Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy, originality, integrity, transparency and ethical compliance of work submitted to ARCC Journals. Every author must contribute meaningfully to the research and publication process, approve the submitted and final versions, and accept accountability for the work. 

ARCC periodically reviews its author policies to align them with internationally recognised principles and best practices in scholarly publishing. Authors must follow this policy, the ARCC Author Guidelines, Publication Ethics Policy, Peer Review Process and the journal-specific instructions applicable to their submission. 

Who Qualifies as an Author 

Every listed author should: 

• Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data. 

• Draft the manuscript or revise it critically for important intellectual content. 

• Approve the final version submitted for publication and the version ultimately published. 

• Accept accountability for their contribution and cooperate in resolving questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of the work. 

Individuals who provide only funding, general supervision, administrative support, language editing, technical assistance or access to resources should not be listed as authors unless they also meet the authorship criteria. Eligible non-author contributions should be acknowledged with the contributor's permission. 

Guest, gift and ghost authorship are not permitted. All listed authors must know about and agree to the submission. 

Author Order and Group Authorship 

The author group is responsible for agreeing the order of authors before submission. The order should reflect disciplinary practice and the authors' agreed contributions. For group or consortium authorship, the manuscript should identify the group name and the individuals who meet authorship criteria, together with any contributor information required by the journal. 

Every manuscript must include a statement describing the contribution of each author. ARCC recommends use of the CRediT Contributor Role Taxonomy to provide transparent and consistent contributor information. 

Relevant roles may include: 

• Conceptualization. 

• Methodology. 

• Software. 

• Validation. 

• Formal analysis. 

• Investigation. 

• Resources. 

• Data curation. 

• Writing - original draft. 

• Writing - review and editing. 

• Visualization. 

• Supervision. 

• Project administration. 

• Funding acquisition. 

A contribution statement supplements but does not replace the authorship criteria. A contributor may perform more than one role, and a role may be shared by several authors.

The corresponding author is responsible for: 

• Submitting the manuscript and maintaining communication with the journal. 

• Confirming that all authors meet the authorship criteria and agree to the author list, author order, manuscript content and submission. 

• Ensuring that author affiliations and ORCID iDs are accurate. 

• Ensuring that ethics, consent, funding, conflict-of-interest, data-availability, authorship and AI-use declarations are complete and accurate. 

• Coordinating responses to editorial and reviewer comments and obtaining co-author approval of material revisions. 

• Circulating editorial decisions, proofs and post-publication communications to all authors. 

• Ensuring that all authors approve the final version for publication. 

The corresponding author's administrative role does not reduce the responsibility of the other authors for the integrity and accuracy of the work.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors after submission must include a clear written explanation and the written agreement of all affected authors. ARCC may request further information or institutional clarification before acting on the request. 

Authorship changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional and fully documented circumstances. Where a dispute cannot be resolved by the authors, ARCC may pause editorial or publication processing and refer the matter to the relevant institution or other competent body. 

ARCC does not determine institutional employment, contribution or ownership facts through an independent research investigation. It retains responsibility for deciding whether the manuscript or published record can proceed and what editorial action is required. 

Authors must ensure that: 

• The work is original and is not simultaneously submitted to another journal. 

• Previously published or closely related work, including preprints, conference outputs and manuscripts using the same dataset, is disclosed to the editor. 

• All sources, quotations, ideas, data, images and methods are appropriately cited and acknowledged. 

• Permission is obtained for third-party material where required. 

• Data, results, methods, approvals, images, citations and author identities are not fabricated, falsified or misrepresented. 

• The manuscript does not contain plagiarism, unattributed translation, inappropriate text recycling, duplicate publication, redundant publication or misleading image manipulation. 

• References are relevant and are not added to manipulate citations or journal metrics. 

• The submission process is not manipulated through fabricated reviewer identities, false accounts or undisclosed third-party manuscript services. 

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data or human biological material must receive prior approval from an appropriate Institutional Review Board, Ethics Committee or equivalent authority, unless a documented exemption has been granted. 

The manuscript must report: 

• The name of the approving or exempting body. 

• The approval or reference number, where available. 

• The ethical and legal framework followed. 

• How informed consent was obtained, or the basis for an approved waiver. 

• How participant privacy and confidentiality were protected. 

Written consent for publication is required where a participant may be identifiable from text, images or other information. Authors must retain appropriate approval and consent documentation and provide it to ARCC when requested. 

Research involving animals must receive prior approval from an appropriate institutional animal ethics committee, animal care and use committee or equivalent authority and must comply with relevant institutional, national and international animal-welfare requirements. 

The manuscript must report: 

• The name of the approving body. 

• The approval or reference number, where available. 

• The relevant welfare standards, guidelines or legislation followed. 

• Measures taken to minimise pain, distress and unnecessary animal use. 

Authors must retain supporting approval records and provide them to ARCC when requested. Animal research should follow an appropriate reporting guideline, including ARRIVE where applicable. 

Authors are responsible for obtaining and reporting any clinical-trial registration, biosafety approval, field-research permit, protected-species authorisation, access or benefit-sharing approval, import or export licence, or other regulatory permission required for the work. 

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, academic, institutional or other relationship that could affect, or reasonably be perceived to affect, the research, interpretation, manuscript preparation or publication decision. 

A Conflict of Interest or Competing Interests statement must appear in every submitted manuscript and published article. If no relevant conflict exists, authors should state: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.” 

Disclosure does not automatically prevent publication. Failure to disclose a relevant conflict may result in investigation, correction, retraction or other editorial action.

Authors must identify all financial and material support, funding organisations, grant numbers and the role of the funder or sponsor in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing and the decision to submit. 

Where the funder had no role in these activities, this should be stated. If the work received no external funding, authors should state: “The authors received no external funding.” 

Data Accuracy and Retention 

Authors must report data and results accurately, preserve the underlying data and research records for an appropriate period, and correct identified errors promptly. ARCC may request raw data, original images, protocols, analysis files or related records when reasonably necessary to assess or investigate the work. 

Data Availability Statement 

Every original research manuscript and other data-based submission must include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether, where and under what conditions the supporting data can be accessed. 

The statement may indicate that data are: 

• Publicly available in a recognised repository, with a persistent identifier or link. 

• Available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. 

• Restricted because of ethical, privacy, legal, commercial, security or third-party requirements, with the restriction explained. 

• Contained within the article and supplementary materials. 

• Not applicable because no new data were created or analysed. 

Authors are encouraged to use an appropriate trusted repository where ethical and legal conditions permit. Data sharing must not breach participant consent, privacy, confidentiality, law, security or legitimate third-party restrictions. 

Data Visualisation and Image Integrity 

Tables, figures, statistical analyses and visualisations must accurately represent the underlying data. Authors must not selectively alter, enhance, move, remove, duplicate or combine image elements in a way that changes the scientific meaning. Any permitted adjustment or composite image must be applied consistently and disclosed where relevant.

Authors must disclose substantive use of artificial intelligence or generative-AI tools in the research, analysis, coding, manuscript preparation, translation, image creation or modification, or other content-generation activity. The disclosure should identify the tool and explain how it was used. 

AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot approve the manuscript, accept accountability, disclose conflicts or take responsibility for the integrity of the work. 

Authors remain fully responsible for: 

• The accuracy, originality, citations, integrity and legal compliance of all submitted content. 

• Independently verifying AI-generated or AI-assisted text, code, analysis, references and other outputs. 

• Protecting confidential, personal, proprietary and sensitive information. 

• Ensuring that AI is not used to fabricate, falsify, plagiarise or misrepresent data, images, methods, results, approvals or citations. 

Where AI technology forms part of the research method, authors should describe the tool, version and use in sufficient detail to support evaluation and reproducibility. 

Authors are encouraged to provide an authenticated ORCID iD during submission. ORCID supports accurate researcher identification, attribution, metadata quality and discoverability. Where supplied, ORCID iDs may be deposited in article metadata and displayed with the publication. 

Authors must use accurate names, affiliations and identities. False, purchased, borrowed or manipulated author identities are prohibited.

Authors should: 

• Select a journal whose Aims and Scope match the manuscript. 

• Follow the applicable ARCC Author Guidelines and journal-specific instructions. 

• Submit complete and accurate manuscript files, author information and declarations. 

• Prepare an anonymised manuscript where required for double-blind peer review. 

• Avoid simultaneous submission and disclose related manuscripts or overlapping datasets. 

• Respond professionally and within the requested timeframe to editorial and reviewer comments. 

• Submit a point-by-point response with revisions and explain any recommendation that was not followed. 

• Not contact reviewers directly, attempt to identify them or manipulate reviewer selection. 

• Not offer payment, inducement or pressure to influence editorial or peer review decisions. 

Reviewer recommendations advise the editor; the assigned editor remains responsible for the final editorial decision.

ARCC may consider manuscripts that have previously been posted on a recognised preprint server. Authors must disclose the preprint during submission and provide its DOI or permanent URL. 

A preprint must not be presented as the final peer-reviewed article. Authors must disclose closely related conference papers, reports or other public versions. After journal publication, authors should update the preprint record with the citation and link to the published article where the repository permits.

Following editorial acceptance, authors must: 

• Complete the applicable publication, copyright and licensing documentation. 

• Pay the applicable APC or confirm an approved waiver or payment arrangement in accordance with the APC Policy. 

• Respond promptly to production queries and review the article proof carefully. 

• Limit proof changes to production errors and essential factual corrections unless further change is approved by the editor. 

• Confirm the accuracy of author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, funding, conflicts, ethics and data statements in the final article. 

APC payment, waiver or discount status does not influence peer review, editorial acceptance or publication priority. Copyright, licence and reader reuse rights are governed by the applicable ARCC Copyright and Open Access policies.

Authors remain accountable after publication. They must notify the ARCC Editorial Office promptly if they identify a significant error, omission, undisclosed conflict, authorship issue, ethics concern or other matter that may affect the accuracy or integrity of the article. 

Authors must cooperate with reasonable requests for information and with correction, expression-of-concern, retraction, withdrawal or other post-publication procedures. A correction or retraction is intended to protect the scholarly record and does not remove an author's obligation to cooperate.

Because ARCC does not currently maintain a separate Author Services page, the principal support and publishing benefits are summarised here. 

• Open Access publication: published articles are made freely available online under the applicable ARCC licence. 

• Structured peer review: eligible manuscripts undergo editorial assessment and double-blind external peer review in accordance with the Peer Review Process. 

• Online workflow: authors can submit manuscripts and receive editorial communications through the ARCC submission system. 

• Publication services: accepted articles undergo production processing, DOI registration, online publication and metadata dissemination. 

• Author proof review: the corresponding author is given an opportunity to review and approve article proofs before final publication. 

• Post-publication support: authors may contact ARCC regarding corrections, article information and approved dissemination support. 

Submission or compliance with these policies does not guarantee acceptance, indexing, citation, media coverage or a particular level of research impact. 

ARCC may invite authors to provide feedback on submission, peer review, production and publication services. Feedback may be used to improve editorial systems, guidance and author support. 

ARCC may recognise notable author or research contributions through transparent programmes established by the publisher. Recognition is separate from peer review and editorial decision-making and does not influence the assessment of current or future manuscripts. 

Where authors do not comply with this policy, ARCC may request clarification or correction, pause processing, reject or withdraw a manuscript, correct or retract a published article, notify relevant institutions or authorities, or restrict future submissions, depending on the nature and seriousness of the concern. 

Authors should be given a reasonable opportunity to respond to material allegations. Editorial action will be handled in accordance with the ARCC Publication Ethics Policy and the evidence available.

• Author Guidelines. 

• Publication Ethics Policy. 

• Peer Review Process. 

• Role of Editor. 

• Role of Reviewers. 

• Open Access Policy. 

• Article Processing Charges Policy. 

• Copyright and Licensing Policy. 

This policy applies across ARCC Journals. Authors must also consult the relevant journal's Aims and Scope, accepted article types, formatting instructions, reference style, APC information and sample manuscript. Where a journal-specific instruction provides an additional technical requirement, authors must follow that requirement together with this policy. 

For questions regarding authorship, declarations, ethics, data, submission, peer review or post-publication responsibilities, authors should contact the ARCC Editorial Office through the official support channels on the ARCC Journals website. 

ARCC periodically reviews and updates this policy to reflect changes in editorial procedures, publication ethics, law, technology and internationally recognised scholarly publishing practices. Authors should consult the current online version when preparing, revising or responding about a manuscript. 

Last reviewed: June 2026