title: Peer-review policy and guidelines for Biochemia Medica Journal.
abstract: Peer review is widely used system for evaluating manuscripts prior to publication. It has been and still is widely used tool for making justified and fair editorial decision. However, the evidence of its efficacy is limited and it has been criticized to be time-consuming, biased, inconsistent, conservative, and open to abuse. As a result, researchers, editors and policymakers have questioned its objectivity and purpose. Nevertheless, this should not be the reason for abandoning the principles of peer review, but to make the additional efforts towards its improvement. Therefore, this Research Integrity Corner aims to describe basic principles of peer review and to introduce Biochemia Medica's guidelines for peer reviewers. Our intention is to help our peer reviewers provide evaluations that are as fair and objective as possible, while helping the journal publish innovative research of the highest quality.
authors.affiliation: Biochemia Medica, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Vesna Šupak
authors.initials: VŠ
authors.lastname: Smolčić
authors.affiliation: Biochemia Medica, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Ana-Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Simundić
mesh_terms: D035081:Editorial Policies; D006801:Humans; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards
keywords: editorial policies; guidelines; peer review; publication ethics