Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission of this article represents original, unpublished material that is not under editorial consideration elsewhere, in whole or in part.
  • Authors must indicate whether or not they have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research. This note should be added in a separate section before the reference list. If no conflict exists, authors should state: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
  • To complete the submission, it is essential to provide EXCLI Journal with the valid affiliations, email addresses, and ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) of all authors. Missing metadata will result in immediate rejection of the submission for formal reasons.
  • The submission file is Word-readable (e.g. odt, doc, docx, rtf, txt; do not use compressed file formats like zip or rar); upload figures preferably as png. Each individual file must be smaller than 4 MB.

Author Guidelines

Submission Requirements and Conditions

Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Online Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted by the corresponding author through the online submission system. Please follow the hyperlink and upload all manuscript files following the provided instructions. In case of problems with the online system please contact excli@ifado.de.

Main articles files must be submitted as Word-readable documents (e.g. odt, doc, docx, rtf, txt; do not use compressed file formats like zip or rar).

Upload all tables (as ods, xlsx, odt, docx files), figures (as png, size 300 dpi), and multimedia files (as mp3/mp4, HTML5) separately.

Submissions by a person not included in the list of authors will not be accepted. The corresponding author accepts responsibility for the manuscript during the submission and peer review process.

Terms of Submission: Manuscripts are submitted with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and are not currently under consideration by another journal. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the content of the article has been approved by all co-authors. In the submission tool, Point 3: Metadata, insert all contributors, including their valid email addresses. Authors should be aware that papers submitted for publication will be edited solely to improve readability.

Article Processing Charges: EXCLI Journal is a platinum open access journal. There are no article processing charges.

Proofs: Corrected proofs (galley proofs) must be returned to the publisher within 1 week of receipt. Accepted manuscripts will in most cases appear online within seven days of receiving the final corrected proofs.

Reprints: Articles published in EXCLI Journal are freely downloadable as PDF files.

Manuscript Format: When preparing your manuscript, strictly adhere to the Instructions for Authors.

Raw Data: Authors are encouraged to provide their raw data as supplementary files (link to Instructions for Authors, Raw data section), or be prepared to submit data for review upon request by the editor or reviewers. When the editor or reviewers aks for this information, this is a non-negotiable matter. If the editor decides that the raw data are a substantial part of the scientific contribution, then the provision and publication of the raw data is mandatory. Discrepancies in the raw data will result in the irrevocable rejection of the manuscript.

Best Paper Sample: Authors are strongly encouraged to submit one of their most important previous articles in the research field of the current submission as a PDF file. This gives the editors the opportunity to check whether the present submission represents a progress compared to previous work of the authors and to the current state-of-the-art. Submissions accompanied by a PDF of a previous article have a higher chance to be forwarded to external reviewers and to be accepted for publication.

Ethical Standards: For best practice publishing see Ethical Standards.

Reference style: For initial submission, there is no prescribed format for references. However, once accepted for publication, the authors must format the references in the style of EXCLI J (Instructions for Authors).

Revised manuscripts: In case of a requested revision, the authors must submit:

  1. A point-by-point rebuttal letter addressing each point raised by the reviewers. If the authors do not agree with a specific point, they are requested to justify this in the rebuttal letter.
  2. A version of the mansucript where all changes addressing the reviewers’ comments are highlighted.
  3. A final, unmarked version of the manuscript that incorporates all changes made.

 

Original articles

Original articles: These are detailed studies reporting original research and are classified as primary literature. They include hypothesis, background study, methods, results, interpretation of findings, and a discussion of possible implications.

Review articles

Review articles give an overview of existing literature in a field, often identifying specific problems or issues and analysing information from available published work on the topic with a balanced perspective. These are considered as secondary literature and can be a particularly efficient way for early career researchers to begin publishing. Review articles can be of three types, broadly speaking: literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. 

Case reports

Clinical case studies present the details of real patient cases from medical or clinical practice. The cases presented are usually those that contribute significantly to the existing knowledge on the field. The study is expected to discuss the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of a disease.

Letters to the editor

A letter to the editor is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication. The subject matter of letters to the editor vary widely. However, the most common topics include:

  • Supporting or opposing a stance taken by the publication in its editorial, or responding to another writer's letter to the editor.
  • Remarking on materials (such as a news story) that have appeared in a previous edition. Such letters may either be critical or praising.
  • Correcting a perceived error or misrepresentation.

Corrigenda

Corrigenda (or errata) are a correction of a published text. As a general rule, publishers issue an erratum for a production error (i.e., an error introduced during the publishing process) and a corrigendum for an author's error.

Editorial material

A guest editorial provides an opportunity for an author to reflect on a recent event, methodological innovation, or gap in the literature. Many successful editorials do all three, culminating in proposing an agenda for the discipline.  

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

  • The authors keep the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, CC BY 4.0. This licencse permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
  • The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.
  • Because the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate at the time of publication, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions presented in the publication. The publisher makes no guarantee, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
  • The authors can enter into additional contracts for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version by citing the initial publication in this journal (e.g. publishing in an institutional repository or in a book).

Privacy Statement

Names and e-mail addresses that are entered on the web pages of this journal are used exclusively for the purposes indicated in menue About / Privacy Statement and not disclosed to third parties.