Food Systems, Safety & Sustainability (FSSS) welcomes original and methodologically rigorous manuscripts that advance knowledge concerning food systems, food safety, sustainability, resilience, public health, governance, technological innovation, and related interdisciplinary fields.

Authors should read these guidelines carefully before submission. Manuscripts that do not comply with the journal’s scope, formatting requirements, ethical standards, or submission procedures may be returned for revision before editorial assessment.

1. Submission Requirements

Manuscripts must be submitted through the journal’s online submission system. Submissions sent directly to individual editors or reviewers will not normally be considered part of the formal editorial process.

By submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that:

• the manuscript is original and has not been formally published elsewhere;
• the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal, book, conference proceeding, or publishing platform;
• all listed authors have made a legitimate scholarly contribution to the work;
• all authors have reviewed and approved the submitted version;
• all authors have agreed to its submission to FSSS;
• the manuscript complies with applicable research, ethical, legal, and institutional requirements;
• all necessary permissions have been obtained for copyrighted or third-party materials;
• conflicts of interest, funding sources, data availability, and the use of artificial intelligence have been disclosed where applicable; and
• the submission does not contain fabricated, falsified, plagiarised, manipulated, or improperly attributed material.

Simultaneous submission to more than one journal is not permitted.

2. Article Types

FSSS publishes the following types of scholarly contributions:

• Original Research Articles;
• Review Articles;
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses;
• Short Communications;
• Methods Papers;
• Data Papers;
• Case Studies;
• Policy Analyses;
• Perspectives;
• Commentaries;
• Editorials;
• Letters to the Editor; and
• Special Issue Contributions.

Authors should consult the journal’s Article Types page for the purpose, recommended length, abstract requirements, structure, and review procedure applicable to each category.

3. Language

Manuscripts must be written in clear and professional English. Authors may use either British or American English, but spelling, punctuation, terminology, and grammatical conventions must be applied consistently throughout the manuscript.

Authors who are not confident in the quality of their written English are encouraged to obtain appropriate language editing before submission. Language editing does not guarantee acceptance and does not substitute for scholarly, methodological, or editorial review.

Technical terminology should be defined when first introduced. Unnecessary jargon, ambiguous expressions, excessive abbreviations, and promotional language should be avoided.

4. File Format and General Presentation

The main manuscript should preferably be submitted in Microsoft Word format using the file extension .doc or .docx. Other editable formats may be accepted where technically appropriate.

Authors should use a clear and consistent layout:

• use a readable font, such as Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, or an equivalent font;
• use a font size of approximately 11 or 12 points for the main text;
• use double-line or 1.5-line spacing;
• use standard page margins;
• number all pages consecutively;
• include continuous line numbering where possible;
• use hierarchical and consistently formatted section headings;
• avoid unnecessary manual spacing, text boxes, columns, and decorative formatting; and
• ensure that tables, figures, equations, references, and supplementary materials are cited in the text in numerical or logical order.

Authors should not attempt to reproduce the journal’s final typeset layout. Accepted manuscripts will be formatted according to the journal’s production requirements.

5. Double-Anonymous Peer Review Preparation

FSSS normally applies a double-anonymous peer-review process. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another during review, so far as reasonably practicable.

Authors should submit the following files separately:

• Title Page: containing author names, affiliations, contact information, acknowledgements, funding information, conflicts of interest, and other identifying information;
• Anonymous Main Manuscript: containing the manuscript text without author names, affiliations, email addresses, acknowledgements, or other information that directly identifies the authors; and
• Supplementary Files: where applicable.

Authors should avoid identifying themselves in the anonymous manuscript through expressions such as “in our previous study.” Where self-citation is necessary, references should be written in the third person and included normally in the reference list.

File properties, tracked changes, comments, file names, and embedded metadata should also be checked and anonymised before submission.

6. Title Page

The title page should contain the following information:

• the complete manuscript title;
• a concise running title, where requested;
• the full name of each author;
• the institutional affiliation of each author;
• the city and country of each institution;
• the ORCID identifier of each author, where available;
• the name and email address of the corresponding author;
• author contribution information;
• funding information;
• conflict-of-interest declarations;
• acknowledgements;
• data availability information;
• ethical approval and consent information, where applicable; and
• any other declarations required by the journal.

7. Manuscript Title

The title should be accurate, informative, concise, and understandable to an interdisciplinary readership. It should clearly reflect the principal subject, research design, population, geographical context, or methodological approach where relevant.

Titles should avoid:

• unnecessary abbreviations and acronyms;
• promotional or exaggerated claims;
• unsupported statements of novelty;
• overly general wording;
• unnecessary punctuation; and
• terms that do not accurately represent the study.

8. Abstract

The abstract should provide a clear and self-contained summary of the manuscript. It should normally state:

• the background or problem addressed;
• the principal objective or research question;
• the methods or analytical approach;
• the main results;
• the principal conclusion; and
• the broader relevance of the findings to food systems, safety, sustainability, resilience, policy, or practice.

Original Research Articles should normally include an abstract of approximately 200–300 words. Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses should normally use a structured abstract of approximately 250–350 words. Requirements for other manuscript categories are provided on the Article Types page.

The abstract should not normally contain citations, undefined abbreviations, footnotes, extensive statistical detail, or information that does not appear in the manuscript.

9. Keywords

Authors should provide approximately four to eight keywords. Keywords should represent the central concepts, methods, populations, settings, and subject areas of the manuscript.

Authors should avoid repeating the complete title as a keyword list. Where possible, keywords should support accurate indexing, retrieval, and discovery in academic databases.

10. Manuscript Structure

Original Research Articles should normally use the following structure:

• Introduction;
• Materials and Methods or Methodology;
• Results;
• Discussion;
• Conclusion;
• Declarations;
• References; and
• Supplementary Materials, where applicable.

Alternative structures may be used for qualitative studies, policy analyses, conceptual papers, humanities and social-science research, reviews, case studies, and other manuscript categories where a conventional IMRaD structure would be inappropriate.

Introduction

The Introduction should explain the research context, identify the relevant problem or knowledge gap, engage critically with the principal literature, and state the study’s objectives, research questions, or hypotheses.

The Introduction should not become an unnecessarily extensive literature review. Authors should clearly explain the relevance of the study to the journal’s scope.

Materials and Methods or Methodology

The methods section should provide sufficient detail to enable readers to evaluate the validity, reliability, reproducibility, and ethical integrity of the research.

Where applicable, authors should report:

• the study design;
• the study setting and period;
• the population, sample, materials, datasets, or analytical units;
• sampling and recruitment procedures;
• inclusion and exclusion criteria;
• data collection instruments and procedures;
• laboratory, experimental, computational, or modelling protocols;
• statistical or qualitative analytical methods;
• software, packages, and version numbers;
• validation and quality-control procedures;
• sensitivity, uncertainty, or robustness analyses;
• ethical approval and informed consent;
• protocol registration; and
• deviations from the original protocol.

Established methods may be cited, but material modifications must be described clearly.

Results

The Results section should present the findings accurately, logically, and without unnecessary duplication. Data reported in tables or figures should not be repeated extensively in the main text.

Authors should report relevant effect estimates, uncertainty measures, confidence intervals, sample sizes, and statistical results where appropriate. Selective reporting of favourable outcomes is not permitted.

Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the findings in relation to the research question, existing evidence, theoretical context, practical implications, and broader food-system significance.

Authors should distinguish clearly between evidence, interpretation, and speculation. The limitations of the study should be discussed honestly, including methodological, geographical, temporal, institutional, and data-related limitations.

Conclusion

The Conclusion should provide a concise synthesis of the study’s principal contribution. It should not merely repeat the abstract or introduce new evidence.

Recommendations for research, policy, industry, regulation, public health, or professional practice should be proportionate to the evidence presented.

11. Reporting Guidelines

Authors should follow internationally recognised reporting guidelines appropriate to the study design. Relevant guidelines may include, but are not limited to:

• CONSORT for randomised controlled trials;
• PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
• STROBE for observational studies;
• COREQ or SRQR for qualitative research;
• ARRIVE for research involving animals;
• CARE for case reports where relevant;
• CHEERS for health-economic evaluations;
• TRIPOD for prediction-model studies;
• STARD for diagnostic-accuracy studies;
• SPIRIT for clinical-trial protocols; and
• appropriate domain-specific standards for environmental, agricultural, food-safety, modelling, life-cycle assessment, and data-science research.

Where a reporting guideline applies, authors should submit the completed checklist as a supplementary file and identify the guideline used in the manuscript.

12. Units, Symbols, Nomenclature, and Abbreviations

Authors should use the International System of Units (SI) wherever appropriate. Non-SI units may be included where required by disciplinary convention, regulation, or practical relevance, but equivalent SI units should be supplied where useful.

Scientific names of organisms should be italicised and presented according to accepted taxonomic conventions. Chemical names, gene names, microbial strains, enzymes, food additives, analytical parameters, and other specialised terms should follow recognised disciplinary nomenclature.

Abbreviations should be defined at first use in both the abstract and main text. Abbreviations should not be used where they reduce readability.

13. Statistical and Analytical Reporting

Statistical methods should be described in sufficient detail to permit evaluation. Authors should identify:

• the statistical tests used;
• the assumptions underlying the analyses;
• the software and version used;
• the significance threshold, where applicable;
• the handling of missing data and outliers;
• adjustments for multiple comparisons;
• effect sizes and confidence intervals;
• model-selection and validation procedures; and
• relevant sensitivity or robustness analyses.

Exact p-values should normally be reported unless they are extremely small. Statistical significance should not be treated as equivalent to scientific, clinical, policy, or practical importance.

Authors using machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive modelling, or computational simulation should report the data source, preprocessing procedures, training and validation strategy, model architecture or parameters, evaluation metrics, uncertainty, limitations, and reproducibility information.

14. Tables

Tables should be editable, numbered consecutively, and cited in the text in numerical order. Each table should have a concise and informative title.

Authors should:

• use tables only where they improve understanding;
• avoid duplicating information already presented in figures or the main text;
• define all abbreviations in table notes;
• identify statistical tests, significance indicators, and data units;
• use clear row and column headings;
• avoid excessive shading, decorative colours, and vertical lines; and
• provide the source and permission status of reproduced or adapted material.

15. Figures and Images

Figures should be numbered consecutively and cited in the text in numerical order. Each figure must have a complete caption that enables the figure to be understood without excessive reference to the main text.

Figures should be submitted at sufficient resolution for professional publication. Preferred file formats may include TIFF, PNG, JPEG, EPS, PDF, or another appropriate high-quality format.

As a general guide:

• line drawings should normally be supplied at approximately 600 dpi or higher;
• photographs and colour images should normally be supplied at approximately 300 dpi or higher;
• text within figures must remain legible at final publication size;
• axes, scales, units, legends, and symbols must be clearly identified;
• colour combinations should remain interpretable for readers with colour-vision deficiencies; and
• image adjustment must not misrepresent, obscure, remove, or fabricate scientific information.

Authors must disclose material image processing where it affects interpretation. Inappropriate duplication, splicing, selective enhancement, or manipulation may constitute research misconduct.

16. Maps and Geographical Information

Maps should include an appropriate scale, orientation, legend, data source, and geographical context. Authors are responsible for ensuring that maps, territorial labels, boundaries, and geographical descriptions are relevant to the research and presented in a neutral scholarly manner.

The journal and publisher remain neutral regarding jurisdictional claims and territorial designations.

17. Equations

Equations should be prepared using an editable equation tool where possible. Displayed equations should be numbered consecutively when referred to in the text.

All variables, symbols, subscripts, superscripts, and units should be defined at first use. Authors should ensure that equations remain accurate when converted during production.

18. Supplementary Materials

Supplementary materials may include:

• additional tables and figures;
• questionnaires and interview guides;
• research protocols;
• extended methods;
• reporting checklists;
• statistical outputs;
• datasets and metadata;
• computer code and algorithms;
• audio, video, or multimedia files; and
• other material necessary to support transparency and reproducibility.

Supplementary files should be clearly named, cited in the manuscript, and accompanied by concise descriptions. Supplementary materials are subject to editorial review and may be published in the form supplied by the authors.

19. Data Availability

Authors must include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether and how the data supporting the study can be accessed.

The statement should indicate one of the following, as applicable:

• the data are openly available in a named repository with a persistent identifier;
• the data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request;
• access is restricted because of privacy, confidentiality, ethical, legal, commercial, or security considerations;
• the data are owned by a third party and access is subject to permission;
• all relevant data are included in the article and supplementary materials; or
• no new data were generated or analysed.

Where feasible and ethically appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit data, code, protocols, and supporting materials in a trusted repository.

20. Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, personal data, biological samples, identifiable information, surveys, interviews, interventions, or other human-subject procedures must comply with applicable ethical standards and legal requirements.

The manuscript should identify:

• the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board;
• the approval or reference number, where available;
• the date or period of approval, where relevant;
• the informed-consent procedure;
• the measures used to protect privacy and confidentiality; and
• the basis for any exemption or waiver of review or consent.

Informed consent for publication must be obtained where individuals may be identifiable from text, images, recordings, case information, or other published material.

21. Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards for animal welfare.

Authors should report:

• the approving authority or animal ethics committee;
• the approval number, where available;
• the species, strain, sex, age, and number of animals;
• housing, care, handling, and intervention procedures;
• anaesthesia, analgesia, humane endpoints, and euthanasia methods;
• measures taken to minimise suffering; and
• the reporting guideline followed.

22. Food Safety, Biosafety, and Hazardous Materials

Research involving pathogens, toxins, allergens, genetically modified organisms, hazardous chemicals, biological materials, or food-safety risks must comply with relevant biosafety, laboratory, transport, containment, and regulatory requirements.

Authors should provide sufficient information to demonstrate that appropriate risk assessments, permissions, safety procedures, and containment measures were applied.

Descriptions of hazardous procedures may be restricted or modified where publication of operational details could create an unreasonable risk to public health, food security, environmental safety, or biosecurity.

23. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who accept responsibility for the published article.

All authors should have:

• contributed substantially to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the work;
• participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript;
• approved the final version; and
• agreed to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of the work.

Individuals who provided technical assistance, administrative support, language editing, funding acquisition, general supervision, or other contributions that do not justify authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

Authors should include a contribution statement using the CRediT contributor roles or another sufficiently clear contributorship framework.

24. Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be submitted in writing to the Editorial Office with:

• a detailed explanation of the requested change;
• confirmation from all listed and affected authors; and
• revised authorship and contribution declarations.

Authorship changes are not automatic and may be refused where the explanation is insufficient or where concerns about authorship integrity remain unresolved.

25. Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript.

Relevant interests may include:

• employment and consultancy relationships;
• research funding and sponsorship;
• stock ownership and financial interests;
• patents, licences, royalties, and commercial rights;
• advisory or governance positions;
• personal, professional, institutional, or academic relationships;
• editorial roles within the journal;
• advocacy or policy involvement; and
• other circumstances that may affect impartiality.

Where no relevant conflict exists, authors should state:

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

26. Funding

All sources of financial and material support must be disclosed. Authors should provide the funder’s official name, grant number, and the role of the funder in the research and publication process.

Where the funder had no role, authors may state:

The funder had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or decision to submit the work for publication.

Where no specific funding was received, authors should state:

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

27. Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements should identify individuals, institutions, facilities, or organisations that contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from individuals named in the acknowledgements where the wording may imply endorsement of the work.

28. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial-intelligence systems and large language models cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the integrity, originality, accuracy, or ethical compliance of a scholarly work.

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative artificial intelligence in the preparation of a manuscript, including its use for:

• generating or substantially rewriting text;
• developing code or analytical procedures;
• producing or altering images;
• extracting or classifying data;
• conducting literature analysis;
• translating substantive scholarly content; or
• supporting interpretation or decision-making.

Routine spelling, grammar, formatting, or language-correction tools do not normally require detailed disclosure unless their use substantially changes the scholarly content.

Authors remain fully responsible for verifying all AI-assisted output, including factual claims, citations, calculations, code, images, interpretations, and potential bias. Fabricated references, undisclosed synthetic data, deceptive image generation, and unverified AI-generated claims are prohibited.

29. Originality, Plagiarism, and Text Recycling

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using similarity-detection or other research-integrity tools.

Authors must not:

• copy text, data, images, ideas, or results without appropriate attribution;
• present previously published work as new;
• reuse substantial portions of their own published text without disclosure and citation;
• divide one study into multiple minimally differentiated publications;
• submit translated or modified versions of previously published work as original articles; or
• manipulate citations, authorship, data, peer review, or editorial processes.

Overlap involving standard methodological language may be evaluated according to context, but authors should use original wording wherever reasonably possible.

30. Preprints and Prior Dissemination

Posting a manuscript on a recognised non-commercial preprint server does not normally constitute formal prior publication, provided that the authors disclose the preprint at submission.

Authors should provide the preprint title, server, identifier, and link. After publication, the preprint record should be updated to cite and link to the Version of Record.

Conference abstracts, presentations, posters, theses, dissertations, and institutional reports do not necessarily prevent submission, but relevant prior dissemination must be disclosed. The submitted manuscript must provide a substantial and original scholarly contribution beyond any previously disseminated version.

31. Citation and Reference Style

FSSS uses the PSG Author–Date Citation Format. In-text citations should normally identify the author and year of publication.

Examples:

• One author: (Smith 2025)
• Two authors: (Smith and Lee 2025)
• Three or more authors: (Smith et al. 2025)
• Multiple sources: (Lee 2023; Smith et al. 2025)
• Direct quotation: (Smith 2025, 42)

The reference list should include only sources cited in the manuscript. References should be accurate, complete, consistently formatted, and arranged alphabetically by the surname of the first author.

Authors are responsible for verifying all bibliographic information, including author names, titles, publication years, journal names, volume and issue numbers, page ranges, DOIs, URLs, and access information.

Authors should consult the journal’s separate Citation and Reference Style page for complete examples and formatting requirements.

32. Reference Quality

References should be relevant, balanced, and appropriate to the manuscript. Authors should:

• cite primary research where available;
• include relevant international and regional scholarship;
• avoid unnecessary or excessive self-citation;
• avoid citation practices intended to manipulate metrics;
• verify that cited sources support the relevant claims;
• identify retracted or corrected literature appropriately; and
• avoid relying on unverifiable, fabricated, or predatory sources.

33. Cover Letter

A cover letter should accompany the submission and briefly include:

• the manuscript title and article type;
• the principal contribution of the work;
• the relevance of the manuscript to FSSS;
• confirmation that the submission is original and not under consideration elsewhere;
• disclosure of related manuscripts, preprints, datasets, or prior dissemination;
• information about ethical approval, registration, or consent where applicable;
• confirmation that all authors approved the submission; and
• any information necessary for the editors to assess potential conflicts or special circumstances.

The cover letter should not contain promotional claims or unsupported requests for preferential treatment.

34. Suggested and Opposed Reviewers

Authors may be invited to suggest qualified reviewers. Suggested reviewers should have relevant subject expertise and should not have relationships that could compromise independent assessment.

Authors should not suggest:

• recent collaborators;
• current or recent colleagues from the same institution;
• supervisors, students, or close personal associates;
• individuals with direct financial or professional interests in the work; or
• reviewers whose identity or contact information has been fabricated.

Authors may identify individuals whom they prefer not to review the manuscript and provide a brief reason. The editors are not required to use suggested reviewers or honour exclusion requests.

35. Peer Review and Editorial Decisions

Submissions undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine whether they:

• fall within the journal’s scope;
• meet basic scholarly and methodological standards;
• comply with ethical and submission requirements;
• provide a sufficiently original contribution; and
• are suitable for external peer review.

Manuscripts may be rejected without external review where they are clearly outside the journal’s scope, insufficiently developed, methodologically unsuitable, ethically problematic, or inconsistent with these guidelines.

Possible decisions include:

• acceptance;
• minor revision;
• major revision;
• resubmission for renewed assessment; or
• rejection.

Revision does not guarantee acceptance. Authors must respond carefully to all editorial and reviewer comments and clearly identify the changes made.

36. Revised Manuscripts

A revised submission should normally include:

• a revised clean manuscript;
• a marked or tracked-changes version, where requested;
• a detailed point-by-point response to the editors and reviewers;
• revised supplementary materials;
• updated declarations; and
• an explanation where a requested change has not been made.

Responses should be professional, specific, and evidence-based. Authors are not required to agree with every recommendation, but disagreements must be explained respectfully and substantively.

37. Accepted Manuscripts

After acceptance, authors may be required to submit:

• the final editable manuscript;
• separate high-resolution figure files;
• editable tables and equations;
• final supplementary files;
• completed copyright and licensing documentation;
• confirmed author names, affiliations, and ORCID identifiers;
• final authorship and contribution statements;
• funding, conflict-of-interest, ethics, and data declarations; and
• permissions for third-party material.

Substantive changes to authorship, data, analysis, conclusions, or manuscript content after acceptance require editorial approval.

38. Copyediting and Proofs

Accepted manuscripts may undergo copyediting, language correction, technical editing, reference checking, typesetting, and formatting.

The corresponding author will normally receive a proof for final review. Proof corrections should be limited to production errors, typographical errors, factual inaccuracies, and necessary clarifications.

Major rewriting, new analyses, extensive new data, or substantial changes to conclusions are not normally permitted at proof stage.

Authors are responsible for checking:

• author names and affiliations;
• the manuscript title and abstract;
• tables, figures, equations, and captions;
• references and hyperlinks;
• funding and conflict-of-interest statements;
• licensing information; and
• the accuracy of the final text.

39. Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright in articles published by FSSS. Unless otherwise stated, articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).

Authors grant the journal and publisher the non-exclusive rights necessary to publish, distribute, identify, preserve, and maintain the Version of Record.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that third-party material is compatible with the article’s licence or is accompanied by the necessary permission and attribution.

40. Article Processing Charges

Accepted manuscripts may be subject to an Article Processing Charge in accordance with the journal’s published APC policy.

The applicable amount, payment schedule, waiver arrangements, discounts, and exemptions are stated separately on the journal website. Authors should review the current policy before submission.

Payment does not guarantee acceptance and does not influence peer review or editorial decision-making. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly quality, methodological soundness, research integrity, and relevance to the journal’s scope.

41. Withdrawal

Authors requesting withdrawal must provide a written explanation signed or approved by all authors.

Withdrawal should not be used to avoid responding to ethical concerns, authorship disputes, duplicate-submission findings, or editorial investigations. The journal may retain relevant records where necessary to protect the integrity of the publication process.

42. Corrections and Retractions

Authors must notify the Editorial Office promptly if they identify a significant error in a submitted or published manuscript.

Published articles may be corrected, retracted, or accompanied by an expression of concern where necessary to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.

43. Submission Preparation Checklist

Before completing submission, authors should confirm that:

• the manuscript is within the scope of FSSS;
• the correct article type has been selected;
• the work is original and not under consideration elsewhere;
• all authors have approved the submission;
• a separate title page has been provided;
• the main manuscript has been anonymised;
• the abstract and keywords comply with the article-type requirements;
• the manuscript is complete and logically structured;
• all tables and figures are cited and appropriately labelled;
• references comply with the PSG Author–Date Citation Format;
• ethical approval and informed consent are reported where applicable;
• funding, authorship, conflicts of interest, and data availability are disclosed;
• the use of artificial intelligence has been disclosed where required;
• reporting checklists have been supplied where applicable;
• permissions have been obtained for third-party materials;
• supplementary files are clearly identified; and
• the corresponding author’s contact information is accurate.

44. Editorial Contact

Questions concerning manuscript preparation, article types, submission requirements, or editorial policies should be directed to the FSSS Editorial Office through the official contact details provided on the journal website.

Authors should include the manuscript title and submission identification number in correspondence concerning an existing submission.