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All manuscripts received by the Editor are considered confidential. The manuscript is examined for the conformity to the Instructions for Authors by the Editor. Failure to meet the requirements for preparation and submission of manuscripts results in return of the manuscript for correction before evaluation. A notification of receiving the manuscript is sent by e-mail to the corresponding author within 3 working days.

Articles submitted to the Advances in Medical Sciences will be reviewed by the Editors and external referees according to the highest academic standards. The review process is handled by 2-3 independent international experts in the field. The review process lasts approximately 10 weeks.

Invited referees, in confidence, evaluate the manuscript according to the following aspects:

1.     Formal Aspects: Correct language, references properly cited. High quality figures. Adherence to usual and consistent nomenclature. Title and summary sufficiently informative.

2.     Originality

3.     Importance in its field: Hypothesis, objectives and clear contribution to medical sciences.

4.     Theoretical background: Updated and quality references

5.     Adequacy of methodology: Materials and methods appropriate and adequately described.

6.     Results and interpretation:
Results: Data concise and sufficient. Statistical analysis when appropriate. Efficiency measurements. Figures clear and correct, only essential data should be included in figures. Elimination of figures, graphs and tables which add little or could be replaced by a few sentences or a statement of numerical values is recommended.
Discussion: In-depth discussion, correct interpretation.

7.     Overall quality

All the above items can be evaluated as Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor on an EVALUATION SHEET sent to the evaluators.

The manuscript can be evaluated as:

• Acceptable in its present form
• Acceptable after minor revision (no further review required)
• Reconsidered after major revision
• Not acceptable for publication

When the review process is finished, a decision letter will be sent to the authors, including the comments of the referee(s). Any corrections suggested by the reviewers, should be made within the period of time indicated in the letter. If the paper is accepted after major revisions, it will be submitted again for peer review to the same evaluators. After a second review of the corrected manuscript, a final decision letter concerning publication is sent to the authors. The final decision about accepting the manuscript for publication will be also available online at www.advms.pl in the ‘Next Issue’ section.