The publisher of our journal has been changed. As of January 2022, Balkan Medical Journal started working with GALENOS. We will continue to use the same online manuscript tracking system (Manuscript Manager). However, there have been some changes to our website. We wanted to inform all our authors, readers, and reviewers.
The effort to maintain the editorial freedom has posed distinct challenges arising from regional dynamics in the Balkan region, as in any part of the world. For a journal to be successful in the international arena, reasonably organized managerial processes are required. Clear definitions of work packages, workflows, duties and responsibilities, and assignment and dismissal criteria are essential for the transparency of managerial processes. The journal’s owner, editor-in-chief, editorial board, publisher, and authors effectively communicating with each other within the framework of rules will prevent chaotic and destructive conflicts that may harm the reputation and its mission.
The attempt to establish a legal regulation, an agreement between the owner and the editor, and an ombudsman began approximately five years ago for Balkan Medical Journal. Throughout this process, the journal’s management has endeavored to consult the opinions of the journal’s owner and the university legal regulation committee to establish a legal regulation for the journal that is ethical, practical, sustainable, and conforms to the national laws and international scientific values. We believe the journal legal regulation, finalized in January 2019 and presented below, serves as a role model for all scientific circles and the Balkans and will contribute to the advancement of institutional scientific publications of medicine in the region.
The journal’s editorial board extends its gratitude to all current and past employees, the Dean’s of the Faculty of Medicine of Trakya University, and to the current rectorate of Trakya University for their valuable contributions and encouragement to building the development of the journal legal regulation to protect editorial freedom and provide successful journal management of all Trakya University scientific journals.
Balkan Medical Journal follows ICMJE recommendations. The ICMJE require authors to submit a data-sharing statement for randomized clinical trials. Authors must provide a data-sharing notification to indicate whether data will be shared. According to ICMJE “Data sharing statements must indicate the following: whether individual deidentified participant data (including data dictionaries) will be shared; what data in particular will be shared; whether additional, related documents will be available (e.g., study protocol, statistical analysis plan, etc.); when the data will become available and for how long; by what access criteria data will be shared (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism)” (for details: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html). Balkan Medical Journal require authors to submit a data-sharing statement and register a data-sharing plan when registering a clinical trial on or after Jan 1, 2019.
Balkan Medical Journal is pleased to announce the launch of a new online manuscript Submission system, Manuscript Manager.
The Manuscript Manager peer review system is a product of Akron ApS, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. They have more than 15 years of experience in working with peer review software for academic organizations. Some of the benefits of the new system include a user-friendly platform, no requirement of technical support or installation costs, and easy customization for your journal.
All processes related to the new article submission and review process should be made through the new online submission system available at https://www.manuscriptmanager.net/sLib/v4/login.php?paramScreen=FJ9enn8VfEwHq0NyAL1P9XnBjILxf94k4KO4DTwavsc=. For detailed instructions on using Manuscript Manager, please visit the website at https://manuscriptmanager.com/site/.
We, Editorial team of Balkan Medical Journal, are happy to announce the new policy (Sex/gender reporting) for Balkan Medical Journal (Kocak Z). As a result of this accepted policy, we decided to follow the SAGER guide (SAGER guideline).
Authors are strongly recommended to use the terms sex (for reporting biological factors) and gender (for reporting identity, psychosocial, or cultural factors) correctly. We encourage all authors to analyze and report sex/gender differences in their research, where appropriate.
Editors of Balkan Medical Journal are thrilled to be part of global efforts to improve the reporting and evaluation of sex and gender differences in scientific research. We hope that our editors, reviewers and authors will quickly adopt this guide and contribute to a better science and health outcome.
The 14th EASE Conference was held in Bucharest, Romania, 8-10 June, 2018 in partnership with the University of Bucharest. The theme for the event was “Balancing Innovation and Tradition in Science Editing”.
There were 140 participants from all over the World. Twenty-one editors attended this conference from Turkey. Balkan Medical Journal was represented by ten editors.
Three presentations were made by Balkan Medical Journal Editors. Professor Uzun made two speeches titled “Editing small scientific journals in local, regional, or English languages: Experience of Trakya University Journals” and “Improving your journal: teamwork experience of a small medical journal”. Prof Erdag made a speech under the title of “The pros and cons of bilingual publication”.
Six of twelve posters presented at the conference were from Trakya University. The Balkan Medical Journal was represented on two posters of Professor Koçak and Professor Uzun; “Assessment of scientific indicators of general medicine journals in the Balkan Region”(Zafer Kocak & Necdet Sut) and “Can individual back-translation with or without copyediting avoid technical plagiarism? A study with Turkish medical authors”(Cem Uzun, Ozgur Gunduz, and Necdet Sut).
The other good news was that the best medical category poster award went to Kadri Kiran from Trakya University (“Compliance analysis of journals published by Trakya University with principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing”).
We believe that participation in this EASE conference contributed to international cooperation between the Balkan editors and the journals.
Professor Dr. Cem Uzun, Editor-at-Large of Balkan Medical Journal, was elected as a Member of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) Council at the meeting held on 10 March 2018. For the first time in the history of EASE, founded in 1982, Turkish Scientist was selected for the EASE Council.
In his statement on the issue "Our efforts in terms of scientific publications in Turkey and the Balkan countries was an important factor in this appointment. We aim to promote, raise awareness, coordinate and contribute to the development of scientific publishing in the Balkan countries," Professor Uzun said.
Professor Uzun will perform this task between 2018 and 2021.
The quality improvement workshop for official journals of Trakya University was held on November 16-17, 2017 at Trakya University. The workshop for editors of eleven journals was conducted in collaboration with the Balkan Medical Journal.
The opening speeches were made by Professor Cem Uzun, the president of the workshop and Editor-at-Large of Balkan Medical Journal, and Professor Erhan Tabakoğlu, Rector of Trakya University.
Editors of Balkan Medical Journal shared their experiences with other Journal’s editors. Following topics were presented and discussed;
At the end of the last year, we, editorial team, decided to redesign our website to better serve our readers, reviewers and authors. After much hard work, we are excited to officially announce the new and improved Balkan Medical Journal website. You can now reach us at http://balkanmedicaljournal.org/
We thought that it was important to renew the website to reach a wider audience. So, we wanted to have good, clear, easy-to-follow navigation throughout our website. The new website will remain both open access and free of article processing charges. We hope that the website will respond better to our readers’ needs and interests.
Key features of the new website include:
We would like to thank our publisher, Galenos Publishing House, for their tremendous support and effort. For any questions, suggestions, feedback or comments, please contact us via E-mail.
Zafer Koçak
Editor in Chief, Balkan Medical Journal
Department of Radiation Oncology, Trakya University School of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey
Çetin Hakan Karadağ
Web Editor, Balkan Medical Journal
Department of Pharmacology, Trakya University School of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey
“Edirne Editor Workshop and Balkan Panel on Publication Ethics”, the 15th training events of Balkan Medical Journal took place on February 13 and 14, 2015 respectively. The meetings received the participation of numerous journal editors and researchers from Turkey and the Balkans. The Event kicked off on 13.02.2015 with the keynote speech Prof. Yener YÖRÜK, MD the Honorary Chairman and the Rector of Trakya University.
The first session saw the Editor Workshop, where the session chairman Prof. Dr. Okan ÇALIYURT read the curriculum vitae of the Honorary Guest Speaker and Instructor Prof. Ana MARUŠIĆ, MD, PhD Split University, Split, Croatia (Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Global Health and Former Editor-in-Chief, Croatian Medical Journal), who was invited to give her speech titled “Publishing small and scholarly journals - challenges and opportunities”. The event proceeded with the official guest speaker and instructor Ksenija BAŽDARIĆ, BA, PhD, Rijeka University, Rijeka, Croatia (Editor-in-Chief, European Science Editing and Research Integrity Editor, Croatian Medical Journal) reading her curriculum vitae and taking the stage for her speech. She then gave her speech titled “Ethical standards in journal publishing”. Following the lunch break, Prof. MARUŠIĆ once again took the stage to give her another speech titled “Increasing visibility of journals: impact and promotion”. The matter was discussed in details with questions from the audience.
The panel commenced at 14.40 with the participation of numerous researchers and academicians where the ethical issues of scientific publication in the Balkans were tabled under the title “How to decrease publication misconduct in the Balkans?” led by Prof. Ana MARUŠIĆ, Ksenija BAŽDARIĆ, Assoc. Prof. Stefanos TRIARIDIS, MD, MSc, PhD, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece (Editor-in-Chief, Hippokratia) and Prof. Cem UZUN, MD (Symposium Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Balkan Medical Journal).
The sessions on 14 February 2015 started with the Session Chairman Prof. Dr. Mustafa İNAN inviting Prof. MARUŠIĆ to give a presentation titled “Working with authors and reviewers”, which was followed by the interactive meetings held by Prof. MARUŠIĆ and Dr. BAŽDARIĆ on the subject “Journal Clinic: Critical assessment of journals edited by participants”. In this session, the strengths and weaknesses of Balkan Medical Journal were tabled and assessed.
The closing ceremony saw the participants receiving certificates and conclusion of the meetings.
YouTube channel “Balkan Medical Journal”, playlist
“Edirne Editor Workshop & Balkan Panel on Publication Ethics”:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv90DaNAM3dcMdeDwHzGWG3x1gOO89JEG
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