About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal is covering research on neurosurgery, including neuroradiology, otoneurology, clinical neurophysiology, organic neurology, neuroimmunology, neurochemistry, and neuropathology; publishes issues of public health organization in the field of neurosurgery; informs on the activities of the Ukrainian Association of Neurosurgeons.

Peer Review Process

1. Papers, received by the Editorial Board and corresponding to the Journal subject, designed in accordance with the requirements to publications in UNJ, undergo peer reviewing.

2. We review just previously unpublished manuscripts.

3. The Editor-in-Chief checks to ensure the paper corresponds to the Journal subject and sends it for reviewing to an expert (PhD or MD) in a field the article is devoted to.

4. We provide double-blind paper reviewing: the Editorial Board sends materials to reviewer and authors without names mentioned.

5. The reviewing is confidential. The reviewer is informed that manuscripts are the authors’ property and contain information not to be disclosed. The privacy compromise is only possible at identifying plagiarism or materials falsification, in all other cases keeping confidential is necessary.

6. If there are comments to the article, it is sent to the author with a proposal to consider the recommendations at preparing new version or convincingly refute them. The redrafting article is rechecked by the Editorial Board or sent for expert for re-reviewing (depending on expert’s opinion).

7. If the reviewer didn’t recommend to publish the paper, the Editor-in-Chief can send it to another reviewer.

8. If there are contradictory reviews on the paper, it may be sent for additional reviewing or the Editorial Board decides whether to print the article.

9. If there two negative reviews, the Editor-in-Chief can reject the paper.

10. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision whether to publish the article.

11. Editorial Board corresponds with the reviewers by e-mail.

Publication Frequency

Open Access Policy

Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal practices a policy of immediate open access to published content, supporting the principles of the free distribution of scientific information and global knowledge sharing for the common social progress.

The users have an opportunity to read, upload, copy, and distribute the content for educational and scientific purposes with mandatory indication of the authorship.

Publishing Ethics

The Editorial Board activities depend mainly on recommendations of the Committee of Publication Ethics (http://publicationethics.org) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http://www.icmje.org).

Ethics is an important condition for effective Journal participation in the development of a holistic system of knowledge in a field of neurosurgery and related specialties. The Editorial Board is doing the best to prevent any violations of these rules, as our primary goal is to provide readers with high quality publications.

Duties of Editors

• An editor should give unbiased consideration to articles offered for publication due to their scientific value and accuracy of the data presented.
• The editor judges the contents of articles each on its merits without regard to race, nationality, sex, political convictions of the author(s).
• A manuscript of an article and unpublished data of this manuscript submitted for consideration should not be disclosed unless the author`s permission is obtained.
• The editor should reject a manuscript in case of grounded and proved with evidence suspicion of plagiarism.
• The editor should reconcile all problems that may appear while giving consideration and publishing articles and in case of disputed situation ensure the prevention of violation of the intellectual property rules.

Duties of Reviewers

• The reviewer should respect the intellectual independence of the authors, and should treat a manuscript sent for review as a confidential document. It should neither be shown to nor discussed with others except without those authorized by the editor.
• The reviewer should provide unbiased scientific evaluation for the results of the research presented in a manuscript submitted for consideration; in no case is personal criticism appropriate.
• A chosen reviewer who feels inadequately qualified to judge the research reported in a manuscript or cannot be unbiased, particularly in a case of conflict of interests with an author, and should return it promptly to the editor advising the editor of excluding him from reviewing the manuscript.

Duties of Authors

• An author's central obligation is to present concise and accurate data and account of the research, work, or project completed (not operating erroneous or simulated data).
• An author should guarantee that the presented results of the research are totally original. The author should provide in-text references to data, facts and information sources used for the research. The citation should meet the requirements of the Journal. An author is obliged to provide an outlook of contribution of other scholars to studying the highlighted scientific problem and provide respective references.
• If the object of the study were people or animals, the author must ensure that the manuscript stated that the experiment complies with legislation and ethical standards, and is approved by the relevant committees of scientific institutions.
• The author cannot submit manuscripts that are sent to other journals or are under editorial consideration for other publications or are already published.

Fees

No fees or charges are required for manuscript processing and article publishing in the journal.

Conflict of interest

What is a conflict of interest?

A potential conflict of interests exists when an author, peer reviewers or an editor has any relationship that could influence their credibility or undermine his actions. These relationship is also known as double liability, competing interests or competing loyalty.

A conflict of interest militates to perform full and credible research and present its results, expert review and make a decision of publish a manuscript.

A conflict of interest exists when professional judgement concerning primary interest (such as patients' welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.

A conflict of interest could be financial or non-financial, professional or personal. A conflict of interest may occur concerning the affiliation to establishment or organization or another person.

Types of conflicts of interest

The most common form of conflict of interest is financial relationship — employment relationship, consultancies, stock ownership, grants, fees, license and paid expert testimony. The example may include a researcher getting royalty from a company which product he is investigating.

The conflicts may arise for other reasons and include personal or private relationships or rivalries, academic competition or differences in ideologies. The example may include a researcher investigating a product of a company in which his relative or an author and peer reviewer are working and are in interpersonal conflict.

Declaration of any potential conflict of interest is compulsory requirement and an integral part of transparency of investigation.

Who must declare a conflict of interest?

All participants of publication process — authors, peer reviewers, editors — must disclose all relationships that can be viewed as a potential conflict of interest.

Authors

When submitting a manuscript, the authors are responsible for disclosing all competing interests that are likely to appear to interfere their work (financial or private relationships with organizations, commercial companies, producers and distributors of medications, medical and laboratory facilities relevant to the article. All authors must disclose potential conflicts of interest that could be considered to bias the results or conclusions represented in the article.

The author must include the information on a conflict of interest at the end of the manuscript (prior the references) in the section ‘Information disclosure statement’ under the heading ‘Conflict of interest statement’. If any author has no a conflict of interest, you should state: ‘The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.

Peer reviewers

Peer reviewers must inform the editor of the journal about any conflict of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript and should recuse themselves from reviewing the manuscript if potential bias exists (financial or private interactions with an author of a manuscript and/or organization, commercial companies, producers or distributors of medications, medical or laboratory facilities relative to the article).

If any conflict of interest is disclosed when submitting a manuscript, a peer reviewer should recuse himself from critiquing and send a letter to the editorial board with the following text: ‘Objective peer review is impossible due to a conflict of interest’ and state the content of conflict.

If no conflict of interest, after a manuscript has been reviewed a peer reviewer should state at the end of a review: ‘Peer reviewer declares no conflict of interest’.

Editors and journal staff

The editors should declare their own competing interests (financial or personal relationships with an author and/or organizations, commercial companies, producers and distributors of medications, medical and laboratory facilities related to the article) and, if any reasons for biased decision, recuse themselves from participating in estimating a manuscript. The journal staff should not use the information gained through working with the manuscript for private gain and disclose confidential information to the third persons.

Conflict of interest is not non-ethic, but all conflicts of interest existing should be disclosed.

If suspicion on undisclosed conflict of interest, the editorial board is governed by the COPE algorithm

The reviewer suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript http://publicationethics.org/files/COI%20submitted.pdf

A reader suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article http://publicationethics.org/files/COI%20published.pdf

The journal may use the information about the disclosure of conflict of interest as a factor influencing the decision of the editorial board. The information about conflict of interest is placed at the end of an article (prior the references) in the section ‘Information disclosure statement’ under the heading ‘Conflict of interest statement’.

Disclosure of Funding Sources

The authors should provide with the third-party financing of research work (grants, pensions, donations, medical entities supplying equipment, medications and/or other support contributing to research or writhing an article). It is important to describe in details the role of sponsors in study design; collection, analyzing and interpretation of the data; decision of results publication; preparing and correction of the article. If a sponsor did not participate, the authors should state it. If a research had no any funding, the article should include: ‘The research had no sponsor support’. Information about funding should be placed at the end of a manuscript (prior references) in the section ‘Information disclosure statement’ under the heading ‘Funding’.

Research ethics policy

Our policy is to ensure that the research described in the published articles meets moral and ethical principles and standards. To achieve this, we try to evaluate the ethical aspects of any submitted work in which humans or animals are involved.

All procedures describing experiments involving humans and animals should be carried out under the bioethics standards declared in the relevant laws:

• World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki

• European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes

• Article 26 "Rules of treatment of animals used in scientific experiments, testing, educational process, production of biological preparations" of the Law of Ukraine "On protection of animals from cruel treatment" and others.

The authors should conduct research in a way that ensures adequate steps have been taken to minimize harm to participants, to avoid coercion or exploitation, to protect the confidentiality, and to minimize the risk of physical and psychological harm.

The manuscript should clearly state that informed consent has been obtained from all people who have been the subject of research.

Research involving animals should be conducted taking into account the 3Rs principles:
"The 3Rs are a widely accepted ethical framework for conducting scientific experiments using animals humanely: Replacement — use of non-animal methods; Reduction — methods which reduce the number of animals used; Refinement — methods which improve animal welfare”.

Experimental studies carried out on humans or animals must necessarily be approved by the Ethics Committee (Commission) of the scientific institution on the basis of which the study was conducted. The note about it and no. of the minutes of the meeting should be specified in the manuscript. Legal and ethical approval must be obtained prior to the study.

The experimental procedure should be carefully described in the section "Materials and methods".

In case of impossibility of full observance of the specified norms, the author should justify the change of the Protocol, approve it by the local Committee on Bioethics and note the corresponding changes in the section "Materials and methods".

Informed Consent Policy

Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal to apply informed consent under research ethics, based on Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects and Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

Informed Consent in Patients and Study Participants
(Based on Recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived either with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws.

Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.

When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

Informed Consent
(Based on Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects)

• Participation by individuals capable of giving informed consent as subjects in medical research must be voluntary. Although it may be appropriate to consult family members or community leaders, no individual capable of giving informed consent may be enrolled in a research study unless he or she freely agrees.
• In medical research involving human subjects capable of giving informed consent, each potential subject must be adequately informed of the aims, methods, sources of funding, any possible conflicts of interest, institutional affiliations of the researcher, the anticipated benefits and potential risks of the study and the discomfort it may entail, post-study provisions and any other relevant aspects of the study. The potential subject must be informed of the right to refuse to participate in the study or to withdraw consent to participate at any time without reprisal. Special attention should be given to the specific information needs of individual potential subjects as well as to the methods used to deliver the information.
• After ensuring that the potential subject has understood the information, the physician or another appropriately qualified individual must then seek the potential subject’s freely-given informed consent, preferably in writing. If the consent cannot be expressed in writing, the non-written consent must be formally documented and witnessed.
• All medical research subjects should be given the option of being informed about the general outcome and results of the study.
• When seeking informed consent for participation in a research study the physician must be particularly cautious if the potential subject is in a dependent relationship with the physician or may consent under duress. In such situations the informed consent must be sought by an appropriately qualified individual who is completely independent of this relationship.
• For a potential research subject who is incapable of giving informed consent, the physician must seek informed consent from the legally authorized representative. These individuals must not be included in a research study that has no likelihood of benefit for them unless it is intended to promote the health of the group represented by the potential subject, the research cannot instead be performed with persons capable of providing informed consent, and the research entails only minimal risk and minimal burden.
• When a potential research subject who is deemed incapable of giving informed consent is able to give assent to decisions about participation in research, the physician must seek that assent in addition to the consent of the legally authorized representative. The potential subject’s dissent should be respected.
• Research involving subjects who are physically or mentally incapable of giving consent, for example, unconscious patients, may be done only if the physical or mental condition that prevents giving informed consent is a necessary characteristic of the research group. In such circumstances the physician must seek informed consent from the legally authorized representative. If no such representative is available and if the research cannot be delayed, the study may proceed without informed consent provided that the specific reasons for involving subjects with a condition that renders them unable to give informed consent have been stated in the research protocol and the study has been approved by a research ethics committee. Consent to remain in the research must be obtained as soon as possible from the subject or a legally authorized representative.
• The physician must fully inform the patient which aspects of their care are related to the research. The refusal of a patient to participate in a study or the patient’s decision to withdraw from the study must never adversely affect the patient-physician relationship.
• For medical research using identifiable human material or data, such as research on material or data contained in biobanks or similar repositories, physicians must seek informed consent for its collection, storage and/or reuse. There may be exceptional situations where consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain for such research. In such situations the research may be done only after consideration and approval of a research ethics committee.

The process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern

Our correct errors policy is to consider refutations (readers’ criticisms) of primary research papers, and to publish them if and only if the author provides compelling evidence that a major claim of the original paper was incorrect. Refutations are peer-reviewed, and where possible they are sent to the same referees who reviewed the original paper. A copy is usually also sent to the corresponding author of the original paper for signed comments.

Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal operates the following policy for making corrections to the print and online versions of peer-reviewed content.

Publishable amendments that affect the publication record and/or the scientific accuracy of published information are published in print and online in the journal. Four categories of amendments are relevant for peer-reviewed material:

Erratum or Publisher Correction. Notification of an important error made by the journal that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or of the journal.

Corrigendum or Author Correction. Notification of an important error made by the author(s) that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.

Retraction. Notification of invalid results that affect the reliability of a previously published article. The original article is marked as retracted but remains available to readers, and the retraction statement notifying readers of the invalidity of the published paper is bi-directionally linked to the original published paper.

Addendum. Notification of additional information about a paper. Addenda are published when the editors decide that the addendum is crucial to the reader’s understanding of a significant part of the published contribution. Addenda include Editorial Expression of Concern, which is an editorial statement alerting our readership to serious concerns with the published paper.

Readers who have identified an error should send an email to the general email address of the journal, clearly stating the publication reference, title, author and section of the article, briefly explaining the error.

Refutations are typically published in the Communications section (which is both online and printed) sometimes with a brief response from the original authors.

Advertising policy

The Ukrainian Association of Neurosurgeons receives advertising support for its print and online editions according to the following principles:

• Advertising is separate from content. Advertisers and sponsors have no advance knowledge of our editorial content, nor do the editors have advance knowledge of advertisers. Content is never altered, added, or deleted to accommodate advertising.

• Advertisers and sponsors have no input regarding any of our editorial decisions or advertising policies. The advertising sales representatives have neither control over, nor prior knowledge of, specific editorial content before it is published.

• Editorial board reserves the right to decline or cancel any advertisement at any time.

• The advertiser to adhere to relevant legal requirements for medical devices and drugs, as well as the regulations of their advertising and promotion.

• The responsibility for the content of promotional materials is borne by the advertiser

• The Ukrainian Association of Neurosurgeons does not endorse any company, product, or service appearing in its advertising.

• Editorial board does not accept for consideration and does not publish promotional articles.

Privacy Statement

A submitted manuscript is a confidential material. Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal will not disclose submitted manuscript to anyone except individuals who partake in the processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted). These individuals include editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential reviewers, actual reviewers, and editors. However, in suspected cases of misconduct, a manuscript may be revealed to third parties that may require it for the resolution of the misconduct. Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal shall follow the appropriate COPE flowcharts wherever necessary.

Contacts

Ukrainian Neurosurgical Journal

32 Platona Mayborody Str

Kyiv, 04050, Ukraine

tel. +380 44 483-91-98

e-mail: unj.office@gmail.com

www: http://theunj.org

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