Author Guidelines

 

JOURNAL POLICIES

Scope

The European Journal of Taxonomy (EJT) is a fully refereed, international, fully electronic Open Access journal in descriptive taxonomy, covering subjects in zoology (including entomology), botany (including phycology and protistology), mycology, and palaeontology.

EJT papers must be original and adhere to high scientific (content) and technical (language, artwork, etc.) standards. Manuscripts that are clearly substandard in either of these categories will not be sent out for review.

EJT is supported by a consortium of European Natural History Institutes and Botanical Gardens, but its scope is global. Neither authorship nor geographical region of the study needs to be European.

Submitted manuscripts must have sufficient critical mass to be considered by EJT. For example, manuscripts describing a single or very few species must demonstrate (cover letter) the general relevance of their publication.

Categories of papers published by EJT

EJT publishes the following categories of papers:
- Research articles: contributions to the field of descriptive taxonomy, including (re-) descriptions of taxa or global checklists, taxonomic revisions, etc.
- Monographs: papers falling into the categories listed above and exceeding 50 printed pages. The manuscript size is limited to 300 pages and 100 figures maximum.
- Opinion papers: in which authors offer information and interpretation of issues related to theory and history of biological systematics and taxonomy, and science policy making.

EJT will not publish correspondence, short notes, book reviews or any other kind of announcements.

Editorial policy

By submitting a manuscript to EJT, the corresponding author guarantees the full agreement of all co-authors, confirms that all co-authors are aware of the journal’s Copyright and Open Access policies (including publication under a CC BY license), and attests that the manuscript fully complies with the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement, particularly with regard to rules on co-authorship, collection of material, plagiarism, use of AI, research misconduct, and conflicts of interest.

Manuscripts must conform to standard rules of English grammar and style. Either British or American spelling may be used as long as provided usage is consistent throughout the manuscript. Authors for whom English is a foreign language are urged to have their manuscript reviewed by someone with full professional proficiency in English or a professional proofreader.

Manuscripts should be concise and must not exceed 300 pages. If the manuscript exceeds this limit, contact the editorial office first for a pre-submission assessment.

The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants, and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants should be followed rigorously.

The editorial team of EJT aims to review and publish as many high-quality papers as possible while maintaining reasonable timeframes between submission and publication.

The use of a specific, standardized format for all EJT papers ensures compliance with international publication standards, enhances readability, and enables data dissemination across infrastructures such as the Plazi TreatmentBank, the Biodiversity Literature Repository in Zenodo, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Catalogue of Life, and ChecklistBank.

To ensure efficiency and the optimal use of the editorial team’s resources, authors are expected to rigorously follow the format and requirements described in these Author Guidelines and in the Material Citations Formatting Guide. Manuscripts that do not conform to these Guidelines will be returned to authors for technical revision.

Upon submission, manuscripts will be checked for language, presentation and format.

Manuscripts that conform to the journal’s scope and format will be sent to at least two referees by a member of the editorial board, who will then act as the handling editor.

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SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

Manuscripts submitted for publication in EJT must be uploaded to the NESTOR system by following the provided instructions. By registering in the NESTOR system, authors agree to the journal’s Privacy Policy and to the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

The entire review process is conducted online through the NESTOR system, up to the final decision (acceptance or rejection). Authors can track the status of their submission online at any stage. If a manuscript has multiple authors,  only the corresponding author can track the submission status.

Manuscripts returned to authors with referee reports must be revised and resubmitted through the NESTOR system within four weeks (five weeks for monographs). If a major revision is requested, the revised manuscript will be sent for re-review. Final decisions on acceptance or rejection are made by the Editor-in-Chief. Papers are published online individually as soon as corrected proofs have been received and processed.

Upon first submission or technical revision, authors must submit the following elements through the NESTOR system:
- Manuscript file (.pdf) of less than 50 MB
- Cover letter
- Text file (.doc, .docx, .odt)
- Each table as an individual file (.doc, .docx, .odt)
- Each figure as an individual file (.tiff, .jpeg)  of less than 20 MB
- Any supplementary material (individual files of less than 20 MB) related to the paper (e.g. datasets, additional illustrations, methodological documents, video file…)

During peer-review, authors must submit the following elements for their revised version of the manuscript:
- Revised manuscript file (.pdf) of less than 50 MB
- Revised text file without track changes (.doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf)
- Revised text file with track changes (.doc, .docx, .odt, .rtf)
- Revision cover letter addressing the reviewers’ suggestions and comments and detailed explanation on how authors responded to them in the new revised version.
- If some tables, figures or supplementary files were also revised, delete the original file in the submission module, and upload the revised file. Please mention it in the cover letter.

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MANUSCRIPT FILE

The manuscript file must be a pdf (less than 50 MB) containing the text, figure files (images) with their captions, and tables with their caption.

To facilitate peer-review and cross-referencing, figures and tables may be placed in the document close to their first citation in the text; or they may be placed at the end of the document.

COVER LETTER

First submission/technical revision before peer-review
In the original cover letter:
- You may explain why you have chosen to submit your contribution to EJT and why you consider it relevant to the journal
- You must suggest a minimum of three potential reviewers for a research article and a minimum of five reviewers for a monograph (≥ 50 pages). For each reviewer, please provide the full name (first, middle, and family names), the country of the affiliation (institute or university), the full name of the affiliation, and a valid email address. Please also briefly explain why you selected each individual as potential reviewer for your manuscript
- You may specify opposed reviewers, provided with a strong justification is given.

Revision during peer-review
During peer review, your revision cover letter must include your responses to the reviewers’ suggestions, questions, and comments. If you disagree with any reviewers’ observation, please explain why you do not  follow a particular suggestion.

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TEXT FILE

File type, metadata

The text file must be submitted as a word processor file (.doc, .docx, or .odt) and must contain the main text, the figure captions, and the table captions .

The text file must comply with the formatting requirements described below.

- Times New Roman, font size 12, double-spaced
- Margins of 3 cm on all sides
- All pages and all lines are numbered sequentially.

First page
The first page contains the following items:
- Main title, with a maximum length of 250 characters (including spaces). The title must include references to two higher hierarchical taxonomic categories of your choice (e.g., order, class, family, subfamily...), using this format:
(higher rank: lower rank)

For example:
“Descriptions and biological data on three new species of Trigonalyidae (Hymenoptera: Trigonalyoidea) from South Korea”

- List of authors (First name LAST NAME), in the desired order. Assign a unique superscript number to each author in the sequence (author¹, author², author³...), and use this unique superscript number to identify all personal data for this author: address(es), email, ORCID, LSID (in zoology/entomology).
- List of authors’ addresses (affiliations). When several authors share the same affiliation, group the superscript numbers concerned, for example:
1,2,4 Address of author 1, author 2, and author 4
3 Address of author 3
- List of authors’ email addresses, with one email per author; the corresponding author must be indicated with a superscript asterisk (*)
- List of authors’ ORCID identifiers; the use of ORCID is strongly recommended
- zoology/entomology: list of authors’ LSID identifiers (see ZooBank)

- Running title, less than 75 characters (including spaces), for example:
“Three new species of Trigonalyidae (Hymenoptera: Trigonalyoidea)”

- Submission disclaimer:
“The present paper has not been submitted to another journal, nor will it be submitted within six months after initial submission to EJT. All co-authors are aware of the present submission.”

Second page
The second page contains the abstract and keywords.

The abstract:
- Is fewer than 200 words, except for monographs with numerous new taxa and taxonomic changes
- Does not contain bibliographic references or unexplained abbreviations/acronyms;
- Includes all new taxon names, new combinations, and new synonymies presented in the submitted paper
- May include authorships of taxa, if relevant for nomenclatural reasons  (not mandatory).

Up to ten keywords selected carefully, to enhance the searchability of the paper. Preferably avoid words from the manuscript’s title, and broad terms (taxonomy, systematics...).

Monographs (more than 50 pages) can include a table of contents and an index.

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IMRaD structure

In the manuscript, follow the IMRaD structure:

Introduction
Material and methods
Results (and)
Discussion
Statements (Funding, Data availability, Author contribution)
Acknowledgements
References
Figure and table captions

Exception: the structure of ‘opinion papers’ is flexible and may not follow this IMRaD structure.

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General formatting

Bold font should be used for section headers (e.g. Introduction, Diagnosis...), in table/figure captions (e.g. ‘Fig. 1.’, ‘Table 1.’, letters A, B, C...), for regions in material citations (e.g. Gia Lai Province, Baden-Württemberg...), and to introduce new synonyms (‘syn. nov.’) or new lectotypes (‘designated here’). Do not use bold for "‘sp. nov.’ and for other elements in the text (authorships, abbreviations, acronyms, etc.

Bold italic font should only be used for taxon names in the headers of the taxonomic treatment and within an identification key.

Italic font should be used in the main text only for genera and infrageneric names (not for families, classes…), and for gene abbreviations (matK, rcbL...). It should also be used in in-text references for “et al.” and in the References list for the word ‘in’, as well as for book titles and journal titles.

Underlining must not be used in the manuscript.

CAPITAL letters should be used only for authors’ last names (on the first page), for countries in material citations (see Structure of taxonomic treatment), and for letters in figures (A, B, C…).

Small capitals are used for body parts and organs within a taxon description, for example:
Head (Fig. 3A). In dorsal view, …

Headers should be placed on a separate line, do not write:
Morphological examination and imaging. External morphological characteristics…

Write instead:
Morphological examination and imaging
External morphological characteristics…

Footnotes1 are not allowed in the text. All remarks and notes must be included in the main text. Additional information may be gathered in an appendix, without cross-reference to specific parts of the main text.

Ranges

Hyphens (-) (shortest of the three dashes) are used to join words or parts of words, for examples: “well-known species”, “mid-sized specimen”, “non-linear analysis”, but are not correct for ranges.

En dash (–) (slightly longer than a hyphen) are used to indicate ranges or spans and relationships, for example:

Dates: 1998–2002
Measurements: 5–10 mm
Elevation: 100–250 m
Figure ranges: 100–102 (Yu & Wang 2022: figs 100–102); Figs 1–4, Fig. 6A–B, E
Page ranges: Molecular Biology and Evolution 16 (2): 218–233.

Abbreviations are followed by a full stop, for example:
species = sp., several species = spp., subspecies =  subsp., one specimen = spec., one figure = Fig., editor = ed., etc. (s. str., s. lat., a.s.l., pers. com., pers. obs…).
Use comma for ‘e.g.,’ and ‘i.e.,’.

A full stop is not added for contractions in which the final letter of the word is retained, for example:
circa = ca, versus = vs, several specimens = specs, station = stn, several figures = Figs, editors = eds, doctor = Dr, etc.

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Figure and table citations in the text

Figures and tables are cited in ascending numerical order:
- first figure mentioned in the text: Fig. 1
- second figure mentioned: Fig. 2
etc.

One figure = one file, and follow the technical requirements (“Figure files” section) to prepare your figure files. Do not use “Plate”’, “Pl.”, “Tab.” for elements from the manuscript.

Use only the following terms:
To cite one element:
Table
Fig.
Suppl. file
Example: Fig. 1A–C

To cite several elements:
Tables
Figs
Suppl. files
Examples: Figs 1A–C, 2A–D, 3; Tables 1–3; Suppl. files 1, 3

When starting a sentence, do not abbreviate:
Figure 2 shows…
Supplementary file 2 contains....

Cite visual elements from another source (book, article...)
Use lowercase (table, fig., ...):
Yu & Wang (2022: figs 100–102)
(Martius 1828: tab. VII)
Swainson (1829: pl. 2)

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Reference citations in the text

When citing an external source (book, paper, chapter...), use the following format: Author (year), or (Author year):
- one author: Harzhauser (2020) or (Harzhauser 2020)
- 2 authors: Harzhauser & Piller (2004) or (Harzhauser & Piller 2004)
- 3 or more authors: Harzhauser et al. (2022) or (Harzhauser et al. 2022)

No comma between ‘Author’ and the year; use ‘&’ (not ‘and’); use italic on ‘et al.’
When a first author has more than one publication in the same year, use lowercase letters a, b, c…
Harzhauser et al. (2022a, 2022b)

To cite several sources:
- order citations from oldest to newest, use semicolons between citations
- if more than one citation from the same year, order alphabetically:
(Brunetti & Della Bella 2005; Ceulemans 2005)
- group citations with the same authorship (also from oldest to newest), separate years with comma:
(Harzhauser et al. 2014, 2021)

An example of multiple citations:
(Giannuzzi-Savelli & Reina 1987, 2001; Lozouet 1999; Landau et al. 2003, 2017; Brunetti & Della Bella 2005; Ceulemans 2005; Harzhauser et al. 2014, 2021, 2022a, 2022b; Ceulemans et al. 2017)

To cite pages from an external source, use a colon (:)
(Landau et al. 2003: 127)
To cite tables or figures from an external source, use lowercase: ‘table/tables’, ‘fig./figs’…
Yu & Wang (2022: figs 100–102)

Specific formatting rules apply to references in the taxonomic. See the Synonymy section for more details.

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Authorships of taxa

Authorships in zoology/entomology are in the format: Author, year or (Author, year), for example:
The genus Cheilosia Meigen, 1822…

Authorships in botany/mycology follow the standard forms available in IPNI, for example:
Chlorophytum sofiense (H.Perrier) Marais & Reilly

Authorships are not mandatory in the title and the abstract of the manuscript.

Authorships of all taxa (old and new) are mandatory:
- at the first mention of this taxon in the text
- in the headers of the taxonomic treatment
- in figure and table captions
- in identification keys.

Exception: if the taxon is newly described in the manuscript and its authorship is identical to the manuscript’s authorship, the authorship is not mentioned  in the text, captions and keys.

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Taxonomic novelties

For new taxa or new combinations, names at new rank, replacement names, use only abbreviations with ‘nov.’, in regular font (no bold font):

‘sp. nov.’, ‘gen. nov.’, ‘gen. et sp. nov.’, ‘fam. nov.’, ‘comb. nov.’, ‘gen. et comb. nov.’, ‘comb. et stat. nov.’ etc.

These abbreviations “sp. nov.”, “gen. nov.”... must be added:
- in the abstract
- in the core text (first mention of the taxon within each paragraph)
- in the headers of the taxonomic treatment
- in figure captions and table captions
- if applicable, on the images from figures (e.g., “sp. nov.” in phylogenetic trees, on maps...)
- in identification keys.

Do not use other conventions: not ‘n. sp.’, not ‘sp. new’ etc.

Do not cite to unpublished epithets (sp. ined.), use instead a numbering or lettering system: sp. 1, sp. 2; or sp. a, sp. b.…

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Introduction

The Introduction must provide a succinct overview of previous work in the field, explain why the present study is needed, and indicate the domain in which it is situated. The advances offered by the present contribution should be summarised in one or two paragraphs at the end of the Introduction.

Material and methods

The Materials and methods should provide enough information to allow other researchers to replicate the study.

Authors may include the origin of the newly collected material, geographical information, the technical equipment used, major technical literature consulted, and software (including software version) used for analyses or illustrations (maps, phylogenetic trees, diagrams...).

When molecular analyses are performed, the methodology must be described in sufficient detail to ensure that all procedures are reproducible.

When citing software, include the version (with ‘ver.’) and a bibliographic reference (user manual, website...), e.g., “QGIS ver. 3.44 (QGIS Development Team 2026)”.

If not yet available upon submission of the manuscript, authors must supply the GenBank accession numbers as soon as they are assigned. In any case, all accession numbers must be provided no later than acceptance.

The acronyms and abbreviations are listed with their definitions.
- Acronyms of collections (zoology, entomology): when available, use codes from GRSciColl, followed by the full name of the collection, the institution, city and country.
- Acronyms of herbaria (botany, mycology): use acronyms available in Index Herbariorum (IH), or from GRSciCollwhen no acronym exists in IH.

- Abbreviations used within the manuscript: parts of animals/plants, morphological structures, localities, etc.

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Results

The main body of the paper is presented in the Results section and includes taxonomic descriptions and keys, ecology, (molecular) phylogeny, biostratigraphy, etc. The Results may contain different subsections, e.g., Phylogenetic resultsand Taxonomy.

If no holotype was originally designated from the available type material (syntypes), authors may designate a lectotype (strongly recommended in botany).

Redundancy of data should be avoided.

Taxonomic hierarchy

The Taxonomy section must start with a contextual account of the current hierarchy of the target taxon, starting with class. For example:

Zoology/entomology

Class Insecta Linnaeus, 1758
Order Diptera Linnaeus, 1758
Family Syrphidae Latreille, 1802
Subfamily Eristalinae Newman, 1834
Genus Cheilosia Meigen, 1822

Botany/mycology

Class Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order Malpighiales Mart.
Family Euphorbiaceae Juss.
Genus Euphorbia L.

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Structure of taxonomic treatment

Each taxonomic treatment must include the items in the following order:

1) Accepted taxon name with authorship
Ozestheria berneyi (Gurney, 1927)

2) Reference to illustrations (Fig./Figs) and/or tables (Table/Tables) in the present manuscript
Figs 9–10; Table 1

3) Synonymy
For each name, the source citation must include the page number (and figures if applicable).

Each source must be added to the list of References.
Inside a paragraph, the sources are ordered from oldest to newest.
Refer to the examples below for the use of comma, full-stop, en-dash and em-dash in paragraphs.

Zoology/entomology: 3 groups of synonyms
- first group: original description of the name, and actual synonyms; the authorship of the taxon (with comma) is used as a reference citation.
Calobata belzebul Schiner, 1868: 251.
Scipopus bolivianus Hennig, 1934: 328. Syn. nov.

- second group: non-original uses of taxonomic names: listed without commas, and introduced with en-dash – (oldest source) and em-dash — (other sources, from oldest to newest).
Scipopus belzebul – Enderlein 1922: 210 (key). — Frey 1927: 74 (listed). — Curran 1934a: 451 (key).

- third group: incorrect referral to a taxon: name preceded by ‘non’, listed without commas, and introduced with n-dash – (oldest source) and m-dash — (other sources, from oldest to newest).
Non Scipopus belzebul – Cresson 1930: 327 (S. (S.) planus sp. nov.).

A full example of synonymy here:

Scipopus (Scipopus) belzebul (Schiner, 1868)
Figs 6B, 7

Calobata belzebul Schiner, 1868: 251.
Scipopus bolivianus Hennig, 1934: 328. Syn. nov.

Scipopus belzebul – Enderlein 1922: 210 (key). — Frey 1927: 74 (listed). — Curran 1934a: 451 (key). — Aczél 1949: 339 (catalog); 1951: 538 (key). — Steyskal 1968: 48.15 (catalog). — Ferro & de Carvalho 2014: 59 (listed). — Marshall et al.2016: 544 (catalog).
Scipopus bolivianus – Aczél 1949: 340 (catalog); 1951: 539 (key). — Steyskal 1968: 48.15 (catalog).

Non Scipopus belzebul – Cresson 1930: 327 (S. (S.) planus sp. nov.). — Hendel 1933: 61 (S. (S.) convexus sp. nov.). — Hennig 1934: 322 (key), 324 (diagnosis) (S. (S.) convexus). — Albuquerque 1972a: 92, figs 1–9 (re-description) (S. (S.) convexus).

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Botany/mycology

Synonyms are arranged inside paragraphs according to the type material they share.

Within each paragraph, names (together with their source citation) are separated by “. – ”, and are ordered chronologically, from oldest to newest.

First paragraph: list the accepted name (followed by the original name if it is a new combination), then all homotypic synonyms, ordered from oldest to newest. Do not include type specimen information here (see section 6° Type material).

Subsequent paragraphs: list heterotypic synonyms, grouped by shared type material and ordered from oldest to newest name. Include type information at the end of each paragraph. This list of heterotypic paragraphs is also ordered chronologically, based on the first taxon name of each paragraph.

Use bold for new type designation (designated here) and for new synonym (syn. nov.). Add the status for any illegitimate or invalid names (nom. illeg., nom. inval.).
For new combinations (comb. nov.), refer to the format example in the Material Citations Formatting Guide.

A full example of synonymy here:

Begonia hirta (Klotzsch) L.B.Sm. & B.G.Schub.
Figs 21A, 22

Begonia hirta (Klotzsch) L.B.Sm. & B.G.Schub. (Smith & Schubert 1941a: 197). – Casparya hirta Klotzsch (Klotzsch 1855: 247). – Casparya cordifolia var. hirta (Klotzsch) A.DC. (de Candolle 1864: 273).

Casparya columnaris Klotzsch (Klotzsch 1855: 247). – Type: PERU – [Huánuco Region: Prov. Huánuco] • in Muña; [9°40′ S, 75°49′ W]; H. Ruiz s.n.; lectotype: B [F neg. 20853], designated here; isolectotype: HAL ex B [HAL0121732].

Casparya grewiifolia var. pavoniana A.DC. (de Candolle 1864: 272). – Type: PERU • [Peru]; 1777–1788; J.A. s.n.; lectotype: G-BOIS ex B ex herb. Lamberti, designated here. Syn. nov.

Casparya cordifolia A.DC. (de Candolle 1864: 273). – Begonia cordifolia (A.DC.) Warb., nom. illeg.; later homonym (non Begonia cordifolia (Wight) Thwaites) (Warburg 1894: 146). – Begonia hirta var. cordifolia (A.DC.) L.B.Sm. & B.G. Schub. (Smith & Schubert 1941a: 192). – Type: PERU • J.A. Pavón s.n.; lectotype: G-BOIS, designated here • J.A. Pavón s.n.; syntype: G-DC ex G-BOIS [F neg. 7315] • 1777–1788; H. Ruiz L. s.n.; syntype: B [F neg. 20853] • 1777–1788; H. Ruiz L. s.n.; syntype: HAL ex B ex herb. Lamberti [HAL0121732] • 1777–1788; H. Ruiz L. s.n.; syntype: B [F neg. 20854]. Syn. nov.

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4) For new taxa: Diagnosis
In botanical papers, the diagnosis can be in English or in Latin.
Telegraphic style and/or narrative style are accepted for diagnoses (narrative style is preferred), but the style must be consistent throughout the manuscript.

5) For new taxa: Etymology
Etymology is optional for taxa already published.

6) Type material

7) Other material examined
EJT operates XML conversion for these two material sections, allowing the rich specimen data and relative nomenclatural acts to be distributed to biodiversity databases and linked back to the article (see ‘FAIR & Open Science’). Therefore, the material citations must be standardised to a specific format, which is mandatory.

A short example is given below, but consider the detailed rules for data placement, punctuation, geographical coordinates, month abbreviations, repository and identifiers in the Material Citations Formatting Guide:

Type material
Holotype
COLOMBIA – Vaupés • ♂; Lago Taraira, Estación Biológica Mosiro Itájura Caparú; 1°04′ S, 69°30′ W; 200 m a.s.l.; 2002–2004; J. Pinzón leg.; ICN-Ao 1890.

Paratypes
COLOMBIA – Guaviare • 1 ♀; San José del Guaviare, vereda Playa Güio Las Iracas; 2°34′37.5″ N, 72°43′21.1″ W; 208 m a.s.l.; 20 Oct. 2012; D. Luna leg.; ICN-Ao 1128. – Vaupés • 4 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀; same data as for holotype; ICN-Ao 978.

Other material examined
COLOMBIA – Guaviare • 1 ♂; Calamar, Parque Nacional Natural Chiribiquete, Cerro Campana; 01°17′15.9″ N, 72°37′53.7″ W; 242 m a.s.l.; 4 Mar. 2018; D. Luna and A. Pinzón leg.; manual night collection, terra firme forest; ICNAo-1910. – Vaupés • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; Lago Taraira, Estación Biológica Mosiro Itájura Caparú; 1°04′ S, 69°30′ W; 200 m a.s.l.; 2002–2004; J. Pinzón leg.; ICN-Ao 985...

Please note that verbatim data (as written on labels) cannot be correctly interpreted during the automated data extraction. To avoid distribution of incorrect data to the GBIF, authors must convert the verbatim data to structured data.

For example, in the taxonomic treatment, the following verbatim label

ZAMBIA • ♂; “Zambia 1050m; Lukulu, Barotse Floodplain; S14°12′42″; E23°19′06″” “9.xi.13 Light trap; Leg. Smith, R., Takano, H.; & Oram, D.” “BMNH(E); 2016-251” “NHMUK 010804484” “NEOTYPE; Derelomus signatus; Gyllenhal, 1836; Haran des. 2025”; NHMUK.

must be replaced with

ZAMBIA • ♂; Lukulu, Barotse Floodplain; 14°12′42″ S, 23°19′06″ E; 1050 m; 9 Nov. 2013; R. Smith, H. Takano and D. Oram leg.; light trap; NHMUK 010804484.

In addition to the structured data in the taxonomic treatment (mandatory), the verbatim labels may optionally be made available: photograph of verbatim labels in figures, as supplementary file, or as appendix at the end of the paper.

When the list for “other material examined” is very long (e.g., several pages), authors can include only a list of selected specimens in the taxonomic treatment, and provide the rest of material as a supplementary file (.xls, .csv). However, type specimens, and specimens illustrated in figures of the manuscript must always be included in the taxonomic treatment, and cannot be supplied in supplementary file.

8) Description
Full description of all relevant characters. Telegraphic style and/or narrative style are accepted for descriptions, but the style must be consistent throughout the manuscript.

9) Ecology, Distribution…

10) Taxonomic remarks and/or Differential diagnosis. Authors should write these sections in the narrative form.

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Discussion

The mandatory Discussion will consider the findings of the paper in the context of the wider literature and indicates progress made within the field. It must be written in the narrative form (no telegraphic style).

Funding

Funding disclosure is mandatory. Authors must disclose their sources of funding (organisation, grant number) in this section of the manuscript.

Upon submission (Nestor system, step 6: Funding), authors must select as well the appropriate funder in the CrossRef Open Funder Registry, and add the grant number. If the funder was not found in the list, it should be at least mentioned in the manuscript.

Data availability

EJT encourages open data publication and sharing, in accordance with the FAIR Data Principles. Data can be published as supplementary files related to the manuscript, or deposited in a trusted repository, and the associated identifier (DOI, or url) must be included in a Data availability statement. The data is deposited in a discipline-specific repository (when available), or in a general repository, for example Zenodo.

DNA sequence data must be deposited to one of the following databases: BOLD, DDBJ, ENA, GenBank, or GenBase(for Chinese researchers). The accession numbers of the sequences used in the study must be mentioned in the manuscript itself (for example, in a table), in a supplementary file, or in a dataset hosted in a trusted repository.

Author contribution

Author contribution is mandatory in EJT.

The roles are available in the CRediT – Contributor Role Taxonomy:

https://credit.niso.org

For each role, initials of the co-author(s) concerned indicate their own contribution(s). An example of Author contribution statement:

Conceptualization: LR, IL, MR. Data curation: LR, JDW, VR, IL. Formal analysis: LR, JDW, BMRR. Investigation & Validation: LR. Methodology: LR, JDW, IL, MR. Project administration: IL. Supervision: MAF, AH, IL, MR. Visualization: LR, JDW, IL. Writing - original draft: LR. Writing - review and editing: LR, JDW, IL, MR.

Acknowledgements

The Acknowledgements section (one paragraph) specifies any persons and/or organizations the authors wish to mention.

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References

The journal style for the List of References is available in the Zotero Style Repository (‘European Journal of Taxonomy’).

References are listed in alphabetical order, based on the surname of the first author. If two first authors share the same surname, the alphabetical order is then based also on the first name initial of each author: Miller P. comes after Miller J.

If a first author (same surname and same initial) has more than one publication listed, the publications of this first author are grouped into 3 categories, in the following order:

1) Publications from this single author, from oldest to newest date of publication.

2) Publications with 2 authors, arranged alphabetically according to the name of the second author. Within this group, when papers share the same authorship, they are arranged chronologically: Smith K. & Jones W. 2012, then Smith K. & Jones W. 2020, etc.

3) Publications with 3 authors or more (e.g., “Smith et al.” in the text), from oldest to newest date of publication. Within this group, if some publications share the same year of publication, they are differentiated with letters a, b, c, etc. (2024a, 2024b, 2024c...): Smith K., Alonso L. & Jones W. 2020a, then Smith K., Kelly Y., Alonso L. & Bryant I. 2020b, then Smith K., Allen P. & Miller T. 2020c...

Example of appropriate order:

Páll-Gergely B. 2017. ...
Páll-Gergely B. 2023. ...

Páll-Gergely B. & Asami T. 2017. ...
Páll-Gergely B. & Csabai Z. 2025. ...
Páll-Gergely B. & Hunyadi A. 2022. ...

Páll-Gergely B., Fehér Z., Hunyadi A. & Asami T. 2015. ...
Páll-Gergely B., Sajan S. & Ablett J.D. 2020. ...
Páll-Gergely B., Hunyadi A., Grego J., Reischütz A. & Auffenberg K. 2021. ...
Páll-Gergely B., Hunyadi A. & Sutcharit C. 2024a. ...
Páll-Gergely B., Krell F.-T., Ábrahám L. & Móra A. 2024b. ...

When formatting references, the following style should be applied:
- reference with  up to 20 authors: list all authors.
- reference with more than 20 authors: list the first 19 authors, followed by ‘... &’ and by the name of the last author.
- no comma between surname and initials, no space between initials, each initial followed by a full-stop, use ‘&’ before the last author.
- italics should only be used for genera, infrageneric names, journal names, book titles, et al. and ‘In’ for chapters in books.
- no bold font should be used in the references.
- journal article titles: words are not capitalised (except proper nouns, genera...).
- book titles, journal titles: words are capitalised (except prepositions, articles, and connective words: of, the and...); journal titles are written in full and not abbreviated.

When available, the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) must be added at the end of the reference. The following tool may be used to find DOIs:
https://doi.crossref.org/simpleTextQuery
- verify each DOI by clicking on the DOI link, do not add DOIs referring to another source (e.g., a book review).
- DOIs must be introduced by the url prefix: https://doi.org/ (not http://, not dx.doi, not DOI:)
- do not add an access date to DOI.

For urls of websites (except DOIs), add the date when the resource was last accessed, e.g., ‘[accessed 29 Oct. 2025]’.

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Examples of appropriate formats for references:

Article in a journal
Curran C.H. 1934. The Diptera of Kartabo, Bartica District, British Guiana. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 66 (3): 287–232.

Article in a journal, with a DOI
Milá B., Tavares E.S., Muñoz Saldaña A., Karubian J., Smith T.B. & Baker A.J. 2012. A trans-Amazonian screening of mtDNA reveals deep intraspecific divergence in forest birds and suggests a vast underestimation of species diversity. PLoS ONE 7 (7): e40541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040541

Denoeud F., Carretero-Paulet L., Dereeper A., Droc G., Guyot R., Pietrella M., Zheng C., Alberti A., Anthony F., Aprea G., Aury J.-M., Bento P., Bernard M., Bocs S., Campa C., Cenci A., Combes M.-C., Crouzillat D., Da Silva C., ... & Lashermes P. 2014. The coffee genome provides insight into the convergent evolution of caffeine biosynthesis. Science 345 (6201): 1181–1184. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1255274

Article in a thematic volume of a journal
Guyot M. 2000. Intricate aspects of sponge chemistry. In: Vacelet J. (ed.) Porifera 2000: Volume in honour of Professor Claude Lévi. Zoosystema 22 (2): 419–431.

Book
Ruiter R.H. & Debelius H. 2006. World Atlas of Marine Fishes. IKAN-Unterwasserarchiv, Frankfurt.

Book belonging to a series
Griswold Ch.E. 1994. A Revision and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Spider Genus Phanotea Simon (Araneae, Lycosoidea). Annales Sciences zoologiques 273, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, Tervuren.

Chapter or article in a book
Rougier G.W. & Wible J.R. 2006. Major changes in the ear region and basicranium of early mammals. In: Carrano M., Gaudin T.J., Blob R. & Wible J.R. (eds) Amniote Paleobiology: Phylogenetic and Functional Perspectives on the Evolution of Mammals, Birds and Reptiles: 269–311. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Book with several volumes or parts
Nairn A., Kains W.H. & Stehli F.G. (eds) 1978. The Ocean Basins and Margins. Vol. 4B: The Western Mediterranean. Plenum Press, New-York.

Contribution in a Proceedings book, Conference report, etc.
Shandra P. & Mirad D. 1999. On the taxonomy of carabids (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from mountain forest in Zimbabwe. In: Merger T., Formsfield J. & Brooke D. (eds) Insect Diversity in Southern Africa. Proceedings of the First International Symposium on African Insect Diversity: 117–128. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren.

Thesis
DeRijk P. 1995. Optimisation of a Database for Ribosomal RNA Structure and Application in Structural and Evolutionary Research. PhD thesis, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Note that references to so-called ‘grey literature’, such as theses, should be avoided.

Website, software
QGIS Development Team 2026. QGIS Geographic Information System. Ver. 3.44. Open Source Geospatial Foundation. Available from https://qgis.org [accessed 19 Apr. 2026].

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Figure and table captions

At the end of the text file, include the figure captions and table captions.

In accordance with the EJT FAIR & Open Science policy, published illustrations are archived individually on the Biodiversity Literature Repository (Zenodo), where they are assigned an individual DataCite-DOI. The figure captions should therefore be self-explanatory, without recourse to the main text.

Specimens should therefore be clearly identified in the figure captions, by adding at least the acronym of the repository and the specimen identifier within this repository. If there is no specimen identifier, the repository should be mentioned, and other data should be included for means of identification: holotype/paratype, sex, locality…

Examples of figure captions:

Fig. 3. Galathea sayaensis sp. nov., holotype, ♀, 2.4 mm (MNHN-IU-2021-5797), Saya de Malha. A. Carapace and abdomen, dorsal view. B. Sternal plastron. C. Left cephalic region, showing antennular and antennal peduncles, ventral view. D. Right Mxp3, showing ischium and merus, lateral view. E. Right P1, merus and carpus, dorsal view. F. Right P1, palm and fingers, dorsal view. G. Right P2, lateral view. H. Right P4, lateral view. Abbreviations: Mxp3 = maxilliped 3; P1–4 = pereopods 1–4. Scale bars: A–B, E–H = 0.6 mm; C–D = 0.3 mm.

Fig. 9. Metabiantes elongatus sp. nov., scanning electron micrographs of pedipalp and chelicera. A–F. Paratype, ♂ (MACN-Ar 45425), left pedipalp. A. Mesal view. B. Femur, ventral view. C. Tibia and tarsus, ventral view. D. Detail of femur, ventral view. E. Detail of proximal spines on tibia. F. Detail of microtrichia. G–H. Paratype, ♂ (MACN-Ar 45430), left chelicera. G. Mesal view. H. Frontal view. Scale bars: A = 200 μm; B–C, G–H = 100 μm; D–E = 20 μm; F = 1 μm.

The table captions should be self-explanatory, without recourse to the main text.

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FIGURE FILES

Illustrations must be of high quality and in portrait format, with an average resolution of 450 dpi. Standards for size are: width of 16 cm (∼3000 dpi), maximum height 29 cm, to fit on an A4 page.

Figure files must be in .jpeg or .tiff format, and the maximum size for each file is 20 MB.

Each figure is a standalone file. Fig_1.jpeg, Fig_2.jpeg, etc.

In the figure file, several images can be assembled together, but lettering for these images should be uniform and consistent, in capital letters (A, B, C, D...), using Arial font, size 10 or 12.

Figure files are labelled in ascending numerical order: the first figure mentioned in the text is labelled Fig. 1, the second one mentioned is labelled Fig. 2, etc.

Scale bars are required for each specimen image, including for image stacks (exceptions: habit/details in the wild, data labels).

For a composite figure (several images assembled on the same figure), think carefully about the order of the taxa in the text:
- use A, B, C, D... for each image of the composition
- when numbering the figures, follow as much as possible the order of the illustrated taxa in the text; preferably use one taxon per figure; or, for comparison, preferably use less than 4 taxa on the same figure file, to allow for a correct placement of the figures throughout the manuscript.
- limit the number of images on the same figure, as the details should be sharp and visible on a A4 format.

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TABLE FILES

Authors are free to present tables the way it suits their publication best, but all tables must have a caption, and columns should fit a print page (minimum font size accepted: 8 pt).

Table files must be in .doc or .docx format.

Tables are labelled in ascending numerical order: the first table mentioned in the text is labelled Table 1, the second one mentioned is labelled Table 2, etc.

SUPPLEMENTARY FILES

Authors are free to publish underlying/complementary data that supports the study as supplementary files if the format is not suitable for inclusion within the main text (e.g., incompatible file type). The file size should ideally be less than 20 MB.

When the list of “other material examined” is very long (e.g., several pages), authors can include only a list of selected specimens in the taxonomic treatment, and provide the rest of material as a supplementary file (.xls, .csv). However, type specimens, and specimens illustrated in figures of the manuscript must always be included in the taxonomic treatment, and cannot be supplied in supplementary file.

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