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Everything around the manuscript: cover letters, submission checklists, ORCID and metadata hygiene, author contributions, data statements. The paperwork rarely improves a paper, but it regularly sinks one. These are short, specific guides you use the week you submit.
Title and short title caps are enforced fields, not suggestions. A field-by-field walk through the title page, from PLOS ONE's 250-character title cap to the corresponding author line and the counts journals ask for.
Waraq · July 14, 2026
Journals now ask you to map every author to named CRediT roles. What each of the 14 roles covers, how two authors share one role honestly, and worked statements for teams of two, four, and six.
Waraq · July 13, 2026
Three spellings of one name means three scattered publication records. A free identifier ends the scatter, and setup takes about ten minutes before your first submission.
Waraq · July 11, 2026
First submissions bounce for missing pieces, not weak science. Here is every file, statement, and field a submission system will ask for, from the title page to the data availability statement.
Waraq · July 10, 2026
Assume the editor gives your letter one fast read. Four sentences carry it: what the paper is, what it found, why this journal, and what you declare.
Waraq · July 8, 2026