Ethical standards of editing manuscripts of scientific publications

1. Basic principles of publication ethics:

1.1. Compliance with the ethical standards of the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board of the journal is guided by the principles of scientific, objectivity, professionalism, and impartiality in its activities.

1.2. Responsibility for compliance with ethical standards. Researchers, authors, editors, reviewers and publishers have ethical obligations regarding the publication and dissemination of the results of scientific research.

1.3. Norms of communication with authors. Interaction with authors is based on the principles of fairness, politeness, objectivity, honesty and transparency.

1.4. The presence of the institute of reviewing. All the content of the journal, except for advertising and editorial materials, clearly marked as such, is subject to mandatory double-blind peer review by independent experts.

1.5. Access to publications. The journal guarantees access to publications, providing storage of materials in the leading libraries and repositories of scientific information of the Russian Federation.

1.6. Information openness. The publication’s website contains provisions on publication ethics and peer review, the journal’s policy, rules for submitting manuscripts, instructions for authors and information about the availability of materials (free access) are clearly formulated. ISSN, publisher address are specified.

1.7. Informing about the provision or absence of paid services. All information about paid services, if there are any in one form or another, is clearly prescribed and available on the journal’s website, approved by the Editor-in-Chief. If the journal does not provide paid services, this is also indicated on the publication’s website.

1.8. Compliance with the ethical criteria of authorship. Author is only a person who has significantly participated in the writing of a work, in the development of its concept, in scientific design, collection of material, analysis and interpretation; consent of all authors to publication is mandatory. All co-authors must meet these criteria.

1.9. Approval of final text of article with author. Publication of an article under author’s name implies the emergence of copyright. Publication of a text that is not agreed with author, as well as inclusion of unauthorized persons in number of co-authors, is a violation of copyright.

1.10. Compliance with deadlines for decision-making by the Editorial Board. Editorial decisions are made within a limited time and are set out in a clear and constructive form on the publication’s website in the instructions for authors.

1.11. Interaction with scientific and professional associations. The editorial staff strives to interact with professional scientific associations and industry communities in order to ensure the high quality of the work of scientists.

1.12. Prevention and correction of ethical violations. It is the duty of scientific editors to prevent situations when authors, reviewers or other subjects involved in the production of scientific texts carry out unethical behavior, as well as to ensure the removal of unscrupulous publications from the scientific space, to co-operate with the ethics Council and scientific associations.

1.13. Informing about the conflict of interests. The editors urge authors to disclose relations with industrial and financial organizations that can lead to a conflict of interests. All sources of funding should be indicated by authors in body of article.

2. Duties and responsibilities of the Editorial Board and the Editorial Council of the journal Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine.

2.1. The Editorial Board of the journal is an advisory body consisting of prominent scientists and persons with extensive experience, representatives of public organizations, assists the Editorial Board in determining the mission, policy and topics of the journal, discusses the long-term and annual plans of the journal, contributes to the development and improvement of the journal.

2.2. The Editorial Board of the journal is a permanent management body of the journal, which includes major scientists in various scientific specialties, determines the current editorial policy of the journal, reviews and approves the content of the next issues of the journal, accepts and prepares for publication manuscripts submitted by authors, designed in accordance with the Rules of the journal.

2.3. The Editorial Board of the journal in its activities:
‒ is guided by the Law of the Russian Federation of December 27, 1991 N 2124-I “On Mass Media”, the provisions of Chapter 70 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation “Copyright” and international standards for authors (Responsible research publication international standards for authors) (https://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf), journal policy;
‒ follows the principles and procedures that facilitate the performance of ethical duties by Editors, Reviewers and Authors of the journal in accordance with these requirements;
‒ promote good research practices and implement industry standards in order to improve ethical recommendations, procedures for removing and correcting errors;
‒ undertakes, in case of objective claims, complaints or conflict situations, all measures depending on it to protect the party whose rights have been infringed, provides the opportunity to argue its position, if necessary, to publish the corrected version and apologize to authors, readers and the scientific community;
‒ provides peer review (expert evaluation) of materials exclusively on scientific grounds by a disinterested, independent, competent specialist in the field of ongoing research through double-blind peer review;
‒ makes decisions only on the basis of the scientific qualities of the articles and is responsible for its decisions;
‒ ensures that authors are not pressured to cite certain publications for non-scientific reasons;
‒ ensures the confidentiality of authors’ material and informs reviewers about the need to maintain such confidentiality during the review process;
‒ preserves the confidentiality of reviewers’ personal data. However, if reviewers wish to disclose their names, they are not prohibited from doing so;
‒ makes a decision to refuse to publish an article or to withdraw an already published article or make changes to it in case of detection of numerous unfair borrowings, violations of publication ethics or conscientious error of authors and author’s failure to submit reasonable objections;
‒ responds to all statements or suspicions of misconduct in relation to a published article coming from readers, reviewers or other editors;
‒ follows the policy of openness of information about financial and non-financial conflicts of interest and requires authors and reviewers to provide information about possible conflicts of interest;
‒ does not use the data obtained from submitted manuscripts without authors’ written consent;
‒ encourages scientific debates on the pages of the journal.

2.4. The Editorial Board is responsible for all published materials and takes measures to ensure the high quality and reliability of published materials.

2.5. Unpublished data obtained from the submitted manuscripts should not be used for personal purposes or transferred to third parties without author’s written consent. Information or ideas obtained during editing and related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

2.6. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal organizes the activities of the Editorial Board.

2.7. The Editor-in-Chief, together with the Editorial Board and/or the Council, forms an effective policy of the journal and mechanisms for its implementation, including in terms of:
‒ ensuring the quality of published materials;
‒ ensuring the independence of the Editorial Board and / or the Council;
‒ ensuring the norms of publication ethics and confidentiality requirements;
‒ interaction with authors and monitoring authors’ compliance with publication ethics;
‒ ensuring transparency and honesty when considering issues about the publication of articles;
‒ providing scientific review of articles;
‒ resolution of appeals and complaints.

2.8. Editor-in-Chief:
‒ ensures the dissemination of information about the journal’s policy (to authors, readers, reviewers);
‒ takes all possible reasonable steps to ensure the high quality and high scientific level of the published material and to maintain the internal uniformity of the journal;
‒ determines the relationship between author, the Editorial Board and/or the Council, as well as other participants in contractual relations;
‒ is responsible for making decisions on the size and content of manuscripts;
‒ undertakes to publish edits, explanations and withdraw unfair articles;
‒ respects the right to confidentiality of personal information (for research participants, authors, reviewers);
‒ protects intellectual property and copyright;
‒ ensures timely publication of the journal’s publications.

2.9. The Editor-in-Chief undertakes to:
‒ constantly improve the journal;
‒ follow the principle of freedom of opinion;
‒ strive to meet the needs of readers and authors of the journal;
‒ exclude the influence of business interests or politics on the decision-making on the publication of materials;
‒ to make a decision on the publication of materials, guided by the following main criteria: compliance of the manuscript with the subject of the journal, relevance, novelty and scientific significance of the submitted article, clarity of presentation, reliability of the results and completeness of conclusions. The quality of the research and its relevance are the basis for the decision on publication;
‒ take all reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality of personal information;
‒ take into account the recommendations of reviewers when making a final decision on the publication of an article. The responsibility for the decision on publication lies entirely with the Editorial Board of the journal;
‒ to justify their decision in case of acceptance or rejection of an article;
‒ to provide author of a reviewed material with an opportunity to justify his research position;
‒ when changing the composition of the Editorial Board, do not cancel the decisions of the previous composition on the publication of the material.

2.10. The Editor-in-Chief has the exclusive right to accept manuscript for publication or reject it.

2.11. Manuscript may be rejected by the Editor-in-Chief at the stage preceding the review, if there is a good reason for this (article is obviously of low scientific quality; article was previously published in another publication; a fundamental contradiction was revealed in the submitted materials to the ethical principles that the journal adheres to).

2.12. The Editor-in-Chief accepts article for publication in accordance with his conviction that it meets the requirements of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief may consult with other members of the Editorial Board, members of the Editorial Council, as well as with reviewers in the process of making a decision on the publication of an article. He or she promotes compliance with the principle of “blind” review of articles.

2.13. The Editor-in-Chief interacts with authors on the principles of fairness, politeness, objectivity, honesty, transparency and is personally responsible for the decision to accept or reject manuscript of article submitted to the editorial office.

2.14. The Editor-in-Chief must determine the fate of a received manuscript within 2 months from the date of registration of the manuscript.

2.15. The decision to accept an article is based solely on the assessment of the relevance, originality (novelty), significance, reliability, consistency and clarity of the presentation of material, the presence of reviewers’ conclusion.

2.16. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for the publication of copyrighted works, which imposes the need to follow the following fundamental principles when making a decision on publication:
‒ the reliability of a presented data and the scientific significance of a work under consideration;
‒ the objectivity of the assessment of the scientific, methodological and practical basis of a conducted research, its compliance with the current level of development of the field of knowledge represented by an expert;
‒ the impartiality of the evaluation of the intellectual content of manuscripts, regardless of origin, citizenship, social status, views and preferences of authors;
‒ professionalism ‒ not to allow information to be published if there are sufficient grounds to believe that it is plagiarism;
‒ maintaining the confidentiality of author’s ideas, research results, conclusions, and practical recommendations before the publication of an article.

2.17. The Editor-in-Chief together with the publisher should not leave unanswered claims concerning reviewed manuscripts or published materials, as well as take all necessary measures to restore the violated rights when a conflict situation is identified.

2.18. The Editor-in-Chief together with the founder:
‒ ensures the informational openness of the journal by publishing on the official website of the journal: information about the Editorial Board and/or the Council of the journal, the conditions for publishing articles, the rules for the design of articles, the rules for reviewing articles, the regulations on publication ethics. The publisher ensures that all articles published in the journal have open access on the journal’s website;
‒ ensures the placement on the official website of complete and comprehensive information about the paid services of the journal or about their absence;
‒ provides open access to full-text files of all archival and current issues of the journal and distribution of publications in electronic libraries by publishing articles on the official website of the journal, posting metadata and full texts of articles on the website of the scientific electronic library eLIBRARY.

2.19. General obligations and responsibilities of editors

2.20. An editor is a representative of a scientific journal or publishing house who prepares materials for publication, as well as maintains communication with authors and readers of scientific publications.

2.21. Editors are responsible for everything that is published in their journal. This means that editors must:
‒ ensure that the interests of readers and authors are respected;
‒ contribute to the development and improvement of the journal;
‒ take all necessary measures to ensure the high quality of published materials;
‒ protect freedom of opinion;
‒ not allow commercial interests to compromise intellectual and ethical standards;
‒ prevent, if possible, the occurrence of a conflict of interests between participants of the publication process, and, if necessary, to resolve the conflict in accordance with the interests of the scientific community;
‒ be ready to publish corrections, explanations, refutations (withdraw articles) and apologies when necessary.
All submitted manuscripts must be objectively evaluated by the editor in terms of their scientific significance without any commercial influence.

2.22. The editor is responsible for making a decision on publication. The reliability of a work under consideration and its scientific significance should always be the basis of the decision on publication.

2.23. Editors must ensure that the materials they publish comply with international standards of scientific and publication ethics.

2.24. If there is a conflict of interests between editor and author of an article, the article should be transferred to another editor.

2.25. Editor submits for review all incoming manuscripts that were not rejected for various reasons at the first stage of consideration, selecting reviewers from among the most competent specialists on the subject of the article.

2.26. Editors should keep the names of reviewers secret and not tell the reviewers the names of the authors.

2.27. Editors must guarantee the high quality of the materials published in the journal and their content integrity, as well as publish corrections, explanations, apologies in cases where such a need arises.

2.28. Editor must objectively and fairly evaluate the intellectual content of manuscripts without discrimination, regardless of geographical origin, citizenship, ethnicity, views, beliefs and preferences of Authors.

2.29. Editor and members of the Editorial Board of the journal are obliged not to disclose information about the accepted manuscript to all persons, except for Authors, Reviewers, Scientific Consultants and Publisher, without necessity.
Unpublished data obtained from the submitted manuscripts cannot be used in personal research without the written consent of Author.

2.30. Information or ideas obtained during the review and related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

2.31. Editor, who has provided convincing evidence that the statements or conclusions presented in the publication are erroneous, must inform the Publisher about this in order to notify Publisher as soon as possible about changes, withdrawal of the publication, expression of concern and other statements relevant to the situation.

2.32. Editor, together with Publisher, shall take adequate response measures in case of ethical claims concerning the reviewed manuscripts or published materials. Such measures generally include interaction with the authors of the manuscript and argumentation of the relevant complaint or claim, but may also involve interaction with relevant organizations and research centers.

2.33. Editor must consider all complaints and contradictions in accordance with the policy of the scientific society, regardless of when the publication was approved, and give author the opportunity to respond to any complaints and justify the existing contradictions. All complaints should be considered. All documentation related to complaints in one way or another must be preserved.

2.34. Reviewers, scientific consultants and editor should recuse themselves from reviewing manuscripts in case of conflicts of interest due to competitive, joint and other interactions and relationships with Authors, companies and, possibly, other organizations associated with the manuscript.