Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another publisher for consideration. Prior publication does not include conference presentations, student theses, or posting to a preprints server (please mention preprints in your Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format and adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
- The authors agree that the submission will be submitted to iThenticate for a plagiarism check and warrant that no author engaged in any form of academic or research misconduct (including but not limited to plagiarism, data falsification and data fabrication) in connection with this submission.
- If the submission describes research involving human participants or animal subjects, all necessary ethical approvals were obtained and the research was conducted according to applicable standards and guidelines.
- The authors hold the copyright to the work and, if they have used material from other copyrighted sources, are able to do so as fair dealing under Australian copyright law or have obtained any necessary permissions and licenses.
- The submitting author has the permission of the all of the other authors to submit the manuscript and warrants that all other authors agree to be authors, in the order listed, and approve of the version that is being submitted.
- If double-blind review is required to reduce bias or manage an editorial conflict-of-interest, identifying information has been removed from the manuscript and a note has been made in the comments to the editor. The authors accept that their identities may be revealed after their article is accepted.
- Authors agree to editorial decision letters, including full reviewer comments, being confidentially shared with reviewers.
- Authors agree to maintain the confidentiality of the peer review process and not reveal the identities or comments of reviewers.
- Authors agree to the terms and conditions of the License to Publish available at: https://about.epistemehealth.com/docs/EHI-LicenseToPublish.pdf
Professional Perspectives
Articles of professional and general interest to scientists, such as career advancement, public engagement, or responsible conduct of research.
Correspondence
Correspondence from readers regarding articles published in the journal.
Commentary
Invited commentaries related to articles published or to be published in the journal.
Brief Communications
Short papers describing single experiments or preliminary findings.
Registered Reports
Registered reports are submitted in two stages. Stage 1 plans are submitted before experiments are carried out, detailing the study rationale and methods used. Peer reviewers recommend acceptance based on the importance of the research question and soundness of the approach. After the study has been completed, the final paper is submitted (Stage 2). In this paper, the authors detail their final results and any deviations from the Stage 1 protocol. Provided that authors have adhered to their protocol and any deviations are reasonable, the paper will be accepted and published, regardless of the results obtained.
Research Articles
Research articles that employ empirical methods.
Review Articles
Review articles summarise and discuss a research area.
Data Brief
Data Briefs describe the rationale and methods behind datasets that may be useful to other scientists. The data itself is available from an open data repository.
Copyright Notice
In order to publish we ask for a non-exclusive license to publish. Copyright in the work is retained by authors (or their employers or funders depending applicable contractual or legal arrangements).
The publisher, Episteme Health Inc., recommends that authors choose the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License because it provides broad reuse rights that meet the requirements of most employers and funders. However, authors may also choose the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which is Plan S-compliant. For more information, see our Copyright and Fair Dealing Policy.
Author Licensing Assertions and the Rights Retention Strategy
Some funders are requiring or encouraging authors to insert a licensing assertion, such as the Rights Retention Strategy (RRS) statement, into the body of their manuscript. However, licensing assertions that are not consistent with publishing agreements can create legal risk for authors, institutions, and end users (Khoo, 2021). Authors who wish to make specific licensing assertions in their manuscripts therefore have the following options.
- Remove the licensing assertion from the body of the manuscript. Since authors retain copyright and we offer choice of license, authors can simply inform us of their preferences.
- Move the licensing assertion to the copyright statement. If authors are required to include specific language, we can include it in the copyright statement to ensure that there is clear, consistent, and complete information.
- Retain the licensing assertion, but accept the addition of the following publisher's note.
"Publisher's Note: Author licensing assertions may not be reliable if they conflict with the contractual arrangements with the publisher. Before relying on a licensing assertion that conflicts with a work's copyright information, readers should seek professional advice."
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