Tropics

Tropics is an international, peer-reviewed, and Open Access journal published twice yearly with one volume comprising two issues by the Japan Society of Tropical Ecology (JASTE). Tropics publishes manuscripts covering all aspects of ecology and ecology-related science about tropical regions. Manuscripts are limited to three types: original articles, reviews, and field notes. Each manuscript must be a report of original research that has not been previously published in whole or in part, and is not under consideration for publication in any other journal except for a preprint server. Manuscripts should be written in English.
  
The journal is open to the results of original research, experimental or descriptive, and to significant reviews of aspects of the ecology and ecology-related science about tropical regions. Its aim is not only to act as a valued means of communication between Japanese ecologists and other field scientists, but also to stimulate the research activities of ecologists and scientists of tropical regions. Those interested in contributing to Tropics are highly encouraged to submit their work.  

Special issues of monographs or reviews may be published on occasion by decision of the editorial board. 

Manuscripts published on a preprint server can be submitted to Tropics under the following conditions. The manuscript must be the original version of the manuscript describing primary research. The revised manuscript, following reviewers' comments, and the manuscript accepted to Tropics should not be posted to the preprint server. When the manuscript is accepted and published in Tropics, the authors should update the information on the preprint server to make a link to the manuscript in Tropics on J-Stage. 

Instructions to Authors 
Before submitting a manuscript to Tropics, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the Instructions to Authors.
https://www.jaste.website/_files/ugd/2433ea_87a4119f360141fe8be58b1dded9fe22.pdf

1. Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief: Takeshi TOMA (FFPRI) Forest Ecology and Rehabilitating Degraded Forests
Shin-ichiro Aiba (Kagoshima Univ.) Forest Ecology
Ryota Aoyagi (Kyoto Univ.) Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics
Makoto Ehara (FFPRI) Policy and Livelihoods
Shun Hongo (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature / Kyoto Univ.) Wildlife Management, Mammal Ecology
Futoshi Ishiguri (Utsunomiya Univ.) Wood Science
Fuminori Ito (Kagawa Univ.) Ecology and Taxonomy of Insects
Koichi Kamiya (Ehime Univ.) Population Genetics
Shumpei Kitamura (Ishikawa Pref. Univ.) Ecology of Birds
Taiki Mori (FFPRI) Material Dynamics
Miyabi Nakabayashi (Hiroshima Univ.) Ecology of Mammals
Masahiko Ota (Nagasaki Univ.) Policy and Society
Daisuke Terauchi (Tsukuba Univ.) Commons and Livelihood
Reiji Yoneda (FFPRI) Silviculture

2. Publication ethics and malpractice statement
Research misconducts and malpractice harm individual and society.  Although researchers may get temporal benefits from their publication by misconducts and malpractices, such publication retard the advance of science and the authors also suffer disadvantages much larger than the temporal benefits once the misconducts revealed. The editors of Tropics work hard to avoid publishing research papers from misconducts and malpractices in Tropics. In addition to those efforts, we need cooperation and understanding from the authors to avoid misconducts and malpractices. So, the editorial board requests all authors to take "3. Authors' responsibility" listed below, before submitting their manuscript to Tropics.  

3. Authors' responsibilities
The authors should confirm that the study was carried out within appropriate ethical frameworks of their society and also scientific fields. To avoid publishing research results by malpractices, the editorial board requests all authors to confirm following points before submitting their manuscript to Tropics.  

・The study has not been published and is not currently under review in other journals.
・All authors have contributed to the study and read the submitted version of the manuscript.
・All authors have committed for avoiding research misconduct such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism as well as multiple submission of the same research results and inappropriate authorship.
・All authors have agreed to submit the manuscript to Tropics as well as to participate the peer review process of Tropics.
・All authors have declared any possible conflict of interests or they have confirmed that there is no conflict of interests.
・All authors have agreed that the editorial board may request authors to show evidences they followed necessary ethical flamework and they will respond the request.
・All authors have agreed that they transfer the copyright of their articles to JASTE effective when the articles are accepted for publication and JASTE publishes the articles under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International license.

4. Submission of manuscripts
Submissions to Tropics should include the following three items:
(1) Submission Form downloaded from the web site of the Japan Society of Tropical Ecology (JASTE)
https://www.jaste.website/_files/ugd/2433ea_316934a2cc7242d39e34a6f1b5e4fff7.docx?dn=Tropics_Submiss...
(2)A Microsoft word file containing the title page and text pages of the manuscript prepared in accordance with the Instruction to Authors.
https://www.jaste.website/_files/ugd/2433ea_87a4119f360141fe8be58b1dded9fe22.pdf
(3) A PDF file containing the tables and figures. Authors should submit these three items to the Tropics Editorial Board at the following address:  tropics.jaste@gmail.com

5. Peer-review process
The TROPICS Editorial Board reserves the right to accept or reject manuscripts for publication. Papers are first reviewed for suitability by the Editorial Board. Suitable papers are then critically reviewed by two or more experts. Based on the recommendation of the reviewers, the editorial board will make one of the following decisions:

A. Your manuscript was accepted for publication.
B. Your manuscript will be accepted if revised adequately according to the comments.
C. Please revise according to the comments and resubmit.
D. It is recommended to submit your revised manuscript as a new manuscript for an adequate category.
E. Please decline submission. 

For decisions B and C, the authors are expected to submit revised manuscript within one month from the decision.

6. Article processing charge 
Tropics is supported by membership fees, and JASTE is able to subsidize the article processing charges (APCs) for articles whose first author is a member of the society. For articles whose first author is a non-member of JASTE, an APC (JPY 70,000 or USD 500) is charged upon acceptance. There are no submission fees for any authors.

Anyone interested in becoming a member of JASTE may contact to jaste.adm@gmail.com

7. Ownership and management
The copyright of the articles and other documents published by the Japan Society of Tropical Ecology (JASTE) and disclosed on the JASTE's website belong to JASTE. 

Copyright and Open Access
Tropics is fully Open Access and uses the Creative Commons International license. Authors are required to transfer the copyright of their articles to JASTE effective when the articles are accepted for publication. JASTE publishes the articles under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International license, which allows users to share and adapt an article, even commercially, if appropriate credit is given.  

Extent of Copyright
Copyright means all the rights defined by the Copyright Law of Japan (Revised on 21st December 2004).  

8. Archiving
All articles published in TROPICS are archived in J-STAGE.  The articles will be available even after TROPICS is no longer published. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/static/pages/JstageOverview/-char/en