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Nurse Education Today is the leading international journal providing a forum for the publication of high quality original research, review and debate in the discussion of nursing, midwifery and interprofessional health care education, publishing papers which contribute to the advancement of educational theory and pedagogy that support the evidence-based practice for educationalists worldwide. The journal stimulates and values critical scholarly debate on issues that have strategic relevance for leaders of health care education.

The journal publishes the highest quality scholarly contributions reflecting the diversity of people, health and education systems worldwide, by publishing research that employs rigorous methodology as well as by publishing papers that highlight the theoretical underpinnings of education and systems globally. The journal will publish papers that show depth, rigour, originality and high standards of presentation, in particular, work that is original, analytical and constructively critical of both previous work and current initiatives.

Authors are invited to submit original research, systematic and scholarly reviews, and critical papers which will stimulate debate on research, policy, theory or philosophy of nursing and related health care education, and which will meet and develop the journal's high academic and ethical standards.

The journal employs a double blind peer review process for all submissions and its current Impact Factor is 3.442 making it one of the leading nursing education journals (2020 Journal Citation Reports, Clarivate Analytics 2021).

Introduction

The Editors of Nurse Education Today welcome the submission of papers for publication in the form of research findings, systematic and methodological reviews, literature reviews and Contemporary Issue pieces that contribute to, and advance, the knowledge of, and debate within, international nursing, midwifery and healthcare education

For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at https://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs (https://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ) and/or contact Customer Support via https://service.elsevier.com.

Page charges
This journal has no page charges.

Informed consent and patient details

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper. Appropriate consents, permissions and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in an Elsevier publication. Written consents must be retained by the author but copies should not be provided to the journal. Only if specifically requested by the journal in exceptional circumstances (for example if a legal issue arises) the author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained. For more information, please review the Elsevier Policy on the Use of Images or Personal Information of Patients or other Individuals. Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Declaration of interest

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 must disclose any interests in two places: 1. A summary declaration of interest statement in the title page file (if double anonymized) or the manuscript file (if single anonymized). If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none'. 2. Detailed disclosures as part of a separate Declaration of Interest form, which forms part of the journal's official records. It is important for potential interests to be declared in both places and that the information matches. More information.

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, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), 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 Crossref Similarity Check.

Other/multiple and parallel publications

NET seeks to provide full transparency to its readers on every study it publishes. The journal seeks to publish original papers that make a substantial novel contribution. Generally NET's word limits permit authors to publish all aspects of a study within a single paper. However we recognize that this is not always possible. To aid editorial decisions about distinctiveness and to avoid inadvertent duplication please upload copies of all previous, current and under review publications from the single study being submitted for consideration of publication and / or give full details in the Covering Letter to the editorial office. Seehttps://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/163719/ETHICS_SS01a.pdf

Preprints
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Contributors and Acknowledgements

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

All those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.) that do not meet criteria for authorship should be acknowledged in the paper.

Author contributions

For transparency, we encourage authors to submit an author statement file outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing. Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and CRediT role(s) following. More details and an example

Authorship

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) 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.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (see more information on this). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases.

For gold open access articles: Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'License Agreement' (more information). Permitted third party reuse of gold open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. More information.

Elsevier supports responsible sharing
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Elsevier Researcher Academy
Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Language (usage and editing services)
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Author Services.

Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit https://webshop.elsevier.com/language-editing-services/language-editing/ or our customer support site at https://service.elsevier.com for more information.

Permission
Permission to reproduce previously published material must be obtained in writing from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) and acknowledged in the manuscript.

Submission

Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The system converts your article files to a single PDF file used in the peer-review process. Editable files (e.g., Word, LaTeX) are required to typeset your article for final publication. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, is sent by e-mail.

For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review) please contact the editorial office https://service.elsevier.com/. For technical support on submissions please check here.

Submit your article
Please submit your article via https://www.editorialmanager.com/net/default.aspx.

Review process
All manuscripts are initially assessed by an editorial team who will decide whether to send a paper for peer review and to allow a rapid response to authors for those that are not. The decision to publish a paper is based on assessment via a double-blind peer review process by an international panel of experts and the Editors reserves the right to the final decision regarding acceptance. Papers which do not meet the journal's standards or do not provide a novel contribution to the literature already published in the field, may be rejected at this point in order to avoid delays to authors who may wish to seek publication elsewhere. Occasionally a paper will be returned to the author with requests for revisions prior to additional peer review.

Submitted papers should be written in a way that is relevant to an international audience and authors should not assume knowledge of national and local practices, organisations and professional bodies. Authors should therefore avoid the use of acronyms when referring to such and should use terminology that is internationally acceptable. Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style and structure if possible.

Nurse Education Today is a signatory journal to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, issued by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct for editors. We follow COPE's guidelines

Additional information

Article structure

Presentation of Manuscripts

Abbreviations - Avoid the use of abbreviations unless they are likely to be widely recognised. In particular you should avoid abbreviating key concepts in your paper where readers might not already be familiar with the abbreviation. Any abbreviations which the authors intend to use should be written out in full and followed by the letters in brackets the first time they appear, thereafter only the letters without brackets should be used.

Statistics - Standard methods of presenting statistical material should be used. Where methods used are not widely recognised explanation and full reference to widely accessible sources must be given.

Exact p values should be given to no more than three decimal places.

Wherever possible give both point estimates and confidence intervals for all population parameters estimated by the study (e.g. group differences, frequency of characteristics). Identify the statistical package used.

Identify the statistical package used.

Word Length
Contemporary Issues - 2,000-2,500 words.

Papers that discuss contemporary issues within nursing, midwifery and health profession education, and stimulate scholarly debate, are welcomed. Authors who have ideas which address issues of substantive concern to the disciplines, particularly those of a controversial nature, should consider submitting a Contemporary Issue piece. The issues must be current and, although they can be of national agenda, they must have international implications or be of relevance to an international audience.

Contemporary Issues should consist of editorial-style. No abstract is required, but Keywords and up to 8 references should be included (following the style as outlined in this Guide). References and Keywords are included in the word count. Contemporary Issues should be submitted online in the usual way for the journal.

Research Papers - 3,500-5,000 words.

Papers reporting original research are welcomed between 3,500-5,000 words, including abstract/summary and references. Please check your text carefully before you send it off, both for correct content and typographic errors. You will increase the chances of acceptance if you draw on the experience of previously published colleagues where possible. It is not possible to change the content of accepted papers during production. Research papers should adhere to recognised standards for reporting (see Guidance below - Considerations to specific types of research design).

Reviews - 3,500-4,500 words.

Reviews are welcomed by the journal editors including, 1.systematic reviews, 2. literature reviews, which provide a thorough analysis of the literature on a topic.The word count includes abstracts and keywords but excludes references.

Big Ideas - 1,500-2,000 words.

You are invited to submit a review essay of a book (including works of fiction) or 'big idea' from the arts, sciences or humanities that has guided or influenced you as a practitioner, educator and/or academic. The review should normally focus on a book or idea from outside the immediate scope of nursing, midwifery and healthcare, and might include an overview, a critical appraisal and some thoughts about how it could be applied to practice and/or education. Critical commentaries of previously published contributions to the 'Big Ideas' series are also welcome. Abstracts and key words are not required, and papers of approximately 1500-2000 words (excluding references) should be submitted in the usual way, indicating that they are intended for the 'Big Ideas' section.

Do not use 'he', 'his' etc where the sex of the person is unknown, say 'the nurse' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'. Nurses and doctors should not be automatically designated as 'he/she'. In terms of style, try to avoid artificially objective language such as 'the author thought that' or 'the researcher' where this person is yourself. 'I' or 'we' are acceptable when related to matters concerning the author(s) themselves or their opinions.

Editorials - Editorials are brief commentaries which should be no more than 1500 words, with a maximum of 10 references. Editorials do not contain an abstract, figures or tables.

Supporting Documentation
A Covering letter to the editor in which you detail authorship contributions and other matters you wish the editors to consider.

• The title page should be provided as a separate file .
• Your title page should give the title in capital letters, below which should be the authors' names (as they appear) in lower-case letters.
• For each author you should give one first name as well as the family name and any initials
• Authors' addresses should be limited to the minimum information needed to ensure accurate postal delivery; these details should be on the title page below the authors' names and appointments
• Authors should also provide a daytime contact telephone number, fax number and e-mail address. Author's may include their Twitter handles on the Title Page if they wish to.
• The title should explicitly describe the topic and type of paper and should be in the format "Topic/question: Design/type of paper" (e.g. Student nurse perceptions of risk in relation to international placements: A phenomenological research study).
• All Acknowledgements/Contribution/Funding statements should be listed on the author 'Title Page' file and not in the Manuscript (to avoid disclosure to reviewers). There should be no author details appearing in the 'Manuscript' file or the 'Response to Reviewers' file for revised submissions

Highlights

Highlights are optional yet highly encouraged for this journal, as they increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the examples here: example Highlights.

Highlights should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Abstract

An abstract of your paper, a maximum of 300 words summarising the content, must be included in your manuscript file and copied into a text box during the online submission process - the two version

must

identical

. The abstract should not include references or abbreviations.

Abstracts of Research Papers must be structured. As guidance they should include Background;Objectives; Design; Settings ; Participants; Methods; Results; and Conclusions.

Abstracts for Reviews should provide a summary under the following headings, where possible: Objectives, Design, Data sources, Review methods, Results, Conclusions.

Abstracts are not required for Editorials and Contemporary Issues.

Keywords

Include 4-8 keywords. The purpose of these is to increase the likely accessibility of your paper to potential readers searching the literature. Therefore, ensure keywords are descriptive of the study. Refer to a recognised thesaurus of keywords wherever possible, for example refer to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) thesaurus or Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) headings (see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Headings
The content of your paper should determine the headings you use. If yours is a quantitative research paper the headings should follow the usual layout, such as:Introduction, Background/Literature, Methods, Data/Results, Discussion, Conclusions. If your paper takes another form, theoretical or qualitative for example, you should use the appropriate headings, but do bear in mind that headings should facilitate reading and understanding. You should use only two kinds of headings, major headings should be indicated by underlined capital letters in the centre of the page whereas minor headings should be underlined, have lower-case letters (beginning with a capital) and begin at the left hand margin.

Formatting of funding sources
List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa].

It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Artwork

Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Embed the used fonts if the application provides that option.
• Aim to use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, Symbol, or use fonts that look similar.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Size the illustrations close to the desired dimensions of the published version.
• Submit each illustration as a separate file.
• Ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
If your electronic artwork is created in a Microsoft Office application (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) then please supply 'as is' in the native document format.
Regardless of the application used other than Microsoft Office, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'Save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.
TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.
Please do not:
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF (or JPEG), EPS (or PDF), or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color online (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color: in print or online only. Further information on the preparation of electronic artwork.

Illustration services
Elsevier's Author Services offers Illustration Services to authors preparing to submit a manuscript but concerned about the quality of the images accompanying their article. Elsevier's expert illustrators can produce scientific, technical and medical-style images, as well as a full range of charts, tables and graphs. Image 'polishing' is also available, where our illustrators take your image(s) and improve them to a professional standard. Please visit the website to find out more.

Figure captions, tables, figures, schemes
Submit these as separate files and not in the manuscript. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always be provided separate from the main text file (see Preparation of illustrations).

Tables
Each table needs a short descriptive title above it, and a clear legend or key and, if necessary, suitably identified footnotes below. When drawing up the tables take care to include all the units of measurement. Make sure that each table is cited in the text. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Tables should be presented in separate files

References

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Reference links
Increased discoverability of research and high quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. In order to allow us to create links to abstracting and indexing services, such as Scopus, CrossRef and PubMed, please ensure that data provided in the references are correct. Please note that incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year and pagination may prevent link creation. When copying references, please be careful as they may already contain errors. Use of the DOI is highly encouraged.

A DOI is guaranteed never to change, so you can use it as a permanent link to any electronic article. An example of a citation using DOI for an article not yet in an issue is: VanDecar J.C., Russo R.M., James D.E., Ambeh W.B., Franke M. (2003). Aseismic continuation of the Lesser Antilles slab beneath northeastern Venezuela. Journal of Geophysical Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JB000884. Please note the format of such citations should be in the same style as all other references in the paper.

Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. This identifier will not appear in your published article.

Example:
[dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., Nakashizuka, T., 2015. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1.

Reference management software
Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in many of the most popular reference management software products. These include all products that support Citation Style Language styles, such as Mendeley. Using citation plug-ins from these products, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, after which citations and bibliographies will be automatically formatted in the journal's style. If no template is yet available for this journal, please follow the format of the sample references and citations as shown in this Guide. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript. More information on how to remove field codes from different reference management software.

Reference formatting
There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission. References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. The reference style used by the journal will be applied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct. If you do wish to format the references yourself they should be arranged according to the following examples:

Reference style

In the text references should state the author's surname and the year of publication (Garrett, 2006). If there are two authors you should give both surnames (Warne and McAndrew, 2008). When a source has more than two authors, give the name of the first author followed by 'et al.'.
Where a quotation is used within your paper the author, date and page number should be given, e.g. 'has a beginning and an end; that it is best separated from the rest of our activities and that it is as a result of teaching.' (Wenger, 1998, p.3)
A list of all references in your manuscript should be typed in alphabetical order. Each reference to a paper needs to include the authors' surnames and initials, year of publication, full title of the paper, full name of the journal, volume number, issue number and first and last page numbers. Do not add unnecessary punctuation.

For example:
Henderson, A., Creedy, D., Boorman, R., Cooke, M., Walker, R., 2010. Development and psychometric testing of the Clinical Learning Organisational Culture Survey (CLOCS). Nurse Education Today 30 (7), 598-602.

References to Books should be given in a slightly different form, as in these examples: Billings, D., Halstead, J., 2005. Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty, 2nd ed. Elsevier Saunders, St Louis, MO.

Heron, J., Reason, P., 2006. The practice of co-operative inquiry: research "with" rather than "on" people. In: Reason, P., Bradbury, H. (Eds), Handbook of Action Research. Sage Publications, London, pp. 145-154.

Video

Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the file in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

Further Considerations
Considerations specific to types of research designs

The journal editors recommend that authors adhere to recognized reporting guidelines relevant to the research design used in their manuscripts. These are not quality assessment frameworks and your study need not meet all the criteria implied in the reporting guideline to be worthy of publication in the journal.

Reporting guidelines endorsed by the journal are listed below:

Observational cohort, case control and cross sectional studies - STROBE - Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Quasi-experimental/non-randomised evaluations - TREND - Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomized Designs http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Randomised (and quasi-randomised) controlled trial - CONSORT - Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Study of Diagnostic accuracy/assessment scale - STARD - Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Systematic Review of Controlled Trials - PRISMA - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Systematic Review of Observational Studies - MOOSE - Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology http://www.equator-network.org/index.aspx?o=1032

Qualitative researchers might wish to consult the guideline listed below:

Qualitative studies - COREQ - Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. Tong, A., Sainsbury, P., Craig, J., 2007. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 19 (6), 349-357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/intghc/mzm042

Data visualization

Include interactive data visualizations in your publication and let your readers interact and engage more closely with your research. Follow the instructions here to find out about available data visualization options and how to include them with your article.

Research data

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the research data page.

Data linking
If you have made your research data available in a data repository, you can link your article directly to the dataset. Elsevier collaborates with a number of repositories to link articles on ScienceDirect with relevant repositories, giving readers access to underlying data that gives them a better understanding of the research described.

There are different ways to link your datasets to your article. When available, you can directly link your dataset to your article by providing the relevant information in the submission system. For more information, visit the database linking page.

For supported data repositories a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

In addition, you can link to relevant data or entities through identifiers within the text of your manuscript, using the following format: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Mendeley Data
This journal supports Mendeley Data, enabling you to deposit any research data (including raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols, and methods) associated with your manuscript in a free-to-use, open access repository. During the submission process, after uploading your manuscript, you will have the opportunity to upload your relevant datasets directly to Mendeley Data. The datasets will be listed and directly accessible to readers next to your published article online.

For more information, visit the Mendeley Data for journals page.

Data statement
To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential. The statement will appear with your published article on ScienceDirect. For more information, visit the Data Statement page.

Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors.
If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF.
We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Offprints

The corresponding author will, at no cost, receive a customized Share Link providing 50 days free access to the final published version of the article on ScienceDirect. The Share Link can be used for sharing the article via any communication channel, including email and social media. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's Author Services. Corresponding authors who have published their article gold open access do not receive a Share Link as their final published version of the article is available open access on ScienceDirect and can be shared through the article DOI link.

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Considerations specific to types of research designs