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Submission guidelines

Contents

Instructions for Authors

Manuscript Submission
Title page
Text
References
Tables
Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines
Supplementary Information (SI)
After acceptance
Open Choice
Research Data Policy and Data Availability Statements
Scientific style
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Competing Interests
Single-blind peer review
Editing Services
Open access publishing
Mistakes to avoid during manuscript preparation

Instructions for Authors

Manuscript Submission

Manuscript Submission

Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before;
that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been
approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly
– at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally
responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published
elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and
online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting
their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the
authors.

Online Submission

Please follow the hyperlink “Submit manuscript” and upload all of your manuscript files
following the instructions given on the screen.

Source Files

Please ensure you provide all relevant editable source files at every submission and revision.
Failing to submit a complete set of editable source files will result in your article not being
considered for review. For your manuscript text please always submit in common word
processing formats such as .docx or LaTeX.

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Title page

Please make sure your title page contains the following information

Title
The title should be concise and informative.

Author information

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)

If address information is provided with the affiliation(s) it will also be published.

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

Abstract

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

Please note: For some articles (particularly, systematic reviews and original research articles),
250 words may not be sufficient to provide all necessary information in the abstract. Therefore,
the abstract length can be increased from the 250-word limit (to up to 450 words) if the topic
dictates, and to allow full compliance with the relevant reporting guidelines.

Keywords

Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Statements and Declarations

The following statements should be included under the heading "Statements and Declarations"
for inclusion in the published paper. Please note that submissions that do not include relevant
declarations will be returned as incomplete.

Competing Interests: Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests

that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Please refer to
"Competing Interests and Funding" below for more information on how to complete this
section.
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Text

Text Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

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).

Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in LaTeX. We recommend using
Springer Nature’s LaTeX template.

Headings

Please use the decimal system of headings with no more than three levels.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a
reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation,
and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not
contain any figures or tables.

Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by
superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data).
Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.
Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section on the
title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

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References

Citation

Reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in square brackets. Some
examples:

1. Negotiation research spans many disciplines [3].

2. This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman [5].

3. This effect has been widely studied [1-3, 7].

Reference list

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been
published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should
only be mentioned in the text.

The entries in the list should be numbered consecutively.

If available, please always include DOIs as full DOI links in your reference list (e.g.
“https://doi.org/abc”).

Journal article
Hamburger, C.: Quasimonotonicity, regularity and duality for nonlinear systems of partial
differential equations. Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. 169, 321–354 (1995)
Article by DOI
 Sajti, C.L., Georgio, S., Khodorkovsky, V., Marine, W.: New nanohybrid materials for
biophotonics. Appl. Phys. A (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-007-4137-z
Book
Geddes, K.O., Czapor, S.R., Labahn, G.: Algorithms for Computer Algebra. Kluwer, Boston
(1992)
Book chapter
Broy, M.: Software engineering — from auxiliary to key technologies. In: Broy, M., Denert, E.
(eds.) Software Pioneers, pp. 10–13. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Online document
Cartwright, J.: Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1 (2007). Accessed 26 June 2007

Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title
Word Abbreviations, see

ISSN.org LTWA

If you are unsure, please use the full journal title.

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Tables

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a
reference at the end of the table caption.
Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for
significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

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Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines

Electronic Figure Submission

 Supply all figures electronically.
Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format.
MSOffice files are also acceptable.
Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line Art

Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.

Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures
are legible at final size.
All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution
of 1200 dpi.
Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone Art
 Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the
figures themselves.
Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination Art

Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing,
extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Color Art

Color art is free of charge for online publication.

 If black and white will be shown in the print version, make surethat the main information will
still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black
and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary
distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.
If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.
Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure Lettering

To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).

Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm
(8–12 pt).
Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an
axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

Figure Numbering

All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the
consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures,"A1, A2, A3,
etc." Figures in online appendices [Supplementary Information (SI)] should, however, be
numbered separately.

Figure Captions

Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts.
Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in
bold type.
No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the
end of the caption.
Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as
coordinate points in graphs.
Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference
citation at the end of the figure caption.
Figure Placement and Size

Figures should be submitted within the body of the text. Only if the file size of the manuscript
causes problems in uploading it, the large figures should be submitted separately from the
text.
When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
For large-sized journals the figures should be 84 mm (for double-column text areas), or 174
mm (for single-column text areas) wide and not higher than 234 mm.
For small-sized journals, the figures should be 119 mm wide and not higher than 195 mm.

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission
from the copyright owner(s). Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic
rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to
receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures,
please make sure that

All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or
a text-to-Braille hardware)
Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (colorblind
users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

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Supplementary Information (SI)

Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other
supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature
can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more
convenient in electronic form.
Before submitting research datasets as Supplementary Information, authors should read the
journal’s Research data policy. We encourage research data to be archived in data repositories
wherever possible.

Submission

Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.

Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names;
affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very
long download times and that some users may experience other problems during
downloading.
High resolution (streamable quality) videos can be submitted up to a maximum of 25GB; low
resolution videos should not be larger than 5GB.

Audio, Video, and Animations

Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3

Maximum file size: 25 GB for high resolution files; 5 GB for low resolution files
Minimum video duration: 1 sec
Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp

Text and Presentations

Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex
can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Numbering
 If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material
as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation
(Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.
Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

Captions

For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of
the file.

Processing of supplementary files

Supplementary Information (SI) will be published as received from the author without any
conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your
supplementary files, please make sure that

The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material

Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that
users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

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After acceptance

Upon acceptance, your article will be exported to Production to undergo typesetting. Once
typesetting is complete, you will receive a link asking you to confirm your affiliation, choose the
publishing model for your article as well as arrange rights and payment of any associated
publication cost.

Once you have completed this, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs.

Offprints

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

Color illustrations

Online publication of color illustrations is free of charge. For color in the print version, authors
will be expected to make a contribution towards the extra costs.

Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness
and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results,
corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will
be hyperlinked to the article.

Online First

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first
publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited
by issue and page numbers.

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Open Choice

Open Choice allows you to publish open access in more than 1850 Springer Nature journals,
making your research more visible and accessible immediately on publication.

Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

Benefits:

Increased researcher engagement: Open Choice enables access by anyone with an internet
connection, immediately on publication.

Higher visibility and impact: In Springer hybrid journals, OA articles are accessed 4 times more
often on average, and cited 1.7 more times on average*.
 Easy compliance with funder and institutional mandates: Many funders require open access
publishing, and some take compliance into account when assessing future grant applications.

It is easy to find funding to support open access – please see our funding and support pages
for more information.

*) Within the first three years of publication. Springer Nature hybrid journal OA impact analysis,
2018.

Open Choice

Funding and Support pages

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the
author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative
Commons Attribution License.

Find more about the license agreement

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Research Data Policy and Data Availability Statements

This journal operates a type 3 research data policy. A submission to the journal implies that
materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to
any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching
participant confidentiality.

Data availability

All original research must include a data availability statement. Data availability statements
should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be
found, if applicable. Statements should include, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly
archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. For the purposes of the data
availability statement, “data” is defined as the minimal dataset that would be necessary to
interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. When it is not possible to
share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, data
availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access. Data
availability statements can take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one
if required for multiple datasets):

1. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the
[NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]

2. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from
the corresponding author on reasonable request.

3. All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its
supplementary information files].

4. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly
available due [REASON(S) WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the
corresponding author on reasonable request.].

5. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during
the current study.

6. The data that support the findings of this study are available from [THIRD PARTY NAME] but
restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for the current
study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon
reasonable request and with permission of [THIRD PARTY NAME].

More templates for data availability statements, including examples of openly available and
restricted access datasets, are available here:

Data availability statements

Data repositories

This journal strongly encourages that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely are
available to readers. We encourage authors to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in
publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main
manuscript or additional supporting files whenever possible. Please see Springer Nature’s
information on recommended repositories.

List of Repositories

General repositories - for all types of research data - such as figshare and Dryad may be used
where appropriate.

Data citation

The journal also requires that authors cite any publicly available data on which the conclusions
of the paper rely. Data citations should include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI), should be
included in the reference list using the minimum information recommended by DataCite, and
follow journal style. Dataset identifiers including DOIs should be expressed as full URLs.

Research data and peer review

Peer reviewers are encouraged to check the manuscript’s Data availability statement, where
applicable. They should consider if the authors have complied with the journal’s policy on the
availability of research data, and whether reasonable effort has been made to make the data
that support the findings of the study available for replication or reuse by other researchers.
Peer reviewers are entitled to request access to underlying data (and code) when needed for
them to perform their evaluation of a manuscript.

If the journal that you’re submitting to uses double-blind peer review and you are providing
reviewers with access to your data (for example via a repository link, supplementary information
or data on request), it is strongly suggested that the authorship in the data is also blinded.
There are data repositories that can assist with this and/or will create a link to mask the
authorship of your data.

Authors who need help understanding our data sharing policies, help finding a suitable data
repository, or help organising and sharing research data can access our Author Support portal
for additional guidance.

For more information:

http://www.springernature.com/gp/group/data-policy/faq
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Scientific style

Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).

Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols etc.:

Italic for single letters that denote mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities
Roman/upright for numerals, operators, and punctuation, and commonly defined functions or
abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative)
Bold for vectors, tensors, and matrices.

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Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

The journal subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and
commits to investigate allegations of misconduct in order to ensure the integrity of research.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in
the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific
endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the
rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous
consideration.

The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any
form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous
work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about
text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).

A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of
submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-
slicing/publishing’).
 Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are
met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of
readers.

Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or

inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should
adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.

No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own
(‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material
that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to
indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and
permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software,
questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).

Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles)
must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and
inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-
cite is strongly discouraged.

Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or
a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as
personal attacks or allegations about that person.

Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should
be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of
harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines,
unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst
others).

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the
order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the
revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for
 changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship
cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights
such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to
verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples,
records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out
an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the
author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an
opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s
and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the
infraction:
- an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

- an expression of concern may be placed with the article

- or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or

retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the
platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note
linked to the watermarked article.

The author’s institution may be informed

A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be
included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors
Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or
inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and
explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the
literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The
retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain
individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should
make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly
recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions.
When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email
address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of
verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or
a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the
suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

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Competing Interests

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work
submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting
the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the
3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the
submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps
readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial
relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for
consultancy work is inappropriate.

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and
may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they
should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing
interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more
of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor
or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests
section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest
regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be
assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to
the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome
to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other
manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant
number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for
attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially
through publication of this manuscript.

Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated

employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this
manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or

children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation
fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially;
patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such
figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any
undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known
after the work was published."

Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond
financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as
professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples
include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors
or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes;
expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.
Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert
synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles
therefore require a disclosure statement.Other article types such as editorials, book reviews,
comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If
you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the
Editor-in-Chief.

Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that
funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon
submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be
added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under
‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the
‘Declarations’ section.

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before
the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations
include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’
contribution statements.

Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements
according to your own needs.

When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one
blanket statement.

Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

Partial financial support was received from [...]

The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement
No[…].
This study was funded by […]
This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]

Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
 No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
No funding was received for conducting this study.
No funds, grants, or other support was received.

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