Instructions to Authors

• Manuscript Preparation
• Supplementary Materials
• Publication Fees 
• Authorship
• Conflict of Interest Statement
• License to Publish
• Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines
• Author Resources

BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), is a forum for integrating the life sciences. Articles in BioScience mainly focus on addressing the origins, maintenance, and conservation of biological diversity and related broader impact activities informing the public and policymakers. Because of the existential challenge of conserving biological diversity and the important human outcome of successfully addressing this challenge, we also encourage submissions that link human health, writ large, with environmental processes and outcomes. AIBS is dedicated to a just and inclusive society; congruently, BioScience prioritizes submissions that constructively address how to make our classrooms and disciplines more inclusive as well as how more of humanity can share and benefit from ecosystem services.

BioScience publishes papers that are review and synthesis and that advance the science. We give priority to articles that explain connections among disciplines or synthesize conclusions of general interest for a broad audience of professional biologists, biology teachers, advanced students, and policymakers. If the submission has policy implications, then, at the very minimum, a section on policy implications is encouraged. Literature summaries alone are not appropriate for the journal. BioScience does not publish primary research articles, except in the categories of Education and Citizen Science submissions. We also welcome synthesis articles in the categories of Education and Citizen Science. Please note that Overview and Forum articles may provide some new data but should primarily build on and synthesize published research. For these two categories, we discourage methods and results sections. Instead, we seek to publish articles that maintain a narrative flow, using informative subheadings. If new data are presented, please limit description of methods and analyses to figure legends or to supplementary material. We recognize that there are gray areas of how one would perceive new data. For example, quantitative comparison of policy across jurisdictions is fine if the focus is on how to better improve an environmental priority (e.g., sustainable harvests). However, submissions that are overly reliant on new data and require in-depth explanation of how sampling and analyses were conducted are likely to be better appreciated in a journal with a narrower audience.

Unsolicited manuscripts are usually subject to peer review. All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter that states why the authors believe their manuscript is appropriate for both BioScience and the category under which they are submitting.

• Overview articles review and synthesize recent advances in important areas of biological research broadly related to the environment. No or minimal new data is to be presented in these submissions. Case studies, if presented, should represent a small proportion of the content.
• Forum articles summarize research, but with a more explicit emphasis on conservation, policy, and/or management. No or minimal new data is to be presented in these submissions. Case studies, if presented, should represent a small proportion of the content.
• Key Challenges articles summarize the important challenges and questions that need to be addressed. For example, these articles may list a number of the most important unaddressed challenges or questions for a field, with each explained by a vignette of approximately 500 words written by teams of authors. Authors must have encouragement from the Editor-in-Chief, prior to submission.
• Perspective and Insight articles summarize the significant insights to a field or body of research over time generated by an investigator or team of investigators. We encourage contributors to reflect on the changing nature of challenges or questions that leading researchers in the field have explored through their careers, key insights, or breakthroughs and how they happened and the implications for the future in their field. Thus, these articles provide the opportunity to revisit and synthesize prior research useful to the scientific community. These articles will differ from the Overview articles by emphasizing the authors' longtime contributions on all or a subset of relevant questions.
• Biologist’s Toolbox articles discuss novel and important contributions to the practice of biology, including new technologies, as well as theoretical and social tools.
• Education articles generally present primary research on formal and informal biology education and citizen science, if education focused, but reviews and syntheses are also welcome. In all cases, submissions should strongly emphasize application and are restricted to the advancement of post-secondary pedagogy. Successful submissions often represent multiple classroom surveys across many campuses. We welcome insight and perspectives from studies outside the United States. Ensure that IRB approval is cited in the manuscript, where appropriate.
• Citizen Science articles can also present primary research on research that is not education focused, e.g., cataloging endangered species, but reviews and syntheses are also welcome. Submissions should strongly emphasize application. That is, we seek articles about the best use of Citizen Science or broader impacts of Citizen Science, rather than articles that use Citizen Science to investigate a fundamental question in environmental sciences. If it is not focused on pedagogy, then submit your manuscript through the Citizen Science category.
• Professional Biologist discusses issues in the practice of biological professions.
• Thinking of Biology consists of essays on the philosophy of biology.
• Biology in History articles address the history of biological thought on a general topic of interest to a wide range of biologists.
• Communicating Science: To complement AIBS’s commitment to the public understanding of the role of science in society, (e.g., https://www.aibs.org/news/workshops/), we broadly seek evidence-based submissions that demonstrate or test ways to most effectively communicate to the public (including policymakers and other nonscientist professionals) key issues related to the biodiversity sciences—including the emerging field of One Health. In addition, we seek submissions rooted in communication and psychological sciences, where these submissions can provide novel applied and theoretical contributions toward understanding how, when, and why messaging about biodiversity works (or does not). We invite submissions exploring the above issues for all media (print, electronic, in-person—e.g., addressing policymakers, field days, etc.).

Inquiries regarding peer-reviewed submissions should be sent to the Editor in Chief at [email protected].

BioScience also publishes some non-technical material in BioScience that is generally not subject to peer review, but manuscripts are frequently vetted by members of the Editorial Board. Please contact the Editor in Chief via email ([email protected]) with a general query prior to submitting non-technical manuscripts through ScholarOne. At the time of submission through ScholarOne and only after you have been encouraged to submit, please summarize the correspondence with the Editor in Chief in your cover letter.

Non-technical article types

• Letters pertaining to previously published material in BioScience, generally limited to 500 words, 1 photograph, and 5 references.
• Editorials, which are short opinion pieces
• Viewpoints, which are longer opinion pieces, generally limited to 1500 words, 2 figures, 1 text box of not more than 300 words, and 20 references
• Book reviews and Special Book Articles
• Eye on Education columns
• Washington Watch columns
• Special Reports (typically longer Viewpoint articles or meeting/conference/workshop reports of high impact)

Submitted manuscripts should be free of jargon. The editors reserve the right to edit all manuscripts for style and clarity. Contributions are accepted for review and publication on the condition that they are submitted solely to BioScience and will not be reprinted or translated without the publisher’s permission. It is a condition of publication that authors grant an exclusive license to Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in cases in which a open-access license is not selected. BioScience follows the data citation principles of FORCE11. Send inquiries to the Senior Editor at [email protected].

Length guidelines for Overview, Forum, and department articles

Overview articles are synthesis and reviews of important topics of broad relevance to biology. Overview submissions should include background information for biologists in a variety of fields. Text boxes should not exceed 600 words per box. Please include an abstract of up to 150 words and list up to five keywords. Generally, submissions equal to or less than 7000–8000 words fare better in the review process. BioScience occasionally publishes special sections, which are typically compilations of Overview articles on particular topics.

Forum manuscripts typically have an applied slant and are directed at improving practice, management, or policy. Text boxes should not exceed 600 words per box. Generally, submissions less than 6000 words fare better in the review process. Please submit an abstract of up to 150 words and list up to five keywords.

We suggest that Key Challenges and Perspective and Insight articles follow the above guidelines (i.e., bounded by the above restrictions for Overview and Forum articles).

We suggest that Education, Professional Biologist, Thinking of Biology, Biology in History, and Biologist’s Toolbox manuscripts not exceed 5000 words, with 90 references. Text boxes should not exceed 600 words per box. Please submit an abstract of up to 150 words and list up to five keywords. These articles may include a few photographs, drawings, figures, or tables. Please consult the editorial office ([email protected]) before submitting an article with additional references.

Manuscript Preparation

Submission

Submit all manuscripts through ScholarOne. After you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, please visit the online submission web site. Follow these instructions on submitting your manuscript online. Authors must obtain written permission to use in their articles any personal communication and any material—text, data, art, tables, or figures—copyrighted by another author or publisher; be sure that credit to the source is complete. Send these letters of permission electronically when you submit your manuscript. Provide with your submission letter the names of any colleagues who have already reviewed your article, and be prepared during the submission process to provide the names, e-mail addresses, institutions, and telephone numbers of four potential referees from outside your institution. Submissions from authors whose research involved the use of “human” or “animal” subjects (as defined in US federal law) must include evidence of approval from an institutional review board.

Document Format

Use double-spacing and 12-point font throughout all text, tables, references, and figure captions. Number all pages. Avoid the use of appendixes and footnotes in the text; remove all field codes from submitted manuscripts. Put tables and figure captions at the end of the document. The title page should contain authors’ names, titles, affiliations, and postal and e-mail addresses; for both affiliations and postal addresses, please include the country. Please include a short biographical narrative at the end of the submission, stating the authors’ affiliations.

Style

Follow Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 8th edition, for conventions in biology. For general style and spelling, consult the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, and a dictionary such as Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Also refer to A Guide to BioScience Style.

Symbols, Acronyms, and Units of Measure

Define all symbols, and spell out all acronyms and units of measure the first time they are used; abbreviate them thereafter. Use the metric system, SI units (Système international d’unités), to express weights and measures.

Tables and Figures

BioScience style is to capitalize only the first word in figure and table titles (and subheads), except for proper nouns. Use lowercase letters to indicate footnotes in tables and panels in figures. Put panel labels in the upper left corner of figures, if feasible. Construct tables without vertical rules. All tables must fit onto one PDF page. For more general guidelines on the construction of tables, see the Chicago Manual of Style.

Artwork should suit the manner in which it will be published and should be readable in black and white, even if it will appear in color. Artwork submitted for publication should be of the highest quality, in vector-graphic format if possible, or with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi for line art and 400 dpi for photographs at 4 x 6 inches for figures intended to run within the article, and the same resolution at 8 x 11 inches for figures intended for the cover. Images for the cover of BioScience should have a vertical (portrait) orientation. Photographs (without text) and line art should be submitted in the original format in which it was created, at the highest possible resolution.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

References

The number of references cited should comply with the limits specified above. Personal communications should be cited parenthetically in the text; the citation should include the source’s name and affiliation and the date of the communication: (Henry J. Smith, [university or other affiliation, city, state], personal communication, [date of communication]). Manuscripts submitted for publication but not yet accepted may not be cited.

In-text citations of published references take this form: (Author date). Multiple in-text citations are ordered by year of publication, earliest first: (Author 1998, Author 1999, 2000). Use the first author’s last name and “et al.” for in-text citation of works with more than two authors or editors. List the name of every author or editor, unless there are more than 10, in References cited; for works with more than 10 authors or editors, list the name of the first and indicate the others with “et al.” List all works cited in the text in References cited; works not cited should not be listed. Provide the full names of all journals.

BioScience does not allow the inclusion of preprints that have not been subject to peer review in the References cited section. However, preprints may be linked parenthetically in text, with a disclaimer: (hyperlink or URL [preprint: not peer reviewed).

Data supporting article conclusions ordinarily should be published, preferably in an appropriate data repository, such as Dryad , and cited; BioScience will consider justified requests for embargoes on the publication of data. Small data sets can be published as supplementary material (see below).

The following examples are typical of references in BioScience; refer to recent issues of the journal for additional formatting guidance.

Journal article: Bryant PJ, Simpson P. 1984. Intrinsic and extrinsic control of growth in developing organs. Quarterly Review of Biology 59: 387–415.

Book: Ling GN. 1984. In Search of the Physical Basis of Life. Plenum Press.

Chapter in a book: Southwood TRE. 1981. Bionomic strategies and population parameters. Pages 30–52 in May RM, ed. Theoretical Ecology. Sinauer.

Technical report: Lassister RR, Cooley JL. 1985. Prediction of Ecological Effects of Toxic Chemicals, Overall Strategy and Theoretical Basis for the Ecosystem Model. Government Printing Office. Report no. 83-261-685.

Online article: Palevitz BA. 2002. Designing science by politics. The Scientist 16: 25. (1 April 2003)

Data: Cross PC, Maichak EJ, Rogerson JD, Irvine KM, Jones JD, Heisey DM, Edwards WH, Scurlock BM. 2015. Data from: Estimating the phenology of elk brucellosis transmission with hierarchical models of cause-specific and baseline hazards. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.c15ph

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.​

Supplementary Materials

Supplementary materials that could benefit researchers may be hosted online. They should be uploaded during the submission process. Supplementary material files will not be edited and should conform to BioScience style. They are be hosted online in document files (Word, Excel, PDF, MPG, etc.). Audio and video files should be no more than 10 minutes in length. Video files may be supplied by authors in .avi, .mov, .mp4, .mpg, .flv, .swf format, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 preferred. Audio files should be MP3. 3-Dimensional Objects and Geographic Information System data should be KML files.

Publication Fees

Effective January 1, 2024, BioScience will publish online-only and introduce a publication fee of $1,500 applicable to all article types with the exception of Viewpoints, which bear a $500 publication fee, and the following manuscript categories:

• AIBS Announcement
• AIBS Award
• Arts in Science
• Book Review
• Editorial
• Feature
• Letters
• In Their Own Words
• Washington Watch
• Special Book Articles

Open Access

BioScience offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Please note that some article types may have different rates for open access.

Authorship

New Policy

Use of Artificial Intelligence
Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and JLB will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content, write code, or process data) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on AI and authorship for more details.

Everyone listed as an author of an article must have made a substantial contribution to the manuscript. In the case of multiple-author contributions, please upload as a supplementary file a brief statement detailing the contribution of each author.

1. Authorship should be restricted to those individuals who have met each of three criteria: (a) made a significant contribution to the conception and design of the article or the analysis and interpretation of data or other scholarly effort, (b) participated in drafting the article or reviewing and/or revising it for content, and (c) approved the final version of the manuscript.
2. In the case of papers with multiple authors, the corresponding author has the responsibility for: (a) including as coauthors all those who meet the three criteria defined in part 1 of this policy and excluding those who do not; and (b) obtaining from all coauthors their agreement to be designated as such, as well as their approval of the final version of the manuscript. Of course, any person can refuse to be a coauthor if he or she elects to do so.
3. Coauthors assume full responsibility for all work submitted under their names and, as a coauthor, acknowledge that they meet each of the three criteria for authorship as defined in part 1 of this policy.
4. Honorary or courtesy authorships are inconsistent with the principles of this policy and, as such, are unacceptable.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The pages of BioScience are open to all members of the scientific community, whether they work independently or for academic, government, industry, or other organizations. To enable our editors, peer reviewers, and readers to assess authors’ professional credentials, as well as any potential biases, we ask that authors disclose all information about their employment affiliations and any financial interests relevant to the work that the author has submitted for publication in BioScience. Reviewers should also disclose similar information relevant to the works they are asked to evaluate.

License to Publish

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change.

Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford, authors will be invited to complete an online license to publish form. Once invited, the license form should be signed within 24 hours. If we have not received confirmation of signature by the time the manuscript arrives, your manuscript may be delayed.

It is a condition of publication for all Oxford Journals that authors grant an exclusive license to Oxford University Press or the sponsoring Society. This ensures that all necessary rights needed for publication are in place, including provision for any requests from third parties, to reproduce content from the journals efficiently and consistently by OUP, and enabling the content to be as widely disseminated as possible. No article will be published unless the signed license has been received at Oxford Journals.

As part of the terms of the license agreement, Authors may use their own material in other publications written or edited by them provided that the outlet is acknowledged as the original place of publication, as well as Oxford University Press. As the Author(s), copyright of the Article remains yours (or your employer’s if your employer claims copyright in your work). Visit the Publication Rights page for full details of Oxford Journals' copyright policy and the rights retained by you/your institution under the terms of the license.

Work submitted for publication must be original, previously unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published figures, tables, or parts of text are to be included, the copyright-holder’s permission must have been obtained prior to submission. For more information on how to obtain permissions, please consult Rights and Permissions.

Transparency And Openness Promotion Guidelines

BioScience is a signatory of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines. As a signatory, we encourage authors to consider these guidelines when preparing their work for submission. 

Citation Standards

All data, program code, and other methods should be appropriately cited. Such materials should be recognized as original intellectual contributions and afforded recognition through citation. 

1. All data sets and program code used in a publication should be cited in the text and listed in the reference section 
2. References for data sets and program code should include a persistent identifier, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) where available. Persistent identifiers are assigned to data sets by digital archives, such as institutional repositories and Dryad. 
3. Data citation example: Cross PC, Maichak EJ, Rogerson JD, Irvine KM, Jones JD, Heisey DM, Edwards WH, Scurlock BM. 2015. Data from: Estimating the phenology of elk brucellosis transmission with hierarchical models of cause-specific and baseline hazards. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.c15ph 

Data, Analytic Methods (Code), and Research Materials Transparency 

The policy of BioScience is to publish papers where authors clearly indicate whether the data, methods used in the analysis, and materials used to conduct the research will be made available to any researcher for purposes of reproducing the results. 

1. Authors must, in the methods section, indicate if they will or will not make their data, analytic methods, and study materials available to other researchers. 
2. If an author agrees to make materials available, the author must specify in the methods section where they will be available together with a citation. 

Design and Analysis Transparency

BioScience publishes papers where authors follow applicable standards for disclosing key aspects of the research design and data analysis. Authors are encouraged to review the standards available for many research applications from the Equator Network webpage and use those that are relevant. 

Replication 

BioScience does not publish primary research articles (except for Education and citizen science submissions). However, for Education and citizen science submissions BioScience encourages the submission of replication studies.

Author Resources

In preparing your manuscript, we recommend that you follow these guidelines, which are designed to help readers find your published article: (1) Keep article titles short, and include a couple of primary keywords in the title itself; (2) include those keywords from the title as a part of your manuscript (and confirm that they are present when reviewing proofs); and (3) repeat those keywords in the abstract and in the main text, provided that this can be done without producing awkward phrasing.

Authors may learn more about how to increase an article's impact and exposure by accessing the Author Resource Guide.

ORCID

Bioscience requires submitting authors to provide an ORCID iD at submission to the journal. More information on ORCID and the benefits of using an ORCID iD is available. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website.