Authors are encouraged to review the journal’s Aims and Scope to determine whether their manuscript aligns with the journal’s focus, readership, and article types. Submissions should demonstrate scientific rigor, originality, and relevance to the journal’s thematic areas. If you are uncertain about the suitability of your manuscript, you may contact the editorial office directly through the email (Contact us) for confirmation.
Manuscripts that fall outside the journal’s scope may be rejected without external peer review.
The journal considers a range of article types, and the detailed description of article type, including structure and length requirements, are provided in the Author guidelines (2. Manuscript Types and 3. Manuscript Structure).
We strongly recommend using “The Manuscript Template” (in Download templates) to expedite the process. Ensure your manuscript includes all necessary sections mentioned in Author Guidelines.
All figures and tables must be cited in the text and numbered sequentially. We recommend providing high-resolution editable figure files (as separate files) according to our Author Guidelines.
All submissions must adhere to our Journal policies. Key requirements include: Acknowledgments, Conflicts of interest, Ethical statement, Funding statement, Data availability statement, Author contributions. For detailed descriptions and our recommended wording for each section, please refer to the relevant part of our Author Guidelines and download the corresponding Manuscript Template.
All manuscripts must be submitted through ScholarOne system. Submissions sent by email or post are not accepted. Authors should ensure that all required files and metadata are complete and accurate at the time of submission.
In general, the journal allows submission of manuscripts that have been previously posted on non-peer-reviewed preprint servers mentioned in Journal policy. Author should provide this message at submission. For more information, you can consult the Preprint Policy in Author guidelines or editorial office (email in Contact us).
Authors are allowed to suggest potential/oppose reviewers in the submission process. Suggested reviewers should have appropriate expertise and no conflicts of interest. The editor is not obliged to use author-suggested reviewers and retains full discretion over reviewer selection.
The journal operates a single-blind peer review process. All editorial decisions are made by the editor based on independent reviewer reports and editorial assessment.
Review timelines may vary depending on manuscript type, reviewer availability, and the extent of revision required. While the journal makes reasonable efforts to provide timely decisions, no fixed review duration can be guaranteed.
Possible decisions include accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject. Editorial decisions are based on scientific merit, relevance, and compliance with journal policies.
You can log in to the ScholarOne System to see the current status of your manuscript.
If your manuscript receives a “minor revision” or “major revision” decision, you will have 30 days for a minor revision or 60 days for a major revision to complete the necessary modifications. Please use this time to carefully address all comments from the editors and reviewers.
To ensure a smooth and efficient revision process, we recommend preparing your resubmission as follows:
1. Prepare a Detailed Response Letter:
Address each and every reviewer comment systematically in a point-by-point manner. For each comment, provide a concise, professional, and evidence-based response. Clearly state the specific changes made in the manuscript (citing page/line numbers where applicable) or provide a reasoned justification if a suggested change was not implemented.
2. Prepare Two Manuscript Versions:
Revised Manuscript with Tracked Changes: Submit a version that clearly highlights all modifications made. Clean Revised Manuscript: Submit a second version incorporating all final edits but without any tracked changes or highlights, formatted strictly according to the journal's template.
3. Submit as Separate Files:
Upload the Response Letter, the Revised Manuscript with Tracked Changes, and the Clean Revised Manuscript as three separate files to the submission system. We recommend naming these files clearly (e.g., Response Letter.docx, Revised Manuscript-Tracked.docx, Revised Manuscript-Clean.docx) to facilitate easy processing and review.
This structured approach greatly assists the editors and reviewers in evaluating your revision promptly and thoroughly.
If you require an extension to the standard revision period (30 days for minor, 60 days for major revisions), please contact the editorial office (email in Contact us) as soon as possible, well before your current deadline expires.
In your request, kindly provide: Your manuscript ID and title, a brief reason for the extension request and your proposed new submission date.
The editor will review your request, and if justified, may grant a reasonable extension. Please note that extensions are not guaranteed and are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We encourage you to plan your revisions proactively to meet the original timeline whenever possible.
Research involving human participants must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki, and authors must provide IRB approval and informed consent statements.
Animal research must adhere to national or institutional guidelines, and ethics approval must be provided.
If potential ethical issues are identified at any stage, the journal may request clarification, conduct further investigation, or take appropriate action in accordance with COPE.
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the study. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission.
All authors are required to disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could be perceived as influencing the work or its interpretation. This includes, but is not limited to, funding, employment, personal financial interests, patents, or personal/professional relationships. If no conflicts exist, a statement of this part should also be included.
Specific requirements include:
● The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
● The authors declare the following conflicts of interest: [Describe the conflict, such as financial support, consultancies, stock ownership, etc.].
● Author A serves as Editor-in-Chief (or a member of the Editorial Board) of this journal. They were not involved in the editorial review or decision-making process for this manuscript. All editorial decisions were made independently by other members of the Editorial Board who have no conflicts of interest.
The Journal supports transparency and reproducibility in research. Authors are encouraged to make the data underlying their findings publicly available whenever possible, unless legal, ethical, or privacy considerations prevent data sharing.
Where applicable, manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement describing where and how the data can be accessed (without url), or clearly explaining any restrictions on data availability (the recommended statement can be found in “The Manuscript Template for Editorial (Original Research)” in “Download templates”). Authors must ensure that shared data are accurate, properly anonymized, and consistent with applicable ethical approvals and consent agreements.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by authors must comply with ethical standards of transparency, accountability, and scientific integrity. AI tools may be used for limited purposes such as language editing or formatting assistance, provided that such use does not compromise data confidentiality, authorship integrity, or the originality of the work.
AI tools must not be listed as authors, and authors remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, and conclusions of the manuscript. Any use of AI tools that materially assisted in manuscript preparation must be clearly disclosed in “AI statement” of the manuscript.
The use of AI tools for data fabrication, falsification, image manipulation, or undisclosed generation of scientific content is not permitted and may be considered a breach of publication ethics.
The journal publishes all articles under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. Under this license, authors retain the copyright of their work. The journal CC BY license allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the article, even commercially, as long as they give appropriate credit to the original authors and source. The corresponding author will be asked to sign a License to Publish agreement formalizing these terms upon acceptance.
As a fully Open Access journal, the journal currently operates under an introductory policy of waiving APCs for the first three years. During this period, authors will not be charged any fee for publication. For the latest information on future APC policies, please refer to the Journal policy on the journal website.
Following the initial three-year APC waiver period, the journal may consider requests for partial or full fee reductions on a case-by-case basis. Authors seeking a reduction after this period should contact the editorial office with a formal request, outlining their specific circumstances and justification.
Additionally, consideration may be given to authors who have substantively contributed to the journal or its serial publications in other capacities, such as by serving as a peer reviewer. Such contributions do not guarantee a fee reduction but may be taken into account during the evaluation of a waiver request. All decisions are made at the discretion of the journal in accordance with its policies.
After acceptance, your manuscript enters the production process, which includes copyediting, typesetting, and proof generation. You will receive a proof for final checking and are responsible for reviewing it carefully and returning corrections within the specified deadline. Please note: Prior to final publication, the editorial or production team may contact you to clarify any missing, unclear, or non-compliant content. To ensure the fastest possible publication timeline, it is crucial to monitor the email account used for correspondence and respond promptly to any editorial communications.
Only minor typographical or formatting corrections are permitted at the proof stage. Substantive changes to content, findings, or interpretation require editorial approval and may delay publication. Crucially, any changes to the authorship list—including the order of authors, addition of new authors, or removal of authors—are strictly prohibited after submission and will not be permitted post-acceptance. Any such requests or discovery of undisclosed changes will be handled seriously in accordance with COPE guidelines, which may result in actions such as article retraction or rejection.
For questions not addressed in these FAQs, authors may contact the editorial office (email in Contact us). The editorial office will make reasonable efforts to respond but cannot guarantee immediate replies.