All manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (icmje.org). Please consult your specific journal’s requirements for additional information.

All Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. journals follow the standards, guidelines, and best practices set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; publicationethics.org), the International Committee of Journal Medical Editors (ICJME; www.icmje.org), the World Medical Association (WMA); www.wma.net), and the American Medical Association (www.ama-assn.org).

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. recommends that submissions follow standard relevant reporting guidelines. Please consult The Equator Network for more information.

 

PaperPal Preflight

The Paperpal Preflight service is available for most journals. PaperPal Preflight allows authors to check their Original Research manuscripts for common errors prior to submitting a manuscript for consideration. Please note that this does not guarantee that your paper will pass all submission or other checks, nor that it will be considered for review.

There may be additional requirements for submission. Please review the full instructions for authors for guidelines.

The basic service is free. PaperPal preflight offers an optional fee-based service that will provide a report showing tracked changes and potential modifications. Please note that if this service is used, a clean copy of the manuscript must be uploaded to the submission system.

There is no obligation to use either the free or paid service. No editorial, review, nor any other decisions will be dependent on its use.

All manuscripts must be submitted through the journal’s ScholarOne Manuscripts site. Please refer to the individual journal's instructions for more information and to access the service.

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Please check your journal’s requirements for file formatting. Many journals require formatting compliance only on revision; however, unless stated, the file formatting should comply with the following requirements on submission.

Manuscript Files

The main text file, figure legends, and tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Some journals may accept LaTex. Please consult your individual journal instructions for guidance.

File Naming

• All file names should be in English and contain only alphanumeric characters.
• Do not include spaces, symbols, special characters, dashes, dots, or underscores.
• Title each file with the type of content contained in the file (e.g., manuscript.doc, tables.doc, FigureLegends.doc, Fig1.tif, SupplementalData.pdf, etc.).

Figures

• Submission of high resolution .TIFF or .EPS figure files is preferred. Please upload as individual files.
• Cite figures consecutively in text within parentheses.
• Images should not reveal the name of a patient or a manufacturer.
• Note: Figures that will not be reproduced in color must be readable and interpretable in black and white.

Figure Legends

• A legend should be provided for each supplied figure.
• All legends should be numbered consecutively. 
• Figure legends may be included at the end of the main text file or uploaded as a separate, double-spaced Word file.
• In each legend, provide explanations for any abbreviations or symbols that appear in the figure. 
• If the figure is taken from a copyrighted publication, permission must be secured by the author(s) and supplied at the time of submission with appropriate credit listed in the legend. Permissions and associated fees are the responsibility of the author.

Tables

• Tables may be included after the references at the end of the main text file, or uploaded as a single, separate Word file. All tables should be editable.
• Provide a title for each supplied table. 
• Cite tables sequentially in text within parentheses.
• Explain abbreviations used in the body of the table in footnotes using superscript letters, not symbols. 
• If a table is taken from a copyrighted publication, permission must be secured by the author(s) and supplied at the time of submission with appropriate credit listed in the legend. Permissions and associated fees are the responsibility of the author.

Supplemental Files

• Supplemental files should be uploaded as individual files. Most text, photo, graphic, and video formats are accepted. Ensure that patient identities are not revealed.
• Supplemental Information will not be copyedited or typeset; it will be posted online as supplied.
• For journals that publish accepted versions of papers prior to copyediting and typesetting, supplemental files will not be posted with the paper until after production has been completed.

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Specific journal requirements will vary, however the general order of elements in each manuscript should be

• Title page* with full manuscript title, all contributing authors’ names and affiliations, a short running title, a denotation of the corresponding author, and a list of 4-6 keywords/search terms,
• Abstract,
• Main text without embedded figures or tables and with appropriate section headings, if applicable. Most research papers should be organized as follows: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions.
• Acknowledgments,
• Authorship confirmation/contribution statement (CRediT format is preferred)
• Author(s’) disclosure  (Conflict of Interest) statement(s), even when not applicable,
• Funding statement, even when not applicable,
• References,
• Tables included in the text or as a separate document,
• Figure legends at the end of the main text or in a separate Word file,
• Figures uploaded as individual high-resolution files,
• Supplemental files uploaded as individual files.

*Double-blinded journals require a separate title page with the title, all contributing authors’ names and affiliations, a denotation of the corresponding author, author acknowledgements, disclosures, and related identifying information.

Your individual journal may require

• An Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval (or waiver) statement and statement of patient consent as a separate paragraph after the methods section,
• Other relevant ethics attestations (see icmje.org for further guidance),
• Data sharing statement,
• Specific abstract and content sections, depending on manuscript type,
• Word count limits, tables/figure limits, and reference format requirements.

Please note that paragaphs should be no longer than 15 lines once typeset.

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Funding

Upon manuscript submission, the submitting agent will have an opportunity to enter funding/grant information. If funding information is entered correctly, the publisher will deposit the funding acknowledgements from the article as part of the standard metadata to Funder Registry. The entered information should include funder names, funder IDs (if available), and associated grant numbers. Special care should be taken when entering this information to ensure total accuracy. Funding information must also be provided within the manuscript.

Government Funded Research / Funder Requirements

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers adheres to national and international funder requirements.

We comply fully with the open access requirements of UKRI, Wellcome, and NIHR. Where required by their funder, authors retain the right to distribute their author accepted manuscript (AAM), such as via an institutional and/or subject repository (e.g. EuropePMC), under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license for release no later than the date of first online publication.?

Other funders, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have specific requirements for depositing the accepted version and/or the article of record version of the author manuscript in a repository after an embargo period. Authors funded by these organizations should follow the self-archiving terms and conditions of these separate agreements based on the policies of the specific funding institutions. If you have questions, please contact us for more information.  

Peer Review

All submissions are subject to peer review after initial editorial evaluation for suitability. A minimum of two reviews are required for most journals if the manuscript proceeds to the review stage. Final decisions on the manuscript are solely at the discretion of the Editor(s).

Exclusivity

Manuscripts should be submitted with the understanding that they have neither been published, nor are under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the same form or substantially similar form. Conference abstracts are excluded. If work was presented at a conference, supply the name, date, and location of the meeting as a footnote on the title page of the submission.

Third-party Submissions and Integrity

If a third party is submitting the manuscript, the submitting agent designation must be used, with the identity of the submitting agent disclosed. We reserve the right to reject any manuscript that does not contain this disclosure. The authors are solely responsible for any manuscript submitted on their behalf.

Confidentiality

Editors and reviewers must maintain strict confidentiality of manuscripts during the peer-review process. Sharing a manuscript in whole or in part, outside the scope of what is necessary for assessment, is impermissible prior to an accepted manuscript's official publication date. Reviewers are not permitted to contact authors directly.

Sharing of Materials

Authors must honor any reasonable request for materials, methods, or data necessary to reproduce or validate the research findings during peer review unless it violates the privacy or confidentiality of human research subjects.

Conflicts of Interest by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Section Editors

The Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors will recuse themselves from participating in the review process of any manuscript in which there is a potential or actual competing interest.

Plagiarism, Peer Review, and Publication Integrity

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is committed to maintaining the integrity of the peer-review process by upholding the highest standards for all published articles. All manuscripts are analyzed and evaluated for plagiarism, peer review integrity, and publication integrity. Manuscript screening may be applied at any point in the process, from submission through post-publication. Plagiarized manuscripts or manuscripts with evidence of publication, image, or peer review misconduct will be rejected immediately. If publication misconduct is identified, we reserve the right to rescind acceptance prior to publication.

Authorship

Authorship is defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in Roles & Responsibilities. Contributors who do not meet all criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged (with permission from the named parties) in the Acknowledgments section with a description of their contribution to the work.

ORCID IDs

All submitting authors are required to complete their submissions using an ORCID identifier.

Corresponding Authors

One author should be designated as the corresponding author who will be responsible for communication between the authors and the journal editorial office and publisher. This individual will be responsible for ensuring all authors submit copyright forms, coordinating and responding to page proofs, and managing any other necessary contact during the peer review and production processes.

The submission system permits only one author to be identified as the corresponding author of record. However, we recognize that some submissions call for more than one corresponding author to be noted. In such cases, select one author to be the main point of contact for all communications regarding the peer review process of the paper, and on the title page of the manuscript, designate additional co-corresponding authors by including an asterisk after the authors' names in the byline. Include an accompanying footnote on the title page that reads, "*Co-corresponding authors." Please ensure that the title page carries the full affiliation details and email address of any author who should be noted as a corresponding author. If the paper is accepted for publication, the full contact information for all designated co-authors will be listed at the end of the article as per usual journal style.

Authorship Confirmation/Contribution Statement

An authorship contribution statement must be included with the manuscript. We strongly recommend that the authorship contribution statement follow the CRediT Taxonomy guidelines. (https://credit.niso.org/)

• Conceptualization (Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.)
• Data curation (Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use.)
• Formal analysis (Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.)
• Funding acquisition (Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.)
• Investigation (Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.)
• Methodology (Development or design of methodology; creation of models.)
• Project administration (Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.)
• Resources (Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.)
• Software (Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.)
• Supervision (Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.)
• Validation (Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.)
• Visualization (Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation.)
• Writing – original draft (Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).)
• Writing – review & editing (Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages.)>

Example

Author 1: review and editing (equal). Author 2: Conceptualization (lead); writing – original draft (lead); formal analysis (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Author 3: Software (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Author 4: Methodology (lead); writing – review and editing (equal). Author 5: Conceptualization (supporting); Writing – original draft (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal).

Changes in Authorship

Changes in authorship after submission, revision, or acceptance of a paper are generally not permitted, but the editorial leadership recognizes that in rare circumstances, it may be required. The policy for such cases is as follows:

• A request to alter authorship must be made in writing from the corresponding author to the Editor-in-Chief, with a detailed explanation for the request, the nature of the changes, and the names and affiliations of all authors.
• Written approval of all authors named on the manuscript, as well as any individual(s) being added to or removed from the author list must be provided. The Publisher can provide a form for this, if needed.
• Upon receipt of the request and all written approvals of all involved parties, the Editor-in-Chief will consider the request, render a decision, and notify the corresponding author.
• Post-publication changes or alterations to conference abstracts are prohibited.
• If authors are added or removed upon revision submission, without accompanying documentation of the request, the manuscript will be unsubmitted.

Name Change Policy

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. supports the implementation of name changes for reasons including (but not limited to) gender identity, changes to marital status, religious conversion, etc.

Please contact the Director of Production and Editorial to confidentially update your record. Identification or documentation is not required, apart from confirmation that the change is on behalf of yourself (requests cannot be made for other individuals).

Updates will be made to the online versions of the article, but without a formal correction notice and without coauthors being notified.

We recommend authors update ScholarOne and ORCID records with any name changes.

Author Disclosure Statements

Upon submission, authors are required to fully disclose any interests, funding or employment that may inappropriately influence or affect the integrity of the submission. Authors should disclose

• Competing Interests. A competing interest exists when an individual (or the individual's institution) has financial or personal relationships that may inappropriately influence his actions. These competing interests may be potential or actual, financial or other.
• Personal Financial Interests. Stocks or shares in a company that may gain or lose financially from publication of the article; consulting fees or other remuneration from an organization that may gain or lose financially from publication of the article; patents or patent applications that are owned by or licensed to companies/institutions that may gain or lose value from publication of the article.
• Funding. Research support by organizations that may gain or lose financially from publication of the article. This support includes salary, equipment, supplies, honoraria, reimbursement or prepayment for attending symposia, and other expenses.
• Employment. Recent (within the past 5 years), current, or anticipated employment by an organization that may gain or lose financially from publication of the article.
• Other Competing Interests. Any personal relationship which may inappropriately affect the integrity of the research reported (by an author) or the objectivity of the review of the manuscript (by a reviewer or Editor), for example, competition between investigators, previous disagreements between investigators, or bias in professional judgment.

Affiliations

Authors should identify as their institution(s) the facility where the work was performed and executed. Changes in an author’s affiliation after the work was completed, but prior to the submission or publication of the manuscript should be noted using a superscript asterisk in the author listing and a footnote on the title page indicating “Current Address” and listing the new affiliation. Corrections to affiliations or contact information due to relocation after publication is not permitted.

Permissions

When reproducing copyrighted material such as figures, tables, or excerpted text, the author(s) of the submitted paper must obtain permission from the original publisher or owner of material and submit it concurrently with the manuscript. The figure or table source must be listed in the reference list. With any copyrighted material, include a footnote with proper attribution (e.g. "Reprinted by permission from Jones et al.") and the appropriate reference. All permissions must be supplied at the time of submission. Authors are responsible for any fees that may be incurred by securing permission to reproduce or adapt material from other published sources.

Ethics

Institutional Review Board Approvals/Waivers

When reporting research involving human data, authors must document the procedures followed in securing approvals from the responsible institutional and national review committee(s), along with confirmation that the research was completed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2013. 

An institution without an Institutional Review Board must arrange for an outside/external IRB to be responsible for initial and continuing review of studies conducted at the non-IRB institution. Such arrangements must be documented in writing in the manuscript. 

If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. Approval by a responsible review committee does not preclude editors from forming their own judgment whether the conduct of the research was appropriate.  Please see https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf for additional information. 

The publisher requires a statement from authors in the Materials and Methods section to confirm that the appropriate ethical approval has been received, that appropriate processes have been followed, and the name of the committee.

Informed consent by patients/participants should always be secured. A statement confirming that informed patient/participant consent was obtained is required in the Materials and Methods section. The statement of IRB review is accepted as covering the review of consent documentation.

If the study is judged exempt from review, a statement from the committee is required in the Materials and Methods section, including, if applicable, documentation of institutionally approved waiver of informed consent.

Ethics of Experimentation

See the following resources for studies involving human fetuses, fetal tissue, embryos, and embryonic cells:

• NIH Grants Policy Statement
• National Conference of State Legislatures Embryonic and Fetal Research Laws

Ethical Treatment of Animals

All peer-reviewed submissions containing animal experiments must comply with local and national regulatory principles and contain a statement in the Materials and Methods section of the main text stating whether national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.

Human Subjects: Patient Consent and Release

If applicable, it is incumbent upon the author(s) to obtain permission to reproduce any identifiable images of patients. Any identifying information should not be published in descriptions or photographs unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or patients’ parent/guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be submitted. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity cannot be maintained. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are de-identified, the manuscript should contain assurances/statements that such changes do not distort scientific meaning.

In keeping with patients' rights of privacy, the Journal does not require the submission of patient consent forms, but instead requires the author(s) to retain and archive all patient consent documentation. Upon submission of a manuscript for review, the authors must make a statement in the cover letter to the Editor/Journal which attests that they have received and archived written patient consent in addition to providing the requisite statement in the manuscript.

We recommend, but do not require, the sharing and archiving of data and any other artifacts that define and support the results stated in a manuscript in a suitable public repository (in accordance with valid privacy, legal, and ethical guidelines). We recommend that a data availability statement be included in the manuscript in the Methods section or as a separate section at the end of the main text file. Describe the location of the data, details on how it can be accessed and any licensing information. If the data is not publicly available or accessible, that information should also be provided.

Datasets should be cited in the reference list.

Important: Please check with your funding agencies to ensure that are you following their data sharing polices. If your funding agency has additional requirements exceeding our policy, you must follow the requirements of your funder.  

Update: New NIH policies for data management and sharing are in effect as of January 25, 2023. If your research has NIH funding, please refer to the guidelines for new requirements.

Preprint Servers

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., allows for papers that were previously deposited on preprint servers to be submitted to our journals, with the proviso that the author updates any preprint versions with a link to the final published article. All submissions, even those deposited on preprint servers, are subject to peer review and does not guarantee publication in any Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. journal.

The submitting author of a paper which was previously deposited to a preprint server should include a disclosure on the title page of the manuscript indicating the name and website of the server and include the DOI number of the preprint.

Referencing/citing non-peer-reviewed material that is found on any preprint server is generally discouraged by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., journals, but if it is necessary, the citation must indicate that the content is not officially published in a journal, and can only be found on a preprint server.

Sanctioned Countries Policy

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., supports a fundamental freedom of expression and considers that the pursuit of academic research around the world from any country should be fairly considered.

Publishing peer-reviewed content, in various forms and mediums, is an international method of communication that drives fields forward, supports the continuance of essential research funding resources, and has the potential to support improved patient outcomes. Censorship, directly or indirectly, plays no part in our considerations of well-conducted and well-presented research and advances in scientific research around the world.

In this same vein, Liebert Editors will continue to remain open to considering research submissions from every country around the world, including sanctioned countries. However, to adhere to OFAC sanctioned policies and to oblige all responsible considerations, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. has enacted the following policy with respect to handling academic research submissions from identified sanctioned countries, institutions, or individuals. The proposed policy will bring us in compliance with COPE guidelines and is similar to policies adopted by other major publishers.  

Below is a detailed approach of how Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. will specifically manage peer-reviewed journal article submissions from OFAC sanctioned countries.

• All peer-reviewed journals published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. are required to follow United States sanctioned countries laws and regulations. Under our mission as stated above, Liebert journal Editors reserve the right to consider academic contributions from researchers in every country around the world.
• Liebert Journal Editors will handle any submission from a listed OFAC sanctioned country as they would a non-sanctioned country, ensuring the same level of rigorous peer review and suitability of the research subject matter. At present, the highest submitting sanctioned countries include, and are not limited to, submissions from Iran, Russia, Cuba, and Syria.
• Manuscripts from sanctioned countries that are submitted to any Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. journal must contain a Confirmation Statement after the Conclusion section of the manuscript which states that each author confirms that their research is supported by an institution that is primarily involved in education or research.
• As an international company, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. complies with international trade law, which indicates that the publisher is unable to accept payment from individuals and organizations identified and included in the OFAC sanctioned countries list. Additionally, the publisher will not issue invoices or take any payment from authors based in countries where international sanctions are currently in place.
• Authors from a sanctioned country who submit their research to a Liebert hybrid journal for consideration will be notified of this information upon submission.
• In accordance with our internal policies, all submitted manuscripts must go through thorough rigorous, independent editorial peer review and adhere to all current and enforced Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., peer review processes, policies, and protocols.>
• Any accepted papers or content from the sanctioned countries must publish in greyscale. There is no negotiation of this rule. Authors or institutions from sanctioned countries should not be sent any invoices as financial transactions are not permitted.
• Gold Open Access (OA) journals operate on an article publishing charge (APC) model, whereby, in non-sanctioned circumstances, the author or their institution is sent an invoice to pay an APC when their paper is accepted following thorough peer review. However, because of restrictions imposed upon certain sanctioned countries, Liebert, Inc. is unable to issue invoices or take any payment from authors based in certain countries where international sanctions are currently in place. This means that any submissions from authors in sanctioned countries to Liebert Gold Open Access (OA) journals will be unsubmitted for consideration in other appropriate hybrid Liebert titles.
• This rule also applies to Open Access requests and orders in general – authors residing in or affiliated with institutions in current sanctioned countries are not permitted to publish Open Access in any of the Liebert journal titles as financial transactions are not permitted
• When Corresponding Authors have primary affiliations in an OFAC sanctioned country that is also classified as Low Income by the World Bank, the authors may request support of article publishing charges (APCs). The requests from low income authors are considered on a case-by-case basis by the Director of Sales and Author Services.
• In all circumstances, researchers will receive timely communications to ensure there is no delay in their research progressing through the publishing process, whilst also supporting relevant, appropriate publication choices.

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Copyright 

Published manuscripts for non-Open Access journals become the sole property of the Journal and will be copyrighted by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The author(s) explicitly assign(s) any copyrighted ownership in such manuscript to the Journal unless alternate arrangements are made prior to publication, including CC-BY licensing or if the Journal publishes under an Open Access model.

Upon acceptance, authors will receive a link to sign and complete the copyright transfer form (subject to exceptions listed above). Authors not permitted to release copyright must still return the form acknowledging the statement for not releasing the copyright.

Post Acceptance/Publication

All accepted manuscripts will go through copyediting, typesetting, figure sizing and placement, author proofing, corrections, revisions (from corrected proofs), online-ahead-of-print release, and lastly, issue assignment. Changes or alterations to a submission are not permitted after acceptance but should be addressed in page proofs.

Instant Online Publication (Just Accepted Program)

*Please note that not all Liebert journals are part of the Just Accepted Program. Please review your specific journal's instructions.*

Journals in the Just Accepted program (formerly known as Instant Online) publish all accepted papers within 72 hours of receipt of all authors' signed copyright agreement forms in their unedited, uncorrected format on our Just Accepted platform.

The information that is published online, and in all indexing services, is pulled directly from the data that is populated into the fields in ScholarOne Manuscripts™ – NOT from the main text file – when the paper is originally uploaded to the system for peer review. Consequently, any errors contained in the system will remain on our website and all indexing services, including Medline, until the next revision* of the article is published. As such, it is critical that authors enter all authors’ names correctly into the system at the time of submission. Any omissions or errors will remain on our website and in indexing services until the subsequent online version is published.

*The next revision will take place after the corresponding author reviews page proofs, makes any necessary corrections, and returns the changes to the Publisher. Once the alterations are completed, the revised version will be published on our website, and the newly corrected information will then be released to Medline/PubMed, in addition to any other indexing services in which the Journal is included.

Please note that the typical time between acceptance of a paper and page proof distribution is approximately 3-6 weeks depending on the length and complexity of the paper.

Journals participating in the Just Accepted program do not post any supplemental files/information until post acceptance steps are completed on the submission.

Page Proofs

Page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author as designated in ScholarOne™ when the manuscript was submitted. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to share the page proofs with co-authors, if desired, and to coordinate all authors' corrections into one proof. The Publisher will not accept corrections from multiple authors/sources.

Author Response to the Galley Proof

The corresponding author is responsible for returning corrected galley proofs. Only corrections directly related to errors in typesetting and/or layout will be allowed. Any requested changes related to content, or that alter the outcome of a study, will require the approval of the Editor, and may require further peer review. If the corresponding author does not respond to page proofs, the manuscript may be delayed in the publication schedule, or published as-is, at the discretion of the Editor. If the corresponding author expects to be unavailable during the time the manuscript is in production, the publisher should be provided with an alternate contact. 

Post Publication Corrections

In the event an error is discovered after publication of an article, the corresponding author should submit the correction in writing to the Journal Editorial Office for consideration. After Editor approval, alterations will be made to the online version of the article, and if the errors are significant, an official correction statement will be issued.

• Changes to author affiliations or contact details due to relocation after publication are not permitted.
• Corrections to meeting abstracts will be made only to the online version. The Journal does not issue formal correction statements to meeting abstracts, regardless of the nature of the correction.
• Correction Statements/Errata to published articles that require the reproduction of color figure(s) and/or table(s) may incur additional costs to the author(s).
• Requests for post-publication corrections to funding information will require institutional documentation showing that the funds were to be used for the published work. 

Name Change Policy

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. supports the implementation of name changes for reasons including (but not limited to) gender identity, changes to marital status, religious conversion, etc.

Please contact the Director of Production and Editorial to confidentially update your record. Identification or documentation is not required, apart from confirmation that the change is on behalf of yourself (requests cannot be made for other individuals).

Updates will be made to the online versions of the article, but without a formal correction notice and without coauthors being notified.

We recommend authors update ScholarOne and ORCID records with any name changes.

Reprints

Reprints may be ordered by following the special instructions that will accompany the proofs and should be ordered at the time the corresponding author returns the corrected page proofs to the Publisher. Reprints ordered after the issue is printed will be charged at a substantially higher rate.

Misconduct

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., follows the guidelines and rules regarding scientific misconduct put forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

Scientific misconduct and violation of publishing ethics vary and can be intentionally or unintentionally perpetrated. Some examples of misconduct and violations include, but are not limited to, the following

• Scientific misconduct: Fabrication, falsification, concealment, deceptive reporting, or misrepresentation of any data constitutes misconduct and/or fraud.
• Authorship disputes: Deliberate misrepresentation of a scientist's contribution to the published work, or purposefully omitting the contributions of a scientist.
• Misappropriation of the ideas of others: Improper use of scholarly exchange and activity may constitute fraud. Wholesale appropriation of such material constitutes misconduct.
• Violation of generally accepted research practices: Serious deviation from accepted practices in proposing or carrying out research, improper manipulation of experiments to obtain biased results, deceptive statistical or analytical manipulations, or improper reporting of results constitutes misconduct and/or fraud.
• Material failure to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements affecting research: Including but not limited to serious or substantial, repeated, willful violations of applicable local regulations and law involving the use of funds, care of animals, human subjects, investigational drugs, recombinant products, new devices, or radioactive, biologic, or chemical materials constitutes misconduct.
• Conflict of Interest: Nondisclosure of any direct or indirect conflicts to the Journal, which prevents you from being unbiased, constitutes misconduct.
• Misrepresentation: Deliberate misrepresentation of qualifications, experience, or research accomplishments to advance a research program, to obtain external funding, or for other professional advancement constitutes misconduct and/or fraud.
• Plagiarism: Purposely claiming another's work or idea as your own constitutes misconduct and/or fraud.
• Image Manipulation.
• Simultaneous Submission: Submitting a paper to more than one publication at the same time constitutes misconduct.
• Peer Review Fraud: Individuals who knowingly commit peer review fraud or violate the standard accepted practices of peer review will be reported to their institutions. 

Publisher’s Response to Allegations of Scientific Misconduct

The Publisher is committed to helping protect the integrity of the public scientific record by sharing reasonable concerns with authorities who are in the position to conduct an appropriate investigation into any allegation. As such, all allegations of misconduct will be referred to the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal who in turn will review the circumstances, possibly in consultation with Associate Editors and/or members of the Editorial Board. Initial fact-finding will usually include a request to all the involved parties to state their case and explain the circumstances in writing. In questions of research misconduct centering on methods or technical issues, the Editor-In-Chief may confidentially consult experts who are blinded to the identity of the individuals, or an outside expert. The Editor-In-Chief will determine if there is enough reasonable evidence that misconduct possibly occurred. Some instances may require the Editor and/or Publisher to report the instance to the authors’ institution for arbitration and/or investigation. The Editor and Publisher will follow the institutions’ findings for resolution.

When allegations concern conflict between authors, the peer review or publication process for the manuscript in question will cease while the process described herein is researched. In the case of allegations against reviewers or editors, they will be substituted in the review process while the matter is investigated.

Editors or reviewers who are found to have engaged in scientific misconduct will be removed from further association with the Journal and reported to their institution(s).

If an inquiry concludes there is a reasonable possibility of misconduct, the Editor-in-Chief will retract the paper from the Journal and the scientific record. If the paper is still under peer review, the Editor-in-Chief will withdraw the paper from consideration to the Journal. If the inquiry leads to a lengthy investigation, the Journal will issue an interim Expression of Concern which will identify the concern for readers until a resolution is reached.

Every attempt will be made to keep all allegations confidential.

Retractions**

The journal and its publisher are committed to upholding the proper protocols and established standards of peer review. Published papers found to be in violation of the accepted standard principles of peer review and scientific publishing will be officially retracted from the literature. An official retraction notice explaining in full detail the need for a retraction will be published.

**Any fees collected for an article that is subsequently retracted are non-refundable.

Press Embargo

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., permits the use of accepted pre-published manuscripts for the sole purpose of pitching to news organizations under strict embargo, and with the approval of and expressed collaboration with the publisher. A watermarked PDF version of the article (not a Word document or any other editable version) may be shared only with named, personal contacts at trusted news sources upon request. News sources must be informed upon delivery of the PDF that the manuscript is for reference-only purposes and can be used only in preparation of their news coverage of the article. It is strictly prohibited to publicly share, post, or otherwise distribute the PDF in any media format. Upon official publication of the article, news organizations must link directly to the published article on the Publisher’s Journal website. To coordinate publication timing and press efforts, please contact the Director of Marketing.

401C Compliance

The references for all papers published within the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. journal portfolio are I40C compliant and accessible to all readers.

Archiving and Preservation

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., deposits and archives all publications in Portico for long-term digital preservation. Your article will be easily searchable on Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines.

Publisher Information

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, 140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor, New Rochelle, NY 10801; Tel: 914-740-2100; Email: info@liebertpub.com; Website: liebertpub.com

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Three versions of the article format versions are referenced in the below policy guidelines:  

• Original Submission: The article version that is submitted by the author for consideration, before peer review.  
• Accepted Version: The article version that has been formally accepted after peer review, prior to any typesetting for the journal. This is the version accepted by the editor, before proofs, corrections, and typesetting. Also known as the “raw” accepted version of a manuscript.   
• Article of Record: This article version is the “version of record” that has been formally copy-edited and typeset and published online epub ahead of print and/or in a journal issue. It is the same version published in the “Online Now” section of the journal website.  

Self-Archiving Policy  

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers offers authors many options and opportunities to self-archive their work. Self-archiving of work is also referred to, or known as, publishing “Green Open Access”.   

Authors can self-archive the original submission version of their article on any website or repository without embargo.   

Additionally, authors can self-archive the accepted version of their article on their personal websites or institutional repositories only without embargo. Any archiving of the accepted version for inclusion in subject-based repositories, such as PubMed Central (PMC), should follow the requirements of the funder of the work.    

We comply fully with the open access requirements of UKRI, Wellcome, and NIHR. Where required by their funder, authors retain the right to distribute their author accepted manuscript (AAM), such as via an institutional and/or subject repository (e.g. EuropePMC), under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license for release no later than the date of first online publication.?

Other funders, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have specific requirements for depositing the accepted version and/or the article of record version of the author manuscript in a repository after an embargo period. Authors funded by these organizations should follow the self-archiving terms and conditions of these separate agreements based on the policies of the specific funding institutions. If you have questions, please contact us for more information.  

Authors are not allowed to publish or self-archive the article of record on any website, social media platform, or repository without permission from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, unless they publish their paper Gold Open Access (OA). Learn more about publishing your work Open Access here.   

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers’ society partners or associated affiliates may set self-archiving policies independently, outside of the below mentioned general policies. Authors should refer to the copyright policy of their chosen journal, which can be found on the Journal Collection Page or by contacting the journal editorial office directly. In addition, specific funding organizations have separate agreements and authors should refer to the policies of those specific funding agencies prior to the submission of their manuscript.   

Original Submission Version

The original submission version of an article is the author's version that has not been peer reviewed.  

 This version may be placed on:  

• The author's personal website  
• The author's company or institutional repository or archive  
• Any not-for-profit subject-based preprint servers or repositories  

Self-archiving of the original submission version is not subject to an embargo period.   

If your submission is formally accepted after peer review in one of our journals, authors must include an acknowledgement of acceptance for publication on all archive sites and, following online publication, authors must include the following notice on the first page:  

This is the original submission version (pre-peer review) of the following article: [full citation], which has now been formally published in final form at [Journal Name] at [link to final article using the DOI]. This original submission version of the article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers’ self-archiving terms and conditions.  

The original submission version posted may never be updated or replaced with the article of record version unless the author chooses to publish their paper OA under any of the Creative Commons Licenses available through the publisher. If you are interested in publishing your work OA, please feel free to review our Open Access policies and Licenses or contact us.

Accepted Version

Authors may only archive the accepted version of their manuscript on their personal and professional websites, and/or the author’s institutional repository or archive. Any archiving of the accepted version for inclusion in subject-based repositories, such as PubMed Central (PMC), should follow the requirements of the funder of the work. This process may impose additional embargo periods.    

• The accepted version may be placed on:  
• The author's personal website  
• The author's company/institutional repository or archive  

 The accepted version posted must include the following notice on the first page:  

This is the accepted version of the following article: [full citation], which has now been formally published in final form at [Journal Name] at [link to final article using the DOI]. This original submission version of the article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers’ self-archiving terms and conditions.  

The accepted version posted may never be updated or replaced with the article of record version unless the author chooses to publish their paper OA under any of the Creative Commons Licenses available through the publisher. If you are interested in publishing your work OA, please feel free to review our Open Access policies and Licenses or contact us.

Article of Record

The article of record version may never be archived on a website, or in a repository or research network, unless published Gold OA under any of the Creative Commons Licenses available through the publisher. If you have questions, please contact us for more information. You can also review our Open Access policies and Licenses.   

Funder Requirements

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers adheres to national and international funder requirements. Various funders, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), for example, have specific requirements for depositing the accepted version and/or the article of record version of the author manuscript in a repository after an embargo period. Authors funded by these organizations should follow the self-archiving terms and conditions of these separate agreements based on the policies of the specific funding institutions. If you have questions, please contact us or more information.  

Terms and Conditions for Use of All Self-Archived Article Versions  

Authors may use either the original submission version or accepted version in the following ways:  

• For purposes of your own curriculum or teaching, dissertation, thesis, or book provided that all posted versions include the aforementioned notices, and follow all guidelines and requirements specified. 
• To share with researchers, research colleagues, provided that such sharing is not for commercial purposes.   

The self-archived submitted and accepted versions may only be used in non-commercial capacities. Individual users may view, print, download, and copy self-archived articles, as well as text and data mine the content conditions for non-commercial and non-promotional research and private study purposes, under the following requirements:  

• The authors' moral rights are not compromised and there is clear "attribution" of the author(s) in the shared work.  
• The authors’ integrity remains intact; the work should never be altered in such a way that the author's reputation or integrity may be damaged.  
• Any reuse complies with the copyright policies of the owner of that content.  
• Self-archived content may never be re-published verbatim in whole or in part in print or online formats.   

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Most (but not all) Liebert journals have updated their reference instructions to follow a standard format. Please note that the new formats may differ from reference examples in previously published papers. 

Templates are available as open-source CSL files and in Zotero, and can be used/imported into most reference managers. 

Please consult your journal's specific instructions to identify the format that your journal will use.   

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