Conditions for manuscript publication
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Availability of archival materials
[Information on materials, methods or data necessary to verify the conclusions of the research must be available to editors upon request.] -
No prior publication
[All submissions must be original contributions.] -
Transfer of copyright
[Authors agree to transfer copyright for the paper (or equivalent rights) to ESA.] -
Permission to use previously published material
[Authors must obtain permission of the copyright holder of any previously published material] -
Advance publicity: ESA's embargo policy
[The paper must remain a privileged document and should not be released to the press or the public before publication.] -
Financial arrangements
[Authors must agree to pay page charges, or must obtain an ESA page-charge grant.] -
Reprints
[PDFs available after an article is published.] -
Adherence to the ESA Code of Ethics
[Authors agree to conform to the ESA Code of Ethics.] -
Animal welfare
[Authors using experimental vertebrate animals must certify that their care was in accordance with institutional guidelines. ] -
Endangered species
[Authors must certify that research involving endangered species was conducted in conformance with all applicable laws.]
Availability of archival materials
Any information on materials, methods or data necessary to verify the conclusions of the research reported must be made available to the Subject-matter Editor upon request.
No prior publication
ESA journals require that all submissions be original contributions and that, when in doubt, full disclosure of possible redundant publication must be made in the letter of submission. Under certain circumstances, use of the same data in two or more publications is appropriate and beneficial. This may be particularly true when new information allows reinterpretation of previously published data. In many cases, however, duplicate publication is wasteful of journal space and user resources. It is the Editor's responsibility to decide whether specific duplications are useful or wasteful. These decisions are generally based on information supplied by the authors. To facilitate this process, ESA journals have adopted a policy that at the time of submission, authors must provide information describing the extent to which data or text in the manuscript have been used in other papers that are published, in press, submitted, or soon to be submitted elsewhere. In cases of overlap with other publications or submissions, authors should include copies of the papers in question along with the submission.
Sometimes it is difficult to assess whether a work has truly been published previously. If a previous work was published in a journal or book that is already available in libraries or available for libraries to purchase, we expect no more than one-third overlap between the previous publication and the submission to ESA. Reference should be made to any closely related previous publication, especially if a table or figure is reproduced. When in doubt, an author should supply copies of the previous publication to be sent to the Subject-matter Editor and reviewers, who would then be asked to consider this matter.
If any data in a manuscript have been included in other published or unpublished manuscripts, the legend of each table or illustration reporting such data must cite those manuscripts. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce previously published material.
A posting of a manuscript or thesis on a personal or institutional homepage or ftp site will generally be considered as a preprint; this will not be grounds for viewing the manuscript as published. Similarly, posting of manuscripts in public preprint archives or in an institution's public archive of unpublished theses will not be considered grounds for declaring a manuscript published. If a manuscript is available as part of a digital publication such as a journal, technical series or some other entity to which a library can subscribe (especially if that publication has an ISSN or ISBN), we will consider that the manuscript has been published and is thus not eligible for consideration by our journals. A partial test for prior publication is whether the manuscript has appeared in some entity with archival value so that it is permanently available to reasonably diligent scholars. A necessary test for prior publication is whether the author can legally transfer copyright to ESA.
Transfer of copyright
So that the Author(s) and ESA may be protected from the consequences of unauthorized use, author(s) must grant and assign to ESA rights to publish an accepted manuscript or data paper and any associated supplemental material (work) in all languages and in any other form, in the United States and in any other countries, and to assign others the right to do so. The Author(s) shall retain the right to quote from, reprint, translate and reproduce the work, in part or in full, in any book or article he/she may later write, or in any public presentation. The Author may post the work in a publicly accessible form on his/her personal or home institution's webpages. If the Author(s) reproduces a portion of the work in a book, article or other media, the legend or caption of any table or figure that represents data from the work, in original or modified form, shall cite the work as the source of those data. In addition, the Author(s) shall have the right to photocopy the work for his/her own use or public distribution. If the Author(s) reprints, translates or photocopies the work, the original copyright notice, as it appears in the journal, must be included. The Author retains all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
All authors must agree to transfer copyright (or equivalent rights) for their manuscript to ESA. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright (or equivalent rights) for their article will be transferred to the ESA if and when the article is accepted for publication. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the authors must complete and submit to the ESA Headquarters Office the copyright release form. The official form will be prepared by the Publications Office and sent to the corresponding author, who will be expected to obtain the signatures of the other authors. If policies of a one or more author's home institution preclude transfer of copyright, then that author(s) must still provide a legally binding document that grants to ESA the right to publish the manuscript or data paper and any associated supplemental material (work) in all languages and in any other form, in the United States and in any other countries, and to assign others the right to do so.
In submitting a copyright release, the author(s) represents that he/she is the sole proprietor of the Work; that it does not infringe any existing copyright; that it has not heretofore been published; and that to the best of his/her knowledge it contains no matter libelous or other unlawful or which invades the right of privacy or which infringes on any proprietary right. The Author(s) will hold harmless the ESA against any claim, demand, or recovery finally sustained in any proceedings brought against the ESA by reason of any violation of any proprietary right or copyright, or any unlawful matter contained in the work. When previously published data, interpretations, or ideas are included in a work, the author(s) shall cite the source (for example, "1850 data are from Darwin [1859]) and list the reference in the Literature Cited section. In the event that copyright to a portion or all of the work has previously been registered with the Library of Congress, the author(s) will promptly transfer the copyright to the ESA.
Permission to Use Previously Published Materiala
If your article contains material (e.g. table, graph, diagram, illustration, photo, or section of text) that was previously published by someone else (or published by you in a publication that does not give authors the right to republish materials from their own articles without obtaining permission), you must obtain written permission from the copyright-holder to republish that material. This applies not only to material that you intend to reproduce in its original form, but also, for example, to modified artwork or graphs. The written permission must be forwarded to the Publications Office of the Ecological Society. The accompanying ESA form is provided for your convenience; other permission forms are acceptable. Please note that your manuscript will not be scheduled for an issue (nor will it be sent to the printer for typesetting) until permission has been obtained.
The publication(s) in which the copyrighted material(s) appear(s) should be listed in the Literature Cited section of the work. In each figure, illustration, table, or block of text that uses previously copyrighted material, a citation in one of the following forms should appear: "From Darwin (1859)" or "Modified from Darwin (1859)" or "Redrawn from Darwin(1859)."
To use the ESA form, please follow these steps:
1) Make enough copies of the form to send to each publisher or copyright-holder (if you are using material from more than one source).
2) Complete the "letter" portion of the form by filling in all the blanks above the dashed line. Be sure to provide your full mailing address and sign the letter. DO NOT ask publishers to send permission directly to ESA.
3) Send the original and one copy to the publisher of the source from which you wish to use material.
4) Send the completed permission forms (showing that permission has been granted) to the ESA Publications Office only after your paper has been accepted for publications in an ESA journal, preferable along with the final version of the manuscript.
Please note that permission MUST be unrestricted (see the form itself for an explanation). If permission is denied, then the material in question will have to be removed from the article.
Advance Publicity: ESA's embargo policy
ESA encourages authors to speak with reporters regarding their research. It is important, however, that authors abide by the rules below regarding publicity. These rules have been designed to protect the interests of both authors and the ESA; advance publicity can undersell the value of our journals and potentially damage the credibility of authors' work. Advance publicity can also result in the misuse or misinterpretation of data, which can be detrimental to ecologists and other researchers as a whole.
Once a paper has been accepted for publication in an ESA journal, the authors should abide by the following embargo policies:
1) The author will keep the paper a privileged document and will not release any part of the paper to the press or the public before publication. Authors are permitted, however, to distribute advance copies of their papers to colleagues and within the research community, as long as the papers are clearly marked "In Press."
2) The main findings of a paper should not be reported in the mass media prior to the paper's publication. Authors are permitted to present their data at scientific conferences and seminars but should not overtly seek media attention. Specifically, authors should decline participation in news briefings or coverage in press releases relating to the particular research findings reported in papers that are "In Press." Authors should also refrain from granting interviews or providing copies of figures or data from their presentation or from the manuscript to any reporter unless the reporter agrees to abide by ESA's press embargo date. (Embargo dates typically match the date of the journal publication.) If a reporter attends an author's session at a meeting and writes a story based only on the presentation, such coverage will not affect consideration of the author's paper.
ESA may choose to write a press release regarding papers to be published in the journals. In the event that a paper is chosen for a release, authors will be notified and informed of all embargo and publication dates. Authors will also be informed of any other publicity efforts being undertaken regarding their papers.
If an author's institution or the funding organization that supported the research wishes to produce a release regarding a paper, the institutional press officer should be asked to contact the ESA Public Affairs Office before the release is completed and sent out. Publicity efforts can be greatly strengthened by collaborative efforts. All institutions writing releases about work published in ESA's journals must abide by ESA's embargo dates.
Any questions regarding this policy can be directed to Nadine Lymn, ESA's Director of Public Affairs, at 202-833-8773 ext.205 or nadine@esa.org.
Financial Arrangements
Page Charges:
Printing ESA journals is expensive and authors with research grants are expected to pay page charges. Charges of $70.00 per printed page will be assessed on articles accepted for publication. (Papers accepted prior to January 1, 2008 will still be assessed as at $60.00 per printed page.) This is about 1/4 of the actual processing and printing costs. All papers (including Special features and invited papers) are subject to page charges unless the author is otherwise informed by the Managing Editor. These arrangements follow the acceptance of manuscripts for publication in journals of the Ecological Society of America.
Color photographs and figures incur an additional charge of $360 each.
ESA members without grants, institutional monies, or personal funding may apply for a grant from Society funds by submitting the proper form to ESA Headquarters. ESA grants may cover the charges for no more than 15 pages per author per year printed in Ecology and Ecological Applications, or 21 pages per author per year printed in Ecological Monographs. Page charge grants awarded for co-authored papers will count against the maximum grant for each co-author. (Example: A 15-page grant is awarded for a paper by Smith, Jones, and Baker in the January issue of Ecology. Subsequent papers published in the same calendar year by Jones in Ecological Applications, and by Adams and Baker in Ecological Monographs will be ineligible for ESA grants.)
Authors are reminded that many granting agencies allow for an encumbrance of publication charges beyond grant expiration. Advance billing is available upon request.
Page charge arrangements are not required until a manuscript is accepted for publication. The page charge grant request form is sent out with the publication agreement after a manuscript is accepted. Manuscripts are not sent to press until these arrangements are completed.
Ecological Archives:
There are no charges for publication
of appendices and supplements in Ecological Archives up to a current
maximum of 10 MB; above 10MB there is a fee of $250 for the first 1 GB and
$50 for each subsequent GB. The fee for publication of a data paper is $250
for publication of the abstract in the relevant journal plus publication of
up to 10 MB in Ecological Archives. An additional $250 is charged for
data sets between 10MG and 1GB, and for larger datasets there is an additional
$50 per GB fee. Archival material for any one paper or data paper may not
exceed 50 GB.
Other Charges:
Excessive changes in proof
or remaking of artwork as a result of the author's error or request, and special
handling of illustrations (such as tip-ins, folded pages, overlays, or color)
are the responsibility of the author. ESA page charge grants do not cover these
items. Authors are billed mandatory charges of $3.00 per line for excessive
changes in proof.
Reprints
PDF files of final articles are provided without charge once an article is published.
High-resolution PDF files or hard copy reprints are available from the printer for a fee.
A reprint order form will accompany page proofs when they are sent to the author for final correction. Reprints are not covered by ESA grants.
Adherence to the ESA Code of Ethics
Authors should adhere to the ESA Code of Ethics; it deals with authorship, plagiarism, fraud, unauthorized use of data, copyrights, errors, confidentiality, intellectual property, attribution, willful delay of publication, and conflicts of interest, as well as other matters that are not specific to the publication process. The following general principles will be adhered to in dealing with situations where an author's ethics are in question.
Manuscripts submitted to ESA journals are confidential. We will not normally reveal whether an author has submitted a manuscript to us or what a particular manuscript might contain, unless the authors ask that we do so. To do otherwise would be to compromise the ability of an author to obtain proper credit for his or her discoveries.
In the event that a private individual reports to us concerns about the ethics of a particular author, we will take note of such concerns and watch for any manuscript by that author that might represent questionable ethical practices.
If ESA has reason to doubt the ethical practices of an author of a manuscript, either because of concern raised by an editor, or because of information obtained from some other source, the Editor-in-Chief will process the manuscript in accordance with normal practice, but will simultaneously refer the matter to the ESA Professional Ethics Committee for review. The Committee will conduct whatever investigation it feels appropriate, taking care not to inadvertently damage the reputation of any of the parties concerned. The Editor-in-Chief will received the advice of the Committee and decide a course of action in consultation with the Executive Director of the Society.
Animal welfare
Authors using experimental vertebrate animals must certify that their care was in accordance with institutional guidelines.
Endangered species
Authors must certify that research involving endangered species was conducted in conformance with all applicable laws.
rev 1/31/08
