About This Journal

Eco Cities (EC) is an Open Access journal, which provides a forum for studies in the field of urban ecology and sustainability. The submitted manuscript will go through a rigorous double blind peer-reviewed process. Eco-city is a social, economic, cultural and natural composite ecosystem with high level of synergy and harmony, which has the function of material recycling, social harmony and synergy between human and nature. Eco Cities aims to respond and adapt to the newest developments in scholarly publishing and at the same time, addresses highly relevant scientific and societal topics. This journal makes research outputs publicly available and allows for different types of articles including original research articles, review articles, book reviews, editorials, commentaries, letters, perspectives, case reports, etc.

Focus and Scope

For Authors

• Publishing Ethics

  APACSCI upholds the spirit of strict adherence to high ethical standards. This is consistent with APACSCI’s mission of publishing high-quality articles and promoting open scientific exchanges globally. APACSCI follows the Ethical Oversight Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in overseeing the publication process, as well as the activities of APACSCI journals, editors, and reviewers.

  APACSCI and all the editors adhere to the following guidelines:

  1. Core Practices and Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE);

  2. Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

  3. Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE).

  APACSCI is committed to protecting the privacy of its contributors and promises not to disclose personal information to third parties without permission, unless for necessary purposes of the publishing process or required by law.

  Complaints and appeals

  APACSCI takes allegations of misconduct (refer to the Misconduct Policy for more details) seriously and will launch an immediate investigation by a group of investigation members. Decisions will be made by the investigation group based on clear evidence, and the authors will be informed. If there is any appeal against the decision, it must be made to the publisher within 14 days of the decision date, or else actions will be taken after 14 days. The decision on the appeal is final.

  Authors also could express complaints and concerns about delays, extensions, and unreasonable handling procedures during the editing process and the time it takes. The editor-in-chief will be accountable for initiating an investigation into the issue, and the complainant will receive feedback. Reasonable editing procedures will be enhanced.

  Any complaints and appeals against APACSCI journals and editors can be directed to the publisher at editorial_office@apacsci.com, and APACSCI follows COPE guidelines in handling all complaints and appeals.

   

• Editorial Policies

  Authors should read the “Author Guidelines” before making a submission, and make sure that the manuscripts were written in accordance to the style and specifications of the journal’s policy.

  All manuscripts submitted to Eco Cities are subject to rigorous peer review. Prior to the peer review process, the manuscripts will be screened for acceptable English language, novelty and relevance to the Focus and Scope of the journal.

  Any manuscripts submitted to Eco Cities will be treated as confidential materials. The manuscripts will not be disclosed to anyone except individuals such as editorial staff, reviewers and editors who participate in the initial screening, review, processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted).

  A manuscript would not be accepted if it has been published or is currently under consideration for publication in any other journals. The authors are required to notify the editorial team if the findings and data in their submissions have been presented in conferences.

• Conflict of Interest

  Authors are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial) during the submission stage. Any agreements with study sponsors (for-profit or non-profit), such as those that interfere with the authors’ access to the study’s data or with the authors’ ability to analyze or interpret the data and to publish manuscripts independently according to their own decision, should be avoided by authors at all costs.

  APACSCI also requires reviewers and editors to declare any (potential) non-financial conflicts of interest and declare any unpaid roles or relations that may influence the decision on the manuscript’s publication before acknowledging the assigned request. These include, but are not limited to, unpaid roles in a governmental or non-governmental organization, unpaid roles in an advocacy or lobbying organization, and unpaid advisory positions in a commercial organization.

  In addition, reviewers and editors must disclose any association that poses a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript, including but not limited to those interferes with, or could reasonably be perceived as interfering with, the full and objective presentation, peer review, editorial decision-making, or publication of research or non-research articles submitted to a journal. Examples are personal or work-related relationships with one of the authors or the reviewer is on the authors’ avoidance list.

• Misconduct Policy

  Following COPE guidelines, APACSCI will not accept any misconduct behaviors that may mislead researchers.

  Plagiarism

  Plagiarism is not acceptable. Using the content from one’s own previously published articles without proper citation is also considered plagiarism. APACSCI adopts Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate) for checking the originality of submissions. Manuscripts with a high similarity index may be rejected.

  Fabrication and falsification

  Fabrication and falsification of data or images will mislead researchers. APACSCI strongly opposes such practices and will reject suspicious submissions.

  Duplicate submission

  Duplicate submission of a manuscript that has been published or submitted to other journals at the same time will not be considered.

  Manipulation

  Peer review manipulation is expressly forbidden. In particular, peer review manipulation by editors involves ethical issues, and when detected or complained about, editors are dealt with seriously and are subject to dismissal.

  Eliminate excessive manipulative citation included in the peer review process by reviewers. Reviewers are encouraged to suggest that authors add references that are necessary and constructive to the research. Reviewers' own articles that do not contribute to the scholarly content of the author’s work must not be oversold for the sole purpose of inflating the number of citations to the reviewer's own article.

  Authors are prohibited from over-citing their own previously published articles. The journal’s editorial board will determine self-citation thresholds, which authors must strictly adhere to in order to eliminate any suspicion of citation manipulation.

  Editors will be involved in the journal management process to detect citation manipulations from authors or reviewers.

   

  As behaviors above are illegal academic and very unethical, the Publisher will deal with it seriously. If any misconduct action is verified, authors and their institutions will be informed, and all the journals of the Publisher will not receive any new submission from these authors and their institutions  in three years. If the allegations are disputable, their institutes are responsible to cooperate with the journal in investigating allegations.

  If there are any suspicious allegations of the processing of articles especially the peer review process, referring to For Reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief will receive the complaint, and an investigation group will be formed to investigate the entire process, including the reviewers, editors, and staff who are involved. The journal will follow the procedures described in COPE and Publishing Ethics for handling allegations of misconduct.

   

• Correction, Retraction and Withdrawal

  Correction

  Authors are responsible for approving the final version of their manuscript and they should avoid any errors prior to publishing. In the case of errors that occur in a published article and have no influence on research results, APACSCI will issue a correction/erratum.

  Authors, readers, and editors are encouraged to report any errors found in published papers. Please contact the editorial office of the particular journal.

  Retraction

  Based on COPE guidelines, the following conditions can lead to the retraction of a published article:

  • Unreliable findings
  • Plagiarism
  • Published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources, disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification
  • Containing material or data without the authorization for use
  • Infringement of copyright, violation of privacy, or other legal issues
  • Unethical research
  • Dubious peer review processes
  • Failing to disclose a major competing interest

  If any of the above misconduct proved to be true, a retraction notice will be issued with the reason, while the PDF of the retracted article will be watermarked with “Retracted”. The journal editors will inform the authors of the retraction.

  Paid Article Processing Charges will not be refunded to the authors if retraction occurs.

  Withdrawal

  Although not encouraged, authors can initiate the withdrawal of their submission before and during the peer review process by providing the reason. However, authors should note that a penalty fee of US$200 will be imposed for the withdrawal of a submission undergoing the peer review process due to the spent efforts on the evaluation of the manuscript by the editors and reviewers. Upon the approval of submission withdrawal, the submission will be removed from the journal’s operation system, and the authors be informed.

  Accepted articles and articles in press may also be withdrawn due to infringements of professional ethical codes (similar reasons to those for retraction).

   

• Language

  The language of all manuscripts must be English (either British or American) and non-English words should be used sparingly. Poor English may lead to article rejection. Authors are encouraged to seek language polishing by a native English speaker or a professional editing service.

• Preprint policy

  APACSCI allows authors to post preprints of the manuscript of their original research articles (limited to only this type of article) on community preprint servers, such as arXiv, bioRxiv, and PeerJ Preprint, prior to or simultaneous with their manuscript submission to APACSCI journals. Authors retain the copyright of the manuscript posted on a preprint server.

  Authors should inform the editors of the preprint version of their submitted manuscript in a cover letter, as well as provide any associated accession numbers or DOIs. Revised versions per the result of the peer review process and accepted versions for publication should not be posted on a preprint server.

  Upon publication of the article, APACSCI encourages authors to link the article in the preprint server to the journal site, so as to guide readers to access and refer to the final version of the article.

• Preprint policy

  Authors are permitted to post their non-peer-reviewed original research manuscripts to preprint servers before submitting to Eco Cities. 

  Authors are not allowed to post any versions of articles that have been revised as a result of peer review, accepted for publication or published in the journal on a preprint server. The manuscript whose corresponding preprint version has been indexed (e.g. in MEDLINE or PubMed) will not be considered.

  We encourage formal citation of preprints in the reference list if appropriate.

• Authorship

  Based on the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), authorship should be limited to those who meet the following four criteria:

  1. Contributed substantially to the conception or design of the manuscript or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the manuscript; AND
  2. Drafted the manuscript or reviewed it critically for significant intellectual content; AND
  3. Have final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreed to be responsible for the manuscript in ensuring that problems relating to the accuracy or completeness of any part of the manuscript are appropriately investigated and resolved.

  Individuals who do not meet the above four criteria should not be listed as authors but should be acknowledged. All authors are expected to make meaningful contributions to this work. The publisher strictly prohibits false authorships, including those obtained through purchase, and only recognizes genuine contributions. Authors should disclose whether artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies were used in the preparation of their manuscripts and how they used them. Authors should also report the use of AI for writing assistance in the Acknowledgment section. AI tools should not be used in sections that rely on human intellectual analysis, such as data interpretation and conclusion summarization. 

  A corresponding author should be marked with “*”, and the maximum of corresponding authors is two. A corresponding author serves as a representative of the authors and is responsible for contacting editors and reviewers, e.g., submitting manuscripts, responding to reviews, accepting queries, proofreading galleys, making corrections, etc. 

  Changes to Authorship

  Authorship changes (addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names) should be made before the acceptance of the manuscript. Confirmation from all authors (including existing authors and author(s) to be added and/or removed) should be provided to the editorial office of the journal, together with the reason for such changes. Changes can be made after the approval of the journal. The publisher will deal with any changes or dispute over authorship following the COPE flowcharts of authorship and contributorship.

• Disclaimer

  The opinions, statements, methods, results, and data in APACSCI’s published articles are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of APACSCI and its editors. APACSCI disclaims responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, or products referred to in the articles or advertisements.

• Copyright and License

  Authors contributing to APASCI journals retain the copyright and grant a publishing license. All articles are published under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) or Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. These licenses allow anyone to download and read the articles for free, and reuse the material contained in the articles with proper acknowledgment and citation (for articles under CC By-NC 4.0, using them for commercial purposes is prohibited).

  Regarding the default license used, authors should carefully check the policies of the journal to which they would like to submit their manuscript. Authors with no special requests will be deemed to agree to the default license.

  It is the responsibility of authors to obtain permission to reuse material previously published under a more restrictive license from the copyright holder before the submission stage. These may include figures, tables, and schemes.

• Advertising Policy

  The publisher requests that this journal only consider advertising applications that are relevant to the contents of the journal, if available.

  1. The publisher (APACSCI) reserves the right to accept or refuse advertising. The Journal Editorial Office will evaluate whether to accept the request.
  2. Advertisements must comply with relevant rules and laws in the country where they will appear.
  3. Advertisements should be legible and advertisers identifiable. Sponsors may not arrange or influence editorial decisions including any content in the journal.
  4. Advertisements must not be misleading or deceptive. Advertising content must not contain indecent, offensive, or sensitive information (such as politics, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc.).
  5. APACSCI disclaims responsibility for any damages resulting from advertisements in its journals. The publisher or journal does not accept advertisements for products or services known to be harmful to health/science or contrary to academic principles.
  6. Unless the advertiser requests differently, all advertisements posted by the publisher will be displayed at random. Special requests need to be addressed to the publisher, who will make a final decision on a case-by-case basis within 7 working days.
  7. Advertising is independent, with journal web features and academic content free from all advertising and product interference.
  8. Once an advertisement is posted online, it will be removed from the journal’s website at any time if the Editor-in-Chief or publisher requests that it be removed.

  For any advertisement queries or appeals/complaints, please contact APACSCI at editorial_office@apacsci.com.

• Indexing & Archiving

  • All the articles published online will be archived in Portico for long-term digital preservation.

  • Authors are encouraged to self-archive the final version of their published articles into institutional repositories (such as those listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories).

  • Authors are also encouraged to use the final PDF version published on the website of Eco Cities.

  Eco Cities has been indexed and archived in ROAD, EuroPub, ResearchGate, National Library Board of Singapore, GoogleScholar, Crossref.

• AI Policy

  Researchers using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool/service to directly generate the manuscript text must provide clear disclosures and statements, otherwise it will be considered academic misconduct. The journal allows the use of an AI tool/service for text embellishment and automatic sorting of references, but does not recommend the use of the AI tool/service in the thinking and concluding sessions of human involvement such as data analysis and interpretation, opinion hypothesis and conclusions, and the AI tool/service cannot fulfill the role of a textual author. If any part of the manuscript was written using an AI tool/service, it must be described openly, transparently, and in detail in the Methods or Acknowledgments section, for example:

  "In the preparation of this work, the authors used the [name of the specific AI tool/service] to [purpose of use: e.g., literature research/text embellishment, etc.]. After using this tool/service, the authors reviewed and edited the content as needed, and take full responsibility for the content of the publication."

• Units of Measurement

  Eco Cities adopts and follows the rules of International System of Units (SI) for physical quantities and units of measurement. For example:

  • Quantities including time, length, mass, electric current, etc., should be written as s (second), m (metre), kg (kilogram), A (ampere) after metric numbers.
  • Adopt unified format for the same unit of measurement.

• Research Data Policy

  According to the data and reproducibility of COPE, APACSCI encourages authors to share associated data, code, and materials, register clinical trials, and use standardized guidelines to achieve greater transparency, replicability, and trust in scientific findings. Thus, authors are encouraged to deposit datasets in a data repository; the premise is that this data is not suitable for submission as online supplementary files. Authors who have deposited raw data in community database repositories are encouraged to include a data availability statement in their manuscript. The statement should provide information about the availability of the research data and any limitations or conditions associated with accessing the data, except for reasonable controls related to human privacy or biosecurity. Reusing scientific data can offer great potential for further scientific and economic development.

  • Data sharing

  For data shared, the  FAIR Data Principles should be followed, which guides that (meta)data are assigned a globally unique and eternally persistent identifier. Authors should cite the correct sources. Collaborative practices should be implemented across journals and institutions to monitor and ensure the scientific validity and credibility of overall research practices. Authors are encouraged to prioritize the use of original data from their study and provide supporting data such as accessible data sources as early as possible.

  Regarding data involving confidentiality/privacy/personal privacy, etc., authors are advised to do their best to hide identifiable sensitive information and to share data in strict accordance with mandatory guidelines for the discipline.

  According to the guidelines of COPE regarding unpublished data, the journal will address concerns to the data provider regarding the scientific rigor of an unpublished dataset. The journal will contact the corresponding author, and request comments on the concerns, supporting documentation as needed, and information about any other affected content. Following the guidelines regarding published data, if there is a manuscript associated with a published dataset whose scientific rigor is in doubt, the journal will contact any implicated journals that have published results from the suspicious dataset, summarizing the issue and actions taken to date. Authors must respond with a satisfactory update. If the issues are major or impact the conclusions of the manuscript, the author(s) should withdraw the manuscript or the journal will reject the submission.

  • Data citation

  Authors are encouraged to cite any datasets deposited in external repositories mentioned in their manuscript in the references. For previously published datasets, authors should cite both the published research article and the source of the dataset itself. Journal editorial staff will check and enforce proper data citation before publication.

  Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

  1)      Author(s)

  2)      Year of publication/release

  3)      Title

  4)      Publisher/repository or archive name

  5)      Persistent identifier (e.g., DOI)

   

  • Data repository

  Authors are encouraged to deposit their datasets in the relevant community dataset repository, or a general dataset repository (including any generalist data repository provided by a university, funder or institution for its affiliated researchers) that aligns with the specifications and requirements of their discipline could be selected. The publisher recommends that authors select a repository with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to ensure that the referenced dataset can be linked to consistently.

  Authors could explore online resources for lists of registered data repositories through FAIRsharing.org and re3data.org.

  Here are some examples of generalized dataset repositories:

  • Open Science Framework
  • Dryad Digital Repository
  • Figshare
  • Harvard Dataverse
  • Zenodo

  • Science Data Bank

• Author Guidelines

  Author Guidelines

  Please carefully check that your manuscript has been prepared in accordance to the step-by-step instructions provided before submitted to our online submission system. This following guide and new manuscript template is updated and prepared specifically for people who is going to contribute or edit the manuscripts that will be published in Eco Cities (EC) since 2023 Volume 4 Issue 1. Those who have submitted a manuscript or articled being processed before 2022 Volume 3 Issue 2 (including 2022 Vol.3 No.2), should still refer to the previous author guidelines for further processing.

  Manuscript Format

  Your manuscript should be in MS Word format. All manuscripts must be written in clear, comprehensible English. Both British and American English are accepted. Usage of non-English words should be kept to a minimum and all must be italicized with the exception of "e.g.", "i.e." and "etc." If you have concerns about the level of English in your submission, please ensure that it is proofread before submission by a native English speaker or a scientific editing service. Please chose suitable article type according to Section Policy.

  Cover Letter

  All submissions should include a cover letter as a separate file. A cover letter should contain a brief explanation of what was previously known, the conceptual advancement with the findings and its significance to a broad readership. The cover letter is confidential and will be read only by the editors. It will not be seen by reviewers.

  Title

  The title should capture the conceptual significance for a broad audience. The title should not be more than 50 words and should be able to give readers an overall view of the paper's significance. Titles should avoid using uncommon jargons, abbreviations and punctuation.

  List of Authors

  The names of authors must be spelled out rather than set in initials along with their affiliations. Authors should be listed according to the extent of their contribution, with the major contributor listed first. All corresponding authors should be identified with an asterisk. Affiliations should contain the following core information: department, institution, city, country. For contact purposes, email address of at least one corresponding author must be included. Please note that all authors must see and approve the final version of the manuscript before submitting. Please confirm the authorship according to Authorship Policy.

  Abstract

  Articles must include an abstract containing a maximum of 300 words. The purpose of the abstract is to provide sufficient information for a reader to determine whether to proceed to the full text of the article. After the abstract, please provide 3-8 key words, avoiding the same words already used in the title.

  Text

  The text of the manuscript should be in Microsoft Word. Research article should include the Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion (optional). The length of the manuscript should be a minimum word count of 4,000 words.

  Section Headings

  Headings are used to indicate the hierarchy of sections of text. No more than four levels of displayed headings are employed. Please number the section headings (e.g. 1., 2., 3., 4.) in boldface. Likewise, use boldface to identify subheadings too, but please distinguish it from major headings using numbers (e.g. 1.1., 1.2., 2.1., 2.2.) Further subsections of subheadings should be differentiated with the numbers 1.1.1., 1.1.2., 2.1.1., 2.1.2., etc.

  Introduction

  The introduction should provide a background that gives the broad readership an overall outlook of the field and the research performed. It pinpoints a problem and states its importance regarding the significance of the study. The introduction can conclude with a brief statement of the aim of the work and a comment about whether that aim was achieved.

  Materials and Methods

  This section provides the general experimental design and methodologies used. The aim is to provide enough details for other investigators to fully replicate your results. It is also required to facilitate better understanding of the results obtained. Protocols and procedures for new methods must be included in detail to reproduce the experiments.

  Results

  This section can be divided into subheadings. This section focuses on the results of the experiments performed.

  Discussion

  This section should provide the significance of the results and identify the impact of the research in a broader context. It should not be redundant or similar to the content of the results section.

  Conclusion (Optional)

  Please use the conclusion section for interpretation only, and not to summarize information already presented in the text or abstract.

  The sequence of back matter elements in an article is listed below. There is no numeral label for back matter headings. Some is optional.

  Supplementary materials (Optional)

  The “Supplementary materials” section should be a short description of the supplementary materials. The detailed information can be formatted in one or more individual supplementary files. These materials are relevant to the manuscript but remain non-essential to readers' understanding of the manuscript's main content. All supplementary information should be submitted as a separate file in Step 4 during submission. Please ensure the names of such files contain 'suppl. info'. Videos may be included in this section.

  Author contributions

  For research articles, if there is only one author for a paper, you do not need to add author contributions. If there is more than one author, authors are asked to prepare a short, one paragraph statement giving the individual contribution of each co‐author to the reported research and the writing of the paper. For research articles with several authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided.

  The following statements should be used “Conceptualization, XX and YY; methodology, XX; software, XX; validation, XX, YY and ZZ; formal analysis, XX; investigation, XX; resources, XX; data curation, XX; writing—original draft preparation, XX; writing—review and editing, XX; visualization, XX; supervision, XX; project administration, XX; funding acquisition, YY. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.”

  Funding

  Financial support in preparation of the publication is included at the end of the article, which is NOT mandatory. If authors provided, they should be in the same style as the template,

  e.g.,

  Please add: “This research received no external funding” or “This research was funded by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]” and “The APC was funded by [XXX]”. Check carefully that the details given are accurate and use the standard spelling of funding agency names at https://search.crossref.org/funding, any errors may affect your future funding.

  Acknowledgments (Optional)

  Acknowledgments of the publication are included at the end of the article, and are NOT mandatory. Keep them as the authors have provided.

  Conflict of interest

  All authors are required to declare all activities that have the potential to be deemed as a source of competing interest in relations to their submitted manuscript. Examples of such activities could include personal or work-related relationships, events, etc. Authors who have nothing to declare are encouraged to add "No conflict of interest was reported by all authors" in this section. Please comply with the Conflict of Interest policy.

  Figures

  Authors should include all figures into the manuscript and submit it as one file in the OJS system. Figures include photographs, scanned images, graphs, charts and schematic diagrams. Figures submitted should avoid unnecessary decorative effects (e.g. 3D graphs) as well as be minimally processed (e.g. changes in brightness and contrast applied uniformly for the entire figure). Please remember to label all figures (e.g. axis.) and number them (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2.) in boldface. The caption should describe the entire figure without citing specific panels, followed by a legend defined as description of each panel.

  The preferred file formats for any separately submitted figure(s) are PNG or JPEG. All figures should be legible in print form and of optimal resolution. Although there are no file size limitation imposed, authors are highly encouraged to compress their figures to an ideal size without unduly affecting legibility and resolution of figures. This will also speed up the process of uploading in the submission system if necessary.

  In the main text, all figures should be cited in the following formats:

  Figure 1 Figures 3 and 4 Figures 1, 3 and 4 Figures 1–3	Figure 1a,b Figure 1a–c Figure 9a or Figure 9c Figure 9a or Figure 10c Figure 2(a1) Figure 2(a1,b2)
  Figure 1 Left or Figure 1 Right (not recommended)
  If “respectively” is after the citations of figures or tables, like “Figures 2a, 3a, 4a and 2b, 3b, 4b, respectively”, just keep them as in their provided form.

  The figure or table is usually put after its first appearance, but it can be adjusted depending on the blank space.

  The Editor-in-Chief and Publisher reserve the right to request from author(s) the high-resolution files and unprocessed data and metadata files should the need arise at any point after manuscript submission for reasons such as production, evaluation or other purposes. The file name should allow for ease in identifying the associated manuscript submitted.

  Tables, Lists and Equations

  Tables should be prepared in MS Word/Excel table format, not inserted as images. Very large tables can be placed in the Supplementary Material. The tables should include a title at the top. Titles and footnotes/legends should be concise. These must be submitted together with the manuscript. Likewise, lists and equations should be properly aligned and its meaning clear to readers.

  In the main text, tables should be cited in the following formats:

  Table 1	Tables 3 and 4
  Tables 1, 3, and 4	Tables 1–3

  If there are subtables (a) or (b), please combine them into one table, and use the format of Table 1a,b in the main text.

   

  In-text Citations

  List and number all bibliographical references that make an important contribution to the paper. When referenced in the text, enclose the citation number in square brackets, for example: 

  • Negotiation research spans many disciplines^[3,4].
  • This effect has been widely studied^[1-5,7].

  References

  This section is compulsory and should be placed at the end of all manuscripts. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list. The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should be excluded from this section.

  Journal

  Journal article in English

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM, Author 3 FM, et al. Title of the article. Journal Name Year; Volume(Issue) (if available): Firstpage–Lastpage. doi (if available)

  • e.g., Petitti DB, Crooks VC, Buckwalter JG, et al. Blood pressure levels before dementia. Archives of Neurology 2005; 62(1): 112–116. doi: 10.1001/archneur.62.1.112

  Journal article in a language other than English

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM, Author 3 FM, et al. English title of the article (language). Journal Name Year; Volume(Issue) (if available): Firstpage–Lastpage. doi (if available)

  • e.g., Massone L, Borghi S, Pestarino A. Purpuric palmarsites of dermatitis herpetiformis (French). Annual Dermatol Venerol 1987; 114(12): 1545–1547.

   

  Book

  Book without editors

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM. Chapter (optional). In: Title of the Book, Edition (if available). Publisher; Year. pp. Page range (optional).

  • e.g., Cerdá C. Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Non‐communicable Diseases—Molecular Mechanisms and Perspectives in Therapeutics. Springer International Publishing; 2014.
  • e.g., Desiraju GR, Steiner T. The Weak Hydrogen Bond in Structural Chemistry and Biology, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press; 1999. pp. 10–25.

  Book with editors

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM. Title of the contribution. In: Editor 1 FM, Editor 2 FM (editors). Title of the Book, Edition (if available). Publisher; Year. Volume (optional), pp. Page range (optional).

  • e.g., Almlof J, Gropen O. Relativistic effects in chemistry. In: Lipkowitz KB, Boyd DB (editors). Reviews in Computational Chemistry. VCH; 1996. Volume 8. pp. 206–210.

  In a translated book, put the translators’ names after the editors’ names: “Translator 1 FM (translator)” or “Translator 1 FM, Translator 2 FM (translators)”. For example:

  • e.g., Tessier J. Structure, synthesis and physical—Chemical properties of deltamethrin. In: Tessier J (editor). Walden BVdG (translator). Deltamethrin Monograph. Roussel‐Uclaf; 1982.

  If the editors and translators are the same, the format should be as in the following example:

  • e.g., Gadamer HG. Hermeneutics and logocentrism. In: Michelfelder DP, Palmer RE (editors and translators). Dialogue and Deconstruction: The Gadamer‐Derrida Debate. State University of New York Press; 1989. pp. 114–125.

   

  Conference

  Full citations of published abstracts (proceedings)

  In most cases, the proceedings will be simply called “Proceedings of the Name of the Conference (full name)” without a book title. In this case, please only add the conference name in the proceedings’ title and keep that in regular face (i.e., do no italicize):

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM, Author 3 FM, et al. Title of presentation. In: Proceedings of the Name of the Conference; Date of Conference (Day Month Year) (if available); Location of Conference (City, Country) (if available). Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).

  • e.g., Chum O, Philbin J, Zisserman A. Near duplicate image detection: Min‐Hash and tf‐idf weighting. In: Proceedings of the 19th British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC 2008); 1–4 September 2008; Leeds, UK. pp. 812–815.

  If the proceedings are published as a book with a separate title (i.e., not “Proceedings of the Name of the Conference (full name)” as the title), the Book Titles is in italic:

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM, Author 3 FM. Title of presentation. In: Editor 1 FM, Editor 2 FM (editors) (if available). Title of Collected Work, Proceedings of the Name of the Conference; Date of Conference (Day Month Year) (if available); Location of Conference (City, Country) (if available). Publisher; Year. Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).

  • e.g., Beebe N. Digital forensic research: The good, the bad and the unaddressed. In: Advances in Digital Forensics V, Proceedings of the Fifth IFIP WG 11.9 International Conference on Digital Forensics; 26–28 January 2009; Orlando, FL, USA. Springer; 2009. Volume V, pp. 17–36.

  Oral presentations without published material

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM, Author 3 FM. Title of presentation (if any). Presented at the Name of Conference; Date of Conference (Day Month Year) (if available); Location of Conference (City, Country) (if available); Paper number (if available).

  • e.g., Zhang Z, Chen H, Zhong J, et al. ZnO nanotip‐based QCM biosensors. Presented at the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium and Exposition; 4–7 June 2006; Miami, FL, USA.

   

  Thesis/Dissertation

  Author FM. Title of Thesis [Level of thesis]. Degree‐Granting University; Year.

  • e.g., Mäckel H. Capturing the Spectra of Silicon Solar Cells [PhD thesis]. The Australian National University; 2004.

  The level of thesis can be called “XX thesis” or “XX dissertation”. Thesis types include but are not limited to the following:

      PhD thesis

      Master’s thesis

      Bachelor’s thesis

      Licentiate thesis

      Diploma thesis

   

  Newspapers

  Author 1, Author 2, Author 3, et al. Title of article. Title of Periodical, Complete Date, Pagination (if available).

  • e.g.: Squires S. Falling short on nutrients. The Washington Post, 4 October 2005, p. H1.

   

  Patent

  Patent Owner 1, Patent Owner 2, Patent Owner 3. Title of Patent. Patent Number, Date (Day Month Year, the Application granted date).

  • e.g., Sheem SK. Low‐Cost Fiber Optic Pressure Sensor. U.S. Patent 6,738,537, 18 May 2004.
  • e.g., Thomas WM, Nicholas ED, Needham JC, et al. Friction Stir Butt Welding. International Patent Application No. PCT/GB92/02203; GB Patent Application No. 9125978.8; U.S. Patent Application No. 5,460,317, 6 December 1991.

   

  Unpublished work

  Author 1 FM, Author 2 FM. Title of unpublished work. Journal Title Year (if available); Phrase Indicating Stage of Publication (submitted, in press, etc.).

  • e.g., Guo L, Zhu Y, Gunawan O, et al. Electrodeposited Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ thin film solar cell with 7% power conversion efficiency. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 2014; in press.
  • e.g., Nokinara K. Title of unpublished work. Duke University, Durham, UK; 2003; Unpublished work.

   

  Online resources

  Author (if available). Title of content (if available). Available online: http://URL (accessed on Day Month Year). In case of a homepage, the access date is not required.

  • e.g., Weier MH. In a big win for HP, Wal‐Mart chooses Neoview Data Warehouse. Available online: http://www.informationweek.com/news/201202317 (accessed on 2 June 2012).

   

  References tips:

  1. References are limited to first three authors.

  2. References with more than three authors: the first three authors should be listed; all the subsequent authors should be replaced by single “et al.” As et al. means “and others”, list all names if there are only 4 authors.

  3. Journal name in each reference should not be abbreviated.

  4. “(a) ref. 1; (b) ref. 2” in one reference is not allowed, and it should be divided into two references.

  5. Pagination: use the abbreviations “p.” and “pp.” to indicate single and multiple pages, respectively, e.g.,

      p. 1

      pp. 1–20

      pp. 1, 15, 20

      240p (to cite the whole book)

  6. The article number can replace the page number.

  7. If the author names appear in non-roman alphabets, Do Retain it as in original form.

  e.g. Å not as A	ĝ not as g
  Ø not as O	ñ not as n
  Ç not as C	ü not as u
  Ł not as L	æ not as ae
  à not as a	oe not as oe

  8. Capitalize first letter after colon/em dash.

  9. If you are not sure what type it is, just try to put it as an online resource—find the document or website’s title, and its URL address. The accessed date should be provided later by the authors (ask the authors to provide this).

   

  Appendix （Optional）

  Appendixes provide information supplementary to an article and are included at the end of the main document. If there is only one, it is designated “Appendix A”; if there is more than one, they are designated “Appendix A”, “Appendix B”, etc.

  Appendixes should be cited in the main text. An appendix’s Figures/Tables/Equations can be cited in the main text, but are not mandatory. The content of an appendix is contained within the sections subordinate to the major heading, “Appendix.” The language and styling rules for the text also apply to appendixes. The form of numbering of tables, figures, and equations in an appendix should be started with prefix A, (i.e., Figure A1, Figure A2, Table A1, etc.).

   

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