General Information for Authors

The journal Veterinarski arhiv (Vet. arhiv) publishes original research articles, case reports, short communications, review papers and book reviews. Occasionally, in supplemental issues, it publishes papers of relevant conferences. The scope of the journal includes all fields of veterinary and animal sciences. 

Veterinarski arhiv is published by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, four times a year, as an open access, peer-reviewed, international scientific journal. Its abstracts/contents are indexed in: Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch®), Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Scopus, Zoological Record, Biological Abstracts, Biosis Previews, CAB Abstracts (Index Veterinarius, Veterinary Bulletin), Fishlit and Hrèak.

Only unpublished manuscripts may be accepted for the review process. All papers must be written in English and submitted via the Journal’s online submission system (COMET). Manuscripts sent by post or e-mail will not be considered. After finishing the peer-review process, all accepted papers are posted online, first in an unedited form ahead of press and then in the final form after printing. The content of the Journal is available free of charge and there are no publication charges.

Access Policy: This journal supports the principle that making research findings freely available to the public encourages the public good through the greater global exchange of knowledge. Veterinarski Arhiv does not charge authors to publish (APC) nor readers to access published articles. Published articles are not eligible for a fee.

From 2026, Veterinarski Arhiv is published under the terms of the Creative Commons 4.0. International (CC BY 4.0).

Article Processing Charge: There is no charge for publishing in our journal.

THE EDITORIAL PROCESS:

Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief via the Journal’s online submission system (COMET). Submission of a manuscript is understood on the basis that the manuscript is original and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. The manuscripts must contain all the necessary information to enable reproducibility of the described work.

All authors are expected to approve the manuscript and to sign a COVER LETTER to confirm that the manuscript has been prepared according to the journal’s instructions for authors, and checked for all possible inconsistencies and typographical errors. They must declare that the manuscript submitted is an original work and that it has been neither published in any other journal nor is it under consideration for publication by any other journal. The cover letter needs to contain the full names of all the authors, their titles and affiliations, with their signatures. The e-mail addresses of all authors should be provided in the cover letter, while the manuscript title page should provide the contact details (phone/fax and e-mail address) of only the corresponding author.

After successful submission of all materials, the corresponding author will receive a confirmation e-mail with a reference number assigned to the paper, which he/she is asked to quote in all subsequent correspondence. All manuscripts are first evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief and may be rejected without reviewing if considered not of sufficient interest or novelty, too preliminary or out of the scope of the Journal. If the manuscript is considered suitable for further evaluation, it is run through iThenticate plagiarism detection software and then sent to at least two reviewers. The authors’ proposals of up to three reviewers along with their contact details could be useful, provided that they are not from the authors’ institutions or countries of origin (when possible). All suggestions of reviewers will be evaluated and the decision about their selection will be made by the Editorial Office.

As soon as the reviews are submitted, the Editor-in-Chief renders a decision about the possible acceptance of the manuscript. The reviews are then sent to the authors via the online submission system, and if the reviews are positive, the authors are expected to submit the revised version within two months. If during the revision a change in authorship (addition or removal of an author) has occurred, the authors are requested to clarify the reason for the change, and all authors (including those removed or added) need to submit their written consent for the change.

The revised version of the paper should be re-uploaded through the online submission system, together with the reply to the reviewers and the letter to the Editor-in-Chief. All the changes made in the revised manuscript must be either highlighted, written in a different colour, or using Track changes. In reply to the reviewers, the authors need to explain how they addressed each point given by the reviewer. The revised version is evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief and/or reviewers. If necessary, further revision may be requested to meet all the reviewers’ requirements.

When a manuscript is accepted for publication, each co-author is requested to sign DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP and STATEMENT OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST forms. Then the corresponding author is obliged to send all the signed forms to veterinarski.arhiv@vef.hr and after that an official letter of acceptance is sent to the corresponding author, the manuscript is assigned a doi number and posted online in an unedited version (in the category: Advanced online publication of articles). After that stage, changes to the authors of the manuscript are not possible.

Before printing, linguistic and technical revision is undertaken, at which stage the authors are asked to make the final corrections in no more than a week. The final version is then sent to the printer’s office and the authors receive the galley proof for final checking before printing. The authors are expected to correct only typographical errors on the proofs. Any changes in the text (additions etc.) at that stage will be made at the authors’ expense. The proofs have to be returned to the Editorial Office within 48 hours. After printing, all manuscripts are posted online as pdf files in the final form, indexed in databases and deposited in CrossRef with the assigned doi numbers.

Articles published in Veterinarski arhiv (Online) are available on the Internet address: http://vetarhiv.vef.unizg.hr/ in pdf format.

Confidentiality:

Editors handle all papers submitted to Veterinarski Arhiv in strict confidence. With the exception of reviewers, they do not disclose any information regarding the submissions to third parties, unless in case of a suspected misconduct, where COPE (https://publicationethics.org/) recommendations are followed. The reviewers are also required to treat the submitted papers confidentially and not to share or distribute the results presented in the papers which they receive for evaluation to third parties. They are encouraged to point out a case of suspected misconduct, but they should act in a confidential manner. The reviewers can also recommend a particular course of action in their confidential comments to the editor, who will then make a decision based on their recommendations, following Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers.

AUTHORSHIP

The individual contribution of each author must be stated in the cover letter (at the submission) and at later stage in the Declaration of Authorship. An author can be someone who substantially contributed to the idea or design of the research, acquisition of data, analysis or interpretation of data, was involved in drafting, writing or revising the paper critically for important intellectual content. Other contributors should be mentioned in the Acknowledgements and cannot be considered as authors of the work. All authors should approve the final version of the paper before submitting the paper to Veterinarski Arhiv. They agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and they should state and verify with their signatures or the signature of corresponding author in the cover letter that all data is authentic and correct. Changes in authorship after the submission of the paper to Veterinarski Arhiv can be justified only by the additional work required during the revision. It is not possible after the acceptance of the manuscript for publication. The change in authorship needs to be stated in the cover letter and in the reply to the reviewers, and needs to be accepted and signed by all authors. Change in the order of authors also needs to be stated in the cover letter. All authors should also agree to the change in the order of authors. The change of order of authors is not possible after the acceptance of manuscript for publication.

GDPR:

In accordance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the journal collects data on authors, reviewers and editors including names and surnames, titles, contact details and fields of professional interest. The information is used to help editors choose the appropriate reviewers, contact reviewers and authors, and provide the necessary information in published articles. Data are used only to an extent needed for publication and information that is not included in the article or acknowledgement will not be shared with third parties. Data will be stored until revocation or erasure of data on the request of author/reviewer/editor. All requests, corrections or complaints can be sent to the Editorial office at: veterinarski.arhiv@vef.hr.

CORRECTION OF DATA:

All authors should account for the accuracy of the published data. Correction of data should be done before the final printing of the paper. For that reason, the corresponding author receives the galley proof of the paper and is asked to correct it carefully and in timely manner (within 24 h) before publication. If authors find a major mistake or error in the published version of the article, an Erratum will be published in the first available issue and posted online.

RETRACTION OF PUBLISHED PAPERS:

If the authors made an honest error or discover the major flaws in their work, they can retract the paper. The online version will then be marked as ’retracted by authors’ and a retraction notice will be added to the CrossRef database. All links to the retracted article will be maintained. If the editors, reviewers or readers notice a case of duplicate or overlapping publication, fraudulent use of data, plagiarism or unethical research, the paper will be, after an internal review by the editor, retracted, in which case the online version will then be marked as ’retracted by editor’ and a retraction notice will be added to the CrossRef database. All links to the retracted article will be maintained. All retractions will be done in accordance with the COPE retraction guidelines.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS:

Conflict of interest Authors should declare any conflict of interest in the cover letter, in the paper, and in the Statement of Conflict of Interest. When suggesting reviewers, they should pay attention to the fact that the proposal of their colleagues, collaborators or members of their institutions will not be considered during reviewing. Also, the authors should state if they want to exclude a particular reviewer, which will be accepted if the reasons are considered to be relevant. All authors are obliged to sign the Declaration of Authorship and Statement of Conflict of Interest forms. According to Journal’s policy, manuscripts are never sent to reviewers from the same institution or (if possible) country as the authors. The reviewers should notify the editors on any conflict of interest which prevents them from reviewing the paper, such as: recent or ongoing collaborations with the authors, inclusion during the preparation of the paper, direct competition, direct dispute with the authors, financial interest, any political, moral, ideological or similar dilemma. If members of the Editorial or Advisory Board or their close collaborators appear as authors submitting to the journal, they are then excluded from the entire process of evaluation. The reviewers are then chosen in a way to minimize possible bias during the evaluation process. During revision, the editors follow the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers.

Research involving human subjects, animals or plants

If the research involves humans or animals, authors are advised to follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. For all tested human subjects, authors should have their informed consent to participate in the study. For subjects under the age of 18, their parents or guardians should give the permission for their participation in the study. If the participant has died, then consent for publication must be sought from the next of kin of the participant. All documentation must be made available on editor’s request, and will be treated confidentially. For all tested subjects, a statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licences must be included in the manuscript. Research on vertebrates or regulated invertebrates, field studies and other non-experimental research on animals must comply with institutional, national or international guidelines and, where possible, should be approved by an ethics committee. A statement detailing compliance with relevant guidelines and/or appropriate permissions or licences must be included in the manuscript. Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild) including collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. Field studies should be conducted in accordance with local legislation, and the manuscript should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licences.

Journal’s policy on animal rights

To be acceptable for publication, experiments on living non-human vertebrates or Octopus vulgaris must conform to the European Union’s legislation (Directive 2010/63/EU) and are in accordance with guidelines set by the Committee for Research and Ethical Issues of IASP (IASP Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research – International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)).
Every research article submitted to our Journal must include a statement that the study obtained ethics approval, the number/ID of the approval(s).

This information must be also declared in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript which should also include the following details about animal study design (see more in the ARRIVE guidelines):

• The number of experimental and control groups.
• Any steps taken to minimize the effects of subjective bias when allocating animals to treatment (e.g. randomization procedure) and when assessing results (e.g. if done, describe who was blinded and when).
• The experimental unit (e.g. a single animal, group, or cage of animals).
• For each experiment and each experimental group, including controls, provide precise details of all procedures carried out. If anesthesia was used, the anesthetic dose and duration of surgery must be provided, as well as information about any intra- and/or post-operative drugs (i.e., drug, dose, and inter-dosing interval, if given more than once). If pain was caused, the authors have to explain clearly how it was managed and minimized.
• Authors must provide details of the animals used, including species, strain, sex, developmental stage (e.g., mean or median age plus age range), and weight (e.g., mean or median weight plus weight range). Further relevant information such as the source of animals, international strain nomenclature, genetic modification status (e.g., knock-out or transgenic), genotype, health/immune status, drug or test naive, previous procedures, etc.

Animal ethics based criteria for manuscript consideration

Manuscripts will be considered for publication only if the work described therein:

1) Follows international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for human animal treatment and complieswith the r elevant legislation;

2) Has been approved by the ethics review committee at the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted, were such a committee exists,

3) For studies using client-owned animals, demonstrates a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care and involves informed client consent.

Prior to acceptance of a manuscript, to verify compliance with the above policies, the authors must:

1) Sign a letter certifying that the legal and ethical requirements have been met with regards to the humane treatment of animals described in the study;

2) Specify in Materials and methods the ethical review committee approval process and the international, national, and/or institutional guidelines followed.

Animal ethics based criteria for manuscript rejection:

1) Manuscripts and authors that fail to meet the aforementioned requirements;

2) Studies that involve unnecessary pain, distress, suffering, all lasting harm to animals;

3) The Editor retains the right to reject manuscripts on the basis of ethical or welfare concerns.

COPYRIGHT:

Veterinarski Arhiv applies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 CC BY (https://creativecommons. org/licenses/) license to all published papers, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright of published papers is retained by the authors, who grant the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, Croatia, a license to publish the manuscript as the original publisher. Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely, as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are clearly stated. Individual users may access, download, copy, display, adapt and translate the manuscripts published in Veterinarski Arhiv, provided that the authors’ intellectual and moral rights, reputation and integrity are not compromised. It is the obligation of the user to ensure that any reuse complies with the copyright policies of the owners. If the content of the published manuscripts is copied, downloaded or otherwise reused for research and educational purposes, a link to the appropriate bibliographic citation (authors, journal title, manuscript title, volume, year and page numbers, and the link to the published version on the Journal’s website) should be provided. Copyright notices and disclaimers must not be deleted. For any unofficial translation of the manuscript, a statement that it is an unofficial translation of the article must accompany the text.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1) Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in Veterinarski Arhiv by Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Heinzelova 55, 1000 Zagreb, Croatia). The author’s name will be evident in the article in the journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in the hands of the publisher.

2) Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In the case of claims by third parties, authors commit themselves to defend the interests of the publisher and shall cover any potential costs.

3) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

4) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

5) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

Publication in the peer-reviewed journal Veterinarski Arhiv contributes to the advance veterinary medicine by promoting fundamental and applied research pertaining to animal and human health and wellbeing. Each publication reflects upon the quality of the authors, their supporting institutions, the editor and editorial board, as well as the publisher. This cooperation is furthered by the explicit statement of ethical standards for all parties involved. These standards are based on recommendations made by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and as informed by the aspirational principles outlined in COPE’s Core Practices. The aim of these guides is to promote thorough honesty, transparency, accountability, and respect for others.

As publisher of the journal Veterinarski Arhiv, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb takes seriously the role of guardian of all stages of the publication process. As publisher, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb is responsible to maintain the integrity of past and current research scholarship published in Veterinarski Arhiv. The publisher is committed to ensure that advertising, reprint purchase, or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. In addition, the publisher and the editorial board of Veterinarski Arhiv will exchange information with other journals and/or publishers when useful and necessary.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS

Reporting standards: Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unethical and unacceptable.

Data access and retention: Authors may be asked to provide the underlying data of a submission for editorial review. Authors should be prepared to provide public access to such data, if practicable, and data should be retained for a reasonable time after publication.

Originality and plagiarism: All manuscripts must be the original work of the author(s). The inclusion of the work of others must be clearly indicated with appropriate citation of the source material. Plagiarism takes many forms, from attempts to ‘pass off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copy or paraphrase substantial parts (e.g. copying equations, figures, or tables) of other work by the same authors or by other researchers without attribution, or to claim results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism also includes “Verbatim” (word for word) or almost verbatim copying, or intentionally paraphrasing portions of another author’s work without clearly indicating the source or identifying the copied fragment (e.g., by quotation marks). Plagiarism in all its forms is unethical and unacceptable. Plagiarism may also constitute a violation of copyright law, which may be legally punishable.

If plagiarism is suspected during the submission and review process, the authors will be notified and allowed to clarify the situation within one week of notification. Without a reasonable and timely explanation of apparent plagiarism, the manuscript will be withdrawn from consideration by the journal.

Manuscripts that include work previously presented with limited circulation such as at a symposium or conference or as part of a student’s thesis or dissertation are acceptable for consideration with proper citation of the earlier work.

Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publication: Generally, an author should not describe the same research findings in more than one primary research journal article. Simultaneous submission of essentially the same manuscript to more than one journal is unethical and unacceptable. Multiple publications that describe different aspects of results derived from a single set of research experiments or observations may be justified with explicit statements of how the multiple manuscripts are distinctly different from each other.

Acknowledgement of sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that were influential to determine the context, relevance, and impact of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as review of manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved.

Authorship of the paper: Authorship denotes both credit and responsibility for the manuscript and resulting publication. Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. Only those who significantly contributed to the research should be listed as co-authors. Less significant contributions should be acknowledged.

The submitting author should ensure that that the co-author list is complete, correct, and listed in the proper sequence. The submitting author should also ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the manuscript prior to submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted.

Hazards and human subjects: For research that involves human subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) has approved them. 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.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

Fundamental errors in published works: In the event that an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, the author is obliged to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editor or the publisher learns from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, the author is obliged to promptly retract or correct the paper or provide evidence to the editor of the correctness of the original paper. In rare cases, a publication may be corrected or retracted as determined by the Editor.

Guidelines for authors: Use of Chat GPT and other AI tools

Artificial intelligence (AI) policy:

Journal Veterinarski Arhiv allows to a moderate extent use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that respect high standards of copyright protection, confidentiality and data security.

Authors are accountable for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content of their submissions. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the content of their submissions meets the required standards of rigorous scientific and scholarly assessment, research and validation, and is created by the author. If authors intend to use an AI tool, they should ensure that the tool is appropriate and robust for their proposed use, and that the terms applicable to such tool provide sufficient safeguards and protections, for example around intellectual property rights, confidentiality and security.

Journal Veterinarski Arhiv allows the use of AI in the following cases:

– Idea generation and idea exploration

– Language improvement

– Interactive online search

– Literature classification

AI technology can still be used when writing academic papers. However, this must be appropriately declared when submitting a paper. In such cases, authors are required to be fully transparent, within the “Acknowledgments” about which tools were used (with version number), and to describe in detail how the tools were used, in the “Materials and Methods” section.

Forbidden submit manuscripts where AI tools have been used in ways that replace core researcher and author responsibilities, for example:

– Synthetic data generation to substitute missing data without robust methodology

– Generation of any type of content that is inaccurate including abstracts or supplemental materials

– Text generation without rigorous revision

Forbidden submit manuscripts where Generative AI tools have been used in the creation and manipulation of images and figures, or original research data for use in our publications. The term “images and figures” includes pictures, charts, data tables, medical imagery, snippets of images, computer code, and formulas. The term “manipulation” includes augmenting, concealing, moving, removing, or introducing a specific feature within an image or figure.

To promote responsible and ethical use, we have established the following guidelines for authors using Chat GPT:

Authors should adhere to submission guidelines, ethical standards, and policies set by
Veterinarski Arhiv.

Authors must inform editors that the content they are interacting with has been
generated by AI.

Authors are responsible for reviewing AI-generated information for accuracy, especially
factual content.

Authors may not use AI-generated content to plagiarize or infringe copyrighted material.
If necessary, appropriate attribution should be given.

AI-generated content should be reviewed and edited by authors to ensure that it is
consistent with their intentions and meets editorial standards.

Authors should not use AI models to create content that violates privacy, reveals sensitive
personal information or violates data protection laws.

---

---

Manuscript Organization

The manuscript format should conform strictly to these instructions (see provided template).

The author(s) should submit the manuscript as A4 size, with up to 30 lines per page of the entire text and tables.

All headings (Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References) must be written in bold and placed above the text (paragraph). The manuscript should be divided into the following sections:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Key words
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

CROATIAN TRANSLATION OF THE TITLE, ABSTRACT AND KEY WORDS:

CROATIAN TRANSLATION OF THE TITLE, ABSTRACT AND KEY WORDS

On a separate page at the end of the manuscript, provide the Croatian translation of the Title, Abstract and Key words.
Translations into the Croatian language for foreign contributors may be provided by the Editorial Office.