Aim and Scope

The purpose of the journal:

• To promote the development of oncological medicine in the South of Russia and the implementation of its achievements in practice.
• High-quality published content that includes the latest and trustworthy scientific papers, research or work on oncology issues.

Tasks of the journal:

• Popularization of modern achievements of the oncological service in the South of Russia;
• Facilitating the exchange of experience and transfer of advanced knowledge between specialists;
• Informing readers about the results of major medical forums;
• Giving scientists the opportunity to publish the results of their research;
• Achieving an international level in scientific publications;
• Promotion of the magazine on the international and Russian markets;
• Drawing attention to relevant, promising and interesting areas of scientific research related to the journal's subject matter;
• Involvement of reputable national and international high-level authors;
• Expansion of the editorial board and reviewers by attracting well-known experts from Russia and other countries;
• Providing full-text access to scientific articles and increasing the accessibility and openness of the journal in Russia and abroad;
• Increasing the impact factor of the journal.

Section Policies

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

REVIEWS

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

CLINICAL CASE REPORTS

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

REVIEW

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

CLINICAL CASE REPORT

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

REVIEW OF THE MONOGRAPH

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

ЮБИЛЕЙ

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Publication Frequency

Frequency – 4 issues per year.

1st issue Release date: March
2nd issue Release date: June
3rd issue Release date: September
Issue 4 Release date: December

Open Access Policy

"South Russian Journal of Cancer" is an open access journal. 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.

Archiving

Peer Review Process

A double-blind peer review method is mandatory for processing all of the scientific manuscripts submitted to the editorial stuff of "South Russian Journal of Cancer". This implies that neither the reviewer is aware of the authorship of the manuscript, nor the author maintains any contact with the reviewer.

1. The review of articles is carried out by invited reviewers: leading specialists in the relevant branch of medicine (having an academic degree of at least a doctor of sciences and not having scientific, financial or any other relationships with the authors of the article and the editorial board of the journal).
2. The decision to select a reviewer for the review of the article is made by the editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief, scientific editor, head of the editorial office. The review period is 2-4 weeks, but it can be extended upon the reviewer’s request.
3. The review procedure stays confidential. Reviewers are notified that the manuscripts sent to them are the intellectual property of the authors and relate to information that is not a subject to disclosure. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of the manuscript for their own needs. Violation of confidentiality is possible only in the event of a claim on unreliability or falsification of materials. The author of the reviewed work is given the opportunity to read the text of the review.
4. Each reviewer has the right to refuse a review if there is a clear conflict of interest, that affects the perception and interpretation of the manuscript materials.
5. Based on the results of the manuscrip review, the reviewer makes recommendations about the future of the article (each reviewer's decision is justified):

• the article is recommended for publication in current form;
• the article is recommended for publication after correcting the shortcomings noted by the reviewer;
• the article needs additional review by another specialist;
• the article can not be published in the journal.

6. If the review contains recommendations for correction and revision of the article, the editorial Board sends the author the text of the review with a request to take them into account when preparing a new version of the article or to refuse them in a reasoned way (partially or completely). Revision of the article should not take more than 2 months from the date of sending an email to the authors about the need to bring in the changes. The article revised by the author is readdressed for review.
7. If the authors refuse to finalize the materials, they must notify the editorial board with a text or orally of their refusal to publish the article. If the authors do not return the revised version after 3 months from the date of sending the review, even if there is no information from the authors with the refusal to finalize the article, the editorial board withholds it from the register list. In such situations, the authors are notified of the withdrawal of the manuscript from registration due to the expiration of the waiting time for revision.
8. If the author and reviewers have unsolvable contradictions regarding the manuscript, the editorial board has the right to send the manuscript for additional review. In case of conflict situations the decision is made by the editor-in-chief at a meeting of the editorial board.
9. The decision to refuse to publish a manuscript is made at a meeting of the editorial board in accordance with the recommendations of the reviewers. An article that is not recommended for publication by the decision of the editorial Board is not accepted for reconsideration. A notice of refusal to publish and a copy of the review are sent to the author by e-mail.
10. After the editorial Board of the journal makes a decision to allow the article to be published, the editorial Board informs the author and specifies the publication date.
11. The positive review is not sufficient base for the publication of the article. The final decision on publication is made by the editorial board. In conflict situations, the decision is made by the editor-in-chief.
12. The articles aren’t allowed for publication if

• They are not designed in accordance with the  publication requirements and the authors refuse to bring in technical improvements to the article.
• The authors do not comply with the reviewer's constructive comments or do not refute them in a reasoned way.

13. The editorial board sends copies of reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon receipt of a corresponding request.

14. Original reviews are preserved at the editorial office of the journal for 5 years.

Indexation

Articles in "South Russian Journal of Cancer" are indexed by several systems:

• Russian Index for Science Citation (RISC) – a database, accumulating information on papers by Russian scientists, published in native and foreign titles. The RSCI project is under development since 2005 by “Electronic Scientific Library” foundation (elibrary.ru).
• Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest scholarly publishers, plus scholarly books and other non-peer reviewed journals.

Publishing Ethics

1. Introduction

1.1. The publication in a peer-reviewed 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 process of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer-reviewer, the publisher and the society for society-owned or sponsored journal: "South Russian Journal of Cancer"

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 the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" is solely and independently responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, often working in 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 "South Russian Journal of Cancer" 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, ethnicity, citizenship, or political views of the authors.

2.3. Confidentiality: The editor and any editorial staff of "South Russian Journal of Cancer" 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 of reviewing and considering) 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 "South Russian Journal of Cancer" 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 awareness.

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 that 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 must 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 must provide the statement into their manuscripts to prove that the informed consent was obtained in their studies and experiments, with human subject involvement.

4.8. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

4.8.1. All authors must 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 must 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 publication it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the editor of "South Russian Journal of Cancer" journal and cooperate with Publisher to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns 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 must adopt policies and procedures that support editors, reviewers and authors of "South Russian Journal of Cancer" 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 "South Russian Journal of Cancer" 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/).

Founder

• Autonomous non-profit organization "Perspective of oncology" (ANO "Perspective of oncology")

Author fees

Publication in "South Russian Journal of Cancer" is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn't have any Article processing and submission charges.

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.

"South Russian Journal of Cancer" believes that to make the best decision on how to deal with a manuscript the journal editor should know about any competing interests that authors may have. We will not reject papers simply because authors have a competing interest, but these will be declared on the published paper.

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors uniform declaration of competing interests, authors should disclose four types of information:

1. Their associations with commercial entities that provided support for the work reported in the submitted manuscript (the time frame for disclosure in this section of the form is the lifespan of the work being reported).
2. Their associations with commercial entities that could be viewed as having an interest in the general area of the submitted manuscript (the time frame for disclosure in this section is the 36 months before submission of the manuscript).
3. Any similar financial associations involving their spouse or their children under 18 years of age.

Non-financial associations that may be relevant to the submitted manuscript.

Borrowing and plagiarism

The "South Russian Journal of Cancer" uses native russian-language plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

It is not allowed to send to the editorial office works published earlier or sent to other publications. The publication of articles containing plagiarism of the text, ideas and/or other data is excluded. Authors must submit completely original paperworks for publication. References to the results of works by other authors should be accompanied by links to relevant sources, and citations of previously published text should be made out as direct speech with the obligatory indication of the original source.

The editorial board of the journal checks the material using plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat  and Google Scholar to screen the submissions. If an unauthorized text and graphic elements (diagrams) are identified, or if the coefficient of originality of the text is low, the editorial Board has the right to demand that the authors correct the article or to refuse the publication. Plagiarism detection is also carried out in the framework of open scientific review and after the publication of manuscripts upon the request of readers.

The Editorial Board of the journal carefully monitors the quality of published materials and acts in accordance with the rules of the International Committee of Publication Ethics  COPE  if numerous borrowings are found. An article containing plagiarism can be withdrawn even after publication.

Preprint and postprint Policy

Prior to acceptance and publication in "South Russian Journal of Cancer", 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 "South Russian Journal of Cancer" 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.

The editorial board of the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" encourages uploading preprints on preprint servers. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) defines a preprint as 'a scholarly manuscript posted by the author(s) in an openly accessible platform, usually before or in parallel with the peer review process.

A preprint publication shall not be considered duplicate publication nor shall it influence the editor's decision to publish it in the "South Russian Journal of Cancer".

The author must notify the editorial board of the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" about the posted preprint at submission of the manuscript for review, furnishing a link to the preprint with its DOI identifier and the dissemination terms and conditions.

It is the author’s responsibility to add a link to the published manuscript in the preprint record. The link must contain the DOI and the URL of the article published on the journal's website. The original preprint should not be modified based on the reviewer’s and editor’s comments. The preprint should not be replaced with the text of the published article.

Do not delete the preprint text.

Article Withdrawal

Withdrawing a text from a publication is a mechanism for correcting published information and notifying readers that the publication contains serious flaws or incorrect data that cannot be trusted. Data inaccuracy may be the result of good faith misrepresentation or deliberate violations.

According to the rules of the Council on Ethics of Scientific Publications of Association of Science Editors and Publishers, the grounds for article withdrawal are:

• detection of plagiarism in the article;
• detection of falsifications (for example, manipulation of experimental data);
• detection of serious errors that cast doubt on scientific value of the article;
• incorrect list of authors;
• duplication of the article in several journals;
• republishing the article without the author’s consent;
• concealment of conflict of interest and other violations of publication ethics;
• the fact that the article hasn’t been peer-reviewed.

After the decision to withdraw the article is made, the chief editor informs its authors, indicating the reason and date of withdrawal. The article remains on the journal’s site as part of the corresponding journal issue, but is marked “withdrawn” with the withdrawal date (the mark is placed on top of the text of the article and in the table of contents); in addition, a message about withdrawal  is placed in the news section of the site, and the chief editor sends information about the article withdrawal to all online libraries and databases in which the journal is indexed.

Sources of Income

Sources of income for the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" are the following: reprints, organizational support, advertisements.

Advertisements in the journal and on its website are linked to its content. The advertising does not affect editorial decisions.

Advertising policy

The text is based on the Recommendations on Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals WAME

• The Editor-in-Chief's decision does not depend on the cost of advertising and information material placement or reprint printing.
• The job responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief and advertising manager in the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" are performed by different people.
• Advertisers and sponsors do not have control over the editor-in-Chief's decisions, regardless of the terms of advertising and information material placement or other agreements.
• Advertisers and sponsors have no influence on the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" policy and the article evaluation process.
• Reprints are published only in the form in which they were originally published in the journal (including subsequent corrections), so they should not contain additions or changes.
• The volume of advertising and informational materials is not more than 40% of the volume of a single issue.
• All advertising and information material must clearly identify the advertiser and the product or service offered. The full name of each active ingredient must be specified in the advertising of medicines.
• Advertising and informational material should not be placed next to any editorial article or article that discusses the advertised product, and it should not contain links to the issue of the magazine in which it is published.
• Advertising content differs from editorial and other materials.
• Advertising must not deceive or mislead. Advertising should not exaggerate the actual characteristics of the advertised product. Ads must not contain offensive religious, racial, or religious considerations.
• Advertised products should be targeted at medical practice, medical education,or medical care.
• The advertiser has the right to place advertising and informational material only about himself, the goods that he sells or produces, the works that he produces, or the services provided.
• The advertiser guarantees that it has the exclusive copyright to the advertising and information material submitted to the "South Russian Journal of Cancer". In case of violation of this guarantee and claims against the magazine in this regard, the Advertiser undertakes to settle all claims independently and at its own expense. The "South Russian Journal of Cancer" is not responsible to third parties for violation of these guarantees by the advertiser.
• The advertiser bears full material and legal responsibility for the accuracy of the content of the advertising and informational material.
• The advertiser has the right to refuse or reduce the format, quantity and (or) volume of advertising and informational materials by notifying the editorial Board of the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" in texting at least 60 (sixty) calendar days before the publication date of the issue.
• The advertiser is responsible for the accuracy of advertising materials submitted to the editorial Board of the "South Russian Journal of Cancer".
• The Advertiser's advertising and information material must be in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation and the requirements of the Federal law “About advertisement".
• The editorial Board of the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" is not responsible for the effectiveness of distributed advertising.
• If an advertisement published in the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" violated the rights and interests of third parties, the advertiser is responsible to them.
• The magazine has the right to refuse to publish any advertising and informational material for any reason. The decision to publish advertising and informational material should be made only with the participation of the editor-in-Chief and the editorial Board of the journal.

Statement of human and animal rights

All papers submitted to the "South Russian Journal of Cancer" should declare agreement with the following «statement of human and animal rights». No paper lacking will be considered for publication. 

When presenting the results of experimental research involving humans or animals the authors should indicate whether the procedures performed adhered to the ethical standards prescribed in the Declaration of Helsinki. If the study was conducted without adherence to the principles of the Declaration, the authors should justify the chosen approach the study and guarantee that the ethics committee of the organization in which the study was conducted approved the chosen approach. When reporting experiments on animals authors must indicate that the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

Data sharing policy