About This Journal

The rapid development of science and technology including cloud computing, chips, 5G, and artificial intelligence technology, has stimulated the recovery of the metaverse. From the technical point of view, we (it seems) have touched the threshold of the metaverse, which is no longer as far away as before. The metaverse includes such six technologies as blockchain technology, interactivity technology (VR/AR/MR/XR/ER), game technology (game engine, game code, multimedia resources), AI technology, network communication technology, and Internet of Things. To support the operation of the huge metaverse, it also needs extremely powerful algorithms. The metaverse is a digital universe and a parallel world, which involves the application and development of Metaverse in various fields, including but not limited to: education, art, philosophy, industry, medicine, agriculture, forest. Metaverse (Met) is an open-access academic journal that studies relevant issues on metaverse. Met also welcomes different types of articles including research article, case report, review, perspective, and method concerned with metaverse studies such as the concept definition and its development.

ISSN:2810-9791       (online)

Focus and Scope

For Authors

• Publishing Ethics

  Asia Pacific Academy of Science Pte. Ltd. requests all members involved in the journal publishing process to adhere to the Core Practices on publication ethics as stipulated by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

  The publisher strictly adheres to the guidelines and best practices, which include Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

  The journal editors take all possible misconducts seriously. The editors, authors or readers can forward their concerns to the journal if they find out that the description in a submitted article may constitute an academic fraud, research misconduct or publication malpractice. The concerns or complaints on the possible allegations submitted to the journal will be dealt with promptly and appropriately according to the procedure set out in the COPE flowchart on complaints. The complainant may direct all inquiries and correspondence to the journal at editorial-met@apacsci.com.

  Metaverse adopts a zero-tolerance policy concerning any academic misconducts and ethical violations in research and publication regardless of the severity of these issues. The violations include plagiarism, falsification of research, data fabrication, submitting manuscripts of others as one’s own, submission of same manuscript to different publication venues at the same time and breaching intellectual property rights. In cases of suspected misconduct and ethical violation, a panel will be formed to investigate the allegation. If the allegation is supported by evidence, the submitted manuscript in question will be declined for consideration in the journal and all authors will be informed in this regard. A retraction initiated by authors or by the journal is required to take place if the paper has already been published, and the retraction will be made public. Authors of the work in question will receive the panel’s decision via email and all appeals regarding the decision will have to be made to the journal at editorial-met@apacsci.com within 30 days of the decision date.

• 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 Metaverse 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 Metaverse 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

  Conflicts of interest may exist when professional judgements concerning a primary interest have the possibility of being influenced by a secondary interest (e.g.: financial gains). It is to be noted that even perceptions of conflicts of interest are as important as the actual conflicts of interest.

  Any agreements with study sponsors (for profit or non-profit), which interfere with the authors’ access to the study data, ability to analyze or interpret the data and publish manuscripts independently according to their own decision, should be avoided by authors at all costs.

  A declaration of interests for all authors must be received before an article can be reviewed and accepted for publication.

  Authors, reviewers and editors should declare any (potential) non-financial conflicts of interest and declare any unpaid roles or relations that may influence the decision on the article publication. This includes, but is not limited to, unpaid role in a government or non-governmental organization, unpaid role in an advocacy or lobbying organization, and unpaid advisory position in a commercial organization.

  In addition, reviewers and editors must disclose any association that poses a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript. Examples of such activities could include personal or work-related relationships and events.

  Common reasons for editors and reviewers to be replaced include but are not limited to:

  • The editor or reviewer works at the same organization as one of the authors.
  • The editor or reviewer is one of the authors of this work.
  • The editor or reviewer is on the avoidance list from the author(s).
  • The editor or reviewer has a financial relationship or personal relationship with an author.

• Misconduct Policy

  Duplicate Submission

  Manuscripts submitted to Metaverse should:

  1) not have been published before;

  2) not concurrently be submitted elsewhere.

  If part of a manuscript has been published or will be published elsewhere, the authors must let the editors know in a cover letter. If duplicate submission is detected during peer review, the manuscript may be rejected. If it is detected after publication, the manuscript may be retracted.

  Plagiarism

  Authors are advised to observe high standards in the aspect of publication ethics. Any plagiarism (fabrication or falsification of data) are strictly unacceptable practices in Metaverse, including duplicate publication of the author’s work without proper citation.

  Every manuscript submitted for publication is checked for plagiarism via CrossCheck (powered by iThenticate) after submission and before being sent to the editor for editorial review. Any detection of overlapping and similar texts in the manuscripts submitted will be investigated promptly and may lead to the manuscript being rejected.

• Ethical Oversight

  Met always follows the Ethical Oversight policy of COPE, and monitors every stage of the completion of best practice followed by the Core Practices and the ethical problem of COPE. All academic misconduct is strictly prohibited. If there is any potential for, including but not limited to academic fraud, plagiarism, and multiple contributions, the manuscript will not be assigned to the next stage for evaluation, and authors are responsible for explaining doubts to the Editorial Office. Met promises that all the submissions are private, and they will not be disclosed to third parties unless the publishing purposes. Authors, editors, and reviewers should expose any potential conflict of interest timely according to the Conflict of Interest Policy.

  For subjects involving humans or animals, Met asks authors to be deeply concerned the privacy and welfare of the subjects based on the policy of Statement of Human and Animal Rights. Authors should provide the approval from the institutional ethical regulator or committee. All the information of the subjects is private, and authors should hide the identifiable information such as face picture, name, and fingerprint picture. Most importantly, Informed Content Statement from all the research subjects should be obtained, and authors need to inform the subjects that this research will be published in future. For the vulnerable, it is necessary to obtain oral or written Informed Content Statement from their parent of kinship.

• Errata & Withdrawal Policy

  Errata

  All publisher-introduced changes are highlighted to the author at the proof stage and any errors are ideally identified by the author and corrected by the publisher before final publication. Any errors in published articles discovered by readers, authors, editors, etc., please contact the journal editor. Asia Pacific Academy of Science will only instigate a corrigendum to a published article after receiving approval and instructions from the editor.

  Withdrawal

  If authors change their mind and decide not to pursue publication of papers with the journal, they must write a letter addressed to our editors at editorial-met@apacsci.com, explaining the reason(s) of submission withdrawal. Consents of all co-authors must be obtained for author-initiated submission withdrawal. The decision to withdraw a submission would eventually rest with the editors, including the Editor-in-Chief.

  It is relatively more difficult to withdraw a paper that has been processed for peer-review or is under peer-review compared to withdrawing a new submission because the editors and reviewers have expended much time and energy in editorial process and manuscript evaluation, respectively. To withdraw a paper that has been processed for peer-review, authors should clearly argue their case on scientific reasons; only valid and sound reasons will be accepted. He/she would be required to pay a penalty fee (USD 200). Authors are advised to keep in mind that an article should only be withdrawn if the authors detect significant errors or flaws, as it is not an acceptable practice to withdraw an article after it has been sent for peer review. Once the approval of submission withdrawal is granted, the submission will be removed from the journal’s online submission system, and a confirmation email of submission withdrawal will be sent to the authors. The withdrawal process is considered to be complete once the author receives a confirmation of withdrawal from the Journal Editorial Office.

  Submission withdrawal is also possible for accepted papers that have not been formally published, including the newly accepted papers and Articles in Press.

  Withdrawal of an accepted paper and Article in Press is usually editor-initiated. The reasons of withdrawing accepted papers and Articles in Press are similar to those of retracting a published article, i.e., academic misconducts and ethical violations in research and publication regardless of the severity of these issues. The misconducts and violations include plagiarism, falsification of research, data fabrication, submitting manuscripts of others as one’s own, submission of same manuscript to different publication venues at the same time and breaching intellectual property rights. Once the suspected misconduct and ethical violation is brought to our attention, the editors will organize an investigation and authors are required to cooperate in the investigation; any accepted papers or Articles in Press subject to investigation at this stage will not be arranged for article production or finalization. A Panel will be organized to investigate the allegations. If the allegations are proven true with supporting evidence, the accepted paper or Article in Press will be marked for withdrawal, and a notification email regarding the Panel’s Decision will be sent to all authors of the work. Any appeals regarding the Panel’s Decision will have to be made to the journal within 14 days of the decision date. In the absence of an appeal from the authors within the 14 days, the submission will be removed from the journal’s online submission system, and a confirmation email of submission withdrawal will be sent to the authors.

  Authors should note that any amounts of paid Article Processing Charge will not be refunded if their accepted papers or Articles in Press are withdrawn on the grounds of academic misconducts and ethical violations in research and publication.

• Language

  The language used in manuscripts submitted to Metaverse is English. Authors whose first language is not English may want to have their manuscripts professionally edited before the final submission to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by its prospective readers.

• Preprint policy

  Authors are permitted to post their non-peer-reviewed original research manuscripts to preprint servers before submitting to Metaverse. During submission, authors are obliged to declare in the cover letter if the corresponding preprint version of their submission has been deposited on a preprint server, and provide any associated accession numbers or DOIs.

  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

  Authorship of a scholarly paper should be limited to individuals who have contributed substantially to its intellectual content. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or general supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. All authors should hold the responsibility of fairly evaluating their respective roles and their co-authors’ roles in the project. This is to ensure that authorship is attributed according to a fixed standard in all publications for which they will be listed as authors.

  In order to be listed as an author for a paper, one should have contributed sufficiently to the project. A co-author is expected to have contributed to some component of the work which led to the paper or be involved in the interpretation of its results. A maximum of two corresponding authors are allowed for the associated responsibilities. All authors should have a say in the final approval of the version to be published, in addition to reviewing the final manuscript prior to submission.

  Individuals who do not meet the above requirements, but have provided a valuable contribution to the work, may be acknowledged for their contribution as appropriate to the publication.

  Changes to Authorship

  Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript is accepted for publication. The corresponding author should provide the reasons for the change in authorship list and the proof of written confirmation from all authors (including the existing authors, author(s) to be added and/or removed) agreeing with such change, to the Editorial Office.

  The requests for authorship changes need to be approved by the Editorial Office before any changes can be made.

• Disclaimer

  This journal is not liable to the statements, perspectives, and opinions contained in the published articles. The appearance of advertisements in the journal shall not be construed as a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised and/or the safety thereof. This journal and the Publisher disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas or products referred to in the articles or advertisements.

  As an author, once submitting a manuscript, it means that you have be aware of all publishing policies & ethics,  and will strictly abide by them.

  As a reviewer, once reviewing a manuscript, it means that you must be aware of the peer review policies, and proactively disclose of all potential conflicts of interest, and guarantee that an article will be judged fairly and objectively. 

   

• Copyright and License

  The authors shall retain the copyright of their work but allow the Publisher to publish, copy, distribute, and convey the work.

  All articles published by Metaverse are licensed under the Creative Commons International Licenses. Without any explicit request from the corresponding author during the submission stage, a paper will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) by default. The authors who would like to publish their work under other license, i.e. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), they should express explicit request during the submission stage. Please include statement below in the Comments for the Editor column on the submission page:

  The contributors or authors for this submission entitled “[MANUSCRIPT TITLE]”, i.e. [NAMES of ALL AUTHORS], have given their consents to alter the Creative Commons License to *CC BY-NC 4.0* under which this submission will be published in Metaverse.

   

• Advertising Policy

  All advertisements are subject to approval to the journal. Advertisements must comply with the relevant regulations in the country where the advertisements appear. Advertisements should not be related in any way to editorial decision making, and shall be kept separate from the published content. For more inquiries, please send email to editorial-met@apacsci.com.

• Article Processing Charges (APCs)

  Asia Pacific Academy of Science Pte. Ltd. publishes all its journals in Gold Open Access format. The scientific community and the general public have free of all restrictions on accessing (e.g., subscription) and free of many restrictions on using its contents as soon as it is published online. In order to defray our editorial and production costs, authors of the accepted articles are required to pay the article processing charges (APCs are US $800). The charges will come from authors' institutes or research funding bodies.

  Waiver Policy

  For high-quality articles graded by our editorial board members and authors from low-income countries with difficulty to pay, Metaverse will access in a case-by-case basis and may approve certain discount to ensure the publication of high-quality articles. Metaverse reserves the rights to approve or decline any such request. Please contact: editorial-met@apacsci.com.

• Statement of Informed Consent

  All papers related to the research involving humans, should declare that they have obtain the "statement of informed consent" written or oral during submitting. Any summion involving human experience will not be considered for the next step without obtaining the "statement of informed consent".

  Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. All information which could contribute to identify patients, including patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, etc., unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives explicit written or oral informed consent for publication. If identifying characteristics are de-identified, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning, and editors will note that. Furthermore, individuals who provide writing assistance should be identified by the authors, and they should disclose the funding source for this assistance.

• Statement of Human and Animal Rights

  All papers submitted to Metaverse should declare agreement with the following "Statement of human and animal rights". Papers describing procedures involving humans or animals must include an explicit and easily identifiable statement pointing out that the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the author's Institutional Review Board or Research Ethics Committee, the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 2013,  ARRIVE and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. If any doubt exists as to whether the research was conducted in accordance with local ethics laws, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and then demonstrate that the institutional ethical committee explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

  For vulnerable groups, the written or oral permission of the published experimental data and results must be approved by parents or relatives.

  When reporting experiments on animals, authors should be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

• Indexing & Archiving

  • All the articles published online will be archived by 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 Metaverse.

• Special Issue Policy

  1. What is a Special Issue?

  A Special Issue Program has been launched by Asia Pacific Academy of Science Pte. Ltd. A Special Issue is a collection of research hotspots or topics in a specific field. Guest editors who are experts in this discipline, has the responsibility to drive the special issue program. Manuscripts accepted will both be ordered/archived in a regular volume/issue and special issue.

  Benefits of Special Issue

  • More quickly discovered and cited.
  • Promote academic exchanges in this field.
  • Avoid repetition of topics.
  • Dissemination of the latest achievements.
  • Broaden the visibility and maximize the impact of a certain field so that more experts could focus on the topic.

  Benefits of being Guest Editors

  • Expanding the popularity.
  • Faster to initiate the communication and establish co-operatives ties.
  • Learn the latest research.
  • Publish one article without any APCs as the privilege.

  2. How to drive a Special Issue?

  There are two ways to obtain a special issue proposal.

  • Guest Editors will be invited by the assistant editor to submit a professional proposal.
  • Authors and readers could be welcomed to submit proposals on the Special Issue section of the journal website, and EiC will evaluate them for the viability and suitability for this journal.

  Preparation for a proposal

  A great topic is the crucial element for success. Each candidate topic will be selected by EiC for considering whether it is consistent with the scope of this journal. Hot topics are usually considered to be more attractive.

  A proposal should include necessary information:

  • List of Guest Editors
  • Types of manuscript
  • Main topics
  • Submission deadline
  • Keywords

   

  3. Special Issue Ethics

  Asia Pacific Academy of Science Pte. Ltd. abides to the Code of Conduct of COPE and Best Practice Guidelines in all the editorial process. Each new submission must follow the journal’s Editorial Policies, and any potential unethical manuscript will not passed to the nest stage. Asia Pacific Academy of Science Pte. Ltd. promises to protect the confidentiality of all submissions unless the publishing needs. All the editors and reviewers must strictly abide by the Conflict of Interests of the journal, and they are asked to inform the Editorial Office if any potential conflict of interests exists, and then, the Editorial Office may consider to change the editor or reviewer. As authors, they have the right to provide a list of avoided experts. Please appeal to editorial-met@apacsci.com for any requests related to manuscript promotion.

  4. Workflow of Special Issue

  Once the members of the Guest Editors are exactly online, the assistant editor will collect manuscripts on behalf of the Guest Editors. Manuscripts are submitted to open journal system and go through double-blined peer-reviewed process. Any new submission will be checked by assistant editor, and then the leader of Guest Editors will assign it to at least 2 reviewers. The leader of Guest Editors will make the final decision and inform the author. Once a manuscript is accepted, it will go into production, and it is both ordered in the current regular issue and collection of the Special Issue. Articles may be archived in different regular volume/issue of this journal, although they are collected and marked as Special Issue articles.

  Guest Editor has the privilege to publish only one article free, and experts from the same affiliate with guest editors could not be one of the reviewers at any stage. EiC has the responsibility to oversee all the editorial process for academic fairness.

• 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 Metaverse (MET) since 2023 Volume 4 Issue 2. Those who have submitted a manuscript or articled being processed before 2023 Volume 4 Issue 1 (including 2023 Vol.4 No.1), 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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