Information For Authors

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

Authorship and Acknowledgments

Authors’ Responsibilities

Authors play a vital role in upholding the integrity of the academic community and ensuring that manuscripts published in the WESR journal meet the highest standards of quality and research ethics.

1. Originality of Manuscripts

Submissions must be original works that have not been previously published or under consideration in any peer-reviewed journal. Authors must not plagiarize or misappropriate others’ work. Articles must comply with the formatting and referencing guidelines of WESR.

2. Plagiarism

Any form of plagiarism or copyright infringement is strictly prohibited. Proper citation must be provided to acknowledge all referenced works. Manuscripts with plagiarism exceeding 20% will be rejected immediately. Authors bear sole legal responsibility for copyright violations.

3. Data Integrity

Authors must ensure that research data are accurate, reliable, and appropriately interpreted. Fabrication, falsification, or biased presentation of findings is unacceptable.

4. Conflicts of Interest

• Authors must provide evidence of approval from Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) or Independent Ethics Committees (IECs) for studies involving humans or animals.
• All potential conflicts of interest and sources of funding must be disclosed.

5. Acknowledgements

All financial support, technical assistance, and contributions from individuals or institutions not qualifying for authorship must be acknowledged. References must be complete and accurate. WESR requires acknowledgements to state only names and affiliations, without specifying detailed contributions (e.g., “for statistical review”).

6. Ethical Misconduct

WESR does not tolerate ethical violations such as data fabrication, falsification, duplicate submission, or simultaneous submission to multiple journals. Detected misconduct will result in immediate rejection, withdrawal of the article, and suspension of future submissions.

7. Consent for Publication

All listed authors must have actively contributed to the research and must agree to the submission and publication of the manuscript.

8. Authorship Criteria

Authorship must follow ICMJE guidelines. Authors must meet all four conditions:

1) Substantial contribution to the conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation.

2) Drafting or critically revising the manuscript.

3) Final approval of the version to be published.

4) Accountability for all aspects of the work, ensuring accuracy and integrity.

9. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) cannot be listed as authors, as they cannot take responsibility for accuracy, integrity, or originality. If AI is used, its application must be disclosed in both the manuscript and submission email. Authors remain fully responsible for reviewing, editing, and verifying AI-generated content, ensuring that no plagiarism or unreferenced material is included. Non-original articles published in WESR may be prepared by staff of the Division of Epidemiology or other units within the Department of Disease Control. Such articles must not be generated entirely by AI tools.