About the Journal & Submission Guidelines

3LT uses double-anonymous peer review. The journal aims to make its preliminary decision within three days of submission. During preliminary screening, a submission is checked with iThenticate. If its similarity index exceeds 9%, excluding quotations and the bibliography, the manuscript is rejected without external review. A manuscript may also be declined before peer review when it is outside the journal's scope or is not ready for scholarly review.

Eligible manuscripts are assigned to an editor and reviewed by at least two independent experts. Reviewers are expected to submit their reports within 10 days. The broader review process may take up to 21 days because an invited reviewer may not respond and an alternative may need to be found. The normal process has one review round, although an editor may request an additional round when necessary. Authors cannot see active review details until the editor releases the decision and appropriate comments.

Editors and reviewers must have no conflict of interest with the authors, must not be from the same institution, and must not have co-published with the authors during the preceding two years. Reviewers should hold a PhD in a relevant field and have an appropriate publication record.

At publication, reviewer names and affiliations may be displayed only where the reviewer has consented and the journal has approved public disclosure. Reviewer ORCID identifiers are not displayed as part of the credit.

1. The submission has not previously been published and is not under consideration by another journal, unless an explanation is supplied in Comments to the Editor.
2. The submission is provided as a Microsoft Word document. OpenOffice and RTF files are not accepted.
3. The manuscript contains 5,500–9,500 words, uses APA 7th edition referencing, and includes DOI links where available or URLs where no DOI is available.
4. The title does not exceed 15 words.
5. The abstract contains 150–250 words in one paragraph and covers the purpose, methods, results, conclusions, and recommendations or future directions where applicable.
6. Four to six keywords are provided in alphabetical order and separated by semicolons.
7. The single manuscript file contains the title page, every author's affiliation and ORCID, corresponding-author contact details, abstract and keywords, main text, embedded figures and tables, declarations, references, and any appendices.
8. The text is single-spaced, uses a 12-point font and italics rather than underlining except in URLs. Tables and figures use Arabic numbering and are embedded at the appropriate locations in the manuscript.
9. Statements covering data availability, conflicts of interest, ethics approval where applicable, and funding are included.
10. Either British or American English is used consistently; the two variants are not mixed in one manuscript.
11. Authors do not need to apply the journal template until the manuscript has been accepted.

There is no fee to submit a manuscript.

After acceptance, an article processing charge of USD 450 applies to cover publication costs including layout, copyediting, DOI assignment, and hosting. The APC is waived for papers submitted on or before 31 December 2027.

Articles are published online after acceptance and payment of any applicable APC. If an author requests a physical copy of the issue, an additional USD 100 is charged and one hard copy is sent by courier to the author's postal address.

3LT publishes articles continuously after acceptance and production. Published articles are subsequently assigned to quarterly issues released in March, June, September, and December.

• Copyright
  © the author(s). All rights reserved.
• CC BY-ND 4.0
  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
• CC BY-NC 4.0
  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
• CC BY-SA 4.0
  Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
• CC BY 4.0
  

  Authors retain copyright. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, which permits sharing and adaptation provided the original work is properly attributed.

Authors retain copyright. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, which permits sharing and adaptation provided the original work is properly attributed.