Background: There is great need to improve editing of medical journals, both on regional and global level. Objective: The aim of our article was to establish main principles of editing biomedical scientific journals based on evidence found through systematic search of scientific literature. Methods: The evidence for writing this Guideline was systematically searched for during June 2020 in the PUBMED and GOOGLE SCHOLAR databases. The inclusion criteria were: original studies, systematic reviews, invited expert opinions, guidelines and editorials. The exclusion criteria were narrative reviews and un-invited opinion articles. Results: In total 11 recommendations were made, based mostly on A and B class of evidence. The editors should educate potential authors and instruct them how to structure their manuscript, how to write every segment of the manuscript, and take care about correct use of statistical tests. Plagiarism detection softwares should be used regularly, and statistical and technical editing should be rigorous and thorough. International standards of reporting specific types of studies should be followed, and principles of ethical and responsible behaviour of editors, reviewers and authors should be published on the journals web site.Conclusion: Evidence-based principles of editing biomedical scientific journals should be followed by chief editors of the journals as a prerequisite of the journals quality improvement.
Key words: medical journals, editing, evidence-based, recommendations.
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