The BIOTA/FAPESP Program was established in 1999 with the mission to understand biodiversity, from characterization to ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services, and to support its conservation and sustainable use. In the early 2000s, a dozen large thematic projects made herculean efforts to produce inventories, thematic and taxonomic reviews, as well as identification keys. However, there were no journals prepared to publish "raw" taxonomic information, which is so essential for biodiversity science.

Concerned about the low number of journals focused on Neotropical biodiversity and the fact that none of them were open access, the BIOTA/FAPESP Program launched Biota Neotropica in 2001, an open-access, peer-reviewed electronic journal. Conceived from the outset as an online open-access platform, Biota Neotropica was a pioneer in Brazil, aligning with BIOTA/FAPESP's goal of unrestricted access to biodiversity data, including georeferenced information on species distribution through the Environmental Information System (SinBiota https://sinbiota.biota.org.br). This innovative model significantly contributed to biodiversity research and the advancement of biodiversity science.

Envisioning the importance of a journal with these characteristics for the entire Neotropical Region, from Mexico to Patagonia, including the Caribbean, Biota Neotropica was built on the publication of original research results, not only generated by BIOTA/FAPESP projects but encompassing the entire Neotropical Region. Since its launch, the following categories of works have been established: articles, thematic or taxonomic reviews, identification keys, brief communications, and viewpoints—a forum for discussing controversial/polemic issues.

The credibility and quality of the works published in Biota Neotropica enabled the journal's inclusion in the SciELO collection in 2005, as part of the SciELO—Biodiversity Heritage Library, and established it as a reference in the field of biodiversity in the Neotropical Region (more details available at https://doi.org/10.1590/1676-0611-BN-202000020002).

This journal follows the Open Access model, allowing unrestricted virtual access (including financial restrictions) to all scientific texts published by the journal.

All journal content is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 attribution license. Therefore, it is free for anyone to read, download, copy, and disseminate its content, provided proper credit is given to the source.

Its abbreviated title is Biota Neotrop., and it should be used in bibliographies, footnotes, references, and bibliographic strips.

This journal is published in a continuous publication model, with 4 issues per year.

All published articles receive a specific DOI.

This journal follows the Open Access model and requests that authors complete the Open Science Compliance Form upon submission.

Authors must uphold ethical standards in publication, ensuring authorship integrity, avoiding dual submission or plagiarism, maintaining academic integrity, preventing data manipulation, disclosing conflicting interests, and complying with research ethics policies, as advocated by the COPE. Details regarding the need for licenses and/or approvals from the respective institutional Ethics Committees are provided in item 12 of the Instructions for Authors.

The objective of Biota Neotropica is to disseminate the results of original research related to the characterization, conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Neotropical Region.

Biota Neotropica does not publish articles that include descriptions of new species of taxonomic groups for which the Nomenclature Code requires printed copies. Authors are responsible for verifying the specific requirements of the Nomenclature Code for the organism they are working with. If their taxonomic group requires printed copies of their publications, it is advisable to consider submitting their article to another journal.

Articles that only report the occurrence of species in a region where their presence would be expected but has not yet been recorded are not published by Biota Neotropica.

The content of manuscripts accepted for publication, regardless of the category, is the sole responsibility of the author(s).

This journal adheres to the standards defined in the SciELO Program Digital Preservation Policy.

• Web of Science
• DOAJ
• Scopus
• CAB International
• SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

• Título do periódico: Biota Neotropica
• Título abreviado: Biota Neotrop.
• Publicação de: Campinas SP: Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental
• Periodicidade: quartely
• Modalidade de publicação: Continuous publication (CP)
• Ano de criação do periódico: 2001

• @BiotaFAPESP
• https://www.facebook.com/ProgramaBiota/
• Blog SciELO em Perspectiva

The publication of preprints on preprint servers is not considered prior publication and will not compromise consideration by Biota Neotropica. Authors may share their preprints (Author's Original Version) through various channels without prejudicing the submission process. Authors must provide preprint details in the Open Science Compliance Form.

Manuscripts and associated materials are checked for quality, completeness, and compliance with the journal's guidelines by the Editorial Assistant. If the submission meets the necessary criteria, it is forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief, who, in turn, passes it on to the Area Editors. The Area Editors will select at least two ad hoc reviewers to assess the manuscript; these reviewers will conduct their assessment using a single-blind review process. Should the reviewers wish to do so, they may communicate directly with the corresponding author, thereby waiving their anonymity.

Authors are requested to suggest at least three potential reviewers, at least one from abroad. Additionally, authors must disclose any researchers with whom they may have conflicts of interest, and these individuals will be excluded from the review process.

The Area Editors are responsible for the entire editing phase of the manuscript. This includes providing feedback to authors and sharing revised versions of the work with reviewers. Once all requirements and recommendations from the reviewers and Area Editors are met, the manuscript is considered preliminarily accepted and forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief. The final decision to accept the article lies with the Editor-in-Chief, in agreement with the Editorial Board. The list of reviewers who contributed to a volume of Biota Neotropica is published annually.

Authors must submit the final version of their work, including text, tables, and figures, through the Submission System. This version must incorporate all changes or corrections requested by the reviewers and/or Area Editor, as it is the version that will be sent to the Editor-in-Chief for publication. Care taken at this stage significantly reduces the need for corrections or changes in the article proofs.

The final decision to accept the article lies with the Editor-in-Chief, in agreement with the Editorial Board. The list of reviewers who contributed to a volume of Biota Neotropica is published annually.

The final version of the approved article will be published with the name of the editor or editors responsible for the manuscript review process.

Data are important products of the scientific endeavor and should be preserved and accessible for long-term future use. Following the standard of international publications in the field of biodiversity, all data supporting the results in articles published in the journal must be archived in an appropriate public repository, offering open access and guaranteed preservation. Submissions will not be accepted without a link to the repository where the data were deposited, except for manuscripts of the "Short Communication" type, for which data submission is not mandatory. However, authors are encouraged to share data even in these cases to promote transparency and reproducibility.

Preferably, data should be deposited in the journal's Dataverse repository, but authors are free to select other repositories, such as the Environmental Information System of the BIOTA/FAPESP Program/SinBiota, Dryad Digital Repository, GenBank, Figshare, Brazilian Biodiversity Information System/SiBBr, Zenodo, or another repository that offers comparable access and guaranteed preservation.

When submitting the article to Biota Neotropica, the provisional URL of the dataset must be included in the Data Availability section. The provisional URL indicates that the deposited data are in draft format and may be deleted if the article is not accepted. For accepted articles, the final URL of the deposited data must be included in the Data Availability section.

For theoretical articles, the underlying model code must be archived. Authors are encouraged to prioritize the accessibility and reuse of their data by choosing file formats that allow efficient data extraction. Instead of providing tabulated data in PDF or text documents, authors should consider using formats such as spreadsheets or simple files.

The underlying data for all results presented in the article must be archived in a format that allows interpretation by third parties. It is important to include appropriate metadata describing the content of the data, providing essential information about its structure, variables, units, and other relevant details. The archived data must allow each result in the published article to be recreated and the reported analyses to be fully replicated to support the conclusions presented. Authors may archive more than this, but not less.

This policy applies to research data necessary to verify the results reported in articles published in the journal. Research data include data produced by the authors ("primary data") and data from other sources analyzed by the authors in their study ("secondary data"). Research data include any recorded factual material used to produce the results, in digital or non-digital format. This includes tabular data, code, images, audio, documents, video, maps, raw and/or processed data.

For sensitive data related to threatened species or protected sites, authors should transform location details or provide an anonymized version of the dataset whenever possible. When threatened species or protected sites cannot be transformed, access to the data is politically or culturally sensitive, or datasets include sensitive social information, editors may waive the archiving requirement. Authors must provide a brief explanation in the Data Availability Statement when the archiving requirement is waived.

General Guidelines for Data Publication:

• Large primary biodiversity datasets (e.g., institutional collections of species occurrence records) should be published with the Environmental Information System of the BIOTA/FAPESP Program/SinBiota, Brazilian Biodiversity Information System/SiBBr, or GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT).
• Genetic and genomic sequence data should be deposited in INSDC (e.g., GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ, directly or through a partner repository such as the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD).
• Transcriptomic data should be deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) or ArrayExpress.
• Phylogenetic data should be deposited in  Open Tree of Life.
• Geoscientific and environmental data related to biodiversity should be deposited in PANGAEA.
• Morphological images not presented in the article should be deposited in Morphbank. Images of a specific type should be deposited in appropriate repositories if they exist (e.g., Morphosource for MicroCT data).
• Videos should be uploaded to video-sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, or SciVee and linked to the article text. Similarly, audio files should be uploaded to platforms such as FreeSound or SoundCloud, and presentations to Slideshare. Additionally, multimedia files can also be uploaded to the journal's Dataverse.
• Other large datasets for which there is no thematic or domain-specific repository may be deposited in the Biota Neotropica Dataverse, Dryad Data Repository, or Zenodo before manuscript acceptance. Detailed instructions for depositing data in the SciELO Dataverse of Biota Neotropica are available at SciELO Data Terms and Conditions of Use.
• All external data used in an article must be cited in the reference list, and links to these data (as deposited in external repositories) must be included in the "Data Availability" section of the manuscript.
• Additional List of repositories for research data deposit (Portuguese only)

The current publication fee is R$ 1,350.00 (One Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty Brazilian Reais, last updated: February 1, 2026) for Brazilian authors or US$ 450.00 (Four Hundred and Fifty US Dollars, last updated: April 1, 2025) for foreign authors, regardless of the number of pages published. Payment details will be sent to authors at the final editorial stage of articles accepted for publication. These fees, distinct from the SciELO Declaration on Financial Sustainability (Portuguese only), are viable thanks to the support of research funding agencies such as FAPESP and CNPq.

There are no submission fees for articles.

All articles are published under a strictly non-profit model, ensuring that the fees collected are used exclusively to cover operational and publishing costs, without generating profit in the publishing process. SciELO Brazil is the organization responsible for receiving fees related to publication charges.

Biota Neotropica adopts the ethical codes of SciELO, including the Guidelines on Best Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication, the Guide to recording, marking and publishing Correction, the Guide for registering, marking and publishing a retraction, and the Guide for registering, tagging and publishing Addendum. Misconduct includes, for example, plagiarism, self-plagiarism (publishing the same results in different journals or in the same journal), fraudulent peer review (manipulating the review process, such as creating fake emails to favorably review one's own article).

Biota Neotropica requires all authors to disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that could potentially influence the author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These conflicts must be disclosed when they are directly or indirectly related to the manuscript submitted to the journal. Conflicts of interest may arise when authors, reviewers, and editors have personal or financial interests that could influence the preparation or evaluation of manuscripts. The existence of a conflict of interest does not prevent publication in this journal, provided it is clearly explained by the authors in the "Conflict of Interest" section. Examples can be found in FACTSHEET: Competing Interests.

The corresponding author is responsible for informing all authors about this policy and ensuring they comply with this guideline.

If the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare, they must state the following:

"The author(s) declare(s) that there are no conflicts of interest related to the publication of this manuscript."

For more information, consult Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest.

All manuscripts submitted to Biota Neotropica, after being checked for compliance with the journal's standards, are analyzed by the Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) tool to detect possible cases of plagiarism, duplicate submissions, previously published articles, or any indication of scientific misconduct.

Manuscripts with a similarity of 63% or higher with other published works will be considered plagiarism. Additionally, even in cases of similarity below this threshold, plagiarism will be deemed to have occurred if the manuscript contains large portions of text copied from other sources without proper citation, including excessive paraphrasing or unattributed reproduction of ideas. The journal follows scientific integrity guidelines and may reject submissions, retract articles, or take other appropriate measures in cases of proven misconduct.

If misconduct is identified, at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, the manuscript may be:

● Rejected immediately, or

● Subject to requests for changes and proper citation of original sources, depending on the severity of the case.

The journal follows scientific integrity guidelines and may take additional measures, such as retracting published articles or communicating with the authors' institutions, in cases of proven ethical violations.

The following guidelines apply exclusively to the writing process and not to the use of AI tools for data analysis or obtaining insights as part of the research process.

Authors are advised to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies (e.g., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4) exclusively to improve readability and language quality during the writing process. The use of these technologies must be done with human supervision and control, and authors must carefully review and edit the generated content, as AI has the potential to produce incorrect, incomplete, or biased texts.

AI and AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as authors or co-authors, nor cited as authors. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be assigned and performed by humans, as described in the journal's authorship policy.

When the use of AI or AI-assisted technologies occurs in the writing process, authors must include a statement in the "Ethics" section with the following content:

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process: during the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the publication's content.

This statement does not apply to the use of basic tools for grammar, spelling, and reference checking, among other purposes. There is no need to add a statement if there is nothing to disclose.

The editorial team of Biota Neotropica, as well as authors publishing in the journal, must always adhere to the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research - SAGER. The SAGER guidelines comprise a set of guidelines that guide the reporting of information on sex and gender in study design, data analysis, and the results and interpretation of findings. Additionally, Biota Neotropica adheres to a policy of gender equity in the formation of its editorial board.

Authors must attach a statement of approval from the ethics committee of the institution responsible for approving the research.

Research Involving Living Organisms

For studies involving living organisms, such as fungi, bacteria, plants, etc., authors must:

1. Register and deposit reference material (vouchers) in registered and publicly accessible collections.

2. Provide the identification number of the deposited material as a condition for manuscript acceptance.

3. The same procedure applies to the deposition of DNA sequences in enabled databases (e.g., GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ).

4. Authors must include the accession numbers for all sequences used in the study.

Research Involving Animals or Humans

If concerns are identified after publication, the journal team will investigate and may take appropriate measures, such as correction or retraction, if significant problems related to the treatment of animals or research oversight are found. The editorial team also reserves the right to contact the authors' institution, ethics committee, or other relevant body regarding these concerns.

Animal Research

Biota Neotropica trusts that authors submitting manuscripts have followed the guidelines and obtained prior approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics committee at their respective research institutions. At the time of submission, authors must provide the name of the IACUC or equivalent ethics committee, the approval numbers, and any other relevant experimental details in the "Ethics" section of their manuscripts.

Biota Neotropica encourages authors to follow the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines for the planning, analysis, and reporting of scientific research.

Human Participants and Clinical Trials

Studies involving humans and/or clinical trials must receive approval from the Institutional Committee responsible for evaluating this type of research, in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must include information about this Committee and its approval in the "Ethics" section of the manuscript. It is essential to include a statement confirming that prior informed consent was obtained from all participants. Alternatively, if obtaining informed consent was not required for specific reasons, a statement explaining the reason must be included in the "Ethics" section.

If the study did not involve humans and/or clinical trials requiring approval from an Institutional Committee, the following statement must be included:

"This study did not involve human beings and/or clinical trials that an Institutional Committee should approve."

Authors of articles published by Biota Neotropica retain the copyright to their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, provided the original work is correctly cited. In return, the author agrees not to submit the manuscript to another journal simultaneously and grants Biota Neotropica the right of first publication.

Website Responsibility:

All journal content and articles published by Biota Neotropica, except where otherwise specified, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license.

Author Responsibility:

Biota Neotropica does not require authors of original (primary) articles to transfer the copyright of their publications. Instead, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish their work, retaining the copyright. This allows authors to reuse their articles in future printed works without the need for prior permission from the publisher. For non-primary articles (including reviews and commissioned content), copyright is retained by Biota Neotropica. This policy applies to all content published in Biota Neotropica.

Any supplementary data submitted to repositories with declared licensing policies must adhere to a licensing policy that is no more restrictive than CC BY 4.0.

Biota Neotropica encourages authors to self-archive their accepted manuscripts by publishing them on personal blogs, institutional repositories, and academic social media platforms, as well as posting them on their personal social media accounts, provided that the full citation to the journal's website version is included.

• São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

• National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)

• André Victor L. Freitas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Departamento de Biologia Animal, Campinas, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7824954032846499, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5763-4990, e-mail: baku@unicamp.br.
• Carlos Alfredo Joly, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Campinas, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4263944747154785, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7945-2805, e-mail: cjoly@unicamp.br.

• José Augusto Salim, Instituto Virtual da Biodiversidade, Programa BIOTA/FAPESP, Campinas, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7588616253679294, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8675-7068, e-mail: programa.biota@gmail.com.

• Alexander Christian Vibrans, Universidade Regional de Blumenau (FURB), Blumenau, Santa Catarina/SC, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6063800901454053, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8789-5833, e-mail: acv@furb.br.
• Bertha Patricia Escalante Pliego, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, México. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5531-263X, e-mail: tilmatura@ib.unam.mx.
• Denise de Cerqueira Rossa-Feres, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP), São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6863776138321135 ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4537-9064 , e-mail: denise@ibilce.unesp.br.
• Carmen Silvia Zickel, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Pernambuco/PE, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5364977925114580, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1323-4717  e-mail: zickelbr@yahoo.com.
• Cibele Cardoso de Castro, Universidade Federal do Agreste de Pernambuco, Núcleo de Estudos em Polinização Agrícola (NEPAG), Garanhuns, Pernambuco/PE, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5148511359824956, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7862-2155 , e-mail: cibele.castro@ufape.edu.br.
• Cristiana Simão Seixas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/8835529370621973, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4464-2094, e-mail: cristiana.seixas@gmail.com.
• Diego Astúa de Moraes, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Pernambuco/PE, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3461530401338795, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-6437, e-mail: diegoastua@ufpe.br.
• Felipe Polivanov Ottoni, Universidade Federal do Maranhão (UFMA), Chapadinha, Maranhão/MA, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/1633821787406408, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9390-0918, e-mail: fpottoni@gmail.com.
• Guilherme S. Terra Garbino, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, Minas Gerais/MG, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0845710849863593, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1701-5930, e-mail: guilherme.garbino@ufv.br.
• Gustavo Graciolli, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul/MS, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5389549751351126, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1144-3486, e-mail: ggraciolli@yahoo.com.br.
• José Ricardo Miras Mermudes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5453040665352994, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2030-7483, e-mail: jrmermudes@gmail.com.
• Juan Jacobo Schmitter-Soto, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Chetumal, México. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4736-8382, e-mail: juan.schmitter-soto@fulbrightmail.org. 
• Luis Fábio Silveira, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5263574197578953, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2576-7657, e-mail: lfsilvei@usp.br.
• Marcelo Manzi Marinho, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0595159781454151, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5661-4528, e-mail: manzi@uerj.br.
• Marcelo Felgueiras Napoli, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia/BA, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7739069399024541, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3843-0543, e-mail: napoli@ufba.br.
• Mercedes Marchese, Instituto Nacional de Limnología (INALI), Santa Fe, Argentina. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6027-9865, e-mail: mmarchese@inali.unl.edu.ar.
• Nicté Ordóñez-Garza, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan/MI, United States. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7732-7824, e-mail: nordonez@umich.edu.    
• Pedro M. Sales Nunes, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Pernambuco/PE, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0714443100383141, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2635-9703, e-mail: pedro.nunes@gmail.com.
• Rosana Mazzoni, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/4973806715016726, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8780-7779, e-mail: mazzoni@uerj.br.
• Silvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5076790300436750, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1808-5420, e-mail: silvio.ferraz@usp.br.
• Tito Monteiro da Cruz Lotufo, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP, Brasil. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/2207175779648809, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3630-1342, e-mail: tmlotufo@usp.br.

Editorial

For each issue of Biota Neotropica, the Editor-in-Chief may invite a researcher to write an Editorial on topics relevant from a scientific standpoint and in terms of creating policies for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Neotropical Region. Editorials must contain a maximum of 3000 words.

Point of view

This section serves as a forum for academic discussion on relevant issues within the journal's scope. Researchers will write a short and thought-provoking article expressing their views on the specific topic in question. At the discretion of the Editorial Board, the journal may publish responses or considerations from other researchers to stimulate discussion on the addressed topic.

Articles

The manuscript must be the result of research on the characterization, conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Neotropical Region. The manuscript is expected to address a scientific question of interest within the journal's scope, include a review of relevant and specialized literature, and discuss recently published articles in the international literature. It is important to note that the publication of preprints on preprint servers is not considered prior publication and will not prejudice consideration by Biota Neotropica.

Thematic Reviews

The manuscript is expected to develop a scientific concept or theme related to the journal's scope, based on essential references for understanding the subject of the reviews, including the most recent articles published on the specific topic.

Short Communications

These are short articles spontaneously submitted by their authors. The manuscript must contain new data that have not been previously published or submitted for publication, either partially or entirely, in any other journal or book. The presented research must focus on the characterization, conservation, restoration, or sustainable use of Neotropical biodiversity. The manuscript is expected to briefly discuss a new component among the scientific issues of interest related to the scope of Biota Neotropica, based on recently published articles.

Identification Keys

The manuscript is expected to describe the taxonomic group characterized by the identification key as completely as possible. It is essential to base this description on the existing taxonomic literature about the group in question.

Inventories

The presented research must focus on the characterization, conservation, restoration, or sustainable use of Neotropical biodiversity. In addition to the list of inventoried species, the manuscript must clearly describe the authors' selection criteria (e.g., set, guild, locality) along with the methodology employed. The geographic coordinates of the study area, as well as an assessment of the significance of the results compared to data from similar areas, using similarity indices or other appropriate methods. The manuscript must be firmly grounded in the best available taxonomic literature relevant to the studied taxonomic group. It is crucial to inform the institution where the voucher specimens are deposited.

Taxonomic Reviews

The presented research must focus on the characterization, conservation, restoration, or sustainable use of Neotropical biodiversity. The manuscript is expected to provide comprehensive information about the taxon under review, an elucidation of the main taxonomic issues, and a justification for the need for its revision. The revision must be based on current and historical scientific literature about the taxon in question. It is crucial to inform the institution where the voucher specimens are deposited.

All individuals who meet the authorship criteria, as described in the Authorship section, must be listed in the Authors' Contributions section of the manuscript, along with their respective contributions. The use of the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) is recommended to specify the roles and contributions of each author in the manuscript. When using CRediT, it is preferable to present the authors' contributions as exemplified below.

J.A.S.: conceptualization; methodology; writing - original draft; reviewing & editing.
D.O.S.: conceptualization; writing - original draft; reviewing & editing.
W.E.S.: methodology; reviewing & editing.

Example of "Authors' Contributions" using CRediT: authors' names are abbreviated to their initials, and roles are limited to those relevant to the manuscript.

The main manuscript document must contain:

• Authors' names, ORCID, and complete affiliation;
• Titles in English and another language (Portuguese or Spanish), with the first letter capitalized and according to established grammatical or scientific rules;
• Abstracts in English and another language (Portuguese or Spanish);
• 5-10 keywords in English and another language (Portuguese or Spanish);
• The full text of the manuscript in English;
• References;
• Figure captions (figures should not be included in this file. They should be submitted separately in the system, as described in Figures).

Manuscript Structure

The manuscript should be divided into the following sections (sections should not be numbered):

• Introduction
• Material and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion (optional)
• Acknowledgments (optional)
• Authors' Contributions
• Conflicts of Interest
• Ethics
• Data Availability
• References
• Figures' legends (see Figures)
• Tables' legends (if applicable, see Tables)

The decision to include optional sections is up to the authors. However, it is important to note that all other sections, apart from the optional ones, are mandatory and required for all article categories.

The "Results" and "Discussion" sections may be combined into the "Results and Discussion" section at the authors' discretion, specifically for manuscripts in the Short Communications and Inventory categories.

Manuscripts in the Thematic Review category do not need to adhere to a specific structure. Authors have the flexibility to organize Thematic Reviews according to their preferences and the content's needs.

Format and Style

Special Cases

• For manuscripts submitted in the Inventory category, authors must submit the list of species, environments, descriptions, photos, and other related documents separately. The Editorial Board will provide specific instructions on how to format the list of cited species in the manuscript to facilitate search engine use.
• For manuscripts submitted in the Identification Keys category, authors must submit the key itself separately to ensure proper formatting. When referring to collected material, the geographic coordinates of the collection area must be included. Whenever possible, the coordinates should be in degrees, minutes, and seconds (e.g., 24°32'75" S and 53°06'31" W). In the case of references to threatened species, specify only degrees and minutes.

Abstract

The abstract must be provided in English and another language (Portuguese or Spanish) and should not exceed 400 words. The abstract should succinctly summarize the article's objective, main results, conclusions, and recommendations.

Keywords

Keywords must be provided in English and another language (Portuguese or Spanish).

Keywords should be provided in alphabetical order and consist of a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 words or short phrases. For advice on selecting appropriate keywords for your manuscript, you may consult the following resources:

• "Why do journals ask for keywords?"
• "Maximising the Exposure of Your Research: Search Engine Optimisation and why it matters"

Formulas

Formulas that can be written in a single line, even if they require the use of special fonts such as Symbol, Courier New, and Wingdings, may be included in the text. For example: "a = p.r²" or "Na₂HPO".

Any formula or equation that cannot be accommodated in a single line must be numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals, and the equation label should be positioned on the right side of the equation. Example:

Tables

• Tables should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals.
• Table captions should be contained in a single paragraph and identified by starting the paragraph with Table N, where N is the table number.
• Tables should be inserted directly into the manuscript body, accompanied by their respective captions. Alternatively, for larger tables, it is recommended to submit them as separate files in Office Open XML Workbook (XLSX) or Text Delimited (e.g., CSV, TSV) format. In these cases, the captions for these tables should be included after the References section of the manuscript.

Figures

• Figures, including maps, photos, and graphs, should not be included in the manuscript body. Instead, they should be submitted as separate files in any bitmap file format (e.g., JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP). To maintain high-quality images, ensure the resolution is at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) or at the best available resolution when the source is at a lower resolution (e.g., camera trap photography).
• Figures should be numbered sequentially using Arabic numerals.
• For drawings, text contained in figures should use sans-serif fonts, such as Arial or Helvetica, for better readability. Figures composed of multiple others should be identified by letters (e.g., Figure 1a, Figure 1b). Use a scale bar to indicate size. Figures should not contain captions.
• Figure captions should be included in the Figures' legends section of the manuscript text.
• Each caption should be contained in a single paragraph and identified by starting the paragraph with Figure N, where N is the figure number.
• Composite figures may have independent captions for each subfigure or a single caption covering the entire composite figure. The choice between these options should be based on clarity and readability of the figure.
• Images downloaded from the internet cannot be published unless they are released under the correct Public Domain license. Clarify the source of any image you do not own. Third-party images cannot be published without obtaining the appropriate rights.

For citations, use:

• Figures, tables, and equations should be cited using their full labels (e.g., Figure 1, Table 1, Equation 1).
• Insert references according to the APA7 AUTHOR-DATE citation style. Note that the editor applies the final style, and that the final style used in the publication may slightly deviate from what many citation services produce as APA7. The Deakin guide to APA7 is a good reference for further details.

General guidance is given in the following example:

• One author: Silva (2020) or (Silva, 2020).
• Multiple citations with the same author(s): Silva (2020, 2021).
• Multiple citations with the same author(s) and same publication year: Silva (2020a, 2020b).
• Use "and" in narrative citations, e.g., Silva and Pereira, 2019) and "&" in parenthetical citations, e.g., (Silva & Pereira, 2019).
• For citations with more than three authors, use "et al.": Silva et al. (2020) or (Silva et al., 2020).
• Citations should be ordered by publication year: (Silva, 2020; Pereira & Carvalho, 2021; Araújo et al., 2022; Lima, 2023).

Biota Neotropica does not accept references to unpublished data that are inaccessible to reviewers or readers. In taxonomic studies, include citations of the examined material according to the specific rules of the type of organism under study.

For References, adopt the APA7 AUTHOR-DATE bibliography format, as in the following examples.

• Crooks, K. R. (2002). Relative sensitivities of mammalian carnivores to habitat fragmentation. Conservation Biology, 16(4), 488--502. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2002.00386.x
• Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.
• Snedecor, G. W., & Cochran, W. G. (1980). Statistical methods (7th ed.). Iowa State University Press.
• Aron, L., Botella, M., & Lubart, T. (2019). Culinary arts: Talent and their development. In R. F. Subotnik, P. Olszewski-Kubilius, & F. C. Worrell (Eds.), The psychology of high performance: Developing human potential into domain-specific talent (pp. 345--359). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000120-016
• Reeve, W., Ardley, J., Tian, R., De Meyer, S., Terpolilli, J., Melino, V., Tiwari, R., Yates, R., O'Hara, G., Howieson, ... Kyrpides, N. (2014). Genome sequence of the Listia angolensis microsymbiont Microvirga lotononidis strain WSM3557 (T). Standards in Genomic Sciences, 9(3), 540--550. https://doi.org/10.4056/sigs.4861021
• Bentham, G. (1862). Leguminosae. Dalbergiae. In C. F. P. Martius & A. G. Eichler (Eds.), Flora Brasiliensis (Vol. 15, pars 1, pp. 1-349). F. Fleischer Lipsiae.
• Ferreira, A. S., Peres, C. A., Bogoni, J. A., & Cassano, C. G. (2018). Use of agroecosystem matrix habitats by mammalian carnivores (Carnivora): a global-scale analysis. Mammal Review, 48(4), 312-327. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12137
• Padgurschi, M. C. G. (2014). Padrão espacial de Taquaras (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) em uma Floresta Neotropical do Sudeste do Brasil. Thesis, Universidade Estadual de Campinas]. https://catalogodeteses.capes.gov.br/catalogo-teses
• Fishbase (2023). FishBase. Retrieved August 25, 2022 from http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm

When submitting the manuscript to Biota Neotropica, authors must submit the following supplementary documents:

• Cover Letter: Must contain a brief justification about the relevance of the study, highlighting its scientific contribution and suitability to the scope of Biota Neotropica, as well as explicitly stating that the manuscript is original, unpublished, not under evaluation by another journal, and, when applicable, informing about any pre-publications in repositories or preprint servers.
• Open Science Compliance Form: a document attesting to adherence to open science principles, including data, materials, and code availability.
• Ethics Committee Approval Term: mandatory for research involving humans, animals, or other aspects requiring institutional ethical evaluation. Must include the approval number and the institution responsible for the approval.

Documents must be submitted as supplementary files at the time of submission. The absence of mandatory documents may result in the manuscript not being evaluated until the requirement is fulfilled.

Funding

In the case of funding sources, this information must be included in the Acknowledgments section. Include the name of the funding agency and the grant, subsidy, or process number (grant number).

Example: "The authors thank the Name of Funding Agency & Grant Number] for the financial support."

Supplementary Material

Any information (including display items) not directly related to the description of the main findings but necessary for the proper understanding of the study should be included in supplementary information files.

Only supplementary information relevant to the article's conclusions should be included.

The Supplementary Information document will be sent to reviewers along with the manuscript file.

Supplementary material should not be used to share primary data. For this, deposit the data in a permanent repository and include the persistent identifier (e.g., DOI) in the Data Availability section (see Data Availability).

Data Availability

The persistent identifier (e.g., DOI, Handle, PMID) of the dataset must be provided by the authors in the Data Availability section of the manuscript. The data must be made publicly available at the time of publication, but may be delayed for up to one year if the file technology allows.

Example: The data collected and generated during this study are available in the repository named at a persistent URL or DOI. The dataset includes the nature of the data used in the analysis and can be accessed by providing the direct URL or DOI of the dataset. The authors confirm that all data necessary for reproducing the study findings are available in the designated dataset.

Submission Checklist

• Submission Platform:
  • Submit manuscripts exclusively through ScholarOne.
  • After submission, you will receive a confirmation email with the manuscript’s ID number.
• Submission Fees:
  • There are no submission fees. Payment details are provided after manuscript acceptance (publication fees).
• Manuscript Types:
  • Acceptable categories: Editorial, Viewpoint, Articles, Thematic Reviews, Short Communications, Identification Keys, Inventories, Taxonomic Reviews.
  • Editorials are written by the Editorial Board or invited researchers.
• Language:
  • Manuscripts must be written in English. 
  • Title, abstract, and keywords must also be provided in Portuguese or Spanish. 
• ORCID:
  • All authors and co-authors must provide a confirmed ORCID ID at the time of submission
• File Format:
  • Submit in Office Open XML Document (.docx) or TeX/LaTeX format. 
  • PDFs are not accepted for initial submissions.
• Manuscript Structure:
  • Introduction 
  •  Material and Methods
  • Results 
  • Discussion 
  • Conclusion (optional) 
  • Acknowledgments (optional) 
  • Authors' Contributions 
  • Conflicts of Interest 
  • Ethics 
  • Data Availability 
  • References 
  • Figure Legends 
  • Table Legends (if applicable)
• Formatting:
  • Font: Times New Roman, 10pt (12pt for section titles). 
  • Double spacing, single-column layout. 
  • Avoid footnotes; include information in the main text or references
• Abstract and Keywords:
  • Abstract: Maximum of 400 words in English and Portuguese/Spanish. 
  • Keywords: 5--10 keywords in English and Portuguese/Spanish.
• Figures and Tables:
  • Submit figures as separate files in high resolution (minimum of 300 dpi). 
  • Include figure captions in the manuscript text after the "References" section. 
  • Small tables (one page): insert directly into the manuscript, accompanied by their respective captions. 
  • Large tables: submit as separate files in Open Office XML Excel (.xlsx) or CSV format. In this case, include table captions after the "References" section of the manuscript.
• Data Availability:
  • Provide a persistent URL for datasets containing raw data during submission. 

Data must be archived in a public repository (e.g., Dataverse, Dryad, GenBank). 

• ​​​​​​The dataset must include all raw data necessary to reproduce the study results as described in the manuscript. Data must be provided in an appropriate open format (e.g., spreadsheets, simple files) to ensure accessibility and reuse. 
• Submissions that do not provide raw data, or datasets that exclude raw data, will not be considered for publication 
• Exception: Data submission is not mandatory for Short Communications* and Point-of-View, but it is encouraged.

• References:
  • Use the APA7 "Author-Date" style for citations and references. 
  • Include DOIs or URLs for all references, when available.
• Supplementary Material:
  • Submit supplementary files if they support the main findings. 
  • Ensure the supplementary material is relevant and concise.
• Authorship:
  • All authors must have contributed significantly to the work. 
  • Use the CRediT taxonomy to specify contributions in the "Authors' Contributions" section. 
  • The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring all authors approve the manuscript.
• Conflicts of Interest:
  • Disclose any potential conflict of interest. 
  • If none, declare: "The author(s) declare(s) that they have no conflict of interest related to the publication of this manuscript"
• Ethics:
  • For studies involving animals or humans, provide details of approval from the relevant ethics committee. 
  • Include a statement confirming informed consent for studies with humans. 
  • Follow the ARRIVE guidelines for animal research
• Funding:
  • Include funding information, containing the name of the funding agency and the grant, subsidy, or process number (grant number). 
  • Example: "The authors thank the [Name of Funding Agency] for the financial support (Grant no. Grant Number]."
• Generative AI:
  • If AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) are used, declare their use in the Ethics section.
  • Example: "During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used TOOL NAME] to PURPOSE]. After using this tool, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the publication's content."