Frequency: Quarterly
Time to first decision: 2.1 Weeks
Submission to publication: 4 Weeks
Acceptance rate: 31 %
E-ISSN: 2972-3272
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 (Downloadable after logging in as author or reviewer)
- Manuscript Template (without author information)
Submission structure, general style and format
Three separate files (manuscript without author information, title page, 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 without author information, title page, 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, 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.
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 four 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
Please see the Article Template for detail.
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.
Angelucci, 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
Bastos, 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
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
Head, 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.
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.
Regarding withdrawal of submissions
Once accepted, the withdrawal of submissions is generally not allowed.
This journal has established a withdrawal observation database. For authors with a withdrawal record in this journal, both JEA and EAL will carefully consider their future submissions during the subsequent submission process.
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:
Permission is not required for:
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.
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.
Research involving human participants
For research involving animal or human subjects, authors must identify the committee that approved the research, confirm that all research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines, and include in their manuscript a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardians. In the case of articles describing human transplantation studies, authors must include a statement declaring that no organs/tissues were obtained from prisoners and must also name the institution(s)/clinic(s)/department(s) via which organs/tissues were obtained. Example of an ethical statement: "All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code)." Anser Press may request documentation related to informed consent, ethics approval and donor organ/tissue source, including approved translations when original documents are in a language other than English. Failure to provide verifiable documentation may result in withdrawal of a manuscript. Research involving human research participants must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
For non-interventional studies (e.g. surveys, questionnaires, social media research), all participants must be fully informed if the anonymity is assured, why the research is being conducted, how their data will be used and if there are any risks associated. As with all research involving humans, ethical approval from an appropriate ethics committee must be obtained prior to conducting the study. If ethical approval is not required, authors must either provide an exemption from the ethics committee or are encouraged to cite the local or national legislation that indicates ethics approval is not required for this type of study. Where a study has been granted exemption, the name of the ethics committee which provided this should be stated in Section ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ with a full explanation regarding why ethical approval was not required.
If the study reports research involving vulnerable groups, an additional check may be performed. The submitted manuscript will be scrutinized by the editorial office and upon request, documentary evidence (blank consent forms and any related discussion documents from the ethics board) must be supplied. Additionally, when studies describe groups by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, disease, etc., explanation regarding why such categorization was needed must be clearly stated in the article.
Authors must include details on housing, husbandry and pain management in their manuscript.
For further guidance authors should refer to the Code of Practice for the Housing and Care of Animals Used in Scientific Procedures [2], American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [3] or European Animal Research Association [4].
If national legislation requires it, studies involving vertebrates or higher invertebrates must only be carried out after obtaining approval from the appropriate ethics committee. As a minimum, the project identification code, date of approval and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be stated in Section ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’. Research procedures must be carried out in accordance with national and institutional regulations. Statements on animal welfare should confirm that the study complied with all relevant legislation. Clinical studies involving animals and interventions outside of routine care require ethics committee oversight as per the American Veterinary Medical Association. If the study involved client-owned animals, informed client consent must be obtained and certified in the manuscript report of the research. Owners must be fully informed if there are any risks associated with the procedures and that the research will be published. If available, a high standard of veterinary care must be provided. Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript.
If ethical approval is not required by national laws, authors must provide an exemption from the ethics committee, if one is available. Where a study has been granted exemption, the name of the ethics committee that provided this should be stated in Section ‘Institutional Review Board Statement’ with a full explanation on why the ethical approval was not required.
If no animal ethics committee is available to review applications, authors should be aware that the ethics of their research will be evaluated by reviewers and editors. Authors should provide a statement justifying the work from an ethical perspective, using the same utilitarian framework that is used by ethics committees. Authors may be asked to provide this even if they have received ethical approval.
Authors and reviewers must use the ARRIVE guidelines as a checklist, which can be found at https://arriveguidelines.org/sites/arrive/files/documents/Author%20Checklist%20-%20Full.pdf. Editors reserve the right to ask for the checklist and to reject submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines, to reject submissions based on ethical or animal welfare concerns or if the procedure described does not appear to be justified by the value of the work presented.
Methods sections for submissions reporting on research with cell lines should state the origin of any cell lines. For established cell lines, the provenance should be stated and references must also be given to either a published paper or to a commercial source. If previously unpublished de novo cell lines were used, including those gifted from another laboratory, details of institutional review board or ethics committee approval must be given, and confirmation of written informed consent must be provided if the line is of human origin. Editors reserve the rights to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.
Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild) including collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. We recommend that authors comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
For each submitted manuscript supporting genetic information and origin must be provided. For research manuscripts involving rare and non-model plants (other than, e.g., Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, Oriza sativa, or many other typical model plants), voucher specimens must be deposited in an accessible herbarium or museum. Vouchers may be requested for review by future investigators to verify the identity of the material used in the study (especially if taxonomic rearrangements occur in the future). They should include details of the populations sampled on the site of collection (GPS coordinates), date of collection, and document the part(s) used in the study where appropriate. For rare, threatened or endangered species this can be waived but it is necessary for the author to describe this in the cover letter.
Editors reserve the rights to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.
Anser Press follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which require and recommend registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication.
Purely observational studies do not require registration. A clinical trial not only refers to studies that take place in a hospital or involve pharmaceuticals, but also refer to all studies which involve participant randomization and group classification in the context of the intervention under assessment.
Authors are strongly encouraged to pre-register clinical trials with international clinical trials register and cite a reference to the registration in the Methods section. Suitable databases include clinicaltrials.gov, the EU Clinical Trials Register and those listed by the World Health Organisation International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.
Approval to conduct a study from an independent local, regional, or national review body is not equivalent to prospective clinical trial registration. ASNER reserves the right to decline any paper without trial registration for further peer-review. However, if the study protocol has been published before the enrolment, the registration can be waived with correct citation of the published protocol.
Sex and Gender in Research
Anser Press encourages authors to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research – SAGER – guidelines and to include sex and gender considerations. Authors should use the terms sex (biological attribute) and gender (social and cultural circumstances) carefully to avoid confusion. These guidelines apply to studies involving humans, vertebrate animal and cell lines.
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.
Consent to publish
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.
