Manuscript preparation instructions

Scope of the journal
Editorial policy
Peer review process
Submission
Manuscript preparation and support
Manuscript format and structure
Funding
Journal copyediting style
Figures and illustrations
Permission to reproduce figures and extracts
Supporting information and supplementary data
Copyright and licence including Open Access
Proofs
Advance Access

Scope of the Journal

FEMS Microbiology Reviews publishes reviews dealing with all aspects of microbiology that have not been surveyed recently. Reviews should be devoted to topics of current interest and provide comprehensive, critical and authoritative coverage. They should provide new perspectives and critical, detailed discussions of significant trends in the areas being reviewed and may contain elements of a speculative and selective nature. All reviews should address both specialists and the general reader. Whenever possible, reviews should be put into the framework of general microbiology and biology. Manuscripts of lectures delivered at symposia that do not review the related field are not acceptable, nor are unevaluated compilations of the literature.

Editorial Policy

Members of the Editorial Board and other appropriate experts will referee the papers. Editors handling papers will independently make decisions on acceptance, revision or rejection based on the referees’ reports. Authors who feel that there are substantial grounds for disagreement with an Editor’s decision should contact the Chief Editor, whose decision will be final. Authors who wish to withdraw their manuscript (at any stage of the process) should contact their Editor.

Peer Review Process

All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by the Editor and his Associates. At this stage manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if it is felt that they are not of high enough priority or not relevant to the journal. This fast rejection process means that authors are given a quick decision and do not need to wait for the review process. Manuscripts that are not instantly rejected are sent out for peer review, usually to two independent reviewers. Based on the feedback from these reviewers and the Editors’ judgment a decision is given on the manuscript.

Manuscripts may also be sent out for statistical review.

The average time from submission to first decision is 35 days.

Submission

Please read these instructions carefully and follow them closely to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with these instructions.

All material to be considered for publication in FEMS Microbiology Reviews should be submitted in electronic form via the journal's online submission system. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, instructions on how to submit your manuscript online can be found on our Submission online page..

FEMS Microbiology Reviews does not provide the option to submit uninvited manuscripts.

Review manuscripts may be solicited from international leading investigators by one of the Editors. Furthermore, proposals for reviews may be sent to the team of Editors-in-Chief or one of the Editors with appropriate interests. Editor's contact details and fields of interest are given on our Editorial Board page. Authors are encouraged to contact Editors directly by e-mail. Proposals addressed to the Editors-in-Chief should be sent to femsre.editorialoffice@oup.com.

Such proposals should contain: 

• an outline (1–3 pages)
• a short statement describing the aim, scope and relevance of the review, and an indication of why the review is timely
• information on whether there has been any review covering this or a related field in the past few years, and, if so, the specific importance of the proposed review
• a statement as to when the completed review might be expected
• full contact details of four experts in the field who are familiar with the topical list of recent key references showing the contributions to the field made by the author(s).
• a list of recent key references showing the contributions to the field made by the author(s).

The proposals are evaluated and authors may be invited to submit the review if the material is satisfactory and of general interest.

Nominated reviewers

When suggesting reviewers for manuscripts, members of the Editorial Board and/or suitably qualified scientists should have no close affiliation with the authors and should give an objective review of the manuscript. Professional e-mail addresses must be provided, if available, rather than private e-mail addresses. The Editors retain the right to use their discretion to select reviewers they deem appropriate, which may or may not include those nominated by authors.

Revised manuscripts

Manuscripts may be returned to authors for modification of the scientific content and/or for shortening and language corrections. Revised versions must be submitted online through ScholarOne Manuscripts by clicking on the link to upload a revised manuscript provided in the authors’ decision letter. This can also be achieved by clicking on the ‘‘create a revision’’ button in the corresponding author’s submitting author centre. A source file is required with text and tables (.doc, .docx or .rtf format, but not .pdf). Information must be provided on responses to Editor’s and referees’ comments through a cover letter. A clear indication is also required of changes that have been made. Authors must also upload a file as a supporting document in which original and revised text are compared using the ‘Track Changes’ facility.

Figures should be uploaded in separate files and at sufficient resolution (see section on Preparation of data). All obsolete files of the previous version should be deleted from the revised submission. If a paper that is returned to the authors for amendment is not resubmitted in revised form within one month after minor and two months after a major revision, the paper will be regarded as withdrawn, unless request for extension is made to the Editor dealing with the paper. Any revised version received after this deadline will be treated as a new, resubmitted manuscript.

Resubmitted manuscripts

If extensive revision is required, including a requirement for additional experimental work or analysis, the manuscript may be rejected but with a recommendation to resubmit a substantially revised manuscript. A resubmitted manuscript should be submitted as a new manuscript but should include a letter outlining the revisions that have been made in response to the major criticisms of the original article. The article will be treated as a new submission, will typically be edited by the Editor who dealt with the original manuscript, but may not necessarily be reviewed by the same referees.

Manuscript Preparation and Support

Manuscripts must be written in English (consistent with either UK or US spelling) and should be clear and grammatically correct. Authors whose native language is not English should consider having their manuscript read by an English speaking colleague or have it professionally edited. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication but manuscripts that are not written in clear and legible English may be rejected without peer review.

There are a number of pre-submission language editing services available. FEMS is pleased to partner with Peerwith to provide editorial support for authors wishing to submit papers to FEMS journals. Peerwith is a platform for author services, connecting academics seeking support for their work with the relevant FEMS expert who can help out not only with language editing, but also translation, visuals, consulting, or anything else authors need to get their research submission-ready. Please follow this link to request a Peerwith quotation within 24 hours without obligation.

Here are other useful links to help you through the manuscript submission process:

• Online Submission Platform
• Editorial Office e-mail: femsre.editorialoffice@oup.com
• Production Office e-mail: femsre.production@oup.com
• FEMS Journal Portal
• FEMS Society

Manuscript Format and Structure

FEMS politely requests you compile your manuscript in MS Word and save it as a .doc or .docx file (not a .pdf file), using the following layout.

• Main Document incorporating: Title page, the abstract, main text in one single column with references located at the end.
• A separate file containing all Tables, each on a separate page.
• A separate file containing Figure legends.
• Individually uploaded Figures, ensuring that each figure is at least twice the size it will be in the published document. Include the figure number (e.g. Fig. 1) and optionally including the figure legend well outside the boundary of the space occupied by the figure. ScholarOne Manuscripts will combine your separately uploaded figure files and the manuscript main body into one online file. Please ensure that you upload the figures only once.
• Include page and line numbering (continuous).
• The right-hand margin justification should be switched off. Artificial word breaks at the end of lines must be avoided.
• If you do not use MS Word then save in MS Word format in the word processor that you use. Rich text (.rtf) format may also be used.
• Use standard fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Symbol, Helvetica, Times). In your Word document, on the Tools menu, click Options, select the Embed TrueType fonts check box and then click the Save tab.

There is no maximum length for papers, but authors are urged to be concise. The length should be justified by the content and normally should not exceed 25 journal pages (one journal page is equivalent to about 1000 words). Excessively long reference lists should be avoided. Repetition of information in the text and illustrations should not occur. 

Please use short, simple filenames when saving all your documents, and avoid special characters, punctuation marks, symbols (such as &), and spaces.

Other helpful hints are: (i) use the TAB key once for paragraph indents; (ii) where possible use Times New Roman for the text font and Symbol for any Greek and special characters; (iii) use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold, Italic, Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters; (iv) please avoid using underline: for emphasis use bold; (v) clearly identify unusual symbols and Greek letters; (vi) where there might be confusion, differentiate between the letter O and zero, and the letters I and l and the number 1.

Title, authors and keywords

Reviews published in FEMS Microbiology Reviews should appeal to both specialist microbiologists and the general reader. Therefore, the manuscript should be headed by a concise, informative title. Authors are reminded that titles are widely used in information-retrieval systems. The name, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of one corresponding author should be provided in a footnote. FEMS journals only accept one corresponding author.

The title should be followed by a one-sentence summary (typically no more than 40 words) describing the most important message of the review. When assigned to an issue, this summary will appear immediately under the title of each article in the online Table of Contents and will be free to all readers, but will not be published in print. This short, non-technical summary should comprise information on the novelty of the review, and the language used should be understood by a non-specialist.

Six informative keywords should be provided by the authors.

Article titles should not contain unidentified abbreviations. For genes/proteins, please state the full name if known, with the accepted abbreviation in brackets.

General organisation of manuscripts

• Abstract. This should be a single paragraph of less than 200 words and must be intelligible without reference to the full paper. Ideally, references are not cited. Abbreviations should be avoided, but if necessary, they must be defined the first time they are used in the main text. Do not abbreviate genus in the title, keywords, or at first use in the Abstract and Introduction.
• Introduction. This should state the aims, scope and relevance of the review, and an introduction to the subject area being reviewed.
• The body of the review should be organized into sub-sections headed by informative sub-titles.
• Concluding remarks should not repeat the Introduction or main sections but may, for example, point to future directions.
• Acknowledgements can be made to funding agencies, colleagues who assisted with the work or the preparation of the manuscript, and those who contributed materials or provided unpublished data.
• References.

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 [HFY GR667789].

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements and details of non-financial support must be included at the end of the text before references and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Please note that acknowledgement of funding bodies and declarations regarding conflicts of interest (if any CoI exists) should be given in separate 'Funding' and 'Conflicts of interest' sections, respectively.

References

If you use EndNote and Reference Manager to facilitate referencing citations (not required for submission), this journal's style is available for use. If an automatic referencing system has been used in the preparation of the paper, the references must not be left embedded in the final text file submitted.

For reference style please consult the mini style checklist.   

Article types

Review Articles. The length of the review should be at least eight pages and normally not exceed 25 pages upon publication in the journal. High quality colour figures, diagrams or photographs are encouraged. Supporting information is published free of charge.

Letters to the Editor are brief communications focusing on an article that has been published in the journal within the previous six months. They should focus on some aspect(s) of the paper that is, in the author's opinion, incorrectly stated or interpreted, controversial, misleading or in some other way worthy of comment. All Letters to the Editor must address a scientific issue in an objective fashion, should be fewer than 1000 words (main body text), and will be externally refereed. The manuscript should be sent directly by e-mail to the Editor who was the handling Editor of the review paper the letter is referring to. If acceptable for publication, they will be offered to the original authors for comment.

* Word limit is including the abstract but excluding the title page, references and figure legends.

Journal Copyediting Style

Nomenclature, abbreviations and units

Authors should follow internationally accepted rules and conventions. Authors should provide evidence for the thorough identification of new isolates and use the most recent acceptable name.

For genes/proteins, please state the full name if known, with the accepted abbreviation in brackets.

Bacteria and Archaea

The spelling of bacterial names should follow the list of Prokaryotic Names with Standing in Nomenclature. If there is a reason to use a name that does not have standing in nomenclature, the name should be printed in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks and an appropriate statement concerning the nomenclatural status of the name should be made in the text (for an example, see Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. (1980) 30: 547–556).

Fungi 

The authors should use recently accepted binomials controlled by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Scientific names of yeasts can be found in: The Yeasts: a Taxonomic Study, 4th ed. (C. P. Kurtzman and J.W. Fell, ed., Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1998). Taxonomic texts should cite nomenclatural authorities at the first time a name is mentioned. For abbreviation of authors’ names, see this page. All taxa should be italicized.

Viruses

Names used for viruses should be those approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). If desired, synonyms may be added parenthetically when the name is first mentioned. Approved generic (or group) and family names may also be used.

Enzymes 

For enzymes, please use the Recommended Name (or Common Name) and the Enzyme Commission (EC) number (as defined by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) upon first use in the body text and on first use in the Abstract. Do not use the EC number in titles or subheadings though they may be appropriate to use in a table if a large number of enzymes are being assayed for, for example. Names and numbers should be taken from the latest iteration of the BRENDA database. For not yet classified enzymes, use a ‘preliminary BRENDA supplied EC number’. As an example, “thiosulfate dehydrogenase (EC 1.8.2.2)” or, if preliminary “EC 1.8.2.B2”. It may at times be appropriate to list older/alternative names of the enzyme if there is much inconsistency in the literature as this will help readers to find your content – for instance in the case of the above mentioned enzyme, “thiosulfate oxidising enzyme” and “tetrathionate synthase” are still in use in some papers.

Genes 

Genetic nomenclature should essentially follow the recommendations of Demerec et al. (Genetics (1966) 54: 61–76), and those given in the instructions to authors of the Journal of Bacteriology and Molecular and Cellular Biology (January issues).

Biochemical compounds

Consult the European Journal of Biochemistry or the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Queen Mary Chemistry Undergraduate site).

Abbreviations 

Abbreviations should only be used as an aid to the reader and their use should be strictly limited. Define each abbreviation and introduce it in parentheses the first time it is used: e.g. ‘cultures were grown in Eagle minimal essential medium (MEM)’. Eliminate abbreviations that are not used at least six times in the manuscript. In addition to abbreviations to the international system of units of measurements, other common units (e.g., bp, kb, Da), chemical symbols for the elements, and the standard biochemical abbreviations (see Eur. J. Biochem.) should be used without definition. Standard chemical symbols and trivial names or their symbols (folate, Ala, Leu, etc.) may be used for terms that appear in full in the neighbouring text. Abbreviations other than those recommended by the IUPAC-IUB (Biochemical Nomenclature and related Documents, 1978) should be used only when a case can be made for necessity, such as in tables and figures.

Reporting numerical data

The international system of units (SI) should be used; mL is acceptable in place of cm³ for liquid measures. The form for units is mg mL^-1 and not mg/mL, parentheses should be used to improve clarity, e.g. mL (g dry wt soil)^-1 h^-1. The prefixes k, m, m μ, n, and p should be used in combination with the standard units for reporting length, weight, volume and molarity for 10³, 10^-3, 10^-6, 10^-9, and 10^-12, respectively. Use mg mL^-1 or mg g^-1 instead of the ambiguous ppm. Units of temperature are presented as follows: 37°C or 324 K.

Figures and Illustrations

Please create your figures and illustrations with reference to the OUP guidelines available on this page.

Please be aware that the requirements for online submission and for reproduction in the journal are different: (i) for online submission and peer review, please upload your figures either embedded in the word processing file or separately as low-resolution images (.jpg, .tif, .gif or. eps); (ii) for reproduction in the journal, you will be required after acceptance to supply high-resolution .tif files. Minimum resolutions are 300 d.p.i. for colour or tone images, and 600 d.p.i. for line drawings. We advise that you create your high-resolution images first as these can be easily converted into low-resolution images for online submission.

Figures will not be relettered by the publisher. The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material. Any photomicrographs, electron micrographs or radiographs must be of high quality. Wherever possible, photographs should fit within the print area or within a column width.

For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to this page.

Colour figures are encouraged and free of charge.

Specifications

• Figures should be supplied at twice their final size with wide margins. A single column figure is 80 mm, two-thirds page width is 114 mm and two-column width is 168 mm.
• For line art:

1.  All lines should be drawn at 1.5 point (0.5 mm wide), broken line styles may be used to differentiate multiple plot lines if desired.
2.  Letters and numbers should be 16 point (capitals 4 mm high) non- serif (e.g. Windows: Arial, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Century Gothic and Lucida Sans Unicode; Mac and Unix: Helvetica, Lucida, Avant Garde).
3.  Symbols in the figure itself should be 3 mm in diameter. Lines drawn to accompany the points should not go through hollow symbols.
4.  Numbers used as axis labels should have minimum significant figures; amounts less than unity must carry a preceding zero (e.g. 0.5 not .5).
5.  Larger composite figures may be designed to occupy two columns when this can achieve an overall saving in space. The character, line and symbol sizes should be adjusted accordingly to achieve the same sizes on the printed page.

• Magnification should be indicated where appropriate by inclusion of a bar marker.
• Photographs of electropherograms, etc., in which there is poor contrast may be better replaced by line drawings, but in this case the photographs should be submitted for scrutiny by the Editor.
• If photographs have been digitally processed to enhance their quality, this should be stated.
• Figure legends should consist of a preliminary sentence constituting a title, followed by a brief description of the way the particular experiment was carried out, and any other necessary description of symbols or lines. All abbreviations must be defined.

Graphical Abstract and One-Sentence Summary

FEMS uses Graphical Abstracts to promote articles via email content, social media, newsletters and online search results.

"Graphical Abstract": image which is not necessarily linked to the original manuscript, but either summarizes the text, fits to the text and is very appealing or is one of the key images/figures/graphs of the article.

Tips: Keep it simple / Short legible text / Avoid saturated and distracted colours / Image resolution should be a minimum of 300dpi and the aspect ratio should be 4:3 to make sure that your image is optimized in our ‘click and expand’ feature.

"One-sentence Summary": short non-technical summary stating the novelty of the article. The language used should be understood by a non-specialist. Please ensure you use the third person, not first person (i.e. do not use 'I' or 'we')

Please check that your Graphical Abstract is clear and eye-catching. This will help to attract readers to your publication. For examples of how this is displayed please visit this page.

Videos

Authors may now include videos with their submissions which will be published in the online article (ie: no longer as supplementary data). Please see below for further details. Authors must also submit a still image that can be used in the print article. Videos should be numbered in the order they appear in the text. All figures and videos require a legend. The total playback time for the two videos should not exceed 5 minutes.

Recording Use the highest possible resolution when creating the original. The use of a standard thoracoscopic camera (digital preferred) fixed on the table and manipulated by an assistant gives excellent magnification and high quality recording. Filming with a head-mounted recording camera is not recommended.

Audio To improve the understanding of the procedure described, short and clear commentaries can be incorporated into the video file. Commentaries should supplement the complete description given in the legend of the video.

Format Videos can be submitted in any standard format: wmv, avi, mpeg, mov, etc. Videos must be of high quality and must have a minimum size of 640x480 (preferably higher as we will convert all videos to MP4 to ICVTS specifications). The aspect ratio can be: 4:3 or 16:9.

For full video preparation guidelines, go to this page.

Tables

All tables should be on separate pages and accompanied by a title, and footnotes where necessary. The tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Units in which results are expressed should be given in parentheses at the top of each column and not repeated in each line of the table. Ditto signs are not used. Avoid overcrowding the tables and the excessive use of words. The format of tables should be in keeping with that normally used by the journal; in particular, vertical lines, coloured text and shading should not be used. Please be certain that the data given in tables are correct.

Permission to Reproduce Figures and Extracts

Permission to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication in perpetuity, must be cleared and if necessary paid for by the author; this includes applications and payments to DACS, ARS and similar licensing agencies where appropriate. Evidence in writing that such permissions have been secured from the rights-holder must be made available to the Editors. It is also the author's responsibility to include acknowledgements as stipulated by the particular institutions. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing print and online permissions: please see the Guidelines for Authors section. Should you require copies of this then please contact the Editorial office of the journal in question or the Oxford Journals Rights department on journals.permissions@oup.com.

Third-Party Content in Open Access papers

If you will be publishing your paper under an Open Access licence but it contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content

Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Supporting Information and Supplementary Data

Electronic Supporting Information may be included, free of charge, to support and enhance your manuscript with, e.g. supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets or sound clips. Supporting information will be subject to critical review and this facility should be used prudently. Supporting information should not contain data that are critical to the paper. Supporting files will be published, subject to editorial approval, online alongside the electronic version of your article. Authors should submit the Supporting Information at the same time as the manuscript, but in separate file(s). Select ‘Supplemental files’, or ‘MultiMedia’ for the file designation when uploading through the online submission system. Upload a separate .doc or .docx file listing concise and descriptive captions for each file uploaded as Supporting Information. Please indicate that you have uploaded these files in your cover letter and state clearly whether they are intended for eventual online publication as Supporting Information, or are for peer review purposes only.

Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available by the publisher online, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures. Select ‘Supplemental files’, or ‘MultiMedia’ for the file designation when uploading through the online submission system. Upload a separate .doc or .docx file listing concise and descriptive captions for each file uploaded as Supporting Information. Please indicate that you have uploaded these files in your cover letter and state clearly whether they are intended for eventual online publication as Supporting Information, or are for peer review purposes only.

It is standard practice for appendices to be made available online as supplementary data. All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats. All material to be considered as supplementary data must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, and will not be edited. Please indicate clearly all material intended as supplementary data upon submission and name the files e.g. 'Supplementary Figure 1', 'Supplementary Data', etc. Also ensure that the supplementary data is referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as '(see Supplementary data)' or '(see Supplementary Figure 1)'.

Copyright and Licence including Open Access

It is a condition of publication for all Oxford Journals that authors either assign copyright or grant an exclusive licence to Oxford University Press or the sponsoring Society. This ensures that all of the rights needed for publication of the article are in place and that any requests from third parties to reproduce content from the Journal is handled efficiently and consistently by OUP, enabling the content to be as widely disseminated as possible. No article will be published unless the signed licence has been received at Oxford Journals. Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be asked to complete an online copyright licence to publish form, and the Publisher will provide further instruction at that point. Any queries about the licence form should be sent as soon as possible to Rights and Permissions so that any issues can be resolved quickly and to avoid any delay in publication.

Details of how to sign the licence using our online system will be sent after acceptance.
Work submitted for publication must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published figures, tables, or parts of text are to be included, the copyright-holder’s permission must have been obtained prior to submission. For more information on how to obtain permissions, please consult Rights and Permissions.

Oxford Open

FEMS Microbiology Reviews authors have the option to publish their paper under the Oxford Open initiative; whereby, for a charge, their paper will be made freely available online immediately upon publication. After your manuscript is accepted the corresponding author will be required to accept a mandatory license to publish agreement. As part of the licensing process you will be asked to indicate whether or not you wish to pay for open access. If you do not select the open access option, your paper will be published with standard subscription-based access and you will not be charged.

Oxford Open articles are published under Creative Commons licences: Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY), Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence (CC BY-NC) or Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence (CC BY-NC). Visit the OUP licensing website to find out more about Creative Commons licences.

Charges for CC BY, CC BY-NC and CC BY-NC-ND:

• Regular charge: £2,667 / $4,000 / €3,200

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.

Proofs

Authors are sent page proofs by Email. These should be checked immediately and corrections, as well as answers to any queries, returned to the publishers within 3 working days (further details are supplied with the proof). It is the author's responsibility to check proofs thoroughly.

Advance Access

Advance Access articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication, in advance of their appearance in the main journal. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier). When an article appears in an issue, it is removed from the Advance Access page.

Articles posted for Advance Access are published online as they have been submitted. This is before they have been copy edited, paginated and published online in a specific issue of the journal. Once an article appears in an issue, both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.