Focus and Scope

Scripta Scientifica Medica is a quarterly journal publishing open-access articles aimed at providing the most current information in various medical fields. The following types of articles are approved for publication: Invited Reviews, Original Articles, Case Reports, Letters to the Editor, and Editorials.

Section Policies

Editorials

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reviews

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Original Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Case Reports

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Letters to the Editor

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

Our journal uses the double-blind review method.

The double-blind review process aims to provide anonymity for both the author and the reviewer. It is considered a good way to remove any bias for or against an author or an institution, which is a problem that might arise in the course of the entire process.

The reviewer is not given any information regarding the author or the institution issuing the submitted manuscript. All personal information must be entered only in the provided metadata fields. This means that it is the author's responsibility to delete any information from the text file of the submission that might, in any way, reveal the identity of the submitter such as - any names, contact information and affiliations.

The reviewers receive only the text file of the manuscript and the supplementary files.

After being assigned to an article, the reviewers receive an email notifying them with an included title and abstract of the article with a link to the online platform where they can see the allowed metadata and references. The purpose is for the reviewers to become acquainted with the topic of the submission and whether the field is relevant to their own after which they can decide to accept or decline to review the article using the relevant buttons, thus sending a message informing the section editor of this. Upon agreeing the reviewers gain access to the file with the full-text article, the supplementary files, and the reviewer's questionnaire, where they are to answer a number of questions related to the article. The last two questions are open-ended and must include the reviewers' recommendations--one is visible to the editor and author, and the other--to the editor only. The last step includes a drop-down menu where the reviewers choose from a list of available option as their final decision.

Publication Frequency

Scripta Scientifica Medica is a quarterly journal with issues being published in March, June, September, and December.

Open Access Policy

This journal practises an open access policy in regard to its content based on the principle that making all research freely available to the public as this would contribute greatly to a better global exchange of knowledge.

Journal Fees

Scripta Scientifica Medica does not charge any fees for manuscript submission and publication, nor does it charge readers for access to articles available on its website.

Journal Financing

Scripta Scientifica Medica is entirely financed by the Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria.

Plagiarism Policy

Scripta Scientifica Medica does not condone plagiarism of any type, including: presenting large portions of text in their original form, authored by someone else, as one's own; a compilation of different sources without any significant contribution by the author; including large portions of text, without any change, from the author's previous articles. All sources and quotations must be cited and marked accurately. All submissions are run through a plagiarism software (StrikePlagiarism, iThenticate) prior to being sent to a Section Editor for consideration. In case of higher than the admissible percentage of similarity, the article is sent back to the authors for a revision.

Ethical Policy

The publications of the journals of the Medical University of Varna are based on ethical principles, established in internationally recognized requirements and standards of good publication practice of a number of scientific organizations and international committees: Committee on Publication Ethics (https://publicationethics.org/); International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, ICMJE (https://www.icmje.org/); Council of International Organizations for Medical Sciences, CIOMS (https://cioms.ch/); World Association of Medical Editors, WAME (https://www.wame.org/); World Medical Association, WMA (https://www.wma.net/), etc. 

The Journal adheres to the ethical principles and requirements of manuscripts, proposed for publication to scientific journals, established in the following internationally adopted documents:

-       Committee on Publication Ethics. Guidelines on Good Publication Practice. (COPE). 1999. https://publicationethics.org/files/u7141/1999pdf13.pdf;

-       Elsevier. Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK). https://www.elsevier.com/editor/perk;

-       Elsevier. Publishing Ethics. https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics;

-       Elsevier. Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication. https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics;

-       International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, ICMJE (https://www.icmje.org/);

-       Council of Science Editors (https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/);

-       The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/);

-       Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.en).

The ethical standards of publication in the titles published by Medical University of Varna are adopted by the Committee on Research Ethics at the Medical University of Varna. The ethical principles are generally focused on the duties and responsibilities of the published authors, the journal editors and the reviewers of the proposed manuscripts.

An approval of the research by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements, “World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/)”, "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals.pdf)", and “International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guiding_principles_2012.pdf)”, is required. Authors will be asked to provide ethical approval in order to proceed to the review process. If they cannot provide ethical approval, their manuscript will be rejected and also their institutions will be informed that such studies must have ethics committee approval. If they provide approval, review of the manuscript will continue. For articles concerning research on humans, a statement should be included that shows that informed consent of participants in the study was obtained. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports and clinical images. The Journal may request a copy of the ethics committee approval. 

Withdrawal Policy

Manuscripts may be withdrawn before the first round of review by submitting a written request to the Editorial Office, signed by all authors, and mentioning the reason for withdrawal. After receiving the request, the Editorial Board will consider the reasons of withdrawal. In case of an acceptable reason, the author is allowed to withdraw the manuscript. When the reason is not well explained or acceptable, the Journal will not accept any manuscripts from the same author for the next 12 months. When a manuscript has taken more than 4 months to complete the first round of review, the authors are allowed to withdraw the manuscript. Authors must not assume that their manuscript has been withdrawn until they have received appropriate notification from the Editorial Office.