1. All manuscripts are required to include one of the following three ethics statements in the first footnote of their manuscript, before author affiliations. The appropriate statement must be included in the manuscript at the time of submission or it will be returned to the authors.
First Footnote Statement for Articles That Are Reporting on Human/Animal Research and Have Review Board Approval:
This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. Approval of all ethical and experimental procedures and protocols was granted by (Name of Review Board or Committee) (IF PROVIDED under Application No. xx, and performed in line with the (Name of Specific Declaration).
First Footnote Statement for Articles That Are Reporting on Human/Animal Research and Are Exempt From Review Board Approval:
This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. The author(s) confirm(s) that all human/animal subject research procedures and protocols are exempt from review board approval.
First Footnote Statement for Articles That Are Reporting No Human/Animal Research:
This work did not involve human subjects or animals in its research.
2. All manuscripts are also required to include one of the following COI statements in the Acknowledgement section of their manuscript. The appropriate statement must be included in the manuscript at the time of submission or it will be returned to the authors.
Acknowledgment Statement for authors with no COI:
All authors declare that they have no known conflicts of interest in terms of competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have an influence or are relevant to the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment Statement for authors with COI:
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests with the work reported in this paper.