Author Guidelines

• INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

BEFORE PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT

Research suitable for publication. Please consult the editorial policies before preparing manuscript for publication in HSI Journal. Manuscripts that are clearly inconsistent with the guidelines shall be declined by the Editor-in-Chief without subject to full review. These notes are intended only to instruct authors in the submission of manuscripts. The notes are in accordance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, Uniform requirements of manuscripts. See http:/www.icme.org/index.html. The Health Science Journal publishes results of experimental, basic and clinical research on all disciplines of health science.

Conditions for publications. By submitting to HSI Journal   manuscripts are considered for publication on the following basis: (1) The manuscript is not being considered or reviewed for publication elsewhere in the same or a similar form; (2) Diligence has been paid to ethical considerations (3) There are no libelous or unlawful content in the manuscript.

Co-Authors consent. All listed authors must concur in the submission of manuscript for review. The final version must be seen and approved by all authors who must also transfer copyright to HSI Journal statement to this purpose will have to be boldly written out in the submitted manuscript.

Scope of articles and types of contributions. The HSI publishes reports of experimental, basic and clinical research on medicine, nursing, biomedical sciences, public health and allied health, including communication therapy and audiology, medical laboratory science, environmental health, and medical imaging and radiologic technologies. Articles from all  disciplines of allied health are considered for publication. The journal scope is health sciences interdisciplinary. The Journal is dedicated to serving scientists wishing to contribute to global health.

Types of contribution. The HSJ is peer-reviewed and publishes in English as regular original experimental, basic, and clinical research articles, systematic/regular review papers, case reports, brief communications and letters to the editor. The journal also publishes interviews on global opinion leaders and policy makers on health matters of global relevance. HSJ publishes special issues focusing on topics of current interest. Proposals for special issues are welcome and should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief at hsj@org.gh.  

Publication charges

There are no charges to publication in HSI Journal. Solicited Reviews, Commentaries, and Comment Letters to the Editor are not subject to page charges. New-Data Letters to the Editor are not subject to page charges. Authors whose research was supported by grants, special funds or contracts or whose research was done as part of their official duties (government or corporate, etc.) are also not required to pay page charges.  Authors of articles accepted for publication will receive an e-mail notifying them to grant copyright of the articles to the Journal.  

Authorizations

Submission of a manuscript to HSI Journal infers that reported research has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Manuscripts that include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are obliged to take permission from the copyright owner(s).  The authors must provide evidence that permission for such works has been received when submitting their papers to HSI Journal. Any material received by HSI Journal without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Online Submission

Please click “Submit to HSI Journal online” and follow instructions given on the screen. Upload all of your manuscript files here. Please make sure to provide all relevant source files in editable versions, preferably Microsoft Office Word format, except where not applicable. Failure to submit such editable source files may lead to undue delays in the production process.

Conflict of interest

All authors must declare conflicts of interest (in writing) during submission of their manuscripts. The HSI Journal subscribes that conflicts of interest towards publications could be academic, commercial, personal, political or even financial. Financial conflicts of interests could include work, payment for conferences, lectures or travel, funding for research work, patents, share of ownership, or even an interest in a company. If authors declare no conflicts of interest, the HSI Journal will publish the manuscripts as such. When in doubt, authors must disclose the situation so that the HSI Journal editors can evaluate the circumstances for any implication.

PREPARING MANUSCRIPT TEXT

Editorial style. The editorial style of HSI Journal conforms to How To Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 7th ed. (Greenwood, Santa Barbara, CA, 2011) as interpreted by the editorial departments. The HSI Journal has the privilege of editing manuscripts to conform with the stylistic conventions set forth in the instructions.

Text Formatting. Manuscripts submitted to HSI Journal must be typed in Microsoft Office Word.

• Use a normal 12-point Times Roman plain font for text.
• Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
• Do not use field functions.
• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
• Type every portion of the manuscript double-spaced (a minimum of 6 mm between lines), including figure legends, table footnotes, and references, and number all pages in sequence, including the abstract, figure legends, and tables.
• Manuscript pages must have page size of 8.5 by 11 inches and font size of 12 points. Italicize words that should appear in italics, and indicate paragraphs using the Microsoft Office Word paragraph function.
• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
• Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher)

Headings. Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.

Abbreviations. Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. Abbreviations other than those recommended by the IUPAC-IUB (Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents, 1992) should be used only when a case can be made for necessity, such as in tables and figures. Define each abbreviation and introduce it in parentheses the first time it is used. Generally, eliminate abbreviations that are not used at least three times in the text (including tables and figure legends). Standard chemical symbols and trivial names or their symbols (folate, Ala, and Leu, etc.) may also be used. Standard metric units are used for reporting length, weight, and volume.

Nomenclature. Chemical and biochemical nomenclature. For guidelines to the use of biochemical terminology, consul Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents (Portland Press, London, United Kingdom, 1992), available at http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/bibliog/white.html. For enzymes, use the recommended (trivial) name as assigned by the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB) as described in Enzyme Nomenclature (Academic Press, Inc., New York, NY, 1992) and its supplements and at http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/enzyme/. See the Beilstein Institut/STRENDA (standards for reporting enzymology data) commission Web site (http://www.beilstein-institut.de/en/projekte/strenda/guidelines/) for more details and suggestions.

Microorganisms. The spelling of bacterial names should follow two sites on the World Wide Web list current approved bacterial names: Bacterial Nomenclature Up-to-Date (http://www.dsmz.de/bacterial-diversity/prokaryotic-nomenclature-up-to-date.html) and List of Prokaryotic Names with Standing in Nomenclature (http://www.bacterio.cict.fr/).

Since the classification of fungi is not complete, it is the responsibility of the author to determine the accepted binomial for a given organism. Sources for these names include Dictionary of the Fungi, Kirk,, P. M., Cannon, P. F., Minter, P. W., Stalpers J. A. (ed.), 10^th ed. CABI International, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom; see also http://www.speciesfungorum.org/Names/Fundic.asp.

Names used for viruses should be those approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and reported on the ICTV Virus Taxonomy website.

Genetics. To facilitate accurate communication, it is important that standard genetic nomenclature be used whenever possible and that deviations or proposals for new naming systems be endorsed by an appropriate authoritative body.

Full-Length Papers

Page 1: Title Page. On the title page, include the title, the running title (not to exceed 60 characters and spaces), the names and affiliations. Provide the corresponding author’s name, telephone initials of authors, and authors' numbers, and current e-mail address. A study group, surveillance team, working group, consortium, or the like (e.g., the Parasite Surveillance Team) may be listed as a coauthor in the byline if its contributing members fulfill the criteria of substantial contribution to and responsibility for authorship. Otherwise, names and institutional affiliations may be given as contributing members in Acknowledgments.

Title page should include:

• The name(s) of the author(s)
• A concise and informative title
• The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
• The e-mail address, and telephone number(s) of the corresponding author

Page 2: Abstract. Provide a structured abstract of maximum 250 words with background and objectives, methods, results and conclusions.  Avoid abbreviations, references, and diagrams. Include a maximum of five keywords for subject indexing. The key words should be listed on the last line on the abstract page

Next: Introduction. The introduction should supply sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand and evaluate the results of the present study without exhaustive review of the literature. It should include the purpose of the study and its relationship to earlier work in the field.

For Case Reports, the case description must be placed after the ‘Introduction’ and before ‘Materials and Methods’, to give relevant clinical information about one or more patients.

Next: Materials and Methods. The Materials and Methods section should include sufficient technical information to allow the experiments to be repeated. When centrifugation conditions are critical, give enough information to enable another investigator to repeat the procedure: make of centrifuge, model of rotor, temperature, time at maximum speed, and centrifugal force (x g rather than revolutions per minute). For commonly used materials and methods (e.g., media and protein concentration determinations), a simple reference is sufficient. If several alternative methods are commonly used, it is helpful to identify the method briefly as well as to cite the reference. Describe new methods completely and give sources of unusual chemicals, equipment, or microbial strains.

Next: Results. The Results section should include the results of the experiments. Reserve extensive interpretation of the results for the Discussion section. Present the results as concisely as possible in one of the following: text, tables, or figures. Avoid extensive use of graphs to present data that might be more concisely presented in the text or tables. Limit photographs (particularly photomicrographs and electron micrographs) to those that are absolutely necessary to show the experimental findings. Number figures and tables in the order in which they are cited in the text, and be sure to cite all figures and tables.

Tables. Tables should be on separate sheets, have brief titles, and numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. The preferred format for regular tables is Microsoft Word (.doc) list table and should be formatted with horizontal borders only and a horizontal line to separate the heading space from content. Lead-ins within the heading space should be delineated with horizontal lines.  Arrange the data so that columns of like material read down, not across. Footnotes should be cited with lowercase letters. Table legends are not acceptable. Tables with fewer than six pieces of data must be incorporated into the text.

The Health Sciences Investigations Journal requires the following.

• All tables are numbered using numbers Arabic numerals.
• Tables must be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• For each table, a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table be stated on top of the table.
• Table footnotes must be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Footnotes. Authors may use footnotes to give additional information to the table, and may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. Footnotes must not be solely for a reference citation. Footnotes must not contain any figures or tables. Footnotes must not include details of a reference. Footnotes to the text must be numbered consecutively. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

Illustrations. Figures should be on separate sheets, have titles and legends with sufficient details, and numbered in the order in which they appear. Figures should be submitted separately from the text, if possible. All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals. Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order. Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). Label photographs as plates. No specific feature within an image should be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Changing contrast, brightness, and color balance is acceptable only if applied to all parts of the image, as well as to the controls, equally, and descriptions of all such adjustments and the tools used are provided. Illustrations may be continuous-tone images, line drawings, or composites. Colour art is free of charge for online publication. Color graphics may be submitted, but the cost of printing in color would be borne by the author. All graphics submitted must be bitmap, grayscale, or in the RGB (preferred) or CMYK color mode with a resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch. The HSJ also accepts TIFF or EPS files ( refer to the Cadmus digital art website, http://art.cadmus.com/da/index.jsp). Legends should appear in the manuscript text file. Multipanel figures (figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) must have consistent labeling and assembled into a composite file. The image uploaded should be 100% of its print dimensions so that no reduction or enlargement is necessary and should include only the significant portion of an illustration. Space must be cropped from the image. If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that HSI Journal will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Important Note: All tables (including title and footnotes) and illustrations (including title and legends) should be separated from the manuscript when uploading files. There should be a complete word document that contains all tables (one table per page) in the manuscript. This document with the tables should be uploaded separately from the manuscript. Similarly, there should be a word document that contains the individual illustrations (with titles and legends) one each per page. This document should be uploaded separately from the manuscript. The manuscript should only contain texts 

Next: Discussion. The Discussion should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published work and to the experimental system at hand and should not contain extensive repetition of the Results section or reiteration of the introduction. In short papers, the Results and Discussion sections may be combined. Include a sub-section ‘conclusions’ in the discussions.

Next: Ethics. Manuscripts must contain a statement to the effect that all human studies have been reviewed by the appropriate ethics committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards pertaining to institutions of study. It should be stated in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to inclusion into the study. The HSI Journal requires that all manuscripts submitted on human studies should state the body/organization that provided ethical clearance permission. Authors must also cite the ethical clearance identity number. Reports on animal studies must state that the principles of laboratory animal care (NIH publication number 85-23, revised 1985) were followed. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above guidelines.

Next: Acknowledgement. The source of any financial support received for the work being published must be indicated in the Acknowledgments section. (It is assumed that the absence of acknowledgments is a statement by authors that no support was received.). This could be cited as “This study was supported by the AIDS Commission Research grant AC 0-2524 from the Global Fund.”.

Next: Conflict of interest. All authors must declare conflicts of interest (in writing) during submission of their manuscripts. The HSI Journal subscribes that conflicts of interest towards publications could be academic, commercial, personal, political or even financial. Financial conflicts of interests could include work, payment for conferences, lectures or travel, funding for research work, patents, share of ownership, or even an interest in a company. If authors declare no conflicts of interest, the HSI Journal will publish the manuscripts as such. When in doubt, authors must disclose the situation so that the HSI Journal editors can evaluate the circumstances for any implication.

Next: Author Contributions Statement. Authors are expected to provide a short description of the contributions made by each listed author. This too will be published in in the manuscript in a separate section after the Conflict of Interest statement.

Next: Data availability. The HSI Journal requires all authors to include a data availability statement in their article. The statement should state where data where data supporting the results reported in the article may be found. Such statement statements can also be about whether data are available upon reasonable request to the authors. Authors may use select any or combination of the following forms:

• The datasets generated during and/or analysed during this study may be available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
• The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study
• All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

Next: References. There is no limit to the number of references sited in the article. The HSI Journal encourages authors to cite the primary literature rather than review articles throughout their manuscripts. The HSI Journal references are cited in text by numbers in parenthesis only. The citation-sequence system lists the references consecutively with numbers in the order of appearance in text (Vancouver style). List of authors in the references section should not be abbreviated with ’’et al.’’ but provided in full. Journal names are abbreviated according to Index Medicus and without periods after abbreviated words. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.  Do not italize titles of academic journals, books etc.

Citing references in the reference section. References should include all journal articles (both print and online), patents, theses and dissertations, books and book chapters (both print and online), published conference proceedings, meeting abstracts from published abstract books or journal supplements, letters (to the editor), and company publications, as well as in-press journal articles, book chapters, and books.

1. Barel. E., Haetig, H. B. H., Mater, T.A., Tokimsic, B., Gyuyty, S. J., Penkin, T. M., Mann, G. T. In vivo pheromone-responsive prgQ promoter protein. J Bacteriol 2012; 194:3386-3394. (Citing an article)
2. Tamas, M. E., Falcon, B. G. Infections in Africa. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2006; 50:2274-2275. (Citing a letter to the editor)
3. Foj, C. S., Krown, T. R., Smith, A. C. Obesity and Hypertension. J Gen Genet, in press. (Citing an article in-press)
4. Da Costa, M. S., Nobre, M. F., Rainey, F. A. Genus I. Thermus Brock and Freeze 969, 295^AL, emend. Nobre, Trüper and da Costa 1996b, 605, p. 404-414. In Boone, D. R., Castenholz, R. W., Garrity, G. M. (ed), Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology, 2001, 2^nd ed, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. (Citing a book chapter)
5. Stratagene. Yeast DNA isolation system: instruction manual, 2006. Stratagene, La Jolla, CA. (Use company name as author if none is provided for a company publication)
6. Forman, M. S., Valsamakis, A. Specimen collection, transport, and processing: virology, p 1276-1288. In Versalovic, J., Carroll, K. C., Jorgensen, J. H., Funke, G., Landry, M. L., Warnock, D. W. (ed), Manual of clinical microbiology, 2011, 10^th ed, vol 2. ASM Press, Washington, DC. (Citing a book chapter).
7. Fitzgerald, G., Shaw, D. In Waters AE (ed), Clinical microbiology, in press. EFH Publishing Co., Boston, MA. (citing a book in press)
8. García, C. O., Paira, S., Burgos, R., Molina, J., Molina, J. F., Calvo, C., Vega, L., Jara, L. J., García-Kutzbach, A., Cuellar, M. L., Espinoza, L. R. Detection of Salmonella DNA in synovial membrane and synovial fluid from Latin American patients using the polymerase chain reaction. Arthritis Rheum 1996; 39(Suppl 9):S185. (published in journal supplement).
9. Smith, D., Johnson, C., Maier, M., Maurer, J. J. Distribution of fimbrial, phage and plasmid associated virulence genes among poultry Salmonella enterica serovars, abstr P-038, p 445. Abstr 105th Gen Meet Am Soc Microbiol American Society for Microbiology 2006, Washington, DC. (citing an Abstract)
10. Green, P. N., Hood, D., Dow, C. S. Taxonomic status of some methylotrophic bacteria, p 251-254. In Crawford, R. L., Hanson, R. S. (ed), Microbial growth on C1 compounds. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium 1986. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.
11. Balley, D. R. Acquatic fishes in Australia. Ph.D. thesis 1998. University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
12. Odell, J. C. Process for batch culturing. US patent 484,363,770 April 1970. (Citing a patent)
13. Elder, B. L., Sharp, S. E. Cumitech 39, Competency assessment in the clinical laboratory 2003. Coordinating ed, Sharp SE. ASM Press, Washington, DC.

Online-only references must provide essentially the same information that print references do. For online journal articles, posting or revision dates may replace the year of publication; a doi, url or pagination is required for articles with nontraditional page numbers or electronic article identifiers. Refer to the examples below:

1. Winnick, S., Lucas, D. O., Hartman, AL., Toll, D. How do you improve compliance? Pediatrics 2005; 115:e718-e724. doi: r556ybwh.kkioq90.hy (Citing an e-publication)
2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Chronic diseases and associated risk factors (Updated 6 November 2005; Cited 30 December 2005). Available from http://www.aihw.gov.au/cdarf/index. (Citing an internet document: name of institute could be used if document authors are not provided)

References cited in the text. References to unpublished data, manuscripts submitted for publication, unpublished conference presentations including reports or posters that has not appeared in published conference proceedings, personal communications, patent applications and patents pending, computer software, databases, and websites should be captured in parenthesis in the text:

1  ...... as observed in Ghana (Layton , B. C., and Wea, G. T. unpublished data).

2 …...as previously described (Mab AF, Yolden TY, and Brighton BY, submitted for publication).

3  .......as discussed previously (Gordon, A. A., and Meter, R. T. presented at the Fourth Symposium on Clinical Microbiology, Sydney, 13 to 15 June 19990). (For non-published abstracts and posters, etc.)

4 …..this new process (Sol, N.U. 20 June 1999, Australian Patent Office). (Provide the date of publication of the application.)

5 …available in the GenBank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/index.html)

6 ….with the ABC software (version 2.2; Department of Microbiology, State University [http://www.state.micro.edu).

Referencing publish-ahead-of-print manuscripts. Citation entries should include the following information: author names, posting date, title, journal title, and volume and page numbers and/or DOI. See below.

1) Zhou, F. X., Merianos, H. J., Brunger, A. T., Engelman, D. M. Polar residues drive association of polyleucine transmembrane helices. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 13 February 2001, posting date. Doi:10.1073/pnas.041593698.

Next (Optional): Allowable supplementary data. First all manuscripts submitted to HSI Journal should be complete and self-contained. Supplemental information must be limited to such things as videos, 3-D structures/images, extended chemical syntheses, extensive NMR data, molecular dynamics, kinetic modeling data, and other large data sets such as those obtained with microarray analyses or mass spectrometry studies. Supplementary data should be indicated as such during submission.

Short-form papers

Brief reports or short papers should have the same format as Original articles, but should have no more than two figures or illustrations, abstract of no more than 75 words, a maximum of 20 references and should not exceed 2000 words of text. Do not use section headings in the body of the paper; combine methods, results, and discussion in a single section. You may use paragraph lead-ins. Present acknowledgments as in full-length papers. The References section is identical to that of full-length papers.

Review articles.

The reviews may be systematic or regular. There is no length limit for this format. These generally aim to give an overview of a field suitable for a wide audience, and they should include an abstract (250 words maximum) and subsequent subheadings at the author’s discretion. Reviews are biographical profiles, historical perspectives, or summaries of developments in fast-moving areas within the scope of HSI Journal. They must be based on published articles; they are not outlets for unpublished data. Reviews may be either solicited or proffered by authors responding to a recognized need. Irrespective of origin, reviews are subject to peer review. The cover letter should state whether the article was solicited and by whom.

Commentaries.

Commentaries are invited communications concerning topics relevant to the readership of HSI Journal and are intended to engender discussion. Reviews of the literature, methods and other how-to papers, and responses targeted at a specific published paper are not appropriate. Commentaries are subject to review. The length may not exceed four pages, and the format is like that of a review but without an abstract.

Case reports

The HSI Journal publishes Case reports that are of adequate calibre and potential importance. This should comprise an Abstract (250 words maximum), Introduction, Case presentations, Consent, Discussions, Acknowledgements, Funding, Transparency declarations and References.

Letters to the editor

Two forms of letters to the editor are accepted. A Comment Letter is intended for comments on published articles in the journal. A comment Letter should cite published references to support the writer's argument. The second type (New-Data Letter) reports new, concise findings that are not appropriate for publication as full-length papers or Short-Form papers. Letters to the Editor do not have abstracts. Both types of Letter must have a title, which must appear on the manuscript. Figures and tables for New Data Letter should be kept to a minimum. A comment Letter will be sent to the editor who handled the article in question. If the editor believes that publication is warranted, he/she will solicit a reply from the corresponding author of the article and give approval for publication. New-Data Letters are assigned to editors according to subject matter for review. Correspondence on topics of concern or interest in the field of biomedical sciences, public health or allied health especially arising from papers or letters already published in the Journal. These must not exceed 800 words, one table or illustration, and 10 references and must be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief.

                        Copyright transfer                                                 

The HSI Journal publishes articles in Open Access at no cost to authors in order to allow for the widest visibility of the article. Upon acceptance of article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the HSI Journal. This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws. HSI Journal publishes all accepted manuscripts at no cost to authors.

Responsibilities of authors

The HSI Journal is pledges to uphold the integrity of the scientific reports. The Journal adheres to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The HSI Journal thus follows the guidelines on how to deal with dishonest conducts in research. The COPE integrity codes include the following:            

• The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
• A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
• Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
• Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.
• Important note: the HSJ may use software to screen for plagiarism whenever it deems appropriate.
• Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/ (web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
• Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
• Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.
• Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.
• All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.
• If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:
• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:
  • an erratum/correction may be placed with the article
  • an expression of concern may be placed with the article
  • or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.
• The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article ismaintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.
• The author’s institution may be informed
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Proof reading

As part of the manuscript acceptance and article publication process, HSI Journal will require that all authors thoroughly conduct proofreading is to check for conversion errors, typesetting, and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables or figures. The HSI Journal shall publish the article online after receipt of the corrected proofs from authors. The online first publication is the official first publication by HSI Journal and is citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers. After the first publication online, HSJ shall not permit substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, without the approval of the Editor. The HSI Journal will only make further changes to an online publication in the form of an Erratum. The Erratum will be hyperlinked to the article. The HSJ wishes to remind authors that they have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant inaccuracy in their published article. In such scenarios, the authors are requested to contact the journal and explain how the error is affecting the article. A decision will be made on how to correct the error, although this will depend on the nature of the error.