Health Nexus: Digital Health and Medical AI welcomes high-quality scholarly submissions addressing digital health, medical artificial intelligence, clinical informatics, health data science, and technology-enabled healthcare. Authors should ensure that their manuscripts are relevant to the journal’s aims and scope, methodologically rigorous, ethically compliant, and prepared in accordance with the requirements below.

1. General Submission Requirements

By submitting a manuscript, the authors confirm that:

• The manuscript is original and has not been formally published elsewhere.
• The manuscript is not under consideration by another journal.
• All listed authors have approved the submitted version and agree to its submission.
• All individuals who qualify for authorship have been appropriately identified.
• Necessary permissions have been obtained for copyrighted material reproduced from other sources.
• Research involving humans, animals, identifiable health information, or clinical data has received all required ethical and institutional approvals.
• Any previous dissemination of the work, including a preprint, conference abstract, thesis, report, or working paper, has been disclosed to the editorial office.

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is prohibited. Manuscripts that fall outside the journal’s scope, do not meet minimum reporting standards, or contain substantial ethical or methodological deficiencies may be declined without external peer review.

2. Peer Review and Manuscript Anonymisation

The journal operates a double-anonymous peer-review process. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another during review.

Authors must upload the following as separate files:

1. Title Page: containing complete author and institutional information.
2. Anonymous Manuscript: containing no information that directly identifies the authors or their institutions.
3. Supplementary Files: including reporting checklists, protocols, datasets, appendices, code documentation, or other supporting material where applicable.

The anonymous manuscript must not contain author names, affiliations, email addresses, acknowledgements, institutional identifiers, or identifying file metadata. References to the authors’ previous work should be written in a neutral manner and should not reveal authorship.

3. Language and File Preparation

• Manuscripts must be written in clear academic English.
• The principal manuscript file should be submitted in an editable Microsoft Word format, preferably .docx.
• Use a readable 11- or 12-point font and continuous line numbering.
• Use double spacing throughout the manuscript, including references and figure legends.
• Pages should be numbered consecutively.
• Define abbreviations at first use and avoid unnecessary abbreviations.
• Use internationally recognised units and terminology. SI units are preferred.
• Tables must be editable and should not be submitted as screenshots or embedded images.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, clarity, grammar, and consistency of the submitted manuscript. The editorial office may request professional language revision where the quality of English prevents proper academic assessment.

4. Title Page

The title page must contain:

• The full manuscript title.
• A short running title of no more than 50 characters.
• The full name of each author.
• The institutional affiliation of each author.
• The ORCID identifier of each author, where available.
• The name, institutional address, and email address of the corresponding author.
• A statement of author contributions using the CRediT contributor roles where appropriate.
• A funding statement.
• A conflict-of-interest declaration.
• An acknowledgements statement, where applicable.
• An ethics approval and informed-consent statement, where applicable.
• A clinical-trial registration statement, where applicable.
• A data-availability statement.
• A declaration concerning the use of generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies.
• The manuscript word count and the number of tables, figures, references, and supplementary files.

5. Anonymous Manuscript Structure

The anonymous manuscript should normally contain the following elements:

1. Manuscript title
2. Abstract
3. Keywords
4. Main text
5. Declarations, without identifying author information
6. References
7. Tables
8. Figure legends
9. Appendices, where applicable

Original Research Articles should generally follow the structure of Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions. Alternative structures may be used where appropriate for qualitative, methodological, technical, policy, or interdisciplinary research.

6. Abstract and Keywords

Original Research Articles, clinical studies, implementation studies, diagnostic studies, and algorithm-validation studies should include a structured abstract of no more than 300 words, normally using the following headings:

• Background
• Objective
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions

Where applicable, the abstract should also include the clinical-trial registration number.

Reviews, Perspectives, Commentaries, and other non-research article types may use an unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words.

Authors should provide four to eight keywords. Keywords should be specific, searchable, and, where appropriate, consistent with recognised biomedical terminology such as Medical Subject Headings.

7. Recommended Length by Article Type

Article Type	Recommended Main-Text Length	Abstract
Original Research Article	3,000–7,000 words	Structured, up to 300 words
Review Article	4,000–10,000 words	Up to 300 words
Systematic Review or Meta-Analysis	4,000–10,000 words	Structured, up to 300 words
Methodological Article	3,000–7,000 words	Up to 300 words
Technical or Software Article	3,000–7,000 words	Up to 300 words
Implementation or Evaluation Study	3,000–7,000 words	Structured, up to 300 words
Protocol	3,000–6,000 words	Structured, up to 300 words
Case Study	2,000–4,000 words	Up to 250 words
Perspective	1,500–3,000 words	Up to 250 words
Commentary	1,000–2,000 words	Normally not required
Letter to the Editor	500–1,000 words	Not required

The editorial office may permit longer manuscripts where the length is justified by the study design, methodological complexity, or scholarly contribution.

8. Reporting Guidelines

Authors must follow the reporting guideline appropriate to the study design. Relevant reporting checklists should be completed and uploaded as supplementary files at submission.

Applicable guidelines may include:

• CONSORT for randomised controlled trials.
• CONSORT-AI for clinical trials involving an artificial-intelligence intervention.
• SPIRIT for clinical-trial protocols.
• SPIRIT-AI for protocols involving an artificial-intelligence intervention.
• STROBE for observational studies.
• PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
• TRIPOD+AI for clinical prediction models using regression or machine-learning methods.
• STARD or STARD-AI for diagnostic-accuracy studies.
• DECIDE-AI for early-stage clinical evaluation of AI-driven decision-support systems.
• CLAIM for artificial intelligence in medical imaging.
• CARE for clinical case reports.
• COREQ or SRQR for qualitative research.
• SQUIRE for healthcare quality-improvement studies.
• CHEERS for health-economic evaluations.
• ARRIVE for animal research.

Where no specific reporting guideline applies, authors should follow the most relevant guidance available through the EQUATOR Network and provide sufficient methodological detail to permit critical evaluation and replication.

9. Requirements for Artificial Intelligence and Machine-Learning Studies

Studies involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, large language models, clinical decision-support systems, or algorithmic prediction must provide transparent and reproducible reporting.

Authors should describe, where applicable:

• The intended clinical or public-health use of the system.
• The target population, healthcare setting, users, and intended decision context.
• The sources, collection dates, geographic origins, and eligibility criteria of all datasets.
• Data preprocessing, labelling procedures, reference standards, missing-data handling, and quality-control procedures.
• The separation of training, validation, and test datasets.
• Measures taken to prevent patient-level, institutional, temporal, or other forms of data leakage.
• Sample size, class distribution, outcome prevalence, and relevant demographic characteristics.
• The model architecture, software environment, model version, training procedure, hyperparameters, and stopping criteria.
• The selection and justification of comparator models or existing standards of care.
• Performance measures with appropriate uncertainty estimates or confidence intervals.
• Discrimination, calibration, clinical utility, error analysis, and failure cases, where relevant.
• Internal, external, temporal, geographic, or multisite validation.
• Subgroup performance and potential differences related to age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, geography, or other relevant characteristics.
• Potential sources of algorithmic bias and the measures used to assess or mitigate them.
• Human factors, user interaction, clinical workflow integration, and the role of professional oversight.
• Model interpretability, explainability, transparency, and limitations.
• The availability of code, model weights, documentation, prompts, datasets, and evaluation materials.

Performance results obtained from training data alone are not sufficient evidence of clinical validity. Claims concerning clinical effectiveness, safety, superiority, generalisability, or real-world utility must be proportionate to the study design and supporting evidence.

Generative AI and Large Language Model Studies

Studies involving generative AI or large language models should additionally report:

• The provider, model name, model version, and date of access.
• The system instructions, prompt templates, and relevant prompt-engineering procedures.
• Sampling parameters and generation settings, where accessible.
• The use of retrieval-augmented generation, external databases, plugins, or additional tools.
• The number of repeated queries or generation runs.
• The procedures used for human, automated, or expert evaluation.
• Methods used to assess factual accuracy, hallucination, bias, safety, reproducibility, and clinical risk.
• Procedures used to protect confidential, personal, and health-related information.

Where full prompts, code, datasets, or model components cannot be shared, authors must explain the legal, ethical, technical, or commercial restrictions.

10. Research Ethics

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, biological material, or health records must receive approval from an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board before the study begins.

The manuscript must state:

• The full name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board.
• The approval or reference number.
• Whether informed consent was obtained.
• Whether consent was written, verbal, or waived.
• The reason for any waiver of ethical approval or informed consent.

Research involving human participants should be conducted in accordance with applicable laws, institutional requirements, and the latest applicable revision of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Clinical-Trial Registration

Clinical trials must be registered in a publicly accessible and recognised clinical-trial registry before enrolment of the first participant. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must appear in the manuscript.

Authors reporting clinical trials must also provide an appropriate data-sharing statement and disclose any changes made after trial registration.

Consent for Publication

Written consent for publication must be obtained where a manuscript contains identifiable personal information, clinical images, facial images, videos, detailed case descriptions, or other material through which an individual could reasonably be identified.

Removing a person’s name is not always sufficient to ensure anonymity. Authors must minimise unnecessary identifying detail while preserving scientific accuracy.

Animal Research

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international standards. The manuscript must identify the approving body, approval number, species, welfare measures, anaesthesia or analgesia procedures, and humane endpoints where relevant.

11. Data, Code, Models, and Materials

All research articles must include a Data Availability Statement. The statement should explain:

• Whether the supporting data are publicly available.
• The repository name and persistent identifier, where applicable.
• Whether access is restricted and the reason for the restriction.
• The procedure and conditions for requesting access.
• Whether code, model documentation, protocols, statistical analysis plans, prompts, or other materials are available.

Authors are encouraged to deposit non-sensitive data, analysis code, software, model documentation, protocols, and supplementary materials in trusted repositories. Research materials should be shared to the greatest extent permitted by participant consent, privacy obligations, data-protection law, ethical approval, institutional policy, and legitimate security considerations.

Authors must not publicly release identifiable or re-identifiable patient data. De-identification must be appropriate to the nature and sensitivity of the data.

12. Authorship and Contributor Responsibilities

Authorship should be based on substantial intellectual contribution, participation in drafting or critically revising the work, approval of the final version, and accountability for the integrity of the published article.

The journal encourages the use of the CRediT contributor-role taxonomy to describe individual contributions. Contributor roles may include conceptualisation, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing, visualisation, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

Guest, gift, honorary, and ghost authorship are prohibited. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship should be identified in the acknowledgements with their permission.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be supported by a written explanation and the written agreement of all affected authors. Authorship changes after acceptance will be permitted only in exceptional circumstances.

13. Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Artificial-intelligence systems, chatbots, large language models, and other automated tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for:

• The accuracy and originality of the manuscript.
• The validity of all citations and references.
• The integrity of data, analyses, code, images, and conclusions.
• Identifying and correcting fabricated, biased, misleading, or inaccurate AI-generated content.
• Ensuring that the submission does not infringe copyright, confidentiality, privacy, or data-protection requirements.

Material use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in writing, translation, coding, data analysis, image preparation, literature synthesis, or research design must be disclosed. The declaration should identify:

• The name and version of the tool.
• The purpose for which it was used.
• The sections or stages of work affected.
• The procedures used by the authors to review and verify the output.

Generative AI must not be used to fabricate, manipulate, or obscure research data, clinical images, laboratory results, participant information, or evidentiary material. AI-generated or AI-modified images may be included only when generation or modification is an explicit and methodologically justified part of the research, and the process is transparently reported.

Authors must not upload confidential manuscripts, identifiable patient data, protected health information, unpublished datasets, or other restricted material to external AI systems without appropriate authorisation and safeguards.

14. Conflicts of Interest and Funding

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

Relevant interests may include:

• Employment or consultancy relationships.
• Research grants or institutional funding.
• Stock ownership or financial interests.
• Patents, licences, or intellectual-property interests.
• Paid advisory roles or speaking arrangements.
• Professional, institutional, personal, or academic relationships.
• Involvement in the development or commercialisation of a technology evaluated in the manuscript.

The funding statement must identify all funding sources and grant numbers. Authors must explain the role of the funder or sponsor in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit the work. Where the funder had no role, this should be stated explicitly.

15. References and Citation Style

All manuscripts submitted to Health Nexus: Digital Health and Medical AI must follow the PSG Author–Date Citation Format, the official citation standard of Panorama Scholarly Group.

PSG Format uses author–date citations in the main text and a corresponding alphabetical reference list. References must not be numbered. Authors must ensure that every source cited in the manuscript appears in the reference list and that every reference-list entry is cited in the manuscript.

15.1 In-Text Citations

In-text citations should contain the author’s surname and the year of publication. No comma is placed between the author’s surname and the year.

Citation Type	PSG Format
One author	(Smith 2024)
Two authors	(Smith and Lee 2024)
Three authors	(Smith, Lee, and Wang 2024)
Four or more authors	(Smith et al. 2024)
Specific page	(Smith 2024, 25)
Page range	(Smith 2024, 25–27)
Multiple sources	(Chen 2021; Kim 2022; Smith 2024)
No publication date	(Smith n.d.)
Same author and same year	(Smith 2024a, 2024b)

When an author’s name forms part of the sentence, only the year and any relevant page number should appear in parentheses.

Examples:

Smith (2024) argued that clinical artificial-intelligence systems require continuous post-deployment evaluation.

Smith (2024, 25–27) further identified data drift as a major source of clinical risk.

Page numbers or another appropriate location indicator must be included for direct quotations. Direct quotations should be used sparingly; authors should normally paraphrase, interpret, and critically analyse the cited material.

15.2 Reference-List Organisation

• Arrange entries alphabetically by the surname of the first author or by the name of the responsible organisation.
• For multiple works by the same author or author group, arrange entries chronologically from the earliest to the latest publication.
• For multiple works by the same author or author group in the same year, add lowercase letters to the year, such as 2024a and 2024b.
• Do not number reference-list entries.
• Every in-text citation must have a corresponding reference-list entry, and every reference-list entry must be cited in the manuscript.

15.3 Fixed PSG Formatting Rules

• The publication year appears immediately after the author information and is not enclosed in brackets.
• The first author’s name is inverted: surname first, followed by the given name.
• The names of subsequent authors appear in natural order: given name followed by surname.
• Use and before the final author’s name; do not use an ampersand.
• English article and chapter titles appear in typographic quotation marks: “ ”.
• The period following an article or chapter title appears inside the closing quotation mark.
• Journal names and book titles are italicised.
• Volume and issue information follows the form 12, no. 2.
• Page ranges use an en dash, for example 45–63.
• Where an article uses an article number rather than a page range, use the form Article 108.
• DOIs must be presented as complete links beginning with https://doi.org/.
• Do not place a full stop after a DOI or URL.
• Multilingual titles retain the original-language title followed by an English translation in square brackets.
• Preprints must be identified clearly as preprints.
• Online resources should include an access date where appropriate.

15.4 Journal Article

Format:

Last, First, First Last, and First Last. Year. “Article Title.” Journal Name volume, no. issue: page range. DOI

Example:

Smith, John A., Helen K. Lee, and Ming Wang. 2024. “Clinical Validation of Artificial Intelligence in Remote Patient Monitoring.” Journal of Digital Medicine 12, no. 2: 45–63. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

In-text citation: (Smith, Lee, and Wang 2024)

15.5 Journal Article with an Article Number

Example:

Chen, Li, and Sungho Park. 2023. “Digital Learning Anxiety among University Students.” Educational Psychology Review 35, no. 2: Article 108. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

In-text citation: (Chen and Park 2023)

15.6 Book

Format:

Last, First. Year. Book Title: Subtitle. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example:

Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

In-text citation: (Giddens 1991)

15.7 Chapter in an Edited Book

Format:

Last, First. Year. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by First Last and First Last, page range. Place of publication: Publisher. DOI

Example:

Lee, Hyun K. 2022. “Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration.” In Digital Governance in Asia, edited by John Smith and Robert Brown, 55–78. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

In-text citation: (Lee 2022, 60)

15.8 Webpage

Format:

Author or Organisation. Year. “Title of Webpage.” Accessed Month Day, Year. URL

Example:

Panorama Scholarly Group. 2026. “Publication Ethics.” Accessed June 24, 2026. https://example.com/publication-ethics

In-text citation: (Panorama Scholarly Group 2026)

Where no publication or revision date can be identified, use n.d. in place of the year and retain the access date.

15.9 Government or Institutional Report

Example:

Ministry of Education. 2024. Annual Report on Higher Education Development. Seoul: Ministry of Education. https://example.gov/report

In-text citation: (Ministry of Education 2024)

15.10 Chinese-Language Source

Author names should be romanised in Pinyin. The original-language title must be retained and followed by an English translation in square brackets.

Example:

Wang, Ming, and Hua Li. 2023. “数字治理背景下的公共服务改革 [Public Service Reform in the Context of Digital Governance].” 公共行政研究 [Public Administration Research] 15, no. 2: 45–58. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

In-text citation: (Wang and Li 2023)

15.11 Korean-Language Source

The original-language title must be retained and followed by an English translation in square brackets.

Example:

Kim, Minsoo. 2024. “공공기관의 디지털 전환과 조직성과 [Digital Transformation and Organizational Performance in Public Institutions].” 한국행정학보 [Korean Public Administration Review] 58, no. 1: 101–125. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

In-text citation: (Kim 2024)

15.12 Dataset

Example:

Lee, Sungho. 2024. Survey Data on Digital Public Service Satisfaction in South Korea. Data set. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

In-text citation: (Lee 2024)

15.13 Software or Source-Code Repository

Example:

Chen, Li. 2024. OJS Reference Checker. Source code. GitHub. https://github.com/example/ojs-reference-checker

In-text citation: (Chen 2024)

Where available, authors should identify the software version, release date, repository, DOI, or archived release identifier.

15.14 Artificial-Intelligence Tool

Example:

OpenAI. 2026. ChatGPT. Large language model. https://chat.openai.com/

In-text citation: (OpenAI 2026)

Citing an AI tool does not replace the separate requirement to disclose how it was used. Authors must also provide an AI-use declaration identifying the tool, version, purpose, affected stages of the work, and procedures used to review and verify its outputs.

15.15 Reference Integrity

Authors are responsible for the completeness, accuracy, relevance, and integrity of all citations and references. Before submission, authors must:

• Verify every reference against the original source.
• Confirm that each source exists and supports the statement for which it is cited.
• Check author names, titles, publication years, journal or publisher information, volume and issue numbers, page ranges, and article numbers.
• Open and verify every DOI, URL, or persistent identifier.
• Remove duplicate references.
• Identify preprints, datasets, software, and AI tools using the correct resource type.
• Check whether any cited source has been corrected, withdrawn, or retracted.
• Do not cite a retracted publication as reliable evidence unless the retraction itself is being discussed.
• Manually verify references generated or reformatted using citation-management software or AI-assisted tools.
• Remove fabricated, unverifiable, incomplete, or non-existent references.

The complete PSG Format specification and the official PSG Citation Generator are available through the Panorama Open Scholarly Index.

• PSG Author–Date Citation Format
• PSG Citation Generator

16. Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must be necessary, accurate, and directly relevant to the manuscript.

• Number tables and figures consecutively in the order of citation.
• Provide a concise title for each table and a descriptive legend for each figure.
• Define all abbreviations, symbols, and statistical indicators.
• Tables must be submitted in editable form.
• Figures should be supplied at sufficient resolution for publication.
• Photographic images should normally have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
• Graphs and diagrams should preferably be supplied in an editable or vector format.
• Image adjustments must be applied consistently and must not selectively enhance, remove, obscure, or misrepresent information.
• Identifiable patient information must not appear without appropriate consent.
• Permission must be obtained for previously published copyrighted material.

Legends should explain the content sufficiently for the table or figure to be understood without unnecessary reference to the main text.

17. Statistical Reporting

Authors should describe statistical methods in sufficient detail to permit evaluation and reproduction.

Where applicable, manuscripts should report:

• Sample-size calculations and underlying assumptions.
• Eligibility criteria and handling of exclusions.
• Handling of missing data and loss to follow-up.
• Effect estimates with confidence intervals.
• Exact statistical tests and software versions.
• Assumption checks and model diagnostics.
• Adjustment for multiple comparisons where appropriate.
• Prespecified primary and secondary outcomes.
• Sensitivity, robustness, or subgroup analyses.

Authors should not rely exclusively on statistical significance. Results should be interpreted in relation to effect size, uncertainty, clinical relevance, potential bias, and study limitations.

18. Cover Letter

A cover letter should accompany each submission and should briefly state:

• The title and article type of the manuscript.
• The principal contribution and relevance of the work.
• Why the manuscript is appropriate for the journal.
• That the manuscript is original and not under consideration elsewhere.
• Any related manuscripts, preprints, conference abstracts, datasets, or prior reports.
• Any relevant ethical, legal, commercial, or conflict-of-interest considerations.
• Any use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies that requires disclosure.

Authors may suggest suitably qualified reviewers and may identify individuals with whom a genuine conflict of interest exists. Reviewer suggestions are advisory, and the editorial office retains full responsibility for reviewer selection.

19. Supplementary Material

Supplementary files may include:

• Reporting-guideline checklists.
• Study protocols and statistical analysis plans.
• Additional tables and figures.
• Survey instruments or interview guides.
• Code, model documentation, prompts, or technical appendices.
• Data dictionaries and metadata.
• Video, audio, or interactive materials.

Supplementary material is subject to editorial and peer review. Authors are responsible for its accuracy, legality, anonymisation, and accessibility.

20. Submission Checklist

Before submitting, authors should confirm that:

• The manuscript is within the journal’s aims and scope.
• The appropriate article type has been selected.
• The title page and anonymous manuscript have been uploaded separately.
• The manuscript contains no information that compromises anonymous review.
• The abstract, keywords, tables, figures, in-text citations, and reference list meet the journal’s requirements.
• The relevant reporting guideline and checklist have been followed.
• Ethical approval, informed consent, and trial registration have been reported where applicable.
• Author contributions, funding, conflicts of interest, data availability, and AI-use declarations have been included.
• All in-text citations and references follow the PSG Author–Date Citation Format and have been checked against the original sources for accuracy, completeness, DOI validity, and reference integrity.
• Permissions have been obtained for copyrighted or identifiable material.
• All authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript.

Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the manuscript being returned for technical revision before editorial assessment.