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Appendices

The appendices should include information that is directly relevant to your paper, and adds to the understanding of the methods and findings. However, your paper must still be able to be understood and interpreted without this material. Important information should be in the main body of your paper.

Appendices should be kept to a minimum, and no more than ten should be submitted.

Material to include

• Literature searches – where these have been carried out, the date of the search, the date range of the search (e.g., from inception to 19 March 2021), the number of database hits, the full electronic search strategy for at least one major database, including line numbering in numerical order and any limits used should be included as an appendix, so that the search can be reproduced.
• Figures/tables of work-ups/formulae.
• Additional information about interventions.
• Additional analyses, if relevant – for instance subgroup analyses or more detailed characteristics of participants/respondents.
• Tables of background data (please note that tables and figures in the appendices should be numbered sequentially with those in the main body of the paper and included in the lists of tables and figures), for example, cost and resource use data.
• Case studies.
• Protocol amendments, including breaches and randomisation exclusions.

 Primary qualitative data should be included within the main paper. Additional qualitative transcripts can be included in an appendix, but excessive transcripts from qualitative research should not be included.

 Formatting

• Appendices should be listed individually in the contents.
• Appendices should be numbered consecutively (Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3…), not by chapter (NOT Appendix 1.1, Appendix 2.1, Appendix 2.2…).
• Appendices should be included in the report paper itself, uploaded in one document, which is called the ‘Draft Final Report’.
• There must be an in-text citation to each appendix (e.g. see Appendix 1) in the main paper. Ideally, appendices should be cited chronologically in the text.
• Documentation to be included in the appendices must be provided as original files, not scans or photocopies. Documentation not able to be supplied as original files or not requiring the production process of proofreading and copy-editing should instead be supplied as supplementary material.

 Please note

• The journal editors may ask you to adjust the length, content and/or number of your appendices during editorial review.
• Appendices will be peer-reviewed alongside your paper and will be proofread, and copy-edited once the paper reaches the production stage.

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