日本不安症学会

Anxiety Disorder Research

Guidelines for Authors

Aims and Scope

Anxiety Disorder Research is the official peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal of the Japanese Society of Anxiety and Related Disorders (JSARD).

The purpose of this journal is to publish important, original, and innovative articles that advance the understanding, assessment, treatment/intervention, and prevention of anxiety disorders and related conditions. Topics of interest include behavioral, cognitive, and biological assessments; diagnosis and classification; neuroscience and genetics; sociocultural factors; mechanisms and comorbidities; epidemiology; psychosocial and psychopharmacological treatments/interventions; prevention; implementation science; theoretical developments; and policy.

The journal provides an international platform for interdisciplinary scholarship and professional exchange, and also accepts manuscripts written in Japanese.

Article Types

Anxiety Disorder Research publishes articles of different types. Once you have determined the appropriate article type, it is imperative that you read the Manuscript Preparation section before submitting your manuscript:

Original Article

Definition: Original Articles should be empirical or theoretical papers that demonstrate originality.

Review Article

Definition: Review Articles should comprehensively examine a wide range of domestic and international issues related to important topics and provide an overview from a unique perspective.Definition: Review Articles should comprehensively examine a wide range of domestic and international issues related to important topics and provide an overview from a unique perspective.

Short Report

Definition: Short Reports should present highly original, timely, or preliminary findings.

Material

Definition: Materials should report on studies with material value, such as replication studies of previous domestic and international research, the creation of databases, the development of instruments or scales, attempts at new treatments, or proposals of analytical methods.

Letter

Letters should be written in the form of correspondence and may include discoveries, reflections, or easily overlooked diagnostic pitfalls encountered in daily clinical or research activities, as well as various opinions (such as additions, discussions, or requests) regarding articles published in this journal.

Case Report/Case Study

Case Reports/Case Studies should be articles based on practical experiences in fields such as healthcare, education, or social welfare, aiming to identify and address issues arising in practice.

Study Protocol

Study Protocols are manuscripts that provide a detailed description of the protocol for planned or ongoing studies, and they primarily cover clinical trials for which registration and public disclosure in a registry are required, as well as systematic reviews (and related review designs) for which prospective registry registration is strongly encouraged. When submitting under this article type, authors must register the protocol in an appropriate registry prior to submission and must provide the name of the registry and the registration number on a separate line immediately below the abstract.

Others

In addition to submitted manuscripts, the journal may publish invited manuscripts from the Editorial Committee (e.g., special feature articles, reviews), clinical guidelines issued by the JSARD and their secondary publications, as well as other materials deemed necessary by the JSARD Board of Directors. These submissions may be exempted from certain parts of the peer-review process.

Article Processing Charge

The journal applies APCs according to the first author’s membership status in JSARD, the manuscript type, and the language of the manuscript.

For manuscripts written in English, the APC is waived when the first author is a JSARD member. Non-members are charged 100,000 JPY for Original Articles, Review Articles, Materials, Case Reports/Case Studies, and Study Protocols, and 50,000 JPY for Short Reports and Letters.

APCs are waived for invited manuscripts requested by the Editorial Committee, for clinical guidelines issued by the JSARD and their secondary publications, for materials recognized as necessary by the JSARD Board of Directors, and for Letters that provide comments on articles previously published in this journal.

Journal & Ethics Policies

The journal applies APCs according to the first author’s membership status in JSARD, the manuscript type, and the language of the manuscript.

Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the editor believes may not comply with these policies.

The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers, and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not previously been published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press, or published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see “Preprints”).

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in the journal, they should first withdraw it from the journal.

Submission

The journal welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.

Originality

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the editors’ discretion.

Preprints

To support the wide dissemination of research, the journal accepts authors to post their research manuscripts on community-recognized preprint servers, either before or alongside submission to the journal. This policy applies only to the original version of a manuscript that describes primary research. Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response to reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication, or published in the journal should not be posted on a preprint server.

Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be posted on the preprint server. Authors should retain copyright in their work when posting to a preprint server.

Scooping

When assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the editors will not be influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on community-recognized preprint servers after the date of submission to the journal.

Authorship

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Any change to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of an author, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the editor.

Authors are encouraged to consider the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations on “Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors ”. The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on four criteria: 1) making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; 2) drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) approving the final version of the manuscript for publication; and 4) agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work. Any contributor who has met all four criteria should be an author on the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be authors of the manuscript but may be included in the Acknowledgments section instead.

Authors are required to include a statement that specifies the contribution of each author as per the Author Contribution Statement section.

Given that artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as large language models (LLMs) and various openly available services do not meet the requirements listed above, they cannot be listed as an author of a manuscript.

Data falsification, data fabrication, and image integrity

Authors must not falsify or fabricate data. Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add, or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing copyrighted material

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) to reproduce it.

If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.

Copies of all reproduction permissions obtained from copyright holders must be provided when it is first submitted to the journal.

Availability of data and materials

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.

Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Material, or by linking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. All data sets must be made available in full to the editors and reviewers during the peer review process, and consideration made for them to be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors commit to preserving their data sets for at least three years from the date of publication in the journal.

The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials, and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.

Please also see the “Data availability” section.

Animal/human experimentation

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki , its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions. Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research.

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines approved by the authors’ institution(s).

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

As per the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) position statement on Authorship and AI tools , authors must disclose and fully describe any use of generative or non-generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools (also known as large language models, or LLMs) in the Methods section. This includes, but is not limited to, using AI tools to collect or analyse data, produce or amend images or graphics used in the manuscript, or write all or part of the manuscript. Authors must describe which tools they used and how the tools were used. In general, the use of generative AI tools is allowed only where that use is an integral part of the research design or methods. Any other uses will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the editors. In all cases, authors remain responsible for all the content of their submitted manuscript.

Authors should be aware that there are ongoing concerns about the copyright status of any AI-generated content. Authors must adhere to the instructions in the “Reproducing copyrighted material” section of this document and comply with relevant statutory and other copyright laws.

It is acceptable to use non-generative AI tools to improve the readability of a manuscript, such as through spelling and grammar checking, but any such use should be declared to the editors upon submission.

Reviewers and editors must not upload unpublished manuscripts to any AI tool or service. Doing so would breach privacy and confidentiality provisions, as described elsewhere in this document. There are also potential copyright issues if unpublished material is uploaded to a third-party service.

After a manuscript is accepted, the journal, publisher, and/or their authorized service providers may use AI tools to prepare the manuscript for publication.

Author competing interests and conflicts of interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived, or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity.

Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgments section of their manuscript.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors, and reviewers) strictly confidential.

Self-archiving (Green Open Access) policy

Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access, enables authors to deposit a copy of their manuscript in an online repository. The journal allows authors of original research manuscripts to upload the Accepted Manuscript of their article to an institutional or public repository immediately after publication in the journal.

Long-term digital archiving

J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including the journal, with Portico  in a dark archive. In the event that the material becomes unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.

Advertising policy

The journal accepts relevant advertising from trusted organizations. In addition to the online journal, an electronic booklet (PDF version) that includes corporate advertisements is distributed free of charge to members of the JSARD via the society’s mailing list. The decision to allow particular advertisements or advertisers is made by the JSARD Board of Directors. Advertisements are not related in any way to editorial decision-making and are kept separate from the published content.

Peer Review Process

Editorial and peer review process

The journal uses a single-blind peer review process, in which the reviewers’ identities are not disclosed to the author(s).

When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the editor-in-chief and the associate editor, who perform initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. In principle, the remaining manuscripts are assigned to a handling editor who assigns at least two reviewers to assess each manuscript. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports varies by article type.

Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If the decision is to request a revision of the manuscript, authors have two months to resubmit their revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions. The editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgment to assess how closely the authors have followed the Editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript. During the review and editorial process, the handling editor may request that the authors change the manuscript type

The editor then makes a recommendation to the editor-in-chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The editor-in-chief is responsible for making the final decision on each manuscript.

The members of the Editorial Board act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the editor-in-chief is an author on a manuscript submitted to the journal, a member of the Editorial Board is responsible for making the final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal.

Reviewer selection, timing, and suggestions

Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation, recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal.

Reviewers are invited within 2 weeks of an article being submitted. Reviewers are asked to submit their first review within 3 weeks of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible.

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer review process. The editor may consider these suggestions, but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation, and assignment of peer reviewers is at the editor’s sole discretion.

Reviewer reports

It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information, or recommendations for publication.

Acceptance criteria

If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to he published literature, the editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.

Articles in the journal must be:


If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the editor may recommend rejection.

Editorial independence

The JSARD has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The JSARD will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of the process.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.

Appeals

Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the editor-in-chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the COPE  are followed where relevant.

Confidentiality in peer review

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors and reviewers will not:

  1. disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
  2. discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with the manuscript or its peer review
  3. use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
  4. use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization
  5. share or upload the content of the manuscript to any AI tool or public platform.

In addition, reviewers will not reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript or involve anyone else in the review (for example, a post-doc or PhD student) without first receiving permission from the editor.

Editor and reviewer conflicts of interest in peer review

A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived, or potential circumstances that could influence an editor or reviewer’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances include (but are not limited to) having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.

Reviewers and members of the journal’s Editorial Board undertake to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An editor or reviewer who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor or reviewer.

Editors try to avoid conflicts of interest when inviting reviewers, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias.

Errata and retractions

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.

A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the editor-in-chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If an Erratum is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The editor-in-chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the editor-in-chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board.

Editors as authors in the journal

Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board, including the editor-in-chief, who is an author on a submitted manuscript, is excluded from the peer review process. Within the journal’s online manuscript submission and tracking system, they will be able to see their manuscript as an author but not as an editor, thereby maintaining the confidentiality of peer review.

A manuscript authored by an editor of the journal is subject to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision-making as any manuscript considered by the journal.

Responding to potential ethical breaches

The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of the COPE .

Copyright, Open Access, and Fees

The journal is fully Open Access and uses Creative Commons (CC) licenses. More details on the CC licenses are below.

Copyright and licensing

The copyright of articles published in this journal belongs to the JSARD. Articles published in this journal are made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0 ) license. This license allows users to share and adapt an article, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.

Article processing charge

There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting, and online hosting. To cover these costs in the absence of journal subscriptions, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay article processing charges (APCs).

The journal applies APCs according to the first author’s membership status in JSARD, the manuscript type, and the language of the manuscript.

For manuscripts written in English, the APC is waived when the first author is a JSARD member. Non-members are charged 100,000 JPY for Original Articles, Review Articles, Materials, Case Reports/Case Studies, and Study Protocols, and 50,000 JPY for Short Reports and Letters.

For manuscripts written in Japanese, the APC is also waived when the first author is a JSARD member. Non-members are charged 20,000 JPY for Original Articles, Review Articles, Materials, Case Reports/Case Studies, and Study Protocols, and 10,000 JPY for Short Reports, and Letters.

APCs are waived for invited manuscripts requested by the Editorial Board, for clinical guidelines issued by the JSARD and their secondary publications, for materials recognized as necessary by the JSARD Board of Directors, and for Letters that provide comments on articles previously published in this journal.

Publication charge

The journal is freely accessible online. The costs incurred by its publication are offset by the APC. There is no submission fee.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system: https://iap-jp.org/jpsad/journal/login. Although the submission system interface is displayed in English, manuscripts written in Japanese must also be submitted through the same system, and all input fields must be completed in Japanese. The original or revised manuscript text may be uploaded as a PDF or Microsoft Word file, but a Word file is required for the final manuscript text. Figures and supplementary materials may be submitted separately in several other formats.

Manuscript Preparation

The Journal requires that all manuscripts be prepared in accordance with the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) .

As this journal employs a single-blind peer review process, it is not necessary to conceal any information that could identify the authors in the submitted files.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for publication and to include evidence that such a request has been granted when submitting their papers. Authors must cite the source to use such materials in the corresponding figure or table caption, as required by the copyright owner(s).

If authors are non-native speakers of English, the manuscript must be edited by a native English speaker prior to submission.

Units

The International System of Units (SI) or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available from the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) .

Abbreviations

Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses after its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).

Names of drugs, devices, and other products

Do not use the specific brand names of devices and other products and services, unless it is essential to the discussion. Instead, please use a descriptive name.

Clinical trial registration

In accordance with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)’ recommendations , all clinical trials must be registered with a public trials registry before the time of first patient enrollment. The trial registration number and name of the registry must be provided on a separate line immediately below the abstract.

ICMJE defines clinical trials as any research that prospectively assigns people or a group of people to an intervention, with or without concurrent comparison or control groups, to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between a health-related intervention and a health outcome. Health-related interventions include, but are not limited to, those used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome; examples include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, educational programs, dietary interventions, quality improvement interventions, and process-of-treatment changes.

The journal accepts registration from the following list of registries as well as other primary registries that participate in the WHO International Clinical Trials Portal :

Cover letter

Authors must submit a cover letter as a separate file via the online submission system. The cover letter must include the manuscript title and the corresponding author’s contact details. It should briefly summarize the aims and outcomes of the work and explain why the manuscript is appropriate for publication in this journal. Where applicable, the cover letter must also provide details of any relevant consent and/or ethics approvals. In addition, the cover letter must state whether the first author is a member of the JSARD; if so, the JSARD membership number must be provided. Any other information required at the time of submission should also be included.

General formatting

The general structure of the manuscript should be organized as follows:

Title page

The title page should be prepared on a separate page from the main text (within the same file) and must include the following information:


Abstract and keywords

For all article types except Letters, authors must provide an unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words in a single paragraph, along with up to five keywords.

All clinical trials must provide the name of the public trials registry in which the trial was registered and the registration number on a separate line immediately below the abstract.

The journal also strongly encourages authors of systematic reviews to prospectively register their review protocol in a suitable registry, such as PROSPERO; in such cases, the registration number should be provided on a separate line immediately below the abstract.

When submitting a manuscript as a Study Protocol, authors must register the protocol in an appropriate registry prior to submission and must provide the name of the registry and the registration number on a separate line immediately below the abstract.

Registry information provided on a separate line immediately below the abstract is not considered part of the abstract and is not included in the abstract word count limit. Therefore, do not include this line in the abstract field of the online submission system.

Main text

The Journal requires that the main text of all manuscripts be prepared in accordance with the latest edition of the APA Publication Manual .

The journal also requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network’s Reporting Guidelines for health research . Study types include, but are not limited to, randomized trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, case reports, qualitative research, diagnostic and prognostic studies, economic evaluations, animal pre-clinical studies, and study protocols.

For manuscripts that do not directly address anxiety disorders or related conditions, authors must include a separate subheading in the Discussion section titled “Implications for Practice, Policy, and Research Relevant to Anxiety Disorders and Related Conditions”. The subheading title may be modified as appropriate to reflect the content of the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

Authors may briefly acknowledge those who have assisted in the work or preparation of the Manuscript, but who do not qualify for authorship (as defined in the Authorship section). Authors should also list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgments section. Where possible, and for each grant, the receiving author/institution, the funding agency, and the grant number should be included.

Conflict of interest

Authors are required to declare any competing financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described. If there are no declared interests, authors should include the following statement in this section of their manuscript: “The authors declare no competing interests”.

Data availability

Authors are encouraged to include a Data Availability statement in manuscripts that report results from research data. Statements should include information on where the manuscript’s data can be found and (where applicable) directly link to the data. If research data are not publicly available, this should be stated in this section along with any conditions for accessing the data.

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.

Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Material, or by linking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories (e.g., Dryad Digital Repository, figshare, J-STAGE Data). All data sets should be made available in full to the Editors and reviewers during the peer review process, and must be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors commit to preserving their data sets for at least three years from the date of publication in the journal.

The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials, and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.

Author contribution

Authors are required to include an Author Contribution statement that follows CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) . Each author’s contribution should be described using one or more of the 14 CRediT categories. For example (where ‘Author’ is replaced by the actual author names or initials):

========================
Conceptualization: Author 1.
Funding acquisition: Author 1.
Investigation: Author 1, Author 2.
Supervision: Author 1.
Visualization: Author 3.
Writing – original draft: Author 1, Author 2, Author 3.
Writing – review & editing: Author 1, Author 2.

OR

Author 1: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Author 2: Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Author 3: Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. ========================

All authors must meet the criteria for authorship (see “Authorship”).

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Authors must declare that they have obtained and complied with all relevant ethics approvals for studies involving human or animal subjects. For studies involving human participants, authors must also declare that informed consent was obtained. Where applicable, the approval code issued by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the name of the approving institution(s) must be provided. If ethics approval and/or informed consent is not relevant or applicable to a submitted manuscript, the statement “Not applicable” should be included under this section heading.

References

References should also be prepared according to the latest edition of the APA Publication Manual . Detailed guide and examples can be found here .

Figures and tables

Figures and tables must be cited in the text and numbered in the order they are cited. If any copyrighted or previously published material, edited or otherwise, is used in the manuscript, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) prior to making a submission. Also, the authors must cite the source and indicate the permission to use such materials in the corresponding figure or table caption, as required by the copyright owner(s).

Figure legends

Legends must be prepared for all figures presented in the manuscript. Authors must list figure legends on a separate page after the references section.

Figures

Figures should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Figures should be submitted in the following digital format: JPEG (.jpg) or Tagged Image File Format (.tiff) at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Each table should be prepared on a separate sheet. Tables are required to be in MS Word (.doc/.docx).

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or video files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript. Each item of supplementary material must include a descriptive caption. All supplementary materials should be cited in the text (e.g., Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Appendix 1).

As supplementary material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their manuscript submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material.

Accepted Manuscripts

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal adopts a continuous online publication model, in which articles are published online as soon as they are ready. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is conducted with the corresponding author.

Proofs

Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within n 48 hours. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.

Contact

To contact the Editorial Office, please write to:

Version History
Version 1.0 (December 2025)
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