Prior to submission for publication, Anser Press requires authors to prepare and format their papers and other supplementary files to comply with the guidelines below.

Apart from the following Instructions for Authors for reference, our templates are recommended to prepare the submission files.

Templates:

-Title Page Template  

-Manuscript Template (without author information)

Submission structure, general style and format

Three separate files (manuscript, title page and back matter, and cover letter) are essential for every new submission, whereas another core file is added for resubmission of revision file, that is, response/rebuttal letter. In other words, four files, namely, manuscript, title page and back matter, cover letter, and response/rebuttal letter, are collectively known as the revision file. Supplementary files and/or confidential accessory files are optional.

Please note that all information in the title page and back matter file, except for the manuscript title, should remain unchanged from submission to acceptance before publication. Therefore, authors should make sure that all information is accurate before making submission.

Author metadata during submission

Authors must provide all details of author information, including but not limited to full name, affiliation and email address in the author metadata column of the submission system during the submission process. Anser Press requires the above-mentioned details to exactly comply with those on the title page of the submission, including the author order of the authorship list. Authors’ ORCID ID, if available, is encouraged to be provided.

Article types

Anser Press provides various article types to maximize your options for publishing your work. Please select your preferred section and clarify your article type.

(1) Original research

Original research articles involve novel, primary and unpublished research and analysis, which are usually peer-reviewed. These articles may also include confirming research and disconfirming results which allow hypothesis elimination, reformulation and/or report on the non-reproducibility of already published results. These articles have a maximum word count of 12,000 and may contain at most 15 figures/tables but at least 5 tables and/or figures in total, approximately 40 references. Original research articles should have the following format: 1) Abstract, 2) Introduction, 3) Materials and Methods, 4) Results, 5) Discussion.

(2) Review

Review articles deal with studies and research that have witnessed significant development or progress in recent years, and a comprehensive and balanced perspective is necessary. Reviews should not be simple literature review, but  conduct a complete overview on the frontier and advanced research. Reviews deal with the following topics: 1) Different schools of thoughts or controversies, 2) Fundamental concepts, issues, and problems, 3) Current research gaps, 4) Potential developments in the field. Review articles have a maximum word count of 12,000 and may contain no more than 15 figures/tables. These articles should be peer-reviewed and have the following format: 1) Abstract, 2) Introduction, 3) Subsections relevant for the subject, 4) Discussion. Unpublished/original data, submitted manuscripts, or personal communications are prohibited in review articles.

(3) Perspective

Perspective articles report on novel and deep insights on a specific research area. These articles tend to discuss current advances and future directions,  clearly display the authors’ perspective, accurately present and cite other authors’ work, and may also include original data as well as personal insights and viewpoints. Perspective articles have a maximum word count of 3,000 and may contain at most 2 figures/tables. Perspective articles should be formatted as follows: 1) Abstract, 2) Introduction, 3) Subsections relevant for the subject, 4) Discussion.

(4) Case report

Case reports focus on unique cases of human or animal patients with an unexpected diagnosis, treatment result, or clinical course. Case reports have a maximum word count of 3,000 and may include at most 4 items (inclusive of figures, tables or videos). These reports are peer-reviewed. The CARE guidelines should be followed and a completed CARE checklist as a supplementary file is required to submitted (template for your reference here: https://www.care-statement.org/checklist).

Case reports should have the following format: 1) Abstract, 2) Introduction, 3) Case description, 4) A figure or table, 5) Diagnostic assessment, 6) Discussion, 7) Patient perspective. This article type usually has 5 tables and/or figures in total, approximately 70 references, and 7,000 words (including Abstract and References). Authors should get written informed consent from the patients (or their legal representatives) before publication. More information on CARE guidelines is available here: https://www.care-statement.org/

(5) Letters

Letter refers to a collection of voluntary and unsolicited letters from readers who want to express their opinions or comments on specific articles published in Anser Press or another field-related journal. A good letter should show a deep, academic further or re-analysis on a published article in Anser Press. In addition, constructive and in-depth insights and comments are preferred. Letters involving novel ideas and supporting data may be peer-reviewed after editors’ decision.

This article type typically includes at most 3 tables and/or figures in total, no more than 20 references, and 2,000 words (including References). Abstract is unnecessary.

(6) Editorial

Editorials are written exclusively by the host editor(s) of the journal’s research topics to show the goals and objectives of the research concerning the topic.  Unpublished or original data are not allowed in Editorials and references are preferred. Editorial articles may contain 1 figure and should not exceed 1,000 words (including References). An Abstract is not required. Submissions are required to have the title Editorial: “Title of Research Topic”.

(7) Special feature article

Special feature articles are solicited papers concerning aspects as follows: hot spots in related fields of Anser Press; new research and analysis methods that  catch the attention of our readers; policies that arouse widespread concern of the researchers in related field.

Peer review is necessary for special feature articles with new ideas, data and/or perspectives after editors’ decision. This article type usually has 5 tables and/or figures in total, approximately 70 references, and 7,000 words (including Abstract and References).

(8) Erratum

Authors may find differences between their approved article and the final published paper, thus leading to errors that affect the integrity of the paper. Authors are encouraged to submit a request for erratum to Editorial Office ([email protected]), clearly pointing the error and the correct information.

(9) Corrigendum

If authors notice errors that affect the quality and integrity of the paper, they are encouraged to submit a request for correction online. The correction should specify the reason(s) for the mistake(s) and include only the particulars (e.g. sections, sentence, figure) of the manuscript being corrected. The request for changes should be agreed by all authors of the paper. Corrections may involve the process of peer review depending on the degree of the correction.

Language

Anser Press requires manuscripts to meet American English standards for publication. Submissions should be clear and concise; otherwise, obscure and unclear submissions will be returned to authors.

If authors wish to improve the quality of the manuscript for a better chance of publication, Anser Press recommends the language-editing services, which does not guarantee that it will be accepted for publication.

Letter capitalization

Sentence case capitalization in all submissions are required. In sentence case, Lowercase is used for most major and minor words (except proper nouns, including name of organizations and name of guidelines, because they are always capitalized for the first letter of each word, except for minor words, such as conjunctions and short prepositions). The first letter of the first word should always be uppercase.

Manuscript title

The title should be concise and informative with no more than 50 words, which presents the main result or conclusion of the research. Abbreviations, acronyms and jargons should be avoided within the title. Witty or creative titles are welcome, but they should be relevant to the research. However, unambitious or vague titles are not ideal. In extreme cases, the editorial office may veto a title and propose an alternative.

Abstract

In the abstract, authors should make it a top priority to point out the general significance and conceptual development of the research. In the abstract, the use of abbreviations should be minimized and references, figures or tables should not be cited. For full-length article, the length of an abstract should not exceed 300 words. Abstract is needed and necessary in original research article, review article, perspective article, case report and special feature article.

Keywords

All article types require a minimum of five and a maximum of eight keywords. Abbreviations and acronyms in keywords should be avoided, unless they are established standard keywords. Semi-colons are used to separate keywords (i.e. term1; term2; term3).

Abbreviations and acronyms

Authors should use minimum abbreviations and acronyms. Non-standard abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided unless they appear at least four times, and must be defined upon their first appearance in the main text. A list of non-standard abbreviations at the end but before the acknowledgments is preferred.

Sections in article

(1) Section headings

The manuscript is structured by headings and subheadings, which should be in boldface. Examples of section headings at different levels are shown as follows:

Primary level: 1. Obesity

Secondary level: 1.3. Risk factors for obesity

Tertiary level: 1.3.2. Poor diet

Further sub-headings beyond the tertiary level should be avoided (e.g., 1.3.2.1. High-salt diet).

(2) Special section requirements for an original research article

Introduction. This section should be concise with no subheadings. Background information should be introduced to give readers an overview of the field and the research. It proposes a problem and points out the significance of the study. Introduction can briefly states the aim and objectives of the work.

Materials and Methods. This section may be divided by subheadings and should contain adequate details so that all procedures and results can be replicated when read together with cited references. 

In this section, research results (inclusive of tables and figures) and findings of the experiments will be presented. This section can be further sub-divided into sub-sections, if necessary. The author(s) should point out the significance of the results. Results and Discussion can be combined into a single section.

Data and image processing

Processing or changes of images, photos and figures after submission should be minimum so that the final figures accurately reflect the original data. Any small change, including but not limited to brightness, contrast and color balance, must be clearly presented in the figure legend and in Materials and Methods section. Data comparisons should only be made from comparative experiments (or data from the same experiment). Same piece of data or figure should not be used in multiple instances, unless the images/data describe different aspects of the same experiment (reasons must be stated, wherever appropriate, in this regard). If necessary, the editors may request authors to offer the original data and, if that is not ideal, to issue a correction or retract the paper.

Unit of measurements for nomenclature and chemical compounds

Abbreviations should appear as few as possible. The use of non-standard and informal abbreviations should be avoided only if they appear at least four times, and must be defined upon at the first appearance in the body part. A list of non-standard abbreviations at the end, before the acknowledgments, is encouraged.

Equations should be editable from the equation editor.

Standard International Units are preferred in all manuscripts.

Figures

At the end of manuscript, all figures (including but not limited to photographs, scanned images, graphs, charts and schematic diagrams) against white background should be presented. Avoid unnecessary decorative effects and minimize image processing. Figures should be prepared with the PDF layout. Individual figures shorter than one page and with a width of 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm) are ideal.

Captions should be presented before the appropriate label, for example, 'Figure 1.' At the back of the manuscript, Figure captions should appear. Bold capital letters in brackets are encouraged to use: (A), (B), (C), (D), etc. for Figure panels. 

Figures should be submitted separately, in the same order as they are in the manuscript; the figures should then be inserted at the back of the manuscript. Please make sure that each figure is used in the text and in numerical sequence.

File formats, such as JPEG, PNG and TIFF for individually submitted figure(s) are preferred. All figures should be clear and well defined. Optimal resolutions preferred are 300 dots per inch (dpi) for RBG colored, 600 dpi for grayscale and 1,200 dpi for line art. We require authors to compress their figures to a proper size but ensure the legibility and resolution of figures. Because saving a figure directly as an image file (JPEG, TIFF) can damage the image resolution, we suggest exporting the file as PDF, and then convert it into TIFF or EPS by a graphics software.

Editors may ask for high-resolution and/or unprocessed images after submission or acceptance for pre-screening/review and production purposes, respectively.

Tables

Editable tables should be embedded at the end of the manuscript with captions  placed immediately before the table. Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label in boldface, for example, 'Table 1.' Please make sure that each table is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.

Lists and math formulae

Lists and math formulae should be properly aligned and included within the main text of the manuscript and in numerical order. Roman numerals in parenthesis (e.g. (I), (II), (III), (IV), etc.) should be followed. Lists and math formulae should be editable. Solidus (/) for small fractional terms should be used, e.g., X/Y. Italic variables are preferred.

Footnotes

Footnotes are not recommended.

In-text citations

• For works by a single author, please include the surname, followed by the year
• For works by two authors, please include both surnames, followed by the year
• For works by more than two authors, include only the surname of the first author followed by et al., followed by the year

For humanities and social sciences articles, include the page numbers.

• Do not include citations in the Abstract.

In-text citations should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text by Arabic numerals in the parenthesis (use superscript square brackets for physics and mathematics articles).

References

We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, ReferenceManager or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references. Include the digital object identifier (DOI) for all references where available. We recommend that authors export reference information of standards from WOS. Every reference should appear in the text in the following format: (1) Place effects are larger for young and White voters (Cantoni and Pons, 2022). (2) Angelucci et al. (2022) study the emergence of urban self-governance in the late medie-val period.

1. Dngelucci, C., Meraglia, S., and Voigtlaender, N. (2022). How Merchant Towns Shaped Parliaments: From the Norman Conquest of England to the Great Reform Acts. American Economic Review 112, 3441-3487. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20200885

2. Castos, P., Silva, J., and Verhoogen, E. (2018). Export Destinations and Input Prices. American Economic Review 108, 353-392. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20140647

3. Cantoni, E., and Pons, V. (2022). Does Context Outweigh Individual Characteristics in Driving Voting Behavior? Evidence from Relocations within the United States. American Economic Review 112, 1226-1272. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20201660

4. Aead, K., and Mayer, T. (2019). Brands in Motion: How Frictions Shape Multinational Production. American Economic Review 109, 3073-3124. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer20161345

Acknowledgments*

This part should appear in the title page and back matter file. This is a short text to acknowledge the contributions of specific colleagues, institutions, or agencies that provided non-financial support to help the authors.

Funding statement*

This part should appear in the title page and back matter file. All financial support and sources (in the form of grants, royalties, consulting fees and others) to conduct the research, analysis, and publication should be declared.

Conflict of interest*

Authors are required to disclose any actual and potential conflicts or competing interests with any institutions, organizations or agencies that may damage the integrity of research results at submission. Personal, financial, and professional affiliations or relationships can be regarded as conflicts of interest. If authors fail to disclose conflicts or competing interests, the manuscript would be rejected.

Ethics approval and consent to participate* 

Human research

For research involving human subjects, authors are required to declare the approving committee or organization (such as, Institutional Ethics Review Board) in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript. In addition,  authors should provide detailed ethics approval information, such as, the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. According to Global Translational Medicine, a proof of research ethics or ethics statement with the submission should be provided. If authors find it difficult to obtain ethics approval identifiers, the written approval as an alternative from the granting committee or organization must be provided as confidential supplementary file.

In the manuscript, authors are required to state in the Materials and Methods section that the experiments were conducted in conformity with the ethical principles defined in the WMA Declaration of Helsinki or other relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations, and that experiments were conducted with informed consent from all human subjects. For research on human subjects, whether the informed consent was oral or written from study participants should be disclosed clearly.

The participants reserve the right to know the purpose(s) of publication, the potential risks and benefits brought by the experiment, and they can also withhold or withdraw their consent. Authors should get consent from the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) in case of a minor participant.

Any restrictions on the availability or the use of human data must be disclosed and clarified in the manuscript.

Patient anonymity and privacy

The right to privacy of human subjects should not be infringed without permission. Authors should spare no efforts to at least cover or conceal any personal and identifiable information of the patients in writing or within photograph, including but not limited to patient names, initials, date of birth, contacts, medical record numbers, hospital numbers, and geographical location only when the personal information is used for scientific purposes and authors get the written informed consent for publication from the patient (or parent or guardian.

If necessary, authors must make explanation to the patient, for example, an image of the face has to be published in the report. Consent for publication must be obtained in the publication. In case of a died patient, consent must be obtained from legal representative. Authors may consider using our sample Consent Form for Publication in Global Translational Medicine. Author version of consent form for publication shall be applied but all the essential items in sample consent form should be included.

Submissions with identifying patient information but without informed consent will be rejected for publication.

ICMJE Privacy and Confidentiality guidelines is available here for reference about patient anonymity and privacy.

Animal research

For all research made on regulated animals (that is, all live vertebrates and higher invertebrates), review and approval by an ethics committee before the study must have been made and research should be carried out under relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations. Anser follows International Association of Veterinary Editors (AVMA) guidelines for publication of studies including animal research. American Veterinary Medical Association requires clinical studies involving animals and interventions beyond routine care to be conducted under the supervision of ethics committee. Ethics approval information must be provided within the submission system, and then an ethics statement will be generated.

The ARRIVE guidelines are recommended for authors to report animal research. In the manuscripts, authors are obliged to declare any additional guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. More information should also be disclosed simply, such as, animal details (e.g., species, gender, age, weight), animal housing conditions and husbandry information, and relevant steps taken to ease pain and suffering of the animals in the Materials and Methods section.

• Please note that experiments on non-human primates must be performed in conformity with the recommendations in the Weatherall report (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).

Author contributions*

This section should be included in original research articles and review articles. Authors are recommended to use the following specific descriptions to show each contributor’s specific contribution to the academic production in the Author Contributions section, such as, conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing–original draft, and writing–review & editing.

Here are some examples in Author Contributions section written based on the above descriptions:

Conceptualization: Ali Jackson, Helen Meyer

Investigation: Ali Jackson, Tom Lewis-Hans, Han Xiang

Methodology: Dolores Hans

Formal analysis: Han Xiang

Writing – original draft: Ali Jackson

Writing – review & editing: Helen Meyer, Joshua O’Brien 

Supplementary files

Supplementary materials usually include data of little importance to the text, or those cannot be included in the main text because they are too large or the current format does not permit it (such as videos, raw data traces, PowerPoint presentations, etc.) during submission. 

Supplementary figures and tables should be submitted in a single and separate supplementary file, and should be numbered, for example, Figure S1 and Table S1. All tables must be editable (preferably created from Microsoft Word). 

The supplementary material can be uploaded as:

data sheet (Word, Excel, CSV, CDX, FASTA, PDF or Zip files)

presentation (PowerPoint, PDF or Zip files)

image (CDX, EPS, JPEG, PDF, PNG or TIF/TIFF),

table (Word, Excel, CSV or PDF)

audio (MP3, WAV or WMA)

video (AVI, DIVX, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG or WMV).

Revision and response/rebuttal letter

Rebuttal letter is a response to reviewers’ and editors’ comments after an author or researcher submits their work for publication. For the comments of major revision or minor revision, authors should revise the manuscript in comply with the comments and resubmit the revision file, including the manuscript, title page and back matter, cover letter, and response/rebuttal letter, before the due date.

Authors are required to point out the specific revisions in the response/rebuttal letter. It is highly recommended to clarify explanations about the revisions with page number and line number. If authors disapprove reviewers’ comments, they should make clear their points with persuasive evidence and reasonable arguments.

Copyright and Licensing

For all articles published in ANSER journals, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work, while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.

In exceptional circumstances articles may be licensed differently. If you have specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the editorial office of the journal at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.

Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers

It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyright holder).

Permission is required for:

• Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
• Substantial extracts from anyone's works or a series of works.
• Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
• Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.

Permission is not required for:

• Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
• Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
• Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.

Obtaining Permission

In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. ANSER cannot publish material from other publications without permission.

The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.