Author Guidelines

Please strictly follow all instructions

Manuscript submission

Submission of an article implies that it has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and further, that if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere. Manuscripts of all categories are to be submitted online (http://jsju.net/index.php/journal/pages/view/papersubmission) with a letter of transmittal, giving (i) names and complete addresses (including telephone numbers, e-mail id, etc.) of all authors and (ii) title of the contribution.

You can also submit an article directly to the Editor-in-Chief by e-mail: info@jsju.net

The Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University is an academic multidisciplinary journal and therefore, research and review papers of general significance that are written clearly and well organized will be given preference. All papers, solicited and unsolicited, will be first assessed by a Reviewing Editor. Papers found unsuitable in terms of the overall requirements of the journal will be returned to the authors. The others will be sent for a detailed review. Authors of these papers will be notified of their acceptance, need for revision, or rejection of the paper. It may be noted that papers once rejected cannot be resubmitted. Manuscripts are selected for publication according to the editorial assessment of their suitability and evaluation by independent reviewers. Papers are usually sent to two or more reviewers. The editorial staff will edit accepted papers to improve the accuracy and clarity and shorten, if necessary.

Illustrations and other materials to be reproduced from other publications must be properly credited; it is the authors’ responsibility to obtain permission for reproduction of figures, tables, etc., from published sources (copies of letters of permission should be sent to the editor).

Declarations to be made regarding ethical issues

Manuscripts dealing with clinical findings should be enclosed with a statement on the informed consent of the patients under study. If humans and animals are the subject of a clinical study, it is essential for the study to have been carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the country/countries where the research described in the article has been conducted. A declaration to that effect must accompany the manuscript.

Supplementary material

Detailed tables can be submitted as supplementary material, which will be published online. If tables with huge data are not submitted as supplementary material and are found suitable for online publishing only, the discretion to use these as supplementary material lies with the journal. The authors will be informed about this during the processing of their manuscripts.

Any details and queries regarding supplementary material should be addressed to the corresponding author of the paper. The published material cannot be reproduced without permission from the author.

Authors’ conflict of interest statement

The authors must acknowledge the organizations that have provided financial support for their work. Any other conflict of interest must be declared while submitting the manuscript.

Categories of Manuscripts

General articles [not exceeding 4000 words, 6 display items (tables and figures)] discuss current trends in research in a field that would be of interest to readers outside the field. These include interdisciplinary topics, science policy and science administration, some aspects of the application of science and technology to human needs or the impact of science and technology on society/ecosystems/life. The articles should include an abstract, introductory paragraph, brief subheads at appropriate places, illustrations that will help a general reader, and references.

Review articles (not exceeding 6000 words, cited references to be limited to about 100 in number) are expected to survey and discuss current developments in a field. They should be well focused and organized, and avoid a general ‘textbook’ style.

Research accounts (not exceeding 6000 words, cited references to be limited to about 60 in number) are articles intended to be personalized reviews of research from the author(s)’ laboratory, based on a body of published work. The articles must provide appropriate background to the area in a concise introduction, which should also serve to place the author(s)’ work in a proper perspective.

Research articles (ranging from 3000 to 5000 words) report research results of major significance. They should include an abstract, an introductory paragraph, and brief subheads.

Research communications (2000 words) contain important new findings that are novel and of fairly broad interest. These should include a brief abstract and an introductory paragraph. Text should NOT be broken up under subheads.

Scientific correspondence items (less than 1500 words and 2 display items) serve to rapidly communicate important new findings. Contributions dealing with technical advances or advances in instrumentation may be published as Technical notes.

News (not exceeding 1000 words) can cover important scientific events or any other news of interest to scientists in general.

Meeting reports (less than 1500 words) deal with highlights/technical contents of a conference/ symposium/discussion-meeting, etc. conveying the significance of important advances to readers. Reports must avoid merely listing brief accounts of the topics discussed.

Research News articles (not exceeding 2000 words and 3 display items) are intended to inform non-specialists about recently published advances or important findings.

Opinion articles (less than 1200 words) present views on issues related to science and scientific activities.

Commentary (less than 2000 words) articles are expected to be expository essays on issues related to science and scientific activity.

Book reviews (not exceeding 1500 words). Although Book Reviews are generally solicited/commissioned, unsolicited reviews will also be considered. Reviews must not merely ‘list’ brief descriptions of the contents of a book.

Historical commentaries/notes (limited to about 3000 words) inform readers about interesting aspects of personalities or institutions of science or about watershed events in the history/development of science. Illustrations and photographs are welcome. Brief items will also be considered.

Manuscript Preparation

All papers are to be written in English or Chinese. The Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University is an internationally refereed journal designed to expand the frontiers of knowledge of scientific and technological research. Articles should be prepared strictly according to the template; please check the link http://jsju.net/JournalTemplate.docx.

Each article should have no more than 6 authors.

Structure of the Article

Please follow this logic in writing the paper: first, briefly highlight the idea, then describe the methods for achieving the goal and the planned results, and only after that proceed to the detailed presentation. When reviewing the literature, you should not simply list the sources, but analyze them. You should explain with specific examples what has already been done by other scholars, what tasks are ahead, and in which direction you plan to move, that is, you must introduce the reader to the research background and explain the place of your study in it.

The pages should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title page and through the text, and reference list.

The structure of the manuscript should be organized as follows: title (in English and Chinese), author(s), affiliation(s) (institutions), city, country, e-mails of authors (preferably institutional), Abstract (in English and Chinese), Keywords (in English and Chinese), Introduction, Research Aim, Literature Review, Research Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and Suggestions for Practical Use, Acknowledgments (can be added if necessary), References (in English and Chinese).

The title should be brief and informative, specific and amenable to indexing. The title should contain less than 15 words, each starting with a capital letter, small caps, and be centered, typeset the title in bold, Times New Roman (TNR) 16 pt, single line spacing.

Names and affiliations (institutions) of the authors, city, country, E-mail address(es) of the author(s) should be listed. This information should be centered, typeset in TNR 10 pt, and single-spaced, names being in bold.

Abstract should be limited to 1 paragraph (250 words) and convey the main points of the paper, outline the results and conclusions, and explain the significance of the results. Any inessential abbreviations (those personally invented, in particular), any formulas, references to bibliography, figures and/or tables are inadmissible in the abstract. Typeset your Abstract in TNR 11 pt, alignment: justify; line spacing: single.

The editors recommend the authors to adhere to the following abstract template:

The purpose of the article ……. The article describes a new method/idea (etc.) ..., based on ..., enabling to .... Using (describe the methods), the authors (describe the obtained results)..... As an example, we illustrate the proposed method/technique... Our method/proposal allows to improve (any quantitative indicators by XX, X%)... The new method for effectiveness evaluation is confirmed by the calculation .... New research results develop/supplement/improve ... and can be used for…./ This paper is novel because….

Keywords: Not more than five keywords should be indicated separately; these should be chosen carefully and must not be phrases of several words. Typeset your keywords in TNR 10 pt, alignment: justify; line spacing: single. These keywords will be used for indexing.

The main text: Typeset the main text in TNR 11 pt in 2 columns with an interval between columns of 1 cm, alignment: justify, indentation: 5 mm, line spacing: single.

Introduction: All papers should have a brief introduction (1.5-2 pages). The text should be intelligible to readers in different disciplines and technical terms should be defined. This is the reader’s first impression of your paper, so it should be clear and concise. Include relevant background information on your topic, using in-text citations as necessary. Report new developments in the field, and state how your study fills the gaps in the existing research. Focus on the specific problem you are addressing, along with its possible solutions, and outline the limitations of your study. You can also include a research question, hypothesis, and/or objectives at the end of this section.

FORMATTING TIPS:

•  Organize your information from broad to narrow (general to particular). However, do not start too broad; keep the information relevant.
•  You can use in-the-text citations in this section to situate your research within the body of literature. These citations should be numbered sequentially in the order they appear in the text [1], [2], etc., and organized accordingly in the References section.

Methods: This is the part of your paper that explains how the research was done in no more than 2-3 pages. You should relate your research procedures in a clear, logical order so that other researchers can reproduce your results. Simply refer to the established methods you used, but describe any procedures that are original to your study in more detail.

FORMATTING TIPS:

•   Identify the specific instruments you used in your research by including the manufacturer’s name and location in parentheses.
•  Stay consistent with the order in which information is presented (e.g., quantity, temperature, stirring speed, refrigeration period).

Results: Now that you have explained how you gathered your research, you are to report what you actually found. In this section, taking no more than 6-8 pages, outline the main findings of your research. You need not include too many details, particularly if you are using tables and figures. While writing this section, use the smallest number of words necessary to convey your statistics.

FORMATTING TIPS:

•  Use appendices or supplementary materials if you have too much data.
•  Use headings to help the readers follow along, particularly if your data are repetitive. Headings should be of four-level type. See Template for heading typesetting instructions (http://jsju.org/JournalTemplate.docx).

Discussion: In this section, taking no more than 4-6 pages, you should interpret your findings for the reader in relation to previous research and the literature as a whole. Present your general conclusions, including an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the research and the implications of your findings. Resolve the hypothesis and/or research question you identified in the introduction.

Remember, you must be prepared to justify your findings and conclusions, and one of the best ways to do this is through factual accuracy and the acknowledgment of opposing interpretations, data, and/or points of view.

FORMATTING TIPS:

•   Use in-text citations to support your discussion in the required format.
•  Do not repeat the information you presented in the results or the introduction unless it is necessary for a discussion of the overall implications of the research.

Conclusion: Explain how your research fits within your field of study, and identify areas for future research. Even though you may not look forward to the process of formatting your research paper, it is important to present your findings clearly, consistently, and professionally. With the right paper format, your chances of publication increase, and your research will be more likely to make an impact in your field. Do not underestimate the details. They are the backbone of scientific writing and research. Do not use in-text citations in this section!

FORMATTING TIPS:

• Keep this section short (1-2 paragraphs).

Acknowledgments: Write this paragraph as brief as possible giving credit to any institution responsible for funding the study (e.g., through a fellowship or grant) and any person (e.g., technical advisors or editors).

References: Here you list citation information for each source used. The list of references should be arranged in the order in which the sources are presented in the paper (numbered citations). References should be taken over the past five years. The recommended minimum number of references is 25 entries. Before submitting the manuscript, please check each citation in the text against the References and vice-versa to ensure that they match exactly. It is important to format the references properly because all references will be linked electronically as completely as possible to the papers cited.

Typeset the References in TNR 12 pt in 2 columns with an interval between columns of 1 cm, alignment: justify, no indentation, line spacing: single References should not include unpublished source materials.

References should be formatted as follows:

•  Book: AUTHOR. (year) Title. (edition). Volume (issue). City: Publisher. Access: site/path/file. [10]
•  Periodicals: AUTHOR. (year) Title. Journal [full name], volume (issue), pages. Access: site/path/file. [11]
•  Papers presented at the conferences: AUTHOR. (year, month) Title. Presented at the Conference (title). [Type of information carrier]. Access: site/path/file. [12]
•  Reports and Guidelines: AUTHOR. (year) Title. Company. City, State, or Country. [Type of information carrier]. Access: site/path/file. [13]
•  Patent/Standard: Author. (year) Title, Patent number. [8]
•  Technical report: Author. (year) Title. Company, City, State, or Country, Tech. Rep. No. [9]

An example of the correct referencing for electronic resources is given below:

[1] ZAHARIA, R. M., and GRUNDEY, D. (2011) Corporate Social Responsibility in the Context of Financial Crisis: A Comparison between Romania and Lithuania. Amfiteatru Economic, 13(29), pp. 195-206.
[2] SEIDMAN, S. (2012) Contested knowledge. 5th ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
[3] LIGHT, G., COX, R. and CALKIN, S. (2009) Learning and teaching in higher education: the reflective professional. 2nd ed. London: Sage.
[4] SHAW, R. et al. (2011) Management essentials for doctors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[5] SCHAEFFER, N.C, and PRESSER, S. (2003) The science of asking questions. Annual Review of Sociology, 29 (1), pp. 65-88.
[6] TUCKMAN, A. (2009) Labor, skills and training. In: LEVITT, R. et al. (eds.) The Reorganized National Health Service. 7th ed. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, pp. 135-155.
[7] MAIMON, D., and BROWNING, C.R. (2012) Adolescents’ violent victimization in the neighborhood: situational and contextual determinants. British journal of criminology, 52 (4), pp. 808-833.
[8] STAMM, M.C., et al. (2013) Information forensics: an overview of the first decade. IEEE Access, 1. Available from http://www.ieee.org/IEEEAccess.
[9] CHAN, T.M. (2011) Three problems about dynamic convex hulls. In: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry, Paris, June 2011. New York: ACM, pp. 27-37.
[10] Environment Act 2005 (c. 25). London: The Stationery Office.
[11] BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTE (2008) BS ISO 8178-2: Reciprocating internal combustion engines – exhaust emission measurement. London: British Standards Institute.
[12] FENG, W. (2010) Remote service provision for connected homes. Unpublished thesis (PhD.), De Montfort University. [13] NHS (2012) Mobile phone safety. [Online] NHS. Available from: http://www.nhs.co.uk/conditions/Mobile-phone-safety/Pages/Introduction.aspx [Accessed 08/08/12].
[14] KESNER, R.P. (2002) Memory neurobiology. In: RAMACHANDRAN, V.S. (ed.) Encyclopedia of the human brain, Vol. 2. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 783-796.

FORMATTING TIPS:

•  While doing your final proofread, ensure that the reference list entries are consistent with the in-text citations (i.e., no missing or conflicting information).
•  At least 70% of the sources in the references should contain DOI indices, e.g., https://doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258-2724.57.1.1. If a DOI is lacking, it is recommended to add a link to any online source of an article. All links must be active.
•  Be sure to verify the correctness of the names of authors, pages and titles of journals in the paper lists at http://www.crossref.org/ (there is a search engine box in the center on the page – copy the source title into it and verify the correctness of the References).
•  References should not miss any imprint information (volume/issue/pages for journal articles; publisher for books, etc.)
•  The list of references should be in English and Chinese.

Tables and figures should be black and white. They should be referred to in the main text in numerical order as Figure 1, Table 1, etc.

All symbols and abbreviations must be defined, and used only when necessary. Superscripts, subscripts and ambiguous characters should be clearly indicated. Units of measure should be metric or, preferably, SI.

Figures: Centre the figures in the column and insert a caption below each figure. Typeset figure captions in TNR 9 pt, centered. Figures should follow their short description in the main text. Letters in the figure should be well readable and proportionally commensurable and in the final, printed size, the font should be 7 pt for normal text and not less than 6 pt for captions and symbols in the captions.

Line drawings should be roughly twice the final printed size. Photomicrographs and other photographs that require it must have a scale bar, which should be defined clearly in the legend. Primary data should be submitted as far as possible (e.g. actual photographs of electrophoretic gels rather than idealized diagrams). The map of China, if forming a part of the article, must conform to official maps released by the Survey of China, giving reference to the source map. Lettering should be sufficiently large to be clear after reduction to print size.

Tables: Tables should be placed in the main text near to the first time they are cited. Tables should be only in Word format. Please note that tables embedded as Excel or JPG/PNG, etc. files within the manuscript are NOT accepted. Number the tables sequentially, according to their appearance in the text. Centre the tables in the column and insert a title above each table. The table title appears one single-spaced line below the table number (TNR 9 pt). Typeset table body in TNR 9 pt. Place footnotes to the tables below the body of the tables and make the captions to them in superior small letters. Avoid using vertical borders in the tables. Be careful when using the tables and once again make sure that the data given in the table do not duplicate the results described somewhere in the article.

FORMATTING TIPS:

• Capitalize on the titles of specific tables and figures when you refer to them in the text (e.g., see Table 3; Figure 4 shows).

Mathematical material: The text should make clear distinctions between physical variables, mathematical symbols, units of measurement, abbreviations, chemical formulae, etc. Authors should use italic and boldface to identify physical or mathematical variables. Variables are to be set in normal italic, and vectors, tensors, and matrices in boldface.

Mathematical equations should be written clearly and accompanied by the necessary information. They should also be separated from the main text.

FORMATTING TIPS:

•  Number each equation you present in the text, inserting the number in parentheses.
•  Try using MathType or Equation Editor in Microsoft Word to type your equations, but use Unicode characters when typing single variables or mathematical operators (e.g., x, ≥, or ±) in running text. This makes it easier to edit your text and format your equations before publication.
•  Remember to save your math equations as editable text and not as images in case changes need to be made before publication.
•  

Terminology: Stay consistent with the terms you use. Generally, short forms can be used once the full term has been introduced:

•  Full terms versus acronyms (e.g., deoxyribonucleic acid versus DNA);
•  English names versus Greek letters (e.g., alpha versus α); and
•  Species names versus short forms (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus versus S. aureus).
•  One way to ensure consistency is to use standard scientific terminology. You can refer to the following resources, but if you are not sure which guidelines are preferred, check with your target journal.
•  For gene classification, use GeneCards, The Mouse Genome Informatics Database, and/or genenames.org.
•  For chemical nomenclature, refer to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the Gold Book) and the IUPAC–IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature.
•  For marine species names, use the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) or the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS).
•  Italics must be used correctly in scientific terminology.
•  Species names, which are usually in Greek or Latin, are italicized (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus).
•  Genes are italicized, but proteins are not.

Jurisdiction: The jurisdiction for all disputes concerning submitted articles, published material, advertisement, subscription and sale will be at courts/tribunals situated in China only.

The authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review.

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if they have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be provided. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the reported work. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

The authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors (maximum 6 authors). Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors, or you can cite them, cite their work. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be interpreted to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author´s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

The scientific impact of the papers SNIP in the Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University is assured by the established connections with the well-known indexing database ELSEVIER Products – SCOPUS (since 1999). When sending a scientific paper, authors should note that we must review many papers and these are considered and judged in the hierarchy.

Cover Letter

A Cover Letter should be attached to each manuscript. The Cover Letter form is located at the end of the Article Template file.

All Cover Letters must include the following statements: We hereby confirm that nether this manuscript, nor any parts thereof, are currently under review or published in another journal.
All authors have approved the manuscript and agree to its submission to the journal.

Corrections in English

For your manuscript to pass through the peer review process, it is important to submit it in linguistically and grammatically correct English.

APC does not cover extensive editing in English. Your paper may be returned to you during the English editing phase of the publication process if extensive editing is required. You may use the paid language editing service as part of Author Services before submitting your article for publication. If you are using an alternative service that provides a validation certificate, please send a copy to the editor. Authors from economically developing countries or nations should consider registering with AuthorAid, a global research community that provides networking, mentorship, resources, and training for researchers.

Fees and charges

The majority of the cost of publication is funded by Article Publication Charges (APCs) paid by authors or their institutes. APCs allow for articles to be made freely available Open Access (OA) to all readers, anywhere in the world. The Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University is OA.

The APC is Euro 500. This APC must be paid after the submitted paper is reviewed and accepted for publishing.

There are no article submission charges.

The APC should be paid only after the decision made by the scientific board and Editor-in-chief using the e-mail address from which the paper was sent in the payment announcement to easily identify the study. An invoice might be sent to the authors if they send complete information (name, address, country, codes, ID, or what they should have on an invoice). The APC should be paid within seven (7) working days after receiving the invoice from the editorial office.

All manuscripts will be subject to a well-established, fair, unbiased peer review and refereeing procedure and considered on the basis of their significance, novelty and usefulness to the journal readership. We highly recommend you to send papers containing research, innovation, analyses. The reviewers’ identities remain anonymous to the authors. The review process may take several months.

Manuscripts that do not reflect the journal scope will be excluded.

Editorial decision and revision

All articles, reviews, and communications published in the journal go through the peer-review process and obtain at least 3 peer reviews. The internal editor communicates the scientific editor’s decision, which will be one of the following:

Accept after minor revisions:

In principle, the article is accepted after revision based on the reviewer’s comments.

Accept after major changes:
Acceptance of the manuscript will depend on the changes made. The author must provide point-by-point response to the reviewer’s comments, or submit a refutation if some of the reviewer’s comments cannot be revised. Usually, no more than two rounds of major revision are allotted per a manuscript. Authors will be proposed to resubmit the revised article at an appropriate time, and the revised version will be returned to the reviewer for further comments. If the required revision time is estimated to be more than 2 months, we recommend the authors to withdraw their manuscript prior to resubmission to avoid unnecessary time pressure and ensure that all manuscripts are sufficiently revised.

Reject and encourage resubmission:
If additional experiments are needed to confirm the findings, the manuscript will be rejected and the authors will be offered to resubmit the article after additional experiments have been performed.

Reject:
The article is seriously flawed and/or does not make original significant contributions. An offer to resubmit to the journal is not provided.
All comments of the reviewers should be provided with point-by-point response. If the authors do not agree with the reviewer, they must give a straight answer.
If required, the authors should revise the paper according to the reviewer’s comments. After publishing, the authors may download the paper from the journal website.

Author Services

Language Editing Services

Our language editing services are available to everyone.

Our level of editing is acceptable for submission and publication in most journals. We will edit the language of your manuscript to ensure grammatical correctness, spelling and punctuation accuracy, and eliminate or reformulate any awkward or ambiguous sentences. Where possible, your voice and word choice will be saved. The correct use of specific terms is checked but not guaranteed, and we do not rewrite the prose.

• There are several reasons why we will not be able to edit your manuscript:
• The file is damaged or the text cannot be edited (for example, most of the text is contained in text fields or pictures, or the file contains a virus).

Your manuscript is not in English or has been translated using automatic software, for example, Google Translate. Payment is not received within a reasonable time. If you know in advance that payment may take some time, for example due to bureaucracy at your institution, please contact us and let us know. We may be able to return the edited article to you sooner if you provide the proof that your payment was made.

Additional Services

Layout Editing

Layout editing prepares your submission for publication in the Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University.

It is completed within 3-5 business days.

We will reformat your manuscript for submission to our journal, including checking that the structure that follows our journal style. Compliance of your manuscript with all formatting instructions will be verified thoroughly, and any deviations will be corrected starting with page headers and footers and finishing with references in English and Chinese. We provide your manuscript with the Title, Abstract and Keywords in Chinese, check and correct typesetting of all headings and texts, tables and figures, verify in-text citations, add omitted publisher’s information. We will also reformat references and find missing information in the References section and text body. This service does not include language editing, but can be selected along with regular or specialized services if required.

iThenticate Plagiarism Check

The plagiarism check generates a report that highlights any instances of text duplication and potential plagiarism, along with advice on where to modify the text or add further citations. Completed within 3 business days.

Editorial Independence

No interference in editorial decision-making

Editorial independence is of the utmost importance, and the publisher does not interfere in editorial decisions. All published articles are peer-reviewed and evaluated by our independent editorial boards, and the publisher’s employees are not involved in making decisions about accepting manuscripts. When making an editorial decision, we expect the science editor to make his/her decision based only on:

The suitability of the selected reviewers;

The adequacy of the reviewers’ comments and the author’s responses;

General scientific quality of the article. Our publication policy is driven by a mission to make science and research results open and accessible as widely and quickly as possible.

Editors and editorial staff as authors

Editorial staff or editors should not be involved in the processing of their own scientific work. Submissions written by editorial staff/editors will be sent to at least two independent external reviewers. Decisions will be made by other members of the editorial board who do not have a conflict of interest with the author. The journal staff do not participate in the processing of their own work.

Conflicts of interest

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, “Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and nonprofit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.”

All authors should disclose all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to, financial interests (such as membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, grants, or other funding, paid expert testimony and patent-licensing arrangements) and non-financial interests (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, and personal beliefs).

Authors can disclose potential conflicts of interest via the online submission system during the submission process. The corresponding author must include a summary statement in the manuscript in a separate section “Conflicts of Interest” placed just before the reference list. The statement should reflect all the collected potential conflicts of interest disclosures in the form.

See below for examples of disclosures:

Conflicts of Interest: Author A received research grants from company A. Author B received a speaking fee from company X and owns shares in company Y. Author C was engaged as a consultant and expert witness by company Z. Author D is the inventor of patent X.

If there are no conflicts, the authors should indicate this:

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.