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Peer review routines in West Kazakhstan Medical Journal

Submission guidelines

1. The authors submit manuscripts signed by all authors by email to the Editorial Office
2. All submitted manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to West Kazakhstan Medical Journal (available on the journal's web-site)
3. A Letter to the Editor should accompanying the manuscript be written according the Journal's guidelines
4. Authors are responsible for the validity of facts, quotations and names mentioned in the manuscripts as well as for the bibliographic data

Reer review

1. All articles submitted to the journal go through a thorough double blind peer-review.
2. The Executive Editor of the Journal registers the manuscript at the Editorial Office.
3. The Executive Editor checks general suitability of the manuscript to the Journal and controls whether the manuscript is written according to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to West Kazakhstan Medical Journal. If the manuscript does not comply with the Requirements, it will be sent back to the authors. A decision on whether the manuscript will go to peer review is reached within 14 days. If the paper is not suitable for publication in the Journal the authors are informed within 30 days.
4. If the manuscript complies with the Requirements it is sent to two reviewers.
5. The Executive Editor sends a check-list to both reviewers to ensure universal structure of their reviews.
6. The reviewers should provide their reviews no later than 60 days after receipt of the manuscript. If the reviewer cannot review the manuscript within this time frame he/she informs the Executive Editor and a new reviewer is assigned to the manuscript.
7. The Executive Editor controls timeliness of the peer review process and reminds the reviewers on deadlines.
8. Reviewers are fully responsible for objective, blind, and quality review of the manuscripts. All information presented in the manuscript is treated as confidential. The reviewers cannot use the information presented in the manuscript for their own purposes. The authors have the right to read full text of the review provided by the reviewer to the Editorial Office. Reviewer's identity can be disclosed only in case of agreement between the journal and the reviewer. Reviews and reviewers' identity can be provided on request to the Higher Attestation Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The following conclusions are expected from the reviewers: "Accept for publication in the present form", "Accept for publication after minor revision" or "Major revision is required with subsequent re-assessment by the same reviewers", "Reject". In case of strong disagreement between reviewers a third reviewer will be assigned.
9. When reviewers recommend rejection, a rejection letter is sent to the authors by the Executive Editor.
10. If reviewers recommend acceptance of the manuscript in its present form, the Executive Editor includes the paper in the publication plan.
11. In case minor or major revision is required, the Executive Editor informs the authors and sends them recommendations provided by the reviewers.
12. When revision is recommended, a revised version of the manuscript with detailed reflection on all comments and criticisms provided by the reviewers is sent to the same reviewers for the second review.
13. The Editorial Office treats all submitted manuscripts confidentially and does not disclose any details on the manuscripts on request with the exception of the Editorial Board, corresponding author and reviewers assigned to the manuscript.
14. The Executive Editor informs the authors about the results of the peer review process.
15. If the manuscript is rejected, the Executive Editor provides a letter to the corresponding author with the reasons for refusal of the manuscript.
16. Reviews ae stored at the Editorial Office and are kept for 5 years from the date of publication of the paper.
17. Manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Office are not returned to the authors. This also applies to the manuscripts which were rejected.
18. All communication with the authors is performed only through a corresponding author.
19. The authors may request the information about the status of the manuscript by email to the Editorial Office.
20. The Editorial Board reserves the right to edit manuscripts without changing the content.
21. When necessary, the Editorial Office has the right to make minor changes to the language of the abstract different from the main text of the manuscript. Abstracts for papers submitted in English will be translated into Kazakh and Russian by the Editorial Office if the authors are not proficient in these languages.
22. All submitted manuscripts are automatically checked for plagiarism.