Journal list menu
Sections
- Submission
- Aims and Scope
- Manuscript Categories and Requirements
- Preparing Your Submission
- Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
- Author Licensing
- Publication Process After Acceptance
- Post Publication
- Editorial Office Contact Details
Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.
Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ldd. Please click here for an example of a published manuscript in Land Degradation & Development.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before creating a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year, it is likely that you will already have an account.
Click here for more details on how to use ScholarOne
For help with submissions, please contact: ldd.office@wiley.com.
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON SUBMISSION:
Please ensure that you note the manuscript number you are assigned – this will gain suffixes as processing progresses and it is important not to omit the correct version – a first revision will have .R1, a second revision will have .R2 and so on. Please quote this in any communication as it aids searching.
If submitting a revised manuscript please upload a set of responses or add a manuscript with tracking but ensure the main manuscript is free of comments. If retrying after a rejection ensure there are no revision comments or tracking on the manuscript.
By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices.wiley.com/statements/data-protection-policy.html
Land Degradation & Development is an international journal which seeks to promote rational study of the recognition, monitoring, control and rehabilitation of degradation in terrestrial environments. The journal focuses on:
- what land degradation is;
- what causes land degradation;
- the impacts of land degradation
- the scale of land degradation;
- the history, current status or future trends of land degradation;
- avoidance, mitigation and control of land degradation;
- remedial actions to rehabilitate or restore degraded land;
- sustainable land management.
Land degradation may be defined as the loss of utility or potential utility through the reduction of or damage to physical, social, cultural or economic features, and/or reduction of ecosystem diversity. There may be a single cause or a complex mix of causes, some may be biogeophysical ('natural'), some socioeconomic ('human') and it is quite possible that cause(s) will be indirect, perhaps cumulative and difficult to identify. A major challenge is to learn how interactions between development and environment can be better managed to increase prospects for ecologically and socially sustainable improvements to human well-being. Development means attempts to improve human well-being or environmental quality in rich and poor nations on a sustained basis (sustainable development).
Papers are invited on scientific, social, economic, political and historical aspects of terrestrial environmental degradation. Also welcome are analyses presenting forecasts of trends, case studies and discussion on management, planning and policy-making relating to the promotion of ecological sustainability and the counteraction of land degradation.
In addition to original research papers, regional and thematic reviews, both invited and submitted, will be included, as will short communications, book reviews and applications of remote sensing and computer techniques. The members of the Editorial Board are drawn from a comprehensive range of disciplines and nationalities. Together with a strict refereeing procedure this will ensure Land Degradation & Development maintains a high standard and presents material from a wide range of disciplines, from interdisciplinary study and with an international coverage.
3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS
- Original Papers– reports of new research findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge (6,000 word limit). If over this limit, we recommend contacting the Editor-in-Chief, Chris Barrow, at cjbarrow20@gmail.com to inform him of the paper content. Every original paper should be divided into the following six sections: Abstract (structured as follows; objective of investigation (hypothesis, purpose, aim), experimental material, method of investigation, data collection, result and conclusions), Introduction (statement of objectives), Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Results and Discussion must be separated.
- Research Articles – will provide detailed description of scientific findings within the scope of the journal and formatted according to guidance highlighted below with respect to subheadings, inclusion of tables and/or figures, reference style, etc. (6,000 word limit). Structure should be as follows; Abstract, content appropriate headings and References.
***Please note that the word limit excludes references and figure captions. if your submission is over the 6000 word limit and has not been discussed with a Section Editor before submission it will be returned to the author***
File formats
Text and tables should be in editable document formats, ideally .doc or .docx. Authors may also submit LaTeX files. On initial submission, LaTeX users should upload a single PDF file generated from source files and should state they are a LaTeX user in their cover letter. When submitting a revision, in addition to a single PDF file, please also submit all TeX source files as “Supplementary Material not for Review”.
Cover Letters
Cover letters are not mandatory; however, they may be supplied at the author’s discretion.
Parts of the Manuscript
The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file; figures.
Main Text File
The text file should be presented in the following order:
i. Manuscript title
ii. The full names of the authors;
iii. The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
iv. The corresponding author’s name and contact email address;
v. A short informative containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
vi. A short running title of less than 70 characters;
vii. Acknowledgments;
viii. Structured Abstract and 6 keywords;
ix. Main text;
x. References (APA);
xi. Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
xii. Figures;
xiii. Figure legends;
xiv. Appendices (if relevant);
xv. Supplementary Materials (if relevant).
Authors are encouraged to visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ which details further information on the preparation and submission of articles and figures.
Authorship
Please refer to the journal’s Authorship Policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.
Acknowledgments
Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.
Conflict of Interest Statement
Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.
Abstract
Please provide an Abstract of no more than 250 words containing the major keywords.The Abstract should makes clear: the aim of the study; the significance and likely interest to a wide readership; what is novel (new) in theory and/or methods as opposed to application of established procedures, and contain at least one sentence on each of the following: objective of investigation hypothesis, purpose, aim, experimental material, method of investigation, data collection, result and conclusions.
Keywords
Please provide 6 keywords. Keywords should be added at the end of the abstract and during the online submission system. Keywords should be separated by dashes.
Main Text
- For Research Articles, the main text should be structured as follows: Abstract; Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; Conflict of Interest Statement; References.
- For Review Articles, the main text should be structured as follows: Abstract, content appropriate headings and References.
References
References should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). This means in text citations should follow the author-date method whereby the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998). The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper. Please note that for journal articles, issue numbers are not included unless each issue in the volume begins with page 1, and a DOI should be provided for all references where available. If no DOI available, please notify.
For more information about APA referencing style, please refer to the APA FAQ.
Reference examples follow:
Journal article
Beers, S. R. , & De Bellis, M. D. (2002). Neuropsychological function in children with maltreatment-related posttraumatic stress disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 483–486. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.3.483
Book
Bradley-Johnson, S. (1994). Psychoeducational assessment of students who are visually impaired or blind: Infancy through high school(2nd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.
Internet Document
Norton, R. (2006, November 4). How to train a cat to operate a light switch [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vja83KLQXZs.
Language
The language of the journal is English. USA spelling for USA and the Americas, UK spelling elsewhere.
Endnotes
Endnotes should be placed as a list at the end of the paper only, not at the foot of each page. They should be numbered in the list and referred to in the text with consecutive, superscript Arabic numerals. Keep endnotes brief; they should contain only short comments tangential to the main argument of the paper.
Tables
Tables should be limited to a necessary minimum. They should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. Tables should also be supplied as editable files and not included as images pasted into the main document. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings. Ensure each Table is cited within the main body of the manuscript. Avoid duplication of information in tables and figures. When developing your manuscript design tables and figures for one or two columns. Small tables will be published in one column, and large ones in two columns. Please design your tables accordingly.
Figure Legends
The main information should be presented within the first 60 characters of each caption. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.
Figures
Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. All figures should be supplied as separate files. Ensure each Figure is cited within the manuscript. For production purposes, high-resolution TIF or EPS files are required.
Figures submitted in colour may be reproduced in colour online free of charge. Please note, however, that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white. If an author would prefer to have figures printed in colour in hard copies of the journal, a fee will be charged by the Publisher.
If providing a location map, it should be informative. If you wish to use a figure to inform the reader about the location you can use the geographical coordinates in the text and avoid using a figure. But if you offer more information, such as the relief of the study, a location map of quality is very welcome.
Land Degradation & Development practices a non- politics/gender/religion/race policy as a science journal. Figures should not contain material such as disputed territory, and text should not contain discriminatory or derogatory material.
Detailed information on digital illustration standards is available at:
http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp
Check your electronic artwork before submitting it:
http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/eachecklist.asp
Guidelines for Cover Submissions
If you would like to send suggestions for artwork related to your manuscript to be considered to appear on the cover of the journal, please follow these general guidelines.
Additional Files
Appendices
Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.
Supporting Information
Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.
Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.
It must be noted that the availability of Supporting Information should be indicated in the main manuscript by a paragraph headed 'Supporting Information'. This section should follow the References.
All Supporting Information should be cited within the article text, and a descriptive legend should be included.
Supporting Information is published as supplied by the author, for this reason, authors should provide any Supporting Information in the desired final format.
Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.
General Style Points
The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.
- Abbreviations:In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
- Units of measurement: Measurements should be given in SI or SI-derived units. Visit the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website for more information about SI units. In maps or scale diagrams, km (lower case) is the preferred format.
- Numbers: numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils).
Wiley Author Resources
Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization.
Editing, Translation, and Formatting Support: Wiley Editing Services can greatly improve the chances of a manuscript being accepted. Offering expert help in English language editing, translation, manuscript formatting, and figure preparation, Wiley Editing Services ensures that the manuscript is ready for submission.
5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Peer Review and Acceptance
The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Manuscripts are single-blind peer reviewed. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.
Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.
Data Sharing and Data Accessibility
The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.
Species Names
Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.
Genetic Nomenclature
Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.
Biological names should be given according to the latest international nomenclature. Botanical and zoological names, gene designations and gene symbols are italicised. The names of 'cultivars' appear in single quotation marks.
Conflict of Interest
The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.
Publication Ethics Violations
Any individuals acting as authors, reviewers or editors, that are found to have published contributions in Land Degradation and Development that infringe upon copyright, patent or obligation of confidentiality, violate or infringe any property or personal rights, are in breach of generally accepted standards of publication ethics, violate professional standards of conduct, or contain any libellous or actionable matter, may be prevented from publishing again in the journal in future. Any incidences of this nature will be raised with the relevant institutions for investigation and the journal reserves the right to consider sanctions against the individuals involved. These sanctions may include a time-bound ban against publishing any further articles in the journal when doing so puts the journal’s reputation demonstrably at risk. Any bans of this nature will be reviewed at the end of the allotted time period and then revoked or extended if necessary. Any sanctions can be appealed by writing to the journal and/or Publisher at pubethics@wiley.com who will consider the appeal. Appeals have 30-day limit, from the day upon which the sanction notification is sent, in which they can be submitted for consideration.
Funding
Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section and in the submission questions. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/
Authorship
The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:
1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
4. Agreed to be 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.
Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript. Please provide full addresses, including postcodes, for all authors.
Additional Authorship Options.
Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’
Publication Ethics
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.
If you have any specific concerns on an an ethical standpoint the journal can be contacted at ldd.office@wiley.com.
ORCID
As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.
Authors certify on uploading that their work is original (i.e. none has been previously published by the author or others as a paper, book, report or on the internet). Manuscripts are tested and the author may be asked to withdraw the manuscript.
If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.
Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or OnlineOpen under the terms of a Creative Commons License.
General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here. To review the Creative Commons License options offered under OnlineOpen, please click here. (Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used; to check this please click here.)
Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.
Open Access fees: Authors who choose to publish using OnlineOpen will be charged a fee. A list of Article Publication Charges for Wiley journals is available here.
Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.
7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE
Accepted Article Received in Production
When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.
Accepted Articles
The journal offers Wiley’s Accepted Articles service for all manuscripts. This service ensures that accepted ‘in press’ manuscripts are published online shortly after acceptance, prior to copy-editing or typesetting. Accepted Articles are published online a few days after final acceptance, appear in PDF format only, and are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows them to be cited and tracked. After publication of the final version article (the article of record), the DOI remains valid and can still be used to cite and access the article.
Proofs
Once the paper is typeset, the author will receive an email notification with full instructions on how to provide proof corrections.
Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process – authors should check proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of first proof.
Early View
The journal offers rapid publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before the article appears online, as Editors also need to review proofs. Once the article is published on Early View, no further changes to the article are possible. The Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.
Access and Sharing
When the article is published online:
- The author receives an email alert (if requested).
- The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
- The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
- The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.
Promoting the Article
To find out how to best promote an article, click here.
Measuring the Impact of an Article
Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric
9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS
For queries about submissions, please contact the Editorial Office: ldd.office@wiley.com
Author Guidelines updated June 2019