Paediatria Croatica - Paediatria Croatica

Editorial Policies

Purpose and Scope

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. PAEDIATRIA CROATICA will consider manuscripts in the following categories:
Original research, particularly clinical research

Review articles
Case reports
Letters to the Editor
Commentaries, and
Clinical practice guidelines.

Prior Publication/ Duplicate / Overlapping Publication or Submission

The journal will not consider for review manuscripts that have been published elsewhere, or manuscripts that are concurrently submitted elsewhere. The journal publishes original research and review material. If any part of a manuscript contains any information that was previously published or a reprint of the previously published article, this must be reported to the Editor at the point of submission, with explanation by the authors of any potential overlap or duplication. This includes materials published in any form of mass communication. At the time of submission, authors must divulge in their cover letter all prior publications or postings of the material in any form of media. Abstracts or posters displayed for colleagues at scientific meetings need not be reported. If the Editor is made aware of such overlapping or duplicate manuscripts that have not been disclosed by the authors, a written explanation will be requested. If, in the judgment of the Editor, the explanation is inadequate, the submission will be rejected. If there is no disclosure, an appropriate official of the primary author’s academic institution will be notified.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of a manuscript, the authors will receive a standard copyright agreement. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the form, and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. All accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the Paedriatria croatica, and may not be published elsewhere, in whole or in part, without written permission. The Societies retain the right to use copyrighted work for distribution and reproduction if appropriate. Authors retain the right to republish their work in books and other scholarly collections. Articles cannot be published until a signed form has been received. Authors can download the form here.

Review Process

At the Editorial Board meeting manuscripts are reviewed by the assigned member of the Editorial Board and by at least two anonymous reviewers who are selected by the editors based on their expertise in the topic of the manuscript.
In order to preserve the integrity of the process, double-blinded peer-review is used. In case only one of the reviewers rejects the submitted paper, or if opinions on the quality of the paper between the reviewers differ to a great extent, papers are addressed to the third reviewer. Authors are welcome to suggest in the letter of submission the names, complete addresses, fax numbers and e-mail addresses of 3 to 5 potential reviewers who have the appropriate expertise to evaluate the manuscript. Authors may also suggest the names of persons who should not be asked to review the manuscript, providing reasonable explanation. Ultimately, the Editors reserve the right to choose reviewers. The comments and suggestions of the reviewers should be followed accurately and addressed point by point. Reviewers will be contacted again to state if they are satisfied with the final version of the manuscript.
The complete review process is carried out electronically, through the OJS (http://www.paedcro.com/ojs/)
The final decision about publishing lies within Editorial Board. Authors will receive e-mail notification from the Editorial Office of PAEDIATRIA CROATICA after a decision has been made. All accepted manuscripts are subject to editorial revision. Editors reserve the right to refuse any material for publication and advise that authors should retain copies of submitted manuscripts and correspondence, as material cannot be returned.

Authorship

All authors must have seen and approved the submission of the manuscript and be willing to take responsibility for the entire manuscript. PAEDIATRIA CROATICA adheres to the guidelines for authorship developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Specifically, authors are required to affirm their participation in the concept and design of the research or experiment(s); collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; drafting of the manuscript and revising of intellectual content; approval of the manuscript as submitted; and approval of the final version of the manuscript to be published. All authors of a submitted manuscript must sign a form declaring that they meet the criteria for authorship according to ICMJE (www.icmje.org), and take full responsibility for the manuscript.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author represents a guarantor of the published work. He is the person who, on behalf of all coauthors, handles correspondence regarding a paper during submission and review process. If the manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author will review an edited proof and will be identified as the corresponding author in the published article. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the conflict of interest disclosures reported in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript are accurate, up-to-date, and consistent with the information provided in each author’s Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript is complete. The corresponding author must sign the Acknowledgment statement part of the Authorship Form confirming that all persons who have contributed substantially but who are not authors are identified in the Acknowledgment section and that written permission from each person acknowledged has been obtained.
Group Authorship: In the case of group authorship, a list of all members of the study group must be provided and will be published either as group authorship or in acknowledgments, depending on the fulfillment of the authorship criteria.

Contributors/Acknowledgments: Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgement along with their specific contributions (e.g., technical help, statistical or writing assistance, data collection, etc.) and declaration of their possible conflict of interest, funding sources, and industry-relation. Because readers may infer the endorsement of data or conclusions of those acknowledged, the journal requires that all persons acknowledged provide written permission. Acknowledgement should be written at the end of the manuscript, before references.

Scientific Integrity/Conflict of Interest/Disclosure Policy

Editorial Board of PAEDIATRIA CROATICA is especially focused on the promotion of scientific integrity of the published manuscripts. PAEDIATRIA CROATICA follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommendations concerning cases of possible misconduct. Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, inappropriate conduct related to research participants, fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, theft of intellectual property, duplicate publication, misrepresentation of authorship, and failure to disclose potential or real financial or non-financial conflicts of interest.
It is the responsibility of the journal to provide reviewers and readers with full disclosure by all authors of any potential or actual interests relevant to the topic(s) of submitted manuscripts. According to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME): “… a conflict of interest (competing interest) is some fact known to a participant in the publication process that if revealed later, would make a reasonable reader feel misled or deceived (or an author, reviewer, or editor feel defensive). Conflicts of interest may influence the judgment of authors, reviewers, and editors; these conflicts often are not immediately apparent to others. They may be personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial. Financial interests may include employment, research funding (received or pending), stock or share ownership, patents, payment for lectures or travel, consultancies, non-financial support, or any fiduciary interest in the company. The perception of a conflict of interest is nearly as important as an actual conflict, since both erode trust.” (http://www.wame.org/about) PAEDIATRIA CROATICA require disclosure of the possible conflict of interest in order to ensure scientific integrity. Disclosures will be published with accepted articles if considered relevant by the Editorial Board. If no potential or actual interests are disclosed, a statement to that effect will be published.
All authors are responsible to ensure that information presented in a submission is accurate. PAEDIATRIA CROATICA reserves the right to decline to publish work if the journal determines that a significant conflict of interest exists. The journal also reserves the right to retract an article if author misconduct has been established and to prohibit future submission from any author who has participated in misconduct.
The retraction guidelines published by COPE can be found at http://publicationethics.org/files/u661/Retractions_COPE_gline_final_3_Sept_09_2_.pdf

Ethical Approval of Studies, Informed Consent and Identifying Details

For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants or animals, formal review and approval, by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee is required and should be described in the Methods section. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed.
Manuscripts describing research involving human subjects should indicate that a written informed consent was obtained from the parents or guardians of the children who served as subjects of the investigation and, when appropriate, from the subjects themselves.
Information that could potentially reveal the identity of a patient or study participant should not be included unless this information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or the patients’ parent or legal guardian) provides a written informed consent. A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs, video, and pedigrees should be obtained from all persons (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including the patients themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs or pedigrees, and should be submitted with the manuscript and indicated in the Acknowledgment section of the manuscript. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission.
For research involving animals, the journal requires the authors to affirm that a study submitted for consideration was conducted in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory and other animals.

Clinical Trials

PAEDIATRIA CROATICA requires authors to disclose whether or not a work reports the results of a clinical trial in accordance to ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/update_may05.html) and Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm) requirements.
ICMJE defines clinical trial as “any research project that prospectively assigns human subjects to intervention or concurrent comparison or control groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health outcome. Medical interventions include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, process-of-care changes, and the like. A trial must have at least one prospectively assigned concurrent control or comparison group in order to trigger the requirement for registration. If authors report the results of a clinical trial, they must affirm that the study has been registered at a qualified national or international registry.
Investigators should use registries that meet the following minimum requirements: is available to the public at no charge; is open to all prospective registrants; is managed by a non profit organization; has a validation mechanism of the registration data; is electronically searchable; contains the following information: unique identifying number; official scientific title of the study, intervention(s)/condition(s) and comparison(s) studied; study type, study hypothesis; primary and secondary outcome measures; eligibility criteria; target number of participants; key trial dates (registration, anticipated or actual start of study, anticipated or actual last follow-up, planned or actual closure to data entry, and completion of data); funding sources; research ethics review, and contact information on the principal investigators.

Author’s Rights

After an article has been accepted for publication in PAEDIATRIA CROATICA, the journal licenses the following rights back to the author(s):

Patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or procedure described in the article.
The right to photocopy or make single electronic copies of the article for personal use, including for their own classroom use, or for the personal use of colleagues, provided the copies are not offered for sale and are not distributed in a systematic way outside of their employing institution (e.g., via an e-mail list or public file server).
Posting of a PDF copy of the article on a secure network (not accessible to the public) within the author’s institution is permitted.
The right, subsequent to publication, to use the article or any part thereof free of charge in a printed compilation of works of their own, such as collected writings, theses or lecture notes. For more detail on the academy’s policies regarding rights and permissions, contact Secretary.