Submission checklist

This page is designed to help you ensure your submission is ready for and fits the scope of the journal.

Before submitting you should read over the Author Guidelines, then register an account or login if you have an existing account.

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Preparing your submission

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  2. Any third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal.
  3. All authors qualify as authors, as defined in the authorship guidelines below, and have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper.
  4. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines. Every effort has been made to ensure that the submission is ready for peer review according to the journal's review policy (following the instructions to ensure blind peer review below). 
  5. Tables are all cited in the main text and are included within the text document.
  6. Figures are all cited in the main text and are uploaded as supplementary files. Figures/images have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
  7. If the author(s) has/have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare. 

Instructions to ensure blind peer review

  • Remove author names: Remove author names and affiliations from the manuscript and all accompanying files, including the title page and page headers.
  • Replace self-citation references and footnotes: If the authors cite their own works, replace the references with [redacted] or [blinded] or [Author X].
  • Anonymize the project: If you are easily recognizable based on the project, you can anonymize it.
  • Remove identifying information from file properties: Use the document inspector to search for hidden properties and remove any identifying information and also see details removing identifiers from file properties.
  • Avoid revealing wording: Avoid revealing wording such as “my study” or “we/the authors have previously demonstrated”.
  • Anonymize contributors: If your manuscript is pre-registered, anonymize the contributors.
  • Remove any identifying information from figures or images, including logos, location details, or patient identifiers.

Anonymising file properties

  • MacIntosh Word
    1. Under the File menu select "Properties"
    2. Under the Summary tab remove all of the identifying information from all of the fields.
    3. Save the File.
  • Microsoft Word Document

Instructions are for Windows Office 365.  NOTE: It is not possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes, so save a copy of your original document before anonymizing.

    1. Open the commented document that you want to make anonymous. Save a copy under a different file name.  
    2. Open the File menu on the far left of the menu ribbon.
    3. In the screen that opens, Select Info on the left-hand side bar  
    4. Click on the Check for Issues box; choose “Inspect Document" from the drop-down menu.
    5. In the Document Inspector window:  
    6. Uncheck the Comments, Revisions, Version, and Annotations box. In this case, your purpose is to keep your comments in the document.  
    7. Check the "Document Properties and Personal Information" box.  
    8. All other boxes should be unchecked.
    9. Click the Inspect button at the bottom of the window, then when the next screen appears, click on Remove All.
    10. Finally, save the file – you may want to save it as a copy with “-anon” or “anonymized” added. It may take a few seconds for the changes to appear.
    11. Comments and Changes in the file will be attributed to “Author”.
    12. No names will be identified in the “Related People” area of the Info section of the File page. 
  • PDF files
    • With PDFs, the authors' names should also be removed from Document Properties found under File on Adobe Acrobat's main menu.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal hereby agree to the following terms:

You agree to grant to us (University of Westminster Press) the right both to reproduce and/or distribute your article (including the abstract) ourselves throughout the world in printed, electronic (Open Access) forms, or any other medium. You agree that we may publish your article in the journal named above.

You warrant that the article is your original work, has not previously been published, and is not currently under consideration by another journal. If it contains material which is someone else’s copyright, you warrant that you have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner (please attach evidence of this) and that the material is clearly identified and acknowledged within the text. You also warrant that the article does not, to the best of your knowledge, contain anything which is libellous, illegal, or infringes anyone’s copyright or other rights.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CreativeCommons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. If you would prefer to publish your work under an alternative Creative Commons License, please indicate this in the Comments for the Editor box below, providing reasons for your request.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of OpenAccess).

Prior Publication

The journal is happy to accept submissions of papers 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 papers that have been published within formal conference proceedings, provided that the paper provides substantially more data, analysis and/or discussion than the original conference paper. Authors must retain copyright to such postings. Authors are encouraged to link any prior posting of their paper to the final published version within the journal if it is editorially accepted.

Preprint Policy

The journal allows authors to deposit draft versions of their paper into a suitable preprint server, on condition that the author agrees to the below:

The author retains copyright to the preprint and developed works from it, and is permitted to submit to the journal;

The author declares that a preprint is available within the cover letter presented during submission. This must include a link to the location of the preprint;

The author acknowledges that having a preprint publicly available means that the journal cannot guarantee the anonymity of the author during the review process, even if they anonymise the submitted files; and

Should the submission be published, the authors are expected to update the information associated with the preprint version to show that a final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.

ORCID

The journal strongly recommends that all authors submitting a paper 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 papers, 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 effect 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 paper, 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 help will 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 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.

If research includes the use of software code, statistical analysis or algorithms then we also recommend that authors upload the code into 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.

Authorship Guidelines

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 paper.

When a submission is uploaded to our system, the author list should be final and correct. Author lists with the incorrect information can mislead readers and cause confusion about who is responsible and accountable for the published work.

All authors listed must have given prior approval to have their name attributed to the file(s) being submitted and agree to publication. The corresponding author must ensure that all authors qualify for and have agreed to authorship. They are responsible for informing all co-authors of relevant editorial information throughout the review process.

The ICMJE recommends the following criteria for authorship. Authors must have:

  • made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • contributed to the drafting the work, or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • provided final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved; AND
  • agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list

All those designated as authors should meet all criteria for authorship, and all who meet the criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all criteria should be acknowledged.

Acknowledgements should include sources of funding, supervision of research groups, administrative support, language editing and proofreading. The corresponding author should obtain permission from those being acknowledged, as sometimes being named might constitute an endorsement of the publication.

The addition or removal of authors during the editorial process will only be permitted once a clear and justifiable explanation for why the edit is required has been provided to the editorial team and publisher. Attempts to introduce 'ghost' or 'gift' authorship will be treated as cases of misconduct and reported to the relevant institution.

Please ensure that the above guide is followed during the submission process.

Competing Interests, Funding and Ethics

To ensure transparency, all authors, reviewers and editors are required to declare any interests that could compromise, conflict or influence the validity of the publication. Please use the following statement in the competing interests box in the submission section if you have no competing interests: The author(s) has(have) no competing interests to declare.

In addition, authors are required to specify funding sources and detail requirements for ethical research in the submitted manuscript, ensuring that ethical approval and consent statements are detailed within the manuscript (see Author Guidelines).

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 your editorial manager if an article needs correcting.

Corrections and Retractions

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

Misconduct and Complaints

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 of misconduct is made to the journal, it must be immediately 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 the matter involve allegations against a member of the journal or publishing team, an independent and objective individual(s) may be sought to lead the investigation. Where misconduct is proven or strongly suspected, the journal has an obligation to report the issue to the author's institution, who may conduct their own investigation. This applies to both research misconduct (e.g. completing research without ethical approval and consent, fabricating or falsifying data etc) and publication misconduct (e.g. manipulating the peer review process, plagiarism etc). Should an investigation conclude that misconduct or misinformation has occurred then the author, along with their institution will be notified. Should the publication record need to be corrected, the journal's correction policy will be followed.

Should an author wish to lodge a complaint against an editorial decision or the editorial process in general they should first approach the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, explaining their complaint and ask for a reasoned response. Should this not be forthcoming or adequate, the author should raise the matter with the publisher, who will investigate the nature of the complaint and act as arbiter on whether the complaint should be upheld and investigated further. This will follow guidelines set out by COPE.

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • CC BY 4.0  
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

Article Processing Charges for this journal are paid by the University of Westminster Press and the journal's sponsors.  There are therefore no author facing publication fees to pay.  

Where possible, we encourage authors to ask their library or institution to support open access publishing from the University of Westminster Press and other open access-based university presses and their associates in open access publishing networks.