Conservation Biology

Published on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology

Edited by:
Gary K. Meffe

Print ISSN: 0888-8892
Online ISSN: 1523-1739
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Current Volume: 23 / 2009
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 3/28 Biodiversity Conservation; 13/124 Ecology; 5/163 Environmental Sciences
Impact Factor: 4.705

TopAuthor Guidelines

Instructions for Authors

Conservation Biology welcomes submissions that address the science and practice of conserving Earth's biological diversity. We encourage submissions that emphasize issues germane to any of Earth's ecosystems or geographic regions and that apply diverse approaches to analyses and problem solving. Nevertheless, manuscripts with relevance to conservation that transcends the particular ecosystem, species, or situation described will be prioritized for publication.

In your cover letter, please indicate the intended category (described below) of your manuscript. The word limit includes all text from the Abstract through the Literature Cited; it does not include legends for tables and figures or the body of tables. Manuscripts that substantially exceed the following word counts will be returned.

1. Contributed Papers (3000-6000 words). Papers that report on original theoretical, empirical, or synthetic research in the natural or social sciences.
2. Research Notes (< 3000 words). Similar to Contributed Papers, but results and inferences may be more focused or preliminary.
3. Reviews (< 7500 words). Comprehensive reviews of a given topic.
4. Essays (< 6000 words). Comparatively speculative yet well-argued and well-documented papers that may offer personal perspectives.
5. Conservation Practice and Policy (< 5000 words). Papers that describe applications of conservation science to specific goals for management, policy, or education. Papers may address either successful applications or surprising outcomes that provided opportunities for learning.
6. Comments (< 2000 words). Papers that respond to material previously published in Conservation Biology.
7. Diversity (< 2000 words). Short opinion pieces on concepts, methods, or applications.
8. Letters (< 1000 words). Communications regarding topics of immediate interest to readers, including observations on controversial subjects or previously published papers.
9. Book Reviews are by invitation only. All books for possible review should be sent directly to Kent Redford (kredford@wcs.org).

We encourage authors who are uncertain whether their manuscript is appropriate for Conservation Biology to send a title and abstract to the Editor in Chief Designate (efleishman@conbio.org) for preliminary evaluation.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted electronically as attachments to an email. Your submission must contain (1) a cover letter that states the intended category of your manuscript and provides the names and complete contact information of four individuals who are qualified to review the manuscript and (2) the text of the manuscript. Acceptable formats for the cover letter and manuscript are .doc and .rtf. We will accept .pdf files if the original file format was LaTeX. Potential reviewers must not have close professional or personal relationships with the authors. The identity of reviewers is kept confidential unless reviewers choose to sign their comments.

Figures may be embedded at the end of the manuscript or submitted together in a separate attachment. Acceptable formats for the figures are .pdf, .tif, and .eps. Tables must be embedded within the manuscript, not sent as separate attachments. Tables must follow the Literature Cited and precede figure legends and figures.

Name each file with the surname of the first author, followed by the content (e.g., SmithLetter or SmithManuscript). The subject line of your email should be "Manuscript Submission." Send your submission to manuscripts@conbio.org.

Manuscript Specifications

The Conservation Biology "Style Guide for Authors" contains detailed information on how to format a manuscript for Conservation Biology. Double space all text. Number all lines. Do not use footnotes. Metric measurements must be provided unless English measurements are clearly more appropriate, in which case metric equivalents must be provided in parentheses. All pages except figures must be numbered at the bottom. Manuscripts must be in English; use U.S. rather than British spelling. We strongly recommend that authors whose first language is not English ask a native English speaker to proofread the manuscript before submission.

The cover page of your manuscript must include the title of the paper; a running head (short title of 40 or fewer characters); a list of five to eight keywords; word count (all text from Abstract through Literature Cited but not including table or figure legends or the body of tables); authors' addresses at the time the work was conducted and present addresses if different; and the name and complete address (including email) of the person to whom correspondence should be sent.

Manuscripts in all categories except Comments, Diversity, and Letters must contain an abstract that does not exceed 300 words. The abstract should state concisely the aims, methods, principal results, and major inferences of the work. Do not include incomplete or uninformative descriptions (e.g., "A new method of analysis is described."). Do not include acronyms in the abstract. Do not provide a Spanish translation of the abstract.

Citations, Tables, and Figures

Use the following format for literature citations in the text: (Buckley & Buckley 2000b; Pacey 2004). Arrange strings of citations in chronological order (oldest first). A submitted manuscript is not published; it should be cited in the text as "unpublished data" and should not be included in the Literature Cited. Examples of citations are provided in the "Style Guide for Authors" and recent issues of Conservation Biology.

Include no more than one supporting element (i.e., table or figure) for every four pages of text (from the Abstract through the Literature Cited). If a table or figure has only a few data points, incorporate the data into the text. Each supporting element must be printed on a separate page. Tables must be double-spaced, without vertical rules, and must not duplicate material in the text or figures. Each table must have a complete but brief caption.

Figure legends must be double-spaced and grouped together on a separate page immediately preceding the figures. Figures must be of sufficient quality and resolution to remain clear at 60% reduction. Before publication, you will be required to supply figures in .tif, .eps, or .pdf format. Resolution must be at least 300 dots per inch (dpi); 600 dpi is preferable for figures with lettering.

Policy on Duplicate Publication of Research Results

Submission of a manuscript to Conservation Biology implies that it has not been published previously and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. At the time of submission, authors must describe in a cover letter any data, figures, or text in the manuscript that are published, in press, submitted, or soon to be submitted elsewhere. If any of the data in the manuscript have been included in other published or unpublished manuscripts, the legend of each table or figure reporting such data must cite those manuscripts. All manuscripts and authors are expected to conform to the Society for Conservation Biology's Code of Ethics, available at http://www.conbio.org/AboutUs/Ethics/.

Page and Color-Printing Charges

Conservation Biology is published on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology, a nonprofit organization. Payment of page charges allows the Society to support more effectively conservation science, management, policy, and education worldwide. Charges are US$150 per page for those with grant or institutional support for publication costs and $50 per page for those without support who are able to pay at this rate. Page charges will be waived for authors who affirm that they do not have institutional support or another means to pay page charges. An author's ability to pay will not influence whether the manuscript is accepted for publication or any aspect of the review process. The cost of color figures, US$700 per page, cannot be waived. If your manuscript contains color figures, your cover letter must acknowledge the associated cost and affirm your ability to pay.

Revised August 2009

Style Guide for Authors

Guidelines for Special Sections