Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Instruction to Authors » Research Communications

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment publishes timely, interesting, and informative articles on all aspects of ecology and related disciplines. Authors are cordially invited to submit original research papers for possible publication in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Frontiers is aimed at all professional ecologists and researchers working in related disciplines. It focuses on current ecological issues and environmental challenges, and features a small number of short, high impact research communications of interest to researchers from a broad range of specialties and backgrounds. These papers should therefore be accessible and understandable to those reading outside their area of expertise.

All articles are subject to peer review before they can be accepted for publication.

Readership

Professional ecologists from a wide range of backgrounds (academia, federal agencies, NGOs, non-profits), working in all sub-disciplines of ecology
Scientists working in related disciplines (eg, environment, conservation)
Scientists working with ecological data and concepts (eg, statisticians, economists)
Resource managers, policymakers, and any other interested groups and individuals

Criteria

Broad interdisciplinary appeal, not only to ecologists but also to those in other disciplines.
Length: 2500 words, not including a short abstract, and not more than 20 references and 3 figures and/or tables. (Additional tables or figures may be posted as web-only material on the journal’s website).
Writing style must be crisp, concise, and accessible, and should avoid or explain all terminology that might be unfamiliar to a multidisciplinary readership.
Content should involve one or more of the following:

Research with important policy or resource management implications
Research with practical applications
Global environmental or resource issues
Fundamental, novel advances in ecological science or related areas
Use of new approaches or technologies to address current or long standing ecological/environmental issues

Authorship

Please only include as authors those who have made a substantial contribution to the article. The maximum numbers of authors is 10, except in very special circumstances, which should be made clear in the accompanying letter to the Editor.

Submissions

All manuscripts should be submitted to Frontiers through our online manuscript tracking system, which can be accessed through the "Manuscript Submission" button on this site's home page. The submission page contains instructions to authors on the automated submission and the peer review processes. There is no need to send a hand copy by post but please keep electronic copies of what has been uploaded.

Please note that while most electronic formats can be used for images, JPEG (.jpg) files saved in CMYK mode (not RGB) are preferred. Images must have a minimum resolution of 300dpi at a width of 5 inches (125 mm). Please note that low-resolution images, such as PowerPoint slides and pictures downloaded from the Internet, are acceptable for the review process, but are not of sufficiently high resolution for final publication. Images scanned directly from books, journals, or other printed materials are also not suitable for publication, as they will reproduce very poorly no matter what the resolution. We will need your images in an acceptable format before we can accept your manuscript for publication. Please contact journal staff for further details.

Please keep copies of everything you have uploaded. The journal will accept no responsibility for materials loss or lost in transit.

Illustrations

Authors are strongly encouraged to illustrate their articles with high-quality color photographs and graphics, to attract the reader’s attention, to complement and clarify the text, and to break up the pages. No charges will be made for their inclusion, but permission must be secured to reproduce any previously published images. We must have images in an acceptable format before we can accept a manuscript for publication. Please contact journal staff for further details.

Format and Resolution
Adequate figure resolution is essential to a high-quality print and online rendering of your paper. Raster line art, grayscale, and color artwork must have a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) at 5 inches (15 cm) width - file size 3 - 5 MB. Both these requirements must be satisfied; one or the other is not enough. Each image should be a separate file, labeled (for example) “03FRN0021 Smith Figure 1”.

Electronic figure files must be submitted in one of the following formats: JPEG (.jpg), Adobe Illustrator (AI), or Encapsulated PostScript (EPS). We cannot accept files in other formats.

Figure Layout
In laying out figures, keep things clear and simple and try to maximize the space given to the data. Avoid wasted empty space and clutter.

Frontiers figures are most often between 3.5 and 4.5 inches (8.9-11.4 cm) wide; please create your original images as close to these dimensions as possible to avoid distortion caused by shrinking or enlarging, and to preserve the best resolution.
Titles or labels not absolutely necessary for understanding the figure should be removed or explained in the figure legend.
Graphics should be provided on a white background; we may add colored tints during production.
Use of color for the graphic elements (lines, symbols, etc) is welcomed, particularly where this helps readers to understand what is being illustrated
Use solid symbols for plotting data if possible, unless data overlap or there are multiple symbols. Make symbols large enough that they will be distinguishable when the figure is reduced.
Do not use three-dimensional graphics unless absolutely necessary.
Scales or axes should not extend beyond 0 or the range of the data plotted
Standard line weight (thickness) is 0.5 points for boxes, graphs, etc, but this can be increased to up to 2 points for line graphs.
Keys to symbols should be kept as simple as possible and should be positioned so they do not needlessly enlarge the figure. Details can be included in the captions
Tick marks along the axes of graphs should point outwards from the axis (left of y-axis and below x-axis)

Typefaces and Labels in Graphics

Use a sans-serif font such as Arial or Helvetica
Capitalize only the first word in each label or sentence, as well as all proper nouns
Italicize scientific names, mathematical variables, and “et al.”; otherwise, use only plain or bold text
Label both X- and Y-axes and give units in parentheses
Crowded X-axis labels may be tilted at 45 degrees
Include SI units in parentheses. If there is room, write out variables -- e.g, Temperature (K). Use negative exponents instead of backslashes
Use leading zeros on all decimals (eg 0.3, 0.55)
Multipart figures should ideally have four or fewer parts. Please distinguish the parts of multipart figures using letters “(a)”, “(b)”, “(c)”, etc, in both images and figure captions.

Colors and Contrast

Avoid using colored type.
Avoid using colored background shade.
Avoid using grayscale, similar patterns or colors that may blur together upon reduction, and any combination of red and green.
Use white type and scale bars over darker areas of photographic images

Figure Captions

Each figure needs an explanatory caption.
Each caption should be under 100 words, and preferably under 50. Be clear and concise. Information in overlong captions should instead be integrated into the text.
Credits for images, when these come from ANY source other than the author, should be given after a caption, in the format “Courtesy of AB Johnson” or “© Oxford Scientific Films”. Authors are not credited for their own images.
Include figure captions and image credits a single list, after the References and tables.

Tables

Tables should appear at the end of the text, after the References, not included within the text. Very large tables may have to be displayed as Web-only material on the journal website.

Try to limit tables to 200 words and five columns; if you have more information than this, please consider, in order of preference, (1) trimming down the information, (2) dividing it into multiple tables, or (3) contacting editorial staff for guidance on Web-only material (see also below).

References Section: Examples

Article in Journal: Fryxell JM and Sinclair ARE. 1988. Causes and consequences of migration by large herbivores. Trends Ecol Evol 3: 237–41.

Books: Anderson RM and May RS. 1991. Infectious diseases of humans: dynamics and control, 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.; Wright S. 1978. Evolution and the genetics of populations, Vol 4: variability within and among natural populations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Article in Book: May RM and Anderson RS. 1983. Parasite-host coevolution. In: Futuyama DJ and Slatkin M (Eds). Coevolution, 3rd ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.

Conference Proceedings: Schaefer M. 1975. Experimental studies on the importance of interspecies competition for the lycosid spiders in a salt marsh. Proceedings of the 6th International Arachnological Congress; 19–20 Mar 1974; Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Nederlandse Entomologische Vereniging.

Scientific and Technical Reports and their Parts: NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 1961. Climatological data–Kansas. Asheville (NC): Environmental Data and Information Service, National Climatic Center. Report NOAA-03-88-1.

Conference Presentations (Papers) and Abstracts: Smith RD. 1992. Little brown birds are really interesting. In: Jones X (Ed). Interesting birds of North America. Proceedings of the symposium at the 112th meeting of the American Birding Society; 1992 Mar 2-4; Los Angeles, CA. Washington: American Birding Soc.

Dissertations, Theses, and Their Parts: Feth JA. 1947. The geology of Northern Canelo Hills (PhD dissertation). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona.

Websites: Smith RS. My trip to India. http://cs.geotown.com/smithtrip.html. Viewed 14 Dec 1999.; Bird Ecology Society (BES). 1999. Ecology of birds at the turn of the millennium. www.ecologyofbirds.com. Viewed 14 Dec 1999.; GVU’s 8th WWW user survey. (nd). www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/ survey 1997–10. Viewed 8 Aug 2000.

Newspaper Articles: Baker JK. 1999. Switch to dollar bodes ill for Ecuador. Washington Post. Sept 12: Sect B: 2.

Documents In Press: Fulton RS. Predator–prey relationships in an estuarine littoral copepod community. Ecology. In press.

Web-Only Materials
It is possible to include supplementary materials in the online version of your article. This should not be seen as a way to bypass Frontiers’ space limitations, but as a way to supplement your manuscript with an extra figure or a table too large to fit on the printed page.

If you think you have materials that fits these criteria, include them as part of your manuscript, after the References, with a note indicating “Web-only material”. The editors will make a final decision on where the material should go.
If used, Web-only material is cited in the text like other figures, as in “(Figure 5; Web Table 1)”

Conflict of Interest

We ask that all authors disclose any financial or personal relationships with other persons or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of financial conflicts include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications, and travel grants occurring within 3 years of beginning the work submitted. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that there are none. Acknowledgements, including relevant sources of funding, should be declared in a brief statement at the end of the text.

Editorial Queries

Because Frontiers is a relatively new publication, editorial office staff are keen to work closely with authors, to help them with the style and tone of their paper, and to answer any questions. Please feel free to contact Editor-in-Chief Sue Silver or Assistant Editor Ken Ferguson to discuss your paper.