General editorial practice

Submit your manuscript electronically by e-mailing a single PDF file to: <oikos@ekol.lu.se>. You will receive a receipt with a tracking code. Please refer to this code in all correspondence with the Editorial Office.

We as well as reviewers have problems in handling LaTex files, please avoid this format.

Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has been read and approved by all authors. The submission of the manuscript by the authors means that the authors automatically agree to assign exclusive copyright to the journal if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication.

This work shall not be published elsewhere in any language without the written consent of the journal. The articles published in this journal are protected by copyright, which covers translation rights and the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute all of the articles printed in the journal. No material published in the journal may be stored on microfilm or videocassettes or in electronic databases and the like or reproduced photographically without the prior written permission of the journal.

Manuscripts are submitted to reviewers for evaluation of their significance and soundness. Authors will generally be notified of acceptance, rejection, or need for revision within three months. Decisions of the editor are final.

Manuscripts are edited to improve communication between author and reader.

Authors will receive electronic proofs via e-mail, together with the Exclusive License Form (ELF)). Correct only printer's mistakes. You will be charged for excessive corrections beyond such mistakes.

Exclusive Licence Form. Authors will be required to sign the Exclusive Licence Form (ELF) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the ELF is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. Please note that signature of the Exclusive Licence Form does not affect ownership of copyright in the material. (Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After publication authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various media/circumstances (please see the form for further details). To assist authors an ELF can be supplied by the Editorial Office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form.

No offprints will be supplied. Instead corresponding authors will receive a locked PDF file to the use at their discretion.

There are no page charges. We do, however, charge for colour printing.

Authorship. Statement on authorship. Papers should conform to recommendations for authorship provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (the Vancouver Group; see http://www.icmje.org). That is, authorship of a paper carries with it responsibility as well as credit. All those whose names appear as authors should have played a significant role in designing or carrying out the research, writing the manuscript, or providing extensive guidance to the execution of the project. They should be able to present and defend the work in a public forum. Honorary authorship is to be avoided. All authors must be in agreement on both the submission and full content of any article carrying their name. Any violation of these conditions represents academic misconduct and will be dealt with accordingly.

Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be submitted as one single pdf-file with tables and figures included. Upon acceptance the manuscript should be provided in Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format or Post Script format with high resolution figures included. Oikos does not yet accept manuscripts in Microsoft Word 2007 format.

Language. Manuscripts should be in English. Linguistic usage should be correct. Avoid the use of the passive voice. Avoid extensive reviews in the Introduction and Discussion. Cite only essential sources of a theory or opinion.

Title. The title should be brief and contain words useful for indexing and information retrieval.

Text. The first page should contain only the title and the author's name, address, fax and email-address. Page two contains the abstract, in which the main results of the work should be summarized. The abstract should not contain more than 300 words. Begin the introduction on page three. Avoid right margin justification and hyphenation. Double-check the contents of your manuscript before submitting. Only printer' mistakes in proofs will be changed free of charge. Oikos do not print symbols or formulas in italics.

Illustrations. Tables and legends of illustrations should be written double-spaced on separate sheets. Do not incorporate the legend in the figure itself. Tables and illustrations should be comprehensible without reference to the text. Do not use italic lettering.

Figures should be planned to appear with a maximum final width of 8 cm (single-column), 12.5 cm (1.5 column) or 16.6 cm (double-column). The font used in figures should be either Helvetica or Arial. Letters, numbers and symbols must appear clearly but not oversized. A suitable final size for lettering is 1-2 mm at reproduction size. One uniform size throughout is generally recommended. Avoid complicated symbols or patterns. Use open and closed circles, squares and triangles; open, striped and closed bars in histograms. Each figure should be boxed in and scale marks (turning inwards) provided. Lines should be clear, but not thick and heavy. Plan your illustrations for the smallest size possible (one column). Be sure that the lettering is clear and readable, even if the figure is de-sized.

Colour plates may be included at the author's expense, €300 per paper.

Units. Use SI units as far as possible.

Nomenclature. Binomial Latin names should be used in accordance with International Rules of Nomenclature.

References. In the list of references (double-spaced), the following usage should be conformed to:

Journal
Haila, Y. and Järvinen, O. 1983. Land bird communities on a Finnish island: species impoverishment and abundance patterns. - Oikos 41: 255-273.

If more than two authors:
Lindsay, A. et al. 2000. Are plant populations seed-limited? A review of seed sowing experiments. – Oikos 88: 225–238.

Book
Mayr, E. 1963. Animal species and evolution. - Harvard Univ. Press.

Chapter
Goodall, D. W. 1972. Building and testing ecosystem models. - In: Jeffers, J. N. R. (ed.), Mathematical models in ecology. Blackwell, pp. 173-194.
In the text references are given: Mayr (1963) or, at the end of a sentence, (Mayr 1963).
Titles of journals should be abbreviated following Biological Abstracts. If in doubt, give the title in full. Do not refer to unpublished material.
The list of references should be arranged alphabetically on authors' names and chronologically per author. If the author's name is is also mentioned with co-authors the following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged chronologically - publications of the same author with one co-author, arranged chronologically - publications of the author with more than one co-author, arranged chronologically. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year shoul be listed as 2004a, 2004b, etc. Reference lists not conforming to this format will be returned for revision.

Excessive use of references casuses unnecessary long articles. To avoid excessive use of references, use only the most relevant. As a rule, avoid using more than 50 references in a regular research paper.

Acknowledgements. Keep them short.
Appendices. Long appendices may be posted on the journals homepage.

Authors are recommended to follow the guidelines set out in: O'Connor, M. 1991. Writing successfully in science. - Harper Collins Academic, London, and to examine the latest issues of Oikos. Manuscripts not conforming to the requirements will be returned for revision.