Peer Review Process

All submissions are initially assessed by an Editor, who decides whether the article is suitable for peer review. Submissions considered suitable for peer review are assigned to two or more subject experts, who assess the article for clarity, validity, and sound methodology.  If suitable experts external to the journal cannot be found then members of the Editorial Board may be asked to complete a review task.

In cases where it is proving very difficult to find peer reviewers, a member of the journal editorial board or editorial team may be a suitable alternative. In such cases the member of the board/team acting as a reviewer is removed from all other editorial decision making regarding the submission in question so that they cannot unduly influence the process. If contributing their own feedback, the handling editor does so transparently and not under the guise of an anonymous reviewer.

Authors may be invited to recommend or ask for the exclusion of specific individuals from the peer review process. The journal does not guarantee to use these suggestions. All reviewers must be independent from the submission and will be asked to declare all competing interests.

The journal operates an anonymous peer review process, meaning that authors and reviewers do not know each other's identities during the review process. The review period is expected to take around six to eight weeks, although this can vary depending on reviewer availability. Reviewers are asked to provide formative feedback, even if an article is not deemed suitable for publication in the journal.

Based on the reviewer reports the editor will make a recommendation for rejection, minor or major revisions, or acceptance. Overall editorial responsibility rests with the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, who is supported by an expert, international Editorial Board.

Members of the editorial team/board are permitted to submit their own papers to the journal. In cases where an author is associated with the journal, they will be removed from all editorial tasks for that paper and another member of the team will be assigned responsibility for overseeing peer review. A competing interest must also be declared within the submission and any resulting publication. Such submissions are treated identically to all other manuscripts and are subject to the same peer review standards.

Reviewer Guidelines

Reviewers are asked to provide comment on the below topics and guidelines:

• Content
• Structure and argument
• Methods
• Results & conclusions
• Depth of knowledge and referencing
• Figures/tables
• Language
• Ethical approval
• Data availability

The use of open Artificial Intelligence (AI) models - e.g. ChatGPT - are prohibited when completing the peer review, due to concerns over the sharing of data that is not publicly available. ​​Local models which do not upload information back into training datasets, or self-built models, are permitted to help guide the peer reviewer, however, the reviewer takes responsibility for the review feedback provided and will be accountable for the content that they submit. The reviewer must declare any use of local AI models. The reviewer should not rely on AI-generated output as a substitute for their own expert judgment when formulating their opinion of the article and recommendation to the editor. See our full AI policy for further guidance.

Reviewers must all agree to adhere to the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for peer reviewers. All correspondence and associated files/data linked to the submission must remain confidential, unless otherwise authorised by the journal. All reviews should be provided in a courteous and respectful format.

Preprints and Prior Publication

The journal is happy to accept submissions of articles that have been loaded onto preprint servers or personal websites, have been presented at conferences, or other informal communication channels. These formats will not be deemed prior publication. The journal accepts submissions that have been published within formal conference proceedings, provided that the article provides substantially more data, analysis and/or discussion than the original conference publication. If the article was presented but not formally published then more overlap is permitted. The accepted manuscript may also be uploaded after publication to an open platform, under a CC BY licence. Authors must retain copyright to such postings.

Authors are encouraged to link any prior posting of their article to the final published version within the journal if it is editorially accepted and published.

AI Policy

The journal follows the publisher's AI Policy regarding use of AI at any stage of the publishing process.

Authorship

All listed authors must qualify as such, as defined in our authorship guidelines, which have been developed from the ICMJE definitions. All authors must have given permission to be listed on the submitted article.

ORCID

The journal strongly recommends that all authors register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID). Registration provides a unique and persistent digital identifier for the account that enables accurate attribution and improves the discoverability of published articles, ensuring that the correct author receives the correct credit for their work. As the ORCID remains the same throughout the lifetime of the account, changes of name, affiliation, or research area do not affect the discoverability of an author's past work and aid correspondence with colleagues.

The journal encourages all corresponding authors to include an ORCID within their submitting author data whilst co-authors are recommended to include one. ORCID numbers should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted article, should it be accepted.

Reproducibility

Open Data

The journal strongly encourages authors to make all data associated with their submission openly available, according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Data should be cited and referenced within the manuscript and should be linked to from a Data Accessibility Statement, which must describe how the data underlying the findings of the article can be accessed and reused. If data is not being made available with the journal publication (e.g. legal constraints) then a statement from the author should be provided within the submission to explain why. Data obtained from other sources must be appropriately credited. All data should be curated in a format that allows easy understanding and analysis (e.g. sensible column headers, descriptions in a readme text file). This will help ensure its reuse potential.

Structured Methods

As the traditional Materials and Methods section often includes insufficient detail for readers to wholly assess the research process, the journal encourages authors to publish detailed descriptions of their structured methods in open, online platforms such as, for example, protocols.io. By providing a step-by-step description of the methods used in the study, the chance of reproducibility and usability increases, whilst also allowing authors to build on their own works and gain additional credit and citations.

Open Code

If research includes the use of software code, statistical analysis or algorithms then we also recommend that authors make code available via an appropriate reproducibility platform, e.g. Code Ocean, where it will be hosted on an open, cloud-based computational reproducibility platform, providing researchers and developers with an easy way to share, validate and discover code published in academic journals.

For more information on how to incorporate open data, protocols.io or Code Ocean into a submission, please visit our reproducibility page.

Competing Interests, Funding and Ethics

To ensure transparency, authors, reviewers and editors are required to declare any interests that could compromise, conflict or influence the validity of the publication. For further guidance, see our full competing interests guidelines.

In addition, authors are required to specify funding sources and detail ethical approval and consent requirements for research involving human participants or animals in the submitted manuscript (see Author Guidelines). All authors must confirm that they fit the definition of an author (see Authorship Guidelines), during submission.

Corrections and Retractions

In accordance with guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (where applicable), the Press handles different kinds of error. All articles have their proofs checked prior to publication by the author/editor, which should ensure that content errors are not present. Please contact the journal if you believe an article needs correcting.

Post-publication changes are not permitted to the publication, except through formal Correction or Retraction processes and only in exceptional circumstances. If an error is discovered in a published article then the publisher will assess whether a Correction article or Retraction is required. Visit our Correction Policy page for more information.

Appeals, Complaints & Misconduct

Appeals, complaints, or allegations of misconduct will be taken with utmost seriousness, regardless of whether those involved are internal or external to the journal, or whether the submission in question is pre- or post-publication. If an allegation is made to the journal, it must also be passed on to the publisher, who will follow guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on how to address the nature of the problem.

Should an individual wish to submit an appeal, complaint or raise an issue of potential misconduct regarding the journal or its content, they should first read the full Appeals, Complaints, and Misconduct policy and then contact the Editor-in-Chief and/or the publisher to explain their concerns.

Expected Behaviour

The journal does not tolerate abusive behaviour or correspondence towards its staff, academic editors, authors, or reviewers. Any person engaged with the journal who resorts to abusive behaviour or correspondence may have their contribution immediately withdrawn and future engagement with the journal will be at the discretion of the editor and/or publisher.