Prepare and submit your manuscript carefully so that it meets the journal’s requirements and accurately records author details, rights, research data information, funding and ethics declarations and open access choices.
Review the submission requirements
Check the journal’s instructions for authors and confirm the required article type, structure, formatting, referencing style, file formats, word limits, and supplementary materials. Check whether the journal requires a separate title page, figures, tables, highlights, keywords, graphical abstracts, reporting checklists or anonymised files for peer review.
Confirm author and research details
Check each author’s name, author order, affiliation, corresponding author details, institutional email address, and ORCID iD. Confirm that all authors have approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission.
Include all required funding, ethics, competing interests, acknowledgements, author contribution and data availability statements. Cite any supporting datasets and include their Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), where relevant.
Check copyright and permissions
Confirm that you have permission to reproduce any third-party images, figures, tables, questionnaires or other copyright material. Check that all sources are appropriately cited and that the manuscript meets the journal’s originality and simultaneous submission requirements.
Prepare the submission files
Complete a final proofread and check that all files are clearly named, complete, and uploaded in the correct format. Confirm whether the journal requires suggested or excluded peer reviewers, declarations, reporting guidelines or additional submission forms.
If your manuscript is rejected
Review the editor and peer reviewer comments, revise the manuscript where appropriate, and return to your journal shortlist. Select the next most suitable journal, review its submission requirements and reformat the manuscript before resubmitting.
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