Author Guidelines

Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Types of manuscripts

JSEP accepts original articles, reviews, perspectives and comments. For more information please read the guidelines for each type of manuscript below.

Guidelines for authors of Original Articles  Download

Guidelines for authors of Review Articles  Download

Guidelines for authors of Perspective Articles Download

Guidelines for authors of Comment Articles Download

Journal Policies

Competing Interests

In the interests of transparency, any competing interests must be declared both within the text of the article and via our web-based manuscript tracking system upon submission. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Authors can decline to disclose their competing interests if they are bound by confidentiality agreements, but we will publish the fact that they have declined to provide information.

Authorship

All authors are expected to have been involved at least in the research, writing and/or substantial reviewing of the draft manuscript. Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue, requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Editor from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

Before submission, ensure that one author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details: E-mail address and postal address.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Articles should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of race, sex, culture or any other characteristic, and should use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias.

Materials from third parties

We prefer to avoid reproducing material (for example, figures, tables, boxes and videos) directly from other publications unless it is exceptionally informative. However, we recognize that to illustrate some concepts the use of published data is required and the reuse of previously published display items might be necessary. If you do not own the item, or wish to reuse items from previously published or copyrighted material, you must declare this. If we are unable to obtain the necessary rights for display items to be reproduced or adapted, we will contact you to discuss the sourcing of alternative material. 

Data Sharing

A condition of publication in JSEP is that authors are required to make materials, data, code and associated protocols promptly available to readers without undue qualifications. Any restrictions on the availability of materials or information must be disclosed to the editors at the time of submission. Any restrictions must also be disclosed in the submitted manuscript.  After publication, readers who encounter refusal by the authors to comply with these policies should contact the chief editor of the journal. In cases where editors are unable to resolve a complaint, the journal may refer the matter to the authors' funding institution and/or publish a formal statement of correction, attached online to the publication, stating that readers have been unable to obtain necessary materials to replicate the findings.

Authors must make available upon request, to editors and reviewers, any previously unreported custom computer code or algorithm used to generate results that are reported in the paper and central to its main claims.  Any reason that would preclude the need for code or algorithm sharing will be evaluated by the editors who reserve the right to decline the paper if important code is unavailable.

For all studies using custom code or mathematical algorithm that is deemed central to the conclusions, a statement must be included under the heading "Code availability", indicating whether and how the code or algorithm can be accessed, including any restrictions to access. Code availability statements should be provided as a separate section after the data availability statement but before the references.

Plagiarism and Fabrication

JSEP aims to publish articles that provide originality and fresh insight and will not knowingly publish an article containing text copied from previously published work, including the author’s own.

As defined by the University of Nairobi Plagiarism policy, plagiarism is the action or practise of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own. Plagiarism can be said to have clearly occurred when large chunks of text have been cut-and-pasted without appropriate and unambiguous attribution. Such manuscripts would not be considered for publication in JSEP. Aside from wholesale verbatim reuse of text, due care must be taken to ensure appropriate attribution and citation when paraphrasing and summarising the work of others. "Text recycling" or reuse of parts of text from an author's previous research publication is a form of self-plagiarism. Here too, due caution must be exercised. When reusing text, whether from the author's own publication or that of others, appropriate attribution and citation is necessary to avoid creating a misleading perception of unique contribution for the reader.

Duplicate publication occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. This can range from publishing an identical paper in multiple journals, to only adding a small amount of new data to a previously published paper. JSEP editors assess all such cases on their individual merits. When plagiarism becomes evident post-publication, we may correct or retract the original publication depending on the degree of plagiarism, context within the published article and its impact on the overall integrity of the published study.

To verify originality, your article may be checked by our originality detection system.

Biosecurity Policy

JSEP editors may seek advice about submitted papers not only from technical reviewers but also on any aspect of a paper that raises concerns. These may include, for example, ethical issues or issues of data or materials access. Very occasionally, concerns may also relate to the implications to society of publishing a paper, including threats to security. In such circumstances, advice will usually be sought simultaneously with the technical peer-review process. As in all publishing decisions, the ultimate decision whether to publish is the responsibility of the editor of the Nature Research journal concerned.

The threat posed by bioweapons raises the unusual need to assess the balance of risk and benefit in publication. Editors are not necessarily well qualified to make such judgements unassisted, and so we reserve the right to take expert advice in cases where we believe that concerns may arise. We recognize the widespread view that openness in science helps to alert society to potential threats and to defend against them, and we anticipate that only very rarely (if at all) will the risks be perceived as outweighing the benefits of publishing a paper that has otherwise been deemed appropriate for this journal. Nevertheless, we think it appropriate to consider such risks and to have a formal policy for dealing with them if need arises.

Once a decision has been reached, authors will be informed if biosecurity advice has informed that decision.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Peer review

This journal operates a double blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final.