Editorial ethics

The editorial ethics of “The Caucasus Journal of Medical and Psychological Sciences”, relying on the standards of the Committee on Ethics of Scientific Publications (COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors; Best Practice Guidelines on Publishing Ethics: A publisher’s Perspective. 2nd ed. –John Wiley & Sons, 2014), ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005 (R2010), Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf), Preparing Manuscripts for Publication in Psychology Journals: A Guide for New Authors. the American Psychological Association. 2010. (https://www.apa.org/pubs/authors/new-author-guide.pdf) as well as on the valuable experience of reputable international journals and publishers, reviews all materials submitted to the editorial office for their expert evaluation. The editorial board undertakes to assist the scientific community in all aspects of the implementation of the policy on compliance with publishing ethics, especially in cases of suspected duplicate submission of an article or plagiarism.

Ethical Responsibilities of Editors and Editorial Board Members

The editor-in-chief of the journal and the editors are responsible for the scientific level of the materials published in the journal.

The editor-in-chief, editors, executive Secretary and members of the editorial board are obliged to follow the following ethical principles:

  • when making a decision on publication, be guided by the scientific significance of the work under consideration;
  • evaluate the intellectual content of the manuscript regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, social status, or political preferences of the authors;
  • protect the freedom of expression of scientific opinion;
  • maintain confidentiality and not use for personal gain the information or ideas contained in the manuscripts under consideration;
  • ensure the fairness, objectivity, and timeliness of the process of scientific examination of manuscripts;
  • ensure confidentiality of the entire review process and compliance with review deadlines;
  • work on improving the quality of published materials;
  • constantly develop the database of reviewers;
  • do not allow manuscripts to be published if they contain incorrect borrowings;
  • to guarantee the quality of linguistic translation of texts in cases when the accepted manuscript of a scientific article is to be translated into another language (Georgian, English or Russian). The quality of linguistic translation is ensured by the involvement of professional translators.
  • Organize meetings of the Editorial Board members to discuss the development strategy of the Journal and current issues.

Editorial Freedom

The owner of the Caucasus Journal of Medical and Psychological Sciences and its editors accept the definition of editorial freedom given by the World Association of Medical Editors, according to which editorial freedom, or independence, is defined as the concept that editors have the full right to determine the content of journals. The owner of the journal does not interfere in the evaluation process; selection or editing of individual articles. Editors make decisions based on the validity of the work and its significance to the scientific community.

Editorial Procedures and Peer-Review

Initial Checks. All submitted manuscripts received by the Editorial Office will be checked to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal, including those for human and animal experimentation, and whether it is scientifically sound. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer review. Manuscripts that are not properly prepared will be returned to the authors for revision and resubmission.

Peer Review Process. Manuscripts submitted to CJMPS go through an editorial board peer review model; manuscripts are forwarded to researchers familiar with the particular subject area for special review. After a paper is reviewed, it is returned to the author for revisions (if necessary) or rejected. Assuming two rounds of review (one round for the original submission and one round for the revised manuscript), time from submission to final decision in the editorial board peer review model can take as little as approximately 2 months.

Production Process and Timeline. After the article has gone through peer review and been accepted, it will enter the production phase of the publication process. In the production phase, the original manuscript is styled, copyedited, professionally typeset, and then proofread. After all these steps are complete, the corresponding author will receive page proofs of the article. After the revisions, the Journal production team will apply the edits and have the final version of the article typeset. Once revisions are complete, the manuscript is ready for advance online publication. The corresponding author can help keep the production process on track by returning the proofs on time, and by being mindful of things such as copyright issues within the article. Publication of the article within an issue will be contingent upon the issue schedule for the journal.

Ethical Responsibilities of Reviwers

When carrying out a scientific examination of the author's materials, the actions of reviewers should be unbiased, consisting of the following principles:

  • consideration of the manuscript received for review as a confidential document, which is prohibited to be transferred for review or discussion to third parties without the special permission of the editorial board of the Journal;
  • Provide an objective and reasoned assessment of the results of the study under consideration;
  • expressing one's own opinion without personal criticism of the author;
  • prohibition on the use of unpublished data contained in the text of the manuscript under consideration for personal purposes;
  • refusal to consider the work in the presence of any form of conflict of interest.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Authorship should be limited to those persons who have made a significant contribution to the concept, planning, execution or interpretation of the described research. If any person has participated in any significant part of the project, then he should be thanked, or he should be included in the list of co-authors. The author undertakes not to indicate co-authors who do not meet these requirements and also to ensure that the final version of the article and its submission for publication have been approved by all co-authors. Submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time or submission of an already published article for consideration is unacceptable. The author is responsible for plagiarism in all its forms.

Authors of works containing the results of original research are obliged to present objective arguments in favor of its relevance. It is always necessary to recognize the contribution of others. The article should contain links to publications that have influenced the content of the described work. The work should contain sufficiently detailed information and bibliographic references for possible reproduction of the described results. False and knowingly erroneous statements are considered unethical behavior and are considered unacceptable.

Data obtained during a conversation, correspondence or in the process of discussion with third parties should not be used or presented without the explicit written permission of the original source. In the case of the use of works or statements by other authors, such works or statements should be appropriately cited or marked. Authors should refer to publications that are relevant to the performance of the submitted work.

The manuscript should clearly reflect that all people who have become objects of research have received consent to conduct this research. It is always necessary to monitor the observance of the rights to privacy.

All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or any other significant conflict of interest that could be interpreted as affecting the results of the evaluation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed.

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his published work, his duty is to immediately notify the editor-in-chief of the journal about this and cooperate with the editor-in-chief in order to publish a refutation or correction of the article. If the editor-in-chief learns from a third party that the published work contains a significant error, the author is obliged to urgently refute or correct the article, or to provide the editor-in-chief with proof of the correctness of the published work.

The editorial board undertakes to assist the scientific community in all aspects of the implementation of the policy on compliance with publishing ethics, especially in cases of suspected duplicate submission of an article or plagiarism.

If the publication of an article has caused a violation of someone's copyright or the norms of scientific ethics or ethical principles generally accepted in the scientific community of the journal, as well as in cases where the article reveals ways to circumvent the Anti-Plagiarism system, the editorial board reserves the right to withdraw the publication from the scientific space without a statute of limitations for publication. Grounds for revocation of the article: detection of incorrect borrowings (plagiarism) in the publication; duplication of the article in several publications; detection of falsifications or fabrications in the work (for example, falsification of experimental data); detection of serious errors in the work (for example, incorrect interpretation of the results), which casts doubt on its scientific value; incorrect composition of authors (there is no one who deserves to be an author; persons who do not meet the criteria of authorship are included); hidden conflict of interests (and other violations of publication ethics). Retraction is carried out on the basis of its own expertise or external expertise, or information received by the editorial office. The editorial board must inform the author (the lead author in the case of collective authorship) about the retraction of the article and substantiate its reasons. The article and the description of the article remain on the journal's website as part of the corresponding issue, but the electronic version of the text is marked WITHDRAWN/RETRACTED, and the date of retraction, the same mark is placed with the article in the table of contents of the issue. The comment to the article indicates the reason for the retraction (in case of plagiarism – indicating the source of borrowing). There is no mechanical removal of the article from the electronic version of the journal and from the archive, the texts of the withdrawn articles remain where they were before, with the appropriate mark.