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Resources → Authors → Supplementary material

Supplementary material gives authors the opportunity to enhance their work by including material that cannot be included in an article for reasons of space, is of very specific interest, or is not compatible with the standard journal format (e.g. audio or video files, animations, software, models, or large datasets). Supplementary material is intended to support arguments advanced in the article; it should not refer to other work nor contain discussion or conclusions that go beyond the content of the article. The inclusion of supplementary material is at the discretion of the Editor whose decision on its relevance and appropriateness, guided where necessary by referees’ comments, is final.

Supplementary material will be published online and hyperlinked from the article. It is considered to form an integral part of the article and will be subject to peer review and to the same ethical standards, warranties and conditions of submission. Authors will be required to sign a copyright transfer form and provide the same warranties in respect of supplementary material as for the article itself. If copyright cannot be assigned, an appropriate licence to publish must be given. Where the authors do not hold copyright, permission to reproduce material (online, in all regions, and for the full term of copyright) from other sources must be obtained from the copyright holder.

To assure continuity of access and effective archiving, supplementary files will be published on Maney’s online platform (ingentaconnect or Highwire). It is also permitted to link to supplementary material deposited in an open access database such as GEO or CIF or in a widely recognised subject based repository, but not to files held on personal or other websites. Consult the editor if in doubt whether a depository or database is acceptable for this purpose. The instructions for authors of individual journals may also provide further information on the submission of supplementary material.

Preparation of articles including supplementary material
Whenever possible, include supplementary material on initial submission of the article since peer review at a later stage may delay progress. For journals with an online peer review system supplementary files are uploaded in the same way as the manuscript and figures (see further information below). In preparing an article, authors must:

•  ensure each supplementary file is referred to at the appropriate point in the text of the manuscript, using the style: (Supplementary Material 1), (Supplementary Material 2), ...
•  supply a separate document giving the title and a brief description of each supplementary file (including the file format), plus detailed captions for non-text files (figures, video, audio, software, datasets, ...)
•  where possible, combine supplementary text and tables into a single file. (Tables containing large amounts of data or better presented in another format, e.g. as spreadsheets, should be supplied separately.) Where appropriate, this file may also include figure captions and figures, with links to high resolution versions where applicable
•  distinguish supplementary tables, figures and references from those in the main article using the numbering system S1, S2, S3, ...

Supplementary files will not be edited following acceptance and will usually appear as supplied, without being typeset. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the content is correct, self-contained and consistent with the article itself and with journal style. CrossRef reference linking may not be active in all file formats; the use of additional references in the supplementary files should therefore be kept to a minimum. Supplementary files will be designated unique digital object identifiers (DOIs) derived from the DOI of the main article.

Acceptable file formats for supplementary material are:

•    text files: Word, RTF, PDF, SGML, txt
•    tables: Word, RTF, Excel, PDF
•    figures: tiff, jpeg, eps, bmp, gif
•    presentations: PowerPoint, PDF
•    audio/video files: MPEG, wfv
•    data and software files running on recognised and widely available programs or compilers.

Use compressed formats for image and audio/video files where this can be done without compromising quality.

Copyright, permissions and ethics for supplementary material
Authors will be asked to assign the copyright of supplementary material to the journal as an integral part of the article. If it is not possible to assign copyright, a licence to publish must be provided. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material for which they do not hold the copyright. Authors will be required to warrant that, to the best of their knowledge, any supplementary material is original, that any prior publication is acknowledged, and that it contains nothing of a libellous nature. Supplementary material must also conform to the journal’s policy on ethical treatment of human subjects and animals and of patients’ rights to privacy. Further information is available elsewhere on Maney’s copyright and ethical policies.

Supplementary material on Editorial Manager™
When submitting supplementary material to journals that use the Editorial Manager online submission and peer review system, you will be asked to classify each item as follows:

•    list and description of supplementary files [mandatory when a paper includes supplementary material]
•    supplementary text and/or tables
•    supplementary figure
•    supplementary audio/video file or animation
•    supplementary presentation, dataset, model or other file.

As many files as necessary may be uploaded in each category. Choose the correct category for each supplementary file from the dropdown menu when uploading files. The list and description of supplementary material will be included within the PDF file accessed by the editor or referee. All other supplementary files will be hyperlinked from the PDF file. The maximum file size for uploads is 30MB.

Referees’ duties concerning confidentiality
Referees and editors are required to treat articles and supplementary material submitted to a journal as confidential until an article has been accepted for publication. Other than for the purpose of assessing the article’s suitability for publication, no use may be made of any information received without the authors’ express written permission.