Misiak Marek, Kurpas Donata
Managing editor of Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University Press, Poland.
Division of Scientific Research Methodology, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland.
Adv Clin Exp Med. 2025 Jun;34(6):861-869. doi: 10.17219/acem/205025.
Instructions for authors issues by editorial offices of scientific journals require periodical critical analysis in order to maintain their clarity and understandability. In this editorial, selected aspects of such guidelines published issued by Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine were reappraised by the editors of this journal - regulations concerning financial disclosure and conflict of interest, as well as acknowledgements, equal contribution of 2 or more authors, tables, figures, and references were discussed. Reasons for chosen rules were provided - those which (based on editors' experience and expertise) may not seem obvious to authors - e.g., why equal contribution is permitted, while co-first authorship is not. Multiple examples of papers fulfilling the analyzed rules in a copybook fashion were provided. In Conclusions, it was briefly discussed whether some of the rules specified in instructions for authors could be enforced only after acceptance for publication (e.g., when numeration of tables and figures is concerned or rules regarding acknowledgements). In this section, it was also explained why other rules listed above should be fulfilled before the peer review commences, for 3 reasons: 1) information about funding sources and conflict of interest is crucial for the ethical integrity of the whole work and cannot be added at a later stage; 2) Satisfactory quality of tables and figures is a prerequisite for peer review; 3) Resolving many issues after acceptance would be cumbersome (e.g., reducing the number of tables or figures) or at least significantly extend the time required for editing.
科学期刊编辑部发布的作者须知需要定期进行批判性分析，以保持其清晰度和易懂性。在这篇社论中，《临床与实验医学进展》发布的此类指南的选定方面由本期刊的编辑重新评估——讨论了关于财务披露和利益冲突的规定，以及致谢、两位或更多作者的同等贡献、表格、图表和参考文献。给出了所选规则的理由——那些（基于编辑的经验和专业知识）作者可能不太明白的理由——例如，为什么允许同等贡献，而不允许共同第一作者身份。提供了多篇完美符合分析规则的论文实例。在结论部分，简要讨论了作者须知中规定的一些规则是否只能在论文被接受发表后才能执行（例如，涉及表格和图表编号或致谢规则时）。在这一部分，还解释了为什么上述其他规则应在同行评审开始前遵守，原因有三点：1）关于资金来源和利益冲突的信息对整个工作的道德完整性至关重要，不能在后期添加；2）表格和图表的质量令人满意是同行评审的前提条件；3）接受后解决许多问题会很麻烦（例如，减少表格或图表数量），或者至少会显著延长编辑所需的时间。
