Editorial Policies
Articles are submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere previously and that they are not being submitted simultaneously to another journal.
If the author uses materials protected by copyright, it is the author’s responsibility to acquire any necessary permissions and they are personally responsible for the payment of any fees related to copyright that may be applicable. Authors are also responsible for obtaining any ethical clearance necessary for the publication of their article.
Length: Articles should normally be about or up to 6,000 words in length, not exceeding 8,000 words including appendices.
Language: We consider papers in English using consistent spelling conventions either in BrE (British English) or AmE (American English).
Pre-print: The author needs to declare that a preprint is available during submission and must include a link to the location of the preprint. Should the submission be published, the author is expected to update the information associated with the preprint version to show that a final version has been published in NPL, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.
Review Policies & Process: the journal acknowledges the importance of a clear and fair set of review polices and upholds its quality through the strict implementation of process. Details can be found on Review Policies and Process.
Editors and Editorial Staff as Authors: editorial staff or editors shall not be involved in the processing of their own academic work. Articles authored by editorial staff/editors will be assigned to two independent reviewers. Decisions will be made by other Editorial Board Members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author on whether their submissions ought to be published or not.
Appeals & Complaints: Should an individual wish to submit an appeal, complaint or raise an issue of potential misconduct regarding the journal or its content, they should contact the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) and/or the publisher to explain their concerns. The EiC and/or publisher will assess the nature of the complaint and/or appeal following the Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)