Author Instructions
All manuscripts should be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts.
- Submission procedures
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Open access
- Editorial structure
- Publication charges
- Journal policy
- Submitting your manuscript for review
- Types of manuscripts
- General presentation
- Use of inclusive language
- First page
- Abstract
- Summary text for the Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- References
- Units
- Mathematical formulae
- Tables
- Figures
- Proofs and reprints
- Checklist for preparation of manuscripts
Submission procedures
In the interests of rapid peer-review, all stages of consideration will be handled electronically, through the Publisher. Therefore, please submit your paper directly to CSIRO Publishing. See ´Submitting your manuscript for review´ for details.
Publishing Policies
International Journal of Wildland Fire insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at http://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/PublishingPolicies.
Peer review
International Journal of Wildland Fire is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review. The Editors-in-Chief are responsible to maintain high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and works together with Associate Editors and an Editorial Advisory Committee to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by an Editor-in-Chief, who may reject a paper before peer review when it is outside the journal’s scope or is of insufficient quality. Associate Editors select reviewers and after at least two review reports are received, they make the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. The final decision is made by an Editor-in-Chief.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for International Journal of Wildland Fire should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see http://www.publish.csiro.au/wf/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
For details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Open access
Authors may choose to publish their paper Open Access on payment of a publication fee. See Open Access for more details.
Editorial structure
A decentralised editorial structure has been established, to spread the workload and so provide authors with a more rapid decision. The Editor-in-Chief is assisted by an international panel of Associate Editors who represent the range of subjects and geographical regions covered by the Journal.
The Associate Editors will manage the peer-review of papers in their subject areas, using at least two expert reviewers for each paper, and make recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief, who will communicate a decision to the authors.
Publication charges
A page charge applies to all papers, except articles published as Comments or Responses. Additional charges apply for Open Access publication and colour printing. See Publication charges for more details. Charges may be waived where the author(s) or their institutions(s) have no access to funding. Such requests must be made on submission of the manuscript and must be accompanied by a letter from the chair of the author’s department certifying that funds are not available for this use.
Journal policy
International Journal of Wildland Fire welcomes manuscripts on all aspects of wildland fire science, including fire ecology, management, impacts, behaviour, weather and history. The Journal wishes to attract papers on a broad range of wildland fire issues that may include subjects beyond the examples above; for example, papers reporting social science analysis of wildfire issues may be relevant to our readership. The Editor-in-Chief welcomes enquiries from authors seeking advice on the suitability of their paper. The Journal will also consider papers on structural fire, if they relate to wildland-urban interface issues. We publish full experimental papers, review articles, research notes, letters, communications and occasional book reviews. All papers will receive peer-review.
Submission of a paper is taken to mean that the results reported have not been published and are not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. However, papers that have previously been published in symposia of limited circulation are acceptable. The Journal assumes that all authors of a multi-authored paper agree to its submission. The Journal will use its best endeavours to ensure that work published is that of the named authors except where acknowledged and, through its reviewing procedures, that any published results and conclusions are consistent with the primary data. The Journal takes no responsibility for fraud or inaccuracy on the part of its contributors.
The use of a trademark or proprietary product does not constitute a guarantee or warranty of the product by the author(s), by the International Association of Wildland Fire, by the Editorial Board, or by CSIRO Publishing. Opinions expressed by the authors published in the Journal are not necessarily those of the IAWF.
Submitting your manuscript for review
To submit your paper, please use our online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts, which can be reached directly through this link or from the link on the journal´s homepage. If a first-time user, register via the ´Register here´ link, or use your existing username and password to log in. Then click on the ´Author Centre´ link and proceed.
A covering letter must accompany the submission and should include the name, address, telephone numbers and email address of the corresponding author. The letter should also contain a statement justifying why the work should be considered for publication in the journal, and that the manuscript has not been published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. Suggestions of possible referees are required during submission. Suggested referees should be independent experts in the field. Authors should be aware that approaching suggested reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor. Intentionally falsifying reviewer details will result in rejection of a manuscript.
A completed Licence to Publish form (which you will be asked to download from the website as part of the submission process) should be emailed to the journal as soon as possible after submission.
Authors not fluent in English are urged to consult native English-speaking colleagues before submitting manuscripts. We also encourage the use of professional scientific editing services, such as:
If you encounter any difficulties, or you have any queries, please contact publishing.ijwf@csiro.au.
On acceptance of the paper, you will be requested to submit the electronic files from which the paper will be typeset in Word or RTF format, with text and tables as one file and each figure as a separate file (see ´Tables´ and ´Preparing your illustrations for publication´).
Supplementary material that may be useful to other workers but which is not essential to the published paper may be lodged as ‘Supplemental material for review’, provided that the material is submitted with the paper for inspection by the reviewers. This material will be made available from the Journal´s website, and a note to this effect should be included in the paper.
If a part not yet published needs to be consulted for a proper understanding of the submitted paper, please provide a copy for use by the Editors and reviewers.
Types of manuscripts
Full papers
These should be large pieces of original work dealing with any area of wildland fire. They ought not exceed 5000 words of body text (not including titles and author details, figure captions, tables, references and abstract) and contain no more than a sufficient number of figures and tables to present your research effectively.
Research notes
These are narrower, focused reports. A research note must not exceed 2500 words of body text and three graphics (tables plus figures).
Reviews
The journal welcomes review articles. They should be formatted as simply as possible, and summary diagrams should be used to reduce the amount of description to introduce a topic. Authors should remember the wide readership of the Journal when preparing their article, and are strongly advised to discuss the topic and scope with the Editors before submission.
Communications
Communications are intended to provide rapid dissemination of solicited or unsolicited material that does not fall into the full paper or research note categories, but which provides important and scientific insights or makes a major contribution to the scientific debate. They generally should not exceed 3000 words and three graphics. A short abstract (50-100 words) should be provided at the start of the manuscript. Approval by the Editor-in-Chief should be sought before submitting a manuscript.
Comment/Response
The Editors-in-Chief will consider Comments on papers published in the journal within the past 12 months. If the Comment is negative or critical, the authors of the published paper will be offered the right to reply in a Response. Both the Comment and Response will be peer reviewed, and if accepted, will be published in the same issue. In order to be considered for publication, Comment and Response articles must be concise and impersonal, must contribute to knowledge and must advance the discussion beyond opinion. Their ultimate aim should be to encourage informed debate on topics raised in papers published in International Journal of Wildland Fire. Comments should have a short abstract (<75 words) and should not exceed 2000 words. The number of figures, tables and references should be limited so that the Comment comprises no more than three typeset pages in total. Responses should have no abstract and should not exceed 1000 words. They should comprise no more than one typeset page in total (including figures, tables and references). If the corresponding or contributing authors of the previously published paper decline their right to reply or fail to do so in a reasonable timeframe, the Comment will be published without a Response. Authors who wish to submit Comments on papers published more than 12 months previously should first seek advice from the Editors-in-Chief.
Book reviews
The journal publishes occasional book reviews, at the Editors’ discretion. They ought not exceed 1000 words of body text. Please contact the Editors with suggestions.
General presentation
Please prepare your paper in Microsoft Word. Write in clear and concise English. Papers featuring numerous spelling errors, ambiguous expression, or lack of a clear focus will be returned for reworking prior to any assessment.
Please double space all text, including references and figure captions, and number each page. Line numbers must be included. Please prepare the manuscript in a single column. For the text, use only Times New Roman and Symbol fonts. There are no arbitrary limits on the length of manuscripts, but we stress the need for length to be commensurate with message. We encourage you to include detail in discussion of methods, to avoid jargon, and to explain terms carefully for our broad readership.
Please list the scientific name and authority with the common name of species at the first occurrence and then use either name consistently for the remainder of the paper. We encourage authors to log fire history studies with the International Multiproxy Paleofire Database.
We advise you to consult a recent issue of the Journal for details of layout. Preparation according to the Journal´s style will simplify later stages of production and so allow more rapid publication.
Use of inclusive language
These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
First page
The first page should include the title, suggested running head, name of author(s) in the exact way that the authors wish them to appear, each author´s organisation, plus the email address of the corresponding author, who should be identified as such. Authors of multi-authored papers may wish to assign relative values to their contributions, or to indicate that two or more authors contributed equally to a paper. This can be done in a note at the end of the address field on the paper. If the paper is one of a numbered series, provide a reference to the preceding part.
- Title
Your paper is competing for attention of editors, referees and readers. Ensure your title encapsulates the main message of your paper; highlights what is new and different about your work; and is brief, interesting and accurate. - Keywords
A minimum of 8 keywords are recommended to increase article discoverability via online searches. Think about how readers might search for your work. Words used in the title or abstract can be repeated, but we recommend also adding additional keywords that do not already appear in the title, for example, geographic locations and major plant and animal species studied.
Abstract
Abstracts should be no more than 200 words. Abstracts of Research Papers and Research Notes should be formatted to include the following labelled sections: Background; Aims; Methods; Key results; Conclusions; Implications. Using these headings, the Abstract should state concisely why the study was done, what hypothesis was tested, and how the study was undertaken; should give the principal findings and conclusions; and should highlight the implications for future research. Abstracts of Reviews, Communications and Comment/Response papers do not need to be formatted with sections but should still provide a concise overview of the full manuscript. As a general rule, avoid including references and abbreviations in Abstracts.
Summary text for the Table of Contents
Please also provide a brief summary of ≤ 50 words for the non-specialist reader, to be included in the Table of Contents. This entry is not meant to be an abstract in the formal sense; it is aimed at helping the general reader to find a paper with conclusions useful to them that might perhaps otherwise be overlooked. The relevance of a paper may not always be obvious from the title alone, which is typically written for the specialist reader. Authors are also encouraged to provide an appropriate graphic, to accompany the summary, and may also be used for promotion of the paper (if published), in social media.
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
Place Acknowledgements after the Discussion and before the References.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
Wang L, Edwards D, Bailey A, Carr L, Boreham C, Grosjean E, Anderson J, Jarrett A, MacFarlane S, Southby C, Carson C, Khider K, Palu T, Henson P (2021). Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
Fiddes S, Pepler A, Saunders K, Hope P (2020) Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset] Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
Digital Earth Australia (2021). Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest
A ´Conflicts of Interest´ section should be included at the end of the manuscript. It should identify any financial or non-financial (political, personal, professional) interests/relationships that may be interpreted to have influenced the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, please include the statement "The authors declare no conflicts of interest".
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading 'Declaration of Funding' at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: "This research did not receive any specific funding".
References
In the text, cite references chronologically by author and date (Bloggs 2019); do not number them. Check that all references cited in the text are listed in the References list, and vice versa. Use ´and´ to link the names of two authors in the text (Bloggs and Doe 2020), and use ´et al.´ where there are more than two (Doe et al. 2020). When citing multiple references, list these chronologically and separate each citation with a colon (Bloggs 2019; Doe et al. 2020). If there are multiple papers by the same author add a, b and separate with commas (Bloggs 2019a, 2019b, 2020).
In the References list, list references in alphabetical order, and check them carefully for accuracy. Do not include papers that have not been accepted for publication; if they must be included at all, cite them in the text as ´unpubl. data´ or ´pers. comm.´, along with the initial and surname of the person responsible. Please provide proof of acceptance for any paper cited as ´in press´. Unpublished but accepted papers should be cited as ´in press´ in text. Name and address of suppliers (Company, City, State, Country) should be given when cited the first time but thereafter only the name needs to be cited.
Give titles of books and names of journals in full. Include the title of the paper in all journal references, and provide first and last page numbers for all entries. Provide names of all authors (do not use ´et al.´ in the reference list).
Refer to a recent issue of the journal for the style used in citing and formatting references. International Journal of Wildland Fire uses a minimally punctuated version of the Harvard referencing style.
Examples of common references are:
- Journal paper
Hess JC, Scott CA, Hufford GL, Fleming MD (2001) El Niño and its impact on fire weather conditions in Alaska. International Journal of Wildland Fire 10, 1-13.
Pausas JG, Keeley JE (2019) Wildfires as an ecosystem service. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 17, 289–295. doi:10.1002/FEE. - Book
Cary G, Lindenmayer D, Dovers S (Eds) (2003) ´Australia burning: Fire ecology, policy and management issues.´ (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne) - Book chapter
Gill AM, Bradstock R (2003) Fire regimes and biodiversity: a set of postulates. In ´Australia burning: Fire ecology, policy and management issues´. (Eds G Cary, D Lindenmayer, S Dovers) pp. 15-25. (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne) - Report
Finney MA (1998) FARSITE: Fire Area Simulator-Model development and evaluation. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station Research Paper RMRS-RP-4. (Ogden, UT) - Conference paper
Fulé PZ, McHugh C, Heinlein TA, Covington WW (2001) Potential fire behavior is reduced following forest restoration treatments. In 'Ponderosa pine ecosystems restoration and conservation: steps toward stewardship proceedings', 25–27 April 2000, Flagstaff, AZ. (Eds RK Vance, WW Covington, CB Edminster, JA Blake) USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Proceedings RMRS-P-22, pp. 28–35. (Ogden, UT, USA) - Electronic reference
National Interagency Fire Center (2017) Red Book 2017: Interagency Standards for Fire and Fire Aviation Operations. Available at https://www.nifc.gov/policies/pol_ref_redbook.html. [Verified 10 April 2018]
Units
Use the SI system, especially for exact measurement of physical quantities. If it is a convention to use non-SI units in a particular discipline, then give the equivalent SI values in parentheses.
Do not use the double solidus in complex groupings of units; use the negative index system instead, for example mg m-2 s-1.
Mathematical formulae
Avoid two-line expressions in the running text. Display each long formula on a separate line. Set up complex mathematics using an equation editor using Times New Roman, Arial and Symbol fonts only.
Tables
Tables will usually be one or two column widths, but large tables may be set ´landscape´ on the page. Number each table and refer to it in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of appearance. There is no need to add instructions on the placement of tables as long as each table is referred to in the text. Do not provide tables as images.
Supply a concise title for each table. Provide explanatory material relevant to the whole table in a separate headnote, which should start on a separate paragraph from the title. Use footnotes to refer to specific elements in the table. Use superscript capital letters for table footnotes, and use asterisks only for probability levels. Use only horizontal rules in tables; do not use vertical rules.
When constructing tables, please use the Table Formatting function in Microsoft Word (i.e. use table cells, with each value in a separate cell), or prepare in Excel. In column headings, include the symbols for the units of measurement in parentheses, and use standard SI prefixes to avoid an excessive number of digits in the body of the table. Do not use hard returns within table cells.
Tables should be placed after the References list in your manuscript.
Figures
For initial submissions, figures and captions should be placed at the end of the manuscript, after the reference list. When finalising a paper for acceptance, figures should be supplied as separate files, but the captions should be retained in the main document.
Refer to each figure in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and number each figure according to the order in which it appears in the text. There is no need to add instructions on placement of figures as long as each figure is referred to in the text. If your figure has multiple parts label with (a), (b), (c), etc. and place the labels in the top left of each image where possible. Figure parts can be supplied as separate images if needed. Please make sure all images are supplied are at highest possible resolution.
Format
Where possible, line diagrams (graphs, charts, etc.) should be provided as editable files and prepared using either a graphics or chart/graph program such as MacDraw, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Excel, Sigmaplot, Harvard Graphics or Cricket Graph and files should be saved in one of the following formats: encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Illustrator or Excel (provided the Excel files have been saved with the chart encapsulated in it). The submission of scanned images or illustrations prepared in a paint program, e.g. Photoshop (and PICT and JPEG files) is discouraged, because of the difficulty in making editorial corrections to these files. If illustrations must be created in a paint program, save the file as a TIFF or EPS (these files should be 600 dpi for line drawings and 300 dpi for halftone figures). Photographs can be supplied in the highest resolution possible.
Fonts
Please prepare figures using a standard sans serif font. Arial preferred. Font sizes for main axis labels, part labels should not be more than 8pt. Legends and data points should be 7pt font size where possible. Font should never be smaller than 5pt to ensure readability.
Style
- Use sentence case for text within figures
- Use 'and' not '&'
- For ranges in numbers (5–10) or minus signs (–20) please use an en rule rather than a hyphen as this is clearer for the reader.
Graphs
Should be prepared with one main x and y axis line. Grid lines are not required. Line weight of x- and y-axes should be ~1.0 (not below 0.7). State on the axes of a graph what is being measured and give the appropriate units in parentheses. Ensure any symbols/colours used are explained in a legend on the figure, or in the caption. Ensure numbers on axes have the same number of decimal places.
Maps
Ensure north is identified and a scale is provided. Ensure any symbols used are fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. If maps are taken from Google Earth (or similar) please ensure attribution information is retained either on the figure, or provided in the caption.
Photographs
Ensure that permission has been gained by the copyright holder of the photograph and include a photographer credit in your caption. If your photograph contains people, please ensure that they have provided permission for their image to be published.
Captions
Captions should be concise and clear and should fully explain the figure. Explain any symbols or abbreviations used in the caption of the figure, or in a legend. If your figure has multiple parts, ensure each part is explained in the caption. If your figure is a photograph, ensure the photographer is credited in the caption.
If your figure files are too large for upload to ScholarOne please ensure you let CSIRO Publishing know as soon as your paper is accepted and an alternative transfer will be arranged. Note: Figures used in the final paper will be based on what is provided – if the quality is low in the original, it will remain low in the final publication.
Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Proofs and Reprints
Page proofs are emailed to the corresponding author for checking before publication. Proofs should be checked and returned by email to the Production Editor within 48 h of receipt. Only essential changes and corrections of printing errors will be accepted at proof stage; excessive author changes may be charged.
The corresponding author of each paper will receive a free PDF copy of the paper, but hard copy reprints may be ordered at proof stage. The use of the PDF copy is subject to the Conditions of Use.
Please advise us if you are likely to be away at the time the proofs will be sent, or if your contact details change during the publication process.
- Submit your paper in electronic format only (Microsoft Word is preferred for the text) and include a scan of the completed Licence to Publish form.
- Type the title and all headings (including table headings) with only the first initial letter upper case, except for proper nouns.
- Align headings at the left. Main headings (Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Conflicts of Interest, References) are set in bold roman type. Minor headings are set in light italic type.
- Define all abbreviations at first appearance in the paper.
- Use the following conventions: ´from x to y´, ´between x and y´ and ´range x-y´; use L for litre (hence mL, etc.); use single not double quotation marks; abbreviate the units hour(s) as h, minute(s) as min, second(s) as s, e.g. 4 h, 5 min, 3 s.
- Check that all references mentioned in the text are listed in the References, and vice versa.
- List references in the text in chronological order, separated by semicolons except references by the same author, where they are separated by commas. List references in the Reference list in alphabetical order. In the text, do not use a comma between the author´s name and the date. Italicise a, b, c etc. where several references are the same year.
- In the References, use italic type for the journal name and use bold roman type for the volume number.
- Give full journal names and book titles in the Reference list.
- Spell out numbers lower than 10 unless accompanied by a unit of measure, e.g. 2 mm, 15 mm, two plants, 15 plants. Do not leave a space between a numeral and the unit % or oC.
- For the initial submission, please place figures (including their captions) and tables at the end of the manuscript, after the References section. Figures should be submitted separately at the final submission stage.
- Prepare figures with symbols and letters appropriate for the size at which the figure is intended to be reproduced.
- Type the title of each table as a separate paragraph from the table. Put explanatory matter referring to the table as a whole in the headnote, which should be a separate paragraph from the table title. Tables should appear after the References list.
- File naming: save and name your files using the first author´s family name followed by F1, F2, etc. for figures. For example: Smith.doc = text document; smithF1.eps = Figure 1.
- Provide the postal address, telephone number and email address of at least the corresponding author; we may need to contact you urgently.
International Journal of Wildland Fire is committed to the rapid publication of your paper. Please assist us in this aim by adhering to the guidelines above.
