Submission procedure

Manuscripts should be sent as e-mail attachments to the Editor‑in‑Chief at entomological.studies.journal@gmail.com.  

Prior to submission, please ensure that your manuscript fully complies with the formatting requirements detailed below. 

Cover letter

The submission cover letter must include the following declarations, which will be published on the article’s webpage upon acceptance:

1) All authors consent to the submission, and the corresponding author has obtained authorisation from the co-authors (this does not apply to single-authored works).

2) The manuscript has been approved by all authors and by the responsible authorities – whether explicitly or implicitly – of the institutions where the research was conducted.

3) This work has not been previously published and is not under consideration by any other journal.

4) This work is not based on any research that has been retracted from another journal.

5) The manuscript does not infringe any copyright or other proprietary rights of any person or entity, and contains no abusive, defamatory, obscene, fraudulent, or otherwise unlawful statements.

6) The author(s) confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, the research complies with the legal requirements of the country(-ies) in which it was conducted.

7) The author(s) declare that they have no conflicts of interest, whether financial or otherwise, or competing interests.

8) A declaration regarding the use (or non‑use) of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools must also be included. If AI tools were used during manuscript preparation (see the ‘Policy Regarding the Use of AI Tools’ in the About the Journal section), the corresponding author must further declare that:
        a) All authors have verified the originality and accuracy of the content, including all references.
        b) The authors have reviewed the terms of use for the specific AI tool(s) employed.

Manuscripts that do not include all of the above declarations will not be processed. 

Reviewer names

When submitting your manuscript, it is helpful to suggest the names and e-mail addresses of three or more potential reviewers.

Manuscript file

The manuscript should be provided as a .doc or .docx file. Tables, if any, may be placed at the end of the text file or submitted as a separate .doc or .docx file. For review purposes, we recommend that figures not be embedded in the text file; instead, they should be uploaded as separate JPEG files, which may also be compiled into a single PDF for the reviewers’ convenience.

Upon acceptance, you will be asked to supply the original figures in a higher-resolution format (JPEG or TIFF) for publication. 

Preparation of manuscripts

Please be aware that the editors and reviewers are not responsible for formatting manuscripts to meet the journal’s requirements. Submissions that do not adhere to the required format will be returned without review. The authors will be informed of the reason for the return and will be invited to revise and resubmit their manuscript accordingly. 

General

All papers must be written in English. An additional abstract in another language may be included alongside the English abstract. Authors whose first language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript reviewed by a native English speaker prior to submission.

Nomenclature must follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (4th edition, 1999), which came into force on 1 January 2000.

The metric system should be used throughout.

All scientific names at the genus level or below must be italicised consistently, including in tables, figure captions, and the reference list. When a species or subspecies is first mentioned in the text, the full binomen or trinomen should be given, followed by the author(s) and year of publication (the year may be omitted in the title). The taxon author(s) need not be repeated at every subsequent mention in the text, tables, or figures. However, they may be provided at the first mention in the introductory text, in checklists, and in species accounts within the same paper. Author names for plant species or genera are not required. The full genus name should be spelled out at the beginning of a sentence and whenever confusion with other names might arise.

Where possible, please use Times New Roman (11 pt, 1.5 line spacing) and keep formatting to a minimum: use bold and italics only when necessary, and indent paragraphs (except the first). Do not italicise Latin terms except for the common “in vitro,” “in vivo,” “in situ,” “sensu lato,” “sensu stricto,” and “in litteris.”

Special characters (including male ♂ and female ♀ signs – see below) should be avoided where possible, as they may be corrupted when files are opened on different operating systems or with different language settings. If special symbols are essential, please highlight them in a bright colour to prevent them from being overlooked or altered during typesetting.

The male (♂) and female (♀) signs may be used only in lists of examined material, figure captions, and tables; they should not appear in the main text. We strongly recommend coding them as m# and f#, respectively, to facilitate replacement during page layout.
Please separate the sign(s) from the number with a space. If they are in the plural, the signs should be doubled.

  Example: 1 m#, 2 f#f# (appears in the layout as 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀).

Abbreviations for denoting new taxa and taxonomic changes

Since the feminine form of the Latin adjective novus ends in a short -a, abbreviating it as 'nov.' serves no purpose as it only saves one letter. Since abbreviations of the same word should be unified within a paper, the abbreviation for novus strongly suggested by Entomological Studies is 'n.':

sp. n. / subsp. n. = species / subspecies nova;

gen. n. = genus novum;

trib. n. / subtrib. n. = tribus / subtribus nova;

fam. n.  / subfam. n. = familia / subfamilia nova;

comb. n. = combinatio nova;

nom. n. = nomen novum (a replacement name);

stat. n. = status novus.

Use of dashes
(1) Hyphens (“-”) are used to connect words, such as in personal names (e.g., Birket-Smith), certain prefixes (e.g., co-author), compound adjectives (e.g., high-level, time-consuming, reddish-brown), and multi-word modifiers preceding a noun (e.g., an up-to-date checklist).
(2) En-dashes (“–”), the width of an ‘n’, are used to indicate ranges: most commonly numerals, such as measurements, dates, and page numbers (e.g., 1977–1981; Figs 5–7), and also for geographic or name associations (e.g., Québec–Windsor corridor, Epstein–Barr virus).
(3) Em-dashes (“—”), the width of an ‘m’, are used more sparingly, typically for breaks in thought or parenthetical remarks (e.g., “The result—unexpected as it was—changed our understanding”).
En-dashes and em-dashes should not be spaced.
In MS Word, the shortcut for an en-dash is Ctrl + minus sign (on the numeric keypad); for an em-dash, it is Ctrl + Alt + minus sign.

Footnotes are generally permitted, but extensive or lengthy footnotes should be avoided.

Keys require special attention during typesetting. In a dichotomous key, please type each lead of a couplet as a separate paragraph (see example below) so that our typesetter can easily convert it into the proper format. Do not use multiple full stops or the TAB function within couplets.

Example:

9. On the hindwing, M2 arises from the cell at the same point as M3 and Cu1 or from their common stalk ... 10
- On the hindwing, M2 arises from the cell separately from M3 and Cu1, at a distance of about 1/3 the length of the cell or slightly less ... 11

10. On the hindwing, M2 arises from the cell at the same point as M3 and Cu1 ... Nodaria
- On the hindwing, M2 arises from the cell at the same point as the common stalk of M3 and Cu1 ... Simplicia (part)

Geographical coordinates should be provided in one of the following formats:

● Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (DMS)
● Degrees and Decimal Minutes (DDM)
● Decimal Degrees (DD)

Records must include a hemisphere indicator (E/W and N/S) or, for Decimal Degrees, a minus sign (-) for western and/or southern hemispheres.

Examples:
11˚51'54''S 25˚33'20''E
11˚51.9'S 25˚33.3333'E
-11.865˚ 25.555555˚
11.865˚S 25.555555˚E

All geographic coordinates within the Material examined sections must be presented in a uniform format throughout the manuscript, with the exception of verbatim transcriptions of primary type labels.

The degree symbol should be inserted from the Symbol menu in MS Word. Minutes should be typed as straight apostrophes ('), and seconds as double straight apostrophes (''), not as quotation marks. 

Label citations
For name-bearing types, we encourage authors to cite the labels verbatim, with any additional information provided in square brackets. It is suggested that different labels be separated by a slash (“/”) or a double slash, while different lines on the same label should be separated by a vertical bar (“|”) or a single slash if a double slash is used to separate labels.

For additional specimens examined (including paratypes), the label content should be edited or translated to conform to standard English grammar and consistency. 

Deposition of specimens
Whenever feasible, authors are strongly encouraged to deposit holotypes of newly described species and subspecies, as well as newly designated neotypes, in recognised national or international public museums or collections that guarantee their long-term preservation and accessibility for study by other researchers.

Authors should be aware that certain countries, including Australia, the Republic of South Africa, and some others, have legal provisions requiring that primary type specimens be deposited in collections within the country of origin. Authors are encouraged to take this into account when arranging the deposition of type material.

The depositories of all non-type specimens examined, as well as specimens illustrated or used for comparative purposes (including those sampled for molecular analyses), must be clearly indicated.

All specimen depositories mentioned in the manuscript should be identified by their official institutional acronyms (please refer to the relevant institution’s website for the correct abbreviation), and these acronyms should be explained in the Material and Methods section. 

Manuscript structure

Full-length Articles should be organised in the following order:

Title. The title should be concise and informative. Where applicable, the order and family names of any organisms mentioned should be included. The author(s) of genus and species names should be given; the year of description may be omitted.

Author(s). All author names should appear below the title, formatted as: first name (spelled in full), middle initial (if applicable), and last name (e.g., Jane Smith & John H. Smith).

Address(es) / Affiliation(s). Each author’s address should be given in italics on a separate line. Affiliations should be written exactly as they appear on the official websites of the respective institutions. E-mail addresses should be provided where available, and each author’s ORCID iD should be included. One author should be designated as the Corresponding Author.

Abstract. The abstract should be concise and informative, summarising the results and scientific novelty of the study. For taxonomic papers, all nomenclatural acts—including new names, new combinations, synonymies, lectotype or neotype designations, or changes in taxon placement—must be mentioned. An abstract in another language may be provided in addition to the English abstract.

Key words. Please provide a list of up to 10 key words that do not appear in the title.

Main text of an Article should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Material and methods, Results (or a related section, e.g., Taxonomic part), and Discussion/Conclusions. The latter is not mandatory but is encouraged.

Introduction. This section should briefly review previous studies relevant to the current work and outline the objectives of the present research.

Material and methods should include:

- explanations of all abbreviations and institutional acronyms used in the manuscript;
- a description of all methods, equipment, and software used during the study;
- when AI tools have been used, authors must disclose in this section which specific tool (name and version) was used and for what purpose. 

Example:
“During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL / SERVICE] for [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.”

Results / Taxonomic part should present the findings of the study without interpretation or discussion.

Discussion / Conclusions should provide an explanation and interpretation of the results, along with a discussion of their scientific significance.

Acknowledgements, if appropriate, should appear before the References section. Any funding or other support received should be acknowledged here.

References (see below for formatting details).

Tables: if any, should be placed at the end of the manuscript, after the References, on separate pages.

Figure captions should be provided as a list. The following format is recommended:

Figures 4–6. Fossia spp.: adults. 4, F. punicea, male holotype of Miltochrista postnigra, India, Sikkim (NHMUK); 5, ditto, male, Nepal (MWM/ZSM); 6, F. elongata, male holotype, South Vietnam (MWM/ZSM).

Article metadata should include the author(s)’ last name(s) and a running title (fewer than 60 characters) for use in the page footer, as well as the contributor role of each author. For the latter, the CRediT (Contributor Role Taxonomy) categories may be used: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation (including field work), Resources, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualisation, Supervision, Project administration, Funding Acquisition.

Example:

Authors: Smith et al. [for 3 or more authors] / Smith & Li / Smith

Running title: Revision of Genus with two new species.

Author contributor roles:

Author 1: Conceptualisation, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Data Curation, Supervision, Visualisation.

Author 2: Resources, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing.

Author 3: Writing – Original Draft, Supervision. 

For short Correspondence papers, neither an abstract nor a list of key words is required. Major headings (Introduction, Material and methods, etc.) should not be used, except for new taxon headings (if any) and the References. The reference list should be kept concise, ideally not exceeding 20 entries.

Suggested structure for species accounts

For taxonomic papers, species accounts should be organised in the following order:

● Species name spelled in full with authorship and year;

● References to the figures illustrating the species, in parentheses;

● Nomenclatural citation [original combination + reference to the original description + page of description and figure number(s) + citation of the type locality] for described taxa;

● Synonyms (if any), formatted as nomenclatural citations;

● Type material examined (for described taxa, the type status should be provided, e.g., "lectotype (designated by Smith, 1978 / designated herein)" or "holotype (by monotypy / original designation)");

● Paratypes / additional material examined;

● Remarks / Notes on the species' taxonomy, including type specimen statuses, species variability, commentary on previous literature, etc.;

● Diagnosis describing the differences between the species and its similar congeners in detail;

● Description / redescription / morphological characterisation of the species (may be omitted if the diagnosis is comprehensive and informative);

● Distribution;

● Etymology (for newly described taxa).

Additionally, after the nomenclatural citation / list of synonyms, references to previous mentions of the species in the literature, with page citations, can be provided.

References

All works cited in the text must be included in the References section. Dissertations and non-serial conference proceedings should be treated as books and cited accordingly. Papers that are not cited in the text must not appear in the reference list. Papers ‘in press’ may be cited only if they have been formally accepted for publication. Citations of manuscripts ‘in preparation’ or ‘submitted’ are generally not permitted.

References should be cited in the text as Smith (2012), Smith & Smith (2025), or Smith et al. (2008) (for three or more authors). Multiple references in parentheses should be listed chronologically: (Kristensen 2003a, 2003b; Smith et al. 2008; Smith 2012, 2015; Smith & Smith 2025).

All literature cited in the text must be listed in the References section, sorted alphabetically and then chronologically, following the formats below.

Please note the following: (1) the author’s last name should be followed by a comma and then the initials; (2) journal titles must be written in full (not abbreviated); (3) journal titles and volume numbers should be followed by a comma; (4) page ranges should be connected by an en-dash “–”, not a hyphen “-”, which is used to connect words. For web sources, please include the date on which you last accessed the site, as the content may be moved or removed in the future.

A) Journal paper
Follow this format:
Authors (year) Title of the paper. Title of the journal in full, volume number (issue number), page range. DOI

Examples:

 Bayarsaikhan, U. & Bae, Y.-S. (2019) Four new and one newly recorded species of Diduga Moore, [1887] (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae) from Vietnam, with redescription of the little known species Diduga haematomiformis van Eecke, 1920. Zootaxa, 4624 (3), 365–376. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4624.3.5

 Lafontaine, J.D. (1998) Noctuoidea: Noctuidae (part): Noctuinae (part – Noctuini). In: Hodges, R.W. (Ed.), The Moths of North America. Fascicle 27.3. The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation, Washington, 348 pp.

B) Book chapter
Follow this format:
Author(s) (2000) Title of the Chapter. In: Author1 & Author2 (Eds.), Title of Book. Publisher name and location, pp. x–y.

Example:

 Witt, T.J., Speidel, W., Ronkay, G., Ronkay, L. & László, Gy.M. (2011) Subfamilia Arctiinae Leach, [1815]. In: Witt, Th.J. & Ronkay, L. (Eds), Noctuidae Europaeae. 13. Lymantriinae and Arctiinae, including phylogeny and check list of the quadrifid Noctuoidea of Europe. Entomological Press, Sorø, pp. 81–217.

C) Book
Follow this format:
Author (2001) Title of Book. Publisher name and location, xyz pp.

Examples:

Kononenko, V.S. (2010) Noctuidae Sibiricae. Vol. 2. Micronoctuidae, Noctuidae: Rivulinae–Agaristinae (Lepidoptera). Entomological Press, Sorø, 475 pp.

 Bucsek, K. (2012) Erebidae, Arctiinae (Lithosiini, Arctiini) of Malaya Peninsula—Malaysia. Institute of Zoology SAS, Bratislava, 170 pp.

D) Internet resource
Follow this format:
Author (2002) Title of website, database or other resources, Publisher name and location (if indicated), number of pages (if known). Available from: URL of the resource (Date of access)

Example:

 De Prins, J. & De Prins, W. (2025) Afromoths, online database of Afrotropical moth species (Lepidoptera). World Wide Web electronic publication. Available from: http://www.afromoths.net (Accessed 12 June 2025)

Additional information—such as the language of publication (if not English) or a link to the full text online (if a DOI is not available)—may be provided in square brackets at the end of the reference.

Examples:

 Fang, C. (2000) Lepidoptera. Arctiidae. Fauna Sinica (Insecta). Volume 19. Science Press, Beijing, 590 pp. [in Chinese with English summary]

 Bucsek, K. (2016) Several other species of Lithosiini (Erebidae, Arctiinae) found on mainland Malaysia. Entomofauna, 37 (37), 573–580. [https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/ENT_0037_0573-0580.pdf]

Citing a retracted paper
A retracted paper may be cited only if it contains nomenclatural acts that remain permanently available (see Declaration 46 amending Article 8 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature) or if the discussion specifically addresses the retraction, errors, or scientific misconduct.
When citing a retracted paper, explicitly label it as retracted in both the in-text citation and the reference list.

Examples:

Smith et al. 2025 [RETRACTED]

Author(s) (year [RETRACTED]) Title of the paper. Title of the journal in full, volume (issue number), page range. DOI 

Figures

All figures must be numbered consecutively. References to figures in the text should be given as “Fig. 1”, “Figs 3, 4”, and “Figs 3–5”.

Small illustrations should be grouped into plates. When preparing figures, please note that the journal’s printed area measures 26.8 cm by 17 cm, with some space reserved for the caption at the bottom of the page.

For species illustrations, high-quality colour or black-and-white photographs are preferred, although line drawings are also acceptable. Please ensure that all scanned material is imported at the appropriate resolution: 600–1200 dpi for line art, 300–600 dpi for grayscale, and 300 dpi for colour.

Figures should be saved separately from the text as TIFF or JPEG files at the appropriate resolution (300–400 dpi). For review purposes, we recommend that figures not be embedded in the text file; instead, they should be provided as separate JPEG files, which may also be compiled into a single PDF.

Please note that the quality assessment of a manuscript includes both the scientific content and the quality of the illustrations. Entomological Studies accepts only high-quality illustrations for publication. It is not the editors’ responsibility to prepare or amend digital files; therefore, illustrations deemed inadequate will be returned to the authors until publication-ready material is supplied.

Copyright

If authors need to reproduce figures that have been previously published for comparative purposes, they must obtain the necessary permission from the copyright holder(s) and provide proper attribution as required.  

Tables

Please use the table function in your word processor to create tables, so that cells, rows, and columns remain aligned when the font size or table width is adjusted. Tutorial videos on how to build a table in MS Word are available on YouTube (e.g., https://youtu.be/qHLO4YYX31A?si=yugs4j_WTOnVz6Cu)

Do not use the Tab key or the space bar to construct tables; such tables cannot be typeset properly and will not be accepted for publication. 

Peer-review process and post-review editing

Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial screening will be sent to two independent experts for review.

The reviewers will assess the scientific quality and significance of the paper and return the manuscript with their comments and suggested corrections, changes, or additions.

Upon receiving the reviewers’ reports, authors are expected to address all comments, questions, and suggestions. If any point is declined, a clear justification must be provided for each.

Authors must return the revised manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief with all changes clearly marked (using Track Changes) and with a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments.

The revised manuscript will be checked and edited by the editorial board members involved in the publication process. The editors may request further corrections or additions at this stage.

Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, the editors will prepare a typeset article layout within a reasonable timeframe. 

Proofs and Corrections

A PDF of the typeset article layout (the proof) will be sent to the corresponding author for careful checking. If corrections are needed, the corresponding author should submit the correction instructions to the editor by e-mail. Please note that, at this stage, changes that would alter the length of the manuscript (additions or deletions of text) should be avoided where possible, as they would require complete re-typesetting of the paper.

Corrections to the proof may be made in one of two ways. Please do not attempt to edit the proof PDF directly using Adobe Acrobat Professional or similar software, as the final published version will be generated from the editor’s layout file, not from the proof PDF.

1) We strongly encourage you to indicate corrections in the proof PDF using the annotation tools available in your PDF reader. If you are using Adobe Acrobat Reader:

● You may highlight any text that needs correction: select the text with the cursor and click the ‘Highlight’ tool. Then double-click the highlighted text to open a comment box, where you can type your instruction (e.g., ‘change this to...’, ‘replace this with...’, or ‘insert the following after this word:...’).

● You may also use the ‘Sticky Note’ tool: place a note next to the relevant line or directly on the text, double-click the note, and type your comment, request, or question in the window that opens.
 

To remove a highlight or sticky note, right-click on it and select ‘Delete’. You can also open and edit any existing comments by double-clicking on the highlight or note.

2) If you have difficulty annotating the proof PDF, you may instead indicate corrections in the table provided in the MS file ‘ES_corrections’. Simply copy the problematic sections of text into the table and specify the required corrections (an example is provided in the file). 

Post-publication corrections

Once an article has been published, the PDF file cannot be amended. Any necessary corrections can only be issued as notices of errata (published as short Correspondence) or in separate publications. An editorial note with a link to the correcting publication will be added to the original article’s webpage.

If a published paper contains major scientific errors, the paper may be retracted at the authors’ request, subject to the publisher’s agreement. 

Retraction of taxonomic papers
Please note that, in accordance with Declaration 46 amending Article 8 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, “a work once published within the meaning of the Code remains so, unless the Commission rules otherwise. Any subsequent disclaimer or retraction of a work or parts of a work does not affect the availability of the original work or any new name or nomenclatural acts contained therein.”

This means that all new taxa described in a retracted paper remain permanently available despite the retraction of the original publication.