Instruction for Contributors to Tropics

Tropics is an international, peer-reviewed, and open access journal published twice yearlywith one volume comprising two issues by the Japan Society of Tropical Ecology(JASTE). Tropics publishes manuscripts covering all aspects of ecology and ecologyrelated science about tropical regions. Manuscripts are limited to three types: originalarticles, reviews, and field notes. Each manuscript must be a report of original researchthat has not been previously published in whole or in part and is not under consideration
for publication in any other journal except for a preprint server. Manuscripts should bewritten in English. Tropics has been listed in Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
since 2017 and received its first journal impact factor 0.7 in 2023.
The journal is open to the results of original research, experimental or descriptive, and to
significant reviews of aspects of the ecology and ecology-related science about tropicalregions. Its aim is not only to act as a valued means of communication between Japaneseecologists and other field scientists, but also to stimulate the research activities ofecologists and scientists of tropical regions. Those interested in contributing to Tropics
are highly encouraged to submit their work.
Special issues of monographs or reviews may be published on occasion by decision ofthe editorial board.
Manuscripts published on a preprint server can be submitted to Tropics under thefollowing conditions. The manuscript must be the original version of the manuscript
describing primary research. The revised manuscript, following reviewers' comments,
and the manuscript accepted to Tropics should not be posted to the preprint server. Whenthe manuscript is accepted and published in Tropics, the authors should update theinformation on the preprint server to make a link to the manuscript in Tropics on J-Stage.
1. Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief: Takeshi TOMA (FFPRI) Forest Ecology and Rehabilitating DegradedForests

Shin-ichiro Aiba (Kagoshima Univ.) Forest Ecology
Ryota Aoyagi (Kyoto Univ.) Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics
Makoto Ehara (FFPRI) Policy and Livelihoods
Futoshi Ishiguri (Utsunomiya Univ.) Wood Science
Fuminori Ito (Kagawa Univ.) Ecology and Taxonomy of Insects
Koichi Kamiya (Ehime Univ.) Population Genetics
Shumpei Kitamura (Ishikawa Pref. Univ.) Ecology of Birds
Taiki Mori (FFPRI) Material Dynamics
Miyabi Nakabayashi (Hiroshima Univ.) Ecology of Mammals
Masahiko Ota (Nagasaki Univ.) Policy and Society
Daisuke Terauchi (Tsukuba Univ.) Commons and Livelihood
Reiji Yoneda (FFPRI) Silviculture
2. Publication ethics and malpractice statement
Research misconducts and malpractice harm individual and society.

Althoughresearchers may get temporal benefits from their publication by misconducts andmalpractices, such publication retard the advance of science and the authors also suffer
disadvantages much larger than the temporal benefits once the misconducts revealed. The
editors of Tropics work hard to avoid publishing research papers from misconducts andmalpractices in Tropics. In addition to those efforts, we need cooperation andunderstanding from the authors to avoid misconducts and malpractices. So, the editorial
board requests all authors to take “3. Authors’ responsibility” listed below, before
submitting their manuscript to Tropics.
3. Authors’ responsibilities
The authors should confirm that the study was carried out within appropriate ethicalframeworks of their society and also scientific fields. To avoid publishing research resultsby malpractices, the editorial board requests all authors to confirm following points
before submitting their manuscript to Tropics.
・The study has not been published and is not currently under review in other journals.
・ All authors have contributed to the study and read the submitted version of themanuscript.

・All authors have committed for avoiding research misconduct such as fabrication,falsification, plagiarism as well as multiple submission of the same research results andinappropriate authorship.
・All authors have agreed to submit the manuscript to Tropics as well as to participate
the peer review process of Tropics.
・All authors have declared any possible conflict of interests or they have confirmed that
there is no conflict of interests.
・All authors have agreed that the editorial board may request authors to show evidences
they followed necessary ethical flamework and they will respond the request.
・ All authors have agreed that they and the editorial board are obliged to provide
retractions or correction of mistakes before and after publication of their manuscript.
・All authors have agreed that they transfer the copyright of their articles to JASTE
effective when the articles are accepted for publication and JASTE publishes the articles
under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International license.
4. Submission of manuscripts
Submissions to Tropics should include the following three items:(1) Submission Form downloaded from the web site of the Japan Society of TropicalEcology (JASTE)(2) (2)A Microsoft word file containing the title page and text pages of the manuscript
prepared in accordance with the instruction for manuscript preparation(3) (3) A PDF file containing the tables and figures. Authors should submit these threeitemstotheTropicsEditorialBoard

atthefollowing

address:

tropics.jaste@gmail.com
5. Peer-review process
The TROPICS Editorial Board reserves the right to accept or reject manuscripts forpublication. Papers are first reviewed for suitability by the Editorial Board. Suitable
papers are then critically reviewed by two or more experts. Based on the recommendationof the reviewers, the editorial board will make one of the following decisions:
A. Your manuscript was accepted for publication.
B. Your manuscript will be accepted if revised adequately according to the comments.

C. Please revise according to the comments and resubmit.
D. It is recommended to submit your revised manuscript as a new manuscript for anadequate category.
E. Please decline submission.
For decisions B and C, the authors are expected to submit revised manuscript within one
month from the decision.
6. Publication fee
The first author should be responsible to cover publication fee of the manuscript. The
publication cost of Tropics is covered by the membership fees of JASTE. If the first author
is a JASTE member, his or her manuscript will be published in free of charge. If the firstauthor is NOT a JASTE member, a publication fee per article will be charged upon
acceptance of a publication.
Member of the JASTE: No charge
Non-member: JPY6,000Non-member (student, overseas resident): JPY1,000- or USD20Anyone

interested

inbecoming

amemberofJASTE

may

contact

tojaste.adm@gmail.com
7. Ownership and management
The copyright of the articles and other documents published by the Japan Society ofTropical Ecology (JASTE) and disclosed on the JASTE’s website belong to JASTE.
Copyright transfer and Open AccessAll authors shall agree to transfer the copyright of their articles to JASTE effective whenthe articles are accepted for publication. JASTE will publish the articles accepted toTropics under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International license, which allows
users to share and adapt an article, even commercially, if appropriate credit is given. Somefunding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific CreativeCommons license. Before submitting your work to Tropics, check with the relevant
funding bodies to ensure that you comply with any mandates.
Extent of Copyright
Copyright means all the rights defined by the Copyright Law of Japan (Revised on 21stDecember 2004).
8. Archiving
All articles published in TROPICS are archived in J-STAGE.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/static/pages/JstageOverview/-char/en
The articles will be available even after TROPICS is no longer published.