Editorial Policies

Authorship Policy

All authors must meet the following criteria:

1. Have made a significant contribution to the design of the research, relevant data collection, analysis, and/or interpretation of the results;
2. Have contributed substantially to the writing and/or critical review of the publication;
3. Have approved the final version of the publication;
4. Have accepted responsibility for the content of the publication, unless otherwise stated in the publication.

Those who do not meet these criteria but have nevertheless made a substantial contribution to the final manuscript should be included in the Acknowledgements section. It is the responsibility of the author to obtain written consent from those mentioned in this section.

These authorship criteria are based on the Vancouver Recommendations (or ICMJE Recommendations) regarding authorship and contributorship. They align with the principles outlined in the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and the guidelines described in the Swedish Research Council’s Good Research Practice (2024, p. 81).

Policy on the Use of AI Tools

In accordance with COPE’s position statement on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, AI tools such as Large Language Models, chatbots and image creators cannot be credited with authorship of any manuscript submitted to this journal. Authorship attribution implies responsibility for the integrity, originality, accuracy and validity of a work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility.

In any instance where generative AI tools have been employed in the creation of written content, generation of images or graphical elements, or the collection and analysis of data within a submitted work, authors are required to disclose these uses within the manuscript. This acknowledgement should provide explicit information about the specific tasks performed by AI tools, including the identification of the tool(s) and their respective versions. AI tools used to improve or correct spelling and grammar need not be credited.

Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their manuscript, including any portions generated with the assistance of AI tools. Consequently, they are liable for any potential breaches of publication ethics. Authors must ensure that all quoted and referenced material is appropriately credited.

Policy for Peer Reviewers

Authors of manuscripts and reviewers of the same manuscript must not be close colleagues, family members, work on the same research project, or otherwise have a close collaboration.

Reviewers should only accept to assess manuscripts that fall within their own subject area.

Reviewers should respond to invitations without delay and submit completed reviews within a reasonable time.

Reviewers' comments must not be influenced by the author's nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender or commercial interests.

Reviewers' comments must not contain hostile or provocative language and must not include personal attacks, slander or other derogatory comments.

Policy for Open Data

As open research data requirements from research funders and universities become increasingly common, some authors may be required to make their empirical material open and publicly available.

Where this applies to the journal's authors, the journal's editors encourage making the data available according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).

Authors should, in these cases, link from the submitted manuscript to the material made available. Research data should then be made public when the article is published. Empirical material obtained from other researchers must be cited in the same way as other scientific sources. For questions regarding guidelines for open data and handling and publishing of data, please contact your university.

Archiving Policy

Beginning when the journal joins Publicera, its current and future content is made available via Publicera and stored long-term on a secure and central server at the National Library of Sweden (KB).

The journal's owner and KB aim for the journal's archive to be transferred and made available via Publicera, and thus the archive will also be stored long-term on a secure and central server at KB. In the event that the journal ceases publishing, the journal's content on Publicera will remain archived at KB.

Policy for Self-Archiving

Article authors have the right to self-archive the submitted ("preprint") version of the manuscript and the published version without any embargo period.

Submitted manuscripts and published versions of articles can, for example, be archived on:

• the author's personal website
• the author's company website and/or institutional repository or archive
• non-profit preprint servers or subject-based archives

Policy for the Use of ORCiD

The journal's editors strongly recommend that authors who submit manuscripts register an "Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier" or ORCiD.

This registration provides a unique and stable digital author identity that ensures that the article is attributed to the correct person and improves the searchability of all the author's publications. This helps to ensure that the author receives recognition for their work. As a person's ORCiD remains the same as long as the account exists, any name changes, change of employment, department affiliation or research field do not affect the searchability of previous publications. This facilitates correspondence between research colleagues.

The journal's editors encourage all authors to include ORCiD along with other author information when the manuscript is registered in the system. If the article is accepted, this will be published with the article.

Policy for Previous Versions of Articles

The journal's editors allow authors to make available earlier drafts of manuscripts/articles on the condition that authors agree to the following:

Authors retain all rights to any previously published version and are permitted to submit their updated manuscript to the journal.

Authors accept that the journal's editors cannot guarantee full anonymity in the review process, even if the author anonymizes his manuscript when earlier versions of the manuscript are made available.

If the manuscript is published in the journal, the author is expected to cross-link, with DOI link, the different versions of the manuscript/article.

Policy for Changes and Corrections of Published Material

The conditions of publication with persistent identifiers such as DOIs include that the published object is final and not changed without readers being clearly informed.

Articles published in the journal cannot therefore be changed without a) an erratum or b) a change notice being published and linked to the original article.

If a factual error in an article is discovered, this should be reported to the editor-in-chief, who decides on possible actions and corrections.

Complaints and Appeals Policy

In the case of formal complaints, disputes, or appeals, authors should contact the Editor-in-Chief, who is responsible for ensuring that a fair, deliberative, and thorough investigation is conducted.

Policy for Ethical Oversight

The journal follows the ethical guidelines and best practices set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All cases of ethical misconduct will be handled in accordance with COPE's recommendations and guidelines.