Study Protocol: New Article Type Accepted For Submission

We are pleased to announce that we are starting to accept submissions of Study Protocols, to be considered for publication.

Study Protocol manuscripts report proposed or ongoing prospective research. The publication of study protocols can reduce publication bias and improve the reproducibility of research. This also helps to prevent the unnecessary duplication of effort and work. Preference will be given to submissions describing long-term studies and those likely to generate a considerable amount of outcome data. If data collection is complete, the manuscript will not be considered. Study protocols for pilot or feasibility studies, or if the authors have other articles relating to the protocol published or under consideration, are also not considered. Authors are encouraged to later publish the study results as research articles, in any journal of MDPI. The research articles will receive a 20% discount on the APCs (type: article, 2 max.). The research article and the original study procotol will then be linked.

Study Protocols should use the template file to prepare the front matter and back matter. Trial registration details should be stated in the manuscript, if appropriate. It is not necessary to follow the remaining structure, although we encourage protocols of randomized clinical trials to adhere to the SPIRIT guidelines (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials). Protocols of systematic reviews should follow the PRISMA-P guidelines.