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AIMS AND SCOPE
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The Journal Cell and Organ Transplantology (JCOT) is open-access peer-reviewed journal in the fields of organ transplantology, cell therapy and tissue engineering.

JCOT accepts the original experimental articles, clinical trials and case reports, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, brief communications and interview written in English. All accepted papers are published full-text in English with abstracts in English and Ukrainian.

The Journal is published by the Institute of Cell Therapy (Kyiv, Ukraine) with the support of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine and is issued online (ISSN 2311-021X) and print (ISSN 2308-3794) version twice a year in May and November. Registration certificate КВ № 19692-9492Р (20.02.2013).

According to the Decree of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine № 1279 dated 06.11.2014, the Journal Cell and Organ Transplantology is included in the List of of scientific periodicals in Ukraine specialized in medicine and biology.

By the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine #1017,  dated 27.09.2021, the Journal Cell and Organ Transplantology has been included into the Register of Scientific Professional Editions of Ukraine in the field of medicine and biology, category “A”.

The Journal Cell and Organ Transplantology has been indexed in Scopus since 2019.

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EDITORIAL POLICY
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Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
The Journal of Cell and Organ Transplantology follows the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, issued by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
The JCOT adheres the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (updated May 2022) provided by ICMJE.
Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the Core Practices (2017) and Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (2019), recommended by Committee on Publication Ethics .

Research ethics policy
The ethical policy of JCOT is follows the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

Policies on human and animals rights
For experimental investigations, it is recommended that animal species, the number of experimental animals, methods of their anesthesia and euthanasia must be described. All experiments on vertebrates must be performed in accordance with institutional, national guidelines and European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes (Strasburg, 1986).
For the publications of the results of the clinical investigations  involving human subjects the principles outlined in the national laws and Declaration of Helsinki should be followed. The informed consent of the patient(s)’ and donor(s)’ (or parent or legal guardian) must be described in Materials and methods section. Also the type, title and registration number of official clinical trials must be described.
Patients have a right to privacy. Identifying information should not be included unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.
The editors reserve the right to seek comments from reviewers or additional information from authors on any cases in which concerns arise.

Editors’  and Reviewers’ responsibilities 

Publication decisions
All submissions are initially evaluated by the scientific editors. Initial screening of articles by internal editors will assess the topicality and importance of the subject, the clarity of presentation, and relevance to the audience of the journal in question. Submissions that do not conform to the terms of the publication in the journal will be returned to the authors, without detailed review. Authors will be notified as to whether the article is to progress to external review until 3 weeks after receipt of manuscript.
Through rigorous peer review process, our aim titles that articles are scientific novelty, scientific accurate and clinically relevant.
The editor is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published. The editor will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decision will be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal’s scope. Current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism should also be considered.

Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. The editor and any editorial staff not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
Review is performed on a double-blind basis – the identities of peer-reviewers and authors are kept confidential.  They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Contribution to editorial decisions
The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving the paper. All articles are peer reviewed by two or more members of our Editorial Board or other specialists selected on the basis of experience and expertise.  Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process. Peer reviewers complete a referee report form, to provide general comments to the editor and specific comments to the author. Papers will normally be reviewed up to four weeks of submission.

Acknowledgement of sources
Reviewers should identify cases in which relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. They should point out whether observations or arguments derived from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers will notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Authors’ duties

Authorship of the paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Other individuals who have contributed to the work should be acknowledged.
The first author should be that person who contributed most to the work, including writing of the manuscript.
The sequence of authors should be determined by the relative overall contributions to the manuscript.
It is common practice to have the senior author appear last, sometimes regardless of his or her contribution. The senior author, like all other authors, should meet all criteria for authorship.
The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Articles should include a full list of the current institutional affiliations of all authors, both academic and corporate.

Conflicts of interests
Journal of Cell and Organ Transplantology requires all authors to disclose any scientific, ethical and financial conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Authors must declare any such conflict in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript and in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript itself. All authors must sign a form regarding potential conflicts of interest at the time of acceptance. This policy applies to all submitted research manuscripts and review material.
Peer reviewers must disclose potential conflicts of interests that may affect their ability to provide an unbiased appraisal. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes.
If necessary, the article may be returned to authors for revision. Where an author believes that an editor has made an error in declining a paper, they may submit an appeal. The appeal letter should clearly state the reasons why the author considers the decision to be incorrect and provide detailed, specific responses to any comments relating to the rejection of the article.

Research results
Authors must be honest in presenting their research results. Research misdemeanor, falsification, distortion or selective provision of data, the theft of data or research results from others is unacceptable.
The results of research should be recorded and maintained to allow for analysis and review. After publication, results of research should be stored for a period of time and made available upon request.
Exceptions: preserve confidentiality, to assure patent protection or for similar reasons.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
In general, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications.

Reporting standards
Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

Data access and retention
Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Originality  and plagiarism policy
Authors will submit only entirely original papers, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.
Reproducing text from other papers without properly crediting the source (plagiarism) or producing many papers with almost the same content by the same authors (self-plagiarism) is not acceptable. All articles are checked for plagiarism. If we find the borrowed fragments of text, numeric data, pictures etc. without reference to the source the article will be rejected.
As the author of your manuscript, you are responsible for obtaining permissions to use material owned by others. Please send us copies of letters or forms granting you permission for the use of copyrighted material.

The process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern
The primary responsibility for handling research misconduct is in the hands of those who employ the researchers. If a possible misconduct is brought to our attention, we will seek advice from the referees and the Editorial Board. If there is the evidence, we will resolve the matter by appropriate corrections in the printed and online journal; by refusing to consider an author’s future work, for a given period, and by contacting affected authors and editors of other journals.
Submissions that do not conform to the terms of the publication in the journal will be returned to the authors, without detailed review. Authors will be notified as to whether the article is to progress to external review until two weeks after receipt of manuscript.  The editor is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to the journal will be published.
The editor will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decision will be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the journal’s scope.
Current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism should also be considered.
All authors have an obligation to inform and cooperate with journal editors to provide prompt retractions or correction of errors in published works.

The journal will issue retractions if:

  • There are evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error);
  • The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper crossreferencing, permission or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication);
  • It constitutes plagiarism;
  • It reports unethical research.

The journal will issue errata if:

  • A small portion of an otherwise reliable publication proves to be misleading (especially because of honest error);
  • The author list is incorrect (i.e. a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included).

Advertising policy
Advertisements and commercially sponsored publications are independent from editorial decisions.
Publishing director reserves the right to decline any type of advertising that is damaging to JCOT or does not match the profile of journal.
Аdvertising for products or services known to be harmful to health is not accepted.
Advertisements should clearly identify the advertiser and the product or service being offered. Advertisements will not be accepted if they appear to be indecent or offensive in either text or artwork, or if they relate to content of a personal, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, or religious nature.
All advertisements for drug-specific campaigns must comply with the relevant legislation that regulates advertising.
Advertisers should make available the marketing authorization and summary of product characteristics when submitting their advertisement. In the case of drug advertisements, the full generic name of each active ingredient should appear. Each page of an advertisement for a prescription-only medicine should be clearly labeled as intended for health professionals.
Information about complaints about advertising will be accepted our editorial and will respond with a full and final decision within two business days.

Digital archiving and deposit policy
The issues of Journal Cell and Organ Transplantology are archived on journal’s official website and in the database of V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.
The full text access to published papers in Library is free.

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OPEN ACCESS POLICY
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The Journal Cell and Organ Transplantology employs the open access model.
Our readers can free access to full text of published articles.
All contents are available fully and immediately upon publication.
Our editors adhere recommendations on transparency and best practice open-access publishing according to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

Copyright, Licensing and Data sharing policy
The author(s) of the JCOT retain copyright and allow the publisher to publish their manuscript as a primary article. The authors may share and distribute their papers provided a proper reference is given to the primary publication.
All the published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits freely reading, downloading, printing, copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format, transform, and build upon the material for non-commercial purposes.
Reference to the Journal of Cell and Organ Transplantology is obligatory.

Publication costs
The article submission, processing and publication are free of charge.
All charges related to the submission, processing and publication of manuscripts are covered by the publisher and advertisers.

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
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Electronic format requirements
The article should be typed as 1.5-spaced text (Times New Roman fitting, size 12) on A4 paper format, using 20 mm margins all around.

Article structure:

  • index of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC);
  • title of the article;
  • author’s surname and initials;
  • affiliation: the name of the institution where the authors work, city, country. If multiple authors and they work in different institutions, it is necessary badges 1, 2, 3, to personify them;
  • contact author’s e-mail;
  • abstract, usually up to 400 words;
  • keywords (up to 6);
  • text without tables and figures. The tables, figures, photo, graphs, diagrams etc. must be marked as Tab. or Fig. in the text and numbered in the order of their appearance in the article;
  • additional information if required (acknowledgments, funding etc.);
  • references;
  • tables and figures must have the title and number with signs on single pages;
  • declaration of any conflict of interest.

An abstract is required for all original articles and reviews. The abstract should summarize the major aspects of the entire paper in a prescribed sequence that includes: (1) the overall purpose of the study and the research problem(s) you investigated; (2) Materials and methods described the basic design of the study; (3) Results described major findings or trends found as a result of your analysis; and (4) Conclusions as a brief summary of your interpretations. The abstract should not contain: footnotes, statistical significance values, references, proprietary names.

The structure of the article should correspond the generally accepted structure for the scientific papers. For experimental and clinical articles it should include “Introduction“, “Materials and methods“, “Results and discussion“, “Conclusions“, “References“.

Take responsibility for the statistical significance of the obtained data. Follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
We strongly encourage the use of SI units.
The abbreviations should be defined when first used in the text. Please note the name of maker and country for the reagents, chemicals and drugs.

Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Figures and Diagrams
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself, if possible) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Attach all photographs and pictures as separately files in TIFF or BMP format. Figures should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Large and highly detailed figures must have a higher resolution as they will need to be printed at a larger size in the journal.
We recommend attaching original diagrams in XLS files.

References
The JCOT requires citing and referencing according to the Vancouver style.
References must be cited by number consecutively in square brackets in the text. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. At least 50 % of the references should not be older than ten years back. For web references as a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed.
The monographs should include the surname and initials of the authors, title of the book, publishers, year of publication, total number of pages.
The journal references should include the surname and initials of the authors, full title of the article, the journal title, year, number and pages. We recommend use conventional Journal Title Abbreviations.

The examples of references:
Zusso M, Moro S, Giusti P, Stokes L, eds. Neuroinflammation and its Resolution: From Molecular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Perspectives. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA; 2020. 280 p. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/978-2-88963-854-3

Payr S, Schuseil T, Unger M, Seeliger C, Tiefenboeck T, Balmayor ER, et al. Effect of donor age and 3D-cultivation on osteogenic differentiation capacity of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Sci Rep. 2020; 10:10408. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67254-5

NetCord-FACT International standards for cord blood collection, banking, and release for administration. Accreditation manual. 7th ed. 2019. Available from: https://www.factglobal.org/standards/cbb-standards

Additional information
Additionally should be given data for each author: name and surname in English (and in Ukrainian for authors from Ukraine), ORCID (if available), affiliation, scientific degrees, position, contact  e-mail, website (if available). Surnames and names are not corrected by editorship, published in author’s edition.
Please note e-mail and phone number of corresponding author to ensure rapid communication between editors and authors.

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