Author Guidance
This page contains guidance for authors on the submission and review process broken down into the sections of the submission from.
Corresponding Author
The corresponding author is the person responsible for managing the review and publication process on behalf of all authors. They handle communication with us, and if the work is published their contact details will be displayed alongside as the public point of contact for queries relating to the work.
We require the following basic information for the corresponding author: Name, Email and Phone. These may be published and so are usually professional rather than personal contact details. An ORCid is a unique identifier that many researchers use to track their publication records1 any may optionally be linked.
Review Type
The work must be submitted for review into one of two categories:
Scholarly – this is work that would normally be in scope for traditional journals. It would typically make a novel contribution to a discipline and describe work that others can build on. It may be in any format including research manuscripts, reviews, perspectives etc. For submitted work to be published it must follow standard best practice for the relevant discipline.
Technical – this is for all other work. It may be of any format and for any audience. It must be a self-contained and finished piece of work and to make sure that it can be reviewed it should be factual, have a clear purpose and be checkable.
The route chosen will impact both the review process and which part of the process it’s published in. More details on the difference between the two types of content and their reviews are available on the Process page.
Details of Work
Please give the Title of the work as it should appear when published, and choose the Field that best describes the subject area. This is used to find suitable reviewers and to categorise the work once it is published. Type describes the format of the work, for example a research article, review or report.
The Document must be a single PDF containing the complete work, and it is reviewed and published as submitted. It must contain selectable text rather than scanned images, so export it directly from your word processor or typesetting software. The Abstract is a short summary of the work. It is displayed on the published page and is often the first thing readers and search engines see, so it should stand on its own.
Supporting Documents
If the work has already been made public, for example as a pre-print, please say so and give the DOI / URLs. Pre-prints are welcome. Work whose copyright has already been transferred to another publisher cannot be accepted, because we would not be able to publish it.
If the work relies on data, procedures or code held elsewhere, please give the Repository URLs so reviewers can check them. Additional supporting material, such as supplementary information, can be uploaded as PDFs.
All authors must confirm whether the work involved human participants or animals. If it did, please give Ethics Details: normally the approving body and the reference number. You must also confirm whether the work contains Identifiable Data about individuals. Any such data must be included only with the appropriate consent.
Published elsewhere or as a pre-print?
DOI / URLs
Data, Procedure, Code Repositories
Repository URLs
Ethics – Humans(Required)
Ethics – Animals(Required)
Ethics Details(Required)
Identifiable Data(Required)
Authors & Institutions
First list the institutions involved in the work. Then list every author in the order they should appear on the published work, and link each author to their institutions. Institutions can be looked up as you type, so they are recorded consistently.
For each author we need a name and email address and their contribution to the work. Contributions are selected from the standard CRediT roles[2]. After submission we will email each author to invite them to link their ORCID. Only ORCIDs that authors confirm themselves are published.
Funding & Conflicts of Interest
List any Funders that supported the work. If your funder requires specific wording, such as a grant number or a statement on the funder’s role, add it in the additional wording box and it will appear on the published article.
A conflict of interest is anything that could reasonably be seen to affect the objectivity of the work. Examples include financial interests, employment, consultancy or personal relationships connected to the subject. If any author has a conflict, please give brief details. Declaring a conflict does not stop the work from being reviewed. Readers only need to be able to see it.
Funders
Any additional wording for the published article for example role of funders.
Do any authors have a conflict of interest to declare?
Details of conflict of interest(Required)
Reviewers
You may suggest reviewers by name and email. Suggestions are helpful in specialist fields, but we select reviewers independently and may not use the people you suggest. Suggested reviewers must not have a conflict of interest. This normally excludes anyone who has collaborated with an author in the last three years or who works at the same institution.
You may also name individuals or organisations you do not want to review the work. These requests will be honoured.
Suggested reviewers – name and email
Exclude specific individuals or organisations
Prohibited Reviewers
Licensing & Consent
Authors keep the copyright to their work and grant us a non-exclusive right to publish it. Published work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0)[3], so anyone may read, share and reuse it as long as they credit the authors. This licence cannot be withdrawn after publication.
If the work includes third party material, such as figures reprinted from other publications, you must confirm that you have permission for it to be published under this licence. Permission to reprint does not always include this, so please check. Finally, please confirm that you agree to our privacy policy.
Footnotes to add: 2. https://credit.niso.org 3. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Does this document contain third party material (e.g. reprinted figures)?(Required)
Consent(Required)Permission has been obtained from the licence holder to publish.
ConsentI agree to the privacy policy.
Consent(Required)I agree to the privacy policy.