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Author Instructions

All studies involving human subjects must be in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and seek approval to conduct the
study from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board, etc.).
Such approval, including the names of the ethics committee, institutional review board, etc., must be listed in a declaration
statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript. If the study is judged exempt from ethics
approval, related information (e.g., name of the ethics committee granting the exemption and the reason for the exemption)
must be listed. Further documentation on ethics should also be prepared, as editors may request more detailed information.
Manuscripts with suspected ethical problems will be investigated according to COPE Guidelines.

3.1.1 Consent to Participate
For all studies involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the studies must be obtained from participants,
or their parents or legal guardians for children under 16. Statements regarding consent to participate should be included
in a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript. If informed consent is not
required, the name of the ethics committee granting the exemption and the reason for the exemption must be listed. If any
ethical violation is found at any stage of publication, the issue will be investigated seriously based on COPE Guidelines.
3.1.2 Consent for Publication
All articles published by OAE are freely available on the Internet. All manuscripts that include individual participants’
data in any form (i.e., details, images, videos, etc.) will not be published without Consent for Publication obtained from that
person(s), or for children, their parents or legal guardians. If the person has died, Consent for Publication must be obtained
from the next of kin. Authors must add a declaration statement of Consent for Publication in the manuscript, specifying
written informed consent for publication has been obtained.

3.1.3 Trial Registration
Soft Science requires all authors to register all relevant clinical trials that are reported in manuscripts submitted. Soft
Science follows the World Health Organization (WHO)’s definition of clinical trials: “A clinical trial is any research study
that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate
the effects on health outcomes. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products,
surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care,
etc.”
In line with ICMJE recommendation, Soft Science requires the registration of clinical trials in a public trials registry at
or before the time of first patient enrollment. Soft Science accepts publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a
primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) or in ClinicalTrials.gov. The trial
registration number should be listed at the end of the Abstract.
Secondary data analyses of primary (parent) clinical trials should not be registered as a new clinical trial, but rather
reference the trial registration number of the primary trial.
Editors should consider carefully whether studies failed to register or had an incomplete trial registration. Because of
the importance of prospective trial registration, if there is an exception to this policy, trials must be registered and the
authors should indicate in the publication when registration was completed and why it was delayed. Editors should publish
a statement indicating why an exception was allowed. Please note such exceptions should be rare, and authors failing to
prospectively register a trial risk its inadmissibility to Soft Science.
Authors who are not sure whether they need trial registration may refer to ICMJE FAQs for further information.

3.2 Research Involving Animals
Experimental research on animals should be approved by appropriate ethics committees and must comply with institutional,
national, or international guidelines. Soft Science encourages authors to comply with the AALAS Guidelines, the ARRIVE
Guidelines, and the ICLAS Guidelines and obtain prior approval from relevant ethics committee. Manuscripts must include
a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate indicating that the study has been approved by
relevant ethical committee and the whole research process complies with ethical guidelines. If a study has been granted an
exemption from requiring ethics approval, the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption and the reasons
for the exemption should be detailed. Editors will take account of animal welfare issues and reserve the right to reject a
manuscript, especially if the research involves protocols that are inconsistent with commonly accepted norms of animal
research.
3.3 Publication Ethics Statement
Soft Science fully adheres to the Code of Conduct and the Best Practice Guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics
(COPE).
The Editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to
guarantee to add high-quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data
falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The Editors of Soft Science take
such publishing ethics issues very seriously and are trained to proceed in such cases with zero tolerance policy.
Authors wishing to publish their papers in Soft Science must abide to the following:
The author(s) must disclose any possibility of a conflict of interest in the paper prior to submission.
The authors should declare that there is no academic misconduct in their manuscript in the cover letter.

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