Ethics & Policies
Authors must follow ethical guidelines stated in Elsevier’s Publishing Ethics Policy (https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/publishing-ethics).
Submission declaration
When authors submit an article to the journal it is implied that:
- the work described has not been published previously except in the form of a preprint, an abstract, a published lecture, academic thesis or registered report. See our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.
- the article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
- the article’s publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.
- if accepted, the article will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Declaration of competing interests
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:
- Employment
- Consultancies
- Stock ownership
- Honoraria
- Paid expert testimony
- Patent applications or registrations
- Grants or any other funding
- Affiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board Member
Declaration of generative AI use
Authors must declare the use of generative AI in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.
