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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Big Earth Data.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-01
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Article types

Review
Editorial
Research Article
Review Article
Data Note
Technical Note
Perspective
Commentary
Clinical Trial
Protocol
Letter
Systematic Review
Lectio

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 1500 words.
  • Use a unstructured abstract.
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  • Should contain an unstructured abstract of 300 words.
  • Should contain an unstructured abstract of 250 words.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • There are no strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to evaluate a manuscript: abstract, keywords, author affiliation, figures, tables, funder information, notes on contributors, data availability statement, and references.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.

Keywords

  • Provide 3-8 keywords chosen by the author.
  • Should contain between 3 and 8 keywords.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references in APA style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • Please use this T&F standard APA reference style when preparing your paper.
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  • This should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • If you reply yes, you will be required to provide the DOI, pre-registered DOI, hyperlink, or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
  • References for data-sets should be as follows: [dataset] Oguro M, Imahiro S, Saito S, Nakashizuka T.
  • These resources should be properly archived in a recognized data repository and assigned a digital object identifier (DOI) or other persistent identifier before acceptance.
  • Manuscripts presenting datasets, code, software or implementation of described algorithms must include a link to a recognized repository that can mint a persistent digital identifier, preferably a digital object identifier (DOI) and recognizes a long-term preservation plan.
  • Source code for software and analysis code you have created must also be archived and deposited into an appropriate repository, and a persistent identifier (DOI) must be provided.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Figures and tables should be embedded within the text for all original submissions.
  • Figures should be of sufficient resolution to enable refereeing.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Add or confirm the author-written Data availability statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Authors are required to provide a data availability statement (DAS), detailing where data associated with a paper can be found and how it can be accessed.
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  • If data cannot be made open, authors should state why in the data availability statement.
  • Authors are required to cite any data sets or resources referenced in the article and provide a Data Availability Statement.
  • Details of the code, its location and a persistent identifier for it should be added to the data availability statement.
  • Articles need to meet the Open Science Badges criteria in order to earn a badge.

Ethics statement

  • Include or confirm the ethics statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Cover letter

  • All code and software are published under the Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved open source licenses, while supporting data should be under a public domain such as a CCBY, CC0 or equivalent license to allow reuse by any third party for any lawful purpose.
  • Using Third-Party Material You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
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  • Code must be openly licensed, preferably using an OSI-approved license.
  • Review: The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Author contributions

  • Submitting authors should be prepared to submit CRediT roles for themselves and their co-authors (where applicable) as part of the submission process.

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • This could be adapted from your departmental website or academic networking profile and should be relatively brief (no more than 200 words).
  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
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  • It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels.
  • Review: These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Please note that discounts must be applied at the Charges stage of the submission process when the APC quote is confirmed and may not be considered after submission.
  • Data Note / Technical Note: For data notes and technical notes, it is required that the data-sets, code and software tools are made available to the editors and reviewers.
  • Papers deemed suitable for further consideration are typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers who assess the scientific quality of the paper.
  • Research Article: Manuscripts that involve more in-depth analyses should be submitted as Research Articles.
  • Data Note: All data described in a Data Note submitted to Big Earth Data must be made openly accessible to the public and should be deposited with a recognized data repository.
  • Typically, the publication should consist of three parts: the main paper, a user manual, and the software/code.
  • The layout of the full text should be single-column without line numbers.
  • Note that, regardless of the file format of the original submission, an editable version of the article must be supplied at the revision stage.
  • Relevance to the Journal: A maximum of one page of text explaining how the submission aligns with the scope and readership of the journal.
  • Data must be deposited in a recognized FAIR-aligned data repository prior to or at the time of submission.
  • Please provide a photo and a short biographical note by a third-person narrator for each author.
  • Data and software should meet with FAIR standards established by the subject area.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • If you submit a paper to a participating journal, you will then receive an email upon submission with: Details of the badges offered by the journal.
  • If you submit a paper to a participating journal, you will then receive an email upon submission with: Links to additional information.
  • If you submit a paper to a participating journal, you will then receive an email upon submission with: An open practices disclosure form.
  • If you submit a paper to a participating journal, you will then receive an email upon submission with: The journal editor’s email address.
  • Data Note: It is important to note that Data Notes are not considered for data derived from published papers where the data should have been made available at the time of publication.
  • The manuscript should emphasize the novelty in the approach and implementation of the software package, model or tool and provide a thorough comparison with any existing software packages, models or tools commonly used in the scientific community.
  • Impact and Relevance Statement: The Impact and Relevance Statement should be concise and will be shared with editors and reviewers to facilitate the evaluation of the submission’s scientific merit.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Please note that data should only be shared if it is ethically correct to do so, where this does not violate the protection of human subjects, or other valid ethical, privacy, or security concerns.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Such as: The standards on Data, Materials, and Analytical Code Transparency speak to the items generated over the course of the study and how you should preserve or share them.
  • Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.
  • COS currently offers three badges in its program: The Open Materials badge is earned by making publicly available the components of the research methodology needed to reproduce the reported procedure and analysis.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Article type and manuscript length

  • To ensure clarity and conciseness, the main text should not exceed 1500 words and should not contain an abstract (excluding references, figure legends and tables), with only 1 figure/table and less than 10 references.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: impact and relevance statement, title page; main text, declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate).
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  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: impact and relevance statement, title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate).
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: impact and relevance statement, title page; abstract; keywords; main text; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate) Figures and tables should be embedded within the text for all original submissions.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: impact and relevance statement, title page; abstract; keywords; main text; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate) Figures and tables should be embedded within the text for all original submissions.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: impact and relevance statement, title page; main text; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate) Figures and tables should be embedded within the text for all original submissions.

Authorship and originality

  • Data Note: However, we do not require all authors to strictly adhere to this template when preparing a Data Note.

Language and text style

  • Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”.
  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
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  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.

Manuscript structure

  • Authors are required to make the data sets, code, software tools and other materials supporting the results or analysis presented in their paper freely available.
  • Letter: Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
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  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.

Study reporting guidelines

  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).
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What your package checks

Abstract: 1500 words
Paper: 1,500 words
Keywords: 3-8 keywords
References: APA
Declarations: Data availability, Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source