Article structure

Sections

Organise your article using clearly defined sections and subsections, preceded by a concise heading (such as Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions) on a separate line. Headings should be used for cross-referencing specific sections of the text.

Introduction

Describe the objectives of the work, based on the appropriate rationale. Avoid conducting a detailed literature review or summarising the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow an independent investigator to reproduce the work. If the methods have already been published, include the reference and a summary thereof. When using direct quotations, the text should be placed in quotation marks and include the reference to the original source. If modifications to previously published methods were made, they must be clearly described.

Results

Should be clear and concise.

Discussion

Should analyse the meaning of the results but not repeat them. It is sometimes appropriate to combine both sections into one. Avoid overly extensive citations and commentary on published articles.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short section, either independent of the two above, or as a subsection of Discussion or Results and discussion.

Title page

• Title. Concise and informative. The title is used in information retrieval systems (indexes). Avoid including formulae and abbreviations where possible. The title in English must also be included.
• Author names and affiliation. Provide the first and last names of each author and ensure they are given in the correct spelling. After the English transliteration, names in their original script may be added in parentheses. Include the affiliation data for each author (name and address of the institution where the study was conducted) below the names. Indicate all affiliations using a lowercase superscript letter after each author's last name. The same letter must precede the institution data. Provide the full postal address for each affiliation, including the country, as well as each author's email address if possible.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will be responsible for receiving correspondence throughout the evaluation and publication process, as well as after publication. This includes answering questions about the Material and Methods section.

Keywords

Include a maximum of 6 keywords after the abstract, using British English, avoiding general terms, plurals and multiple concepts (such as the use of 'and' or 'of'). Abbreviations may only be used as keywords if they are firmly established in the relevant speciality. Keywords are used in article indexing.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in your speciality in a footnote on the first page of the manuscript. Ensure that abbreviations are used consistently throughout the articl.

Acknowledgements

Place acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the manuscript and before the References. Do not mention them elsewhere in the article. Include persons who contributed to the preparation of the article (for example, by reviewing the writing or translation thereof).

Funding sources

State the sources of funding.

Detailed descriptions of the programme or type of grant or allocation are not required. When funding comes from a regional or national grant, or from university or other research institution resources, include the name of the funding institution or organisation.

If no funding was received, please include the following statement:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Figure captions

Write a caption for each figure and check that none are missing. The caption should contain a short title (which should not appear in the illustration) and a description of the figure. Keep text within the figure to a minimum, and include in the caption the definition of all symbols and abbreviations used therein.

Tables

Submit tables as editable text, not as images. They may be placed within the manuscript, near the relevant text, or on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. Number tables consecutively in order of appearance in the text and place the corresponding notes below each table. Limit the use of tables and check that the data presented do not duplicate results already described in the text. Do not use vertical rules or shaded cells.

References

Citation in the text

Ensure that each reference cited in the text appears in the reference list (and vice versa). Inclusion of personal communications or unpublished works in the reference list is not recommended (and if included, they must follow standard conventions, replacing the publication date with the note 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'), but they may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'In press' implies that the manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Online links to references

Online links to references promote research dissemination and improve the quality of the peer review system. To create links to indexing and query services such as Scopus or CrossRef, the data provided in the reference list must be correct. Note that errors in author names, publication title, year of publication and pages may prevent the creation of a link to the cited manuscript. When copying a reference, note that it may contain errors. We strongly recommend the use of the DOI.

The DOI never changes and can therefore be used as a permanent link to an electronic article. Note that these citations must follow the same style and format described in the guidelines for all other references.

References to web pages

At a minimum, the full URL and the date of last access must be provided. Any other known information should also be added (DOI, author names, reference to a source publication, etc.). Web page references may be presented in a separate list after the reference list, or may be included within it.

References to datasets

Authors are encouraged to reference the datasets they have used or that are relevant to their article. To do so, the citation must be included in the text as well as in the References section at the end of the article. Dataset references consist of the following elements: author name(s), dataset name, repository name, version (if applicable), year and global persistent identifier.

Reference format

Text: Indicate references by superscript numbers within the text. The author may be mentioned if desired, but the reference number is essential.