Legal requirements

Submission of a manuscript to Materials and Solidification implies: that the work described has not been published before in any format including in languages other than English; that is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its submission and 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.

Permission

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or texts that have already been published elsewhere (including the authors’ own previous papers) are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner (the publisher of the journal, not the authors of the paper) and to state clearly in the figure/table caption or other appropriate locations in the manuscript that such permission has been obtained. For example: Reproduced with permission from Ref. [XX], © Copyright-holder Copyright-year. Any content received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. It is the authors’ responsibility to retain an electronic or hardcopy of the permission.

Article Processing Charge

This journal is an open access journal where Tsinghua University Press pays for the publishing costs incurred by the Journal. Authors do not have to pay any Article Processing Charge (APC) until December 31, 2025.

Online Submission

Authors must submit their manuscripts online via the Materials and Solidification ScholarOne Manuscripts™ website at http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/msolid. When submitting your manuscript, please make sure that the following items have been prepared as carefully as possible according to this Instruction:

• Cover letter and graphical abstract (mandatory).
• Manuscript prepared using Microsoft Word based on the Journal’s template (mandatory).
• Electronic supplementary materials (optional).
• All figures in individual electronic files (optional).

Other necessary materials not for review (optional).

Article types

Materials and Solidification publishes five types of papers: Review, Research Article, Short Communication, Concept, Comment and Reply.

Review

Review provides a critical analysis of the subject literature to underscore the state of the art, and to point out new challenges in the field of interest. The authors are required to have significant expertise in the subject of the paper as evidenced by prior peer-reviewed publications.

Research Article

Research Article reports a complete, detailed, self-contained description of a significant research work. In addition to being technically correct, research article must also advance the scientific understanding of the topic of interest. There is no page limit for a research article.

Short Communication

Short Communication is a brief report of significant, original, and timely research results which warrant rapid publication. In considering a manuscript for publication, particular attention will be given to the originality of the research, the desirability of speedy publication, the clarity of the presentation and the validity of the conclusions. Short Communication must not exceed 3000 words plus four figures or tables.

Concept

Concept introduces new theories, concepts or frameworks designed to stimulate scholarly debate on a particular area or issue.

Comment and Reply

Any reader may submit for publication a comment on any paper that has been published in the Journal and the author of the paper will be invited to reply. Comment and Reply are limited, respectively, to two printed pages.

Language

The Journal’s language is English. Either British English or American English spelling and terminology may be used, but the system chosen should be followed consistently throughout the manuscript. We request that the language is corrected before submission. Submissions with unsatisfactory English writing will be returned without review.

Length of manuscripts

There are no strict limits on the number of published pages for both research and review articles. Nevertheless, authors are asked to make the manuscript as concise as possible.

Text formatting

For submission in Microsoft Word, use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12 point Times New Roman), double space line, and one column 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. Use the equation editor or MathType for equations. Note: If you use Word 2007, do not create the equations with the default equation editor but use MathType instead.

Please follow this order to type the manuscript: cover letter, title page, abstract, keywords, main text (including tables and figures), appendix (if necessary), declarations, references, author biography, graphical abstract, and electronic supplementary material (if necessary).

Cover letter. All submissions must include a cover letter that includes a convincing statement of the novelty and significance of the work and the relevance to the aims and scope of Materials and Solidification. This statement should not be a duplicate of the submission’s abstract.

Title page. The title page should contain: (i) a concise and informative title; (ii) the name(s) of the author(s); (iii) the affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s); and (iv) the E-mail address(es) of the author(s).

Abstract. A concise and factual abstract not exceeding 250 words must be provided with each manuscript. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. No footnotes, references, figures, or tables may appear in the abstract.

Keywords. Please provide 4–6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

Heading/section levels (numbered). For regular research papers and review articles, please use the decimal system of headings. Please divide your manuscript into clearly defined and numbered sections and subsections. Sections should be numbered 1, 2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2 …), 1.2, etc. Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to “the text”. Each section and subsection should be given a brief heading and each heading should appear on its own separate line. For short papers, no section levels are needed.

Footnotes. Essential footnotes to the text should be numbered consecutively and placed at the bottom of the page to which they refer. Footnotes to the table should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks) and placed immediately below the table.

Formulae and symbols. Formulae, symbols, and all subscripts, superscripts, Greek letters, and other characters must be legible and carefully checked. Standard mathematical notation should be used. All symbols used in manuscript must be explained. If necessary, a list of symbols may be provided and placed before the Introduction section.

Equations. Numbering consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text), and referring the equation with Eq. (1), Eq. (2) … in the text. For the simple formulae which appear in the line of normal text, please use solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., x/y. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by “exp”. In principle, variables should be presented in italics.

Figures. All digital arts, including micrographs, line arts, and grayscale images, included in the manuscript should be supplied in a separate electronic file in TIFF, EPS, or JPEG format with a preferred resolution of 600 dpi relative to the final figure size. All figures should be numbered using Arab numerals (figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters) and supplied with a figure caption. Please make sure that all elements found in the figure are identified in the caption. Figures should always be cited in text, such as Fig. 1, Fig. 2 … in consecutive numerical order. Color figures will remain in color in both the printed version and the online version of the Journal, at no cost. The authors are encouraged to use color figures in the submitted manuscript.

Tables. All tables should be numbered using Arab numerals and supplied with a table title which explains clearly and concisely the components of the table. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (for example, in figures). Tables should always be cited in the text, such as Table 1, Table 2 … in consecutive numerical order.

Units. Please follow internationally accepted rules and conventions such as those defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in supplementary information.

Abbreviations. Abbreviations should be used only if deemed absolutely necessary, and should be defined at first mention in the abstract and again in the main body of the text and used consistently thereafter.

Appendix. An appendix, if needed, is presented without numbers. If there are two or more appendices, they should be numbered consecutively. Equations in appendices should be designated differently from those in the main body of the manuscript, e.g., (A1), (A2), etc. In each appendix equations should be numbered separately.

Declarations. Declarations mainly include 5 parts for the Journal.

(1) Availability of data and materials: Authors must include an "Availability of data and materials" section in their article detailing where the data supporting their findings can be found. If you do not wish to share your data, please state that data will not be shared, and state the reason.

(2) Competing interests: Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Please refer to “Competing Interests” below for more information on how to complete this section.

(3) Funding: All sources of funding for the research reported should be declared. The role of the funding body in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript should be declared. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

(4) Author contributions: The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. The Journal recommends authors to use CRediT statements (the Contribution Roles Taxonomy).

(5) Acknowledgements: Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article who does not meet the criteria for authorship including anyone who provided professional writing services or materials. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.

Citations & references. References to the literature are cited by number in square brackets at appropriate locations (before a period, comma, etc.) in the text. Some examples are given below:

(1) There are several different methods, such as chemical precipitation [1], hydrothermal [2–4], sol–gel [2,5,6], and mechanochemical methods [7,8].

(2) This phenomenon was originally observed by John and Williams [1] in 1980.

(3) This effect has been widely studied [1–3,7].

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Papers accepted for publication are cited with their DOIs. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

References are compiled in a numbered list in the order of their first citation in the text. Each numbered reference may contain only one literature citation. Please ensure references are given in the correct format, including titles of journal articles/book chapters with initial and final page numbers, in order to avoid delays in typesetting your article. The examples below illustrate different reference types.

Journal style

[1] Han YC, Li SP, Wang XY, et al. Synthesis and sintering of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite powders by citric acid sol-gel combustion method. Mater Res Bull 2004, 39: 25–32.

Book style

[2] Lawn BR. Fracture of Brittle Solids. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Chapter in book style

[3] Craighead HG. Nanostructures in electronics. In: Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications. Edelstein A, Cammatata R, Eds. New York: Taylor and Francis, 1998: 565–566.

Others

[4] Hammond PW. Four-quadrant AC-AC drive and method. U.S. patent 6 166 513, Dec. 2000.

[5] Peng ZJ. Surface modification of ceramic cutting tools by energetic ions. Ph.D. Thesis. Beijing (China): Tsinghua University, 2002.

[6] Information on http://www.weld.labs.gov.cn

[7] Qin J, Zhang GP, Sun R, et al. Preparation and performance research on the Si₃N₄@SiO₂/PI nanocomposite. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Electronic Materials and Packaging, 2012: 10–24.

If Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM) is submitted, it will be published as received from the author in the online version only. ESM may consist of: (i) information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings; (ii) information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, etc.; (iii) large amounts of original data, e.g., additional tables, illustrations, etc. If supplying any ESM, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables (e.g., Fig. S1 in the ESM). Besides, a paragraph should be added before the “References” section (e.g., Electronic Supplementary Material: Supplementary material (add a brief description) is available in the online version of this article).

• Information that cannot be printed, such as animations, video clips, sound recordings, etc., should be supplied always as electronic files with MP4 format.
• Information that can be printed, such as text, figures, tables, etc., should be integrated into one WORD file.

The Journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. The benefit of single-blind peer review is that it is the traditional model of peer review that many reviewers are comfortable with, and it facilitates a dispassionate critique of a manuscript. A regular review process for each submitted manuscript consists of three stages: initial check, preliminary assessment, and peer review.

Initial check

The submitted manuscript will be initially checked by Executive Editor. At this stage, a decision of "Reject without review" would be made for the submissions which do not meet the guidelines set out in this document. In principle, the authors may resubmit the manuscript after carefully revising according to the guidelines. In addition, all manuscripts submitted to Materials and Solidification will be screened for plagiarism by Crosscheck software iThenticate. Those with high overlap scores may also be rejected directly without further review. We are sorry that we cannot provide the detailed report for the text overlap check.

Preliminary assessment

At this stage, the Executive Editor has sole discretion on whether to send the manuscript for peer review or reject it without review.

Unsolicited articles are evaluated by fit with the mission statement of the Journal, perceived quality and novelty of the work, potential interest to the Journal's readership, the standard of presentation (including the standard of technical written English and the quality of figures).

Peer review

Around four reviewers will be invited for peer review. When a submission has two (or one in exceptional cases) useable reports, the Executive Editor will use the reviewers' comments to decide whether to accept the manuscript for publication, return it for revision (major or minor), or reject it. The Executive Editor makes the final decision. Infrequently, after several rounds of invitations to peer reviewers, a submission may receive no reports. In this case, the submission may be rejected at the Executive Editor's discretion.

Except in the cases of academic malpractice, only the corresponding author may request to withdraw a submission that is under consideration. Resubmission of a rejected manuscript is possible only with the explicit permission of the Executive Editor.

Payment of publication fee

Authors will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC). Once the APC is paid, the Publisher will start the production process of the accepted paper as early as possible. Authors do not have to pay any Article Processing Charge (APC) until December 31, 2025.

License agreement

Authors will be asked to sign an OA license agreement of the article to the Publisher. This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.

Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables, and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Executive Editor. After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Online first

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and article numbers.

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. The Journal will follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the Journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:

• 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: All manuscripts submitted to Materials and Solidification will be screened for plagiarism by Crosscheck software iThenticate.

• Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
• Research articles and non-research articles (e.g., Review, Short Communication, and Comment and Reply) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
• 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.

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 is maintained 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.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the Journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting/excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible, to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record, or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter.

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines, it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines.

All authors whose names appear on the submission:

(1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

(2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

(3) approved the version to be published; and

(4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the Journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

• ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
• managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;
• providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
• making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name], …

For Review where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author.

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Executive Editor.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Executive Editor and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

To ensure objectivity and transparency in research and to ensure that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed, authors should include information regarding sources of funding, potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals.

Authors should include the following statements (if applicable) in a separate section entitled “Compliance with Ethical Standards” when submitting a paper:

• Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
• Research involving Human Participants and/or Animals
• Informed consent

The corresponding author should be prepared to collect documentation of compliance with ethical standards and send if requested during peer review or after publication.

The Editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned guidelines. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned guidelines.

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the Journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.

Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published."

Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.

Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement. Other article types such as editorials, book reviews, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Executive Editor.

Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. Under ‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the ‘Declarations’ section.

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.

Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

• Partial financial support was received from [...].
• The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No. […].
• This study was funded by […].
• This work was supported by […] (Grant Nos. […] and […]).

Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

• No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
• No funding was received for conducting this study.
• No funds, grants, or other support was received.

Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:

• Financial interests: Author A has received research support from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company Wand owns stock in Company X. Author C is consultant to company Y.

Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.

• Financial interests: The authors declare they have no financial interests.

Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.

• Financial interests: Author A received a speaking fee from Y for Z. Author B receives a salary from association X. X where s/he is the Executive Director.

Non-financial interests: none.

• Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M and Company N. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company O. Author D has received travel support from Company O.

Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.

Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:

• The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
• The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
• All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
• The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Executive Editor reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.