Authors' duties

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given.

Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Manuscripts submitted must not have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere. Manuscripts under review by the Journal should not be submitted for consideration by another publication as copyrighted material. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agree that, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, the right to use the article for any editorial exploitation, without space limits and with every modality and technology, will be agreed upon with the publisher FrancoAngeli Edizioni, according to the current publishing model.

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper, having agreed to its submission for publication.

All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Within the European Union, any data collection involving personal data must comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is responsibility of the authors to ensure full compliance with such Regulation and its implementation in the relevant EU Member States. Outside the European Union, the authors must ensure compliance with the relevant national regulation.

When reporting on (medical) research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), revised in 2013. According to point 23 of this declaration, an approval from the local institutional review board (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committee must be obtained before undertaking the research to confirm the study meets national and international guidelines. As a minimum, a statement including the project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board must be stated in Section ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ of the article.

Example of an ethical statement: "All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code)."

If ethical approval is not required, authors must either provide an exemption from the ethics committee or are encouraged to cite the local or national legislation that indicates ethics approval is not required for this type of study. Where a study has been granted exemption, the name of the ethics committee which provided this should be stated in Section ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ with a full explanation regarding why ethical approval was not required.

Independent of the ethical approval, the authors must follow their specific discipline's good practices.

For non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys, questionnaires, social media research), all participants must be fully informed if the anonymity is assured, why the research is being conducted, how their data will be used and if there are any risks associated. 

For interventional studies (e.g., field or lab experiments, behavioural trials) written informed consent must be obtained from participating subjects. Subject details should be anonymized to the greatest extent possible. For instance, specific age, ethnicity, or occupation should not be mentioned unless they are relevant to the conclusions. When strictly necessary, individual participant data can be described in detail, with the exclusion of any private information identifying participants, unless the identifiable materials are relevant to the research (for example, photographs of participants’ faces that show a particular phase of the experiment). Subjects’ initials or other personal identifiers must not appear in any images. For manuscripts that include any case details, personal information, and/or images of subjects, authors must obtain signed informed consent for publication (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting to the journal.  

If the study reports research involving vulnerable groups (e.g., children), an additional check may be performed. The submitted manuscript will be scrutinized by the editorial office and upon request, documentary evidence (blank consent forms and any related discussion documents from the ethics board) must be supplied. Additionally, when studies describe groups by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, disease, etc., explanation regarding why such categorization was needed must be clearly stated in the article.