Instructions for authors
About the journal
Journal of Apicultural Research is an international, peer reviewed journal, publishing high-quality, original research. Please see the journal’s Aims & Scope for information about its focus and peer-review policy.
Please note that this journal only publishes manuscripts in English.
The Journal of Apicultural Research covers the biology, ecology, natural history, conservation and culture of all families of bees (superfamily Apoidia). The journal welcomes the submission of three types of article:
Original Research Articles. These describe original scientific research on the above topics. Theoretical papers are also published. Articles on melissopalynology, bee diversity, or bee hive products must be hypothesis driven rather than descriptive, or cover one or more significantly large geographical regions. Articles on the biological activity of hive products must identify the active agents.
Notes and Comments. These describe techniques or original research that is too narrow in scope to justify a longer article. Constructive criticisms of research articles that have appeared in this journal or elsewhere are also published.
Reviews. These are authoritative reviews of a clearly delimited topic in bee biology or the economics, technology, sociology or history of beekeeping. The breadth of coverage and inclusion of references should be complete enough to provide a practising scholar with sufficient background knowledge to begin working in that field.
Please note that the Journal of Apicultural Research uses CrossCheck™ software to screen papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper you are agreeing to any necessary originality checks your paper may have to undergo during the peer review and production processes.
Open access
You have the option to publish open access in this journal via our Open Select publishing program. Publishing open access means that your article will be free to access online immediately on publication, increasing the visibility, readership and impact of your research. Articles published Open Select with Taylor & Francis typically receive 32% more citations* and over 6 times as many downloads** compared to those that are not published Open Select.
Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access. Visit our Author Services website to find out more about open access policies and how you can comply with these.
You will be asked to pay an article publishing charge (APC) to make your article open access and this cost can often be covered by your institution or funder. Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
Please visit our Author Services website or contact openaccess@tandf.co.uk if you would like more information about our Open Select Program.
*Citations received up to Jan 31st 2020 for articles published in 2015-2019 in journals listed in Web of Science®.
**Usage in 2017-2019 for articles published in 2015-2019.
Peer review
Taylor & Francis is committed to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. Once your paper has been assessed for suitability by the editor, it will then be single blind peer-reviewed by independent, anonymous expert referees. Find out more about what to expect during peer review and read our guidance on publishing ethics.
Authors are invited to suggest reviewers in the cover letter with the submission.
It is also possible to oppose reviewers with a justified reason (i.e. conflict of interest).
Preparing your paper
Word limits and Structure
Please include a word count for your paper.
A typical Original Research Article or Original Theoretical Article for this journal should be no more than 9000 words; this limit includes tables; references; figure captions. Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions (optional).
A typical Review Article for this journal should be no more than 12000 words; this limit includes tables; references; figure captions. Review articles can have different headings and subheadings, but need to follow a logical structure.
Papers intended to be submitted as Notes and Comments should not exceed 1500 words including references and should contain no more than two figures or two tables (or one of each). Authors can submit additional tables and figures as Supplemental material. Notes and Comments should also include a short summary. They should not have the subheadings of Introduction, Materials and Methods, etc.
Format-Free Submission
Authors may submit their paper in any scholarly format or layout. Manuscripts may be supplied as single or multiple files. These can be Word, rich text format (rtf), open document format (odt), or PDF files. Figures and tables can be placed within the text or submitted as separate documents. Figures should be of sufficient resolution to enable refereeing.
There are no strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to evaluate a manuscript: abstract, author affiliation, figures, tables, funder information, references. Further details may be requested upon acceptance.
Please use continuous line numbering when preparing your submission.
References can be in any style or format, so long as a consistent scholarly citation format is applied. Author name(s), journal or book title, article or chapter title, year of publication, volume and issue (where appropriate) and page numbers are essential. All bibliographic entries must contain a corresponding in-text citation. The addition of DOI (Digital Object Identifier) numbers is recommended but not essential.
The journal reference style will be applied to the paper post-acceptance by Taylor & Francis.
Spelling can be US or UK English so long as usage is consistent.
Note that, regardless of the file format of the original submission, an editable version of the article must be supplied at the revision stage.
Checklist: what to include
Author details. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiDs and social media handles (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn). One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted. Read more on authorship.
Data availability statement. If there is a data set associated with the paper, please provide information about where the data supporting the results or analyses presented in the paper can be found. Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s). Templates are also available to support authors.
Data deposition. If you choose to share or make the data underlying the study open, please deposit your data in a recognized data repository prior to or at the time of submission. You will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-reserved DOI, or other persistent identifier for the data set.
A non-structured abstract of no more than 250 words. Notes and Comments should also include a short summary. Read tips on writing your abstract.
Graphical abstract (optional). This is an image to give readers a clear idea of the content of your article. It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels. If your image is narrower than 525 pixels, please place it on a white background 525 pixels wide to ensure the dimensions are maintained. Save the graphical abstract as a .jpg, .png, or .gif. Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GaphicalAbstract1.
You can opt to include a video abstract with your article. Find out how these can help your work reach a wider audience, and what to think about when filming.
5-8 keywords. Read making your article more discoverable, including information on choosing a title and search engine optimization.
Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies as follows:
For single agency grants: This work was supported by the[Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].
For multiple agency grants: This work was supported by the [funding Agency 1]; under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency 2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency 3] under Grant [number xxxx].
Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research. Further guidance on what is a conflict of interest and how to disclose it.
Supplemental online material. Supplemental material can be a video, dataset, fileset, sound file or anything which supports (and is pertinent to) your paper. We publish supplemental material online via Figshare. Find out more about supplemental material and how to submit it with your article.
Figures. Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size). Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: EPS, PS, JPEG, GIF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX). For information relating to other file types, please consult our http://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/submission-of-electronic-artwork document.
Tables. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Please supply editable files.
Equations. If you are submitting your manuscript as a Word document, please ensure that equations are editable. More information about mathematical symbols and equations.
Units. Please use SI units (non-italicized).
All terms relating to bees are to be written as two words, such as "honey bee", "Queen bee", "bumble bee", "stingless bee", etc.
DNA and RNA Sequences need to be submitted to GenBank, ENA or NCBI prior to publication.
Using third-party material in your paper
You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article. The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission. If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission. More information on requesting permission to reproduce work(s) under copyright.
Submitting your paper
This journal uses Taylor & Francis' Submission Portal to manage the submission process. The Submission Portal allows you to see your submissions across Taylor & Francis' journal portfolio in one place. To submit your manuscript please click here.
On acceptance, we recommend that you keep a copy of your Accepted Manuscript. Find out more about sharing your work.
We are pleased to announce that authors are now able to directly submit their preprints to the Journal of Apicultural Research from bioRxiv.
bioRxiv is a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences. Posting preprints on bioRxiv allows authors to make their findings immediately available to the scientific community, fostering communication and collaboration and allowing authors to receive feedback on draft manuscripts before they are submitted to journals.
To submit your preprint simply select the Journal of Apicultural Research from the drop-down menu on the bioRxiv website.
Publication charges
There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for this journal.
Data Sharing Policy
This journal applies the Taylor & Francis basic data sharing policy. Authors are encouraged to share or make open the data supporting the results or analyses presented in their paper where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid privacy or security concerns. Authors are encouraged to deposit the dataset(s) in a recognized data repository that can mint a persistent digital identifier, preferably a digital object identifier (DOI) and recognizes a long-term preservation plan. If you are uncertain about where to deposit your data, please see this information regarding repositories. Authors are further encouraged to cite any data sets referenced in the article and provide a Data Availability Statement.
At the point of submission, you will be asked if there is a data set associated with the paper. If you reply yes, you will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-registered DOI, hyperlink, or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s). If you have selected to provide a pre-registered DOI, please be prepared to share the reviewer URL associated with your data deposit, upon request by reviewers.
Where one or multiple data sets are associated with a manuscript, these are not formally peer reviewed as a part of the journal submission process. It is the author's responsibility to ensure the soundness of data. Any errors in the data rest solely with the producers of the data set(s).
Copyright options
Copyright allows you to protect your original material, and stop others from using your work without your permission. Taylor & Francis offers a number of different license and reuse options, including Creative Commons licenses when publishing open access. Read more on publishing agreements.
Complying with funding agencies
We will deposit all National Institutes of Health or Wellcome Trust-funded papers into PubMedCentral on behalf of authors, meeting the requirements of their respective open access (OA) policies. If this applies to you, please tell our production team when you receive your article proofs, so we can do this for you. Check funders' OA policy mandates here. Find out more about sharing your work.
My Authored Works
On publication, you will be able to view, download and check your article’s metrics (downloads, citations and Altmetric data) via My Authored Works on Taylor & Francis Online. This is where you can access every article you have published with us, as well as your free eprints link, so you can quickly and easily share your work with friends and colleagues.
We are committed to promoting and increasing the visibility of your article. Here are some tips and ideas on how you can work with us to promote your research.
To order a copy of the issue containing your article, please contact our Customer Services team at OrderSupport@TandF.co.uk.
Queries
Should you have any queries, please visit our Author Services website or contact us here.
Updated 15 April 2020
