About

Focus and Scope

Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research (JBCR) (p-ISSN 1313-6917, e-ISSN 1313-9053) is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary scientific journal of Medical University, Pleven, open to scientists from all fields of medicine and related areas.

Aims:

To contribute to the spread of knowledge in medical society and expand the experience among researchers in different fields of biomedical and clinical sciences.

To provide an expert environment where the authors are empowered to present their ideas, results, and experiences.

То promote evidence-based medical research and stimulate and support the young generation of researchers.

To offer, train, and promote responsible research behavior.

Scope:

JBCR publishes reviews, original articles, and communications in the field of biomedical, clinical, public health, and health care research, medical education, and case reports, written in English.

Articles present the results and scientific achievements of researchers in the most common research topics, such as emergency medicine, anesthesiology and intensive care, surgery, orthopedics, urology, gynecology and obstetrics, reproductive medicine, epidemiology, microbiology, oncology, endocrinology, cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, nephrology, rheumatology, otorhinolaryngology, dermatology, ophthalmology, preventive medicine, medical genetics, pharmacology, pharmacy, public health.

Interdisciplinary scientific results presenting different pathologies from the perspective of various clinical fields are welcomed.

JBCR is published two times per year.

JBCR requires neither article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.


Policies


Open Access

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.


Copyright Notice

License and Copyright Agreement

In submitting the manuscript to any of Pensoft’s journals, authors certify that: 

  • They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. 
  • The work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis); it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; its publication has been approved by all author(s) and responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out. 
  • They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or where copyright is owned by someone else. 
  • They agree to the following license and copyright agreement:

Copyright

  • Copyright on any article is retained by the author(s) or the author's employer. Regarding copyright transfers please see below. 
  • Authors grant Pensoft Publishers a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. 
  • Authors grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors and citation details are identified. 
  • The article and published supplementary material are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0):

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)

Anyone is free:

to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work 
to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution. The original authors must be given credit. 

  • For any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are. 
  • Any of these conditions can be waived if the copyright holders give permission. 
  • Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.

The full legal code of this license.

Copyright Transfers

Any usage rights are regulated through the Creative Commons License. Since Pensoft Publishers is using the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), anyone (the author, their institution/company, the publisher and the public) is free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work as long as the original author is credited (see above). Therefore, specific usage rights cannot be reserved by the author or their institution/company and the publisher cannot include a statement "all rights reserved" in any published paper.

Website design and publishing framework: Copyright © Pensoft Publishers.

CLOCKSS system has permission to ingest, preserve, and serve this Archival Unit.


Privacy Statement

The personal information used on this website is to be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal. It will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.


Authorship/Contributorship

Some journals are integrated with Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), in order to recognise individual author input within a publication, thereby ensuring professional and ethical conduct, while avoiding authorship disputes, gift / ghost authorship and similar pressing issues in academic publishing.

During manuscript submission, the submitting author is strongly recommended to specify a contributor role for each of co-author, i.e. Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review and Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding Acquisition (see more). For the journals that are not integrated with CRediT, the submitting author is encouraged to specify the roles as a free text. Once published the article will include the contributor role for all authors in the article metadata.


Use of AI

Authors must be transparent about the use of Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models in the manuscript preparation, and disclose details of how the AI tool was used within the "Materials and Methods" section.


Desk Rejection

During the pre-review evaluation, Editors-in-Chief or Subject editors check the manuscript for compliance with the journal's guidelines, focus, and scope. At this point, they may reject a manuscript prior to sending it out for peer review, specifying the reasons. The most common ones are non-conformity with the journal's focus, scope and policies and/or low scientific or linguistic quality. In such cases, authors are encouraged to considerably improve their manuscript and resubmit it for a review. We encourage authors whose manuscripts have been desk rejected due to being out of the scope of this journal to consider another potentially suitable title from the Pensoft portfolio.

In case the manuscript is suitable for the journal but has to be corrected technically or linguistically, it will be returned to the authors for improvement. The authors will not need to re-submit the manuscript but only to upload the corrected file(s) to their existing submission.


Peer Review

This journal uses a double-blind peer review process, which means that both reviewer and author's names are concealed throughout the review process. To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not reveal their identity.

Please consider the Editor and Reviewer Guidelines in the About webpage of this journal for more details and stepwise instructions on the editorial and peer review process.


Indexing and Archiving

The articles published in the journal are indexed by a high number of industry leading indexers and repositories. The journal content is archived in CLOCKSS, Zenodo, Portico and other international archives. The full list of indexes and archives are shown on the journal homepage.

Advertising

The journal will consider inquiries for the placement of advertisements as a banner (specified size) in a dedicated section on the journal’s homepage on a case-by-case basis. Each request will be subject to evaluation by the journal’s management team in order to determine if the content is appropriate and that it does not infringe the rights of any persons or other third parties. The content should be related to the journal’s topical focus. Illegal, discriminatory, obscene, abusive, pornographic, and otherwise harmful or offensive content will not be permissible. The journal does not endorse and is not liable for the content of advertisements displayed on its website.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

General

The publishing ethics and malpractice policies follow the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA), the NISO Recommended Practices for the Presentation and Identification of E-Journals (PIE-J), and, where relevant, the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from ICMJE.

Privacy statement

The personal information used on this website is to be used exclusively for the stated purposes of each particular journal. It will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 

Open access

Pensoft and ARPHA-hosted journals adhere strictly to gold open access to accelerate the barrier-free dissemination of scientific knowledge. All published articles are made freely available to read, download, and distribute immediately upon publication, given that the original source and authors are cited (Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)).

Open data publishing and sharing

Pensoft and ARPHA encourage open data publication and sharing, in accordance with Panton’s Principles and FAIR Data Principles. For the domain of biodiversity-related publications Pensoft has specially developed extended Data Publishing Policies and Guidelines for Biodiversity Data. Specific data publishing guidelines are available on the journal website. 

Data can be published in various ways, such as preservation in data repositories linked to the respective article or as data files or packages supplementary to the article. Datasets should be deposited in an appropriate, trusted repository and the associated identifier (URL or DOI) of the dataset(s) must be included in the data resources section of the article. Reference(s) to datasets should also be included in the reference list of the article with DOIs (where available). Where no discipline-specific data repository exists authors should deposit their datasets in a general repository such as, for example Zenodo or others. 

Submission, peer review and editorial process

The peer review and editorial processes are facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. Pensoft journals’ websites display stepwise description of the editorial process and list all necessary instructions and links. These links are also included in the respective email notification.

General: Publication and authorship

  • All submitted papers are subject to a rigorous peer review process by at least two international reviewers who are experts in the scientific field of the particular paper. 
  • The factors that are taken into account in review are relevance, soundness, significance, originality, readability and language. 
  • A declaration of potential Conflicts of Interest is a mandatory step in the submission process. The declaration becomes part of the article metadata and is displayed in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article.
  • The journals allow several rounds of review of a manuscript. The ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions lies with the respective Subject Editor and, in some cases, with the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who may decide to seek advice among the Subject Editors and Reviewers.
  • The possible decisions include: (1) Accept, (2) Minor revisions, (3) Major revisions, (4) Reject, but re-submission encouraged and (5) Reject. 
  • If Authors are encouraged to revise and re-submit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted. 
  • The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. 
  • No research can be included in more than one publication.
  • Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and their deputies are strongly recommended to limit the amount of papers co-authored by them. As a rule of thumb, research papers (co-)authored by Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and their deputies must not exceed 20% of the publications a year, with a clear task to drop this proportion below 15%. By adopting this practice, the journal is taking extra precaution to avoid endogeny and conflicts of interest, while ensuring the editorial decision-making process remains transparent and fair.
  • Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and handling editors are not allowed to handle manuscripts co-authored by them.

Responsibility of Authors

  • Authors are required to agree that their paper will be published in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) license.
  • Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work. 
  • Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere. 
  • Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. 
  • Authors should submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English and formatted in accordance with the journal’s Author Guidelines.
  • Authors must participate in the peer review process. 
  • Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes. 
  • All Authors mentioned are expected to have significantly contributed to the research. 
  • Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest. 
  • Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript. 
  • Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.
  • Authors should acknowledge all significant funders of the research pertaining to their article and list all relevant competing interests.   
  • Other sources of support for publications should also be clearly identified in the manuscript, usually in an acknowledgement (e.g. funding for the article processing charge; language editing or editorial assistance).
  • The Corresponding author should provide the declaration of any conflicts of interest on behalf of all Authors. Conflicts of interest may be associated with employment, sources of funding, personal financial interests, membership of relevant organisations or others.

Responsibility of Reviewers

  • The manuscripts will be reviewed by two or three experts in order to reach first decision as soon as possible. Reviewers do not need to sign their reports but are welcome to do so. They are also asked to declare any conflicts of interests.
  • Reviewers are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but to focus on its scientific quality, as well as for the overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. If Reviewers recognize that a manuscript requires linguistic edits, they should inform both Authors and Editor in the report.
  • Reviewers are asked to check whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, how interesting it is and whether the quality of the writing is acceptable.
  • In cases of strong disagreement between the reviews or between the Authors and Reviewers, the Editors can judge these according to their expertise or seek advice from a member of the journal's Editorial Board.
  • Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles may be given greater prominence and greater external publicity, including press releases addressed to science journalists and mass media.
  • During a second review round, the Reviewer may be asked by the Subject Editor to evaluate the revised version of the manuscript with regards to Reviewer’s recommendations submitted during the first review round.
  • Reviewers are asked to be polite and constructive in their reports. Reports that may be insulting or uninformative will be rescinded.
  • Reviewers are asked to start their report with a very brief summary of the reviewed paper. This will help the Editors and Authors see whether the reviewer correctly understood the paper or whether a report might be based on misunderstanding.
  • Further, Reviewers are asked to comment on originality, structure and previous research: (1) Is the paper sufficiently novel and does it contribute to a better understanding of the topic under scrutiny? Is the work rather confirmatory and repetitive? (2) Is the introduction clear and concise? Does it place the work into the context that is necessary for a reader to comprehend the aims, hypotheses tested, experimental design or methods? Are Material and Methods clearly described and sufficiently explained? Are reasons given when choosing one method over another one from a set of comparable methods? Are the results clearly but concisely described? Do they relate to the topic outlined in the introduction? Do they follow a logical sequence? Does the discussion place the paper in scientific context and go a step beyond the current scientific knowledge on the basis of the results? Are competing hypotheses or theories reasonably related to each other and properly discussed? Do conclusions seem reasonable?  Is previous research adequately incorporated into the paper? Are references complete, necessary and accurate? Is there any sign that substantial parts of the paper were copies of other works?
  • Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
  • Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information. 
  • Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. 
  • Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
  • Reviewers should also call to the Editors’ attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Responsibility of Editors

  • Editors in Pensoft’s journals carry the main responsibility for the scientific quality of the published papers and base their decisions solely on the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope.
  • The Subject Editor takes the final decision on a manuscript’s acceptance or rejection and his/her name is listed as "Academic Editor" in the header of each article.
  • The Subject Editors are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but to focus on its scientific quality, as well as the overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. 
  • Editors are expected to spot small errors in orthography or stylistic during the editing process and correct them.
  • Editors should always consider the needs of the Authors and the Readers when attempting to improve the publication. 
  • Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record. 
  • Editors should preserve the anonymity of Reviewers, unless the latter decide to disclose their identities. 
  • Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines. 
  • Editors should act if they suspect misconduct and make all reasonable attempts to obtain a resolution to the problem. 
  • Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions, they should have proof of misconduct.
  • Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between Authors, Reviewers and Board Members.
  • Editors are allowed to publish a limited proportion of papers per year co-authored by them, after considering some extra precautions to avoid an impression of impropriety, endogeny, conflicts of interest and ensure that the editorial decision-making process is transparent and fair.
  • Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and handling editors are not allowed to handle manuscripts co-authored by them.
           

Neutrality to geopolitical disputes

General

The strict policy of Pensoft and its journals is to stay neutral to any political or territorial dispute. Authors should depoliticize their studies by avoiding provoking remarks, disputable geopolitical statements and controversial map designations; disputable territories should be referred to as well-recognised and non-controversial geographical areas. Тhe journal reserves the right to mark such areas at least as disputable at or after publication, to publish editor's notes, or to reject/retract the paper.

Authors' affiliations

Pensoft does not take decisions regarding the actual affiliations of institutions. Authors are advised to provide their affiliation as indicated on the official internet site of their institution.

Editors 

Editorial decisions should not be affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors. Decisions to edit and publish should not be determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside of the journal itself.

Human and animal rights

All humans and animals, living and deceased should be treated with dignity and respect in academic research. Ethical research requires researchers to ensure that their work minimises risks and prevents harm. Researchers also have an ethical obligation to be transparent about their research methods so that editors, reviewers and readers can judge their work fairly and appropriately.

Please note that interdisciplinary researchers need to decide which guidelines are appropriate depending on the type of research they are conducting.

The ethical standards in medical and pharmacological studies are based on the Helsinki declaration (1964, amended in 1975, 1983, 1989, 1996, 2000 and 2013) of the World Medical Association and the Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals of the World Association of Medical Journals (WAME).

Authors of studies including experiments on humans or human tissues should declare in their cover letter compliance with the ethical standards of the respective institutional or regional committee on human experimentation and attach the committee’s statement and informed consent; for those researchers who do not have access to formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed and declared in the cover letter. Patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers should not be used, not in the text nor in any illustrative material, tables of databases, unless the author presents written permission from each patient to use his or her personal data. Photos or videos of patients should be taken after a warning and agreement of the patient or of a legal authority acting on his or her behalf.

Animal experiments require full compliance with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles, and local licensing arrangements and respective statements of compliance (or approvals of institutional ethical committees where such exists) should be included in the article text. Animal experiments should be described with an extensive description of the ethical approval, the regulatory body involved and the number of the approval. The animal care and experimental protocols should be vigilantly described as well.

Research involving humans, human organs and cells

Clinical trials

All research on human subjects (individuals, samples or data) should be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

In the case of non-interventional studies (e.g. questionnaires) that do not require ethical approval (e.g. due to national legislation) or for which the study has been exempted by an ethics committee, this should be stated in the manuscript with a full explanation. If the study has been exempted, the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption should also be stated. However, in case of doubt, the investigator should always seek advice from the relevant department before conducting the study.

All research projects must be ethically approved by the local Institutional Review Board (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committee prior to the start of the research to ensure that the research is in compliance with national and international guidelines for research involving human subjects.

The manuscript must be accompanied by a statement confirming this and indicating the name and reference/approval number of the ethics committee, if any.

Prospective studies with patients

In particular, if the study involves an intervention (e.g. a clinical trial), participants must give written consent to take part in the study. A statement confirming this must accompany the manuscript. Authors must be capable of submitting dated copies signed by the participants and the author(s) to the editorial office of the journal upon request. For studies where verbal informed consent was obtained instead of written consent, this should be explained and noted explicitly in the manuscript.

In addition to the required written consent (as mentioned above), clinical trial protocols must be registered in a publicly accessible registry prior to recruiting participants. The public register must be open to all potential registrants and must be maintained by a registry conforming to WHO standards.

A list of suitable registries is available through the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP).

Trials can also be registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and other primary registries of the WHO primary registry network, or on other country- or region-specific registry platforms, e.g. at the corresponding drug regulatory agencies. The registration number of the study must be included in the manuscript. Any deviation from the original study protocol must be explained, especially changes in primary outcomes. Clinical studies must be registered prospectively, i.e. prior to the recruitment of participants. However, for clinical studies that are not prospectively registered, the publisher may consider registered clinical studies at least prior to data analysis. This is to ensure a transparent and complete dissemination of the results of all clinical studies that have an impact on human health.

Authors of retrospectively registered studies must be prepared to provide additional information to the journal's editorial team upon request. We comply with the WHO and ICMJE description of the clinical trial, which is described as:

  • Any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. This can be with or without concurrent comparison or control groups.
  • Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example, drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes, etc.). This includes all phases of the trial, starting from Phase 1.
  • Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration.

The journal reserves the right to reject submitted articles (prior to publication) or to withdraw published clinical trial articles if the authors have not adequately addressed concerns about the registration status and/or conduct of the clinical trial. Authors should be prepared to provide the journal editor with additional information about the clinical trial (e.g. original data) if requested.

Informed consent

Individual participants in studies have the right to decide what happens to the identifiable personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken. Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.

The following statement should be included in the article text in one of the following ways:

  • "Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study."
  • "Informed consent was obtained from all individuals for whom identifying information is included in this article." (In case some patients’ data have been published in the article or supplementary materials to it).

 Studies involving organ or tissue transplants

The journal and the publisher endorse the ethical guidelines described by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Medical Association (WMA). Specifically, all studies involving transplantation of donated human organs should be conducted with ethical approval from an appropriate committee, and all sources of donor tissue must be provided in the submitted manuscript. Authors are expected to verify that donated organs were obtained with full informed consent from the donor, or donor’s parent/guardian (if the donor is a minor), or their next of kin (if the donor is deceased). Consent must have been given with free will, under no coercion or bribery of any kind.

Authors of any research articles reporting the use of donated organs must include a statement to confirm informed consent was obtained. Authors must be particularly attentive to the risks associated with working with vulnerable populations and should be prepared to provide details of the process by which informed consent was obtained.

These requirements apply for all studies (including follow-up studies) involving donors or patients who have received organ or tissue transplantation. The publisher reserves the right to reject submissions (pre-publication) or retract published articles involving transplantation, where the authors are unable to provide confirmed evidence of informed consent. Authors must be prepared to provide further supporting information related to their study (e.g. ethical approval and informed consent forms) to the journal editorial office upon request.

Research involving human embryos, human stem cells, human and animal cell lines

Authors of research reporting the use of human embryos, human embryonic stem cells (including clinical applications of stem cells) and related materials, must include a statement within the manuscript to confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with all safety considerations, ethical guidelines and applicable regulations.

Authors must be able to verify that all recipients and/or donors of stem cells or tissues (or their next of kin if the donor is deceased) provided full informed consent. The publisher endorses the principles on ethical stem cell research outlined in the ISSCR Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation.

Commercially available immortalized human and animal cell lines are not subject to specific ethical approval but the authors should clearly indicate the manufacturer, vendor/distributor, the catalogue number and upon request the invoice number for the individual cell line purchased.

Gender issues

We encourage the use of gender-neutral language, such as 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman' or 'chairwomen', as well as 'they' instead of 'she/he' and 'their' instead of  'him/her' (or consider restructuring the sentence).

Non-stigmatising and non-discriminatory language should be used when describing different groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, illness, disability, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. discrimination. Studies of people categorised into such groups should include explanations of definitions and categories, including whether any rules have been required by the relevant funding bodies to categorise people.

All research must be ethically approved before it is carried out. Authors should be prepared to provide additional information to the journal editors on request.

Conflict of interest

During the editorial process, the following relationships between editors and authors are considered conflicts of interest: Colleagues currently working in the same research group or department, recent co-authors, and doctoral students for which the editor served as committee chair. During the submission process, the authors are kindly advised to identify possible conflicts of interest with the journal editors. After manuscripts are assigned to the handling editor, individual editors are required to inform the managing editor of any possible conflicts of interest with the authors. Journal submissions are also assigned to referees to minimize conflicts of interest. After manuscripts are assigned for review, referees are asked to inform the editor of any conflicts that may exist.

Appeals and open debate

We encourage academic debate and constructive criticism. Authors are always invited to respond to any editorial correspondence before publication. Authors are not allowed to neglect unfavorable comments about their work and choose not to respond to criticisms. 

No Reviewer’s comment or published correspondence may contain a personal attack on any of the Authors. Criticism of the work is encouraged. Editors should edit (or reject) personal or offensive statements. Authors should submit their appeal on editorial decisions to the Editorial Office, addressed to the Editor-in-Chief or to the Managing Editor. Authors are discouraged from directly contacting Editorial Board Members and Editors with appeals.

Editors will mediate all discussions between Authors and Reviewers during the peer review process prior to publication. If agreement cannot be reached, Editors may consider inviting additional reviewers if appropriate. 

The Editor-in-Chief will mediate all discussions between Authors and Subject Editors.

The journals encourage publication of open opinions, forum papers, corrigenda, critical comments on a published paper and Author’s response to criticism.

Misconduct

Research misconduct may include: (a)  manipulating research materials, equipment or processes; (b) changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the article; c) plagiarism. Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion. If misconduct is suspected, journal Editors will act in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism and duplicate publication policy
A special case of misconduct is plagiarism, which is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit. Plagiarism is considered theft of intellectual property and manuscripts submitted to this journal which contain substantial unattributed textual copying from other papers will be immediately rejected. Editors are advised to check manuscripts for plagiarism via the iThenticate service by clicking on the "ïThenticate report" button. Journal providing a peer review in languages other than English (for example, Russian) may use other plagiarism checking services (for example, Antiplagiat). 
Instances, when authors re-use large parts of their publications without providing a clear reference to the original source, are considered duplication of work. Slightly changed published works submitted in multiple journals is not acceptable practice either. In cases of plagiarism in an already published paper or duplicate publication, an announcement will be made on the journal publication page and a procedure of retraction will be triggered.

Responses to possible misconduct

All allegations of misconduct must be referred to the Editor-In-Chief. Upon the thorough examination, the Editor-In-Chief and deputy editors should conclude if the case concerns a possibility of misconduct. All allegations should be kept confidential and references to the matter in writing should be kept anonymous, whenever possible.

Should a comment on potential misconduct be submitted by the Reviewers or Editors, an explanation will be sought from the Authors. If it is satisfactory and the issue is the result of either a mistake or misunderstanding, the matter can be easily resolved. If not, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted and the Editors may impose a ban on that individual's publication in the journals for a certain period of time. In cases of published plagiarism or dual publication, an announcement will be made in both journals explaining the situation.

When allegations concern authors, the peer review and publication process for their submission will be halted until completion of the aforementioned process. The investigation will be carried out even if the authors withdraw the manuscript, and implementation of the responses below will be considered.

When allegations concern reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation of the matter. Editors or reviewers who are found to have engaged in scientific misconduct should be removed from further association with the journal, and this fact reported to their institution.

Retraction policies

Article retraction

According to the COPE Retraction Guidelines followed by this Journal, an article can be retracted because of the following reasons:

  • Unreliable findings based on clear evidence of a misconduct (e.g. fraudulent use of the data) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
  • Redundant publication, e.g., findings that have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification.
  • Plagiarism or other kind of unethical research.

Retraction procedure

  • Retraction should happen after a careful consideration by the Journal editors of allegations coming from the editors, authors, or readers.
  • The HTML version of the retracted article is removed (except for the article metadata) and on its place a retraction note is issued.
  • The PDF of the retracted article is left on the website but clearly watermarked with the note "Retracted" on each page.
  • In some rare cases (e.g., for legal reasons or health risk) the retracted article can be replaced with a new corrected version containing apparent link to the retracted original version and a retraction note with a history of the document.

Expression of concern

In other cases, the Journal editors should consider issuing an expression of concern, if evidence is available for:

  • Inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors.
  • Unreliable findings that are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case.
  • A belief that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive.
  • An investigation is underway but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time.

Errata and Corrigenda

Pensoft journals largely follow the ICMJE guidelines for corrections and errata.

Errata

Admissible and insignificant errors in a published article that do not affect the article content or scientific integrity (e.g. typographic errors, broken links, wrong page numbers in the article headers etc.) can be corrected through publishing of an erratum. This happens through replacing the original PDF with the corrected one together with a correction notice on the Erratum Tab of the HTML version of the paper, detailing the errors and the changes implemented in the original PDF. The original PDF will be marked with a correction note and an indication to the corrected version of the erratum article. The original PDF will also be archived and made accessible via a link in the same Erratum Tab.

Authors are also encouraged to post comments and indicate typographical errors on their articles to the Comments tab of the HTML version of the article.

Corrigenda

Corrigenda should be published in cases when significant errors are discovered in a published article. Usually, such errors affect the scientific integrity of the paper and could vary in scale. Reasons for publishing corrigenda may include changes in authorship, unintentional mistakes in published research findings and protocols, errors in labelling of tables and figures or others. In taxonomic journals, corrigenda are often needed in cases where the errors affect nomenclatural acts. Corrigenda are published as a separate publication and bear their own DOI. Examples of published corrigenda are available here.

The decision for issuing errata or corrigenda is with the editors after discussion with the authors.


COPE Compliance

This journal endorses the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines and will pursue cases of suspected research and publication misconduct (e.g. falsification, unethical experimentation, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, redundant publication). For further information about COPE please see the website for COPE at http://www.publicationethics.org and journal's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

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Author Guidelines


Select Article Type

Research Article
Peer-reviewed and indexed

Review Article
Peer-reviewed and indexed

Editorial
Published on agreement

Correspondence
Published upon editorial decision

Case Report
Peer-reviewed and indexed


Submission Guidelines


Submission Procedure

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Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Submission of manuscripts to this journal is possible only through the online submission module. We kindly request authors to consult the Focus and Scope section prior to submission. In order to submit a manuscript to the journal, authors are required to register with the journal and/or to login. Once logged in, you will find the online submission system by clicking the "Submit manuscript" button.

The manuscript submission process is separated into the following steps:

  • Step 1: Specifying the manuscript type and completing the submission checklist
  • Step 2: Choosing the payment option and requesting optional services
  • Step 3: Typing in the author(s) names and affiliation, title, abstract, keywords, and other metadata
  • Step 4: Assigning classifications categories for your manuscript using hierarchical classification trees
  • Step 5: Completing the submission metadata by adding details about any supporting agencies, conflict of interest, ethical statetment, comments to the editors
  • Step 6: Agreeing with the journal's Data Publishing Policy and specifying the availability of the data underpinning your article
  • Step 7: Uploading the submission file and the additional files: the cover letter, the manuscript WORD file for review (which must not contain indications of authorship) and all other required files (see below for details on how to prepare them).
  • Step 8: Confirming the automatically generated pdf review version of the article, and the metadata (or revising them, if needed)
  • Step 9: Uploading supplementary files (see below for details) and associated metadata
  • Step 10: Suggesting reviewers, final verification of the submitted files and confirmation

Stepwise guidance on new manuscript submission, with screenshots of the interface embedded, is available online in this section of the User Manual.


Organizing Your Submission

Before starting your submission please make sure that your manuscript is formatted in accordance with the Author Guidelines.

Manuscripts submitted to this journal must be divided into separate files (no larger than 20 MB each) to allow their processing by our software. Before attempting an online submission, please consider preparing the following file types:

1. Cover letter 

This part is for the handling Subject Editor only and will not be sent to the reviewers. Please check the Author Guidelines section and follow the specific indications that apply for Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research. In case it is a mandatory requirement, please structure the cover letter accordingly.

2. Submission file

Review version of the manuscript: a TEXT (MS WORD) file in either DOC, DOCX, RTF or ODT format, which does NOT contain indications of authorship.. The total file size must be no larger than 80 MB. The system allows two options for the submission file upload:

  • it could contain all figures embedded at their respective places within the manuscript: 

    • Advantage: The review version of the manuscript will be more convenient for reading and understanding by the reviewers and editors. Likewise, if you opt to post your manuscript on ARPHA Preprints and this is allowed by the current journal’s policies, it will be better organised for the readers.

    • Drawback: Additional effort is needed to place and number the figures within the text.

  • it could contain the article text only, while the figures are added separately in the allowed formats (see below), so that the system can add them automatically to the PDF version that will be sent for review. The authors have the option to check and replace, if needed, the PDF review version generated at the first submission step:

    • Advantage: No additional effort is needed for placing and numbering the figures within the text.

    • Drawback: All figures will be placed at the end of the manuscript and the review version will be less convenient for reading and understanding by the reviewers and editors. The same concerns your preprint if you decide to post it on ARPHA Preprints and this is allowed by the current journal’s policies.

3. Additional files

High-resolution figures must be submitted during the same submission process as the additional files (Step 7) in one of the accepted file formats (see below). These may be compressed in order to reduce bandwidth during upload:

  • Figures (each figure as an individual file in one of the following image file formats: EPS, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, not larger than 20 MB each)
  • Equations (each equation as an individual file in one of the above-mentioned image file formats)

Please note that the maximum file size that may be uploaded through our online submission system is 20 MB.

4. Supplementary files (appendices)

Large datasets or multimedia files, usually published as appendices in conventional print journals, should be uploaded as supplementary files complete with the associated metadata on the online submission form. Supplementary files should have their own legends. However, no authors' names must be given at this stage in any of the files because reviewers will have access to them. (Note that the system requires you to enter the authors of the files in separate fields. This information is not visible to the reviewers.)

Most file formats are accepted. Text-only appendices must be in DOC, DOCX, RTF, or ODT formats.

Submissions that do not meet these formal requirements will be returned without review.

Should you have any technical problems in submitting a manuscript to this journal, please contact the Editorial Office at journals@pensoft.net.


General remarks

Manuscripts, which do not comply with the above guidelines, will be returned to the author for required changes. Only after compliance is established, will they be processed for reviewing.


Prepare Your Manuscript


English Language Editing

This journal has well-defined policies for English language editing. 

Authors are required to have their manuscripts written in fluent English or edited by a professional English language editor BEFORE submission. Authors have to confirm by checking a tick box in the submission process that they have followed the above requirement:

"The text is edited by a professional English language editor, duly acknowledged in the manuscript. I am aware that non-edited manuscripts could be rejected prior to peer-review".

The submission process includes an option to request a professional linguistic editing at a price of EURO 15 per 1800 characters:

The authors are NOT obliged to use Journal's linguistic services, but they must ensure that their manuscripts have passed a proper linguistic editing before submission.


Main text

Body Text: All papers should be in grammatically correct English. Authors are asked to certify that their manuscripts are written in fluent English or edited by a professional English language editor prior to submission. Use either British/Commonwealth or American English provided that the language is consistent within the paper. A manuscript must be written with precision, clarity, and economy. The voice - active or passive - and the tense used should be consistent throughout the manuscript. Avoid the use of parenthetical comments and italics or bold for emphasis. This journal discourages the use of quotation marks except for direct quotations, words defined by the author, and words used in unusual contexts. Short quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Long quotations should be on a separate line, italicized, but without quotation marks. Single quotation marks are to be used only for a quotation that occurs within another quotation.

Spacing, Fonts, and Page Numbering: Single-space all material (text, quotations, figure legends, tables, references, etc.). Separate paragraphs with a blank line. Use a 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman). All of the manuscripts should be presented in the native format of the word processor used.

The preferred text-processors are: Microsoft Word and Word Perfect. Please do not send ASCII files as relevant data may be lost. Include also the files containing computer generated graphics, artwork, bitmaps, and/or scanned images in one of the following formats: CDR, HPGL, WMF, EPS, TIF, PCX and JPG. For large image files, use one of the file compressing programs (ZIP, ARJ, RAR).

Capitals: First capital letters should be used only in the beginning of a sentence, in proper names and in headings and subheadings, as well as to indicate tables, graphs and figure/s within the text. Software programmes should be written with capital letters (e.g., ANOVA, MANOVA, PAUP).

Italicization/Underlining: Scientific names of species and genera, long direct quotations and symbols for variables and constants (except for Greek letters), such as p, F, U, T, N, r, but not for SD (standard deviation), SE (standard error), DF (degrees of freedom) and NS (non significant) should be italicized. These symbols in illustrations and equations should be in italics to match the text. Italics should not be used for emphasis, and not in abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., et al., etc., cf. Underlining of any text is not acceptable.

Abbreviations: Abbreviations should be followed by ‘.' (full stop or period; for instance: a.s.l., i.e., e.g., cf., etc.). Note that you shouldn't add a full stop at the end of abbreviated words if the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the full word. For example, you should abbreviate "Eds", "Dr", "Mr" without full stop at the end. All measures, for instance mm, cm, m, s, L, should be written without full stop.

On the use of dashes: (1) Hyphens are used to link words such as personal names, some prefixes and compound adjectives (the last of which vary depending on the style manual in use) (2) En-dash or en-rule (the length of an 'n') is used to link spans. In the context of our journal en-dash should be used to link numerals, sizes, dates and page numbers (e.g., 1977–1981; figs 5–7; pp. 237–258); geographic or name associations (Murray–Darling River; a Federal–State agreement); and character states combinations such as long–pubescent or red–purple. (3) Em-dash or em-rule (the length of an 'm') should be used rarely, only for introducing a subordinate clause in the text that is often used much as we use parentheses. In contrast to parentheses an em-dash can be used alone. En-dashes and em-dashes should not be spaced.

Footnotes: Avoid footnotes in the body text of the manuscript. It is always possible to incorporate the footnote into the main text by rewording the sentences, which greatly facilitates reading. Additionally, footnotes are not always handled well by software, and their usage may cause failures in the text processing.

Statistics: Use leading zeroes with all numbers, including probability values (e.g., P < 0.001). For every significant F−statistic reported, provide two df values (numerator and denominator). Whenever possible, indicate the year and version of the statistical software used.

Web (HTML) links: Authors are encouraged to include links to other Internet resources in their article. This is especially encouraged in the reference section. When inserting a reference to a web-page, please include the http:// portion of the web address.

Supplementary files: Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as Supplementary Files. Tabular data provided as supplementary files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), as an OpenOffice spreadsheets (.ods) or comma separated values file (.csv). As with all uploaded files, please use the standard file extensions.


Citations and References

Citations within the text: Before submitting the manuscript, please check each citation in the text against the References and vice-versa to ensure that they match exactly.

Citations in the text should be formatted as follows:

One author: Smith (1990) or (Smith 1990)

Note: The citations format depends on the way it is incorporated within the article’s text:

Example:

  1. According to Smith (1990), these findings…
  2. These findings have been first reported in the beginning of the nineties (Smith 1990).

Two authors: Brock and Gunderson (2001) or (Brock and Gunderson 2001)

Note: When choosing between formats refer back to examples above.

Three or more authors: Smith et al. (1998) or (Smith et al. 1998)

Note: When choosing between formats refer back to examples above.

When citing more than one source, in-text citations should be ordered by the year of publication, starting with the earliest one:

(Smith et al. 1998, 2000, 2016; Brock and Gunderson 2001; Felt 2006).

Note: When you have a few citations from the same author but from different years (such as the case with Smith et al. above), the first year is taken into consideration when ordering the sources (in this case 1998, which is why Smith et al. come first in the list).

When having two or more fully identical citations (this can happen when you have more than one reference with exactly the same authors and years for one or two authors, or the same first author and year for author teams of three or more), the references are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the years and this marking is followed in the in-text citations, respectively:

(Reyes-Velasco et al. 2018a, 2018b)

Authorship references for species should include a "," between author and year:

Brianmyia stuckenbergi Woodley, 2012.

References: It is important to format the references properly, because all references will be linked electronically as completely as possible to the papers cited. It is desirable to add a DOI (digital object identifier) number for either the full-text or title and abstract of the article as an addition to traditional volume and page numbers. If a DOI is lacking, it is recommended to add a link to any online source of an article.

List all authors cited in the References. For multiauthored papers, give all author names in full; the abbreviation "et al." is only allowed in the text. All journal titles should be spelled out completely and should not be italicized. Ensure that the References are complete and arranged according to name and year of publication. Personal communications and submitted manuscripts should be listed as unpublished results in the text and not listed in the References section.

Please use the following style for the reference list (or download the Pensoft EndNote style): here. It is also available in Zotero, when searched by journal name or by "Pensoft Journals".

Published Papers:
Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: The open-access register for zoological taxonomy: Technical Discussion Paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

Accepted Papers:
Same as above, but ''in press'' appears instead of the year in parentheses.

Electronic Journal Articles:
Mallet J, Willmott K (2002) Taxonomy: Renaissance or Tower of Babel? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(2): 57–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(02)00061-7

Paper within conference proceedings:
Orr AG (2006) Odonata in Bornean tropical rain forest formations: Diversity, endemicity and applications for conservation management. In: Cordero Rivera A (Ed.) Forest and Dragonflies. Fourth WDA International Symposium of Odonatology, Pontevedra (Spain), July 2005. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 51–78.

Book chapters:
Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds) Species Concepts and Phylogenetic Theory: A Debate. Columbia University Press, New York, 17–29.

Books:
Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 166 pp.

Book with institutional author:
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999) International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth Edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London.

PhD thesis:
Dalebout ML (2002) Species identity, genetic diversity and molecular systematic relationships among the Ziphiidae (beaked whales). PhD Thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Link/URL:
BBC News: Island leopard deemed new species http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Citations of Public Resource Databases: It is highly recommended all appropriate datasets, images, and information to be deposited in public resources. Please provide the relevant accession numbers (and version numbers, if appropriate). Accession numbers should be provided in parentheses after the entity on first use. Examples of such databases include, but are not limited to:

Providing accession numbers to data records stored in global data aggregators allows us to link your article to established databases, thus integrating it with a broader collection of scientific information. Please hyperlink all accession numbers through the text or list them directly after the References in the online submission manuscript.

All journal titles should be spelled out completely and should NOT be italicized.

Provide the publisher's name and location when you cite symposia or conference proceedings; distinguish between the conference date and the publication date if both are given. Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the References. They should be quoted in the text as personal observations, personal communications, or unpublished data, specifying the exact source, with date if possible. When possible, include URLs for articles available online through library subscription or individual journal subscription, or through large international archives, indexes and aggregators, e.g., PubMedCentral, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, etc. URLs for pdf articles that are posted on personal websites only should be avoided.

Authors are encouraged to cite in the References list the publications of the original descriptions of the taxa treated in their manuscript.

Ordering references: All references should be ordered alphabetically by author name (but see below).

If the references have the same first author and a varying number of co-authors, the ordering should be based on the number of co-authors starting with the lowest; all articles with the same first author and two or more co-authors (thus cited as et al. in the text) should be listed chronologically, as follows:

Smith J (2018) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3897

Smith J, Gunderson A (2017) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 10–20. https://doi.org/10.3897 

Smith J, Gunderson A, Brock B (2011) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 20–30. https://doi.org/10.3897

Smith J, Brock B, Gutierrez R, Gunderson A (2013) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 15–30. https://doi.org/10.3897

Smith J, Brock B, Gunderson A (2015) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 10–30. https://doi.org/10.3897

If both the first author and year of publication match within the categories above, the references are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year of publication and this marking is followed in the in-text citations, respectively.


Illustrations, Figures and Tables

Figures and illustrations are accepted in the following image file formats:

  • EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
  • TIFF (at least 300dpi resolution, with LZW compression)
  • PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
  • JPEG (preferred format for photos or images)
  • GIF
  • BMP
  • SVG

Vector files in any of the following formats EPS, SVG or PDF are requested for phylogenetic trees and cladograms.

The journal is printed in A4 paper size with the maximum printing area of 167 mm × 242 mm. Whenever possible, individual figures should be prepared as composite figures.

Should you have any problems in providing the figures in one of the above formats, or in reducing the file below 20 MB, please contact the Editorial Office at journals@pensoft.net

Figure legends: All figures should be referenced consecutively in the manuscript; legends should be listed consecutively immediately after the References. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals − i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc.); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words.

Illustrations of measurable morphological traits should bear mute scale bars, whose real size is to be given in the figure captions.

Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Figure citations in the text should always be with Capital "F" and En-dash for ranges. One figure with a full stop, figures without.

Example: Fig. 1, Figs 1–3, Fig. 2A–E.

Citations of figures from other publications should always be Lower Case (fig. / figs). When two subsequent figures or parts are cited (for instance figures 1 and 2 or A and B), a comma should be used.

Example:  Figs 1, 2 and Fig. 1A, B.

Parts belong to one figure.

Example: Fig. 1A, B and Fig. 2A-E.

On the use of Google Maps
All uses of Google Maps and Google Earth Content must provide attribution to Google, according to Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Service (see also Permission Guidelines for Google Maps and Google Earth). The attribution should be visible on each map in the form, for example: "Map data 2019 (C) Google".

Tables: Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, maximum 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.

Small tables can be embedded within the text, in portrait format (note that tables on a landscape page must be reformatted onto a portrait page or submitted as additional files). These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review. Do not use tabs to format tables or separate text. All columns and rows should be visible, please make sure that borders of each cell display as black lines. Colour and shading should not be used; neither should commas be used to indicate decimal values. Please use a full stop to denote decimal values (i.e., 0.007 cm, 0.7 mm).

Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as Supplementary Files. Tabular data provided as supplementary files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), as an OpenOffice spreadsheets (.ods) or comma-separated values file (.csv). As with all uploaded files, please use the standard file extensions.


Supplementary Files

Online publishing allows an author to provide datasets, tables, video files, or other information as supplementary information, greatly increasing the impact of the submission. Uploading of such files is possible in Step 9 of the submission process.

The maximum file size for each Supplementary File is 20 MB.

The Supplementary Files will not be displayed in the printed version of the article but will exist as linkable supplementary downloadable files in the online version.

While submitting a supplementary file the following information should be completed:

  • File format (including name and a URL of an appropriate viewer if format is unusual)
  • Title of data
  • Description of data

All supplementary files should be referenced explicitly by file name within the body of the article, e.g. 'See supplementary file 1: Movie 1" for the original data used to perform this analysis.

Ideally, the supplementary files should not be platform-specific, and should be viewable using free or widely available tools. Suitable file formats are:

For supplementary documentation:

  • PDF (Adobe Acrobat)

For animations:

  • SWF (Shockwave Flash)

For movies:

  • MOV (QuickTime)
  • MPG (MPEG)

For datasets:

  • XLS (Excel spreadsheet)
  • CSV (Comma separated values)
  • ODS (OpenOffice spreadsheets)

As for images, file names should be given in the standard file extensions. This is especially important for Macintosh users, since the Mac OS does not enforce the use of standard file extensions. Please also make sure that each additional file is a single table, figure or movie (please do not upload linked worksheets or PDF files larger than one sheet).


Authorship of AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools do not meet authorship criteria and thus cannot be listed as authors on manuscripts, nor cited as authors. If AI or AI-assisted tools have been used in the preparation of a manuscript, this must be appropriately declared with sufficient details in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript.

Processing Your Manuscript


Revising Your Article

Authors must submit the revised version of the manuscript using Track Changes/Comments tools of Word so that the Subject Editor can see the corrections and additions.

Authors must address all critiques of the referees in a response letter to the editor and submit it along with the revised manuscript through the online editorial system. In case a response letter is not submitted by the authors, the editor has the right to reject the manuscript without further evaluation. When resubmitting a manuscript that has been previously rejected with resubmission encouraged, authors must include the response letter to the article text file, and the pdf review version, so that it gets to the Subject Editor and the reviewers during the peer review.

When submitting corrections to proofs (during the layout stage), authors must upload the latest proof (in PDF format) containing their revisions as track changes.


Concise Copyediting Instructions

The copyediting instructions below represent a concise summary of the journal's formatting requirements. The instructions are intended for use by the authors during preparation of the final revised versions of their manuscripts, technical editors, copy editors and typesetters.  

Author names

  • Omit titles, degrees, etc.
  • Provide ORCID if available

Affiliation

(Department,) Institution, City, Country

Article title

Title of article: Subtitle of article

  • Title: Sentence case
  • Colon between title and subtitle (if any)
  • No footnotes
  • No bold (use when needed sub-/superscript, and/or italics only for the terms in Latin)
  • Higher taxa within the title should be separated with commas and not with a semicolon

Running head

  • A short version of title up to 50 characters (including spaces); normally the short title should have been suggested by the authors and checked for clarity by the copy editor

Abstract

  • No references to tables, figures, etc., no footnotes
  • No citations (preferably)
    • If citations unavoidable: Complete citations, allowing unambiguous identification of cited publication!
  • Should be written consistently in either third or first person
  • Note: The abstract has to be a stand-alone entity, to present a really well written and concise summary of the article! A special care for copy editors to check!
  • Designations of nomenclatural novelties should be in bold and spelled in the way suggested ( sp. nov., gen. nov., comb. nov. )

Keywords (up to 8 words)

keyword a, keyword b, keyword n

  • Do not repeat words from the title
  • Listed in alphabetical order and separated by commas
  • Lowercase letters, except proper names
  • No bold font
  • Without any punctuation marks after last keyword

Tables

  • Table caption: Start with label "Table N." in bold. Sentence case, i.e.:
    • Table 2. Table caption text.
  • Numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
  • Heading for every column (including the leftmost!)
  • No shading of cells, rows, columns; no colored fonts
  • No horizontal or vertical lines in table body
  • Same number of decimal places for same statistics (usually within same column)
  • Text formatting in the cell without paragraph and line break
  • Table must be in an editable format (.docx, .xlsx, etc., not as images)
  • Caption and footnotes as texts (not as part of a table)

Figures

  • Figure caption: Start with label "Figure N." in bold. Sentence case, i.e.:
    • Figure 6. Figure caption text.
  • Numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
  • Figure parts: Use capital letters in bold. No punctuation separator, i.e.:
    • Figure 1. Figure general caption text. A part caption text B part caption text N part caption text.
  • If abbreviations are used, these are placed after the parts with a colon, i.e.:
    Abbreviations: xxxx
  • If there are scale bars on the figure parts, reference to them is last and in the format: Scale bars: 20 μm (D, N, O, Q); 50 μm (F, K); 10 μm (G, P); 5 μm (H); 100 μm (M).
  • High quality (at least 300 dpi)
  • Text sharp and readable (e.g., no overlap of text and graphical elements like lines)
  • White or transparent background
  • No image border
  • Caption as text (not as part of the image)

Capitalization

  • Article title: Sentence case
  • Running head: Sentence case
  • Section and subsection titles:
    • For separated titles (usually H1-H3): Sentence case
    • For paragraph titles (usually H4): Sentence case
  • Table captions: Sentence case
  • Headings of table rows and columns:
    • Sentence case or lower case (check for consistency only!)
  • Figure captions: Sentence case
  • In text body: Nouns followed by numerals/letters (citations of figures, tables, appendices and supplementary files) e.g.:
    • Fig. 4; Figs 1, 2; Table 2; Appendix 1
  • In text body: Titles of articles, book chapters, books, tests
  • In references: Sentence case

Equations and statistical symbols

  • Typeface
    • standard typeface for Greek letters, sub-/superscripts, and abbreviations that are not variables
    • italic typeface for all other statistical symbols
  • Space before and after equal/inequality signs
  • Same number of decimal places for decimal values
  • Use leading zeros before a decimal fraction including for statistical values pertaining to probability

Text body

  • Regular font usage:
    • Main text
    • Abbreviations e.g., i.e., et al., etc., cf., vs.
    • Greek letter e.g., α, β, γ, δ, ε, σ, φ, χ, ω
  • Italic font usage:
    • Scientific names of taxa of species and genera (authorities in regular font, not in italics)
    • Long direct quotations
    • Symbols for variables and constants, such as p, F, U, T, N, r , but not for SD (standard deviation), SE (standard error), DF (degrees of freedom), and NS (non significant). These symbols in illustrations and equations should be in italics to match the text.
    • Do not use italics for emphasis
  • No underlining
  • Bold font usage:
    • Subheadings, sections and subsections
    • Figure captions – For the label and designation of figure’s parts:
      • Figure 1. Figure general caption text. A part caption text B part caption text N part caption text.
    • Table captions – For the label:
      • Table 1. Table caption text.
    • In systematic sections for specimen designation such us: holotype, paratype, syntype, lectotype, isotype , etc.
    • Abbreviations of institutions or morphological characters or indices listed alphabetically in the section Materials and methods, i.e.:
      • NHML Natural History Museum, London
      • MW Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna
      • EL length of elytra
      • EW maximum width of elytra
      • TL total length (PL+EL)
    • In species descriptions – designation of main anatomical structures followed by a colon mark, i.e. Head:…, Thorax:…, Legs:…, Abdomen:, etc., in this case these should be followed by a section describing other anatomical organs and structures attached to these.
    • Subsection "Specimens examined" - the preferred order is as follows, HOWEVER THESE FINE-GRAINED FORMATTING GUIDELINES ARE NOT COMPULSORY. Authors who follow the guidelines will benefit from the submission of their specimen records to GBIF after publication. The records on GBIF will bear the article citation details contributiing to a wider dissemination and re-use of the published data.
      • COUNTRY • specimens [e.g. 1 ♂, size ]; geographic/locality data [from largest to smallest]; coordinates; altitude/elevation/depth [using alt./m a.s.l. etc.]; date [format: 16 Jan. 1998]; collector [followed by "leg."]; other collecting data [e.g. micro habitat/host/method of collecting]; barcodes/identifiers [e.g. GenBank: MG779236]; institution code and specimen code [e.g. CBF 06023].
        For Example: Holotype: CHINA • ♀; Sichuan, Kangding; 30.04°N, 101.57°E; 15.VI.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-06, original number ZYZ-2017-28. Paratypes: CHINA • 1♀1♂; Sichuan, Kangding; 29.VI.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-01, Hyp-2018-02, original number ZYZ-2017-08 • 1♀; Sichuan: Kangding; 2.VIII.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-03, original number ZYZ-2017-20 • 1♂, Sichuan: Kangding; 29.VI.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-08, original number ZYZ-2017-029.
      • Punctuation:
        A bullet point "•" (unicode: 2022) is used to signify the beginning of a material citation. Within each citation, the different fields are delimited by a semicolon. A single field can be composed of several elements, which are separated by commas (e.g. the details region, area, town and street for the ‘locality’ field). Semicolons should not be used elsewhere in a material citation.
      • Repetitive data: Authors can indicate repetitive data with indications such as "same data as for holotype", "same data as for preceding", "same locality", "ibid", etc. as long as the same method and wording are used consistently throughout the paper.
      • ‘Missing’ elements: It is not necessary to include information such as "no date" or "no locality data"; just list the elements that are available.
      • see more details here
  • Quotation marks
    • Avoid quotation marks except for direct quotations, words defined by the author, and words used in unusual contexts.
    • Short quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Long quotations should be on a separate line, italicized, but without quotation marks.
    • Single quotation marks are to be used only for a quotation that occurs within another quotation.
  • Hyphen and dash characters
    • Consistent use of (-, –, —).
    • In contrast to parentheses an em-dash can be used alone.
    • En-dashes and em-dashes should not be spaced.
      • Hyphens (-) are used to:
        • link words such as personal names, some prefixes and compound adjectives (the last of which vary depending on the style manual in use)
      • En-dash (–) or en-rule (the length of an 'n') is used to:
        • link spans.
        • link numerals, sizes, dates and page numbers (e.g., 1977–1981; figs 5–7; pp. 237–258)
        • geographic or name associations (e.g., Murray–Darling River; a Federal–State agreement)
        • character states combinations (e.g., long–pubescent or red–purple).
      • Em-dash (—) or em-rule (the length of an 'm') should be used rarely:
        • only for introducing a subordinate clause in the text that is often used much as we use parentheses.

Section hierarchy

  • No more than 4 levels, from hierarchical level 1 (H1) to hierarchical level 4 (H4)
  • Unambiguous hierarchy levels
  • No numbering of hierarchical levels

Section titles

  • Capitalization:
    • For separated titles (usually H1-H3): Sentence case
    • For paragraph titles (usually H4): Sentence case

Mandatory statements

  • Funding
    • If missing, add the following statement (depending on the number of authors):
      • The author has no funding to report.
      • The authors have no funding to report.
  • Competing interests
    • If missing, add the following statement (depending on the number of authors):
      • The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
      • The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
  • Acknowledgments (= non-financial support)
    • If missing, add the following statement (depending on the number of authors):
      • The author has no support to report.
      • The authors have no support to report.
  • Data Resources (mandatory for empirical articles)

Geographical coordinates

One of the following formats should be used:

  • Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (DMS), i.e.:
    • 36°31'21"N; 114°09'50"W
  • Degrees and Decimal Minutes (DDM), i.e.:
    • 36°31.46'N; 114°09.84'W
  • Decimal Degrees (DD), i.e.:
    • 36.5243°S; 114.1641°W
    • −36.5243; −114.1641 (using minus to indicate southern and western hemispheres)

In-Text Citations

  • References
    • 1-2 authors
      • Jackson and Miller (2012) found out that...
      • A recent study (Jackson and Miller 2012) confirmed that...
    • 3 or more authors
      • Jackson et al. (2012) found out that...
      • A recent study (Jackson et al. 2012) confirmed that...
    • Multiple sources in chronological order:
      • same authors different years - separated by a comma:
        • Jackson and Miller (2012, 2015) found out that...
        • Recent studies (Jackson et al. 2012, 2015) confirmed that...
      • different authors - separated by a semicolon:
        • (Smith et al. 1998, 2000, 2016; Brock and Gunderson 2001; Felt 2006)
      • two or more fully identical citations (the same authors and years) are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year:
        • Jackson 2008a, 2008b
        • Jackson and Miller 2014a, 2014b
        • Reyes-Velasco et al. 2018a, 2018b
    • Sources with page numbers
      • Jackson and Miller (2012: 120–121) found out that
      • A recent study (Jackson and Miller 2012: 120) confirmed that
  • Figures:
    • Fig. 1
    • Fig. 1A, B
    • Fig. 1A–D
    • Figs 1, 2
    • Figs 1–3
    • Figs 1A, B, 3F, G, 7A
  • Tables:
    • Table 1
    • Tables 1, 2
    • Tables 1–3
  • Appendixes:
    • Appendix 1
    • Appendices 1, 2
    • Appendices 1–4
  • Referenced materials from other sources:
    • All figures, tables, etc., from other sources should be written with small letters i.e.: see fig. 2 in Author (Year) ...

References

  • Author names: surname first; all given names abbreviated, no full stops, commas or spaces, i.e.:
    • Lyal CHC
    • van Tol J
    • de Albuquerque PRA
  • Different authors separated by comma
  • Year in brackets; no comma or full stop after it
  • No italics (except for Latin terms)

Published papers:

Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: The open-access register for zoological taxonomy: Technical Discussion Paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

Accepted papers:

Same as above, but ''in press'' appears instead of the year in parentheses.

Electronic journal articles:

Mallet J, Willmott K (2002) Taxonomy: Renaissance or Tower of Babel? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(2): 57–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(02)00061-7

Paper within conference proceedings:

Orr AG (2006) Odonata in Bornean tropical rain forest formations: Diversity, endemicity and applications for conservation management. In: Cordero Rivera A (Ed.) Forest and Dragonflies. Fourth WDA International Symposium of Odonatology, Pontevedra (Spain), July 2005. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 51–78.

Book chapters:

Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds) Species concepts and phylogenetic theory: A debate. Columbia University Press, New York, 17–29.

Books:

Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 166 pp.

Book with institutional author:

ICZN [International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature] (1999) International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth Edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London.

PhD thesis:

Dalebout ML (2002) Species identity, genetic diversity and molecular systematic relationships among the Ziphiidae (beaked whales). PhD Thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland, ## pp.

Link/URL:

BBC News (2012) Island leopard deemed new species http://news.bbc.co.uk/ [Accessed on dd.mm.yyyy]


No Article Processing Charges

JBCR requires neither article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.

Additional Services for Authors (Optional)

Optional service

Price

Notes

Linguistic services

€ 15 per 1800 characters

For texts that require additional English language editing

Please note that the above prices do not include VAT (Value Added Tax). VAT is applicable only for VAT NON-registered customers based within the European Union.


For Editors and Reviewers


Guidelines for Editors


How to Access a Manuscript

Manuscripts can be accessed after login

  1. Login is possible after registration at the journal's website. Our Editorial Office will register all first-time editors and reviewers. New users will receive an automated notification with a request to confirm registration and account information, and options for setting a password, email alerts and other features.  
    Note: All users can use their registration details to login in all three (Book, E-Book and the respective Journal) platforms of www.pensoft.net.
    Note: Please remember that you may have registered with two or more different email addresses, that is why you may have more than one valid account at www.pensoft.net. We advise using only one email address, hence one password associated with it, for all your operations at www.pensoft.net. We highly recommend that, in case the user has two or more different accounts, to merge these through user's profile.  
    Note: Users can at any time change the initially set password and correct personal details using their user's profile menu (by clicking on the user's name in the upper right corner of the screen appearing after login).
  2. If you have forgotten your password, please use the function Forgot your password? or write to request it from journals@pensoft.net.

There are two ways to access a manuscript

  1. After login, please go to the respective journal’s web page and click on My Tasks button in the upper right corner of the screen. This way, you will be able to see all manuscripts you are responsible for as Author or Reviewer or Subject Editor.

    Note: The manuscripts are grouped by categories, e.g., In Review (no.), In layout (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.) etc. The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts assigned to you.

  2. Click on the active manuscript link provided in the email notification you have received from the online editorial system. The link will lead you directly to the manuscript.


General Responsibilities of Editors

Subject, or Associate, editors in Pensoft’s journals carry the main responsibility for the scientific quality of the papers. They take the final decision on a manuscript’s acceptance or rejection and their names are listed as Academic Editor in the header of each published article.

The editorial process is facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. The online editorial system informs the Subject Editor about any change in the status of a manuscript from submission to publication.

The online editorial system is designed to save time and effort for Subject Editors in checking the status of the manuscripts. There is no need for editors to visit the journal’s website to keep track on the manuscript they are responsible for. The online system will inform the Subject Editor when an invited reviewer has accepted or declined to review. The email notifications contain stepwise instructions what action is needed at each stage, as well as a link to the respective manuscript (accessible by clicking on the link in the email notification or after login – see How to Access a Manuscript).

Subject Editors are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but rather focus on its scientific quality and overall style, which should correspond to good practices in clear and concise academic writing. It is the author’s responsibility to submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English. The Subject Editor should not hesitate to recommend either Reject, or Reject, but resubmission encouraged PRIOR to the peer-review process, in cases when a manuscript is scientifically poor and/or does not conform to journal’s style, and/or is written in poor English (see Note under point 1 below how to reject a manuscript prior to peer review). 

Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editors or their deputies are allowed to publish a limited proportion of papers per year co-authored by them, after considering some extra precautions to avoid an impression of impropriety, endogeny, conflicts of interest and ensure that the editorial decision-making process is transparent and fair.

It often happens that even carefully written manuscripts may contain small errors in orthography or stylistics. We shall be thankful if editors spot such errors during the reading process and correct them.


Stepwise Description of the Editorial Process

  1. Once a manuscript is submitted, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) briefly checks if the manuscript conforms with the journal's Focus, Scope, Policies and style requirements and decides whether it is potentially suitable for publication and can be processed for review, or rejected immediately, or returned to the author for improvement and re-submission.
    Note: There are two ways to reject/return a manuscript prior to review process:
    - Through the buttons Reject or Return to the author for correction in the Editorial tab. Please note, however, that the buttons will be made active only after a justification for the rejection or return is provided in the text field.
    - Through an email to the Editorial office explaining the reason for rejection or return. The manuscript will be then rejected/returned through the online editorial system and the respective notification email will be sent from the Editorial Office.
  2. At this stage, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) can also check the manuscript for plagiarism via the iThenticate service by clicking on the "ïTehnticate report" button. Journals providing a peer review in languages other than English (for example Russian) may use other plagiarsim checking services (for example Antiplagiat).
  3. When a manuscript is suitable, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) assigns it to the Subject Editor responsible for the respective topic (e.g., science branch or taxon). The Subject Editor receives a notification email on the assignment.
    Note: The link to the respective manuscript is available in the editorial assignment email and all consequent reminder emails. The manuscript is accessible by clicking on the link in the email notifications, or via the user's dashboard after login. Please see How to Access a Manuscript above in case you have any difficulties.
  4. The assigned Subject Editor next reads the manuscript to decide whether it is potentially suitable for publication and can be processed for review, or rejected immediately, or returned to the author for improvement and re-submission. Reasons for rejection can be a low scientific quality, non-conformance to the journal’s style/policies, and/or linguistically or grammatically poor English language.
    Note: There are two ways to reject a manuscript prior to review process:
    -  Through the buttons Reject or Reject, but resubmission encouraged in the Editorial tab. Please note, however, that the buttons become active only after a justification for the rejection is provided in the text field. 
    -  Through an email to the Editorial office explaining the reason for rejection. The manuscript will be then rejected/returned through the online editorial system and the respective notification email will be sent from the Editorial Office.
  5. In case the manuscript is acceptable for peer review, the Subject Editor has to invite reviewers by clicking on the Invite reviewers link. The Subject Editor can select from a list of reviewers, starting with the ones suggested by the authors during the submission process, and followed by the reviewers who are already listed in the database, or add new reviewers.
  6. Once reviewers are chosen, the Subject Editor has to click the Invite reviewers green button at the end of the page which will generate email templates with review invitations. It is highly recommended that the Subject Editor adds some personal words above the standard email text of the review invitation.
  7. In case a reviewer is absent from our users' data base, the Subject Editor can add his/her name and email through the Add new reviewer link, which will appear once the search field reveal no results. It is possible that the needed reviewer has already been registered in the Pensoft database either as customer or author/reviewer of another journal. If this is the case, then his/her name, affiliation and other metadata will automatically appear once the e-mail field is populated in the Create user online form.
  8. The Subject Editor receives a notification email when the Reviewer agrees or declines to review. The Subject Editor takes care to appoint additional reviewers in case some of the invited reviewers decline.
  9. Once all Reviewers submit their reviews, the Subject Editor receives an email notification, inviting him/her to consider Reviewers' opinions, read through the manuscript and take a decision through the Proceed button.
    Note: Editorial comments can be added in the online editorial form; comments and corrections are expected to be added also in the manuscript file (either on the PDF version or in the text file), that should be uploaded during finalization of the editorial decision process. 
  10. At this stage, the editor should take a decision either to (1) accept the manuscript, (2) reject it, (3) recommend Major or Minor Revisions or reject it, or open a second review round. In case the manuscript is not rejected, but recommended for Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Acceptance, the author is expected to submit a revised version within a certain period of time (and the Subject Editor will be notified by email about that).
    Note 1: Authors must submit revised versions as a text file using Track Changes/Comments tools of Word so that the Subject Editor can see their corrections/additions. Authors must reply to the essential critiques and comments of reviewers separately through the online editorial system.
    Note 2: During the second, or next, review round, the Subject Editor may decide to ask reviewers to evaluate the revised version of the manuscript. He/she may also make a decision based on the author’s responses and the revised version of the manuscript without asking additional Reviewers' support.
  11. After acceptance, the manuscript will go to proofreading and layout. The Subject Editor will be notified by email when the final proof is uploaded on the journal’s website. The Subject Editor is expected to look at the proofs and notify the Editorial Office through email in case the proofs need improvement.
  12. The Subject Editor may always access information on the manuscripts which have been edited by him/her through the menu My Tasks –> Subject Editor on the journal’s web page – In Review (no.), In Edit (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.). The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that were assigned.

Editors’ and Reviewers’ Workload Stats

While selecting a Reviewer or a Subject Editor to assign to a manuscript, Editors can access the current and past workload for the person they are considering.

By clicking on the user’s name, an Editor sees how many editorial or review tasks the person is currently assigned with, as well as a record of the user’s previous performance across all ARPHA-hosted journals (i.e. number of accepted and declined editorial and review assignments, as well as the titles of the corresponding journals).

The feature is meant to facilitate and expedite the editorial process by discouraging assignment of tasks to overburdened or inactive users.

Find how to Manage Subject editor assignments and Invite Reviewers in the ARPHA Manual.


Review Quality Rating

Subject Editors should evaluate each review submitted to a manuscript they are handling by using a 5-star rating system. The average score is visible for Subject editors who consider the user as a Reviewer. The feature is meant to expedite the editorial process by aiding Subject Editors in the selection of the most suitable reviewers.

Find how to Rate a peer review in the ARPHA Manual.


Guidelines for Reviewers


How to Access a Manuscript

Manuscripts can be accessed after login

  1. Login is possible after registration at the journal's website. Our Editorial Office will register all first-time editors and reviewers. New users will receive an automated notification with a request to confirm registration and account information, and options for setting a password, email alerts and other features.  
    Note: All users can use their registration details to login in all three (Book, E-Book and the respective Journal) platforms of www.pensoft.net.
    Note: Please remember that you may have registered with two or more different email addresses, that is why you may have more than one valid account at www.pensoft.net. We advise using only one email address, hence one password associated with it, for all your operations at www.pensoft.net. We highly recommend that, in case the user has two or more different accounts, to merge these through user's profile.  
    Note: Users can at any time change the initially set password and correct personal details using their user's profile menu (by clicking on the user's name in the upper right corner of the screen appearing after login).
  2. If you have forgotten your password, please use the function Forgot your password? or write to request it from journals@pensoft.net.

There are two ways to access a manuscript

  1. After login, please go to the respective journal’s web page and click on My Tasks button in the upper right corner of the screen. This way, you will be able to see all manuscripts you are responsible for as Author or Reviewer or Subject Editor.

    Note: The manuscripts are grouped by categories, e.g., In Review (no.), In layout (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.) etc. The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts assigned to you.

  2. Click on the active manuscript link provided in the email notification you have received from the online editorial system. The link will lead you directly to the manuscript.


General Responsibilities of Reviewers

This journal uses a double-blind peer review process. Reviewers should NOT disclose their identity. The peer review and editorial process is facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. The online editorial system sends the Reviewer a review request, initiated by the Subject Editor or the Editorial Office. The online system will also send reminders and will confirm a successful review submission. The email notifications contain stepwise instructions about the actions needed at each stage along with the link to the respective manuscript (see section How to Access a Manuscript).

Reviewers are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but rather focus on its scientific quality and overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. If Reviewers recognize that a manuscript requires linguistic edits, we shall be grateful for them to inform both the Author and the Subject Editor about this in the report. It is the Author’s responsibility to submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English. It often happens that even carefully written manuscripts may contain small errors in orthography or stylistics. We shall be thankful if Reviewers spot such errors during the reading process and correct them. Reviewers are also asked to declare any conflicts of interest.

Each manuscript will generally be reviewed by two or three experts with the aim of reaching a first decision as soon as possible.

Reviewers are asked to start their report with a very brief summary of the reviewed paper. This will help the editor and the authors see whether the reviewer correctly understood the paper or whether a report might be based on misunderstanding.

Reviewers are then asked to judge the manuscript on the following criteria:

  1. Novelty score (How novel is the idea / the software capabilities?) or Response score for Response papers (does the response present novel and complementary arguments or opposing views to the original paper?)
  2. Feasibility/likelihood/applicability score for Perspective and Response papers (does the idea/hypothesis arise from or is supported by rigorous arguments? Is the idea or hypothesis testable? Is the new concept, term or definition useful?) or Methodology score for Research papers, Rapid communications and Horizon scanning papers (is the methodology used/analysis conducted scientifically sound?) or Utility score for Software description (Is the software responding to a well identified need? Is it likely to be used by the scientific community?)
  3. Scholarship score (the authors demonstrate good knowledge and appropriate use of the current literature)
  4.  Literacy score (English, grammar, clarity and logical flow reaches publication standard)

In addition to the written review, Reviewers are asked to respond to a short questionnaire that serves as a Reviewer’s checklist and ensures a standardised, comprehensive review.

When possible, the final decision is made on the basis of the peer reviews. In cases of strong disagreement between the reports or between the Authors and Reviewers, the Subject Editor can assess these according to his/her expertise or seek advice from a member of the journal's Editorial Board.

The ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions lies with the respective Subject Editor and/or with the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who may decide to seek advice from the Subject Editors or the Editorial Board.

During a second review round, reviewers may be asked to evaluate the revised version against their recommendations submitted during the first review round.

Reviewers should be polite and constructive. Reports that may be insulting or uninformative will be rescinded.


Stepwise Description of the Peer Review Process

  1. This journal uses a double-blind peer review process. Reviewers should NOT disclose their identities. 

  2. The Reviewer receives a review request generated by the Subject Editor or the Editorial Office and is expected to either agree to provide a review, or decline, through pressing the Will do the review or Unable to do the review link in the online editorial system.
    Note: The link to the respective manuscript is available in the review request email and all consequent reminder emails (see How to Access a Manuscript above).

  3. The review should be submitted through the Proceed button. The review consists of:

  • a simple online questionnaire to be answered by ticking the YesNo, Moderately or N/A;

  • comments addressed to the Author and the Subject Editor in the online form;

  • associated files (corrected/commented manuscript file, review submitted in a separate text file, etc.), if any.

    Note: Reviewers can insert corrections and comments in the manuscript review version (PDF) and/or in the manuscript text file (usually Microsoft Word). When working in the PDF, please use either the Text Edits or the Sticky Notes tools (available through the menu Tools -> Comments & Markup of the Acrobat Reader). When editing in Microsoft Word please use the Track Changes / Comments tools.
    Note: Associated files should be submitted at the end of the review process by clicking on the Browse button, then selecting the respective file on your computer, and then pressing the Upload button.

  1. The review process is completed by selecting a recommendation from five options:
  • Reject;

  • Reject, but resubmission encouraged;

  • Major Revision;

  • Minor Revision;

  • Accept.

The system will ask for one more confirmation of the selected recommendation before submission. The submitted review cannot be changed after submission.
Note: Reasons for rejection can be a low scientific quality, non-conformance to the journal’s style/policies, and/or grammatically poor English language.

  1. Once a Reviewer submits a review of a manuscript, he/she receives an acknowledgement email from the journal.

  2. The submission of the review is also automatically reported to Clarivate - Web of Science Reviewer Recognition Service (formerly Publons). Reviewers are asked to confirm whether they want their reviews to be recorded on Clarivate.

  3. When all Reviewers have submitted their reviews, the Subject Editor makes a decision to either accept, reject or request further minor/major revision.

  4. After the Subject Editor's decision, the manuscript is sent back to the author for comments and further revision.

  5. Reviewers are notified via email when the revised version of a manuscript they have reviewed is submitted by the author. They receive a link to the revised version along with the editorial decision and all reviews of the manuscript. Reviewers are also provided with a feedback form should they have any comments on the revised version. 

  6. When an article is published, all Reviewers who have provided a review for the respective manuscript receive an email acknowledgement. In the email, there is a link to view/download the published article.

  7. A Reviewer may always access information on the manuscripts that are being / have been reviewed by him/her through the menu My Tasks –> Reviewer on the journal’s web page – In Review (no.), In Edit (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.). The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that have been assigned to you.


Science Communication

Our journal and the PR team at Pensoft invites authors to contribute to the communication and promotion of their published research, thereby increasing the visibility, outreach and impact of their work. 

Authors are welcome to notify us whenever their institution is working on a promotional campaign about their work published in our journal. We are always happy to reshare and/or repost (where appropriate). 

You can contact our PR team at dissemination@pensoft.net to discuss the communication and promotion of your research.


Tailored PR Campaign

(Paid service*)

We encourage authors, who feel that their work is of particular interest to the wider audience, to email us with a press release draft** (see template and guidelines), outlining the key findings from the study and their public impact. Then, the PR team will work with them to finalise the announcement that will be:

  • Issued on the global science news service Eurekalert!
  • Sent out to our media contacts from the world’s top-tier news outlets
  • Posted on ARPHA’s or Pensoft’s blog
  • Shared on social media via suitable ARPHA-managed accounts

Following the distribution of the press announcement, our team will be tracking the publicity across news media, blogs and social networks, in order to report back to the author(s), and reshare any prominent media content.

Request our Tailored PR campaign service by selecting it while completing your submission form and you will be contacted once your manuscript is accepted for publication. Alternatively, contact our PR team  (dissemination@pensoft.net), preferably upon the acceptance of your manuscript.

* The Tailored PR campaign is an additional service charged extra. However, we would consider discounts and even full waivers for studies of particular interest for the society.

** Please note that our PR team reserves the right to edit your press release at their discretion. No press announcements will be issued until we receive the author’s final approval to do so. The service is only available for studies published within the past 3 months.


Guest Blog Post

(Free service)

Authors are strongly encouraged to promote their work and its impact on society to the audience beyond their immediate public of fellow scientists by means of storytelling in plain language. Ideally, such guest blog posts will be:

  • Written from the author’s own point of view, using conversational tone;
  • Written in fluent English;
  • Presenting some curious background information, in order to place the discovery in context;
  • Including attractive non-copyright imagery.

Request our Guest blog post service by contacting the PR department (dissemination@pensoft.net), regardless of the status of your submission, as there are no time constraints for guest blog post publication. Particularly encouraged are follow-up contributions telling the story of, for example, a research paper that has led to an important policy to be set in place; or an article that has met remarkable attention or reactions in the public sphere.

Following the necessary final touches to the guest blog post by the PR team, the contribution will be:

  • Posted on ARPHA’s or Pensoft’s blog
  • Shared on social media via multiple and relevant ARPHA-managed accounts

Please note that the PR team reserves the right to refuse publication of a guest blog post on the occasion that it is provided in poor English, uses considerable amount of jargon or does not abide by basic ethical standards. Our PR team reserves the right to request changes to the text related to formatting or language. No blog posts will be issued until we receive the author’s final approval to do so.

Find past guest blog posts on Pensoft’s blog here


Journal Info

 

Journal Name Journal of Biomedical and Clinical Research
Journal URL https://jbcr.arphahub.com/
ISSN (online) 1313-9053
ISSN (print) 1313-6917
Content Provider ARPHA
Publisher Medical University - Pleven
Journal Owner Medical University - Pleven
Owner URL http://jbcr.mu-pleven.bg/
Start Year 2008
Review Type double-blind
Publication Frequency continuous
APC No publication charges under the conditions listed here
License Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)

 


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