Instructions for Authors
Manuscript Submission
The act of submitting a manuscript signifies that the described work has not been previously published, is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, and has received approval from all co-authors, if applicable, as well as the responsible authorities at the institute where the work was conducted, whether explicitly or implicitly. The publisher bears no legal liability in the event of any demands for compensation.
Permissions
In order to incorporate previously published figures, tables, or text excerpts into their papers, authors must secure permission from the copyright owner(s) for both print and online formats. Additionally, they must provide documentation of obtaining such permission when submitting their papers. In the absence of such evidence, any item received will be presumed to be the original work of the writers.
Online Submission
Kindly access the hyperlink labeled "Submit manuscript" and proceed to submit all available manuscript files in accordance with the provided instructions displayed on the screen.
Submitting Declarations
It is important to acknowledge that the submission interface requires the inclusion of Author Contribution information and Competing Interest information during the submission process. The final published version will exclusively utilize the information provided through the interface. It is imperative to ensure that individuals who hold positions as editorial board members and listed authors duly notify the Competing Interest portion of the interface.
For additional details on these statements, as well as any other obligatory statements, please refer to the pertinent sections outlined in the submission requirements.
ORCID
In order to submit this publication, it is necessary for the related author to furnish their ORCiD ID. To obtain further details on the ORCiD policy of this journal, kindly refer to the ORCID FAQ.
Title Page
Kindly ensure that your title page includes the following details.
Title
The title should possess brevity and include relevant information.
Author information
- The name(s) of the author(s)
- The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country
- The corresponding author should provide a clear indication and an active email address.
The 16-digit ORCID of the author(s), if accessible, is requested.
The present authorship standards for Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are not met. Significantly, assigning authorship entails responsibility for the work, a principle that cannot be adequately applied to LLMs. It is vital to ensure that the use of an LLM is thoroughly documented inside the Methods section of the paper, or in an appropriate alternative section if one is not accessible.
Abstract
Kindly furnish a concise summary ranging from 100 to 300 words. The abstract should not include any acronyms that are not defined or references that are not specified. The Abstract should be divided into the following sections 'Background and Aims', 'Methods’. ‘Results', and 'Conclusion', and it should not exceed 300 words.
- The trial registration number and registration date for trials that are registered in advance
- For retrospectively registered trials, it is necessary to provide the trial registration number and date of registration, followed by the designation "retrospectively registered".Keywords
Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
Text
Text Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.
- Use a plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text.
- Use italics for emphasis.
- Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
- Do not use field functions.
- Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
- Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
- Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
- Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).
Headings
Please use displayed headings.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Footnotes
Footnotes serve the purpose of providing supplementary information, such as the citation of a reference that is already listed in the reference list. References should not be limited to a single citation, and it is imperative that they do not include the bibliographic information of a reference. Additionally, they should be devoid of any figures or tables.
In the text, footnotes are sequentially numbered, whereas those pertaining to tables are denoted by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Reference symbols are not provided for footnotes containing the title or authors of the article.
Utilize footnotes rather than endnotes at all times.
Acknowledgments
It is needed that acknowledgments of individuals, grants, funding, and other relevant sources be allocated to a distinct area on the title page. It is necessary to provide the complete names of the financing organizations.
References
Citation
Reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in Parentheses ().
Reference list
Only works that are explicitly referenced in the text and have been published or accepted for publication should be included in the list of references. The material should exclusively include references to personal communications and unreleased works.
The items in the list should be sequentially numbered.
Kindly ensure that you consistently incorporate DOIs as complete DOI URLs in your reference list, such as "https://doi.org/abc," if they are accessible.
Optimally, it is preferable to include the names of all writers, although the use of "et al" in lengthy author lists will also be deemed acceptable.
Statements & Declarations
Please ensure that the submitted paper includes the following statements under the subject 'Statements and Declarations'. The placement of this should be subsequent to the References section. Kindly be aware that submissions lacking mandatory statements will be deemed incomplete and returned.
Funding
Please ensure that the submitted paper includes the following statements under the subject 'Statements and Declarations'. The statement of this should be subsequent to the References section. Kindly be aware that submissions lacking mandatory statements will be deemed incomplete and returned.
“This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]). Author A.B. has received research support from Company A.”
“The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.”
Competing Interests
It is mandatory for authors to include information regarding their financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly associated with the work they submit for publication. It is necessary to report any interests that have been pursued within the past three years since the commencement of the research and the subsequent preparation of the work for submission. Disclosure of interests beyond the 3-year time frame is required if there is a reasonable possibility that they may have an impact on the submitted work.
Example statements:
“Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no funding, Grant, or financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company N. Author D has received travel support from Company O. Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M and Company N.”
Mention to the “Competing Interests” section below for more evidence on how to complete these sections.
Author Contributions
It is recommended that authors provide a statement that clearly outlines the individual contributions made by each author in relation to the research and preparation of the work.
Data Availability
It is imperative that any primary research incorporates a Data Availability Statement. Data Availability Statements should include details regarding the sources of data that support the findings presented in the article. It is recommended that statements provide hyperlinks to publicly available datasets that were analyzed or generated as part of the study, if relevant. In situations where it is not feasible to publicly release research data, such as when the privacy of individuals may be jeopardized, it is nevertheless important to indicate the availability of the data in the publication, along with any terms and conditions for accessing it.
For further instructions on how to fill out this area, please see the "Research Data Policy and Data Availability" section provided below.
Furthermore, it is imperative that articles presenting findings from investigations involving both humans and animals provide the subsequent declarations:
Ethics approval
Researchers who have conducted studies involving human or animal subjects must provide a statement confirming that the study received approval or exemption from the relevant institutional and/or national research ethics committee. This statement should include the name of the ethics committee and, if available, the reference number. In order to ensure ethical treatment of animals, authors of research studies involving animals, their data, or biological material are required to provide comprehensive information in their submission. It is important to include information in the publication whether a study was given exemption or did not need ethics approval.
“This is an observational study. The XYZ Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.”
“This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of University B (Date.../No....).”
For detailed information on relevant ethical standards and criteria, please refer to the sections on “Research involving human participants, their data or biological material”, “Research involving animals, their data or biological material”.
Consent to participate
Please see the sections titled "Research involving human participants, their data or biological material" and "Research involving animals, their data or biological material" for comprehensive information regarding pertinent ethical standards and criteria.
Example statement:
“Written informed consent was obtained from the parents.”
“Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”
Consent to publish
Participants have the option to give their agreement to take part in a study, but they may have reservations about having their data published in a journal article. If your manuscript includes any personal data of an individual, whether in the form of specific details, photos, or videos, it is necessary to get agreement for publishing from that person. In the case of children, consent must be sought from their parent or legal guardian. This phenomenon is particularly relevant when applied to case studies. The article should include a statement affirming that consent to publish has been obtained from all participants.
Example statement:
“The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication of the images in Figure(s) 1a, 1b and 1c.”