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Information for Authors

Submission

The submission of manuscripts must be carried out by one of the authors using Editorial Manager, our journal's manuscript submission system. The system only accepts electronic PDF (.pdf) or Word (.doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf, .txt) files, and there is no restriction on the number of pages. It is essential to avoid using special characters in the file name of the main manuscript file. Manuscripts submitted by individuals other than the authors will not be considered. The author submitting the manuscript assumes responsibility for it throughout the submission and peer review process.

Peer review

All submitted articles undergo evaluation and peer review to ensure editorial appropriateness and technical accuracy. The research featured in the journal must meet the following criteria:

  • Scientifically valid, adhering to recognized community standards of research.
  • Technically accurate in both methods and results.
  • Representative of a notable advancement, replication, or null/negative result worthy of publication.
  • As reproducible as possible, sharing underlying data, code, and supporting materials whenever feasible.
  • Ethically sound and transparent, following best practices in animal and human studies, consent to publish, and clear disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, both actual and perceived.

Authorship

Listing authors’ names on an article is an important mechanism to give credit to those who have significantly contributed to the work. It also ensures transparency for those who are responsible for the integrity of the content.

Authors listed in an article must meet all of the following criteria:

  • Made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that’s in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation, or in all these areas.
  • Have drafted or written, substantially revised, or critically reviewed the article.
  • Have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted.
  • Reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission, during revision, the final version accepted for publication, and any significant changes introduced at the proofing stage.
  • Agree to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the article and to share the responsibility to resolve any questions raised about the accuracy or integrity of the published work.

Any changes in authorship before or after publication must be agreed upon by all authors, including those being added or removed. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to obtain confirmation from all co-authors and to provide a full explanation about why the change was necessary. If a change in authorship is necessary after the publication of the article, this will be amended via a post-publication notice. Any changes in authorship must comply with our criteria for authorship, and requests for significant changes to the authorship list after the article has been accepted may be rejected if clear reasons and evidence of author contributions cannot be provided.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Sometimes after an article has been published it may be necessary to make a change to the published article. This will be done after careful consideration by the Editor to ensure any necessary changes are done in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Any necessary changes will be accompanied by a post-publication notice which will be permanently linked to the original article. This can be in the form of a Correction notice, an Expression of Concern, a Retraction, and in rare circumstances a Removal. The purpose of this mechanism of making changes that are permanent and transparent is to ensure the integrity of the scholarly record.

Desk Rejection Policy

  • The topic / scope of the study is not relevant to the field of the Journal.
  • There are publication ethics problems, non-adherence to international standard guidelines, and plagiarism (set at a similarity index of higher than 20%).
  • The topic does not have a sufficient impact, nor does it sufficiently contribute new knowledge to the field.
  • There are flaws in the study design.
  • The objective of the study is not clearly stated.
  • The study of the organization is problematic and/or certain components are missing.
  • There are problems in writing or series infelicities of in the style of grammar.
  • The manuscript does not follow the submission guideline of the Journal.

Misconduct

The journal takes all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary action, in accordance with COPE guidelines, to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

  • Affiliation misrepresentation
  • Breaches in copyright/use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
  • Citation manipulation
  • Duplicate submission/publication
  • “Ethics dumping”
  • Image or data manipulation/fabrication
  • Peer review manipulation
  • Plagiarism
  • Text-recycling/self-plagiarism
  • Undisclosed competing interests
  • Unethical research

Concurrent submissions

To promote diversity among the authors, there will be a restriction on the number of manuscripts that an author can have under review simultaneously. Authors are limited to having a maximum of three manuscripts under review at any given time. If an author already has three manuscripts undergoing review in the journal, they must wait until the review process for at least one of these manuscripts is completed before submitting another manuscript for consideration. It's important to note that this policy excludes editorials and other non-peer-reviewed types of manuscripts.

Article processing charges

The journal is open access. There is no APC required by this journal.

ORCID

Prior to publication, an ORCID iD must be provided for the corresponding author(s). If you already have an ORCID iD, you will be asked to provide it. If you haven’t registered with ORCID yet, we’ll help you create an iD at the point of submission. The ORCID is not required for submission, or for peer review, but we will not be able to publish your article online until an ORCID iD is provided.

Article types

The journal will consider the following article types:

  • Research articles: Research articles should present the results of an original research study. These manuscripts should describe how the research project was conducted and provide a thorough analysis of the results of the project. Systematic reviews may be submitted as research articles.
  • Reviews: A review article provides an overview of the published literature in a particular subject area.

Conflicts of interest

Authors must declare all relevant interests that could be perceived as conflicting. Authors should explain why each interest may represent a conflict. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state this. Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests.

Funding statement

Authors must state how the research and publication of their article was funded, by naming financially supporting body(s) (written out in full) followed by associated grant number(s) in square brackets (if applicable), for example: “This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the National Science Foundation [grant number zzzz]; and a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant”.

If the research did not receive specific funding, but was performed as part of the employment of the authors, please name this employer. If the funder was involved in the manuscript writing, editing, approval, or decision to publish, please declare this.

Acknowledgments

All acknowledgments (if any) should be included at the very end of the manuscript before the references. Anyone who made a contribution to the research or manuscript, but who is not a listed author, should be acknowledged (with their permission).

Ethical guidelines

In any studies on human or animal subjects, the following ethical guidelines must be observed. For any experiments on humans, all work must be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964). Manuscripts describing experimental work that carries a risk of harm to human subjects must include a statement that the experiment was conducted with the human subjects’ understanding and consent, as well as a statement that the responsible ethics committee has approved the experiments. In the case of any animal experiments, the authors must provide a full description of any anesthetic or surgical procedure used, as well as evidence that all possible steps were taken to avoid animal suffering at each stage of the experiment.

Appeals

Authors may appeal if they feel that the decision to reject was based on: i) a major misunderstanding over a technical aspect of the manuscript; or ii) a failure to understand the scientific advance shown by the manuscript. Appeals requesting a second opinion without sufficient justification will not be considered. To lodge an appeal, please contact the journal by email, quoting your manuscript number. Appeals will only be considered from the original submitting author.