Instructions to Authors
New Policy for Rapid Online Publication – Systematic Biology now publishes accepted manuscripts and corrected proofs on its advance access page. See the section below on 'Advance Access Publication' for more information.
Systematic Biology (SB) is the journal of the Society of Systematic Biologists. SB is published 6 times per year. As stated in the constitution, the objective of the society is the advancement of the science of systematic biology in all aspects of theory, principles, methodology, and practice, for both living and fossil organisms, with emphasis on areas of common interest to all systematic biologists regardless of individual speculation.
Systematics is the study of biological diversity and its origins. It focuses on understanding evolutionary relationships among organisms, species, higher taxa, or other biological entities such as genes, and the evolution of properties of taxa including intrinsic traits, ecological interactions, and geographic distributions. An important part of systematics is the development of methods for various aspects of phylogenetic inference and biological nomenclature/classification.
Article types
Research Articles published in SB are original theoretical or empirical studies that explore principles and/or methods of systematics. Systematics is considered broadly to include phylogenetic studies of biogeography, paleontology, development, genes, and/or anatomical/cellular/molecular traits of taxa. Empirical papers chosen for publication are judged to be of interest to a broad systematics audience because they represent exemplary case studies involving some important contemporary issue or issues. These may be unusually thorough explorations of data, applications of new methodology, illustrations of fundamental principles, and/or investigations of particularly interesting evolutionary questions. Limit the manuscript to the length necessary to convey the work. Papers may be unsubmitted or rejected if they are longer than necessary.
Spotlights are papers that focus on an empirical system. They could range from a broad phylogenetic investigation of a large clade to a species delimitation investigation on the phylogeographic scale. In any case, Spotlights will be characterized by their adoption of leading-edge methods and their careful approach to data collection and analysis but will focus on the focal group rather than the methodology. Spotlights need to appeal to a broad audience, for example by illustrating how the focal system illustrates key evolutionary processes but should be primarily about the system rather than the methods. While we encourage authors to conduct thorough analyses and describe them in detail, authors will be asked to limit Spotlights in length to between 25-30 manuscript pages, or 5,000 and 7,000 words, but exceptions can be made when warranted, or the equivalent to 6-7 printed pages. Authors may choose to make use of supplemental material for the detailed description of every setting and parameter used in the analysis. Spotlights should contain no more than 4 figures or tables.
Points of View address controversial topics of current interest to systematists and may be presented either individually or as point/counterpoint discussions between authors with opposing views. Points of View should comprise well-developed justifications for substantive differences of opinion. Points of View should not be longer than 25-30 manuscript pages, or 5,000-7,000 words, but exceptions can be made when warranted, and may not exceed 4 figures or tables. Please note that abstracts are required for Points of View submissions.
Software for Systematics and Evolution articles describe software or similar tools that are of general interest to and expected to be widely used by the systematics and evolutionary biology community. Software papers should range between 12-14 manuscript pages, or 3,000-4,000 words, but exceptions can be made when warranted, and may not exceed 4 figures or tables.
Book Reviews are considered on invitation only. All invited book reviews, regardless of an author's membership status, will be waived of page charges. Please note the journal will not consider unsolicited book reviews.
Announcements are also published.
Authors of submissions that are not deemed suitable for publication in Systematic Biology may be invited by the Editors to submit their manuscript for consideration in Ornithology. Such manuscripts may be submitted directly to Ornithology and can include the Systematic Biology reviews if the reviewers have granted permission to use their reviews with subsequent journal submissions.
Submission of Manuscripts for Review
To submit a manuscript go to our ScholarOne Manuscripts Web site and follow the instructions to log in. In case of problems, ScholarOne support can be accessed through the "Get Help Now" link on the ScholarOne Manuscripts Web site. They have tutorials, FAQs, and an "ask a question" screen to contact support personnel. For any additional questions or problems, contact the Editorial Office (sysbio.editorialoffice@oup.com). During the submission process authors will be asked to confirm a statement that the manuscript has not been published or submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Special arrangements will be made for authors unable to submit via the web; contact the Editorial Office (sysbio.editorialoffice@oup.com) for details.
Our instructions to authors should be followed carefully before submitting a manuscript. Manuscripts not conforming to the instructions will be returned to the author(s) for adjustments before the review process can begin. The text can be submitted as either a PDF file or a Word document. We prefer document files because reviewers may wish to make suggestions using Track Changes. If the manuscript was created in LaTeX, please convert to a PDF version for submission. The available LaTeX templates are listed below:
Please note that abstracts are now required for Points of View submissions.
The "create a new submission" link should be used only when submitting a manuscript never previously submitted in any form to SB. To submit either a revision or a resubmission ("resubmission" applies to manuscripts that previously received a decision of reject but with resubmission specifically noted to be permitted or encouraged), look under "manuscripts with decisions" and then use the link to create a revision or create a resubmission. This link will be accessible to the author who submitted the manuscript previously; if you need to change the author for submission then contact the Editorial Office (sysbio.editorialoffice@oup.com). If your manuscript was unsubmitted by the Editorial Office due to failure to follow our instructions to authors, use the "continue submission" link after you have corrected the manuscript formatting.
Data and Supplementary Materials
Data availability policy
All datasets used in the research for the manuscript must be made available to reviewers unless the data are already published elsewhere. Datasets also must be clearly described in the manuscript in the Data Availability Statement (see below).
For manuscripts involving phylogenetic analyses, electronic copies of data sets (e.g. nucleotide sequence data and new alignments of previously published data), in nexus format, must be supplied. Data files should also be provided for morphological analyses. Nucleotide/amino acid sequence data must be submitted to GenBank or EMBL. Genomic data can be submitted to NCBI Bioproject. Morphological data must be submitted to either Morphbank or MorphoBank. In all cases, data accession numbers must be provided in the text.
Alternative arrangements may be made for very large data files associated with studies using simulations.
Data deposit process
At the time of submission, authors will be provided with a provisional Dryad link, which will allow editors and reviewers to access the online-only material but will not be made public. At the time of acceptance, a permanent Dryad link will be provided, allowing all every reader to access the data. Please ensure that the link is active. The first time you mention your dataset in the text of your paper, provide the DOI provided by Dryad as the location where the material can be found: either i) the provisional link during the different stages of the peer-review process, or ii) the permanent link once the paper is accepted and goes into production.
You may further choose to provide Supplementary Material with your article files, which will be available for download directly from your article page. Guidance on preparing and labeling these files is available on Oxford Academic's Preparing and submitting your manuscript webpage.
Check over your Online Appendices or Supplemental Material (if any) carefully, because they will not be copyedited or proofread, and cannot be changed later.
Data Availability Statement
The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for articles published in Systematic Biology. Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should be written as its own section, after the Discussion or Conclusions, and before the Acknowledgements. The Data Availability Statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier, for example:
Data files and/or online-only appendices can be found in the Dryad data repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.[NNNN]
More information and example Data Availability statements can be found on Oxford Academic's Research Data webpage.
Dataset Citation
Systematic Biology supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:
[dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository name), Identifier.
*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.
Software for Systematics and Evolution Articles
Submissions should describe new or original software or tools that provide new analytical capabilities to the end user. Submissions may also be considered that describe new versions of existing software, provided that the new version makes significant changes to function or performance (for example, a version that implements new and important methods in addition to those previously provided in a software package might be considered for publication). Publication will be determined largely based on the software or tool itself, so working links to a functional copy must be provided at the time of submission.
Additional requirements: The software or tool must well documented and easy to use for the typical user. The manuscript itself must be readable by the general Systematic Biology readership. If relevant, the manuscript must include benchmark data, or refer to Supplemental Material that includes such data. If appropriate, such benchmarking should include real biological data and a comparison with related tools. If appropriate, the submission must include working sample data files. Any software must be open source, web-distributed and free to non-commercial users. In addition, the authors must certify that they will provide support for the software or tools for a minimum of two years from the date of publication. Systematic Biology encourages the use of GPL-like licenses and the use of open repositories, such as SourceForge or Google Code.
Software for Systematics and Evolution papers should include an abstract. We will not enforce any specific organization of the text, but the following suggestions might help in organizing a submission: an introduction that describes the motivation; a Description section; a Benchmark section; a Biological Examples section (if applicable); a statement regarding Availability. However the manuscript is organized, please pay careful attention to the normal formatting for section headings, references, and other aspects of the journal’s style.
Manuscript Formatting
All text, including the references section, must be double-spaced; 1.5 spacing is not acceptable. Continuous line numbers must be used. Use a very common font, such as Times New Roman, to ensure proper encoding into ScholarOne Manuscripts. Use 12-point type and margins of approximately 1 inch on all sides and a non-justified (ragged) right margin. Words should not be hyphenated at the ends of lines. All paragraphs should be indented approximately 0.5 inch (1 cm) using a tab command. Paragraphs must consist of 2 or more sentences. Footnotes should not be used.
Limit the manuscript to the length necessary to convey the work. Papers may be unsubmitted or rejected if they are longer than necessary. Number all manuscript pages consecutively in this order: title, authors and abstract; text; acknowledgements; references; appendices.
Throughout all stages of the review process all figures and tables (main and supplementary) must be mentioned in order in the text. (Main) Figures and Tables also need to be embedded within the manuscript, after their first mention, and must be accompanied by the corresponding Figure Legend and Table Caption, to help reviewers. Continuous line numbering should be used. The word "Figure" should be spelled out if it appears in a sentence, but abbreviated "(Fig.)" if it appears in parentheses. Figure portions should always be referred to using lowercase letters, for example, (Fig. 1a). When an acronym or symbol is used in table or figure captions, it must be defined (even if it is also defined in the text) in the first table caption and first figure caption in which it is used. Once a paper is accepted the separate figure and table files will be required.
Scientific names of organisms are to be given the first time the organisms are mentioned. Genus and species names in the text, abstract, tables, and figures must be italicized. Guidelines for nomenclature and abbreviations of proteins and protein-encoding loci should be followed. Our abbreviation for millions of years ago is Ma; our abbreviation for millions of years duration (not necessarily in the past) is Myr. "et al." is not italicized.
Contributions should be in English and clearly written. Papers not clearly written may be returned for rewriting prior to review. In general, the recommendations of The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 7th edition are followed.
Text Sections
Please order papers as follows: Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, Supplementary Material, Acknowledgments, Funding, References. A “Conclusions" section is optional, as well as a "Conflict of Interest statement".
Figure captions.—Figure captions should appear directly under each figure, embedded within the main text.
Title and authors.—The title and author information should also be included in the main document: title (in capital and lowercase letters, each important word beginning with a capital letter); authors (all on one line, or more if necessary, with superscript numbers used to match authors to addresses); and full correspondence addresses (in italic font). Each address should begin a new line. Add e-mail addresses if you wish them to be published. Identify the name, address, telephone/fax numbers, and e-mail address for the author who will receive proofs and be designated the "corresponding author" in text.
Abstract.—The abstract should be formatted in the same manner as the rest of the text. It should be concise and contain the most interesting findings from the paper. Avoid abbreviations and citations in the abstract if possible.
Running heads.—If possible, please include running heads in the main document. The running head on even pages should be the author short list; the running head on odd pages (beginning on page 3 if possible) should be the short title (not greater than 50 characters, in all capital letters).
Keywords.—A list of 4 to 8 key words should be included at the end of the abstract.
Headings.—First level: Capital and small capitals; each important word should begin with a capital letter. No heading is used for the introduction. Second level: Capital and lowercase letters, each important word should begin with a capital letter, italic font. Third level: Paragraph indented, capital and lowercase letters, only the first word and proper nouns should begin with capital letters, italic font, followed by a period and a long dash (em dash), run into text.
References.—References are cited in the text as: Jones (1970); (Jones 1970); or (Jones 1970; Smith 1976, 1978) with citations that are in parenthetical groups listed in chronological order. Literature Cited is listed in a References section, with abbreviations for serial (journal) names following the American National Standard. Serial Sources for the BIOSIS Database, which is provided with Biological Abstracts, lists abbreviations for most serials. All references cited in text must be listed in the References section, and vise versa.
In the References section, all authors should be listed (no et al. used). A dash should NOT be used in place of an author's name repeated from the preceding entry; provide name of author in each subsequent citation. Details of established internal style for citations should be followed, particularly relating to order of parts, capitalization, and proper forms of abbreviation. Full page ranges should be provided for cited chapters in books and for journal articles. Consult the CSE style manual for more information.
Works "in press" may be included only if a known year and source of publication can be included. The year of publication can be added as late as the proofs stage of your manuscript. Otherwise no unpublished material may be cited (e.g., "in prep." and "unpublished data") unless special permission is obtained from the Editor.
Figure captions.—Figure captions should appear on a separate page after the references. Do not include figures themselves on the same page.
Appendices.—Some appendices may appear in print. When uploading the files to ScholarOne Manuscripts you can indicate which you intend for print vs. online, but the final decision will be up to the Editor-in-Chief. Appendices should be referred to as, for example, "Appendix 1" or "online Appendix 1." Please mention online appendices or other supplemental material in the text. Consider using color in online appendices and supplemental material if it would aid the reader’s understanding, as there is no charge for color online.
Tables and Figures
Tables.—A table title should be typed in capital and lowercase letters. All units must be included. Symbols and abbreviations should be defined in the table footnotes even if they are also defined in the text (however, if they are used in subsequent tables it may be acceptable to define them only in the first table). Tables are the only exception to the rule that footnotes cannot be used in SB papers. Table footnotes should be designated by superscript lowercase letters. Each footnote should be shown in the table body and should appear with a brief explanation below the table. Footnotes should be labeled in order, starting at the upper left corner of the table and working vertically and horizontally to the lower right corner (as you would read a book).
Only horizontal lines may be used. Do not use vertical or diagonal lines. However, complicated tables (e.g. with shading of columns) can be accommodated by the publisher. Tables as document files are preferred, but we can also accept tables as Excel files. For all submissions (whether new or revised versions of manuscripts) please embed tables in the manuscript and use continuous line numbers. For revised submissions, in addition to embedding them in the manuscript, authors are requested to also submit tables as separate files, accompanied by the respective legends.
Figures.—For highest figure quality we strongly prefer figures in vector format rather than bitmap. If bitmapped figures are necessary, such as photographs, the resolution should be 600 ppi. In some cases we may accept 300 ppi. When viewed in ScholarOne Manuscripts, all files are converted to PDF, which can reduce clarity. (The PDF file created by ScholarOne Manuscripts is not used for print, only for the review process.) At the end of the submission sequence you will be asked to view the PDF file. Please check the figures, and enlarge them if necessary for easy legibility; for example, if a figure has two portions it might be best to make each portion into separate figures.
On figures, use only common sans-serif fonts, such as Geneva, Helvetica, or Arial. Make the text as large as possible. Figures should be completely labeled; for example, each axis in a graph should be labeled and include units. No box should be drawn around a graph or other figure. All line weights should be 1 pt thick or close to it (0.5 is the minimum, reserved for cases in which thin lines are necessary to the legibility of the figure). Thicker lines are fine if needed.
If a figure has multiple portions they should be referred to in the caption, the text of the paper, and on the figure using lowercase letters. On the figure these letters should be placed in the upper left corner of each portion of the figure, and should be followed by a single parenthesis, e.g., "a)" rather than enclosed in double parentheses.
For all submissions (whether new or revised versions of manuscripts) please embed figures in the manuscript and use continuous line numbers. For revised submissions, in addition to embedding them in the manuscript, authors are requested to also submit figures as separate files, accompanied by the respective legends. When designing figures, please keep in mind that each figure will be made either single or double column width. Abbreviations used on figures must be defined in the figure caption even if already defined in the text. If the same abbreviations are used in subsequent figures it may be acceptable to define them only on first occurrence.
Figures must be submitted as .tif, .eps, .ppt, .xls, .pdf, .gif, or .jpg files. Contact the Editorial Office (sysbio.editorialoffice@oup.com) if you are not able to provide figures in one of the acceptable formats.
Self-archiving policy
Systematic Biology allows authors to deposit the submitted version of their paper in preprint servers. We ask that once a paper is accepted and published, the preprint entry is updated to include the full citation line, DOI, and link to the version of record. Full self-archiving policy.
Authorship
Authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.
The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving these cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.
Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.
After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made without the approval of the editor. All co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.
Authors may designate two or more Co-corresponding Author(s) at acceptance, but only the primary Corresponding Author designated at submission has the authority to act on behalf of all authors and receives the manuscript proof.
If you intend to use Read and Publish funding to publish your manuscript under an open access license, note that changing the corresponding author to access those funds is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open access charges section.
Resources for inclusive language
Systematic Biology and OUP aim to create a community that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of our commitment to these principles, we ask authors to adopt bias-free and inclusive language in their work, and to consider inclusivity and accessibility when creating figures. We recommend authors consult best practice resources such as the following when preparing manuscripts:
C4DISC Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication
APA Guidelines on Bias-Free Language
Reviewers are aware of these guidelines.
Preparation for Publication
Revision of Manuscripts
To revise your manuscript after receiving a decision email from the Editor-in-Chief, log onto ScholarOne Manuscripts and enter the Author Center, where you should find your manuscript title listed under "Manuscripts with Decisions." Under "Actions," click on "Create a Revision." You will be unable to make your revisions on the originally-submitted version of the manuscript. Instead, revise your paper using a word processing program and save it on your computer. Delete the old files on ScholarOne Manuscripts, and upload the new files. For the final revision, manuscripts must be submitted as document (not PDF) files and are required to follow the below instructions. Failure to comply with any of these requirements will slow the revision process.
- Clearly indicate the changes to your manuscript within the document using the Track Changes mode in MS Word or any text software by using bold, strikethrough, or colored text. If a large number of changes were made and you feel the document is too cluttered to read easily with all of them shown, feel free to submit a "clean" copy as well, in which changes are not indicated. If you decide a clean copy would likely be helpful to reviewers and editors, please upload it in the category called Related Files.
- Address each point made by the Editor-In-Chief, the Associate Editor and the Reviewers in the space indicated, under "Response to Decision Letter." Your revision cannot be processed if your responses to reviews are given only in a cover letter. The best way to address each point would be to copy the decision letter and insert your comments after each point made. Feel free to argue your case, with careful consideration and documentation, if you disagree with any of the suggestions. If you feel a reviewer did not understand a point you made, in your response keep in mind that as an author it is your responsibility to make your points clear to the readers. Please do not change the order of or delete any of the comments because this makes it difficult to review again and would slow the process.
- In addition to pasting your response to the decision letter in the space indicated in ScholarOne Manuscripts, please upload a file with your responses, in text, MS Word or any text software or PDF format.
- The format of your responses must be compatible with ScholarOne Manuscripts text fields. For example, color formatted text is not an option, but you could use asterisks, numbers, or spacing, to clearly distinguish your responses from the text of the reviews.
- Do not submit your revision in PDF format. This applies to the main text, tables, and appendices. Individual figures may be in PDF format.
- For papers written using LaTeX, in addition to the .tex (and associated style, bib, or etc. files) please include a PDF generated from those files. Upload the PDF in the ScholarOne Manuscripts category called Related Files.
- Figures must be uploaded separately, with each file name including the figure number. No figures may be imbedded in or tied to the PDF or .tex files.
- After you've uploaded your revision, carefully view the ScholarOne Manuscripts version to verify that all figures and other files display correctly, and that you’ve followed all of our author instructions.
Copyright Forms
Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.
Please note that by submitting an this article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material form other sources before acceptance, and once the paper is accepted they are required to give an exclusive license to publish to the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB).
Open Access Option for Authors
Systematic Biology offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.
Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.
Details of the open access licences and open access charges.
OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.
Please note that you may be eligible for a discount to the open access charge based on society membership. Authors may be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.
Reuse of Oxford Open Content
Once published under the open access model, this article will be distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Advance Access Publication
Systematic Biology Advance Access is the journal's system for the rapid online publication of articles ahead of the printed issue. Manuscripts are published online as soon as possible after they have been accepted. Beginning August 2011 accepted manuscripts are published online before copyediting and formatting have been carried out. This version is indicated by the text 'Accepted Manuscript' above the article details on our Advance Access page. A second version, which has been copyedited, typeset, and author-corrected, is then also published online ahead of print; this version is indicated by the text 'Corrected Proof'. Appearance of the accepted manuscript in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique doi (digital object identifier). The final version is published as part of an issue.
Potential Cover Images
An illustration is featured on the cover of each issue, the cost of which is borne by the journal. Authors are encouraged to submit high-quality photographs for possible use as a cover illustration. Photos must be submitted in color. Necessary permissions should be cleared with all third parties. Please see this page and visit the Access and purchase resource centre page for more information about obtaining rights. Please provide a brief caption and include a credit for the photographer or artist (please follow instructions from third parties on crediting if specific instructions are given when permissions are obtained). Please e-mail Systematic Biology Production (sysbio_oup@newgen.co) for instructions on how to submit a cover image. Final cover figures will be chosen on the basis of attractiveness and general interest in addition to being related to an article in that issue.
Color Figures
Color figures should be submitted in CMYK color format. If you convert from RGB please look at your figure again because some colors display slightly differently in the two modes. The publisher has the right to refuse publication of any artwork of unacceptable quality.
All figures submitted to the journal in color will be published in color online at no cost (unless the author specifically requests that their figures be in black and white online). Authors may choose to also publish their figures in color in the print journal for $600 per figure; you will be asked to approve this cost in an e-mail after your article is accepted for publication. You will be required to pay at the time of print publication.
Authors are normally expected to cover the cost of printing in color but we do have limited funds available to assist authors who cannot pay. If you article contains color figures that must appear in print, please let us know if you will unable to afford the cost at submission. The fee does not apply to images chosen by the Editor to be on the cover of the journal.
Page Charges
Systematic Biology charges $50 per published page. If the corresponding author is a member of the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB), page charges will be waived for your article. Membership of SSB starts from $48 with discounts for students, and provides a range of benefits in addition to free publication in the journal. To join SSB please visit this page, and to find out more about SSB click on this link.
Page Proofs
Authors will be sent page proofs via email. These must be returned within 2 business days to avoid delays in publication of the corrected proof. Authors should not expect to make major modifications to their work at this stage. To avoid delays, authors should notify the Production Editor (sysbio@oup.com) of any address changes. If the author will be out of email contact for several days, an alternative contact person authorized to correct proofs should be identified prior to the author’s absence.
The publisher is unable to make corrections to figures. If the author wishes to make corrections to figures, new, corrected figures must be returned with the proofs.
The journal will provide authors with a URL for free access to the published version of the article.
Author Toll Free Link and Discounts
All corresponding authors will be provided with a free access link to their article upon publication. The link will be sent via email to the article’s corresponding author who is free to share the link with any co-authors. Please see OUP’s Author Self-Archiving policy for more information regarding how this link may be publicly shared depending on the type of license under which the article has published.
All authors have the option to purchase up to 10 print copies of the issue in which they publish at a 50% discount. Orders should be placed through this order form. Orders must be made within 12 months of the online publication date.
Conflict of Interest
At the point of submission, Systematic Biology's policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated—including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?
As an integral part of the online submission process, corresponding authors are required to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy.
Funding
Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.
The following rules should be followed:
The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e.‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘(grant number ABX CDXXXXXX)’
Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘(grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX)’
Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.
An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.); and the Alcohol & Education Research Council (hfygr667789).’
Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. See Author Resources for details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.
Crossref Funding Data Registry
In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.
Manuscript Transfer
Systematic Biology sends and receives transfers from other journals on related topics published by Oxford University Press. All transfers are sent according to the choice of the authors. Unless a reviewer declines to have their feedback shared, reviewer reports and the original decision letter are included in the transfer, but the reviewer identities are not shared.
