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For Authors

Guidance for researchers wishing to submit manuscripts to journals published by Oxfordshire Academic Publishing.

1.1     Before You Submit

Before submitting a manuscript to any journal published by Oxfordshire Academic Publishing, authors should ensure they have read and understood the following:

  1. The scope and aims of the journal to which they are submitting, as described on the relevant journal homepage.
  2. The Instructions for Authors for that specific journal, which set out formatting requirements, word limits, and article types.
  3. This For Authors page sets out OAP's universal policies applicable to all submissions across our journal portfolio.
  4. Our Ethics and Research Integrity policy, our Open Access and Licensing policy, and our Artificial Intelligence Policy, all of which are available on this website.

Submission to an OAP journal constitutes acceptance of all applicable policies. Submissions that do not comply with our policies may be returned to authors before peer review.

1.2     Authorship

1.2.1    Criteria for Authorship

Authorship of a manuscript submitted to any OAP journal must be limited to those individuals who have made a substantive intellectual contribution to the work. Each author listed on the manuscript must have:

  • Made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
  • Participated in drafting the work or in revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  • Approved the final version of the manuscript as submitted; and
  • Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, including the accuracy and integrity of any part of the work.

All four criteria must be met for authorship to be attributed. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not satisfy all four criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript, with their contribution described. Acquisition of funding, provision of equipment or materials, or general supervision of a research group alone do not constitute authorship.

Honorary authorship, the listing of individuals as authors who did not contribute substantively to the work, is not permitted and constitutes research misconduct. Guest authorship and ghost authorship are similarly prohibited.

1.2.2    Author Contributions Statement (CRediT)

All manuscripts must include an Author Contributions Statement using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT). This statement must specify each named author's individual contribution to the work using standardised CRediT roles, which include: Conceptualisation; Data Curation; Formal Analysis; Funding Acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project Administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualisation; Writing, Original Draft; and Writing, Review & Editing.

The Author Contributions Statement must appear in the Declarations section of the manuscript (see below). It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all co-authors have agreed to the accuracy of this statement prior to submission.

1.2.3    Changes to the Author List

Any change to the authorship of a manuscript, including the addition, removal, or reordering of authors, after submission requires the written agreement of all authors listed at the time of submission. Requests for authorship changes must be sent to the Managing Editor of the relevant journal, accompanied by a written explanation of the reason for the change, signed (or digitally confirmed) by all authors, including any author being removed. OAP reserves the right to suspend processing of a manuscript where an authorship dispute is active.

In the event of an unresolved authorship dispute after acceptance or publication, OAP will refer the matter to the corresponding authors' institutions in accordance with COPE guidance and will abide by the outcome of any institutional investigation. OAP is not in a position to investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes itself.

1.2.4    Corresponding Author and ORCID

One author must be designated as the corresponding author. The corresponding author is responsible for all correspondence with the editorial office throughout submission, peer review, and the post-acceptance production process, and for ensuring that all co-authors are kept informed. The corresponding author must provide a valid institutional or professional email address.

All corresponding authors are required to provide their ORCID iD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) upon acceptance of a manuscript. All co-authors are strongly encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs at submission. ORCID registration is free and available at orcid.org.

1.3     Preparing Your Manuscript

1.3.1    Language and Style

All manuscripts must be written in clear, grammatically correct, and professional English. Oxfordshire Academic Publishing accepts both British and American English spelling conventions, provided usage is consistent throughout the manuscript. Authors are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript reviewed for language quality before submission, particularly where English is not their first language. Poor language quality may result in manuscripts being returned before peer review.

OAP offers in-house professional language editing and proofreading services. Details are available on the Language Services page of this website. Authors who use a language editing service prior to submission should state this in their cover letter. Third-party language editing does not guarantee acceptance and does not constitute editorial endorsement.

1.3.2    Manuscript Structure

Manuscripts should generally be structured as follows, though authors should refer to the specific journal's Instructions for Authors for any variations:

  • Title page: Title, all author names and institutional affiliations, corresponding author contact details, ORCID iDs, and a Declarations section (see below).
  • Abstract: A structured or unstructured abstract as specified in the journal's Instructions for Authors. No references should appear in the abstract.
  • Keywords: Typically, four to eight keywords, selected to optimise indexing and discoverability.
  • Introduction: Context and rationale for the study, with a clear statement of aims and/or hypotheses.
  • Methods: Sufficient detail to allow replication by an independent researcher. Ethics approval details must be stated here. Statistical methods must be described with sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader to verify the reported results.
  • Results: A clear, logical presentation of findings, without interpretation. Data must be presented accurately and completely.
  • Discussion: Interpretation of the results in the context of existing literature. Limitations of the study must be acknowledged.
  • Conclusions: A concise summary of the main findings and their implications.
  • Declarations: Funding; Competing Interests; Ethics Approval; Consent to Participate; Consent for Publication; Data Availability Statement; Author Contributions (CRediT); AI and Large Language Model Disclosure (if applicable); Acknowledgements.
  • References: Formatted in accordance with the journal's specified reference style.
  • Figures, Tables, and Supplementary Material, Prepared in accordance with the journal's Instructions for Authors.

1.3.3    The Declarations Section

Every manuscript submitted to an OAP journal must include a Declarations section on the title page (separate from the main body of the manuscript). This section must address each of the following headings. Where a particular declaration is not applicable, authors must state this explicitly (for example: 'Ethics Approval: Not applicable, this study did not involve human participants or animal subjects').

  • Funding: List all sources of funding that supported the work, including grant numbers. If the work received no external funding, state: 'This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.'
  • Competing Interests: Disclose all financial and non-financial interests that might be perceived as influencing the research or its reporting. Interests within the preceding three years should be reported; interests outside this period must also be declared if they could reasonably be perceived as relevant. If no competing interests exist, state: 'The authors declare no competing interests.'
  • Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate: State the name and reference number of the ethics committee or institutional review board that approved the research. For research not requiring ethics approval, state this and explain why. Confirm that informed consent was obtained from all human participants, or explain why it was not required.
  • Consent for Publication: Required where the manuscript contains any data or images that could identify a specific individual (for example, case reports or photographs of participants). State that written informed consent for publication was obtained.
  • Data Availability Statement: Mandatory for all submissions. State clearly where the underlying data supporting the findings of the study are located and how they can be accessed. Where data are deposited in a public repository, provide the full repository name, persistent identifier (e.g., DOI), and access conditions. Where data cannot be shared (for example, due to legal, ethical, or confidentiality constraints), explain the restriction and state the conditions under which the data could be accessed. See our Data Sharing Policy for further guidance.
  • Author Contributions: List each author's individual contributions using the CRediT taxonomy (see above).
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Model (LLM) Disclosure: If generative AI tools were used in the drafting, editing, analysis, or preparation of the manuscript (beyond basic copy-editing), disclose this in the Methods section and summarise the disclosure here. See our AI Policy for full requirements.
  • Acknowledgements: Acknowledge all individuals who contributed to the work but who do not meet the criteria for authorship, including those who provided technical assistance, writing support, or other non-authorial contributions. Funding body programme officers should not normally be acknowledged unless they made a direct scientific contribution.

1.3.4    References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all references. References must be cited in the text and listed in the References section consistently, in the style specified in the journal's Instructions for Authors. Excessive self-citation, citation of content solely to increase metrics, or any form of citation manipulation are prohibited and may result in rejection or retraction.

1.3.5    Figures, Images, and Data

All figures must be original work by the authors or must be reproduced with the explicit written permission of the copyright holder, with the source cited. Authors are responsible for ensuring they have obtained and hold all necessary permissions for the reproduction of third-party material prior to submission. Figures that were created with the assistance of AI tools must be declared; see our AI Policy.

Digital images must not be manipulated in ways that alter, obscure, remove, or misrepresent any information in the original image. Changes made for presentation purposes (e.g., brightness and contrast adjustments applied uniformly across an entire image) are permissible provided they do not misrepresent the data. Selective manipulation of individual features within an image is not permitted. OAP may request original, unprocessed image files at any stage of the editorial process.

 

1.4     Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Oxfordshire Academic Publishing operates exclusively as an open-access publisher. The costs of editorial management, peer review coordination, professional copyediting, XML typesetting, CrossRef DOI registration, open-access hosting, and long-term digital preservation are covered by article processing charges (APCs). APCs are invoiced to the corresponding author (or their institution or funder, as applicable) only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication. APC payment status does not influence and is not disclosed to editors during the editorial process.

Current APC rates for each journal are published on the individual journal's submission page and are displayed in both GBP and USD. VAT or applicable taxes may be added in accordance with UK and international tax regulations.

1.4.1    APC Waivers and Discounts

Oxfordshire Academic Publishing is committed to equitable access to open access publication. We operate a transparent APC waiver and discount scheme:

  • Full APC waiver (100%): Authors whose institutional affiliation is in a country classified by the World Bank as a low-income country, and who are eligible under the Research4Life programme, will automatically receive a full APC waiver. No application is required.
  • Partial APC discount (50%): Authors from countries classified by the World Bank as lower-middle-income countries and eligible under Research4Life will automatically receive a 50% APC discount.
  • Hardship waivers: Authors from non-Research4Life countries who are unable to meet APC costs may apply for a discretionary waiver at the time of submission. Applications must include a brief statement of financial circumstances and confirmation that no institutional, departmental, or funder support is available. Discretionary waivers are awarded entirely at the editorial discretion of OAP and are subject to availability. The outcome of a waiver application does not influence the editorial decision on the manuscript.

Authors who anticipate that their institution or funder will pay the APC on their behalf should confirm this at the time of submission. OAP publishes details of transformative agreements and read-and-publish arrangements on this website as they are negotiated.

1.5     Peer Review

1.5.1    Overview

All research articles, reviews, and other primary research content submitted to OAP journals are subject to rigorous peer review prior to any acceptance decision. The purpose of peer review is to assess the scientific validity, originality, and significance of submitted manuscripts, to identify errors or weaknesses in methodology or interpretation, and to provide authors with constructive feedback to improve their work.

1.5.2    Review Model

All OAP journals operate double-blind peer review as standard. Under this model, both the authors' and reviewers' identities are concealed from each other throughout the review process. The identities of authors are removed from manuscripts prior to transmission to reviewers. Authors should avoid including any information in the manuscript text or supplementary files that would identify them by name, institution, or location.

Some journals in the OAP portfolio may offer transparent peer review, in which the peer review reports and editors' decision letters are published alongside the accepted article (with the consent of reviewers). Where this option is available, it will be stated in the journal's Instructions for Authors.

1.5.3    Reviewer Selection

The handling editor selects peer reviewers based on their relevant expertise and the absence of conflicts of interest. A minimum of two independent expert reviewers are engaged for each manuscript that passes the initial editorial check. Editors will not knowingly invite reviewers who are current close collaborators of any author, who are at the same institution as any author, or who have any financial or personal interest in the outcomes of the research. Authors may suggest reviewers with relevant expertise; such suggestions will be considered, but the final selection rests entirely with the editor.

Authors may also request, at the time of submission, that specific individuals be excluded from peer review, provided they give a reason. OAP will endeavour to honour such requests, but cannot guarantee that any particular individual will be excluded.

1.5.4    Editorial Process and Decisions

All submitted manuscripts are first assessed by the Managing Editor or Editor-in-Chief through an initial editorial check, which evaluates: (a) whether the manuscript falls within the stated scope of the journal; (b) whether it meets minimum formatting and submission requirements; (c) whether it complies with OAP's ethical and research integrity requirements; and (d) whether it appears to represent a meaningful scholarly contribution. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria will be returned to the authors without peer review, typically within five working days.

Manuscripts that pass the initial check are sent to peer reviewers. The following decisions may be issued following review:

  • Accept: The manuscript is accepted for publication as submitted or with only minor editorial corrections that do not require re-review.
  • Minor Revision: The manuscript is provisionally acceptable but requires limited revisions. Authors are given fourteen (14) calendar days to submit a revised manuscript and a point-by-point response to reviewers' comments. Revised manuscripts will ordinarily be assessed by the handling editor without referral back to reviewers.
  • Major Revision: The manuscript may be acceptable in a substantially revised form, but requires significant changes to methodology, analysis, presentation, or content. Authors are given twenty-eight (28) calendar days to submit a revised manuscript, accompanied by a detailed, point-by-point response addressing every reviewer comment. Revised manuscripts will ordinarily be returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation. Only one round of major revision is ordinarily permitted.
  • Reject: The manuscript is not suitable for publication in this journal. Reasons for rejection will be provided. Rejection does not preclude the submission of a substantially revised manuscript at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, but such resubmissions will be treated as new submissions.

Final acceptance decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated member of the Editorial Board. Decisions communicated to authors are final. OAP does not operate a formal appeals process, though authors who believe a decision was made in error may contact the Managing Editor in writing with specific, substantiated grounds for reconsideration. Appeals based solely on disagreement with reviewers' opinions will not be considered.

1.5.5    Timelines

OAP is committed to providing timely editorial decisions. Our target timelines are as follows, though these are indicative and may vary by manuscript complexity:

  • Initial editorial check decision: within five working days of submission
  • First peer review decision: within four to six weeks of submission
  • Post-revision decision (minor revisions): within two weeks of receipt of revision
  • Post-revision decision (major revisions): within four weeks of receipt of revision
  • Target time from acceptance to online publication: within fifteen working days

1.6     Preprints

Oxfordshire Academic Publishing supports the posting of preprints. Authors may post a preprint of their manuscript on recognised preprint servers (including arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, EarthArXiv, SSRN, or equivalent recognised repositories) at any point before, during, or after submission to an OAP journal. Posting a preprint does not constitute prior publication and will not affect the editorial process.

Authors who have posted a preprint should declare this at submission by providing the preprint server name and persistent identifier (e.g., DOI). Upon acceptance and publication of the final version of record, authors are encouraged to update their preprint record with a link to the published article.

1.7     Data Sharing and Open Research

Oxfordshire Academic Publishing is committed to open research practices. Authors are expected to make the data, code, and materials underlying their published findings as open and accessible as possible, consistent with ethical, legal, and privacy requirements.

1.7.1    Data Availability Statement

A Data Availability Statement is mandatory for all submissions (see Declarations section above). Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit their research data in an appropriate, internationally recognised, publicly accessible repository, such as Figshare, Zenodo, the UK Data Archive, ICPSR, Dryad, or a discipline-specific archive, and to include a persistent identifier (e.g., a DOI) in the Data Availability Statement. Where data cannot be made publicly available, the nature of the restriction must be clearly stated and, where possible, a mechanism for legitimate access requests should be described.

1.7.2    Code and Software

Where software code is central to the reported findings, authors must make the code available in a publicly accessible repository (such as GitHub, GitLab, or Zenodo) and provide the repository URL or DOI in the manuscript. Custom algorithms must be described in sufficient detail in the Methods section to allow independent replication.

1.7.3    FAIR Data Principles

OAP encourages authors to ensure their research data comply with the FAIR data principles, that is, that data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Authors who require guidance on data management and sharing may contact the editorial office for advice.

1.8     Self-Archiving and Preprint Policy

All articles published in OAP journals are published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. This licence permits authors, institutions, and third parties to share, distribute, and re-use the published version of record (the final, formatted, published PDF) immediately upon publication, without restriction. No embargo period applies. Authors may deposit the published version of record in their institutional repository, subject repository, or personal academic page without requiring further permission from OAP.

Oxfordshire Academic Publishing Journals Use