animal - Instructions for authors – June 2024 page 1
animal
The international journal of animal biosciences
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Last updated June 2024
Contents
Before you start ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Scope .................................................................................................................................................... 2
Authorship and Ethics .......................................................................................................................... 2
Length recommendations for different types of article ......................................................................... 2
Style sheet and pre-submission checklist.............................................................................................. 3
Initial screening .................................................................................................................................... 3
Writing your paper – About Contents ...................................................................................................... 4
Your paper is understandable ............................................................................................................... 4
Your paper is complete ......................................................................................................................... 4
Each section of your main text provides the required information ....................................................... 5
Reporting your statistics ..................................................................................................................... 12
Complying with Image Integrity and Standards ................................................................................. 15
Supplementary material ...................................................................................................................... 16
Presenting your paper – About Format ................................................................................................... 17
General presentation ........................................................................................................................... 17
Numbers and units .............................................................................................................................. 19
Style .................................................................................................................................................... 19
References .......................................................................................................................................... 20
Illustrations ......................................................................................................................................... 22
Supplementary material ...................................................................................................................... 23
Submitting your manuscript ................................................................................................................... 25
Submission system ............................................................................................................................. 25
Files .................................................................................................................................................... 25
File/item types in Editorial Manager ................................................................................................. 26
Required information .......................................................................................................................... 26
Licences to publish & article processing charge .................................................................................... 27
Visit https://www.journals.elsevier.com/animal for additional resources.
animal – The international journal of animal biosciences is a Gold Open Access peer-reviewed journal,
published monthly in English online (12 issues making a volume). Special issues or supplements may also be
produced upon agreement with the Editorial Board.
All articles are subject to an Article Publishing Charge (APC) and will be covered by a Creative Commons Licence.
BEFORE YOU START
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animal - Instructions for authors – June 2024 page 2
BEFORE YOU START
Scope
The scope of the journal, the expected standards of published articles, the article types published by
animal, ethics, the authorship policy, the pre-print policy, plagiarism falsification fabrication and the
handling of misconducts, the licences to publish and the article processing charge, the evaluation
procedures and peer-review criteria, procedures for complaints and appeals, proofs and information on
publication of the manuscript are presented in the Publication policies available at https://animal-
journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, except in a limited form (e.g. abstract
or short communication to a symposium or part of MSc or PhD theses) and should not be under
consideration for publication by another journal. Book reviews are not accepted. Deposition of pre-prints
should be declared at submission.
Authorship and Ethics
Authorship complies with the authorship and other ethics policies described in the Publication
policies.
Research described in the manuscript complies with ethical guidelines available on the website
https://animal-journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/
Authors have obtained permission to use copyrighted material in the manuscript prior to
submission.
Length recommendations for different types of article
Research and review articles no longer have limits in length, number of references and number of
illustrations. Concision will be evaluated by reviewers and editors as part of the peer-review process.
Short communications, opinion papers and letters to the editor should comply with recommendations
(Table 1). For enquiries, please contact editorialoffice@animal-journal.eu.
Table 1 Recommendations for the articles published in animal
Article type
Maximum length
(all text except
figures)
Maximum number
of tables plus figures
Maximum
number of
references
Research article
no limit
no limit
no limit
Short communication
3 000 words
3
10
Review article
no limit
no limit
no limit
Opinion paper
1 700 words
(= 2 journal pages)
or 1 200 if a figure
is submitted
1
5
Letter to the Editor
1 500 words
1
All article types
BEFORE YOU START
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 3
Style sheet and pre-submission checklist
When preparing their manuscript authors are advised to use the journal’s style sheet (https://animal-
journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/ ), and to self-evaluate their manuscript before submission using the
Pre-submission Checklist (https://animal-journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/). The checklist is
provided as a service to authors to aid them getting their manuscript ready for peer-review.
Initial screening
At submission, manuscripts are viewed by the Editorial Office, the Editor-in-Chief and/or a member of
the Editorial Board for compliance with scope, standards and presentation of the manuscript. If the
manuscript is incomplete or the quality of the manuscript is insufficient for peer-review, it will be
returned to authors for improvements before being assigned to an Editor. If the submission is out of scope
or not up to standards, it will be removed by the Editor-in-Chief and no longer considered. If the
submission is unsuitable for animal but better fits another journal from the animal family of journals,
authors will be offered to transfer their submission to another journal. Any deviations from instructions
will be at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Note that the quality of the manuscript is under the
responsibility of authors. A good quality is expected to facilitate peer-review and ensure that manuscripts
are peer reviewed exclusively on academic merit.
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animal - Instructions for authors – June 2024 page 4
WRITING YOUR PAPER – ABOUT CONTENTS
Your paper is understandable
Scientific writing
A good quality of scientific writing is required. The research must be understandable by the general scientific
readership of animal and by specialists.
The take-home message is clearly identified and the structure of the whole text is efficient. The context
is briefly presented, the research problem is identified, the existing knowledge relevant to the problem is
critically analysed, and the research hypothesis is clear. The reporting is complete. Arguments and
evidence are presented in a well organised, clear, logical and balanced way from the most general to the
specific point. Discussion connects all results obtained in an organised and proper way with a clear
interpretation. Sentences are simple, short and direct, the style is concise yet informative and precise.
English
A good quality of written English (syntax, spelling, grammar) is required to facilitate the peer-review process.
Spelling may be in British or American English, but must be consistent throughout the paper. Care should
be exercised in the use of agricultural terminology that is ill-defined or of local familiarity. If the English
is not good enough, the manuscript will be sent back to the authors with a recommendation that authors
have their manuscripts checked by an English language native speaker before re-submission. Elsevier
lists third-party services specialising in language editing and / or translation at
http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting/ and suggests that authors contact them as appropriate. Use
of any of these services is at the author's own expense.
Presentation
Poor presentation may hamper the understandability of the paper.
The responsibility for the preparation of a paper in a form suitable for a good understanding of the
research lies with the author. Authors should follow the Instructions for Authors (see Presenting your
paper) and consult recent articles of animal, available at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/animal, to
make themselves familiar with the layout and style of animal.
The format of (sub-) headings is in accordance with recommendations in order to clarify the
structure of the text, especially in the Material and methods section.
Tables are clearly presented. Treatments are in columns and variables are in lines, as relevant.
Your paper is complete
Main text - Required sections and order
All sections are present. A style sheet is available for use on our website at https://animal-
journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/.
Full title, Authors, Authors' affiliations including department and post/zip codes, Corresponding author,
Abstract, Keywords, Implications, Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, Ethics
approval, Data and model availability statement, Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 5
technologies in the writing process, Author ORCIDs, Declaration of interest, Acknowledgements,
Financial support statement, References, Tables, List of figure captions.
For review articles, opinion papers and letters to the editor, the sections Abstract, Keywords,
Implications, Material and methods, Results, Discussion are not required. For letters to the editor,
Authors and Affiliations are positioned at the end of the letter.
Figures
Figures are submitted as relevant.
Highlights
Highlights are submitted as a separate file.
Author contributions
Author contributions are submitted as a separate file.
Supplementary Materials
Supplementary Materials are submitted as relevant.
As from the 1
st
of January 2023, animal will not accept raw data in Supplementary Materials anymore.
Raw data should be published in an Open Access institutional or public data repository, animal accepts
any official data repository listed in the registry of research data repositories
(https://www.re3data.org/). A link to the repository should be provided in the article under the section
‘Data and model availability statement’.
Each section of your main text provides the required information
Full title
The title provides sufficient information to allow the reader to judge the relevance of a paper to his/her
interests.
Concise and informative; no more than 170 characters including spaces.
Include the animal species on which the study has been carried out.
Exclude the name of the country or of the region where the study took place.
Exclude Latin names, if there is a common name.
Exclude non-standard abbreviations. Follow the link to find the standard abbreviations.
The title of companion manuscripts should reflect it with a Part 1 and a Part 2.
Title of a review article should start with "Review:" or "Animal board invited review:" as
relevant.
Title of an opinion paper should start with "Opinion paper:".
Title of a short communication should start with "Short communication:".
Title of a letter to the editor should start with ‘Letter to the Editor:’. Title of a response to a
letter to the editor should start with ‘Response to the Letter to the Editor:’.
Authors and affiliations
Information, such as author names and affiliations should be presented as below.
Example
J. Smith
a,1
, P.E. Jones
b
, J.M. Garcia
a,c
, P.K. Martin Jr
d
[initials only for first names]
a
Department of Animal Nutrition, Scottish Agricultural College, West Main Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
b
Animal Science Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7621, USA
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 6
c
Laboratorio de Producción Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, C. Miguel Servet,
177, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain
d
Dairy Science Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7621, USA
1
Present address: Dairy Science Laboratory, AgResearch, Private Bag 11008, Palmerston North, New
Zealand (for any author of the list whose present address differs from that at which the work was done)
Corresponding author: John Smith. E-mail: Joh[email protected].
Only one corresponding author is indicated in the manuscript.
The corresponding author who submits and manages the manuscript during the
submission/peer-review process must be registered on Editorial Manager. He or she can be
different from the corresponding author indicated in the manuscript who will be the
correspondent for the published paper.
Abstract (max 400 words, single paragraph)
The abstract should be complete and understandable, without reference to the paper. It follows the same
structure as the text.
The context and the rationale of the study are presented succinctly to support the objectives.
Experimental methods and main results are summarised but should not be overburdened by
numerical values or probability values. The abstract ends with a short and clear conclusion.
Citations and references to tables and figures are not acceptable.
Abbreviations should be used sparingly and must be defined in the abstract.
The whole abstract is written as a single paragraph.
Keywords (5 keywords)
Keywords are required for all types of articles except for Editorials and Letters. Keywords are essential in
information retrieval and should not repeat words in the title with respect to indicating the subject of the
paper.
Five keywords (no more, no less).
Keywords should be different from words in the title.
Keywords should be short and specific.
The animal species or type can be among the keywords but differently from the title.
The use of non-standard abbreviations in the list of keywords is not allowed. Follow the link to
find the standard abbreviations.
Implications (max 100 words)
Implications must explain the expected impact that the results may have on practice, when they will be applied.
Impact may be economic, environmental or social.
The Implications section should answer the questions ‘What did you learn?’, ‘Who may benefit
from your results and how?’
The Implications section should stand alone, be clear to non-specialists while being precise
enough for specialists.
After a brief description of the context and the scientific question, highlight your main findings,
and describe the potential applications of your own results and their field of application for the
livestock industry. Focus on your take home message.
Be careful not to oversell your results.
Write in simple English suitable for non-specialists or even non-science readers.
Do not use any non-standard abbreviations.
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Highlights
Highlights are required for all types of articles except for Editorials and Letters. They are used to increase the
discoverability of your article via search engines, and will be published in the HTML version of your article only.
Use the Implications section to help you write the Highlights.
Highlights are a collection of 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per
bullet point) that convey the core messages of your article.
When you prepare your Highlights upon request by the Editorial Office, we recommend that
the bullet points include 1) a presentation of the research question, 2) your main results, and 3)
the potential applications of your own results and their field of application for the livestock
industry.
Do not use any non-standard abbreviations.
Highlights will be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system.
Author contributions
The contributions of each co-author should be described using the relevant CRediT roles. Note that contribution
does not necessarily justify authorship.
This information is mandatory in all article types.
Author contributions should be described according to the CRediT taxonomy (here) which
includes: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition;
Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision;
Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note
that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through
multiple roles.
They have to be formatted by the author’s name followed by the relevant credit role(s).
More details and a sample CRediT author statement is available at
https://www.elsevier.com/authors/journal-authors/policies-and-ethics/credit-author-statement.
Note that each author must first comply with the authorship policy of the journal ‘All co-authors
substantially contributed to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis
or interpretation of data for the work AND drafted or critically revised the work for important
intellectual content AND approved the final version to be published AND agreed to be
accountable for all aspects of the work.’
Author contributions will be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system.
Introduction
The introduction briefly outlines the context of the work, presents the rationale of the scientific issue, and
clearly defines the objectives.
The context is only briefly described. The scientific question is developed and supported by a
strong and critical analysis of published work.
For hypothesis-driven research (Sections 1 to 3), the hypothesis under test should be clearly
stated and supported by a strong and critical analysis of published work.
Scarcity of studies is not sufficient to justify research. Increasing the knowledge on a subject is
not an objective per se.
If the implementation of the research results in practice could contravene health, animal
wellbeing and environmental standards in countries other than where the work was undertaken,
then authors should consider how this will impact on the international relevance of the research.
If the manuscript is companion to another submission, the introduction presents the links
between manuscripts.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 8
If preliminary results have been published in an abstract form, it is indicated at the end of the
introduction.
Material and methods
Material and methods should be described in sufficient detail so that others can reproduce the experiment.
References to previously published work may be used to give details of methods, provided that references are
readily accessible and in English.
Reporting. Material and methods are reported according to "The ARRIVE Guidelines for
Reporting Animal Research" detailed in Kilkenny et al. (2010)
1
and summarised at par
https://arriveguidelines.org/arrive-guidelines.
Study design. When relevant, the design of the study, whether experimental or observational,
should be presented in a separate sub-section at the beginning of the "Material and methods"
section. For detail see Reporting your statistics.
Description of critical methods. For the sake of reproducibility, the methods that are most
important for the conclusions of the study, including mathematical equations, must be described
in detail. They can be presented in the Supplementary Materials as necessary.
Validation and Quality Assurance. Validation is defined as a comparison of the research
predictions with the real world to determine whether the results of the research are suitable for
their intended purpose. Validation highlights the strengths and the limits of the results obtained,
and their applicability. A wide range of validation techniques can be applied, including:
comparison with reference measurements (e.g. recovery rates for markers or gaz exchange
measurements), robustness of measurements (e.g. intra- and inter-observer reliabilities for
observational measurements), statistical tests (e.g. regression analysis of observed vs. predicted
data), deviance measures (e.g. Mean Absolute Error, Root Mean Squared Error), visual
techniques (e.g. plot of observed vs. predicted data), subjective assessment (e.g. evaluation by
experts). For laboratory methods, results of Quality Assurance tests or method validation
procedures refer to performance of assays (e.g. intra/inter-assay CV, reportable range,
specificity, normalisation…). Validation and/or Assurance quality procedure and output, must
be reported for the methods that are most important for the conclusions of the study in the
Material and methods or as Supplementary materials. Alternatively they must be addressed in
the Discussion section.
Modelling. A separate sub-section may be used to describe your meta-analytical and
compartmental modelling approaches. For detail see Reporting your statistics.
Statistical analysis of data. The statistical analysis of data should be presented in a separate
sub-section at the end of the "Material and methods" section. For detail see Reporting your
statistics.
Proprietary product. If a proprietary product is used as a source of material in experimental
comparisons, it should be described using the appropriate chemical name. The functional
components should be described and analysed (quantified). If the trade name is helpful to the
readers, provide it in parentheses after the first mention.
Results - Discussion
Separation between Results and Discussion is preferred to highlight the interpretation of results.
Presentation of Results and Discussion in a single section is possible but strongly discouraged.
Your statistical results should be informative enough to allow the reader to make independent
judgments. For detail see Reporting your statistics.
If the implementation of the research results in practice could contravene health, animal
wellbeing and environmental standards in countries other than where the work was undertaken,
then authors should consider how this will impact on the international relevance of the research.
A short conclusion appears at the end of the text and is merged in a single paragraph.
1
Kilkenny, C., Browne, W.J., Cuthill, I.C., Emerson, M., Altman, D.G., 2010. Improving bioscience research reporting: The ARRIVE guidelines for
reporting animal research. PLoS Biology 8, e1000412. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000412.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 9
Ethics approval
Where research involves animal experimentation, authors should assert that all procedures contributing to this
work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on animal
experimentation. This section is mandatory in all article types.
When relevant, the full reference/number of the committee approval should be provided.
Due consideration of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction, Replacement) is expected.
When the study did not require approval by an institutional committee, include the following
statement: ‘Not applicable’.
Data and model availability statement
Authors must indicate whether their data, the model or the software developed as an outcome of the study are
deposited in an official repository (generally recommended, mandatory for compartmental models). Access
rights should also be specified (access to reviewers is mandatory for compartmental models). This section is
mandatory in all article types.
animal recommends that data, or software are deposited in an official repository listed in the
registry of research data repositories (https://www.re3data.org/). If this is the case, provide the
full reference and the full link starting by ‘https://’.
When a compartmental model has been developed, the model should be deposited in an official
repository (https://www.re3data.org/) and accessible to reviewers.
If not applicable, you can use one of the following statements as appropriate: ‘None of the data
were deposited in an official repository.’ or ‘The model was not deposited in an official
repository.’
Whether deposited or not, always indicate the access rights to data, software or model (available
to reviewers, available upon request, public, confidential…).
Do not indicate the software that were used in the study, they belong to the Material and methods
section.
Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process. AI should not
be used for key researcher tasks such as interpreting data or drawing scientific conclusions.
When AI assisted technologies were used in the writing process, use the following statement:
During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to
[REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as
needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.
When AI assisted technologies were not used in the writing process, use the following
statement: ‘The authors did not use any artificial intelligence assisted technologies in the writing
process’.
Author ORCIDs
This section is mandatory in all article types and the corresponding author must provide his/her ORCID number.
All co-authors are encouraged to indicate their ORCID number.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 10
Declaration of interest
Please provide details of all known financial, professional and personal relationships with the potential to bias
the work. This section is mandatory in all article types.
Where no known conflicts of interest exist, include the following statement: “None.”
Acknowledgements
In this section, the authors may briefly acknowledge individuals or organisations that provided advice, their
credits to companies, preliminary publications of the research, etc. This section is mandatory in all article types.
Individuals who contributed to the article but do not meet the full criteria for authorship should
be acknowledged here.
If the research was conducted as part of a thesis, it should be acknowledged here, and the full
reference should be provided.
If the article was deposited as a pre-print in a pre-print repository, it should be acknowledged
here, and the full reference should be provided.
If there are no acknowledgements, include the following statement: 'None.'
Financial support statement
Please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers. This section is
mandatory in all article types.
Example of statement: ‘This work was supported by the European Commission (grant number
XXXXXX)’.
Grants held by different co-authors should be identified according to individual authors by the
author’s initials.
When no specific funding has been provided, you may use the following statement: ‘This
research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit
section’.
References
References from international refereed journals or from national refereed journals with at least an English
abstract are preferred.
References from non-peer-reviewed articles or from national abstracts/conference proceedings,
MSc or PhD thesis, institutional/technical reports, documents that cannot be obtained easily by
the reader should be minimized.
If a submitted manuscript has previously been published in a limited form (e.g. abstract or short
communication to a symposium or part of MSc or PhD theses), the previous publication form
should be cited and the full reference should be provided.
In general, no more than 3 references can be given for the same statement (except for reviews
and meta-analyses).
The list of references used in a meta-analysis should be presented in Supplementary materials.
Tables
Tables should be explicit while concise and should not include details on materials and methods in the captions
or footnotes. The reporting of statistical results complies with simple basic rules. See the Statistical Guidelines
for Authors for further advice.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 11
Tables are recommended when exact numerical values are important or may be re-used later in
meta-analysis. The same material should not be presented in tabular or graphical form.
The animal species and the experimental treatments (or the issue) under study are indicated in
each caption.
Treatment means are reported with meaningful decimals. The number of significant figures
given should indicate the precision of the measurement. In practice, quote as meaningful all
figures that are certain plus the first uncertain one.
Uncertainty measures (SE or CI) should be reported along with the means/estimates. When data
are analysed by analysis of variance, reporting of the pooled residual SE of the mean (SEM) in
a separate column facilitates reading of the table.
When data are analysed by analysis of variance and an assumption of homogenous variance for
all treatments is made, animal requests that a residual error term such as the pooled residual SE
of the mean is given for each variable in a separate column. Alternatively other uncertainty
measures can be reported but authors should be conscious of the readability of the tables.
The SD/SE should be quoted to one place more than the mean (e.g., for a mean value of 15, SE
should be reported as 1.2).
The degrees of freedom (or number of experimental units per treatment) should be quoted.
Give the actual P value (to 3 decimal places) in a separate column rather than using the ‘coarser’
star convention except if P < 0.001. If P > 0.05, give its value – do not write “NS”.
In tables, differences between treatments (or comparison of mean values) are indicated using
superscript letters, e.g.,
a,b
.
The number of “decimal places” is different from the number of “significant figures”. This is
especially important when reporting coefficients in equations. In the equation Y=a+bX+cX
2
,
the number of meaningful decimal places depends on the value of X.
Figures
Figures should be explicit while concise and should not include details on materials and methods in the captions
or footnotes. See the Statistical Guidelines for Authors for further advice.
Figures are recommended to illustrate trends. The same material should not be presented in
tabular or graphical form.
The animal species and the experimental treatments (or the issue) under study are indicated in
each caption.
In figures differences can be indicated by *~ P < 0.05, **~ P < 0.01 and ***~ P < 0.001, which
need to be defined in the figure legend or caption.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 12
Reporting your statistics
The journal is requesting an accurate and thorough reporting of your statistics because this is key to the
understanding, the interpretation and the conclusion of your study. Reporting of statistics is not limited to the
Material and methods and the Results sections, but applies to all parts of an article.
Reporting requirements are defined for each (sub-) section of a research article (or short communication), as listed
below, and as relevant to your study. Further detail and advice on good practice is available in the Statistical
guidelines for authors (https://animal-journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/ ).
To avoid frequent errors, read Avoid frequent errors.
In the Introduction
Reporting requirements
Detail in Guidelines
#1. State your research hypothesis and/or describe your research objective,
depending on the section of the journal you are submitting to. The
hypothesis or objective should follow directly from the rationale and
critical analysis of available knowledge presented in the Introduction
§ Introduction/
Hypothesis or question
#2. The research hypothesis should match the study design (whether
experimental or observational) and be linked to the data, the model and
the statistical analysis, as appropriate.
§ Introduction/
Hypothesis or question
In the ‘Study design’ subsection of the Material and methods
Use a separate and short sub-section ‘Study design’ at the beginning of your Material and methods to
describe the nature and structure of your study, whether your study is experimental or observational. Do
not describe animals, housing, management, measurements and treatments in detail here but in separate
sub-sections.
Reporting requirements
Detail in Guidelines
#1. Define the nature of your data (experimental, observational or from a
collated database), and describe its structure as a two-dimensional array,
e.g., how factors of variation, variables and experimental/observational
units are set up in columns and rows of your data spreadsheet.
§ Study design/ Data
#2. For designed studies, name the experimental design you have used (e.g.,
completely randomised or randomised block design).
§ Study design/ Simple
balanced designs
#3. For non-designed studies, specify the factors of interest, as you would in
a designed study.
§ Study design/ Data
#4. Define and justify the nature of the experimental units (e.g., individual
animals, groups/pens) and of the observational units (if any) in your
study.
§ Study design/
Experimental units
#5. Indicate the method of randomisation (e.g., between animals, pens and
treatments).
§ Study design/
Four R’s
#6. Explain how the replication / sample size was chosen.
§ Study design/
Four R’s
#7. Indicate the system of blocking if any.
§ Study design/
Four R’s
#8. Indicate the population of inference that your experimental unit is
representative of.
§ Study design/
Four R’s
#9. Report the a priori power of your experiment if you can.
§ Study design/ Power
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In the ‘Modelling’ subsection of the Material and methods
If your study is about meta-analytical or compartmental modelling, you may use a separate subsection in
Material and methods.
Reporting requirements
Detail in Guidelines
#1. A thorough description of the model is imperative to ensure
reproducibility. See details in the respective sections.
§ Modelling
#2. When a compartmental model has been developed, report its reference
in the official repository it was deposited and access to reviewers.
§ Compartmental
modelling
In the ‘Statistical analysis of data’ subsection of the Material and methods
Use a separate sub-section ‘Statistical analysis of data’ at the end of your Material and methods to present
the methods of statistical analysis of results. Sufficient statistical details must be given to provide an
understanding of the statistical analysis and allow replication.
Reporting requirements
Detail in Guidelines
#1. Report the methods used to check the distribution of data (e.g.,
normality) and identify outliers. Justify and describe any transformation
of the data.
§ Statistical analysis/
Diagnostics
#2. Describe the model for statistical analysis mathematically or in words, as
well as the type of analysis used. In case of non-experimental study,
justify the statistical model you have used.
§ Statistical analysis/
Linear models and
ANOVA
#3. Explain and justify the use of more complex models, e.g., mixed models;
describe the scope and limitations of any random effects.
§ Statistical analysis/
Mixed models
#4. Specify treatment structure and the methods used to compare
treatment means.
§ Statistical analysis/
Treatment comparison
#5. Specify the P values you considered for significance. If different from
0.05 justify them.
§ Statistical analysis/
Significance
#6. For correlations and regressions, clearly state if a causal relationship is
assumed or only an association between variables is researched.
§ Statistical analysis/
Correlation and
Regression
#7. When exploring relationships within a matrix of data, state whether you
are looking for patterns in the data or you want to classify new
measurements.
§ Statistical analysis/
Multivariate methods
#8. For multivariate analysis, report data validation methods and false
discovery rate.
§ Statistical analysis/ -
omics studies
#9. Report the computer software you have used, the name of the software
company, the package or procedure, the version and year of release, and
the algorithm (i.e., the choice of arguments within the called function or
procedure).
#10. We recommend you include the code for the statistical model, as
programmed in the relevant software, in the Supplementary materials.
WRITING YOUR PAPER – ABOUT CONTENTS
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 14
In the Results
The report of your statistical results should be informative enough to allow the reader to make
independent judgments wherever possible but omit extraneous detail.
Reporting requirements
Detail in Guidelines
#1. Report and justify deletion of data or outliers
#2. Carefully consider the most appropriate illustration of your results.
§ Results/ Tables or
Figures?
#3. Report the descriptive statistics (e.g., in Supplementary materials). They
will help the reader understand what your data are.
#4. Give estimates of the relevant statistics (mean values, regression
coefficients, etc.) together with the appropriate SEs or Confidence
Intervals of those estimates.
#5. Report degrees of freedom (or number of experimental units), error
terms (SEMs for ANOVAs) and exact P-values except if P < 0.001.
§ S Results/ Statistics
in tables
#6. In tables include the interaction effect if statistically significant.
§ Results/ Statistics in
tables
#7. Pay attention to the number of meaningful digits determined by the
precision of the measurement. The SE/SDs should be quoted to an extra
digit relative to the mean.
#8. Be clear on which results are critical to your research hypothesis or
question, and ensure you include relevant estimates, measures of
uncertainty (SE or Confidence Interval).
§ Results/ Number of
digits
In the Discussion
Reporting requirements
Detail in Guidelines
#1. Any shortcomings in design or analysis should be discussed with an
indication of the possible effect on the results.
#2. Be clear on what your critical results are. Include a discussion of the
biological relevance of the determined magnitude of effects for those
results.
§ Discussion/ Critical
results
#3. Explicitly state the scope of inference, or generalisability and limits, of
your results and conclusions.
§ Discussion/ Inference
Avoid frequent errors
The journal invites authors to avoid frequent errors and, as relevant to their study, carefully consider
the reporting of
- The design of the study, whether it is an experimental or an observational study
- The 4Rs of the design, Randomisation, Replication, Reduction of Variation (Blocking) and
Representativeness
- The experimental or observational unit, as relevant
- The diagnostics, e.g. normality, outliers
- Excluded or missing data
- The number of observations or the degrees of freedom
- Uncertainty measures, e.g. error terms
- The treatment comparison methods
- The search for association or causal relationships in correlations or regressions, and for patterns
or classes in multivariate analyses
- The software
- Shortcomings in the design
- The scope of inference of your results and conclusions
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 15
Complying with Image Integrity and Standards
Image Integrity and Standards
Any image produced by an instrument (e.g. scanner, microscopy) with the objective of being used to derive
quantitative results is considered as original data. Manuscripts that report images from quantitative analytical
methods without reporting any quantitative findings are not acceptable. Digitalisation of an image converts
the image into numerical values that can be analysed like any other numerical values. The full information may
prove important beyond what the author would like to show. Hence images submitted with a manuscript
should be minimally processed; some image processing is acceptable (and may be unavoidable), but the final
image must accurately represent the original data and exclude any misinterpretation of the information
present in the original image. If original data are used just to illustrate a point, this should be accompanied by a
clear statement in the manuscript telling the reader this and explaining what is being demonstrated. Please
refer to the Office of Research Integrity guidelines on image processing in scientific publication.
Image acquisition: Equipment and conditions of image acquisition and processing must be
detailed in the Material and methods section. This includes the make and model of equipment,
the acquisition and the image processing software, and the image treatment if any. If you export
files from an acquisition device, make sure to use a format with no loss of information and do
not file them into a higher resolution than that of acquisition. Authors have the responsibility to
archive original images, with their metadata, in their original format without any compression
or compressed without loss of information.
Preparation of images for a manuscript: For guidance, we refer to the Journal of Cell Biology’s
instructions to authors (http://jcb.rupress.org/site/misc/ifora.xhtml#image_aquisition) which
states:
1) No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or
introduced.
2) The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels,
fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (i.e., using
dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend.
3) Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable if they are applied
to every pixel in the image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or
misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. Non-
linear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure
legend.
For further information, image examples, and more detailed guidance, we advise
reading What’s in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation (reprinted in the Journal of
Cell Biology (2004) 166, 11-15).
If a cropped image is included in the main text of a paper (e.g. a few lanes of a gel), display the
full original image, including the appropriate controls, the molecular size ladder and/or the scale
as relevant, as a single figure in a Supplementary Material file to facilitate peer-review and for
subsequent on-line publication.
The statistical analysis applied to the quantitative data associated with images must clearly
define the statistical unit considered (e.g. the animal, the sample).
Image screening at submission: Digital images from submissions will be screened for any
evidence of improper manipulation or quality. If the original images cannot be supplied by
authors on request, the journal reserves the right to reject the submission or to withdraw the
published paper.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 16
Supplementary material
Authors can include supplementary material in any type of article. It will be peer-reviewed along with the rest
of the manuscript. Raw data should not be included in Supplementary Material anymore.
Detailed description of critical methodologies and procedures, results of validation and Quality
Assurance and codes of statistical analysis should be reported in Supplementary materials if not
included in the Material and methods section.
The main text of the article must stand alone without the supplementary material.
A link to this online supplementary material will be included by the Copy Editor at the proof
stage.
The title of the article, the list of authors, their affiliations and the journal name are included at
the top of the supplementary materials.
Raw data should be deposited in an official repository (https://www.re3data.org/) and its
reference should be quoted in the dedicated section ‘Data and model availability statement’.
PRESENTING YOUR PAPER – ABOUT FORMAT
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animal - Instructions for authors – June 2024 page 17
PRESENTING YOUR PAPER – ABOUT FORMAT
Authors should consult recent articles of animal, available at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/animal,
to make themselves familiar with the layout and style of animal.
A style sheet summarising the below indications is available on our website at https://animal-
journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/. We recommend that you use it to insert your text.
General presentation
Manuscript layout
Manuscripts should be prepared using a standard word processing programme such as Microsoft Word, and
presented in a clear, readable format with easily identified sections and headings.
Typed with double-line spacing with wide margins (2.5 cm)
Lines must be continuously numbered; the pages must also be numbered
Arial 12 should be used for the text, and Arial 11 for tables and references
Use of small paragraphs with less than 6 to 8 lines must be avoided
Footnotes in the main text are not allowed
Title and headings
The format of title and headings is in accordance with instructions in order to clarify the structure of the text.
Title – use bold, with an initial capital for the first word only and for words that ordinarily take
capitals.
Authors’ names – use lower case with initials in capitals (e.g. J. Doe).
Authors' addresses – use italics.
Headings are left aligned with an initial capital for the first word only, and are not numbered.
Limit sections to three heading levels – Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3.
Examples:
Material and methods
Experimental design
The experiment was designed as…
Analytical methods
Feed analyses
Feeds were analysed…
Milk fatty acid composition
The composition of…
Abbreviations
Standard abbreviations (Table 2) are not defined.
Define non-standard abbreviations at first appearance in the abstract and in the main text
Use a maximum of 10 non-standard abbreviations.
No non-standard abbreviation in the title, Implications, (sub)headings or in keywords.
Non-standard abbreviations used in tables and figures must be defined either as footnotes or in
the caption (see Illustrations).
Do not start a sentence with an abbreviation.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 18
Table 2 Standard abbreviations that do not require definition
Item
Definition
Standard abbreviation
ACTH
Adrenocorticotropic hormone
ADF
Acid detergent fibre
ADL
Acid detergent lignin
ADP
Adenosine diphosphate
ANOVA
Analysis of variance
ATP
Adenosine triphosphate
BLUP
Best linear unbiased prediction
BW
Body weight
CoA
Coenzyme A
CP
DM
Crude protein
Dry matter
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid
ELISA
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
FSH
Follicle-stimulating hormone
GLC
Gas-liquid chromatography
GLM
General Linear Model
HPLC
High performance (pressure) liquid chromatography
IGF
Insulin-like growth factor
IR
Infrared
LH
Luteinising hormone
MS
Mass spectrometry
n
Number of samples
NAD
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
NADP
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate
NADPH
2
Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate
NDF
Neutral detergent fibre
NIRS
Near infrared spectrophotometry
PAGE
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
PCR
PMSG
Polymerase chain reaction
Pregnant mare serum gonadotropin
RNA
Ribonucleic acid
SDS
Sodium dodecyl sulfate
UV
Ultraviolet
Standard statistical abbreviation
CV
coefficient of variation
df
degrees of freedom
EMS
expectation of mean square
F
variance ratio
LSD
least significant difference
MS
mean square
P
probability
r
simple correlation coefficient
R
multiple correlation coefficient
R
2
coefficient of determination
RSD
residual standard deviation
RMSE
root mean square error
SD
standard deviation
SE
standard error
SED
standard error of difference
SEM
standard error of mean
Sy.x
standard error of estimate
2
chi square
The names of the chemicals do not need to be written in full; chemical symbols are sufficient.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 19
Numbers and units
The format of numbers and units should be consistent.
Numerals
In the text, use words for numbers zero to nine (if not associated to a standard unit) and numerals
for higher numbers. In a series of two or more numbers, use numerals throughout irrespective
of their magnitude.
Do not begin sentences with numerals.
For values less than unity, 0 is inserted before the decimal point.
For large numbers in the text, substitute 10
n
for part of a number (e.g. 1.7 x 10
6
for 1 700 000).
Similarly, for small numbers, use 10-
n
for trailing zeros (e.g. 1.7 x 10
-3
for 0.0017).
Do not use a comma separator for numbers greater than 999 (e.g. 100 864).
The multiplication sign between numbers should be a cross (x).
Division of one number by another should be indicated as follows: 136/273.
Use numerals if a number is followed by a standard unit of measurement (e.g. 100 g, 6 days,
4th week).
Use numerals for dates, page numbers, class designations, fractions, expressions of time, e.g.
1 January 2007; type 2.
Dates are given with the month written in full and the day in numerals (i.e. 12 January not 12th
January).
For time use 24-h clock, e.g. 0905 h, 1320 h.
Units of measurement
The International System of Units (SI) should be used. A list of units is found at
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html. Recommendations for conversions and nomenclature
appeared in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (1972) 31, 239-247. Some frequently used units that
are not in the SI system are accepted: e.g. l for litre, ha for hectare, eV for electron-volt, Ci for curie.
Day, week, month and year are not abbreviated. The international unit for energy (energy value of feeds,
etc.) is Joule (or kJ or MJ).
A product of two units should be represented as N·m and a quotient as N/m (e.g. g/kg and not
g.kg
-1
).
When there are two quotients, represent as: g/kg per day (not g/kg/day).
Concentration or composition
Composition is expressed as mass per unit mass or mass per unit volume. The term content should not
be used for concentration or proportion.
Style
The style should be consistent.
Capitals
Initial capitals are used for proper nouns, for adjectives formed from proper names, for generic
names and for names of classes, orders and families.
Names of diseases are not normally capitalised.
Italics
Use italics for:
Authors’ addresses (see above).
Subheadings (see above).
Most foreign words, especially Latin words, e.g. ad hoc, ad libitum, in situ, inter alia, inter se,
in vitro, per se, post mortem, post partum, m. biceps femoris
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 20
but no italics for c.f., corpus luteum, e.g., etc., i.e., NB, via.
Mathematical unknowns and constants.
Symbols of genes or alleles e.g. HbA, Tf D.
Displayed quotes with speech marks
References
It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that all references are cited and accurate.
All sources must be cited in the text using the author-date system and must have an entry in the
reference list.
Names of organisations used as authors (e.g. Agricultural and Food Research Council) should
be written in full in the list of references and on first mention in the text. Subsequent mentions
may be abbreviated (e.g. AFRC).
In-text citation conventions
Cite references by name(s) of author(s) and year of publication by chronological order.
For single authors, use Doe (2014) or (Doe, 2014).
For two authors, use Doe and Smith (2014) or (Doe and Smith, 2014).
For three or more authors, use Doe et al. (2014) or (Doe et al., 2014).
When multiple references are cited, rank them preferably by chronological order using commas
and semicolons: (Doe, 1999; Smith and Doe, 2001; Doe et al., 2014 and 2015; Wright et al.,
2018a and 2018b).
List of references
In the reference list, references should be listed in alphabetical order by authors' names. Their formatting and
style should be as detailed below. An Endnote reference style is available at https://animal-journal.eu/animal-
journal/instructions-and-policies/
Authors' information and publication year
Author, A., Author, B., Author, C.D., Author, E., Year.
Include a comma after every family name and in-between different authors' names.
Include a period after every initial.
Commas before and full stops after publication years.
Note that all authors must be listed.
Publisher/Conference/University location
Publisher, City, State (2-letter abbreviation) for US places, Country
Examples:
AOCS Press, Champaign, IL, USA
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland
FAO, Rome, Italy
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 21
Journal article
Author(s), Year. Article title. Full Name of the Journal Volume, first-last page numbers.
Journal names are given in full, not in abbreviated form.
Issue numbers are not required.
Examples:
Martin, C., Morgavi, D.P., Doreau, M., 2010. Methane mitigation in ruminants: from microbe to the
farm scale. Animal 4, 351-365.
Berry, D.P., Wall, E., Pryce, J.E., 2014. Genetics and genomics of reproductive performance in dairy and
beef cattle. Animal 8 (suppl. 1), 115–121.
Knowles, T.G., Kestin, S.C., Haslam, S.M., Brown, S.N., Green, L.E., Butterworth, A., Pope, S.J., Pfeiffer,
D., Nicol, C.J., 2008. Leg disorders in broiler chickens: prevalence, risk factors and prevention. PLoS ONE
3, e1545.
Pérez-Enciso, M., Rincón, J.C., Legarra, A., 2015. Sequence- vs. chip-assisted genomic selection:
accurate biological information is advised. Genetics Selection Evolution 47, 43. doi:10.1186/s12711-
015-0117-5.
When the article is online but not yet printed, the right format is:
Zamaratskaia, G., Squires, E.J., 2008. Biochemical, nutritional and genetic effects on boar taint in
entire male pigs. Animal, doi:10.1017/S1751731108003674, Published online by Cambridge
University Press 17 December 2008.
Book (or official report)
Author(s)/Editor(s)/Institution, Year. Book title, volume number if more than 1, edition if applicable. Publisher’s
name, City, State (2-letter abbreviation) for US places, Country.
If a publisher is based in more than one place, use only the first one.
If multiple publishers are listed, it is acceptable to use only the first one.
Examples:
Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), 2004. Official methods of analysis, volume 2, 18th
edition. AOAC, Arlington, VA, USA.
Littell, R.C., Milliken, G.A., Stroup, W.W., Wolfinger, R.D., 1996. SAS system for mixed models. Statistical
Analysis Systems Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.
Martin, P., Bateson, P., 2007. Measuring behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
National Research Council (NRC), 2012. Nutrient requirements of swine, 11th edition. National
Academy Press, Washington, DC, USA.
Statistical Analysis Systems Institute, 2002. SAS user’s guide, version 9.00. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC,
USA.
Book chapter (or part of an official report)
Author(s), Year. Chapter title. In Title of book (ed. Editor, A., Editor, B.). Publisher’s name, City, State (2-letter
abbreviation) for US places, Country, pp. first-last page numbers.
If a publisher is based in more than one place, use only the first one.
If multiple publishers are listed, it is acceptable to use only the first one.
Example:
Nozière, P., Hoch, T., 2006. Modelling fluxes of volatile fatty acids from rumen to portal blood. In
Nutrient digestion and utilization in farm animals (ed. Kebreab, E., Dijkstra, J., Bannink, A., Gerrits,
W.J.J., France, J.). CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK, pp. 40–47.
Proceedings (or Conference papers)
Author(s), Year. Paper title. Proceedings of the (Book of abstracts or Paper presented at the) XXth Conference
title, date of the conference, location of the conference, pp. first-last page numbers or poster/article number.
Conference dates in the form Day Month Year.
PRESENTING YOUR PAPER – ABOUT FORMAT
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 22
Note – If proceedings are published in a journal, the article should be formatted as for a
journal article. If they have been published as chapters in a book, the article should be
formatted as for a chapter in a book.
Examples:
Bispo, E., Franco, D., Monserrat, L., González, L., Pérez, N., Moreno, T., 2007. Economic considerations
of cull dairy cows fattened for a special market. Proceedings of the 53rd International Congress of Meat
Science and Technology, 5-10 August 2007, Beijing, China, pp. 581–582.
Vautier, B., Quiniou, N., Van Milgen, J., Brossard, L., 2013. Accounting for variation among individual
pigs in deterministic growth models. Book of abstracts of the 64th annual meeting of the European
Federation of Animal Science, 26-30 August 2013, Nantes, France, p. 391.
Martuzzi, F., Summer, A., Malacarne, M., Mariani, P., 2001. Main protein fractions and fatty acids
composition of mare milk: some nutritional remarks with reference to woman and cow milk. Paper
presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production, 26-29
August 2001, Budapest, Hungary.
Website
Author(s)/Institution, Year. Document/Page title. Retrieved on DD Month YYYY (i.e. accessed date) from
http://www.web-page address (URL).
Example:
Bryant, P., 1999. Biodiversity and Conservation. Retrieved on 4 October 1999 from
http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/Titlpage.htm
Thesis
Author, A.B., Year. Thesis title. Type of thesis, University with English name, City, State (2-letter abbreviation)
for US places, Country (i.e. location of the University).
Example:
Vlaeminck, B., 2006. Milk odd- and branched-chain fatty acids: indicators of rumen digestion for
optimisation of dairy cattle feeding. PhD thesis, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Illustrations
Tables and Figures should be simple. The same material should not be presented in tabular and graphical form.
Tables
Each table is on a separate page at the end of the main text (one table per page).
Tables are numbered consecutively using Arabic numbering. They are referred to as Table 1,
Table 2, etc., with capital ‘T’, no italics.
Each table has its own explanatory caption. The caption is sufficient to permit the table to be
understood without reference to the text but remains concise. The animal species and the
experimental treatments or the issue under study are indicated in each caption. No details on
material and methods.
Units are clearly stated either in the caption (only if a limited number of units are used), or for
each (sub-)item. Standard abbreviations for units are used.
Tables are created in MS Word using the table function within the programme (without using
tabs). Layout can be portrait or landscape.
Single spacing is possible for long tables.
Variables are in rows and treatments in columns.
Separate columns are included to present the basic statistical results: error terms (preferably
residual error terms) and exact probabilities.
No vertical lines between columns and no horizontal lines between rows of data.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 23
Main items are aligned on the left-hand side. Sub-items are indented. For any (sub-)item, only
the first letter of the first word is in capitals.
Footnotes are referenced using superscript numbers.
Include as few abbreviations as possible.
To define non-standard abbreviations, include a footnote such as:
Abbreviations: AA = definition; BB = definition; etc.
Treatment means are reported with meaningful decimals. The number of significant figures
given should indicate the precision of the experiment. In practice, quote as significant all figures
that are certain plus the first uncertain one.
Indicators of residual variability (e.g. SEM, RSD, RMSE) should be reported with one more
digit than mean values.
Figures
Specific guidelines are provided for images (see Image Integrity and Standards), and detailed information
for preparing your artwork is available at https://www.elsevier.com/authors/author-schemas/artwork-
and-media-instructions.
Figure captions are all listed on a separate page at the end of the main text. They are sufficiently
detailed to allow the figures to be understood without reference to the text. The animal species
and the experimental treatments or the issue under study are indicated in each caption. No details
on material and methods.
Abbreviations used in each figure have to be defined in the caption and kept to a minimum.
Figures are numbered consecutively in the text using Arabic numbering. They are referred to as
Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc., with capital ‘F’, no italics.
Figures are not inserted in the text. Each figure (without caption) is uploaded separately with
one separate file per figure and no embedded captions in these files.
Figure size should be readable in a width of approximately 175 mm (i.e. the maximum size of
printing over two columns). Easy reading of the figure is required.
Ensure that the font size is large enough to be clearly readable at the final print size (should not
be less than 8 point, or 2.8 mm, after reduction).
Symbols and line types should allow different elements to be easily distinguished (generally,
solid symbols are used before open symbols, and continuous lines before dotted or dashed lines).
Figures should be provided as TIFF or EPS files. Other formats, such as MS Word, MS Excel,
MS PowerPoint, AI and layered PSD (up to CS5), are permitted, provided that figures have
been originally created in these formats and that the embedded artwork is at a suitable
resolution. If your drawing/graphics application does not provide suitable ‘export’ options, then
copy/paste or import the graphic into a Word document.
Resolutions for TIFF figures at the estimated publication size must be:
For line figures (e.g. graphs) – 1000 dpi (3600 px for 1 column, 7500 px for 2 columns).
For figures with different shadings (e.g. bar charts) – 500 dpi (1800 px for 1 column,
3800 px for 2 columns).
For halftone images (e.g. photographs) – 300 dpi (1100 px for 1 column, 2300 px for
2 columns).
Supplementary material
Supplementary material should be presented according to the instructions for the main text. It will not be copy-
edited and authors are entirely responsible for the presentation of the supplementary material according to
animal’s style.
In the main text, supplementary material is referred to as:
"Supplementary Table S1", "Supplementary Table S2", etc. for tables
"Supplementary Figure S1", "Supplementary Figure S2", etc. for figures
"Supplementary Material S1", "Supplementary Material S2", etc. for other material.
For example: "The list of references used for the meta-analysis is given in Supplementary
Material S1 and Supplementary Table S1 reports, etc.".
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 24
Supplementary material is submitted along with the main manuscript in a separate file and
identified at uploading as "Supplementary File – for Online Publication Only".
The title of the article, the list of authors and the journal name are included at the top of the
supplementary material.
No line numbering.
Single spacing.
Unlike the figures included in the main text, each supplementary figure has its own title
embedded below the figure.
SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
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animal - Instructions for authors – June 2024 page 25
SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT
Before submitting your manuscript, you should self-evaluate if your manuscript is in scope and standards
of the journal and ready for peer-review using the submission checklist at (https://animal-
journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/).
Companion manuscripts should be submitted at the same time.
Submission system
Manuscript submission is made electronically through Editorial Manager directly via
http://www.editorialmanager.com/animal. Authors should ensure that the email address of the corresponding
author is correct.
Any query about a submission to the Editorial Office or the Editor should be addressed through
Editorial Manager.
Authors can check the status of their manuscript using Editorial Manager.
Before submission, any query to the Editorial Office for clarification of instructions to authors,
to ask if paper is within the scope or if a review article is of interest to the journal etc should be
addressed through questions@animal-journal.eu.
Please see https://www.ariessys.com/wp-content/uploads/EM-Author-English.pdf for the
author tutorial, including the Logging In details.
Files
Separate files are submitted for the main text, figures, Supplementary materials, Covering letter, Permissions
and responses to reviewers.
You must submit separate files for:
The main text which includes the full text, tables, figure captions, but excludes figures. The file
should be in DOC/DOCX or RTF format (PDF is not accepted).
Each figure (without captions). At submission in Editorial Manager, enter a description of each
figure (Figure 1, Figure 2a, etc.) in the appropriate box.
Supplementary online-only materials, if relevant.
The covering letter stating any comment and information that might be helpful to the editors
and Editorial Office.
The PCI description and recommendation, along with review reports, for PCI-recommended
articles.
The response to referees’ comments for revised versions.
The Highlights that consist of no more than five bullet points, each containing a maximum of
85 characters (including spaces), that succinctly convey the key messages of the article.
The Author contributions for the peer-review process. Check that contributions of each author
declared in the online submission system are accurate.
Written permissions to reproduce copyrighted material.
The authors must obtain a written permission to reproduce material that is owned by a third party (for
example in review papers); they must also include the relevant credit in their paper. Forms and
guidance are available at
https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies/copyright/permissions.
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animal - Instructions for authors - June 2024 page 26
File/item types in Editorial Manager
Authors are required to select the appropriate item for each file to be uploaded at the ‘Attach Files’
step.
Select ‘Manuscript’ for the main text.
Select ‘Figure’ for each figure.
Select ‘Supplementary File - for Online Publication Only’ for the supplementary material
Select ‘Highlights’ for the five bullet points.
Select ‘Author contributions’ for the description of author contributions according to CRediT.
Select ‘Covering Letter’ for the covering letter.
Select ‘Preprint Recommendation files’ for the PCI description, recommendation and reviews.
Select ‘Copyright and Permissions’ for the permissions to reproduce copyrighted material.
Select ‘Response to Referee Comments’ for the response to referees’ comments.
Required information
At submission in Editorial Manager, detailed information is required
Authors who submit a manuscript to the online submission system also have to provide:
The type of article (research article, short communication, review article, special issue paper,
opinion paper, etc.).
Use of AI assisted technologies in the writing process
An ORCID identifier for the corresponding author at least.
The contributions of each author according to the CRediT taxonomy
The email address of each co-author.
The section of the scope which is the most appropriate for their manuscript (https://animal-
journal.eu/instructions-and-policies/).
The names and e-mail addresses of at least 3 potential reviewers for all articles except for
opinion papers and letters. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with the authors or the
submission. Authors should nominate an international spread of reviewers; they should not
nominate reviewers who are their regular collaborators or who work in the same institution or
university. The editorial board will use its discretion when selecting reviewers and the suggested
reviewers may not be used.
The names of up to 3 opposed reviewers in case of established conflict of interest.
The confirmation that it is an original contribution approved by all authors, that all permissions
to reproduce copyrighted material have been obtained and that any conflict of interest is
declared in the ‘Declaration of interest’ section.
COPYRIGHT AGREEMENT AND PERMISSION
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animal - Instructions for authors – June 2024 page 27
LICENCES TO PUBLISH & ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE
Animal is a Gold Open Access journal, which publishes articles under a Creative Commons license. As
described in the Publication policies document available at https://animal-journal.eu/instructions-and-
policies/, authors will be asked to complete a ‘User Licence Agreement’ and accepted articles will be
subject to a Gold Open Access Publication Fee.