Authors need to provide manuscript, cover letter, discipline codes, names with affiliations and email addresses of up to six potential reviewers and up to six excluded reviewers, signed ethics statement, signed competing interest declaration, and signed license to publish agreement.

The optional cover letter should be 1 page in length and include:

1. The title of the paper and brief statement of its main focus;
2. Reference to any pre-submission contact with editors;
3. Names of all colleagues who have reviewed the manuscript in the past;
4. Confirmation that the submitted material has not been published or is not under consideration elsewhere;
5. Information to ensure a fair review process, including related manuscripts submitted elsewhere;
6. Details of where all related data are available, or will be deposited.

Authors can request a specific editor, although this is not required. Editor assignment depends on factors such as availability and workload, and cannot be guaranteed.