Publication ethics standards should be the same for all peer-reviewed journals

The letter-to-the-editor by S. Grazio, B. Anić, F. Grubišić, published in this CMJ issue highlights the importance of ethical editorial policies for non-English journals. There are still numerous local and regional journals which opt to publish their articles in local languages with English abstracts. Readers of such journals are in dire need of articles presenting new knowledge and progress in science, education, and practice in an understandable language. Visibility of such journals is not high, but it can be improved by adhering to the international standards of research reporting, referencing, disclosing ethical issues, and properly digitizing metadata and author IDs. The Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and Visibility of Scholarly Publications (DIVA) was drafted by editors from Balkan and Mediterranean countries to increase awareness of authors, reviewers, and editors of acceptable publication practices in the region (1). Although updated recommendations of global editorial associations are widely available and there is no shortage of institutional research and publication policies, some regional publishers continue ignoring them and publishing useless, redundant, and apparently unethical original research and reviews. Unaware editors of Scopus and Web of Science-indexed journals continue accepting articles supplied by commercial brokering agencies that violate norms of disclosing authorship and conflicts of interest. Some agencies even promise to publish their clients’ works by helping them to somehow survive the peer review.