What is the Journal of Threatened Taxa or JoTT?

The Journal of Threatened Taxa is an open access and print, peer-reviewed, monthly (not including supplementary and special issues and monographs), rapid, international journal on conservation and taxonomy. The Journal is abbreviated as JoTT. The official shorter version of the Journal name is J. Threat. Taxa
JoTT is a platform for quick and timely publication of research, findings, reviews, and other aspects of science related to conservation and taxonomy including subject areas such as ecology, behavior, physiology, methodology, veterinary, diseases, management, models, data, among other relevant topics of conservation biology that have a direct or substantial impact on the knowledge, distribution, status, threats, and conservation of native fauna, flora, and fungi.
JoTT encourages professional and amateur/upcoming scientists from around the world to publish. The Journal provides assistance and mentors first time writers and writers from non-native English language countries in presenting science to the world.
On an average, JoTT publishes 200 research articles and reviews every year. In 2020, JoTT published 265 articles with 122 full length articles and six monographs in 18 issues spanning 2362 pages.

JoTT publishes manuscripts under following categories (details): 
1. Monographs
2. Full length articles:
 Articles
 Communications
 Reviews 
 Essays
 Conservation Applications
 Peer Commentaries 
3. Short articles:
 Short communications
 Data Papers
 Viewpoints
4. Brief articles:
 Notes
5. Special Series / Issues
6. Invited Content
 Editorial
 Responses and Replies
 Addenda / Errata / Corrigenda
 Book Reviews

 

What do you need at the time of submission?

1. Names, affiliations, complete postal address and working email IDs of all authors. 
2. Names of 3 preferred reviewers (see guidelines) 
3. Names of non-preferred reviewers, if any 
4. Manuscript file in .doc or .docx format (preparation guidelines)
5. Figure and images (preparation guidelines) 
6. Ethics statement signed by corresponding author
Submission: 
1. Only electronic submissions are accepted. 
2. Submissions are to be made through the online Open Journal System (OJS). 
3. Email submissions are not accepted.

Important points 
1. In case of Notes or Short Communications that do not match the requirements of JoTT, but are of value to conservation, we will forward the manuscripts for consideration in appropriate newsletters such as FrogLeg, Reptile Rap, Small Mammal Mail, MIN, Mammal Tales, Plantasia, Bird-o-Soar, BugsRAll, Funguy, or Vet Brief published within Zoo's Print, the monthly non peer-reviewed magazine of Zoo Outreach Organization. 
2. Articles submitted to JoTT are received under good faith as being based on original research and not submitted, accepted, or published elsewhere. 
3. After preliminary assessment of the suitability of the manuscript for consideration in JoTT, status of the manuscript will be intimated to the corresponding author within 4 months. If the manuscript is found in need of minor corrections or additions, a tentative acceptance will be communicated in that time. However, final acceptance will be communicated only after satisfactory changes have been carried out and accepted by the Subject Editor & Chief Editor for publication. The date of publication from the date of final acceptance depends on how fast the authors respond to the needs of the editorial office in making corrections to the proofs and submitting all files according to the format required by the publications department. 
4. To facilitate speedy publication from the date of first submission, ensure that peers review the manuscript beforehand. This will potentially help the manuscript to be reviewed faster and with lesser suggestions for modification. For authors from countries with English as not the primary language and for new authors, it is strongly recommended that the text is vetted for presentation, English, grammar, spelling, scientific names, consistency, etc. before submitting to JoTT. While we do consider manuscripts on their merit of research finding and conservation need, poorly written manuscripts will have a higher probability of rejection from reviewers and subject editors for difficulty in comprehending the subject.
5. Improper and incomplete submissions will be desk-rejected before review with a letter to the corresponding author regarding the decline.
6. Inappropriate submissions will be deleted from the system without any letter to the authors.

Article processing charges / Submission / Subscription: 
1. Submissions to JoTT have article processing charges (APC) from 01 April 2021.
2. There are no charges at the time of submission in JoTT.
3. There are no membership fees charged at any time for publishing in JoTT.
4. There are no subscription or download charges in JoTT.
5. All publications in JoTT are completely Open Access and are available as HTML and PDF downloads.
6. Only at the time of galley proof stage, APC will have to be paid before the manuscript will be published.

 

Why is JoTT charging for publication now?

JoTT has been a platinum open access journal since 2009 and before that as Zoo’s Print Journal since April 1999.  The onus on running the journal was solely on our shoulders.  A small team of people at JoTT mostly volunteered their time in processing manuscripts and publishing them online in a professional manner keeping to all the stringent peer-review requirements and sticking to the date of publication of 26th of every month irrespective of holidays, festivals, or ill health.  It has always been a struggle to keep JoTT going since everything requires money.  We have had small funds coming in occasionally from funding agencies and individuals, but these have been less than 10% of the operating costs thereby making all personnel costs non-existent.

Although the overall submission decline rate is around 70%, it still takes time and effort to process manuscripts to desk decline, decline after peer-review process, or process the accepted submissions for publication.  This, therefore, has been completely reliant on us volunteering our time after completing the works of other funded projects every day.  Then the pandemic happened …. all funded projects came to a grinding halt and so did all the funding.  And, the number of submissions to JoTT tripled.  We continued for a year under this stress, hoping the situation would improve, but it did not.

While the most prudent response to this would be to shut down JoTT, the philosophy for setting it up has guided us, and we wish to continue with the same.  We tried other means of raising funds and wrote many appeals for donation from our readers and the general public, but the success rate has been miniscule.  Perhaps, the COVID situation has hampered philanthropy.  Therefore, in order to run the journal, we have had to move to a pay for publication model.

How have the APC been arrived at?

After much deliberation and consultations, we have decided an optimal pay for publication model, which is charging for article processing.  Keeping various considerations in mind, including ability to pay for publication for those who are unaided or underfunded, a simple payment model is introduced which ensures that the maximum payment is as much as a pair of branded jeans.  And additional authors beyond the base charge for two-author will mean the individual cost for each author further reduces overall, making the publication not dependent heavily on only funding agencies, or hinder students from publishing either.

 

Applicable charges for publishing in JoTT

Article Processing Contribution

The following updated article processing charges are applicable for accepted articles submitted on or after 26 January 2024.

Article category

Base charge up to 2 authors

Additional charge 3rd author and above (per author)

Monographs (Articles 36 printed pages or more, up to 64 pages. Larger issues will be calculated on a case-by-case basis).

INR 30,000 /
USD 600

INR 3,000 /
USD 60

Descriptive articles (10,001 and more words *): Article, Communications, Reviews, Conservation Applications, Essays, Detailed Descriptions, Annotated Checklists, Detailed Data Papers.

INR 15,000 /
USD 300

INR 3,000 /
USD 60

Lengthy articles (5,001–10,000 words *): Article, Communications, Reviews, Conservation Applications, Essays, Detailed Descriptions, Annotated Checklists, Detailed Data Papers.

INR 12,000 /
USD 240

INR 3,000 /
USD 60

Full length articles (2,501–5,000 words *): Article, Communications, Reviews, Conservation Applications, Essays, Detailed New Descriptions with or without phylogenetic analysis, Annotated Checklists, Data Papers.

INR 8,000 /
USD 160

INR 2,000 /
USD 40

Short length articles (1,001–2,500 words *): Short Communications, Short Data Papers, Peer Commentaries, Viewpoints, Simple Checklists, Short Classical New Descriptions, Observations and Notes over 1,000 words (with or without headers).

INR 5,000 /
USD 100

INR 1,000 /
USD 20

Brief articles: Notes of up to 1,000 words * (without headers).

INR 3,000 /
USD 60

INR 500 /
USD 10

Editorial, Response / Reply, Book Review, Addenda / Errata / Corrigenda.

No charge

No charge

* Including Abstract, Keywords, and References at the time of publication.

 

2. Withdrawal of manuscript from publication after two weeks from the date of submission will be with a penalty of USD 10/- per page (authors residing outside of India), or INR 500/- per page (for authors residing within India) as indicated in the Checklist (of total pages submitted in A4 size page as per standard JoTTformat, including text and illustrations) will be deposited before the submission is considered withdrawn. This is to ensure that the peer-review services of the Journal and that of its editorial board are not misused.  In genuine cases requests will be considered for withdrawal without penalty, but adequate and compelling justification is required.

APC Waiver:

The APC for JoTT is most reasonable and has been developed keeping the minimal standards of income in developing countries.  Funding details are a must while submitting new manuscripts.  The APC for JoTT is estimated for authors for no or minimal funding for publication, something that is definitely affordable for even a junior research fellow.  In case of really deserving candidates, a partial or full waiver may be considered.  However, a convincing justification for availing a waiver has to be made at the time of submission of the manuscript.

Reprints: 
1. Color and grey scale prints of the journal issues are available at cost. Contact us at threatenedtaxa@gmail.com for more details. 
2. Prints are available at the JoTT office. To purchase the print edition contact us at managingeditor@threatenedtaxa.org or write to the Managing Editor, Journal of Threatened Taxa c/o Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society No. 12, Thiruvannamalai Nagar, Saravanampatti-Kalapatti Road, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, INDIA 
4. No reprints will be supplied to any author free of charge. 
5. Individual article reprints in color and grey scale can be purchased on a per page cost as decided by the publisher. Contact us at ravi@zooreach.org for more details.

 

Publication Frequency

JoTT maintains a strict schedule of publication. Regular issues are published online on the 26th of every month. For manuscripts to be considered for publication in an issue, final galley proofs from the authors must reach the Managing Editor before the 22nd of that month failing which the article will be processed for the next month. In exceptional cases delay by a day may be permitted, but the editorial office has to be informed in advance. JoTT also publishes supplementary issues in the form of either a Monograph or Special Issue. These will be published as and when the manuscript is ready for publication, except when it is too close to the date of the regular monthly issue. In that instance the supplementary issue will be published 10–15 days after the regular issue.