Submissions

Author Guidelines

Please send your articles to sspmpm@ssp.ee.

Main publication language is English. Articles in Estonian, Ukrainian, Polish, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Georgian and Turkmen are also accepted with English abstract, and references.

We think that it is supreme to include appropriate authors in an article to acknowledge those who were greatly involved into the study. It ensures transparency for these who was/were responsible for the integrity of the content.

1. Made a remarkable contribution to the research, regardless if it was an idea, design, accomplishment, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation, or in several or all of these areas.
2. Writing activities, such as draft or write, or revision of the article.
3. Agreement with co-authors concerning the journal to which the article will be submitted.
4. Participation in editing and proofreading before sending, making adjustments if necessary and at the time of consent for publication
5. Shared solidarity with other authors for the content of the article.

 Authors declaration and warranties

By submitting any research article for purposes of publication by Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ the authors must certify and warrant that:

The submitting author has been authorized by all co-authors to submit the research article; and

1. They are the sole author(s) of the article and are legally able and entitled to submit the article and authorize Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ to publish the research article.
2. The research article is original, has not already been published in any other journal (medical, or otherwise) or is not currently under consideration for publication by another journal, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other rights prescribed by law.
3. The article contains nothing that iфкуunlawful, defamatory, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidentiality.
4. Due care, diligence and all other requisite investigations were carried out in the preparation of the research article(s) to ensure its accuracy. To the best of their knowledge all statements contained in it purporting to be factual are true and correct.

Corresponding or contact author

Prior to submission, the authorship list and order must be agreed between all listed authors, and they must also agree on who will take on the role of corresponding or contact author. It is the responsibility of the corresponding or contact author to reach consensus with all co-authors regarding all aspects of the article including the authorship order and to ensure all correct affiliations have been listed. The corresponding or contact author is also responsible for liaising with co-authors regarding any editorial queries, and to act on behalf of all co-authors in any communication about the article through submission, peer review, production, and after publication. The corresponding or contact author is also responsible for signing the publishing agreement on behalf of all the listed authors.

Changes in authorship

Any changes in authorship prior to or after publication must be agreed upon by all authors, including those being added or removed. It is the responsibility of the corresponding or contact author to obtain confirmation from all co-authors and to provide evidence of this to the editorial office with a full explanation about why the change was necessary. If a change in authorship is necessary after publication of the article, this will be amended via a post-publication notice. Any changes in authorship must comply with our criteria for authorship.

Acknowledgments

Any individuals who have contributed to the article (e.g. general supervision, acquisition of funding, study design, data collection, data analysis, technical assistance, formatting-related writing assistance, scholarly discussions which significantly contributed to developing the article, etc.), but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed by name and affiliation in an “Acknowledgments” section. It is the responsibility of the authors to notify and obtain permission from those they wish to identify in this section. The process of obtaining permission should include sharing the article, so that those being identified can verify the context in which their contribution is being acknowledged.

Affiliations

Authors must list all relevant affiliations to attribute where the research was approved and/or supported and/or conducted. For non-research articles, authors must list their current institutional affiliation. In cases where an author has moved to a different institution before the article has been published, they should list the affiliation where the work was conducted, and the current affiliation and contact details should be listed in the acknowledgment section. Change of affiliation alone is not a valid reason to remove an author from a publication if he or she meets the authorship criteria.

Peer review procedure

A corresponding author submits an article to above-mentioned email address. At this stage, authors can suggest appropriate reviewers for their article and include their names and email addresses to the comments section.

After being submitted, an article is being checked by Managing Editor for its structure, spelling and compliance with submission guidelines. If an article doesn't meet above criteria, it's rejected.

On the next stage, an article is passed to Editor-in-Chief, who examines an article to be in accordance with the scope of the Journal, potential interest for readers, importance and relevance for scientists. After this, Editor-in-Chief sends article either to appropriate Section Editor, or passes an article directly to two, at least, peer reviewers with specialty closest to the scope of an article. If needed, external reviewers are invited. Specialists from the same institution where study was performed are not accepted. The invited reviewers should accept terms and conditions in order to exclude conflict of interests, confirm their competence, concerning the scope of the manuscript and specify definite terms of reviewing. Then they decide to accept or decline the invitation. In case of declining, they can recommend alternative reviewers.

In accordance with COPE recommendations on ethical editing for Editors, Editors will assign any submissions they cannot handle (e.g. if they are the author of an article submitted to their own journal) to a member of the Editorial Board or a guest editor.

After reviewing, the Editor-in-Chief (or Section Editor) examines reviewers reports and, if needed, can invite an additional reviewer to get an additional opinion. At this stages, corresponding author can be asked to make revisions to an article using online submission system. Articles can be re-sent to reviewers after revision.

At the final stage, Editor-in-Chief takes the final decision concerning the publication of an article. The authors are informed about the results of reviewing.

In case of manuscript acceptance, the publication process starts. If rejected, the manuscript is sent to corresponding author.

This whole process usually takes 2 to 3 weeks.

Confidentiality of peer review

It is a requirement to maintain confidentiality and integrity of the peer review and editorial decision-making process at all stages, while complying with data protection regulations (including GDPR). The invited reviewer must declare any competing interest before submitting their report to the journal. If they wish to involve a colleague as a co-reviewer for an article, they should ask the journal’s editorial office before sharing the manuscript and include their names, affiliation and any relevant competing interests in the comments for Editors when they return their report.

All peer reviewers should consider the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers before accepting to review a manuscript and throughout the peer review process.

In the process of investigating an ethical query, the submitted manuscript, author, reviewer and any other person (including whistleblowers) involved will be treated in confidence. During an investigation it may be necessary for the Editor to share information with third parties, such as the ethics committee and/or the authors’ institution.

Plagiarism

All journals, published my Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ use a service provided by Crossref and powered by iThenticate — Similarity Check, provides editors with a user-friendly tool to help detect plagiarism. All sumbitted articles checked for plagiarism using this tools. We kindly ask authors to follow COPE's Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. All manuscripts with more than 30% of similarity automatically rejected.  

Structure

Title page

• First name/given name(s) and last name/family name of authors.
• Author affiliations: department, institution, city, state, country.
• ORCID number(s) for all authors whenever available.

Abstract
The abstract should be no more than 300 words. Do not use abbreviations in the title or the abstract. 
Keywords
3–6 keywords
Corresponding author
Name, address, phone, email
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results and discussion
Conclusions
References (should be in APA style, only Latin alphabet, including DOI)

Tables

Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table even if presented separately from the text. Ensure that each table is cited within the text of the manuscript.

Consent for publication
Consent to publish statements must confirm that the details of any images, videos, recordings, etc. can be published, and that the person(s) providing consent have been shown the article contents to be published. Authors must be prepared to provide copies of signed consent forms to the journal editorial office if requested.

Data availability (where applicable)
Please include a statement about where data supporting the results reported in the manuscript can be found and about data sharing including, where applicable, links to the publicly archived datasets. The statement of data availability should explain which additional unpublished data from the study, if any, are available, to whom, and how these can be obtained. In cases where authors do not wish to share their data or are unable to do so, they should state that data will not be shared and the reasons why. Please refer to our editorial policies for further information.

Funding
Please declare all the sources of funding including financial support. Please describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in any of the stages from study design to submission of the paper for publication. Please state if the sponsor(s) had no such involvement.

Competing interests
Your relationship with other people or organizations may influence the way you interpret data or present the information in your study. This is known as a competing interest and all authors of a paper submitted to any Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ journal are required to complete a declaration of competing interests. This includes all financial or non-financial competing interests which can include employment with the study sponsor, stock holdings or options, patents, royalties, personal fees, holding a board position, or any political, religious, or academic interest relevant to the published content. All competing interests will be listed in the declarations at the end of the article.

Please consider the following when completing your competing interest declaration:

• Financial competing interests

In the past three years have you received any funding from an organization that may have a financial interest in the manuscript? If so, please specify.

Do you hold any stock holdings or options in an organization that may have financial interest in the publication of this manuscript? If so, please specify.

Does the content of the manuscript relate to any patents you hold or are you currently applying for? If so, please specify.

Have you received any funding or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript? If so, please specify.

Do you have any other financial competing interests? If so, please specify.

• Non-financial competing interests

Have you received any drugs or equipment from an entity that might benefit or be at an advantage financially or reputationally from the published findings? If so, please specify.

Have you held a position on an industry board or private company that might benefit or be at an advantage financially or reputationally from the published findings? If so, please specify.

Do you have any personal, political, religious, ideological, academic and intellectual competing interests which are perceived to be relevant to the published content? If so, please specify.

If you are unsure whether you, or one your co-authors, has a competing interest please discuss this with the editor.

Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ subscribes to the general intent of the principles adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on the control of data in publications arising from sponsored research. The author submitting a manuscript for a paper for any study funded by an organization with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome shall have access to all the data in that study, and to have complete responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the data, and the decision to publish.

Article Processing Charges

All manuscripts submitted to Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ are assumed to be submitted under the Open Access publishing model. In this publishing model, papers are peer-reviewed in the normal way under editorial control. When a paper is accepted for publication the author is issued with an invoice for payment of an article publishing charge. There is no submission charge as such, only the article publishing charge after the paper is accepted for publication. Payment of this charge allows us to recover our editorial and production costs and create a pool of funds that can be used to provide fee waivers for authors from lesser developed countries.

Published papers appear electronically and are freely available from our website. Authors may also use their published .pdf's for any non-commercial use on their personal or non-commercial institution's website.

Upon acceptance for publication a publishing charge will be payable. Owing to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates fees may occasionally be subject to change without notice.

Article processing charge is 100€ for domestic authors and 200€ for foreign authors. Special issues and dedicated releases are subject to individual offers. Contact editorial team.

Please note: Parts of this section are reprinted or adapted from the ICMJE Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors. Shapovalov Scientific Publishing OÜ prepared this reprint. The ICMJE has not endorsed nor approved the contents of this reprint. The official version of the Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors is located at the ICMJE website. Users should cite this official version when citing the document.

Rules for rejection of the published articles

The editorial board considers retraction of a publication as a mechanism for preventing the negative consequences of publishing an article containing accidental or deliberate errors, falsification of data, biased reflection of authorship, and the presence of a conflict of interest identified after publication. The protocol for the implementation of procedures related to the retraction of publications includes the following possible actions:

– assessment of the possibility of making corrections to the content of the published article without direct retraction;

– initiation of an investigation into the fact, the manifestation of which could potentially lead to a retraction procedure, for validity and possibility retraction of a publication;

– deletion of an article from electronic resources of the journal and indexing resources;

– generation of a notice of retraction of a publication.

Evaluating the possibility of making corrections to the content of a published article without direct retraction. It is carried out in cases where a precedent arises in the format of a revealed fact or an external signal about a conflict of interests of authors, a bias in the list of authors, or an identified minor error in a published article that does not entail negative consequences in the context of the overall significance, applicability and effectiveness of the published results.

Initiating an investigation into a fact, the manifestation of which could potentially lead to a retraction procedure, regarding the validity and possibility of publication retraction. It is carried out in any of the following cases when the editorial board receives evidence that there is plagiarism in the published articles, there is a conflict of interest, falsification of data or manipulation, violation of publication ethics, if the published results are erroneous and their use may entail negative consequences varying degrees of severity.

Removing an article from electronic resources of the journal and indexing resources. It is carried out in the event that the result of an investigation for the validity and possibility of retraction of the publication is the following:

– the application of the results of the article can cause negative consequences of varying severity;

– the published article violates the legal rights of other persons;

– the published article is defamatory in its essence;

– the published article the article, its individual parts, the consequences of using the results set forth in the article may become the object of legal proceedings;

– the article contains information that may inadmissibly disclose personal data, without the personal consent of the relevant person, expressed by the adopted documents, protocols, etc., including identifying a specific person based on published photographs.

Formation of a notice about the retraction of the publication 

The notification is generated for indexing resources and contains all the necessary information to identify the article, in particular: the title of the article and its authors or a link to the revoked article. In addition, the notification contains information about the reason for the retraction and the initiator of the retraction, possibly also the evidence base regarding the reason for the retraction. The notice may include a request to post the relevant information about the retraction as soon as possible and necessarily in the public domain. It is also possible to comment on whether the publication is a rebuttal. The notice will not become available until there is conclusive evidence as to the validity of the retraction. All reviews are pre-agreed with the institutions with which the authors of the article being investigated are affiliated, in accordance with the COPE guidelines for collaboration between research institutions and journals on research integrity cases.

Updated September 26, 2024