Biochemia Medica gives equal consideration to every carefully performed study investigating an important question relevant to the Journal’s readership, whether the results are negative or positive.
Throughout the entire editorial process, Biochemia Medica follows the best practice guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Editors of Biochemia Medica are committed to ensuring integrity and promoting innovative and evidence-based sources of information in order to maintain the quality and impact of the papers published, according to the principles set by the Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and Visibility of Scholarly Publications communication.
The Editor-in-Chief evaluates each submitted manuscript in order to establish if the main criteria for further manuscript consideration are met. Manuscripts that do not meet the main criteria (scope of the journal, adherence to Instructions for authors, priority of publication) are rejected without peer-review. Contributions that qualify for further consideration are further processed. After initial screening by the Editor-in-Chief, each manuscript is checked by the Research integrity editor for any type of research misconduct or other questionable research practice that may have occurred. If any suspicion is raised at this point, a written report is compiled by the responsible Research integrity editor and forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief decides to return the manuscript for correction or rejects the manuscript because of unacceptable research practice. If there are no questionable research practices, the manuscript is further subjected to peer-review and additional editorial review of the methodological quality, statistical analysis, and data presentation by an Assistant editor. The estimated time from submission to the first decision is 6-8 weeks. If a manuscript is being considered for publication but requires modifications and improvements, a revision is requested. The authors should follow the reviewers’ comments in order to reply or rebut them, if applicable. Authors are usually given 4 weeks for manuscript revision. When all the requirements in the revision process are adequately fulfilled, the manuscript is accepted for publication.
After acceptance, the manuscript is being processed by a Technical editor in order to ensure that all contributions fulfil editorial standards. After final editorial processing, the copy-edited PDF version of the manuscript is sent to the corresponding author for final proofreading. In this step of the editorial process, only minor linguistic and spelling corrections are allowed without content alterations. Occasionally, authors might be asked to clarify or explain specific sections of the manuscript. Since no corrections or alterations are possible after final proofreading and following publication, authors are advised to check the edited version of the manuscript thoroughly and carefully. The corresponding author is asked to return the corrected version of the manuscript within 2 days.
The Editor-in-Chief has full authority over the complete editorial process and decision-making responsibility.
Manuscripts that meet the scope of the Journal and are prepared according to Instructions for authors are sent to peer-review. The journal is not responsible for reviewing and proofreading congress and symposium abstracts. Biochemia Medica favors a double-blinded peer-review process, which means that both reviewer and author remain unknown to each other. It is our belief that this model ensures objectivity during the process. All manuscripts are reviewed by at least two peer-reviewers. Additionally, the manuscript may be reviewed by a statistical reviewer, if necessary.
Biochemia Medica advises its reviewers to adhere to the Journal’s Guidelines for peer-reviewers available on the Journal webpage. In order to improve peer-review process and maintain high-quality reviews, all peer-reviewers are encouraged to use Reviewer’s Check List while reviewing the manuscript. For additional information on ethical standards in peer-review process, all reviewers are advised to read the article Šupak-Smolčić V, Šimundić AM. Peer-review policy and guidelines for Biochemia Medica journal. Biochem Med (Zagreb) 2014;24:321-8.
In order to improve our editorial procedure and detect potential non-conformities, Editorial Board occasionally conducts research to obtain the information needed. All manuscripts submitted to Biochemia Medica may be used for such research.
Editors may occasionally also wish to submit manuscripts to Biochemia Medica. All manuscripts submitted by the editors are considered and processed in the same way as all other manuscripts received by the Journal and according to ethical standards for good editorial practice. In order to assure impartial decision making and avoid potential conflict of interest, the author of such manuscript is excluded from any editorial handling of the manuscript (review, editing and final decision).
All authors are welcome to submit an appeal if they feel there were irregularities during the submission process. Journal will provide an answer based on the stated editorial policy and in a timely manner. All appeals can be sent to the Biochemia Medica e-mail address: editorial_office@biochemia-medica.com.
If the appeal raises the concern about integrity of editorial process, peer-review process or editor’s decision, the Biochemia Medica will follow relevant flowcharts given by the COPE when dealing with such appeals. However, the Editor-in-Chief retains the editorial right to desk reject manuscripts that do not comply with the criteria for manuscript consideration.
When the issue cannot be resolved internally than the anonymized case can be presented to COPE Forum or COPE Council for advice and help.
Readers and authors are also welcomed to submit comments to published articles. Authors of criticized article have the opportunity to respond to such comments. All such written material should be submitted as any other manuscript through on-line submission system.
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