Authors are required to prepare and format their papers and other supplementary files to comply with the Author Guidelines.
All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected. Those potential papers submitted to Schole journals will go through a strict peer review process (double-blind) before publication.
Authorship and contributorship
Schole calls the attention of authors to read our author policies carefully before submission. It is required that authors should prepare and format their papers and other supplementary files to comply with Guidelines for Authors.
Schole would not consider a paper for publication if it has been published or is currently under consideration for publication in other journals. Multiple submissions and redundant publications of a paper are prohibited. In the cover letter, authors must state that the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere or has appeared elsewhere in a manner that could be considered as a prior or duplication of the same work.
Authorship
It is recommended that authorship be based on the following four criteria to avoid authorship disputes:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
Final approval of the version to be published;
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors.
Corresponding authors
The corresponding authors take primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, and ensure that all the journal’s requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and gathering conflict of interest forms and statements, are properly satisfied.
Contributorship
Schole journals list contributors in two ways. Firstly, we publish a list of authors' names at the beginning of the paper and, secondly, we list contributors (some of whom may not be included as authors) at the end of the paper in Acknowledgments section.
We adopt Contributor Roles Taxonomy CReDiT. The model uses 14 pre-defined contributor roles: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; funding acquisition; investigation; methodology; project administration; resources; software; supervision; validation; visualization; writing–original draft; writing–review & editing.
The editors of this journal generally will not consider changes to authorship once a manuscript has been submitted. It is important that authors carefully consider the authorship list and order of authors and provide a definitive author list at original submission.
Changes to authorship
All authors must be listed in the manuscript and their details entered into the submission system.
Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should only be made prior to acceptance, and only if approved by the journal editor.
Requests to change authorship should be made by the corresponding author, who must provide the reason for the request to the journal editor with written confirmation from all authors, including any authors being added or removed, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the journal editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors post acceptance.
Publication of the manuscript may be paused while a change in authorship request is being considered.
Any authorship change requests approved by the journal editor will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been published.
Any unauthorised authorship changes may result in the rejection of the article, or retraction, if the article has already been published.
Use of AI or AI-Assisted Writing
When it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technology in manuscript preparation, Schole follows the position statement of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) . Tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) do not meet authorship criteria and thus cannot be listed as authors on manuscripts. In situations where AI or AI-assisted tools have been used in the preparation of a manuscript, this must be appropriately declared with sufficient details at submission via the cover letter. Furthermore, authors are required to be transparent about the use of these tools and disclose details of how the AI tool was used.
The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing must be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references list. Here is an example:
Title of new section: Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.
Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.
The declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools, such as tools used to check grammar, spelling and references.
Authors are fully responsible for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content of their manuscript, including any material contributed by AI or AI-assisted tools, and must ensure that this content complies with our publication ethics policies.
Please note: to protect authors' rights and the confidentiality of their research, this journal does not currently allow the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies such as ChatGPT or similar services by reviewers or editors in the peer review and manuscript evaluation process. We are actively evaluating compliant AI tools and may revise this policy in the future.
Informed consent
All participants in studies have the right to know and decide what happens to the personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview. In many instances authors will need to get written informed consent before publication. A statement confirming that informed consent to publish identifying information/images was obtained must be included in the methods section.
Individuals may consent to participate in a study, but object to having their data published in a journal article. Authors should make sure to also get consent from individuals to publish their data before submission. This is in particular true to case studies.
Use of inclusive language in Research
Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Authors should ensure their work uses inclusive language throughout and contains nothing which might imply one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual preference, disability or health condition.
We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors about personal attributes unless they are relevant and valid. Write for gender neutrality with the use of plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default. Wherever possible, avoid using "he, she," or "he/she."
No assumptions should be made about the beliefs of readers and writing should be free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions.
These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help you identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.
Borders and territories
Schole remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. If your manuscript involves any potential dispute over borders and territories, our editorial team will attempt to find a resolution that satisfies parties involved.
Anonymity
Identifying images/video/details which authors do not have specific permission to use must be removed from the manuscript. Please note that the use of coloured bars/shapes to obscure the eyes/facial region of study participants is NOT an acceptable means of anonymisation.
Citation Policies
If any material in your manuscript is taken from another source, including your own published article, please cite the source clearly, and obtain the appropriate permission.
a) Do not cite your own work excessively.
b) Do not cite advertisements or advertorial material.
c) Do not copy references from other articles without reading the cited work.
d) Put the original wording taken directly from others' publications in quotation marks, with proper citations.Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial material.
In accordance with COPE guidelines, we expect that “original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations”. This condition also applies to an author’s own work.
APC Policy
Schole publishes all of its journals under full open access. Schole is dedicated to enhancing research knowledge and accessibility, including both free and fee-based open access journals. Journals are completely free with no Article Processing Charges (APC) so as to attract high-quality submissions. However, to ensure publishing quality and free availability of open access journals, Article Processing Charges (APCs) will be levied on all authors whose papers are accepted for publication after quality screening and peer-review in 2027. The APCs will vary according to the following factors (journal maturity, journal quality such as JCR Impact Factor, Scopus/SCI, the journal editing and publishing technical process, etc.).
As our sole source of revenue, future APCs pay for teams and technology that support research integrity, peer review, production, and dissemination of the articles we publish. We are transparent about how our APCs are invested. Our APCs cover the following publishing services:
Our team: APCs pay for our professionals who contribute to publication services of Schole.
Our review operations: our review operations team ensures that quality standards are adhered to during peer review, that the appropriate experts are assigned to the manuscripts, and that editors are supported. They also provide rigorous feedback to the authors so that each stage of the review process advances in an effective and timely manner.
Publication: production costs include typesetting and copy-editing, assignment of persistent identifiers, journal indexing, archiving in all relevant academic and national databases, and permanent digital storage.
Honoraria: prizes are awarded annually for EBMs and authors who greatly contribute to academic development.
For any inquiries related to our APC policy or other aspects of the submission and publication process, please contact us ([email protected]). We are dedicated to providing support and guidance to our authors and reviewers throughout their engagement with our journal.