requirements.

The Sechenov Medical  journal has joined  "Your Paper, Your Way" initiative, which simplifies the requirements for the format of a manuscript at the stage of submission to the journal.
You can submit your manuscript to the journal for initial consideration and peer review as a single Word file without special  editing in any format along with the necessary documents (cover letter and checklist for the appropriate study design). Tables and figures are included in the text of the manuscript and are accompanied by a legend. For more information, see Journal Policy - Simplified Submission Policy "Your Paper, Your Way".

Only when your manuscript moves to revision, you will be asked to bring it into the "journal format" and provide all the elements necessary for the publication.

Manuscript formatting requirements before publication

The text should be printed on a white background in black Times New Roman font, size 12, after 1,0 intervals on a page of A4 size (210x295 mm) with 2 cm margins on all sides of the text. Alignment of the text in width, without hyphenation and a paragraph. Manuscript pages should be numbered sequentially.

All components of the article, including tables and illustrations (drawings, diagrams, photographs), must be in the same Word format file, with the extension doc. or docx. Tables and illustrations should be numbered in Arabic numerals, have a legend (Table 1 …. (the name), Figure 2 … (the name)) and have a link in the text (table. 1, fig. 2). The editors can request tables and illustrations in separate files.

The original article should not exceed 20,000 characters with spaces, reviews - of 30,000 characters with spaces, clinical cases - 10,000 characters with spaces.

The manuscript should include in one Word file:

1. Title, all author names and affiliations 
2. Abstract and keywords;
3. Full name and email of the author responsible for correspondence
4. Manuscript text:
5. Conflict of interest;
6. Financial support 
7. Contribution of authors
8. Bibliography;
9. Tables (with names);
10. Illustrations with captions.
11. The lines and pages of the manuscript should be sequentially numbered (in Word: section "Layout" - "Line numbers" - "Continuously")
12. All components of the manuscript should be presented in English.

4.5. The manuscript must be complete, unambiguous and consistent.

4.6. For an original study, the completed checklist and flowchart for the relevant study type should be attached in separate files. For example, for a randomized clinical trial - the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials) checklist.
Current international standards for presenting the results of original studies you can find on the Equator Network website https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/ 
When presenting a clinical case, a completed CARE checklist (Case Report Guidelines) must be attached to the file with the manuscript.

4.7. Original research is subject to statistical peer review. In case of questions about the results of the study, the editors have the right to request primary data that will not be transferred to third parties. Failure to provide data entails the removal of the manuscript from consideration. 

4.8. Informed consent of the patient to the publication of an image or information about the patient in the journal must be provided at the request of the editors. Informed consent form

5.0. COMPONENTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT

 5.1-5.3. All components of the manuscript should be presented in English. Translation into Russian of manuscripts submitted in English is carried out by the editors.

• Type (original article, review, clinical case)
• Title (the first letter is uppercase, all other lowercase). It should be informative, brief enough (no more than 150 characters with spaces) and reflect the results of the work. Avoid abbreviations in the title of articles.
• Initials and surnames of all authors;
• Name of the institution (s), the work was performed, the city and country;
•  Abstract.  

             An original article  should come with a structured abstract of 230 to 250 words, including rubrics:

                - aim and background

                - materials and methods

                - results

                - conclusion

              A clinical case should be accompanied by a structured abstract of 140 to 150 words, including rubrics:

                 - aim and background

                 - case description

                 - conclusion

             A review should  come with an unstructured abstract of 140 to 150 words and key messages -  highlights (6-8)

       Abstract is not required for a letter to editor and a video article.

• Keywords;
• Contact information about the correspondent author:  name, surname, academic degree, position and the place of work (study) with address, contact number, e-mail.

5.4. List of abbreviations

Only generally accepted abbreviations should be used and only after the full name has been indicated. All abbreviations used in the article should be decrypted, except for the symbols of chemical elements and abbreviated names of well-known metric units. Non-standard abbreviations are allowed if the term is mentioned in the text at least five times.

5.5. The main text of the manuscript.

5.5.1. The description of the original study should not exceed 18.000-20.000 characters with spaces and have the following structure:

• Aim.  It briefly highlights the status of the issue under consideration with links to the most significant publications, formulates the aim and justification of the need for the study.
• Materials and methods. Information is provided in compliance with ethical requirements for research involving humans and animals. The date and number of the meeting of the local ethics committee should be indicated. A detailed description of the applied methods is given, which will allow other authors to repeat the experiment with the appropriate equipment. It is possible to indicate references to works with a more detailed description of the methods, however, the description given should be sufficient for a general understanding of the progress of the study. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of patients (for clinical research) or laboratory animals (for experimental work) are described. A detailed description of statistical processing methods is also provided. Medicines should be indicated using INN (International Nonproprietary Name). When mentioning software, hardware and new drugs, the name of the manufacturer and the country where it is located is given in parentheses.
• Results. They should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures. The text should clearly indicate a link to tables and figures. All data from tables and figures should not be repeated in the text, only the most important ones should be mentioned. The figures should not duplicate the data given in the tables. The name of the drawings and their legends under the appropriate numbering must be presented on a separate page. Measurement values must comply with the International System of Units (SI). Chemical formulas, tables, doses of drugs should be carefully verified.
• Discussion. It is necessary to highlight new and important aspects of the results of your research and compare them with the data of other studies if any. Do not repeat the information in the previous sections.
• Conclusion (conclusions). It should include brief conclusions and sound recommendations, as well as directions for future research.

Current international standards of presenting the results of original research you can find at website Equator network https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/ :

CONSORT (Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials)

TREND (Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs).

STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology).

STARD (Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy).

TRIPOD (The Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis or Diagnosis).

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, 

ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments)  https://arriveguidelines.org/resources/author-checklists

Original research is subject to statistical peer review. In case of questions about the results of the study, the editors have the right to request primary data that will not be transferred to third parties. Failure to provide data entails the removal of the manuscript from consideration. 

5.5.2. Clinical case is intended to present a unique observation (series of observations) or an advanced approach to treatment. The article should not exceed 9.000 - 11.000 characters and should comply with the CARE recommendations (Case report guidelines) https://www.care-statement.org/resources/checklist

Clinical case description structure:

a) Introduction (subtitle “Introduction” is not written). Includes general information about the disease under discussion with links to the most significant publications. If we are talking about the manifestation of side effects of a drug, then it is necessary to provide information about the drug, its main indications and side effects, their established frequency in the calculation of 1 case per 1000 consumers (or another ratio).

b) Description of the case. The name of the medical institution in which the described clinical case and the period of observation of the patient are recorded are indicated; depersonalized information about the patient: age, gender, main occupation. Describes the main complaints; anamnesis of the disease (observing the chronology of the onset of symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and its results). Information from the anamnesis of life (concomitant diseases and medical interventions; diagnoses of blood relatives related to this case, etc.) are given. The necessary data of the physical examination are indicated; differential diagnostic search algorithm. The survey results are presented with photographs of instrumental studies. The clinical diagnosis, the dynamics of its change with an indication of the reasons are indicated. Pharmacotherapeutic treatment is given using International Non-Proprietary Names and exact dosages; surgical - with a detailed description of the stages of the operation, intraoperative photographs. The course of development of this case is described, including all repeated examinations, correction of treatment, its suspension or interruption, indicating the reasons; side effects or unexpected development of events; medical rehabilitation and disease outcome.

c) Discussion. Additional information and explanations of the originality of this case are given, as well as the rationale for the choice of the method of management, diagnosis and treatment. It is recommended to describe the diagnostic problems and their discussion, including differential diagnosis, prognostic characteristics, and applicability in clinical practice. It is necessary to indicate the strengths and limitations of the description of the clinical case; suggest ways to generalize this case to a larger population. Your reasoning needs to be correlated with a discussion of the relevant medical literature.

d) Conclusion. It is indicated what is the novelty of the presented case, what the main conclusion can be drawn from this description, what is its importance for practising specialists and medical science. 

CARE checklist completed on a computer, in pdf format, should be attached as a separate file.

5.5.3. Review should not exceed 28.000 - 35.000 characters with spaces and reflect the current status of the problem.

5.5.4.  Letter to Editor should comment on articles published in the Sechenov Medical Journal during the last year. 

The Letter to Editor should not exceed 500 words (excluding the title, bibliography and information about authors), 3 authors, one figure or table (if necessary).

The bibliography should include a link to the commented article and contain no more than 5 sources.

5.5.5. Video Article demonstrates interesting and innovative approaches to diagnostic or surgery, worthy of the attention of a wide audience of medical practitioners.

Video duration is limited to 5 minutes. Voice-over audio is required.  Additional information should be provided in Word format file  and include: the title of the article, information about the authors, text-transcript for the video with highlighted time points, keywords (3-5), bibliography (up to 10 sources), information about funding and conflict of interest.

The authors are responsible for obtaining signed informed consent from patients who can be identified from the video and provide this document to the editor upon request. An appropriate statement about the receipt of the patient's signed informed consent should be included in the text of the manuscript.

5.6. Conflict of interest 

ALL authors should disclose the existence of a conflict of interest. Conflict of interest implies the presence of any connections and/or personal interests that could potentially affect the results, interpretation of the received data, their objective perception, in particular financial relations and cooperation with any organizations (for example, receiving fees, educational grants, participation in expert councils, membership, labour relations, consulting work or other interests) or non-financial interest (for example, personal or professional relationships, etc.), concerning the issues discussed in the article and/or materials. All significant conflicts of interest should be reflected in the manuscript (after the text of the article, before the list of references).

In the absence of a conflict of interest, the following should be stated:

Conflict of interests. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

5.7. Bibliography / References

In the text of the article, bibliographic references are given in Arabic numerals in square brackets, for example, [1]. All works are listed in citation order in the text. Individual surnames of authors mentioned in the text must be preceded by initials (the names of foreign authors are given in the original transcription). It is not recommended to include dissertational works, conference materials since familiarization with them is difficult. Unpublished works and preprints should not be included.

The bibliography for the original article is limited to 30-50 sources, for the clinical case - 20-30 sources, for the review - 50-70. References should not be exhaustive; the priority is given to works published over the past 5 years.

The bibliography is printed on a new page. Each source is indicated on a new line with a serial number. The design of the References is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Vancouver Style https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/administration-and-support-services/library/public/Vancouver-guide-2022.pdf 

The bibliographic description includes:

a) Surname and initials of the author (s);

b) Title of publication;

c) Imprint (place of publication, name of the publisher, year of publication, volume, number, pages);

d) DOI (if any);

e) PMID (if any).

Examples:

1. Geiseler S.J., Morland C. The Janus face of VEGF in stroke. Int J Mol Sci. 2018 May 4; 19(5): 1362. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19051362. PMID:29734653.

2. Hayreh S.S. Structure of the optic nerve. Ischemic optic neuropathies. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. P. 7-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11852-4. ISBN 978-3-642-11849-4. e-ISBN 978-3-642-11852-4

3. World Health Organization, International Agency for Research of cancer: Cancer Today – https://gco.iarc.fr/today/online-analysis-piev=2020&mode=population&mode_population=continents&population=900&populations=900&key=total&sex=0&cancer=39&type=0&statistic=5&prevalence=0&population_group=0&ages_group%5B%5D=0&ages_group%5B%5D=17&nb_items=7&group_cancer=1&include_nmsc=1&include_nmsc_other=1&half_pie=0&donut=0 (дата обращения: 10.11.2022).

If the team of authors includes more than 4 authors, indicate the first three authors and then put “et al.” All references to journal publications must contain DOI and PMID. You can check for a DOI article at https://search.crossref.org and for a PMID at PubMed. Please pay attention to the correct design DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(08)70255-X. Only a hyphen (not a dash) is used in the DOI body.

5.8.  Information about ALL authors: 

Surname, Name, academic degree and title (if any), position, place of work (or study), ORCID;

In the absence of an ORCID number, you should obtain it by registering on the website https://orcid.org

ORCID is a register of unique identifiers for scientists and, at the same time, an appropriate method linking research activities with these identifiers. To date, this is the only way to uniquely identify the scientist’s personality.

5.9.  Specific author contributions should be provided for all authors. 

• study concept and design,
• acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data,
• statistical analysis,
• drafting the manuscript.
• critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content

All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript and take responsibility for all aspects of the work. 

Persons who do not meet all four criteria of authorship should be mentioned in the Acknowledgment section.

5.10. Disclose any financial and personal relationships that have influenced or could affect your work.

 5.11.  Tables

Tables are given in the text of the manuscript. Each table should have a name (without abbreviations) and serial number (in Arabic numerals), following the appearance in the text. Each column in the table should have a short heading (abbreviations can be used).

All clarifications, including a breakdown of abbreviations, should be placed in footnotes (notes to the table). The statistical methods used to represent data variability and significance of differences should be indicated.

The number of tables should be absolutely necessary.

5.12.  Illustrations, titles and captions for illustrations 

Illustrations (drawings, diagrams, photographs) are included in the manuscript. 

In case of a request from the editor to provide the illustrations in separate files, the name of each file should include the type and the number of the illustration, for example, Fig_1, Tab_2. Acceptable formats include .pt, .tif, .tiff and .jpeg. The resolution of graphical files should be no less than 300 dpi.

Captions and legends need to be printed below each illustration. The caption should consist of the name and the legend (explanations of the parts of pictures, schemas, photographs, symbols, arrows and other details) In captions for microphotographs the zoom rate and the method of colouring should be specified.

The illustration should contain a minimum amount of legends, all annotations should be included in the caption below the illustration.

Places for all illustrating materials in the text are being specified in the order of citing (for example, Fig.1) The publisher provides printing of coloured as well as black and white photographs.

The number of photographs should be just absolutely necessary.

5.13. Manuscripts not meeting the requirements above will not be considered.

5.14. The Editorial Board reserve the right to shorten and correct articles, change the design of graphs, figures and tables to bring them in line with the standard of the journal, without changing the meaning of the information provided.

5.15. According to the policy of the journal, all manuscripts accepted for consideration are double-blind peer-reviewed by 2 reviewers, full texts of the reviews for all published articles are uploaded along with the articles to the Scientific Electronic Library eLIBRARY.ru and are opened for library readers, the personal data of reviewers remain closed.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The manuscripts are accepted if has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

2. According to"Your Paper, Your Way" initiative you can submit your manuscript to the journal for initial consideration and peer review as a single Word file without special  editing in any format along with the necessary documents (cover letter and checklist for the appropriate study design).

3. Only when your manuscript moves to revision, you will be asked to bring it into the "journal format" and provide all the elements necessary for the publication.

4. Text should be typed with an interval of one and a half line spacing, font Times New Roman, 14 pt; to highlight the accents it is recommended to use italics rather than underlining (except Internet links). All images, graphics and tables are placed within the text according to the meaning of the particular part of text  (and not at the end of the document).

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Privacy Statement

Specified when registering the names, phone number and addresses will be used solely for technical purposes of a contact with the Author or reviewers (editors) when preparing the article for publication. Private data will not be shared with other individuals and organizations.