ETHICS & DISCLOSURE

The journal is committed to maintaining the highest level of integrity in the content published.

This journal has a Conflict-of-Interest policy in place.

The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and subscribes to its principles on how to deal with acts of misconduct thereby committing to investigate allegations of misconduct to ensure the integrity of research.

The journal may use plagiarism detection software to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

Content published in this journal is peer reviewed (Double Blind).

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

1. The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
2. The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full) unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling ('self-plagiarism').
3. A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e., 'salami- slicing/publishing').
4. Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
5. Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation (including image-based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting, and processing data.
6. No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author's own ('plagiarism'). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: THE JOURNAL WILL USE SOFTWARE TO SCREEN ARTICLES

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

Articles having similarity index above 7% will be rejected at editorial stage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

- an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

- an expression of concern may be placed with the article

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

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

The author's institution may be informed

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

AUTHORSHIP PRINCIPLES

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

AUTHORSHIP CLARIFIED

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines, it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

1) Made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work.

2) Drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content.

3) Approved the version to be published; and

4) Agree 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.

DISCLOSURES AND DECLARATIONS

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non- financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article.

Worksubmitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases, it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

DATA TRANSPARENCY

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

ROLE OF THE CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

1. Ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors.
2. Managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication; *
3. Providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor.
4. Making sure disclosures, declarations, and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case, please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.