Guidelines for Oryx authors

Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation publishes research on biodiversity conservation, conservation policy and sustainable use, and the interactions of these matters with social, economic and political issues. The journal is interdisciplinary and has a particular interest in material with the potential to improve conservation management and practice. The Editors welcome submissions on topics relevant to the journal’s focus, including:

• The nature and results of conservation initiatives, including case studies
• Research on the sustainable use of wild species
• Research on the status of threatened species, taxonomic groups or habitats
• Reviews of conservation policy, strategy and legislation in practice
• Planning for species and biodiversity conservation
• The working of international conservation conventions
• The history of conservation, including the role of key people, organizations and initiatives
• The causes and consequences of biodiversity loss
• Case studies of conservation projects and programmes
• The social, economic and political dimensions of conservation

Oryx is fully open access and all new content is published under a Creative Commons licence. Oryx is committed to supporting all conservationists, with flexible discounts and waivers of the article processing charge available for authors who do not have funds to pay for publication.

Automatic waivers and discounts

• Low-income countries: If the corresponding author is affiliated with an institution in a country on the Research4Life eligibility list, they will receive an automatic full waiver (Group A countries) or 50% discount (Group B countries), without the need to apply for a waiver.
• Read & Publish institutions: If the corresponding author’s institution is covered by one of Cambridge University Press’ Read & Publish deals, an article processing charge will not be levied or the fee will be reduced (depending on the agreement). If you are covered by one of these agreements, the processing charge will be automatically waived or discounted after acceptance of your article; there is no need to apply for a waiver.
• SSC–Oryx Partnership Fund: If the first or corresponding author is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), their SSC affiliation is included in the author details, and the manuscript reports research carried out as part of the work of the SSC group they engage with, they may be eligible for a waiver. Qualifying authors need to provide the relevant details when submitting their manuscript.
• Editorial waivers: No charges are made for Briefly and Conservation News items, Letters, Letter Responses, Book Reviews and Editorials. 
• Member discount: If the corresponding author is a member of Fauna & Flora, they will receive a discount of 15% of the article processing charge. Please contact the editorial office if this applies to you.

Discretionary waivers 

• Authors from institutions or countries not covered by automatic waivers who are unable to pay the article processing charge can apply to Cambridge University Press for a discretionary discount or waiver, using a simple online form.
• Waiver requests are handled by Cambridge University Press, independently of editorial decisions. If you have any questions about payments or waivers, please contact chris.mcentee@cambridge.org

Use the online waiver application form before you submit your manuscript. 

Funding

• Funders: Your funder may have funds specifically for article processing charges. Please check your agreement with them. The SHERPA Juliet resource allows you to browse for this information by funder.
• Institutions: Your institution may have funding for article processing charges. This is not always well advertised, so check with your institution’s library or research services department.
• Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition: The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition maintains a resource listing institutions in the USA that cover article processing charges.
• Other resources: The Open Access Directory includes a list of open access publication funders and institutions.

Article (2,000–7,000 words) An Article is the standard format for presenting recent conservation research. Articles focusing on the status or conservation of threatened species, taxonomic groups or habitats should be < 4,500 words and have, where relevant, a context beyond that of the subject studied.

Review (< 7,000 words) A comprehensive overview of a particular conservation topic or theme, offering a novel insight or perspective.

Forum Article and Forum Article Response (< 4,000 words) Debate about current and controversial issues in conservation. The Editor will usually commission one or more critical responses to a Forum Article, with the original author being offered the right of reply to any critiques.

Short Communication (< 2,000 words) Brief reports of recent research or findings, fitting on no more than four pages in the journal. Wherever possible, publication of Short Communications is fast tracked.

Word limits are all inclusive (i.e. including references, tables and figure captions) except for supplementary material, and should not be taken to imply that a submission can be of the maximum length regardless of content. All manuscripts should be as concise as possible. If a manuscript is overly long for the subject matter (even if it is within the word count limit) we may request—either prior or following peer review—that it be shortened.

The Editor welcomes contributions to the Conservation news, Letters, Briefly, Grants & opportunities and Book review sections.

Deadlines for material for the Conservation news, Briefly and Grants & opportunities sections are:

• January issue: 10 October
• March issue: 10 December
• May issue: 10 February
• July issue: 10 April
• September issue: 10 June
• November issue: 10 August

You can submit Conservation news at any time, but please note that if you submit a piece before one of the deadlines you will only receive a decision after the relevant deadline (e.g. if you submit a piece on 11 October, you will receive a decision after 10 December).

Conservation news, Letters, Letter responses and Book reviews must be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts.

Briefly news and items for Grants & opportunities should be sent directly to the editorial office.

Conservation news (< 500 words, all inclusive) Communications of major recent news (< 6 months old at the time of submission) in conservation or important announcements that have not been published elsewhere in any form (particularly suitable for news that needs to be brought urgently to the attention of the international conservation community).

Please note the following matters:

• This section of the journal is strictly reserved for news items and announcements (i.e. this section is not for reports of research findings or general discussion of conservation topics). Authors should have a direct, personal involvement with the news item/announcement covered.
• Submitted items must include the date or dates of the news being presented.
• Before writing a news item, examine recent Conservation news sections in Oryx for typical style and subject matter.
• We are unable to engage in correspondence regarding suitability of news items. If you wish to know if a piece is suitable, submit it.
• We generally receive more Conservation news items than we can publish in any one issue of Oryx, and therefore the Editor reserves the right to select those that are most suitable for publication in the journal.
• As this section of the journal is for recent news only, we do not hold over submissions to the next available issue.
• Any references should be embedded in the text (e.g. Fisher, 2017, Oryx, 50, 377–378), and figures, plates or tables should be included only if essential for understanding of the material.
• Because of space limitations, author names are grouped by affiliation and may appear in a different order than that provided on the submitted manuscript.
• Conservation news items must be prepared using the Conservation news template.

Letters (< 700 words, all inclusive) The Editor welcomes substantial and informative contributions in response to material published in the journal. Original authors will usually be given the right to reply to any responses. Use the Letter or Letter reply template, as appropriate, to prepare your submission.

Briefly (< 150 words, all inclusive) Summaries of recent (< 4 months old at the time of submission) conservation developments or news that have been published by authoritative sources, including websites.

Grants & opportunities (< 350 words, all inclusive) The Editor welcomes short descriptions of grants and funding opportunities for conservationists.

Book reviews The Editor invites authors and publishers to send publications for potential review, although we cannot guarantee that any books received will be reviewed. Please send any enquiries or review copies to the editorial office and note that books received for review will not be returned. Book reviews are by invitation only; the journal does not accept unsolicited reviews. For further details, please see our Guidelines for book reviewers.

• Article   (docx, 13 kb)
• Short Communication   (docx, 12 kb)
• Review   (docx, 11 kb)
• Forum Article   (docx, 11 kb)
• Forum Article Response   (docx, 8 kb)
• Conservation news   (docx, 7 kb)
• Letter   (docx, 7 kb)
• Letter reply   (docx, 7 kb)
• Supplementary material   (docx, 22 kb)
• Editorial   (docx, 24 kb)
• Book review   (docx, 20 kb)

Articles and Reviews should include the following sections, in this order:

• Cover page
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Study area (if applicable)
• Methods (if reporting research)
• Results (if reporting research)
• Discussion
• Author contributions
• Acknowledgements
• Conflicts of interest
• Ethical standards
• Data availability
• References
• Tables and table captions (if applicable)
• Figures and figure captions (if applicable)
• Plates and captions (if applicable)
• Supplementary material (if applicable)

Short Communications should include the same sections, in the same order, but there should be no subheadings for the introduction, study area, methods, results and discussion sections.

Reviews may contain other appropriately named sections.

Minimize use of subheadings within sections. Do not combine the results and discussion into a single section.

Consult a recent issue of Oryx for general style. Contributions should be in English, with British English spelling and terminology, double-spaced, without footnotes, and with line and page numbers. Submissions should preferably be in a single file (except for Supplementary Material, which should be in a separate file), with all tables, figures and plates at the end, in DOC/DOCX format (not PDF). For initial submission, graphics can be in medium resolution as long as they are clearly legible, with publication-quality graphics to be provided upon any final acceptance.

A cover page should contain title, word count (all inclusive except for supplementary material), and full mailing address, e-mail, and address at the time the research was carried out, if different, of all authors, and the ORCID iD of at least the corresponding author.

Title A succinct description of the work (≤ 20 words) preferably embodying either the aim or the overall conclusion.

Abstract In < 250 words, the aims, methods, major findings and conclusions; should be informative without reference to the text and should not contain any references or undefined abbreviations. A translation of the Abstract into a second, relevant language may be included; this will be published as part of the main article.

Keywords Up to eight pertinent words or phrases, in alphabetical order (these can repeat words in the title and should be optimized for online search engines).

Introduction The broader context to the research, the current state of this area of research in the light of key literature on the subject, and your research question(s), aims or hypotheses.

Study area A brief description of the area in which your research was carried out, usually including a map figure showing location and any other relevant matters.

Methods The quantitative and qualitative methods used in the reported work should be appropriate to the research question and must be clearly described.

Results Your findings, with figures, plates and/or tables, as appropriate. Only incorporate photographs (which should be referred to as plates) if they are part of the evidence (e.g. a species photographed with a camera trap, or a photograph of a forest before and after fire).

Discussion A consideration of the importance of your key findings in relation to the aim(s), objective(s) and/or hypotheses outlined in the introduction, their context with respect to other research, and any management recommendations, if appropriate, and details of any implementation of relevant conservation action.

Author contributions Include a brief statement that specifies the contributions of each author (specified by their initials).

Acknowledgements Include a brief statement that thanks, in non-effusive terms, those who have provided assistance (following peer review this should normally include acknowledgement of reviewers), and details of all sources of financial support, for all authors, with grant numbers if relevant. If there was no specific funding, provide the following statement: ‘This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, or commercial or not-for-profit sectors’.

Conflicts of interest Provide details of all known financial, professional or personal relationships with the potential to bias the work. Where no known conflicts of interest exist, state ‘None’.

Ethical standards All research and writing submitted to Oryx must comply with the journal’s ethical standards. It is mandatory to include a statement to this effect, no matter what type of research is being reported (i.e. This research abided by the Oryx guidelines on ethical standards). If the research involved human subjects (e.g. interviews), experimentation with animals and/or collection of specimens, it is mandatory to provide details of the ethical clearance(s) received.

Data availability Include a brief statement indicating whether you have made the evidence supporting your findings available, and if so, where readers may access it.

References Cited in the text as, for example, Hardcastle & Wilson (1996) or (Leadbeater, 1996). For three or more authors use the first author’s surname followed by et al. Multiple citations to be in chronological, rather than alphabetical, order: e.g. (Martin et al., 1994; Leadbeater, 1996). The reference list should be in alphabetical and then chronological order, and article titles and the titles of serial publications to be given in full. For publications that have more than seven authors, present only the first six names followed by et al. (see example below for Büscher et al.). If citations and bibliography are prepared using a bibliography manager, any field codes, tags or similar must be removed. The following are examples of references in Oryx style:

Book
MacArthur, R.H. & Wilson, E.O. (1967) The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.

Book chapter
Beck, B.B., Rapaport, L.G. & Stanley Price, M.R. (1994) Reintroduction of captive-born animals. In Creative Conservation: Interactive Management of Wild and Captive Animals (eds P.J.S. Olney, G.M. Mace & A.T.C. Feistner), pp. 265–286. Chapman & Hall, London, UK.

Edited book
Sutherland, W.J. (ed.) (1998) Conservation Science and Action. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK.

Indigenous elder/knowledge keeper
Cardinal, D. (2004) Goodfish Lake Cree Nation. Treaty 6. Lives in Edmonton. Oral teaching. 4 April 2004.

IUCN Red List species account
Farjon, A. (2013) Juniperus excelsa. In The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013. dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42232A2964786.en.

Journal article published in a volume/issue
Büscher, B., Fletcher, R., Brockington, D., Sandbrook, C., Adams, W.M., Campbell, L. et al. (2017) Half-Earth or Whole Earth? Radical ideas for conservation, and their implications. Oryx, 51, 407–410.

Journal article online ahead of print (or in journals that do not publish volumes/issues)
Soliku, O. & Schraml, U. (2018) From conflict to collaboration: the contribution of co-management in mitigating conflicts in Mole National Park, Ghana. Oryx, published online 10 September 2018.

Journal article in press (not yet published, but accepted for publication)
Author, A. & Co-author, C. (in press) New insights on conservation. Journal of Important Research, in press.

Preprint
Leisher, C., Booker, F., Agarwal, B., Day, M., Matthews, E., Prosnitz, D. et al. (2018) A preliminary theory of change detailing how women’s participation can improve the management of local forests and fisheries. Preprint publication. SocArXiv, doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/rgakw. 

Published report
Forest Peoples Programme, the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2016) Local Biodiversity Outlooks. Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Contributions to the Implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. A Complement to the Fourth Edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook. Forest Peoples Programme, Moreton-in-Marsh, UK. cbd.int/gbo/gbo4/publication/lbo-en.pdf [accessed 18 January 2022].

Thesis
Bowler, M. (1991) Implications of large predator management on commercial ranchland in Zimbabwe. MSc thesis. University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.

Unpublished report
Brady, L.D., Huston, K., Jenkins, R.K.B., Kauffmann, J.L.D., Rabearivony, J., Raveloson, G. & Rowcliffe, M. (1996) UEA Madagascar Expedition ’93. Unpublished report. University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Website
IUCN (2018) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018-1. iucnredlist.org [accessed 19 September 2018].

For additional information on the reference style for Indigenous elder/knowledge keeper, please see L. MacLeod (2021) More than personal communication: templates for citing Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers. Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies. dx.doi.org/10.18357/kula.135

Figures and Plates Follow the guidelines for the preparation of figures and plates. Captions should be comprehensible without reference to the text.

Tables Include tables in the main document if possible. Each must be on a separate page, with captions that are comprehensible without reference to the text. If inclusion in the main document is impractical, the captions should still be included in the manuscript file, but the tables themselves may be submitted as separate files, e.g. in spreadsheet format (designated as ‘Main document’ in the online submission system).

Supplementary material Online platforms give authors the opportunity to include data that it would be impractical to include in the printed article. Such data can substantially enhance the value of the research and be of benefit to readers. Authors may include tables, figures, videos and audio files. All supplementary material must be prepared using our template and submitted with the original manuscript, cited in the main text as Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Fig. 1 or Supplementary Material 1, as appropriate. Wherever possible, all supplementary material should be combined in a single file (usually a text document). Separate files should only be used for material that cannot be included in a text document, such as large data spreadsheets, audio or video files. Spreadsheets should be provided in comma separated values (CSV) format. Supplementary files will be peer reviewed but not copy-edited or typeset, and will be published as supplied. Where authors wish to deposit data in a third-party archive (mandatory for files of 25 MB and over) instead of publishing as supplementary material in the journal, any necessary supplementary material files should be uploaded to the third-party archive and the digital object identifier (DOI) that the archive assigns to the supplemental files should be cited in the text. If you wish to provide a link to supplementary data and/or code on GitHub you will need to provide a DOI for this material; e.g. see Making Your Code Citable. Any DOI must be supplied prior to online publication of the relevant article.

Media PDFs If you are submitting a manuscript that includes video or audio this will be simultaneously published online in two formats: (1) as regular PDF/HTML versions (with the video/audio available as supplementary material and represented as a still image in the article), and (2) as a Media PDF, which will allow the reader to view the video/audio within the PDF. When submitting your manuscript please include a  high resolution still that best represents the content of the video. The still will be used for the version of the article that appears in print and for the regular (i.e. non-Media) PDF file. The accompanying caption should be of the form:  ‘Plate 1 (from Supplementary Video 1) <Caption for still>’. Directions for inserting the video, and an alternative caption, should also be provided immediately following; e.g. ‘<Video 001.mpg to replace Plate 1>’ ‘<Video 1 <Caption for video>’. This version will be used for the Media PDF file. For audio the direction should be added immediately after the word or figure that will contain the clickable link to the audio. The video/audio file should be uploaded at submission using the video/audio file designation option on ScholarOne, and should have the same naming convention as the corresponding plate. This file will then be inserted into the placeholder (in place of the still) for the Media PDF version.

Abbreviations, contractions and acronyms Other than those commonly recognized (e.g. CITES, IUCN, WWF) abbreviations and acronyms put an unnecessary burden on the reader. Resist the temptation to use them and, rather, use a style of writing that obviates the necessity to write out terms or organizational names in full at every usage.

Symbols, units and currencies Use SI units (International System of Units) and ISO 4217 currency codes.

Nomenclature Where necessary, provide the basis used for nomenclature of taxa. The first time a species is mentioned its scientific name should follow the common name without intervening punctuation, thus African elephant Loxodonta africana. Common names should be in lower case throughout except when they incorporate a proper name.

For detailed guidance on designing maps and data plots, advice on the wise use of graphics formats, and video tutorials to help with drafting beautiful figures, please see Writing for Conservation.

For initial submission, figures and plates do not need to be of publication quality but they must be legible and clear. The graphics formats accepted at this stage are JPG, PNG, TIF and EPS.

We will request publication-quality figures and plates following peer review, when the editor calls for the revision of a manuscript prior to acceptance. It is essential that your graphics convey their message or purpose clearly.

In preparing publication-quality figures, examine recent Oryx articles for exemplars of the journal’s preferred style. For detailed advice, including a framework for the drafting of good graphics, and software tutorials, see our Writing for Conservation guide. See also Tools and resources for recommendations on graphics software.

We accept final, publication-quality graphics only in SVG or EPS (vector graphics), or TIF or PNG (raster) formats, and not in JPG format (except for plates, see below). For a description of the differences between vector and raster graphics, see Writing for Conservation: Improve your graphics. In general, higher quality figures can be achieved with vector graphics. Submit plates (i.e. photographs) as TIF or PNG files unless the original images are only available in JPG format.

Design figures and plates for one of the journal’s three graphics widths: 80, 120 and 170 mm. Design for the narrower widths wherever possible. TIF, PNG or JPG graphics designed for widths of 80, 120 and 170 mm must be submitted at minimum widths of 2,000, 2,800 and 4,000 pixels, respectively. Note that for raster graphics (TIF, PNG and JPG formats) the resolution is irrelevant—it is the dimension in pixels that is important.

Before submitting figures, it is essential that you view them on screen, or print them, at the designed width to check legibility of text, sharpness of lines and clarity of any shading. If in doubt about the quality or format of a figure or plate, send a test file to the editorial office.

General points

• We welcome colour figures and plates but they can be printed in colour only at the author’s expense (GBP 200/USD 320). Figures and plates can, however, be published in colour online and greyscale in print at no cost to the author; in such cases authors need to ensure that any colour figure or plate will also reproduce well in greyscale.
• Design your figures such that the reader’s eye is drawn to the items of interest rather than to peripheral matters (e.g. if a scale bar is oversized, the eye will be drawn to this rather than to the message you wish to convey).
• Avoid decorative items such as icons of organisms, or unnecessarily complicted symbols, as they distract from the message conveyed by a figure.
• Use sans serif fonts (such as Arial) rather than serif fonts (such as Times Roman).
• Avoid bold font except where absolutely necessary (e.g. to ensure legibility of text on a dark background).
• Use line thicknesses of 0.3–1.0 points (0.1–0.35 mm) and font sizes of 6–10 points (2–3.5 mm).
• If shading is required in a greyscale figure, use only a limited range of grey shades, preferably not more than five.
• Use colours that carry an intuitive meaning (e.g. light blue for water, shades of green for forest, cream for savannah).
• Avoid overly-vivid colours.
• Wherever possible, choose colours that are suitable to communicate the message to people with colour blindness. You can check your graphics with a colour blindness simulator.
• When using a colour gradient, ensure it is intuitive (e.g. from a lighter to a darker shade of the same colour, rather than from one colour to another).
• Label parts of a figure in the style ‘(a)’, ‘(b)’, etc., with the labels positioned in the upper left-hand corner within the figure part. It is often helpful to include short titles with the part labels: e.g. ‘(a) Winter’, ‘(b) Summer’, etc.
• If symbols are required, the preferred choices are, in order: ●, ■, ▲. Use intuitive shading of symbols (e.g. ● for presence, ○ for absence).
• Wherever possible, position legends within the figure rather than outside it (this minimizes unnecessary white space and allows us to set the area of interest at a larger relative size).
• Legends that are positioned within a figure should have a thin-line bounding box and a white, non-transparent background.

Map figures

In general, any manuscript that describes a study site or other specific location will require a map figure. Please adhere to the following matters of style:

• Surround the figure with a single, thin-line bounding box.
• Geographically reference the map with inward-pointing latitude and longitude tick marks in degrees (with minutes/seconds if appropriate, depending on the scale of the map) and, where appropriate, include a small inset map containing a rectangle that indicates the location of the main map.
• Do not reference a map with decimal degrees or a coordinates system such as UTM (unless the research used a coordinate grid and this needs to be illustrated).
• Include a scale bar, in km.
• Extend all lines such as country/state borders, roads and rivers, wherever appropriate, to the bounding box.
• Where appropriate, include the international borders of neighbouring countries (i.e. do not present a country as an island unless it is actually an island).
• Do not include a north arrow (latitude/longitude tick marks are sufficient for orientation) unless north is not at the top of the map.
• Use simple multiples of 2, 5, 10, 50 or similar for scale bar divisions (e.g. 0–50–100 rather than 0–45–90).
• Size text labels hierarchically (e.g. country names should normally be in a slightly larger font than sub-country divisions such as state or county).
• Use italic text for water bodies and rivers.
• Superimpose labels directly on the map (i.e. do not superimpose them on a white or coloured rectangle).
• Show any disputed international borders with a dashed or dotted line. Shapefiles for most disputed borders are available from Natural Earth.

Data figures

• Data with different units should be plotted in separate figure parts, or figures, and not together.
• If figure parts are arranged vertically and share a common x-axis, only the bottom part requires x-axis tick labels and a title.
• Orient y-axis tick labels horizontally rather than vertically.
• For the y-axis, it is helpful to use grid lines on the major ticks, to guide the eye.
• Include the units in axis titles: e.g. ‘Distance to nearest village (km)’.
• If the tick mark labels are self-evident, an axis title may not be requierd: e.g. an axis with the tick marks ‘Jan.’, ‘Feb.’, etc. does not require the title ‘Months’.
• If x-axis labels are lengthy, position them at a 45° angle to facilitate reading.
• A data figure will not generally require a bounding box.

Plates

• Only include plates if they form part of the evidence for a point being made (e.g. a camera-trap photograph) or are required for illustration (e.g. images taken before and after a fire).
• If a plate has more than one part, the part labels can be in a black or white font, whichever is most readable.

Prior to submission, go through the author’s checklist to ensure your manuscript has been prepared correctly and that you have all the required information to hand.

Manuscripts must to be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts. If there is overlap with other articles, reports or similar material, including any in press or in preparation, this should be stated and the articles in question sent to the Editor.

Upon submission the Corresponding Author must confirm that: (1) the submitted manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere, (2) all authors have read the submitted manuscript and agreed to its submission, and (3) all authors have abided by the journal’s Ethical standards.

You will also be asked to provide a cover letter/covering note to the Editor. The cover letter may contain a brief(!) summary of your research, highlight your original contribution to conservation science/practice, and/or outline your rationale for submitting your manuscript to Oryx. This area can also be used to upload other material not forming part of the submission itself, such as permissions to reproduce material that has been previously published, research permits or ethical approvals.

Author publishing agreement The policy of Oryx is that authors (or in some cases their employers) retain copyright in their published article, but grant Fauna & Flora and Cambridge University Press a non-exclusive licence to publish their work. Authors must sign a publishing agreement once their article has been accepted for publication; we are unable to publish the article without this. Authors will be contacted via e-mail after their article has been accepted regarding the steps required to complete the publishing agreement.

The agreement also sets out the Creative Commons licence under which the article is made available. A fundamental principle of open access is that content should not only be accessible but also reusable. Articles will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY) by default. This means that the article is freely available to read, copy and redistribute, and can also be adapted (users can remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any commercial or non-commercial purpose, as long as proper attribution is given. Authors can, in the publishing agreement form, choose a different kind of Creative Commons license (including those prohibiting non-commercial and derivative use) if they prefer. 

Copy-editing and proof checks Accepted content will be copy-edited for clarity, brevity and to conform to the journal’s style. The corresponding author will receive the copy-edited version as a proof for checking and will be able to respond to any editor queries. Corrected proofs must be returned within 3 days of receipt or otherwise as soon as possible. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to check the article carefully at the proof stage, including the spelling and order of all authors’ names. Once the article has been published online, further changes cannot be made.

Colour figures No charge is levied for colour figures in the online article. Colour figures can be published in print, at the author’s expense. Please refer to the Fees and pricing page on the Cambridge University Press website for details of colour printing charges.

The journal’s editorial policies outline the conditions for submitting a manuscript and a number of other essential matters about which potential authors need to be aware.

Conditions for submission of manuscripts
The submitting author must be able to assent, on behalf of all authors if applicable, that:

(1) the submitted manuscript has not been published, or submitted for publication, elsewhere,

(2) all authors have read the submitted manuscript and agreed to its submission, and

(3) all authors have abided by the journal’s Ethical standards.

If there is overlap of the submitted manuscript with other articles, reports or similar material, including any in press or in preparation, this should be stated and the articles in question sent to the Editor.

Authorship All authors listed on manuscripts submitted must agree they are considered contributors according to disciplinary norms, and that no person who would reasonably be considered an author has been excluded. There are two minimum requirements that define authorship: (1) making a substantial contribution to the work, and (2) being accountable for the work in its published form. In the event of a dispute or request for change, Oryx will be guided by the relevant Committee on Publication Ethics flowchart in deciding the appropriate action(s). More information on authorship can be found on the Cambridge University Press website.

Preprint repositories Authors are free to deposit their original manuscript on preprint servers, prior to or after submitting it to Oryx. However, later versions that have benefited from peer review, copy-editing or typesetting must not be made available on such repositories. If the article is published in the journal, authors should add citation and copyright information and a link to the online version of record, using the published article’s digital object identifier (DOI), along with the following wording: “This is the original manuscript version (prior to peer review and copy-editing) of an article published in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation. The version of record is available online at [insert DOI link].” Please visit the Cambridge University Press website for more information on preprints.

ORCID When submitting a manuscript, corresponding authors will need to identify themselves using an ORCID iD. We encourage all authors, whether corresponding or other author, to use ORCID, which provides a unique identifier with several benefits: (1) It increases the discoverability of your publications by helping readers to find work that you’ve authored. (2) Providing your ORCID iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will save you re-keying information. You can also use your iD to log in to the journal’s online submission system. (3) Your ORCID record is a good place to compile and display (if you choose) validated information about your research activities. If you don’t already have an iD, you can create one during submission. You can register for one directly from your user account on ScholarOne or via the ORCID website. If you already have an iD, please use this when submitting by linking it to your ScholarOne user account: log in to your account using your normal username and password, edit your account by clicking on your name at the top right of the screen, and from the drop-down menu select E-Mail/Name, and follow the instructions at the top of the screen to update your account. Authors’ ORCID iDs will be published in the article.

Age of data Where relevant, dates of any fieldwork must be provided. Oryx publishes research with the potential to have an impact on conservation outcomes. This requires conclusions to be based upon the best available and up-to-date information and analysis and we therefore look carefully at all manuscripts in which conclusions are based on field data collected some time ago (generally > 4 years, and possibly shorter for time-critical research). We recognize, however, the value of historical field or collection records but require evidence that these studies are directly relevant to effective conservation. Bear this policy in mind when submitting your manuscript and, if the data and/or associated analyses are not recent, justify, both in your cover letter and in the manuscript, the use of these data in terms of the conservation relevance of your findings.

Reproducing copyrighted material Authors wishing to use materials from any source published, online or otherwise, must obtain necessary permissions from the authors or publishers who are the copyright holders. In the case of original material published under a Creative Commons license authors should refer to the appropriate attribution. Any use of copyrighted material must be stated in the cover letter and permissions should be provided upon submission.

Conservation evidence Check the existing evidence for any intervention, at Conservation Evidence. If relevant evidence is available provide at least a sentence summarizing this in the Introduction (e.g. Four out of five previous studies found that increasing temperatures to 30–37 °C for at least 16 h cured amphibians of chytridiomycosis; Smith et al., 2017). If Conservation Evidence indicates there is as yet no evidence for the action, please state this. If Conservation Evidence has not yet summarized the evidence for the management action, please search for  studies testing the action, and summarize any relevant evidence for similar actions. If Conservation Evidence does not yet cover the topic and no individual studies exist please state this.

Data availability Oryx aims to promote transparency and reproducibility in research, and to increase the visibility of valuable evidence produced or gathered during the course of research. Therefore, we encourage authors to make non-sensitive data and supporting materials such as software code available to readers, for example within the supplementary material published with the article, or in dedicated repositories. All manuscripts submitted to the journal should include a statement indicating whether authors have made the evidence supporting their findings available, and if so, where readers may access it. For more details on this and to see some example statements, please visit the Cambridge University Press website.

Online manuscript submission and peer review Manuscripts submitted to Oryx are handled within the journal’s online submission and peer review system, ScholarOne Manuscripts. Authors and peer reviewers are required to register on this system (or use an account created for them by the editorial office) and to keep their records up-to-date. Authors and reviewers need to ensure their e-mail system receives notifications from ScholarOne Manuscripts, which may require whitelisting the domains amazonses.com and manuscriptcentral.com. Users should contact the IT department at their organizations if e-mails from ScholarOne Manuscripts are not delivered.

Peer review process and standards The Editor and editorial office will conduct an initial check of all submissions to determine if the topic is appropriate for the journal and if the submission meets the journal’s standards of content, presentation and ethics. All potentially suitable submissions of Articles, Short Communications, Reviews, Forum Articles and Forum Article Responses are then subject to rigorous external peer review, usually by two reviewers. Occasionally, in cases of conflicting reviews or other complicating factors, a third peer review may be necessary before an editorial decision can be made. Where it is exceptionally difficult to secure two qualified reviewers who are free of conflicts of interest, the Editor may make a decision based on their own expertise and one external review. For manuscripts with a substantial statistical content, one of the reviewers will be a statistician. Peer review for Oryx is single blind, i.e. the reviewers are aware of the authors’ identities, but not vice versa (but reviewers may sign their review if they prefer not to be anonymous).

Conservation News items, Book Reviews, Letters and Letter Responses are reviewed by the Editor or a member of the editorial board and are not normally subject to external peer review.

For externally peer reviewed submissions, the Editor will make every effort to find expert reviewers who are free of significant conflicts of interest. Reviewers are selected based primarily on the knowledge of the Editor and and editorial board members, use of electronic databases, and a manuscript’s reference list. Authors are given the option to recommend or oppose potential peer reviewers during manuscript submission. These preferences may be considered, at the Editor’s discretion, but note that the Editor will usually avoid using only author-recommended reviewers.

To avoid inviting peer reviewers with significant conflicts of interest, the Editor will generally exclude from consideration: (1) individuals who have co-authored manuscripts with the authors within the previous 5 years, (2) individuals who work at the same institution as the authors, and (3) individuals who have other conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, for or against the paper. If the Editor has to make exceptions to these general principles, the potential implications of such exceptions will be considered when making a decision.

Revised manuscripts may be subject to further external review if necessary.

The main criteria for acceptance are originality, scientific rigour, an appropriately broad context, relevance to the readership and acceptability of style. We receive more submissions than we are able to publish and the final authority in all matters relating to publication lies with the Editor.

Appeals Appeals against an editorial decision will be considered only when new information becomes available (for example, additional factual input from the authors, revisions, extra material in the manuscript, or appeals regarding conflicts of interest and concerns about biased peer review). An appeal must be made within 2 months of the decision date and should be directed to the Editor via e-mail. If appropriate and/or required, the Editor may consult a member of the editorial board regarding an appeal. The Editor’s decision following an appeal is final.

Publication ethics The publisher of Oryx, Cambridge University Press, is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), an organization that provides advice and resources on all aspects of publication ethics and research and publication misconduct. Oryx will follow procedures recommended by Committee on Publication Ethics when dealing with cases of potential misconduct. Submissions may be subject to similarity checking using iThenticate, to prevent publication of plagiarized content.

Non-legitimate journals There has been a rise in non-legitimate, for-profit open access journals. These take advantage of authors seeking to publish their work by charging publication fees without providing peer review, editorial oversight or publishing services such as copy-editing, professional typesetting or proof reading. Such publications have low standards and little or no quality control, and frequently publish material within a short time following submission. We encourage authors to follow the Think. Check. Submit. guidelines to identify potentially problematic publications. The Directory of Open Access Journals is a community-curated list of quality, peer reviewed open access journals that can be used to identify reputable journals. Where a submission to Oryx cites articles published in a journal that can be identified as non-legitimate, the authors will be asked to remove such references.

Maps/disputed borders We recognize that some international borders are disputed. The journal remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Corrections We encourage readers and authors to notify us if they find errors, particularly any that could affect the interpretation of data or information presented in an article. When a serious error is identified, the editorial office will work with authors and the publisher to correct such errors. Oryx will publish corrections when serious errors are found, and will consider retraction when errors are so fundamental that they invalidate the work.

Digital preservation Cambridge University Press publications are deposited in the following digital archives to guarantee long-term digital preservation: CLOCKSS (journals) and Portico (journals and books). 

We believe it is important that conservation research conforms to the highest possible ethical and legal standards. When you submit an article for consideration by Oryx you will be required to assent that all authors have abided by these ethical standards, and a statement to this effect must be included in the Ethical Standards section of your manuscript. The standards cover important aspects of both research and the preparation of articles for publication.

1. All research must have the necessary approvals and permits from appropriate institutions and statutory authorities in both the host country and the researchers’ country of origin (if different). Full details of approvals/permits granted (including the institution and any relevant approval numbers) should be included in the ethical standards section of the submitted manuscript. If no specific approval was required, authors should include a statement to this effect.
2. Any intellectual property rights on data and results obtained from the research must be managed within the legal requirements of the host country and be shared fairly among the participants, especially those from the host country. Such arrangements should be formalized prior to initiating the research through prior informed consent by the host country and institutes. Research should not infringe local rights in intellectual property. If research is carried out in a host country that has few legal requirements for such work, researchers should follow the standards of their country of origin.
3. Oryx recognizes the importance of capacity building as a component of conservation activity, as well as the importance of full involvement by all stakeholders in research activity. Therefore we recommend that:

• Any social, anthropological or ethnobiological research should follow the highest standards of research ethics;
• Researchers should confirm that their research conforms to the standards set out by a reputable source, such as the guidelines developed by the British Sociological Association, which are based on the ethical codes produced by the American Sociological Association, the Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth, and the Social Research Association.

4. Any research undertaken in a foreign country should, wherever possible, be based on active collaboration with appropriately qualified and experienced individuals from the host country. One objective of the research should be, where necessary, to enhance the capacity of scientific and technical staff in the host country.

• Copies of any reports and publications resulting from the research should routinely be provided to all relevant institutions in the country where the research is being undertaken.
• Wherever appropriate, researchers from the host country should be included as co-authors of all relevant publications.
• Where appropriate, the results of research should be reported back to relevant local and national organizations.
• Where research involves fieldwork in areas occupied by people, or affects species or ecosystems within which people have de facto or de jure tenure rights or cultural connections, it should be carried out in a way that respects local beliefs, economic and cultural interests, and rights.
• Where relevant, research should involve the participation of local partners, and should have regard for the enhancement of local capacity to understand and manage ecosystems and populations.

5. Field researchers should adopt the highest precautionary standards to avoid the accidental introduction and distribution of invasive and pathogenic organisms.
6. Researchers are encouraged to adopt existing IUCN/Species Survival Commission guidelines (e.g. on reintroductions and invasive organisms) as a framework for professional procedure, and are encouraged to design their studies and research to match the research and management needs stated in Species Survival Commission Action Plans and National Biodiversity Action Plans.
7. Research on species should wherever possible be non-intrusive, but it is recognized that responsible collection of data by intrusive means may be necessary in some cases. Moreover, useful research can be conducted using specimens taken or killed by others (for example, as part of wildlife management operations). The following guidelines for the treatment of individual specimens should be followed.

• (a) In cases where specimens are collected and/or killed by the researcher:
  • Data collection involving the killing of an organism should only take place when such collection is essential to the scientific integrity of the research being undertaken;
  • The number of specimens collected should be the absolute minimum required for research integrity;
  • The specimens collected should not be of species that appear on national or international lists of threatened species unless they are necessary for the purposes of research aimed at enhancing their conservation. In such cases, the researchers must have the appropriate permits from the relevant statutory authority.
• (b) In cases where information is collected from specimens that have been killed by others: if data collection makes use of existing game control, hunting or harvesting operations, it should take place in such a way that no additional mortality occurs as a result of the research, either directly or indirectly (e.g. through increased demand).

8. Animal capture and handling techniques should conform to the highest standards of animal welfare. If animals are to be killed they must be killed humanely. Researchers should confirm that they have followed the ethical standards of a reputable source, such as that developed by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and the Animal Behaviour Society—see Dawkins & Gosling (1992) Ethics in Research on Animal Behaviour, Academic Press, London, UK, Animal Behaviour (2001) 61, 271–275, or Ethical Treatment of Animals in Applied Animal Behaviour Research.
9. Where research involves the use of monitoring devices that could collect data on people (e.g. drones, camera traps, audio recorders or other devices), or the use of data on people’s behaviour or opinions derived from social media or other technologies, steps should be taken to ensure that the research is conducted in a socially responsible manner that does not violate privacy or cause other unnecessary harm. This applies whether or not collecting data on people is a deliberate intention of the research. Researchers are encouraged to adopt existing guidelines as a framework for professional procedure, following Sandbrook et al. (2021) Principles for the socially responsible use of conservation monitoring technology and data, Sharma et al. (2020) Conservation and people: towards an ethical code of conduct for the use of camera traps in wildlife research, and Di Minin et al. (2021) How to address data privacy concerns when using social media data in conservation science.

These ethical standards were developed by Professor Bill Adams (University of Cambridge), Professor Andrew Balmford (University of Cambridge), Professor Jeffrey A. McNeely (formerly IUCN), Dr Mike Maunder (Cambridge Conservation Initiative), Professor E.J. Milner-Gulland (University of Oxford), Professor Paul Racey (formerly University of Aberdeen) and Dr John G. Robinson (Wildlife Conservation Society), with additional contribution from Dr Chris Sandbrook (University of Cambridge).

This is an updated version of these ethical standards, originally published in Oryx, 35(2), 99–100.