Open Access

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Copyright Notice

License and Copyright Agreement

In submitting the manuscript to any of Pensoft’s journals, authors certify that: 

• They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. 
• The work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis); it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; its publication has been approved by all author(s) and responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out. 
• They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or where copyright is owned by someone else. 
• They agree to the following license and copyright agreement:

Copyright

• Copyright on any article is retained by the author(s) or the author's employer. Regarding copyright transfers please see below. 
• Authors grant Pensoft Publishers a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. 
• Authors grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors and citation details are identified. 
• The article and published supplementary material are distributed under theCreative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0):

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)

Anyone is free:

toShare— to copy, distribute and transmit the work 
toRemix— to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution. The original authors must be given credit. 

• For any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are. 
• Any of these conditions can be waived if the copyright holders give permission. 
• Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.

The fulllegal code of this license.

Copyright Transfers

Any usage rights are regulated through the Creative Commons License. Since Pensoft Publishers is using the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), anyone (the author, their institution/company, the publisher and the public) is free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work as long as the original author is credited (see above). Therefore, specific usage rights cannot be reserved by the author or their institution/company and the publisher cannot include a statement "all rights reserved" in any published paper.

Website design and publishing framework: Copyright © Pensoft Publishers.

CLOCKSS system has permission to ingest, preserve, and serve this Archival Unit.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Authorship/Contributorship

Some journals are integrated with Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), in order to recognise individual author input within a publication, thereby ensuring professional and ethical conduct, while avoiding authorship disputes, gift / ghost authorship and similar pressing issues in academic publishing.

During manuscript submission, the submitting author is strongly recommended to specify a contributor role for each of co-author, i.e. Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review and Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding Acquisition (see more). For the journals that are not integrated with CRediT, the submitting author is encouraged to specify the roles as a free text. Once published the article will include the contributor role for all authors in the article metadata.

Use of AI

Authors must be transparent about the use of Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models in the manuscript preparation, and disclose details of how the AI tool was used within the "Materials and Methods" section.

Desk Rejection

During the pre-review evaluation, Editors-in-Chief or Subject editors check the manuscript for compliance with the journal's guidelines, focus, and scope. At this point, they may reject a manuscript prior to sending it out for peer review, specifying the reasons. The most common ones are non-conformity with the journal's focus, scope and policies and/or low scientific or linguistic quality. In such cases, authors are encouraged to considerably improve their manuscript and resubmit it for a review. We encourage authors whose manuscripts have been desk rejected due to being out of the scope of this journal to consider another potentially suitable title from the Pensoft portfolio.

In case the manuscript is suitable for the journal but has to be corrected technically or linguistically, it will be returned to the authors for improvement. The authors will not need to re-submit the manuscript but only to upload the corrected file(s) to their existing submission.

Peer Review

This journal uses a single-blind peer review process. This means that the names of reviewers are hidden from the authors (the author does not know the identity of the reviewer, but the reviewer knows the identity of the author). Notwithstanding that, the reviewers are encouraged to disclose their identities, if they wish to do so. Each article is reviewed by at least two independent experts, with a final decision on acceptance being made by the Subject Editor / Editor-in-Chief. Front-matter articles, such as editorials, correspondence, biographies, and similar articles, can be published after editorial evaluation only.

Please consider the Editor and Reviewer Guidelines in the About webpage of this journal for more details and stepwise instructions on the editorial and peer review process.

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Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

General

The publishing ethics and malpractice policies follow the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (joint statement by COPE, DOAJ, WAME, and OASPA), the NISO Recommended Practices for the Presentation and Identification of E-Journals (PIE-J), and, where relevant, the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from ICMJE.

Privacy statement

The personal information used on this website is to be used exclusively for the stated purposes of each particular journal. It will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. 

Open access

Pensoft and ARPHA-hosted journals adhere strictly to gold open access to accelerate the barrier-free dissemination of scientific knowledge. All published articles are made freely available to read, download, and distribute immediately upon publication, given that the original source and authors are cited (Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)).

Open data publishing and sharing

Pensoft and ARPHA encourage open data publication and sharing, in accordance with Panton’s Principles and FAIR Data Principles. For the domain of biodiversity-related publications Pensoft has specially developed extended Data Publishing Policies and Guidelines for Biodiversity Data. Specific data publishing guidelines are available on the journal website. 

Data can be published in various ways, such as preservation in data repositories linked to the respective article or as data files or packages supplementary to the article. Datasets should be deposited in an appropriate, trusted repository and the associated identifier (URL or DOI) of the dataset(s) must be included in the data resources section of the article. Reference(s) to datasets should also be included in the reference list of the article with DOIs (where available). Where no discipline-specific data repository exists authors should deposit their datasets in a general repository such as, for example Zenodo or others. 

Submission, peer review and editorial process

The peer review and editorial processes are facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. Pensoft journals’ websites display stepwise description of the editorial process and list all necessary instructions and links. These links are also included in the respective email notification.

General: Publication and authorship

• All submitted papers are subject to a rigorous peer review process by at least two international reviewers who are experts in the scientific field of the particular paper. 
• The factors that are taken into account in review are relevance, soundness, significance, originality, readability and language. 
• A declaration of potential Conflicts of Interest is a mandatory step in the submission process. The declaration becomes part of the article metadata and is displayed in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article.
• The journals allow several rounds of review of a manuscript. The ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions lies with the respective Subject Editor and, in some cases, with the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who may decide to seek advice among the Subject Editors and Reviewers.
• The possible decisions include: (1) Accept, (2) Minor revisions, (3) Major revisions, (4) Reject, but re-submission encouraged and (5) Reject. 
• If Authors are encouraged to revise and re-submit a submission, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted. 
• The paper acceptance is constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. 
• No research can be included in more than one publication.
• Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and their deputies are strongly recommended to limit the amount of papers co-authored by them. As a rule of thumb, research papers (co-)authored by Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and their deputies must not exceed 20% of the publications a year, with a clear task to drop this proportion below 15%. By adopting this practice, the journal is taking extra precaution to avoid endogeny and conflicts of interest, while ensuring the editorial decision-making process remains transparent and fair.
• Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and handling editors are not allowed to handle manuscripts co-authored by them.

Responsibility of Authors

• Authors are required to agree that their paper will be published in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) license.
• Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work. 
• Authors must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere. 
• Authors must certify that the manuscript is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. 
• Authors should submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English and formatted in accordance with the journal’s Author Guidelines.
• Authors must participate in the peer review process. 
• Authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes. 
• All Authors mentioned are expected to have significantly contributed to the research. 
• Authors must notify the Editors of any conflicts of interest. 
• Authors must identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript. 
• Authors must report any errors they discover in their published paper to the Editors.
• Authors should acknowledge all significant funders of the research pertaining to their article and list all relevant competing interests. 
• Other sources of support for publications should also be clearly identified in the manuscript, usually in an acknowledgement (e.g. funding for the article processing charge; language editing or editorial assistance).
• The corresponding author should provide the declaration of any conflicts of interest on behalf of all authors. Conflicts of interest may be associated with employment, sources of funding, personal financial interests, membership of relevant organisations or others.
• Manuscripts in revision have to be revised and resubmitted within a reasonable time span. The authors are aware that manuscripts not revised within 100 days after the revision decision will be rejected and have, if desired by the authors, to be submitted afresh.

Responsibility of Reviewers

• The manuscripts will be reviewed by two or three experts in order to reach first decision as soon as possible. Reviewers do not need to sign their reports but are welcome to do so. They are also asked to declare any conflicts of interests.
• Reviewers are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but to focus on its scientific quality, as well as for the overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. If Reviewers recognize that a manuscript requires linguistic edits, they should inform both Authors and Editor in the report.
• Reviewers are asked to check whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, how interesting it is and whether the quality of the writing is acceptable.
• In cases of strong disagreement between the reviews or between the Authors and Reviewers, the Editors can judge these according to their expertise or seek advice from a member of the journal's Editorial Board.
• Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles may be given greater prominence and greater external publicity, including press releases addressed to science journalists and mass media.
• During a second review round, the Reviewer may be asked by the Subject Editor to evaluate the revised version of the manuscript with regards to Reviewer’s recommendations submitted during the first review round.
• Reviewers are asked to be polite and constructive in their reports. Reports that may be insulting or uninformative will be rescinded.
• Reviewers are asked to start their report with a very brief summary of the reviewed paper. This will help the Editors and Authors see whether the reviewer correctly understood the paper or whether a report might be based on misunderstanding.
• Further, Reviewers are asked to comment on originality, structure and previous research: (1) Is the paper sufficiently novel and does it contribute to a better understanding of the topic under scrutiny? Is the work rather confirmatory and repetitive? (2) Is the introduction clear and concise? Does it place the work into the context that is necessary for a reader to comprehend the aims, hypotheses tested, experimental design or methods? Are Material and Methods clearly described and sufficiently explained? Are reasons given when choosing one method over another one from a set of comparable methods? Are the results clearly but concisely described? Do they relate to the topic outlined in the introduction? Do they follow a logical sequence? Does the discussion place the paper in scientific context and go a step beyond the current scientific knowledge on the basis of the results? Are competing hypotheses or theories reasonably related to each other and properly discussed? Do conclusions seem reasonable? Is previous research adequately incorporated into the paper? Are references complete, necessary and accurate? Is there any sign that substantial parts of the paper were copies of other works?
• Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
• Reviewers should keep all information regarding papers confidential and treat them as privileged information. 
• Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. 
• Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors.
• Reviewers should also call to the Editors’ attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Responsibility of Editors

• Editors in Pensoft’s journals carry the main responsibility for the scientific quality of the published papers and base their decisions solely on the papers' importance, originality, clarity and relevance to publication's scope.
• The Subject Editor takes the final decision on a manuscript’s acceptance or rejection and his/her name is listed as "Academic Editor" in the header of each article.
• The Subject Editors are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but to focus on its scientific quality, as well as the overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. 
• Editors are expected to spot small errors in orthography or stylistic during the editing process and correct them.
• Editors should always consider the needs of the Authors and the Readers when attempting to improve the publication. 
• Editors should guarantee the quality of the papers and the integrity of the academic record. 
• Editors should preserve the anonymity of Reviewers, unless the latter decide to disclose their identities. 
• Editors should ensure that all research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines. 
• Editors should act if they suspect misconduct and make all reasonable attempts to obtain a resolution to the problem. 
• Editors should not reject papers based on suspicions, they should have proof of misconduct.
• Editors should not allow any conflicts of interest between Authors, Reviewers and Board Members.
• Editors are allowed to publish a limited proportion of papers per year co-authored by them, after considering some extra precautions to avoid an impression of impropriety, endogeny, conflicts of interest and ensure that the editorial decision-making process is transparent and fair.
• Editors-in-Chief, managing editors and handling editors are not allowed to handle manuscripts co-authored by them.
         

Neutrality to geopoliticaldisputes

General

The strict policy of Pensoft and its journals is to stay neutral to any political or territorial dispute. Authors should depoliticize their studies by avoiding provoking remarks, disputable geopolitical statements and controversial map designations; disputable territories should be referred to as well-recognised and non-controversial geographical areas. Тhe journal reserves the right to mark such areas at least as disputable at or after publication, to publish editor's notes, or to reject/retract the paper.

Authors'affiliations

Pensoft does not take decisions regarding the actual affiliations of institutions. Authors are advised to provide their affiliation as indicated on the official internet site of their institution.

Editors 

Editorial decisions should not be affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors. Decisions to edit and publish should not be determined by the policies of governments or other agencies outside of the journal itself.

Human and animal rights

The ethical standards in medical and pharmacological studies are based on theHelsinki declaration (1964, amended in 1975, 1983, 1989, 1996, 2000 and 2013) of the World Medical Association and the Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals of the World Association of Medical Journals (WAME).

Authors of studies including experiments on humans or human tissues should declare in their cover letter a compliance with the ethical standards of the respective institutional or regional committee on human experimentation and attach committee’s statement and informed consent; for those researchers who do not have access to formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed and declared in the cover letter. Patients’ names, initials, or hospital numbers should not be used, not in the text nor in any illustrative material, tables of databases, unless the author presents a written permission from each patient to use his or her personal data. Photos or videos of patients should be taken after a warning and agreement of the patient or of a legal authority acting on his or her behalf.

Animal experiments require full compliance with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles, and local licensing arrangements and respective statements of compliance (or approvals of institutional ethical committees where such exists) should be included in the article text.

Informed consent

Individual participants in studies have the right to decide what happens to the identifiable personal data gathered, to what they have said during a study or an interview, as well as to any photograph that was taken. Hence it is important that all participants gave their informed consent in writing prior to inclusion in the study. Identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers and other information) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve in some cases, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic profiles, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning.

The following statement should be included in the article text in one of the following ways:

• "Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study."
• "Informed consent was obtained from all individuals for whom identifying information is included in this article." (In case some patients’ data have been published in the article or supplementary materials to it).

Gender issues

We encourage the use of gender-neutral language, such as 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman' or 'chairwomen', as well as 'they' instead of 'she/he' and 'their' instead of 'him/her' (or consider restructuring the sentence).

Conflict of interest

During the editorial process, the following relationships between editors and authors are considered conflicts of interest: Colleagues currently working in the same research group or department, recent co-authors, and doctoral students for which the editor served as committee chair. During the submission process, the authors are kindly advised to identify possible conflicts of interest with the journal editors. After manuscripts are assigned to the handling editor, individual editors are required to inform the managing editor of any possible conflicts of interest with the authors. Journal submissions are also assigned to referees to minimize conflicts of interest. After manuscripts are assigned for review, referees are asked to inform the editor of any conflicts that may exist.

Appeals and open debate

We encourage academic debate and constructive criticism. Authors are always invited to respond to any editorial correspondence before publication. Authors are not allowed to neglect unfavorable comments about their work and choose not to respond to criticisms. 

No Reviewer’s comment or published correspondence may contain a personal attack on any of the Authors. Criticism of the work is encouraged. Editors should edit (or reject) personal or offensive statements. Authors should submit their appeal on editorial decisions to the Editorial Office, addressed to the Editor-in-Chief or to the Managing Editor. Authors are discouraged from directly contacting Editorial Board Members and Editors with appeals.

Editors will mediate all discussions between Authors and Reviewers during the peer review process prior to publication. If agreement cannot be reached, Editors may consider inviting additional reviewers if appropriate. 

The Editor-in-Chief will mediate all discussions between Authors and Subject Editors.

The journals encourage publication of open opinions, forum papers, corrigenda, critical comments on a published paper and Author’s response to criticism.

Misconduct

Research misconduct may include: (a) manipulating research materials, equipment or processes; (b) changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the article; c) plagiarism. Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion. If misconduct is suspected, journal Editors will act in accordance with the relevant COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism and duplicate publication policy
A special case of misconduct is plagiarism, which is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit. Plagiarism is considered theft of intellectual property and manuscripts submitted to this journal which contain substantial unattributed textual copying from other papers will be immediately rejected. Editors are advised to check manuscripts for plagiarism via the iThenticate service by clicking on the "ïThenticate report" button. Journal providing a peer review in languages other than English (for example, Russian) may use other plagiarism checking services (for example, Antiplagiat). 
Instances, when authors re-use large parts of their publications without providing a clear reference to the original source, are considered duplication of work. Slightly changed published works submitted in multiple journals is not acceptable practice either. In cases of plagiarism in an already published paper or duplicate publication, an announcement will be made on the journal publication page and a procedure of retraction will be triggered.

Responses to possible misconduct

All allegations of misconduct must be referred to the Editor-In-Chief. Upon the thorough examination, the Editor-In-Chief and deputy editors should conclude if the case concerns a possibility of misconduct. All allegations should be kept confidential and references to the matter in writing should be kept anonymous, whenever possible.

Should a comment on potential misconduct be submitted by the Reviewers or Editors, an explanation will be sought from the Authors. If it is satisfactory and the issue is the result of either a mistake or misunderstanding, the matter can be easily resolved. If not, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted and the Editors may impose a ban on that individual's publication in the journals for a certain period of time. In cases of published plagiarism or dual publication, an announcement will be made in both journals explaining the situation.

When allegations concern authors, the peer review and publication process for their submission will be halted until completion of the aforementioned process. The investigation will be carried out even if the authors withdraw the manuscript, and implementation of the responses below will be considered.

When allegations concern reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation of the matter. Editors or reviewers who are found to have engaged in scientific misconduct should be removed from further association with the journal, and this fact reported to their institution.

Retraction policies

Article retraction

According to the COPE Retraction Guidelines followed by this Journal, an article can be retracted because of the following reasons:

• Unreliable findings based on clear evidence of a misconduct (e.g. fraudulent use of the data) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error).
• Redundant publication, e.g., findings that have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification.
• Plagiarism or other kind of unethical research.

Retraction procedure

• Retraction should happen after a careful consideration by the Journal editors of allegations coming from the editors, authors, or readers.
• The HTML version of the retracted article is removed (except for the article metadata) and on its place a retraction note is issued.
• The PDF of the retracted article is left on the website but clearly watermarked with the note "Retracted" on each page.
• In some rare cases (e.g., for legal reasons or health risk) the retracted article can be replaced with a new corrected version containing apparent link to the retracted original version and a retraction note with a history of the document.

Expression of concern

In other cases, the Journal editors should consider issuing an expression of concern, if evidence is available for:

• Inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors.
• Unreliable findings that are unreliable but the authors’ institution will not investigate the case.
• A belief that an investigation into alleged misconduct related to the publication either has not been, or would not be, fair and impartial or conclusive.
• An investigation is underway but a judgement will not be available for a considerable time.

Errata and Corrigenda

Pensoft journals largely follow theICMJE guidelines for corrections and errata.

Errata

Admissible and insignificant errors in a published article that do not affect the article content or scientific integrity (e.g. typographic errors, broken links, wrong page numbers in the article headers etc.) can be corrected through publishing of an erratum. This happens through replacing the original PDF with the corrected one together with a correction notice on the Erratum Tab of the HTML version of the paper, detailing the errors and the changes implemented in the original PDF. The original PDF will be marked with a correction note and an indication to the corrected version of the erratum article. The original PDF will also be archived and made accessible via a link in the same Erratum Tab.

Authors are also encouraged to post comments and indicate typographical errors on their articles to the Comments tab of the HTML version of the article.

Corrigenda

Corrigenda should be published in cases when significant errors are discovered in a published article. Usually, such errors affect the scientific integrity of the paper and could vary in scale. Reasons for publishing corrigenda may include changes in authorship, unintentional mistakes in published research findings and protocols, errors in labelling of tables and figures or others. In taxonomic journals, corrigenda are often needed in cases where the errors affect nomenclatural acts. Corrigenda are published as a separate publication and bear their own DOI. Examples of published corrigenda are availablehere.

The decision for issuing errata or corrigenda is with the editors after discussion with the authors.

COPE Compliance

This journal endorses the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines and will pursue cases of suspected research and publication misconduct (e.g. falsification, unethical experimentation, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, redundant publication). For further information about COPE please see the website for COPE athttp://www.publicationethics.org and journal'sPublication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Terms of Use

This document describes the Terms of Use of the services provided by theMycoKeys journal, hereinafter referred to as "the Journal" or "this Journal". All Users agree to these Terms of Use when signing up to this Journal. Signed Journal Users will be hereinafter referred to as "User" or "Users".

The publication services to the Journal are provided by Pensoft Publishers Ltd., through its publishing platformARPHA, hereinafter referred to as "the Provider".

The Provider reserves the right to update the Terms of Use occasionally. Users will be notified via posting on the site and/or by email. If using the services of the Journal after such notice, the User will be deemed to have accepted the proposed modifications. If the User disagrees with the modifications, he/she should stop using the Journal services. Users are advised to periodically check the Terms of Use for updates or revisions. Violation of any of the terms will result in the termination of the User's account. The Provider is not responsible for any content posted by the User in the Journal.

Account Terms

1. For registration in this Journal or any of the services or tools hosted on it, Users must provide their full legal name, a valid email address, postal address, affiliation (if any), and any other information requested.
2. Accounts created via this journal automatically sign in the User to the ARPHA Platform.
3. Users are responsible for maintaining the security of their account and password. The Journal cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from failure to comply with this security obligation.
4. Users are solely responsible for the content posted via the Journal services (including, but not limited to data, text, files, information, usernames, images, graphics, photos, profiles, audio and video clips, sounds, applications, links and other content) and all activities that occur under their account.
5. Users may not use the service for any illegal or unauthorised purpose. Users must not, in the use of the service, violate any laws within their jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright or trademark laws).
6. Users can change or pseudonomyse their personal data, or deactivate their accounts at any time through the functionality available in the User’s personal profile. Deactivation or pseudonomysation will not affect the appearance of personal data in association with an already published work of which the User is author, co-author, editor, or reviewer.
7. Users can report to the Journal uses of their personal data, that they might consider not corresponding to the current Terms of Use.
8. The User’s personal data is processed by the Journal on the legal basis corresponding to Article 6, paragraph 1, letters a, b, c and f. of the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as GDPR) and will be used for the purpose of Journal’s services in accordance with the present Terms and Use, as well as in those cases expressly stated by the legislation.
9. User’s consent to use the information the Journal has collected about the User corresponds to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR.
10. The ‘legitimate interest’ of the Journal to engage with the User and enable him/her to participate in Journal’s activities and use Journal’s services correspond to Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR.

Services and Prices

The Provider reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the services provided by the Journal. Plans and prices are subject to change upon 30 days notice from the Provider. Such notice may be provided at any time by posting the changes to the relevant service website.

Ownership

The Authors retain full ownership to their content published in the Journal. We claim no intellectual property rights over the material provided by any User in this Journal. However, by setting pages to be viewed publicly (Open Access), the User agrees to allow others to view and download the relevant content. In addition, Open Access articles might be used by the Provider, or any other third party, for data mining purposes. Authors are solely responsible for the content submitted to the journal and must confirm [during the submission process] that the content does not contain any materials subject to copyright violation including, but not limited to, text, data, multimedia, images, graphics, photos, audio and video clips. This requirement holds for both the article text and any supplementary material associated with the article.

The Provider reserves the rights in its sole discretion to refuse or remove any content that is available via the Website.

Copyrighted Materials

Unless stated otherwise, the Journal website may contain some copyrighted material (for example, logos and other proprietary information, including, without limitation, text, software, photos, video, graphics, music and sound - "Copyrighted Material"). The User may not copy, modify, alter, publish, transmit, distribute, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works or, in any way, exploit any of the Copyrighted Material, in whole or in part, without written permission from the copyright owner. Users will be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights or any other harm resulting from such a submission.

Exceptions from this rule are e-chapters or e-articles published under Open Access (see below), which are normally published under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC-BY), orCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC-BY), orCreative Commons Public Domain license (CC0).

Open Access Materials

This Journal is a supporter of open science. Open access to content is clearly marked, with text and/or the open access logo, on all materials published under this model. Unless otherwise stated, open access content is published in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC-BY). This particular licence allows the copying, displaying and distribution of the content at no charge, provided that the author and source are credited.

Privacy Statement

1. Users agree to submit their personal data to this Journal, hosted on the ARPHA Platform provided by Pensoft.
2. The Journal collects personal information from Users (e.g., name, postal and email addresses, affiliation) only for the purpose of its services.
3. All personal data will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the website and will not be made available for any other purpose or to third parties.
4. In the case of co-authorship of a work published through the Journal services, each of the co-authors states that they agree that their personal data be collected, stored and used by the Journal.
5. In the case of co-authorship, each of the co-authors agrees that their personal data publicly available in the form of a co-authorship of a published work, can be distributed to external indexing services and aggregators for the purpose of the widest possible distribution of the work they co-author.
6. When one of the co-authors is not registered in the Journal, it is presumed that the corresponding author who is registered has requested and obtained his/her consent that his/her personal data will be collected, stored and used by the Journal.
7. The registered co-author undertakes to provide an e-mail address of the unregistered author, to whom the Journal will send a message in order to give the unregistered co-author’s explicit consent for the processing of his/her personal data by the Journal.
8. The Journal is not responsible if the provided e-mail of the unregistered co-author is inaccurate or invalid. In such cases, it is assumed that the processing of the personal data of the unregistered co-author is done on a legal basis and with a given consent.
9. The Journal undertakes to collect, store and use the provided personal data of third parties (including but not limited to unregistered co-authors) solely for the purposes of the website, as well as in those cases expressly stated by the legislation.
10. Users can receive emails from Journal and its hosting platform ARPHA, provided by Pensoft, about activities they have given their consent for. Examples of such activities are:
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What Can I Publish

Book Review

Published on agreement

Catalogue

Peer-reviewed and indexed; large-scale catalogues will be treated as monographs and will bear both ISBN and ISSN numbers

Checklist

Peer-reviewed and indexed; large-scale checklists will be treated as monographs and will bear both ISBN and ISSN numbers

Commentary

Peer-reviewed and indexed

Corrigenda

Published upon editorial decision

Data Paper

Peer-reviewed and indexed

Editorial

Published on agreement

Forum Paper

Published upon editorial decision; indexed

Letter to the Editor

Published upon editorial decision

Monograph

Peer-reviewed and indexed in both journal and book registers; bears ISSN and ISBN numbers

Research Article

Peer-reviewed and indexed

Review Article

Peer-reviewed and indexed

Short Communication

Peer-reviewed and indexed

Main Text

Title: The title should be in a sentence case (only scientific, geographic or person names should be with a first capital letter, i.e.Parmelia saxatilis(L.) Ach., Germany, etc.), and should include an accurate, clear, and concise description of the reported work, avoiding abbreviations. The titles of taxonomic papers should always include at least two upper rank taxa separated with comma in the following order, in brackets: (Phylum, Class or subclass, Order, Family). The Class/subclass can be included optionally, depending on the community accepted practice in publishing on the respective clade.

English Language Editing

This journal has well-defined policies for English language editing. 

Authors are required to have their manuscripts written in fluent English or edited by a professional English language editor BEFORE submission. Authors have to confirm by checking a tick box in the submission process that they have followed the above requirement:

"The text is edited by a professional English language editor, duly acknowledged in the manuscript. I am aware that non-edited manuscripts could be rejected prior to peer-review".

The submission process includes an option to request a professional linguistic editing at a price ofEURO 18 per 1800 characters:

The authors areNOT obliged to use Journal's linguistic services, but they must ensure that their manuscripts have passed a proper linguistic editing before submission.

Citations and References

Citations within the text: Before submitting the manuscript, please check each citation in the text against the References and vice-versa to ensure that they match exactly.

Citations in the text should be formatted as follows:

One author: Smith (1990) or (Smith 1990)

Note:The citations format depends on the way it is incorporated within the article’s text:

Example:

1. According to Smith (1990), these findings…
2. These findings have been first reported in the beginning of the nineties (Smith 1990).

Two authors:Brock and Gunderson (2001) or (Brock and Gunderson 2001)

Note:When choosing between formats refer back to examples above.

Three or more authors:Smith et al. (1998) or (Smith et al. 1998)

Note: When choosing between formats refer back to examples above.

Whenciting more than one source, in-text citations should be ordered by the year of publication, starting with the earliest one:

(Smith et al. 1998, 2000, 2016; Brock and Gunderson 2001; Felt 2006).

Note: When you have a few citations from the same author but from different years (such as the case with Smith et al. above), the first year is taken into consideration when ordering the sources (in this case 1998, which is why Smith et al. come first in the list).

When havingtwo or more fully identical citations (this can happen when you have more than one reference with exactly the same authors and years for one or two authors, or the same first author and year for author teams of three or more), the references are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the years and this marking is followed in the in-text citations, respectively:

(Reyes-Velasco et al. 2018a, 2018b)

Authorshipreferences for species should include a "," between author and year:

Brianmyia stuckenbergi Woodley, 2012.

References: It is important to format the references properly, because all references will be linked electronically as completely as possible to the papers cited. It is desirable to add a DOI (digital object identifier) number for either the full-text or title and abstract of the article as an addition to traditional volume and page numbers. If a DOI is lacking, it is recommended to add a link to any online source of an article.

List all authors cited in the References. For multiauthored papers, give all author names in full; the abbreviation "et al." is only allowed in the text. All journal titles should be spelled out completely and should not be italicized. Ensure that the References are complete and arranged according to name and year of publication. Personal communications and submitted manuscripts should be listed as unpublished results in the text and not listed in the References section.

Please use the following style for the reference list (or download thePensoft EndNote style):here. It is also available in Zotero, when searched by journal name or by "Pensoft Journals".

Published Papers:
Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: The open-access register for zoological taxonomy: Technical Discussion Paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

Accepted Papers:
Same as above, but ''in press'' appears instead of the year in parentheses.

Electronic Journal Articles:
Mallet J, Willmott K (2002) Taxonomy: Renaissance or Tower of Babel? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(2): 57–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(02)00061-7

Paper within conference proceedings:
Orr AG (2006) Odonata in Bornean tropical rain forest formations: Diversity, endemicity and applications for conservation management. In: Cordero Rivera A (Ed.) Forest and Dragonflies. Fourth WDA International Symposium of Odonatology, Pontevedra (Spain), July 2005. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 51–78.

Book chapters:
Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds) Species Concepts and Phylogenetic Theory: A Debate. Columbia University Press, New York, 17–29.

Books:
Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 166 pp.

Book with institutional author:
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999) International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth Edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London.

PhD thesis:
Dalebout ML (2002) Species identity, genetic diversity and molecular systematic relationships among the Ziphiidae (beaked whales). PhD Thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Link/URL:
BBC News: Island leopard deemed new specieshttp://news.bbc.co.uk/

Citations of Public Resource Databases: It is highly recommended all appropriate datasets, images, and information to be deposited in public resources. Please provide the relevant accession numbers (and version numbers, if appropriate). Accession numbers should be provided in parentheses after the entity on first use. Examples of such databases include, but are not limited to:

• ZooBank (www.zoobank.org)
• Morphbank (www.morphbank.net)
• Genbank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank)
• BOLD (www.barcodinglife.org)

Providing accession numbers to data records stored in global data aggregators allows us to link your article to established databases, thus integrating it with a broader collection of scientific information. Please hyperlink all accession numbers through the text or list them directly after the References in the online submission manuscript.

All journal titles should be spelled out completely and shouldNOT be italicized.

Provide the publisher's name and location when you cite symposia or conference proceedings; distinguish between the conference date and the publication date if both are given. Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the References. They should be quoted in the text as personal observations, personal communications, or unpublished data, specifying the exact source, with date if possible. When possible, include URLs for articles available online through library subscription or individual journal subscription, or through large international archives, indexes and aggregators, e.g., PubMedCentral, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, etc. URLs for pdf articles that are posted on personal websites only should be avoided.

Authors are encouraged to cite in the References list the publications of the original descriptions of the taxa treated in their manuscript.

Ordering references: All references should be ordered alphabetically by author name (but see below).

If the references have the same first author and a varying number of co-authors,the ordering should be based on the number of co-authors starting with the lowest; all articles with the same first author and two or more co-authors(thus cited as et al. in the text) should be listed chronologically, as follows:

Smith J (2018) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 1–10.https://doi.org/10.3897

Smith J, Gunderson A (2017) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 10–20.https://doi.org/10.3897 

Smith J, Gunderson A, Brock B (2011) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 20–30.https://doi.org/10.3897

Smith J, Brock B, Gutierrez R, Gunderson A (2013) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 15–30.https://doi.org/10.3897

Smith J, Brock B, Gunderson A (2015) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 10–30.https://doi.org/10.3897

If boththe first author and year of publication matchwithin the categories above, the references are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year of publication and this marking is followed in the in-text citations, respectively.

Illustrations, Figures and Tables

Figures and illustrations are accepted in the following image file formats:

• EPS(preferred format for diagrams)
• TIFF(at least 300dpi resolution, with LZW compression)
• PNG(preferred format for photos or images)
• JPEG(preferred format for photos or images)
• GIF
• BMP
• SVG

Vector files in any of the following formatsEPS, SVG orPDFare requested for phylogenetic trees and cladograms.

The journal is printed in A4 paper size with the maximum printing area of 167 mm × 242 mm. Whenever possible, individual figures should be prepared as composite figures.

Should you have any problems in providing the figures in one of the above formats, or in reducing thefile below 20 MB, please contact the Editorial Office atjournals@pensoft.net

Figure legends: All figures should be referenced consecutively in the manuscript; legends should be listed consecutively immediately after the References. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals − i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc.); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words.

Illustrations of measurable morphological traits should bear mute scale bars, whose real size is to be given in the figure captions.

Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Figure citations in the text should always be with Capital "F" and En-dash for ranges. One figure with a full stop, figures without.

Example: Fig. 1, Figs 1–3, Fig. 2A–E.

Citations of figures from other publications should always be Lower Case (fig. / figs). When two subsequent figures or parts are cited (for instance figures 1 and 2 or A and B), a comma should be used.

Example:  Figs 1, 2 and Fig. 1A, B.

Parts belong to one figure.

Example:Fig. 1A, B and Fig. 2A-E.

On the use of Google Maps
All uses of Google Maps and Google Earth Content must provide attribution toGoogle, according toGoogle Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Service (see also Permission Guidelines for Google Maps and Google Earth). The attribution should be visible on each map in the form, for example: "Map data 2019 (C) Google".

Tables: Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, maximum 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.

Small tables can be embedded within the text, in portrait format (note that tables on a landscape page must be reformatted onto a portrait page or submitted as additional files). These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review. Do not use tabs to format tables or separate text. All columns and rows should be visible, please make sure that borders of each cell display as black lines. Colour and shading should not be used; neither should commas be used to indicate decimal values. Please use a full stop to denote decimal values (i.e., 0.007 cm, 0.7 mm).

Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as Supplementary Files. Tabular data provided as supplementary files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), as an OpenOffice spreadsheets (.ods) or comma-separated values file (.csv). As with all uploaded files, please use the standard file extensions.

Linked data table for primary biodiversity data

Definition: Alinked, or semantically enhanced, data table for primary biodiversity data is a table where data about specimens, taxa, sequences, images, sound recordings, traits, habitat preferences and biotic interactions between specimens or taxa are presented, whenever possible, through hyperlinked persistent unique identifiers, following community-agreed standards and ontologies. The use of hyperlinked identifiers allows for linking to external data resources and also within and between table rows, not only by humans, but also by machines.

This journal strongly encourages authors to present their data in a linked data table, using the template below.The template structure is NOT fixed and can be changed to reflect the specifics and composition of data used in a particular study, following some simple but important rules. The table does not replace or exclude the detailed listing of specimen data (occurrences, label data) in the Materials examined sections of the taxon treatments.

The template does not differ much from what the authors normally use (for example, specimens-BY-sequences-BY-taxa or similar); however, (1) it follows somestandardisation in format and structure, (2) it issemantically enriched with links to community-accepted ontologies and external sources of information, (3) information from it can beextractedand distributed to various data aggregators, thus(4) increasing the re-use, discoverability, visibility and citation probability of your research and data(for more details see the blog How to get data from research articles back into the research cycle аt no additional costs).

When filling in the table or changing its structure, pleaseconsider the following guidelines:

• The template is read-only. To start working with it, please open and copy it to an editable file in Google Spreadsheet (through theMake a copy option from theFilemenu) or download it in Excel, CSV, TSV or other format.
• Keep the tableas simple and as concise as possible. It isa table of identifiers linked to the actual (meta)data rather than a representation of your complete data.
• The table captionshould always start with:"Linked data table of ....".
• Delete all empty columnsfor which you do not provide data. The table can be reduced to a few columns, depending on the purposes of the study.
  • Example-1: If you publish a revision or phylogenetic study of a taxon, it would be sufficient to reduce the table to the first core or source (left) group of data on taxa/specimens, while the entire second target (right) group could be deleted starting with the column of biotic interactions.
  • Example-2: If you publish an analysis of the biotic interactions between two groups of taxa, you could reduce the table to: (1) List of source species, (2) Type of interaction, (3) List of target species and (4) Source of information (citation or unpublished source).
• Youcan add additional columns for data types that are missing in the table. Pleasedo not add columns for data which are already available within the actual data recordto which the hyperlinked identifier points to. 
• Example: there is no need to add columns for details on localities (e.g. province, district, verbatim descriptions), sampling events, collector names etc., because the link to the Specimen code in GBIF, iDigBio or DiSSCo contains these data in both human- and machine-readable format.
• Changing of the uppermost table headings (rows 1-3) is NOT desirable,because they are linked to ontologies/vocabularies to provide the semantic meaning of data in the respective columns.
  • Example-1: if you need to add one more column to list accession numbers of another gene, just copy the previous identical column and paste it to the right, then change the gene name in the heading.
  • Example-2: if you need to add a column for a data type which is absent in the template, please name and link it to a term from a community-agreed vocabulary (e.g. Darwin Core, UBERON) or ask us for advice using the email address below.
• Relativelysmall data tables(e.g. of up to 300-400 records)should be included as an Appendix to the article text and also as a supplementary data file;larger datasets can be deposited at external open thematic repositories and/or supplementary files to the article. In cases where datasets are deposited in an external open repository or as supplementary files to the article, they should be described with a link to the openly available dataset in aData resources section of the article.
• Most of the hyperlinks to the different data elements in the table will be provided in-house by Pensoft (see the last "Linked by" row in the template).Authors are required to hyperlink only a few data columns for which the linking cannot be provided by the publisher. 
  • Example: There is no easy way for the publisher to discover and especially to reconcile and link the actual specimen the authors have studied, hence the authors are required to provide these hyperlinks in the table (see "Linked to" row in the template) upon submission of the manuscript. 
• Useconsistent data formatting when filling in columns, such as Latitude and Longitude, for example (see the journal’s Author guidelines for more details).
• Do not leave fields empty in cases where you have repeatable data for these:
  • Example-1: if several specimens of a taxon are listed in the table, please fill in the taxon name in each row (do not list a taxon name only once at its first mention only)
  • Example-2: There are still many collections in which specimen data are not indexed in GBIF, iDigBio or DiSSCo (or elsewhere). Please fill in the specimen codes, even when these cannot be hyperlinked to a collection network.
• Controlled vocabulary terms are listed in separate spreadsheets in the document containing the template. The authors areencouraged to select terms from the drop-down menuswhenever possible. The examples below explain how the author could add a term missing in a vocabulary or add a new vocabulary in a column, for example, for data types not present in the template, such as Life stage, Body part etc.
  • Example-1: In case you would like to fill in a data entity which is not featured in the drop-down menu, you can add an entity as free text in the associated vocabulary spreadsheet (e.g. ‘envo-environments’ for the column ‘Habitat / Environment (after ENVO Ontology)’). This will add your entity to the drop-down menu and you will be able to select it. Please, do not alter any of the other entities in the sheets, as this would prevent us from correctly linking to the ontology terms. For more guidance, you can follow this brief tutorial: https://youtu.be/o96tZZlTs1w.

Video caption: How to add free text to a cell which has a drop-down menu:

1. Find the spreadsheet sheet which contains the ontology terms which are listed in the dropdown menu (e.g. ‘envo-environments’ for the column ‘Habitat / Environment (after ENVO Ontology)’) and add your entity as free text at the end of the list in the ‘label’ column. Leave the IRI column empty. You can write a definition of your entity in the ‘definition’ column.
2. Go back to the ‘template’ sheet and scroll through the dropdown menu until you find the entity you added. You can now select it.

• Example-2: You can also use the vocabularies which are present in the current document (e.g. uberon-life-stages) or introduce a new vocabulary in a separate spreadsheet and then visualise it as a new data column (please see the tutorial below). https://youtu.be/Byyvhzn7vNw

Video caption: How to add a new column containing a dropdown with ontology terms:

1. Insert a new column inside the ‘template’ sheet and name it.
2. Go tohttps://bioportal.bioontology.org/ (or any other ontology repository) to find an ontology that you want to use. BioPortal offers an ontology browser which allows you to search for ontology terms. A similar ontology browser is offered by Ontobee (http://www.ontobee.org/). 
3. Find an ontology class which describes the types of entities which you want to list in the drop-down menu (e.g. Image class for the different types of images). Copy its resource identifier (ID).
4. Go tohttp://sparql.bioontology.org/, BioPortal’s SPARQL endpoint which allows you to perform semantic queries ontologies featured in BioPortal. Paste in the following query by replacing ‘ID’ with the ID that you copied in the previous step:

PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

SELECT ?class ?label

WHERE {

    ?class rdfs:subClassOf <ID>.

     ?class rdfs:label ?label.

} GROUP BY ?class

Do not forget the angle brackets surrounding the IRI (< >). Click ‘run query’ and copy the results.

5. Go back to the spreadsheet containing the template and create a new sheet (in Google Spreadsheets, you can do this from the + button in the bottom menu). Paste the SPARQL query results inside the new sheet. Use the ‘Find and replace’ option to remove any unnecessary characters (e.g. angle brackets (< >) and quotation marks (")). Change the name of the sheet so that it contains the name of the ontology you used and the type of entities you listed.
6. Go back to the template sheet and click on the cell where you want the dropdown menu to be. Select ‘Data’ from the upper menu and then ‘Data validation’. For Criteria, select ‘List from range’ and click the table icon to the right to select data range. Go back to the new sheet that you created in step 5 and select the range of values which you want to display in the drop-down menu (e.g. the labels of the different image types). Click ‘Save’ to create the drop-down menu. You can copy the menu along the column rows.

Link to the Google spreadsheet template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gv7RwKPq7LxGcy114qoEEusU4DLbva3it_7Dh6Nvvt8/edit?usp=sharing

Questions and feedback should be sent to:semanticpublishing@pensoft.net

Taxonomic Treatments

MycoKeys will publish papers that strictly adhere the rules of the last edition of theInternational Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and updates in the latest version of its Chapter F <https://imafungus.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s43008-019-0019-1>. To assure this, authors are encouraged to consult: How to publish a new fungal species, or name, version 3.0 <https://imafungus.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s43008-021-00063-1>, and advised to follow the recommendations below:

Authors of novel fungal taxa must register the new names inONLY ONE registry, e.g. either in MycoBank or Index Fungorum or Fungal Names! Please note that the registries regularly coordinate sharing of data and have arranged an informal agreement to only accept the first listed number of any name. Registration of the same new name in multiple registries is considered an inappropriate practice, which creates a considerable confusion and extra work to the registries and necessitates the depreciation of the additional registrations at a later stage!

Authorship of AI

Materials and Methods

In line with responsible and reproducible research, as well as FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) data principles, we highly recommend that authors describe in detail and deposit their science methods and laboratory protocols in the open access repositoryprotocols.io.

Once deposited onprotocols.io, protocols and methods will be issued a unique digital object identifier (DOI), which could be then used to link a manuscript to the relevant deposited protocol. By doing this, authors could allow for editors and peers to access the protocol when reviewing the submission to significantly expedite the process.

Furthermore, an author could open up his/her protocol to the public at the click of a button as soon as their article is published.

Stepwise instructions:

1. Prepare a detailed protocol viaprotocols.io.
2. ClickGet DOIto assign a persistent identifier to your protocol.
3. Add the DOI link to the Methods section of your manuscript prior to submitting it for peer review.
4. ClickPublishto make your protocol openly accessible as soon as your article is published (optional).
5. Update your protocols anytime.

Supplementary Files

Online publishing allows an author to provide datasets, tables, video files, or other information as supplementary information, greatly increasing the impact of the submission. Uploading of such files is possible in Step 9 of the submission process.

The maximum file size for each Supplementary File is 20 MB.

The Supplementary Files will not be displayed in the printed version of the article but will exist as linkable supplementary downloadable files in the online version.

While submitting a supplementary file the following information should be completed:

• File format (including name and a URL of an appropriate viewer if format is unusual)
• Title of data
• Description of data

All supplementary files should be referenced explicitly by file name within the body of the article, e.g. 'See supplementary file 1: Movie 1" for the original data used to perform this analysis.

Ideally, the supplementary files should not be platform-specific, and should be viewable using free or widely available tools. Suitable file formats are:

For supplementary documentation:

• PDF(Adobe Acrobat)

For animations:

• SWF(Shockwave Flash)

For movies:

• MOV(QuickTime)
• MPG(MPEG)

For datasets:

• XLS(Excel spreadsheet)
• CSV(Comma separated values)
• ODS(OpenOffice spreadsheets)

As for images, file names should be given in the standard file extensions. This is especially important for Macintosh users, since the Mac OS does not enforce the use of standard file extensions. Please also make sure that each additional file is a single table, figure or movie (please do not upload linked worksheets or PDF files larger than one sheet).

Use of Public Resource Databases

Inclusion of the hyperlinked accession numbers relevant to the manuscript is mandatory. These can be obtained from any of the three nucleotide databases in the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration:GenBank,Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) or theEuropean Nucleotide Archive (ENA).

It is also highly recommended all appropriate datasets, images, and information to be deposited in public resources.  Please provide the relevant accession numbers (and version numbers, if appropriate).  Examples of such data repositories and short descriptions of their policies is given in ourData Publishing Policies and Guidelines.

Providing accession numbers to data records stored in global data aggregators allows us to link your article to established databases, thus integrating it with a broader collection of scientific information.Please hyperlink all accession numbers through the text or list their web addresses directly after the References in the manuscript.

Revising Your Article

Authorsmust submit the revised version of the manuscript using Track Changes/Comments tools of Word so that the Subject Editor can see the corrections and additions.

Authorsmust address all critiques of the referees in a response letter to the editor and submit it along with the revised manuscript through the online editorial system. In case a response letter is not submitted by the authors, the editor has the right to reject the manuscript without further evaluation. When resubmitting a manuscript that has been previously rejected with resubmission encouraged, authorsmust include the response letter to the article text file, and the pdf review version, so that it gets to the Subject Editor and the reviewers during the peer review.

Once your manuscript is accepted for publication, authorsmust ensure that the clean version submitted to copy and layout editing contains the full list of authors (in the correct order of appearance), as well as the Funding and/or Acknowledgement information (if any).

When submitting corrections to proofs (during the layout stage), authors must upload the latest proof (in PDF format) containing their revisions as track changes.

Material Citations Formatting Guidelines

Authors are strongly encouraged to adhere to the new fine-grained formatting of the material examined (species occurrence records) as shown below. Please note that this new fine-grained formatting is NOT COMPULSORY and is introduced for testing for an undefined period, during which we hope to receive your feedback. Nonetheless, it is recommended to follow the guidelines to ensure accurate conversion of your records to XML and consequent indexing in GBIF, Plazi, and other important resources. Indexing of each individual occurrence record in GBIF and linking back to your article will provide much higher visibility, data usability, dissemination, and citation probability of your work! Adapted from: CETAF best practices in electronic publishing in taxonomy (https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2018.475). 

Order

Each material citation is composed of diverse data fields (material, locality, date, etc.) that are tagged, using Darwin Core (DWC) terms. To efficiently perform this, it is important to ensure that the different fields of a material citation are consistently presented in the same order throughout the article or, at the very least, within a taxon treatment.

The preferred order is as follows:

For botanical and mycological data, please use "Collection number" instead of "collector [followed by "leg."]". The collection number encompasses all gatherings from a single specimen (e.g., leaves, flowers, piece of wood) which may be preserved on different herbarium sheets and in different herbaria.

The preferred format for botanical/mycological data should be as follows:

Punctuation

A bullet point (• [unicode: 2022]) is used to signify the beginning of a material citation. Within each citation, the different fields are delimited by a semicolon. A single field can be composed of several elements, which are separated by commas (e.g. the details region, area, town and street for the ‘locality’ field).

Semicolons should not be used elsewhere in a material citation.

Repetitive data

Authors can indicate repetitive data with indications such as "same data as for holotype", "same data as for preceding", "same locality", "ibid", etc. as long as the same method and wording are used consistently throughout the paper.

If a material citation is identical to another with only one or two differences, the exceptions should be listed after the mention of repeated data e.g.:

‘Missing’ elements

It is not necessary to include information such as "no date" or "no locality data"; just list the elements that are available.

Label citations

We recommend including photos of labels as figures if they contain data that cannot be standardised. Double quote marks (" ") must be used to represent label citations that do not correspond to (or cannot be reliably interpreted as) specific DWC terms. This data will simply be parsed as a verbatim citation.

Only quote marks should be used to present verbatim label data and they should not appear elsewhere in a material citation.

Author interpretation

Use square brackets [ ] to distinguish data that has been interpreted by the author e.g., coordinates interpreted from a locality, or translations of label data:

Data fields

The different data fields that are tagged in a material citation are explained below, along with the formatting needed to achieve maximum output and precision.

Any specimen data presented in a separate table cannot be linked back to the citation and tagged for conversion.

Country (country / waterBody)

The citations must be listed by either country or water body, using a separate paragraph for each new zone. Countries should be listed in alphabetical order. If another method is used (e.g. geographic groups) please state this in the Material and Methods section.

If the material is organised by region, please use the following format:

Material (organismQuantity / organismQuantityType / sex / typeStatus)

This field comprises several indications about the specimens cited:number,type (e.g. specimen, juv., shell, excuviae),sex andtype status. All subsequent elements of a citation will be applied to the specimens presented in this field.

Locality (higherGeography)

The locality data is listed from least to most specific, using commas to divide each detail. It is recommended to employ the English name in current usage where possible.

If there is a particular reason to use a different system, e.g. spelling/transcription variations or archaic names, such details should preferably be identified using quotes, with their current names given in square brackets, but this is not mandatory.

Geo-coordinates (decimalLatitude / decimalLongitude)

Diverse formats are accepted but it is important to include the degrees symbol (° [unicode: 00B0]), which distinguishes the data as a geo-coordinate. It is also preferable to include the direction (N/E/S/W):

Geo-coordinates should be presented to a maximum of 5 decimal places.

Altitude/elevation/depth (verbatimAltitude / verbatimDepth)

This type of measurement should be explicit in the material citations, e.g.:

Collection date (eventDate)

Format: d(d) Mmm. YYYY

Date ranges should be shown with an n-dash, e.g.:

Collector (recordedBy)

The name(s) of the collector(s) should always be followed by "leg."; for institutions or collecting programmes, "exped." can be used, e.g. MNHN exped.

For botanical and mycological data, "Collection number" instead of "collector [followed by "leg."]". The collection number encompasses all gatherings from a single specimen (e.g., leaves, flowers, piece of wood) which may be preserved on different herbarium sheets and in different herbaria.

Additional data

Ideally, the data fields identified above should be listed before other collection data. If you choose to use a different order, it is important to be as consistent as possible throughout the paper, or at least within a single treatment. You may use a semicolon to separate the additional data into appropriate fields, e.g.:

Additional data can also be given in the appropriate field between brackets, e.g.:

Associated sequences

Accession numbers and barcodes should be identified as such, e.g.:

Repository data (institutionCode / catalogNumber)

The repository data field should be composed of an institution acronym and a catalogue number (where available), using a colon to separate the two elements.

Institution acronym

All acronyms for repositories must feature in a distinct list in the Materials and Methods section, under the titleRepositories, Institutional acronyms or Institutional abbreviations.

Specimen code

The specimen/catalogue code(s) should be listed after the institution code.

Where a specimen code is available, it should be explicit which specimen it refers to. This guarantees unambiguous interpretation, both by readers and upon XML conversion.

E.g., in the citation below, we cannot distinguish which specimens are catalogued under which code:

This citation should be presented as follows:

Exceptions:

1.   If several specimens share the same code, e.g.:

2.   If the specimens possess identical data, including the sex, their specimen codes can be given together, e.g.:

Ranges & multiple specimens

Use the word "to" in order to show a range of specimen numbers. E.g.:

Concise Copyediting Instructions

The copyediting instructions below represent a concise summary of the journal's formatting requirements. The instructions are intended for use by the authors during preparation of the final revised versions of their manuscripts, technical editors, copy editors and typesetters.  

Author names

• Omit titles, degrees, etc.
• Provide ORCID if available

Affiliation

(Department,) Institution, City, Country

Article title

Title of article: Subtitle of article

• Title: Sentence case
• Colon between title and subtitle (if any)
• No footnotes
• No bold (use when needed sub-/superscript, and/or italics only for the terms in Latin)
• Higher taxa within the title should be separated with commas and not with a semicolon

Running head

• A short version of title up to 50 characters (including spaces); normally the short title should have been suggested by the authors and checked for clarity by the copy editor

Abstract

• No references to tables, figures, etc., no footnotes
• No citations (preferably)
  • If citations unavoidable: Complete citations, allowing unambiguous identification of cited publication!
• Should be written consistently in either third or first person
• Note: The abstract has to be a stand-alone entity, to present a really well written and concise summary of the article! A special care for copy editors to check!
• Designations of nomenclatural novelties should be in bold and spelled in the way suggested ( sp. nov., gen. nov., comb. nov.)

Note: Authors ofnovel fungal taxa must register the new namesin only one registry, e.g. either in MycoBank or Index Fungorumbut not in both! Please note that the registries regularly coordinate sharing of data and have arranged an informal agreement to only accept the first listed number of any name. Registration of the same new name in multiple registries is considered an inappropriate practice, which creates a considerable confusion and extra work to the registries and necessitates the depreciation of the additional registrations at a later stage!

Keywords (up to 8 words)

keyword a, keyword b, keyword n

• Do not repeat words from the title
• Listed inalphabetical order and separated by commas
• Lowercase letters, except proper names
• No bold font
• Without any punctuation marks after last keyword

Tables

• Table caption: Start with label "Table N." in bold. Sentence case, i.e.:
  • Table 2. Table caption text.
• Numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
• Heading for every column (including the leftmost!)
• No shading of cells, rows, columns; no colored fonts
• No horizontal or vertical lines in table body
• Same number of decimal places for same statistics (usually within same column)
• Text formatting in the cell without paragraph and line break
• Table must be in an editable format (.docx, .xlsx, etc., not as images)
• Caption and footnotes as texts (not as part of a table)

Figures

• Figure caption: Start with label "Figure N." in bold. Sentence case, i.e.:
  • Figure 6. Figure caption text.
• Numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals
• Figure parts: Use capital letters in bold. No punctuation separator, i.e.:
  • Figure 1. Figure general caption text.A part caption textB part caption textN part caption text.
• If abbreviations are used, these are placed after the parts with a colon, i.e.:
  Abbreviations: xxxx
• If there are scale bars on the figure parts, reference to them is last and in the format:Scale bars: 20 μm (D, N, O, Q); 50 μm (F, K); 10 μm (G, P); 5 μm (H); 100 μm (M).
• High quality (at least 300 dpi)
• Text sharp and readable (e.g., no overlap of text and graphical elements like lines)
• White or transparent background
• No image border
• Caption as text (not as part of the image)

Capitalization

• Article title: Sentence case
• Running head: Sentence case
• Section and subsection titles:
  • For separated titles (usually H1-H3): Sentence case
  • For paragraph titles (usually H4): Sentence case
• Table captions: Sentence case
• Headings of table rows and columns:
  • Sentence case or lower case (check for consistency only!)
• Figure captions: Sentence case
• In text body: Nouns followed by numerals/letters (citations of figures, tables, appendices and supplementary files) e.g.:
  • Fig. 4; Figs 1, 2; Table 2; Appendix 1
• In text body: Titles of articles, book chapters, books, tests
• In references: Sentence case

Equations and statistical symbols

• Typeface
  • standard typeface for Greek letters, sub-/superscripts, and abbreviations that are not variables
  • italic typeface for all other statistical symbols
• Space before and after equal/inequality signs
• Same number of decimal places for decimal values
• Use leading zeros before a decimal fraction including for statistical values pertaining to probability

Text body

• Regular font usage:
  • Main text
  • Abbreviations e.g.,i.e., et al., etc., cf., vs.
  • Greek letter e.g.,α, β, γ, δ, ε, σ, φ, χ, ω
• Italic font usage:
  • Scientific names of taxa of species and genera (authorities in regular font, not in italics)
  • Long direct quotations
  • Symbols for variables and constants, such asp,F,U,T,N,r, but not for SD (standard deviation), SE (standard error), DF (degrees of freedom), and NS (non significant). These symbols in illustrations and equations should be in italics to match the text.
  • Donot use italics for emphasis
• No underlining
• Bold font usage:
  • Subheadings, sections and subsections
  • Figure captions – For the label and designation of figure’s parts:
    • Figure 1. Figure general caption text.A part caption textB part caption textN part caption text.
  • Table captions – For the label:
    • Table 1. Table caption text.
  • In systematic sections for specimen designation such us:holotype,paratype,syntype,lectotype,isotype, etc.
  • Abbreviations of institutions or morphological characters or indices listed alphabetically in the section Materials and methods, i.e.:
    • NHML Natural History Museum, London
    • MW Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna
    • EL length of elytra
    • EW maximum width of elytra
    • TL total length (PL+EL)
  • In species descriptions – designation of main anatomical structures followed by a colon mark, i.e.Head:…,Thorax:…,Legs:…,Abdomen:…, etc., in this case these should be followed by a section describing other anatomical organs and structures attached to these.
  • Subsection "Specimens examined" - the preferred order is as follows, HOWEVER THESE FINE-GRAINED FORMATTING GUIDELINES ARE NOT COMPULSORY. Authors who follow the guidelines will benefit from the submission of their specimen records to GBIF after publication. The records on GBIF will bear the article citation details contributiing to a wider dissemination and re-use of the published data.
    • COUNTRY • specimens [e.g. 1 ♂, size ]; geographic/locality data [from largest to smallest]; coordinates; altitude/elevation/depth [using alt./m a.s.l. etc.]; date [format: 16 Jan. 1998]; collector [followed by "leg."]; other collecting data [e.g. micro habitat/host/method of collecting]; barcodes/identifiers [e.g. GenBank: MG779236]; institution code and specimen code [e.g. CBF 06023].
      For Example:Holotype: CHINA • ♀; Sichuan, Kangding; 30.04°N, 101.57°E; 15.VI.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-06, original number ZYZ-2017-28.Paratypes: CHINA • 1♀1♂; Sichuan, Kangding; 29.VI.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-01, Hyp-2018-02, original number ZYZ-2017-08 • 1♀; Sichuan: Kangding; 2.VIII.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-03, original number ZYZ-2017-20 • 1♂, Sichuan: Kangding; 29.VI.2017; Yanzhou Zhang leg.; Hyp-2018-08, original number ZYZ-2017-029.
    • Punctuation:
      A bullet point "•" (unicode: 2022) is used to signify the beginning of a material citation. Within each citation, the different fields are delimited by a semicolon. A single field can be composed of several elements, which are separated by commas (e.g. the details region, area, town and street for the ‘locality’ field). Semicolons should not be used elsewhere in a material citation.
    • Repetitive data: Authors can indicate repetitive data with indications such as "same data as for holotype", "same data as for preceding", "same locality", "ibid", etc. as long as the same method and wording are used consistently throughout the paper.
    • ‘Missing’ elements: It is not necessary to include information such as "no date" or "no locality data"; just list the elements that are available.
    • see more detailshere
• Quotation marks
  • Avoid quotation marks except for direct quotations, words defined by the author, and words used in unusual contexts.
  • Short quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Long quotations should be on a separate line, italicized, but without quotation marks.
  • Single quotation marks are to be used only for a quotation that occurs within another quotation.
• Hyphen and dash characters
  • Consistent use of (-, –, —).
  • In contrast to parentheses an em-dash can be used alone.
  • En-dashes and em-dashes should not be spaced.
    • Hyphens (-) are used to:
      • link words such as personal names, some prefixes and compound adjectives (the last of which vary depending on the style manual in use)
    • En-dash (–) or en-rule (the length of an 'n') is used to:
      • link spans.
      • link numerals, sizes, dates and page numbers (e.g.,1977–1981; figs 5–7; pp. 237–258)
      • geographic or name associations (e.g.,Murray–Darling River; a Federal–State agreement)
      • character states combinations (e.g.,long–pubescent or red–purple).
    • Em-dash (—) or em-rule (the length of an 'm') should be used rarely:
      • only for introducing a subordinate clause in the text that is often used much as we use parentheses.

Section hierarchy

• No more than 4 levels, from hierarchical level 1 (H1) to hierarchical level 4 (H4)
• Unambiguous hierarchy levels
• No numbering of hierarchical levels

Section titles

• Capitalization:
  • For separated titles (usually H1-H3): Sentence case
  • For paragraph titles (usually H4): Sentence case

Mandatory statements

• Funding
  • If missing, add the following statement (depending on the number of authors):
    • The author has no funding to report.
    • The authors have no funding to report.
• Competing interests
  • If missing, add the following statement (depending on the number of authors):
    • The author has declared that no competing interests exist.
    • The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
• Acknowledgments (= non-financial support)
  • If missing, add the following statement (depending on the number of authors):
    • The author has no support to report.
    • The authors have no support to report.
• Data Resources (mandatory for empirical articles)

Geographical coordinates

One of the following formats should be used:

• Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (DMS), i.e.:
  • 36°31'21"N; 114°09'50"W
• Degrees and Decimal Minutes (DDM), i.e.:
  • 36°31.46'N; 114°09.84'W
• Decimal Degrees (DD), i.e.:
  • 36.5243°S; 114.1641°W
  • −36.5243; −114.1641 (using minus to indicate southern and western hemispheres)

In-Text Citations

• References
  • 1-2 authors
    • Jackson and Miller (2012) found out that...
    • A recent study (Jackson and Miller 2012) confirmed that...
  • 3 or more authors
    • Jackson et al. (2012) found out that...
    • A recent study (Jackson et al. 2012) confirmed that...
  • Multiple sources in chronological order:
    • same authors different years - separated by a comma:
      • Jackson and Miller (2012, 2015) found out that...
      • Recent studies (Jackson et al. 2012, 2015) confirmed that...
    • different authors - separated by a semicolon:
      • (Smith et al. 1998, 2000, 2016; Brock and Gunderson 2001; Felt 2006)
    • two or more fully identical citations (the same authors and years) are distinguished by adding the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. after the year:
      • Jackson 2008a, 2008b
      • Jackson and Miller 2014a, 2014b
      • Reyes-Velasco et al. 2018a, 2018b
  • Sources with page numbers
    • Jackson and Miller (2012: 120–121) found out that
    • A recent study (Jackson and Miller 2012: 120) confirmed that
• Figures:
  • Fig. 1
  • Fig. 1A, B
  • Fig. 1A–D
  • Figs 1, 2
  • Figs 1–3
  • Figs 1A, B, 3F, G, 7A
• Tables:
  • Table 1
  • Tables 1, 2
  • Tables 1–3
• Appendixes:
  • Appendix 1
  • Appendices 1, 2
  • Appendices 1–4
• Referenced materials from other sources:
  • All figures, tables, etc., from other sources should be written with small letters i.e.:see fig. 2 in Author (Year) ...

References

• Author names: surname first; all given names abbreviated, no full stops, commas or spaces, i.e.:
  • Lyal CHC
  • van Tol J
  • de Albuquerque PRA
• Different authors separated by comma
• Year in brackets; no comma or full stop after it
• No italics (except for Latin terms)

Published papers:

Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: The open-access register for zoological taxonomy: Technical Discussion Paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

Accepted papers:

Same as above, but ''in press'' appears instead of the year in parentheses.

Electronic journal articles:

Mallet J, Willmott K (2002) Taxonomy: Renaissance or Tower of Babel? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(2): 57–59.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(02)00061-7

Paper within conference proceedings:

Orr AG (2006) Odonata in Bornean tropical rain forest formations: Diversity, endemicity and applications for conservation management. In: Cordero Rivera A (Ed.) Forest and Dragonflies. Fourth WDA International Symposium of Odonatology, Pontevedra (Spain), July 2005. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 51–78.

Book chapters:

Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds) Species concepts and phylogenetic theory: A debate. Columbia University Press, New York, 17–29.

Books:

Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 166 pp.

Book with institutional author:

ICZN [International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature] (1999) International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth Edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London.

PhD thesis:

Dalebout ML (2002) Species identity, genetic diversity and molecular systematic relationships among the Ziphiidae (beaked whales). PhD Thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland, ## pp.

Link/URL:

BBC News (2012) Island leopard deemed new specieshttp://news.bbc.co.uk/ [Accessed on dd.mm.yyyy]

Submission Procedure

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Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Submission of manuscripts to this journal is possible only through the online submission module. We kindly request authors to consult the Focus and Scope section prior to submission. In order to submit a manuscript to the journal, authors are required to register with the journal and/or to login. Once logged in, you will find the online submission system either by clicking the "Submit manuscript" button.

The manuscript submission process is separated into the following steps:

• Step 1: Specifying the manuscript type and completing the submission checklist
• Step 2: Choosing the payment option and requesting optional services
• Step 3: Typing in the author(s) names and affiliation, title, abstract, keywords, and other metadata
• Step 4: Assigning classifications categories for your manuscript using hierarchical classification trees
• Step 5: Completing the submission metadata by adding details about any supporting agencies, conflict of interest, ethical statement, comments to the editors
• Step 6: Agreeing with the journal's Data Publishing Policy and specifying the availability of the data underpinning your article
• Step 7: Uploading the submission file and the additional files (see below for details on how to prepare it)
• Step 8: Confirming the automatically generated pdf review version of the article, and the metadata (or revising them, if needed)
• Step 9: Uploading supplementary files (see below for details) and associated metadata
• Step 10: Suggesting reviewers, final verification of the submitted files and confirmation

Stepwise guidance on new manuscript submission, with screenshots of the interface embedded, is available online in this section of the User Manual.

Organizing Your Submission

Before starting your submission please make sure that your manuscript is formatted in accordance with the Author Guidelines.

Before attempting an online submission, please consider preparing the following file types:

1. Submission file

Review version of the manuscript: a TEXT (MS WORD) file in either DOC, DOCX, RTF or ODT format. The total file size must beno larger than 80 MB. The system allows two options for the submission file upload:

• it could contain all figures embedded at their respective places within the manuscript: 

  • Advantage: The review version of the manuscript will be more convenient for reading and understanding by the reviewers and editors. Likewise, if you opt to post your manuscript on ARPHA Preprints and this is allowed by the current journal’s policies, it will be better organised for the readers.

  • Drawback:Additional effort is needed to place and number the figures within the text.

• it could contain the article text only, while the figures are added separately in the allowed formats (see below), so that the system can add them automatically to the PDF version that will be sent for review. The authors have the option to check and replace, if needed, the PDF review version generated at the first submission step:

  • Advantage: No additional effort is needed for placing and numbering the figures within the text.

  • Drawback: All figures will be placed at the end of the manuscript and the review version will be less convenient for reading and understanding by the reviewers and editors. The same concerns your preprint if you decide to post it on ARPHA Preprints and this is allowed by the current journal’s policies.

2. Additional files

High-resolution figures must be submitted during the same submission process as the additional files (Step 7) in one of the accepted file formats (see below). These may be compressed in order to reduce bandwidth during upload:

• Figures (each figure as an individual file in one of the following image file formats: EPS, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, not larger than 20 MB each)
• Equations (each equation as an individual file in one of the above-mentioned image file formats)

Please note that the maximum file size that may be uploaded through our online submission system is 20 MB.

3. Supplementary files (appendices)

Large datasets or multimedia files, usually published as appendices in conventional print journals, should be uploaded as supplementary files complete with the associated metadata on the online submission form. Supplementary files should have their own legends.

Most file formats are accepted. Text-only appendices must be in DOC, DOCX, RTF, or ODF formats.

Should you have any technical problems in submitting a manuscript to this journal, please contact the Editorial Office at journals@pensoft.net.

We encourage authors to send an inquiry to the respective Subject Editor prior to submitting a manuscript. The purpose of the presubmission inquiry is to solicit rapid initial feedback on the suitability of the manuscript for publication in this journal. Pre-submission inquiries may also be sent to the Editorial Office at mycokeys@pensoft.net.

Author Contributions

The journal is integrated with Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT), in order to recognise individual author input within a publication, thereby ensuring professional and ethical conduct, while avoiding authorship disputes, gift / ghost authorship and similar pressing issues in academic publishing.

During manuscript submission, the submitting author is strongly recommended to select a contributor role for each of co-author, using a list of 14 predefined roles, i.e. Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review and Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding Acquisition (see more). Once published, the article will be including the contributor role for all authors in the article metadata.

Data Quality Checklist and Recommendations

INTRODUCTION

An empowering aspect of digital data is that they can be merged, reformatted and reused for new, imaginative uses that are more than the sum of their parts. However, this is only possible if data are well curated. To help authors avoid some common mistakes we have created this document to highlight those aspects of data that should be checked before publication.

By "mistakes" we do not mean errors of fact, although these should also be avoided! It is possible to have entirely correct digital data that are low-quality because they are badly structured or formatted, and, therefore, hard or impossible to move from one digital application to another. The next reader of your digital data is likely to be a computer program, not a human. It is essential that your data are structured and formatted so that they are easily processed by that program, and by other programs in the pipeline between you and the next human user of your data.

The following list of recommendations will help you maximise the re-usability of your digital data. Each represents a test carried out by Pensoft when auditing a digital dataset at the request of an author. Following the list, we provide explanations and examples of each recommendation.

Authors are encouraged to perform these checks themselves prior to data publication. For text data, a good text editor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_text_editors) can be used to find and correct most problems. Spreadsheets usually have some functions for text checking functions, e.g. the "TRIM" function that removes unneeded whitespace from a data item. The most powerful text-checking tools are on the command line, and the website "A Data Cleaner's Cookbook" (https://www.datafix.com.au/cookbook/) is recommended for authors who can use a BASH shell.

When auditing datasets for authors, Pensoft does not check taxonomic or bibliographic details for correctness, but we will do basic geochecks upon request, e.g. test to see if the stated locality is actually at or near the stated latitude/longitude. We also recommend checking that fields do not show "domain schizophrenia", i.e. fields misused to containing data of more than one type.

Proofreading data takes at least as much time and skill as proofreading text. Just as with text, mistakes easily creep into data files unless the files are carefully checked. To avoid the embarrassment of publishing data with such mistakes, we strongly recommend that you take the time to run these basic tests on your data.

CHECKLIST

Characters

• The dataset is UTF-8 encoded
• The only characters used that are not numbers, letters or standard punctuation, are tabs and whitespaces
• Each character has only one encoding in the dataset
• No line breaks within data items
• No field-separating character within data items (tab-separated data preferred)
• No "?" or replacement characters in place of valid characters
• No Windows carriage returns
• No leading, trailing, duplicated or unnecessary whitespaces in individual data items

Records

• No broken records, i.e. records with too few or too many fields
• No blank records
• No duplicate records (as defined by context)

Fields

• No empty fields
• No evident truncation of data items
• No unmatched braces within data items
• No data items with values that are evidently invalid or inappropriate for the given field
• Repeated data items are consistently formatted
• Standard data items such as dates and latitude/longitude are consistently formatted
• No evident disagreement between fields
• No unexpectedly missing data

RECOMMENDATIONS

Characters 

• The dataset is UTF-8 encoded

Computer programs do not "read" characters like "A" and "4". Instead, they read strings of 0's and 1's and interpret these strings as characters according to an encoding scheme. The most universal encoding scheme is called UTF-8 and is based on the character set called Unicode. Text data should always be shared with UTF-8 encoding, as errors can be generated when non-UTF-8 encodings (such as Windows-1252) are read by a program expecting UTF-8, and vice-versa. (See also below, on replacement characters). 

• The only characters used that are not numbers, letters or standard punctuation are tabs and whitespaces

Unusual characters sometimes appear in datasets, especially when databases have been merged. These "control" or "gremlin" characters are sometimes invisible when data are viewed within a particular application (such as a spreadsheet or a database browser) but can usually be revealed when the data are displayed in a text editor. Examples include vertical tab, soft hyphen, non-breaking space and various ASCII control characters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_character).

• Each character has only one encoding in the dataset

We have seen individual datasets in which the degree symbol (°) is represented in three different ways, and in which a single quotation mark (') is also represented as a prime symbol, a right single quotation mark and a grave accent. Always use one form of each character, and preferably the simplest form, e.g. plain quotes rather than curly quotes.

• No line breaks within data items

Spreadsheet and database programs often allow users to have more than one line of text within a data item, separated by linebreaks or carriage returns. When these records are processed, many computer programs understand the embedded linebreak as the end of a record, so that the record is processed as several incomplete records:

item A  itemB1          itemC

               itemB2

becomes:

itemA           itemB1

itemB2          itemC

• No field-separating character within data items (tab-separated data preferred)

Data are most often compiled in table form, with a particular character used to separate one field ("column") from the next. Depending on the computer program used, the field-separating character might be a comma (CSV files), a tab (TSV files), a semicolon, a pipe (|) etc.

Well-structured data keeps the field-separating character out of data items, to avoid confusion in processing. Because commas are commonly present within data items, and because not all programs understand how to process CSVs, we recommend using tabs as field-separating characters (and avoiding tabs within data items!):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab-separated_values.

• No "?" or replacement characters in place of valid characters

When text data are moved between different character encodings, certain characters can be lost because the receiving program does not understand what the sending program is referring to. In most cases, the lost character is then represented by a question mark, as in "Duméril" becoming "Dum?ril", or by a replacement character, usually a dark polygon with a white question mark inside.

It is important to check for these replacements before publishing data, especially if you converted your data to UTF-8 encoding from another encoding.

• No Windows carriage returns

On UNIX, Linux and Mac computers, a linebreak is built with just one character, the UNIX linefeed '\n' ('LF'). On Windows computers, a linebreak is created using two characters, one after the other: '\r\n' ('CRLF'), where '\r' is called a 'carriage return' ('CR'). Carriage returns are not necessary in digital data and can cause problems in data processing on non-Windows computers. Check the documentation of the program in which you are compiling data to learn how to remove Windows carriage returns.

• No leading, trailing, duplicated or unnecessary whitespaces in individual data items

Like "control" and "gremlin" characters, whitespaces are invisible and we pay little attention to them when reading a line of text. Computer programs, however, see whitespaces as characters with the same importance as "A" and "4". For this reason, the following four lines are different and should be edited to make them the same:

Aus bus (Smith, 1900)

   Aus bus (Smith, 1900)

Aus bus (Smith,   1900)

Aus  bus   (Smith, 1900  )

 Records

• No broken records, i.e. records with too few or too many fields

If a data table contains records with, for example, 25 fields, then every record in the table should have exactly 25 data items, even if those items are empty. Records with too few fields are often the result of a linebreak or field separator within a data item (see above). Records with too many fields also sometimes appear when part of a record has been moved in a spreadsheet past the end of the table.

• No blank records

Blank records contribute nothing to a data table because they contain no information, and a tidy data table has no blank lines. Note, however, that a computer program looking for blank lines may not find what looks to a human like a blank line, because the "blank" line actually contains invisible tabs or whitespaces.

• No duplicate records (as defined by context)

It can be difficult to find duplicate records in some datasets, but our experience is that they are not uncommon. One cause of duplicates is database software assigning a unique ID number to the same line of data more than once. Context will determine whether one record is a duplicate of another, and data compilers are best qualified to look for them.

 Fields

• No empty fields

 Fields containing no data items do not add anything to the information content of a dataset and should be omitted.

•  No evident truncation of data items

The end of a data item is sometimes cut off, for example when a data item with 55 characters is entered into a database field with a 50-character maximum limit. Truncated data items should be repaired when found, e.g.

Smith & Jones in Smith, Jones and Bro

repaired to:

Smith & Jones in Smith, Jones and Brown, 1974

• No unmatched braces within data items

These are surprisingly common in datasets and are either data entry errors or truncations, e.g.

Smith, A. (1900 A new species of Aus. Zool. Anz. 23: 660-667.

5 km W of Traralgon (Vic

• No data items with values that are evidently invalid or inappropriate for the given field

For example, a field labelled "Year" and containing years should not contain the data item "3 males".

•  Repeated data items are consistently formatted

The same data item should not vary in format within a single dataset, e.g.

Smith, A. (1900) A new species of Aus. Zool. Anz. 23: 660-667.

Smith, A. 1900. A new species of Aus. Zoologischer Anzeiger 23: 660-667.

Smith, A. (1900) A new species of Aus. Zool. Anz. 23, 660-667, pl. ix.

• Standard data items such as dates and latitude/longitude are consistently formatted

Data compilers have a number of choices when formatting standard data items, but whichever format is chosen, it should be used consistently. A single date field should not, for example, have dates represented as 2005-05-17, May 19, 2005 and 23.v.2005.

• No evident disagreement between fields

If there are fields which contain linked information then these fields should be checked to ensure that they do not conflict with each other. For example, the year or an observation cannot be after the year it was published. Examples:

Year            Citation

1968            Smith, A. (1966) Polychaete anatomy. Academic Press, New York; 396 pp.

Genus           Subgenus

Aus             Bus (Aus)

• No unexpectedly missing data

This is a rare issue in datasets that have been audited, but occasionally occurs. An example is the Darwin Core "verbatimLocality" field for a record containing a full latitude and longitude, but with the "decimalLatitude" and "decimalLongitude" fields blank.

• Spelling of Darwin Core terms

Darwin Core terms are usually considered case sensitive, therefore you should use their correct spelling (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/).

We thank Dr. Robert Mesibov for preparing the Data Quality Checklist draft and Dr. Quentin Groom for reviewing it.

Dryad Repository Submissions

This journal is integrated with the Dryad Digital Repository to make data publication simple and easy for authors. There is a $150 Data Publishing Charge for Dryad submissions, payable via the Dryad website.  For more information, please see theirFAQ.

How to Access a Manuscript

Manuscripts can be accessed after login

1. Login is possible after registration at the journal's website. Our Editorial Office will register all first-time editors and reviewers. New users will receive an automated notification with a request to confirm registration and account information, and options for setting a password, email alerts and other features.  
   Note: All users can use their registration details to login in all three (Book, E-Book and the respective Journal) platforms of www.pensoft.net.
   Note: Please remember that you may have registered with two or more different email addresses, that is why you may have more than one valid account at www.pensoft.net. We advise using only one email address, hence one password associated with it, for all your operations at www.pensoft.net. Wehighly recommend that in case the user has two or more different accounts, to merge these through the user's profile.

Note: The users can at any time change the initially set password and correct personal details using their user's profile menu (by clicking on the user's name in the upper right corner of the screen appearing after login).

2. If you have forgotten your password, please use the function Forgot your password?or write to request it from journals@pensoft.net.

There are two ways to access a manuscript

1. After login, please go to the respective journal’s web page and click onMy Tasksbutton in the upper right corner of the screen. This way, you will be able to see all manuscripts you are responsible for as an author or reviewer or editor.

   Note: The manuscripts are grouped by categories, e.g.,In Review (no.),In layout (no.),Published (no.), andArchived (no.) etc. The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that were assigned to you.

2. Click on the active manuscript link provided in the email notification you have received from the online editorial system. The link will lead you directly to the manuscript.

General Responsibilities of Editors

Subject, or Associate, editors in Pensoft’s journals carry the main responsibility for the scientific quality of the papers. They take the final decision on a manuscript’s acceptance or rejection and their names are listed asAcademic Editor in the header of each published article.

The editorial process is facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. The online editorial system informs the Subject Editor about any change in the status of a manuscript from submission to publication.

The online editorial system is designed to save time and effort for Subject Editors in checking the status of the manuscripts. There is no need for editors to visit the journal’s website to keep track on the manuscript they are responsible for. The online system will inform the Subject Editor when an invited reviewer has accepted or declined to review. The email notifications contain stepwise instructions what action is needed at each stage, as well as a link to the respective manuscript (accessible by clicking on the link in the email notification or after login – seeHow to Access a Manuscript).

Subject Editors are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but rather focus on its scientific quality and overall style, which should correspond to good practices in clear and concise academic writing. It is the author’s responsibility to submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English. The Subject Editor should not hesitate to recommend eitherReject, orReject, but resubmission encouraged PRIOR to the peer-review process, in cases when a manuscript is scientifically poor and/or does not conform to journal’s style, and/or is written in poor English (seeNoteunder point 1 below how to reject a manuscript prior to peer review). 

Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editors or their deputies are allowed to publish a limited proportion of papers per year co-authored by them, after considering some extra precautions to avoid an impression of impropriety, endogeny, conflicts of interest and ensure that the editorial decision-making process is transparent and fair.

It often happens that even carefully written manuscripts may contain small errors in orthography or stylistics. We shall be thankful if editors spot such errors during the reading process and correct them.

Stepwise Description of the Editorial Process

1. Once a manuscript is submitted, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) briefly checks if the manuscript conforms with the journal's Focus, Scope, Policies and style requirements and decides whether it is potentially suitable for publication and can be processed for review, or rejected immediately, or returned to the author for improvement and re-submission.
   Note: There are two ways to reject/return a manuscript prior to review process:
   - Through the buttonsReject orReturn to the author for correction in the Editorial tab. Please note, however, that the buttons will be made active only after a justification for the rejection or return is provided in the text field.
   - Through an email to the Editorial office explaining the reason for rejection or return. The manuscript will be then rejected/returned through the online editorial system and the respective notification email will be sent from the Editorial Office.
2. At this stage, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) can also check the manuscript for plagiarism via the iThenticate service by clicking on the "ïTehnticate report" button. Journals providing a peer review in languages other than English (for example Russian) may use other plagiarsim checking services (for example Antiplagiat).
3. When a manuscript is suitable, the Managing Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) assigns it to the Subject Editor responsible for the respective topic (e.g., science branch or taxon). The Subject Editor receives a notification email on the assignment.
   Note:The link to the respective manuscript is available in the editorial assignment email and all consequent reminder emails. The manuscript is accessible by clicking on the link in the email notifications, or via the user's dashboard after login. Please seeHow to Access a Manuscript above in case you have any difficulties.
4. The assigned Subject Editor next reads the manuscript to decide whether it is potentially suitable for publication and can be processed for review, or rejected immediately, or returned to the author for improvement and re-submission. Reasons for rejection can be a low scientific quality, non-conformance to the journal’s style/policies, and/or linguistically or grammatically poor English language.
   Note: There are two ways to reject a manuscript prior to review process:
   -  Through the buttons RejectorReject, but resubmission encouraged in the Editorial tab. Please note, however, that the buttons become active only after a justification for the rejection is provided in the text field. 
   -  Through an email to the Editorial office explaining the reason for rejection. The manuscript will be then rejected/returned through the online editorial system and the respective notification email will be sent from the Editorial Office.
5. In case the manuscript is acceptable for peer review, the Subject Editor has to invite reviewers by clicking on theInvite reviewers link. The Subject Editor can select from a list of reviewers, starting with the ones suggested by the authors during the submission process, and followed by the reviewers who are already listed in the database, or add new reviewers.
6. Once reviewers are chosen, the Subject Editor has to click theInvite reviewers green button at the end of the page which will generate email templates with review invitations. It ishighly recommended that the Subject Editor adds some personal words above the standard email text of the review invitation.
7. In case a reviewer is absent from our users' data base, the Subject Editor can add his/her name and email through theAdd new reviewer link, which will appear once the search field reveal no results. It is possible that the needed reviewer has already been registered in the Pensoft database either as customer or author/reviewer of another journal. If this is the case, then his/her name, affiliation and other metadata will automatically appear once the e-mail field is populated in theCreate user online form.
8. The Subject Editor receives a notification email when the Reviewer agrees or declines to review. The Subject Editor takes care to appoint additional reviewers in case some of the invited reviewers decline.
9. Once all Reviewers submit their reviews, the Subject Editor receives an email notification, inviting him/her to consider Reviewers' opinions, read through the manuscript and take a decision through theProceed button.
   Note:Editorial comments can be added in the online editorial form; comments and corrections are expected to be added also in the manuscript file (either on the PDF version or in the text file), that should be uploaded during finalization of the editorial decision process. 
10. At this stage, the editor should take a decision either to (1) accept the manuscript, (2) reject it, (3) recommend Major or Minor Revisions or reject it, or open a second review round. In case the manuscript is not rejected, but recommended for Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Acceptance, the author is expected to submit a revised version within a certain period of time (and the Subject Editor will be notified by email about that).
    Note 1: Authors must submit revised versions as a text file using Track Changes/Comments tools of Word so that the Subject Editor can see their corrections/additions. Authors must reply to the essential critiques and comments of reviewers separately through the online editorial system.
    Note 2: During the second, or next, review round, the Subject Editor may decide to ask reviewers to evaluate the revised version of the manuscript. He/she may also make a decision based on the author’s responses and the revised version of the manuscript without asking additional Reviewers' support.
11. After acceptance, the manuscript will go to proofreading andlayout. The Subject Editor will be notified by email when the final proof is uploaded on the journal’s website. The Subject Editor is expected to look at the proofs and notify the Editorial Office through email in case the proofs need improvement.
12. The Subject Editor may always access information on the manuscripts which have been edited by him/her through the menuMy Tasks –> Subject Editor on the journal’s web page –In Review (no.),In Edit (no.),Published (no.), andArchived (no.). The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that were assigned.

Editorial Decision

In this journal, the final decision on acceptance or rejection of a manuscript lies with the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief’s decision is to be made after the Subject Editor provides a final recommendation on acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. The workflow is explained stepwise below. 

1. Once submitted by the author, a manuscript is sent to a Subject Editor, who will have the choice to either accept, reject or request further minor/major revision through as many review iterations as needed.

2. After peer review, the manuscript is returned to the author. After the author revises his/her paper, the Subject Editor is once again presented with the same set of options. The procedure is repeated until the Subject Editor decides to eitheraccept orrejectthe manuscript.

3. As soon as the Subject Editor makes a decision to either accept or reject the manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief is informed via email about this recommendation.

4. In his/her turn, the Editor-in-Chief can either accept, reject or request further minor/major revision, regardless of the Subject Editor’s recommendation.

5. Should the manuscript be sent back to the author for revision, the revised version will be returned to the Subject Editor and will undergo the same procedure until the paper is either accepted or rejected for publication by the Editor-in-Chief.

Editors’ and Reviewers’ Workload Stats

While selecting a Reviewer or a Subject Editor to assign to a manuscript, Editors can access the current and past workload for the person they are considering.

By clicking on the user’s name, an Editor sees how many editorial or review tasks the person is currently assigned with, as well as a record of the user’s previous performance across all ARPHA-hosted journals (i.e. number of accepted and declined editorial and review assignments, as well as the titles of the corresponding journals).

The feature is meant to facilitate and expedite the editorial process by discouraging assignment of tasks to overburdened or inactive users.

Find how toManage Subject editor assignments andInvite Reviewers in the ARPHA Manual.

Review Quality Rating

Subject Editors should evaluate each review submitted to a manuscript they are handling by using a 5-star rating system. The average score is visible for Subject editors who consider the user as a Reviewer. The feature is meant to expedite the editorial process by aiding Subject Editors in the selection of the most suitable reviewers.

Find how toRate a peer review in the ARPHA Manual.

How to Access a Manuscript

Manuscripts can be accessed after login

1. Login is possible after registration at the journal's website. Our Editorial Office will register all first-time editors and reviewers. New users will receive an automated notification with a request to confirm registration and account information, and options for setting a password, email alerts and other features.  
   Note: All users can use their registration details to login in all three (Book, E-Book and the respective Journal) platforms of www.pensoft.net.
   Note: Please remember that you may have registered with two or more different email addresses, that is why you may have more than one valid account at www.pensoft.net. We advise using only one email address, hence one password associated with it, for all your operations at www.pensoft.net. Wehighly recommend that, in case the user has two or more different accounts, to merge these through user's profile.  
   Note:Users can at any time change the initially set password and correct personal details using their user's profile menu (by clicking on the user's name in the upper right corner of the screen appearing after login).

2. If you have forgotten your password, please use the function Forgot your password?or write to request it from journals@pensoft.net.

There are two ways to access a manuscript

1. After login, please go to the respective journal’s web page and click onMy Tasksbutton in the upper right corner of the screen. This way, you will be able to see all manuscripts you are responsible for as Author or Reviewer or Subject Editor.

   Note: The manuscripts are grouped by categories, e.g.,In Review (no.),In layout (no.),Published (no.), andArchived (no.) etc. The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts assigned to you.

2. Click on the active manuscript link provided in the email notification you have received from the online editorial system. The link will lead you directly to the manuscript.

General Responsibilities of Reviewers

This journal uses a single-blind peer review process. The reviewers are encouraged to disclose their identity, if they wish so. The peer review and editorial process is facilitated through an online editorial system and a set of email notifications. The online editorial system sends the Reviewer a review request, initiated by the Subject Editor or the Editorial Office. The online system will also inform about delays in the reviewing and will confirm a successful review submission. The email notifications contain stepwise instructions about the actions needed at each stage along with the link to the respective manuscript (accessible only after login – see section How to Access a Manuscript).

Reviewers are not expected to provide a thorough linguistic editing or copyediting of a manuscript, but rather focus on its scientific quality and overall style, which should correspond to the good practices in clear and concise academic writing. If Reviewers recognize that a manuscript requires linguistic edits, we shall be grateful for them to inform both the Author and the Subject Editor in the report. It is the Author’s responsibility to submit the manuscript in linguistically and grammatically correct English.

It often happens that even carefully written manuscripts may contain small errors in orthography or stylistics. We shall be thankful if Reviewers spot such errors during the reading process and correct them.

The manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two or three experts with the aim of reaching a first decision as soon as possible. Reviewers do not need to sign their reports, but are welcome to do so. They are also asked to declare any conflicts of interest.

Reviewers are asked whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, how interesting it is and whether the quality of the writing is acceptable. Where possible, the final decision is made on the basis of the peer reviews. In cases of strong disagreement between the reports or between the authors and peer reviewers, the editor can assess these according to his/her expertise or seek advice from a member of the journal's Editorial Board.

The ultimate responsibility for editorial decisions lies with the respective Subject Editor and/or, in some journals, with the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who may decide to seek advice from the Subject Editors or the Editorial Board.

Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially interesting or significant. These articles may be given greater prominence and greater external publicity, including press releases addressed to science journalists and mass media.

During a second review round, reviewers may be asked to evaluate the revised version against their recommendations submitted during the first review round.

Reviewers are kindly asked to be polite and constructive in their reports. Reports that may be insulting or uninformative will be rescinded.

Reviewers are asked to start their report with a very brief summary of the reviewed paper. This will help the editor and the authors see whether the reviewer correctly understood the paper or whether a report might be based on misunderstanding.

Furthermore, reviewers are also asked to comment on originality, structure and previous research:

Originality: Is the paper sufficiently novel and does it contribute to a better understanding of the topic under scrutiny? Is the work rather confirmatory and repetitive?

Structure: Is the introduction clear and concise? Does it place the work into the context that is necessary for a reader to comprehend aims, hypotheses tested, experimental design or methods? Are Material and Methods clearly described and sufficiently explained? Are reasons given when choosing one method over another one from a set of comparable methods? Are the results clearly, but concisely described? Do they relate to the topic outlined in the introduction? Do they follow a logical sequence? Does the discussion place the paper in scientific context and go a step beyond the current scientific knowledge on the basis of the results? Are competing hypotheses or theories reasonably related to each other and properly discussed? Do the conclusions seem reasonable?

Previous research: Is previous research adequately incorporated into the paper? Are references complete, necessary and accurate? Is there any sign that substantial parts of the paper are copies of other works?

Stepwise Description of the Peer Review Process

1. This journal uses a single-blind peer review process. Notwithstanding with that, the Reviewers are encouraged to disclose their identities, if they wish to do so. 

2. The Reviewer receives a review request generated by the Subject Editor or the Editorial Office and is expected to either agree to provide a review, or decline, through pressing the Will do the review or Unable to do the review link in the online editorial system. In case the Reviewer agrees to review the manuscript, he/she should submit the review within a certain time frame, which may vary in the different journals.
   Note: The link to the respective manuscript is available in the review request email and all consequent reminder emails. The manuscript is accessible by clicking on the link in the email notification, or after login. Please look at the section How to Access a Manuscript above in case you have any difficulties.

3. The review should be submitted through theProceed button. The review should consist of:

• a simple online questionnaire to be answered by ticking eitherYes,No, orN/A;
• comments addressed to the Author and the Subject Editor in the online form;
• associated files (corrected/commented manuscript file, review submitted in a separate text file, etc.), if any.

Note: Reviewers can insert corrections and comments in the manuscript review version (PDF) and/or in the manuscript text file (usually Microsoft Word, rarely Open Office file). When working in the PDF, please use either the Text Edits or the Sticky Notes tools (available through the menu Tools -> Comments & Markup of the Acrobat Reader). When editing in Microsoft Word please use the Track Changes / Comments tools.
Note: Associated files should be submitted at the end of the review process by clicking on theBrowse button, then selecting the respective file on your computer, and then pressing theUpload button. A Reviewer may upload as many files to support his/her review as needed.

4. The Reviewer may decide to stay anonymous or open his/her identity by ticking theShow my name to the author(s) box at the bottom of the reviewer’s form. Please be aware that your identity might be revealed in the comments or in Track Changes corrections of the Microsoft Word or PDF file you correct. Therefore, please make sure that you delete your name and initials in the Options section of your Word or PDF processor if you want to remain anonymous.

5. In addition to the above, by checking a box at the bottom of the submission form, reviewers may opt for making their contribution public in the event that the article is accepted and published. The reviewer's name, affiliation and email address will be displayed next to those of the Academic editor (or Subject editor) on the article webpage.

6. The review process is completed by selecting a recommendation from five options: (1) Reject; (2) Reject, but resubmission encouraged; (3) Major Revision; (4) Minor Revision;(5) Accept. The system will ask for one more confirmation of the selected recommendation before submission. The submitted review cannot be changed after submission.
   Note: Reasons for rejection can be a low scientific quality, non-conformance to the journal’s style/policies, and/or grammatically poor English language.
   Note: It is also possible for review and associated files (e.g., a corrected manuscript file) to be sent as attached files to the email of the Editorial Office. Westrongly recommend avoiding this option, and instead uploading reviews through the online editorial management system.

7. Once a Reviewer submits a review of a manuscript, he/she receives an acknowledgement email from the journal.

8. The submission of the review is also automatically reported toClarivate - Web of Science Reviewer Recognition Service (formerly Publons). Reviewers are asked to confirm whether they want their reviews to be recorded on Clarivate.

9. When all Reviewers have submitted their reviews, the Subject Editor makes a decision to either accept, reject or request further minor/major revision.

10. After the Subject Editor's decision, the manuscript is sent back to the author for comments and further revision. The Author needs to submit a revised version in due time.

11. Reviewers are notified via email when the revised version of a manuscript that they have reviewed is submitted by the Author. They receive a link to the revised version along with the editorial decision and all reviews of the manuscript. Reviewers are also provided with a feedback form should they have any comments on the revised version. 

12. When an article is published, all Reviewers who have provided a review for the respective manuscript receive an email acknowledgment. In the email, there is a link to view/download the published article.

13. The Reviewer may always access information on the manuscripts that are being / have been reviewed by him/her through the menuMy Tasks –>Reviewer on the journal’s web page –In Review (no.),In Edit (no.),Published (no.), andArchived (no.). The number in brackets after each category shows the number of manuscripts that have been assigned to you.

How It Works

The following guidelines apply for both Special issues and Topical collections in the ARPHA journals.

1. Article collections can be opened in any of the ARPHA-hosted journals. It is subject to the journal's policy, however, to offer this feature or not. 

2. Special issues are available only in the journals that publish consecutively numbered issues within a yearly volume, while topical collections are available to all ARPHA-hosted journals, depending on their policies.

3. Collections may have subcollections, for example, topical subcollections. A subcollection cannot be managed separately from the parent collection, except in the case of conference proceedings submission workflows available at some ARPHA-hosted journals.

4. Opening and managing a collection

   1. The article collections are managed by a Collection editor and Guest editors. The Collection editor is responsible for approving or declining manuscripts submitted to the article collection; assigning a Guest editor to each manuscript for handling the peer review process; and managing the collection on the journal’s website (e.g. change the collection’s description or the order of the papers). The Collection editor has the full rights of a Guest editor and can also handle manuscripts.

   2. Before pitching a collection, assure that you are ready to appoint other Guest editors, if necessary. The Collection editor and the Guest editors are also expected to commission an initial set of manuscripts to be submitted soon after the opening of the collection.

   3. Submit theArticle collection proposal form or contact the Editor-in-Chief via email. The collections should fully comply with the journal’s focus, scope and editorial policies.

   4. Online proposals are forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief and to the journal’s editorial office for approval. The editorial office checks and confirms the guest editors' credentials.

   5. Upon approval of the proposal, the journal’s editorial office will set up the collection on the journal’s website.

   6. Open collections will be promoted through the journal’s website and social media in collaboration with the Collection and Guest editors. 

   7. Editors of Special issues need to assure that the minimum volume of articles is met within the set deadline and that, if necessary, a deadline extension is announced well in advance.

   8. Editors of Topical collections with no set submission deadlines need to inform the journal’s editorial office if they wish to close the collection for submissions in a timely manner. 

5. Authors opt for assigning their manuscript to a collection during submission. In case the manuscript is declined from the collection, it undergoes the regular evaluation and peer review process at the journal.

6. Once the manuscript passes the initial pre-review screening by the Editor-in-Chief and the journal's editorial office, it is forwarded to the Collection editor to either approve or decline it for the collection. The Collection editor is notified about each new submission to the collection via email sent by the system.

7. After reading the paper, the Collection editor can:

   1. accept it in the collection and assign it to a Guest editor.

   2. decline it from the collection and send it back to the journal's editorial office.

8. Once a manuscript is assigned to a Guest editor, he or she takes on the responsibility to invite reviewers and provide an editorial decision for revision, rejection or acceptance of the manuscript, based on the reviews and personal evaluation. Papers submitted by the guest editor(s) must be handled under an independent review process and make up no more than 25% of the collection's total.

9. The editorial decisions are automatically forwarded to the authors by the system.

10. The guest editors are overseen by the journal's Editor-in-Chief and/or dedicated board members, and may intervene in the editorial process. Depending on the journal’s policy, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief might need to approve the Guest editor’s final decision before the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Benefits of Editing a Collection

The main advantages to open and edit an article collection can be summarised as follows:

1. Credit and recognition for the Collection and Guest editors who take care to organise and manage the article collection.

2. Facilitates discoverability and usability of topically related studies, which in turn benefits both authors and readers.

3. Increases the visibility of related papers, even when papers might otherwise lack in viewership. 

4. Prompts simultaneous citation of multiple articles related to a certain subject.

5. Facilitates citation and referencing of the whole issue as a complete entity.

To show our gratitude to the collection editors, we are also providing a free publication to collection editors in the collection they edit and manage.

Editor’s Responsibilities

By proposing an article collection (Special issue or Topical collection), you agree to act as a Collection editor, whose main responsibilities are:

• Working with the editorial office to set up the article collection on the journal’s website.

• Appoint Guest editors for the article collection.

• Approve or decline each manuscript submitted to the article collection.

• Assign a Guest editor for each manuscript submitted to the article collection.

• Assure that the article collections complies with any relevant requirements, as set up by the journal and the agreement (if any).

• Inform the journal’s editorial office about any changes or issues concerning the management of the collection in due time.

You will also be granted the user rights of a Guest editor necessary to handle manuscripts in the system (i.e. assign reviewers and provide an editorial decision on the acceptance/rejection of the manuscript). 

The responsibilities of a Guest editor are:

• Handling the peer review of the manuscripts they have been assigned to.

• Making an editorial decision for revision, acceptance or rejection of the manuscripts they have been assigned to, based on the reviews provided and personal evaluation.

• Taking into consideration the recommendations of the journal’s Editor-in-Chief.

For more information about the editorial workflow, visitHow it works?

Publisher's statement

A key policy and strategic aim of Pensoft is to provide high-quality and inclusive publishing services athighly competitive and affordable Article Processing Charges (APCs)or for free through its diamond open access journals. See Pensoft’s journal portfoliohere.

In order to ensure long-term sustainability of the journals and cover the cost of the associated in-house publishing services, our journals require Article Processing Charges (APCs). These charges apply only after a submitted manuscript is accepted for publication, and may be partially or fully covered by institutional funds to reduce financial burdens on authors of research.

Pensoft strongly supports measures that ensure an inclusive and FAIR publishing environment, which in turn prompts quality, sustainability and reasonable pricing in scholarly publishing. You can find more about the publisher’s view on quality, transparency, openness and equity in scholarly publishing inPensoft’s official statement, prompted by the publication of the European Union’sConclusions on high-quality, transparent, open and equitable scholarly publishing. 

In compliance with thePlan S requirements, Pensoft provides abreakdown of the APC following the guidelines by the Fair Open Access Alliance (FOAA). The report on the journal’s APC is submitted on a yearly basis to the Journal Comparison Service by Coalition S and the detailed breakdown is available to the participating funding institutions on the platform.

Authors who are unable to pay their APCs for several reasons, should consult the Journal’sDiscounts and Waivers page, use the diamond open-access journals (free to publish and free to read) hosted on Pensoft’sARPHA Publishing Platform, or contact the journal’s Editor-in-Chief directly. 

Core Charges

Core services included in our Article Processing Charges:

• Online submission and editorial management system, professional peer review and editorial assistance.
• Personal attitude, technical support and fast reply to any inquiry coming from authors, editors or reviewers.
• Automated email notification and alert system to save you time from tracking the progress of your manuscript.
• Automated registration of peer reviews at Clarivate (formerly Publons).
• Copy-editing, technical editing, typesetting and proofreading services.
• Publication in 3 digital formats: semantically enhanced HTML, PDF and machine-readable JATS XML.
• Rapid publication process, normally within 1-2 weeks time after a manuscript is accepted for publication.
• Full-color (no extra-charges for color), high-resolution hardcopy of reprints or whole issues.
• Advanced data publishing workflows. 
• Semantic Web enhancements to the article text. 
• Markup and visualization of all biological taxon names and taxon treatments in your work, if present.
• Immediate free access to the article on the day of publication.
• Copyright retained by the authors, articles distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
• Active dissemination and promotion through social bookmarking tools and social media.
• Automated email acknowledgements to editors and reviewers upon publication.
• Automated alert service through email and RSS on the day of publication. 
• Registration of all new taxa in ZooBank, IPNI, MycoBank or Index Fungorum (where relevant).
• Export and display of taxon treatments to Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), Plazi, Species-ID, Globalnames, and other aggregators (where relevant).
• Immediate distribution of your publication to scientific databases, indices and search engines (Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, CAB Abstracts, DOAJ Content and others).
• Archiving in international repositories (PubMedCentral, CLOCKSS, Zenodo).
• Bibliography search and discovery tool. 
• Citation export in various formats.
• Cited-by records statistics and display.
• Article- and sub-article-level metrics (Altmetric, Dimensions, number of downloads separately for the PDF, XML and HTML, usage stats for figures, tables and supplementary files).

Please note that the charges below are applicable for all manuscripts submitted after 1st of January 2025. Innovative papers and reviews of special importance for science are to be priced by agreement.

Please note that the above prices do not include VAT (Value Added Tax). VAT is applicable only for VAT NON-registered customers based within the European Union. To avoid charging VAT, the EU companies or persons should provide their VAT registration numbers validated with the EU taxation database (https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/).

Please note that the charges below are applicable for all manuscripts submitted before 31st of December 2024. Innovative papers and reviews of special importance for science are to be priced by agreement.

Please note that the above prices do not include VAT (Value Added Tax). VAT is applicable only for VAT NON-registered customers based within the European Union. To avoid charging VAT, the EU companies or persons should provide their VAT registration numbers validated with the EU taxation database (https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/).

Guidelines for the Chinese authors:

中国作者支付MycoKeys 出版费的一点建议
来自大陆的中国作者在支付出版费时可采用下述方式：
1. 通过具有国际支付功能的信用卡支付：国内银行信用卡宣称有国际支付功能
的很多，但实际支付时问题不少。目前，花旗银行（中国）美元信用卡可以顺利支
付MycoKeys 出版费。办理花旗银行礼享卡（美元信用卡），可在网上申请。网址是：
https://www.citibank.com.cn/ICARD/forms/shortform/index.html?eOfferCode=CNCCHWAAN1。注;
意并非所有的城市都可以办理花旗银行礼享卡。
2. 通过贝宝 paypal 支付：在贝宝官网https://www.paypal.com/建立个人账户。
有银联卡的人都可以注册，注册之后即可支付低于1000 美元的支付。支付高于1000
美元，需要和贝宝公司联系，获得授权后也可支付。如MycoKeys 未提供paypal 的
链接，可要求他们提供。
3. 到银行柜台支付：咨询当地银行可否办理，一般中国银行中心支行都可以办
理。注意这种方法不仅费时较多，还收取人民币200 元以上的手续费，而且款项到
对方账户时对方银行还要收取手续费。

Special Issues

Discounts and Waivers

Please note that the discounts and waivers policy below is applicable for all manuscripts submitted after 1st of January 2024.

Authors can apply for a discount or a waiver during manuscript submission if they comply with the conditions listed below. The journal will not consider requests made during the review process or after acceptance. Formal letters to the editors will not be considered outside the application process during manuscript submission. The waiver system will be managed by administrative staff not involved in decisions regarding article acceptance. We ask authors not to discuss any issues concerning payment with editors.

• Discount of 10 % is offered to:
  • Scientists working privately, not affiliated with an institution.
  • Graduate and PhD students if they are first authors of a manuscript. 
• Discount of 15 % is offered to:
  • Scientists affiliated with institutions located in Research4Life Group B countries (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/#groupb) if they are lead or corresponding authors of a manuscript. In cases of multiple affiliations, all institutions should be located in eligible countries. 
• Discounts are also offered to our editors and reviewers, for more information seehere. 
• Special discounts can be requested by the authors of extensive review papers and monographs.
• Waivers (once per year per (co-) author for manuscripts no larger than 10 printed pages, or for the first 10 pages of a larger manuscript) are offered to:
  • Retired scientists who are editors or active reviewers for this journal (1-3 reviews provided in the year before the manuscript submission). 
  • Scientists affiliated with institutions located in Research4Life Group A countries (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/#groupa), if they are lead or corresponding authors of a manuscript. In cases of multiple affiliations, all institutions should be located in eligible countries.

The journal offers also variousinstitutional programs and membership plans to support Open Access scientific publishing. To be eligible, the author must be a corresponding author affiliated with the institution or agency.

Discounts and waivers do not accumulate.

Please note that the discounts and waivers policy below is applicable for all manuscripts submitted before 1st of January 2024.

Authors can apply for discount or waiver during manuscript submission if they comply with the conditions listed below. The journal will not consider requests made during the review process or after acceptance. Formal letters to the editors will not be considered outside the application process during manuscript submission.

• Discount of 10 % is offered to:
  • Scientists working privately, not affiliated with an institution.
  • Graduate and PhD students if they are first authors of a manuscript. 
  • Scientists living and working in lower middle-income countries (http://data.worldbank.org/income-level/lower-middle-income) if they are sole authors of a manuscript, or authors' research is funded primarily (50% or more of the work contained within the article) by an institution or organization from the eligible countries. 
• Discounts are also offered to our editors and reviewers, for more information see here. 
• Special discounts can be requested by the authors of extensive review papers and monographs.
• Waivers (once per year per (co-) author for manuscripts no larger than 10 printed pages, or for the first 10 pages of a larger manuscript) are offered to:
  • Retired scientists who are editors or active reviewers for this journal (1-3 reviews provided in the year before the manuscript submission). 
  • Scientists living and working in low-income countries (http://data.worldbank.org/income-level/low-income), if they are sole authors of a manuscript, or authors' research is funded primarily (50% or more of the work contained within the article) by an institution or organization from the eligible countries.

The journal offers also various institutional programs and membership plans to support Open Access scientific publishing. To be eligible, the author must be a corresponding author affiliated with the institution or agency.

Discounts and waivers do not accumulate.

Reprints

MycoKeys is published in identical print (high-resolution, full-color) and online (PDF) versions.

Printed versions of this journal may be ordered in parts or subscribed for. To subscribe please contact us by writing to orders@pensoft.net.

Please include the full delivery address and indicate your preferred payment method. Please contact us if you need a quotation or proforma invoice.

Separate issues or reprints (high-resolution, full-color) can be ordered using the "Order now" button available under each issue or article on the journal's website.

Prices are given in EURO and are exclusive of postage and handling. Payment in USD is also possible according to the exchange rate on the day of payment.

IMPORTANT: Our prices do not include VAT. Orders from countries outside the European Union (EU) or from VAT-registered EU customers will be processed VAT-free. VAT (20%) will be added ONLY to NOT VAT-registered customers based in the European Union.

Prices of full-color, high-resolution printed version (separate article and complete issues)

Additional Services (Optional)

*This service can be discounted or waived for articles of outstanding importance for the science and society.
**Pensoft reviewers do not usually have time to check through large data files included with manuscripts. If you would like us to have your data files checked, we offer the services of Pensoft editor Dr Bob Mesibov, who is also a data auditor.
Suitable data files for checking would be large tables of occurrence records or of genetic data. These can be checked for duplicate and broken records, misuse of fields, disagreements between fields, character encoding problems and incorrect or inconsistent formatting. Georeferencing can also be checked, on request. Please note that this service does not apply to taxonomic, nomenclatural or bibliographic details in data files.

Annual Memberships

Pre-Paid Plans

Pre-paid plans allow institutions and / or research groups to deposit a certain amount of funds with Pensoft and make them available to affiliated researchers for covering Article Processing Charges (APCs) in any Pensoft journal. Member institutions decide whether to cover APCs in full or share the expenses with the authors. Depending on the amount members are prepared to commit, Pensoft is offering a discount on APCs per the table below. Additional funds can be added to an account at any point in time within the calendar year of purchasing the plan, while leftover funds are preserved until spent.

Direct Billing

The direct billing plan allows institutions to reduce the complexity of billing and reimbursements. It consolidates all Pensoft invoices for articles authored by researchers affiliated with an institution into a single monthly bill that is sent directly to the institution.

2024 Awards