Article guidelines

Open Research Europe publishes articles across the Natural Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Medical Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. Please see below for the relevant article guidelines for Social Sciences, Humanities, and Science, Engineering and Technology and Medicine subjects.

These guidelines apply to every article type. For information on each article type, how long it should be, and any requirements specific please refer to the table below. Manuscripts can be submitted as Word (DOC or DOCX), rich text format (RTF) files, or LaTeX (TEX). Whilst the format of articles is flexible, ORE provides a Word article template for authors to use if preferred. Questions on suitable file formats can be addressed to ORE’s editorial team.

Article types

Language

All articles must be written in good English. Please note that the article will not undergo editing by Open Research Europe before publication and a manuscript may be rejected during the initial checking process if it is deemed unintelligible and hence not suitable for peer review.

For authors whose first language is not English, it may be beneficial to have the manuscript read by a native English speaker with relevant subject matter expertise.

What to include

• Authors
• Title
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Plain language summary (optional)
• Main body
• Data and software availability
• Reporting guidelines (optional)
• Consent (if relevant)
• AI-use declaration
• Competing interests
• Funding information
• Acknowledgements (optional)
• References and footnotes
• Figures and tables (optional)
• Special characters

1. Authors

Please list all authors who played a significant role in developing the points presented in the article:

• provide full affiliation information (full institutional address and postcode, and e-mail address) for all authors, and
• indicate who is/are the corresponding author(s).

Authors may choose to complete the submission using their ORCID iD.

Criteria for authorship are based on guidance provided by the Committee of Publication Ethics. Being an author implies full responsibility for the article’s content and that the work conforms to ORE’s editorial policies. For large, multi-centre collaborations, the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript must be listed as authors.

ORE uses the CRediT Taxonomy to capture author contributions as providing an overview of who did what brings transparency, enables recognition for researchers, and provides greater accountability for all involved. This information is provided when filling out the submission form. Anyone who has contributed but does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. The involvement of any writing assistance must be declared.

2. Title

Choose a concise and specific title that clearly reflects the content of the article.

3. Abstract

Abstracts should be up to 300 words long and provide a succinct summary of the article. This section will appear on index services independent of the whole article, so authors should not cite references or cross-reference specifics in this section. Define abbreviations at first use.

4. Keywords

Authors should supply up to eight relevant keywords that describe the subject of their article. These will improve the visibility of your article. Using standard classifications, in fields where they exist, will further improve the visibility of an article.

5. Plain language summary

To support broad access to research results for interested citizens, ORE recommends that authors include a plain language summary in their article. The Digital Curation Centre provides advice on writing a plain language summary.

6. Main body

The format of the main body of the article is flexible and authors can use any logical structure to best convey an argument or point of view: it should be concise, making it easy to read and review, and presented in a format that is appropriate for the type of study presented.

Where appropriate, the following standard format is encouraged:

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions/Discussion

Articles in some areas of research may benefit from a different structure, in which case a more flexible format is possible if the authors ensure that they describe their methods and sources in sufficient detail for others to be able to repeat the research.

Study preregistration: authors are encouraged to preregister their studies and analysis plans, if applicable, in an independent, institutional registry. Examples of registries include: PROSPERO (for registration of systematic reviews); and OSF Registries (for general registration). The registration number and link to the registry should be included in the article.

7. Data and software availability

Underlying data

All articles must include a Data Availability Statement, even where there is no data associated with the article – see ORE’s data guidelines and policies for more information. The Data Availability Statement should provide full details of how, where, and under what conditions data and materials can be accessed.

If authors have deposited datasets or materials or used data that are already available in a repository, they should include the name of the repository, the DOI or accession number, and license. This should be done in the style of:

All data and materials are available on Open Science Framework.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Z3ST5 (Lee, 2019). Confounding factors considered by studies of vaping as a possible gateway to smoking

This project contains the following underlying data:

• Data file 1. (Description of data.)
• Data file 2. (Description of data.)

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero ‘No rights reserved’ data waiver (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication).

Supplementary Material

There are no figure or table limits for articles in Open Research Europe. Additional materials that support the key claims in the article but are not absolutely required to be in the manuscript, e.g., questionnaires, supporting images, or tables can be included as supplementary material. These should be in a format that supports reuse under a CC0 license. Care should be taken to ensure that the publication of supplementary material in this instance does not preclude primary publication elsewhere.

If authors have any supplementary material, they should deposit them in a trusted repository and include the title, the name of the repository, the DOI, and license in the manuscript under the subheading ‘Supplementary material’. Authors should also include citations to supplementary material in the main body of the article. For practical guidance please see 'Add a Data Availability Statement to your manuscript'.

8. Reporting guidelines (if applicable)

Standards of reporting guidelines help ensure that authors have provided a comprehensive description of their research, making it easier for others to assess and reproduce the work. Authors are required to review the standards available for many research applications from Equator Network and use those that are relevant for the reported research applications. At manuscript submission, authors must confirm that they reviewed the standards, report whether any standards were relevant for the research application, and confirm that they followed those standards in the manuscript. Adherence to reporting guidelines, if appropriate, will be assessed by ORE’s editorial team. For more detail and a comprehensive overview, see the FAIRSharing initiative.

Checklists are available for a number of reporting guidelines, including:

• Randomised controlled trials (CONSORT) and protocols (SPIRIT)
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) and protocols (PRISMA-P)
• Observational studies (STROBE)
• Case reports (CARE)
• Qualitative research (COREQ and SRQR)
• Pre-clinical animal studies (ARRIVE)

Authors should deposit completed reporting checklists and flow charts in an approved general repository; include the guideline type, name of the repository, the DOI, and license in the manuscript’s Data Availability Statement.

Sex and gender equity in research: Open Research Europe endorses the SAGER guidelines for reporting sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, and results. Briefly:

• Authors should ensure that the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are used correctly throughout the article
• Title/abstract: it should be clear if the results can only be applied to one sex or gender
• Introduction: if sex and gender differences are expected in the results, this should be stated
• Methods:
  • if sex and gender differences were taken into consideration for the design of the study, this should be stated. If they were not taken into consideration, rationale should be given.
  • explanation of how sex of participants was defined should be stated, either based on self-report, assigned following external or internal examination of body characteristics, or through genetic testing or other means.
• Results: data should be presented disaggregated by sex and gender
• Discussion: implications of sex and gender differences in the results should be discussed. If sex or gender analysis was not conducted, the rationale should be given.

Authors are encouraged to consult the SAGER guidelines before performing their research and when writing their article. The SAGER guideline checklist are also a useful resource.

9. Consent (if applicable)

For articles involving human data or information (e.g., questionnaires, interviews, observations), authors must ensure that they have written informed consent from all the subjects involved (or their legal guardian for a minor, or next of kin if the participant is deceased). Please be ready to provide copies of such consent forms, if requested by the ORE editorial team. For details, see ORE’s editorial policies.

If applicable, authors should include a section entitled ‘Consent’ and state “Written informed consent for publication of the participants details and/or their images was obtained from the participants//parents/guardian/relative of the participant.”

10. AI-use declaration

Authors should disclose any generative AI tools used in the research or preparation of the manuscript, naming the tool, version where known, purpose, and the human checks applied. See ORE’s editorial policy on AI for more details.

11. Competing interests

Articles published in Open Research Europe must not contain content that could be perceived as ‘advertising’ and must include a ‘Competing interests’ section. Any financial, personal, or professional competing interests for any of the authors that could be construed to unduly influence the content of the article must be disclosed and will be displayed alongside the article. More information on what might be construed as a competing interest is available in ORE’s editorial policies.

If authors do not have any competing interests, add the text “No competing interests to disclose”.

12. Funding information

Authors do not need to include a funding section in their manuscript. This information will be asked at submission and published automatically in the article.

Authors should declare all sources of financial support used in direct relation to the research and article being submitted. If no funding was obtained, authors must say so. Authors should not list funding in an article that is unrelated to the specific piece of research being published.

Authors should declare both internal support (from an institution, employer, or organisations and external support (from non-profit or for-profit organisations, private foundations, think tanks, political advocacy groups, trade or research associations, or government bodies).

Please consult ORE’s editorial policies for more information.

13. Acknowledgments

This section should acknowledge anyone who contributed to the research or the writing of the article but who does not qualify as an author. Authors should clearly state how they contributed. Authors should obtain permission to include the name and affiliation, from all those mentioned in this section. Please note that grant funding should not be listed here.

14. References and footnotes

References and footnotes can be listed in any standard style if it is consistent within a given article. ORE allows both references and footnotes within an article (a full reference list within text citations, and explanatory footnotes).

ORE’s basic requirements include:

• Abbreviations should align with discipline specific standards.
• Preprints can be cited and listed in the reference list.
• Unpublished abstracts, papers that have been submitted to a journal but not yet accepted, and personal communications should instead be included in the text; they should be referred to as ‘personal communications’ or ‘unpublished work’ and the researchers involved should be named. Authors are responsible for getting permission to quote any personal communications from the cited individuals.
• Web links, URLs, and links to the authors’ own websites should be included as hyperlinks within the main body of the article, and not as references.
• Datasets and material published or deposited elsewhere (e.g., in a general repository) should be listed in the ‘References’ section. Citations to datasets and materials should follow the examples recommended by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) guidance on citing datasets.

15. Figures and tables (optional)

All figures and tables should be cited and discussed in the article text. There is no limit to the number of figures and tables authors can have. Figure legends and tables should be added at the end of the manuscript. Tables should be formatted using the ‘insert table’ function in Word or provided as an Excel file. Files for figures are usually best uploaded as separate files through the submission system (see below for information on formats).

Any photographs must be accompanied by written consent to publish from the individuals involved. Any distinguishing features, including medical record numbers or codes in the case of clinical images that could be used to identify the patient or participant concerned must be removed from the images.

Titles and legends: Each figure or table should have a concise title of no more than 15 words. A legend for each figure and table should also be provided that briefly describes the key points and explains any symbols and abbreviations used. The legend should be sufficiently detailed so that the figure or table can stand alone from the main text.

Permissions: If reusing a figure or table from a previous publication, the authors are responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright holder and for the payment of any fees (if applicable). Authors should include a note in the legend to state that “This figure/table has been reproduced with permission from [include original publication citation]” or the acknowledgement line specified in the permissions documentation if different.

Figure formats: For all figures, the color mode should be RGB or grayscale.

Line art: Examples of line art include graphs, diagrams, and flow charts. Text should be at least 8pt, the lines should be thick enough to be clearly seen at the size the image will likely be displayed (between 75-150 mm width, which converts to one or two columns width, respectively), and the font size and type should be consistent between images. Figures should be created using a white background to ensure that they display correctly online.

If a graph is submitted, it should be exported as an EPS file using the program used to create the graph (e.g., SPSS). If this is not possible, the original file used to create the graph should be submitted (e.g., if the graph was created in Excel, send the Excel file with the embedded graph).

Other forms of line art such as flow charts, diagrams, or text to be displayed as an image, should be exported as an EPS file or the original file that was used to create the image (e.g., EPS or AI files if Adobe Illustrator was used, or a DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX or equivalent file if Word or PowerPoint was used) should be submitted.

If none of the above options are possible, then uncompressed TIFFs with a resolution of at least 300dpi are accepted.

16. Images (optional)

Photographs and images: Photographs should be submitted as uncompressed TIFFs with a resolution of at least 300dpi at the size they are likely to be displayed (see above).

Mixed images: Images that are a mix of half-tone images and line art should be submitted as TIFF files at a resolution of at least 300dpi or vector files (e.g., EPS or Adobe Illustrator files). Authors should ensure that the text size is at least 8pt and lines are thick enough to be clearly visible at the size the image will be displayed.

Images to be used as data and supporting material: If submitting photographic images as part of data and supporting material, authors should submit them as uncompressed TIFF files.

Using third-party material: If planning to use any third-party material (e.g., data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, or musical notation) authors should request and receive the appropriate rights for republishing these. See ORE’s editorial policies for more information.

17. Special characters (optional)

If a manuscript contains special characters, accents, or diacritics and is prepared in Microsoft Word, the following procedure is recommended:

For European accents, Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols: choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the ‘Insert symbol’ window and insert the character required. For Asian languages such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese: choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the ‘Insert symbol’ window and insert the character required.

ORE can accept specific fonts but only those that are Unicode; this font should be submitted with the article. See also the Unicode character code chart.

For transliterated Arabic: authors may choose either Times New Roman or Arial. For Ayn and Hamza choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the ‘Insert symbol’ window and then type the Unicode hexes directly into the ‘Character code’ box. Use 02BF for Ayn, and 02BE for Hamza.

New versions

1. What is a new version?

Publishing in Open Research Europe is much more dynamic than in traditional journals, and articles are still ‘developing’ after the authors’ initial version is published. To distinguish more clearly between different types of article versions, they are labeled with the following badges:

[Revised] indicates a new version that usually incorporates changes in response to the reviewers’ comments.

[Update] is a new version, often after the article is indexed and/or the peer review is considered complete, in which authors can add small developments relevant to the research discussed in that article.

2. How to submit a new version

A new version of an article can only be submitted by the author who submitted the previous version.

• Log in and go to ‘My Account > Submissions’ – the article will be listed under the ‘Published’ tab.
• Download a copy of the final published article (as minor changes might have happened during the production process) in either DOC or RTF format (if you are not the submitting author, these options will not be available).
• Switch on Track Changes before starting to edit this file (otherwise changes will not be visible and the submission cannot be processed).
• Once revisions are added, return to the article on the published tab of ‘My Account > Submissions’ and click on ‘Submit New Version’ (if you are not the submitting author, this option will not be available; if you are the submitting author, this option will disappear once you start a new version submission).
• Complete the new version submission form (it can be saved as draft and completed at any time). ORE’s editorial team will process the new version and contact authors with any questions or update when the revised article has been sent to be typeset.

3. How to version an article

3.1 Authors

The author list can be amended in a new version, provided all authors have contributed to the article.

To change the author list, please add a note to the editors in the new version submission form to let them know why the changes are being made, along with the email address, affiliation(s), and credit roles of any new authors. Changes to the author list must also be detailed in the ‘Summary of Changes’ section.

As per ORE’s editorial policies, all authors on both the old and new versions of an article will be contacted if the author list changes, and all authors must confirm they accept these changes before a new version can be published.

3.2 Abstract

If revisions are being made to the abstract, these edits must be marked on both the new version submission form and within the uploaded revised/updated manuscript. As per the first version of an article, the abstract should be up to 300 words long, with any abbreviations spelled out and no citations included.

3.3 Figures and tables

All new figures should be uploaded to the new version submission form. The editorial team asks that all new figures are provided as separate files, preferably at 300 dpi and in EPS/TIFF format.

Existing tables can be edited within the revised/updated manuscript or replacement tables can be uploaded as separate files alongside any new tables on the new version submission form. These will be added to the new version when the PDF proof is prepared.

All figures and tables must be cited and discussed in the article text, and their titles and legends should be provided in the revised/updated manuscript.

3.4 Data and software availability

If an article contains data or source code that has been deposited in a repository (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo, Figshare), authors should ensure the repository is up to date and reflects the revisions made in the new version of the article. Most repositories support versioning and will allow depositing of updated data or code. A new DOI should also be obtained for the updated version of the repository entry. Authors should ensure the new DOI replaces the old DOI in the software/data availability section(s) of the manuscript.

3.5 References and bibliography

References that are no longer needed in the revised/updated manuscript should be removed and their in-text citations deleted. New references should be included at the end of the current reference list and cited in the main text where needed. The reference list will be set to the correct order during the typesetting process.

3.6 Update text

When submitting a new version, authors will need to provide some update text (300 words max). This text will be displayed beneath the abstract of a new version with a new version of the article and should highlight to the readers what has been changed. It must contain specific information detailing all revisions made, including changes to the text, new or revised/updated figures, updates to the author list, or additional data or code. This summary should be separate from responses to peer review reports as those are not available for readers on PubMed.

3.7 Responses to peer review reports

After receiving peer review, the author will receive a request from the editor in the system to ‘Submit your response to reviewer feedback’. Responses to review reports will be published alongside the new version of an article. Where possible reviews should be responded to in a point-by-point format so that it is clear which reviewer comments have or haven’t been addressed, and why.

When the new version is published, reviewers who have previously provided a peer review report for the article will automatically be made aware of the updated publication. They will then have the option to re-review the paper and change their peer review status.

Editorial policies Authorship, consent, competing interests, research ethics, AI use and more. Read the policies → Data guidelines Open access requirements to research data Read the guidelines →

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