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Submission guidelines

Contents

Instructions for Authors

Types of Papers

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Structured abstract of 250 words with 10 keywords. A concept diagram/graphical abstract should be placed just after the abstract.

The text word limit should not exceed 4000 words (including references).

The reference list should not exceed 30 in number.

A total of up to 6 tables / flow diagrams / colored figures/text boxes/other illustrations would enrich the article.

The article should be organized into an introduction section that conveys the background and purpose of the report, followed by Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion.

Declarations just before reference section are mandatory (see link)

Conflict of Interest and Ethical Standards: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-791531-0 Informed Consent: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-608209-0 Statement of Human and Animal Rights: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-608309-0

REVIEW ARTICLE:

Structured abstract of 250 words with 10 keywords.

The text word limit should not exceed 5000 words (including references)

References should not exceed 100 in number.

A minimum of 4 colored figures indicative of concepts, pathogenesis, outcomes, and future directions are mandatory .

A minimum of 4 tables are mandatory.

A total of up to 8 tables / flow diagrams / colored figures/text boxes/other illustrations would enrich the review.

Declarations just before reference section are mandatory (see link)

Conflict of Interest and Ethical Standards: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-791531-0 Informed Consent: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-608209-0 Statement of Human and Animal Rights: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-608309-0

MINI REVIEW

Structured abstract of 150 words with 10 keywords.

The text word limit should not exceed 2500 words (excluding references).

References should not exceed 30 in number.

A minimum of 2 colored figures indicative of concepts, pathogenesis, outcomes, and future directions are recommended.

A minimum of 2 tables/algorithms are recommended. All in all, a total of up to 4 tables / flow diagrams / colored figures/text boxes/other illustrations would enrich the review.

Declarations just before reference section are mandatory (see link)

Conflict of Interest and Ethical Standards: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-791531-0 Informed Consent: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-608209-0 Statement of Human and Animal Rights: http://www.springer.com/authors?SGWID=0-111-6-608309-0

INVITED ARTICLE (EARLIER EDITORIAL) (by invitation only):

No abstract or keywords.

The text word limit should not exceed 1500 words (excluding references)

References should not exceed more than 10 in number.

One figure

CONSENSUS

Consensus Reports should be no longer than 2,000 words and include no more than 9 references. Manuscripts that exceed the word limits listed above will be returned to the authors for shortening without a full review.

LETTER TO EDITOR

This section would be an opinionated piece giving a critical perspective about an article already published in Hepatology International. It should not aim at publishing original research data.

Short title for the letter to editor is preferred.

No abstract or keywords

The text word limit should not exceed 500 words (excluding references)

References should not exceed more than 5 in number

One figure

POINT-OF-VIEW (by invitation only):

No abstract or keywords

The text word limit should not exceed 1500 words (excluding references)

References should not exceed more than 10 in number.

One table and two figures

To have the discussion more sound, live, and thought-provoking, it may be complemented with evidence-based data as well as author’s perspectives .

COMMENTARY (by invitation only)

This section is an in-depth analysis focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of a published article on which the commentary is written.

No abstract or keywords

The text word limit should not exceed 1500 words (excluding references)

References should not exceed more than 10 in number.

One table and one figure

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTS

A graphic abstract is a single-panel image presenting a concise, pictorial, algorithmic summary of the content of the article at a single glance. It should be original unpublished artwork created by the authors, having a clear start and end with emphasis on the new findings and a future vision without including excessive previous literature.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Use simple labels and add text judiciously in bullet form

•The image should read from top to bottom or from left to right

• Graphic Abstracts should be seen as a single-panel high-resolution (300 dpi or greater) image, preferably in .tif, .jpg

• Font: Please use Arial in 12-16 pts.

• Color figures should be in RGB format.

• The image should be placed next to the abstract and labeled as “Graphical Abstract”

Multimedia Articles

Multimedia articles are papers where the heart of the article is video and, generally, only an abstract and references are included as text. The duration of the video clip should not exceed 9 minutes.

Dynamic articles are regular articles with video(s) included as electronic supplementary material. Video clips should not exceed 3 minutes and each manuscript should not contain more than 3 videos. Any narration should be in English language. The content of these files must be identical to that reviewed and accepted by the editors of Hepatology International.

MULTIMEDIA FILE FOR REVIEW: MPEG-1 or Quicktime MOV file with the largest frame size (usually 320 x 240 pixels) that will be playable on a Windows-based computer

MULTIMEDIA FILE FOR FINAL SUBMISSION IF ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION: “generic” Microsoft AVI file, full screen video 640 × 480 or 720 × 480 pixels (using Cinepak or similar CODEC), Microsoft DV AVI 720 × 480 pixels (NTSC format), or Quicktime MOV file full-screen video 640 × 480 or 720 × 480 pixels.

DYNAMIC ARTICLES with video supplementary material

Normal submission requirements and generic Microsoft AVI file, full screen video 640 × 480 or 720 × 480 pixels, Microsoft DV AVI file, full screen video (720 × 480 pixels) or Quicktime MOV file full screen video 640 × 480 or 720 × 480 pixels. Up to 3 (one minute maximum each) videos per manuscript submission will be accepted.

Once accepted, full screen video files for archiving and transcoding (the process of preparing the file for streaming over the internet) will be requested from the author. The MMA process is summarized below:

Capture Video » Edit Video » Submit final copy.

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.

Please note:

First time authors have to “register” themselves on the Editorial Manager. If you already are registered on Editorial Manager, please use your provided user name and password and log in as “Author” to submit a NEW manuscript or to track your submitted manuscript (do not register again as you will then be unable to track your manuscript).

Copyright on all accepted manuscripts will be held by Asia Pacific Association for the Study of Liver (APASL). It is mandatory that the Copyright/Authorship/Disclosure Form is signed by all the authors, expressly transferring copyright to APASL in the event the manuscript is accepted for publication. This form must be submitted along with the manuscript on the Editorial Manager. The form can be downloaded from the hyperlink on the right side of the screen. Manuscripts without this form will not be considered for publication.

This form also allows each author to declare their conflict of interest statements. Authors should also acknowledge in the manuscript all financial support for the work and other personal connections and affiliations. Further information on this can be found under COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS.

Compliance with Ethical Requirements

Ethics statements pertaining to (1) conflict of interest/financial disclosure, (2) informed consent in studies with human subjects and (3) animal studies should be clearly indicated for all articles. Include the ethical statements under a new heading named as “Compliance with Ethical Requirements” and place this section as part of the title page only.

(1) Conflict of Interest (CoI) statements

When authors submit a manuscript they are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts exist or do not exist. Each author must indicate whether they have financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research.

The CoI statements should be mention each author separately by name and the recommended wording is as follows:

John Smith declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Paula Taylor has received research grants from Drug Company A.

Mike Schultz has received a speaker honorarium from Drug Company B and owns stock in Drug Company C.

If multiple authors declare no conflict, this can be done in one sentence:

John Smith, Paula Taylor, and Mike Schultz declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Please note: The manuscript must also be accompanied with the Copyright/Authorship/Disclosure form that contains the CoI statements signed by each author.

Springer’s Conflict of Interest statement can be found at:

Conflict of Interest statement

(2) Informed Consent in Studies with Human Subjects

For studies with human subjects include the following statement:

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

If any identifying information about patients is included in the article, the following sentence should also be included:

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

Springer’s Informed Consent statement can found at:

Springer’s Informed Consent statement

(3) Animal Studies

For studies with animals include the following sentence:

All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

For articles that do not contain studies with human or animal subjects, while it is not absolutely necessary, it is recommended to include the following sentence, just to make sure that readers are aware that there are no ethical issues with human or animal subjects.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

Springer’s Human and Animal Rights statement can be found at:

Springer’s Human and Animal Rights statement

Important: The editors reserve the right to reject to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements.

Manuscript Organization

Title Page

The title page should include the title of the article, as well as the first and last names for each contributing author [first name, middle initial(s), surname, degree (s)]. For all contributing authors, indicate the departmental and institutional affiliation(s) and the e-mail address, telephone numbers and surface mail address for each affiliation, including the city, state or province, and country where the work was performed.

Title of the article should be limited to 120 characters with spaces and no abbreviations. It should reflect the main issue of the study and preferably the type of study including animal species. The title should not have duplication of keywords of the abstract.

Abstract

For Original Articles please provide a structured abstract of 250 words. Organize it into background/purpose of the study, methods, results and conclusion. The structured abstract should state the purpose of the study or investigation, basic procedures (study subjects or experimental animals and observational and analytical methods), main findings (give specific data and their statistical significance, if possible), and the principal conclusions.

For Review Papers please provide a running/unstructured abstract of 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords

Please provide at least 10 keywords which are DIFFERENT than the words used in the TITLE of the article to facilitate in indexing as well as in expanding the search criteria.

Text

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

  • 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

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.

Please note:

For Original Articles, organize the main body/text into an introductory section that conveys the background/purpose of the study, followed by sections titled Material and Methods, Results and Discussion.

For Review Articles, organize the main body/text into an introductory section that conveys the background and purpose of the review, followed by a Discussion and Conclusion and Perspective.

Scientific style

  • Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
  • Genus and species names should be in italics.
  • Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.

References

Please type references double-spaced and number them in order of their first appearance in the text (not alphabetically). Once a reference is cited, all subsequent citations should be to the original number. References may not appear in your Reference List unless they have been cited in the text or tables. Papers that have been accepted for publication or are in press may be listed as references, but the Journal does not reference unpublished data and personal communications. Use the form for references adopted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, as in Index Medicus. For each reference, show inclusive page ranges (e.g., 7-19). Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of “et al” in long author lists will also be accepted.

Journal Article

Ibdah JA, Bennet MJ, Rinaldo P, Zhao Y, Gibson B, Sims HF, Strauss AW. A fetal fatty-acid oxidation disorder as a cause of liver disease in pregnant women. N Engl J Med 1999;340:1723-1731, Jun 3, 1999

Book

Krishnamurthy G, Krishnamurthy S. Nuclear Hepatology: A Text Book of Hepatobiliary Disease, New York, Springer-Verlag, 2002; 6-12

Book Chapter

Jones MC, Smith RB. Treatment of gastric cancer. In Ford TL, editor, Cancer of the Digestive System, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1999;140-154

Article by DOI

Mori K, Arai H, Abe T, Takayama H, Toyoda M, Ueno T, Sato K. Spleen stiffness correlates with the presence of ascites but not esophageal varices in chronic hepatitis C patients.

Biomed Res Int. 2013;2013:857862. doi: 10.1155/2013/857862. Epub 2013 Aug 1

Statements & Declarations

The following statements must be included in your submitted manuscript under the heading 'Statements and Declarations'. This should be placed after the References section. Please note that submissions that do not include required statements will be returned as incomplete.

Funding

Please describe any sources of funding that have supported the work. The statement should include details of any grants received (please give the name of the funding agency and grant number).

Example statements:

“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

Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial 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.

Example statements:

“Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no 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.”

“The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.”

Please refer to the “Competing Interests” section below for more information on how to complete these sections.

Author Contributions

Authors are encouraged to include a statement that specifies the contribution of every author to the research and preparation of the manuscript.

Example statement:

“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.”

Please refer to the “Authorship Principles ” section below for more information on how to complete this section.

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.

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.

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

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* 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

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Data transparency

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Author contributions

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• Free text:

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Example: CRediT taxonomy:

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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

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

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

Open Choice

Funding and Support pages

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