Research Standards

Please note: The standards described on this page apply to all submissions to SAFE Journal of One Health.

Overview

All research submitted to SAFE Journal of One Health must comply with internationally recognised standards for scientific practice and reporting. The journal upholds standards that may go beyond what local legal or ethical frameworks require. Issues identified after publication will be handled in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and may result in a correction, retraction, or expression of concern. Authors' institutions may also be contacted where appropriate.

Research Ethics and Oversight

The journal maintains rigorous expectations for research ethics and requires authors to report on all ethical approvals obtained for their study. Authors should consult the journal's policies on research involving human participants and animal research.

Inclusivity in International Research

Authors of certain research articles may be asked to complete a supplementary questionnaire addressing the ethical, cultural, and scientific dimensions of inclusivity in research conducted on a global scale. This questionnaire may be required in situations where researchers have travelled to a different country to carry out their work, where samples were collected in a country other than the researchers' own, where the study involved Indigenous populations or their lands, or where cultural artefacts were used.

This policy is designed to promote transparency in the reporting of research performed outside researchers' home countries or communities, and to ensure that journal publications on international research maintain high standards for research ethics and attribution of authorship. Where the journal requests that this questionnaire be completed, authors should upload it as a Supporting Information file so that it can be made publicly available alongside the manuscript. Researchers conducting work in other countries and communities should ensure that the contributions of local collaborators are appropriately acknowledged in the author list and/or the Acknowledgements section.

The journal's questionnaire on inclusivity in international research is available here.

Study Design and Research Protocols

Study design protocols — documents describing the rationale, objectives, and design of a specific study — may be submitted as supporting information. Consult the supporting information guidelines for details on how to format these documents. If a protocol has been registered or published elsewhere, provide the relevant accession number or DOI.

Authors are also encouraged to share detailed procedural protocols that provide step-by-step instructions for replicating the methods used to generate their results. These can be deposited at protocols.io and the assigned DOI added to the manuscript. Where methodological details beyond what is included in the Materials and Methods section are available elsewhere, provide the relevant DOI or citation.

Reporting Standards by Resource and Study Type

Authors are expected to follow the applicable reporting guidelines for their specific research resources and study types. The table below identifies selected standards relevant to many authors. The EQUATOR Network and the FAIRsharing Portal list additional specialised guidelines that may apply to your study design. Checklists and supporting documentation should be uploaded as supporting information at submission.

Resource or Study Type	Reporting Requirement
Antibodies and other reagents	Manuscripts involving antibodies and other reagents must identify the commercial supplier or originating laboratory, the catalogue or clone number, and, where available, the batch or lot number.
Cell lines	Manuscripts reporting research using cell lines must specify the species and strain, sex of origin, genetic modification status, and the date and location at which the cells were obtained. The name of the repository (with accession number) or the commercial supplier (with catalogue or clone number) that provided the cells should also be included. Authors should verify the identity of established cell lines using the ICLAC Database of Cross-contaminated or Misidentified Cell Lines. Cell line authentication — for example by karyotyping, isozyme analysis, or short tandem repeat (STR) analysis — is strongly recommended and may be required during peer review. For newly established (de novo) cell lines, including those received as a gift, authors must comply with the journal's policies on research involving human participants and animal research, as applicable.
Clinical trials	Reports of clinical trials must comply with the relevant reporting guidelines for the study design, including CONSORT for randomised controlled trials, TREND for non-randomised trials, and other applicable specialised standards. Read more about the journal's requirements for clinical trials.
Diagnostic studies	Studies evaluating diagnostic accuracy should conform to the STARD requirements.
Life sciences	The journal endorses the MDAR Framework and encourages authors to give full consideration to all relevant aspects when reporting life sciences research. Adherence to many of the minimum requirements set out in the Framework is expected.
Mendelian randomisation studies	Manuscripts reporting Mendelian randomisation studies must present all results of scientific value and must be reported in accordance with the STROBE-MR guidelines. Manuscripts must include a completed STROBE-MR checklist with page numbers and the relevant text, provided as supporting information. A blank template is available as a PDF or Word document. At submission, manuscripts will be assessed for the scientific rationale of the Mendelian randomisation study and its contribution to the body of knowledge in light of prior published results.
Observational epidemiology studies	Reports of epidemiological studies should conform to the STROBE guidelines.
Plants and microorganisms	Manuscripts involving plants or microorganisms should report the species, strain, source (including collection location for wild specimens), and accession number where available. For plants, ecotype and cultivar information should also be included where relevant.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses	Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must comply with the PRISMA statement as a reporting framework, and must include a completed PRISMA checklist and flow diagram as supporting information. Blank templates can be downloaded from the PRISMA website. Authors must indicate in their Materials and Methods section whether a protocol was developed for the review, and if so, provide a copy as a Supporting Information file. The journal supports the prospective registration of systematic reviews. Authors whose review was registered prospectively — for example in PROSPERO — should include the registry number in their abstract.

Statistical Methods and Reporting

Where statistical methods are used, manuscripts must describe them in enough detail for others to reproduce the analysis. Statistical methods employed must be suited to the study design.

In the Materials and Methods section, a dedicated statistical analysis subsection must be included that provides a comprehensive description of the methods used. This subsection should:

State the name and version of any statistical software used, together with relevant references.
Describe any technical details or procedures needed to reproduce the analysis.
Provide a persistent identifier for any code used in the analysis (see the journal's Code Sharing policy).

More specifically, authors should address the following in their statistical reporting:

Identify whether research design and independent variables are between-subjects or within-subjects.
For pre-processed data: justify the choice of statistical tests by confirming that the data satisfy the assumptions underlying the analysis — for example, linearity, collinearity, and normality. Where data were transformed, explain why and describe the transformation applied.
Describe how outliers were treated and analysed, presenting findings both with the complete dataset and with outliers excluded.
Where relevant, explain how missing or excluded data were handled, including any attrition effects. Provide details of blinding procedures, randomisation methods, and inclusion/exclusion criteria.
State the significance threshold (alpha level) used.
Where appropriate, report sample sizes and explain how they were determined. If a sample size calculation was performed, specify the inputs for power, effect size, and alpha.
For analyses of variance (ANOVAs), specify any post hoc tests that were performed.
Report any corrections applied to account for multiple comparisons. Where corrections were not applied, include a justification.
For all statistical tests, indicate whether they were one- or two-tailed. Where t-tests were used, specify the type conducted.
For stepwise multiple regression analyses: report the alpha level used, describe whether variables were assessed for collinearity and interaction, and explain the variable selection process by which the final model was constructed.
For Bayesian analyses, explain the choice of prior trial probabilities and how these were selected. Markov chain Monte Carlo settings must be reported.

Standards for Presenting Results

Results must be reported rigorously and appropriately, in keeping with established community standards:

Measurement units. Define the units of measurement clearly in all tables and figures.
Measures of variability and central tendency. Make clear from the text which measures of spread (standard deviation, standard error of the mean, or confidence intervals) and central tendency (mean or median) are being reported.
Regression analyses. Report the complete results of any regression analysis as a Supporting Information file, including all estimated regression coefficients, their standard errors, p-values, confidence intervals, and measures of goodness of fit.
Test statistics and parameters. Provide F or t statistics and the associated degrees of freedom. Effect sizes and confidence intervals should be reported where appropriate.
P-values. Report exact p-values for all values of 0.001 or greater. P-values below 0.001 may be expressed as p < 0.001, or written as exponentials in studies of genetic associations.
Data visualisation in plots. Format plots so that they faithfully represent the distribution of the sample. Three-dimensional effects in plots can distort the interpretation of values and should be avoided wherever standard two-dimensional plots adequately display the data.
Open data. In accordance with the journal's Data Availability policy, individual data points, underlying graphs, and summary statistics should be made accessible at the time of publication.

Authors may also consult the SAMPL guidelines for additional guidance on statistical reporting.

Geographic and Territorial Descriptions

Descriptions of geographic locations and territories in submitted manuscripts must follow international treaties and established conventions. The journal does not take a position on any jurisdictional claims, whether expressed or implied, in published manuscript texts, maps, or institutional affiliations.

Contact

Authors with questions about research reporting requirements are welcome to contact the Editorial Office.

Editorial Office — SAFE Journal of One Health
Published by The SAFE Society Publishing
Email: editor@thesafesociety.com
Website: https://journal.thesafesociety.com