Preprints policy

A ‘preprint’ is an early version of an article prior to the version accepted for publication in a journal.

Our editorial guidelines require that articles submitted to our journals not be previously published, or be under simultaneous review for publication, in part or in whole within a scientific journal, book or similar entity. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior publication.

Upon acceptance of an article for publication the author must be able to agree to the terms of the relevant journal’s License to Publish or Copyright Assignment form. After the article is published, the preprint can still be shared and used under its original license terms.

It is best practice to link preprints and the published article (the ‘Version of Record’). If appropriate, we encourage authors to include details of preprint posting, including DOI or other persistent identifier, when submitting to a journal. Authors are also encouraged to ensure that the preprint record is later updated with a DOI and a URL link to the published version of the article if their article is accepted.

For further information or queries, please contact: openresearch@cambridge.org

Manuscript Preparation

Language

All papers should be written in English. 

JTE recommends that all manuscripts should be edited by a native English speaker. Cambridge Core lists a number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation; their use is voluntary and at the author's own expense.

Format at first submission

The manuscript should have the required sections (see below) with double-spaced text in a single, flush left column with line numbers. Tables and figures should be included with the text in a single file, either at the end of the article or inserted in the text at the appropriate places. The Supplementary Information should be provided as a separate file. Apart from these requirements, the initial submission does not have to conform to the JTE style described below. This applies also to References, which may be provided in any format that is used consistently within the manuscript.

Format for the final submission

All article types include the Title Page, Abstract, Main Text, Acknowledgements, Financial Support, Competing Interest Declaration and References. The Main Text in Original Articles is structured into Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion

Formatting conventions

Scientific names

The complete Latin name (genus, species and authority) must be given in full for every organism when first mentioned in the text or Tables unless a standard nomenclatural reference is cited. Names of taxa at the generic rank and below should be in italics.

Units of measurement

Measurements must be in SI units. The negative index should be used except where the unit is an object (e.g. per tree, not tree-1). Use d-1, wk-1, mo-1 and y-1 for per day, per week, per month and per year.

ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations should be used only when necessary and spelled out in full in the first instance. Numbers one to nine should be spelled out and numbers 10 and higher written as numerals. Dates should follow the sequence day-month-year, e.g. 1 January 1997. The 24-hour clock should be used, e.g. 16:15 h.

Cover Letter

Authors are required to submit a cover letter explaining how their manuscript represents a significant advance of science and will be of interest to a wide readership in the field of tropical ecology.

Title page

This should contain:

1. 1) The title of the article, short (200 characters including spaces or less), informative and accurately reflecting the content;
2. 2) Full author names with affiliations; indicate the corresponding author with an asterisk, and provide a full postal and email address for this person;
3. 3) A short running title (48 characters including spaces or less); and
4. 4) Up to 10 keywords or phrases listed alphabetically and separated by commas.

Abstract

This should be a single paragraph of no more than 200 words without abbreviations or references. It must provide a concise summary of the paper intelligible on its own.

Acknowledgements

The author(s) may acknowledge individuals or organisations that provided advice or non-financial support.

Financial support

Please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers. For example, "This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (MSJ)l (grant number XXXXXXX)". Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and space, and where research was funded by more than one agency the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with 'and' before the final funder. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors' initials. For example, "This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (A.B., grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (C.D., grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (E.F., grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (A.B., grant number GGGG), (E.F., grant number HHHH)".

Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: "This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors."

Publishing Ethics

The Journal of Tropical Ecology and Cambridge University Press take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to uphold high standards of research integrity, and expect the same of our authors. Accordingly, we will always investigate claims of plagiarism or other research integrity or publication ethics allegations. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action. Any action would be in accordance with Cambridge University Press’s Research Publishing Ethics Guidelines and may include, without limitation, retracting the article, referring the matter to the author’s institution and/or other relevant academic bodies or societies, or appropriate legal action”.

For further information on Cambridge's Ethical Guidelines, please visit the page: Ethical Standards.

JTE considers all manuscripts on the strict condition that:

1. The manuscript is your own original work, and does not duplicate any other previously published work;
2. The manuscript has been submitted only to the journal - it is not under consideration or peer review or accepted for publication or in press or published elsewhere;
3. All listed authors know of and agree to the manuscript being submitted to the journal; and
4. The manuscript contains nothing that is abusive, defamatory, fraudulent, illegal, libellous, or obscene.

The Journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on research and publications ethics.

Ethical statement

Authors should ensure that any studies involving human or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional laws and requirements (e.g. WMA Declaration of Helsinki, NIH Policy on Use of laboratory Animals, EU Directive on Use of Animals) and confirm that approval has been sought and obtained where appropriate. Authors should obtain express permission from human subjects and respect their privacy.

Where research involves human and/or animal experimentation, the following statements should be included (as applicable): "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with applicable ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008" and/or "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with applicable national and institutional ethical guidelines on the care and use of laboratory or otherwise regulated animals". If not applicable, please include the following statement: "None".

References

References to literature in the text should conform to the Cambridge A referencing style. For example, direct citation as: Benzing (2000) or Moses & Semple (2011); or parenthetically (Holste et al.1981). If a number of references are cited at one place in the text, they should not be be arranged chronologically, but alphabetically by first author, with single-author references before those with two authors, which in turn come before those with three or more authors, e.g. (Chan 2008, Dubois & Blanc 1999, Silva & Almeida 2011, Silva et al. 2009, Williams 2003). Use the following as contractions in text: 'pers. obs.', 'pers. comm.', 'unpubl. data', 'in press'. 

References with two or more authors should be arranged first alphabetically then chronologically. For journal articles, the full journal name, volume and page numbers where possible must be given. For books, Editor names, publisher and publisher’s location must be given including chapters and page numbers if certain sections are used. When citing conference material, the date and location must be provided as well as any page numbers, publisher and volume numbers. Year of publication must be provided for all references. Foreign language citations

citations where the English alphabet is not used should be translated into English.

Examples:

Damschen EI, Baker DV, Bohrer G, Nathan R, Orrock JL, Turner JR, Brudvig LA, Haddad NM, Levey DJ and Tewksbury JJ (2014) How fragmentation and corridors affect wind dynamics and seed dispersal in open habitats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 3484–3489.

Danin A and Orshan G (1995) Circular arrangement of Stipagrostis ciliata clumps in the Negev, Israel and near Gokaeb, Namibia. Journal of Arid Environments 30, 307–313.

Hutchings MJ (1996) The structure of plant populations. In Crawley MJ (ed), Plant Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 325–358.

Sheffer E, Yizhaq H, Gilad E, Shachak M and Meron E (2007) Why do plants in resource-deprived environments form rings? Ecological Complexity 4, 192–200.

Stephens SG and Rick CM (1966) Problems on the origin, dispersal, and establishment of the Galápagos cottons. In Bowman RI (ed.), The Galapagos: Proceedings of the Symposia of the Galápagos International Scientific Project. Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 201–208.

Tables and Figures

Figure and table legends should be concise but informative, ideally allowing readers to comprehend what the figure/table represents without reference to the main text of the paper. Each table should be provided on a separate page after the References section. The figures should be supplied as separate files in TIF, PDF, or EPS format at approximate final publication size (please see a recent article in the journal for column widths). Artwork should be at the following minimum resolutions: line artwork (black & white), 1200 dpi; combination, i.e. line/tone (greyscale), 800 dpi; black-and-white halftone (greyscale), 300 dpi; and colour halftone, 300 dpi. Colour is only encouraged where its use increases comprehension of the figure. All wording within submitted figures must be Arial 8 pt font. Figure captions should be supplied at the end of the article, not as part of the figure files. Where possible put keys to symbols and lines in legends, not on figures. Please refer to the Cambridge Journals Artwork Guide for details.

Graphical abstract and social media summary

Authors are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract as a single schematic image, without a separate legend, representing the key message of the article. The image should be in TIF or JPG format, 1200 pixels square, font Arial 12 pt size or larger. A simple summary of the main findings of the article may be provided by the author(s), to be used by JTE to promote the article through social media channels.

Supplementary Material

Additional data (e.g. data sets, large tables) relevant to the paper can be submitted as Supplementary Material, and must be cited in a relevant place in the text of the paper. The paper should stand alone without these data. Each supplementary file must be supplied as separate files and should be clearly titled (e.g., S. Jones_supplementary_figure_1). For each file, please provide a text summary of no more than 50 words. Please note audiovisual files must not exceed 50MB.

Although Supplementary Material is peer reviewed, it is not checked, copyedited or typeset after acceptance and it is loaded onto the journal's website exactly as supplied. You should check your Supplementary Material carefully to ensure that it adheres to journal styles. Corrections cannot be made to the Supplementary Material after acceptance of the manuscript. Please bear this in mind when deciding what content to include as Supplementary Material.