Introduction
Scope of journal

This journal publishes articles in the field of Pharmaceutical sciences, broadly covering Pharmacy practice, Clinical pharmacy, Pharmaceutical analysis, Pharmacology, Drug delivery, Pharmacokinetics, Medicinal chemistry, Natural products, Pharmacognosy, Computational pharmaceutical analysis, Biosensing, Nanotechnology, and related sciences.                                                                                                                                                                
Types of articles

• Original research articles, Short communications, and Analytical methods

• Reviews articles (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-syntheses)

• Discussion or Research highlights

• Editorials in the field of pharmacy • Letter to the Editor
Submission of articles
EASE

With the aim to make submission process simple, flexible, and fast, we have devised a procedure of EASE (Efficient and Speedy Execution). This method of submission differentiates between new and revised submissions. You may opt to submit your complete manuscript in the form of a single Word or PDF file for initial refereeing process. Once your paper has passed the revision phase, you will be asked to transform your paper into a 'required format' for acceptance and provide the items required for the publication of your article. Our journal uses either British or American spelling (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these).
Checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check before your submission to the journal for review.
Ensure that the following items are present:

1. One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

I. E-mail address

II. Full postal address

III. Authors are encouraged to include their Twitter (X) handles on the title page.

2. All necessary files are prepared to be uploaded Please have following items ready before you log-in to the system. Every submission, regardless of category, must include the following four items:

I.

II. Authors Agreement

III. Title Page (with authors detail)

IV. Manuscript (without authors detail)

3. Additional files that may be required depending on your manuscript type and choice of submission: I. All figures (include relevant captions) II. All tables (including titles, description, and footnotes) III. Response to reviewers (if resubmission/revision) IV.  Research Approach Checklist  V. Graphical abstracts and Highlights file (where applicable) VI. Supplemental files (where applicable)

4. Further considerations I. Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked' II. All references mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa III. Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including Internet) IV. A competing interest statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare V. Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed VI. Please include the details under the headings "Acknowledgement", "Conflict of Interest", "Ethical Statement", "Funding" and "Author Contributions".
Before you begin

First time authors are strongly advised to get formal support from an academic supervisor or experienced colleagues who have been successfully writing papers for publications. Prerequisite for submission implies that the article has not been published previously (except as an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis) and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Ethics in publication

The journal follows the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and requests authors to familiarize themselves with these guidelines at:                                                                            .           
A few issues  authors need to pay particular attention to are set out below. It is ethically questionable to break up or segment data from a single study to create different papers for publication – a practice called ‘salami slicing’. If the authors have legitimate reasons for reporting separately on different parts of the same study, or the same data set, they should justify to the editor at the time of submission. Equally, readers need to be aware that different aspects of the same study are being reported, thus the Methods section of the submitted manuscript must clearly explain why the submitted paper is justifed.
Human and animal rights

 Ethics in Research – Note that research studies involving animals or human volunteers must include detailed ethical approval including: • The name of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee (EC) approving the study    and all related protocols • The number of certification or document verifying the approval of the study • The date of the approval of study and protocols For research involving humans, please address the ethical aspects of the research in the Methods section. State clearly that the subject gave freely informed consent. To clarify, individuals and their families, and students are in dependent relationship with researchers and must not be directly approached by the research team to give consent on-the-spot. Participating or not participating in the research must not disadvantage participants in a dependent relationship. Any benefit for participating must not constitute a financial inducement. Participant anonymity must be preserved, unless express written approval to use identifying data is provided. The author must retain written consents, or evidence that such consents have been obtained, and must provide to the journal on request. Authors who have written permission from unmasked people appearing in photographs must submit the person(s) permission(s) online during the manuscript submission process. Unless you have written permission from the person (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any person included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission. For further detail see COPE Guidelines at: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines For Human Research please consult the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) research ethics guidelines: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/research-policy/research-integrity/2018-australian-code-responsible-conduct-research

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyze and draw insights from data as part of the research process. Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors. Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’. Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication. This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses
Reporting guidance

For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions

Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth ("sex assigned at birth"), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms "sex" and "gender" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Author contributions

For transparency, we encourage corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant roles. The taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles.

Authorship

We have adopted the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html. Legitimate authors are those that made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted. All potential authors are those that meet requirements above and these people should not be excluded from contributing to the writing and approval of the article. No author should be added who does not meet the first requirements; for more details please read “How to handle authorship disputes: a guide for new researchers" (2003) by available at the COPE website: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines. During the final submission process, we ask you to make a true statement that all authors meet the criteria for authorship and that all people entitled to authorship are listed as authors.

Contributors

Those who meet some, but not all of the criteria for authors may be identified as 'contributors' at the end of the manuscript with their contribution specified. All those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., collecting data, providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.) that does not meet criteria for authorship may be acknowledged in the paper.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor-in-Chief. To request such a change, the Editor-in-Chief must receive the following from the corresponding author:

(a) the reason for the change in author list and,

(b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor-in-Chief consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor-in-Chief considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors, and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service.

Copyright

Papers accepted for publication become the copyright of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and authors will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form, on receipt of the accepted manuscript by the journal. This enables the Publisher to administer Copyright on behalf of the Authors, whilst allowing the continued use of the material by the Author for Scholarly communication.

Author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. You may publish a pre-publication version (i.e., a version that is not in its final finished form) on social media including sites such as Mendeley, ResearchGate and Academia

Conflict of Interest

All authors must disclose, in the covering letter to the editor and on the title page of the manuscript, any actual or potential conflict of interest, including financial and personal relationships with people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.

Funding Body Agreements and Policies

After acceptance, open access papers will be published under a noncommercial license. For authors requiring a commercial Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, you can apply after your manuscript is accepted for publication.

Open access

We support open access publication in our journal. To provide open access, this journal has a publication fee (Article Publishing Charge, APC) which needs to be met by the authors, or their institution or funders, for each article published open access. This ensures your article will be immediately and permanently free to access by everyone. The Article Publishing Charge for this journal is EUR 3470, excluding taxes.

Submission

The manuscript files in the form of Word or PDF are submitted online on web-portal. Editable files (e.g., Word, LaTeX) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

Categories of Decision

After peer-review, the Editor-in-Chief will notify the corresponding author on whether the paper has been accepted, rejected, or needs revision. All efforts are made to provide fair and thorough reviews as speedily as possible. If an author(s) believes that a manuscript has been wrongly rejected, a detailed appeal letter that responds point-by-point to the reviewers' comments should be sent to the Editor, who, after having reviewed the referees' reports, will make the final decision. Reviewed by Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Team will only include a Letter to the Editor or a short comment. For these types of submissions, the corresponding author will receive a fairly rapid decision on publication. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, authors can expect web publication of the article in final version on within 4 weeks.

Preparation
Queries

For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) or for technical support on submissions, please visit our Support Services.

Double-Blind Peer Review Process

Editors review all abstracts and by using a triage-type checklist makes a rapid decision about the suitability of the article for peer review in this journal. The most common reasons for initial rejection are: 1) not meeting the scope of the journal sufficiently, 2) lack of significance and novelty in research work, 3) methodological flaws, 4) poor organization and write up, 5) Inadequate and inappropriate data analysis, 6) ethical concerns, such as not having prior institutional ethical approval for research and/or not obtaining fully informed and fully free consent by participants. Note that there is a competition based on the quality of the article among huge number of submissions to the journal.

Review Criteria

Each paper that the editor/s assess as suitable for peer review is allocated to two reviewers who are asked to assess the paper against one of the Journal's three sets of reviewing criteria i.e., 1) Quality of research, 2) Novelty and innovation, 3) Ethical considerations. 1) Quantitative Research; 2) Qualitative Research; 3) Scholarly Paper Review Criteria.

View the Review criteria here.

Detailed Response to Reviewers

When submitting a revised manuscript, a Detailed Response to Reviewers must accompany the revision. This document must not contain any of the Author(s) details. The most common error is uploading this document on an organization’s letterhead, or the Author signing off with their name and contact details. The easiest way to format this document is to either a) respond underneath each point raised by the reviewer, or b) create a 2-column table and copy each point raised by the reviewer into the first column, and respond against each point in the second column Highlight any changes made on the revised manuscript – to make it easy for the peer-reviewers to see where these have occurred. Also, remember to include only the page numbers and line numbers to the manuscript as this makes the peer-review process easier.

Peer review

This journal operates a double anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability to the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review.

Double anonymized review

This journal uses double anonymized review, which means the identities of the authors are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa. To facilitate this, please include the following separately: Title page (with author details): This should include the title, authors' names, affiliations, acknowledgements and any Declaration of Interest statement, and a complete address for the corresponding author including an e-mail address. Anonymized manuscript (no author details): The main body of the paper (including the references, figures, tables and any acknowledgements) should not include any identifying information, such as the authors' names or affiliations.

Article structure
Types of articles:

• Original research articles, quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods • Reviews articles (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta syntheses) • Short communications, Discussion or Theoretical papers • Editorials • Letter to the Editor Specific guidance on word count and number of references is provided in the next section. Submissions that do not follow this guidance on word count or numbers of tables and figures may be returned without being reviewed. Supplementary material may be added without specific page limits. The readability of the article, however, must not depend upon access to supplementary materials. The text should be double or 1½ line spaced with standard margins of 2.5 cm (1 inch) all around, and 11- or 12-point font size. Authors wishing to submit manuscripts with word counts, tables, and figures in excess of the recommended number must seek permission of the Editor-in-Chief.

Original Research Articles

For primary research articles, the maximum length is up to 5000 words, up to 50 references, and 6 tables or figures. The word count refers to the main body of text, excluding the title page, abstract, references etc.

Review Articles (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta syntheses)

For review articles, the maximum length is up to 5000 words, about 100 references, and 6 tables or figures. The word count refers to the main body of text, excluding the title page, abstract, references etc.

Short communications, Discussions, or Theoretical papers:

  For discussion or theoretical articles, the maximum length is up to 3500 words, about 40 references, and 6 tables or figures. The word count refers to the main body of text, excluding the title page, abstract, references etc.

Editorials

For Editorials, the maximum length is up to 2500 words, about 25 references, and 2 tables or figures.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are encouraged up to 3 months after the appearance of a published paper. Text is limited to 350 words and 5 references. A single small table, figure, or image is permissible. Letters are not usually peer reviewed but may be subject to peer review at the editors' discretion. The Editor may invite replies from the authors of the original publication. By submitting a Letter to the Editor, the author gives permission for its. Letters should not duplicate material being published or submitted elsewhere. The editors reserve the right to edit and abridge letters and to publish responses.

Submitting your paper

Please have the following items ready before you log-in to the system. Every submission, regardless of category, must include the following:

• Cover Letter

• Author Agreement

• Title Page (with Author Details)

• Manuscript (without Author Details) Additional files that may be required depending on your manuscript:

• Figures

• Tables

• Response to Reviewers (if resubmission)

• Checklist A Cover Letter, stating: Conflict of Interest: when the proposed publication concerns any commercial product, either directly or indirectly, the author must include in the cover letter a statement 1) indicating that they have no financial or other interest in the product or distributor of the product or, 2) explaining the nature of any relation between themselves and the manufacturer or distributor of the product. Other kinds of associations, such as consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interests or patent-licensing arrangements, also must be disclosed. If, in the Editor's judgment, the information disclosed represents a potential conflict of interest, it may be made available to reviewers and may be published at the Editor's discretion; authors will be informed of the decision before publication. Sources of outside support for research: including funding, equipment, and drugs.

An Author Agreement stating:

• that the article is the author(s) original work

• the article has not received prior publication and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere

• that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript being submitted

• the author(s) abide by the copyright terms and conditions of the journal

An Ethical Statement that includes:

- The name of the Ethics Committee - The approval number - The date of approval - Note: If the manuscript is based on a quality assurance or practice improvement project this must be made clear in the text of the paper and address ethical issues concerning informed and free consent and confidentiality, as relevant. If an Ethical Statement is not applicable this must also be specified.

A Title Page

Essential Title Page Information Should contain:

• Title: Short and descriptive of the content of the article (uncommon abbreviations must be avoided in title).

• Authors: List all authors by first name, all initials, family name, and the highest academic degree is only used "RM, PhD" for holders of both qualifications?. List the address of all institutions where the work was done. List departmental affiliations of each author with that institution after each institutional address. Connect authors to departments using numbered superscripts.

• Corresponding Author: Provide the name, exact postal address with zip or postal code, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the author to whom communications, proofs, and requests for reprints should be sent.

• Authors should include their Twitter (X) handles on the Title Page if they have this. The complete manuscript, arranged as follows:

• Structured Abstract and Keywords

• Manuscript, including Acknowledgments/Disclosures (see below) and References

• Tables (each complete with titles)

• Figures. In addition, the following must be submitted if applicable: Written permission from the publisher (copyright holder) to reproduce any previously published table(s), illustration(s) or photograph(s) in both print and electronic media. Abstract The abstract must be structured and under 250 words. The structure of most abstracts should be:

• Background

• Hypothesis & Objectives

• Methods

• Key Findings

• Discussion

• Conclusion The Abstract must not include references. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms. Ensure the name of the hospital or health service is not mentioned. Keywords Provide at least four and up to six keywords, preferably three of which should be selected from those recommended by the Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list (https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search)

Statement of Significance

In the introduction, the authors are required to state the contribution of their paper to the existing literature regarding: • Problem or issue • What is already known? • What this paper adds?

Headings

For Original Research Articles references should not be more than 40, except with specific permission from the editor prior to submission. The text should be organized as follows: - Introduction (including problem, theoretical and/or research background, hypothesis or guiding question, definitions of key terms - Participants, Ethics and Methods (described in detail). - Findings or Results: for Quantitative research results should be concisely reported in tables and figures, with brief text descriptions. For Qualitative research a balance must be struck between conciseness and sufficient data to support the discussion and conclusion. - Discussion (clear and concise interpretation of results in the context of existing literature) - Conclusion (summarize key points and make recommendations) - Acknowledgments and Disclosures Abbreviations Minimize abbreviations to no more than four. Avoid uncommon abbreviations in the title. Use only abbreviations well known to midwives in the abstract. Define abbreviations at first appearance in the text. Measurements and weights should be given in standard metric units

Acknowledgements

This section is compulsory. Grants, financial support and technical or other assistance are acknowledged at the end of the text before the references. All financial support for the project must be acknowledged. If there has been no financial assistance with the project, this must be clearly stated. The role(s) of the funding organization, if any, in the collection of data, its analysis, and interpretation. The right to approve or disapprove publication of the finished manuscript must be described in the Methods section of the text.

Footnotes

Footnotes are not used in the journal.

Artwork

Images or figures are submitted online as one or more separate files that may contain one or more images. Within each file containing images, use the figure number (e.g., Figure 1A) as the image filename. We accept image files formatted in TIFF and EPS. PowerPoint (.ppt) files are also accepted, but must be prepared as a separate PowerPoint image file for each PowerPoint figure.

Figure Legends

Figure legends should be numbered (Arabic) and double-spaced in order of appearance beginning on a separate sheet. Identify (in alphabetic order) all abbreviations appearing in the illustrations at the end of each legend. Give the type of stain and magnification power for all photomicrographs. All abbreviations used on a figure and in its legend should be defined in the legend. Cite the source of previously published (print or electronic) material in the legend. Symbols, letters, numbers and contrasting fills must be distinct, easily distinguished, and clearly legible when the illustration is reduced in size. Black, white, and widely crosshatched bars are preferable; do not use stippling, gray fill, or thin lines.

Color Artwork

Figures/illustrations can be published in color at no extra charges for the online version. For the print version, color incurs a charge of US$ 312 for the first page and US$ 208 for every additional page containing color. If you wish to have figures/illustrations in color online and black and white figures printed, please submit both versions. If you wish to publish color illustrations and agree to pay the "color charges "check the appropriate box.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables must not exceed six typeset pages. Tables should be double-spaced on separate sheets (one to each page). Do not use vertical lines, while only first two and last horizontal lines are used. Each table should be numbered (Arabic) and have a title above. Legends and explanatory notes should be placed below the table. Abbreviations used in the table follow the legend in alphabetic order. Lower case letter superscripts beginning with "a" and following in alphabetic order are used for notations of within-group and between-group statistical probabilities. Tables should be self-explanatory, and the data should not be duplicated in the text or illustrations. Tables must be submitted as part of the text file and not as illustrations.

References

The journal follows the International Council of Medical Journal Editors’ (ICMJE's) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals available at: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/. Referencing requirements for this journal are the same as for other major medical/health journals. Examples of citation and referencing for each type (e.g., article, book chapter, thesis) are at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. The full details of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) referencing requirements are found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/; where the e-book can be accessed. For users of bibliographic management systems like Mendelay or Endnote please use the most up to date version and select the Lancet Output Style as it complies with the ICMJE referencing standards.

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list, they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Data references

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Preprint references

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that covers crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. The preprint DOI should also be provided.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material such as applications, images, and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary material during any stage of the process, please make sure to provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the 'Track Changes' option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project. Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking

If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. We collaborate with a number of repositories to link articles with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described. There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page. For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on journal website. In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Data statement

To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

After acceptance

Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors. If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables, and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Offprints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available for open access and can be shared through the article DOI link.

Author inquiries

Visit the Support Services to find the answers you need. Here you will find everything from Frequently Asked Questions to ways to get in touch. You can also check the status of your submitted article or find out when your accepted article will be published.