Quality in Diamond Open Access Publishing: guidelines, policies and templates

Quality in Diamond Open Access Publishing: guidelines, policies and templates Iryna Kuchma & Milica Ševkušić EIFL Reviewed by Aleš Pogačnik Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Ljubljana, Slovenia Version 2.0, October 2025 This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 228148/Z/23/Z] Collaboration for sustainable open access publishing in Africa project These guidelines are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License 2 Table of contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 4 2. Essential elements of Diamond OA journals ....................................................................................... 4 3. Journal policies template and supporting documents ........................................................................ 5 4. What to display on article landing pages ............................................................................................ 6 5. Recommendations for publishing the full text of journal articles ...................................................... 8 5.1. What to include in the full text ................................................................................................... 8 5.2. Full text in multiple formats ..................................................................................................... 10 6. Displaying Creative Commons licences ............................................................................................. 10 7. Depositing metadata with PID registration agencies ....................................................................... 12 8. Journal website ................................................................................................................................. 13 8.1. Website accessibility for people with visual impairment ......................................................... 13 Resources .............................................................................................................................................. 15 Annex 1: Journal policies template ....................................................................................................... 16 General information ........................................................................................................................ 16 Editorial policies ............................................................................................................................... 17 Editorial responsibilities ............................................................................................................. 17 Authors’ responsibilities ............................................................................................................. 18 Reporting standards .............................................................................................................. 19 Inclusive language ................................................................................................................. 19 Authorship ............................................................................................................................. 20 Acknowledgment of sources ................................................................................................. 20 Plagiarism .............................................................................................................................. 21 Conflict of interest ................................................................................................................. 21 Fundamental errors in published works ................................................................................ 22 ORCID ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Funding information .............................................................................................................. 22 Reviewers’ responsibilities ......................................................................................................... 22 Peer review ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Post-publication discussions ....................................................................................................... 24 Use of Large Language Models and generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools .............................. 24 Procedures for dealing with complaints and appeals...................................................................... 25 Investigation ............................................................................................................................... 25 Minor misconduct ....................................................................................................................... 25 Major misconduct ....................................................................................................................... 25 Retraction policy ......................................................................................................................... 26 Research data, code, protocol sharing, and preregistration ........................................................... 26 Research data sharing................................................................................................................. 26 Ethical and security considerations ....................................................................................... 27 Data protection issues ........................................................................................................... 27 Code sharing ............................................................................................................................... 28 Experimental protocols sharing .................................................................................................. 29 3 Preregistration ............................................................................................................................ 29 Open access policy ........................................................................................................................... 29 Self-archiving policy .................................................................................................................... 29 Copyright and licensing .................................................................................................................... 29 Metadata policy .......................................................................................................................... 30 Disclaimer ........................................................................................................................................ 30 Annex 2. Supporting documents........................................................................................................... 31 Author statement template ............................................................................................................. 31 Conflict of Interest statement template .......................................................................................... 32 License agreement template ........................................................................................................... 33 4 1. Introduction Diamond Open Access (OA) 1 journals are often managed by small teams with limited resources, making it difficult to keep pace with evolving policy developments, best practices and technical requirements. Support and guidance are needed to help these journals adopt current best practices. The guidelines and policy and document templates in this document are designed to help Diamond OA journals establish themselves as trustworthy sources of knowledge by providing practical tools to enhance quality and align with best practices in OA publishing. These nonexhaustive materials build upon established frameworks, including the DOAJ’s Basic Criteria, the Best Practices Checklist for Diamond OA Publishers, and the Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS) developed by the Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models To Advance Scholarly Communication (DIAMAS) project, taking into account the specific challenges faced by Diamond OA journals in Africa and aiming to provide practical, adaptable solutions. The document includes: ● Essential elements of Diamond OA journals ● Journal Policies Template, as well as Author Statement, Conflict of Interest and Licence Agreement templates ● Technical guidelines: elements to include in article landing pages and the full-text of the article, displaying licensing information, depositing metadata, general advice regarding journal websites and accessibility. This document does not provide detailed instructions on the structure or content of Author Guidelines, as these vary widely across disciplines. Instead, journals are advised to draw on reporting standards, citation guidelines, and discipline-specific best practices when developing their own guidelines. 2. Essential elements of Diamond OA journals DOAJ’s Basic Criteria and Diamond Open Access Standard (DOAS) were used as a starting point in defining these baseline requirements. 1. The journal has an ISSN (print and/or eISSN), which is clearly displayed on the journal website and can be checked in the ISSN registry. 1 In this publishing model, often referred to as Diamond Open Access publishing, no fees are charged to authors to publish and readers to read. 5 2. The journal has a regular schedule of publication, either issue by issue or via continuous publication. 3. All information provided on the journal website is up-to-date. 4. The journal does not charge fees to authors for publishing or to readers for reading and articles are made immediately available online upon publication. 5. The information that authors do not pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) or any other charges are clearly stated on the journal website (preferably in journal policies and author guidelines). 6. The journal has its own dedicated URL and a homepage that is accessible from any location. 7. The information about the mission (i.e. in a journal mission statement), aims and scope, as well as the languages in which manuscripts can be submitted is displayed on the journal website. 8. The journal publishes scholarly content and contains original research articles and the criteria for acceptance of manuscripts are defined and publicly available on the journal website. 9. The journal has an editorial board (with editorial board members from more than one institution) and may also have other editorial bodies. The composition of the editorial bodies is publicly displayed (i.e. with the editorial team names, functions and roles; affiliations) on the journal’s website, as well as on any platforms hosting the journal’s content. 10. Manuscripts submitted to the journal have passed peer review by at least two peer reviewers before they were published. The information about the peer review process is publicly displayed on the journal website. 11. Clear and detailed author guidelines are publicly available on the journal website. They include at least: ● An explanation of the types of manuscripts that a journal will consider. ● A detailed style guide (that includes referencing style). ● A description of how to submit an article. 3. Journal policies template and supporting documents Journal policies help authors understand what is expected of them and how their work will be handled, from submission to publication. For readers, clear policies build trust by showing that the journal follows fair and consistent practices. They also make it easier for indexing services and research assessment bodies to see that the journal meets recognized standards. EIFL has developed a journal policies template as a structured framework that Diamond OA journals can easily adapt to their needs. It covers the key policies on journal scope, ownership, open access, indexing, and archiving. It defines editorial responsibilities, peer review processes, ethical standards, and provides guidelines for authorship, checking and dealing 6 with plagiarism, and conflict of interest. It also includes policies on using generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools, research transparency (data, code, and protocol sharing), complaints, misconduct investigations, retractions and post-publication discussions. Copyright, licensing, self-archiving, and metadata policies are also addressed. By using this policies template and aligning practices with it, journals can ensure compliance with best practices in scholarly publishing. Policies should be displayed on the journal website. If a journal is hosted on a platform hosting multiple journals, the platform should allow for displaying journal policies on dedicated pages (rather than as attachments). The following documents can be found in the annexes: ● Journal policies template ● Supporting documents templates 4. What to display on article landing pages (Note: Bold typeface indicates mandatory elements.) 1. Article title 2. Full names of authors 3. ORCID (Open Researchers and Contributor ID - personal persistent identifier). See: ORCID iD display guidelines. 4. Institutional affiliations of authors Institutional affiliations should contain the full name and address of the institution, e.g. University, Faculty/Institute, City, Country. 5. ROR ID (Institutional persistent identifier) See: Logos and display guidelines. 6. Journal title, volume, issue, publication year, and article number (or pagination) The journal title should be the same as registered in the ISSN International Registry. Don’t use any unofficial translated or abbreviated forms. 7. Article type (e.g. research article, review, short communication, etc.) 8. A persistent identifier for the article: DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or ARK (Archival Resource Key), Handle or URN DOI (and other PIDs) should always be displayed as a full URL link. See: Display guidelines - Crossref. 9. Abstract A brief summary of an article that helps readers quickly understand its purpose and significance, highlighting the research questions, methods, key findings, and main conclusions. It should be between 150–250 words; for non-English articles, often also in English (with translated title and keywords). 7 10. Keywords Specific terms or phrases that capture the main topics of the study. It is a good idea to enrich author-provided keywords with terms from relevant controlled vocabularies. 11. Supporting information Provide links to related research outputs (e.g. preprints, and registered studies, etc.). Use persistent identifiers to establish links with the related content. 12. Data availability statement It should provide the details of the data availability, including the DOI linking to it. If the data is restricted in any way and/or is not being made available within the journal publication, a statement from the author should be provided to explain why. See Annex 1: Journal policies template. 13. Author contributions Contributions include not only writing but also the activities related to the conceptualisation and execution of the research, collection and production of the research data/materials, analysis and interpretation. Use the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe the key types of contributions made to the article. How to implement: How to implement CRediT. 14. Conflict of interest statement. See Annex 2: Supporting documents. 15. Funding information This section typically includes details about grants, sponsorships, institutional support, or other financial resources that contributed to the study. It often specifies the funding organisations or agencies, grant numbers, and any relevant funding acknowledgements. Use ROR IDs of institutions and funding organizations. See: Logos and display guidelines. 16. References Use standardised citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) to ensure consistency and facilitate accurate identification of sources. When deciding which citation style to use in your journal(s), you should give preference to those that include DOI or URL in reference list entries (e.g. APA, Chicago). Always display DOIs and URLs as links. 17. Copyright information Specify who has the legal rights to the article. Diamond OA journals should allow authors to retain copyright. 18. Licence information See below: Displaying Creative Commons licences. 19. Publisher’s name Display the publisher's name prominently on the journal website. Use the official name, as registered in the ISSN International Registry. 20. ISSN and eISSN ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and eISSN (electronic ISSN) are unique identifiers assigned to print and electronic versions of a serial publication, respectively. Display these numbers prominently on a journal website to make it easy for users to locate and verify this information. See: What is an ISSN? | ISSN. 21. Link(s) to access the full text 8 5. Recommendations for publishing the full text of journal articles 5.1. What to include in the full text Publishers are sometimes unsure about what information should be included in the full text of published articles. In many cases, the layout and structure of full-text documents still follow a design logic inherited from print publishing. As a result, key metadata elements, such as persistent identifiers, are often missing from the full text or are included without being rendered as interactive links. Similarly, elements like the ISSN may be omitted under the assumption that they are available elsewhere on the journal website. Publishers should be aware that most users now access full-text documents directly through search engines, bypassing article landing pages. Due to this, it is essential to include all relevant metadata within the full-text file itself to ensure the article is properly identified, cited, and linked within scholarly infrastructure. The following list outlines the key information that should be embedded in the full-text document. Bold typeface indicates mandatory elements. 1. Journal title It should be the same as registered in the ISSN International Registry. Don’t use any unofficial translated or abbreviated forms. 2. Online and/or Print ISSN. Include both, if available. See: What is an ISSN? | ISSN. 3. Journal volume, issue (if available), article number (or pages). 4. Persistent identifier for the article: DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or ARK (Archival Resource Key), Handle or URN. DOI (and other PIDs) should always be displayed as a full URL link. See: Display guidelines - Crossref. 5. Article type (e.g. research article, case study, review, short communication, etc.). 6. Article title 7. Full names of authors 8. ORCID (Open Researchers and Contributor ID - personal persistent identifier). Display it as a full URL link. If there is no space in the usual author information block, provide a list of authors along with relevant identifiers in a footnote or on the final page. See: ORCID iD display guidelines. 9. Institutional affiliations of authors Institutional affiliations should contain the full name and address of the institution, e.g. University, Faculty/Institute, City, Country. 10. ROR ID (Institutional persistent identifier) Display it as a full link. If there is no space in the usual author information block, provide a list of authors along with relevant identifiers in a footnote or on the final page. See: Logos and display guidelines. 9 11. Abstract A brief summary of an article that helps readers quickly understand its purpose and significance, highlighting the research questions, methods, key findings, and main conclusions. It should be between 150 - 250 words. 12. Keywords Specific terms or phrases that capture the main topics of the study. It is a good idea to enrich author-provided keywords with terms from relevant controlled vocabularies. 13. The text of the article 14. Supporting information Provide links to related research outputs (e.g. research data deposited in repositories, preprints, and registered studies, etc.). Use persistent identifiers to establish links with the related content. 15. Data availability statement providing the details of the data availability, including the DOI linking to it. If the data is restricted in any way and/or is not being made available within the journal publication, a statement from the author should be provided to explain why. See Annex 1: Journal policies template. 16. Author contributions Contributions include not only writing but also the activities related to the conceptualisation and execution of the research, collection and production of the research data/materials, analysis and interpretation. Use the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) to describe the key types of contributions made to the article. How to implement: How to implement CRediT. 17. Conflict of interest statement. See Annex 1: Journal policies template. 18. Funding information This section typically includes details about grants, sponsorships, institutional support, or other financial resources that contributed to the study. It often specifies the funding organisations or agencies, grant numbers, and any relevant funding acknowledgements. Use ROR IDs of institutions and funding organizations. See: Logos and display guidelines. 19. References Use standardised citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) to ensure consistency and facilitate accurate identification of sources. When deciding which citation style to use in your journal(s), you should give preference to those that include DOI or URL in reference list entries (e.g. APA, Chicago). Always display DOIs and URLs as links. 20. Copyright information Specify who has the legal rights to the article. Diamond OA journals should allow authors to retain copyright. 21. Licence information See below: Displaying Creative Commons licences. 22. Publisher’s name Display the publisher's name prominently. Use the official name, as registered in the ISSN International Registry. 16 Annex 1: Journal policies template This is a generic policies template for Diamond OA journals. It can easily be adjusted to include discipline-specific considerations. The policies template is aligned with the Diamond Open Access Standard developed by the DIAMAS project and it can help journals meet policyrelated requirements for acceptance in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Edit the red text or remove it if it’s not relevant for your journal. The blue text contains instructions and should be removed when you finish drafting your policies. General information The journal Journal’s title is dedicated to [define aims and scope]. You may also provide a short history of the journal, the previous title (if applicable, etc.) The journal is owned and published by _____________. 3 The journal is financially supported by _____________. 4 The journal Journal’s title publishes original papers that have not been published previously. (Define article types: scientific articles, reviews, communications, letters, conference papers, etc.). Journal’s title is an open access journal that doesn’t charge any fees either to readers to read, nor to authors to publish. Contributions to the journal shall be submitted in language(s), with summaries in language(s). The journal is open to all researchers globally, regardless of gender, career stage or ethnic and religious affiliation. The Journal is issued times a year. 5 The journal is indexed in . Digital copies of the journal are archived in the ………. 6 3 Adjust the statement if the owner and publisher are different entities. If the journal is co-published by multiple entities, mention all of them. Please note that service providers providing online publishing platforms or technical support are usually not publishers. The publisher name declared on the journal website must be the same as that declared in the record on the ISSN Portal. If the information on the ISSN Portal is not up-to-date, contact your National ISSN Centre (if there is one in your country) or the International ISSN Centre to update the information. 4 List all entities, programmes and/or projects providing financial support to the journal. Acknowledge in-kind support provided by academic institutions and other entities (e.g. hosting, paid staff assigned to support publishing, etc.), as well as any voluntary contributions. 5 Continuous publication, where articles are published as soon as they are accepted rather than waiting for a complete issue to be compiled. In this model, articles are usually grouped into volumes or thematic collections. 6 E.g. LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico. 17 Editorial policies Editorial responsibilities The editorial bodies include: _________ Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor is appointed by ____ 7 Editorial operations related to content and peer review are independent and free from the influence of the entities that support the journal. The Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to Journal’s title will be published. The Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board is guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within from the date of the manuscript submission. Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the manuscript shall be made by the . 8 Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board shall evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias. The Editor and the Editorial Staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain. Variant 1 (in case of single-blind peer review) Editors and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process. 7 List all relevant editorial functions and bodies and describe briefly their roles and procedures to select members of editorial bodies, including the mandate length, regular renewal process, and dissolution of the editorial board. 8 If the decision whether to accept the manuscript or not is made by the Editorial Board: In case one or more members of the Editorial Staff hold a conflict of interest regarding a submitted manuscript, these members of the Editorial Staff shall withdraw from the selection of reviewers and all decisions related to the manuscript. 18 Variant 2 (in case of double-blind peer review) Editors and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure. Variant 3 (in case of open peer review) Describe. 9 Authors’ responsibilities Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal constitutes misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by Journal’s title. Please note that posting of preprints on preprint servers or repositories is not considered prior publication. 10 Authors should disclose details of preprint posting upon submission of the manuscript. This must include a link to the location of the preprint. Should the submission be published, the authors are expected to update the information associated with the preprint version on the preprint server/repository to show that a final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI linking directly to the publication. If a manuscript has previously been submitted elsewhere, authors should provide information about the previous reviewing process and its outcome. This provides an opportunity for authors to detail how subsequent revisions have taken into account previous reviews, and why certain reviewer comments were not taken into account. Information about the author's previous reviewing experience is to the author's advantage: it often helps the editors select more appropriate reviewers. In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in a footnote / Acknowledgements. It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to Journal’s title are written with ethical standards in mind. (If necessary, cite the relevant codes of conduct.) 11 9 For various definitions and models of open peer review, see: Ross-Hellauer, Tony. 2017. ‘What Is Open Peer Review? A Systematic Review’. F1000Research 6: 588. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.11369.2. 10 In case preprints are allowed, double-blind review is not an option for your journal because it is impossible to ensure the anonymity of authors. 11 Depending on the area of science covered by the journal, relevant ethical guidelines may be specified (e.g. research involving human subjects or experimental animals, privacy issues). 19 Authors affirm that the manuscript contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation. Reporting standards Journal’s title is committed to serving the research community by ensuring that all articles include enough information to allow others to reproduce the work. A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it - e.g. provide complete details of the methods used, including time frames, etc. Authors are required to review the standards available for many research applications, as for example from Equator Network for health sciences, and use those that are relevant for the reported research applications. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards. 12 Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the content public. 13 Authors are also exclusively responsible for the contents of their data/supplementary files. Authors affirm that data protection regulations, ethical standards, third party copyright and other rights have been respected in the process of collecting, processing and sharing data. Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. 14 Inclusive language The journal Journal title promotes accessible, and inclusive language to ensure that scientific research is widely understood and respectful of all individuals. To promote accessibility, authors should: ● Use clear, simple language that is understandable across disciplines and for nonnative speakers (for example non-native English speakers); ● Avoid overly technical or unnecessary terminology, unnecessary complexity, long sentences, repetition, uncommon acronyms and abbreviations, stereotypes, idiomatic speech, slang, and cultural assumptions; ● Explain technical terms when needed; ● Respect diversity and avoid implying superiority of any group based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, health status, age, or socio-economic background. ● Use inclusive and appropriate language in relation to race and ethnicity and provide 12 If the journal publishes technical papers or book reviews: Book reviews and technical papers should be accurate and they should present an objective perspective. 13 Authors may be required to provide the proof that they have obtained such permission. 14 Authors may be required to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their manuscripts. 20 participants with a comprehensive range of categories and subcategories to choose from when collecting self-reported racial or ethnic identity data, as well as the option to select multiple, not mutually exclusive categories; ● Be cautious in generalizing findings from studies to groups simply on the basis of a shared identity category and provide the rationale behind any racial or ethnic groupings used in the Methods section; ● Where it is necessary to make reference to the indigenous identity of a person or group, use the terms preferred by the person or group. If in doubt, ask the person or group; ● Make a distinction between biological sex and socially constructed gender. Use selfidentified pronouns and gender-neutral terms (e.g., "chairperson" instead of "chairman"); ● Use "impairment" for medical conditions and "disability" for societal barriers. Avoid discriminatory language and offensive terms (derogatory labelling, depersonalising, stereotyping and emphasising the disability) in relation to the portrayal of people with disabilities (e.g. use ‘a person diagnosed with cancer’ rather than ‘a cancer victim’) Consult also additional resources from C4DISC (Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications): https://c4disc.org/toolkits-for-equity/ Authorship Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgements section. As a guide, authors should refer to the criteria for authorship that have been developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). In order to be named on the author list one 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. Each author’s contribution must be detailed using the CRediT taxonomy. 15 15 In some submission systems this is done by selecting CRediT roles in the article submission form. If this is not supported in your submission system, require authors to include a contribution statement in the manuscript. Example: Author 1: review and editing (equal). Author 2: Conceptualization (lead); writing – original draft (lead); formal analysis (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Author 3: 21 The addition or removal of authors during the editorial process will only be permitted only if a justifiable explanation is provided to the editorial team and publisher. Attempts to introduce 'ghost', 'gift' or ‘honorary’ authorship will be treated as cases of misconduct. Acknowledgment of sources Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source. When citing or making claims based on data, authors should provide the reference to data in the same way as they cite publications. We recommend the format proposed by the FORCE11 Data Citation Principles. Plagiarism Plagiarism, where someone assumes another's ideas, words, or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action. Plagiarism includes the following: ● Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks); ● Copying equations, figures or tables from someone else's paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder. Please note that all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism. If a plagiarism detection software is used, state here the name of the software. Any manuscript that shows obvious signs of plagiarism will be automatically rejected and define other sanctions (if any). In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below under Retraction policy, and authors will define other sanctions (if any). Conflict of interest Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, the following standard statement should be added: ‘No conflict of interest was disclosed’. Software (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Author 4: Methodology (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Author 5: Conceptualization (supporting); Writing – original draft (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal). More information: How to Implement CRediT. 22 Conflict of interest may be of non-financial or financial nature. Examples of the conflict of interest include (but are not limited to): ● individuals receiving funding, salary or other forms of payment from an organization, or holding stocks or shares from a company, that might benefit (or lose) financially from the publication of the findings; ● individuals or their funding organization or employer holding (or applying for) related patents; ● official affiliations and memberships with interest groups relating to the content of the publication; ● familiar, political, religious, or ideological competing interests. Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical or field trials or other research studies, should declare these as competing interests on submission. The relationship of each author to such an organization should be explained in the ‘Conflict of interest’ section. Publications in the journal must not contain content advertising any commercial products. Fundamental errors in published works When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper. By submitting a manuscript the authors agree to abide by the Journal’s title’s Editorial Policies. ORCID The journal asks that all authors submitting a paper register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). ORCID numbers for all authors and co-authors should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted. 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. Funding information If a paper is a result of the funded project, authors are required to specify funding sources according to their contracts with the funder. Reviewers’ responsibilities Reviewers are required to provide written, competent and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript. The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus. 23 Reviewers should alert the Editor to any well-founded suspicions or the knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should recognize relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors and alert the Editor to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers should also alert the Editor to a parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal, in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay. Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor without delay. Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain. Peer review The submitted manuscripts are subject to a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to assist the Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communication with the author it may also assist the author in improving the manuscript. Define the type of peer review. 16 The number of peer reviewers. 17 It is recommended to define the time frame within which the peer review procedure is normally completed! The choice of reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board. 18 The reviewers must be knowledgeable about the subject area of the 16 Double blind / single blind / Open 17 You can also publish a list of all regular peer reviewers by name on the journal website. This way, they receive recognition for their work, while the blind peer-review process is still preserved, since authors cannot tell who has reviewed their article. 18 This is a typical situation. In journals with several section editors, reviewers are commonly assigned by section editors. 24 manuscript; they must not be from the authors' own institution and they should not have recent joint publications with any of the authors. Describe the peer review process in greater detail. 19 All of the reviewers of a manuscript act independently and they are not aware of each other’s identities. 20 If the decisions of the two reviewers are not the same (accept/reject), the Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board may assign additional reviewers. During the review process, the Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Section Editor / Editorial Board may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the scholarly merit of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain. The editorial team shall ensure reasonable quality control for the reviews. With respect to reviewers whose reviews are convincingly questioned by authors, special attention will be paid to ensure that the reviews are objective and high in academic standard. When there is any doubt with regard to the objectivity of the reviews or quality of the review, additional reviewers will be assigned. Members of the editorial team/board/guest editors are permitted to submit their own papers to the journal. In cases where an author is associated with the journal, they will be removed from all editorial tasks for that paper and another member of the team will be assigned responsibility for overseeing peer review. Post-publication discussions Journal’s title encourages post-publication debate either through letters to the editor, or on an external moderated site, such as PubPeer. Use of Large Language Models and generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools Journal’s title conforms to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) 19 Some suggestions: If a reviewer’s evaluation form is used: In the main review phase, the Editor sends submitted manuscripts to the number of reviewers experts in the field. The reviewers’ evaluation form contains a checklist in order to help reviewers cover all aspects that can decide the fate of a submission. In the final section of the evaluation form, the reviewers must include observations and suggestions aimed at improving the submitted manuscript; these are sent to authors, without the names of the reviewers. Single-blind peer review: All of the reviewers of a manuscript remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process. Double-blind peer review: All of the reviewers of a manuscript remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure. 20 Except in case of open review. 25 recommendations on chat bots, ChatGPT and scholarly manuscripts and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s position statement on Authorship and AI tools. AI bots such as ChatGPT cannot be listed as authors on your submission. Authors must clearly indicate the use of tools based on large language models and generative AI for data or code generation, data collection, cleaning, analysis, or interpretation, (which tool was used and for what purpose), preferably in the methods or acknowledgements sections. Photography, videos or illustrations created wholly or partly using generative AI are not considered acceptable. The use of non-generative machine learning tools to manipulate, combine or enhance existing images or figures should be disclosed in the relevant caption upon submission to allow a case-by-case review. Concealing the use of AI tools is unethical. The use of AI-based tools for copyediting and spell checking does not need to be declared. AI outputs should not be cited as primary sources for backing up specific claims. Editors and Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of the editorial work and the peer review process. Editors must not share information about submitted manuscripts or peer review reports with any tools based on large language models and generative AI. Reviewers must not use any tools based on large language models and generative AI to generate review reports. Concealing the use of AI tools is unethical and undermines transparency in editorial work and peer review. The editorial and review processes are confidential, and using AI tools on the manuscript makes it public, violating the confidentiality principle, disclosing confidential information in public, and compromising transparency. Procedures for dealing with complaints and appeals Anyone may inform the editors and/or Editorial Staff at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by giving the necessary information/evidence to start an investigation. Investigation ● Editor / Editor-in-Chief will consult with the Section Editors / Editorial Board on decisions regarding the initiation of an investigation. ● During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating. ● The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them. ● If it is judged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious. Minor misconduct Minor misconduct will be dealt directly with those involved without involving any other parties, e.g.: ● Communicating to authors/reviewers whenever a minor issue involving misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards has occurred. 32 Annex 2. Supporting documents To avoid the risks of disputes over ethical issues, conflicts of interest, or copyright and licensing, it is important to obtain clear assurances from authors before publication. This annex provides templates for: ● Authorship statement – confirming originality, authorship, and compliance with ethical standards; ● Conflict of interest statement – disclosing any personal or financial interests that may have influenced the research; ● Licence agreement – granting the publisher permission to publish and distribute the article, and defining the terms under which it may be shared and reused. Journals managing the submission process via email can offer a document based on these templates to authors to download, fill out and sign. Journals managing these processes via the journal management system (such as OJS, Janeway or Kotahi) can include these questions into submission checklists. This is a generic template that can be enriched with more specific questions. Author statement template By signing the Author statement authors formally confirm the originality, authorship, and compliance with ethical standards, as well as that all co-authors have approved the final version for publication. Author statement I confirm that the manuscript [Title] is aligned with the relevant Authors guidelines and the Authors’ responsibilities defined in the Journal policies. I am also aware of the publisher’s Retraction Policy. For further information, see (relevant URLs from the journal’s / publisher’s website). ● The Manuscript I have submitted to the journal is original, has been written by the stated authors and has not been published elsewhere. (Posting of preprints on preprint servers or repositories is not considered prior publication.) ● The Manuscript was not submitted for review to another journal while under review by this journal and will not be submitted to any other journal while under review in Journal title. ● All authors have given the final approval of the submitted manuscript. ● The Manuscript contains no libellous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity. ● I have obtained written permission from copyright holders for any excerpts from copyrighted works and other copyrighted materials that are included in the Manuscript. 33 ● If I am using any personal details or images of patients, research subjects or other individuals, I have obtained informed consent required by applicable law and complied with the publisher’s policies relating to the use of such images or personal information. Conflict of Interest statement template By signing a conflict of interest authors let readers know if they have any personal or financial interests that could have influenced their research. This helps maintain the integrity and credibility of the published work. Conflict of Interest statement A conflict of interest may exist if you have financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence your objectivity in the research, writing, or review process. Authors are required to disclose all and any potential conflicts of interest. Financial Interests Do you or any of the authors have any financial relationships with organizations that may have an interest in the submitted work (e.g., employment, grants, stocks, patents, or other financial interests)? Personal Relationships Do you or any of the authors have any personal relationships that could bias the research or review process (e.g., family relationships, close personal friendships, etc.)? Professional Relationships Do you or any of the authors have any professional relationships that could affect the objectivity of the manuscript (e.g., membership in organizations, advisory roles, etc.)? Other Potential Conflicts Are there any other relationships, interests, or activities that could be perceived as a conflict of interest? If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes”, please provide additional details: ______________________________ Declaration of No Conflict of Interest: (If there are no conflicts of interest to declare) I confirm that I have no conflicts of interest to declare. 34 License agreement template By signing a Licence Agreement authors give the publisher permission to publish and distribute the article while the author keeps the copyright. It defines the terms under which the article can be shared and reused. Licence agreement The Author(s) grant to the Name of the publisher of the Journal title the following rights: ● the non-exclusive right to publish the article Title, authored by authors’ names, including any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript, ● to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, ● to distribute the article in all forms and media. Author(s) retain copyright and may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the article (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal. Author(s) understand that they retain the copyright in the article and that no rights in patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights are transferred to the Publisher. The article will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). This license enables users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, as long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.