Manuscript Preparation Guide

Cortex (Innovation and Discovery) is committed to maintaining high standards of scholarly communication. Authors are encouraged to prepare manuscripts that are clear, concise, original, ethically sound, and presented in a form suitable for peer review and publication.

Authors should carefully read the Aims and Scope, Author Guidelines, Publication Ethics, and Submission Guidelines of the specific Cortex journal before submitting a manuscript, as individual journals may have additional requirements.

1. General Requirements

Manuscripts submitted to Cortex should:

  • Present original scholarly work of academic or professional relevance.

  • Be written clearly and logically.

  • Follow an appropriate academic and scientific writing style.

  • Contain sufficient methodological and technical information to allow the work to be understood and, where applicable, reproduced.

  • Follow the ethical standards applicable to the research discipline.

  • Use consistent terminology, formatting, citations, tables, and figures throughout the manuscript.

  • Be submitted in an editable document format unless otherwise specified by the journal.

Authors should ensure that the manuscript has been carefully proofread before submission.

2. Types of Manuscripts

Depending on the individual journal, Cortex may consider different types of scholarly contributions, including:

  • Original Research Articles

  • Review Articles

  • Systematic Reviews

  • Short Communications

  • Research Notes

  • Technical Notes

  • Case Studies

  • Methodological Articles

  • Perspectives or Commentaries

  • Other scholarly formats specified by the individual journal

Authors should select the manuscript type that most appropriately represents their work.

3. Manuscript Structure

Unless otherwise specified by the journal, a research article should generally contain the following sections:

Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the content of the manuscript. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations, excessive technical terminology, and statements that cannot be supported by the study.

Author Information

Provide the following information for all authors:

  • Full name

  • Institutional affiliation

  • Department or school, where applicable

  • City and country

  • Institutional or professional email address

  • ORCID iD, where available

The corresponding author should be clearly identified.

Abstract

The abstract should provide a concise summary of the manuscript. For research articles, it should generally include:

  • Background or purpose

  • Methodology

  • Key findings

  • Conclusions

Authors should avoid citations and unexplained abbreviations in the abstract unless they are essential.

Keywords

Provide approximately 4–8 keywords that accurately represent the major concepts, methods, technologies, or subject areas discussed in the manuscript.

Keywords should be selected to improve the discoverability of the article.

Introduction

The introduction should establish the context and significance of the research. It should generally:

  • Introduce the research problem.

  • Explain the relevant background.

  • Identify the research gap.

  • State the objectives or research questions.

  • Clearly establish the contribution of the study.

Literature Review / Related Work

Where appropriate, authors should provide a critical discussion of relevant previous research. The review should demonstrate awareness of the current state of knowledge and clearly position the present study within the existing literature.

Materials and Methods / Methodology

Describe the methods used to conduct the research with sufficient detail for readers to understand and, where appropriate, reproduce the study.

This section may include:

  • Research design

  • Study population or dataset

  • Data collection procedures

  • Experimental setup

  • Algorithms or models

  • Instruments or tools

  • Statistical methods

  • Evaluation measures

  • Ethical approvals, where applicable

For computational research, authors should provide relevant information regarding datasets, software, algorithms, experimental settings, and evaluation procedures.

Results

Present the findings clearly and objectively. Tables, figures, graphs, and other appropriate forms of presentation may be used to communicate results effectively.

Results should not merely repeat information already presented in tables or figures.

Discussion

Interpret the findings in relation to the research questions and existing literature. Authors should discuss the significance of the findings, possible explanations, practical or theoretical implications, and relevant limitations.

Conclusion

The conclusion should summarize the principal findings and their implications without introducing substantial new information.

Where appropriate, authors may also identify directions for future research.

4. Tables and Figures

Tables and figures should:

  • Be numbered consecutively.

  • Have clear and informative titles or captions.

  • Be referred to in the main text.

  • Be of sufficient quality and resolution.

  • Be understandable without excessive reference to the surrounding text.

  • Use consistent terminology and formatting.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted figures, tables, photographs, or other third-party material where required.

5. Equations, Symbols, and Abbreviations

Mathematical equations should be clearly presented and consistently numbered where necessary.

Special symbols and variables should be defined when first introduced.

Abbreviations should generally be written in full at first use, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations, particularly in the title and abstract.

6. References and Citations

Authors should cite relevant and appropriate scholarly sources and ensure that all sources cited in the manuscript appear in the reference list.

Likewise, every reference listed should be cited in the manuscript.

Authors should:

  • Use the reference style specified by the relevant Cortex journal.

  • Verify author names, article titles, journal names, publication years, volume, issue, page numbers, and DOI information where applicable.

  • Prefer authoritative and original sources where appropriate.

  • Avoid excessive self-citation.

  • Avoid unnecessary citation of unrelated or low-quality sources.

Authors should not manipulate citations for the purpose of artificially increasing citation counts.

7. Research Data and Reproducibility

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to provide sufficient information to support the verification and reproducibility of their research.

Depending on the nature of the study, this may include:

  • Research datasets

  • Data collection procedures

  • Source code

  • Algorithms

  • Experimental parameters

  • Supplementary materials

  • Protocols or instruments

Where data cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, confidentiality, legal, ethical, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should provide an appropriate explanation.

8. Ethical and Regulatory Considerations

Authors must ensure that their research complies with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.

Where relevant, manuscripts should include information concerning:

  • Institutional or ethics committee approval

  • Informed consent

  • Consent for publication

  • Animal welfare requirements

  • Data protection and privacy

  • Conflict of interest

  • Funding

  • Other discipline-specific ethical requirements

The relevant information should be included in the manuscript where applicable.

9. Authorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the work and meet accepted authorship criteria.

All listed authors should:

  • Have made a meaningful contribution to the research.

  • Have participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript.

  • Have approved the final version.

  • Agree to be accountable for the work.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship may be acknowledged appropriately.

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the journal and ensuring that all authors have approved the submission.

10. Acknowledgements

Authors may acknowledge individuals, institutions, organizations, technical personnel, or other contributors who assisted with the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Any funding or institutional support should also be acknowledged appropriately.

11. Funding Statement

Authors should disclose financial support received for conducting the research or preparing the manuscript.

If the research received no specific external funding, an appropriate statement may be included, such as:

"This research received no specific external funding."

Authors should ensure that funding information is accurate and complete.

12. Conflict of Interest

Authors should disclose any financial, professional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.

If there are no relevant conflicts, authors may state:

"The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest."

13. Originality and Prior Publication

Manuscripts submitted to Cortex should be original and should not have been published previously in substantially the same form.

Authors should not simultaneously submit the same manuscript to multiple journals.

If substantial portions of the manuscript have appeared previously in another publication, repository, conference proceeding, thesis, preprint, or other publicly accessible source, authors should disclose this information to the editorial office where applicable.

14. Plagiarism and Text Similarity

Cortex expects manuscripts to be original and properly referenced.

Manuscripts may be screened for plagiarism, inappropriate text reuse, duplicate publication, and other forms of academic misconduct.

Authors are responsible for appropriately citing and acknowledging the ideas, text, data, figures, and other material of others.

15. Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI

Authors may use artificial intelligence or generative AI tools for appropriate purposes such as language improvement, formatting assistance, or other supportive tasks, subject to the policies of the relevant Cortex journal.

AI tools should not be listed as authors.

Authors remain fully responsible for:

  • The accuracy and originality of the submitted manuscript.

  • Verification of AI-assisted content.

  • Correctness of citations and references.

  • Protection of confidential or sensitive information.

  • Compliance with research ethics and publication standards.

Where required by the journal, authors should disclose substantive use of generative AI in manuscript preparation or research.

Authors should not use AI tools to fabricate data, results, references, images, experimental observations, or other research content.

16. Supplementary Material

Authors may provide supplementary material where it adds value to the published work.

Examples include:

  • Additional datasets

  • Tables

  • Figures

  • Source code

  • Questionnaires

  • Experimental details

  • Appendices

  • Multimedia material

Supplementary files should be clearly labelled and referenced in the manuscript.

17. Language and Presentation

Manuscripts should be written in clear and grammatically correct English unless the individual journal specifies another language.

Authors should:

  • Use consistent spelling and terminology.

  • Avoid unnecessary repetition.

  • Use concise academic language.

  • Define technical terms where necessary.

  • Check grammar, punctuation, and formatting before submission.

Authors who are not writing in their first language are encouraged to have the manuscript professionally edited or carefully reviewed before submission.

18. Manuscript Formatting

Unless otherwise specified by the journal, authors should use:

  • A readable standard font.

  • Consistent font sizes and headings.

  • Standard page margins.

  • Line numbering where requested by the journal.

  • Continuous page numbering.

  • Clearly distinguishable section headings.

  • Consistent formatting of tables, figures, equations, and references.

The individual journal's Author Guidelines or manuscript template should be followed where specific formatting requirements differ from these general instructions.

19. Final Responsibility

Submission of a manuscript indicates that the authors have read and understood the applicable submission and publication policies of the selected Cortex journal.

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of their submitted work.

The editorial office may return manuscripts that do not meet essential submission requirements before they enter the peer-review process.