Required statements for all manuscripts
To support transparent reporting, research integrity, and a smooth double-blind peer review process, Applied AI & Data Science for Health, Agriculture & Environment (AIDSAE) requires every submission to include the statements below. Manuscripts missing required statements may be returned for correction before review or desk rejected.
Where to place these statements:
Include them in the Title Page file (recommended), and where appropriate, include the Data/Code/Reproducibility statement in the main manuscript as well. The anonymised manuscript must not reveal author identities.
1) Author Contributions (Required)
Provide a brief statement describing what each author contributed. Examples include:
- Conceptualization; Data curation; Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Resources; Writing—original draft; Writing—review & editing; Visualization; Supervision; Project administration; Funding acquisition.
Template:
Author contributions: [Author initials] contributed to [roles]. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
2) Funding Statement (Required)
Declare all funding sources and the role of funders.
Templates (choose one):
- Funding: This work was supported by [Funder name] under grant [number]. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript preparation.
- Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
3) Conflict of Interest Declaration (Required)
All authors must declare any conflicts (financial, professional, personal) that could be perceived to influence the work.
Templates:
- Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
- Conflicts of interest: [Describe the conflict clearly].
4) Ethics Approval and Consent (Required where applicable)
If your study involves human participants, human data, human samples, animals, or sensitive geolocation data, provide the ethics and consent details.
Minimum requirements:
- Name of ethics committee/IRB and approval reference/ID (if available)
- Consent process (written/oral/waiver)
- Privacy safeguards (de-identification/aggregation, secure storage)
Templates:
- Ethics approval: Approved by [committee name], approval/reference [ID].
- Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all participants / Consent was waived because [reason].
- Ethics not required: Ethics approval was not required because [clear justification], in accordance with [policy/standard where applicable].
5) Data Availability Statement (Required)
State whether data are open or restricted, and how they can be accessed.
Templates:
- Data availability: The data are available at [repository/link], under [licence/terms].
- Data availability: The data are not publicly available due to [privacy/proprietary/ethical restrictions], but may be accessed by qualified researchers through [contact/process] subject to approvals.
- Data availability: Data sharing is not possible due to [reason]. Aggregated results and supporting documentation are provided in the article/supplementary files.
6) Code / Model Availability Statement (Required)
State whether code and model artefacts are available, and where.
Templates:
- Code availability: Code is available at [GitHub/Zenodo/OSF link] under [licence].
- Code availability: Code is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
- Code availability: Code cannot be shared due to [restriction], but the manuscript provides sufficient detail (pipeline description, key parameters, software versions) to reproduce results in principle.
7) Data, Code & Reproducibility Statement (Required)
AIDSAE publishes applied AI and data science. All submissions must state how the study can be reproduced or audited.
Minimum items to include:
- dataset source and time period
- preprocessing pipeline summary (cleaning, missing data handling, feature engineering)
- validation strategy (split/CV) and hyperparameter tuning approach
- baseline comparator(s)
- metrics used
- leakage safeguards (patient/farm/spatial/temporal leakage prevention)
- error analysis / failure modes summary
- links to code/data OR access conditions OR reproducible-in-principle detail
Template (short):
Reproducibility: Data: [open/restricted + access]. Code/model: [open/restricted + access]. We report preprocessing, validation design, baselines, metrics, leakage safeguards, and error analysis to support reproducibility in principle.
8) AI Tool Use Disclosure (Required if used)
If any AI tools were used to draft text, edit language, generate images, write code, or assist analysis, disclose how they were used. Authors remain fully responsible for the content.
Templates:
- AI assistance: AI tools were used for language editing only. The authors reviewed and take full responsibility for the content.
- AI assistance: AI tools were used for [describe: code assistance / drafting / figure generation]. All analyses were verified by the authors, and the authors take full responsibility for the work.
- AI assistance: No AI tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript.
9) Acknowledgements (Optional)
Acknowledge individuals or institutions that contributed but do not meet authorship criteria.
(Place acknowledgements in the Title Page file to protect double-blind review.)
10) Originality and Submission Declaration (Required)
Confirm originality and exclusive submission.
Template:
Submission declaration: This manuscript is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration elsewhere. All authors approve submission to AIDSAE.
11) Licence Confirmation (Required)
AIDSAE publishes under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY).
Template:
Licence: If accepted, this article will be published under the CC BY licence. Authors understand that reuse is permitted with proper attribution.
Where to Put These Statements (Quick Reminder)
- Title Page file: Author contributions, funding, conflicts, ethics, acknowledgements, originality declaration, AI disclosure, CC BY confirmation.
- Main manuscript: Data/Code/Reproducibility statement (also acceptable on Title Page if it doesn’t identify authors).
