Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected. Some accepted articles may be subject to an Article Processing Charge.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

Manuscript Preparation Overview

• All submissions must be prepared using the journal's Microsoft Word template, which contains formatting and font styles appropriate for the journal.
• Please include any and all Supplementary Materials with the submission.
• Submissions should include any and all ethics statements, such as those relevant to studies involving human and/or animal subjects.
• Submissions involving multiple authors will be required to specify a corresponding author and document the respective contributions of each author.
• Authors should document any funding sources related to the work submitted and describe any potential conflicts of interest.

Journal Manuscript Types

This journal has a single manuscript type -- a research article.  We recognize that the subject of research articles can be diverse, and may include:

• Findings from original scientific studies
• Novel analyses of existing/previously collected datasets
• Explanation and demonstration of new methods
• Comprehensive reviews of existing literature
• Case reports describing unusual and/or novel situations relevant to the aims and objectives of the journal 

Manuscripts that are not appropriate for this journal include:

• Proposals
• Protocols
• Works in progress
• Letters to the editor
• Opinions

Manuscript Preparation Details

All submissions must be prepared using the journal's Microsoft Word template, which contains formatting and font styles appropriate for the journal.

Research involving qualitative and/or qualitative methods are welcomed. In the case of qualitative methods, authors are encouraged to consult statistical experts in the study design and conceptualization phases of their work, as well as in the data analysis and manuscript preparation to ensure that appropriate statistical methods, assumptions, and diagnostics are considered, and the results of the quantitative methods are correctly interpreted.

There are no word or page limits for article submissions. However, authors are strongly encouraged to keep their title, abstract, the main manuscript text, and number of figures and tables to a minimum.  We recommend no more than 500 words for the abstract, no more than 4 figures and 4 tables, and no more than 15 typeset pages of text in the main manuscript including references. 

If additional text, figures, tables, or other material are needed to complement the main manuscript, Supplemental information attachment may be provided. The Supplemental information section may provide links to other online resources (e.g., shared code on Github, or any materials on other digital repositories).

All articles should include the names of all authors who have made meaningful contributions to the work.  The affiliations of all authors must be provided via numeric superscripts. The corresponding author must also be identified. If appropriate, multiple first authors who have contributed equally may be indicated with a superscript symbol (†), with the symbol described just below the affiliations with the statement "These authors contributed equally to this work".   

All articles should include a concise title, abstract, and set of keywords.  These should be carefully considered, as they are important for indexing and enable the article to appear in literature searches.

Abstracts should be a single paragraph without subheadings. 

Research articles may use standard headings (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion) as indicated in the Word template.  Alternatively, authors may use other headings that are more appropriate to structuring the content of their articles.

Equations should use Microsoft Equation Editor.  Equations may be optionally numbered, and these numbers referred to in the manuscript's paragraph text.

Quantities should be described in International System of Units (SI units).  I other (e.g., Imperial or US) units are commonly used in the field of practice, they may also be provided alongside of SI equivalents.

All abbreviations should be spelled-out in first occurrence in the manuscript.

Backmatter is described in the Word template, and include statements regarding Supplementary Materials (optional), Institutional Review Board Statement (or other ethics-related statements) (if relevant), Author Contributions (required, Funding (required), Conflicts of Interest (required), and Acknowledgements (optional)

Note that both the Funding and Conflict of Interest sections are required to disclose all the sources of funding that supported the work, and the authors' declaration of any personal situation or interests that be perceived as a conflict of interest.  If there is no funding for the study, please state "This study was unfunded.". If there are no conflicts of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest.".

References should be numbered in order of appearance in the manuscript. The bibliography in the References section should follow the Vancouver Referencing Style.  A few examples are provided in the Word template, however extensive examples of Vancouver reference styles for citing journal articles, books and book chapters, reports, theses and dissertations, websites, and unpublished work can be easily found by searching online.  It is strongly recommended to use a reference manager, such as Zotero to assist in the correct formatting of citations and references.

All figures should be provided in sufficiently high resolution and clarity to be viewed both online and in print (PDF file formats).  Figures may be embedded directly into the main manuscript using the Word template.  Note that numbered figure captions appear below each figure. Figures may include color and grayscale. When choosing to provide figures in color, authors are encouraged to test whether their color figures will still print well when printed with black and white printers. Make sure that all text in figures is not too small to read.

Tables may be embedded directly in the main manuscript using the Word template. Each table should be preceded by a numbered table caption. Tables should be formatted by the authors to clearly indicate column and row separations, and include relevant headings, units, etc.  Use the Word Table function to create these tables. Use Word Table over/underlining as needed to clearly indicate headings. Do not use too small of a font for the table, which would create challenges for readability.  Table footnotes in smaller font may be included as needed.  If needed, break tables across multiple pages.  Large tables may be more appropriate for the Supplementary Material than the main manuscript. 

Language and English Editing

All submissions should be submitted in English.  Either US or UK English is acceptable.  It is required that all authors use Word spelling and grammar checking, and other editing tools as needed to ensure that the manuscript is appropriate for scientific peer review.

Artificial Intelligence

AI tools may be useful in preparing and editing the manuscript. Authors using AI should ensure that the submitted manuscript adheres to the copyright requirements of the journal. AI tools and services should not be listed as authors.

Preprints and Theses/Dissertations

If previous versions of the manuscript were submitted as preprints or as thesis or dissertation work, they are still acceptable for publication in this journal.  If accepted for publication, authors are expected to direct readers to the final peer-reviewed article in this journal.

Review and Publication Steps

1. Editors review submission for alignment with aims and scope of the journal.
2. If deemed a potential fit for the journal, editors assign the paper to peer reviewers.
3. Articles undergo a "single-blind" review process -- this means that editors and reviewers know the identity of the authors, but the authors do not know the identity of the reviewers.
4. The journal has an option for "open peer review" process -- this means that if the article is accepted for publication, and both authors and review agree to open review, the peer review comments and the authors' response to comments are published with the accepted paper.
5. If needed, the article may undergo more than one round of review.  Authors are expected to respond to reviewers' comments and revise the manuscript as appropriate after each review.
6. Editors arrive at a decision whether to publish the paper.
7. The accepted paper is sent to copyediting.
8. Final proof of the accepted paper with digital identifier is approved by authors.
9. The accepted paper is published as an open access PDF on the journal website, along with reviewers' comments and authors' responses.

Funders Open Access Requirements

For funding agencies that require notification/registration of publications and deposition of articles related to their funding, it is the authors' responsibility to notify, register, and deposit the manuscript in their funder's systems.