Prepare your manuscript with confidence.

Before submission

Original, ethical, and complete

• The manuscript must be original and not under consideration elsewhere.
• All listed authors must approve the submission and meet accepted authorship criteria.
• Required ethics approval, consent, trial registration, and permissions must be documented.
• Data, code, images, and references must be accurate and appropriately attributed.
• Potential conflicts of interest and funding sources must be declared.

Article types

Choose the appropriate format

Manuscript structure

Recommended order

1. Title page with authors, affiliations, corresponding-author details, and ORCID IDs
2. Structured abstract and 3–8 keywords
3. Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion as appropriate
4. Acknowledgments, author contributions, funding, conflicts, ethics, consent, and data availability
5. References, tables, figure legends, figures, and supplementary material

Reporting standards

Use the right guideline

Authors should use the relevant EQUATOR Network guideline: CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, CARE for case reports, STARD for diagnostic-accuracy studies, ARRIVE for animal research, and TRIPOD or applicable guidance for prediction models and AI studies.

Submission files

Submission checklist

Required declarations

Transparency statements

Include, where relevant: ethics approval, consent to participate, consent for publication, data availability, competing interests, funding, author contributions, acknowledgments, trial registration, and disclosure of AI-assisted tools.