Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. Manuscript formatting and submission requirements

1.1. Using the template

Authors are strongly encouraged to use the official template to format their manuscripts. The template contains pre-defined styles for headings, text, figures, tables, equations, and references. Using the template ensures that your manuscript meets the journal’s formatting requirements and reduces delays in the editorial processing.

1.2. File format

All manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx).

1.3. Language and English quality

The language of publication is English. Both British and American English are acceptable, but the usage must be consistent throughout the manuscript. Manuscripts with poor English—characterised by unclear meaning, excessive grammatical errors, or awkward phrasing—may be desk rejected without peer review. To avoid this, we strongly recommend using a professional language editing service or having a native English speaker carefully review the manuscript before submission.

1.4. Article types

During the submission process, authors are required to select an article type for their manuscripts. The final assignment of article type rests with the editors. The standard article types are described following the Submission Preparation Checklist. With the exception of editorials, all other article types will undergo peer review.

2. Cover letter

A cover letter must be submitted together with the manuscript. It should include the following elements:

• Full author names and affiliations, along with contact information of the corresponding author.
• A statement that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration elsewhere.
• A brief summary of the significance and novelty of the work, explaining why it is suitable for the journal.
• Confirmation that all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree with its submission.
• Any conflicts of interest declaration (or a statement that none exists).
• If applicable, the names of any reviewers you wish to exclude (with reasons) or to recommend.

3. Front matter

3.1. Article title

The title should be concise, informative, and free of jargon wherever possible. The recommended length is fewer than 15 words.

3.2. Author list and affiliations

List all authors in the order of their contribution. Each author’s full name should follow the pattern: First name (Middle name) Last name. Use superscript numbers to link authors to their respective affiliations. Clearly identify the corresponding author with an asterisk (*) and provide a complete email address. Affiliations should include the department, institution, city, postal code (if applicable), and country.

3.3. Abstract

The abstract should be a single paragraph of 250 words maximum. It must be self-contained and understandable without reference to the main text. Do not include citations, figures, or tables.

3.4. Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, list 5 to 8 keywords. Keywords should be specific to the article yet reasonably common within the subject discipline to aid indexing and discoverability. Separate keywords with semicolons (;). Avoid using words that have already appeared in the title.

4. Body of the manuscript

For original research articles, the body usually follow the structure described below.

4.1. Introduction

The introduction must be accessible to a non-technical reader while clearly stating the technical goals and objectives, the technical issues addressed, and the real‑world application of the work. References must be cited using sequential numbers in square brackets (see Section 6).

4.2. Materials and methods

This section provides a detailed account of the procedures followed during the research. It must be precise enough to allow replication of the study, which includes:

• Descriptions of all methods used, with original citations for previously described procedures.
• For studies involving large datasets deposited in a public database: specify the repository and accession numbers (provide them during review if not yet available at submission).
• For interventionary studies involving animals or humans: list the ethics approval authority and approval code.

4.3. Results

Present the experimental results concisely, followed by their interpretation and the conclusions that can be drawn.

4.5. Discussion

The discussion should interpret the results in the context of previous studies and the working hypotheses. Discuss the implications of the findings broadly and suggest future research directions if appropriate.

4.6. Conclusions (optional)

This section is not mandatory. Include it only when the discussion is particularly long or complex and a brief summary of the main takeaways would help the reader.

4.7. Figures, tables, and equations

Figures

• Figures must be clear and legible, with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Acceptable formats are PNG, JPEG, or TIFF.
• Cite each figure in the main text as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. (do not abbreviate). Number figures consecutively in the order they appear.

• Place figures as close as possible to their first citation, aligned center.
• The figure caption should appear underneath the figure, centered. If the title runs to a second line, align it left.
• For multi‑panel figures, label panels as (a), (b), etc., with a description of each panel in the caption.
• Uniform definitions are required for axes, symbols, error bars, statistical markers and abbreviations throughout the manuscript.
• Color figures must be submitted in RGB mode with distinguishable color contrast for all readers, including color-deficient users. Decorative and inconsistent coloring is not allowed. All color coding must be defined in figure legends.
• All published figures must be original. Reused or modified third-party figures require official copyright authorization and clear citations.
• All human-related biological images and clinical photographs must be fully anonymized with no identifiable personal information.

Tables

• Cite tables as Table 1, Table 2, etc. Number tables consecutively in the order they appear.
• Place tables near their first citation.
• Table caption goes above the table.
• For tables continuing to the next page, add a line after the continued part: Table 1. (Continued).
• Use superscript lowercase letters for footnotes within a table (place them below the table).

• Use Microsoft Word’s table functionality to create tables. Excessively large tables may be provided as supplementary materials.
• Supplementary tables must be numbered independently (Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Table 2) with independent captions and footnotes, following the same formatting standards as main-text tables.

• Avoid duplicate data between tables, figures and main text. Ensure consistent data, units, significant digits and statistical criteria across the entire manuscript.
• All table data must be original and verifiable. Adapted or reproduced tables from published sources require formal copyright permission and clear citation statements. No falsified, modified or selectively presented data is allowed.

Equations

• Equations should be numbered sequentially in parentheses on the right margin, e.g., (1), (2).
• Variables in equations must be consistent in style with those in the text.
• Equations should be editable and not appear in a picture format.

5. Back matter

The following sections appear after the main body and before the references, except where noted.

5.1. Supplementary materials (optional)

If supplementary materials (e.g., data files, videos, large tables) accompany the manuscript, provide a short description in this section. The detailed files should be submitted as separate supplementary files.

5.2. Author contributions

Provide a short paragraph specifying individual contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) terminology. This section is only mandatory for research articles with multiple authors. Example:

“Conceptualization, XX and YY; methodology, XX; software, XX; validation, XX, YY and ZZ; formal analysis, XX; investigation, XX; resources, XX; data curation, XX; writing—original draft preparation, XX; writing—review and editing, XX; visualization, XX; supervision, XX; project administration, XX; funding acquisition, YY. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.”

5.3. Funding

This section is mandatory. List all external funding sources, including grant numbers. Use the standard spelling of funding agency names (verify at https://search.crossref.org/funding). If no funding was received, state: “None.” or “This research received no external funding.”

5.4. Ethical approval

For studies involving humans or animals, state the reviewing ethics committee and approval number. Example: “This study was reviewed and approved by XXX (approval number: XXXX).” If ethical approval was waived, it should be clarified with the reason. For studies that do not require ethical approval, state: “Not applicable.”

5.5. Informed consent statement

For human studies, include this statement. “Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.” If consent was waived, provide the reason. Or “Not applicable.”

5.6. Data availability statement

This statement provides clear information on how and where the data supporting the findings can be accessed. It must be precise and verifiable. Example: “The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.” Or “The dataset generated during this study has been deposited in [repository name] under accession number [XXXX].”

5.7. Acknowledgments (optional)

Acknowledge any support not covered by author contributions or funding, such as administrative/technical support, donations in kind, or general encouragement. This section is optional.

5.8. Conflicts of interest

Authors must declare any personal circumstances or interests that could be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of the reported results. If none exist, authors should state: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”

5.9. References

The reference list is placed after all the above back‑matter sections (i.e., after “Conflict of interest”). See Section 6 for detailed formatting rules.

5.10. Appendix (optional)

If necessary, authors can add appendices with supplementary material that supports the main text but is not essential to its core argument. They are placed after the References section, and each appendix must start on a new page.

If only one appendix exists, title it “Appendix.” If multiple appendices exist, title them “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” etc., in sequence.

Each appendix must be cited in the main text. Any tables, figures, or equations within an appendix should be prefixed with the appendix letter followed by a number (e.g., Figure A1, Table A1, Equation (A1)).

6. In-text citations and reference list

6.1. In-text citation style

References must be numbered consecutively in the order they first appear in the text (including citations in tables, figures, and legends). Use square brackets to enclose the number, placed before the punctuation. For example:

• ... as shown in a previous study [1].
• Several reports [2,3] have confirmed this.
• This phenomenon was observed across multiple experiments [4–6].

For citations that include page numbers, use both parentheses and brackets:

• [4] (p. 105) or [5] (pp. 12–18).

To avoid starting a sentence with a bare reference number, prefix it with the author name(s):

• Liu [1] proposes a systematic approach.
• Kramer and Haigh [8] found that …
• Raj et al. [11] described …

6.2. Reference list formatting

The reference list appears at the end of the manuscript under the heading References. Only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. References may be cited within supplementary files. However, any such reference must also appear in the reference list of the main manuscript and be cited in the main text. Each reference must include the DOI where available.

For each author, list the surname (family name) followed by the initials of the given name(s). Do not include full given names, e.g., Johnson M, and Williams RJC (where R, J, C are the initials of the first and middle names).

For four or fewer authors, list all authors in the order they appear on the publication. For five or more authors, list only the first three authors, followed by “et al.”

Below are the basic formats for different types of references.

Journal article:
Author A, Author B, Author C, et al. Title of the article. Journal Name. Year; Volume(Issue): Firstpage–Lastpage. doi: xxxxx
Author A. English title of the article (language, e.g., French). Journal Name. Year; Volume(Issue): Firstpage–Lastpage. doi: xxxxx

Book:
Author A, Author B. Title of the Book, Edition (e.g., 2nd ed.). Publisher; 2023. pp. 102–144.
Author A, Author B, Author C. Title of the contribution. In: Editor D, Editor E (editors). Title of the Book, Edition. Publisher; Year. Volume (optional), pp. Page range (optional).

Conference paper:
Author A, Author B, Author C, Author D. Title of presentation. In: Editor D, Editor E (editors). Title of Collected Work, Proceedings of the Name of the Conference; Date of Conference (Day Month Year); Location of Conference (City, Country). Publisher; Year. Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).
Author A, Author B, Author C, et al. Title of presentation. In: Proceedings of the Name of the Conference; Date of Conference (Day Month Year); Location of Conference (City, Country). Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).

Newspaper:
Author A, Author B. Title of the article. Title of Periodical, Complete Date (Day Month Year), Pagination (if available).

Patent:
Patent Owner A, Patent Owner B, Patent Owner C. Title of Patent. Patent Number, Date (Day Month Year).

Thesis:
Author A. Title of Thesis [PhD thesis]. Degree‑Granting University; Year.

Website:
Author A (if available). Title of content (if available). Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).