Journal of Wildlife Science (JWLS)

The JWLS requires authors to provide all data, metadata, and codes on submission for review by the editors and reviewers. Upon acceptance, data must be formally archived in data repositories to be publicly accessible, or the authors should clearly mention where the data are deposited during the submission. Manuscripts cannot be submitted without a clear “Data availability” statement. However, the Editor-in-Chief shall consider the request for exemption of having acceptable reasons that you must clearly state in your cover letter.

Manuscript Preparation

JWLS does not impose a journal-specific style and formatting of the manuscript at the submission stage. The authors may follow the structure of article in various sections such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion as suitable. We expect the authors to submit manuscripts in clear, generic, and readable layouts (fonts, spacing and alignments) with page and line numbers. Once the paper is accepted, the production process of the JWLS will take care of all aspects of formatting and style. The authors should check the text for grammatical correctness before submission. We accept all styles of the English language as long as the intended information is conveyed clearly. However, adhering to one style (American, British, Indian or any other style) makes it easier for the reader. There is no restriction on the word count of any article type. However, authors are required to provide the word count for the short article types, such as Short Communication and Letter to the Editor, for editorial and review purposes.

Authors are required to consider the following during manuscript preparation:

• Title page, including full title, authors’ names, affiliations, contact details and emails. Information on the corresponding author, multiple corresponding authors and joined first authorship could be provided here. Acknowledgement and funding information can be added at the end of the title page of attached separately.

• Abstract having a maximum of 350 words and 4–6 keywords.

• A concise cover letter focused on how the manuscript fits into the scope of the journal and how the study advances the knowledge in the field. The authors need to declare that all the co-authors agree to the submission of the content and that the manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere in full or in parts.

• The manuscript file includes full title, abstract, keywords and main text, preferably structured under the section headings of introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and references. Notes and other short article types may not require dividing the text into sections and sub-sections. Authors need to ensure that the enlisted references match their citation within the text. All references should follow a uniform format style throughout the manuscript. Use of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies should be declared in a separate section just before the references. Authors need to make sure that the manuscript file does not include any information that can reveal the authors’ identity.

• Tables and Figures may be sent as a separate file or attached at the end of the manuscript file. If tables and figures are provided with the main manuscript file, each item should be on a separate page after the reference list and not incorporated into the main body of the text.

• Figure and table legends can be provided as a separate file, with the figure and table titles as captions or attached at the end of the manuscript file.

• Data Accessibility Statement.

• Conflict of Interest Statement.

• Author Contributions section, as a separate file or at the end of the title page.

• Acknowledgments, including details of funding bodies with grant numbers and permission for carrying out research. Acknowledgements should be added at the end of the title page or attached separately. It should not be part of your main manuscript file.

Supplementary Material

Supplementary materials include important ancillary information, which mainly consists of tables, datasets, photos, and figures and is relevant to the submitted article, but it is not part of the print version of the journal and is available online only. 

Authors must provide supporting information in its final format, which will be available for review before publication. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and file functionality remains entirely with the authors. A disclaimer to this effect is displayed with any published supporting information. All supporting information must include a legend and label tables as “Table S1; Table S2” and figures as Figure S1; Figure S2.

Authorship

Considering international norms for authorship and contribution, JWLS strongly recommends the authorship credit is based on:

1. substantial contributions to conception and study design, acquisition of data, or analyses and interpretation of data, 

2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and

3. final approval of the version to be published.

All authors must meet all 3 conditions. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed under acknowledgements. Mention the author’s contribution during the submission of the research paper. Please check the COPE guidelines and discussion document on authorship for more details.

Additional Authorship Options

In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g., ‘X and Y should be considered joint first authors.’.

References

The completeness and content of your reference list are more important while preparing the manuscript than the format chosen. JWLS suggests using the “Harvard” format of reference citation or any other format where the publication name is not abbreviated and the citation contains all the necessary information to locate it. JWLS prefers references with Author and Year (e.g. Singh et al., 2002; Wilson & Hölldobler, 2005) instead of numbered references within the text.

Research articles should always include a DOI, wherever available, to cite online resources. When referring to web pages, it is useful to include the date on which the resource was accessed.

File Types

All popular and standard document formats, such as .pdf, .doc, .docx, .rtf, .odt, .xls, or .xlsx. are accepted for submission. Authors can use MS Office, LaTex or Markdown to prepare their manuscript files and supplementary material. If tables and figures are provided with the main manuscript file, each item should be on a separate page after the reference list and not incorporated into the main body of the text. Alternatively, these could be uploaded as separate files designated “Figures” and “Tables”. Photograph, figure and map files can be submitted in a general format such as .pdf, .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .png. .gif, .svg or .bmp.

For reviewing purposes, you should upload a pdf or Word document and designate these files from the dropdown box as “Cover letter”, “Manuscript”, “Table”, “Figure”, “Supplementary material”, and “Acknowledgements”.

Tables 

All tables must be cited in the text in the order in which they should appear.

Figures 

All figures must be cited in the text in the order in which they should appear. Figures should be clear and readable in print during initial submission. It is quite difficult to improve an image that has been saved or created in an inappropriate format at the production stage. Therefore, high-resolution figures may be requested after the article is accepted. JWLS suggests using high-end graphics software to provide the

best output of figures. Authors are advised to use colour-blind-friendly palette and patterns.

Maps

JWLS remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims in published maps. Authors are requested to use accepted standard maps as the basis for map figure drawing. Responsibility for maps rests with the author, and they are requested to provide any copyright or license information when using maps that are not owned or created by the author (e.g., Google Maps). Depiction and publication of India’s national boundaries and the coastline are governed under the National Map Policy 2005 and subsequent guidelines (2016, 2017 and 2021) issued by the Govt. of India.

Cover Images

JWLS encourages authors to submit a picture of their study organism(s) as part of their paper; such images will be considered for our online journal cover and other promotional avenues. Authors are required to provide such images by saving or exporting them in standard formats such as .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .png, .svg or .pdf. Authors are requested to ensure that all images are at least 300 dpi.

Metric System

The SI metric system should be used for all measurements, weights, etc. Temperatures should be expressed in degrees Celsius (centigrade).

Plagiarism Check

JWLS strictly adheres to the UGC Plagiarism Policy 2017 when publishing an article. We use “iThenticate” software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts and ensure the originality of the content.

Proofs

JWLS sends the pre-publication draft with style formatting in PDF format via e-mail to the corresponding author. The draft should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. The authors can mark corrections directly on the PDF, list them in your reply email, or provide them in a separate Word document. Authors should also ensure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Once approved, further changes cannot be made. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email.

Reprints

As this is a Diamond Open Access journal, both the authors and readers have free and unlimited online access to the articles.

Production Queries

Please direct any questions regarding the production of your article to the Production Office at submission@jwls.in 

Informend Consent

JWLS expects that all authors have taken appropriate steps to obtain informed consent from any human participant who is the subject of the manuscript submitted for review and possible publication. Authors are expected to provide a statement on this in the Methods section of the manuscript.

Ethical Clearance on Human Subjects and Animals in Research

The corresponding author is required to check and provide a statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed about human subjects and animals in the study were reviewed and approved by the appropriate institutional ethics review committee, and the name of the committee and any reference number must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. If no such committee is available, authors need to add a statement on how the research met appropriate ethical standards.

Disclosure Statement

JWLS requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. The corresponding author is responsible for checking with all the authors and mentioning them in the manuscript after the acknowledgement during submission.

Privacy/Data Protection 

The publication and the publisher of JWLS recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users and ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. Check the details of the privacy policy at JWLS.

Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name during the review or publication process, authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request by email: info@jwls.in