Author Guidelines
General Principles
Originality: Manuscripts submitted to the journal should be original, not previously published, or submitted for publication elsewhere.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism in any form will not be tolerated. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarized content will be rejected.
Data Availability: Authors must make all data and materials used in their research available upon request.
References: Please ensure that all references are formatted in accordance with the journal's style guidelines and are complete and accurate. We request that authors limit self-citations to no more than 10% of the total references.
Figures and Tables: Figures and tables should be included as appropriate, clear, and of high quality. The source of the figures should be cited.
Conflict of Interest: Authors must disclose any conflicts of interest or potential biases related to their research.
Ethical Considerations: Authors must ensure that their research has been conducted following the Publication Ethics & Malpractice Policy.
Funding: If the study has received any financial support it must be stated in this section with the grant number (if applicable).
Acknowledgements: Support of any individual or organization must be acknowledged.
Peer Review: All manuscripts will be subject to peer review by experts in the field. The review process will be double-blind, with the identities of the reviewers and authors kept confidential.
Revisions: Authors may be asked to revise their manuscripts based on reviewer feedback. Revisions should be submitted promptly accompanied by a letter addressing all the comments and suggestions of the reviewers.
Manuscript Preparation
Formatting: There are no formatting requirements.
Length: The length of the manuscript should be appropriate for the research being reported.
Language: The manuscript should be written in clear, concise English. The use of technical language should be minimized and, where necessary, defined and explained.
File Format: The manuscript should be submitted in Microsoft Word document or LaTeX file format only.
Title Page: Title (concise but informative), complete author names, complete institutional addresses, correspondence emails, and ORCID iDs (if applicable) of all authors.
Abstract: It should be a concise summary of the main points of your research. It should include a brief introduction, methods, results, and conclusion. The novelty of the article should be conveyed and emphasized. Use clear and straightforward language, avoid jargon, and be precise. Keep your abstract within 250-300 words. Unless urgently required, reference citations should not be included in this section, and non-standard abbreviations should only be had with explanations. It is suggested to follow structure the abstract according to IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).
Keywords: Use relevant and specific terms that accurately reflect the article's content. Start with the article's main topic and use related terms commonly used in the field. Avoid using overly broad terms that may not accurately reflect the content. Also, try to limit the number of keywords to a manageable amount (usually 5).
Structuring: The manuscript's structure should be appropriate for the reported research. A typical structure may include an introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, conflict of interest, funding, acknowledgements, and references.
Headings and Subheadings: The manuscript should be divided into sections using clear and descriptive headings and subheadings. The headings of all sections, including introduction, results, discussions, or summary, must be numbered. Three levels of sectioning are allowed, e.g., 3, 3.1, and 3.1.1.
Appendices should be labeled with capital letters: Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. Equations, figures, and tables should be numbered as (A1), Fig B5, or Table C6, respectively.
Figures and Tables: Figures and tables should be included as appropriate, clear, and of high quality. They should be numbered (in consecutive Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3) and referred to in the text. They should have captions that provide enough information for the reader to understand them without referring to the text. The source of the figures should be cited.
Figure Legends: Each illustration should have a concise but descriptive legend. All symbols and abbreviations used in the figure must be defined unless they are standard abbreviations or have already been defined in the text. Figure legends should be included in the text file, not figure files.
References: The references in your manuscript should be formatted in the Vancouver style, ensuring completeness and accuracy. When citing references within the text, please use sequential numbering in square brackets and list them in the same numerical order in the reference section. It is important that reference numbers are finalized and that the bibliography is fully formatted before submission. Sample references can be found here to assist you in adhering to the Vancouver style.