Submissions

Author Guidelines

Scientific Writing

• Authors are therefore requested to submit the following:
  • A blinded manuscript with at least 3000 words that does not include the names or affiliations of the authors either in the text or on the title page. In the article text, self-identifying citations and references should be avoided.
  • A separate title page with the title, all authors' names, affiliations, and contact details. This page needs to contain any acknowledgments, disclosures, or funding details.
• The work described has never been published before, is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, and has received the implicit or explicit approval of all co-authors and responsible authorities at the institute where the work was conducted. Should there be any demands for compensation, the publisher shall not be liable.
• Furthermore, Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process;
• The authors confirm that they wrote the manuscript without AI software for text production, and manuscripts that use such tools will be rejected.
• If it turns out that a manuscript has significant issues with its scientific content or that our publishing guidelines have been broken, the Team reserves the right to reject it even after it has been accepted.

Submission Format

Authors must follow the required files and format stated below:

Title Page

Please use this template title page to provide the following information.

The title page should include:

• The name(s) of the author(s)
• A concise and informative title
• The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country
• A clear indication and an active e-mail address of the corresponding author
• If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)

For (temporarily) unaffiliated authors, the team will only capture their city and country of residence, not their e-mail address unless specifically requested.

Abstract

• The author must provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words.
• The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords

• The author mustprovide 4 to 6 keywords that can be used for indexing purposes.

Manuscript

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word and following the IMRaD (Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion) Format. You can go ahead and download the suggested IMRad Template here.

• Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
• Use italics for emphasis.
• Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
• Do not use field functions.
• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
• Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).

Declarations

All manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading 'Declarations'.

If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section.

• Funding (information that explains whether and by whom the research was supported)
• Conflicts of interest/Competing interests (include appropriate disclosures)
• Ethics approval (include appropriate approvals or waivers)
• Availability of data and material (data transparency)
• Consent to participate (include appropriate statements)
• Authors' contributions (optional: please review the submission guidelines from the Journal whether statements are mandatory)
• Consent for publication (include appropriate statements)
• Code availability (software application or custom code)

References

• All citations must meet APA Styles (American Psychological Association 6th edition – more information http://www.apastyle.org/).
• A minimum of 10 active references must be included and properly cited within the manuscript.

Permissions

When submitting their papers, authors who desire to include images, tables, or text passages that have already been published somewhere else must first get permission from the copyright owner(s) and provide proof of such authorization.

Submission

Authors are required to provide all relevant editable source files. The review and production processes can be delayed needlessly if specific source files are not submitted.