In order to make manuscript submission as easy as possible for authors, we have introduced format-free initial submission for the majority of our journals, apart from Proceedings B and Biology Letters which requires a Word version upon initial submission to enable accurate length estimation.
At first submission, authors can submit their manuscript in any format; however, we do still encourage authors to read the manuscript preparation guidelines below and to consider how easy a manuscript is to read by reviewers and editors.
Where applicable, manuscripts must adhere to our guidelines regarding length (see each journal website).
Once an article has been accepted for publication the main manuscript must be submitted as an editable file, not a PDF, and the source files of any figures and tables must be provided. If you are submitting a LaTeX file please see our LaTeX guidelines below.
Submissions should include the following sections.
Title page
Your article title should be a short description of the research you are reporting. The best titles are written with both human readers and search engines in mind; including keywords in your title will help readers discover your article online. The title page should also contain full names and affiliations for each author.
Abstract
The abstract should be no more than 200 words and should not contain references or unexplained abbreviations or acronyms. Your abstract should be concise and informative and should read well as a standalone piece. The general scope of the article as well as the main results and conclusions should be summarised. Please also ensure that your abstract contains all likely search terms, to assist indexers (e.g. PubMed) that scan only the title and abstract of articles. If possible, it is beneficial to have all your keywords written into the abstract. Your abstract provided at initial submission is included in reviewer invitation emails - please think about how to describe your work to make it easy for a potential reviewer to determine whether they would be suitable to review it.
Keywords
Please include at least 3 and up to 6 keywords. Try to avoid overly broad or specialised terms that might be meaningless to a reader.
Think about the words you would use to search online for articles on the same topic; these often make the best keywords. They do not necessarily need to be single words; keywords can include short phrases or terms that are easily recognised by researchers in your field.
Main text
The main text of your article should be split into clearly-labelled sections. Usually these will be background, methods, results, discussion and conclusions, however please feel free to use whatever headings and subheadings best suit your article. Abbreviations should be written out in full on first use.
Methods section (if applicable)
The Methods section should contain all elements necessary to allow interpretation and replication of the results. Please include full specific details of materials used, such as reagents, animal models or software. References to published methods or protocols (e.g. protocols.io) can also be provided. You are also encouraged to preregister your methods at a suitable repository (e.g. https://osf.io/prereg). You will also be required to provide a Data Availability statement; detailed guidance can be found below. Please additionally include the accession details in your methods sections where appropriate.
Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed to the study but did not meet the authorship criteria.
Funding
Please state the sources of funding including grant number for each author. Including this information is a requirement of many funders. You will also be asked to enter this information during the submission process, but please ensure that you also include it in the manuscript.
We suggest the following format:
This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Natural Environment Research Council [grant number zzzz]; and the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number aaaa].
References
All our journals use a system based on Vancouver style referencing. All references to the literature cited will be given in the order of their appearance in the text in a consecutively numbered list at the end of the article.
Whilst it will aid our production team if your final manuscript uses this format, it is not a requirement for submission. However please note that numbered references reduces your word count significantly and may be helpful for meeting page limits.
Please note that references to datasets must also be included in the reference list with DOIs where available. For example:
1. Torres-Campos I, Abram PK, Guerra-Grenier E, Boivin G, Brodeur J. 2016 Data from: A scenario for the evolution of selective egg colouration: the roles of enemy-free space, camouflage, thermoregulation, and pigment limitation. Dryad Digital Repository. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5qt2k)
Each reference should contain as many of the following elements as possible:
- Author surnames with initials (up to 10 before et al. is used)
- Year of publication
- Title of paper or book
- Journal name using standard abbreviation
- Volume number
- Book publisher and location
- First and last page numbers, or article number
- Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
EndNote style files are available for most of our journals. For Royal Society Open Science please use the Open Biology style file.