Editorial policies of Extreme Medicine stipulate requirements for submitted manuscripts and responsibilities of the parties involved in the preparation of the manuscript for publication. We understand that editorial policies cannot cover the whole range of possible questions, therefore do not hesitate to contact as at editor@fmba.press if you have any concerns or doubts.

1 Consideration for publication

The Editorial Board accepts only original work, including articles describing methods or techniques, clinical cases and opinions, on clinical medicine and medical and biological sciences in Russian and English. Manuscript submission is announced in advance. We accept only those manuscripts that follow our guidelines. If the author is not sure about whether the editorial board will take interest in their work, we suggest that prior to submitting the full manuscript and in order to save time, the author should send us a brief description of the study aim and design, summarised results of the statistical analysis and their interpretation.

Extreme medicine also offers online publication: once the final version of the manuscript has been reached, it is assigned a DOI and published on our website. No changes to the manuscript are accepted post publication. Once every 3 months the manuscripts published online over this period are gathered into an issue, with their DOI preserved and page numbers assigned.

Extreme Medicine is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. According to it, the author retains the copyright for his/her work (specifically, a scholarly article) in the case of its non-commercial or commercial use. Details are available on Creative Commons website. The use of CC BY 4.0 allows journal sharing via on-line research libraries, such as CyberLeninka, where publications can be indexed by academic search engines.

Free access to publications increases their citation index.

A good manuscript

  • must be previously unpublished and make an original contribution to scientific knowledge;
  • must be interesting for researchers working in different specialty areas;
  • must present an accurate and persuasive description of the method or technique; sufficient evidence is expected; results must be compared to the results obtained by other researchers, conclusions must be well-reasoned;
  • must comply with the ethical guidelines of the journal.

A manuscript will be rejected if

  • it is not relevant to the remit of the journal;
  • study results do not contribute to scientific knowledge;
  • it contains major methodological mistakes indicating a lack of professionalism of the researchers, as opposed to experimental failure;
  • it does not contain accurate statistical analysis;
  • a breach of copyright, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or falsification of data are detected;
  • if it does not fit manuscript requirements of our journal.
2 Manuscrit submission

Manuscripts are submitted online on our website. After completing the registration procedure, the author should use the “Submit a manuscript” tab in their user account. A step-by-step article submission guide is available in the section “For Authors”. To contact tech support, please email to manager@fmba.press.

3 Publication fee

There is no fee for publications.

4 Manuscript preparation

Research quality requirements

A good manuscript is always a result of a good research study. We recommend that the study should be scrupulously planned according to the international guidelines published on EQUATOR Network website. Guidelines on the planning of biological and biomedical research are available on the BioSharing searchable portal. Our science editors check the submitted manuscripts for compliance with international standards.

Research studies involving human subjects must be approved by a local ethics committee or, in the absence thereof, must comply with the 2013 revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. Any deviations from the standards established by the Declaration must be well-reasoned by the author and discussed and approved by the Academic Board of the institution that carries out or hosts the study.

A clinical trial should be registered with the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare or any of the registries accredited by WHO prior to the selection of participants. The trial ID must be specified in the Methods section of the article. If the trial has not been registered, the author must explain the reason to the science editor.

Trial participants have a right to privacy, and their personal data can be disclosed only after obtaining written informed consent from each participant. Participants have a right to familiarise themselves with the article text and photographs before giving their consent. If the study involves children, informed consent must be obtained from their parents. Written consents must be retained by the author and provided to the Editorial Board upon request. Information on the informed consent must be provided in the Methods section of the article.

Animal studies must be approved by a local Ethics Committee. We recommend that researchers should follow the ARRIVE guidelines (Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments) suggested by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Ani-mals In Research (NC3Rs). If the experiment is carried out in the species for which no ethical requirements have been stipulated, the author must provide reasons for his/her choice of the species.

Style requirements

The article should be written in plain language to be comprehensible to a non-specialist reader. Generally accepted terms should be used and scientific jargon should be avoided: it is not the convoluted language, but the quality and the importance of the study that make it a true science. Copy-editing is used to correct mistakes and improve the style of the manuscript.

Manuscript structure

Original research

Introduction. This section should provide a review of the literature on the study problem, identify solved and unsolved problems in the field of interest, indicate the hypotheses under the study, as well as the main goal(s) of it. The purpose of the study should be described clearly, in 1–2 sentences. Conclusions(s) should not be included in the Introduction.

Material and methods. This section should clearly list all inclusion and exclusion criteria, number of subjects, criteria for randomisation into groups / subgroups, research methods and variables assessed, and indicate how the results are assessed. All terms must be properly defined and the statistical information must be detailed enough to allow the research to be repeated. A proper description of the statistical analysis should be provided, including the types of statistical tests and their applicability in a particular case. All significant results should include test value, degree(s) of freedom, and level of statistical significance.

Results. This section should describe the most important results of the research, analysis or experiment. The most important results should be indicated and related trends and patterns described.

Discussion. This section should discuss the findings of the research, the significance and novelty of the results presented, and whether the findings support or contradict previous studies. It is desirable to indicate the limitations of the study.

Conclusion. This section should contain an assessment of the results. If the items are numbered, then it should be called "Conclusions".

Analytical review

Introduction. This section should demonstrate the relevance and purpose of the literature research being conducted.

Main text. The section may consist from some parts with subtitles and should contain an objective view of the existing problem with a critical analysis of the available research on this topic. The depth of the literature search, with the exception of historical information, should not exceed 10 years.

Conclusion. The section should contain a summary about the state of the problem, which should correspond to the set goal.

Clinical case, method research, experience exchange

Introduction. This section should briefly outline the background of the specific problem (s) under consideration, the available modern literature data, and determine the purpose of demonstrating a clinical case / method / experience.

Clinical case. This section should provide specific examples, research methods and variables to be assessed, and should indicate the methods for evaluating the results. The description of a clinical case should be brief and contain as much objective information as possible. The presentation should be consistent; phrases typical for writing a medical history ("by organs without pathology", "blood test without features", etc.) should be avoided.

Discussion. This section should contain an assessment of the results obtained. There should be a clear discussion of the disease outcomes (technology outcomes), the significance and novelty of the data presented, and whether the data presented support or contradict previous studies.

Conclusion. This section should contain a summary conclusion and an assessment of the results obtained.

Systematic review

Introduction. This section should provide a review of the literature on the study problem, identify solved and unsolved problems in the field of interest, indicate the hypotheses under the study, as well as the main goal(s) of it. The purpose of the study should be described clearly, in 1–2 sentences. Conclusions(s) should not be included in the Introduction.

Methods. This section should clearly state the literature search strategy, data extraction procedure, classification of evidence, and type of analysis used. All terms should be properly defined and statistical information should be detailed enough. Please indicate whether the verification protocol exists, whether it is available and where it is available, and if available, provide its registration number.

Results. This section should describe the most important findings of the study. The most important results should be indicated and related trends and patterns described.

Discussion / Conclusion. This section should contain an assessment of the results obtained. There should be a discussion of the outcomes, the significance and novelty of the presented results, and whether the findings support or contradict previous studies.

Manuscript formatting

Text material is submitted in electronic form: Microsoft Word text editor, Times New Roman font, 12 point size, 1.5 spacing. The volume of an original research and a clinical case should not exceed 10 printed pages, and a review — 15 printed pages. Tables and figures are provided separately with an indication of their location in the text of the article.

The title page indicates:

  • Manuscript title (in Russian and English). It shouldn’t be longer than 10 words. The use of abbreviations (except for the generally accepted ones) and commercial names of drugs and equipment is not allowed; the title should reflect the content of the manuscript.
  • Information about each author (in Russian and English): full name (initials must be fully deciphered); academic degree, title; full name of the place of work; full title of the position held; contact phone number (will not be indicated when printing the article); e-mail address; ORCID (all authors must be registered with Open Researcher and Contributor ID). One of the authors should be listed as a corresponding person for negotiations and correspondence regarding the material submitted to the editorial office. The editors of the journal strongly recommend the authors, when writing their surname (and the name of the place of work) in English, to use the option that is already included in Russian and foreign databases (RSCI, WoS, Scopus), or the option written in the passport. If the surname is spelled differently, the correct citation of your works is impossible. The section should include a brief description of the contribution of each author (general guidance, collection of information, development of a statistical model, data processing, etc.).
  • Annotation (summary). The volume of the annotation should not exceed 200 characters including spaces. For original articles, a structured abstract is required, and for other types of articles (literature review, demonstration of a clinical case, exchange of experience), a standard text reflecting the main ideas of the article is required. For clinical trials, the abstract should also include where and when the trial was registered and the Clinical Trial Number, if available. Annotation may contain abbreviations used in the text. The annotation, as well as the name, should not use the commercial names of drugs and equipment. A structured annotation must have the following sections:
    • Introduction, reflecting the history of the issue and the importance of studying it.
    • Objective, reflecting the research goal or hypothesis that the authors articles studied in their work.
    • Material and methods, including a brief description of patient groups, treatment / examination options and what methods statistical analyses (indicating the program) were used.
    • Results, describing the results obtained by the authors (with their statistical significance).
    • Conclusions, reflecting relevance of the results.
    • Keywords (in Russian and English). Correct choice of keywords impacts citation of the article.
5 Agreements and documents

Author agreement

Author Agreement stipulates the terms of collaboration between the journal and the authors.

In this Agreement, the authors confirm that they meet the criteria for authorship and specify the contribution each of the authors have made to the study and manuscript preparation; the authors disclose funding sources; the authors confirm that the study complies with ethical requirements, give their consent for the distribution of the published article under CC BY 4.0 license, etc.

Note that a signed Agreement should be send to the Editor right after the article has been approved for publication. We recommend that the authors familiarise themselves with the Agreement before receiving the approval in order to save time.

Conflict of interests statement

A conflict of interests occurs when professional judgment of the researcher is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain, family ties, academic competition or opposing scientific views. Authors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest so that readers could recognise biases in their work.

Note that each author must fill in a separate copy of the Conflict of Interests Statement. Statement forms are attached to the Author Agreement.

Copy of the expert report of the ethics committee

Studies involving animals or humans must be approved by a local Ethics Committee. If there is no such committee in the area where the study is going to be conducted, researchers must follow the guidelines of the 2013 revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. Any deviation from these guidelines must be explained by the authors and approved by the Academic Board of the institution that carries out or hosts the study. In this case, the authors are expected to provide a copy of the expert report approved by the Academic Board.

6 Responsibilities of the parties involved in the manuscript publication

Responsibilities of authors

An author of a publication is a person who:

  • has largely contributed to the study design, data collection, data analysis or interpretation of study results; AND
  • has taken part in the preparation of the manuscript draft or made edits in the manuscript; AND
  • has taken part in the preparation of the final version of the article; AND
  • is ready to take responsibility for all aspects of the work.

A person who does not meet any of these criteria cannot be designated as the author of the article and should be credited in the Acknowledgements section. Deciding on who qualifies for authorship is up to the team of authors who worked on the manuscript. The Editorial Board does not arbitrate conflicts between the authors.

Note that if authors request addition or removal of an author after the manuscript has been submitted, they will be asked to provide a statement of agreement signed by all authors, including those to be added or removed.

Note that the author must obtain a written permission from all individuals or organisations to be acknowledged because acknowledgement suggests that those acknowledged endorse the research. Although such permission does not have to be attached to the submitted manuscript, it must be sent over to the editor upon request.

Authors must adhere to the ethical standards of the journal, including those stipulating the disclosure of the conflicts of interests.

One of the authors is designated as a corresponding author and is expected to communicate with the Editorial Board on behalf of all other authors. The corresponding author must respond to the queries of the Editorial Board within 3 days, otherwise the manuscript may be rejected.

Responsibilities of peer reviewers

Peer reviewers consent to be unbiased, honest and polite in giving their professional opinion and to offer constructive criticism. They guarantee confidentiality: manuscripts cannot be discussed with third parties without informing the Editor-in-Chief; manuscript ideas cannot be appropriated or used, e.g. for personal gain, prior to publication. Should a conflict of interests arise, a peer reviewer must excuse himself/herself from the review process. A peer review must be prepared according to the journal standards within the established time limit. A peer reviewer must be able to respond to each question related to their review.

Responsibilities of editors

Editors must ensure confidentiality of the process of manuscript preparation for publication. Editorial staff cannot share ideas proposed in the submitted manuscript with third parties. Editors must ensure that peer reviewers understand the importance of confidentiality.

If a manuscript has been rejected before peer reviewing, it will be removed from our database. If the article has been rejected based on the expert assessment, it will be stored in the database for 5 years.

Editors must ensure timely peer review and publication. If a manuscript receives approval, Editors should make any effort to publish the article within the agreed time limit. Any delay must be agreed on with the authors. If a manuscript is rejected, Editors must contact the authors as soon as possible.

Editors must ensure that peer review of the submitted manuscripts is arranged in accordance with established peer review standards and criteria for the selection of peer reviewers.

Note that the Editor-in-Chief is ultimately responsible for the publication of articles and journal content. He is entitled to decide in favor of the publication of the article that received negative feedback from peer reviewers.

Unintended mistakes are a part of the publication process, and Editors are obliged to publish information about any factual inaccuracies right after they are detected. Withdrawal of the published work or its part is regulated by the ethical guidelines of the journal.

7 Ethical standards

Ethical standards we adhere to are based on the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Our standards cannot cover the whole range of possible issues and in controversial cases we will follow the COPE guidelines.

Authorship

Extreme medicine follows ICMJE criteria for authorship specified in Section 4 of the Editorial Policies. Authors should bear in mind that any researcher who is involved in research planning or data collection, analysis or interpretation is eligible to prepare a draft or a final version of the article and cannot be excluded from the list of authors on formal grounds.

Originality of submitted work

Editors of Extreme medicine accept manuscripts that have not been previously published elsewhere, in whole or in part and/or in other languages, or are not under consideration by other journals. If the manuscript presents the results that were used for the preparation of other manuscripts in which the authors were designated as co-authors, the authors must inform the editors and provide links to such articles.

We can accept a manuscript that has been previously published in other languages only if the information it contains is extremely important and needs to be spread as widely as possible and the journal that has initially published the work can give permission for republication. Such article must contain an explicit reference to the original.

A manuscript that presents a reanalysis of previously published data must include a reference to the original source.

Scientific misconduct

Violation of regulations for research planning

Any inconsistencies with international guidelines for research planning or the use of methods/techniques that have not found application in routine practice can lead to the distortion of study results or manipulation of research data or statistical analysis data. The editors of Extreme medicine insist that researchers should follow international guidelines for research planning and design and timely notify the editors of any deviations from international standards providing a rationale for their decision.

Authors must abide by the laws of the Russian Federation while conducting their research.

Authorship conflicts

Violation of crediting authorship occurs in case of the unreasoned removal/addition of an author from/to the list of authors or manuscript submission without receiving consent from each listed author. Deciding on who qualifies for authorship is up to the team of authors who worked on the manuscript. The Editorial Board does not determine who qualifies as an author and does not arbitrate authorship conflicts. However, the Editor-in-Chief reserves a right to refuse publication if this kind of misconduct is discovered.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s published or unpublished ideas, thoughts, expressions or other intellectual property without consent or full acknowledgement of their author as one’s own, new and original. If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript will be refused immediately with no right of resubmission, and the Editorial Board will issue a warning to the research institution the author is affiliated with.

Self-plagiarism is presenting one’s own previously published work, in whole or in part, as new and original.

The most common violations here are: changing the text of the article without improving its informative value in comparison with the previously published work; submission of a manuscript that contains data presented at a conference over a year ago; submission of a manuscript that contains data presented in the dissertation that was defended over a year ago. Such works are not novel and cannot be published.

Self-citation is citation of a previously published manuscript on the same subject without using a proper citation format. Self-citation is not considered plagiarism, but is also unacceptable. If self-citation is extensive, the article will not be refused, but the author will be asked to introduce necessary edits to their work.

Falsification of data

Falsification of data is fabrication or intentional distortion or concealment of data that contradict to author’s hypothesis or conclusions. If fabrication or intentional data distortion are detected, the manuscript will be refused with no right of resubmission. In this case, the Editorial Board will issue a warning to the research institution the author is affiliated with. If some data are concealed, the manuscript may be rejected, but is still eligible for resubmission if the authors submit the data in full and make necessary corrections to their conclusions.

Conflict of interests

A conflict of interests occurs when professional judgment of the researcher is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain, family ties, academic competition or opposing scientific views. Authors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest so that readers could recognise biases in their work. If a conflict of interests is declared, it will be published along with the article. If a conflict of interests is discovered after manuscript publication, the journal will publish this information separately, and the authors will be required to write an explanation letter.

Full or partial withdrawal of a publication

Should the Editorial Board have any concerns about the ethical aspect of the entire publication or its part, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the research institution that carried out or hosted the study requesting clarification. If ethical misconduct is detected, the journal will publish a rejection note and launch an investigation of all previously published works submitted by the authors in question. If ethical misconduct cannot be proved, the journal may still publish a notification of the ethical misconduct and appeal to the scientific community to discuss the issue.

8 Editorial Board

The Editor-in-Chief is accountable for the content and quality of the journal. However, to ensure that his decisions are unbiased and all aspects of various research areas are taken into account, the Editorial Board was established.

To become a member of the Editorial Board, an applicant must be a researcher with the Candidate or Doctor of Sciences degree who has been publishing his/her work in Russian or foreign scientific journals on a regular basis (no less than 3 works a year on his/her field of interest) and has never violated regulations for publication ethics. If a member of the Editorial Board is caught violating the author code of conduct, he/she will be immediately dismissed from the Board with no right to reenter.

Members of the Editorial Board peer review submitted manuscripts, give their expert opinion on the articles of dubious quality, give feedback to the Editor-in-Chief after an issue has been published, and suggest topics for publication. Peer review and expert assessment of the articles of dubious quality are performed upon the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

Membership can be terminated following the decision of the Editor-in-Chief. The number of members is not limited. If he/she is willing to, a member is free to quit the Board. This position is volunteer and is not paid for.

9 Peer review

All submitted manuscripts are peer reviewed. For each manuscript, peer reviewers are selected by the Editor-in-Chief.

We use a blind peer review model: the peer reviewer and the author do not know each other’s names. The authors have a right to familiarise themselves with the review of their work. To improve quality of peer review, the Editor-in-Chief can forward the review prepared by one peer reviewer to another peer reviewer. In this case, a review is anonymous. Copies of peer reviews may be forwarded to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon request.

A peer review is styled according to the established template. It must be compiled by a peer reviewer and then sent from the email that allows to identify the reviewer along with the original .doc copy of the manuscript. A signature and a seal of the research institution the author is affiliated with are not required. A review must be prepared within the agreed time limit, but no later than within 10 days after the manuscript was received by a peer reviewer. The reviewer must timely respond to the questions of the author and the editor giving comments and detailed explanations for his edits.

Based on a peer review, a manuscript may be rejected, published as is or revised; based on the decision of the Editor-in-Chief, additional peer review of the revised manuscript can be carried out. The final decision on the publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Reviews are stored in our database for 5 years.

Rules for peer review

A peer reviewer must be a researcher who has published no less than 3 works on the subject of a reviewed manuscript over the past year. When deciding on the right candidate, the Editor-in-Chief takes into account their reputation, recommendations of the authors and members of the Editorial Board, his own experience of working with the reviewer, etc.

Once the author is notified that his manuscript will be subject to peer review, he/she can recommend a peer reviewer or provide a list of those reviewers he/she would not like to work with. Although the Editor-in-Chief can consider the author’s wishes, the final decision is up to him.