1 Manuscript Submission
Legal requirements
Submission of a manuscript to Chain implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or 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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service Crosscheck software iThenticate. 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 and to state clearly in the figure/table caption or other appropriate locations in the manuscript that such permission has been obtained. For example: Reprinted with permission from Ref. [number], © Copyright-year, Copyright-holder. 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.
Related manuscripts
If you or your coauthors have any related papers submitted or in press elsewhere, you need to let us know and include them with your initial submission (or with your revision if they were submitted during revision). We ask this because having access to related papers often helps us (and reviewers) to assess the submitted work, and it can help prevent potentially difficult scenarios down the road. Failure to provide copies of related manuscripts may delay the review process and may be grounds for rejection. As a matter of publishing ethics, we cannot consider any paper that contains data that have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
Duplicate submissions
In accordance with guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics, duplicate submissions, defined as active consideration of a manuscript by multiple journals, are considered a serious ethical issue because they can lead to duplicate publications. It is our policy that a manuscript must not be submitted to more than one journal at the same time, or in any case when the paper is under active consideration at a journal, that is, before a final decision to publish or decline the manuscript is made.
Online submission
Authors must submit their manuscripts online via the Chain ScholarOne Manuscripts™ (https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/chain). When submitting your manuscript, please make sure that the following items have been prepared as carefully as possible according to this Instruction:
Cover letter (mandatory).
Manuscript prepared based on the Journal's template (mandatory).
Author biography and graphical abstract (mandatory).
Electronic supplementary materials (optional).
Author contributions and other necessary materials not for review (optional)
2 Manuscript Preparation
Categories
The journal publishes a range of article types: full-length articles, short communications, review articles, perspectives, highlights, invited interviews, news and views, etc.
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. Please write the text in good English. Possible grammatical or spelling errors should be carefully avoided, making the submissions conform to accepted standards of written technical English. The Journal's editors are not responsible for correcting errors in grammar or spelling. Manuscripts that require extensive English revision may be rejected without review.
Please always use the past tense to state the authors' or previously reported work (experiments, observations, analyses, and discussions) and the present tense to state the experimental facts and conclusions.
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 and to limit to less than 50 manuscript pages.
Text formatting
For submission in Microsoft Word, use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times New Roman), one 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.
3 Detailed Formatting Instructions
Please follow this order when typing manuscripts: title page (including author affiliations and contact information), abstract, keywords, main text (including tables and figures), acknowledgements, list of symbols, author contributions, conflict of interest, data availability, Statement, graphical Table of Contents, electronic supplementary material (if necessary), references, and cover figure (encouraged).
Title page
The title page should include:
A concise and informative title. The title should be succinct, objective, interesting and grammatically correct; it should not contain non-standard acronyms or abbreviations, should usually be limited to no more than 20 words and 3 lines, and should have the first letter capitalized. Additionally, words like 'effect' and 'study' are not suggested in the title.
The name(s) of the author(s). Authors should use their full names (for Chinese authors, the format should be "Hailing Tu"). Symbols should be used to link each author's name to their institutional affiliation, and an envelope symbol should be used to denote the corresponding author(s). Generally, the number of authors should not exceed 8, and there should be at most two corresponding authors, who must hold senior professional titles.
The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. department, institution, city postcode, country.
The e-mail address of the corresponding author(s).
Changes to the author list between initial submission and revision must be accompanied by an explanatory statement in the cover letter for the revision and a completed "Change in Authorship Request" form, which will be sent by the Journal Editorial Office. These changes will be accepted at the discretion of the Editor and may lead to rejection of the manuscript. Changes of authorship or the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
Abstract
It should be a single paragraph of 120 to 250 words. Abstract presents the motivation for the work, the methods applied, the results, and the conclusions drawn, note that the expression for background should be not more than one third length of the abstract.
Keywords
4-6 keywords should be supplied, which can be used for indexing purposes.
Main text
Heading/section levels (numbered)
For articles, please use the decimal system of headings with no more than three levels. Examples:
1 Introduction
2 Experimental
3 Results and discussion
3.1…
3.2…
(then 3.1.1, 3.1.2,...)
4 Conclusions
It is OK to have a Method section placed at the end of the text. For short papers, it is OK to have no section levels.
Introduction
It should briefly introduce the relevant background of the research conducted (not a comprehensive review of the specific field), purpose of the study reported, and provide a brief summary of the major findings, enabling readers unfamiliar with the subject to become acquainted with the importance of the results presented; relevant references should be included.
Experimental
This part should give sufficient detail to enable others to repeat and compare your work. In theoretical papers, technical details such as computational methods should likewise be confined to an appropriately named section.
Results and discussion
In Articles, the presentation of Results and Discussion may be combined or kept separate. Major observations and conclusions of the reported study should be clearly and logically described here. The significance of the reported discoveries in the paper should be discussed with historical and future perspectives. Hypotheses or theories supported by solid evidence might be proposed here. Informative subtitles should be used in this part.
Conclusions
Conclusion should be different from abstract, in a single paragraph, focusing on summarizing the major conclusions of the paper, which should stand alone.
Figure legends
Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. For figures with multiple panels, the first sentence of the legend should be a brief overview of the entire figure. All symbols and abbreviations used in the figure must be defined, unless they are common abbreviations or have already been defined in the text. Experimental details should, where possible, be given in the experimental section, and not repeated in the figure legends. The similar expressions in the figure captions should not be repeated in the text.
Figures
All the figures, including data plots, photographs, diagrammatic sketches, flow charts, etc., should be embedded, approximately in their final sizes, in the main text near the paragraph in which they are first referenced, not on separate page(s) at the end. Figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order of occurrence in the text for peer review, and after the references in the document for publication after acceptance.
Tables
All tables are to be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in which they are referred to in the text for peer review, and after the references in the document for publication after acceptance.
Equations
Equations and mathematical expressions should be provided in the main text of the paper. Equations that are referred to in the text are identified by parenthetical numbers, such as (1), and are referred to in the manuscript as "Eq. (1)".
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention in the abstract and again in the main body of the text and used consistently thereafter.
Units
SI units (i.e., the International System of Units) should be used throughout, non-SI units such as ppm, Å, Oe, emu, sccm, pct, M, etc.
Grammar
As an international journal, all manuscripts submitted should be polished by native colleagues or friends, or by a professional polishing company.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc., should be placed in a separate section at the end of the main text. The names of funding organizations and grant numbers should be written in full. It should be written like as "This work was financially supported by ...".
Author contributions
Authors are required to include a statement of responsibility in the manuscript that specifies the contribution of every author.
Conflict of interest
Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication.
Data availability
The journal encourages authors, where possible and applicable, to deposit data that support the findings of their research in a public repository.
Statement of human and animal rights
Manuscripts containing animal experiments must include a statement in the Experimental Section to state that permission was obtained from the relevant national or local authorities.
Graphical table of contents
Graphics should be ~17 cm in width and ~8 cm in height, and must be ≥600 dpi in resolution. They should be uploaded as a TIFF/JPG file.
Electronic supplementary material (ESM)
Supplementary material such as applications, images and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received. Supplementary Information pages must be prepared as a single MS Word document and should be uploaded as a separate file with all figures incorporated into the text. Besides, a paragraph should be added before the "References" section (e.g., Supporting Information: Additional supporting information can be found online in the Supplemental Items.).
References
Reference examples are given as follows:
(1) Journal article
R. C. Sharma, P. Kawachi and A Bozkurt, "The landscape of artificial intelligence in open online and distance education: Promises and concerns," Asian J. Distance Educ., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 1-2, 2019.
(2) Article in press with doi
M. K. Slifka and J. L. Whitton, "Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production," J. Mol. Med., in press, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-01449- 7.
(3) Books (including Monograph, Proceedings, Handbook, etc.)
K. Flamm, Creating the Computer: Government Industry and High Technology, Washington, DC, USA: Brookings Institution Press, 1988.
(4) Book chapter
M. M. L. Cairns, "Computers in education: The impact on schools and classrooms," in Life Schools Classrooms, Singapore: Springer, pp. 603-617, 2017.
(5) Conference proceedings
J. Hu, L. Shen and G. Sun, "Squeeze-and-excitation networks", Proc. Conf. Comput. Vis. Pattern Recognit (CVPR), pp. 7132-7141, 2018.
(6) Dissertations
J. S. Chandrakanth, "Effects of ozone on the colloidal stability of particles coated with natural organic matter", Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, 1994.
(7) Patents
S. K. Sheem, "Low-cost fiber optic pressure sensor", U.S. Patent 6,738,537, May 18, 2004.
4 Review Process
The Journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. 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 the handling 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 addition, all manuscripts submitted to Chain will be screened for plagiarism by Crosscheck software iThenticate.
Those with high overlap scores (higher than 30% (excluding the reference section)) 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
Manuscripts which pass through the initial check will be preliminarily assessed by the Editor-in-Chief (Eic) and then the invited assistant editors. At this stage, the EiCs have sole discretion, with the help of the invited assistant editors, on whether to send the manuscript for peer review or reject it without review.
Special emphases will be paid on the readability and the attractiveness of the submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts without an attractive abstract and/or a comprehensive and convincing introduction will be rejected at this stage without detailed comments.
Peer review
At least two reviewers will be invited for peer review. When a submission has at least two useable reports, the EiC will use the reviewers' comments to decide whether to accept the manuscript for publication, return it for revision (major or minor), or reject it. All 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, and the standard of presentation (including the standard of technical written English and the quality of figures).
5 After Acceptance
Payment of publication fee
Authors are required to pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) after the manuscripts accepted after 31st December 2026. Please note that Chain is a subsidized Open Access journal where Youke Publishing Co., Ltd. pays for the publishing costs incurred by the journal before 31st December 2026.
Article publishing agreement
All articles in Chain shall be published on an open access mode, the authors will be asked to sign an OA license agreement for the article, which 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. Authors will have a chance to double check symbols, formulas, and figure legends before final publication, for these may accidentally have been changed during typesetting. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the EiC. 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 the release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and electronic article number.
After final publication, substantial changes in content such as new results and corrected values are not allowed without the approval of the EiC. Erratum might be needed for further corrections.
6 Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. The journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.
(COPE guidelines website: https://publicationethics.org/guidance?f%5B0%5D=type%3A21)
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 Chain 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/minireview, Rapid Communication, and Perspective/Highlight/Comment) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate selfcitation 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:
- a correction/erratum 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 correction/ erratum, 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. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.
7 Authorship Principles
These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere.
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;
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 applications or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.
Role of the corresponding author
We prefer that each paper have a single corresponding author because we think that the ownership and responsibility that are inherent in corresponding authorship will promote best practices in design and performance of experiments, analysis of results, organization and retention of original data, and preparation of figures and text.
That said, we understand that, for some studies, particularly for interdisciplinary ones, multiple authors may bear the responsibilities of a corresponding author. If you feel strongly and have compelling reasons, you may include additional corresponding authors. We may ask you to explain your rationale and to verify that all corresponding authors understand their responsibilities (listed below).
The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:
1) ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
2) managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;
3) 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;
4) 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. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.
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 [initials], [initials], and [initials]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [initials] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conceptualization: [initials], …; Methodology: [initials], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [initials], …; Writing - original draftpreparation: [initials, …]; Writing - review and editing: [initials], …; Funding acquisition: [initials], …; Resources: [initials], …; Supervision: [initials], …
For review articles 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 the 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 Editor-in-Chief.
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 the 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 EiC and/or Handling Editors and reviewers' reports, unless explicit consent has been received to share information.
8 Integrity of Research and Reporting
Ethical standards
Manuscripts submitted for publication must contain a declaration that the experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed. Please include this note in a separate section before the reference list.
Ethical standards should comply with the policies and procedures contained in the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual ("PSPB Ops Man") section 8.2, including the Principles of Ethical Publishing, the policy on the use of human and animal subjects. The PSPB Ops Man is currently located at the following:
https://pspb.ieee.org/images/files/files/opsmanual.pdf.
Reporting on research involving human subjects or animals
Manuscripts containing animal experiments must include a statement in the Experimental Section to state that permission was obtained from the relevant national or local authorities.
Disclosing the use of artificial intelligence
If you or your co-authors have used Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLMs) to develop any portion of a manuscript, their use must be described transparently and in detail in the Methods section.
9 Competing Interests
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. 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, highlights/perspectives, 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 EiC.
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. This information may not be added to the manuscript itself. 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 interest". Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Author' 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 W and 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, where she/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 conflicting interests regarding the content of this article.
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
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 EiC reserve the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.
10 Cover Submission Guidelines
All authors of accepted research articles are welcome to submit ideas for the cover, but please first check with your handling editor to see whether submissions are still being considered for the issue in which your article will appear. Although the submission may be based on or resemble the figures in your article, your images should be both artistic and informative. Feel free to submit several different images for consideration. The editors base their selection on both the esthetic quality of the image and the scientific quality of the study. Please try to make your submissions interesting and creative, and consider the following when submitting files:
• Images that look like simple reproductions of figures from the journal will most likely not be selected for the cover.
• We must have the permission of the copyright holder of any copyrighted images.
• Cover submissions should not be generated using artificial intelligence programs.
• Editors use your suggested legends to help them choose the images.
• Images that are not selected for cover use may be used on journal websites and in social media.
11 Contact Information
Chain editorial office, Youke Publishing Co., Ltd.
Address: 43 Beisanhuanzhong Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100088, China
Tel: +86-10-82241917
Fax: +86-10-82240868
Email address: Chain-editor@youkepub.com
Should you have any additional questions or require further assistance, please contact the Chain Editorial Office using the contact details provided above.