NSO AUTHOR GUIDELINES
This page explains how to prepare your manuscript for submission to the journals of the Nordic Society Oikos.
Additional information specific to each journal: Oikos, Nordic Journal of Botany, Ecography, Wildlife Biology, Journal of Avian Biology
Initial Submission
Title page file
In this file include the title, author list, and author affiliations.
Title:
The title should be brief, concise, informative and comprehensible to a broad scientific audience. Where possible, it should be a statement of the main result or conclusion presented in the manuscript.
When formulating a title, you should bear in mind both human readers and search engines. Including keywords in your title, for example, can help readers discover your article online.
Do not include specialist abbreviations or authorities for taxonomic names in your title. The title should contain words useful for indexing and information retrieval.
Author list and affiliations:
During initial submission, enter author names on the title page file of the manuscript.
You will also add author details to the submission system.
Write author names in the following order: first name, middle name (or initials, if used), last name (surname, family name).
Main text file
This file should be anonymous and contain no author names or affiliations.
The first page should contain the title and the abstract (if required for the article category). The abstract should summarize the main results of the work. It should contain no more than 300 words and should not contain references or unexplained abbreviations or acronyms.
Begin the introduction on page two. Use headings to split the main text into different sections (usually introduction, material and methods, results and discussion, references, but other headings and sub-headings can be used if they suit your article).
Abbreviations should be written out in full on first use. Avoid right margin justification and hyphenation. Add continuous page- and line-numbers to the text.
***DO FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS APPLY EXCLUSIVELY TO THIS FILE? CAN THERE BE A MORE DIRECT ASSOCIATION?***
Data and code files or links
If your manuscript relies on data and/or custom written code, prepare these to be uploaded at initial submission or archive them prior to submitting.
******To match the requested change on “For Authors” page (to feature Data/Code as the third of four file types) it would make sense to list it in the same order here, unless it must be combined with the “Data Availability statement” below and listed there instead(?)******
Supporting information files
Supplementary material (e.g. images, tables, supplementary data that are not part of the manuscript) can be uploaded and published as “Supporting information” on the journal website.
A '.docx' template for supporting information can be found here.
Please note the following:
This material will not be edited, but published as received.
There is no cost for publishing supporting information.
Refer to the supporting information as “Supporting information” in the main text of the manuscript.
Do not refer to subsections or specific details in the “Supporting information” file(s). Any reference of that kind will be removed.
Submit supporting information as separate file(s) and not as part of the main text.
The number of references included in supporting information should be kept to an absolute minimum as these are not recognized by many indexing services.
Maximum file size for a supporting information file is 50 MB. Authors with supporting information files of a larger size (in particular, movies) should contact the journal managing editor for further assistance.
When submitting a revised manuscript, you must provide a final version of the supporting information. You will not be able to change, add, update, or delete the supporting information once your manuscript has been accepted.
Illustrations and tables
At initial submission, figures, photographs and drawings can be provided within the manuscript [IS “MAIN TEXT FILE” THE CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF “MANUSCRIPT”?******] or as separate files.
For revised manuscripts, illustrations should be uploaded as separate files.
The file size limit is 50 MB and the maximum resolution for images 40 megapixels. Larger files (for example higher resolution) can be provided after acceptance.
All figures and tables should be numbered and referred to in the text by their number. Figure and table captions should be provided within the manuscript, should be brief and informative, and should include any relevant copyright information if taken from a published source.
Significance statement
This is not part of the main text but needs to be provided in the submission form. ****NOTE all the different ways of saying this in statement sections below (and not saying it in some); is there a best way to address it that we can use consistently?
Authors must provide a statement outlining why this journal is the best outlet for publication. This should include a description of why the submitted work makes a significant contribution to the research field(s) that fall within the scope of the journal and why it is of general interest to the readership. Authors must provide a clear statement of how the manuscript builds on previous work both by themselves or your coauthors cited in this manuscript and other published work.
Data availability statement
*****Presumably this should be combined with “data and code files or links” but does it have to appear in this order, or can it be moved up there? (P.S. what is the “statement” part, since it is not specified below? A checkbox acknowledging that you have uploaded any necessary files/links?)*******
For articles published in NSO journals, it is required that authors provide anonymous data files underlying the study during the peer review process (either uploaded as “additional file for review but NOT for publication” or through a link to a repository where data can be shared anonymously). <<<<<<******does this mean it should be named “additional-file-for-review-but-NOT-for-publication.xyz” or is there an upload section labeled “additional file for review but NOT for publication”?
For all accepted papers, authors must deposit data supporting their findings in public archives of their choice (see section on Data sharing and repositories below). <<<<<<******This is meant to refer to “Data and Code Sharing” section? if so, edit/add link************
Conflict of interest statement
NSO journals require that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. For more information, please read the NSO publishing policy page.
Ethics statement (if applicable)
Please provide an ethics statement with relevant fieldwork details (approvals, licences, permissions) to be included in the published article.
The details of any museum specimens used (e.g. the specimen numbers and the institutions holding these) must be provided either in the manuscript or the supplementary files.
For more information about preparing this section please visit the NSO publishing policy page.
Funding statement (if applicable)
Please do not include this part in the main text file but enter it in the relevant section of the submission form.
If applicable, please provide a “funding statement” that can be included in the published article. List the sources of funding for each author. Here you may also list service providers that did provide facilities or equipment.
Acknowledgments
Please do not include this part in the main text file but enter it in the relevant section of the submission form.
Those who contributed to the work but do not meet our authorship criteria may be listed in the Acknowledgements. Authors are responsible for ensuring that anyone named in the acknowledgements agrees to be named.
Author Registration
****How should this be titled, and/or is this a better place for these two items, collectively or individually?****
Register for author ID
ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a non-profit organization. Registration is free (here) and takes only a few minutes. The corresponding author must provide an ORCID ID at the time of submission by entering it in the user profile of the ScholarOne submission system. We strongly encourage that also co-authors link their ORCID IDs to their profiles in the ScholarOne system.
Indicate author roles
All NSO journals mandate CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy), where the contributions of each author to the manuscript, is indicated. For initial submissions, CRediT information is not required, but in revised submissions it must be provided. The CRediT statement is automatically generated for accepted manuscripts and replaces any author contribution section provided in the manuscript file. For corrections to the authorship, please refer to the NSO publishing policy page.
Formatting Instructions
Please review all of these instructions before submitting your initial manuscript.
Overview:
File format
Submit the manuscript file in DOC, DOCX, RTF, ODT or PDF format. Your file should not be locked or protected. If you have written your manuscript in LaTeX, please submit a PDF version that can be used for reviewing. (LaTeX users do not have to translate their manuscripts into MSWord.)
For initial submissions, we do not require journal-specific formatting, and manuscripts can be submitted in any file format.
Length
Depending on article type, manuscripts may be limited in length and subject to restrictions on word count and number of figures. Please check the article type section for more information. In general, we encourage you to present and discuss your findings concisely.
Headings
Limit manuscript sections and sub-sections to 3 heading levels. Make sure heading levels are clearly indicated in the manuscript text.
Layout and spacing
The main manuscript text should be single-column, double-spaced.
Page/line numbers
Include page numbers and line numbers in the manuscript file. Use continuous line numbers (do not restart the numbering on each page).
Footnotes
Footnotes are not permitted. If your manuscript contains footnotes, move the information into the main text or the reference list, depending on the content.
Language
Manuscripts should be in British or American English. Be consistent throughout the manuscript. Linguistic usage should be correct. Avoid the use of the passive voice.
Nomenclature
Use the correct and established nomenclature wherever possible.
Units
Use SI units as far as possible.
Species names
Write in italics (e.g., Scrophularia umbrosa). Write out in full the genus and species at the first mention of an organism in a paper. After first mention, the first letter of the genus name followed by the full species name may be used (e.g., S. umbrosa). For animals, please refer to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Binomial scientific plant names must be used in accordance with the current International Code for Nomenclature of algae, fungi and plants.
Citations
Cite only essential sources of a theory or opinion. We encourage you to cite the original research rather than a review.
Data and Code Sharing Requirement
****Is this an example of a section which is relevant to all the journals, but is not part of Author Guidelines? Does it belong on the NSO publishing policy page, or a new version of that page housed on this site? Even if we do not create a new version on this website, we should review the one on this NSO site and make sure it meshes with these new pages. There are multiple sections on the Author Guidelines/For Authors pages that refer to the NSO publishing policy page.****
NSO journals require that authors provide all data and metadata, custom written code (simulations and non-standard statistical analyses), and bespoke software necessary for fully replicating the analyses in the study at the first submission stage. This will allow reviewers and editors to fully evaluate your work and confirm that the provided code and data is complete and supports your conclusions. Data and code do not need to be public at this stage. If your manuscript does not contain any original data (e.g. viewpoint articles, reviews), please state “The content of this manuscript does not build on an original dataset” in the submission system.
If data and code is archived in a repository prior to submission, authors should ensure that their identity is concealed during the review process (e.g. by using the private-for-review option in the Dryad repository). If authors do not want to archive their data prior to submission (e.g. because the intended archive does not allow anonymous archiving), data and code can be uploaded directly as “Additional file for review but not for publication” in the file upload section of the submission system (zip files for large files). If your dataset contains sensitive information (e.g. location data related to threatened species), the first step is to try to anonymize the data, allowing for the analysis to be run without identifying e.g. sensitive locations. Best practice on how to do this can be found here. If you for some reason are unable to provide the data at the submission stage, please indicate this in the relevant section in the submission system or contact the editorial office (email to editorial office) before submission.
Once the manuscript is accepted, data and code must be made publicly accessible in a suitable repository and should be citable with a persistent identifier such as a doi (digital object identifier). As an accepted author of a paper in an NSO journal, you can deposit your data in the Dryad Digital Repository free of charge. More information about the minimum standards for data and code can be found on the NSO publishing policy page.
Submit Your Article
Oikos | Nordic Journal of Botany | Ecography | Wildlife Biology | Journal of Avian Biology
Revised Submission
Additional Formatting
When submitting your revised manuscript, you must provide publication-ready source files.
You should submit a main text file with track-changes (as “revised manuscript with tracked changes”).
You may upload an additional “clean version” without track-changes (as “main document”).
You must meet the additional formatting instructions below.
To make the above clearer:
Does this mean authors should title the files “RevisedManuscriptWithTrackedChanges” and “MainDocument”?
(or maybe there are submission boxes labeled “revised manuscript with tracked changes” and “main document”?)
REFERENCE FORMATTING
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Langefors, Å. 1999. Genetic variation in Mhc Class II B in Atlantic salmon: evolutionary and ecological perspectives. – PhD thesis, Lund University, Sweden.
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Simpkins, C., Hanss, S., Hesselbarth, M., Spangenberg, M. and Salecker, J. 2021. spectre: predict regional community composition. – <https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=spectre>.
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Bergeron, J. A. C., Pinzon, J., Odsen, S., Bartels, S. Mcdonald, S. E. and Spence, J. R. 2017. Data from: Ecosystem memory of wildfires affects resilience of boreal mixedwood biodiversity after retention harvest. – Dryad Digital Repository,<http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s653s >
References must be complete. All references will be linked electronically to the papers they cite. Each reference must contain: author names, year of publication, title, journal title using standard abbreviation, volume, first and last page numbers or article number.
For references to in-press articles, include a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number. For references such as theses, software packages, and repository data files, refer to the examples at right.
The reference list can be in any format provided that references are listed alphabetically by authors’ names and chronologically per author. Please list all author names of an article; do not abbreviate with et al. In the in-text citations your references should be listed chronologically: (Smith 1999, Dunn 2000, Nilsson et al. 2017). Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be listed as 2004a, 2004b, etc.
Do not use reference numbering in revised submissions.
Before you submit your manuscript, double-check that all references in the text are listed in the list of references, and that all references listed are cited in the text. Reference lists not conforming to these requirements will be returned for revision.
ILLUSTRATION FORMATTING
Format
The preferred file formats are vector images: EPS, TIFF or PDF.
Raster/pixel files are fine if they follow these specifications:
Width: 945 (single column), 1476 (1.5 column), or 1961 (double column) pixels at 300 dpi
Resolution: 300-600 dpi
Size: <50 MB
Fonts
For fonts within the figures, use only common sans-serif fonts such as Geneva, Helvetica, or Arial. Letters, numbers and symbols must appear clearly but not oversized.
Legends
Tables and legends of illustrations should be written double-spaced on separate sheets. Do not incorporate the legend in the figure itself. Tables and illustration legends should be comprehensible without reference to the text. Do not use italic lettering.
Panels within the figure should be designated with lower case letters in parentheses, e.g. (a), (b), (c). Be consistent throughout the figure with colours, line weights, and styles.
Accessibility
Colour figures are most welcome. However, we urge all authors to create figures that are accessible for all types of colour vision.
When creating a figure, use the following set of simple rules:
Use a colour-blind safe palette (e.g. avoid using red and green together)
Use high contrast
In fluorescent red-green images, replace red with magenta
Check your figure using one of the many free tools that allow you to see how it looks for the colour blind
Consider alternative ways that do not rely on colour to visualize your data (for example, you might use monochromatic figures or different shapes, positions, and line types instead)
You can make use of R-script colour palettes and Python colour blindness palettes.
More information about how to make figures that are colour blindness friendly can be found here.
Submit Your Revised Article
Oikos | Nordic Journal of Botany | Ecography | Wildlife Biology | Journal of Avian Biology