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Author Instructions

Irregular manipulation includes: introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image;
grouping of images that should be presented separately, or modifying the contrast, brightness, or color balance to obscure,
eliminate, or enhance some information.

If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer-review process, we may reject the manuscript.
If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may publish a Correction or retract the
paper.

OAE reserves the right to contact the authors’ institution(s) to investigate possible publication misconduct if the editors find
conclusive evidence of misconduct before or after publication. OAE has a partnership with iThenticate, which is the most
trusted similarity checker. It is used to analyze received manuscripts to avoid plagiarism to the greatest extent possible.
When plagiarism becomes evident after publication, we will retract the original publication or require modifications,
depending on the degree of plagiarism, context within the published article, and its impact on the overall integrity of the
published study. Journal editors will act under the relevant COPE Guidelines.

4. Authorship
Authorship credit of OAE journals should be solely based on substantial contributions to a published study, as specified in
the following four criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data
for the work;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published;
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.
All those who meet these criteria should be identified as authors. Authors must specify their contributions in the section
Authors’ Contributions of their manuscripts. Contributors who do not meet all the four criteria (like only involved in
acquisition of funding, general supervision of a research group, general administrative support, writing assistance,
technical editing, language editing, proofreading, etc.) should be acknowledged in the section of Acknowledgement in the
manuscript rather than being listed as authors.
If a large multiple-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be authors before the
work starts and confirm authors before submission. All authors of the group named as authors must meet all the four
criteria for authorship.

5. Reviewers Exclusions
You are welcome to exclude a limited number of researchers as potential editors or reviewers of your manuscript. To
ensure a fair and rigorous peer review process, we ask that you keep your exclusions to a maximum of three people. If you
wish to exclude additional referees, please explain or justify your concerns—this information will be helpful for editors
when deciding whether to honor your request.

6. Editors and Journal Staff as Authors
Editorial independence is extremely important and OAE does not interfere with editorial decisions. Editorial staff or
editors shall not be involved in the processing their own academic work. Submissions authored by editorial staff/editors
will be assigned to at least two independent outside reviewers. Decisions will be made by other editorial board members
who do not have conflict of interests with the author. Journal staffs are not involved in the processing of their own work
submitted to any OAE journals.

7. Conflict of Interests
OAE journals require authors to declare any possible financial and/or non-financial conflicts of interest at the end of
their manuscript and in the cover letter, as well as confirm this point when submitting their manuscript in the submission
system. If no conflicts of interest exist, authors need to state “The authors declare no conflicts of interest”. We also
recognize that some authors may be bound by confidentiality agreements, in which cases authors need to sate “The
authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their competing
interests in this work”.
8. Editorial Process
8.1. Initial check