Peer review process

Submitted articles undergo a preliminary review by the managing editor. If formal acceptance criteria are fulfilled, the manuscript undergoes further assessment and peer-review by a member of the editorial board and/or those invited to do so from a reviewer pool of people with expertise in the field. The managing editor chooses the reviewer according to subject of the article or, if in doubt, seeks advice from the editorial board for the choice of a reviewer. Reviewers are invited to provide written comments for authors and confidential comments to editors. If in doubt, the managing editor can forward the manuscript to a second reviewer and will discuss the comments with a not yet involved member of the editorial board.

Submitted review articles shall meet the following acceptance criteria:

• The author should present important and relevant studies or significant medical advances in the field of self-medication.
• The article contains new findings in self-medication indications or approaches for EfSM readers.
• The new insights are useful to healthcare professionals in their routine practice taking care of patients and making decisions concerning pharmacotherapy and respective recommendations.
• The subject matter must be explored comprehensively and thoroughly.
• The methods used in the original studies are appropriate and described comprehensibly.
• All statements and conclusions must be deduced from the underlying data according to current scientific standards.

The managing editor informs the authors about the decision, if the manuscript is accepted, can be accepted after revision, can be accepted after revision and further review, or is rejected.

The revised paper, along with the authors’ responses to the reviewers’ points, is again discussed by editors, who may also ask for further comments from (usually the same) reviewers.

Once the manuscript is adequately revised and is provisionally accepted, it is edited for readability and continuously checked for consistency and errors. If any flaws are spotted, the managing editor can contact the authors for clarification.

Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal rights, and Informed Consent

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 2 years of beginning the work shall be reported. Interests that should be considered and disclosed include, but are not limited to, funding, employment, consulting fees, financial interests, but also non-financial interests. If there is no conflict of interest, authors shall declare this, too.

EfSM papers are review articles. Authors are prompted to make sure that in the underlying research papers, human and animal rights as well es informed consent (if applicable) are adequately covered.

Data sharing policy

EfSM contains review articles only, so there is no matter of sharing original data. If interested in the comprehensive data of a reviewed original research paper, we refer to the data sharing policy applicable for that paper.

EfSM is an open access journal. Its contents are subject to German copyright and ancillary copyright (https://www.efsm.online/int_en/legal/copyright).