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Guide for Contributors

Please refer to the following guidelines when submitting a new manuscript to the Journal of Forest Planning (hereafter "the Journal"), of the Japan Society of Forest Planning (hereafter "the Society"), so that your manuscript can be handled expeditiously.

Types of Papers: Papers are to be classified as either an article, a review, or a short communication. All papers must represent original research and must not have been submitted or published elsewhere (other than as an abstract). Articles are theoretical or empirical reports on original research. Reviews systematically survey the literature in a particular research field, address research questions related to the field, and provide insight into future developments in the field. Short communications are brief reports of significant findings (for example, proposing a new methodology, confirming existing knowledge, or significantly adding to existing knowledge) intended for rapid publication.

Contributors: The first author or the corresponding author of any paper should be a member of the Society unless he/she has been invited to contribute by the editor-in-chief of the Journal. The authors can apply for Society membership on submission.
If you are not a member of the Scociety, please contact the editor-in-chief by email.
Those who live outside Japan can get overseas membership free of charge.

Review Process: The Journal conducts a single-blind review process. Each manuscript is first handled by one of the editors, at which time it is evaluated for Journal suitability. Manuscripts considered to be suitable are then peer-reviewed by at least two anonymous expert referees selected by the editor.

Decision for Publication: The editorial board makes the final decision to accept, reject, or suggest revision to manuscripts based on its contribution in terms of original data and ideas as indicated by the results of reviews conducted by the referees.

Manuscript: Manuscripts should be written in English and follow the guidelines provided in “Manuscript Preparation” below. Either American or British usage/spelling is acceptable, but not a mixture of these.

English: All authors whose first language is not English should ask a native speaker to refine the written English of their manuscripts prior to submission.

Final Manuscript and Authors' Proof Correction: When the manuscript is accepted, the authors will be asked to send the final manuscript in editable electronic formats. The required formats will be indicated in the manuscript preparation. A Portable Document Format (PDF) file of the proof will be sent to the corresponding author by email only once for proofreading.

Expense on Publication: No charges will be levied for papers published in the Journal. A free electronic reprint will be sent to the author in PDF. However, authors who need color page/special printing will be required to pay the actual expenses involved. Reprints can also be ordered in blocks of 50 copies at the actual expenses involved. All prices are subject to change.

Submission and Inquiry: Authors will be required to send their manuscript and a submission form in electronic format to the editor-in-chief by email. Submission inquiries may also be sent to the editor-in-chief by email.

Copyright: The Society reserves all rights to the papers published by the Journal. Written permission by the editor-in-chief is required for the reproduction or republication of Journal-published manuscripts, either in whole or in part.

Rights of Authors: The authors retain the following rights:
(1) Authors are allowed to reproduce their own Journal-published papers, either in whole or in part, in their own literary works providing they acknowledge the Journal as its source.
(2) Authors are allowed to provide a PDF file of their paper to the public at repositories of their affiliations and financial contributors after it has been provided to the public via J-STAGE on the condition that they display a link to the paper's abstract on the J-STAGE website.
(3) Authors are allowed to electronically copy and distribute a PDF file of their paper on the condition that they purchase reprints of their paper, or the PDF file of their paper at the same price as the reprints of their paper. In this case, authors are allowed to post the PDF file on their personal website after providing it to the public via J-STAGE and should display a link to the paper's abstract on the J-STAGE website.

(February 2019)

Manuscripts Preparation

Style: All manuscripts should be arranged as follows: (1) title page, (2) abstract and keywords, (3) main text, (4) literature cited, (5) tables, (6) figures, and (7) messages to editors.

Typing: Manuscripts should be typewritten, double-spaced, on A4-size pages with margins of 3 cm on the top, bottom, and both sides. Line and page numbers should be included. The desired locations of tables and figures should be indicated in red font characters in the right margins.

Text Style: Characters to be printed in italic or bold font should be entered using the features of the word processing software.

Title Page: The first page of each manuscript should contain the following items: (1) the type of paper, (2) the title of the paper, (3) the authors’ full names and affiliations along with their addresses, and (4) the corresponding author’s name and e-mail address.

The author affiliations to be listed are the affiliations where the actual research was conducted. If any of the authors have changed affiliation since completing the research, the present affiliation can also be indicated.

Abstract and Keywords: An abstract is required for all paper types, and should be no more than 300 words long. Between three and five keywords, listed alphabetically and separated by commas, should be provided.

Mathematical Equations: If there is more than one equation in the text, the equations should be numbered with Arabic numerals according to their sequence on the right-hand side ((1), (2), etc.). Short expressions not cited by any number may be included in the text. Variables should be presented in italics, although upright-style Greek alphabet letters may be used.

Funding: All sources of funding should be listed in this section, following the contributors’ requirements.

Acknowledgements: Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the “Acknowledgements” section at the end of the main text before the “literature cited” section.

Conflicts of interest: If authors have any potential conflicts of interest in relation to their manuscript, they must describe them in this section.

Literature Cited: In-text literature citations should show the surname (family name) of the author and the year of publication. In parenthetical citations after the statement concerned, the surname of the author and the year of publication are to be separated by a comma. Multiple citations in the same parentheses are to be placed in chronological order and separated by semicolons. If there are more than two authors, citations should quote the surname of the first author and the words “et al.” The names of all authors should be included in the list of literature cited. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year should be identified by Roman alphabet letters placed after the year.

The “literature cited” section at the end of the paper should list the cited literature alphabetically by the surname of the first author, and then chronologically for each author. Use the following examples for the style of the “literature cited” section:
a. For periodicals: Shirasawa, H. and Hasegawa, H. (2014) A comparative study of heuristic algorithms for the multiple target access problem. J. For. Res. 19: 437–449
b. For books: Davis, L.S., Johnson, K.N., Bettinger, P.S. and Howard, T.E. (2001) Forest management: To sustain ecological, economic, and social values. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York, 804 pp
c. For chapters in edited books and papers in proceedings: Gadow, K.V. (2005) Science-based forest design and analysis. In: Naito, K. (ed) The role of forests for coming generations. Japan Society of Forest Planning Press, Utsunomiya: 1–19
d. For theses and dissertations: Tiryana, T. (2010) Quantitative models for supporting multipurpose management planning of teak plantations in Java, Indonesia. PhD thesis, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 100 pp
e. For Internet resources: McGaughey, R.J. (1999) Visualization system. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. http://faculty.washington.edu/mcgoy/svs.html (accessed 14 April 2013)

If the literature has no English title, the authors should translate the non-English title into English. The translated title should be placed in square brackets, and the original language should be placed in parentheses after the pagination. The romanized title of the original language may be placed before the translation, as in:
f. Tanaka, K. (1996) Shinrin keikakugaku nyumon [An introduction to forest planning]. Japan Society of Forest Planning Press, Fuchu, Tokyo,192 pp (in Japanese)

Tables: Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals according to their sequence in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.). Each table should be prepared on a separate page and be accompanied by a brief and self-explanatory title. Any explanations for the tables should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table. Do not use vertical lines to separate columns.

Figures: Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals according to their sequence in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). Each figure should be prepared on a separate page. Figure captions should appear on a separate page. Figures should be of publication quality. Color figures can be included but will incur an additional printing charge. Figures for color printing should be marked with the note "COLOR" in the margin of the page on which the figure appears.

Submission Form: The submission form should be filled out and attached to the manuscript on submission.

Electronic Submission: Authors are required to submit their manuscript in PDF by email. If it is difficult to save the manuscript in PDF, MS Word files are also accepted. Authors are encouraged to save their tables and figures in PDF form, and then combine them with the manuscript file. This means that just one PDF file should be sent to the editor-in-chief.

After acceptance, the authors will be asked to submit the final manuscript in the following formats:
1) Title page, abstract and keywords, main text, literature cited, and figure captions: an MS Word (doc or docx) file;
2) Tables: an editable file in MS Word (doc or docx) or MS Excel (xls of xlsx);
3) Figures: High-quality image files (TIFF, JPEG, or PNG), an MS PowerPoint (ppt or pptx) file, or a PDF file.
4) Supplemental material: Please contact Editorial Office for details.

(July 2021)