Types of contributions
Ecological Applications
Please note the new Data Policy for manuscripts submitted on or after January 1, 2014.
Length limits with respect to manuscripts refer to all pages, including cover page, text, literature cited, tables and figures. Each figure will count as one page. Generally 3.5 pages of the double-spaced manuscript correspond to one printed page.
Final decisions on article types are at the discretion of the Managing Editor. (i) Papers submitted/accepted as Communications, but which require more than 8.0 printed pages in the final version, will be published as Articles.
Articles. Articles describing significant original research comprise the core of the journal. Articles generally should not exceed 60 manuscript pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, including everything from Title Page through the last figure). Abstracts should be no longer than 350 words. Articles exceeding 60 manuscript pages may be considered for Ecological Monographs at the discretion of the editor-in-chief .
Communications. Shorter papers (up to 8 journal pages) of immediate impact in fast-moving scientific debate or urgent practical application. These papers will be fast-tracked through the editorial, review and production processes so as to make possible a relatively rapid publication. These papers must be accompanied by a cover letter clearly indicating that the paper is being submitted for consideration for the Communications section and explaining why the paper warrants this special treatment. Papers deemed unsuitable for Communications may be considered for publication as regular articles.
As added incentives for authors to cast their submissions in the concise Communications format, we are implementing the following new policies:
* All Communications will be freely available (i.e., one need not be a subscriber or have institutional access in order to view full text online).
* There will be no charge for color figures to authors of Communications.
By making the Communications more accessible and visually appealing, we hope to increase our readership and cement Ecological Applications’s reputation as the place where authors publish the most important and exciting research findings in our science.
In order to assure rapid publication, papers must conform to a strict page limit and format. Communication ubmissions may contain up to 20 manuscript pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, including everything from Title Page through the last figure). The abstract can have a maximum of 200 words.
Invited Features. Invited Features are intended to address various aspects of a theme that is likely to be of broad interest to applied ecologists. Ideally, a feature should inform a broad audience about an unfamiliar topic or an area in which there has been considerable recent progress, or it should cause the audience to re-examine an issue that is not as settled as most have presumed. Proposals for Invited Features should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. Additional advice and instructions are available which explain how to propose and prepare Invited Features.
Forums. Ecological Applications occasionally publishes Forums. A Forum can take a number of forms but always includes a series of commentaries solicited from a number of experts. These commentaries represent personal responses to a paper (or papers) considered to be of very broad interest and significance within the field of applied ecology. Special instructions are available.
Letters to the Editor (up to 4 journal pages). A Letter to the Editor points out errors of fact or interpretation in, or otherwise comments on, an article that previously appeared in a published issue (not merely a preprint) of Ecological Applications, or in articles or books that are the basis of numerous articles published in ESA journals. Submissions must contain no more than 16 manuscript pages. Be sure to refer to the special procedures which have been established for preparation and review of Letters to the Editor and responses to Letters.
Data Policy.
As a condition for publication of a manuscript in Ecological Applications, all data associated with the results reported in manuscripts submitted after January 1, 2014 must be made available in a permanent, publicly accessible data archive or repository.
Archived data should be sufficiently complete so that subsequent users can repeat tables, graphs, and statistical analyses reported in the original publication, and derive summary statistics for new or meta-analyses. Thus, the normal resolution of the data that are archived will be at the level of individual observations.
Publication in Ecological Applications constitutes publication of the data, which are then citable, and the desire of authors to control additional research with these data shall not generally be grounds for withholding published data. Sensitive information including but not limited to precise locality data for rare, threatened, or endangered species, or identity of human subjects, should be redacted as required.
Sufficient metadata should accompany the data file so that others can readily use files and interpret variables, including their units. Such metadata can usually be provided in a short text file. Data must be registered and available at the time of publication, although in specific cases, data registration and metadata availability at the time of acceptance, with a firm subsequent date for release of primary data may be acceptable.
Authors will be responsible for any fees charged by external data repositories in order to comply with the data archiving requirement.
See the general ESA Data Policy.
rev 2/10/16
