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Submission guidelines

Contents

Instructions for Authors

Histochemistry and Cell Biology is a journal devoted specifically to the field of molecular histology and cell biology. Original Articles and Short Communications dealing with the localization and identification of molecular components, metabolic activities and cell biological aspects of cells and tissues will be published as well as Review Articles. Papers are also welcome that make a substantial contribution to the development, application, and/or evaluation of methods and probes that can be used in the entire area of histochemistry and cell biology. Preference will be given to studies involving experimental approaches and/or a variety of different methods that help to characterize and quantify molecular constituents, dynamic properties and functional aspects of cellular and extracellular structures. Papers should be as concise as possible.

This is the official journal of the Society for Histochemistry (www.histochemistry.eu).

MANUSCRIPT TYPES

Original articles: There is no strict page limit, but we advise a maximum length of up to 20 printed pages (approx. 95,000 characters including references, not counting spaces). Likewise, there is no strict figure limit, but we advise a maximum number of 10 figures. Most importantly, paper length and content must be appropriate. Extensive tables, procedures, computer programs or animated graphics should be presented in form of Electronic Supplementary Material.

Short Communications (SC): The length of a SC is limited to approx. 20,000 characters (not counting spaces), which does NOT include the Materials and methods. SC are limited to five (5) figures. Supplemental material is limited to three (3) figures. Note that the Results and Discussion must be combined.

Reviews: Should address issues relevant to a wide readership and intelligible to non-specialists. We advise a maximum length of up to 20 printed pages (approx. 12000 words not including references). There is no strict figure limit, but we advise a maximum number of 10 figures.

Manuscript Submission

Manuscript Submission

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Online Submission

Please follow the hyperlink “Submit manuscript” and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

Source Files

Please ensure you provide all relevant editable source files at every submission and revision. Failing to submit a complete set of editable source files will result in your article not being considered for review. For your manuscript text please always submit in common word processing formats such as .docx or LaTeX.

Submitting Declarations

Please note that Author Contribution information and Competing Interest information must be provided at submission via the submission interface. Only the information submitted via the interface will be used in the final published version. Please make sure that if you are an editorial board member and also a listed author that you also declare this information in the Competing Interest section of the interface.

Please see the relevant sections in the submission guidelines for further information on these statements as well as possible other mandatory statements.

Title Page

Please make sure your title page contains the following information.

Title

The title should be concise and informative.

Author information

  • The name(s) of the author(s)
  • The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country
  • A clear indication and an active e-mail address of the corresponding author
  • If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)

If address information is provided with the affiliation(s) it will also be published.

For authors that are (temporarily) unaffiliated we will only capture their city and country of residence, not their e-mail address unless specifically requested.

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, do not currently satisfy our authorship criteria. Notably an attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to LLMs. Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript.

Abstract

Please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

For life science journals only (when applicable)

  • Trial registration number and date of registration for prospectively registered trials
  • Trial registration number and date of registration, followed by “retrospectively registered”, for retrospectively registered trials

Keywords

Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Statements and Declarations

The following statements should be included under the heading "Statements and Declarations" for inclusion in the published paper. Please note that submissions that do not include relevant declarations will be returned as incomplete.

  • Competing Interests: Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Please refer to “Competing Interests and Funding” below for more information on how to complete this section.

Please see the relevant sections in the submission guidelines for further information as well as various examples of wording. Please revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

Specific Remarks:

  • IntroductionSuccinct, no subheadings.
  • Materials and methodsShould follow the Introduction and should provide enough information to permit repetition of the experimental work.
  • Policy on Antibody ValidationAny manuscript in which antibody-based data are presented must provide evidence for specificity of the antibody. If the manufacturer of a commercially purchased antibody has provided proof of validation on the technical specifications insert, referring to this information will suffice. In the absence of such documentation, one (or more) of the following methods as recommended by an ad hoc International Working group for Antibody Validation1 must be included in the Materials and methods section:(1) Genetic – target protein expression eliminated or reduced by genome editing or siRNA(2) Orthogonal- target protein expression compared with non-antibody method (for instance, in situ hybridization or mass spectrometry)(3) Independent antibody – compare expression with a second antibody against target of interest, but recognizing non-overlapping epitopes(4) Tagged protein expression – express target protein with a tag in cultured cells; demonstrate overlap with antibody staining pattern(5) IMS – target protein captured by antibody, followed by analysis by MSIn addition to these recommended antibody validation methods, providing a Western blot as a preliminary indicator demonstrating that the antibody recognizes a correctly sized band, as well as known negative and known positive target tissues would be further valuable controls. Importantly, simply omitting the primary antibody is not considered a control for antibody specificity; it only serves to determine levels of non-specific binding of secondary antibodies.1 Uhlen M, Bandrowski A, Carr S, Edwards A, Ellenberg J, Lundberg E, Rimm DL, Rodriguez H, Hiltke T, Snyder M, Yamamoto T (2016) A proposal for validation of antibodies.. Nat Meth 13:823-827.
  • Results and DiscussionEach may be divided by subheadings. Symbols and names for genetic loci, alleles, DNA and RNA should be italicized. Nonstandard abbreviations should be defined when first used in the text. All text should be double spaced.

Text

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

  • The text of a research paper should be divided into Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Conflict of Interest, and References.
  • Materials and Methods must include statement of Human and Animal Rights.
  • Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-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).

Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in LaTeX. We recommend using Springer Nature’s LaTeX template.

Headings

Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.

Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.

Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

Acknowledgments and Funding Information

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section on the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. In addition, please provide the funding information in a separate step of the submission process in the peer review system. Funder names should preferably be selected from the standardized list you will see during submission. If the funding institution you need is not listed, it can be entered as free text. Funding information will be published as searchable metadata for the accepted article, whereas acknowledgements are published within the paper.

References

Citation

Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. Some examples:

  • Negotiation research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).
  • This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).
  • This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 1995a, b; Kelso and Smith 1998; Medvec et al. 1999, 2000).

Reference list

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. Please alphabetize according to the following rules: 1) For one author, by name of author, then chronologically; 2) For two authors, by name of author, then name of coauthor, then chronologically; 3) For more than two authors, by name of first author, then chronologically.

If available, please always include DOIs as full DOI links in your reference list (e.g. “https://doi.org/abc”).

  • Journal article

    Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, Bosquet L (2009) Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:731-738. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8

    Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of “et al” in long author lists will also be accepted:

    Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al (1999) Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325–329

  • Article by DOI

    Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000) Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001090000086

  • Book

    South J, Blass B (2001) The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London

  • Book chapter

    Brown B, Aaron M (2001) The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern genomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 230-257

  • Online document

    Cartwright J (2007) Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb. http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Accessed 26 June 2007

  • Dissertation

    Trent JW (1975) Experimental acute renal failure. Dissertation, University of California

Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see

ISSN LTWA

If you are unsure, please use the full journal title.

Tables

  • All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
  • Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
  • For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
  • Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
  • Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines

Electronic Figure Submission

  • Supply all figures electronically.
  • Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
  • For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MSOffice files are also acceptable.
  • Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
  • Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line Art

  • Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
  • Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
  • All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
  • Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
  • Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone Art

  • Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
  • If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
  • Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination Art

  • Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
  • Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Color Art

  • Color art is free of charge for online publication.
  • If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.
  • If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.
  • Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure Lettering

  • To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
  • Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
  • Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
  • Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
  • Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

Figure Numbering

  • All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
  • Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
  • Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
  • If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures,"A1, A2, A3, etc." Figures in online appendices [Supplementary Information (SI)] should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure Captions

  • Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
  • Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
  • No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
  • Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
  • Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure Placement and Size

  • Figures should be submitted within the body of the text. Only if the file size of the manuscript causes problems in uploading it, the large figures should be submitted separately from the text.
  • When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
  • For large-sized journals the figures should be 84 mm (for double-column text areas), or 174 mm (for single-column text areas) wide and not higher than 234 mm.
  • For small-sized journals, the figures should be 119 mm wide and not higher than 195 mm.

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that

  • All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
  • Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (colorblind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
  • Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

Generative AI Images

Please check Springer’s policy on generative AI images and make sure your work adheres to the principles described therein.

Please note:

  • Contrary to the above text MS Office files (like word.doc, xlsx, PowerPoint/ppt) and PDF's are not acceptable for figure submission.
  • We prefer the use of lower-case lettering for figures and tables.

Importent notes:

For all images acquired by microscopy, provide the following information in the Methods section:

  • Type and manufacturer of the microscope
  • Objective lens specifications (magnification, N.A., aberration corrections, etc.)
  • Type and manufacturer of camera (include number of pixels)
  • Type of acquisition software used (software version).
  • Image acquisition information, including detector gain, time and space resolution data (xyzt and pixel dimensions); and image bit depth.
  • For fluorescence imaging provide the following details: fluorophores used, fluorescence filters, and equipment settings and configurations for multifluorescence image acquisitions.

Policy on Manipulation of Images

Scientific digital images are composed of pixels of varying intensities and shades of color, and are to be considered data. Any image manipulations must adhere to strong guidelines to ensure data integrity. We adhere to the following modified guidelines first expressed by The Rockefeller University Press:

  • No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Cropping of an image is acceptable to center a feature of interest, but must adhere to the previous statement.
  • Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the entire image (not selected regions of interest) and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original. Identical adjustments must be performed on images from control samples as well.
  • The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g., dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend.
  • If the original data cannot be produced by an author when asked to provide it, acceptance of the manuscript may be revoked. Always maintain an original unprocessed copy of the image.

Additional important aspects regarding image manipulation:

  • Provide the name and version of any software used for image processing.
  • Mention in the text any image manipulations which have been applied. Alternatively, a blanket statement declaring that "all images have not been manipulated" would suffice.
  • Additional pixels should not be added by a software program in order to produce 300 ppi resolution at the desired image size. For instance, “Image Size” feature in Adobe Photoshop should not be used to “Resample Image”; doing so will add additional pixels not present in the original image.
  • Software filters such as “sharpening” and “blurring” should not be used to improve image quality.

Additional Information

Histochemistry and Cell Biology does not charge for the reproduction of color figures.

For the best quality final product, it is required that all of your artwork – photographs, line drawings, etc. – be submitted in an electronic format. Your art will then be produced to the highest standards with the greatest accuracy to detail. The published work will directly reflect the quality of the artwork provided.

- All figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text.

- Magnification must be indicated by a legible bar scale (without lettering) within the images themselves. The bar scale size (in mm, m or nm) should be provided at the end of the figure caption. Listing the original magnification in the figure legend is not allowed.

- For all images acquired by microscopy, provide the following information in the Methods section:

  • Type and manufacturer of the microscope
  • Objective lens specifications (magnification, N.A., aberration corrections, etc.)
  • Type and manufacturer of camera (include number of pixels)
  • Type of acquisition software used (software version).
  • Supplementary Information (SI)

    Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.

    Before submitting research datasets as Supplementary Information, authors should read the journal’s Research data policy. We encourage research data to be archived in data repositories wherever possible.

    Submission

    • Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
    • Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
    • To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
    • High resolution (streamable quality) videos can be submitted up to a maximum of 25GB; low resolution videos should not be larger than 5GB.

    Audio, Video, and Animations

    • Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3
    • Maximum file size: 25 GB for high resolution files; 5 GB for low resolution files
    • Minimum video duration: 1 sec
    • Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp

    Text and Presentations

    • Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
    • A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

    Spreadsheets

    • Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

    Specialized Formats

    • Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

    Collecting Multiple Files

    • It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

    Numbering

    • If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
    • Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.
    • Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

    Captions

    • For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

    Processing of supplementary files

    • Supplementary Information (SI) will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

    Accessibility

    In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

    • The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material
    • Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

    Generative AI Images

    Please check Springer’s policy on generative AI images and make sure your work adheres to the principles described therein.

    Scientific style

    • Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
    • Genus and species names should be in italics.

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    Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

    This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

    Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

    • The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
    • The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
    • A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
    • Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
    • Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
    • No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

    Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

    • Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
    • Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
    • Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
    • Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
    • Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

    *All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

    Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

    If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

    • If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
    • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

      - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

      - an expression of concern may be placed with the article

      - or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

    The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

    • The author’s institution may be informed
    • A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

    Fundamental errors

    Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

    Suggesting / excluding reviewers

    Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

    Authorship principles

    These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

    Authorship clarified

    The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

    The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

    All authors whose names appear on the submission

    1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

    2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

    3) approved the version to be published; and

    4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

    * Based on/adapted from:

    ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

    Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

    Disclosures and declarations

    All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

    The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

    Data transparency

    All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

    Role of the Corresponding Author

    One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

    The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

    • ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
    • managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
    • providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
    • making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

    * The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

    Author contributions

    In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

    Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

    • Free text:

    All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

    Example: CRediT taxonomy:

    • Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

    For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

    For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

    A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

    Affiliation

    The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

    Changes to authorship

    Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

    • Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

    Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

    Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

    Author identification

    Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

    Deceased or incapacitated authors

    For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

    Authorship issues or disputes

    In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

    Confidentiality

    Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

    Compliance with Ethical Standards

    To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.

    Authors should include the following statements (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” when submitting a paper:

    • Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
    • Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals
    • Informed consent

    Please note that standards could vary slightly per journal dependent on their peer review policies (i.e. single or double blind peer review) as well as per journal subject discipline. Before submitting your article check the instructions following this section carefully.

    The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.

    The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.

    Competing Interests

    Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.

    Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

    Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

    Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.

    Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

    Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

    It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published."

    Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.

    Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement.Other article types such as editorials, book reviews, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

    Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under ‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the ‘Declarations’ section.

    Summary of requirements

    The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

    Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

    When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.

    Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

    • Partial financial support was received from [...]
    • The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No[…].
    • This study was funded by […]
    • This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]

    Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

    • The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
    • No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
    • No funding was received for conducting this study.
    • No funds, grants, or other support was received.

    Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:

    • Financial interests: Author A has received research support from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company Wand owns stock in Company X. Author C is consultant to company Y.

      Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.

    • Financial interests: The authors declare they have no financial interests.

      Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.

    • Financial interests: Author A received a speaking fee from Y for Z. Author B receives a salary from association X. X where s/he is the Executive Director.

      Non-financial interests: none.

    • Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M and Company N. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company O. Author D has received travel support from Company O.

      Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.

    Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:

    • The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
    • The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
    • All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
    • The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

    Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

    Research involving human participants, their data or biological material

    Ethics approval

    When reporting a study that involved human participants, their data or biological material, authors should include a statement that confirms that the study was approved (or granted exemption) by the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee) and certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach, and demonstrate that an independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. If a study was granted exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the reasons for the exemption).

    Retrospective ethics approval

    If a study has not been granted ethics committee approval prior to commencing, retrospective ethics approval usually cannot be obtained and it may not be possible to consider the manuscript for peer review. The decision on whether to proceed to peer review in such cases is at the Editor's discretion.

    Ethics approval for retrospective studies

    Although retrospective studies are conducted on already available data or biological material (for which formal consent may not be needed or is difficult to obtain) ethics approval may be required dependent on the law and the national ethical guidelines of a country. Authors should check with their institution to make sure they are complying with the specific requirements of their country.

    Ethics approval for case studies

    Case reports require ethics approval. Most institutions will have specific policies on this subject. Authors should check with their institution to make sure they are complying with the specific requirements of their institution and seek ethics approval where needed. Authors should be aware to secure informed consent from the individual (or parent or guardian if the participant is a minor or incapable) See also section on Informed Consent.

    Cell lines

    If human cells are used, authors must declare in the manuscript: what cell lines were used by describing the source of the cell line, including when and from where it was obtained, whether the cell line has recently been authenticated and by what method. If cells were bought from a life science company the following need to be given in the manuscript: name of company (that provided the cells), cell type, number of cell line, and batch of cells.

    It is recommended that authors check the NCBI database for misidentification and contamination of human cell lines. This step will alert authors to possible problems with the cell line and may save considerable time and effort.

    Further information is available from the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC).

    Authors should include a statement that confirms that an institutional or independent ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee) approved the study and that informed consent was obtained from the donor or next of kin.

    Research Resource Identifiers (RRID)

    Research Resource Identifiers (RRID) are persistent unique identifiers (effectively similar to a DOI) for research resources. This journal encourages authors to adopt RRIDs when reporting key biological resources (antibodies, cell lines, model organisms and tools) in their manuscripts.

    Examples:

    Organism: Filip1tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi RRID:MMRRC_055641-UCD

    Cell Line: RST307 cell line RRID:CVCL_C321

    Antibody: Luciferase antibody DSHB Cat# LUC-3, RRID:AB_2722109

    Plasmid: mRuby3 plasmid RRID:Addgene_104005

    Software: ImageJ Version 1.2.4 RRID:SCR_003070

    RRIDs are provided by the Resource Identification Portal. Many commonly used research resources already have designated RRIDs. The portal also provides authors links so that they can quickly register a new resource and obtain an RRID.

    Clinical Trial Registration

    The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of a clinical trial is "any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes". The WHO defines health interventions as “A health intervention is an act performed for, with or on behalf of a person or population whose purpose is to assess, improve, maintain, promote or modify health, functioning or health conditions” and a health-related outcome is generally defined as a change in the health of a person or population as a result of an intervention.

    To ensure the integrity of the reporting of patient-centered trials, authors must register prospective clinical trials (phase II to IV trials) in suitable publicly available repositories. For example www.clinicaltrials.gov or any of the primary registries that participate in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

    The trial registration number (TRN) and date of registration should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.

    For clinical trials that have not been registered prospectively, authors are encouraged to register retrospectively to ensure the complete publication of all results. The trial registration number (TRN), date of registration and the words 'retrospectively registered’ should be included as the last line of the manuscript abstract.

    Standards of reporting

    Springer Nature advocates complete and transparent reporting of biomedical and biological research and research with biological applications. Authors are recommended to adhere to the minimum reporting guidelines hosted by the EQUATOR Network when preparing their manuscript.

    Exact requirements may vary depending on the journal; please refer to the journal’s Instructions for Authors.

    Checklists are available for a number of study designs, including:

    Randomised trials (CONSORT) and Study protocols (SPIRIT)

    Observational studies (STROBE)

    Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) and protocols (Prisma-P)

    Diagnostic/prognostic studies (STARD) and (TRIPOD)

    Case reports (CARE)

    Clinical practice guidelines (AGREE) and (RIGHT)

    Qualitative research (SRQR) and (COREQ)

    Animal pre-clinical studies (ARRIVE)

    Quality improvement studies (SQUIRE)

    Economic evaluations (CHEERS)

    Summary of requirements

    The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Ethics approval’.

    Examples of statements to be used when ethics approval has been obtained:

    • All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of A (No. ...).

    • 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. ...).

    • Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of University C. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

    • The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of the University of D (Ethics approval number: ...).

    Examples of statements to be used for a retrospective study:

    • Ethical approval was waived by the local Ethics Committee of University A in view of the retrospective nature of the study and all the procedures being performed were part of the routine care.

    • This research study was conducted retrospectively from data obtained for clinical purposes. We consulted extensively with the IRB of XYZ who determined that our study did not need ethical approval. An IRB official waiver of ethical approval was granted from the IRB of XYZ.

    • This retrospective chart review study involving human participants was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The Human Investigation Committee (IRB) of University B approved this study.

    Examples of statements to be used when no ethical approval is required/exemption granted:

    • This is an observational study. The XYZ Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

    • The data reproduced from Article X utilized human tissue that was procured via our Biobank AB, which provides de-identified samples. This study was reviewed and deemed exempt by our XYZ Institutional Review Board. The BioBank protocols are in accordance with the ethical standards of our institution and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

    Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

    All individuals have individual rights that are not to be infringed. Individual participants in studies have, for example, the right to decide what happens to the (identifiable) personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken. This is especially true concerning images of vulnerable people (e.g. minors, patients, refugees, etc) or the use of images in sensitive contexts. In many instances authors will need to secure written consent before including images.

    Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers, biometrical characteristics (such as facial features, fingerprint, writing style, voice pattern, DNA or other distinguishing characteristic) and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scholarly purposes and the participant (or parent/guardian if the participant is a minor or incapable or legal representative) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases. Detailed descriptions of individual participants, whether of their whole bodies or of body sections, may lead to disclosure of their identity. Under certain circumstances consent is not required as long as information is anonymized and the submission does not include images that may identify the person.

    Informed consent for publication should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of participants is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort meaning.

    Exceptions where it is not necessary to obtain consent:

    • Images such as x rays, laparoscopic images, ultrasound images, brain scans, pathology slides unless there is a concern about identifying information in which case, authors should ensure that consent is obtained.

    • Reuse of images: If images are being reused from prior publications, the Publisher will assume that the prior publication obtained the relevant information regarding consent. Authors should provide the appropriate attribution for republished images.

    Consent and already available data and/or biologic material

    Regardless of whether material is collected from living or dead patients, they (family or guardian if the deceased has not made a pre-mortem decision) must have given prior written consent. The aspect of confidentiality as well as any wishes from the deceased should be respected.

    Data protection, confidentiality and privacy

    When biological material is donated for or data is generated as part of a research project authors should ensure, as part of the informed consent procedure, that the participants are made aware what kind of (personal) data will be processed, how it will be used and for what purpose. In case of data acquired via a biobank/biorepository, it is possible they apply a broad consent which allows research participants to consent to a broad range of uses of their data and samples which is regarded by research ethics committees as specific enough to be considered “informed”. However, authors should always check the specific biobank/biorepository policies or any other type of data provider policies (in case of non-bio research) to be sure that this is the case.

    Consent to Participate

    For all research involving human subjects, freely-given, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript. In the case of articles describing human transplantation studies, authors must include a statement declaring that no organs/tissues were obtained from prisoners and must also name the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) via which organs/tissues were obtained. For manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups where there is the potential for coercion or where consent may not have been fully informed, extra care will be taken by the editor and may be referred to the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group.

    Consent to Publish

    Individuals may consent to participate in a study, but object to having their data published in a journal article. Authors should make sure to also seek consent from individuals to publish their data prior to submitting their paper to a journal. This is in particular applicable to case studies. A consent to publish form can be found

    here. (Download docx, 36 kB)

    Summary of requirements

    The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Consent to participate’ and/or ‘Consent to publish’. Other declarations include Funding, Competing interests, Ethics approval, Consent, Data and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

    Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

    Sample statements for "Consent to participate":

    Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

    Informed consent was obtained from legal guardians.

    Written informed consent was obtained from the parents.

    Verbal informed consent was obtained prior to the interview.

    Sample statements for “Consent to publish”:

    The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication of the images in Figure(s) 1a, 1b and 1c.

    The participant has consented to the submission of the case report to the journal.

    Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data and photographs.

    Sample statements if identifying information about participants is available in the article:

    Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.

    Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

    Images will be removed from publication if authors have not obtained informed consent or the paper may be removed and replaced with a notice explaining the reason for removal.

    After Acceptance

    Upon acceptance, your article will be exported to Production to undergo typesetting. Shortly after this you will receive two e-mails. One contains a request to confirm your affiliation, choose the publishing model for your article, as well as to arrange rights and payment of any associated publication cost. A second e-mail containing a link to your article’s proofs will be sent once typesetting is completed.

    Article publishing agreement

    Depending on the ownership of the journal and its policies, you will either grant the Publisher an exclusive licence to publish the article or will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher.

    Offprints

    Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

    Color illustrations

    Publication of color illustrations is free of charge.

    Proof reading

    The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

    After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

    Online First

    The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

    Open Choice

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    Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

    Benefits:

    • Increased researcher engagement: Open Choice enables access by anyone with an internet connection, immediately on publication.
    • Higher visibility and impact: In Springer hybrid journals, OA articles are accessed 4 times more often on average, and cited 1.7 more times on average*.

    • Easy compliance with funder and institutional mandates: Many funders require open access publishing, and some take compliance into account when assessing future grant applications.

    It is easy to find funding to support open access – please see our funding and support pages for more information.

    *) Within the first three years of publication. Springer Nature hybrid journal OA impact analysis, 2018.

    Open Choice

    Funding and Support pages

    Copyright and license term – CC BY

    Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

    Find more about the license agreement

    Research Data Policy and Data Availability Statements

    This journal follows Springer Nature research data policy. Sharing of all relevant research data is strongly encouraged and authors must add a Data Availability Statement to original research articles.

    Research data includes a wide range of types, including spreadsheets, images, textual extracts, archival documents, video or audio, interview notes or any specialist formats generated during research.

    Data availability statements

    All original research must include a data availability statement. This statement should explain how to access data supporting the results and analysis in the article, including links/citations to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Please see our full policy here.

    If it is not possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, this statement should describe how data can be accessed and any conditions for reuse. Participant consent should be obtained and documented prior to data collection. See our guidance on sensitive data for more information.

    When creating a data availability statement, authors are encouraged to consider the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article.

    Further guidance on writing a data availability statement, including examples, is available at:

    Data availability statements

    Data repositories

    Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit their supporting data in a publicly available repository. Sharing your data in a repository promotes the integrity, discovery and reuse of your research, making it easier for the research community to build on and credit your work.

    See our data repository guidance for information on finding a suitable repository.

    We recommend the use of discipline-specific repositories where available. For a number of data types, submission to specific public repositories is mandatory.

    See our list of mandated data types.

    The journal encourages making research data available under open licences that permit reuse. The journal does not enforce use of particular licences in third party repositories. You should ensure you have necessary rights to share any data that you deposit in a repository.

    Data citation

    The journal recommends that authors cite any publicly available data on which the conclusions of the paper rely. This includes data the authors are sharing alongside their publication and any secondary data the authors have reused. Data citations should include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI), should be included in the reference list using the minimum information recommended by DataCite (Dataset Creator, Dataset Title, Publisher [repository], Publication Year, Identifier [e.g. DOI, Handle, Accession or ARK]) and follow journal style.

    See our further guidance on citing datasets.

    Research data and peer review

    If the journal that you are submitting to uses double-anonymous peer review and you are providing reviewers with access to your data (for example via a repository link, supplementary information or data on request), it is strongly suggested that the authorship in the data is also anonymised. There are data repositories that can assist with this and/or will create a link to mask the authorship of your data.

    Support with research data policy

    Authors who need help understanding our data sharing policy, finding a suitable data repository, or organising and sharing research data can consult our Research Data Helpdesk for guidance.

    See our FAQ page for more information on Springer Nature's research data policy.

    Open access publishing

    To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Histochemistry and Cell Biology, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page.

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