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Author Guidelines

Preparing the manuscript, authors are kindly requested to adhere to the following regulations based on the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals”, developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors:

1. Manuscript requirements. We accept submissions strictly online, via the form available at our website.
   Please upload your manuscript as a Microsoft Office Word document (*.doc, *.docx and *.rtf formats).

1. Length of the manuscript from an original study, lecture or literature review (including tables and list of references) should not exceed 6000 words. Case reports should be limited to 4000 words, short reports and letters to the editor should not exceed 1500 words. Please consult the MS Word built-in statistics service prior to submission in order to find out the exact length of your manuscript. Should your manuscript exceed the aforementioned limits, the editorial board will carry out the final decision on its publication based on recommendations from your reviewer.
2. Text formatting. Lettering in Times New Roman is preferable in all cases (font size 12 pt with 1.0 line spacing and 2 cm margins). Kindly refrain from using underlining in your document (italic and bold formatting is acceptable).
3. File structure.The journal editorial board prefers to receive a manuscript as a single complete file with all figures, tables and any additional supplemental materials. Please organize your text according to the following template:
   
   • Writing an abstract.
• Article title. Best article titles bear short, clear and distinctive messages.
• Authors and their affiliated institutions, linked by superscript numbers, should be listed beneath the title on the opening page of the manuscript.
• Abstract of an original study should start with some brief background information and statement of the study’s AIMS, followed by MATERIALS & METHODS and finishing with the RESULTS. The closing sentence should outline the main CONCLUSIONS of the study in the most comprehensible terms. Please note that your abstract should be 300 words or less.
• Choice of keywords. MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) thesaurus is a preferred source for choosing keywords.
• The body of the text should start with a brief introduction, describing the paper’s significance. In the case of an original study, the body of the paper should follow a common structured approach to the description of the studies aim, its materials, methods and results, as well as Discussion and Conclusions sections.
• Acknowledgements section may be presented in Russian, English or both languages. It should comprise the following:
  
  • Clarification regarding any potential or actual conflicts of interest of the authors. Any affiliations, financial relations, financial or political interests in the manuscript as a whole or in part, including employment and other liabilities that may result in withholding or deliberate corruption of data or adversely influenced interpretation, are considered a conflict of interest and must be explicitly stated as such. Please note that conflicts of interest do not impede a publication, though failure to disclose one does.
  • A brief list of funding sources for the results reported in the paper, as well as the publication process itself (e.g. a commercial organization, a foundation or government grant, etc.).
  • An optional note describing the roles or responsibilities of the authors. You may also place here an acknowledgment for any individuals or organizations that assisted in your work.

2. List of references should be organized according to the guidelines by U.S. National Information Standards Organization NISO Z39.29-2005 [R2010]) in Vancouver style. For detailed instructions on bibliographic formatting, see «References list guidelines». The following are the principle points you should be aware of while preparing your manuscript for submission:
   
   • References should be numbered in the order in which they are cited.
   • Number of references is limited to 60 for literature reviews, and to 20 for original studies and lectures.
   • Within the body of the text references should be provided in Arabic numerals enclosed in square brackets.
   • A complete list of all authors should be presented in every bibliographical entry. Please put an “et al.” notation after the third name if cited paper has more than 4 authors. Do not shorten titles of your citations. Shortened journal titles should correspond to the MedLine catalogue. If the journal is not indexed by MedLine, please provide its full title.
3. Enumerate your tables, give those a heading and clearly marked columns that would be easy to read and comprehend. Please make sure that table data is in line with the numbers in the body of the text (but does not simply duplicate them).
4. Reduce graphical materialto minimum (unless the nature of your study dictates otherwise). Photographs should be rich in contrast, illustrative artwork – clear and of high resolution (dpi).
   
   • If you wish to include in your paper any graphical material created other than by means of standard office applications (e.g. results of diagnostic imaging, photographs, screenshots, digital artwork, etc.), please submit them as separate files via our web form in *.jpeg, *.bmp or *.gif formats. The absolute minimum for acceptable resolution is 300 dpi, though higher is preferable. Do keep in mind that image files should be tagged with numbers corresponding to the enumeration within the manuscript. In addition, file description should provide the caption of your image as it would appear in the paper         
     (exp.: “Fig. 1. Elliott Proctor Joslin, M.D. (1869-1962).”).
   • Graphs should be labeled on the ordinate and abscissa with the parameter or variable being measured, the units of measure, and the scale.
   • Units should be metric and follow SI convention.
   • Kindly take care to provide references to all of your supplementary materials (tables, graphs, etc.) within the body of the text.
5. Ethics statement. In accordance with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidance authors must provide an ethics statement if the study made use of human or vertebrate animal subjects and/or tissue. Approval from the relevant body is required for studies involving:
   
   • humans (live or tissue), including studies that are observational, survey-based, or include any personal data;
   • animals (live or tissue), including observational studies;
   • non-commercial cell lines.

6. Cover Letter

   It shall be provided scanned in PDF format. In the Cover Letter, the author (s) should:

   1) ORCID
   For each author, indicate his/ her international identification number ORCID, as well as the exact spelling in English of the name and relevant affiliation of each author, in full accordance with ORCID.

   2) Information about the authors
   In addition to ORCID, the following information should be provided for each author:
   
   • surname, name, patronymic (fully);
   • passport data (number, by whom, when issued);
   • date of birth;
   • information about education;
   • information about current affiliation and position held (in the case of multiple affiliations, indicate several places of work, assuring accordance with the ORCID variant);
   • email address

   3) Corresponding Author
   In the case of more than one author, indicate “corresponding author” and transfer to this person the rights to represent all authors in communication with the editorial board, and also from the collective of authors to sign the License Agreement on behalf of the manuscript authors.

   4) Type of article
   Indicate the type of article (e.g., “review”, “original article”, “technical report“, “expert practice”, etc.).

   5) Justification for publication/ Highlights
   Summarize the need to publish submitted manuscript in the Journal (or other reasons that the editorial board should take into account).
   Ideally it shall be Highlights of 3-5 bullet points to convey the core findings of the article, its relevance to the Journal, etc.

   6) Other information about the manuscript
   Inform the editorial office of any special circumstances or details regarding the submitted materials, including the preliminary submission / publication of the material or its parts in another journal or translation into another language.

   7) Contribution of each author
   Clarify the contribution of each author in a separate paragraph (e.g., participation in planning and conducting research, writing an article).

   8) Compliance with the Journal guidelines
   Confirm that all authors have read the following documents posted on the site:
   • Ethics of scientific publications
   • Author guidelines
   • License agreement,
   And the manuscript meets the requirements set forth in them.

   9) Numbered list of attached materials
   Attach a numbered list of materials / files provided with the manuscript (the name of the attached file must begin with the number indicated in the list), including graphs, drawings, photographs, as well as the signed License Agreement, etc. For example, if No. 7 in the list is a picture "The viscosity of the synovial fluid vs. ....", then appropriate file name should start with the number "7": "7. Pic. Viscosity of synovial fluid …. .TIF".

   10) File resolution of graphic materials
   Confirm that all graphic files (photographs) provided have a resolution of at least 200-250 ppi (dots per inch). In case of lower resolution, the editors may require exclusion of these materials from the manuscript/ reject the manuscript.

   11) Recommended Reviewers
   Recommend reviewers (who are not employees of organizations represented by the authors), indicating their affiliation, position, rank, contact information.

   12) Double blind peer review
   Appreciate that the Journal carries out double-blind peer review (the reviewer does not know the authors of the manuscript, the authors of the manuscript do not know the reviewers). In this regard, the Editorial Board will independently carry out the proper “blinding” of the manuscript to implement this principle and the author does not need to submit several versions of the manuscripts.

   13) Signatures of each author
   Put the handwritten signatures of each author at the end of the Letter as confirmation of all the points set forth in it.

7. Using the WEB-form to submit a manuscript. Indexing in Russian and international databases requires certain metadata to be provided for your paper.
   
   1. Authors. Please provide us with:
      
      • names, affiliations and scientific degrees for all authors;
      • contact information (an e-mail address) for all authors (an e-mail address for corresponding author will be published in open access to facilitate contact with your team).
   2. Article title and Abstract. These should exactly match the text of the corresponding fields in your manuscript file.
   3. Keywords. Please make sure to add 3 to 10 concise and accurate keywords, preferably chosen from the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) thesaurus.
   4. Language. Indicate the language (or languages in case of a bilingual manuscript) of your paper (exp. [ru; en]).
   5. List of references should be organized according to the guidelines by U.S. National Information Standards Organization NISO Z39.29-2005 [R2010]) in Vancouver style. For detailed instructions on bibliographic formatting, see «References list guidelines».
   6. Supplementary materials should be submitted as separate files with an appropriate caption (exp.: “Fig. 3. Cyst gross specimen”).
   7. Completing submission. Please check the list of attached files prior to finishing the procedure. Within next 7 days, the editorial board will inform you by e-mail of receiving submitted materials. Feel free to contact the editors or the reviewers should you have any questions regarding the processing of your manuscript. Accessing your personal account at our site will allow you to monitor its progress online.

Language versions of the papers

The journal accepts manuscripts written in Russian and English for publication. The publication of articles in English provides an opportunity to familiarize the international scientific community with the results of the Russian scientific work, significantly affecting their citation.

The Russian-language articles that received the highest ratings from the reviewers, selected by the editorial board, are sent to a certified translation agency at the expense of the publisher and are also published in the English-language version. The authors of the rest of the articles accepted for publication, if they wish, can independently send an English translation to the editorial office for posting on the site.

The journal will publish the translated version on condition of its compliance with the requirements to the level of academic English for journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science and its approval by all authors.

For authors wishing to publish an article in the journal simultaneously in Russian and English, the editorial staff of the journal recommends contacting the translators of the Eco-Vector publishing house («Support for Authors») or another certified translation agency, or using the services of specialized international companies - for translation, formatting and editing:

1. Enago
2. Elsevier Author Services
3. Bioscience Writers
4. Boston bioedit
5. American Journal Experts
6. BioMedical Science Writers
7. Bioedit
8. Editage

When working with the above services, authors receive a high-quality English-language version of the manuscript of their originally Russian-language article. The English-language version of the manuscripts may be sent to the editorial office with the main Russian-language text through an online form or later if the article is accepted.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with each of the following items, and submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned to the authors.

• The manuscripts are accepted if has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

• The materials should be prepared in a format OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or World Perfect.

• Internet links are provided as a complete URL. 

• Text should be typed with an interval of one line spacing, font Times New Roman, 12 pt; to highlight the accents it is recommended to use italics rather than underlining (except Internet links). All images, graphics and tables are placed within the text according to the meaning of the particular part of text  (and not at the end of the document).

• Text should follow the stylistic and bibliography requirements as stated in  Regulations  located in the Part "About Us." 

• Please check that the Cover Letter provided meets all 13 conditions required.

Copyright Notice

Russian Journal of Forensic Medicine does not require authors to transfer exclusive rights to submitted materials. When submitting an article (or any other Journal content type, including any supplementary materials) the author (authors) transfer to Russian Journal of Forensic Medicine the non-exclusive right to publish and distribute all submitted materials according to the conditions specified in the License Agreement. The License Agreement signed by the author (authors) is to be attached to the original manuscript and sent to the Journal. To download fillable form of the License Agreement please use the links below.

License agreement

Privacy Statement

Specified when registering the names and addresses will be used solely for technical purposes of a contact with the Author or reviewers (editors) when preparing the article for publication. This is to comply with GDPR and other relevant international conventions.

Author Fees

This journal charges the following author fees.

sending an article

The authors must pay for sending the article in the process of submitting it to the journal to compensate for the costs of organizing the review of the article.

Article publication:

If the article is accepted for publication, you will be asked to pay for the publication of the article to cover publishing costs.

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