Ethical Standards and Procedures

Aim and scope

The quarterly "Medical Studies/Studia Medyczne" aims to publish original works, based on evidence resulting from research and review works of interest to clinicians and researchers in the field of medical and health sciences, in the disciplines of: medical biology, pharmaceutical sciences, medical sciences , physical culture and health sciences and related areas: health psychology, ethics, law, history of medicine.

All original papers must fulfil the requirements of the Helsinki Declaration from 1989. In justified cases in formation must be attached about the consent of the Bioethical Commission concerning the investigation, or relevant information should be sent. In the original papers it is forbidden to provide personal data, unless the patient consciously gives his or her consent, e.g. for the publication of photos.

Preparation of the manuscript (typescript)

The typescript of the paper should be prepared in A4 format. The text written in 12 pt font, with preservation of the following margin space: 2 cm for top and bottom, 3 cm for the left one, and 4 cm for the right one. There should be about 30 rows on the page of the print, each row containing about 60 characters, including spaces between rows (line spacing) – at least 24 pt.

Title page

• The title of the paper (in Polish and English).

• Given name (names) and surname(s) of the author(s).

• The institution(s), from which the paper originated.

Summary (in Polish and English) is to have, for original papers, from 200 to 250 words in the following layout: aim of the research, material and methods, results and conclusions, for review, up to 200 words without division into sections;

Key words. 3–5 index terms or key words (in Polish and English) describing the subject of the paper (if possible, according to the Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)).

The text of the paper. Depending on the type, the paper should be divided into the following:

– original paper – preface (introduction to the subject, description of the problem and assumptions), the aim(s) of the research, material and methods (a description of the scientific research project and the location), results (if possible, they can be partly presented in a table layout), discussion (against the background of current literature), and conclusions (they should not be a repetition of the results of the research);

– review paper – preface, development of the subject matter (issue), conclusions, references.

The volume of the original work should not exceed 12 standard typescript pages / 22,000 characters and the review work - 16 pages / 28,000 characters, including references.

Abbreviations used in the text should always be explained the very first time a term appears; abbreviations should not be used in the title of the paper. Statistical terminology, abbreviations and symbols should be clearly defined.

International names of medicine should be used regardless of the subject at hand in the text.

Laboratory research results and appropriate standards and standard deviations should be expressed in units adopted by the International System of Units (SI).

Tables should be prepared in A4 format. All abbreviations used need to be explained underneath a table.

Tables should be numbered using Arabic numerals.

Figures should be produced using computer techniques, in Microsoft Excel or Word software, in a black and white version. All abbreviations used require, each time, an explanation underneath a figure. Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals.

Pictures (in a resolution usable for print: 300 dpi) should form separate sets – the recommended formats are: *tif, *jpg.

Acknowledgments. These regard people or institutions who have contributed to the paper’s creation, including financial sources owing to which the paper came into existence. The people mentioned in the acknowledgements must give consent to the disclosure of their names. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain such a consent.

References should be placed at the end of the work - written in the same font as the text. The arrangement of references must comply with the Vancouver standard (author-number) in the order of citations in the work.

Please include the surname, first letters of names, title of the work, abbreviation of the journal title without dots (in accordance with the current list of journals indexed in Index Medicus NLM, available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog?Db=journals&Cmd =DetailsSearch&Term=currentlyindexed%5BAll%5D),year, volume and start and end pages.

All authors of the work are required.

Original and review works should include up to 40 items.

Each publication should be placed on a new line and the item number should be given in square brackets.

Examples of correct reference writing, in accordance with the Vancouver/ICMJE convention used by MEDLINE: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

 Article:

Vant RM, Vrijland WW, Lange JF, Hop WC, Jeekel J, Bonjer HJ. Mesh repair of incisional hernia: comparison of laparoscopic and open repair. Eur J Surg. 2002;168:684-689.

Book:

Hawking S.W. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam Books; 1988.

Chapter in the book:

Bron J.D. Early events in the infection of the arthopod gut by pathogenic insect viruses. In: Maramorosch K, Shope RE, editors. Invertebrate Immunity. New York, San Francisco, London: Academic Press; 1976. p. 80-111.

Orkiszewska A. Studies in surgical patients. In: Rowiński W, Dziak A, eds. Surgery for nurses. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Lekarskie PZWL: 1999; 4: pp. 48-72.

Links to online publications are permitted only in the absence of adequate data in published literature.

Clinical trials

Medical Studies is published in accordance with ICMJE policies and recommendations. The ICMJE requires - and recommends that all medical journal editors require - registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for article publication.

The ICMJE defines a clinical trial as any research project that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to study the relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions are those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-care changes. Health outcomes are any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events.

The ICMJE accepts publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) that includes the minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration data set or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP.

In accordance with the ICMJE recommendations, the Editors of Medical Studies require authors to provide all necessary information regarding the registered study when submitting the article for publication: name of the register, Main ID, Public Title, Date of Registration. The data provided by the author are verified by the editors.

More information on this can be found here www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

Source: ICMJE, Clinical Trials, www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html

Correspondence address. The author’s address, telephone number, fax and email must be included at the end of the paper.

Statement. A statement should be attached to the paper that it was not published before and that it was not submitted for print to any other journal, and that the author gives consent to publish the paper on-line.

All the authors are equally charged with legal and substantive responsibility for any incorrectness connected with preparation of the paper.

Editorial revision
All papers are reviewed in accordance with modern requirements of assessment of such types of works. Papers are assessed anonymously by reviewers, and the author receives a notification from the editorial department about the acceptance or rejection of the paper. The author may provide names of people who (in their opinion) should not review the article. Text correction is performed by the first author or one of the co-authors. The Editorial Department returns papers not qualified for print on demand only.

Research and review submissions from the Editor-in-Chief and other journal staff members are processed by the Associate Editors who declare no conflicts of interest in the journal's online submission system. The Editor-in-Chief does not have access to their own submissions and cannot influence the selection of peer reviewers.

Reviewer comments are drafted by experts in a given thematic field on the basis of double-blind peer review, which means that the reviewer and author identities are masked. Submitted manuscripts are evaluated by at least two external reviewers. The Editor-in-Chief selects reviewers based on the submission topic and experts’ academic credentials (based on their academic achievements and review experience).

The rules for reviewing papers comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (https://www.gov.pl/web/science/ministry1). Additional guidance on peer review is available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7944958/.

• The publisher acquires exclusive copyrights to the printed papers, including the rights to publish in print, on electronic and other carriers and on the Internet.

Publication charges
Detailed information is available here "Article Processing Charge (APC)"

Authors Statement:

Authors Statement - Medical Studies-1.pdf