Required statements for all manuscripts

To support ethical, transparent, and high-quality publishing, all submissions to EcoScribe journals must include the statements below. Manuscripts missing these items may be returned to authors before peer review.

Authors may copy-paste the headings and adapt the wording to match their study.

1) Ethical Approval

Required for: studies involving human participants, identifiable personal data, or animals.

Include:

Name of ethics committee / IRB
Approval reference number
Approval date (if available)

Copy-paste examples

Ethical approval: “Ethical approval for this study was obtained from [Name of Committee] (Reference No: [####]).”
Not applicable: “Ethical approval was not required for this study because [brief justification].”

2) Informed Consent / Participant Permission

Required for: human participants and/or identifiable personal data, interviews, surveys, clinical data, images.

Copy-paste examples

Consent obtained: “Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection.”
Waiver: “A waiver of informed consent was approved by [Committee] due to [reason], and participant confidentiality was strictly maintained.”
Not applicable: “Informed consent was not applicable because [brief justification].”

3) Conflict of Interest (COI)

Required for all manuscripts.

Copy-paste examples

No conflicts: “The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”
With conflicts: “Author [Initials] reports [relationship/interest]. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.”

4) Funding Statement

Required for all manuscripts (state funding or no funding).

Copy-paste examples

Funded: “This work was supported by [Funder Name] (Grant No: [####]). The funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript preparation.”
No funding: “This research received no external funding.”

5) Author Contributions

Strongly recommended for all manuscripts (required for some article types).

Use initials and specify roles.

Copy-paste example
“Author contributions: [AB] conceived the study. [CD] and [EF] collected data. [AB] and [CD] analyzed the data. [EF] drafted the manuscript. All authors reviewed, revised, and approved the final version and agree to be accountable for the work.”

6) Data Availability Statement

Required for all manuscripts.

State whether data are open, restricted, or not shareable.

Copy-paste examples

Open data: “The dataset(s) supporting this study are available at [repository name] ([link/DOI]).”
Restricted data: “Data are not publicly available due to [privacy/legal/contractual] restrictions. Access may be requested from the corresponding author subject to approval by [authority/institution].”
No data generated: “No new data were generated or analyzed in this study.”
Aggregated data only: “Only aggregated data are available in the article and supplementary files; individual-level data cannot be shared due to confidentiality.”

7) AI/LLM Use Disclosure (if applicable)

EcoScribe journals allow responsible use of AI tools for language editing or figure preparation only if disclosed. AI tools must not be listed as authors.

Copy-paste examples

No AI used: “The authors declare that no AI/LLM tools were used in the writing or preparation of this manuscript.”
Language editing only: “AI/LLM tools were used for language editing and grammar improvement (Tool: [Name, Version], Purpose: language polishing). The authors reviewed and take full responsibility for the content.”
Figures/illustrations: “AI tools were used to assist in figure preparation (Tool: [Name, Version]). All outputs were reviewed and validated by the authors.”

8) Acknowledgements (optional)

Acknowledge non-author contributions (technical support, data access, field teams).

Copy-paste example
“Acknowledgements: The authors thank [Name/Institution] for [specific support].”

9) Reporting/Registration (where relevant)

Clinical trials: include registration number and registry.
Systematic reviews: state whether a protocol exists (e.g., PROSPERO) if applicable.

Copy-paste examples