Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. Instructions for Authors

1.1 Types of Papers

The journal has no strict length limit for manuscripts, but submissions must be scientifically sound and provide a substantial amount of new information. Manuscripts must neither be under consideration by another journal nor previously published. The article types considered for publication are:

• Original Research — full-length papers including Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and (optional) Conclusion. Related or sequential work should be published as a single manuscript.
• Review — concise and precise updates on the latest progress in a given area of research, normally citing around 60 primary research articles.
• Short Communication — compact reports of significant preliminary or incremental results that merit rapid publication.
• Editorial — submitted exclusively by the editors of the journal to convey the aims and objectives of the research topic and to place it in a broader context.

1.2 Accepted File Formats

Manuscripts must be converted into a single file before submission. Microsoft Word (.doc / .docx), OpenOffice and RTF are accepted. Using a consistent template will substantially shorten the time required for copy-editing and publication of accepted manuscripts. If this requirement presents a problem, please contact the editorial office.

2. Manuscript Formatting Guidelines

Front Matter

• Title — concise and informative, stating the main results or conclusions where possible. Please do not use abbreviated forms of the title.
• Author information — full first and last names, e-mail addresses and affiliations, using the complete address including city, postcode, province/state and country. Affiliations should be indicated by numbers rather than symbols. At least one author must be designated as corresponding author, with e-mail address given at the end of the affiliation section.
• Abstract — 150 to 300 words. The abstract should make the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. Minimise the use of abbreviations and do not cite references, figures or tables.
• Keywords — a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 keywords.

Main Text

• Introduction — succinct, with no subheadings.
• Materials and Methods — may be divided by subheadings and should contain sufficient detail that, when read in conjunction with cited references, all procedures can be repeated.
• Results — may be divided by subheadings. Footnotes should not be used and must be transferred to the main text. Provide a concise description of the results, their interpretation and the conclusions that can be drawn.
• Discussion — should explore the significance of the results, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate.
• Conclusions — not mandatory, but may be added where the discussion is unusually long or complex.

Back Matter

• Acknowledgements — acknowledgement of people, grants and funds should be placed in a separate section. The names of funding organisations should be written in full.
• Funding — please describe any sources of funding, including the name of the funding agency and grant number.
• Conflict of interest — required for all papers. If there are no interests to declare, please state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”
• Figures and tables — figures should be provided at sufficiently high resolution. All figures and tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and numbered in order of appearance (Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, …). Colour graphics are encouraged and carry no additional charge. All tables should be in editable form.
• Supplementary files — additional data and files may be uploaded as supplementary files during submission. They will be available to referees as part of the peer-review process and will be published as received, without conversion, editing or reformatting.
• References — compulsory and placed at the end of the manuscript. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list. Only works cited in the text and published or accepted for publication should be included.

3. Reference Style

All authors must be stated. Authors referenced are listed with their surname followed by their initials. References should be numbered (1. 2. 3. …) and sequenced according to the order in which they appear as in-text citations. Each entry follows the pattern: author(s), year of publication, title of publication, full journal name in italics, volume number, issue number in parentheses, page range and DOI where applicable. If a referred article has more than three authors, list only the first three and abbreviate the remainder to italicised “et al.”

4. Peer Review

All manuscripts are first assessed by the editorial team for scope and quality. Those that pass this initial screening are sent to at least two independent reviewers under a single-blind process: reviewers know the identity of the authors, but authors do not know the identity of the reviewers. The editorial office aims to provide a first decision within four weeks of submission.

5. Submission Checklist and Declaration

Before submitting, please confirm that your manuscript complies with every item in the Submission Preparation Checklist shown above. Manuscripts that do not comply may be returned to the authors without review.