How the journal operates.
Plain-language statements of the policies our editors, reviewers, and authors agree to. We follow the COPE flowcharts for misconduct cases and the ICMJE criteria for authorship.
01 · Peer review body
Single-anonymised by default. Authors may opt into double-anonymised review at submission. Reviewer names are published alongside accepted papers if both the reviewer and the editor consent. All reviewers receive review credit through ORCID.
02 · Open access
All papers published since Vol. 21 (2008) are open access under CC-BY 4.0. Authors retain copyright. The article processing charge (APC) is $420 for members and $640 for non-members, with full waivers for authors from lower-income nations.
03 · Plagiarism and self-plagiarism
Manuscripts are screened with iThenticate. Acceptable similarity is < 15% (excluding references and methods boilerplate). Self-plagiarism above 30% is grounds for desk rejection. Repeat offenders are barred from submission for 24 months.
04 · Conflicts of interest
All authors must declare financial and non-financial conflicts of interest at submission. Reviewers must decline if a conflict exists. Editors recuse themselves from handling work by close collaborators within the past five years.
05 · Authorship
ACA follows ICMJE authorship criteria. Substantial contribution to conception, design, data collection or analysis; drafting or revising critically; final approval; and accountability. Honorary or guest authorship is misconduct under our policy.
06 · Data sharing
Mandatory data-availability statement on every paper. Primary data should be in an accredited repository (e.g. Zenodo, Dryad). Embargoed data is allowed up to 12 months post-publication with editor approval.
07 · Corrections and retractions
We follow COPE flowcharts. Corrigenda are published for honest errors; retractions for findings invalidated by misconduct or fundamental error. Retraction notices link back to the original paper and remain permanently online.
ai-generated-content · AI-generated content
Generative AI may be used to assist writing and analysis but cannot be listed as an author. Use must be disclosed in the methods section, including the model name and the role it played.