Authorship: According to the COPE and ICMJE recommendations, those who meet the following criteria should be identified as authors:

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  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
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Permission and copyright: Where relevant, it is the responsibility of the authors to obtain permission from copyright holders, and to ensure that the use of images, data, and illustrations in the chapters do not violate copyright laws. It is mandatory that the authors include the following statement is their chapters:

To the best of my/our knowledge, the materials included in this chapter do not violate copyright laws. All sources have been appropriately acknowledged and/or referenced. Where relevant, appropriate permissions have been obtained from the original copyright holder(s).

Copyright violation: If a copyright violation in any of the published chapters is brought to the attention of the publisher, the publisher will notify the author for correspondence and/or all authors of the chapter. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to settle issues with the copyright holder. The publisher cannot be held responsible for such copyright violations.

Research and data integrity: The authors are responsible for ensuring the research was conducted in an ethical manner, data were collected and analyzed by employing appropriate scientific methods and interpreted accurately. 

Acknowledgements: Where relevant, the authors should acknowledge their colleagues and sources of funding that made their research possible.

Conflict of interest: It is mandatory that the authors declare any conflicts of interest that are pertinent to their chapter(s). More information on conflict of interest is given here. If there is no conflict of interest, the authors should include the following statement:

“The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to research, authorship and/or publication of this chapter".