Guide for authors

General notes

Language

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of the two).

Cover letter

A cover letter is not mandatory, as we request all essential information at submission. However, you are welcome to provide a cover letter containing any additional information that you would like us to be aware of, such as information on suggested or excluded editors and referees.

Manuscript organisation

We do not have strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to convey the content in clearly defined sections: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.

Text

Please provide your manuscript in an editable format, particularly Microsoft Word. If you use LaTeX, please supply a PDF version of your manuscript.

Title

Please provide a title that is concise and informative; ideally, it should contain no more than 20 words. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems so please keep in mind that your choice of title may impact how easily readers can discover your article.

Authors

Authors’ names and affiliations should be provided.

Abbreviations

Please define all abbreviations at first use.

Abstract

The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. Abstracts are often presented and read as a stand-alone text, so please keep this in mind when writing, and avoid the use of references and abbreviations.

Introduction

Please provide adequate background information, while avoiding a detailed literature review, and state the objectives of your work in light of previous findings.

Materials and Methods

A section on materials used and procedures should be included. This should provide a clear reasoning for the selection of methods as well as a clear description of the procedure and materials.

Results and Discussion

Results should be presented clearly and concisely, with a complete and insightful analysis and a well-chosen graphical presentation of results. With discussion exploring the importance and implications of the findings and their drawback.

Conclusions

The main conclusion of the study may be presented in a short conclusions section, as a stand-alone section.

Acknowledgements

Please collate all acknowledgements in a separate section before the references at the end of the article.

References

Please ensure that the references in your manuscript are comprehensive, accurate, relevant, and up-to-date.

Formatting

References should be in a numbered style. We highly encourage the inclusion of DOIs to ensure references are citable and discoverable.

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Unpublished results and personal communications should not be included in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.