Forestry
Information for Authors
Please note that the journal now encourages authors to complete their copyright licence to publish form online.
Manuscripts must be submitted online - for instructions on how to submit your manuscript online please visit this page. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below please visit the online submission website.
To contact our editorial office with any questions, please email forestry.editorialoffice@oup.com.
Authors should examine a recent issue of Forestry and follow the advice on presentation and submission given below to save time and avoid unnecessary correspondence. Authors will be asked to grant the Institute of Chartered Foresters a sole and exclusive licence to publish the paper for the full period of copyright throughout the world.
Three types of article will be considered for publication:
Original articles describe advances in knowledge and understanding based on analysis of data.
Review articles are a critical synthesis of an important topic.
Letters to the Editor should address recently published articles or issues relevant to the journal and provide a balanced and objective point of view. They should include no more than two tables, two figures and 10 references, and be no more than 800 words (count includes main body of paper and Acknowledgements). Where Letters address recently published articles the authors of the original author will be offered the option to provide a response.
Original and review articles will normally have a maximum length of 12 pages, including tables, illustrations and references (1000 words per full page). Longer papers will be considered, but there must be a justification for the need to occupy more space. Manuscripts will be published in the 'Advance Access' area of our website six weeks after acceptance and will be assigned to issue at a later date, normally within a few months.
Policy on refereeing
All articles and reviews published in Forestry are peer-reviewed by at least two people and, at the discretion of the Editors, may also be subject to independent statistical review (see point 9 below). A condition of submission is that the author nominates four people who are qualified to act as referees and who have not previously been involved with the paper in any way. Two of the nominated referees must be working in a different country to the first named author. Referees are given the option of making comments anonymously but the Editors actively encourage openness in order to ensure logical improvement of manuscripts and to avoid bias and prejudice. In recognition of their work, all referees are given the opportunity to have their name published in the first issue of Forestry per year.
Authors can publish colour figures free of charge.
Editors may request that authors submit a revised version of their paper before it can be accepted for publication. Revised versions of papers submitted more than six months after such a request will be treated as new submissions. The Editor's decision on all submissions is final.
Instructions for submission to Forestry
Submission:
Submission of a paper implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published tables, illustrations or more than 200 words of text are to be included, then the copyright holder's written permission must be obtained. Copies of any such permission letters should be scanned and attached with the paper.
If the paper is accepted for publication the final version can be submitted in WORD or LaTeX format. Figures must be saved in separate files and be prepared to the standards described in paragraph 5 below. Files should be named according to DOS conventions, e.g. 'figure1.tif'. For LaTeX submissions, we strongly recommend using the Forestry LaTeX class file and Bibtex, available online as a rar file; as a tar file, or as a zip file. For WORD submissions, we strongly recommend using the MS Word template, available in .doc-format and in .docx format.
Accompanying information:
Accompanying information must confirm that all authors have read and approved the manuscript and give the names, addresses, telephone/fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of four potential referees. Two of the referees must be working in a different country to the first named author.
Lay-out:
Submissions should be double-spaced throughout (including references), leaving a 2.5 cm margin at the left, top and bottom. Pages should be numbered and lines also numbered consecutively from the start. A4-size paper is preferred, and a font size no smaller than 11 should be used for word-processed manuscripts.
Tables:
These should be numbered in arabic numerals, typed on separate pages and collected at the end of the text. Their approximate position in the text should be indicated in the page margin.
Illustrations:
Illustrations for all accepted papers must be electronic. Illustrations should be numbered (in arabic numerals) in a single list in the order in which they will appear in the text. Captions must be provided as a single list on a separate sheet in the text. For vector graphics, EPS is the preferred format. Lines should not be thinner than 0.25 pts and in-fill patterns and screens should have a density of at least 10%. Font-related problems can be avoided by using standard fonts such as Times Roman and Helvetica. For bitmapped graphics, TIFF is the preferred format but EPS and PDF are also acceptable. All figures must be prepared at publication quality resolution, e.g., 1200 d.p.i. for line drawings and 500 d.p.i. for colour and half-tone artwork. For useful information on preparing your figures for publication, go to http://cpc.cadmus.com/da
Colour Figures:
All figures submitted to the journal in colour will be published in colour online at no cost (unless the author specifically requests that their figures be in black and white online). Colour figures must have a resolution of at least 300 dots per inch at their final size.
Abbreviations:
Abbreviations, especially those formed from initial letters, should be used sparingly and should always be given in full at the first occurrence. (Authors should remember that abbreviations with which they are familiar may be unknown to other readers.) Abbreviations and other conventions (e.g. capitals, italics, symbols) should be used consistently throughout a paper.
Units of measurement:
Metric units are strongly preferred and must be given as equivalents if other units are used. The form m3ha-1 is preferred, though spelling out in full, 'cubic metres per hectare', will be accepted. S.I. units should be used wherever they are appropriate to the scale of the work reported.
Statistics:
All papers should conform with our statistical guidelines. The basic principles are:
Given the data and the description of the analysis and models fitted a third party should be able to derive the same statistical results.
The statistical methods used should be appropriate and, as far as possible, the best methods available for the given data.
Appropriate indicators of uncertainty (standard errors, confidence intervals etc.) should be an integral part of all results derived from the data.
Statistical significance should be handled appropriately.
A statistically qualified reviewer should have confidence that the analysis has been carried out correctly.
The general reader should be given the information in a form which makes it easy for her/him to make their own interpretation of the results.
A full copy of the guidelines are available from the Editor-in-Chief.
Abstract:
A well-written abstract of no more than 300 words must be included with all submissions. Abstracts are used to summarise the paper and will often appear separately from the main text. They are very important as they indicate the relevance of a paper to a reader. The abstract is also an essential means of finding a paper via search engines; almost 50% of visitors to the Forestry website land on the abstract page first. For these reasons, please ensure that you compose your abstract carefully. It must clearly summarise the content and main findings of the paper and where appropriate the practical applications of the work.
References:
References of journals, books, multi-author books and articles published online should be cited in the text by Author & Year ('Harvard' style: last name of first 1-2 authors, or Lastname et al . if 3 or more authors), and conform to the following examples:
Lastname, A. and Lastname, B. 2016 Article title. Abbr. Journal Title 10 , 100-150
Titus, B.D. Jr and Malcolm, D.C. 1992 Nutrient leaching from the litter layer after clearfelling of Sitka spruce. Can. J. For. Res. 65 , 389–416.
Lastname, A. 2016 Book Title . Edn. Publisher name, 600pp.
Allen, S.E., Grimshaw, H.M., Parkinson, J.A. and Quarmby, C. 1974 Chemical Analysis of Ecological Materials . 2nd edn. Blackwell, 596 pp
Mulder, J.P.M. 1985 Simulation interception loss using standard meteorological data. In The Forest–Atmosphere Interaction . B.A. Hutchinson and B.B. Hicks (eds). Wiley, pp. 177–196.
Carleson, W.C. 1985 Seasonal variation in mitotic index in the stem apex of loblolly pine seedlings. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Nursery Management Practices for the Southern Pines . D.B. South (ed.). School of Forestry, Auburn University, Alabama, pp. 303–310.
CIFOR. 1999 The CIFOR Criteria and Indicators Generic Template. The Criteria and Indicators Toolbox Series No. 2 . Center for International Forestry Research. Bogor, Indonesia, p. 53.
FAO. 2003 State of the World’s Forests 2003 . Rome, Italy.
Anonymous 2001 Woodlands for Wales. T he National Assembly for Wales Strategy for Trees and Woodlands . Forestry Commission, Aberystwyth.
Brazier, J.D. 1990 The timbers of farm woodland trees. Forestry Commission Bulletin No. 91 . HMSO.
Nomenclature of plant names:
Please use the following convention for the naming of all plants (including trees!) in the preparation of your manuscript. At the first mention of the species in the abstract and main text use the common name followed by the Latin name and authority in brackets, then subsequently use the common name. For example, at the first mention in the abstract and main body use ‘Norway spruce (Picea abies L.)’ and then refer to it as Norway spruce. The title of the paper can include the common name, Latin name or Latin name plus authority, depending on author preference.
Biological sequence data:
Our policy is that any DNA, protein or similar biological sequences that are generated for any study to be considered for publication must be deposited with either NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), EMBL-EBI (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/) or DDBJ (http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/) and properly referenced.
Endnote:
You can download the current style for Forestry at EndNote's website.
Proofs:
Page proofs will be sent to the author responsible for checking them as a PDF file. Corrected proofs should be returned within three days of receipt. All misprints should be corrected, but the author is asked to refrain from making any other alterations. Such alterations may be disallowed and where they are allowed the author may be held responsible for the cost of making them.
Licence to Publish:
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 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.
It is a condition of publication in Forestry that authors assign copyright to the Institute of Chartered Foresters. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning copyright, Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that Forestry is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance.
Open Access
Forestry 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.
Supplementary material for online-only publication:
Supplementary information and/or data, which are preferred to Appendices, may be submitted for online-only publication if it adds value to the manuscript. However, it should not contain material crucial to the understanding of the manuscript, which must be able to stand alone. The availability of online supplementary material should be indicated at the appropriate point in the text and in a section entitled “Supplementary material”, placed immediately before the Acknowledgements section. The section should begin with a statement such as, “The following supplementary material is available at Forestry online”, and should include a brief description of the supplementary material. The citation of references within the supplementary section is discouraged because the references are not hyperlinked as they are in the main text. If such a citation is necessary, however, the full reference(s) should be included at the end of the supplementary material.
Supplementary materials should be submitted as separate files.
Please note that Supplementary materials will not be edited or amended in any way by the editors or the publisher. Authors are responsible for ensuring that they are rendered correctly.
Data Policy:
Where ethically feasible, Forestry encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Data availability allows verification of results, re- and meta-analysis, and allows other researchers to build on existing results without duplicating effort unnecessarily.
We suggest that summary data are presented in the main manuscript with more detailed information available as additional supporting files (Supplementary Data), or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available under the Choosing where to archive your data heading on the Research Data Policy page.
Where specialised, subject-specific public repositories are available, we encourage authors to deposit data in these facilities and make the availability of data clear in the published paper. Otherwise, authors can upload their datasets as ‘supplementary data’ with their paper for publication. Where neither of these options is feasible, authors are required to make data available upon reasonable request.
Data Availability Statement
The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for articles published in Forestry. 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 describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.
More information and example Data Availability statements can be found under the Data Availability Statements heading.
Data Citation
Forestry 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 or archive 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.
Conflict of Interest (1)
At the point of submission, Forestry'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?
Conflict of Interest (2)
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. If the Corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will then be required to submit a completed Conflict of Interest form to the Editorial Office. It is the Corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy.
If the manuscript is published, Conflict of Interest information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper.
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. ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies). Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
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 [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].’
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 the CHORUS initiative, visit our CHORUS page.
Preprint Policy
For all OUP journals, authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels. For further information please see the journal’s self-archiving policy.
