Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

"Molecular Medicine" - the journal covers the results of scientific research in such areas as the study of the molecular and genetic foundations of the etiology and pathogenesis of socially significant diseases in order to develop new diagnostic methods and methods of effective therapy of human diseases, including on the basis of nuclear medicine technologies.

Particular attention is paid to the formation of the principles of personalized medicine based on a fundamentally new approach to the disease and the patient, in the context of the active introduction into practice of the achievements of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics, using modern knowledge and computer technologies based on rich international experience in this field.

On the pages of the journal, the issues of creating a complex of gene-cell bioengineered medical technologies and highly effective medicines of a new generation, including directed action; medicines based on nanotechnology are considered.

According to the decision of the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC), the journal "Molecular Medicine" is included in the list of leading peer-reviewed scientific journals in which the main scientific results of the dissertation for the degree of doctor and candidate of sciences in the specialties should be published:

• 03.01.00 — physical and chemical biology
• 03.03.00 — physiology
• 14.03.00 — medical and biological sciences.

The journal "Molecular Medicine" is included in the Russian Science Citation Index.

Sections

• Reviews
• Original research

Sections

Reviews

Original research

Peer Review Process

1. Manuscripts of articles submitted to the editorial office of the journal are accepted for consideration and sent by the executive secretary for review within 5 working days only if the Rules for authors are observed.
2. Peer review is carried out confidentially by a specialist in the field of scientific research on which the manuscript is submitted, from among the members of the Editorial Board of the journal.
3. The review is carried out on a double-blind principle: reviewers do not know the identity of the authors, and the authors also do not know the identity of the reviewers. There are at least three or more reviewers for the total number of articles in each issue.
4. In case of a negative review, the manuscript is sent for additional review to an independent external reviewer from among the leading experts in the field of scientific research of the submitted manuscript.
5. In some cases, for the purpose of a more detailed and in-depth evaluation of the manuscript of the article, it is sent to independent external reviewers from among the leading specialists in related medical disciplines.
6. The review preparation period is 15 working days from the date of receipt of the article.
7. The tasks of the reviewer include:
   
   1. qualified analysis of the manuscript, reasoned evaluation, according to the criteria: compliance of the content of the article with the profile of the journal, relevance of the topic, scientific and methodological level of the research, reliability of statistical processing of the material, novelty of the main provisions and conclusions, practical significance.
   2. make a clear judgment in the review about the expediency of publishing the manuscript (in full or abbreviated form), the need for its revision or rejection;
   3. when recommending a reduction or revision of the manuscript of the article specify at the expense of which sections its reduction or correction should be carried out;
   4. in case of a negative review, to argue the motives rejection of the manuscript of the article;
   5. submit a signed review to the editorial board. It is allowed to send a review in a scanned version in pdf format.
8. Authors of manuscripts of articles are given the opportunity to get acquainted with the text of the review. The editorial board of the publication sends the authors of the submitted materials copies of the reviews or a reasoned refusal, and also undertakes to send copies of the reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation when the corresponding request is received by the editorial office of the publication.
9. The right of final decision on the rejection, revision or acceptance for publication of the manuscript of the article remains with the editorial board.
10. The editorial board does not assume obligations on the terms of publication of the received manuscripts.
11. If it is necessary to finalize the manuscript, the author finalizes the manuscript with a description of the changes and/or objections and resubmits it to the editorial board.
12. After completion, the executive secretary sends the manuscript for re-review, which must be carried out within 10 working days. In this case, the date of receipt to the editorial office is the date of return of the revised material.
13. The decision on the expediency of publication after repeated review, as well as in the case of different opinions of reviewers, is made by the editor-in-chief or the editorial board by an open vote by a simple majority of votes.
14. Reviewers are notified by the executive secretary that the manuscripts are the private property of the authors and relate to information not subject to disclosure. Reviewers are not allowed to copy manuscripts for personal needs. Violation of confidentiality is possible only in the case of a statement about the unreliability or falsification of materials.
15. Materials are stored in the editorial office. The shelf life of manuscripts and reviews is 5 years from the date of publication.

Publication Frequency

6 issues per year

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 makes full-text archives on the Russian Science Electronic Library (http://elibrary.ru/) platform.

Delayed Open Access

The contents of this journal will be available in an open access format 60 month(s) after an issue is published.

Issue Purchase

Readers without a subscription may still purchase individual issues. The following payment options and fees are available.

Access for an Issue: 288.00 (USD)

You can purchase the access for all articles published in one issue. Access to articles will be provide for an unlimited time.

Access to issue allows you to read, download and print full text (PDF and HTML) of all articles, but does not allow to distribute, copy or reproduce articles materials until the end of the embargo period (3 years) since the publication of the article).

Article Purchase

Readers without a subscription may still purchase individual articles. The following payment options and fees are available.

Access for an Article: 35.00 (USD)

You can purchase the access for the article to read, download and print its fulltext (PDF, HTML). Access to article will be provide for an unlimited time.

Purchased access does not allow to distribute, copy or reproduce article's materials until the end of the embargo period (3 years) since the publication of the article).

Indexing

Articles in journal 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.
• EBSCO
• WorldCat
• Ulrichsweb (Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory)

Editorial policy and ethics

Publication ethics

Reporting standarts

Journal “Molekulyarnaya Meditsina” (Molecular medicine) in Russian follows the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (http://publicationethics.org/files/Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf) and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, Updated December 2014 (http://www.icmje.org/)

Any manuscript which has been found to fail to meet demands of the any issue of publication ethics will not be accepted for publication.

Authors of the manuscript, containing the results of the original study should provide reliable results of the work done with an objective discussion of the significance of the study. The data underlying the study should be presented without errors in accordance with the primary records. The Description of Materials and methods should be detailed so sufficiently to make possible to accurately reproduce the corresponding results. Reviews (including systematic) must also be accurate and objective.

Presentation of false information in the submitted manuscript or knowingly false statements will be regarded as a gross violation of publication ethics. The manuscript will be rejected from publication.

Data Access and Retention

The editors reserve the right to ask the authors of the original (raw) data of the investigation, including for the provision to reviewers and editors. Authors should be ready to provide such information to editorial staff (according to ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), and also store the data for an adequate period of time after publication.

Originality and plagiarism

Plagiarism can exist in many forms - from presenting someone else's work as an author prior to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of other people's work (without attribution) to the application of own rights to the results of other people's research. Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and unacceptable.
The journal "Molecular Medicine" does not publish papers containing plagiarism (this applies to the text, the ideas and presented data).

Authors of manuscripts must submit completely original works. Incorporated use of results of other authors must be accompanied by references to the relevant primary sources (included in the list of literature). Quoting text, previously published elsewhere, must be executed as a direct speech (text must be enclosed in quotation marks) with the obligatory indication of the reference. Inclusion of large fragments of borrowed text in the manuscript is unacceptable.

The manuscripts sent to the journal “Molekulyarnaya Meditsina” (Molecular medicine), are tested for plagiarism of text through the "Anti-plagiarism". In case of revealing of any unauthorized borrowing, as well as low ratio of the original text (less than 85%) the manuscript is rejected from the publication of.

Detection of plagiarism of ideas and plagiarism of data is implemented in the framework of the scientific peer review, as well as after the publication of the manuscripts - upon requests of readers with relevant statements. In establishing the fact of unauthorized borrowing data (results of research), or the idea of the manuscript (article) will be withdrawn and refused to publish or not to be counted as published.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

Authors should not publish a lot of manuscripts, mostly devoted to the same investigation more than in the only journal, as the original works.

Identification of the submission of the same manuscript simultaneously in more than one journal will be regarded as a violation of the publication ethics. The editors of the journal "Molecular Medicine" will reject any publication of the manuscript under consideration in other editions or previously published in other publications.

The publication of articles of a certain type (eg, clinical practice guidelines, translated articles) is acceptable in some cases (under certain conditions). when submitting manuscripts for "re- publication The authors should notify the editor and justify its feasibility in detail. In the case of re-publication resolving issues related to copyright in the publication is adopted individually in each case. General Rules for the "re-publication" of the manuscript are as follows:
• indication of the full bibliographic reference to the primary publication;
• preservation of the original bibliography of the primary work.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors should refer to the publication of other people who were important in carrying out the research work, the highlighted in the manuscript. Data obtained informally (for example, during the conversation, correspondence or discussions with a third party) should not be used without written permission from the author of the original source. The information received from confidential sources (for example, about a grant provision for the study) should not be mentioned in the manuscript without the distinct written permission of the author of the manuscript, who has a direct relation to the respective confidential sources.

Authorship of the Paper

The authors of the publication may serve only persons who have made substantial contributions to the mission conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, implementation or interpretation of results of the presented investigation as well as in this particular process of writing the manuscript (including conducting scientific and stylistic editing and layout in accordance with requirements of the editorial ethics).

The author should make sure that all the participants who have made a significant contribution to the study are presented as co-authors (with the signature of each when submitting manuscripts for publication) and nobody who did not participate in the study is listed as co-authors.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

In the Journal there will be published the results only of studies performed in compliance with the rules of biomedical ethics, and standards compliant with GCP (Good Clinical Practice), GLP (Good Laboratory Practice). The manuscripts should reflect all of the risks (explicit and potential) to which objects of study (human or animal) were exposed: the impact of chemicals (including pharmaceuticals), procedures or equipment, and other situations that may be harm to the health or danger for the life of objects of the study.

If the objects of study in the experimental work were alive people or animals, authors should mention reflected in the manuscript that all stages of the research were conducted in accordance with laws and regulations. Authors should also provide information that study protocol was considered in the ethics committee with the obligatory indication of the name of the committee (or organization in which the committee was created), date and number of the protocol of the meeting at which the study was approved. The editors have the right to request certified copies of corresponding protocols.

In the manuscript it should be clearly reflected that from all the persons who have become objects of study, voluntary informed consent was obtained.

The authors are personally responsible for the fact that in the manuscript the identity of the research participants (or the description of a clinical case) is not revealed in any way. Authors should make sure that it is quite impossible to identify the objects of research from the data presented in the manuscript.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors must to disclose (to declare in the relevant section of the manuscript) financial or other explicit or potential conflicts of interests that may be perceived as influenced the results or conclusions presented in the work.

Examples of potential conflicts of interests to be disclosed:
• obtaining financial compensation for participation in the study or writing of the manuscript;
• any relationship (work on the contract, consulting, availability of stock ownership, fee receiving, providing expert opinions) to organizations with a direct interest in the subject matter or review;
• patent application or registration of a patent on the results of the study (copyright, etc.);
• financial support to carry out any of the stages of research or writing of the manuscript (including grants and other financial support).

Explicit and potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed as soon as possible.
Information on conflicts of interest received from the authors of manuscripts, is not available to reviewers being only available only to the editorial board when adopting of decision on the publication of the manuscript and presented in the full text of the article.

Fundamental errors in published works

In case of the revealing of significant errors or inaccuracies in the manuscript, the author should inform the Editor or publisher and cooperate with them for the most early withdrawal of the manunscript or correction of errors. If the editors or the publisher received valid information from a third party that the publication contains significant errors, the author is obliged to withdraw the work, correct mistakes as soon as possible, or deny an application for any errors, providing the necessary proofs to the editor.