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Submission guidelines

Contents

Instructions for Authors

General

Fisheries Science is the official journal of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science and invites papers in a broad range of subject areas relevant to fisheries science.

・Manuscript categories

Two types of papers are accepted by the editors: Original Articles, and Reviews. Original Articles must present scientific results that are essentially new and should be divided into following sections: Introduction; Materials and methods; Results; Discussion; (Acknowledgments); References; Figure captions. Results and Discussion may be combined and discussed together, as long as facts and ideas are not conflated and the logic is clear. However, the author must agree to separate these two sections if the Editor requires.

Review Articles may be commissioned, or submitted on topics of current interest.

All manuscripts are subject to peer review. Typographical, grammatical, and formatting errors may be corrected by the Publisher.

This journal may also publish special/guest-edited issues. The peer review process for these articles is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general. Additionally, if the guest editor(s) authors an article in their special issue, they will not handle the peer review process.

・Field categories

Manuscripts of Fisheries Science are classified into seven field categories: Fisheries, Biology, Aquaculture, Environment, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Food Science and Technology, and Social Science. Classification of a manuscript after acceptance for publication will be assigned by the editor in charge, with the author's consent.

・Page charges

The corresponding author is obliged to partially bear the costs of publication, as the journal has a page charge policy. This will be invoiced from the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science (JSFS) directly. The price per page is JPY 7,600 for non-members and JPY 4,000 for JSFS society members. The discounted price for members is applied to the payment by the corresponding author, who must be a member when the first draft is submitted. Other costs (Open Choice, Offprints) are optional. For further details, please consult the “After Acceptance” section at the bottom of the Instructions for Authors.

Manuscript submission

Submission of a manuscript implies that

• the work described has not been published before

• it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else

• its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation. Authors are required to submit their manuscripts in clearly understandable English. They may also be advised to have their manuscripts checked by a professional English proofreader or an English speaker with equivalent proficiency before submission. The editor may occasionally ask the author to provide proof that the manuscript has been reviewed by a proficient English speaker, as recommended above.

• work already posted, either partially or in whole, on a preprint server before being submitted to this journal may be considered for publication, provided that the author agrees to: 1) declare the server URL and DOI of the article published on the preprint server, and to add a brief explanation disclosing the details of preprint posting in the submission cover letter, 2) accept that the Editorial Board may decide to reject the work for publication after investigating the status of the preprinted work or determining that the author did not disclose details on preprint posting at the time of initial submission, 3) not publish any manuscript file under review or accepted for publication in this journal on any preprint server, and 4) update the preprint record with a publication reference, including the DOI and a URL link to the published version of the article once it is available online.

• Non-members of the Society can also submit papers to Fisheries Science. However, the Society cannot accept submissions from authors who have unpaid page charges for previous submissions (see below for “Page Charges”), or from members whose membership fees are in arrears.

・Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

・Submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the time required in the editorial process for reviewing and publishing. Please follow the hyperlink “Submit online” and upload all your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

Submission of a manuscript must be accompanied by confirmation of all points on the checklist, namely, that it is an original work, that it has never been and is not being submitted elsewhere, that all authors agree with the contents and to the submission, and where necessary all appropriate ethical matters and other approvals were observed and obtained in conducting the research.

In the case of a special request to process a rapid communication during the editorial process, the corresponding author may contact the Editor-in-Chief prior to online submission.

In the case of a request by authors to modify the number and order of authors during the reviewing process, the authors must contact the editor in charge and the Editorial Office to receive their permission, and must forward a letter of consent from all persons claiming authorship.

・Editorial Office

Editor-in-Chief

The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science

c/o Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato,

Tokyo 108-8477, Japan

Tel: 81-3-3471-2165. Fax: 81-3-3471-2054. Email: fsjpubl@d1.dion.ne.jp

Submit online

Manuscript style

Manuscripts should be written in English. All manuscripts should be composed of a title page (page 1), abstract page (page 2) and text (page 3 ff). Page numbers should be indicated at the bottom of the pages. Sequential serial numbers of lines should be indicated in the left margin of the pages to facilitate a precise understanding of the referee's comments.

・Title page

The title page should include:

A concise and informative title

The full names of all authors

The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s) where the research was conducted

The full name of the corresponding author

The telephone number of the corresponding author, and e-mail addresses of all authors.

・Abstract page

An abstract should briefly describe the results and conclusion within 200 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

・Keywords

Please provide 3 to 8 keywords.

・Japanese abstract

Contributors, including coauthors, who are native Japanese speakers are requested to submit the following items in Japanese in a separate file: article title, name(s) and brief affiliation(s) of the author(s), and a Japanese abstract of no more than 250 letters.

Contributors who cannot prepare a Japanese abstract are requested to authorize the Editorial Board to prepare or edit a summary of the manuscript in Japanese for the purpose of introducing the work on the Society's web site and in the Japanese journal, Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi, when the work is published in any issue of Fisheries Science. The Editorial Board will prepare the Japanese summary so that it faithfully represents the content of the original English abstract.

・Text

Text formatting

Manuscripts should be prepared in Word.

• Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.

• Do not use double-byte characters.

• Do not use field functions.

• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.

• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.

Note: If you use Word 2007, do not create the equations with the default equation editor but use the Microsoft equation editor or MathType instead.

• Save your file in .doc or .docx format.

・Headings

Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.

・Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

・Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

・Footnotes

Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables. Footnotes to the text are to be numbered in lowercase Roman numerals; footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols. Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.

• Units

The use of SI and SI-derived units is preferred. Internationally accepted units can also be used, e.g., “L” for liter, and “min” for “minute”. Please refer to the following examples.

Length, Area, Volume: pm, nm, μm, mm, cm, m, km, mm2, cm2, m2, L, mL, μL, mm3, cm3, m3

Mass: pg, ng, μg, mg, g, kg, t, Da, kDa

Time: s, min, h; express time as [00:00]

Temperature: °C, K (°K should not be used)

Absolute quantity: pmol, nmol, μmol, mmol, mol

Concentration: pM, nM, μM, mM, M, N, %, μg/kg, mg/l00 mL, mg/l00 g

Work, Energy, Heat quantity: J, erg, cal, kcal

Force: dyn, N, gw, kgw

Pressure: Pa, mmHg, atm, bar

Electricity: V, W, mA, A, Hz

Photometry: cd, lx, lm, cd/m2

Sound: Hz, kHz, mHz, Abar, dB

Speed: cm/s, m/s, kn, rad/s

Radioactivity: dpm, cps, cpm, mBq, Bq, kBq, Gy, kGy, mSv, Sv, R, kR

Rotation: ×g, cycle

• Nomenclature: In so far as possible, authors should use systematic names similar to those used by Chemical Abstracts Service or IUPAC.

• The usage of geographic names for ocean areas should conform to the standards in “Limits of Oceans and Seas” (International Hydrographic Organization, 1953; https://iho.int/uploads/user/pubs/standards/s-23/S-23_Ed3_1953_EN.pdf).

• Genus and species names should be in italics. The common names of species should not be capitalized. If the common name appears together with its scientific name, it should be given without using commas or parenthesis, e.g. ‘rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss’.

• Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.

• Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols etc.: Italic for letters that denote mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities. Roman/upright for numerals, operators, and punctuation, and commonly defined functions or abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative). Bold for vectors, tensors, and matrices.

• New nucleotide data must be deposited in the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases and an accession number obtained before submission.

Submission to any one of the three collaborating databanks is sufficient to ensure data entry in all. The accession number should be included in the text, tables, or figure legends, as appropriate.

References

・Citation

Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. Some examples:

• Negotiation research spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).

• This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).

• This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 1995; Kelso and Smith 1998; Medvec et al. 1999).

・Reference list

The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications, unpublished data, and online documents or databases including papers published on a preprint server should only be mentioned in the text as follows: (Watanabe H, pers. comm., 2000); (Suzuki A and Kato Y, unpubl. data, 2000); (SDBSWeb: http://riodb01.ibase.aist.go.jp/sdbs/ “Accessed 22 Feb 2000”); (arXiv: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2301.0xxxx/ “Submitted 17 January 2023”). Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list.

Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.

When using a reference manager software, use [Springer - Basic (author-date, no "et al.")] for the citation style.

• Journal article

Ooi A, Yano F, Okagaki T (2008) Thermal stability of carp G-actin monitored by loss of polymerization activity using an extrinsic fluorescent probe. Fish Sci 74:193-200

• Article by DOI

Online documents registered as DOI code can be referred as follows;

Nofrizal H, Yanase K, Arimoto T (2009) Effect of temperature on the swimming endurance and post-exercise recovery of jack mackerel Trachurus japonicus as determined by ECG monitoring. Fish Sci. doi: 10.1007/s12562-009-0164-3

・Book

Aida K, Tsukamoto K, Yamauchi K (2004) Eel biology. Springer, Tokyo

・Book chapter

Matsuoka T (2008) A review of bycatch and discards issue toward solution. In: Tsukamoto T et al (eds) Fisheries for global welfare and environment. TERRAPUB, Tokyo, pp 169–180

• Report

Holthuis LB (2006) Marine lobsters of the world. FAO, Rome

• Doctoral dissertation

Hajar MAI (2008) Visual physiology of fish in capture process of light fishing. PhD dissertation, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Tokyo

Note: Undergraduate and master’s theses are not eligible for reference citation.

• Patent

Hamada N, Saito T (2006) Bioremediation method with fungus. JP Pat Appl 2006-246802

・Publications in other languages

For publications in any language other than English, the translated English title should be given. A notation such as “(in Japanese)” or “(in Russian with English abstract)” should be added.

Sato N, Takeuchi T (2009) Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) requirement of larval brown sole Pleuronectes herzensteini. Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi 75:28–37 (in Japanese with English abstract)

Tables and figures

Tables

• All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

• Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.

• For each table, please supply a table title. The table title should explain clearly and concisely in one sentence the components of the table.

• Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference in the table footnotes.

• Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

• For preparation of tables, use of the table function of MS Word is strongly recommended. Authors using Excel-formatted table files are responsible for carefully checking the printed proofs to avoid publication of misprints.

Artwork

Electronic figure submission

• Supply all figures electronically.

• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS (Encapsulated PostScript). A number of software programs can save or convert to EPS format, such as Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP and etc.

• Please use the TIFF format for halftones. However, please note that the resolution of figures may be reduced when they are converted to PDFs in the Editorial Manager system. If there are any issues with the resolution of the converted file, please indicate this at the time of submission.

• MS Office files are also acceptable.

• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

• Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line art

• Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.

• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.

• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.

• Line drawings should have a minimum resolution of 800 dpi.

Halftone art

• Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.

• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.

• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

• Do not save black & white photographs as color images.

Combination art

• Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.

• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Color art

• Color art is free of charge for online and print publication.

• If black and white will be shown in the print version, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Many colors are not distinguishable from one another when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a photocopy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent.

• If the figures will be printed in black and white, do not refer to color in the captions.

• Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).

• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2-3 mm (8-12 pt).

• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.

• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.

• Do not include titles or captions into your illustrations.

Figure numbering

• All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

• Figures should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.

• Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.). If illustrations are supplied with uppercase labeling, lowercase letters will still be used in the figure captions and citations.

• If the article contains an appendix or appendices, label it/them with the prefix “A,” e.g. “Appendix A1,” “Table A1,” “Fig. A1,” etc. For an appendix or appendices in Electronic Supplementary Material, use the prefix “S” instead of “A,” e.g. “Table S1.”

Figure captions

• Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts.

• Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.

• No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.

• All elements found in the figure should be identified in the figure caption; further, symbols such as squares and circles should be described in words.

• Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure placement and size

• Figures are placed to fit in the column width, selected from the basic size options of 39 mm, 84 mm, 129 mm, and 174 mm wide and not higher than 234 mm.

• Authors are required to prepare their figures so that they can be best presented in one of the above sizes.

• The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Electronic supplementary material will be published in the online version only. It may consist of

• Information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings

• Information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, etc.

• Large original data, e.g. additional tables, illustrations, etc.

Submission

• Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.

• Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

• To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.

Audio, video, and animations

• Always use MPEG-1 (.mpg) format. The duration of the file is limited to five minutes.

Text and presentations

• Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.

• A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

• Spreadsheets should be converted to PDF if no interaction with the data is intended.

• If the readers should be encouraged to make their own calculations, spreadsheets should be submitted as .xls files (MS Excel).

Numbering

• If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.

• Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.

• Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

• The contents of the Electronic Supplementary Material should be numbered and begin with the prefix “S,” e.g. “Table S1,” “Fig. S1.”

Captions

• For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

Processing of supplementary files

• Electronic supplementary material will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

• The manuscript contain a descriptive caption for each supplementary material

• Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

Please note that the Editorial Board may decide, at its own discretion, not to include in supplementary material files that it considers excessively large or insufficiently significant.

After Acceptance

Upon acceptance, your article will be exported to Production to undergo typesetting. Shortly after this you will receive two e-mails. One contains a request to confirm your affiliation, choose the publishing model for your article, as well as to arrange rights and payment of any associated publication cost. A second e-mail containing a link to your article’s proofs will be sent once typesetting is completed.

Article publishing agreement

Depending on the ownership of the journal and its policies, you will either grant the Publisher an exclusive licence to publish the article or will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher.

Offprints

Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.

Color illustrations

Publication of color illustrations is free of charge.

Proof reading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor.

After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Online First

The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Ethical guidelines for publication in Fisheries Science

The guidelines integrated in this document were approved by the editors of Fisheries Science in July 2011.

Fisheries Science is the official journal of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. Its objective is to promote the development of fisheries science through publication. Fisheries Science publishes articles in a broad range of basic and applied research subjects relevant to the field. The following points are the minimal standards of ethical behavior suggested for the authors, editors, and reviewers relating to the publication of manuscripts in Fisheries Science.

・On reporting research results

An author should accurately present the research results and objective discussion of its significance.

The report should be adequate for those who intend to repeat the research.

・Citation

The manuscript should cite publications that influenced the author's work. The citations facilitate interpretation of the reported work by peers.

An author should cite the original publications.

Deliberate omission of a pertinent author or reference is unacceptable.

・Publication practice

Fragmentation of research reports should be avoided.

A manuscript describing essentially the same research should be submitted for publication in only one journal at a time.

Plagiarism is not admissible. Submissions to Fisheries Science are now being checked for plagiarism via CrossCheck. CrossCheck, a multi-publisher initiative, screens published and submitted content for originality and detects instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. This will ensure that Fisheries Science is actively combating plagiarism and is publishing only original research.

・Authorship

Those who made significant scientific contribution to the work should be included as co-authors; those who did not should not be included.

The co-authors should be responsible and accountable for the reported work.

The manuscript should be reviewed by every co-author before submission.

・Conflict of interest

The author(s) should fully disclose any conflict of interest.

・Ethical treatment of animals

Research involving animals must be performed in accordance with institutional guidelines.

・Peer review

Every scientist has an obligation to do a fair share of reviewing.

A reviewer of a manuscript should evaluate the quality of the manuscript objectively.

The intellectual independence of the authors should be acknowledged.

Reviewers should explain and support their judgment adequately so that editors and authors may understand the basis of their comments.

A reviewer should caution against failure of authors to cite relevant work by other scientists.

A reviewer should act promptly and submit a report in a timely manner.

The sole responsibility for acceptance or rejection of a manuscript rests with the editor. The decision should be made only on the basis of the importance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript as well as its relevance to the journal.

Editorial responsibility for any manuscript authored by an editor should be delegated to another editor of the journal.

A reviewer should not evaluate a manuscript authored or co-authored by a person with whom the reviewer has a personal or professional connection which may bias evaluation of the manuscript.

・Confidentiality

An editor and a reviewer should treat a manuscript as a confidential document: the editor or the reviewer should not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to any outside source.

Unpublished information described in a submitted manuscript should not be used in an editor's or a reviewer's own research.

The names and other details of the reviewers should be kept confidential.

Data Availability Section

In order to promote the findability, reproducibility, reusability, and trust in published results, Fisheries Science recommends that authors include a data availability statement in their manuscript. Authors may use and modify the sample statements provided below according to their data availability conditions. Authors also have the option of not including a data availability statement in their manuscript.

  • Data published in any database, repository, journal, paper, or any public resources
    • The data that supports the findings of this study is openly available in [publication resource name] at [URL or DOI link] on page/reference number [page/reference number].
    • All data that supports the findings of this study is available within the article and/or supplementary materials.
  • Data available with conditions
    • The data that supports the findings of this study will be available in [repository name] at [URL or DOI link] following a [time period, e.g., 6-month] embargo from the date of publication to allow for the commercialization of research findings.
    • The data supporting the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author, [initials], upon reasonable request.
    • The data that supports the findings of this study is not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants], but may be available from the corresponding author, [initials], upon reasonable request.
  • Data unavailable
    • Due to the nature of this research, the data obtained during this study cannot be shared openly
    • The data that supports the findings of this study is not publicly available without the consent of/a license from [academic institute/company/the third party]. Details on licensing are available from [authors/institute/company/the third party] at [E-mail/URL].
    • Data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no new data was created or analyzed in this study.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

  • The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
  • The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
  • A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
  • Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
  • Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
  • No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

  • Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
  • Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
  • Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
  • Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
  • Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

  • If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
  • If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

    - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

    - an expression of concern may be placed with the article

    - or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

  • The author’s institution may be informed
  • A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

Competing Interests

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.

Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published."

Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.

Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement.Other article types such as editorials, book reviews, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under ‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the ‘Declarations’ section.

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.

Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

  • Partial financial support was received from [...]
  • The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No[…].
  • This study was funded by […]
  • This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]

Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

  • The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
  • No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
  • No funding was received for conducting this study.
  • No funds, grants, or other support was received.

Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:

  • Financial interests: Author A has received research support from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company Wand owns stock in Company X. Author C is consultant to company Y.

    Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.

  • Financial interests: The authors declare they have no financial interests.

    Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.

  • Financial interests: Author A received a speaking fee from Y for Z. Author B receives a salary from association X. X where s/he is the Executive Director.

    Non-financial interests: none.

  • Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M and Company N. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company O. Author D has received travel support from Company O.

    Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.

Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:

  • The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
  • The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
  • All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
  • The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

Authorship principles

These guidelines describe authorship principles and good authorship practices to which prospective authors should adhere to.

Authorship clarified

The Journal and Publisher assume all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.

The Publisher does not prescribe the kinds of contributions that warrant authorship. It is recommended that authors adhere to the guidelines for authorship that are applicable in their specific research field. In absence of specific guidelines it is recommended to adhere to the following guidelines*:

All authors whose names appear on the submission

1) made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work;

2) drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content;

3) approved the version to be published; and

4) agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

* Based on/adapted from:

ICMJE, Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors,

Transparency in authors’ contributions and responsibilities to promote integrity in scientific publication, McNutt at all, PNAS February 27, 2018

Disclosures and declarations

All authors are requested to include information regarding sources of funding, financial or non-financial interests, study-specific approval by the appropriate ethics committee for research involving humans and/or animals, informed consent if the research involved human participants, and a statement on welfare of animals if the research involved animals (as appropriate).

The decision whether such information should be included is not only dependent on the scope of the journal, but also the scope of the article. Work submitted for publication may have implications for public health or general welfare and in those cases it is the responsibility of all authors to include the appropriate disclosures and declarations.

Data transparency

All authors are requested to make sure that all data and materials as well as software application or custom code support their published claims and comply with field standards. Please note that journals may have individual policies on (sharing) research data in concordance with disciplinary norms and expectations.

Role of the Corresponding Author

One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.

The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:

  • ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
  • managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;*
  • providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
  • making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).

* The requirement of managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors during submission and proofing may be delegated to a Contact or Submitting Author. In this case please make sure the Corresponding Author is clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Author contributions

In absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Examples of such statement(s) are shown below:

• Free text:

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Example: CRediT taxonomy:

• Conceptualization: [full name], …; Methodology: [full name], …; Formal analysis and investigation: [full name], …; Writing - original draft preparation: [full name, …]; Writing - review and editing: [full name], …; Funding acquisition: [full name], …; Resources: [full name], …; Supervision: [full name],….

For review articles where discrete statements are less applicable a statement should be included who had the idea for the article, who performed the literature search and data analysis, and who drafted and/or critically revised the work.

For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author:

A Graduate Student’s Guide to Determining Authorship Credit and Authorship Order, APA Science Student Council 2006

Affiliation

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.

Changes to authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.

  • Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!

Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.

Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.

Author identification

Authors are recommended to use their ORCID ID when submitting an article for consideration or acquire an ORCID ID via the submission process.

Deceased or incapacitated authors

For cases in which a co-author dies or is incapacitated during the writing, submission, or peer-review process, and the co-authors feel it is appropriate to include the author, co-authors should obtain approval from a (legal) representative which could be a direct relative.

Authorship issues or disputes

In the case of an authorship dispute during peer review or after acceptance and publication, the Journal will not be in a position to investigate or adjudicate. Authors will be asked to resolve the dispute themselves. If they are unable the Journal reserves the right to withdraw a manuscript from the editorial process or in case of a published paper raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines.

Confidentiality

Authors should treat all communication with the Journal as confidential which includes correspondence with direct representatives from the Journal such as Editors-in-Chief and/or Handling Editors and reviewers’ reports unless explicit consent has been received to share information.

Open access publishing

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Fisheries Science, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page.

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