Overview

All manuscripts submitted to SJOH are assessed against the following seven criteria. A manuscript must satisfy all seven to be considered for publication.

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SJOH exists to disseminate original research and research methods. We welcome submissions from the natural sciences, medical research, engineering, and the related social sciences and humanities that advance the base of academic knowledge.

Article Types We Do Not Accept

Article Types We Consider

We will consider the following article types:

Article Type	Our Position
Registered Reports	We consider pre-registered research including both Registered Report Protocols (defining study rationale and design) and the Registered Report research articles reporting on the outcomes upon study completion.
Systematic reviews	We consider systematic reviews where the methods ensure comprehensive and unbiased sampling of existing literature. See the submission guidelines for more information.
Methods, software, databases, or tools	We consider submissions describing methods, software, databases, or other tools if they follow the appropriate reporting guidelines. See the submission guidelines for more information.
Qualitative research	We consider qualitative research only if it adheres to appropriate study design and reporting guidelines, as described in the submission guidelines.
Studies reporting negative results	In keeping with our commitment to publish all valid research, we consider negative and null results.
Protocols	We consider two types of protocol articles — Lab Protocols and Study Protocols — provided they comply with our submission guidelines.

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Previously Published Work

SJOH does not consider for publication studies that have already appeared, in whole or in part, elsewhere in the peer-reviewed literature. All figures included in manuscripts must be original and must not have been published in any previous publication.

We will also not consider submissions that are currently under consideration for publication at another journal.

SJOH supports authors who wish to share their work early via deposition on preprint servers. This does not affect consideration of the manuscript. We will consider manuscripts that have been deposited on preprint servers such as bioRxiv or arXiv, published as a thesis, or presented at conferences.

Replication Studies

If a submitted study replicates or closely resembles previous work, authors must provide a sound scientific rationale for the submitted work and clearly cite and discuss the relevant existing literature. Submissions that replicate or are derivative of existing work will likely be declined if authors do not supply adequate justification.

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Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls and replication. Sample sizes must be sufficient to produce robust results, where applicable. Methods and reagents must be described in enough detail to allow another researcher to reproduce the experiments described.

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The data presented in the manuscript must support the conclusions drawn. Submissions will be declined if the interpretation of results is unjustified or inappropriate, so authors should avoid overstating their conclusions. Authors may discuss possible implications for their results provided these are clearly identified as hypotheses rather than conclusions.

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SJOH does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Manuscripts that do not meet these standards may be declined.

If the language of a manuscript is difficult to follow or contains numerous errors, we may recommend that authors seek independent editorial assistance before submitting a revision. Such services can be found online by searching for "scientific editing service" or "manuscript editing service."

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Ethics of Experimentation

All research published in SJOH must have been conducted to the highest ethical standards. We reserve the right to decline any submission that does not meet these standards, which in some cases are more stringent than local ethical requirements.

Approval from the relevant body is required for studies involving:

• Humans (live or tissue), including studies that are observational, survey-based, or involve any personal data (see Editorial Policies and Submission Guidelines)
• Animals (live or tissue), including observational studies (see Editorial Policies and Submission Guidelines)
• Cell lines that are not commercially available (see Submission Guidelines)
• Field sampling (see Submission Guidelines)
• Potential biosafety implications (see Editorial Policies)

Where approval was not obtained, authors must explain why it was not required. Please contact the SJOH editorial office at sjoh@safesociety.org if you have questions about your work and compliance with accepted ethical standards.

Publication Ethics

SJOH is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and abides by its Code of Conduct, aiming to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines. Authors are expected to comply with best practices in publication ethics, specifically regarding authorship, dual publication, plagiarism, figure manipulation, and competing interests.

For further details about SJOH's expectations for publication ethics, see the Editorial Policies. Any concerns regarding the above should be directed to the editorial office at sjoh@safesociety.org.

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Reporting Guidelines

Results must be rigorously reported, as appropriate, based on community standards. Further information about discipline-specific reporting guidelines can be found in the submission guidelines.

Data Availability

Authors must follow community standards and practices for depositing data in publicly accessible resources, including those created for gene sequences, microarray expression, structural studies, and comparable categories of data. Failure to comply with community standards may result in the manuscript being declined.

For further information about SJOH requirements for data sharing and deposition in public databases, see our data availability policy.