Terms

Journal profile

§ 1. “Medical Law Quarterly” is a quarterly scientific periodical published by the Medical University of Warsaw.

§ 2. The journal “Medical Law Quarterly”:
1. presents issues of medical law, its interpretation and application, and publishes commentaries on medical cases decided by rulings of state courts and medical courts, the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal, and the Supreme Administrative Court;
2. indicates directions for proper medical practice compliant with the law and medical ethics, respectful of human rights and ideologically neutral;
3. serves as a platform for the exchange of views and experiences, also in an inter- and multidisciplinary dimension.
§ 3. The thematic scope of the journal primarily covers legal sciences and related issues in medical sciences and philosophy.
Aims and character of the journal

§ 4. The aim of the journal’s activity is to publish original scholarly works, disseminate research results, and enable academic discourse at the national and international levels.

§ 5. The journal is open to academics and practitioners from domestic and foreign institutions.

§ 6. The journal publishes materials in Polish or English.
Publications

§ 7. The journal publishes, in particular, scholarly articles and communications, research reports, glosses, case studies, commentaries, reviews, reports, polemics, and position statements.

§ 8. Submitted materials should constitute original scholarly works.

§ 9. The Editorial Board reserves the right to introduce editorial changes in articles, in particular to eliminate language errors and to apply necessary abridgements.

§ 10. Each published article is assigned a DOI number.

§ 11. The journal is published in print and in electronic form. The electronic version is the reference version of the journal.

§ 12. Submission of works for publication by the author(s), correspondence, and the circulation of documentation are conducted electronically.

§ 13. An author submitting a text for publication agrees to the publication of the full paper at the “Medical Law Quarterly” website.

§ 14. Electronic publication of texts is carried out in open access model.
Editorial bodies

§ 15. The process of preparing (collecting, assessing, and editing) materials for publication is organized by the journal’s Editorial Board.

§ 16. The Editorial Management consists of the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editors-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, and the Managing Editor for Technical and Financial Affairs.

§ 17. The Editor-in-Chief is appointed, in accordance with applicable rules, by the Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw.

§ 18. The journal has a Program Council, which ensures its scholarly development, suggesting changes to its research profile and structure when necessary. The Program Council consists of outstanding representatives of legal sciences, medical sciences, and philosophy. The Program Council includes representatives of domestic and foreign institutions.

§ 19. The Program Council is the opinion-forming and advisory body to the Editor-in-Chief.

§ 20. Members of the Program Council are appointed by the Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief.

§ 21. The Editor-in-Chief:
1. manages the work of the Editorial Board;
2. oversees all matters related to the publication of the journal;
3. ensures proper performance of the journal’s functions referred to in § 2;
4. manages the journal’s finances or authorizes a member of the Editorial Board designated by them to manage them;
5. represents the journal externally.
§ 22. The Managing Editor co-participates in editing the journal and exercising overall supervision over administrative and technical matters related to the Editorial Board.

§ 23. Current editorial and technical tasks are performed by technical editors. In performing their duties, technical editors report directly to the Editor-in-Chief.

§ 24. The Editorial Board includes an Editorial Committee, which oversees the implementation of the journal’s program line and cooperates with other editorial bodies.

§ 25. The Editorial Committee consists of the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editors-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, permanent substantive editors and—if appointed—editors of special issues and editors of thematic issues.

§ 26. The Editorial Committee deliberates and makes decisions collectively by a simple majority of votes. In the event of an equal number of votes for and against, the Editor-in-Chief’s vote is decisive. The Editorial Committee makes decisions regarding peer-review procedures and resolves doubts concerning the publication of materials.

§ 27. Apart from participating in meetings of the Editorial Committee, its members are obliged to:
1. encourage physicians, other representatives of medical professions, the academic community, judges, advocates, legal advisors, and prosecutors to prepare articles and other materials for the journal,
2. prepare, at the Editor-in-Chief’s request, written internal reviews and opinions on articles and other materials submitted for publication.
§ 28. Acting independently, the Editor-in-Chief appoints and dismisses: their Deputy Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editors-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, substantive editors, editors of special and thematic issues, as well as technical and language editors. The function of an editor of a special or thematic issue is temporary, for the period of editorial work on that issue, and ends upon its publication.

§ 29. In matters related to the journal’s activity that are not regulated in these Rules, decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief, consulting the Editorial Committee when necessary.
Peer-review process

§ 30. The Editorial Board ensures peer review of texts in accordance with the double-blind review standard and counteracts ghostwriting and guest authorship, in line with the recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In the review and proofreading procedure, the following provisions apply:
1. After the Editor-in-Chief’s initial acceptance of the submission, the text—without indicating authorship—is sent for evaluation to at least two independent reviewers from outside the author’s/ authors’ academic unit. A greater number of reviewers is recommended in particular for inter- or multidisciplinary studies.
2. The review is prepared electronically using a review form. The reviewer should focus on the substantive value of the reviewed texts and the authors’ ability to pose and solve research problems. The formal aspects of the text are also assessed. The review must end with a clear recommendation to:
  - accept the text for publication;
  - accept the text for publication provided that the author makes revisions;
  - refer the text for re-review after the author makes revisions;
  - reject the text.
3. The review should include justification for the position taken. If the reviewer recommends acceptance for publication provided that revisions are made by the author or referral for re-review after revisions are made by the author, they should formulate specific proposals and guidance to the author regarding possible improvement of the reviewed material, its supplementation, or its rewriting in whole or in part.
4. Qualification of a study for publication requires reviews ending with a positive conclusion. One negative review entitles the Editorial Board to reject the text in the manner provided for in § 30 item 10.
5. The decision to accept a revised text for publication without the need for re-review belongs to members of the Editorial Committee.
6. After completion of the peer-review process, the text is directed to editorial preparation and then to publication.
7. In the case of special and thematic issues, the selection of reviewers requires the acceptance of the issue editor.
8. The Editor-in-Chief has the right to return the submitted work or material if they consider it inconsistent with the journal’s thematic profile.
9. The double-blind review procedure also applies to members of the Editorial Board submitting their own texts to the journal.
10. The Editor-in-Chief decides on referring a text for review, rejecting it as a result of negative reviews, or accepting individual works or materials for publication, or refusing to accept works or materials for publication due to the author’s/ authors’ failure to respond to the content of the reviews within the specified time limit.
11. The Editor-in-Chief or the Deputy Editor-in-Chief decides on placing individual works or materials in a specific issue, taking into account in particular the timeliness and substantive importance of a given study, organizational and financial capabilities, and the building of the journal’s international character.
12. In cases raising doubts arising after reviews have been obtained or after the author(s) have responded, decisions as to the further course of proceedings are made by the Editor-in-Chief.
13. The author receives only those substantive parts of the reviews that are relevant to them, without any content that could reveal the reviewer’s identity.
14. The list of reviewers is published annually on the journal’s website.
Preventing ghostwriting and guest authorship

§ 31. The Editorial Board requires publication authors to disclose the contributions of individual authors to the work’s creation (including their affiliations and contributions, i.e., information on who is the author of the concept, assumptions, methods, protocol, etc. used in preparing the publication). Responsibility for providing this information lies with the author submitting the manuscript.

§ 32. Proof of the author’s ethical attitude and the highest scholarly standards should be transparency of information about entities contributing to the creation of the publication (substantive, in-kind, financial contribution, etc.). In particular, information about sources of publication funding, the contribution of research institutions, associations, and other entities (financial disclosure) is required. Where research leading to the creation of a scholarly article is financed from sources other than the author’s academic unit or their private funds, such sources must be indicated in the first footnote of the text (referring to its title).

§ 33. It is unacceptable to fail to disclose a person who made a significant contribution to the creation of the work as one of the authors, or to fail to mention their role in the acknowledgements included in the publication (ghostwriting).

§ 34. It is unacceptable for a person whose contribution to the creation of the work is negligible or did not occur at all to be listed as a co-author of a publication (guest authorship or honorary authorship).

§ 35. Any detected cases of ghostwriting or guest authorship will be exposed, including by notifying the relevant entities (institutions employing the authors, scholarly societies, associations of academic editors, etc.).
Copyright infringements

§ 36. If the Editorial Board or reviewers detect appropriation of another person’s scholarly work, the Editorial Committee will immediately take appropriate steps, depending on the nature and extent of the infringement. In particular, these steps will include immediately informing the academic unit employing the person infringing copyright, the scholarly societies to which the author is found to belong, as well as other journal publishers.

§ 37. In exceptional cases, law enforcement authorities will be informed of the copyright infringement.
Final provisions

§ 38. The Editorial Board neither returns unsolicited materials nor confirms their receipt.

§ 39. At the author’s request, the Editorial Board sends an author’s copy of the issue in print form.

§ 40. Any amendments to these Rules require the acceptance of the Editor-in-Chief, who seeks the opinion of the Editorial Committee on the matter.

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