General
The Estonian Journal of Ecology publishes peer-reviewed primary research and review papers in the English language. Papers dealing with any aspect of theoretical and experimental ecology, in both terristrial and aquatic ecosystems, are welcome on fully international basis. The manuscripts submitted should meet the following requirements.

The title should be concise but informative. The arrangement and selection of words is important for indexing purposes. A short running title should be provided.

The name(s), including one forename in full, affiliation(s), full address(es), and e-mail address(es) of the author(s) should follow the title of the paper. In the covering letter the corresponding author and his/her telephone and fax numbers should be indicated.

The abstract (approximately 250 words) should be a self-contained summary of the paper, presenting concisely the objectives of the work reported, methodology, results, and conclusions. Citations in the abstract should be avoided. The abstract should be followed by key words (max seven). The manuscript should include also a summary in Estonian (not obligatory for foreign authors).
Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of the funding organizations should be written in full.

The volume of the manuscript (incl. references, summaries, illustrations, and tables) is preferably no more than 20 double-spaced pages. Use page and line numbering.

It is essential that the paper be written in clear, proper English. Manuscripts requiring substantial improvement of English usage may be returned to the author(s) for revision before the review process. Authors for whom English is not their mother tongue should have their manuscripts checked by a competent linguist or native English speaker before submission. The authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style (www.kirj.ee). The editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.

Copyright
Papers accepted become the copyright of the Estonian Academy Publishers. Upon acceptance of an article, the corresponding author will be asked to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement. Authors are responsible for obtaining, from the copyright holder, written permission to reproduce previously published (copyrighted) illustrations or tables. The authors and their employers retain full rights to reuse their material for their own purposes, with acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.

Submission
Manuscripts can be submitted electronically by e-mail (Virve dot Kurnitski at eap dot ee). The attachment should be packed (max size 5 MB) and include:

Manuscripts can also be sent by regular mail, including:

The files and the printouts must correspond exactly to one another. It is not necessary to incorporate any special page layout in the manuscript.  Electronic submission is preferable.

In the covering letter the authors should supply full contact details (incl. e-mail addresses) for at least four individuals who may be appropriate reviewers for the manuscript. Also, information about possible conflict of interests should be reported.


Notation and abbreviations
Notation must be clear, compact, and consistent with standard usage. All notations and abbreviations should be defined in the text. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract.

Illustrations
Illustrations should be prepared in their final format (that is no enlarging or reducing will be necessary) and fit into the print area of the journal (127 mm × 200 mm). All illustrations must be clearly numbered and provided with the title and the name(s) of the author(s) on the reverse sides of the printouts. The appropriate place for each illustration in the text should be indicated in the margin. If necessary, the top of the figure should be indicated. All illustrations must have self-explanatory legends. The captions to illustrations should be listed separately. The text, tables, and illustrations should not repeat one another.
Dense shading for background should be avoided. The lettering (upper- and lowercase letters, italic, bold) should follow the usage in the text. Different parts of a figure should be marked by lowercase letters in parentheses. The size of symbols and lettering should not be smaller than 1.5 mm.
Illustrations should be provided in one of the following formats:
Vector graphics:
· .cdr (CorelDraw, save as version 6 or a later one)
· .ai (Adobe Illustrator)
· .eps (Encapsulated Post Script)
· .xls (Microsoft Excel, save as an Excel worksheet; should contain spreadsheet and embedded chart)
Raster graphics (such as photographs or scanned line-art):

Mixed vector and raster graphics:

Make sure that any artwork is at the appropriate, minimum, resolution: 300 dpi for halftones and greyscale, 600 dpi for combinations (line art and halftones together), and 600 dpi for line art.

Photographs should be submitted as clear black and white prints on glossy paper. Digital and scanned photographs should be saved as tif or eps files at a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

Colour illustrations are accepted if they are essential to the presentation. The images should be in CMYK mode (resolution at least 300 dpi). Authors will be asked to cover the full cost incurred in colour printing. Further information concerning colour illustrations can be obtained from the Executive Editor.

References
References to the literature cited should be indicated at the appropriate place in the text, according to the Harvard (name-year) system, with a reference list in alphabetical order in double-spaced typing at the end of the paper. All references in this list should appear in the text and vice versa.

References should be presented as follows:

(a) For a book: Name(s) and initials of the author(s), year of publishing, title of the book, publisher, town of publishing:

(b) For articles in journals: Name(s) and initials of the author(s), year of publishing, title of the article, unabbreviated journal title, volume (in bold), page numbers:  

Uuemaa, E., Roosaare, J., Oja, T.,& Mander, Ü. Analysing the spatial structure of the Estonian landscapes: which landscape metrics are the most suitable for comparing different landscapes? Estonian Journal of Ecology, 2011, 60, 70–80.

(c) For articles in collections: Name(s) and initials of the author(s), year of publishing, title of the article, title of the collection (preceded by In), name(s) and initials of the editor(s), page numbers, publisher, town of publishing:

 Simm, M. & Kotta, I. 1992. The life cycle and production of Mysis mixta in the Gulf of Riga. In Taxonomy, Biology and Ecology of (Baltic) Mysids (Köhn, J., Jones, M. B. & Moffat, A., eds), pp. 45–54. Rostock University.

(d) References to electronic materials (except electronic journals) should be kept to a minimum. The electronic medium should be specified, e.g., CD-ROM, Diskette, etc. If material is available online, the access mode, address, and date should be given.

(e) Papers in Cyrillic: Give the official title in English, German, or French if available (e.g. from summaries). If no official English, German, or French version is available, translate the titles of books and articles into English; abbreviate and transliterate journal names into Roman script; transliterate the publication data; add: (in Russian).

The following table (BGN/PCGN system) should be used for transliteration:
transliteration table in PDF format

Proofs
The author (or the corresponding author) will receive a set of proofs as a printout or a pdf file for correcting printer's errors. No changes may be made and no new material inserted in the text at the time of proofreading.

Offprints
Payable offprints of an article (minimum 10 copies) can be ordered from the Editorial Office at proof stage.