Authorship: According to the ICMJE recommendations, all who meet the following four criteria should be identified as authors:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Adherence to guidelines: The authors should strictly adhere to the manuscript preparation guidelines as described here, and be aware of the peer review process described here.

Permission and copyright: Where relevant, it is the responsibility of the authors to obtain permission from copyright holders, and to ensure that the use of images, data and illustrations in the manuscripts do not violate copyright laws. If a copyright violation in any of the published article is brought to our attention, we will notify the author for correspondence. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to settle issues with the copyright holder.

Research and data integrity: The authors are responsible for ensuring the research was conducted in an ethical manner, data were collected and analyzed by employing appropriate scientific methods, and interpreted accurately. If required, the authors should produce raw data to the reviewers.

Acknowledgements: Where relevant, the authors should acknowledge their colleagues and sources of funding that made their research possible.

Conflict of interest: It is mandatory that authors should declare any conflicts of interest that are pertinent to their manuscript. More information on conflict of interest is given here.