Han Chen, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210003, Jiangsu Province, China
Guo-Xin Zhang, Xiao-Ying Zhou, Department of Gastroenterology, Jiangsu Province Hospital, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Guo-Xin Zhang and Xiao-Ying Zhou.
Author contributions: Zhou XY and Zhang GX concepted and designed the research study; Chen H and Zhou X developed methodology; Chen H acquired the data; Zhou XY analyzed and interpretated the data; Chen H wrote the first version of the manuscript; Zhang GX and Zhou XY revised the manuscript; all authors were involved in the critical review of the results and have contributed to, read, and approved the final manuscript. Zhou XY and Zhang GX contributed equally to this work as co-corresponding authors. The reasons for designating Zhou XY and Zhang GX as co-corresponding authors are threefold. First, the research was performed as a collaborative effort, and the designation of co-corresponding authorship accurately reflects the distribution of responsibilities and burdens associated with the time and effort required to complete the study and the resultant paper. This also ensures effective communication and management of post-submission matters, ultimately enhancing the paper's quality and reliability. Second, the overall research team encompassed authors with a variety of expertise and skills from different fields, and the designation of co-corresponding authors best reflects this diversity. This also promotes the most comprehensive and in-depth examination of the research topic, ultimately enriching readers' understanding by offering various expert perspectives. Third, Zhou XY and Zhang GX contributed to almost the same funding on this research. The choice of these researchers as co-corresponding authors acknowledges and respects this equal contribution, while recognizing the spirit of teamwork and collaboration of this study. In summary, we believe that designating Zhou XY and Zhang GX as co-corresponding authors of is fitting for our manuscript as it accurately reflects our team's collaborative spirit, equal contributions, and diversity.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82100594.
Institutional review board statement: The original data in this study were retrieved from the public GEO database with an open license for data use. This study was approved by the ethic committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (Approval No. 2022-SR-406).
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Xiao-Ying Zhou, MD, PhD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, Jiangsu Province Hospital, No. 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu Province, China. zhouxiaoying0926@njmu.edu.cn
Received: September 21, 2023
Peer-review started: September 21, 2023
First decision: November 9, 2023
Revised: November 21, 2023
Accepted: December 27, 2023
Article in press: December 27, 2023
Published online: February 15, 2024
Processing time: 135 Days and 20 Hours
