Policies
Contents
- Subject Matter
- Who Can Submit?
- General Submission Rules
- Formatting Requirements
- Open Access, Rights for Authors and DigitalCommons@USU
Subject Matter
Human–Wildlife Interactions (HWI) serves the professional needs of the wildlife biologist and manager in the arena of human–wildlife conflicts/interactions, wildlife damage management, and contemporary wildlife management. The intent of HWI is to publish original contributions on all aspects of contemporary wildlife management and human–wildlife interactions with an emphasis on scientific research and management case studies that identify and report innovative conservation strategies, technologies, tools, and partnerships that can enhance human–wildlife interactions by mitigating human–wildlife conflicts through direct and indirect management of wildlife and increased stakeholder engagement.
See Purpose & Scope for article subject matter and submission categories.
Who Can Submit?
Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Human–Wildlife Interactions provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).
General Submission Rules
Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Human–Wildlife Interactions, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Human–Wildlife Interactions.
If any portion of the manuscript has been published or reported elsewhere, submit a copy of each report or publication with the manuscript submission. If the manuscript relates to but does not duplicate other publications or manuscripts by the same author(s), submit a copy of each to assist reviewers and editors in assessing the submitted manuscript. Upload all additional files as supplemental materials, and include an explanation of the materials in your cover letter. Manuscripts suspected of plagiarism will be subjected to additional screening.
Page Charges
During manuscript submission in the online portal, authors are required to agree to pay the page charges if their article is accepted for publication. Most article categories, including invited papers for regular and special topics issues, incur page charges.
As of manuscripts submitted on July 1, 2024, and afterward, the publication charges are flat fees based on the length of the final accepted manuscript and the article category, as indicated below:
- Research Note or Techniques paper of up to 20 manuscript pages, formatted according to journal policy: $1,000 USD
- Research Article, Commentary, Management Case Study, or Opinion of up to 40 manuscript pages, formatted according to journal policy: $1,500 USD
- Research Article, Commentary, Management Case Study, or Opinion of 41-45 manuscript pages, formatted according to journal policy: $2,000 USD
- Submissions of >45 manuscript pages will be desk-rejected. Authors are welcome to contact the editorial office at to inquire about journal interest in manuscripts of a longer length that may be suitable for publication.
The journal offers a waiver application process prior to submission; no waivers will be given after a manuscript is already submitted to the system. See next section for information about waiver requests.
Authors whose manuscripts were submitted prior to July 1, 2024, have agreed through the online submission agreement form to pay the page charges at the rate of $100 per typeset page (approx. 2.5 double-spaced manuscript pages equals 1 typeset page). It is the corresponding author's responsibility to contact the journal at with any questions about invoicing and payment.
HWI is registered as an open access journal in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. As a publisher member of DOAJ, HWI adheres to DOAJ established standards and best practices for open access journals and publishing. Authors who publish in HWI can now access institutional open access publication funds, which can include DOAJ indexing to release funding to pay for page charges.
Waiver Requests
To manage page charge waivers fairly and economically, HWI will adhere to the following policy. This ensures 1) an equitable and consistent process for waiver applications; 2) editors' awareness of important information upfront, such as manuscript page count; and 3) centralized documentation on all official waiver requests and agreements.
Applying for a page charge waiver: Any author interested in receiving a reduction in page charges must complete a waiver application form before completing a new submission in the online manuscript portal. Once the application has been submitted, the author should wait for a decision regarding the waiver request prior to submitting the manuscript via the online manuscript submission portal. No verbal or informal waiver arrangements will be accepted. No waiver considerations will be made for submissions that have already been uploaded into the manuscript system.
Waiver options and application: Authors may receive 25%, 50%, or 100% of their fees waived. Receiving a waiver does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication in the journal, as it will still need to undergo peer review.
Waiver applicants must submit a draft of their manuscript as part of the waiver application process. This allows the editors to have an indication of the quality of the research and writing. Manuscripts must be written in English and proofread for accuracy of spelling, grammar, and adherence to the journal's editorial style. Authors should ensure that the manuscript follows journal guidelines as closely as possible; manuscripts that will require excessive editorial attention from the editors may negatively affect the application review.
Every 2-3 months, depending on demand, the editor-in-chief, managing editor, and an associate editor will review the applications. Each application may be assigned a different associate editor, depending on the manuscript topic. Those that review applications will follow a scoring metric, based on the application, and return a decision of no waiver or 25%, 50%, or 100% waiver. The editor-in-chief will use these reviews to make the final decision.
Balancing waived page charge fees within journal issues: No more than 10% of an issue will contain manuscripts with waived page charges. Papers with partial waived fees may be pooled to "add up" to 10% of the issue's waived pages.
If needed, manuscript publication may be delayed until a publication issue with the waived page charge space is available. We will notify the author of the manuscript of the most likely issue in which the manuscript would be published if accepted.
Complete the waiver application form online. For all questions about page charges, waivers, and timeframes, contact the editorial office at .
Animal Care
Appropriate documentation that proper animal care and use was applied when using live vertebrate animals for research must be submitted prior to publication. Acceptable means of documentation include an Institutional Animal Care and Use Protocol number (as designated by most U.S. universities), the number of the permit or license issued to hold animals (such as with private breeders), or the equivalent. This policy covers all vertebrate animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Documentation will be requested after a manuscript is accepted, and prior to publication.
Human Subjects
Appropriate documentation that proper approval was obtained to perform research involving human subjects (primarily surveys) must be provided. Acceptable means of documentation include a Human Subjects Protocol number (as designated by most U.S. universities) or the equivalent.
If you have concerns about the submission terms for Human–Wildlife Interactions, please contact the editorial office at .
Formatting Requirements
Human–Wildlife Interactions requires authors to adhere to HWI formatting guidelines upon initial submission of a manuscript. This ensures consistency during the submission, review, and production process. There are, however, opportunities for authors to address formatting changes for a revised or final submission. See Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details about HWI manuscript formatting.
It is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format) file, or a Microsoft Word, WordPerfect or RTF file that can be converted to a PDF file. It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.
Open Access, Rights for Authors and DigitalCommons@USU
Open Access
Human–Wildlife Interactions provides immediate open access to its content. HWI editors believe making research freely available to the public best benefits research, scholars, education, and society. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of articles in this journal, or to use them for any other lawful purpose.
Rights to Authors
Authors of original work accepted for publication in HWI grant first publication rights to HWI but retain ownership of the copyright of their content. All content in HWI unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Under this license, others may distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon authors’ work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author for the original creation. Authors are responsible for obtaining the rights to use third party materials prior to submission.
Authors who post their articles on their personal or institutional websites or repositories should include a citation with a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article, for example:
Originally published in Human–Wildlife Interactions: Vol. 13 : Iss. 2 , Article 11.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.26077/0bcx-v339.
General Terms and Conditions of Use
Users of the DigitalCommons@USU website and/or software agree not to misuse the DigitalCommons@USU service or software in any way.
The failure of DigitalCommons@USU to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between DigitalCommons@USU and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.