SKIN The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine

About the Journal

Open Access Policy

Effective Janurary 1, 2022 this journal provides immediate open access under the CCBY license to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All prior content is freely available for reading anywhere. There are no submission fees, publication fees, subscription fees or pay-per-view fees. When the journal publishes posters from scientific meetings, the authors retain copyright.

Aims and Scope

SKIN is a bi-monthly, peer-reviewed, open access, online medical journal dedicated to providing an enhanced route to disseminate new dermatologic knowledge on all aspects of cutaneous disease. The journal carries in-depth reviews (2500 word max.), brief articles (inclusive of case reports, 1000 words max.), and short communications (500 words or less), and compelling comments (300 words max.) which focus on all aspects of dermatology and cutaneous disease. The journal is designed to provide rapid dissemination of dermatologic education, with a goal to have a decision regarding submitted manuscripts within 30 days of submission, and publication within 90 days of acceptance. The journal implements best practice in scientific publishing with a rigorous blind peer-review process, declarations of competing interests and funding, full requirements for patient consent and ethical review, and statements of guarantorship, contributorship, and provenance. Authors retain copyright in their articles, licensing publication of their content through use of the Creative Commons CCBY license. The journal does not charge Article Processing fees, and is supported by the National Society for Cutaneous Medicine. SKIN is indexed by Google Scholar and is fully archived by OJS and Portico with no embargo.

SKIN is committed to education and to the support of early career dermatologists. To this end, SKIN has a large and robust resident/fellow, medical student and undergraduate editorial board. Members are expected to review articles, submit articles for publication consideration, mentor younger members and support the journal's missions and goals. SKIN is also committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in the selection of editors and editorial board members, journal content from both geographically diverse areas and under-represented communities.

Peer Review Process

All articles are first reviewed by the managing editor who assigns them to members of the editorial board for formal review. Editorial judgements are objective and the process uses single blind peer review. All manuscripts which undergo review may be accepted, returned for revision, or rejected. The Editors make the final decision on submitted manuscripts. Reviewers are required to recuse themselves if they have conflicts of interest with their assigned reviews, in which case alternate reviewers will be assigned. The content of all articles is treated confidentially prior to their publication, if accepted, and reviewer identity as well as reviewer comments are not publically disclosed.

When an author serves also as an editor or member of the editorial board, they be will recused from the reviewing process and a non-conflicted reviewer will be selected.

Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The editors of SKIN The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine pledge to constantly improve the journal and strive to guarantee that quality material is published. The editors value freedom of expression but have respect for academic integrity. The editors vow to not let business needs compromise academic standards and are always willing to entertain corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies ad hoc. If applicable, readers will always be informed regarding the source of funding for the research in question. The editors further pledge to confirm that research material conforms to accepted ethical guidelines and the confidentiality of individual information will be given priority. The editorial board's disclosures can be requested from the managing editor.

The editors will ensure that quality material is published and the decision to accept or reject a manuscript will be solely based on the manuscript’s importance, originality, quality and relevance to the journal’s readership. The journal abides by a strict peer review process for any submitted manuscript. Decisions on accepted or rejected manuscripts will not be reversed unless serious problems are identified.

The editors ensure that the peer reviewer identities are protected and the journal’s reviewers are aware of their expectations when reviewing a submitted manuscript. The journal ensures that material submitted remains confidential while under review.

Any complaints should be sent to jofskin@gmail.com. The date and nature of complaint should be included in the message. If the issue is not resolved, the matter can be further investigated by COPE (Committee on Publications Ethics) as outlined here: http://publicationethics.org/files/2008%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf.

Legitimate criticisms or constructive comments of published work will be always be given consideration for publication unless the editor has a clear and convincing reason to not publish. Authors of material that is criticized will always have the opportunity to publish a rebuttal. Studies that report negative or unfavorable results are not automatically excluded and undergo the same peer review process as studies that report positive or significant results.

The editors have an obligation to report suspected misconduct in both published and submitted manuscripts and will take steps to prevent publication in the first place. The editors will first seek an explanation from the submitting authors. If this does not resolve the matter, the sponsoring institution will be contacted and the editors will make all efforts to ensure a fair and proper investigation is conducted. If misconduct or fraudulent data is reported, the manuscript will be redacted. Furthermore, if an error or misleading statement is recognized, the editors will promptly publish a correction. Editors will never encourage misconduct or knowingly allow it to occur.

The journal does not tolerate plagarism and it screens for plagarism using the iThenticate application.

Misleading advertisements on the journal’s website will be refused or corrected. The journal’s advertisements will not influence the type of manuscripts that are published and advertisers will not receive any special advantages when submitting work that directly involves the advertised product or service.

Conflicts of interest regarding the editors, reviewers and authors are always reviewed and included in every submission. Reprints are published as they appear in the journal unless a correction needs to be added.

In the event the journal is no longer published, the journal’s contents will be archived online. The journal has an electronic backup through the Portico archival system.

Policies on human and animal rights and informed consent

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper. Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in an SKIN. Written consents must be retained by the author but copies should not be provided to the journal. Only if specifically requested by the journal in exceptional circumstances (for example if a legal issue arises) the author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained.

Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where authors wish to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in SKIN in order to comply with all applicable laws and regulations concerning the privacy and/or security of personal information, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and other U.S. federal and state laws relating to privacy and security of personally identifiable information, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and member state implementing legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, India's Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws").

Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Data Sharing policy

SKIN expects that data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. When data have been shared, authors are required to include in their data availability statement a link to the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared. Whenever possible the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived. If sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements then authors are not expected to share it.

Advertising policy

Advertisers in SKIN warrant and represent that publication of advertisements submitted to SKIN:

will not breach or infringe any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or obligation of confidentiality or privacy, any law of defamation or obscenity, or any relevant law or regulation concerning advertising or promotions, including any medical advertising laws, industry codes or regulations;
the Customer has the right to grant the license to NSCM to use the Advertising as contemplated by these Terms;
the Advertising is accurate, truthful and non- deceptive and does not violate any laws regarding false advertising;
the Advertising does not violate any other applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, including without limitation any laws and regulations governing export control;
the Advertising is not and does not contain content that is lewd, pornographic or obscene, excessively profane, racist, ethnically offensive, threatening, infringing, excessively violent, libelous, gambling-related, or promote any discriminatory activity, promote illegal drugs or arms trafficking, create a risk to a person's safety or health, compromise national security or interfere with an investigation by law enforcement officials or is offensive, misleading, deceptive or destructive, and does not promote, advocate or facilitate terrorism, terrorist-related activities or violence;
Online Advertising does not create, facilitate the creation of or exploit any security vulnerabilities in a user's computer, promote programs which compensate or provide incentives to users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails or contain viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other harmful or deleterious programming routines whether similar or dissimilar to the foregoing; and
Customer has obtained written consent to display the name or image of any living person in any Advertising.

Journal History

SKIN The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine was founded in 2017.