Single Topic Issues

These special issues are peer-reviewed and may contain invited or uninvited review/mini-review articles. A Single Topic Issue Editor will offer a short perspective and co-ordinate the solicitation of manuscripts between 3-5 (for a mini-thematic issue) to 6-10 (for a full-length thematic issue) from leading scientists. Authors interested in editing a single topic issue in an emerging field of outstanding developments in neurovascular and drug clinical trial studies may submit their proposal to the Editor-in-Chief at thematicissue@benthamscience.net for consideration.

Conference Proceedings

For proposals to publish conference proceedings in this journal, please contact us at email proceedings@benthamscience.net for consideration.

MANUSCRIPTS LENGTH

MICROSOFT WORD TEMPLATE

It is advisable that authors prepare their manuscript using the template available on the Web, which will assist in preparation of the manuscript according to journal’s format. Download the Template.

SECTIONS IN MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts submitted for research and review articles in the journal should be divided into the following sections:

• Title

• Title page

• Structured Abstract

• Graphical Abstract

• Keywords

• Text Organization

• Conclusion

• List of Abbreviations (if any)

• Consent for Publication

• Conflict of Interest

• Acknowledgements

• References

• Appendices

• Figures/Illustrations (if any)

• Chemical Structures (if any)

• Tables (if any)

• Supportive/Supplementary Material (if any)

AUTHORS

All potential conflicts of interest (competing interests) that could have a direct or indirect influence on the work must be disclosed by the authors. Even if an author does not have a conflict, disclosing affiliations and interests allows for a more comprehensive and open approach, which leads to a more accurate and objective evaluation of the work. Conflicts of interest, whether genuine or imagined, are a perspective to which the readers are entitled.

The publication of a conflict statement in the article itself, as well as the submission of the conflict disclosure form, is required for all types of papers. It is not necessarily the case that a monetary relationship with examination support or funding for counseling work is inappropriate. Even if the authors do not have any conflict of interest, they still need to provide a confirmation statement in their manuscripts, i.e., “The author(s) confirm(s) that there is no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.”

The following are some examples of potential conflicts of interest that are directly or indirectly related to the research:

Financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):

• Type of support/grant number

• Institutional Conflicts of Interest

• Funds received by the author

• Funds received by the institution

• Travel allowances for the research

• Funds received for article preparation and reviewing

• Funds for conducting review activities

• Support provided for article writing assistance, for drugs, equipment, etc

• Paid lectures

• Pending fund or grant

Financial conflicts of interest can be personal as well as institutional. Personal conflict of interest occurs when a contributor involved in the publication process either receives an amount of money or expects to receive some financial help (including any other financial benefits such as patents or stocks, gifts or services) that may impact the work related to a specific publication. More importantly, in academic research, such financial relationships can lead to institutional conflicts of interest (COIs) because the economic interests of the institution or institutional representatives may unsuitably affect the decision-making process.

An institutional conflict of interest arises in a situation when financial interests of an institution or any institutional official (e.g., investments held by the university in a company) have the potential to unduly influence the research conducted by its employees or students, or pose an unacceptable risk to human subjects. Such conflicts usually arise in a state of affairs where a research project directly offers assistance or a benefit to an external entity via evaluation, validation, trial or test of an invention, product, drug, service or technology, and the institution holds a financial interest with the external entity. Such financial interests incorporate, but are not limited to, receipt of licensing payments or royalties from the external entity, or ownership interest with the external entity. When human subjects are involved in any research project, and the institution supports such a financial interest, the conflict of interest is speculated to be unreasonable.

Non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):

In addition, interests other than monetary and any funding (non-financial interests) should be declared if they are relevant to readers. Personal relationships or conflicting interests directly or indirectly related to research, as well as professional interests or personal opinions that may impact your research, are examples of these.

Intellectual property, in basic terms, refers to any intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights, etc. Similarly, this section seeks to know about copyright and patent (licensed patent, pending or issued) and any payment received for intellectual property, such as:

• Patent

• Licensed Patent

• Issued Patent

• Pending Patent

• Royalties

• Licensee

• Remarks

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

All conflict of interest disclosure forms are collected by the corresponding author. It is sufficient for the corresponding author to sign the disclosure form on behalf of all authors in author collaborations when legal agreements for representation allow it. The templates of the form can be found here.

• Disclosure form

• ICMJE disclosure form

Before the reference list, the corresponding author will include a summary statement in the text of the article that reflects what is reported in the potential conflict of interest disclosure form (s). Author(s) may declare(s) names of reviewers who they think might have a potential conflict of interest; therefore, Editorial Office could avoid inviting such reviewers for an unbiased opinion.

UNDISCLOSED CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Undisclosed conflict of interest cases before or after the publication of an article are dealt with as per the guidelines of COPE.

1. Undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted article (View COPE guidelines)

2. Undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article (View COPE guidelines)

For more information on COIs, see the guidance from the ICMJE.

PEER REVIEWERS

Bentham Science tries to conduct a transparent peer-review process with the help of the reviewers who do not have any conflict of interest with the authors. In this connection, reviewers who belong to the same institute or countries as authors are not invited to review manuscripts. However, it is not possible for the Editorial Office to be aware of all competing interests; therefore, it is expected from authors to submit:

• List of reviewers who they think have a conflict of interest to ensure a transparent and unbiased review process.

The Editorial Office expects reviewers:

• Not to accept manuscript review requests if they have any potential conflict of interest and inform the Editorial Office accordingly.

• To decline review requests if they have recently published or submitted an article with any of the authors listed in the manuscript.

• To inform the Editorial Office if they have any personal relationship with the authors or work in the same institutes as of authors, which could affect the review transparency.

• To abstain from reviewing and informing the Editorial Office/Editor-in-Chief/Handling Editors about any scientific misconduct or fraud, plagiarism, conflict of interest, or any other unethical behavior related to the manuscript, which they found while reviewing it.

During the submission of review comments, reviewers are asked to reconfirm that they do not have any conflict of interest related to the article. After confirming the below statement, they can submit their comments.

“I hereby confirm that I don’t have any conflict of interest related to the manuscript.”

If, however, there are still any remaining interests, then reviewers must mention those in the ‘Confidential’ section of the review form.

Reviewers are not encouraged to contact authors directly regarding any of their conflicts of interest. Peer reviewers should follow journals’ policies in situations they consider to represent a conflict to reviewing.

UNDISCLOSED CONFLICT OF INTEREST

If reviewers intentionally undisclosed any conflict of interest, then they will be blacklisted for any future peer reviewing activity of the journal.

The Editorial Office always ensures that an author, if added after peer review activity of a manuscript, is not part of the reviewers’ list who have conducted a peer review of the same manuscript.

EDITORS

Editors must not review submitted manuscripts if they have any personal, professional or financial involvement/conflict of interest with the authors of the manuscript. Every participant involved in the peer review process, including editorial board members, reviewers, and editors, must declare any potential conflicts of interest to ensure a transparent and unbiased review activity.

Editors-in-Chief or Editors who are responsible for the initial and final decision should recuse themselves to review or take decisions on any manuscript that is written by authors affiliated to the same institute as of editor, or if they have been a family member, competitor, collaborator, or have published any manuscript in last 3 years with the authors associated with the manuscript. They can however nominate someone else on the Board who could provide a neutral opinion on the manuscript.

The Editorial office recommends editors to follow COPE and WAME guidelines to process such manuscripts which involves their personal relationship.

Manuscripts submission by an Editor/Editor-in-Chief

The initial and final decision on the manuscripts submitted by an Editor/Editor-in-Chief will be taken by any other member of the Board. The Editorial Office will identify members who do not have any potential conflict of interest with the Editor or Editor-in-Chief.

Acknowledgements

Any research assistants or other individuals who assisted with the research but are not listed as authors, such as those who carried out the literature review, produced, computerized, and analyzed the data, or helped with the language, writing, or proofreading of the article, or offered any comments or suggestions, should be acknowledged. Briefly, everyone who has contributed significantly to the improvement of the paper should be acknowledged. It is recommended to mention the "Declared None" if there is no acknowledgement for the study.

Guest or honorary authorship based solely on position (e.g. research supervisor, departmental head) is discouraged.

The specific requirements for authorship have been defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org). Examples of authors' contributions are: 'designed research/study', 'performed research/study', 'contributed important reagents', 'collected data', 'analyzed data', 'wrote paper' etc. This information must be included in the submitted manuscript as a separate paragraph under the heading 'Authors' Contirbution'. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining permission from all co-authors for the submission of any version of the manuscript and for any changes in the authorship.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Patient Consent

Compliance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org) is recommended, in accordance with the patient’s consent for research or participation in a study as per the applicable laws and regulations regarding the privacy and/or security of personal information, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and other U.S. federal and state laws relating to confidentiality and security of personally distinguishable evidence, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and member state implementing legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, India's Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws").

It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that:

• Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers are not mentioned anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).

• Authors are responsible for obtaining the patient consent-to-disclose forms for all recognizable patients in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal, in derivative works, or on the journal’s website and for providing the manuscript to the recognizable patient for review before submission.

• The consent-to-disclose form should indicate specific use (publication in the medical literature in print and online, with the understanding that patients and the public will have access) of the patient's information and any images in figures or videos, and must contain the patient's signature or that of a legal guardian along with a statement that the patient or legal guardian has been offered the opportunity to review the identifying materials and the accompanying manuscript.

• If the manuscript has an individuals’ data, such as personal details, audio-video material, etc., consent should be obtained from that individual. In case of children, consent should be obtained from the parent or the legal guardian.

• A specific declaration of such approval and consent-to-disclose form must be made in the copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article especially in the case of human studies where inclusion of a statement regarding obtaining the written informed consent from each subject or subject's guardian is a must. The original should be retained by the guarantor or the corresponding author. Editors may request to provide the original forms by fax or email.

• All such case reports require by a proper consent being obtained prior to publishing. Please refer COPE guidelines available at https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/journals%E2%80%99-best-practices-ensuring-consent-publishing-medical-case-reports.

Editors may request that authors provide documentation of the formal review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study. The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.

Research Involving Animals

For research involving animals, the authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the standards set forth in the eighth edition of “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” (grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals_prepub.pdf published by the National Academy of Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).

Research work on animals should be carried out in accordance with the NC3Rs ARRIVE Guidelines. For In Vivo Experiments, please visit https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines

Authors should clearly state the name of the approval committee, highlighting that legal and ethical approvals were obtained prior to initiation of the research work carried out on animals, and that the experiments were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations stated below.

• US authors should cite compliance with the US National Research Council's "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"

• The US Public Health Service's "Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" and "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"

• UK authors should conform to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).

• European authors outside the UK should conform to Directive 2010/63/EU.

• Research on animals should adhere to ethical guidelines of The Basel Declaration and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) ethical guidelines.

• The manuscript should clearly include a declaration of compliance with the relevant guidelines (e.g. the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Research Involving Plants

All experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), should comply with international guidelines. The manuscript should include a declaration of compliance of field studies with relevant guidelines and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Hazard Study

Any unusual risks associated with the use of any chemicals, procedures, or equipment used in the work must be explicitly stated by the author in the manuscript, preferably in both the materials and methods section and the declaration section. For more information, visit The World Medical Association (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/public-health/chemicals)

SEX AND GENDER EQUITY IN RESEARCH (SAGER) GUIDELINES

We strive to promote gender and sex equity in research and adhere to the guidelines of Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) to ensure inclusivity and rigor of the work. All authors submitting research papers are required to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines. These guidelines are intended to encourage the inclusion of sex and gender considerations in research in order to improve the rigor and relevance of our publications.

The SAGER guidelines for reporting sex and gender information in methodology or study design, data analysis, results, and interpretation of findings are strongly encouraged. Authors of review articles are advised to address the methods used for selecting, locating, extracting, and synthesizing data; systematic reviews are required to do so.

RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN SPECIAL OR CRITICAL SITUATIONS

Bentham Science expects all contributors to respect values of justice, benevolence, and autonomy when conducting research. We understand that certain situations such as medical emergencies or humanitarian crises may differ from non-emergency scenarios. Bentham Science recommends that research efforts should not hurt human subjects/respondents or the researchers, and should be conducted with sufficient scientific rigor as permissible in these situations, respectively. Care should be taken to address potential problems faced by persons who may be victims of disasters or involved in a medical emergency. These are vulnerable individuals and their privacy and dignity should be respected. Researchers should make note of this in their research and identify potential issues in their work that may arise because of such situations. Research directed in emergency circumstances should be to the greatest advantage of survivors involved in the research and with the goal of minimizing any future casualties. For guidance, the essential requirements of research in emergency situation are the preservation of human life, wellbeing and security, along with the rights to protection, privacy and confidentiality of subjects.

UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Unethical behavior and misconduct may be pointed out by anyone to the Editor and Publisher with sufficient evidences. The Editor, in consultation with the Publisher, will initiate investigation against this Unethical misconduct, complete the procedure till an unbiased decision is reached, and maintain confidentiality throughout the process of the investigation. The Author should be given the opportunity to reply to all minor or major accusations.

In case of serious breaches, the employer may be informed where appropriate, by the Editor/Publisher, after reviewing all available information and evidences or after seeking help from experts in that field.

Conclusion

• Author(s) and Reviewers must be informed in case of misinterpretation or mishandling of International Acceptable Standards

• A strict notice should be sent to the author and reviewer to avoid future unethical misconduct

• An Editorial on the reported misconduct should be published or official notice of unethical behavior should be posted on the website

• Official letter about this misconduct should be issued to the Head of Departments, Funding Agencies of the accused author and the reviewer, as well as Abstracting & Indexing Agencies.

• Where required, retraction and withdrawal of publication may be undertaken from the Publisher’s journal in discussion with the Head of the Department of the author or reviewer, and other higher authorities should be informed

• The Publisher may impose restrictions for some period on future publications from the accused author in the journals

Consent for Publication

If the manuscript has an individuals’ data, such as personal detail, audio-video material etc., consent should be obtained from that individual. In case of children, consent should be obtained from the parent or the legal guardian.

A specific declaration of such approval and consent-to-disclose form must be made in the copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article especially in the case of human studies where inclusion of a statement regarding obtaining the written informed consent from each subject or subject's guardian is a must. The original should be retained by the guarantor or corresponding author. Editors may request to provide the original forms by fax or email.

All such case reports should be followed by a proper consent prior to publishing.

Research Data Policy Types:

The four types of research data policies are mentioned below.

• Case 1: Data sharing and data citation

• Case 2: Data sharing and its evidence

• Case 3: Statement for Data sharing and data availability

• Case 4: Data sharing, evidence of data sharing and data for peer-review

Post-publication discussions are well-timed and engaging scientific remarks and justifications on research articles published in the journal. These remarks must be based on the information concurrent with the original study and not on the scientific advancements being made subsequently.

Manuscript Preparation, Submission & Editorial Process:

• Post-publication discussion should commence with a short paragraph that outlines the summary of the article.
• Authors are advised to avoid using inciting tone in the comments and keep the message clear and concise.
• The main text should not exceed 1200 words with up to 15 references and may include one or two figures and/or tables.
• References should be submitted in the ACS or Vancouver style.
• The correspondents are recommended to contact the original authors first prior to submitting their comments to the journal as this may resolve the issues that may have arisen due to some misunderstanding.
• The correspondence that has been done with the authors should also be submitted as an attachment with the manuscript.

Any queries therein should be addressed to info@benthamscience.net

Figures/ Illustrations (if any)

All authors must strictly follow the guidelines below for preparing illustrations for publication in the journal. If the figures are found to be sub-standard, then the manuscripts will be rejected.

The authors are expected to submit good quality figure(s) in PDF, PPT, MS Word, TIFF or JPEG versions, which, if required, should be improved yourself or by professional graphic designers of your organization/ country. You may even consider approaching our contracted service providers Eureka Science for Graphics Enhancement Services.

The Graphics Designing team at Eureka Science can assist in improving the quality of your images at affordable rates. Eureka Science has offered special rates of US $150 for the improvement of up to five figures, with any additional figures being charged at US $25 each.

The quality of Graphic Enhancement Services offered by Eureka Science can be viewed at http://www.eureka-science.com/images/Binder1.pdf, along with valuable feedback on their services at http://www.eureka-science.com/testimonials.php. You may contact Eureka Science at info@eurekascience.net

Note: Availing Graphics Enhancement Services does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript for publication. The final acceptance/decision on the manuscript is taken by the EiC.

Chemical Structures (if any)

Chemical structures must be prepared in ChemDraw/CDX and provided as separate file.

AUTHORSHIP CRITERIA

Bentham Science Publishers requires that all individuals listed as authors must have made a substantial contribution to the design, performance, analysis, or reporting of the work. The role of authors is judged on the basis of ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

Authorship Declaration

All contributing authors are required to sign a copyright letter, mentioning complete details, including full name, affiliation, email address, ORCID ID and their role in the article. After successful electronic submission of a manuscript, a system-generated acknowledgement will be sent to all authors on their provided email addresses.

AUTHORS AND INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS

The Corresponding Author must provide a final list of authors at the time of submission, ensuring the correct sequence of the names of authors, which will not be considered for any addition, deletion or rearrangement after final submission of the manuscript. The email address of the principal author should be provided with an asterisk. However, the complete address, business telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail address of the corresponding author must be stated to receive correspondence and galley proofs. Bentham Science Publishers recommends that all contributors regularly update their profiles on SCOPUS/ORCID and other databases.

The corresponding author must have the approval of all other listed authors for the submission and publication of all versions of the manuscript.

AUTHOR IDENTIFICATION

Authors are strongly recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration. Alternatively, they can acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process. For more information about ORCID IDs, visit here.

CHANGES TO AUTHORSHIP

At the time of initial submission, the finalized list of authors in correct sequence should be provided, which will not be changed once the publication process has started.

If any change is essential, then it can only be done after the approval of the Editor-in-Chief upon receiving the following details from the corresponding author:

1. The reason for the change in the author list and/or their sequence
• A proper justification should be provided for changes in authorship.
• Correction of existing names should be accompanied by a notice to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
2. A written confirmation from all the co-authors is a prerequisite for any amendment or removal.

Any amendment to the authors' list will only be considered and approved by the Editor-in-Chief after complete verification. Publication of the manuscript will be withheld during consideration of the request. However, if the manuscript has already been published online, requests approved thereafter by the Editor-in-Chief will result in an erratum or corrigendum. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining permission from all co-authors for any changes in the authorship.

Here is some advice by COPE on authorship issues. Bentham strives to follow these guidelines.

PROOF CORRECTIONS

Authors will receive page proofs of their accepted paper before publications. To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned within 48 hours. Major changes are not acceptable at the proof stage.

The corresponding author will be solely responsible for ensuring that the revised version of the manuscript incorporating all the submitted corrections receives the approval of all the co-authors of the manuscript.

Bentham Science also offers authors the choice of “Open Access Plus (Gold Open Access)” publication of articles. This paid service allows for articles to be disseminated to a much wider audience, on the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). Authors are asked to indicate whether or not they wish to pay to have their article made more widely available on this “Open Access Plus (Gold Open Access)” basis. Where an author does not opt-in to this paid service, then the author’s article will be published only on Bentham Science’s standard subscription-based access, at no additional cost to the author.

For more information please contact us at e-mail: openaccess@benthamscience.net

Bentham Science offers a 50% discount off the Open Access Plus (Gold Open Access) Fee for manuscripts of all corresponding authors who reside in countries which are categorized as low-income economies by the World Bank. To see if you qualify to the discount, please refer to the complete list of these countries click here.

REPRINTS

Printed reprints and e-prints may be ordered from the Publisher prior to publication of the article. First named authors may also order a personal print and online subscription of the journal at 50% off the normal subscription rate by contacting the subscription department at e-mail: subscriptions@benthamscience.net.

Disclaimer

Articles appearing in E-Pub Ahead-of-Schedule sections have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in this journal and posted online before scheduled publication. Articles appearing here may contain statements, opinions, and information that have errors in facts, figures, or interpretation. Accordingly, Bentham Science Publishers, the editors , authors and their respective employees are not responsible or liable for the use of any such inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or information contained of articles in the E-Pub Ahead-of-Schedule.