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Manuscript Preparation Guide
Ecosphere
,
Ecology
,
Ecological Applications
, and
Ecological Monographs
The following should be considered the guide for all stages (initial submission, revision, resubmission,
and accepted manuscripts) for the above Ecological Society of America (ESA) publications. Author
submitting a manuscript to
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
should review the guidelines
specific for that journal.
Please note that while some of the more detailed formatting aspects do not necessarily need to be
implemented for the initial submission, we strongly encourage you to follow these guidelines from the
outset, allowing for a more streamlined process for all.
• As an author, you’ll have fewer edits at later stages.
• For the journal’s editorial staff, having all material in a consistent format allows for rapid
processing.
• For journal editors, receiving a manuscript formatted for our journals conveys the author has a
strong desire to publish in this journal.
• For peer reviewers, receiving clean and well-organized material allows them to focus on the
scientific content.
Please pay special attention to formatting guidelines when creating initial submissions for any section
with a length limit, (particularly regarding font size, line spacing, etc.). The page count includes all
pages (title page, body, References section, figures, figure captions, tables, and table captions) and
does not include supporting information.
For initial submissions, it is imperative that the following requirements are met:
• Line numbering is included on all pages of the manuscript.
• Both the manuscript title and author list match between the manuscript and the ScholarOne
online submission form.
All revisions, resubmissions, and accepted manuscripts are expected to follow the complete formatting
guidelines below. Authors may be contacted at any point during the submission process to fix
formatting errors at the discretion of the journal’s editorial staff. Please note that Subject-matter
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Editors (SME) and peer reviewers may not always review the formatting requirements for a manuscript;
it is the author’s responsibility to reconcile review comments against ESA’s formatting guidelines.
Table of Contents
Authorship List and Roles ___________________________________________________________________ 4
Author List _____________________________________________________________________________________ 4
Authors of Supporting Information _________________________________________________________________ 4
Deceased Authors _______________________________________________________________________________ 4
Ecology, Ecological Applications, and Ecological Monographs: Author Roles ________________________________ 5
Contact Author __________________________________________________________________________________________ 5
Corresponding Author ____________________________________________________________________________________ 6
Ecosphere: Author Roles __________________________________________________________________________ 6
Open Research Policy ______________________________________________________________________ 6
Statistical Analysis Guidelines _______________________________________________________________ 6
Order of Manuscript and Supporting Information Components ____________________________________ 7
General Page Formatting ___________________________________________________________________ 8
Allowable File Formats _____________________________________________________________________ 9
Main Document _________________________________________________________________________________ 9
Figures ________________________________________________________________________________________ 9
Supporting Information __________________________________________________________________________ 9
Appendix _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 9
Multimedia files (video and audio)_________________________________________________________________ 10
Data Paper (Ecology only) _________________________________________________________________ 10
Detailed Formatting and Content Guidelines __________________________________________________ 10
Manuscript Title Page ___________________________________________________________________________ 10
Title __________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10
Author List _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 11
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Abstract ______________________________________________________________________________________ 11
Abstract Restrictions _____________________________________________________________________________________ 11
Multi-language Abstracts _________________________________________________________________________________ 12
Key Words/Phrases _____________________________________________________________________________ 12
Equations _____________________________________________________________________________________ 12
SI Units _______________________________________________________________________________________ 13
Tables ________________________________________________________________________________________ 13
General Information _____________________________________________________________________________________ 13
Table Components and Format ____________________________________________________________________________ 13
Figures _______________________________________________________________________________________ 14
General Information _____________________________________________________________________________________ 14
Figure Captions _________________________________________________________________________________________ 14
Naming and journal style conventions _______________________________________________________________________ 15
General Appearance _____________________________________________________________________________________ 15
Size and Proportion______________________________________________________________________________________ 15
Acknowledgments ______________________________________________________________________________ 16
Funding source acknowledgments_______________________________________________________________________ 16
Author contributions ____________________________________________________________________________ 16
References ____________________________________________________________________________________ 16
General Formatting ______________________________________________________________________________________ 16
What is allowed as a citation? _____________________________________________________________________________ 16
Personal and Public Communications _______________________________________________________________________ 16
Supporting Information: Format and Citation _________________________________________________ 17
Appendix _____________________________________________________________________________________ 17
General guidelines for formatting appendices ________________________________________________________________ 17
Naming conventions for appendices ________________________________________________________________________ 18
Multimedia files _______________________________________________________________________________ 18
Biosketch _____________________________________________________________________________________ 19
Data Papers in Ecology __________________________________________________________________________ 20
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Authorship List and Roles
Author List
All individuals in the author list must be entitled to authorship. Refer to the “Publication” section of the
ESA Code of Ethics
for guidelines on authorship.
Names of individuals entitled to authorship must appear in both the ScholarOne online submission form
and on the title page of the manuscript, in the same order.
It is not appropriate to name multi-author collaborative and consortia groups as authors. If the entire
group is entitled to authorship, every individual should be listed specifically.
Authors of Supporting Information
In most cases, any individual who contributed to supporting information is entitled to manuscript
authorship and should be listed as an author on the main manuscript. Please verify this using the
standard requirements for authorship of the main manuscript.
In rare cases, an item such as an audio or video file may have been prepared with the help of an
individual not fully entitled to manuscript authorship. In such cases, that person must be specifically
credited in the supporting information files. It is also customary to thank such individuals in the
manuscript’s Acknowledgments.
Further, ESA requires a release letter from the individual that provided photographic, illustrative, or
multimedia material to confirm their agreement with the main manuscript author list. This release
letter should be given a descriptive name and uploaded with the designation "Additional File NOT for
Review and NOT for Publication".
Deceased Authors
A deceased author must be entitled to authorship (see Authorship List and Roles: Author List) and must
be clearly identified as deceased on the manuscript’s title page. Copyright and licensing are considered
personal property rights by law. It is our publisher's policy that if copyright transfer or licensing is not
completed prior to an author's passing, affirmation of the deceased author’s consent to be listed in the
author byline must be supplied to ESA. This consent must be provided in writing. A copy of email
correspondence will suffice.
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Please provide an affirmation that includes the following:
(i) the title of the manuscript;
(ii) the names of all authors, identifying both the contact/corresponding author and deceased
author;
(iii) the statement of consent; and
(iv) the complete name and contact information of the individual providing consent.
If the deceased co-author provided consent to the corresponding author prior to passing, that
documentation must be provided to ESA with your submission. If the deceased co-author did not
provide consent to the corresponding author, we require that the corresponding author provide
documentation of consent from the deceased author’s inheritor. If there is no inheritor that can
consent, the corresponding author may instead provide a consent letter from the institutional
department(s) that supported the deceased author during the work presented in the manuscript.
For all scenarios, please provide documentation as soon as possible when consent is required. Consent
documentation may be uploaded to the manuscript submission site with other manuscript documents
(the file must be clearly named to indicate the file content and designated as “Additional File NOT for
Review and NOT for Publication” in the file list). Documentation may be emailed to
the journal's
editorial staff at other manuscript stages.
Ecology
,
Ecological Applications
, and
Ecological Monographs
: Author Roles
During peer review, the contact and corresponding authors can be the same person, or you can have
two different authors for the two roles, but only one person can be designated to receive
correspondence after initial submission.
Contact Author
The contact author will handle all correspondence during the review process. If this individual will be
unreachable for an extended period during the review process, another co-author should take on this
role.
Changing the Contact Author during the peer review process
If a contact author can no longer handle the duties required by the role, it is possible to change the
contact author for a submission. To change roles, both the original contact author and the new
contact author must affirm that they consent to the change in author roles. This should be done by
contacting the journal’s editorial staff
using the email associated with the authors’ user profiles in
ScholarOne.
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Corresponding Author
There can be only one corresponding author for a manuscript. The corresponding author will handle all
correspondence with the publisher following acceptance and will be the official correspondent listed on
the published version of the manuscript. This individual will work with the publisher during production
and will sign the license agreement in Wiley Author Services and ensure any publisher discounts are
applied to the paper, receive and approve page proofs, name a billing contact for any final charges
due, and be the author used to determine ESA page charge grant eligibility.
Ecosphere
: Author Roles
The Corresponding Author is the author who will be responsible for all communications while the
manuscript is undergoing peer review AND (if the manuscript is accepted) production. During
production, the Corresponding Author is responsible for completion of the licensing agreement and
payment of the publication fee. By default, the system assumes the Corresponding Author is the same
as the Submitting Agent. However, if you wish one of your co-authors to fulfill this role instead, please
make sure you have selected the correct co-author as the Corresponding Author, by selecting "Assign
as Corresponding Author" from the drop-down menu in the "Actions" column.
The Corresponding Author indicated on the title page of your manuscript will remain the contact for
correspondence after publication of the paper, even if they are not the same author designated as
Corresponding Author throughout peer review and the production process.
Open Research Policy
Authors are required to follow the guidelines defined in the ESA Open Research Policy. Please review
the policy before preparing a manuscript for submission. You will be required to provide an Open
Research statement in the ScholarOne online submission form. You should be prepared with your
response before starting the submission process.
Statistical Analysis Guidelines
Please refer to the ESA Guidelines for Statistical Analysis (PDF) when writing your manuscript. This
information is derived from the guidelines on "Statistical analysis and data presentation" prepared by
the Statistical Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in collaboration with the
Editors-in-Chief of the ESA journals (May, 2022).
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Order of Manuscript and Supporting Information Components
All supported file types, including the Main Document, figures, and all supporting information files, will
be automatically merged into one .pdf file (referred to as the “generated PDF”) in ScholarOne. This
generated PDF is made available to the Editor-in-Chief, SME, and reviewers for peer review.
For manuscripts accepted for publication, the generated PDF is not used for typesetting and page
composition.
Regardless of the number of files provided, assemble the parts of the manuscript in the order listed
below.
Items marked with “*” in the list below are required.
1. Title page (provided at the beginning of the Main Document file)*
a) Journal name
b) Manuscript type
i. For
Ecosphere
, include the Subject Track if applicable.
c) Manuscript title
d) Author names for publication
e) Affiliation(s) for each author which relate to the work presented (or independent
researcher designation, if applicable)
i. Include and denote each author’s present address, if different.
f) Corresponding author
i. Clearly designate this author and include their email address.
ii. For manuscripts in
Ecology
,
Ecological Applications
, and
Ecological Monographs
with differing contact and corresponding Authors, denote both.
g) Open Research statement
h) Key words/phrases ((These are required for most, but not all, manuscript types)
2. Abstract* (This is required for most, but not all, manuscript types)
a) The abstract should begin on a new page, separate from the title page.
b) If submitting a manuscript type with no abstract, the first line of the body of the text
should begin on a new page, separate from the title page.
3. Text*
4. Acknowledgments*
5. Author Contributions
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6. Conflict of Interest Statement*
7. References section*
8. Boxes (text only; no tabular information or graphics)
9. Tables
a) Tables must be placed in the Main Document.
b) Each table should begin on a new page, with captions and footnotes placed on the same
pages as the corresponding table.
10. Figure captions
a) Figure captions should be grouped together and placed in their own section in the Main
Document, preceding the first figure.
b) Provide each caption a single time, in the location above, and no other location.
11. Figures
a. Each figure should be placed on its own page.
b. Each figure should be labeled, i.e., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
c. All panels of a figure must fit on the same page.
d. Figures may be uploaded separate from the Main Document or contained within the Main
Document if the quality is sufficient.
i. Individual files should be clearly named (i.e., “Figure 1”, “Figure 2”, etc.).
12. Supporting Information (appendices, video files, audio files)
a) Supporting information files should be uploaded separately from the Main Document.
General Page Formatting
• The manuscript text (including the abstract), references section, figure captions, and table
captions/notes/footnotes must be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. Text in
the body of tables can be reduced to 10-point Times New Roman if needed to fit in portrait
orientation.
• Choose the "double-spacing" option for line spacing. Data in the body of tables can remain
single-spaced.
• Each line of the manuscript must be numbered to facilitate the review process. Lines should be
numbered continuously for the entire document.
• Number all pages (including table and figure pages), starting with the title page.
• Page size should be Letter 8½" by 11". Manuscript pages should be provided in portrait
orientation.
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• Leave a 1-inch (2.54-cm) margin on all sides of each page.
• Left-align the text. Do not justify.
• Appendices and other supporting information should be uploaded as files separate from the
Main Document. See our “Supporting Information”
section for information on formatting
appendices and other supporting information.
Allowable File Formats
Main Document
• Word (.doc or .docx)
Whenever possible, prepare and submit manuscripts in Word format. Files prepared in Google Docs and
other similar programs do not always transfer to Word properly, and these manuscripts will require
careful checks at each stage.
• PDF (only for manuscripts prepared in LaTeX)
If preparing your manuscript in LaTeX, please upload a PDF version as the Main Document file, with all
source LaTeX files (fonts included, no T3 fonts) needed to create this PDF bundled in a compressed
folder and designated as a “LaTeX File” in the file list. You can download a
formatting guide with tips
for putting together a LaTeX document (PDF).
Figures
• JPG/JPEG, TIF, EPS, PS, PDF, AI are preferred
• DOC, DOCS, PPT, and PPTX are acceptable
Supporting Information
Appendix
• PDF (preferred)
• HTML (rare and should only be used when necessary for the content)
Authors can organize the appendices as they see fit, but they must follow our
appendix naming
guidelines.
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Multimedia files (video and audio)
• Common formats for video: .mpeg or .mov
• Common formats for audio: .wav or .mp3
• Metadata file: .pdf
Multimedia files do not have specific requirements for file types, but any files should be in a format
that is easily playable by the average user.
Data Paper (
Ecology
only)
• Data files: .csv or .txt
• Metadata file: .doc, .docx, or .pdf
For Data Papers, which are only published in
Ecology
, data should be placed in in a compressed folder
(.zip or .rar file) named “Data_S1.zip”. Within this folder, authors can use any sub-folder structure they
deem necessary.
Detailed Formatting and Content Guidelines
Manuscript Title Page
Title
• The title page should be included at the beginning of the Main Document file.
• The title may contain no more than 120 characters, including spaces. The title in your
manuscript must match the title used in the ScholarOne online submission form.
• If your title does not fit into the designated field in the online submission form, then you must
shorten it to fit and update the manuscript to match.
• Titles must be composed in sentence-case, capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns.
• A title may include a question mark, but never a period.
• Do not use dashes to separate a title with phrases. Use a colon (and use only one colon for a
maximum of two phrases).
• As a general rule, do not use acronyms in the title. Exceptions may be granted for well-known
and widely established acronyms (such as “NEON”).
• Do not use uncommon abbreviations in the title.
• Genus and species names should appear in
italics
. References to taxonomic authorities should
not appear in the title.
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Author List
• The author lists in the manuscript and online submission form must match, reflecting all authors
in the same order in each location.
• Present the author names in a byline, keyed to the affiliations using numbers in superscript
position.
• For each author, give the relevant address(es) that supported the work. This is generally the
institutional affiliation(s) of the author during the period when all or most of the research was
done.
o You must include the institutional affiliation department, institutional affiliation name,
city, country regional division (for example: state, province, etc.), and country.
o An author’s present address, if different from their affiliation during the time the work
reported in the manuscript was done should appear as a footnote at the bottom of the
title page.
• If an author is an Independent Researcher who is not tied to an affiliation, entity, or business,
please denote this.
• Do not repeat affiliations; instead, repeat affiliation numbers next to authors’ names.
• Identify the corresponding author on the title page and include their email address. The
corresponding author should match the entry in the online submission form. There can be only
one corresponding author. See the “Author Roles”
section for more information.
• The title page can include a brief authorship statement. This statement can cover information
such as “Equal Contribution”, “Co-First Authors”, “Co-Last Authors”, “Authorship alphabetical”,
or similar. More detailed descriptions of author roles should be placed in an “Author
Contributions” section.
Abstract
Most manuscript types include an abstract. You can find abstract requirements for each manuscript
type in each ESA journal in our submission type summaries
.
Abstract Restrictions
• Citations and URLs should not be included in an abstract.
• You must adhere to length limits for abstracts.
• Your abstract must be provided in English (see “Multi-language Abstracts”, below).
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Multi-language Abstracts
All submissions should be written in English, however, we also encourage authors to provide a second
abstract in their first language or a language relevant to the country in which the research was
conducted. The second abstract will only be published online with the HTML version of the paper and
will not be included in the PDF. Please note that second abstracts will not be copyedited and will be
published as provided by the authors. Authors who wish to take advantage of this option should
provide the second abstract in the “Main Document” below the English-language version.
Key Words/Phrases
Most manuscript types include key words (see our submission type summaries.)
For manuscripts that include key words, list a minimum of six and a maximum of 12 key words/phrases
in their own section on the title page.
• The list should match between the manuscript and the online submission form.
• The list should be presented in alphabetical order in both the manuscript and the online
submission form with entries separated by semicolons.
• The entire key word/phrase list, including semicolons, should be entered in the online submission
form (in the “Key words/phrases” field).
• For Data Papers, which are submitted only in
Ecology
, key words/phrases should be provided in
the Abstract document and in the correct locations in the Metadata S1 document.
Equations
• All display equations must be numbered.
• Do not include an equation in table or figure captions. Place the equation in the main text and
refer the reader to equation in the text.
• In Word, display equations (those set off from the surrounding text with space above and
below) must be formatted using Word’s Equation Editor or MathType. Equations must not be
presented as pictures.
• Use display equation format for equations containing characters with nested super- or
subscripts.
• Equations containing stacked fractions should either be presented as display equations or, if left
within a line of text, formatted using a solidus, /, and brackets, {[()]}, if necessary.
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SI Units
Units should conform to the International System of Units (SI) per ESA journal style. This includes units
included in tables, text, and figures. If measurements were made in other units, include SI equivalents.
Tables
The following guidelines ensure tables are formatted correctly.
General Information
• Tables must be placed in the Main Document, appearing in their own section after the
References section.
• Tables should be numbered in the order of their discussion in the text. Each table should begin
on a new page.
• Tables must fit on a page in portrait orientation, widthwise.
• Manuscripts must have “true” tables in an editable format, created by using the “Insert Table”
function, rather than using tabs or spaces and should not appear as “pictures” imported from
another program.
o In Microsoft Word you should select “Insert”, “Table”, then specify the number of rows
and columns and fill in the individual cells.
Table Components and Format
• Table captions should consist of one sentence that will appear above the body of the table.
Rather than simply repeating the labels on columns and rows of the table, this caption should
reveal the point of grouping certain data in the table. Statistical values and other pertinent
details should be provided as notes/footnotes rather than appearing in the table’s caption.
Please refer to the complete statistical analysis guidelines (PDF)
for ESA publications.
• Additional details should be placed in footnotes and/or a Notes section presented at the
bottom of the table.
• Abbreviations used in the body of the table should be identified in an Abbreviations section at
the bottom of the table, in the order in which they appear in the table.
• Tables cannot contain colors, shading, or graphics. Use type style (italics, boldface, etc.) to
convey meaning and identify the meaning in a Notes section at the bottom of the table (e.g.,
“Values in boldface indicate significant differences.”)
• Tables must be presented in a grid format, with the same number of columns in each row and
the same number of rows in each column, below the column headings. Columns should read fully
down, and rows should read fully across.
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• All columns and rows must be labeled.
• All column headings should identify what is found in the column
• Subparts within the body of a table can be distinguished using (a) (b) etc. labeling and/or
nested labeling within the left-most column.
• Table captions, notes, and footnotes must be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font.
• The font size within the body of a table can be reduced to a minimum of 10-point Times New
Roman if needed for the table to fit in portrait orientation.
• Table pages should be presented in portrait orientation.
• Tables must not extend to multiple pages in the horizontal direction but may extend in the
vertical direction.
Figures
General Information
• Only one set of figures should be uploaded clearly labeled by figure number.
• If a figure (or portion thereof) or photograph is under copyright or was produced by someone
other than an author of the manuscript, permission from the copyright holder must be secured
by the author of the present manuscript following our Permissions guidelines
.
• Any figure containing photographic material or illustrations must include a credit identifying
the photographer/artist in the corresponding figure caption.
o Any photographs or illustrations appearing in a manuscript that were taken or produced
by individuals who are not coauthors of the manuscript must be accompanied by
confirmation of permission for use in the manuscript.
Acknowledgment of the photographer or illustrator should appear in the caption
but is not sufficient for use.
Documentation of permission should be included as an “Additional file NOT for
Review and NOT for publication.”
Figure Captions
• Figure captions should be presented in a single continuous section in the Main Document,
beginning on a new page and preceding the first figure.
• Do not use the “Caption/Legend” or “Link text” fields in ScholarOne to convey captions.
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Naming and journal style conventions
• Number each figure with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) in order of their citation in text.
• Label multipart figures with consecutive letters of the alphabet, using a lowercase letter within
parentheses, e.g., (a), (b), (c), etc.
• Whenever possible, all parts of a multi-part figure should fit on a single page.
• Define abbreviations in the figure legend, not on the figure itself.
• Symbol keys and scale bars should appear on the figure image, not in the figure caption.
• Label all figure axes and include units. Units should conform to the International System of
Units (SI) per journal style. If measurements were made in other units, include SI equivalents.
General Appearance
• Please use a colorblind-friendly palette.
• Grayscale patterns do not reproduce as well as solid colors or lines. Avoid small, dotted lines,
thin lines, multiple levels of gray shading, and stippling. For bar graphs, use black, white, striped,
hatched, or colored designs, but only if they are sufficiently widely spaced to appear distinct
from one another.
• For symbols and lines, avoid very small sizes or line thicknesses (a 1-point width stroke or
greater is preferable). All elements of a figure should appear with the same degree of intensity.
If different degrees of intensity need to be conveyed, lines should differ by 1-point width for
clarity.
• If no important information will be lost, consider placing fewer numbers on the axes to achieve
an uncluttered look.
• Make figures as clean and uncluttered as possible; avoid extra gridlines and section boxes.
• Maps should include longitude and latitude, an indication of compass direction, a distance scale,
and a thin outer line as a border. Make lines on maps bold and distinct while eliminating
information not pertinent to the subject.
• Use black type rather than gray for lettering and scale numbers for readability.
Size and Proportion
• Images should be of adequate resolution (300-600 dpi).
• When possible, submit figures in the size intended for publication in the typeset PDF of your
manuscript, using single-column width sizing of 8.5 cm for figures when possible. The maximum
allowable size is 18 cm wide by 24 cm tall (to accommodate a caption underneath).
• All text must be sized between 6 and 10 points when the image is sized for publication.
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Acknowledgments
An acknowledgments section is optional. If including this section, it must be a single paragraph and
should appear at the end of the body of the text, immediately before the References section.
Funding source acknowledgments
While funding details can be included in the Acknowledgments, please ensure all funding information is
entered into the ScholarOne submission form. This information will be extracted from the submission
form for use in the final publication.
Author contributions
A paragraph describing the contributions of each author may be placed before the References section.
References
General Formatting
• Use Chicago Style Manual “AUTHOR-DATE” citation style. Please note that final styling is
applied by the publisher, and that the final style used in publication deviates slightly from what
many citation services will output as Chicago Style.
• All references must contain complete information.
• Each reference in the text must have a matching citation in the reference list and vice versa.
• Only references cited in the Main Document should appear in the References section in the Main
Document. References cited only in an appendix should be listed in a References section for the
appendix and not included in the References section in the Main Document.
What is allowed as a citation?
The References section of a manuscript may refer only to permanently archived material. If a
reasonably diligent scholar 20 years in the future could not be assured of finding a particular source, it
should not be listed in the References section. Some Internet sources have a short half-life; material
should only be included as formal citations if there is reasonable expectation of future availability. As a
general rule, any publication that has an ISSN or ISBN is acceptable but should be referenced by name
(the URL may be added but is not essential).
Personal and Public Communications
Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the References section. These materials may be listed
in the text as personal observations (by an author of the present manuscript, with author noted),
personal communications (information from others who are identified), public communications
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(information in published abstracts or information publicly distributed over the Internet but not
permanently archived), or unpublished manuscript (with authors identified). Any references to
unpublished data must comply with the ESA Open Research policy
.
The submitting author is expected to verify for all "personal communications" that the authority cited
agrees to the use of their name. For public communications, the reference should include date printed
or accessed, title of the source, and basic access information, such as URL.
Supporting Information: Format and Citation
Appendices and any multimedia files to be published in conjunction with the manuscript are
designated as supporting information and must be provided with your original submission or revision
for peer review and Subject-matter Editor approval. Any file provided as supporting information must
be referenced in the body of the manuscript. New material cannot be added after acceptance of your
manuscript.
When uploading an appendix, choose the designation “Supporting Information for review and
publication”. When uploading a multimedia file, choose the designation “Multimedia Supporting
Information for review and publication”
**PLEASE NOTE: Data files can only be provided for Data Papers, which are published in
Ecology
. No
other manuscript type can include data files. See our Open Research policy instructions regarding
data and code associated with submissions.**
Appendix
General guidelines for formatting appendices
• Each appendix should be uploaded as a separate file, with all parts of an appendix merged into
a single file, formatted as it is intended to appear if published. Appendices are not copyedited,
assembled, or typeset by the journal’s editorial staff or publisher staff.
• Do not upload any parts of appendices (e.g., figures and tables) as separate files.
• At the beginning of each appendix, include the list of authors, manuscript title, and journal
name.
• Anyone that is listed as an author on an appendix must also be listed as an author of the
manuscript.
• For each appendix, include a full References section for all references found within the appendix
even if that results in duplication from the Main Document.
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• Do not use line numbers in appendices.
Naming conventions for appendices
• Appendices must follow the naming format “Appendix S1,” Appendix S2,” and so on.
• Within each appendix, the table, figure, section, and equation labels must use the format “S#”
o Examples: “Table S1”, “Table S2”, “Figure S1”, “Section S1”, “Equation S1”
• Numbering is separate for each item type.
• Numbering of all items begins anew (with “S1”) within each appendix.
• For references within the main text to specific appendix items, provide the appendix label as
well as the specific item label (e.g., “Appendix S1: Table S3”, “Appendix S2: Figure S1”, etc.).
• When labeling appendix sections, you can append text labels to the end of our naming format in
the appendix (for example: Section S1: Methods), but the references in the text must use the
format outlined below.
Please refer to the following examples:
Description
First appendix
First figure in first appendix
Appendix S2: Table S1 First table in second appendix
Second section in second appendix
First equation in first appendix
Multimedia files
Multimedia (video or audio) files can also be included as supporting information. If your multimedia is
too large to upload to ScholarOne, it should be made available in an appropriate online repository
which assigns the material a DOI and provides reasonable guarantee of future availability.
• Each multimedia supporting information file should be accompanied by a separate metadata
file.
• Each metadata file should include:
o a header that includes the manuscript title, authors, and the journal name.
o a caption for the multimedia file
o a recorder/videographer credit
• Metadata files for video should follow the naming convention “Video_S#_Metadata”, with the
number (“#”) matching the video file to which the metadata corresponds.
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• Metadata files for audio should follow the naming convention “Audio_S#_Metadata”, with the
number (“#”) matching the audio file to which the metadata corresponds.
• Any media appearing in a manuscript that were taken or produced by individuals who are not
coauthors of the manuscript must be accompanied by confirmation of permission for use in the
manuscript.
o Acknowledgment of the creator should appear in the caption but is not sufficient for use.
o Documentation of permission should be included as an “Additional file NOT for Review
and NOT for publication.”
Please refer to the following examples:
Citation in manuscript
Description
Video S1
First video file
Video S1 Metadata
Metadata for the first video file
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Audio S2 Metadata
Metadata for the second audio
file
Biosketch
Papers submitted to the “Monographs” section of Ecological Monographs must include an author
biosketch. The biosketch section is not currently offered for other paper types and journals covered by
this document. A biosketch is prose that provides detail on the author's qualifications and experience
in a topic of discussion. The biosketch should list all current positions and scientific appointments in
reverse chronological order.
Authors submitting a paper to the "Monographs" section of Ecological Monographs must provide their
biosketch for publication as supporting information. This material must be provided as the first
appendix ("Appendix S1") and the title page of the manuscript must include the following footnote:
"An author biosketch is provided in Appendix S1”. For this manuscript type, Appendix S1 should consist
of only the biosketch, and any additional supporting information must be provided separately in other
appendices.
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Data Papers in
Ecology
For most manuscript types, the ESA Open Research policy stipulates that data files CANNOT be
included with a manuscript as supporting information. The only exception is Data Papers in
Ecology
,
which require data to be archived with the manuscript as supporting information (in addition to being
archived externally).
No other manuscript type submission should include data files.
If your data file is too large to upload to ScholarOne, please include a note in the online submission
form and contact the journal’s editorial staff to explain the situation. Please see our
guidelines for
formatting a Data Paper (PDF) for complete instructions.