Editorial Policy

Editorial Responsibilities

The International Editorial Board (including the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and the Expanded Editorial Board) of Acta Medico-Biotechnica (AMB) reserves the right to determine whether a submitted manuscript is suitable for peer review, requires changes to content, length, or language, and is ultimately acceptable for publication.

All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter containing the name, affiliation, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author(s). The letter must include a statement affirming that:

  • The work has been approved by all co-authors.
  • The work has not been published previously, in whole or in part.
  • The manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with these requirements.

Editors are committed to upholding the highest standards of editorial independence and integrity. Decisions are based solely on the manuscript’s academic merit, relevance to the journal’s scope, and adherence to ethical standards, regardless of authors’ race, gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, or political beliefs.

Peer Review Process

Each submitted manuscript undergoes an initial editorial screening by the Editor-in-Chief. If deemed appropriate for the journal, it proceeds to a double-blind peer review by at least two experts in the relevant field. Reviewers are selected by the Editor-in-Chief, with possible support from the Editorial Board.

  • Up to two rounds of peer review are conducted.
  • Based on reviewers’ evaluations, the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision regarding publication.
  • Authors are informed of the decision (acceptance, revision, or rejection) within three months of submission.
  • Reviewer comments are communicated to the authors, including reasons for rejection when applicable.
  • Final acceptance is conditional on addressing all revisions requested by the reviewers and editorial staff.
  • All accepted articles undergo professional English editing and proofreading. Titles and abstracts are additionally proofread in Slovenian for parallel publication.

The journal does not charge submission or publication fees.

Appeals: Authors may appeal editorial decisions by contacting the Editor-in-Chief with a detailed justification. Appeals are considered carefully, but do not guarantee reversal of the decision.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers are expected to:

  • Treat all manuscripts as confidential documents.
  • Provide objective, constructive, and evidence-based evaluations.
  • Avoid personal criticism of the authors.
  • Declare any conflicts of interest (e.g., financial, institutional, personal, or collaborative).
  • Decline to review if they lack the necessary expertise or cannot provide a timely review.

Reviewers must not use unpublished material disclosed in a manuscript for their own research without the author’s explicit written consent.

Author Responsibilities

Authors are required to:

  • Ensure that their submission follows the Instructions for Authors available on the journal website.
  • Confirm that the work is original and free from plagiarism, data fabrication, or falsification.
  • Properly cite and reference prior work.
  • Disclose all potential conflicts of interest.
  • Provide information about funding sources that supported the research.
  • Submit all data, figures, and methods transparently and accurately.

Data availability: Authors are encouraged to deposit their underlying research data in open repositories, where appropriate, and provide a Data Availability Statement in the manuscript.

Authorship: All authors must have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission.

Ethical and Legal requirements

  • All human studies must include a statement confirming approval by the relevant ethics committee and compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964, as revised). It must be explicitly stated that informed consent was obtained from all participants.
  • Studies involving animals must include a statement confirming compliance with EU Directive 2010/63/EU and local institutional guidelines, as well as approval by the appropriate ethics committee.
  • Authors must also confirm that their research complies with the principles of responsible scientific communication.

The journal adheres to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follows best practices in addressing allegations of misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate publication, and data manipulation.

Plagiarism screening: All submitted manuscripts are subject to similarity checks using anti-plagiarism software prior to peer review.

Conflict of Interest

A competing interest statement is required for all papers submitted to AMB. If there is no conflict of interest, a statement declaring this must still be included in the paper.

The statement included in the article file must be explicit and unambiguous, describing any potential competing interest (or lack thereof) for EACH contributing author.

In case of no competing interests, the authors are required to include the following statement:
Conflict of Interests
The author(s) declare no competing interests.

Disclaimer

The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and not of the publisher and the Editors. Neither the publisher nor the Editors can accept any legal responsibility for any errors that may be made.

Similarity Check

All submitted manuscripts are screened using the software Detector of Similar Content of the producer University of Maribor, Faculty of Computer and Information Science and iThenticate to check for instances of overlapping or similar text in previously published articles.

Publication Costs

AMB is a journal with open access (Open Access) and does not charge APC (article publication costs). This means that there are no fees for submission, publication or open access.