About

Focus and Scope

Check List is a peer-reviewed online journal, devoted to publishing biodiversity data related to species’ geographic distributions. Thus, our primary mission is to fill the so-called Wallacean shortfall (Lomolino 2004) and to improve our knowledge of how life is distributed on the planet in order to better preserve it. These data are essential for studies on biogeography and provide a baseline for the conservation of biodiversity. The first step to undertaking effective conservation action is to maintain records of the distribution of species.

Therefore, the journal was created from the need to publish basic data on species' distributions of any taxon in a timely and open manner, which are often neglected by traditional journals.

Check List is a bimonthly peer-reviewed online journal, and will consider for publication:

  • Annotated list of species, of a given supraspecific taxon in a strict geographic area, with comments on the identifications and figures of most or all species. ALS must be based on original data. We no longer publish papers based solely on literature compilations.
  • Notes on the geographic distribution, reporting new records of one or more species while providing a complete overview on the known distribution of the treated taxa.

Policies


Open Access

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.


Copyright Notice

License and Copyright Agreement

In submitting the manuscript to any of Pensoft’s journals, authors certify that: 

  • They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. 
  • The work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis); it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; its publication has been approved by all author(s) and responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out. 
  • They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or where copyright is owned by someone else. 
  • They agree to the following license and copyright agreement:

Copyright

  • Copyright on any article is retained by the author(s) or the author's employer. Regarding copyright transfers please see below. 
  • Authors grant Pensoft Publishers a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. 
  • Authors grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors and citation details are identified. 
  • The article and published supplementary material are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0):

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)

Anyone is free:

to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work 
to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution. The original authors must be given credit. 

  • For any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are. 
  • Any of these conditions can be waived if the copyright holders give permission. 
  • Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.

The full legal code of this license.

Copyright Transfers

Any usage rights are regulated through the Creative Commons License. Since Pensoft Publishers is using the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), anyone (the author, their institution/company, the publisher and the public) is free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work as long as the original author is credited (see above). Therefore, specific usage rights cannot be reserved by the author or their institution/company and the publisher cannot include a statement "all rights reserved" in any published paper.

Website design and publishing framework: Copyright © Pensoft Publishers.

CLOCKSS system has permission to ingest, preserve, and serve this Archival Unit.


Privacy Statement

The personal information used on this website is to be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal. It will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.


Authorship/Contributorship

Some journals are integrated with Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), in order to recognise individual author input within a publication, thereby ensuring professional and ethical conduct, while avoiding authorship disputes, gift / ghost authorship and similar pressing issues in academic publishing.

During manuscript submission, the submitting author is strongly recommended to specify a contributor role for each of co-author, i.e. Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review and Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding Acquisition (see more). For the journals that are not integrated with CRediT, the submitting author is encouraged to specify the roles as a free text. Once published the article will include the contributor role for all authors in the article metadata.


Use of AI

Authors must be transparent about the use of Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models in the manuscript preparation, and disclose details of how the AI tool was used within the "Materials and Methods" section.


Desk Rejection

During the pre-review evaluation, Editors-in-Chief or Subject editors check the manuscript for compliance with the journal's guidelines, focus, and scope. At this point, they may reject a manuscript prior to sending it out for peer review, specifying the reasons. The most common ones are non-conformity with the journal's focus, scope and policies and/or low scientific or linguistic quality. In such cases, authors are encouraged to considerably improve their manuscript and resubmit it for a review. We encourage authors whose manuscripts have been desk rejected due to being out of the scope of this journal to consider another potentially suitable title from the Pensoft portfolio.

In case the manuscript is suitable for the journal but has to be corrected technically or linguistically, it will be returned to the authors for improvement. The authors will not need to re-submit the manuscript but only to upload the corrected file(s) to their existing submission.


Peer Review

This journal uses a single-blind peer review process. This means that the names of reviewers are hidden from the authors (the author does not know the identity of the reviewer, but the reviewer knows the identity of the author). Notwithstanding that, the reviewers are encouraged to disclose their identities, if they wish to do so. Each article is reviewed by at least two independent experts, with a final decision on acceptance being made by the Subject Editor / Editor-in-Chief. Front-matter articles, such as editorials, correspondence, biographies, and similar articles, can be published after editorial evaluation only.

Please consider the Editor and Reviewer Guidelines in the About webpage of this journal for more details and stepwise instructions on the editorial and peer review process.


Indexing and Archiving Policy

The articles published in the journal are indexed by a high number of industry leading indexers and repositories. The journal content is archived in CLOCKSS, Zenodo, Portico and other international archives. The full list of indexes and archives are shown on the journal homepage.

Advertising

The journal will consider inquiries for the placement of advertisements as a banner (specified size) in a dedicated section on the journal’s homepage on a case-by-case basis. Each request will be subject to evaluation by the journal’s management team in order to determine if the content is appropriate and that it does not infringe the rights of any persons or other third parties. The content should be related to the journal’s topical focus. Illegal, discriminatory, obscene, abusive, pornographic, and otherwise harmful or offensive content will not be permissible. The journal does not endorse and is not liable for the content of advertisements displayed on its website.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Open data publishing and sharing

Pensoft encourages open data publication and sharing, in accordance with Panton’s Principles and Pensoft’s Data Publishing Policies and Guidelines for Biodiversity Data.
Data can be published in various ways, such as data files or packages supplementary to a research article, or hosted in and linked to data repositories.
Datasets should be deposited in an appropriate, trusted repository and the associated identifier (URL or DOI – digital online identifier) of the dataset(s) must be included in the data resources section of the article. Reference(s) to datasets should also be included in the reference list of the article with DOIs (where available). Where no discipline-specific data repository exists authors should deposit their datasets in a general repository such as Dryad or Pangaea.

Submission, peer review and editorial process

The peer review and editorial processes are facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. Pensoft journals’ websites display stepwise description of the editorial process and list all necessary instructions and links. These links are also included in the respective email notification.

General: Publication and authorship

  • All submitted papers are subject to a rigorous peer review process by at least two international reviewers who are experts in the scientific field of the particular paper. 

  • The factors that are taken into account in review are relevance, soundness, significance, originality, readability and language. 

  • The journals allow a maximum of two rounds of review of a manuscript. The ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions lies with the respective Subject Editor and, in some cases, with the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who may decide to seek advice among the Subject Editors and Reviewers.

  • The possible decisions include: (1) Accept, (2) Minor revisions, (2) Major revisions, (3) Reject, but re-submission encouraged and (5) Reject. 

  • If Authors are encouraged to revise and re-submit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted. 

  • The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. 

  • No research can be included in more than one publication.

Responsibility of Authors

  • Authors are required to agree that their paper will be published in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) license.

  • Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work. 

  • Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere. 

  • Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. 

  • Authors should submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English and formatted in accordance with the journal’s Author Guidelines.

  • Authors must participate in the peer review process. 

  • Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes. 

  • All Authors mentioned are expected to have significantly contributed to the research. 

  • Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest. 

  • Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript. 

  • Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.

  • Authors should acknowledge all significant funders of the research pertaining to their article and list all relevant competing interests.   

  • Other sources of support for publications should also be clearly identified in the manuscript, usually in an acknowledgement (e.g. funding for the article processing charge; language editing or editorial assistance).

  • The Corresponding author should provide the declaration of any conflicts of interest on behalf of all Authors. Conflicts of interest may be associated with employment, sources of funding, personal financial interests, membership of relevant organisations or others.

Responsibility of Reviewers

  • The manuscripts will be reviewed by two or three experts in order to reach first decision as soon as possible. Reviewers do not need to sign their reports but are welcome to do so. They are also asked to declare any conflicts of interests.

  • Reviewers are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but to focus on its scientific quality, as well as for the overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. If Reviewers recognize that a manuscript requires linguistic edits, they should inform both Authors and Editor in the report.

  • Reviewers are asked to check whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, how interesting it is and whether the quality of the writing is acceptable.

  • In cases of strong disagreement between the reviews or between the Authors and Reviewers, the Editors can judge these according to their expertise or seek advice from a member of the journal's Editorial Board.

  • Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles may be given greater prominence and greater external publicity, including press releases addressed to science journalists and mass media.

  • During a second review round, the Reviewer may be asked by the Subject Editor to evaluate the revised version of the manuscript with regards to Reviewer’s recommendations submitted during the first review round.

  • Reviewers are asked to be polite and constructive in their reports. Reports that may be insulting or uninformative will be rescinded.

  • Reviewers are asked to start their report with a very brief summary of the reviewed paper. This will help the Editors and Authors see whether the reviewer correctly understood the paper or whether a report might be based on misunderstanding.

  • Further, Reviewers are asked to comment on originality, structure and previous research: (1) Is the paper sufficiently novel and does it contribute to a better understanding of the topic under scrutiny? Is the work rather confirmatory and repetitive? (2) Is the introduction clear and concise? Does it place the work into the context that is necessary for a reader to comprehend the aims, hypotheses tested, experimental design or methods? Are Material and Methods clearly described and sufficiently explained? Are reasons given when choosing one method over another one from a set of comparable methods? Are the results clearly but concisely described? Do they relate to the topic outlined in the introduction? Do they follow a logical sequence? Does the discussion place the paper in scientific context and go a step beyond the current scientific knowledge on the basis of the results? Are competing hypotheses or theories reasonably related to each other and properly discussed? Do conclusions seem reasonable?  Is previous research adequately incorporated into the paper? Are references complete, necessary and accurate? Is there any sign that substantial parts of the paper were copies of other works?

  • Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

  • Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information. 

  • Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. 

  • Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.

  • Reviewers should also call to the Editors’ attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Responsibility of Editors

  • Editors in Pensoft’s journals carry the main responsibility for the scientific quality of the published papers and base their decisions solely on the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope.

  • The Subject Editor takes the final decision on a manuscript’s acceptance or rejection and his/her name is listed as "Academic Editor" in the header of each article.

  • The Subject Editors are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but to focus on its scientific quality, as well as the overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. 

  • Editors are expected to spot small errors in orthography or stylistic during the editing process and correct them.

  • Editors should always consider the needs of the Authors and the Readers when attempting to improve the publication. 

  • Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record. 

  • Editors should preserve the anonymity of Reviewers, unless the later decide to disclose their identities. 

  • Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines. 

  • Editors should act if they suspect misconduct and make all reasonable attempts to obtain a resolution to the problem. 

  • Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions, they should have proof of misconduct.

  • Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between Authors, Reviewers and Board Members.

Appeals and open debate

We encourage academic debate and constructive criticism. Authors are always invited to respond to any editorial correspondence before publication. Authors are not allowed to neglect unfavorable comments about their work and choose not to respond to criticisms. 

No Reviewer’s comment or published correspondence may contain a personal attack on any of the Authors. Criticism of the work is encouraged. Editors should edit (or reject) personal or offensive statements. Authors should submit their appeal on editorial decisions to the Editorial Office, addressed to the Editor-in-Chief or to the Managing Editor. Authors are discouraged from directly contacting Editorial Board Members and Editors with appeals.

Editors will mediate all discussions between Authors and Reviewers during the peer review process prior to publication. If agreement cannot be reached, Editors may consider inviting additional reviewers if appropriate. 

The Editor-in-Chief will mediate all discussions between Authors and Subject Editors.

The journals encourage publication of open opinions, forum papers, corrigenda, critical comments on a published paper and Author’s response to criticism.

Misconduct

Research misconduct may include: (a) manipulating research materials, equipment or processes; (b) changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the article. A special case of misconduct is plagiarism, which is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit. Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion. If misconduct is suspected, journal Editors will act in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines

Responses to possible misconduct

All allegations of misconduct must be referred to the Editor-In-Chief. Upon the thorough examination, the Editor-In-Chief and deputy editors should conclude if the case concerns a possibility of misconduct. All allegations should be kept confidential and references to the matter in writing should be kept anonymous, whenever possible.

Should a comment on potential misconduct be submitted by the Reviewers or Editors, an explanation will be sought from the Authors. If it is satisfactory and the issue is the result of either a mistake or misunderstanding, the matter can be easily resolved. If not, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted and the Editors may impose a ban on that individual's publication in the journals for a certain period of time. In cases of published plagiarism or dual publication, an announcement will be made in both journals explaining the situation.

When allegations concern authors, the peer review and publication process for their submission will be halted until completion of the aforementioned process. The investigation will be carried out even if the authors withdraw the manuscript, and implementation of the responses below will be considered.

When allegations concern reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation of the matter. Editors or reviewers who are found to have engaged in scientific misconduct should be removed from further association with the journal, and this fact reported to their institution.

Retraction policies

Article retraction

According to the COPE Retraction Guidelines followed by this Journal, an article can be retracted because of the following reasons:

  • Unreliable findings based on clear evidence of a misconduct (e.g. fraudulent use of the data) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
  • Redundant publication, e.g., findings that have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification.
  • Plagiarism or other kind of unethical research.

Retraction procedure

  • Retraction should happen after a careful consideration by the Journal editors of allegations coming from the editors, authors, or readers.
  • The HTML version of the retracted article is removed (except for the article metadata) and on its place a retraction note is issued.
  • The PDF of the retracted article is left on the website but clearly watermarked with the note "Retracted" on each page.
  • In some rare cases (e.g., for legal reasons or health risk) the retracted article can be replaced with a new corrected version containing apparent link to the retracted original version and a retraction note with a history of the document.

Expression of concern

In other cases, the Journal editors should consider issuing an expression of concern, if evidence is available for:

  • Inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors.
  • Unreliable findings that are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case.
  • A belief that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive.
  • An investigation is underway but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time.

Errata and Corrigenda

Pensoft journals largely follow the ICMJE guidelines for corrections and errata.

Errata

Admissible and insignificant errors in a published article that do not affect the article content or scientific integrity (e.g. typographic errors, broken links, wrong page numbers in the article headers etc.) can be corrected through publishing of an erratum. This happens through replacing the original PDF with the corrected one together with a correction notice on the Erratum Tab of the HTML version of the paper, detailing the errors and the changes implemented in the original PDF. The original PDF will be marked with a correction note and an indication to the corrected version of thFerratae article. The original PDF will also be archived and made accessible via a link in the same Erratum Tab.

Authors are also encouraged to post comments and indicate typographical errors on their articles to the Comments tab of the HTML version of the article.

Corrigenda

Corrigenda should be published in cases when significant errors are discovered in a published article. Usually, such errors affect the scientific integrity of the paper and could vary in scale. Reasons for publishing corrigenda may include changes in authorship, unintentional mistakes in published research findings and protocols, errors in labelling of tables and figures or others. In taxonomic journals, corrigenda are often needed in cases where the errors affect nomenclatural acts. Corrigenda are published as a separate publication and bear their own DOI. Examples of published corrigenda are available here.

The decision for issuing errata or corrigenda is with the editors after discussion with the authors.


COPE Compliance

This journal endorses the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines and will pursue cases of suspected research and publication misconduct (e.g. falsification, unethical experimentation, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, redundant publication). For further information about COPE please see the website for COPE at http://www.publicationethics.org and journal's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.


Terms of Use

This document describes the Terms of Use of the services provided by the Check List journal, hereinafter referred to as "the Journal" or "this Journal". All Users agree to these Terms of Use when signing up to this Journal. Signed Journal Users will be hereinafter referred to as "User" or "Users".

The publication services to the Journal are provided by Pensoft Publishers Ltd., through its publishing platform ARPHA, hereinafter referred to as "the Provider".

The Provider reserves the right to update the Terms of Use occasionally. Users will be notified via posting on the site and/or by email. If using the services of the Journal after such notice, the User will be deemed to have accepted the proposed modifications. If the User disagrees with the modifications, he/she should stop using the Journal services. Users are advised to periodically check the Terms of Use for updates or revisions. Violation of any of the terms will result in the termination of the User's account. The Provider is not responsible for any content posted by the User in the Journal.

Account Terms

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Unless stated otherwise, the Journal website may contain some copyrighted material (for example, logos and other proprietary information, including, without limitation, text, software, photos, video, graphics, music and sound - "Copyrighted Material"). The User may not copy, modify, alter, publish, transmit, distribute, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works or, in any way, exploit any of the Copyrighted Material, in whole or in part, without written permission from the copyright owner. Users will be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights or any other harm resulting from such a submission.

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Open Access Materials

This Journal is a supporter of open science. Open access to content is clearly marked, with text and/or the open access logo, on all materials published under this model. Unless otherwise stated, open access content is published in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC-BY). This particular licence allows the copying, displaying and distribution of the content at no charge, provided that the author and source are credited.

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Authors' Guidelines


Main text

Manuscript Types, Templates, Spacing, Fonts, and Page Numbering
The two types of published articles are:

  • Annotated list of Species of a given supraspecific taxon in a strict geographic area, with comments on the identifications and figures of most or all species. ALS must be based on original data. We no longer publish papers based solely on literature compilations.
  • Notes on the Geographic Distribution reporting new records of one or more species while providing a complete overview on the known distribution of the treated taxa.

The use of templates is mandatory for all submitted manuscripts. The template for NGD is here; for ALS, here. By using the mandatory template, the general structure of your submission, as well as font, font size, line spacing, etc. will be correct.

Running head
Keep it short (up to 50 characters including spaces). Follow the format appropriate for the number of authors:
•    Author | Short title
•    Author and Author | Short title
•    Author et al. | Short title

Title
The title should be in a sentence case (only scientific, English common names of taxa, and geographic or personal names should be with a first capital letter, e.g., Elater ferrugineus Linnaeus, 1758, Cuban Greater Funnel-eared Bat, Germany), and should include an accurate, clear, and concise description of the reported work, avoiding abbreviations. Higher taxonomic (e.g., order and family) and geographic (e.g., country or ocean) levels must be included. The higher taxa within the title should be separated with commas and not with a semicolon or colon, e.g.: (Coleoptera, Elateridae, Elaterini). Include authority (and year for animals) of publication of species- or genus-level taxa.
•    Title in sentence case
•    Colon between title and subtitle (if any)
•    No footnotes
•    No bold
•    Higher taxa within the title should be separated with commas and not with a colon or semicolon

Authors and Affiliations
Provide the complete names of all authors as they should appear in the published work. Omit titles, degrees, and positions. Ensure that the authors’ names and affiliations in the manuscript identically match the metadata in the system (you may need to edit them in the submission form at the time of submission). One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to ensure that the author list, and the individual contributions to the study are accurate and complete. If the article has been submitted on behalf of a consortium, all consortium members and their affiliations should be listed after the Acknowledgements section.

Affiliations
•    Can include the full mailing address, including laboratory/department/institute, university/museum/institution, street address, city, postal code, state/province, country
•    Unaffiliated authors can use: Independent researcher, city, state/province, country (street address is optional).

Include the corresponding author, like this:

Corresponding author: name (email address)

Abstract

Up to 150 words for ALS; up to 90 words for NGD. Literature citations are not allowed. Avoid acronyms and abbreviations, but if using, explain these on first use. Generally, if the words to be abbreviated are used just once in the abstract, then it is best to spell out in full. Include authority (and year for animals) of publication of species- or genus-level taxa. Write in first person. The abstract must be a stand-alone entity which is a well written and concise summary of the article. Abstracts are only published in English.

Keywords

Up to seven (7) keywords, in alphabetical order and separated by commas, should be included in the text following the abstract. Keywords must not be repeated from the title, must be in alphabetical order, separated by commas, and lower case (except for proper nouns and the first keyword). Do not follow the keywords with a period.

Academic editor and citation
These will be completed by the editors after acceptance of the manuscript.

Language and style
Use American or British (international) English, but please be consistent. Using the formatting of the templates, keep the whole text left-aligned, and keep line numbering on the left margin of the page. Write with precision, clarity, and economy.

Use of active voice and first person, where appropriate, both in the abstract and main text.

While manuscripts are in English, the use of the local language is preferred for geographic and institutional names (e.g., Cordillera Occidental not Western Andes; Universidade de São Paulo not University of São Paulo).

Avoid the use of parenthetical comments.

Headings and subheadings

Main headings: The body text should be subdivided into main sections. Use the appropriate template (see above) and include these sections: Introduction, Study area (only for ALS), Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Additional information, References, Appendix (if there is an appendix). These headings need to be in bold font on a separate line and start with a first capital letter. Please do not number headings or subheadings.

  • Introduction - The motivation or purpose of your research should appear in the Introduction, providing some of the historical basis for those questions. Be concise.
  • Study Area (only for ALS) - Present the key features of the chosen study area in this section. Include information such as size (follow the International System of Units), type of habitat, ecosystem, ecoregion, ecological or eco-geographical classification of the selected study area. If your study site is a legally protected/conservation area, indicate the type of legal protection provided (e.g., Biosphere Reserve, Marine National Park, RAMSAR site, National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, Critical Tiger Habitat, etc.). If appropriate, write briefly about the dominant flora and important faunal diversity of your study site (exclude the organisms that you are reporting in this manuscript). Information on abiotic features such as terrain, current average rainfall, temperature, or precipitation can also be included here. DO NOT write about sampling design in this section; write about that in the Methods. Also, DO NOT include the reason or motivation behind choosing the study area; it should be a part of the Introduction. Cite appropriate references wherever the information provided here is not yours.
  • Methods - A clear description of your experimental design and sampling procedures are especially important. Include protocols for specimen collection, permits for collection, and specialized methods for identification. If you list a product (e.g., animal food, analytical device), supply the name and location of the manufacturer. Give the model number for equipment used. Explicitly indicate where the voucher specimens were deposited; give full names and acronyms for collections, museums, or herbaria, but not catalog numbers or any of the details of records and vouchers. Include other taxon-specific abbreviations, such as sometimes used for specialized structures. Supply complete citations, including author or editor, title, year, publisher, and version number, for computer software mentioned in your article.
  • Results—Results should be stated concisely and without interpretation. Do not present Methods or Discussion here.

For an NGD with one species, optionally add species name and other taxonomic information. For an NGD with more than one species, minimally include the name of the species here (other taxonomic information optional). For NGDs, this section should include a subsection called "New records" (or equivalent/similar: Material examined or perhaps Observations, for example for birds, where specimens are usually not collected). List each of your new records here. After the new records, optionally include any comments, e.g., observational notes that are more easily presented in sentence form. Include a subsection called "Identification"; this will show how you recognized the species. You may prepare a full description, but more important is that you compare your specimens to the species that you claim it to be and with similar or related taxa. You might also add results of molecular analysis here.

If your NGD includes two or more species, repeat New records and Identification sections for each.

For an ALS, results follow the same pattern as for NGD (but see Treatment of Taxa in these Guidelines). 

Other subsections can optionally be added: e.g., Distribution, Remarks, Taxonomic remarks, Habitat, etc., for each species. Please give each section a subheading in bold font.

  • Discussion—Focus on the rigorously supported aspects of your study. Carefully differentiate the results of your study from data obtained from other sources. Interpret your results, relate them to the results of previous research, and discuss the implications of your results or interpretations. In case of new records, previous research consists in all previously known records for that given species—cite, comment, and discuss them, highlighting why your new data is relevant. Clearly summarize the importance of your new record(s): e.g., distance and direction from nearest previous records, occurrence in a country, state, biome, etc.

Point out results that do not support speculations or the findings of previous research, or that are counterintuitive. You may choose to comment on new ideas suggested by your research, compare and contrast your research with findings from other systems or other disciplines, pose new questions that are suggested by the results of your study, and suggest ways of answering these new questions.

  • Acknowledgements—Include people/organizations who provided help, guidance, or financial assistance. Consider acknowledging the subject editor and the reviewers, even when anonymous. Permits for fieldwork and collecting belong in Methods, but you can still acknowledge people here who aided you in obtaining permits.
  • References—Must be complete, property formatted, and fully checked that they are cited in the text (and vice versa).
  • Appendix—Rarely, there is a need for an appendix. Material examined should be presented in Results. However, for example, the background data for producing a distributional map might be presented as an appendix. Manuscripts will have only one appendix, which may consist of multiple parts, e.g., Table A1, A2, etc., or Figure A1, A2, etc. Sometimes an Appendix simply may be text, not labelled as a table. The Appendix will form part of the published PDF and be included in the pagination (compare with Supplemental Data).
  • Supplemental Data—Anything published as Supplemental Data will NOT be part of the published PDF but linked to the article’s landing page. Supplemental Data are best used to publish non-text data, such as sound recordings, video, or very large datasets. For the latter, if the information would fit on a reasonable number of pages, publish it as part of the PDF publication, either within the main text or part of an appendix; this allows readers to access it most effectively. If you plan to include supplemental data, include a section head called Supplemental Data and a brief description of what is included. This should follow References (or Appendix).

Subordinate headings

In Results, two subordinate sections are required for each species in an ALS or NGD:

  • New records or equivalent/similar
  • Identification (see Treatment of taxa in these guidelines for the minimum percentage of species that require this section in an ALS)
  • Optional subordinate headings are also possible in Methods and in Results for each species in an ALS or NGD. The Introduction and Discussion should not have subordinate headings.

Format subordinate headings left-justified, bold, and in a regular sentence case. All subordinate headings should end with a period and be on the same line as the subordinate text.

Scientific names

Scientific names should be written according to their specific nomenclatural code, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and its amendment, and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants.

  • Use italics where required (but no italics for botanical family names).
  • Include the naming authority for plant genera and species on first use. Include the naming authority and year for animal genera and species, enclosing both with parentheses when necessary, as required by the zoological code.
  • The genus component of species names can be abbreviated after its first use in each main section (e.g., Results or Discussion). Exceptions can be made when abbreviating the genus results in loss of clarity. Never abbreviate the genus when it begins a sentence.
  • Descriptions of new taxa are not published, nor any other nomenclatural act.
  • Authors are encouraged to cite in References the publications of the original descriptions of the taxa treated in their manuscript. This is especially helpful for little-known or recently described taxa.

Synonym lists
If synonym lists are included, all cited works must be included in the References sections.

Capitalization

Initial capital letters should be used only in the beginning of a sentence, in proper names, English common names of species (the journal’s style), Red List categories (e.g., Critically Endangered), and in headings of main sections, as well as to indicate tables, graphs and figure(s) within the text. German-language text, such as titles of books, require all nouns to be capitalized.

Italicization and underlining

Scientific names should be written according to their specific nomenclatural code, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and its amendment, and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants.

Italics should not be used for emphasis, SD (standard deviation), SE (standard error), DF (degrees of freedom), NS (non significant), and not for abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., et al., etc., cf.
Underlining of any text is not acceptable for any purpose.

Quotations and quotation marks

Use quotation marks only for shorter direct quotations, words defined by the author, and words used in unusual contexts.

Shorter quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks ("…"). Long quotations should be as a separate line (paragraph), in regular font, without quotation marks, but with left and right margins indented. All quoted text should be attributed by a reference and page number(s): e.g., (Smith 2000: 345–346). Single quotation marks are to be used only for a quotation within another quotation.

Decimal marker

Denote decimal values by using a full stop or period (e.g., 0.07 mm, 4.3 km), not a comma. Check that all figures and tables use the correct kind of decimal marker.

Abbreviations and contractions

Abbreviations and contractions should both be followed by full stop or period ( . ) Examples:

  • Abbreviations: a.s.l., cf., Ed. (editor), e.g., (for example), Fig., i.e. (that is), etc.
  • Contractions: Figs., ca. (circa), Eds., Dr., and Mr.

Units

Use the International System of Units (SI) for all measurements.

If historical data includes non-SI measurements, include the approximate equivalent in brackets: e.g., 12 miles [19 km].

There should be a space between the value and unit (e.g., 12.5 km, not 12.5km).

All SI and similar units, for instance mm, cm, m, s, L, should be written without full stop.

Hyphens and dashes

Hyphens are used to link words such as personal names, some prefixes, and compound adjectives.

En-dashes (the width of an "N") are used to link spans. Use to link numerals, sizes, dates and page numbers (e.g., 1977–1981, Figs. 5–7, 237–258); and geographic or name associations (Murray–Darling River; a Federal–State agreement).

Em-dashes (the width of an "M") should be used rarely for introducing a subordinate clause in the text that is often used much as we use parentheses; in contrast to parentheses, an em-dash can be used alone. Check List typically uses the em-dash to separate names from references in synonym lists when the reference is a subsequent use of the name (i.e., not the original description).

There must be no space before or after either En- or em-dashes.

Footnotes

Footnotes are not permitted in the body text of the manuscript.

Geographic coordinates and altitude

Geographic coordinates are mandatory part of all new records (coordinates for historical records may be lacking but can be derived from modern sources and added, enclosed in square brackets, [ … ] ).

Geographic coordinates may be derived from a GPS receiver, an online gazetteer, or mapping software (e.g., Google Earth). Geographic coordinates must be in one of these formats:

  • Degrees, minutes, and seconds, e.g., 36°31′21″N, 114°09′50″W
  • Degrees and decimal minutes, e.g., 36°31.46′N, 114°09.84′W
  • Decimal degrees, e.g., 36.5243°S, 114.1641°W
  • Decimal degrees, e.g., −36.5243, −114.1641 (minus indicate S and W hemispheres)

Do not mix ± with NS/EW: e.g., −123.01°W is wrong; this can only be −123.01 or 123.01°W

Accuracy is the tendency of measurements to agree with the true values. Many authors give the coordinates of their localities as recorded by their GPS. However, these readings are much too precise. As a general principle, do not give greater precision than the accuracy of the GPS. Too much precision (e.g., the many decimal places in 115.1329384°W) is misleading in that it implies a greater accuracy than the capacity of the GPS receiver. A GPS receiver might give the latitude in decimal seconds as 28°16′55.87″N. Because one second of latitude is about 30 m on the ground (but will vary depending on the distance from the equator), the second figure after the decimal in 55.87 represents 30 cm, yet a typical handheld GPS receiver is only accurate at best to ca. 3 m.

Round off geographic coordinates to an implied precision appropriate to the accuracy of the measurement (for standard GPS receivers, this is ca. 3 m error), or to the extent of the area sampled (the distance around a central point). We suggest rounding off:

  • to the nearest second in degree-minute-second format (28°16'56"N), which implies roughly ± 25–30 m at middle latitudes
  • to two decimal places in decimal minute format (28°16.93'N), which implies roughly 15–20 m at middle latitudes
  • to four decimal places in decimal degree format (28.2822°N), which implies roughly ± 10–15 m at middle latitudes

Altitude. Many GPS users simply record the elevation given by their GPS receiver. However, GPS elevation is the elevation above a mathematical model of the Earth’s surface and not the same as elevation above sea level. GPS elevations are also more prone to errors caused by improper calibration of the device and inherent problems of accuracy with the technology. Round off elevations to the nearest 10 m.

Additional information

Follow the template for what to include and how. Each of the 6 subsections must be completed: Conflict of interest, Ethical statement, Funding, Author contributions (for manuscripts with more than 1 author), Author ORCID iDs (if available), Data availability.

Citing Figures and numbering figures

All figures must be cited somewhere in the text. The order of figures must match the order of their first mention in the manuscript with a few exceptions. An exception would be sometimes in Methods, a figure is mentioned for the purpose of describing its preparation, not what it is showing (e.g. "Figure 5 was prepared using QGIS v. 3.35").

In referring to figures in the text, spell out in full: Figure 1. Figure 1A, B. Figures 1A, B, 3F, G, 7A.


Treatment of Taxa

Identification

Only species-level identifications will be accepted; identifications to family- or genus-level will not be accepted. In the case of records based on genus-level identifications, these can be discussed as a personal observation but cannot be included as the main topic for an NGD nor as part of the results of an ALS. Papers submitted with family- or genus-level identifications might be subject to rejection prior the peer-review process.

Comments on identification

Mention of key characters, diagnoses, full descriptions, or comparisons with similar or related taxa is an important part of your manuscript to allow future validation by readers of your identifications and enhance the half-life of articles even in the face of taxonomic changes.

For NGD, all species must include comments on identification. For ALS, all treated taxa should ideally be commented, but:

  • ≤100 species should minimally have ≥50% of the species commented.
  • >100 species should minimally have ≥25% of the species commented.

Give the key diagnostic characters used to separate your species from similar or related species, paying attention to those that with which it is most likely to be confused, and especially those in or suspected to be in the study area. Compare your specimens to published descriptions and illustrations, or type or other verified material in collections, if possible. Comments on the observed variation in your material or how the specimens differ from the species original description/definition are especially useful.

Figures of Treated Taxa

Figures must be provided to allow the unambiguous identification of the treated species and generally should show the important characters used in identifying the species. Figures may be photographs or illustrations of living individuals and/or preserved or dead specimens. These are intended to allow verification of your identification of the species by editors, reviewers, and readers and together with comments on identification contribute to enhance the half-life of your article in the face of taxonomic changes.

For NGD, all species must be appropriately figured. For ALS, all treated taxa should ideally be figured, but:

  • ≤100 species should minimally have ≥50% of the species illustrated.
  • >100 species should minimally have ≥25% of the species illustrated.

Voucher Specimens

To be published, manuscripts must be in accordance with Check List’s voucher policy, as below. The information here applies to all taxa, except when otherwise noted.

  • Voucher specimens must be listed in Results.
  • Voucher specimens must have been legally collected.
  • Collecting permit numbers and the issuing agency, where applicable, should be included in Methods, and a statement that specimens were euthanized using approved/accepted/standard methods for the taxonomic group is recommended for inclusion in Methods.
  • Vouchers specimens must be deposited in scientific collections open to the public. Vouchers must be deposited before submission to Check List, and for most taxa, the institutional catalog number of the vouchers must be included in the manuscript.
  • For plants, the collector’s numbers and herbarium numbers must be cited.
  • For insects deposited in museums that do not use catalog numbers, an author’s number will be accepted if a label containing this unique and individual information is attached to each specimen.
  • It is recommended to state if tissue samples for DNA analysis were taken from the vouchers.

When specimens cannot be collected for vouchers

For species threatened by extinction or legally protected, or when collecting of specimens is prohibited in the study area, special circumstances apply. However, for certain taxa (e.g., most invertebrates or those vertebrates that are difficult to identify), the absence of voucher specimens may not allow for the proper vetting of your manuscript and it may not be acceptable for publication, and the decision to consider your manuscript will be up to a Subject Editor specializing in the taxonomic group. When voucher specimens are not available:

  • Provide evidence other than voucher specimens, including photographs or voice records, if it allows an unambiguous identification of the taxon.
  • For ALS on birds or mammals, observational records will only be accepted if standard procedures for the taxon are followed, and if the species are easily discernible.

Sequence data

Manuscripts containing novel amino acid sequences (e.g., primer sequences) will only be accepted if they carry an International Nucleotide Sequence Databases (INSD) accession number from the European Biology Laboratory (EMBL), GenBank Data Libraries (GenBank) or DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ). We strongly recommend that authors include institutional catalog numbers for specimens preserved in collections, and information identifying sequences that are derived from type specimens (see below) when they deposit data in genetic databanks. A summary table with the INSD accession [catalog] numbers should be included in the Methods section of the paper. If specimens were not vouchered (tissued specimens should be vouchered whenever possible!), collection locality data and possibly photographs of tissued specimens must be provided.


Citations and References

Before submitting the manuscript and at each revision, please check that every citation in the text has a corresponding entry in References and vice-versa.

Format of citations in the text

One author: Smith (1990) or (Smith 1990); e.g., "According to Smith (1990), …" or "The species was not collected above 220 m (Smith 1990)".

Two authors: Brock and Gunderson (2001) or (Brock and Gunderson 2001)

Three or more authors: Smith et al. (1998) or (Smith et al. 1998)

When citing more than one source, order citations by the year of publication, starting with the earliest one; e.g., (Smith et al. 1998, 2000, 2016a, 2016b; Brock and Gunderson 2001a, 2001b; Felt 2006). Two or more fully identical citations: this can happen when you have more than one reference with exactly the same authors and years for one or two authors, or the same first author and year for author teams of three or more. Distinguish citations by adding letters after the years to citations and in References: (Reyes-Velasco et al. 2018a, 2018b). Repeat the year (2018a, 2018b; not 2018a, b).

Citations with page numbers or figures included: Smith (2000: 231), Smith (2000: figs. 4–9), Smith (2000: fig. 12)

For authorities and year for taxonomic names in zoology include a comma (,) between author and year; for multiple authors, use an "&" not "and"; use parentheses as needed (this is governed by the ICZN):

Brianmyia stuckenbergi Woodley, 2012
Micrurus camilae Renjifo & Lundberg, 2003
Tantilla alticola (Boulenger, 1903)

References

Please format the references properly. Your manuscript will be returned if references are incomplete or not well formatted. All book and journal titles should be spelled out completely and should NOT be italicized. Ensure that punctuation (or lack of punctuation) between parts is correct.

  • Author names: surname first; all given names abbreviated, no full stops, commas or spaces, i.e.:
    • Albuquerque PRA  (or de Albuquerque PRA)
    • Linnaeus C
    • Middendorff AT von
    • Smith CA Jr
    • van Tol J
  • Authors separated by comma
  • Year in brackets; no comma or full stop after it
  • No italics (except for scientific names below family rank)

Capitalization is kept minimal in the titles of articles, books, chapters, reports. In English, capitalize the first word and proper nouns only; in German, capitalize all nouns; in other languages, capitalize where required, using minimal capitalization. Journal titles should have important words with initial capitals; treat non-English journal titles as if they were English.

Include DOIs (digital object identifiers) when available for either the full-text or title and abstract of an article, book chapter, or other reference; this is required. We do not accept standard URLs instead of DOIs; if journals do not offer DOIs, then no link is to be added. Please form DOIs using the full URL link: https://doi.org + prefix (10.xxxxxx) + suffix ; for example in the DOI https://doi.org/10.15560/14.4.579, 10.15560 is the prefix (identifies the publisher) and 14.4.579 is the suffix (identifies the article). Include the https://doi.org/ in all DOIs. Use the https://doi.org, not the deprecated http://dx.doi.org, http://doi: or any other form. Use/correct the DOI to these guidelines even when the publisher shows something different. Also ensure that each hyperlinked DOI works (do not insert spaces or break hyperlinks).

Other, non-DOI hyperlinks to references are included only for some kinds of references that are only online, such as online databases, software download sites, online published reports, and similar. When inserting a reference to a webpage, please include the http:// or https:// portion of the web address. In every case, there must be the date accessed.

Follow the examples below:

Journal article, no DOI

Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: the open-access register for zoological taxonomy: technical discussion paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

Follow this pattern: Authors (year) Article title. Journal Title Vol: page range.

Journal article, with DOI

Martel C, Salas M (2018) Telipogon jucusbambae (Orchidaceae), the rediscovery of a marvelous Telipogon from Peru. Check List 14 (1): 189–193. https://doi.org/10.15560/14.1.189

Follow this pattern: Authors (year) Article title. Journal Title Vol: page range. DOI

Journal article, without traditional pagination

Proćków M, Strzała T, Kuźnik-Kowalska E, Proćków J, Mackiewicz P (2017) Ongoing speciation and gene flow between taxonomically challenging Trochulus species complex (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae). PLoS ONE 12 (1): e0170460. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170460

Follow this pattern: Authors (year) Article title. Journal Title Vol: article id. DOI

Accepted, in press journal article

Same as above, but ''(in press)'' appears instead of the year in parentheses.

Book

Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine rove beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria, 166 pp.

Follow this pattern: Authors (year) Book title. Edition if needed. Publisher, City, Country, pp.

Book chapter

Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds.) Species concepts and phylogenetic theory: a debate. Columbia University Press, New York, USA, 17–29.

A book with one editor would be indicated as (Ed.)

Follow this pattern: Authors (year) Chapter title. In: Editor (Ed.) Book title. Edition if needed. Publisher, City, Country, page range of the chapter.

Book with institutional author

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 4th edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, UK, xxiv + 306 pp.

ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) (1999) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 4th edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, UK, xxiv + 306 pp.

Follow this pattern: Either Institutional author or abbreviation and full name (year) Title of book. Edition if needed. Publisher, City, Country, pages.

 

PhD or Master’s thesis

Gould SJ (1967) Pleistocene and Recent history of the subgenus Poecilozonites (Poecilozonites) (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) in Bermuda: an evolutionary microcosm. PhD thesis, Columbia University, New York, USA, 444 pp.

Follow this pattern: Author (year) Title of thesis. Type of thesis, University, City, Country, pages.

Conference proceedings

Popov YA (1971) Origin and main evolutionary trends of Nepomorpha bugs. In: Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Entomology, Moscow, Russia, 282–283.

Follow this pattern: Author (year) Abstract title. In: Conference Title, City, Country, pages.

Online publication (not journal articles)

Australian Invasive Species Program (2015) http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/weeds/index.html. Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia. Accessed on: 2015-8-25.

GISP (Global Invasive Species Programme) (2005) América do Sul Invadida: a crescente ameaça das espécies exóticas invasoras. Global Invasive Species Programme, Cape Town, South Africa, 80 pp. http://www.institutohorus.org.br/download/gispSAmericapo.pdf. Accessed on: 2013-10-27.

Follow this pattern: Either Institutional author or abbreviation and full name (year) Title of online resource. Publisher, City, Country, pages (if paginated). URL hyperlink. Accessed on: date (year-month-day).

Reference in Non-Latin alphabet

Provide translated title in brackets [ ] after the original title. Include the original language of the source in brackets after the reference, e.g., "[in Russian]".

Bogutskaya NG, Kijashko PV, Naseka AM, Orlova MI (2013) Определитель рыб и беспозвоночных Каспийского моря. Том 1. Рыбы и моллюски [Identification keys to fish and invertebrates of the Caspian Sea. Vol. 1. Fish and molluscs]. KMK Scientific Press, Moscow, Russia, 544 pp. [in Russian]

Follow this pattern: Authors (year) Original non-Roman title [translated title]. Publisher, City, Country, pages. [in language]

Unpublished works and gray literature.

  • Do not include unpublished material in References. They should be quoted in the text as personal observations, personal communications, or unpublished data, specifying the exact source, with date, if possible.
  • Avoid citing gray literature; include in References only if no other source of information is available.

Ordering references. All references should be ordered alphabetically, based on the first author.

If the references have the same first author and a varying number of co-authors, the ordering should be based on the number of co-authors starting with the lowest as follows:

  • Smith J (2018) Article title. Journal Name 1: 1–10. https://doi.org/...
  • Smith J, Gunderson A, Smith E (2000) Article title. Journal Name 1: 100–130. https://doi.org/...
  • Smith J, Gunderson A, Brock B (2015) Article title. Journal Name 1: 20–30. https://doi.org/...
  • Smith J, Smith E, Gunderson A, Brock B (1957) Article title. Journal Name 1: 100–130. https://doi.org/...

In the occasion of more than one article from the same first author within any of the categories above, the references should be ordered chronologically.

If both the first author and year of publication match within the categories above, the references are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year of publication and this notation must be followed in the in-text citations.


Figures

Figures are accepted in the following image file formats (below 20 MB file size limit):

  • EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
  • JPEG (300 dpi minimum resolution; preferred format for photos or images, especially unaltered, direct from camera)
  • TIFF (300 dpi resolution, with LZW compression, preferable format for photos or images)
  • PNG (300 dpi minimum resolution)
  • PSD (300 dpi minimum resolution)
  • XLS, XLSX (native Microsoft Excel file formats; you may be asked to supply these for graphs)

TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files need only be 300 pixels per inch, at the size they will appear on the page (width of 1 column = 81 mm, 2 columns = 166 mm). Please prepare you figures to accommodate the page size. For figures composed of multiple parts (individual photographs or illustrations), authors should neatly arrange the component parts into a single figure file.

Scale bars lengths are added last, using this format: "Scale bars: A–C, E = 20 μm; F, H = 10 μm; G = 5 μm.".

Text must be sharp, at an appropriate size that is legible (e.g., no overlap of text and graphical elements such as lines).

Author(s) must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures that have previously been published elsewhere and include the source attribution in the legend.

Should you have any problems in providing the figures in one of the above formats, please contact production@checklistjournal.com.

Figure legends

All figures must be referenced consecutively in the manuscript (the ordering of figures must match the order of first mention of figures in the text).

Each figure should have a legend. Include:

  • The figure number in bold (e.g., Figure 1)
  • A general short title or description must be included
  • Parts of the figure identified by letters in bold (e.g., Figure 1. Figure general short title or description. A. Part text. B. Part text.)
  • If abbreviations are used, these are placed after the parts with a colon, i.e.:
  • Abbreviations: xxxx

Scale bars lengths are added last, using this format: "Scale bars: A–C, E = 20 μm F, H = 10 μm; G = 5 μm."

In referring to figures in the text, spell out in full: Figure 1. Figure 1A, B. Figures 1A, B, 3F, G, 7A.

Maps

Map(s) showing the geographic distribution of studied species are mandatory. Include:

  • A simple north arrow
  • A scale bar (do not indicate scale as a ratio such as 1:30000 because the scale will vary with image resizing and viewing)
  • Indications of geographic coordinates at the margins matching the same format used elsewhere in the manuscript

For NGDs, maps should show your new records (point data) and either (a) previously known points of occurrence (point data), or (b) previously known range (as an area or shape). By including previously known occurrences or range on maps, the relationship of your new records to what was known about the distribution of the species will be clear.

Using Google Maps, Google Earth

All uses of Google Maps and Google Earth Content must provide attribution to Google, according to Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Service (see also Permission Guidelines for Google Maps and Google Earth). The attribution should be visible on each map in the form, for example: "©2020 Google" (attribution to only Google) or "©2020 Google, IMTCAN, CNES/Airbus" (attribution to Google and providers of satellite images; these will vary according to region of the Earth).


Tables

Format following these rules:

  • Table must be in an editable format:
    • Embed in the Word document using Insert > Table; do not set regular text into tables using tabs and spaces
    • If very large and slows down word processing, then provide table as a separate .xls or .xlsx file
  • In Word, long tables can continue onto the next page; never split a table by starting a new table for each page
  • In Word, use the default format: thin, black lines around all edges and between all cells (do not try to emulate the look of tables as they appear in a published Check List article)
  • Include heading for every column (including the leftmost)
  • Sentence case for all content in table and body cells
  • No shading of cells, rows, or columns; no coloured fonts
  • Do not have hidden rows or columns
  • Each column or row should contain only one kind of data (e.g., do not include geographic coordinates and elevation together in a cell; split into separate cells)
  • Units (repeating information) belong in the heading cell
  • Table legend and footnotes must not be part of the table, but above and below it, respectively
  • Same number of decimal places for same numerical data (usually within same column)
  • Ensure that anything that should be in italics in the table are in italic font

Table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e., Table 1, 2, 3, etc.; Table A1, A2, etc. in Appendix).

Table should have a legend (above the table) with a title that summarizes the whole table and details as needed.

Footnotes are only acceptable below tables; instead of numbers, please use (in order): *, †, ‡, §, ¶, #, **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ||, ¶, ##.

Referring to tables in the text:

  • Table 1
  • Tables 1, 2
  • Tables 1–3
  • Not Tab. or Tabs.

New records/Material examined

Called New records or Material examined, but another, more suitable name might be better depending on the type of records. For most manuscripts, New records is best.

Do not combine records/observations with a generalized geographic position and/or date range. Each record must represent a unique collection or observation event.

Each record is composed of diverse data fields (locality, date, collector/observer, other field-based data, and specimen-based data). Most of these fields are required information. The standard order (from most inclusive [country] to least inclusive [specimen data]) and format are as follows:

COUNTRY/WATER BODY – Province/state • geographic/locality data [from largest to smallest]; geographic coordinates; altitude/elevation/depth [using alt. or elev.]; date [format: 16.IV.1998]; collector(s) [followed by "leg." (or "obs." if not collected)]; other collecting data [e.g., micro habitat/host/method of collecting]; barcodes/identifiers [e.g., GenBank: MG779236]; institution code and specimen or catalogue number, sex, preservation, and code(s) [e.g., 3 ♂, CBF 06023].

For botanical and mycological data, use "collection number" instead of "collector [followed by "leg."]". The collection number encompasses all gatherings from a single specimen (e.g., leaves, flowers, piece of wood), which may be preserved on different herbarium sheets and in different herbaria.

Include specimen data (number of specimens, sex (if appropriate), preservation (e.g., slide, in ethanol, dried, etc.), institution and specimen or catalogue number together as the last item that forms a record.

When sex of a specimen is unknown or indication of the sex is not appropriate (a hermaphroditic organism), instead use "spec." (for specimens) or another descriptor ("dry shell"). For organisms where the sex is normally possible to determine but due to immaturity of the specimen or some other reason cannot be determined, use "sex indet.".

Punctuation and symbols

A bullet point (• [unicode: 2022]) is used to signify the beginning of a record. Within each record, the different fields are delimited by a semicolon. A single field can be composed of several elements, which are separated by commas (e.g., the details region, area, town, and street for the "locality: field).

BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro • Nova Iguaçu, Reserva Biológica do Tinguá; 22°33′48″S, 043°25′36″W; 426 m alt.; 02.XII.2020; O. Cruz leg.; light trap; 1 ♂,  CEIOC 1224.

Semicolons should not be used elsewhere in the presentation of the data.

Do not "pluralize" ♀ and ♂ by doubling them up (2 ♀ and 2 ♂, not 2 ♀♀ nor 2 ♂♂).

If the material is organised by region (country, province, state or other subnational unit), please use the following format (country in all-capitals; province, state or other subnational unit in bold):

BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro • Nova Iguaçu, Reserva Biológica do Tinguá; 22°33′48″S, 043°25′36″W; 426 m alt.; 02.XII.2020; O. Cruz leg.; light trap; 1 ♂, CEIOC 1224 • Teresópolis, Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, Rio Paquequer; 22°18′35″S, 042°59′08″W; 910 m a.s.l.; 04.III.1998; J.L. Nessimian leg.; 2 ♀, DZRJ 5421 – São Paulo • São José do Barreiro, Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina, tributário do Rio Mambucaba; 22°40′00″S, 044°36′04″W; 769 m alt.; 19.IV.2005; 3 ♂, MZUSP 27654. ARGENTINA – Corrientes • Parque Nacional Mburucuyá; 21.IX.1995; A.O. Bachmann leg.; 2 sex indet., MLP 2134.

Repetitive data

Repetitive data can be indicated by using "same locality", "ibid.", etc. if the same method and wording are used consistently throughout the manuscript. If a record is identical to another with only one or two differences, the exceptions should be listed after the mention of repeated data.

If several specimens from one collection event (all locality, date, collector, and other collecting data are the same) but split up into lots sent to several museums or preserved/stored or handled in different ways (dried/in alcohol/slide mounted, tissue collection, etc.) that results in the assignment of different specimen/catalogue numbers to them, combine these together for the record, e.g.: "1 ♀, ABC 0000; 2♂, ABC 0001; 3 sex indet., DEF 1000" or "1 dry shell, CDE 1001; 2 spec. in ethanol, CDE 1002".

BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro • Nova Iguaçu, Reserva Biológica do Tinguá; 22°33'48"S, 43°25'36"W; 426 m alt.; 02.XII.2020; O. Cruz leg.; light trap; 1 ♂, CEIOC 1224; 1 sex indet. CEIOC 3457 • same locality; 12.X.2021; C. Chagas leg.; malaise trap; 1 ♂, CEIOC 6845; 2 ♀, CEIOC 6846.

Missing information

In historical records, it is not necessary to include information such as "no date" or "no locality data"; just list the elements that are available.

BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro • Nova Iguaçu, Reserva Biológica do Tinguá; 22°33′48″S, 043°25′36″W; 02.XII.2020; 1 ♂, CEIOC 1238.

However, including an indication of the geographic coordinates can be useful, even when none were present in the original source and the coordinates are approximated.

Added information

Added information, such as geographic coordinates approximated by the authors, spelling corrections, or other insertions and author interpretations to aid in clarity, can be added in [square brackets].

Including secondarily sourced geographic coordinates, when none exist in the original source of historical records, is very useful and encouraged (the process in obtaining and level of precision of these de approximated coordinates should be explained in Methods).

BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro • [Nova Iguaçu, Reserva Biológica do] Tinguá; [22°33′S, 043°25′W]; 02.XII.1900; O. Cruz leg.; 1 ♂, CEIOC 1241.


Dryad Repository Submissions

This journal is integrated with the Dryad Digital Repository to make data publication simple and easy for authors. There is a $150 Data Publishing Charge for Dryad submissions, payable via the Dryad website.  For more information, please see their FAQ.


Author Contributions

The journal is integrated with Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), in order to recognise individual author input within a publication, thereby ensuring professional and ethical conduct, while avoiding authorship disputes, gift / ghost authorship and similar pressing issues in academic publishing.

During manuscript submission, the submitting author is strongly recommended to select a contributor role for each of co-author, using a list of 14 predefined roles, i.e. Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review and Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding Acquisition (see more). Once published, the article will be including the contributor role for all authors in the article metadata.


English Language Editing

This journal has well-defined policies for English language editing. Involving mandatory outsourced language editing services would considerably increase the price of the Article Processing Charges, which would become an additional obstacle for persons and institutions to publish in the journal. Therefore, we rely both on the conscience of our authors to provide stylistically well-written texts and our editors and reviewers to filter out badly written manuscripts.

Authors are required to have their manuscripts edited either by a native English speaker or by a professional editing service BEFORE submission. Authors have to confirm by checking a tick box in the submission process that they have followed the above requirement:

The text is checked either by a native English speaker, duly acknowledged in the manuscript, or by a professional editing service. I am aware that non-edited manuscripts could be rejected prior to peer-review.

The submission process includes an option to request a professional linguistic editing at a price of EURO 15 per 1800 characters:

The text has not been checked by a native speaker and I request thorough editing prior to peer review at a price. I agree to cover the costs even if my manuscript is not accepted for publication.

The authors are NOT obliged to use our linguistic services, but they must ensure that their manuscripts have been checked by a native speaker.


Concise Copyediting Instructions

The copyediting instructions below represent a concise summary of the journal's formatting requirements. The instructions are intended for use by the authors during preparation of the final revised versions of their manuscripts, technical editors, copy editors and typesetters.  

Author names

  • Complete names of all authors
  • Omit titles, degrees, etc.

Affiliation

•    Should not be the full mailing address but simply basic information
•    Email addresses and ORCID iDs are optional

(laboratory/department/institute), university/museum/institution, city, (state/province), country; email@a.bc; https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000

Article title

Title of article: Subtitle of article

  • Title: Sentence case
  • Colon between title and subtitle (if any)
  • No footnotes
  • No bold (use when needed sub-/superscript, and/or italics only for the terms in Latin)
  • Higher taxa within the title should be separated with commas and not with a semicolon

Running head

  • A short version of title up to 50 characters (including spaces); normally the short title should have been suggested by the authors and checked for clarity by the copy editor

Abstract

  • Up to 150 words for ALS; up to 90 words for NGD
  • No references to tables, figures, etc., no footnotes
  • No citations (preferably)
    • If citations unavoidable: Complete citations, allowing unambiguous identification of cited publication!
  • Should be written consistently in first person
  • Note: The abstract has to be a stand-alone entity, to present a really well written and concise summary of the article! A special care for copy editors to check!

Keywords

keyword a, keyword b, keyword n

•    Up to seven (7) keywords
•    Do not repeat words from the title
•    Listed in alphabetical order and separated by commas
•    Lowercase letters, except proper names
•    No bold font
•    Without any punctuation marks after last keyword

Tables

  • Table caption: Start with label "Table N." in bold. Sentence case, i.e.:
    • Table 2. Table caption text.
  • Numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
  • Heading for every column (including the leftmost!)
  • No shading of cells, rows, columns; no colored fonts
  • Same number of decimal places for same statistics (usually within same column)
  • Text formatting in the cell without paragraph and line break
  • Table must be in an editable format (.docx, .xlsx, etc., not as images)
  • Caption and footnotes as texts (not as part of a table)

Figures

  • Figure caption: Start with label "Figure N." in bold. Sentence case, i.e.:
    • Figure 6. Figure caption text.
  • Numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
  • Figure parts: Use capital letters in bold. Check List uses punctuation and capitalization:
      • Figure 1. Figure general caption text. A. Part caption text. B. Part caption text. N. Part caption text.
    • If abbreviations are used, these are placed after the parts with a colon, i.e.:
      Abbreviations: xxxx
    • If there are scale bars on the figure parts, reference to them is last and in the format: Scale bars: A = 100 mm; B, C = 50 mm.
    • High quality (at least 300 dpi)
    • Text sharp and readable (e.g., no overlap of text and graphical elements like lines)
    • Background color should be consistent throughout the manuscript
    • No image border
    • Caption as text (not as part of the image)

      Capitalization

      • Article title: Sentence case
      • Running head: Sentence case
      • Table captions: Sentence case
      • Headings of table rows and columns:
        o    Sentence case or lower case (check for consistency only!)
      • Figure captions: Sentence case
      • In text body: Nouns followed by numerals/letters (citations of figures, tables, appendices and supplementary files) e.g.:
        • Fig. 4; Figs 1, 2; Table 2; Appendix 1
      • In text body: Titles of articles, book chapters, books, tests
      • In references: Sentence case

      Text body

      • Regular font usage:
        • Main text
        • Abbreviations e.g., i.e., et al., etc., cf., vs.
        • Greek letter e.g., α, β, γ, δ, ε, σ, φ, χ, ω
      • Italic font usage:
        • Scientific names of species and genera (authorities in regular font, not in italics)
        • Symbols for variables and constants, such as p, F, U, T, N, r , but not for SD (standard deviation), SE (standard error), DF (degrees of freedom), and NS (non significant). These symbols should be in italics to match the text.
        • Do not use italics for emphasis
      • No underlining
      • Bold font usage:
        • Subheadings, sections and subsections
        • Figure captions – For the label and designation of figure’s parts (the full stop [period] should be bold as well)::
          • Figure 1. Figure general caption text. A. part caption text B. part caption text N. part caption text.
        • Table captions – For the label:
          • Table 1. Table caption text.
      • Subsection "New records" or "Material examined":​​​​​​​​​
        • Authors must follow this format: COUNTRY/WATER BODY – Province/state • geographic/locality data [from largest to smallest]; geographic coordinates; altitude/elevation/depth [using alt. or elev.]; date [format: 16.IV.1998]; collector(s) [followed by "leg." (or "obs." if not collected)]; other collecting data [e.g., micro habitat/host/method of collecting]; barcodes/identifiers [e.g., GenBank: MG779236]; institution code and specimen or catalogue number, sex, preservation, and code(s) [e.g., 3 ♂, CBF 06023].
          For Example: BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro • Nova Iguaçu, Reserva Biológica do Tinguá; 22°33′48″S, 043°25′36″W; 426 m alt.; 02.XII.2020; O. Cruz leg.; light trap; 1 ♂, CEIOC 1224 • Teresópolis, Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, Rio Paquequer; 22°18′35″S, 042°59′08″W; 910 m a.s.l.; 04.III.1998; J.L. Nessimian leg.; 2 ♀, DZRJ 5421 – São Paulo • São José do Barreiro, Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina, tributário do Rio Mambucaba; 22°40′00″S, 044°36′04″W; 769 m alt.; 19.IV.2005; 3 ♂, MZUSP 27654. ARGENTINA – Corrientes • Parque Nacional Mburucuyá; 21.IX.1995; A.O. Bachmann leg.; 2 sex indet., MLP 2134.
        • Punctuation:
          A bullet point "•" (unicode: 2022) is used to signify the beginning of a material citation. Within each citation, the different fields are delimited by a semicolon. A single field can be composed of several elements, which are separated by commas (e.g. the details region, area, town and street for the ‘locality’ field). Semicolons should not be used elsewhere in a material citation.
        • Repetitive data: Authors can indicate repetitive data with indications such as "same data as above", "same locality", "ibid", etc. as long as the same method and wording are used consistently throughout the paper.
        • ‘Missing’ elements: It is not necessary to include information such as "no date" or "no locality data"; just list the elements that are available.
        • see more details here
      • Quotation marks
        • Avoid quotation marks except for direct quotations, words defined by the author, and words used in unusual contexts.
        • Short quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Long quotations should be on a separate line, in regular font, but without quotation marks..
        • Single quotation marks are to be used only for a quotation that occurs within another quotation.
      • Hyphen and dash characters
        • Consistent use of (-, –, —).
        • In contrast to parentheses an em-dash can be used alone.
        • En-dashes and em-dashes should not be spaced.
          • Hyphens (-) are used to:
            • link words such as personal names, some prefixes and compound adjectives (the last of which vary depending on the style manual in use)
          • En-dash (–) or en-rule (the length of an 'n') is used to:
            • link spans.
            • link numerals, sizes, dates and page numbers (e.g., 1977–1981; figs 5–7; pp. 237–258)
            • geographic or name associations (e.g., Murray–Darling River; a Federal–State agreement)
          • Em-dash (—) or em-rule (the length of an 'm') should be used rarely:
            • only for introducing a subordinate clause in the text that is often used much as we use parentheses.

      Section hierarchy

      • No more than 2 levels, from hierarchical level 1 (H1) to hierarchical level 2 (H2)
      • No numbering of hierarchical levels

      Section titles

      • Capitalization:
        • For separated titles (usually H1): Title case
        • For paragraph titles (usually H2): Sentence case

      Geographic coordinates

      One of the following formats should be used:

      • Degrees, minutes, and seconds (DMS), e.g., 36°31'21"N; 114°09'50"W
      • Degrees and decimal minutes (DDM), e.g.: 36°31.46'N; 114°09.84'W
      • Decimal degrees (DD), e.g.: −36.5243; −114.1641(minus indicate S and W hemispheres) 

        In-Text Citations

        • References
          • 1-2 authors
            • Jackson and Miller (2012) found out that...
            • A recent study (Jackson and Miller 2012) confirmed that...
          • 3 or more authors
            • Jackson et al. (2012) found out that...
            • A recent study (Jackson et al. 2012) confirmed that...
          • Multiple sources in chronological order:
            • same authors different years - separated by a comma:
              • Jackson and Miller (2012, 2015) found out that...
              • Recent studies (Jackson et al. 2012, 2015) confirmed that...
            • different authors - separated by a semicolon:
              • (Smith et al. 1998, 2000, 2016; Brock and Gunderson 2001; Felt 2006)
            • two or more fully identical citations (the same authors and years) are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year:
              • Jackson 2008a, 2008b
              • Jackson and Miller 2014a, 2014b
              • Reyes-Velasco et al. 2018a, 2018b
          • Sources with page numbers
            • Jackson and Miller (2012: 120–121) found out that
            • A recent study (Jackson and Miller 2012: 120) confirmed that
        • Figures:
          • Fig. 1
          • Fig. 1A, B
          • Fig. 1A–D
          • Figs 1, 2
          • Figs 1–3
          • Figs 1A, B, 3F, G, 7A
        • Tables:
          • Table 1
          • Tables 1, 2
          • Tables 1–3
        • Appendixes:
          • Appendix 1
          • Appendices 1, 2
          • Appendices 1–4
        • Referenced materials from other sources:
          • All figures, tables, etc., from other sources should be written with small letters i.e.: see Author (Year: fig.2) ...

        References

        • Author names: surname first; all given names abbreviated, no full stops, commas or spaces, i.e.:
          • Albuquerque PRA (or de Albuquerque PRA)
          • Linnaeus C
          • Middendorff AT von
          • van Tol J
        • Authors separated by comma
        • Year in brackets; no comma or full stop after it
        • No italics (except for scientific names below family rank)
        • Ordering references. All references should be ordered alphabetically, based on the first author. If the references have the same first author and a varying number of co-authors, the ordering should be based on the number of co-authors starting with the lowest as follows:
          o    Smith J (2018) Article title. Journal Name 1: 1–10. https://doi.org/...
          o    Smith J, Gunderson A, Smith E (2000) Article title. Journal Name 1: 100–130. https://doi.org/...
          o    Smith J, Gunderson A, Brock B (2015) Article title. Journal Name 1: 20–30. https://doi.org/...
          o    Smith J, Smith E, Gunderson A, Brock B (1957) Article title. Journal Name 1: 100–130. https://doi.org/...
          o    In the occasion of more than one article from the same first author within any of the categories above, the references should be ordered chronologically.
          o    If both the first author and year of publication match within the categories above, the references are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year of publication and this notation must be followed in the in-text citations.

        Journal article, no DOI:

        Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: The open-access register for zoological taxonomy: Technical Discussion Paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

        Journal article, with DOI:

        Martel C, Salas M (2018) Telipogon jucusbambae (Orchidaceae), the rediscovery of a marvelous Telipogon from Peru. Check List 14 (1): 189–193. https://doi.org/10.15560/14.1.189.

        Journal article, without traditional pagination:

        Proćków M, Strzała T, Kuźnik-Kowalska E, Proćków J, Mackiewicz P (2017) Ongoing speciation and gene flow between taxonomically challenging Trochulus species complex (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae). PLoS ONE 12 (1): e0170460. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170460.

        Accepted, in press journal article:

        Same as above, but ''(in press)'' appears instead of the year in parentheses.

        Book:

        Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine rove beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria, 166 pp.

        Book chapter:

        Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds) Species concepts and phylogenetic theory: a debate. Columbia University Press, New York, USA, 17–29.

        Book with institutional author:

        International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 4th edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, UK, xxiv + 306 pp.

        ICZN (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) (1999) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 4th edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London, UK, xxiv + 306 pp.

        PhD or Master's thesis:

        Gould SJ (1967) Pleistocene and Recent history of the subgenus Poecilozonites (Poecilozonites) (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) in Bermuda: an evolutionary microcosm. PhD thesis, Columbia University, New York, USA, 444 pp.

        Conference proceedings:

        Popov YA (1971) Origin and main evolutionary trends of Nepomorpha bugs. In: Proceedings of the XIII International Congress of Entomology, Moscow, Russia, 282–283.

        Online publication (not journal articles):

        Australian Invasive Species Program (2015) http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/weeds/index.html. Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia. Accessed on: 2015-8-25.

        GISP (Global Invasive Species Programme) (2005) América do Sul Invadida: a crescente ameaça das espécies exóticas invasoras. Global Invasive Species Programme, Cape Town, South Africa, 80 pp.

        http://www.institutohorus.org.br/download/gispSAmericapo.pdf. Accessed on: 2013-10-27.

        Reference in non-Latin alphabet:

        Bogutskaya NG, Kijashko PV, Naseka AM, Orlova MI (2013) Определитель рыб и беспозвоночных Каспийского моря. Том 1. Рыбы и моллюски [Identification keys to fish and invertebrates of the Caspian Sea. Vol. 1. Fish and molluscs]. KMK Scientific Press, Moscow, Russia, 544 pp. [in Russian]


        Submission Guidelines

        Before starting your submission please make sure that your manuscript is formatted in accordance to the Authors Guidelines, and use the appropriate template.

        We encourage authors to send an enquiry to the Editor-in-Chief prior to submitting a manuscript. The purpose of the presubmission enquiry is to solicit rapid initial feedback on the suitability of the manuscript for publication in this journal. Pre-submission enquiries may also be sent to the Editorial Office at chief.editor@checklistjournal.com.


        Submission Procedure

        Already have a Username/Password?

        Go to Login

        Need a Username/Password?

        Go to Registration

        Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

        Submission of manuscripts to this journal is possible only through the online submission module. We kindly request authors to consult the Focus and Scope section prior to submission. In order to submit a manuscript to the journal, authors are required to register with the journal and/or to login. Once logged in, you will find the online submission system either by clicking the "Submit manuscript" button.

        The manuscript submission process is separated into the following steps:

        • Step 1: Specifying the manuscript type and completing the submission checklist
        • Step 2: Choosing the payment option and requesting optional services
        • Step 3: Typing in the author(s) names and affiliation, title, abstract, keywords, and other metadata
        • Step 4: Assigning classifications categories for your manuscript using hierarchical classification trees
        • Step 5: Completing the submission metadata by adding details about any supporting agencies, conflict of interest, ethical statement, comments to the editors
        • Step 6: Agreeing with the journal's Data Publishing Policy and specifying the availability of the data underpinning your article
        • Step 7: Uploading the submission file and the additional files (see below for details on how to prepare it)
        • Step 8: Confirming the automatically generated pdf review version of the article, and the metadata (or revising them, if needed)
        • Step 9: Uploading supplementary files (see below for details) and associated metadata
        • Step 10: Suggesting reviewers, final verification of the submitted files and confirmation

        Stepwise guidance on new manuscript submission, with screenshots of the interface embedded, is available online in this section of the User Manual.


        Organizing Your Submission

        Before starting your submission please make sure that your manuscript is formatted in accordance with the Author Guidelines.

        Before attempting an online submission, please consider preparing the following file types:

        1. Submission file

        Review version of the manuscript: a TEXT (MS WORD) file in either DOC, DOCX, RTF or ODT format. The total file size must be no larger than 80 MB. The system allows two options for the submission file upload:

        • it could contain all figures embedded at their respective places within the manuscript: 

          • Advantage: The review version of the manuscript will be more convenient for reading and understanding by the reviewers and editors. Likewise, if you opt to post your manuscript on ARPHA Preprints and this is allowed by the current journal’s policies, it will be better organised for the readers.

          • Drawback: Additional effort is needed to place and number the figures within the text.

        • it could contain the article text only, while the figures are added separately in the allowed formats (see below), so that the system can add them automatically to the PDF version that will be sent for review. The authors have the option to check and replace, if needed, the PDF review version generated at the first submission step:

          • Advantage: No additional effort is needed for placing and numbering the figures within the text.

          • Drawback: All figures will be placed at the end of the manuscript and the review version will be less convenient for reading and understanding by the reviewers and editors. The same concerns your preprint if you decide to post it on ARPHA Preprints and this is allowed by the current journal’s policies.

        2. Additional files

        High-resolution figures must be submitted during the same submission process as the additional files (Step 7) in one of the accepted file formats (see below). These may be compressed in order to reduce bandwidth during upload:

        • Figures (each figure as an individual file in one of the following image file formats: EPS, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, not larger than 20 MB each)
        • Equations (each equation as an individual file in one of the above-mentioned image file formats)

        Please note that the maximum file size that may be uploaded through our online submission system is 20 MB.

        3. Supplementary files (appendices)

        Large datasets or multimedia files, usually published as appendices in conventional print journals, should be uploaded as supplementary files complete with the associated metadata on the online submission form. Supplementary files should have their own legends.

        Most file formats are accepted. Text-only appendices must be in DOC, DOCX, RTF, or ODF formats.

        Should you have any technical problems in submitting a manuscript to this journal, please contact the Editorial Office at journals@pensoft.net.

        We encourage authors to send an inquiry to the respective Subject Editor prior to submitting a manuscript. The purpose of the presubmission inquiry is to solicit rapid initial feedback on the suitability of the manuscript for publication in this journal. Pre-submission inquiries may also be sent to the Editorial Office at checklist@pensoft.net.


        Article Processing Charges

        Core services included in our Article Processing Charges:

        • Online submission and editorial management system, professional peer review and editorial assistance.
        • Personal attitude, technical support and fast reply to any inquiry coming from authors, editors or reviewers.
        • Automated email notification and alert system to save you time from tracking the progress of your manuscript.
        • Automated registration of peer reviews at Clarivate (formerly Publons)
        • Copy-editing services.
        • Typesetting, copy-editing, proofreading and publication in 3 digital formats: semantically enhanced HTML, PDF and machine-readable XML.
        • Rapid publication process, normally within 1-2 weeks time after a manuscript is accepted for publication.
        • Advanced data publishing workflows.
        • Semantic Web enhancements to the article text.
        • Markup and visualization of all taxon names and taxon treatments in your work.
        • Immediate free access for everyone to your work on the day of publication.
        • Active dissemination and promotion through press releases, social and mass media.
        • Automated alert service through email and RSS on the day of publication. 
        • Export and display of taxon treatments to Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), Plazi, Species-ID, Globalnames, and other aggregators.
        • Immediate distribution of your publication to scientific databases, indices and search engines (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, CAB Abstracts, DOAJ Content and others).
        • Archiving in international repositories (PubMedCentral, CLOCKSS). 
        • Copyright retained by the authors; articles distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
        • Full-color (no extra-charges for color), high-resolution hardcopy of reprints or whole issues.
        • Option to publish large revisionary works, checklists and catalogues as separate monographs, under separate ISBN and cover.

        Article size

        Article processing charges (APCs)

        1 – 20 published pages

        €  250
        21 and more published pages

        €  15 / page

        (for each page above 20)

        Please note that the above prices do not include VAT (Value Added Tax). VAT is applicable only for VAT NON-registered customers based within the European Union. To avoid charging VAT, the EU companies or persons should provide their VAT registration numbers validated with the EU taxation database (https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/).

         Please note that the charges below are applicable for all manuscripts submitted after 1st of January 2024.

        Article size

        Article processing charges (APCs)

        1 – 20 published pages

        €  300
        21 and more published pages

        €  15 / page

        (for each page above 20)

        Please note that the above prices do not include VAT (Value Added Tax). VAT is applicable only for VAT NON-registered customers based within the European Union. To avoid charging VAT, the EU companies or persons should provide their VAT registration numbers validated with the EU taxation database (https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/).

         


        Publisher's statement

        A key policy and strategic aim of Pensoft is to provide high-quality and inclusive publishing services at highly competitive and affordable Article Processing Charges (APCs) or for free through its diamond open access journals. See Pensoft’s journal portfolio here.

        In order to ensure long-term sustainability of the journals and cover the cost of the associated in-house publishing services, our journals require Article Processing Charges (APCs). These charges apply only after a submitted manuscript is accepted for publication, and may be partially or fully covered by institutional funds to reduce financial burdens on authors of research.

        Pensoft strongly supports measures that ensure an inclusive and FAIR publishing environment, which in turn prompts quality, sustainability and reasonable pricing in scholarly publishing. You can find more about the publisher’s view on quality, transparency, openness and equity in scholarly publishing in Pensoft’s official statement, prompted by the publication of the European Union’s Conclusions on high-quality, transparent, open and equitable scholarly publishing

        In compliance with the Plan S requirements, Pensoft provides a breakdown of the APC following the guidelines by the Fair Open Access Alliance (FOAA). The report on the journal’s APC is submitted on a yearly basis to the Journal Comparison Service by Coalition S and the detailed breakdown is available to the participating funding institutions on the platform.

        Authors who are unable to pay their APCs for several reasons, should consult the Journal’s Discounts and Waivers page, use the diamond open-access journals (free to publish and free to read) hosted on Pensoft’s ARPHA Publishing Platform, or contact the journal’s Editor-in-Chief directly. 


        Special Issues

        Article collections enable conference organizers or project coordinators to publish a number of articles under a common theme and editorship. Depending on the number of articles to be included, Pensoft offers discounts on APCs as described in the table below.

         

        Small

        Medium

        Large

        Number of articles

        < 10

        10 – 20

        21 +

        Discount on APCs

        5%

        10%

        15%

        PR campaign

        By agreement

        By agreement

        Included

        Institutional branding

        By agreement

        By agreement

        Included

        We are happy to discuss alternative arrangements if there is a better way to suit your needs for n article collection. Please do not hesitate to contact us or to submit your proposal through the article collection application form.


        Discounts and Waivers

        Please note that the discounts and waivers policy below is applicable for all manuscripts submitted after 1st of January 2024.

        Authors can apply for a discount or a waiver during manuscript submission if they comply with the conditions listed below. The journal will not consider requests made during the review process or after acceptance. Formal letters to the editors will not be considered outside the application process during manuscript submission. The waiver system will be managed by administrative staff not involved in decisions regarding article acceptance. We ask authors not to discuss any issues concerning payment with editors.

        • A discount of 10% is offered to:
          • Scientists working privately, not affiliated with an institution.
          • Graduate and PhD students if they are first authors of a manuscript. 
          • Scientists affiliated with institutions located in Research4Life Group B countries (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/#groupb) if they are lead or corresponding authors of a manuscript. In cases of multiple affiliations, all institutions should be located in eligible countries.
        • Discounts are also offered to our editors and reviewers. For more information see here.
        • Special discounts can be requested by the authors of extensive review papers and monographs.
        • Waivers (once per year per author/co-author for manuscripts no larger than 10 printed pages, or for the first 10 pages of a larger manuscript) are offered to:
          • Retired scientists who are editors or active reviewers for this journal (1-3 reviews provided in the year before the manuscript submission). 
          • Scientists affiliated with institutions located in Research4Life Group A countries (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/#groupa), if they are senior or corresponding authors of a manuscript. In cases of multiple affiliations, all institutions should be located in eligible countries.

        The journal also offers various institutional programs and membership plans to support Open Access scientific publishing. To be eligible, the author must be a corresponding author affiliated with the institution or agency.

        Discounts and waivers do not accumulate.

        Please note that the discounts and waivers policy below is applicable for all manuscripts submitted before 1st of January 2024.

        Authors can apply for discount or waiver during manuscript submission if they comply with the conditions listed below. The journal will not consider requests made during the review process or after acceptance. Formal letters to the editors will not be considered outside the application process during manuscript submission.

        • Discount of 10 % is offered to:
          • Scientists working privately, not affiliated with an institution.
          • Graduate and PhD students if they are first authors of a manuscript. 
          • Scientists living and working in lower middle-income countries (http://data.worldbank.org/income-level/lower-middle-income) if they are sole authors of a manuscript, or authors' research is funded primarily (50% or more of the work contained within the article) by an institution or organization from the eligible countries. 
        • Discounts are also offered to our editors and reviewers, for more information see here
        • Special discounts can be requested by the authors of extensive review papers and monographs.
        • Waivers (once per year per (co-) author for manuscripts no larger than 10 printed pages, or for the first 10 pages of a larger manuscript) are offered to:
          • Retired scientists who are editors or active reviewers for this journal (1-3 reviews provided in the year before the manuscript submission). 
          • Scientists living and working in low-income countries (http://data.worldbank.org/income-level/low-income), if they are sole authors of a manuscript, or authors' research is funded primarily (50% or more of the work contained within the article) by an institution or organization from the eligible countries.

        The journal offers also various institutional programs and membership plans to support Open Access scientific publishing. To be eligible, the author must be a corresponding author affiliated with the institution or agency.

        Discounts and waivers do not accumulate.


        Printed Version and Reprints

        Check List is published in identical print (high-resolution, full-color) and online (PDF) versions.

        Separate issues or reprints (high-resolution, full-color) can be ordered using the "Order now" button available under each issue or article on the journal's website.

        Prices are given in EURO and are exclusive of postage and handling. Payment in USD is also possible according to the exchange rate on the day of payment.

        IMPORTANT: Our prices do not include VAT. Orders from countries outside the European Union (EU) or from VAT-registered EU customers will be processed VAT-free. VAT (20%) will be added ONLY to NOT VAT-registered customers based in the European Union.

        Prices of full-color, high-resolution printed version (separate article and complete issues)

        Number of Pages Price in EURO Number of Pages Price in EURO Number of Pages Price in EURO
        1-4 3,90 57-60 20,70 261-280 86,70
        5-8 5,10 61-64 21,90 281-300 92,70
        9-12 6,30 65-68 23,10 301-320 98,70
        13-16 7,50 69-72 24,30 321-340 104,70
        17-20 8,70 73-80 26,70 341-360 110,70
        21-24 9,90 81-100 32,70 361-380 116,70
        25-28 11,10 101-120 38,70 381-400 122,70
        29-32 12,30 121-140 44,70 401-450 137,70
        33-36 13,50 141-160 50,70 451-500 152,70
        37-40 14,70 161-180 56,70 500-550 167,70
        41-44 15,90 181-200 62,70 550-600 182,70
        45-48 17,10 201-220 68,70 600-650 197,70
        49-52 18,30 221-240 74,70 650-700 212,70
        53-56 19,50 241-260 80,70 701-750 227,70

        Additional Services (Optional)

        Optional service

        Price

        Notes

        Linguistic services

        € 15 per 1800 characters

        For texts that require additional English language editing

        Tailored PR campaign

        € 150*

        Press release, dedicated media and social networks promotion

        Paper reprints

        At cost

        On demand

        Auditing of the Darwin Core data associated with manuscript**

        € 75 for datasets up to 10000 records. For large datasets (10,000 + records) please contact Dr. Bob Mesibov for pricing

        On demand

        Cleaning of the Darwin Core data associated with my manuscript**

        € 225 for datasets up to 10000 records. For large datasets (10,000 + records) please contact Dr. Bob Mesibov for pricing

        On demand

        Scientific illustrations & image processing to complement articles ask for a quote contacting Pensoft Publishers at designer@pensoft.net On demand

        *This service can be discounted or waived for articles of outstanding importance for the science and society.
        **Pensoft reviewers do not usually have time to check through large data files included with manuscripts. If you would like us to have your data files checked, we offer the services of Pensoft editor Dr Bob Mesibov, who is also a data auditor.
        Suitable data files for checking would be large tables of occurrence records or of genetic data. These can be checked for duplicate and broken records, misuse of fields, disagreements between fields, character encoding problems and incorrect or inconsistent formatting. Georeferencing can also be checked, on request. Please note that this service does not apply to taxonomic, nomenclatural or bibliographic details in data files.


        Institutional and Other Membership Plans

        Our plans provide additional flexibility and affordability for institutions, research groups, consortia, conference organizers and other larger research teams and organizations. Affiliated authors can publish in any Pensoft journal by using a streamlined payment interface. Pensoft’s plans are a great way to support open access publishing, while also simplifying budgeting, invoicing, and author reimbursement procedures. We offer three plans to choose from, however, if they do not quite suit your needs, we would be happy to discuss alternative arrangements with you. Please do not hesitate to contact us for a preliminary conversation about our plans!

         

        Annual membership

        Pre-paid plans

        Direct billing

        Key benefits

        • Flat rate - publish all you can
        • Cost based on the size and publishing pattern of your organization
        • Beginning of year budgeting
        • One invoice / no billing during the year
        • Discount on APCs
        • Deposit funds up-front and spend without a time limit
        • Add funds to your account at any time
        • Choose whether to cover full (discounted) cost of publishing or split costs with authors
        • No up-front payments
        • One monthly invoice for all publications by affiliated authors
        • Regular reports to track publication pattern and expenses

        Additional services we can provide upon request

        • PR campaigns for specific publications or sets of publications, including press releases and video interviews
        • Institutional branding – including institutional logos on published papers, dedicated webpages, institutional online collections of articles
        • Research output reporting, detailing number and types of publications, expenses, views, and downloads

        Please find more details about each individual plan below. If you would like to recommend Pensoft’s plans to your institution you can fill out this simple form or contact us at info@pensoft.net and we will forward your recommendation with some additional information.


        Annual Memberships

        Annual memberships allow institutions to plan their publishing expenses in the beginning of the fiscal year by providing unlimited publishing in all Pensoft journals in exchange for a flat annual payment. The cost of membership depends on the total publishing output capacity of the institution and its historical publishing pattern in Pensoft journals. We will adjust the cost of your membership annually.


        Pre-Paid Plans

        Pre-paid plans allow institutions and / or research groups to deposit a certain amount of funds with Pensoft and make them available to affiliated researchers for covering Article Processing Charges (APCs) in any Pensoft journal. Member institutions decide whether to cover APCs in full or share the expenses with the authors. Depending on the amount members are prepared to commit, Pensoft is offering a discount on APCs per the table below. Additional funds can be added to an account at any point in time within the calendar year of purchasing the plan, while leftover funds are preserved until spent.

         

        Economy

        Standard

        Premium

        Minimum deposit

        € 1,000 – 3,000

        € 3,000 – 5,000

        € 5,000 +

        Discount on APCs

        0%

        5%

        10%


        Direct Billing

        The direct billing plan allows institutions to reduce the complexity of billing and reimbursements. It consolidates all Pensoft invoices for articles authored by researchers affiliated with an institution into a single monthly bill that is sent directly to the institution.


        Guidelines for Editors


        How to Access a Manuscript

        Manuscripts can be accessed after login

        1. Login is possible after registration at the journal's website. Our Editorial Office will register all first-time editors and reviewers. New users will receive an automated notification with a request to confirm registration and account information, and options for setting a password, email alerts and other features.  
          Note: All users can use their registration details to login in all three (Book, E-Book and the respective Journal) platforms of www.pensoft.net.
          Note: Please remember that you may have registered with two or more different email addresses, that is why you may have more than one valid account at www.pensoft.net. We advise using only one email address, hence one password associated with it, for all your operations at www.pensoft.net. We highly recommend that in case the user has two or more different accounts, to merge these through the user's profile.

        Note: The users can at any time change the initially set password and correct personal details using their user's profile menu (by clicking on the user's name in the upper right corner of the screen appearing after login).

        1. If you have forgotten your password, please use the function Forgot your password? or write to request it from journals@pensoft.net.

        There are two ways to access a manuscript

        1. After login, please go to the respective journal’s web page and click on My Tasks button in the upper right corner of the screen. This way, you will be able to see all manuscripts you are responsible for as an author or reviewer or editor.

          Note: The manuscripts are grouped by categories, e.g., In Review (no.), In layout (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.) etc. The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that were assigned to you.

        2. Click on the active manuscript link provided in the email notification you have received from the online editorial system. The link will lead you directly to the manuscript.


        General Responsibilities of Editors

        Subject, or Associate, editors in Pensoft’s journals carry the main responsibility for the scientific quality of the papers. They take the final decision on a manuscript’s acceptance or rejection and their names are listed as Academic Editor in the header of each published article.

        The editorial process is facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. The online editorial system informs the Subject Editor about any change in the status of a manuscript from submission to publication.

        The online editorial system is designed to save time and effort for Subject Editors in checking the status of the manuscripts. There is no need for editors to visit the journal’s website to keep track on the manuscript they are responsible for. The online system will inform the Subject Editor when an invited reviewer has accepted or declined to review. The email notifications contain stepwise instructions what action is needed at each stage, as well as a link to the respective manuscript (accessible by clicking on the link in the email notification or after login – see How to Access a Manuscript).

        Subject Editors are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but rather focus on its scientific quality and overall style, which should correspond to good practices in clear and concise academic writing. It is the author’s responsibility to submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English. The Subject Editor should not hesitate to recommend either Reject, or Reject, but resubmission encouraged PRIOR to the peer-review process, in cases when a manuscript is scientifically poor and/or does not conform to journal’s style, and/or is written in poor English (see Note under point 1 below how to reject a manuscript prior to peer review). 

        Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editors or their deputies are allowed to publish a limited proportion of papers per year co-authored by them, after considering some extra precautions to avoid an impression of impropriety, endogeny, conflicts of interest and ensure that the editorial decision-making process is transparent and fair.

        It often happens that even carefully written manuscripts may contain small errors in orthography or stylistics. We shall be thankful if editors spot such errors during the reading process and correct them.


        Stepwise Description of the Editorial Process

        1. Once a manuscript is submitted, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) briefly checks if the manuscript conforms with the journal's Focus, Scope, Policies and style requirements and decides whether it is potentially suitable for publication and can be processed for review, or rejected immediately, or returned to the author for improvement and re-submission.
          Note: There are two ways to reject/return a manuscript prior to review process:
          - Through the buttons Reject or Return to the author for correction in the Editorial tab. Please note, however, that the buttons will be made active only after a justification for the rejection or return is provided in the text field.
          - Through an email to the Editorial office explaining the reason for rejection or return. The manuscript will be then rejected/returned through the online editorial system and the respective notification email will be sent from the Editorial Office.
        2. At this stage, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) can also check the manuscript for plagiarism via the iThenticate service by clicking on the "ïTehnticate report" button. Journals providing a peer review in languages other than English (for example Russian) may use other plagiarsim checking services (for example Antiplagiat).
        3. When a manuscript is suitable, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) assigns it to the Subject Editor responsible for the respective topic (e.g., science branch or taxon). The Subject Editor receives a notification email on the assignment.
          Note: The link to the respective manuscript is available in the editorial assignment email and all consequent reminder emails. The manuscript is accessible by clicking on the link in the email notifications, or via the user's dashboard after login. Please see How to Access a Manuscript above in case you have any difficulties.
        4. The assigned Subject Editor next reads the manuscript to decide whether it is potentially suitable for publication and can be processed for review, or rejected immediately, or returned to the author for improvement and re-submission. Reasons for rejection can be a low scientific quality, non-conformance to the journal’s style/policies, and/or linguistically or grammatically poor English language.
          Note: There are two ways to reject a manuscript prior to review process:
          -  Through the buttons Reject or Reject, but resubmission encouraged in the Editorial tab. Please note, however, that the buttons become active only after a justification for the rejection is provided in the text field. 
          -  Through an email to the Editorial office explaining the reason for rejection. The manuscript will be then rejected/returned through the online editorial system and the respective notification email will be sent from the Editorial Office.
        5. In case the manuscript is acceptable for peer review, the Subject Editor has to invite reviewers by clicking on the Invite reviewers link. The Subject Editor can select from a list of reviewers, starting with the ones suggested by the authors during the submission process, and followed by the reviewers who are already listed in the database, or add new reviewers.
        6. Once reviewers are chosen, the Subject Editor has to click the Invite reviewers green button at the end of the page which will generate email templates with review invitations. It is highly recommended that the Subject Editor adds some personal words above the standard email text of the review invitation.
        7. In case a reviewer is absent from our users' data base, the Subject Editor can add his/her name and email through the Add new reviewer link, which will appear once the search field reveal no results. It is possible that the needed reviewer has already been registered in the Pensoft database either as customer or author/reviewer of another journal. If this is the case, then his/her name, affiliation and other metadata will automatically appear once the e-mail field is populated in the Create user online form.
        8. The Subject Editor receives a notification email when the Reviewer agrees or declines to review. The Subject Editor takes care to appoint additional reviewers in case some of the invited reviewers decline.
        9. Once all Reviewers submit their reviews, the Subject Editor receives an email notification, inviting him/her to consider Reviewers' opinions, read through the manuscript and take a decision through the Proceed button.
          Note: Editorial comments can be added in the online editorial form; comments and corrections are expected to be added also in the manuscript file (either on the PDF version or in the text file), that should be uploaded during finalization of the editorial decision process. 
        10. At this stage, the editor should take a decision either to (1) accept the manuscript, (2) reject it, (3) recommend Major or Minor Revisions or reject it, or open a second review round. In case the manuscript is not rejected, but recommended for Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Acceptance, the author is expected to submit a revised version within a certain period of time (and the Subject Editor will be notified by email about that).
          Note 1: Authors must submit revised versions as a text file using Track Changes/Comments tools of Word so that the Subject Editor can see their corrections/additions. Authors must reply to the essential critiques and comments of reviewers separately through the online editorial system.
          Note 2: During the second, or next, review round, the Subject Editor may decide to ask reviewers to evaluate the revised version of the manuscript. He/she may also make a decision based on the author’s responses and the revised version of the manuscript without asking additional Reviewers' support.
        11. After acceptance, the manuscript will go to proofreading and layout. The Subject Editor will be notified by email when the final proof is uploaded on the journal’s website. The Subject Editor is expected to look at the proofs and notify the Editorial Office through email in case the proofs need improvement.
        12. The Subject Editor may always access information on the manuscripts which have been edited by him/her through the menu My Tasks –> Subject Editor on the journal’s web page – In Review (no.), In Edit (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.). The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that were assigned.

        Editors’ and Reviewers’ Workload Stats

        While selecting a Reviewer or a Subject Editor to assign to a manuscript, Editors can access the current and past workload for the person they are considering.

        By clicking on the user’s name, an Editor sees how many editorial or review tasks the person is currently assigned with, as well as a record of the user’s previous performance across all ARPHA-hosted journals (i.e. number of accepted and declined editorial and review assignments, as well as the titles of the corresponding journals).

        The feature is meant to facilitate and expedite the editorial process by discouraging assignment of tasks to overburdened or inactive users.

        Find how to Manage Subject editor assignments and Invite Reviewers in the ARPHA Manual.


        Review Quality Rating

        Subject Editors should evaluate each review submitted to a manuscript they are handling by using a 5-star rating system. The average score is visible for Subject editors who consider the user as a Reviewer. The feature is meant to expedite the editorial process by aiding Subject Editors in the selection of the most suitable reviewers.

        Find how to Rate a peer review in the ARPHA Manual.


        Guidelines for Reviewers

        Pensoft journals support the open science approach in the peer review and publication process. We encourage our reviewers to open their identity to the authors and consider supporting the peer review oaths, which tend to be short declarations that reviewers make at the start of their written comments, typically dictating the terms by which they will conduct their reviews (see Aleksic et al. 2015, doi: 10.12688/f1000research.5686.2 for more details):

        Principles of the open peer-review oath

        • Principle 1: I will sign my name to my review
        • Principle 2: I will review with integrity
        • Principle 3: I will treat the review as a discourse with you; in particular, I will provide constructive criticism
        • Principle 4: I will be an ambassador for the practice of open science

        How to Access a Manuscript

        Manuscripts can be accessed after login

        1. Login is possible after registration at the journal's website. Our Editorial Office will register all first-time editors and reviewers. New users will receive an automated notification with a request to confirm registration and account information, and options for setting a password, email alerts and other features.  
          Note: All users can use their registration details to login in all three (Book, E-Book and the respective Journal) platforms of www.pensoft.net.
          Note: Please remember that you may have registered with two or more different email addresses, that is why you may have more than one valid account at www.pensoft.net. We advise using only one email address, hence one password associated with it, for all your operations at www.pensoft.net. We highly recommend that, in case the user has two or more different accounts, to merge these through user's profile.  
          Note: Users can at any time change the initially set password and correct personal details using their user's profile menu (by clicking on the user's name in the upper right corner of the screen appearing after login).
        2. If you have forgotten your password, please use the function Forgot your password? or write to request it from journals@pensoft.net.

        There are two ways to access a manuscript

        1. After login, please go to the respective journal’s web page and click on My Tasks button in the upper right corner of the screen. This way, you will be able to see all manuscripts you are responsible for as Author or Reviewer or Subject Editor.

          Note: The manuscripts are grouped by categories, e.g., In Review (no.), In layout (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.) etc. The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts assigned to you.

        2. Click on the active manuscript link provided in the email notification you have received from the online editorial system. The link will lead you directly to the manuscript.


        General Responsibilities of Reviewers

        This journal uses a single-blind peer review process. The reviewers are encouraged to disclose their identity, if they wish so. The peer review and editorial process is facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. The online editorial system sends the Reviewer a review request, initiated by the Subject Editor or the Editorial Office. The online system will also inform about delays in the reviewing and will confirm a successful review submission. The email notifications contain stepwise instructions about the actions needed at each stage along with the link to the respective manuscript (accessible only after login – see section How to Access a Manuscript).

        Reviewers are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but rather focus on its scientific quality and overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. If Reviewers recognize that a manuscript requires linguistic edits, we shall be grateful for them to inform both the Author and the Subject Editor in the report. It is the Author’s responsibility to submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English.

        It often happens that even carefully written manuscripts may contain small errors in orthography or stylistics. We shall be thankful if Reviewers spot such errors during the reading process and correct them.

        The manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two or three experts with the aim of reaching a first decision as soon as possible. Reviewers do not need to sign their reports, but are welcome to do so. They are also asked to declare any conflicts of interest.

        Reviewers are asked whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, how interesting it is and whether the quality of the writing is acceptable. Where possible, the final decision is made on the basis of the peer reviews. In cases of strong disagreement between the reports or between the authors and peer reviewers, the editor can assess these according to his/her expertise or seek advice from a member of the journal's Editorial Board.

        The ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions lies with the respective Subject Editor and/or, in some journals, with the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who may decide to seek advice from the Subject Editors or the Editorial Board.

        Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles may be given greater prominence and greater external publicity, including press releases addressed to science journalists and mass media.

        During a second review round, reviewers may be asked to evaluate the revised version against their recommendations submitted during the first review round.

        Reviewers are kindly asked to be polite and constructive in their reports. Reports that may be insulting or uninformative will be rescinded.

        Reviewers are asked to start their report with a very brief summary of the reviewed paper. This will help the editor and the authors see whether the reviewer correctly understood the paper or whether a report might be based on misunderstanding.

        Furthermore, reviewers are also asked to comment on originality, structure and previous research:

        Originality: Is the paper sufficiently novel and does it contribute to a better understanding of the topic under scrutiny? Is the work rather confirmatory and repetitive?

        Structure: Is the introduction clear and concise? Does it place the work into the context that is necessary for a reader to comprehend aims, hypotheses tested, experimental design or methods? Are Material and Methods clearly described and sufficiently explained? Are reasons given when choosing one method over another one from a set of comparable methods? Are the results clearly, but concisely described? Do they relate to the topic outlined in the introduction? Do they follow a logical sequence? Does the discussion place the paper in scientific context and go a step beyond the current scientific knowledge on the basis of the results? Are competing hypotheses or theories reasonably related to each other and properly discussed? Do the conclusions seem reasonable?

        Previous research: Is previous research adequately incorporated into the paper? Are references complete, necessary and accurate? Is there any sign that substantial parts of the paper are copies of other works?


        Stepwise Description of the Peer Review Process

        1. This journal uses a single-blind peer review process. Notwithstanding with that, the Reviewers are encouraged to disclose their identities, if they wish to do so. 

        2. The Reviewer receives a review request generated by the Subject Editor or the Editorial Office and is expected to either agree to provide a review, or decline, through pressing the Will do the review or Unable to do the review link in the online editorial system. In case the Reviewer agrees to review the manuscript, he/she should submit the review within a certain time frame, which may vary in the different journals.
          Note: The link to the respective manuscript is available in the review request email and all consequent reminder emails. The manuscript is accessible by clicking on the link in the email notification, or after login. Please look at the section How to Access a Manuscript above in case you have any difficulties.

        3. The review should be submitted through the Proceed button. The review should consist of:

        • a simple online questionnaire to be answered by ticking either Yes, No, or N/A;
        • comments addressed to the Author and the Subject Editor in the online form;
        • associated files (corrected/commented manuscript file, review submitted in a separate text file, etc.), if any.

        Note: Reviewers can insert corrections and comments in the manuscript review version (PDF) and/or in the manuscript text file (usually Microsoft Word, rarely Open Office file). When working in the PDF, please use either the Text Edits or the Sticky Notes tools (available through the menu Tools -> Comments & Markup of the Acrobat Reader). When editing in Microsoft Word please use the Track Changes / Comments tools.
        Note: Associated files should be submitted at the end of the review process by clicking on the Browse button, then selecting the respective file on your computer, and then pressing the Upload button. A Reviewer may upload as many files to support his/her review as needed.

        1. The Reviewer may decide to stay anonymous or open his/her identity by ticking the Show my name to the author(s) box at the bottom of the reviewer’s form. Please be aware that your identity might be revealed in the comments or in Track Changes corrections of the Microsoft Word or PDF file you correct. Therefore, please make sure that you delete your name and initials in the Options section of your Word or PDF processor if you want to remain anonymous.

        2. In addition to the above, by checking a box at the bottom of the submission form, reviewers may opt for making their contribution public in the event that the article is accepted and published. The reviewer's name, affiliation and email address will be displayed next to those of the Academic editor (or Subject editor) on the article webpage.

        3. The review process is completed by selecting a recommendation from five options: (1) Reject; (2) Reject, but resubmission encouraged; (3) Major Revision; (4) Minor Revision; (5) Accept. The system will ask for one more confirmation of the selected recommendation before submission. The submitted review cannot be changed after submission.
          Note: Reasons for rejection can be a low scientific quality, non-conformance to the journal’s style/policies, and/or grammatically poor English language.
          Note: It is also possible for review and associated files (e.g., a corrected manuscript file) to be sent as attached files to the email of the Editorial Office. We strongly recommend avoiding this option, and instead uploading reviews through the online editorial management system.

        4. Once a Reviewer submits a review of a manuscript, he/she receives an acknowledgement email from the journal.

        5. The submission of the review is also automatically reported to Clarivate - Web of Science Reviewer Recognition Service (formerly Publons). Reviewers are asked to confirm whether they want their reviews to be recorded on Clarivate.

        6. When all Reviewers have submitted their reviews, the Subject Editor makes a decision to either accept, reject or request further minor/major revision.

        7. After the Subject Editor's decision, the manuscript is sent back to the author for comments and further revision. The Author needs to submit a revised version in due time.

        8. Reviewers are notified via email when the revised version of a manuscript that they have reviewed is submitted by the Author. They receive a link to the revised version along with the editorial decision and all reviews of the manuscript. Reviewers are also provided with a feedback form should they have any comments on the revised version. 

        9. When an article is published, all Reviewers who have provided a review for the respective manuscript receive an email acknowledgment. In the email, there is a link to view/download the published article.

        10. The Reviewer may always access information on the manuscripts that are being / have been reviewed by him/her through the menu My Tasks –> Reviewer on the journal’s web page – In Review (no.), In Edit (no.), Published (no.), and Archived (no.). The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that have been assigned to you.


        Benefits for Editors and Reviewers

        This journal does not exclude editors from publishing papers in the journal (co-)authored by them. However, this is only possible for a limited proportion of papers per year, with some extra precautions and procedures to avoid an impression of impropriety, endogeny or conflicts of interest, and to ensure the editorial decision-making process is transparent and fair. For more information please consult the Policies page on the journal's website.

        Pensoft editors and reviewers are entitled to a set of benefits in appreciation for their contribution to the quality of the works we publish. Please make sure to apply for your discount prior to the manuscript submission.

        For Editors

        For Reviewers

        • 15% unconditional discount on APCs and reprints for the journal in which you are an editor. Valid in cases where at least one paper has been handled within the last 12 months and the editor is the senior or corresponding author of the paper subject to the discount.
        • 10% unconditional discount on all books published by Pensoft.
        • 15% discount on APCs for the journal in which the review was provided. Valid in cases where the reviewer is the senior or corresponding author of the paper subject to the discount.
          • Valid for one manuscript per review, submitted within 12 months of the review
        • Automated registration of reviews at Web of Science Reviewer Recognition Service (formerly Publons) after confirmation by the reviewer.
        • Open reviews are provided with DOIs and citation details.

        * When an individual qualifies for multiple discounts Pensoft will use the largest that applies.

          Apply to become editor via Editor Application Form

        Science Communication

        Our journal and the PR team at Pensoft invites authors to contribute to the communication and promotion of their published research, thereby increasing the visibility, outreach and impact of their work. 

        Authors are welcome to notify us whenever their institution is working on a promotional campaign about their work published in our journal. We are always happy to reshare and/or repost (where appropriate). 

        You can contact our PR team at dissemination@pensoft.net to discuss the communication and promotion of your research.


        Tailored PR Campaign

        (Paid service*)

        We encourage authors, who feel that their work is of particular interest to the wider audience, to email us with a press release draft** (see template and guidelines), outlining the key findings from the study and their public impact. Then, the PR team will work with them to finalise the announcement that will be:

        • Issued on the global science news service Eurekalert!
        • Sent out to our media contacts from the world’s top-tier news outlets
        • Posted on ARPHA’s or Pensoft’s blog
        • Shared on social media via suitable ARPHA-managed accounts

        Following the distribution of the press announcement, our team will be tracking the publicity across news media, blogs and social networks, in order to report back to the author(s), and reshare any prominent media content.

        Request our Tailored PR campaign service by selecting it while completing your submission form and you will be contacted once your manuscript is accepted for publication. Alternatively, contact our PR team (dissemination@pensoft.net), preferably upon the acceptance of your manuscript.

        * The Tailored PR campaign is an extra service charged at EUR 150. However, we would consider discounts and even full waivers for studies of particular interest for the society.

        **Please note that our PR team reserves the right to edit your press release at their discretion. No press announcements will be issued until we receive the author’s final approval to do so. The service is only available for studies published within the past 3 months.


        Guest Blog Post

        (Free service)

        Authors are strongly encouraged to promote their work and its impact on society to the audience beyond their immediate public of fellow scientists by means of storytelling in plain language. Ideally, such guest blog posts will be:

        • Written from the author’s own point of view, using conversational tone;
        • Written in fluent English;
        • Presenting some curious background information, in order to place the discovery in context;
        • Including attractive non-copyright imagery.

        Request our Guest blog post service by contacting the PR department (dissemination@pensoft.net), regardless of the status of your submission, as there are no time constraints for guest blog post publication. Particularly encouraged are follow-up contributions telling the story of, for example, a research paper that has led to an important policy to be set in place; or an article that has met remarkable attention or reactions in the public sphere.

        Following the necessary final touches to the guest blog post by the PR team, the contribution will be:

        • Posted on ARPHA’s or Pensoft’s blog
        • Shared on social media via multiple and relevant ARPHA-managed accounts

        Please note that the PR team reserves the right to refuse publication of a guest blog post on the occasion that it is provided in poor English, uses considerable amount of jargon or does not abide by basic ethical standards. Our PR team reserves the right to request changes to the text related to formatting or language. No blog posts will be issued until we receive the author’s final approval to do so.

        Find past guest blog posts on Pensoft’s blog here


        Media Center

        Follow Check List on Twitter and Facebook.

        Learn about some of the most notable research published in Check List on Pensoft's blog.

        See top news stories from around the globe, mentioning research published in Check List, in The New York Times, The Conversation, IFLScience, The Economist and La Nacion.

        Boost the reach of your paper(s) to a larger audience by making the most of Pensoft's science communication services.

        Download journal logo.


        Journal Info

         

        Journal Name Check List
        Journal URL https://checklist.pensoft.net/
        ISSN (online) 1809-127X
        ISSN (print) -
        Content Provider ARPHA
        Publisher Pensoft Publishers
        Journal Owner Pensoft Publishers
        Owner URL https://pensoft.net
        Start Year 2005
        Review Type single-blind
        Publication Frequency bimonthly
        APC Accepted manuscripts are subject to APC (for more details see here)
        License Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)

         


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