Author Guidelines

The Journal of the Wildfire Conservancy is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review process. The Editorial Board ensures a thorough and fair process followibng the highest ethical and scientific publishing standards. All submissions shall undergo preliminary assessment to ensure content meets the basic scope and quality for the Journal. Like other publication processes, our Editors will select reviewers based on their experience, background, and education. After at least two peer-reviews are completed, the Editorial Board will let the Author(s) know whether the manuscrips is either accepted as is, conditionally accepted with suggested revisions or clarification, or rejected.  If there are any questions from the Author(s) or questions about a decision, the final outcome of the submission will be made by an Editor-in-Chief. 

Peer Review: The basic principles and expectations of peer reviewers are set out in the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents, meaning that the editorial staff, editors and external reviewers shall not discuss, share, or divulge information about a manuscript to anyone without the authors' permission. The only reason why details about a submission might be passed to a third party without the authors’ permission is if the Editor-in-Chief is made aware of, or suspects serious research misconduct or ethical violations. 

APA Style Guide: Authors are asked to use the APA Style for their manuscripts (https://apastyle.apa.org/). This includes all APA guidelines for all available publication types, including:

• Original research papers (quantative, qualitative articles, and mixed methods) - limited to 5,000 words (not including literature cited)
• Literature Reviews and Annotated Bibliographies - limited to 2,500 words (not including literature cited)
• Conference Proceedings - Word limits to be discussed with Editor-in-Cheif
• Opinion Articles and Book Reviews - limited to 2,500 words (not including literature cited)
• Legislative Updates and Analysis - limited to 1,500 words (not including literature cited)
• Student Research Papers and Posters - limited to 2,500 words (not including literature cited)

Comment/Response Articles: The Editor-in-Chief will consider comments on manuscripts published in the journal within the past year. If accepted throhg an initial review, any negative or critical comments will be provided to the Author(s) of the original paper, and be afforded an opportunity to provide a response. If accepted, both the Comment and the Response will be published in the same issue.

All Comment articles shall be concise, impersonal, and contribute to advancing a constructive dialogue or issue. The goal of these submissions is to encourage posistive progress and debate on critical issues or topics, and should not exceed 1,000 words.

Submission Details: Please prepare your manuscript in the latest version of Microsoft Word. All submissions should be written in clear and concise English. Submissions with spelling/gramatical errors, unclear expressions, or ambiguous language will be returned for reworking prior to any further assessment.

All submissions should be prepared in 12pt Times New Roman font, in a single column, and double spaced for all text (including references, table, and figure captions). Sequential numbers shall be included at the bottom center of each page.

We encourage authors to ensure that their work is accessible by both a technical and general audience for a broad readership. 

References/Literature Cited: Authors are expected to closely adhere to the APA style guidelines for citations within the text and in the references/literature cited section. In the text, cite references chronologically by author and date (Smith 2023); do not number them. Check that all references cited in the text are listed in the References list, and vice versa.

Acknowledgements: Any colleagues who do not meet the criteria to be included as an author should instead be acknowledged in the manuscript. In addition, any sources of financial or substantial support to the original work should be acknowledged. Authors shoudl place Acknowledgements after the Discussion and before the References for most standard manuscripts.

Tables and Figures: All tables and figures should be included at the very bottom of the manuscript. They should be referenced appropriately in the manuscript and number sequentially (Table 1, Figure 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of apperance.

Tables should be formatted in the Word table function, or in Excel. Each table should contain a concise title. Provide explanatory material relevant to the whole table in a separate headnote above the table. 

Figures should likewise include concise explanatory material relevent to the fiture in a separate headnote above the figure. Figures should be of sufficient size and resolution to be considered "high quality" in a standard paper-based publication (8.5x11 paper size). If any photographs are included, the Author must provide a statement or documentation acknowledging there are no copyright restrictions or infringements, or that proper permission has been obtained. If needed, include the credit in the photograph, and confirm that any persons that can be identified in the photograh have given their permission to be included in the publication. Authors are responsible for all permissions. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for any unauthorized reuse of images or materials.

Authors will work with the Editor once the manuscript is accepted to provide final high quality versions of the figures and tables. Placement and sizing of these within the final publication will be at the discretion of the publisher and editor based on space needs and formatting. 

Supplemental Materials: Given that this publication is both open source and online, this format allow us to create unique digital content that can be used to supplement the publication of your original work. This means that our authors are able to include supplemental materials that may be of interest to our readers. For example, some publications may include recommendations, guidelines, policies, or best practices that can be printed in a poster or flyer format for distrubution to fire stations or training bases. They may include short informational videos or tutorials. The Journal also encourages authors to share their research data to help foster transparency and reproducibility of research. Authors may want to include copies of the original data, analytical models, coding, or other materials that the author may have to support their paper.

The Journal is excited about this opportunity, and encourages prospective authors to reach out to our Editors to discuss support for enhanced opportunities for firefighters, decision-makers, and readers to further engage in their work. 

Conflicts of Interest: If appropriate, authors should include a ´Conflicts of Interest´ section at the end of the manuscript. It should identify any financial or non-financial (political, personal, professional) interests/relationships that may, or could potentially be, interpreted to have influenced the manuscript.

Proofs and Approvals: Page proofs of the final formatted publication will be emailed to the author for checking before publication. Proofs should be checked and returned by email to the Editor. Only essential changes and corrections of printing errors will be accepted at proof stage.