Title Page
- Full title of the manuscript
- Full names and institutional affiliations of all authors
- Email addresses of all authors
- Year of birth for each author
- ORCID iDs (if available)
- Contact details of the corresponding author
- One author is clearly designated as the corresponding author.
- The following contact details are provided: email address, full postal address, and ORCID number.
- Author contributions according to the CRediT taxonomy (e.g., Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, etc.)
- Acknowledgments (if applicable)
- Declaration of funding (including standard phrase if no funding was received)
- Conflict of interest statement (including standard phrase if none exists)
- Declaration on the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies
- Total word count
Main Text File
- Manuscript is written in English and thoroughly spell-checked and grammar-checked
- A blinded version of the manuscript is submitted (no author names, affiliations, or identifying information)
- Submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format
- Manuscript is formatted according to APA 7th Edition:
- Times New Roman, 12 pt, double spacing
- Minimum 2.5 cm (1 inch) margins
- Page numbers in bottom right corner
- Left-aligned text with no hyphenation
- APA-style heading levels
- Italics used for emphasis (not bold or underlining)
- First line of each paragraph indented by 1.27 cm (0.5 inch)
- Manuscript includes all required sections:
- Abstract (250 words, no undefined abbreviations or citations)
- Keywords (3–5)
- Highlights section included in the main text (3–5 bullet points, each max. 100 characters)
- Introduction
- Method (including Data Availability Statement)
- Ethical approval and informed consent are clearly stated in the Method section
- Results
- Discussion and Conclusion
- References
- All references are formatted according to APA 7th Edition
- All in-text citations appear in the reference list and vice versa
Supplementary Materials (if applicable)
- Files are original, not previously published, or accompanied by necessary permissions
- Files are GDPR-compliant and in appropriate formats (e.g., .xlsx, .sav)
File Naming
- When uploading submission files, please use clear and descriptive file names that do not contain author names or surnames, in order to preserve anonymity during the review process. Suggested file names include:
- Anonymised Manuscript
- Title Page
- Supplementary Material
- Response to Reviewers
