Aim and Scope

The "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" is a peer-reviewed scientific and practical journal published since 2002.

The aim of the journal is to enhance the level of professional knowledge of the target audience and to encourage the veterinary physicians to get the postgraduate education using the advanced freely available information space for modern scientific research and practical activity in the field of veterinary medicine, as well as to present and summarize the knowledge about the main trends of the Russian and world veterinary science and practice development and to draw the attention of the scientific community to the veterinary medicine topical problems and innovative developments.

The journal aims to reveal the results of the research, scientific, practical and innovative work of the professionals in the field of veterinary medicine and biotechnology, to have an open scientific discussion fostering enhancement of the quality of scientific research and education as well as the efficiency of scientific papers’ evaluation. The journal strives to develop the interdisciplinary research that contributes to the veterinary medicine progress.

The journal presents the results of the most significant fundamental and applied research, provides the scientific reviews, popularizes the cases from clinical practice that have scientific-factual, expedient value, publishes the materials on the history of veterinary medicine. The Editorial Office of the journal always strives to extend the geographic representation of the authors and encourages co-authorship of foreign and Russian scientists in writing the articles.

The subject area of the journal is the veterinary medicine of companion and wild animals and related topics: animal feeding and keeping; breeding and reintroduction of animals; biotechnology.

The target audience of the journal are the scientists engaged in the fundamental and applied research in the field of general and veterinary virology, epizootology, immunology, mycology, mycotoxicology, bacteriology, parasitology, biotechnology; veterinary general practitioners, veterinary specialists, veterinary residents, laboratory animal veterinarians and specialists of the state veterinary services; teachers of veterinary science higher education institutions, postgraduate and undergraduate higher education students.

The authors of the articles are practicing veterinary physicians, research associates and teachers of the educational and research institutions, postgraduate students and applicants for the academic degree of candidate and doctor of science, students of veterinary science universities guided by the academic supervisors.

The journal is always open to new developments. Articles are accepted in Russian language and undergo a peer-review procedure.

An international peer-reviewed scientific and practical journal the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology” is registered by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Extract from the Register of Registered Mass Media ЭЛ № ФС 77 – 85552 of June 27, 2023 – online publication). Publication Frequency – 4 issues per year. Territory of journal distribution – Russian Federation, foreign countries.

Journal Editor-in-Chief – Dr.Sci. (Biology), Professor, Alexey M. Ermakov.

Section Policies

Parasitology

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Animal pathology, morphology, physiology, pharmacology and toxicology

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Sanitation, hygiene, ecology, veterinary and sanitary examination and biosafety

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Zootechnics, feeding, technologies of feed preparation and livestock products production

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Infectious diseases and animal immunology

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Animal breeding, selection, genetics and biotechnology

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Publication Frequency

4 issues per year (March 30, June 30, September 30, December 30) 

Open Access Policy

The Journal provides open access to the full text of articles based on the following principle — free open access to research results contributes to an increase in the global exchange of scientific knowledge.

Archiving

• Russian State Library (RSL)
• National Electronic-Information Consortium (NEICON)

Peer Review Process

All articles submitted to the Editorial Office of the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" undergo mandatory double anonymous ("double-blind") independent peer-review implying that the reviewers are not familiar with the authors, are independent from the authors and are not affiliated with the same institution as the authors.

The Editorial Office shall nominate the reviewers, who have the sufficient research experience in the subject area stated in the article, have publications within the last 3 years on the topic of the article under peer-review, have an academic degree, have no affiliation with the same organisation as the authors, and have no recent joint publications with any of them. The decision to nominate a particular expert for peer-reviewing an article is made by the Editor-in-Chief. The Editorial Office undertakes the responsibility to provide the reviewers who are not affiliated with the authors and their organisations.

The purpose of peer-reviewing is to help the Editorial Board to make a decision on publication, enhance the quality of an article through interaction with the author.

Manuscripts are sent for peer-reviewing after passing the initial stage of checking for compliance with the subject matter and established rules of the journal.

Each submitted manuscript is peer-reviewed according to the following criteria:

• rationale of the scientific hypothesis in the work, its novelty and relevance;
• appropriate research level;
• verification of results;
• depth of disclosure;
• rationale of conclusions and findings;
• adherence to the scientific style;
• literacy and consistency of presentation;
• correct layout.

Manuscript Processing Procedure:

• the authors submit the manuscripts online via their personal accounts on the journal website;
• a letter confirming the receipt of a manuscript is sent to an author;
• a manuscript is verified for compliance with the subject matter, established journal requirements and checked against plagiarism;
• manuscripts that do not pass the verification are rejected: a letter is sent to an author stating the reason for the rejection;
• manuscripts that pass the verification are sent for peer-review;
• a reviewer evaluates a manuscript and completes a peer-review form (guidelines for a reviewer); all questions and comments of a reviewer are to be agreed with an author;

Based on the reviewers' comments, the Editorial Office makes a decision:

• to accept a manuscript without further refining;
• to accept after minor refining: an author is given the right to correct a manuscript in accordance with the reviewers' questions and comments, or to contradict them;
• to send a manuscript to an author proposing to revise it significantly and undergo the procedure of re-evaluation and repeated peer-review;
• to reject a manuscript;
• to forward a manuscript for technical editing, correction of grammar and stylistic errors, etc. (carried out in contact with an author).

Peer-reviewing includes the following stages:

• preliminary evaluation by the editors of the quality of the layout of the materials, verifying the compliance of the subject matter of an article with the scientific specialties of the journal (no more than 2 working days after uploading the manuscript to the database);
• peer-reviewing (about four weeks);
• refining an article in accordance with the comments of the reviewer(s), re-submission and re-evaluation of the paper (if necessary);
• receipt by the author of a notification on acceptance or rejection of an article indicating the reasons.

Peer- Review Procedure

Nomination of the reviewers is carried out at the discretion of the Editorial Office and is based on reviewers’ competences in the subject area, absence of conflict of interest referring to the research, authors and/or funding sources. If such conflict exists, the reviewers report it to the Editorial Office. Preference is given to the reviewers who evaluate the submitted materials as objectively as possible. At the same time, personal criticism of the author(s) is not allowed. Any manuscripts received for peer-reviewing are treated as confidential documents.

Principles to be followed by the reviewers:

• Agree to peer-review only those manuscripts for which they have the required competences and sufficient time to review.
• Respect confidentiality of peer-reviewing and do not disclose any details of the manuscript or its peer-review form during or after the peer-review process, other than those published in the journal.
• Do not use the information retrieved through peer-reviewing for their own or any other benefits or the organization’s benefits, or to the detriment of the others.
• Declare all potential conflict of interest.
• Do not allow the origin of a manuscript, the nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or other characteristics of the authors, or commercial considerations have influence on a peer-review.
• Be objective and constructive in the peer-reviews, refrain from hostile, provocative, derogatory personal comments, and defamation.
• Bear in mind that peer reviewing is essentially a reciprocal process, and fulfil the role assigned in this process in a timely manner.
• On average, a peer-review process takes about 4 weeks. The timeframe from submission of a manuscript to its publication is on average 90–120 days. 

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1. Publication Ethics

The Editorial Office of the peer-reviewed scientific and practical journal the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology” follows the ethical standards recognized by the international scientific community. The Editorial Office relies on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

1.1. Publication of the materials in the peer-reviewed journals is an easy way of scientific communication, which significantly contributes to the development of the respective field of scientific knowledge. Therefore, for the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" it is important to establish the future standards of ethical behaviour for all the parties involved in the publication, namely: authors, editors, reviewers, the Founder and the scientific community.

1.2. The Founder not only supports the scientific communications and invests in this process, but is also responsible for adherence of a published work to all modern recommendations.

1.3. The Founder undertakes the responsibility to strictly control the scientific materials. Our journal provide an impartial “report” on the development of the scientific and research thought, therefore we are also aware of the responsibility for the proper presentation of these “reports”, particularly with regard to the ethical aspects of publication.

2. Responsibilities of Editors

2.1. The Decision to Publish

The editors of the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology” (Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Executive Editor) are individually and independently responsible for making the decision to publish a paper, often in collaboration with the relevant scientific community.

The credibility of the paper under consideration and its scientific significance should always underlie the decision to publish. The editor may rely on the judgment of the Editorial Board of the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology”, although be limited by the valid legal requirements regarding the defamation, copyright, legitimacy and plagiarism.

The editor may confer with other editors and reviewers (or the scientific community officials) when making a decision to publish a paper.

2.2. Integrity

The editor must evaluate the manuscripts for their intellectual content, regardless of the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, citizenship or political preferences.

2.3. Confidentiality

The editor and the Editorial Board of the scientific and practical journal the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" are obliged not to disclose without necessity the information about the accepted manuscript to anyone except for the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, other scientific advisers and the Founder.

2.4. Disclosure Policy and Conflict of Interest

2.4.1. The unpublished data obtained from the manuscripts submitted for consideration cannot be used in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained during peer-reviewing and associated with the possible advantages must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal benefit.

2.4.2. In case of the conflict of interest resulting from the competitive, collaborative, or other interactions and relationships with the authors, companies and possibly other organisations related to the manuscript, the editors should recuse themselves from considering the manuscripts (i.e., request a co-editor or collaborate with the other members of the Editorial Board for considering the paper instead of peer-reviewing and making decisions themselves).

2.5. Publication Oversight

An editor who has provided the convincing evidence of erroneousness of the statements or conclusions presented in a publication, should notify the Founder (and/or the relevant scientific community) for making a prompt notification about the correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other appropriate statement.

2.6. Engagement and Collaboration in Research

The editor, together with the Founder (or the scientific community), takes appropriate response measures in the event of ethical complaints referring to the considered manuscripts or published materials. Such measures generally include communication with the authors of a manuscript and substantiation of the respective complaint or requirement, but may also imply communication with the respective organisations and research centres.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

3.1. Influence on the Editorial Board Decisions

Peer-reviewing helps the editor to make the decision on publication, and due to appropriate communication with the authors may also assist them to improve the quality of their publications. Peer-reviewing is an essential part of the formal scientific communication, a “core” of the scientific approach. The Founder considers it necessary for the scientists who wish to contribute to publication to take a considerable part in peer-reviewing the manuscript.

3.2. Commitment

Any nominated reviewer feeling insufficiently qualified to review a manuscript or having no enough time to complete the work promptly should notify the editor of the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology” and request to excuse him from peer-reviewing the manuscript in question.

3.3. Confidentiality

Any manuscript received for peer reviewing must be treated as a confidential document. The paper must not be disclosed or discussed with anyone except for those authorized by the editor.

3.4. Manuscript Requirements and Objectivity

A reviewer must provide an objective evaluation of a manuscript. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Reviewers should express their opinions clearly and reasonably.

 3.5. Acknowledgment of Original Sources

The reviewers should identify the papers published in the respective subject area that have not been included into the reference list of a manuscript. In a manuscript, the appropriate reference should be provided to any previously published statement (observation, conclusion, or reason). A reviewer should also draw the editor’s attention to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper within the scope of reviewer’s scientific knowledge.

3.6. Disclosure Policy and Conflict of Interest

3.6.1. Unpublished data obtained from the manuscripts submitted for consideration cannot be used in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained during peer-reviewing and associated with possible advantages must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal benefit.

3.6.2. The reviewers should not participate in consideration of the manuscripts if they have the conflict of interest resulting from the competitive, collaborative, or other interactions or relationships with any of the authors, companies, or other organisations related to the submitted work.

4. Authors' Responsibilities

4.1. Requirements to Manuscripts

4.1.1. The authors of the original research articles should present the credible results of the work performed, as well as an objective discussion of the significance of the research. The data underlying the research should be presented without errors. The paper should contain sufficient details and references to enable research reproduction. False or intentionally erroneous statements are treated as unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

4.1.2. The reviews and research articles should also be accurate and objective, with the authors' views clearly stated.

4.2. Data Access and Retention

The authors may be asked to provide the raw data related to a manuscript for peer-reviewing by editors. The authors should be prepared to open access to such information, where feasible, and in any event be prepared to retain such data for an adequate period of time after publication.

4.3. Originality and Plagiarism

4.3.1. The authors are to make sure that the work they present is entirely original and, in case of using other authors’ works or statements, should provide the appropriate citations or excerpts.

4.3.2. Plagiarism can take many forms, from presenting another person’s work as that of one’s  own to copying or paraphrasing the substantial portions of another person's work (without referring to it) and to claiming the results of another person's research as that of one's own. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behaviour and is unacceptable.

4.4. Multiple, Redundant, and Simultaneous Publications

4.4.1. An author should not publish as an original publication in more than one journal, a manuscript describing for the greater part the same research. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously is treated as unethical behaviour and is unacceptable.

4.4.2. An author should not submit for consideration to another journal an article already published in the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology”.

4.4.3. Publication of the certain types of articles (e.g. clinical guidelines, translated articles) in more than one journal may sometimes be considered ethical if certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned should agree to the secondary publication, which must present the same data and interpretations as the primarily published work.

A reference list of the primary paper should be provided in the secondary publication. Further information on the acceptable forms of secondary (re)publication can be found at www.icmje.org .

4.5. Acknowledgment of Original Sources

The contribution of other persons should always be acknowledged. The authors should cite the publications that have been relevant for conducting the work presented. Data obtained privately, for example through conversation, correspondence, or discussion with the third parties, must not be used or presented without the expressed written permission of the original source. The information obtained from the confidential sources, such as manuscript evaluation or grant allocation, should not be used without the expressed written permission of the authors of the work related to the confidential sources.

4.6. Authorship of a Publication

4.6.1. Authorship should be limited to the persons who have made a significant contribution to concept formation, design, execution, or interpretation of the presented research. All those who have made the significant contribution should be listed as the co-authors. In case the research participants have made a substantial contribution in a specific area of the research, they should be acknowledged as the persons providing a considerable input to the research.

4.6.2. The author must make sure that all the research participants who have made a significant contribution to the research are listed as co-authors and those not participating in the research are not listed as co-authors, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of an article and agreed to its submission for publication.

4.7. Risks, and Humans and Animals as Objects of the Research

4.7.1. If the work involves the use of chemicals, procedures, or equipment that may cause uncommon hazards during their use, the author should clearly indicate this in a manuscript.

4.7.2. If the work involves the participation of animals or humans as the objects of the research, the authors should make sure that the manuscript indicates the compliance of all stages of the research with the laws and regulations of the research organisations and are approved by the appropriate committees. The manuscript should clearly indicate that informed consent has been received from all the humans, who have become the objects of the research. The privacy rights should always be observed.

4.8. Disclosure Policy and Conflict of Interest

4.8.1. In their manuscripts, all authors should disclose any financial or other existing conflict of interest that might be construed as having influence on the results or conclusions presented in the work.

4.8.2. The examples of potential conflict of interest that must be disclosed include employment, providing consultancies, stock ownership, getting honoraria, providing expert opinions, patent applications or registrations, grants or other funding. Potential conflict of interest should be disclosed as early as possible.

 4.9. Significant Errors in Publications

If the author discovers the significant errors or inaccuracies in a publication, the author must notify the Editor-in-Chief of the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" and cooperate with the Editorial Board to promptly retract the publication or correct the errors. If the editor or Publisher receives the information about the publication containing significant errors from a third party, the author is obliged to retract the paper or correct the errors as soon as possible.

5. Responsibilities of the Founder

5.1. The Founder shall follow the principles and procedures fostering the fulfilment of the ethical responsibilities stipulated herein by the editors, reviewers and authors of the peer-reviewed scientific and practical journal the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology". The Founder shall make sure that potential profit from advertising or reprinting does not influence the editors' decisions.

5.2. The Founder shall support the editors of the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" in considering the complaints about the ethical aspects of published materials and assist in interaction with the other journals and/or publishers if this facilitates the fulfilment of editors’ responsibilities.

5.3. The Founder shall foster the good research practices and implement the professional standards aiming to enhance the ethical guidelines, retraction and error correction procedures.

5.4. The Founder shall provide the appropriate specialised legal support (expert opinion or consultation) if necessary.

Indexing

The Journal is indexed in the following systems:

• Russian Index of Science Citation (RISC)
• Google Scholar 
• Cyberleninka
• AGRIS
• Crossref
• Mendeley
• Internet Archive
• SCILIT

Founder and Publisher

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Don State Technical University (DSTU)

Founder’s, Publisher’s and Printery Address:

1, Gagarin Sq., Rostov-on-Don, 344003, Russia
tel.: +7 (863) 2738-372
e-mail: vetpat@donstu.ru

The Journal is funded and published at the expense of Don State Technical University.

Advertising and Publication Fee

The "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" does not charge the authors including for:

— submission of articles;

— collection and processing of articles;

— publication of materials;

— language editing;

— color drawings and additional pages in articles.

The "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" does not accept advertising materials for publication.

Disclosure Policy and Conflict of Interest

Unpublished data obtained from the manuscripts submitted for consideration cannot be used in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained during peer-reviewing and associated with possible advantages must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal benefit.

The reviewers should not participate in consideration of the manuscripts if they have a conflict of interest resulting from the competitive, collaborative, or other interactions or relationships with any of the authors, companies, or other organisations related to the submitted work.

Borrowing and Plagiarism

All manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using the special software “Antiplagiat” and iThenticate.

In case of detecting the borrowings, the Editorial Office acts in accordance with the COPE rules.

The percentage of original text must be at least 85%.

Preprint and Postprint Placement Policy

By submitting an article to the “Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology”, the author confirms that it has not been published anywhere, has not been posted on the Internet, and has not been submitted for simultaneous publication in several journals.

A full-text version of an article is published in the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" in open access on the journal's website, as well as on the website of the scientific electronic library (eLibrary). 

When citing an article published in the journal "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology", the Publisher requests to provide a link to the journal official website (full URL of the material) and DOI.

CrossMark Policy

CrossMark is an international project aimed at creating a unified method for finding the latest version of a published article or other content.

After publication of an article, the research may be supplemented by the necessary data or corrections. It is important to know whether the cited content has been updated, corrected or retracted. Crossmark is a standardized button, uniform across different platforms and embedded in PDF files, showing the status of the content.

By clicking the CrossMark button in a document, one will know whether the content has been updated, corrected or retracted, get access to the additional data provided by a participant, such as key publication dates (submission, revision, acceptance), authors' ORCID identifiers, content type, plagiarism, current status and information about funding, license, expert opinion and research data storage location.

Additional Crossmark metadata are optional and are defined by a participant.

Currently, there are 12 types of updates in Crossmark:

1. addendum – adding related information to the publication;
2. clarification – adding explanations, clarifying information;
3. correction – correction of data;
4. corrigendum – a message about correction of data;
5. erratum – a message about the typo affecting the perception of data;
6. expression of concern - an expression of doubt about the correctness of data or conclusions;
7. new edition - a new edition;
8. new version - a new version of the publication;
9. partial retraction - partial retraction;
10. removal – removal of information;
11. retraction - retraction;
12. withdrawal – withdrawal of content from the public domain.

The use of the CrossMark button in publications of the "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology" is limited to current and future articles and applies only to a selected range of publication types.

For more information, visit the CrossMark website.

Dealing with Unethical Behaviour

Anyone can inform the Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Board at any time about suspicions of unethical behavior or any misconduct.

To  launch an inspection, the complainant must provide the reliable information and evidence of the violation.

During the inspection, any evidence will be treated as confidential and will be provided strictly to those persons involved in the process.

If the inspection reveals unethical behaviour or malpractice, it will be classified into minor or major.

Minor violations (those that do not affect the integrity of the article and the journal, such as misunderstanding or incorrect application of publication standards) will be tackled directly by the authors and reviewers without involving the third parties.

The procedure includes:

• sending a warning letter to the authors and/or reviewers;
• correction of an article by excluding the sources incorrectly cited in the text from the list of references;
• publishing the list of errata if they were made by the editorial staff.

In case of major violations, the Editorial Office of the journal may apply the following measures to the violator:

• publishing an official announcement or an editorial describing the malpractice, unethical behaviour;
• official informing the affiliated institution of the author/reviewer;
• official, announced retraction of the publications from the journal in compliance with the retraction policy;
• a ban for a violator to submit the materials to the journal for a certain period of time;
• termination of the contract with him/her, if the violator is a reviewer.

The author is entitled to consult with the appropriate expert legal entities or persons during the resolution of the case.

When considering the unethical behaviour, the Editorial Board will rely on the guidelines and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Digital Archiving Policy

To ensure the long-term digital storage of the materials published in the journal "Russian Journal of Veterinary Pathology", they are reposited in:

• Scientific Electronic Library (eLIBRARY)
• Russian State Library (RSL)
• Internet Archive
• National Electronic-Information Consortium (NEICON)

Complaint Policy

Complaints shall be sent to the Editor-in-Chief and reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, who can transfer them to an editor or specialist who worked with the paper for finding the solution to a complaint.

An appeal against the decision to reject an article based on its scientific value. The Editor-in-Chief shall consider the arguments of the authors stated in the complaint and send the materials to reviewers for consideration. The reviewers shall make decisions using the following options: “The rejection decision must remain in effect”; “Another independent opinion is required”; "The appeal should be satisfied." The applicant shall be informed about the corresponding decision. The appeal decision shall be final.

Complaint against the implementation of certain procedures. The Editor-in-Chief shall consider a substance of the complaint and based on the investigation make managerial decision which shall be communicated to all interested parties in writing or by e-mail.

Complaint concerning publishing ethics. When handling complaints concerning publication ethics, Editor-in-Chief shall be guided by the principles presented in the Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies developed based on the standard of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing". In difficult cases, the Editor-in-Chief can introduce a question for the discussion at the Editorial Board of the journal. The decision on the complaint shall be taken collectively and documented.

Retraction Policy

According to the rules of the Board for Publication Ethics of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers, the grounds for article retraction are as follows:

• detection of plagiarism in the article;
• detection of counterfeits in the work (e.g. purposeful misrepresentation of experimental data);
• detection of serious errors in the work that calls into question its scientific value;
• incorrect list of authors (a person worth listing among the authors is missing; those not meeting the authorship criteria are included);
• duplication of an article in several publications;
• re-publication of an article without author’s consent;
• concealment of conflict of interest and other violations of publication ethics;
• escape of the article from the peer review procedure.

The article retraction may be initiated by the Editorial Office, an author, an organization, or an individual.

After the decision to retract an article is made, the Editorial Office informs the authors about this, indicating the reason for retraction and its date. The article remains on the journal's website as part of the corresponding issue, but receives the mark "Retracted" with the date of retraction (the mark is placed above the text of the article and in the table of contents of the issue), and a message about the retraction is posted in the news section of the website. Also, the information about the retraction of the article is forwarded by the journal's Editor-in-Chief to all online libraries and databases in which the journal is indexed.