Manuscript submission

Manuscript must contain original research that has not been published before or under consideration by other journals. The submission has been approved by all co-authors and no one who has contributed significantly to the manuscript is omitted. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Permissions and reuse of published materials

Reuse of published materials (in print or online) is permissible if permission from the copyright owner(s) of the materials is obtained.

Language editing

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication will normally be checked by our copy editors for spelling and formal style. This may not be sufficient if English is not your native language and substantial editing may be required. In that case, you may want to ask a native speaker to help you or have your manuscript checked by a professional language editor prior to submission.

Manuscript preparation and submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts online using the hyperlink “Submit online” or click here (https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/eqs) and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

A single word file (preferred) or pdf file including all text and figures tables for review. During the review process, authors can prepare their manuscript in any forms. However, some guidance is provided below. In the final production, uniform formatting and editorial policies will be implemented.

Cover page (in the online system)

Text format

A Word file is preferred for the submitted manuscript with a fontsize 11 pt or bigger. A Word template will be provided shortly.

Title page

The title page should include:

- title

- author names

- The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)

- The e-mail address and telephone number of the corresponding author

Abstract

The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords

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

The remaining body of the manuscript should include the following sections:

Introduction

Methods

Results

Discussions

Conclusions

Acknowledgments, Data Availability, Declaration of Competing Interests

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. Statements about Data Availability and Declaration of Competing interests should also be included in this section.

Appendices

Abbreviations

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

In-text citation style

Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. For Chinese authors, initials of first names are also included. Some examples are as follows.

Negotiation research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).

This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).

This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 1995).

It was first discovered by Song XD and Richards (1996).

Reference list

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.

Journal article Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, and Bosquet L (2009). Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:731-738. doi: 10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8 

Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of “et al.” in long author lists will also be accepted: Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al. (1999). Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325–329.

Article by DOI Slifka MK, and Whitton JL (2000). Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. doi:10.1007/s001090000086

Book South J, and Blass B (2001). The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London, pp.430.

Book chapter Brown B, and Aaron M (2001). The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern genomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 230-257.

Online document Cartwright J (2007). Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb. http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Last accessed 26 June 2007.

Dissertation Trent JW (1975). Experimental acute renal failure. Dissertation, University of California.

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

http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php

Electronic figure submission

Supply all figures electronically.

Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.

For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.

· Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Name your figure files with "“Fig"” and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Figure numbering

All figures are to be numbered and cited sequentially.

Sub-figures should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).

If an appendix appears in your article/chapter and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, “A1, A2, A3, etc.” Figures in online appendices (Electronic supplementary Material) should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure captions

Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.

Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.

No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.

Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.

Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

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

All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware).

Patterns are used instead or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements).

Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.

Copyright transfer

Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher (or grant the Publisher exclusive publication and dissemination rights).

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

Offprints

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

Color illustrations

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

Proof reading

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

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

Online first

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

Terminology

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

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

Ethical standards

Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a statement to the effect that all human and animal studies have been approved by the appropriate ethics committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. It should also be stated clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. Details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study should be omitted.

The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.

Conflict of interest

Authors must indicate whether or not they have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research. They should also state that they have full control of all primary data and that they agree to allow the journal to review their data if requested.

Therefore the manuscript must be accompanied by the “Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form”. To download this form, please follow the hyperlink on the right.

Ethical responsibilities of authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which includes:

The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.

The manuscript has not been published previously (partly 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 hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).

A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).

No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions.

No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the authors 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 are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.

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

Consent to submit has been received from all co-authors and responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out before the work is submitted.

Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

In addition:

Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

Requests to add or delete authors at revision stage or after publication is a serious matter, and may be considered only after receipt of written approval from all authors and detailed explanation about the role/deletion of the new/deleted author. The decision on accepting the change rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

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

If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been proven, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

If the article 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, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note.

The author’s institution may be informed.

Tables

· For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.

· All tables are to be numbered by Arabic numerals.

· Tables should be always cited in text in consecutive numerical order.

· For each table, please supply a table caption (title) to explaining the content of the table.

· For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.

Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.

Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.