Scope and Mission
The Albanian Journal of Medical and Health Sciences (AJMHS) is an International official journal of the University of Medicine, Tirana, (Universiteti i Mjekësisë, Tiranë - UMT) in the Republic of Albania. AJMHS is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal, published three times a year. It publishes articles from a variety of methodologies and approaches of high scientific standard in the full spectrum of medical and health sciences. The language of the journal is English.
AJMHS was founded in 1961 as "Buletini i Shkencave Mjekësore i Fakultetit të Mjekësisë, Universiteti i Tiranës" (Bulletin of Medical Sciences-Faculty of Medicine, University of Tirana). In 2012 the journal was published in English for the first time as "Bulletin of Medical Sciences". The journal's name changed to "Albanian Journal of Medical and Health Sciences" in 2014.
AJMHS publishes scientific articles in basic, translational, clinical and health care research, conducted in all fields of medicine and health care, as well as interesting case reports and clinical images, invited reviews, invited medical education papers, editorials, opinions and viewpoints, comments and letters to the Editor. The structure of each edition of the publication comprises section categories determined by the Editor and reflects the views of the Editorial Board.
AJMHS encourages academicians, researchers and specialists of different medical and health care fields from all over the world to publish their valuable research in all branches of medicine and health care.
The journal's aim is to publish original articles with high scientific and ethical quality.
The Editorial Board of the AJMHS and the Publisher adhere to the principles of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the World Medical Association (WMA), the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE).
AJMHS permits and encourages authors to post items approved for publication from the journal on personal websites or institutional repositories both prior to and after publication, while providing bibliographic details of the publication in AJMHS. All articles are also available in PDF format on our website http://ajmhs.umed.edu.al and can be downloaded free of charge.
The AJMHS's mission is to distribute and expand worldwide good quality research, focused primarily on the medical and health care problems of the South-East European and Mediterranean countries.
AJMHS is open to publication for all the authors that comply with the scientific and ethical requirements of the journal. All manuscripts submitted for publication are strictly internally and externally peer reviewed for their originality, methodology, scientific relevance, quality, ethical nature and suitability for the journal. A similarity check is performed on all manuscripts submitted. All the articles published at AJMHS will be fully accessed online. No submission or publishing fee is requested.
Ethics
AJMHS is committed to the highest standards of research and publication ethics. All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism in order to detect instances of overlapping and similar text. The editors will act in accordance to the relevant international rules of publication and research ethics (COPE guidelines, WAME resources, WMA policies and ORI) if any ethical misconduct is suspected.
The journal recommends an approval of the research protocols by an ethics committee in accordance with international agreements "WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (last updated: October 2013, Fortaleza, Brazil)", "Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (8th edition, 2011)" and/or "International Guiding Principles for Bio-medical Research Involving Animals (2012)". This approval is required for all experimental, clinical and drug trial studies. For articles concerning experimental research on humans, a statement should be included that informed consent of patients and volunteers was obtained following a detailed explanation of the procedures that they may undergo. The journal may request a copy of the Ethics Committee Approval received from the relevant authority. Informed consent must also be obtained for case reports. More details on the ethical principles of the journal may be found at the "Ethical Guidelines" and the "Instructions to Reviewers" pages. All reference for the ethical issues must be mentioned at the method section of the article.
Conflict of interest policy
The AJMHS's editorial review process is in accordance with the Good Editorial Practice set by international editorial organizations (WAME, COPE). WAME indicates that "conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor in the publication process (submission of manuscripts, peer review, editorial decisions and communication between authors, reviewers and editors) has a competing interest that could unduly influence his or her responsibilities (academic honesty, unbiased conduct and reporting of research and integrity of decisions or judgments) in the publication process".
The AJMHS requires that each author, reviewer, and editor must disclose to the editor-in-chief any conflict of interest related to family, personal, financial, political or religious issues as well as any competing interest outlined above at the WAME's definition. Whether or not a conflict of interest and financial support exist, they must be declared at the Conflict of Interest Statement (signed and approved from all the authors) as well as at the end of the manuscripts (Conflict of Interest Statement, before the Reference Section). If a reviewer or an editor has a conflict of interest and/or believes that it is not appropriate to be a reviewer, or an editor for a given manuscript, the reviewer or the editor should resign from the assignment. The AJMHS editorial board members may also submit their own manuscripts to the journal. However, they cannot take part at any stage on the editorial decision of their manuscripts. They will be treated like any other author and if any, final acceptance of such manuscripts can only be made by the positive recommendation of at least two external reviewers.
Authors should not contact any of the editorial executive or scientific board members during the review process. All necessary information regarding the process of a manuscript will be regularly provided from the editorial office via the official e-mail addresses. The names of the handling editor and the reviewers are not disclosed to the author(s). Due to the AJMHS's double-blinded review principles, the names of authors and reviewers are not known to each other. Please refer to the "conflict of interest statement and copyright form" section below for the conflict of interest declaration for authors. For a conflict of interest statement for reviewers, please refer to the "Instructions to Reviewers" page.