The Central Asian Journal of Medical Hypotheses and Ethics (CAJMHE) is an online-only platinum open-access peer-reviewed journal in the fields of medicine and health policy. The issues are published quarterly in March, June, September and December. The Journal is funded and published by South Kazakhstan Medical Academy. Submissions in English, Kazakh and Russian languages from researchers working in medicine and allied fields of science are welcome.

The aim of the CAJMHE is to help scientific authors from Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries formulate and structure their hypotheses, plan their research studies, and consider related aspects of research and publication ethics. The journal editors will promote the published works through available open-access platforms and social media channels to attract attention of the global readership and guide the authors further.

The Journal’s scope of interests encompasses research topics related to medicine and health care in the Central Asian region. Submissions presenting innovative and evidence-based approaches to examining theoretical and practical issues of common diseases, drug therapies, health care and medical education are prioritized. Perspectives on research and publication ethics in the region and beyond are welcome. Relevance of the submissions to the global readership will be also considered.

The Journal’s editorial team consists of highly skilled researchers, research managers, and journal editors who are ready to help their authors publish valuable and potentially impactful articles.

The responsible editors will try their best to closely cooperate with global indexing services and relevant professional societies to increase visibility of the published works.

Article types

The Journal publishes the following types of articles: narrative reviews with search strategies, systematic reviews, expert opinion, original research, case studies with extensive literature reviews (case-based reviews), interviews with experts, meeting reports, letters, and video articles. Review articles presenting a new hypothesis should contain the following sections: 1. General knowledge about the topic; 2. Available evidence on the topic; 3. Working hypothesis; 4. Plan for further research and implementation.      

The Journal editors encourage its authors to familiarize with the following documents prior to the submission of their manuscripts:

• Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals
• The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines

Language, preparation and formatting of manuscripts

The CAJMHE is a multilingual journal. However, well-edited submissions in either British or American English are strongly encouraged to attract attention of researchers from other countries in the region and beyond and strengthen their research and academic collaboration. Mixture of the language styles in a single article is unacceptable. It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that their manuscripts are substantively edited and corrected. The Journal editors will check readability of the submissions; they may suggest either editing by the authors/their editors prior to sending to the reviewers or reject outright based on poor readability. No substantive editing services will be offered by the Journal.

While editing their manuscripts, the authors should avoid copying any sentences or larger passages of text and graphics from published works. They should also ensure referring to highly relevant literature items, primarily those retrieved from multidisciplinary bibliographic databases, such as Scopus and Web of Science. Referring to each scientific fact requires at least one reference. At the same time, multiple examples of similar references (more than 3) are not acceptable. Referring to primary rather than secondary literature sources is advisable. The authors are advised to adhere to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

The Journal requires citing and referencing in line with the Vancouver style and guidance of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The following tips on citing are also helpful.

How to cite and format reference lists

References are cited in the text numerically in square brackets (e.g., [1, 2, 3]) and presented at the end of the manuscript in chronological order – those cited first are listed at top of the list. The reference lists include only items discussed in the text. The authors should be familiar with contents of all cited items and ensure that all these items can be found in the Reference lists. 

Full bibliographic information on a reference should include author name(s), article title, source title as in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) of the US Catalog.

Bibliographic information on a journal article includes author’s surname followed by no more than 2 initials. If there is more than 1 author, all authors’ names should be separated by commas and spaces. For manuscripts with up to 6 authors, all authors should be listed. In a case of more 6 authors, the first 6 authors are listed and then et al. is added. Only the first word of the article title and words that normally begin with a capital letter are capitalized.

Examples of references:

• Journal article
  Gasparyan AY, Akazhanov NA, Voronov AA, Kitas GD. Systematic and open identification of researchers and authors: focus on open researcher and contributor ID. J Korean Med Sci 2014;29(11):1453–1456.
• Book
• Hong GD, Kim C, Park J. JKMS Reference Style: a Guide for Authors. 5th ed. Seoul, Korea: Daehakro Press; 2017.
• Web source
• Read the Budapest Open Access initiative. [Updated 2002]. [Accessed April 16, 2019].

Tables should be sent in a separate file, in a Word format. Tips on Table formatting.

Figures should be presented at high resolution (at least 300 dpi), each one in a separate PowerPoint file. Tips on Figure formatting are presented.

The authors should avoid using abbreviations in the titles. Abbreviations in the text should be explained when mentioned first. Confusing abbreviations should be avoided (e.g., Open Access [OA], Osteoarthritis [OA]).

The manuscripts should consist of the following parts:

Title

Structured abstract (Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion)

Author keywords (preferably relevant 4-6 keywords from the Medical Subject Headings [MeSH]). The structured keywords can be retrieved at MeSH in PubMed.

ORCID iDs of all co-authors with full information about correct first, middle and last names, biographical notes, publications and other academic commitments

Abbreviations

Main text

Author contributions in line with the ICMJE 4 authorship criteria

Acknowledgements

Conflicts of interest disclosures

Funding

Ethics approval and written informed consents statements

References

Tables

Figure legends

Research reporting guidelines to consult

While structuring their manuscripts, the authors are asked to consult the following main research reporting guidelines:

PRISMA

STROBE

CARE

ARRIVE

Editorial recommendations 

The editors of the Journal regularly consult recommendations of global editorial associations to revise their Journal editorial policies. The authors are also advised to familiarize with the following recommendations for improving the quality of the manuscripts and adhering to the updated ethical standards:

ICMJE recommendations

CSE’s White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications

Core practices (COPE)

Internal and external peer review policy

All submissions are checked by the Editor-in-Chief, scientific consultant, and at least 2 external reviewers prior to a publication decision. Reviewers are invited by the Editor-in-Chief based on their previous academic contributions and other characteristics. The reviewers should consider the following ethical guidelines.

The Journal operates double-blind peer review model (reviewer and author identities are blinded). The 1^st round of the peer review lasts approximately 3 weeks.

Research ethics

The authors are required to report in the Methods section of their original research papers ethics approval protocol number, date and name of the approving institution. A statement about written informed consent should accompany any study involving humans. The ethics approval of a longitudinal and archival study should be dated prior to the start of the research.  Studies involving human subjects should meet the requirements of the WMA Declaration of Helsinki. The privacy of human subjects involved in the research studies should be observed. Case studies of patients should not disclose their identity. Animal experimentation requires adherence to globally recognized guidelines.

Authorship criteria and authors’ contribution details

The Journal editors endorse principles of integrity and visibility of pre- and post-publication communications presented by the Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and Visibility of Scholarly Publications. In line with the Declaration, the authors are advised to register freely with the Open Researcher and Contributor iD (ORCID) and list their informative ORCID iDs in their submissions.

The following authorship criteria endorsed by the ICMJE are acceptable.

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND

4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Non-author contributions, particularly external language editing support and statistical analyses, require acknowledgements.

Conflicts of interest disclosures

The authors are responsible for full disclosures of any financial and non-financial conflicts of interest that may compromise the trustworthiness of their manuscripts. Related disclosure should appear before References of the manuscripts. The authors should familiarize themselves with the ICMJE statement on conflict of interest and submit along with the manuscript the filled conflict of interest forms for all co-authors.

Funding

The authors should provide full information about any related sponsorship or funding of their research and reviews papers.

Plagiarism and related preventive procedures

The editors check all submissions for text and graphics plagiarism using the following online platforms: iThenticate, Google images. The authors of reviews will be asked to ensure that all parts of their manuscripts are free of any copied texts, graphics, and ideas. They will be also requested to add Disclaimer stating that no part of the manuscript is copied or published elsewhere.

Ethical considerations for duplicate and secondary publications and retractions

Submission of articles already published in whole or in part elsewhere is unacceptable. The editors may consider secondary (ethical) publication of highly valuable articles of great interest to the Journal readership (with official permissions of primary and secondary document publishers); the adherence to related guidance of global editorial associations will be considered. 

Corrections will be published by the editors in a case of detecting minor mistakes in the published articles. Major errors, lack of ethics approval for original research, substantive plagiarism, research misconduct, and other violations of research and publication ethics will require retractions in line with the retraction guidelines of the COPE.

Copyright and distribution licenses

The authors of the Journal retain copyright and allow the publisher to publish their manuscript as a primary article. All the published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons attribution license, which permits freely copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format, remix, transform, and build upon the material for commercial and non-commercial purposes. The authors may share and distribute their works provided a proper reference is given to the primary publication.

Open-access publication and charges

The Journal editors adhere to the latest recommendations on transparency and best practice open-access publishing. The following document is consulted on a regular basis for updating the journal website and editorial policies:

Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (updated January 2018).

The Journal employs the platinum open access model; there are no processing or publication charges for the authors. Our readers can access published articles freely. All contents are available fully and immediately upon publication.

The following landmark declarations are enforced by the Journal editors:

• Budapest Open Access Initiative
• Berlin Declaration of Open Access
• Bethesda Statement on Open-Access Publishing

Archiving

The Journal will be archived at digital repositories and national archives in Central Asian countries. All copies of the Journal are archived by the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan and reposited at the repository of South Kazakhstan Medical Academy.

Promotion through social media channels

The authors are encouraged to reposit their published articles on ResearchGate and share related information through social media channels, particularly Twitter and Facebook.

Editorial independence

The CAJMHE is funded by South Kazakhstan Medical Academy and runs its editorial office at the following address: Al-Farabi square, 1/1, Shymkent 160019, South Kazakhstan; Tel: (87252) 39-31-41; Email: marlen-forex@inbox.ru

The editors, however, provide opportunities for publication of submissions from other academic institutions in other cities and countries. The article selection procedure is based on the quality, ethics and readability. The Journal editors’ independent editorial policy is fully in line with related statements of the World Association of Medical Editors (http://wame.org/editorial-independence).