Ethical Guidelines

Peer-Review

This journal generally requires at least two independent reviewers to evaluate manuscripts accepted for publication in the journal. This journal uses a double-blind peer review model. This means that the identities of both reviewers and authors are kept anonymous. Please see the Instructions for Authors page for full details of this process.

Institutional affiliation

The affiliation of an article should represent the institution(s) where the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research articles, affiliations should indicate the institution(s) with which each author is currently associated. Knowingly providing false or fraudulent affiliation information is a form of misconduct and may result in retraction of the article.

Authorship

All authors listed on papers submitted to the journal must agree that all listed authors are considered authors in accordance with disciplinary standards and that no authors who could reasonably be considered authors have been excluded. In the event of disputes or requests for changes at any stage of the publication process, this journal will follow the ICMJE guidelines on authorship.

Plagiarism

We do not tolerate plagiarism in our publications and reserve the right to check all submitted papers using appropriate plagiarism detection software. Contributions suspected of being plagiarised in whole or in part will be rejected.

Self-plagiarism

Self-plagiarism is considered unacceptable and may result in the rejection of a submitted manuscript. This will depend on the severity of the self-plagiarism, which will depend on the extent of the self-plagiarised text, the handling of references to that text, and the nature of the preparatory work. We require authors to be transparent and to declare similar prior work and their own text in the first footnote of the manuscript.

Disclosure of funding

This journal requires authors to include a statement of funding in their manuscript. The source of funding for the authors' research should be stated in accordance with the journal's instructions for authors.

Transparency in research

This journal places a high value on transparent and reproducible research. We encourage authors to follow best practice in the presentation of their methodology, for example by providing details of the study design, the sources used and their provenance, and the selection procedures used. Wherever possible, we encourage authors to provide readers with the evidence that supports their findings, which may include quantitative data or qualitative materials.