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).

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.

See the full list of formatting information below.

If your manuscript relies on data and/or custom written code, you must prepare these to be uploaded at initial submission or deposit them in a public archive of your choice prior to submitting.

It is required that authors provide anonymous data files underlying the study during the peer review process. Files may be either uploaded under the label “additional file for review but not for publication” or provided through a link to a repository where data can be shared anonymously. For more details, and to learn more about why authors are required to share data supporting their findings, see Data and Code Sharing.

Authors must also provide a DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT:

Please do not include this statement in the main text file, but enter it in the relevant section of the submission form.

This statement will explain where your data and code may be found (including links where applicable), or if data cannot be publicly shared it will explain why. Relevant data must still be submitted to the journal even if it is specified as being too sensitive for publication, and steps may be taken to protect it during the review process. See Data and Code Sharing for more information, and please contact the managing editor with any questions or concerns.

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.

At initial submission, figures, photographs and drawings can be provided within the main text file, 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. Before completing your revised submission please make sure figure are accessible and follow the illustration formatting instructions below.

Please do not include this statement in the main text file, but enter it in the relevant section of the submission form.

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.

Please do not include this statement in the main text file, but enter it in the relevant section of the submission form.

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 Policies.

Please do not include this statement in the main text file, but enter it in the relevant section of the submission form.

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 Policies.

Please do not include this statement 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.

Please do not include this statement 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.