The Balkan Medical Journal (Balkan Med J) is a peer-reviewed open-access international journal that publishes interesting clinical and experimental research conducted in all fields of medicine, interesting case reports and clinical images, invited reviews, editorials, letters, comments and letters to the Editor including reports on publication and research ethics. The journal is the official scientific publication of the Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey and is printed six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September and November. The language of the journal is English.

The journal is based on independent and unbiased double-blinded peer-reviewed principles. Only unpublished papers that are not under review for publication elsewhere can be submitted. Balkan Medical Journal does not accept multiple submission and duplicate submission even though the previous one was published in a different language. The authors are responsible for the scientific content of the material to be published. The Balkan Medical Journal reserves the right to request any research materials on which the paper is based.

The Balkan Medical Journal encourages and enables academicians, researchers, specialists and primary care physicians of Balkan countries to publish their valuable research in all branches of medicine. The primary aim of the journal is to publish original articles with high scientific and ethical quality and serve as a good example of medical publications in the Balkans as well as in the World.

The Editorial Board of the Balkan Medical Journal and the Publisher adheres to the principles of the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), the Council of Science Editors (CSE), the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the World Medical Association (WMA), the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and the International Society of Managing and Technical Editors (ISMTE).

The Balkan Medical Journal is indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science), Journal Citation Reports, PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, Scopus, EMBASE, DOAJ, CAB Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, CINAHL, EBSCO, Global Health, Index Copernicus, and TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM TR Index. Printed copies of the journal are distributed to over 150 university libraries in 14 Balkan countries and all around the World. All articles are also available in PDF format on our website (www.balkanmedicaljournal.org) and PubMed Central and can be downloaded free of charge.