Guide for Reviewers

The quarterly medical journal Hippokratia is a forum for medical scientists. Its official language is English and publishes articles on basic, clinical and epidemiological research, as well as interesting case reports and letters to the Editor. Due to economic reasons there are no free from charge pages in Hippokratia Journal any more. Hippokratia journal will consider for publication:

  1. Editorial and invited articles.
  2. Review articles. These should be written by experts on the subject. The subject of the review should be treated in a chronological order of its developments and emphasis should be placed on the most recent ones. They must include an abstract, which should be less than 300 words long. The article should be no more than 5 printed pages long (4000 words) including references.
  3. Original articles. These should be of experimental, clinical or epi­demiological character. They should include: a structured abstract, introduction, in which the recent developments on the subject of the research and the reason for the undertaken study should be reported; description of the Material and Methods; report of the Results; and Discussion, which should include the conclusions of the study. The article should be no more than 4 printed pages long (3200 words) including references.
  4. Case series: They should be less than two printed pages (1600 words) including references.
  5. Case Reports. Rare clinical cases with interesting presentation, diag­nosis or treatment should be described in them. They should include Abstract; short Introduction, Description of case, and a short Discus­sion (focused on the rarity and the unique features of the reported case).
  6. Letters to the Editor should be concise and less than 500 words (no figures).

The editorial board of the journal has the right to publish the abstracts of Congresses, Seminars etc. All reported clinical trials must have been registered in an international Clinical Trial Registry, and the registration number must be provided. Reports of randomised trials must conform to the revised CONSORT guidelines, and should be submitted with their protocols. Randomised trials that report harms must be described according to the extended CONSORT guidelines. Studies of diagnostic accuracy must be report­ed according to the STARD guidelines. Observational studies (cohort, case–control, or cross-sectional designs) must be reported according to the STROBE statement. Genetic association studies must be reported according to the STREGA guidelines. Systematic reviews and meta­analyses must be reported according to the PRISMA guidelines.

The editorial board of Hippokratia adheres to the principles of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE).The editor-in-chief has full authority over the editorial and scientific content of the journal and the timing of publication of the content.

Manuscripts are submitted via email to the journal’s secretary or the Editor-in-chief or via the electronic submission system at the site of the journal. If needed, format changes are requested by the secretary and the manuscript is assigned by the section Editor to two independent expert reviewers.

All articles submitted for publication are reviewed for their

  • originality,
  • importance,
  • methodology,
  • quality,
  • ethical compliance and,
  • suitability for the journal readership

Once a reviewer is assigned with a manuscript and accepts it, there is a three week interval for his/her review (a review form accompanies the anonymous manuscript). If the reviewers have any potential competing interests, they must notify the editor before agreeing to review a submission. When the section Editor receives both the reviews, he/she contacts the corresponding author with the reviewers’ opinion; should the two reviews differ significantly, the section Editor either assigns the manuscript to a third expert reviewer or to an Editor for an editorial blinded review.

Authors are given two to three weeks to revise their manuscript. Should the reviewer ask for corrections, the revised manuscript is returned to the same reviewer for the second review. There is a two week interval for the second review. All communication is done through emails and is double blinded to authors and reviewers – a serial number is allocated to every manuscript and all correspondence quote this number.

Hippokratia journal is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. Editors will act in accordance with the relevant international rules of publication ethics (i.e., COPE guidelines, WAME resources, ORI) if ethical misconduct is suspected. Quality assurance procedures are carried out for plagiarism, duplicate publication and gifted authorship issues and for manuscripts submitted by members of the Editorial Board, the Advisory Committee or the reviewers of Hippokratia journal. Quality assurance procedures are also carried out for pending reviewed or revised manuscripts to ensure for correspondence failure.

The editorial board of the journal further encourages reviewers to comment on possible research or publication misconduct such as unethical research design, duplication, plagiarism, etc. Plagiarism is a serious problem and the most common ethical issue afflicting medical writing. Hippokratia does not allow any form of plagiarism. In accordance with our journal policy, submitted manuscripts are screened with plagiarism software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text at least two times (during the evaluation process and after acceptance). If the reviewers have any suspicions, the editors can provide them information obtained by plagiarism screening tools.

An approval of research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements (Helsinki Declaration of 1964, last amended 2008, and “Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals“) is required for all experimental and clinical and drug trial studies. For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that shows informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. All recognizable photographs of a patient must be accompanied by written permission from the patient for reproduction. Procedures that were performed to eliminate any pain, harm and distress in subjects/animals should clearly be stated. The authors should clearly state their compliance with internationally accepted guidelines and the guidelines issued by the relevant authority of their country.

Hippokratia journal wants reviewers to treat the manuscripts in confidence. The material of the manuscripts must not be used or shared in any way until they have been published. Hippokratia journal follows the COPE flowchart in cases of suspected reviewer misconduct. Please refer to COPE ethical guidelines for peer reviewers for “Basic principles to which peer reviewers should adhere” and “Expectations from reviewers”.

Hippokratia Journal uses bibliographic databases and also accepts authors’ suggestions to find new reviewers. The journal thanks the reviewers with a letter from the editor-in-chief yearly.

If the reviewers have further queries, they may go through the “Instructions to Authors“. They can also use the questions below, when reviewing the manuscripts:

  • Please state any conflict(s) of interest that you have in relation to the review of this manuscript (state “none” if this is not applicable).
  • Do you suspect any research or publication misconduct? If yes, please indicate in detail.
  • Does the manuscript contain new and significant information to justify publication?
  • Is the title of the article appropriate?
  • Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the article?
  • Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
  • Are the methods described comprehensively?
  • Is the results section clear and satisfactory?
  • Are the interpretations and conclusions justified by the results?
  • Is adequate and current reference made to other work in the field?
  • Is the language acceptable?
  • Please rate the priority for publishing this article (1 is the highest priority, 10 is the lowest priority).
  • Is the appropriate terminology used in the text?
  • Is it sufficient that figures and/or tables?
  • Is it necessary to shorten the article?