Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Conditions of submission retained rights
Except for copyright, other proprietary rights related to the Work shall be retained by the authors.
Permissions
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
Online Submission
Please follow the hyperlink “Submit online” on the right and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.
Title Page
The title page should include:
The name(s) of the author(s)
A concise and informative title
The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
The e-mail address, and telephone number(s) of the corresponding author
If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)
Abstract
Please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
Keywords
Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
Important remark
According to the journal policy, all first names should be abbreviated.
All manuscripts shall have ONLY ONE corresponding author. Normally, the author who submits the manuscript is defined as the corresponding author in the system and, thereby, ONLY he/she shall be specified as the corresponding author in the title page.
Text Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word. The manuscript should be typewritten in a single column using Times New Roman font, on the A4-sized sheets with the left and right margins set to 2 cm and top and bottom margins set respectively to 1.7 cm and 2 cm. It is recommended that the number of pages should not exceed 10 pages and the size of the electronic file should not exceed 1.5 MB after conversion to the PDF format. The text should be typewritten with single spacing throughout the manuscript. The article should be logically divided into sections and subsections with Arabic numbering. The main section should be 11 point, bold, flush left, and with capital letters for the first letters of words. The second level headings (subsection titles) should be 10 point, bold, flush left, and with capital letters for the first letters of words. The third level headings should be 10 point, bold, italic and flush left. Do not use more than three levels of headings. A blank line must be used to divide paragraphs, indent the first lines of paragraphs by 7.5 mm tab as it is done in this template provided that the new paragraph does not follow immediately a heading. Please do not place blank lines at the top of a page. In addition, do not place the headings at the bottom of pages.
Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
Use 14-point, bold, centered, Times Roman for title of manuscript and with capital letters for the first letters of words.
Use 11-point, bold, centered, Times Roman for author’s names.
Use 11-point Times Roman for author’s affiliation.
Use 10-point Times Roman for references, indent the first lines of each reference by 5 mm tab.
Use 10-point Times Roman for abstract.
Use italics for emphasis.
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.
Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).
A manuscript template is available for download. Please download the manuscript template from here:
Headings
Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Footnotes
Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.
Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.
Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section on the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.
Please note:
The manuscript should be structured as follows:
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgements (they are obligatory)
References
Citation
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses(Harvard Style Guide). Some examples:
Negotiation research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).
This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).
This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 1995a, b; Kelso and Smith 1998; Medvec et al. 1999, 2000).
Reference list
The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.
Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. Order multi-author publications of the same first author alphabetically with respect to second, third, etc. author. Publications of exactly the same author(s) must be ordered chronologically.
Journal article
Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, Bosquet L, (2009) Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children. Eur J Appl Physiol.105 (2): 731-738. doi: 10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8
Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the usage of “et al” in long author lists will also be accepted:
Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al (1999) Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med. 965 (1): 325–329.
If you are unsure, please use the full journal title.
Please note:
The author should not refer to a specific reference more than 3-5 times.
Tables
All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.
Please note:
Graphs and Tables are limited to 10.
Tables
All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.
Please note:
Graphs and Tables are limited to 10.
Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines
Electronic Figure Submission
Supply all figures electronically.
Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MSOffice files are also acceptable.
Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
Name your figure files with “Fig” and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.
Line Art
Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
Halftone Art
Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
Combination Art
Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.
Color art is free of charge for online publication.
If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.
If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.
Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).
To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.
All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures,
Color Art
Figure Lettering
Figure Numbering
“A1, A2, A3, etc.” Figures in online appendices (Electronic Supplementary Material) should, however, be numbered separately.
Figure Captions
Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.
Figures should be submitted separately from the text, if possible.
When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
For most journals the figures should be 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, or 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.
For books and book-sized journals, the figures should be 80 mm or 122 mm wide and not higher than 198 mm.
Figure Placement and Size
Permissions
If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format.
Review process
Ap journal has a Double-blind peer review process.
Accessibility
In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that
All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (colorblind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
Excel and JPEG format is also acceptable for figures.
Your color figures will appear in color in the electronic and printed version without any fee.
Submission
Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.
Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).
Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.
It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.
If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., “… as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)”, “… additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.
Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.
For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.
Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.
Audio, Video, and Animations
Text and Presentations
Spreadsheets
Specialized Formats
Collecting Multiple Files
Numbering
Captions
Processing of supplementary files
Accessibility
In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that
The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material
Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)
Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
Nomenclature: Insofar as possible, authors should use systematic names similar to those used by Chemical Abstract Service or IUPAC.
Genus and species names should be in italics.
Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.
Scientific style
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.
Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:
The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
The manuscript has not been published previously (partly 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 hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).
A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).
No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions
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 are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.
Plagiarism policy
The journal is strictly against any unethical act of copying or plagiarism in any form. Plagiarism is said to have occurred when large portions of a manuscript have been copied from existing previously published resources. All manuscripts submitted for publication to AP are cross-checked for plagiarism using iThenticate software. Manuscripts found to be plagiarized during initial stages of review are out-rightly rejected and not considered for publication in the journal. In case a manuscript is found to be plagiarized after publication, the Editor-in-Chief will conduct preliminary investigation, may be with the help of a suitable committee constituted for the purpose. If the manuscript is found to be plagiarized beyond the acceptable limits, the journal will contact the author’s Institute / College / University and Funding Agency, if any. A determination of misconduct will lead AP to run a statement bidirectionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and provide a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be marked on each page of the PDF. Upon determination of the extent of plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.
The proportion of similarity allowed in the scientific report is 20% or less.
Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.
Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, corresponding author, and order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not acceptedafter acceptance of a manuscript.
Adding and/or deleting authors at the revision stage may be justifiably warranted. A letter must accompany the revised manuscript to explain the role of the added and/or deleted author(s). Further documentation may be required to support your request.
Requests for the addition or removal of authors as a result of authorship disputes after acceptance are honored after formal notification by the institute or independent body and/or when there is an agreement between all authors.
Upon request, authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential proprietary data is excluded.
If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been established beyond a reasonable doubt, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:
If the article 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, either an erratum will be placed with the article or in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the paper is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.
The author’s institution may be informed.
Online Submission:
All correspondence should submit their manuscripts via ScholarOne Mauscript website. You will receive the Paper ID after the submission. Please read the Author guidelines before submission.
