Instructions for Authors

SILVA FENNICA

Before you submit

i Publishing Agreement

As a part of the manuscript submission you will need to accept the following Publishing Agreement. If your manuscript is rejected, this agreement is automatically cancelled.

Silva Fennica is an open access journal published by the Finnish Society of Forest Science (hereafter “Publisher”). All articles published in Silva Fennica (hereinafter, the “Articles”) shall be publicly available on the Internet according to the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 attribution - share alike licence.

The Author retains the copyright of their Article. The Publisher has the right to publish the Articles and keep them available for the public in any current or future publishing format. Publisher may also transfer publishing rights and/or maintenance of the Silva Fennica website to others who respect the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Silva Fennica accepts deposition of the final, edited Publisher's Version of Record of the Article in other repositories e.g., personal, institutional, or professional if the repository respects the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. The Author has the right to deposit the Author’s Accepted Manuscriptto any external repository. If the manuscript has been published as a preprint, the preprint should be amended with information on the publication of the final version in Silva Fennica. All articles deposited in an external repository must include a full bibliographic reference to the Article published in Silva Fennica, including DOI, and a mention on the publication with CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

ii Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned to authors. This is the most extensive list. There are some minor modifications depending on the article type.

• I/We own the copyright of the manuscript or otherwise have the legal right to grant the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence to the article based on this manuscript if accepted for publication.
• I/We confirm that the submitted manuscript is new, has not been published in another journal, is not a translation of an article published in another language and is not being considered for publication in any other electronic or print journal.
• I/We confirm that all authors agree about authorship, publication of the article, order of authors in the article, and naming of the corresponding author for all correspondence with the publisher.
• I/We confirm that all authors have read the submitted manuscript version and agree on its contents. I/We understand that the authors are collectively responsible on the contents of the article.
• All required metadata on authors is submitted to the manuscript management system, including the ORCID-identifier, if an author has one.
• All authors accept that the following author information is published together with the published article: Name, affiliation, e-mail and ORCID identifier. We understand that these data or part of them will be submitted to the reference databases where Silva Fennica is listed.
• I/We understand that an article processing charge (APC) of 900 € (authors from high-income countries) or 600 € (authors from upper-middle income countries) must be paid on all accepted manuscripts before publication. I/We commit to publish the manuscript in Silva Fennica if accepted in the peer-review.
• I/We report how I/we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study. (Research article, research note and data note)
• I/We report all databases used in the literature search, all search terms applied, data inclusion and exclusion criteria and the use of artificial intelligence. (Review article)
• I/We upload the metadata form with the manuscript.
• I/We commit to make our research data and computational codes openly available in a public repository with a CC licence if the manuscript is accepted for publication in Silva Fennica.
• If you answered no to the previous question, write your justification for not opening your data and codes here. The answer will be revised before sending the manuscript for peer-review.
• If your research data and codes are open at the time of submission, give the address. If the data are open for review purposes only, this information will be handled as confidential by the Editorial Office of Silva Fennica and the reviewers.
• Did you use generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies in the writing process?
• If you answered yes, describe the tool(s) used, why you used the tool(s) and how you used them.

1 General

Silva Fennica publishes significant new knowledge on forest sciences. The scope covers research on forestry and forest ecosystems. Silva Fennica aims to increase understanding on forest ecosystems, and sustainable use and conservation of forest resources.

A contribution should have broad international interest for being published in Silva Fennica. The contribution should be novel or a significant replication study as defined in point 3 below.

Submission of a manuscript to Silva Fennica is taken to imply that the manuscript has not been published in another journal, is not a translation of a journal article published in another language and is not being considered for publication in any other electronic or print journal. However, Silva Fennica accepts manuscripts that have been posted to a trusted preprint server e.g., BioRxiv. In the “Comments for the Editor” box, you must state if the manuscript has been posted in a preprint server and provide the DOI of the preprint.

Silva Fennica follows the single-blind peer-review practice, i.e. reviewers are anonymous to authors. Subject Editors and authors know each other’s identity.

Silva Fennica is an open access journal, in which the articles are published with the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. You retain the copyright on your work. Silva Fennica collects an article processing charge (APC) on published articles. In 2022, the APC is 900 € for authors from high-income countries and 600 € for authors from upper-middle income countries. An APC waiver programme exists for authors from low-income and lower-middle income countries. Read more in Journal policies.

Articles published in Silva Fennica are assigned to volumes and issues. That notwithstanding, new articles are posted on the website as soon as they are in their final form. All articles are published both as html files with supporting information and as printer-friendly pdf files.

Silva Fennica is published in English. You must consistently follow only one English standard (e.g., UK or US English). Follow a concise scientific writing style. You are also responsible of ensuring that the manuscript does not contain grammatical, orthographic, stylistics, or other linguistic errors. Manuscripts that are not written in good English will be rejected without peer-review.

2 Article Categories

Research articles report findings of original research. They follow a structure that best fits to the research problem e.g., when reporting experimental work, the recommended structure is Introduction – Material and methods – Results – Discussion. Results and discussion items should never be combined. Conclusions chapter may be separated with a title. Modelling studies must include an adequate testing/validation of the model, verification of enhanced performance, or applications. Research article text is recommended to be limited to a maximum of 8 000 words counted from the beginning of Introduction to the end of Discussion/Conclusions. If your manuscript is significantly longer, justify the need for a long presentation in the “Comments for the Editor” box. The abstract must not be longer than 250 words. Submission of longer abstracts is disabled in the system. Research data and computational codes, on which a research article is based, must be made open before publishing.

Review articles are literature-based critical surveys summarising and analysing particular fields or topics in forest science. The Editor-in-Chief may also invite renowned scientists to write a review article on a topical issue of general relevance. The abstract must not be longer than 400 words. Submission of longer abstracts is disabled in the system. Meta analysis codes, if applicable, must be made open before publishing. The work flow e.g., search, inclusion and exclusion of materials, must be described in a transparent and reproducible manner.

Research notes report preliminary or tentative results of projects underway e.g., test of a research methodology, or completed research with limited scope but relevant to an international readership. Research note follows the structure of a research article but it must not be longer than 2 500 words and include more than 4 tables and/or figures. The word count is from the beginning of Introduction to the end of Discussion/Conclusions. The abstract must not be longer than 250 words. Submission of longer abstracts is disabled in the system. Research data and computational codes, on which a research note is based, must be opened before publication.

Data notes describe an open data set deposited to a trusted open repository. They contain a clear and exhaustive description of the dataset: details of data collection (sampling, measurements, all possible modifications, exclusions if any, etc.), its content, its potential use, and all the metadata required to access the dataset. The data set must have a persistent identification (DOI, URN, Handle). List also all published articles, in which the data set has been used. Data note must not be longer than 2 500 words and include more than 4 tables and/or figures. The word count is from the beginning of Introduction to the end of Discussion. The abstract must not be longer than 250 words. Submission of longer abstracts is disabled in the system.

Discussion articles put forward fresh ideas or new views about the theory and practice of science, point out problems needing the attention of researchers, or comment on topical issues. The views presented must be justified with adequate references to earlier work. Discussion articles are revised by the scientific editors of Silva Fennica. Discussion article is normally not longer than 2 500 words and includes no more than 4 tables and/or figures.

Commentaries are always invited by the Editor-in-Chief. They may ask a renowned scientist to write a comment on an important manuscript submitted to Silva Fennica or another topical issue.

3 Openness and transparency

3.1 background

3.1.1 justification

Research data and computer codes used for analysing them are important products of scientific research. Open data make the full evaluation of research results possible. Only open data make a study really reproducible. Value of the data collected for solving a particular research problem may gain new value over time e.g., as a part of a time series, as a comparison point for analysing changes or as a part of the cultural heritage. New analytical methods may reveal phenomena that the original data analysis missed. Accumulation of data on a particular field like genomics makes global reanalyses possible. Open data offer also new cooperation possibilities for scientists, research groups and organisations. All this calls for data openness and reliable description, or metadata, of it. Based on these considerations, Silva Fennica requests that data and analytical codes, on which articles published in the journal are based, must be opened. This request concerns manuscripts submitted on or after 1 February 2024.

Research data refer to the data that are generated and/or utilised in the research you report in your article. They may consist of data from several primary sources. Opening of them requires a few clear steps:

1. Check that your research data file(s) is clear and save it in an archivable, machine-readable format. We recommend csv format for alphanumeric data, txt for text data, tiff for graphics and mp4 for videos and multimedia files.
2. Prepare rich metadata on your data. Instructions on the contents of metadata can be found at https://silvafennica.fi/page/metadata.
3. Deposit your research data and the metadata in a trusted repository. The chapter 3.6 of these author instructions gives basic guidance on selecting repositories. The repository must give a persistent identifier (e.g., DOI or URN) and a Creative Commons licence for your data.

Now your data are open following the FAIR principlesi.e., they are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

In the following, you will find exact instructions for many conceptual and technical questions about opening data and codes. All instructions do not apply to all cases. You must apply the instructions to your material. On the other hand, we hope that most authors would find the necessary information.

3.1.2 Types of data

Data may have different characteristics based on its intended use or maturity i.e., degree of processing. In these instructions, we use the following definitions:

Raw data refer to data in their original form, as they are obtained directly from the source and before they are processed in any way.

Research data refer to data that are generated and/or utilised in research. This is the data set, on which your article is based and which you must open. They can consist of data from several primary sources.

Published research data refer to a referenceable data entity. At a minimum, their metadata are publicly available and any restrictions to their availability are determined in a machine-readable manner.

Anonymised data refer to a dataset where information that directly identifies research objects is removed. This may be e.g., personally identifying information or exact location (coordinates) of threatened organisms studied.

Curated data refer to a data set, which has been reviewed for removing all information or combinations of information that may reveal the identity of research objects. For example, age and profession of a forest owner may reveal their identity in a small municipality while this would not happen in a large town.

Metadata are formed by a structured description of your data. The metadata include keywords for finding your data, instructions for accessing your data, copyright and licencing information, definition of all variables, a concise description on collection and/or measurements used for creating the data and information on publications based on the data and/or other use of the data.

Paradata refer to the information on materials and methods used for creating a data set. A transparently written Materials and Methods section of an article forms acceptable paradata.

3.1.3 Transparency and openness promotion guidelines

Since January 2021, Silva Fennica applies the Transparency and openness promotion guidelines of the Center for Open Science. We started on Level 1 of all the eight points described below i.e., we encourage good practices and reviewers are instructed to check for them. Starting February 2024, all submissions will be required to adhere to the level 2 in citation standards, data transparency, analytic methods transparency, and design and analysis transparency. This level requires data, materials and code openness as a condition for publishing in Silva Fennica.

1) Citation standards refer to the use of community-based standards, such as nomenclature and reporting standards, where applicable. Silva Fennica requires e.g., that taxonomic nomenclature follows an internationally recognised database and soils are classified according to the World Reference Base for Soil Resources. If publicly available data not produced by the authors are used in an article, they must be cited according to the instructions of DataCite in the list of references. These requirements contribute towards fulfilling the interoperability and reusability of data. See chapter 8 of these author instructions for detailed instructions.

2) Your research data must be open as a condition for publishing your research article, research note or data note in Silva Fennica. In a dedicated section of the article you must write out how to access your data. If the data are not open for an acceptable reason, you are requested to explain why they are not open. Each case of not opening your data must be agreed before submission with the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor of Silva Fennica. Open data must be posted in a trusted open repository for wide reusability. Even in the case that your data are not open for an acceptable reason, the metadata of your data set must be open.

3) Analytic methods or code transparency is needed for understanding how results were derived from the research data. Your code must be open as a condition for publishing your research article, research note or data note in Silva Fennica. If you run meta analyses for your review article, the code must be open. Exceptions for code openness must be accepted before submission by the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor. You may submit short codes with the manuscript as supplementary files while extensive codes are better to deposit to a trusted open repository.

4) Research materials are the materials used for conducting the research or collected during the research but are not in a directly analysable form. Research materials may be digital e.g., questionnaires, survey instruments and scripts used in social sciences, video used in forest work research or photographs used for identifying plants. Physical materials include e.g., voucher specimens of plants collected for a particular research project or cryopreserved microbia. Collection and archival materials (e.g., plant specimens studied in a museum) must be identified so that other scientist may find them. You must state if materials are available and if not, why. See point 8.2 for these instructions.

5) Design and analysis transparency are essential for understanding how a study was conducted and analysed. When submitting a manuscript to Silva Fennica, you are required to state: “We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study.” See point 5.7 for detailed instructions.

6-7) Preregistration of studies and analysis plans refer to depositing research and analysis plans in a trusted open repository where they get a persistent identifier. The objective is to reduce sloppy research practices. Preregistrations are not always practical in forestry field research but when they can be used i.e., it is possible to define the whole research process in advance, they should be used. Silva Fennica encourages preregistration of studies and analysis plans. You are requested to state if preregistrations exist and give the link to them if you have done preregistration(s).

8) Replication is in the heart of reproducibility. All new research findings should be verified by independently replicating the study, yet forms of replication may differ in different contexts. Silva Fennica encourages submission of replication studies in the following cases:

• Direct repetition, when it is needed for verifying the results of an experiment opening new insights to the functioning of organisms or communities or those promising enhancement to forestry practice.
• Data reanalyses that contribute towards accepting or rejecting new results.
• Conceptual reproductions, which help to verify original research results and enhance our understanding on the generality of the research outcomes.

3.2 What needs to be opened?

Data and codes, on which a research article, research note or data note published in Silva Fennica are based, must be made open. If you feel that you have justified reasons for not opening your data, you must agree on the exception before submission with the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor. Metadata of your data set must be unconditionally open even when the data set itself is not. Computer code(s) used for analyses documented in the article must also be open. If you submit a manuscript for a review article, you must open the codes used for meta analyses, if any. Silva Fennica does not request opening of your raw data, yet we encourage opening them.

Before submitting an original research manuscript or a data note to Silva Fennica, you must prepare the metadata of your research data using the form you find on our metadata page and upload it as “dataset” type file with your manuscript. You must commit to open your research data and codes if the manuscript is accepted for publication and give them to the Editorial Office of Silva Fennica upon request. On request, you must provide access to your data to the Editorial Office during peer-review even if the data will not be made publicly available. The Editorial Office has the right to share confidentially your data and codes with the peer-reviewers. If the research data set is not open, the metadata must include detailed instructions on how to access the data. Follow a good citation practice of your field of study in the vocabulary of your metadata. Add links to relevant vocabularies or data bases e.g., add a link to the data base you use for your taxonomic definitions or soil types. The minimum data for a metadata file is described in this document.

After acceptance of an original research manuscript or a data note to Silva Fennica, you must prepare and deposit in a trusted repository the following files, if they apply for the article category and type of your research:

• The metadata submitted with your manuscript must be amended with publication information and deposited to the same repository as your research data. A link to the article in Silva Fennica must be added after a DOI is assigned to your article.
• Your research data set: This is the dataset or datasets that you used for conducting the analyses described in the Materials and Methods section of your manuscript. The dataset must include the data as used for the analyses and a full description of all variables listed in the data set. See point 3.6.1 about open licencing of your data.
• Computer code you used in your analyses must be submitted to a trusted repository with your data. This requirement concerns also the code used for meta analyses for a review article. If you use a commercial software, you must deposit your own instructions e.g., the R code you wrote for conducting the analyses. The code must include a full identification of the software, including version, with which the code was used. The code must be fully commented so that the significance of each step is clear. Alternatively, you may write a metadata file for your code. See point 3.6.1 about open licencing of your code.
• In a modelling study, you must deposit the full, commented model code. If you use an existing model without any modification, you must deposit the code (commands) used for conducting your simulations or other applications of the model. If you write original model code for your research, the code must be deposited in a trusted repository. The same applies for the modifications you make to an existing model. These deposits must be accompanied with appropriate metadata. Full access information for the model used must be given if it is not deposited with your data.

3.3 Acceptable exceptions

There may be acceptable reasons for not opening your data. These include national security issues, confidential business information, personally sensitive data or exact location of threatened organisms or minor nature types. In these cases, anonymization or curation of the data for removing sensitive information is the first option. If the curation is not possible or very laborious in comparison to the benefit, you may ask an exception of the data openness policy of Silva Fennica. You must contact the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor with a detailed explanation why you cannot open your data. Exceptions are made case-by-case basis.

Please, note that some repositories, like the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (a member of CESSDA), offer curation services for scientists depositing data.

If you use commercially available data (e.g., remote sensing data) or an official data base (e.g., national forest inventory data or forest property data of the Finnish Forest Centre) it is understandable that you may not have the right to open your research data. However, you must make public the metadata that fully identifies the data you used and information how to request access. The metadata must enable e.g., finding the exactly same remote sensing images or extracting the same subset of data from a forest property data base you used in your research.

Potential future use or patenting are not acceptable reasons for not opening your data. However, you may apply for one-year embargo in these cases.

3.4 Embargo

Silva Fennica accepts an embargo for opening of your data and codes for the maximum of one year after the date of acceptance of your article. The reason for the embargo must be accepted by the Editor-in-Chief or Managing Editor before submission of your manuscript. The data and codes must be deposited in a trusted repository and the embargo must be set using the tools of the repository. Your metadata must be always immediately open. You must provide access to the embargoed data to the Editorial Office of Silva Fennica. On request, the Editorial Office will share the access with peer-reviewers as a confidential information.

3.5. FAIR principles for opening data

The FAIR principles are intended for all forms of data, both quantitative and qualitative, and their objective is to ensure that the data are machine-readable and interoperable. The principles also apply to metadata. FAIR data are understandable to people and can also be processed programmatically. Pay attention to the data format. For example, a table that is understandable to people in a PDF file is not easy to edit, while a CSV file is. Well-structured data can be e.g., combined with other data in the same format or searched.

Resources on FAIR principles:

• General with rich links
• Guide for making your data FAIR

Videos produced by the Finnish IT Centre for Science, CSC:

• FAIR principles (introduction)
• Findable
• Accessible
• Interoperable
• Reusable

3.6 Repositories

3.6.1 Selecting repositories

The FAIR principles require that the outputs of the research have a persistent identifier and their metadata are findable. Please, note that a URL is not a persistent identifier. A persistent identifier is a curated web address such as DOI or URN. In practice, this requires utilising shared services intended for research data publishing.

When selecting a repository, establish your minimum requirements for the publication service:

• Data security, availability, accessibility, tool support, data models and persistent identifiers.
• Consider who could later utilise your data – where can it be found the easiest?
• Machine readability of metadata, search options
• What are the resources available?
• Determine usage rights for the data. Silva Fennica requests the use of the Creative Commons licences.
• Contractual grounds
• Policies of your funder and home organisation

If possible, utilise discipline-specific services. Institutional services comply seldom with all the above requirements. They may be considered, however, if they provide a persistent identifier and use Creative Commons licences. Silva Fennica does not endorse any particular repository, except in the case of genomic data, but we provide some links to trusted repositories in the subchapter 3.6.2. Silva Fennica will have no intermediary role in the agreement you make with the repository. However, your employer may have a data preservation policy that you must observe.

Original genomic data collected in the study must be deposited to one of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration repositories as a condition for publication in Silva Fennica. You must refer to these materials in the manuscript with their accession number.

The repository you select must allow the CC0 licence (public domain) for metadata and CC BY 4.0 licence (Attribution 4.0 International) for the data and code itself. If the repository accepts, you may use the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International) that prohibits commercial use of your data. Requesting a registration for viewing and using your data is not a violation of openness provided that the registration is available free of charge.

3.6.2 Some repositories and resources for locating more

The TrustCoreSeal has created criteria for trusted repositories and the organisation certifies repositories based on them. These repositories may be used with trust yet not all trustworthy repositories have the TrustCoreSeal.

The re3data web site lists more repositories that may be searched e.g., by discipline. Main characteristics like open access and use of persistent identifiers are shown in the search list with simple icons. The search list also shows types of data stored and the owner of the repository.

FAIRsharing is website with instructions and educational materials of FAIR opening of data. The site also lists repositories that comply with FAIR principles.

Some widely used repositories are listed below. This is not a recommendation (except for INSDC) but is given for your convenience:

• Dryad is a multidisciplinary, curated, community-owned data base.
• Zenodo is build and operated by CERN and OpenAIRE. Data are stored in the CERN data centre.
• OSF is a free, open platform to support your research and enable collaboration. It offers data preservation services and other support for open responsible science.
• Environmental Data Initiative aims to preserve environmental data for open and reproducible science, to promote synthesis across space and time, and to aid in the assessment of environmental change and its consequences.
• Pangaea is a publisher for earth and environmental sciences.
• The International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) is a long-standing foundational initiative that operates between DDBJ, EMBL-EBI and NCBI. INSDC covers the spectrum of data raw reads, through alignments and assemblies to functional annotation, enriched with contextual information relating to samples and experimental configurations. One of the member repositories must be used for genomic data reported in an article of Silva Fennica.
• CESSDA network consolidates and strengthens European social science research. Its member organisations offer data curation and preservation services and training in data management.
• Make search with keyword “forest” in re3data.

Please, note that Silva Fennica does not have a data preservation agreement with any repository. The preservation agreement is made between you – or your home institution – and the repository.

3.7 Use of generative artificial intelligence

3.7.1 Principles

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used as a part of data analysis or as a part of writing the manuscript. When using AI tools in data analysis, such use must be described in the Materials and Methods section with sufficient detail to enable comprehension and replication.

When you use generative AI tools or related technologies in writing the manuscript, the following instructions should be followed:

• You should only use these technologies to improve readability and language.
• Artificial intelligence must be used in careful human control.
• Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or a co-author or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans.
• Please note that regardless of using AI in the writing process, the authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

3.7.2 Disclosure

You must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript. The statement should be placed in a new section after the “Authors’ contributions” section, entitled “Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process”. An example of such statement below:
“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.”

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

4 Submission of manuscripts

4.1 Authorship

Criteria for authorship are the following:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception of research question and design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data and results; AND
2. Scientific writing of the work or revising it critically for sound and intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those contributors who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. Thus, acquisition of funding alone, collection of data alone, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship.

4.2 First submission

Silva Fennica uses Editorial Manager (EM) for manuscript processing. All types of manuscripts must be submitted using the EM page of Silva Fennica. You must register as an author to EM. The system will guide you through the submission process. In the first submission, you must submit the complete manuscript text and tables as a single Word, WordPerfect, or RTF document. All tables must be added on an own page at the end of the manuscript. The last page(s) of the manuscript must contain the complete figure captions. Make sure that the manuscript is complete with all tables and figure captions and that pages and lines are numbered continuously. Select article component type “Manuscript” for this file. Submit each figure as separate high-quality Adobe PostScript or PDF file (data charts only) or as a GIF, TIFF, JPEG, or PICT graphic file (all graph types and photographs). Submit Highlights as a separate Word, WordPerfect, or RTF document; select component type “Highlights”. You may also submit supplementary files (e.g. videos, databases, large tables), which will be linked to your article. Select component type “Supplementary file” for your supplementary files. Supplementary files will be revised, stored, and viewed in the same format as you submit them. See chapter 9 for recommended formats of the supplementary files.

You must accept the Publishing Agreement of Silva Fennica before submitting a manuscript.

During the manuscript submission, you must submit complete information of all authors, including affiliations, addresses, and e-mail addresses, to EM. ORCID id of all authors that have one must be given. The ORCID ids will be published in the author information. Further, phone number of the corresponding author must be entered to the system.

You may propose qualified reviewers for your manuscript during the manuscript submission. Provide the name(s), affiliation(s) and e-mail address(es) of the proposed reviewers. The final decision on reviewers to be invited is made by the handling Subject Editor.

An e-mail message acknowledging receipt will be sent to the corresponding author.

4.3 Review process

Silva Fennica’s review procedure is pre-publication, single blind, editors mediate all interactions between reviewers and authors, peer reviews are not published, review is facilitated by the journal and the reviews are owned by the authors of the reviews.

When a manuscript arrives to the Editorial Manager, the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor reviews that it fits within the scope of Silva Fennica and fulfils minimum requirements for peer-review. Manuscripts clearly out of the scope of the journal will be rejected in this phase. A manuscript may also be rejected if it is apparent that it does not contain any new knowledge on the studied topic. Manuscripts with poor presentation, serious linguistic problems, and those that do not adhere to the Instructions for Authors of Silva Fennica will be returned to the authors for revision. If the you decide to resubmit the revised version, it will be considered as a new submission. Manuscripts are screened for similarity using the iThenticate software. Screening results are always interpreted case by case by the Editor-in-Chief or the Managing Editor. Manuscripts deemed too similar with earlier work will be rejected. Read more about similarity check in the Editorial of Silva Fennica 55(5).

After the initial review, the manuscript is assigned to one of the Subject Editors. They screen the manuscript for contents. If they find serious deficiencies in methods or other scientific problems, they may recommend rejecting the manuscript without peer-review. If the manuscript passes the initial screening, the Subject Editor selects the reviewers and submits the manuscript to peer-review. Subject Editor and the authors know each other’s identity but the reviewers will work under anonymity. Normally, two reviews by qualified scientists are sought for each manuscript. The Subject Editor makes the editorial recommendation based on the reviewer reports. Final decision on publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Read the more extensive description of the review process in the Instructions for Reviewers.

5 Manuscript text

5.1 First and second page

The first page of the manuscript includes the manuscript title, authors’ names and affiliations and complete contact information of the corresponding author. The second page contains the highlights, abstract and keywords.

5.2 Title

A good title is brief and informative. Do not use empty words and constructions like "A study of...", "Observations on...", and the like conveying very little to the reader. Never use abbreviations other than gene names in the title. Write out even “clear” abbreviations like National Forest Inventory (not NFI) or diameter at breast height (not dbh). Abbreviations are part of the forestry jargon that may discourage potential readers.

5.3 Highlights

Highlights of each paper are included in the online table of contents and pasted below the article title in the article files. Emphasise the most important research findings reported in the article. Do not use any abbreviations in the Highlights. The aim of the Highlights is to attract readers and any unknown abbreviation tells them not to open the article file. Entering the Highlights is required as a part of the manuscript submission. Write the highlight statements separated by semicolon (;). The total length of highlights must not be more than 60 words.

5.4 Abstract

An abstract is a concise, independent résumé of the paper. Its purpose is to assist the reader in deciding whether it is worth reading the entire paper, to provide sufficient information for a reader who is not an expert on the topic involved, and to assist the communication of information. If your abstract is not well written, a reader will probably not read your full article. Most bibliographic databases also include the abstract.

The length of an abstract must not be more than 250 words in one paragraph for all article types except review articles, which may contain an abstract of 400 words divided into a maximum of three paragraphs. The abstract must be structured to provide sufficient information on the context, aims, methods, results and conclusions of your research. Always end the abstract with a clear conclusion. Do not use references to literature.

5.5 Keywords

The abstract is followed by 3–7 keywords. Separate keywords with semicolons (;). Do not repeat title words in the keywords. Place species names at the beginning of the keyword list followed by other keywords in alphabetical order.

5.6 Objectives and hypotheses

The aim, or general objective, specific objectives and, when applicable, hypotheses must be written out clearly in the Introduction section of the manuscript. This must be written as a separate paragraph yet without subtitle in an appropriate part of the Introduction. Most often, the best placement is at the end of the Introduction. If the manuscript is based on an academic thesis, the thesis must be referred to here. Add the full bibliographic reference of the thesis with a persistent identifier in the list of references.

5.7 Materials and methods

You must report the experimental design, sampling method and procedure, how you determined sample size before the experiment was conducted, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study. The use of graphs or flow charts is encouraged. For example, the number of replicates at every level of grouping needs to be communicated with grouped data sets, and methods that take the grouping properly into account must be used. Any non-trivial statistical analysis needs to be reported formally in the manuscript if novel, or in a supplementary file so that the research is fully reproducible based on the description; see Editorial in Silva Fennica 53(3) for more discussion. For example, in the mixed effects model you need to report the levels of grouping supported by the experimental design and the justification for the formulation of the random part for each of the levels. The procedures used for evaluating the fit of the applied model also need to be described.

In field research, study area must be explained in details. Give weather and soil data as described in points 6.2 and 6.3 below. Give coordinates of the research area in degrees, minutes notation. Plot-level coordinates should be given always when feasible. The coordinates will be linked to maps when making the published articles. However, exact location of threatened species observed does not need to be published if you have legitimate conservation concerns. Give rich plot-level data when feasible (tens of plots) either in a table to be published within the article text or in a supplementary file if the number of plots in the plot-level table is high. In inventory or other studies with a very high number of plots, summarise your data to categories that fit to the research problem. Give a summary table with means and appropriate measures of variation between plots. In controlled environment studies, you must exactly describe the treatments, values of controlled variables and statistics on uncontrolled environmental variables. You must give a detailed description on all observed taxa or biological materials used in the study as explained in points 6.1 and 6.4 below. You must fully describe laboratory techniques as explained in point 6.5 below.

In a review article manuscript, you must give detailed information on the databases or similar used and list all search terms. You must also describe the criteria used for including or excluding studies to your review.

5.8 Text layout

Pages must be numbered, starting with the title page. Lines must be numbered continuously throughout the manuscript starting from the Abstract. Do not use any other text formatting than those specified in these instructions. Much of the formatting must be removed or redefined when producing the publication files. Thus, extra formatting will delay publication of your manuscript.

Separate paragraphs with a blank line. Do not use automatic space before or after a paragraph.

Separate equations from the body text with a blank line before and after the equation.

Collect all tables and figure captions to the end of the manuscript, each on an own page. Write table heading on the same page with the table.

5.9 Headings

Use no more than three levels of headings. Do not capitalise words in the headings. Number headings as follows:

1
1.1
1.1.1

Do not number Acknowledgements, Funding, Authors’ contributions, Openness statements and References. Separate headings from the text by a blank line before and after.

5.10 Italics

Use italics for scientific names of species, but not for expressions or abbreviations such as in vitro, a priori, et al., e.g.

5.11 Equations

Number equations continuously in parenthesis. Align the equation number to the right. Explain the symbols used before or after the equation, unless specified in connection to an earlier equation. Include a separate List of symbols in manuscripts containing many symbols. You must explain the symbols also with the equation even if you include a List of symbols. Write simple equations as text. Use of MathType is preferred for complicated equations. In the text, refer to the equations as Eq. 1, Eq. 2 etc. Follow mathematical typography when writing equations e.g., write variables in italics and refer to matrices in bold type.

6 Citation standards

6.1 Scientific Names

Use an authoritative contemporary source for scientific names. Silva Fennica requires that the following databases be used for taxonomic nomenclature:

• Vascular plants: https://www.tropicos.org (Missouri Botanical Garden)
• Fungi: https://www.mycobank.org (International Mycological Association with collaborators)
• Mammals: https://www.mammaldiversity.org (American Society of Mammalogists)
• Birds: https://www.worldbirdnames.org
• Reptiles: http://www.reptile-database.org
• Amphibians: https://amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org (American Museum of Natural History)

No other sources are accepted. You must revise your taxonomy according to these sources. Name the database used for taxonomy in the Materials and Methods section. We acknowledge that no database is complete, especially in the case of tropical taxa. In the case that you cannot find your taxon in these databases using their synonym lists, give an exact reference to the source of the name used. In the case of groups with still evolving taxonomy, like insects or most microbes, use a source that best fits to your study area. Use consistently only one taxonomic database for a manuscript. Give an exact reference to your taxonomy source, preferably a persistent identifier like DOI or URN in the list of references. These databases are updated constantly. Thus, it is important to indicate also the date of access to the database.

Scientific names should be in italics. Author of a scientific name must be given when a taxon is mentioned for the first time in the abstract and in the text body but not in the manuscript title, highlights, or keywords. After the first mention, the author is not used. If you use the common name of a taxon in the manuscript, you must give the full scientific name with author when mentioning the taxon for the first time in the abstract and the text body. Thereafter, the common name may be used.

6.2 Soil taxonomy

You must provide the soil classification if soils may affect the research results and always when you report field research on ecology, physiology, silviculture, etc. Use always the World Reference Base for describing soils:

http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/data-hub/soil-classification/world-reference-base/en/

No local classification is accepted. If you consider the local soil classification to be essential for communicating your research, give also the World Reference Base equivalent. The database is updated constantly. Thus, it is important to indicate the date of access. In addition to the soil taxonomy, you should provide fertility data at plot level if available.

6.3 Meteorological data

You must present basic meteorological data with a reference to the data source when weather conditions may affect the research results and always when you report field research on ecology, physiology, silviculture, etc. Refer to the meteorological data of a reliable weather station close to your study area when available. Give exact coordinates of the station you use, and a stable Internet address where the data can accessed. In the article, give the following minimum information of the site: average temperature of the coldest and warmest month (name the months), annual rainfall, distribution of rainfall e.g., rainy and dry months, proportion of rainfall that falls as snow, if applicable and, if available, temperature sum of the growing season and annual evapotranspiration. You can provide more exact information in a supplementary file.

6.4 Biological materials and genomic data

Biological materials must be identified as exactly as possible. In field research, the studied taxa must be identified using nomenclature as described in point 6.1. In nursery, laboratory and other controlled experiments, provide enough information to uniquely identify biological materials. This calls for reporting e.g., unique accession number in a repository, or seed source, lot number, provenance and date of collection. If original genomic data are collected in the study, they must be deposited to one of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration repositories as a condition for publication in Silva Fennica. You must refer to these materials in the manuscript with their accession number.

6.5 Laboratory techniques

Contrary to the common belief, many laboratory methods are not exactly standard but may be slightly modified by the laboratory where the work is done. Although these lab-wise modified techniques tend to give very closely matching results, sometimes the minor modifications may make the reproduction of the results impossible or may explain unexpected differences with published research. Thus, give always an easily available reference to all laboratory analyses included in your study and a detailed description of all possible modifications done in your laboratory. Silva Fennica strongly encourages adding the exact laboratory protocols as a supplementary file to the manuscript.

6.6 Units

Use only SI quantities and units. If your original data were collected using non-SI units, you must write this out in the Materials and methods section and report the conversion factors or equations used. Thereafter, use the SI unit in the whole manuscript. Use always the exponential notation for units (e.g. µmol m^‑2 s^‑1) instead of dash. Use non-breaking spaces and hyphens within a unit.

Use euros (preferred) or US dollars for all monetary values throughout the manuscript. If the original currency is other than US dollar, it must be converted to euros. Use the conversion factor for the time of the data collection if possible. Always provide the date – at least month and year – for the conversion factor used.

6.7 Bibliographic references in the text

6.7.1 Reference format

It is important that you follow exactly the formatting instructions given here for both citing references in the text and writing the reference list because within-article links are created automatically by the publishing software of Silva Fennica. All deviations from these instructions will cause a delay in publishing of your manuscript.

For references in the text, use the name-year system:

• “Smith (1996) has shown...” or “It has been shown (Smith 1996)...”
• Smith and Allen (2005)
• Smith et al. (2010); If the referred source has three or more authors, it is referred to with et al. notion
• (Smith 1996; Deleuze and Houllier 1997; Kähkölä et al. 2012); When reference is made to several publications, arrange them in chronological order. Use semicolon (;) for separating references.
• Do not use “e.g,” “see” or any other useless note before a reference or list of references.
• (Finnish Forest Research Institute 2011); Where a publication has no person named as the author or editor, the name of the publisher is quoted, together with the year of publication. The term “Anonymous” must not be used.

6.7.2 Secondary references

Secondary references should be avoided and you must make a reasonable effort to find the original work. In the case of very old or difficult-to-find references, you may use a secondary reference by citing also the work where the secondary reference is cited: (Virtanen and Saastamoinen 1936 as cited by Kähkölä et al. 2012). Include both references into the reference list.

6.7.3 Traditional knowledge and other unwritten information sources

An appropriate attribution for traditional knowledge must be given when applicable. This may include citation of indigenous or other traditional sources (such as people or community groups) or other unwritten communal sources of knowledge by name within the text. A more detailed description of indigenous sources must be given as a separate statement at the end of the manuscript (see point 8.4). Otherwise, personal communications and similar sources of information must be avoided.

6.8 List of references

6.8.1 General principles

Refer only to published, available material. Avoid references to second-hand sources. If you cannot avoid a secondary reference, include both the original work and the work, in which the original work is cited, into the list of references. Refer to unwritten indigenous knowledge in a special section of the manuscript as described in point 8.4.

For the order, structure and form of the references, consult the examples below. In addition, note the following:

• If a publication has no person named as the author or editor, it is listed alphabetically according to the name of the publisher.
• If a journal article is available both in print and online, give the volume and print page numbers, together with DOI. If an article is available online only, give volume (if the e-journal uses volumes), article id (if available), and unconditionally the DOI.
• If the title of an article/a book is not in English, the English translation must be given in square brackets after the original title. If the original title is in a language that does not use Latin letters, you may give only the English translation with mention of the original language in square brackets.
• The standard number, ISBN in books, or STRN in reports, should be given for sources of low circulation at the end of the reference.
• Use italics for scientific names of taxa mentioned in the title. Otherwise, use only regular font in the reference list.
• Do not translate journal names. Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name (e.g., https://images.webofknowledge.com/images/help/WOS/S_abrvjt.html).

6.8.2 Order of references

• Smith C (1996) Aspen. Timber 77: 369–384
• Smith C (2007) Silver birch. Timber 88: 17–23
• Smith C, Allen A (2005) Scots pine. For Manage 15: 5–9
• Smith C, Harris B (1993) Asian pines. For Manage 3: 105–119
• Smith C, Harris B, Allen A (2008) Sawn goods. Timber 89: 131–140
• Smith C, Allen A, Harris B (2010) Sawn goods revisited. Timber 91: 231–240

6.8.3 Journal article

If a journal article is available both in print and online, give the volume and print page numbers, together with DOI:

Kähkölä A-K, Nygren P, Leblanc HA, Pennanen T, Pietikäinen J (2012) Leaf and root litter of a legume tree as nitrogen sources for cacaos with different root colonisation by arbuscular mycorrhizae. Nutr Cycl Agroecosys 92: 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-011-9471-z.

If an article is available online only, give volume (if the e-journal uses volumes), article id (if available), and unconditionally the DOI:

Siipilehto J, Allen M, Nilsson U, Brunner A, Huuskonen S, Haikarainen S, Subramanian N, Antón-Fernández C, Holmström E, Andreassen K, Hynynen J (2020) Stand-level mortality models for Nordic boreal forests. Silva Fenn 54, article id 10414. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10414.

Jalonen R, Sierra J (2012) Temporal variation of N isotopic composition of decomposing legume roots and its implications to N cycling estimates in 15N tracer studies in agroforestry systems. Appl Environ Soil Sci, article id 506302. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/506302.

6.8.4 Article in a book or conference proceedings

Joshi L, Shrestha PK, Moss C, Sinclair FL (2004) Locally derived knowledge of soil fertility and its emerging role in integrated natural resource management. In: van Noordwijk M, Cadish G, Ong CK (eds) Below-ground interactions in tropical agroecosystems. Concepts and models with multiple plant components. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, pp 17–39

Thomson LAJ, Gâteblé G (2020) Casuarinaceae genetic resources in the Pacific Islands: enhancing their contributions to the green economy. In: Haruthaithanasan M, Pinyopusarerk K, Nicodemus A, Bush D, Thomson L (eds) Casuarinas for Green Economy and Environmental Sustainability. Proceedings of the Sixth International Casuarina Workshop Krabi, Thailand, 21-25 October 2019. Kasetsart University, Bangkok, pp 31‑40. https://www.iufro.org/fileadmin/material/publications/proceedings-archive/20802-t30-bangkok19.pdf. Accessed 30 November 2020

6.8.5 Monograph

Smith SE, Read D (2008) Mycorrhizal symbiosis 3rd edition. Academic Press, London

6.8.6 Non-English original

If the title of an article/a book is not in English, the English translation must be given in square brackets after the original title:

Saarinen M, Valkonen S, Sarkkola S, Nieminen M, Penttilä T, Laiho R (2020) Jatkuvapeitteisen metsänkasvatuksen mahdollisuudet ojitetuilla turvemailla. [Opportunities for continuous cover forest management in drained peatlands]. Metsätieteen aikakauskirja, article id 10372. https://doi.org/10.14214/ma.10372.

If the original title is in a language that does not use Latin letters, you may give only the English translation with a mention of the original language in square brackets:

Volkov AD (2003) The bioecological basis of exploitation of spruce forests in the north-west of taiga zone of Russia. Karelian Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodsk. [in Russian].

6.8.7 Preprints

Salazar Zarzosa P, Diaz Herraiz A, Olmo M, Ruiz-Benito P, Barrón V, Bastias CC, de la Riva EG, Villar R. Linking functional traits with tree growth and forest productivity in Quercus ilex forests along a climatic gradient. BioRxiv 2020.12.12.422386. [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.12.422386. Accessed 16 December 2020.

6.8.8 Citing data sources

Valdés Correcher E (2021) Dataset used in the paper 'Search for top-down and bottom-up drivers of latitudinal trends in insect herbivory in oak trees in Europe'. Dryad [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.18931zcw0. Accessed 11 November 2020

Missouri Botanical Garden (2020) https://www.tropicos.org. Accessed 25 November 2020

Gill F, Donsker D, Rasmussen P (eds) (2020) IOC World Bird List (v10.2). https://doi.org/10.14344/IOC.ML.10.2. Accessed 25 November 2020

Data set citation styles may vary. As a general rule, the data set citation must include information according to the instructions of DataCite adjusted according to the above examples.

6.9 Notes

You should avoid using notes in the text. In most cases, the information in the note can be included in the text; if not, the note is probably not necessary. Footnotes may be used in tables (point 7.1).

7 Tables and figures

7.1 Tables

Tables are numbered continuously through the manuscript. Vertical dividers are not allowed. Prepare the tables using a table editor. Never enter a paragraph break or a line break within a table cell.

Write table heading above the table. The table heading must be self-explanatory, i.e. you must provide enough information so that a reader understands the table without referring to the text. It is especially important to state the study context in the table heading e.g., taxa studied, geographic location, treatments.

All symbols or abbreviations used in the table must be explained in a footnote to the table. Because each table must be understandable alone, you must either repeat the symbol explanations in each table – if they are few – or refer to the table where they are explained. Do not refer to a figure caption.

7.2 Figures

7.2.1 Instructions common to all figure types

All image material e.g., charts illustrating data, photographs or maps, are considered as figures. Figures are an important part of the scientific communication. Thus, it is in your own interest to adhere strictly to the figure instructions given below. Otherwise, communication of your results may be hampered.

Figures are numbered continuously throughout the manuscript. Refer to them in the text as “Fig. 1” etc. A figure must fit on an A4 page; larger figures cannot be inspected with sufficient details even on large computer screens. Further, its printing quality may decrease seriously. A large figure may be difficult to understand on screen or in print.

Silva Fennica publishes both colour and black-and-white figures. However, consider carefully if colour is necessary. Especially data charts are often clearer as black-and-white line drawings.

Always use the same identifier (e.g., symbol, column fill, line colour) for a variable, which appears in more than one figure of a manuscript.

Submit each figure as a separate file; allowed formats are Adobe PostScript or PDF file (data charts only) or GIF, TIFF, JPEG, or PICT graphic file (all graph types and photographs) yet we recommend using jpeg. Write all figure captions to the last page(s) of the manuscript text file. The caption must be self-explanatory and independent; references to the text should be avoided. It is especially important to state the study context in the figure caption e.g., taxa studied, geographic location, treatments. Explain all symbols used either in the figure caption or in the figure legend. You must either repeat the symbol explanations in each caption – if they are few – or refer to the figure caption where they are explained. Do not refer to a table heading or footnote.

Lettering within the figure (including the legend) must be sized adequately with the figure contents. However, lettering size must not radically differ from font size in the text. Use Arial or Helvetica font for Latin letters and numbers and Symbol font for Greek letters and mathematical symbols. Keep lettering consistently sized both within a figure and between the figures of a manuscript.

7.2.2 Data charts

Data charts are graphical presentations of data.

Aim at clarity and simplicity; avoid unnecessary effects, like 3-D and shadows. Use solid black or white or coarse line fills for columns. If you cannot separate columns or column items with black-and-white fills, use colour fills, not grey fills. Always write axis titles and units in the data chart.

Line drawings must be prepared at 600 dpi resolution. Prefer lines in solid black and use markers for differentiating small number of lines in the same graph. If you need more than four lines in a line graph, use solid colours. Do not use line weights below 1.0 point.

7.3.3 Photographs and combined figures

Photographs must be high quality colour or grey scale digital photos. Scale the photographs to 300 dpi resolution. If you combine photographs and line drawings, the complete figure must be prepared at 600 dpi resolution. If you add only a scale bar to a photograph, retain the 300 dpi resolution.

Visualisation of model output (e.g., tree architecture produced by a model) is a colour or grey-scale figure and it must be prepared according to the instructions in this point.

7.3.4 Figure copyright

The authors are responsible to acquire necessary copyright for publishing any figures that are not under their own copyright. Please, note that articles in Silva Fennica are published on CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Readers are free to copy, reproduce, distribute, and reuse articles published in Silva Fennica as long as the modified work is distributed using the same license. Thus, some publishers do not grant reuse for free. You must assume all such costs, because Silva Fennica does not have funds for assisting copyright costs. If the copyright of a figure is held by someone else than you or any of the co-authors, the copyright holder's name must be published with the figure.

Silva Fennica follows the copyright law of Finland. It provides relatively wide freedom for reuse of charts if the original source is adequately credited but photographers’ rights are strictly protected. Note also that the figure you want to reuse may be under another jurisdiction. In case of any doubt, consult the Editorial Office.

8 Acknowledgements, funding, authors’ contributions, ethical issues and availability of research materials and data

After the text body, before the list of references, all manuscripts must have a list of supplementary files, if supplements are used. Furthermore, if applicable, following statements must be given: declaration on the availability of research materials, acknowledgement on indigenous knowledge used, authors’ contributions, acknowledgements, and funding of the research.

8.1 List of supplementary files (if needed)

Provide a list of all supplementary files. The information required is:

• File number: Capital letter S and running number in the order you refer to the files in the text e.g., S1, S2, S3.
• Title of the file
• Type of file e.g., “Video in MP4 format”, “MS-Excel spreadsheet”, “Photograph in jpeg format”

8.2 Declaration of openness of research materials, data, and code (obligatory)

The manuscript must include a special section detailing the compliance with openness and transparency requirements of Silva Fennica. The statement must include:

• Instructions how to access your research data and their metadata. Cite them according to the instructions of DataCite (see 6.8.8) and give the persistent identifier (DOI, URN, Handle etc.). If a restricted access to research data is accepted by Silva Fennica, justify and describe the restriction and give exact information how to apply for access. The access must be under an institutional control and you must provide the exact contact information. Metadata must always be immediately open.
• Instructions how to access your code. Cite according to the instructions of DataCite (see 6.8.8) and give the persistent identifier (DOI, URN, Handle etc.). If a restricted access to codes is accepted by Silva Fennica, justify and describe the restriction and give exact information how to apply for access. The access must be under an institutional control and you must provide the exact contact information.
• Statement if raw data are available and how to access them. If they are open, cite them according to the instructions of DataCite (see 6.8.8).
• Statement if research materials are available and how to access them. If digital materials are open, cite them according to the instructions of DataCite (see 6.8.8) and give the persistent identification (DOI, URN, Handle etc.). For digital materials that are available upon request and for physical materials, give exact information how to apply for access. The access must be under an institutional control and you must provide the exact contact information. If materials are not available, explain why.
• Statement if the study is preregistered and if so, give the persistent identification (DOI, URN, Handle etc.) to the preregistration. Silva Fennica encourages providing the preregistration as a supplementary file with full reference to the original source.
• Statement if the analysis plan is preregistered and if so, give the persistent identification (DOI, URN, Handle etc.) to the preregistration. Silva Fennica encourages providing the preregistration as a supplementary file with full reference to the original source.

8.3. Ethical review (obligatory when applicable)

Always when applicable, the manuscript must include a statement that an ethical review has been conducted. In that case, write out the details of the ethical approval, such as the name of the ethics committee and the reference number of the approval.

8.4 Indigenous and traditional knowledge (obligatory when applicable)

You must give an appropriate attribution for indigenous or traditional knowledge when applicable. Any traditional-knowledge notices or citation of indigenous or other communal sources of knowledge must be listed here.

8.5 Authors’ contributions (obligatory)

Here you must specify how each author contributed to criteria 1 and 2 indicated in point 4.1:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception of research question and design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data and results.
2. Scientific writing of the work or revising it critically for sound and intellectual content.

All named as authors are assumed to have accepted the submitted manuscript version and take full responsibility on its contents. Read detailed instructions in Journal policies.

8.6 Declaration of the use of generative artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process (obligatory if used)

If you have used generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies in the writing process you must describe the tool(s) used, why you used the tool and how you used it. Please note that generative AI and similar AI technologies must always be used under human control and all AI outputs must be revised so that the authors may take full responsibility of the contents.

8.7 Acknowledgements (recommended)

All those contributors who do not meet all four criteria for authorship (see our Journal policies) should not be identified as authors but named in acknowledgements. According to the Silva Fennica’s authorship criteria, acquisition of funding alone, collection of data alone, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship yet these contributors should be acknowledged here.

8.8 Funding (obligatory)

List here all funding sources of your research, whether governmental, commercial, non-commercial or your organisation’s own funds. Give exact grant numbers when applicable.

9 Supplementary files

9.1 Types of supplementary data

Silva Fennica accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published along with your article. Examples of the type of supplementary files include but do not exclude other types:

• model flow chart
• short programme code, or part of a published programme code that is significantly modified
• complete list of model equations
• long parameter or variable list
• complete species list in a study of plant community ecology
• detailed weather data of the study site
• video on embryogenesis
• video on a forest work study
• animation or video on landscape change over time by succession

9.2 Recommended formats

• Audio, video, and animations: mp4 format preferred.
• Text: MS Word or RTF format is preferred, but pdf format is also accepted.
• Spreadsheets and other tabular material: spreadsheets must be converted to pdf if no interaction with the data is needed. If the readers are expected to do their own calculations with the data, submit the spreadsheet as a MS Excel file (.xls or .xlsx).
• Programme code: text file without formatting
• Figures: single figures may be submitted as jpg or pdf files. Several connected figures must be submitted in a pdf file.

Otherwise, follow the instructions given in chapter 7 above for preparing your supplementary files.

9.3 Naming of and references to the supplementary files

Name the supplementary files with four first words of your manuscript title followed by file number. Number supplementary files consecutively as you refer to them in the manuscript. Never use author name or Silva Fennica in the file name.

Each supplementary file must include a full bibliographic reference of the main article at the top of the first page of the file because supplementary files may become separated from the original context. The information must include name(s) of author(s), title of the main article, Silva Fennica, submission year, and a blank line so that the Copy Editor may add the DOI after it is assigned to the article. With this information, the original article may be located. If your supplementary file is a figure or video, add this information to the file metadata.

You must refer to all supplementary files in the manuscript text. The reference format is “...as shown in Supplementary file S3” or “...as shown in the animation of the landscape change (Supplementary file S3)”. Also list all supplementary files between the text body and reference list as described in 8.1 above.

9.4 Submitting supplementary files

You must submit each supplementary file separately from the manuscript (follow instructions in the EM page of Silva Fennica). Select the article component type “supplementary file”. All supplementary files must be included in the first submission and they are peer-reviewed. If important supplementary files are added to the revised manuscript, the review process may be started over. However, you must revise the supplementary files according to the advice given by the reviewers and editors.

10 Procedures for revised and accepted manuscripts

10.1 Submission of revised manuscript

If revisions are required, you must write detailed responses to the reviewers’ and editor’s comments in a form in EM while submitting the revised manuscript. We recommend that you prepare your responses to a file beforehand and copy-paste them to the form. Check special characters after inserting your responses to the form and make necessary corrections. You are expected to explain changes made to the manuscript with references to the line numbers of the changes. Prepare the responses so that they can be identified from a clean manuscript i.e., no changes marked. Justify your opinion in the cases, in which you do not follow the advice given by the reviewers.

Login to EM as an author with the same username and password as in the first submission. Upload to EM the revised, both track changes and clean manuscript text, and any other necessary files to the system following system instructions. Copy-paste your responses to reviewers and editors as instructed in EM.

10.2 Procedure after acceptance

After receiving the acceptance message from the Editor-in-Chief, you must submit the production files within a week. You will also receive the instructions for paying the APC unless you are covered by a waiver. Prepare your manuscript text, tables, and figures exactly according to these instructions. All corrections that the Copy Editor will have to make will delay publication of your work. Submit the manuscript and tables in a single Word file (component “Manuscript”). Each table must be on a separate page - even small tables. After tables, on a separate page, write all figure captions.

Double-check that your supplementary files (if included) are prepared according to the instructions in chapter 9.

Prepare the figures according to the instructions given above in point 7.2. Save each figure as a separate maximum-quality jpeg file. Minimum resolution for data charts is 600 dpi and for photographs and visualisations 300 dpi - see exact instructions in point 7.2. Name the figure with the name of the first author, word "figure", and figure number. Figures must be numbered consecutively in the order they appear in the article.

Follow the submission instructions given in point 10.1 above. Upload each figure as a separate file.

11. Privacy Statement

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