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INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
GENERAL
PROVISIONS
«Problems
of Radiation Medicine and Radiobiology» is a yearly-published
Collection of scientific papers. Peer-reviewed
articles are published, which are the completed works containing new results of theoretical and experimental research, or are reviews of the current state and current issues in radiation medicine and radiobiology, and are of interest to researchers, physicians, specialists in radiation hygiene, epidemiology, clinical radiobiology, experimental radiobiology, radiation endocrinology, hematology, oncology, radiology, teachers, graduate students and students of higher education.
Topics of publications:
➢ study of the state of health of persons affected by the Chornobyl disaster and other nuclear accidents, who have had or are in contact with sources of ionizing radiation in professional activities or during medical procedures;
➢ assessment of medical and demographic consequences of radiation and nuclear accidents;
➢ dosimetric studies, including retrospective ones;
➢ medical and biophysical support of works on post-accident facilities of the nuclear fuel complex;
➢ study of the mechanisms of direct and long-term effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation on humans and animals, the formation of long-term radiation effects;
➢ radiation pathology and radiation pathomorphosis of diseases;
➢ social and hygienic research and preventive measures aimed at protecting the health of the population affected by the Chornobyl accident and the population of the monitoring zones of nuclear power plants;
➢ radiation hygiene and radiation safety.
By the decision of the Certification Board of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine the collection of scientific works «Problems of Radiation Medicine and Radiobiology» is included in the List of scientific professional publications of Ukraine (category A), which
may publish the results of dissertations in the field of knowledge: biological sciences (order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated November 7, 2018 № 1218); medical sciences (order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 18.12.2018
№ 1412), specialties: 91 – Biology, 222 – Medicine.
Certificate of state registration of the print media: KV № 20891F10691 PR dated
31.07.2014
Frequency of publishing – once a year.
The Collection is indexed in the PubMed/MEDLINE,
Scopus, INIS, EBSCO, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory,
CrossRef, and Scientific Periodicals of Ukraine (of the V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine) databases.
Articles are published in two languages: Ukrainian
and English.
Publication
of scientific papers for employees of the founding institution of the
Collection (the NRCRM) is free of charge. Authors from other
institutions, after accepting the article for publication, have to
pay an organizational fee for editorial processing of the paper.
Estimated cost of publishing is UAH 200 per one page of a manuscript
in the MS Word format document prepared for layout with all
structural elements.
Payment
of organizational fee is made upon approval of the article by
reviewers, final approval of the publication text and acceptance of
the article for publication according to details sent to the
responsible author by e-mail. If the author does not make payment
within ten working days from the date of sending an electronic letter
by the editorial board, the article will be removed from publication
in the current issue of the Collection. After payment, the article
may be published in the current or subsequent issues of the
Collection.
Preparing
the manuscripts authors should be guided
by
provisions developed by the editorial board based
on
recommendations of the Attestation Board of the
Ministry
of Education and Science of Ukraine and
«The
Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
Journals. Rules for Writing and
Editing
Materials» developed by the International
Committee
of Medical Journal Editors (Recommendations for the Conduct,
Reporting, Editing and
Publication
of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals
(ICMJE
Recommendations, formerly the Uniform
Requirements
for Manuscripts); http://www.icmje.org).
The
names of editorial board members, editorial
ethics
principles, review procedures, information for
authors,
content of the collection issues, abstracts of
the
papers with key words and authors’ places of work
are
presented in Ukrainian and in English on the
Collection
website (http://radiationproblems.org.ua).
The
full texts of articles with figures, tables, lists of references are
in a free access.
The
Collection of scientific papers is published
annually.
MANUSCRIPT
SUBMISSION
For
the review of an article by editorial staff the following should be
mailed by post or submitted in person:
1)
manuscript;
2)
information about all authors with the surname, name and patronymic,
scientific degree, academic rank, position and place of work, ORCID
iD;
3)
expert opinion on possibility of open publication of the paper;
4)
accompanying letter of request from the organization where the work
was performed (or the author's letter);
5)
in the electronic form are added:
➢ electronic
versions of the article, the name of the file must be indicated
according to the surname of the first author;
➢ information
about the authors;
➢ figures
in a graphic format.
Electronic
versions of the article should be sent by e-mail
to the editor’s address: rad_problems@ukr.net. The volume of the
original paper should not exceed 10–12 pages, the review one –
15–20 pages. A larger volume of papers with original research is
allowed individually, according to the decision of editorial board.
PEER
REVIEW
All
papers are subject to obligatory review on the profile of scientific
research by independent experts i.e. specialists in the relevant
field of science (the order of reviewing the articles is set forth on
the website: http://www.radiationproblems.org.ua/poryadok.html). A
review is conducted privately for both author(s) and reviewers.
Manuscript is sent to reviewers without specifying the names of the
author(s) and institution(s).
Editorial
board informs authors about the review results by e-mail.
In the absence of meaningful comments of reviewer the paper is
accepted for further work. If amendment of manuscript is required
according to the reviewer’s comments, the editors return manuscript
and review statement to the authors for correction or reasoned
response to reviewers. Manuscript rewritten by authors is repeatedly
sent to reviewer and in case of no repeated comments the paper is
accepted for further work. If the paper is unacceptable for
publication in reviewer’s opinion the editorial board decides to
reject it and informs the authors. Final decision on whether the
paper is acceptable for publication is made by the editorial board.
No manuscripts will be returned. The originals of reviews are kept
within one year upon publication.
SPECIFICATION
OF REQUIREMENTS TO THE TEXT OF A PAPER
The
submitted papers should be typed in MS Word for Windows software
(font 12, spacing 1, paper size A4 (210 × 297 mm)
page margins at all sides 1.5
cm, numbered pages). If the MS Word feature «Review» was used, then
before saving the file one should cancel the «Review» function and
then use the function «Accept all changes». Spaces and tabs are not
allowed when formatting paragraphs and headings. Only a dash is used
as a punctuation mark. Only dashes are placed between numbers in
digital form and should not be spaced from numbers.
The
signs #, %, ‰, the symbols of mathematical
operations
and symbols (±, ?, :, =, >, <, >, <, etc.)
should
be separated from numbers by a continuous
space.
All
designations and denominations of units of physical values must be
submitted in accordance with the International System of Units (SI).
If the research was carried out using the devices that give values in
other units, the latter should be transferred to the SI system by
submitting the non-system
units in round brackets. Terms are to be presented in accordance with
the terms and concepts defined in the State Hygiene Regulations
«Norms of Radiation Safety of Ukraine (NRBU-97)»,
international anatomical and histological nomenclature, and rules of
the genetic nomenclature; biochemical terms, abbreviations, symbols
are to be given with taking into account the rules of their use,
recommended by the Commission on biochemical nomenclature of the
International Biochemical Union; the names of diseases – according
to the International Classification of Diseases (10th
version); names of pharmacologic drugs are to be stated according to
the International Non-Patent
Names (INN).
Abbreviations
(capitalized only) are included in the text only after their first
mention with full decryption.
Data
presented in the tables should not duplicate data of the figures and
text of the paper, and vice versa.
Original
articles should conform to the IMRAD format «Introduction, Methods,
Results and Discussion» and contain the following clearly separated
sections: 1) introduction; 2) objective of the study; 3) materials
and methods; 4) results and their discussion; 5) conclusions; 7)
information on sources of research funding; 8) expression of
gratitude; 9) information on conflicts of interest; 10) references.
Review
articles can be unstructured or divided into sections that have
thematic subheadings.
Sequence
of manuscript components should be the following:
1)
UDC
code;
2)
initials
and surnames of authors;
3)
full official name of each institution where the work was performed,
postal address;
4)
paper title;
5)
abstract;
6)
keywords: from 5 to 10 words or wordgroups relevant to the paper
content;
7)
paper text
8)
references.
The
paper title is to be as short as possible, conclusive with no
acronyms.
No
hyphenation in headings of all levels and in table headings is
allowed.
If
authors have different affiliations then each surname is to be marked
at the end with a superscript figure indicating the respective
affiliation. The corresponding author should be marked with an
asterisk. The corresponding author should state clearly if his/her
e-mail
address could be shown in a published paper.
Paper
submitted in English is to mandatorily include the abstracts in two
languages.
The
surname, first name, patronymic, post and e-mail
address, phone numbers (office, home or cell) of the corresponding
author are to be denoted on the last page.
Abstract
of
the original paper (up to 250 words) should be structured in this
way:
a)
the objective of the study;
b)
materials and methods;
c)
results;
d)
conclusions;
e)
keywords.
Abstract of the review articles should be unstructured.
Abbreviations are not allowed, except for commonly used ones.
TEXT OF THE ARTICLE
Article
should be thoroughly edited and verified by the authors. Presentation
of the material should be clear, without long introductions and
repetitions.
Authors
are fully responsible for the content and reliability of data in the
article.
Introduction.
Substantiation of the conducted study. The problem statement in its
general form and its connection with important scientific or
practical tasks should be briefly highlighted along with analysis of
recent research and publications in which the solution to this
problem was initiated and on which the author refers, the allocation
of previously unsettled parts of the general problem to which this
article is devoted.
Objective
of the paper/study (statement of the task).
Objective of the study, or the hypothesis that is being tested are to
be briefly and clearly formulated.
Materials
and methods.
Description of the research design and data analysis is to be
provided in concise but clear way needed so that other researchers
can reproduce the research results. Here the reference is made to
commonly used methods, a detailed presentation of already published,
but still not wellknown methods are described briefly with a link to,
description of the new and substantially modified methods is stated
with substantiation of their application. Detailed description is
required for the new methods only. The names of machines, materials,
reagents, and manufactures (companies) should be submitted without
translation.
This
section should clearly and in detail describe how patients were
selected for observations or animals for experiments (including
control groups) with selection and exclusion criteria statement. In
experimental studies the species, gender and number of animals,
methods of anesthesia during manipulation or sampling of them,
materials for laboratory research, methods of euthanasia of animals
according to the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate
Animals from 1986 (http://zakon5.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/994_137)
and the «Procedure for conducting scientific experiments and
procedures on animals at scientific institutions» (approved by Order
of the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine
01.03.2012 # 249) (http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0416-12).
Clinical trials should be conducted in accordance with the Good
Clinical Practice standards
(https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/ich-e6-r2-good-clinical-practice;
https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/safety_efficacy/gcp1.pdf)
and the principles of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Health
Association «Ethical Principles for Medical Research with Human
Involvement as an Object of Research»
(https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/990_005).
Participants should be familiar with objective and main provisions of
the study, after which they must sign a written consent to
participate.
Authors
should give details of the procedures described in protocol of the
study and indicate the approval of study protocol by the Medical
Ethics Committee. At the end of the section «Materials and Methods»
there is a subdivision «Statistical data processing», which
specifies what methods of data processing the author(s) used. When
describing the research structure and statistical methods, it is
necessary to specify which statistical package (computer software)
available to the average user was applied in statistical processing
of the results.
Wherever
possible, it is recommended that standard statistical techniques be
used, with reference to familiar manuals and textbooks. For
non-traditional
or any new statistical methods the reference should be made, in which
a detailed description of the applicable mathematical methods and
algorithms is published.
Results
and discussion
should include an outline of the main research material with a full
substantiation of scientific results obtained.
Results
should
be represented in a logical sequence in the text, in tables and
figures. The text does not need to repeat the table and figure data.
Only their comparison is required. Summarizing quantitative data it
is necessary to indicate not only relative (for example, percent),
but also their absolute values, and also indicate which statistical
methods have been applied for their analysis.
Discussion.
Contains only the interpretation of results, but not their
repetition. It is necessary to highlight new and important aspects of
study results, analyze any possible mechanisms or interpretation of
these data, if possible, compare them with data of other researchers.
Discussion may include the wellgrounded recommendations for practice
and possible perspectives for applying the results in future studies.
Conclusions.
Results of solving the problem indicated in the title and purpose of
the paper are to be stated here.
Funding.
All sources of research funding should be stated, including direct
and indirect financial support (provision of equipment/materials,
other types of support). The names of the organizations that funded
the research must be fully specified.
Acknowledgements.
The peresons, institutions, organizations that contributed to the
research and assisted in the work on the article can be stated in
this section.
Conflict
of interests.
A real or potential conflict of interest should be stated. If there
is no conflict of interest, it should be written that «the author
declares no conflict of interest».
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
should be clear, photos are to be rich in contrast. Figures should be
placed in the body text, names of pictures and descriptions should be
submitted under the figures. All curves, letters, numbers and other
symbols on figures should be described there. Links to the main text
are permitted to avoid repetition and misreading. The magnification
and staining should be specified in descriptions of photomicrographs.
Figures (diagrams, graphs, charts, pictures) are to be submitted either in
black and white or in color, the diagrams – made as MS Word charts
or in MS Excel format. They should contain all the necessary notation
of coordinate axes, curves, and other details. All lines, curves,
symbols denoting the axes should be clearly depicted (curved line
being thicker than coordinate axes). Pictures with rendering and
photos should be saved in TIFF or JPEG format. If the figures are
composed of several elements, the latter should be grouped together.
All figures should be submitted for editing without additional
reference to the author (the separate MS Excel image files should be
sent to the editor if necessary).
TABLES
Tables should be clear having the name and serial number and containing
necessary data in a compressed style. The dimensions and form of data
presentation (M ± m;
M ± SD;
Mt; Mo; percentile, etc.) are to be specified. All figures, totals,
and percentages in tables should be checked thoroughly and comply to
the text content. Each table must be referenced in the text. All
explanations including expanding of abbreviations are to be given in
the notes.
FORMULAS/EQUATIONS
Formulas/equations
should be formulated in Equation Editor – Math Type
labeled/enumerated in parentheses on the right. The long equations
can be written in several lines. Symbols in mathematical formulas
should be formatted in italic style, as uppercase and lowercase
letters which hardly differ in their writing: P
and p,
C
and c,
K
and k,
etc.
REFERENCES
Preference should be given to publications in the recent years.
Sources of literature are to be placed in order of mentioning in the text. If
the cited article has a DOI, it should be specified it at the end of
the description. If there is no DOI for the cited source but is
hosted on the Internet, it is advisable to include its URL in the
description.
References in the text are denoted as Arabic numerals in square brackets.
References to unpublished works are not permitted. When describing
electronic resources of remote access (from the Internet) it is
necessary to specify the date of access to the document in
parentheses after the electronic address.
When generating the References list the Vancouver style should be used,
been formalized by the International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors in the «Citing Medicine» document and adopted by the US
National Library of Medicine database MEDLINE/ PubMed. More detailed
information on preparation of References in accordance with this
style can be found at:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
and http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine.
Titles of periodicals should be abbreviated according to the style
adopted in Index Medicus. Abbreviated titles of the journals can be
revised (i.e. decoded or checked a correct reduction) on the
respective journal websites or PubMed website:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.
ETHICAL ISSUES
Ethical issues of scientific publications are described in detail on the site of the Collection (http://www.radiationproblems.org.ua/etika.html).
Authors who submit the manuscript to a Collection of Scientific Papers for review ensure that all ethical standards of publication and ethical norms are met.
Authorship
All
persons designated as «authors» have to meet the criteria of this
concept. Participation in the work of each participant should be
sufficient to take responsibility for its content. The right of
authorship is based on significant contributions to the conception
and design of the study or to the analysis and interpretation of
data, preparation of the text of paper or making fundamental changes,
final approval of the version submitted for publication.
Participation only in providing the funding or selection of material
for the paper does not justify the inclusion to the authors’ group.
General management of the research team is also not considered
sufficient for an authorship. Sequence in which the authors are
listed is defined by their joint decision. All team members who do
not meet the criteria of authorship should be listed with their
consent in the «Acknowledgements» section. Editors have a right to
enquire the authors for contribution of each of them in the paper
writing and this information may be published.
Conflict of interests
A conflict of interest regarding a particular manuscript occurs when
one of the participants of the review or publication process i.e.
author, reviewer or editor has a commitment/obligation which could
affect his or her opinion (even if it’s absent) through scientific
competition, and intellectual preferences, personal or financial
relationships. All persons and organizations that promote the
implementation of research (financial support, financial or other
contribution to the collection, analysis and interpretation of data)
should be referred to in the manuscript. Participants of the review
and publication process must disclose all conflicts of interest.
Authors should indicate the names of those to whom in their opinion
the manuscript should not be sent for reviewing usually due to the
professional conflict of interests. Authors when submitting a
manuscript are responsible for the disclosure of their financial and
other conflicts of interest that can affect the work. Reviewers must
notify the editorial board of any conflicts of interest that may
affect their opinion about the manuscript, and they have to refuse
from reviewing of a specific paper if consider it appropriate. In
turn, the editorial board should be able to evaluate the objectivity
of the reviews and decide whether or not it is necessary to refuse
from the help of the reviewer. Editors may use information provided
in the reports on the presence of conflicts of interests and
financial interest as a basis for making the editorial decisions.
Editors who make decisions about manuscripts must have no personal,
professional or financial inte rest/participation in any matter they
can be addressed.
Compliance with patient rights and confidentiality
Patients
have the right to maintain confidentiality that cannot be disclosed
without their consent. Information that allows the identification of
a person, including patient names, initials, hospital numbers and
medical records, should not be published in the form of written
descriptions, photographs and pedigrees unless this information is of
high scientific value or if the patient (or the parent or guardian)
will provide a written consent for the publication. Authors must
inform the patient whether there is likely that the material allowing
to ascertain identity of the person will be available online after
publication. Authors must provide to editorial board a written
informed consent of the patient to disseminate information and state
this information in the article.
Protection of humans and animals within scientific research
If
there is a description of experiments involving human/people in the
paper then authors should specify whether that was carried out in
accordance with the ethical standards of a committee responsible for
experiments involving human/people (a national one or within the
staff of institution) and the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 and its
revised version of 2000. In doubtful cases the authors must submit
the substantiation of study approaches and evidence that the advisory
council of the institution had approved the research aspects that are
questionable. In describing experiments involving animals, authors
should indicate whether the requirements of the «Rules for carrying
out experiments using experimental animals» and the rules of the
institution regarding maintenance and use of laboratory animals have
been complied with.
Publication of negative results
Many studies showing negative results are in fact incomplete/inconclusive.
Possibility to publish the inconclusive research results is reviewed
by editorial board in a special manner, as such papers often are of
no biomedical value.
Multiple publications
Editorial board does not accept for reviewing the manuscripts submitted
simultaneously for publication to other journals, as well as works
that are foremost already published as articles or are a part of
another paper, provided or accepted for publication in other printed
source or electronic media. This does not preclude the reviewing of
articles not accepted for publication by another journal, or a
complete description provided after the publication of preliminary
results, i.e. abstracts or poster presentations at scientific
conferences.
Editors reserve the right for literary and scientific editing of papers.
Articles not meeting the specified requirements will be neither revewed nor accepted.
Authors are sent the author’s copies of Collection of Papers.
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