Editorial threshold

To ensure that all manuscripts receive fair and equal consideration when submitted to our journals, we have a clear editorial threshold against which manuscripts should be measured.  

We value all advances, including incremental ones. Our policy is that editors and reviewers should evaluate the quality of the science in a paper and ensure it is representative of a specific advance, replication, or null/negative result, without assessing the interest or perceived impact. 

Research published in our journals must be: 

• Scientifically valid – adhering to accepted community standards of research.  
• Technically accurate in its methods and results.  
• Representative of a specific advance, or replication, or null/negative result, which is worthy of publication.  
• As reproducible as possible – sharing underlying data, code, and supporting materials wherever able. 
• Ethically sound — adhering to best practice with respect to animal and human studies, consent to publish and clear declaration of potential conflicts of interests, both real and perceived.  

In the spirit of sharing findings through our open science mission, emphasis is not placed on novelty, interest, or perceived impact. Additionally, as we are an online journal with no limit on page count, no editor should make a decision based on article length or a consideration of space constraints.