Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

International peer-reviewed scientific and practical journal “Problems of Virology” (Russian title “Voprosy virusologii”, ISSN (Print) 0507-4088, ISSN (Online) 2411-2097) acquaints readers with the achievements of Russian and international virology, publishes articles on the study of viruses and viral diseases of humans, animals and plants. A prominent place in the journal is given to the publication of the results of experimental studies on various fields in fundamental and applied virology.

The journal publishes materials that contribute to the implementation in practice of the achievements of virological science in eliminating and reducing the prevalence of infectious diseases, as well as its diagnosis, prevention and treatment.

The review articles summarize the latest advances in virology. In order to attract the attention of virologists to the most actual issues requiring further study, the journal publishes editorial notes and book reviews. The reader will find in the journal a description of new research methods, new equipment, diagnostic and treatment tools.

The journal is intended for virologists (medical and veterinary), epidemiologists, parasitologists, pharmacologists, biochemists and other specialists.

 

Sections

REVIEWS

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

TO VIROLOGIST’S AID

ANNIVERSARY DATES

OBITUARY

BOOK REVIEW

DISCUSSION

INFORMATION

EDITORIAL CONCEPT

SHORT COMMUNICATION

 

Peer Review Process

The journal operates a double blind review process. All manuscripts are typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert for peer-reviewer. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. 

The Journal "Problems of Virology" editorial team, in accordance with the Requirements for peer-reviewed scientific publications for inclusion in the List of peer-reviewed scientific publications, in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the degree of candidate of science, for the degree of doctor of science can be published, approved by order the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of December 12, 2016 N 1586:

  • carries out a peer-review of all scientific manuscripts submitted to the editorial office that correspond to the scope of the journal, for the purpose of its expert evaluation (all reviewers are recognized experts on the subject of peer-reviewed materials and have publications on the subject of a peer-reviewed article over the past 3 years).
  • keeps peer-reviews at the publisher’s office and at the editorial office for 5 years.
  • sends copies of peer-reviews for authors.
  • sends copies of reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon receipt of the corresponding request.

All scientific articles submitted to the journal "Problems of Virology" are peer-reviewed in accordance with the approved procedure:

1. Formal evaluation: the editorial establishes the suitability of the article to the journal’s aims and scope, typography and originality requirements (manuscripts are checked in the Anti-Plagiarism system) and sends it to the Editor-in-Chief, his deputy, executive secretary of the journal or scientific editor, who determines the scientific value of the manuscript and appoints peer-reviewers. If the result of the evaluation reveals the discrepancy of the manuscript to the requirements of the Editorial Board on typography, plagiarism, scientific significance and quality of the research, the article may be rejected on formal reasons.

2. All scientific articles that have successfully passed the formal evaluation undergo the mandatory double anonymous (“blind”) peer-review (manuscript authors do not know reviewers, reviewers do not know authors).

3. Manuscripts are reviewed by members of the editorial board and the editorial council of the journal, as well as external peer-reviewers from among the leading experts, working in scientific fields relevant to the subject of the manuscript, and having publications over the past 3 years on the subject of the peer-reviewed manuscript. The peer-review of manuscripts of the Editor-in-Chief is carried out by external reviewers only.

4. We ask reviewers to compleate peer-review within 1 to 2 weeks, but this time can be extended upon the request of the reviewer. Authors should know, that manuscripts can go through several rounds of peer-review and revisions. Thus, the entire process of manuscript evaluation may take longer. 

5. The Editorial Board of the journal sends copies of peer-reviews or a reasoned refusal to authors of the manuscript, and also undertakes to send copies of the reviews to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation upon receipt of a corresponding request to the journal’s editorial office.

6. In order to get the most complete and objective peer-review of the manuscript, the editors developed a Memo for the reviewer to list the issues the reviewer should evaluate during the peer-review of the manuscript. Based on this assessment, the reviewer concludes:

  • The article is recommended for publication in its current form;
  • The article is recommended for publication after the revision suggested by the reviewer;
  • It is recommended to transfer the article for additional review to another specialist;
  • Reject the publication.

7. If the review contains recommendations for correcting and revision the manuscript, the Editorial office sends them to the authors. When revisionf the manuscript the author should take into account all the peer-reviewers' comments, or give a reasoned answer to each comment (a response in the form of a table is welcome).

8. The revised manuscript finalized by the author is re-sent for the next round of peer-review to each reviewer.

9. If the author and the peer-reviewers have encountered insoluble contradictions regarding the article, the Editorial Board has the right to send the article to another peer-reviewers. In conflict situations, the article may be referred to one of the members of the Editorial Board or the Editorial Council. The final decision in such cases is made by the Editor-in-Chief.

10. Positive peer-review is not a sufficient basis for the publication of an article. The final decision on the publication should be made by the Editorial Board, based on the validity of the work and its relevance to the aims and scope of the journal. In conflict situations, the decision should be made by the Editor-in-Chief directly. The decision of the Editorial Board for each article is recorded in the report about the meeting of the Editorial Board. An article not recommended for publication by the decision of the Editorial Board is not accepted for re-consideration.

11. A motivated refusal to publish is sent to the author by e-mail.

12. After the Editorial Board of the journal has made a decision on the admission of an article to publication, the Editorial office informs the author about this.

13. Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. In accordance with the Appeal Mechanism.

14. The originals of reviews are kept in the editorial office of the journal for 5 years.

 

Publication Frequency

The journal publishes regular issues bimonthly, six times per year.

 

Open Access Policy

"Problems of Virology"  is an open access journal. 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. All articles are made freely available to readers immediatly upon publication.

Our open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition - it means that articles have free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

For more information please read BOAI statement.

The Publisher grants usage rights to others using an open license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International) allowing for immediate free access to the work and permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose.

 

Archiving

The journal uses the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) to digitally preserve all the published articles. The PKP PN is a part of LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program offers decentralized and distributed preservation, seamless perpetual access, and preservation of the authentic original version of the content.

The journal makes archives in Portico for compliance with the MEDLINE preservation requirement for electronic journals. Portico is a community-supported preservation archive that safeguards access to e-journals, e-books, and digital collections.

Also, the journal makes full-text archives on the Russian Science Electronic Library (http://elibrary.ru/).

 

Publishing Ethics

The Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement of the journal "Problems of Virology" are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct guidelines available at www.publicationethics.org,  and requirements for peer-reviewed medical journals ((http://health.elsevier.ru/attachments/editor/file/ethical_code_final.pdf), elaborated by the "Elsevier" Publishing House (in accordance with international ethical rules of scientific publications) 

1. Introduction

1.1. The publication in a peer reviewed learned journal, serves many purposes outside of simple communication. It is a building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. For all these reasons and more it is important to lay down standards of expected ethical behaviour by all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society for society-owned or sponsored journal: "Problems of Virology"

1.2.Publisher has a supporting, investing and nurturing role in the scholarly communication process but is also ultimately responsible for ensuring that best practice is followed in its publications.

1.3. Publisher takes its duties of guardianship over the scholarly record extremely seriously. Our journal programmes record «the minutes of science» and we recognise our responsibilities as the keeper of those «minutes» in all our policies not least the ethical guidelines that we have here adopted.

2. Duties of Editors

2.1.Publication decision – The Editor of a learned "Problems of Virology" is solely and independently responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, often working on conjunction with the relevant society (for society-owned or sponsored journals). The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always underwrite such decisions. The Editor may be guided by the policies of the "Problems of Virology" journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers (or society officers) in making this decision.

2.2.Fair play – An editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

2.3.Confidentiality – The editor and any editorial staff of "Problems of Virology" must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

2.4.Disclosure and Conflicts of interest

2.4.1. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

2.4.2. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers.

2.5.Vigilance over published record – An editor presented with convincing evidence that the substance or conclusions of a published paper are erroneous should coordinate with the publisher (and/or society) to promote the prompt publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant.

2.6.Involvement and cooperation in investigations – An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher (or society). Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies.

3.    Duties of Reviewers

3.1.Contribution to Editorial Decisions – Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication, and lies at the heart of the scientific method. Publisher shares the view of many that all scholars who wish to contribute to publications have an obligation to do a fair share of reviewing.

3.2.Promptness – Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor of "Problems of Virology" and excuse himself from the review process.

3.3.Confidentiality – Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorised by the editor.

3.4.Standard and objectivity – Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

3.5.Acknowledgement of Sources – Reviewers  should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

3.6.Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

3.6.1.Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

3.6.2. Reviewers should not consider 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.

4. Duties of Authors

4.1.Reporting standards

4.1.1. Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

4.1.2. Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial 'opinion’ works should be clearly identified as such.

4.2.Data Access and Retention – Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

4.3.Originality and Plagiarism

4.3.1. The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

4.3.2. Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

4.4.Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

4.4.1. An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

4.4.2. In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper.

4.4.3. Publication of some kinds of articles (eg, clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication. Further detail on acceptable forms of secondary publication can be found at www.icmje.org.

4.5.Acknowledgement of Sources – Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

4.6.Authorship of the Paper

4.6.1. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

4.6.2. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

4.7.Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects

4.7.1. If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

4.7.2. If the work involves the use of animal or human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

4.8. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

4.8.1. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

4.8.2. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.

4.9. Fundamental errors in published works – When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the editor of "Problems of Virology" journal and cooperate with Publisher to retract or correct the paper, If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper.

5. Duties of the Publisher (and if relevant, Society)

5.1. Publisher should adopt policies and procedures that support editors, reviewers and authors of "Problems of Virology" in performing their ethical duties under these ethics guidelines. The publisher should ensure that the potential for advertising or reprint revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

5.2. The publisher should support "Problems of Virology" journal editors in the review of complaints raised concerning ethical issues and help communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful to editors.

5.3. Publisher should develop codes of practice and inculcate industry standards for best practice on ethical matters, errors and retractions.

5.4. Publisher should provide specialised legal review and counsel if necessary.

The section is prepared according to the files (http://health.elsevier.ru/attachments/editor/file/ethical_code_final.pdf) of Elsevier publisher (https://www.elsevier.com/) and files (http://publicationethics.org/resources) from Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE - http://publicationethics.org/).

 

Author fees

Publication in "Problems of Virology" is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn't have any Article processing charges.

The journal doesn't have any Article submission charges.

The journal doesn't pay fees to authors of articles and editors.

 

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Reviewers should not consider 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.

 

Plagiarism detection

"Problems of Virology" use native russian-language plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

 

Preprint and Postprint Policy

Prior to acceptance and publication in Journal of microbiology epidemiology immunobiology, authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites.

As part of submission process, authors are required to confirm that the submission has not been previously published, nor has been submitted. After a manuscript has been published in Journal of microbiology epidemiology immunobiology we suggest that the link to the article on journal's website is used when the article is shared on personal or public websites.

Glossary (by SHERPA) Preprint — In the context of Open Access, a preprint is a draft of an academic article or other publication before it has been submitted for peer-review or other quality assurance procedure as part of the publication process. Preprints cover initial and successive drafts of articles, working papers or draft conference papers. Postprint — The final version of an academic article or other publication - after it has been peer-reviewed and revised into its final form by the author. As a general term this covers both the author's final version and the version as published, with formatting and copy-editing changes in place.

 

Advertising Policy

The title publishes advertisements in accordance with the Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On Advertising". Themes of advertising materials are limited by journal's Focus and Scope.

1. All advertisements and commercially sponsored publications are independent from editorial decisions. Publishers does not endorse any product or service marked as an advertisement or promoted by a sponsor in Publishers publications. Editorial content is not compromised by commercial or financial interests, or by any specific arrangements with advertising clients or sponsors.

2. Publishers reserves the right to decline any type of advertising that is damaging to the brand of Publishers or is inappropriate to the content held on the Publishers network.

3. Publishers will not accept advertising for products or services known to be harmful to health (e.g. tobacco and alcohol products).

4. Advertisements may not be deceptive or misleading, and must be verifiable. Advertisements should clearly identify the advertiser and the product or service being offered.

5. Publishers will not allow any treatment-specific or drug-specific campaign to be targeted to a specific article(s) or on any page where content relates to the product(s) being advertised. (Advertisers may not link to articles using keywords; they may not target advertising for a specific product on the condition that it appear in the same location and at the same time as a specific article mentioning that product and they may not refer to an article published at the same time as the advertisement appears).

6. All advertisements for drug-specific campaigns must comply with the relevant Russian legislation that regulates advertising. Advertisers should make available to  Publishers the marketing authorization and summary of product characteristics when submitting their advertisement. In the case of drug advertisements, the full generic name of each active ingredient should appear. Each page of an advertisement for a prescription-only medicine should be clearly labeled as intended for health professionals.

7. Advertisements and editorial content must be clearly distinguishable.  Publishers will not publish “advertorial” content, and sponsored supplements must be clearly indicated as such. If a supplement did not undergo peer review or underwent a peer review-process different from the rest of the journal that should be explicitly stated.

8. Editorial decisions will not be influenced by current or potential sponsors and advertisers, and will not be influenced by marketing decisions. Advertisers and sponsors have no control or influence over the results of searches a user may conduct on the website by keyword or search topic.

9. If any advert is requested outside of  Publishers standard advertising positions then a request should be made to editorial who will respond with a full and final decision within two business days.

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