Nine years of publishing and editorial work have allowed us to compile a list of typical mistakes made by authors in manuscripts submitted to the editorial office. Therefore, before sending your manuscript to the journal, we recommend checking:

Originality and Borrowings

• Check the originality of the article using the “Anti-Plagiarism” system available to you. If the text contains borrowed fragments, they should be formatted as quotations (with the borrowed text in quotation marks) and accompanied by a reference to the original source. When paraphrasing someone else’s text in your own words, you must also cite the source.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

• A declaration on the use of artificial intelligence tools in preparing the manuscript (all leading journals require this information to be disclosed).
• Critical review and revision of any text generated with the help of AI (texts created by neural networks without author revision are easily identified and often contain factual errors).
• Check the reference list for “hallucinations”—non-existent sources that AI may generate (this is a severe violation of publication ethics).
• Have a specialist proofread machine translations to avoid terminological errors and distortion of meaning.

Official Permissions

• A statement from the organization that the article does not contain information prohibited for open publication.

Abstract

• The abstract is the authors’ “weakest point.” Often, abstracts are formal, repeat the title, and mostly describe the authors’ intentions rather than reflecting the main content of the work. However, the abstract is a separate scientific piece. A skillfully presented abstract determines the citation of the article in other researchers’ publications and, consequently, the scientific significance of the entire work. It should reflect the relevance of the work, its aim, the methods used, the results obtained, and the conclusions. The abstract should be up to two thousand characters.

Structure and Methodology

• Clearly formulated aim and objectives of the study (the reader and reviewer should immediately understand why the work was conducted).
• Completeness of the “Materials and Methods” section (it should indicate where, when, and how the study was conducted, what reagents, equipment, and statistical methods were used).
• Presence of a “Discussion” section that compares the obtained data with the work of other authors and explains the identified patterns (substituting discussion with a simple repetition of the results is unacceptable).

Classification Indices

• UDC (Universal Decimal Classification) code.

Illustrative Material

• Separate image files included in the article text, resolution at least 300 dpi, .tif format, CMYK color space (RGB for electronic publication, CMYK for print).
• Explanation of all symbols in the figures (abbreviations and symbols should be explained in the figure caption).
• Figure captions should be translated into English.
• A graphical abstract – a modern standard that increases the visibility of the article in social media and databases.

Affiliation

• The Russian and English names of the organization submitting the article must be exactly as stated in the organization’s charter.

Text Formatting

• Keywords listed in alphabetical order.
• Count tables and figures, check their numbers and content (they must correspond to the text, have references in the text, and be inserted immediately after the reference; tables in the Russian version of the article should not contain empty cells or phrases that have not been translated into Russian).
• In the “About the Authors” section, authors’ first names and patronymics should be given in full, and their ORCID (if available) should be indicated.

Author Contributions and Transparency

• The “Author Contributions” section must specify the contribution of each author to the preparation and writing of the article separately. Formulations such as “all authors contributed… participated in the discussion and writing… approved… read and agreed” do not allow establishing the extent of each specific author’s participation in the overall work and, consequently, their copyright.
• Information about the funding source of the work (grant, state assignment, commercial contract, or its absence).
• Declaration of any potential conflict of interest (even if there is none, this must be explicitly stated).
• For studies involving humans or animals – indication of approval by the ethics committee.

Contact Information

• Email address – for organizations of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, it must be the official email address of the submitting organization, not the personal email of the author.

Biological Nomenclature

• If the article is biological, pay attention to italicization of gene names (written in uppercase letters) and species names of microorganisms.

Technical Formatting Errors

• Numbers and superscripts/subscripts, e.g., Cl₃–NO₂, not Cl3–NO2.
• Numbering of formulas.
• Correct use of hyphens and dashes – often a hyphen is used instead of a dash.
• Explanation of abbreviations – either at first mention or as a separate list.
• Indication by authors of the sources from which figures, diagrams, and photographs were taken.
• Consistency of the article title and author list in the Russian and English versions of the bibliographic description with the title and author list given in the article header.
• Intervals between numeric values – can be expressed with a dash, e.g., 5–6 m, but in technical and scientific texts, an ellipsis is preferred: 5…6 m. It is important that intervals of numeric values in the text be consistent.
• The degree symbol is placed before °С without a space; a space is placed between the degree sign and the numerical value: 30 °С; temperature is denoted by italic t, e.g., melting point t_mminus 39 °С.
• Correct use of abbreviations (see GOST R 7.0.12-2011). Pay attention to where periods are used and where they are not: year (г.), years (гг.), centuries (вв.), century (в.), month (мес.), week (нед.), days (сут), hour (ч), minute (мин), second (с), thousand (тыс.), million (млн), meter (м), centimeter (см), millimeter (мм), ton (т), kilogram (кг), milligram (мг), copies (экз.) – when the word follows directly after a number. If there is another word between the number and the abbreviation, write it out in full: “mixed for 18 h” but “after 18 long hours”. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the text.
• Names and initials in the body of the article – they should be written before the surname.

Bibliography

• Correct formatting of the reference list according to Vancouver style – it should not include sources not indexed in scientometric systems (subsequent removal of such references from the list and moving them to footnotes delays publication).
• Avoid excessive (no more than three to four references per statement) and false citations.
• Relevance of the literature – for most contemporary research, references from the last 5–10 years are optimal (excluding classic works and historical reviews).
• Self‑citation should be kept to a minimum and should not exceed 20% of the total number of references.
• Correctness and completeness of bibliographic references, including DOI of cited articles (if available).
• For internet sources, the date the author accessed the source is mandatory.

Stylistics

• Avoid unjustifiably complex, “bureaucratic” phrasing (“instrumentalized for legitimization,” “systemic consolidation of facts”) in favor of simple and clear formulations.
• Do not use pompous epithets (“unprecedented,” “revolutionary,” “incontestable”).
• Provide specific data instead of general statements.
• Ensure uniformity of terminology throughout the text.

Special Requirements for Historical Articles

The most common mistakes in historical articles are:
a) Lack of scientific novelty;
b) Lack of independent work with sources;
c) Overuse of the narrative method;
d) When citing published archival documents and/or their fragments – no reference to the publication;
e) Journalistic style;
f) Lack of critical analysis of sources (simple listing of facts without assessment and comparison);
g) Modernization of historical events (attributing contemporary motivations and concepts to historical figures).

Such articles are not accepted for publication and are returned to the authors for revision.