All journals published or hosted by Discover STM Publishing Ltd share core editorial and publishing policies. Full descriptions of these policies, together with any journal-specific requirements, are available in the submission guidelines on each journal’s website. Browse Our Journals for the relevant journal.
All research submitted to our journals must be reported according to internationally accepted standards for the study type with ethics oversight obtained where appropriate. Authors may consult the EQUATOR Network for relevant reporting guidelines.
Research involving regulated animals must meet internationally accepted ethics standards for the study type including but not limited to obtaining study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee, securing appropriate permits to conduct the research, and providing required details for studies involving non-human primates.
Research involving human participants must meet internationally accepted ethical standards appropriate to the study type. Authors must provide details of prior ethics committee approval or exemption where applicable, protect participant privacy, document informed consent as appropriate, and provide clinical-trial documentation where relevant.
Authors, reviewers, and editors must declare potential competing interests or interests that may be perceived as such as they relate to the research. A competing interest may relate to a person or an entity and may be of a financial, non-financial, professional or personal nature.
Manuscripts submitted to journals published or hosted by Discover STM Publishing Ltd must include a funding declaration identifying each funding source, the recipient where relevant, the grant number where applicable, and the funder’s role in the research.
Articles accepted by journals published or hosted by Discover STM Publishing Ltd are generally published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Copyright ownership and licensing arrangements may vary by journal; authors should consult the relevant journal’s policies.
Authors are encouraged to share relevant materials, software and data where ethically and legally appropriate. See the Ethical Policies for further details.
Authors must follow accepted publication-ethics standards. Discover STM Publishing Ltd follows the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in its publisher and journal-hosting work.
Authors must disclose any use of AI-assisted tools (such as large language models or generative AI writing assistants) in the preparation of their manuscript. AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Disclosure should be made in the Methods or Acknowledgements section, specifying the tool used and the purpose. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of all submitted work. See Ethical Policies for full details.
