Submission Preflight (conbio-submission)

The last check before pressing submit on Wiley ScholarOne Manuscript Central (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cobi). Conservation Biology is double-blind, so the single most common avoidable failure is an under-anonymized manuscript. Check upload-week specifics on the official page before relying on them (per-type caps can change — see resources/official-source-map.md).

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files/metadata ScholarOne expects
• Confirming the chosen article type's caps are met and the manuscript is properly anonymized

Process facts

• Owner / publisher: Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) / Wiley.
• Portal: Wiley ScholarOne Manuscript Central (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cobi).
• Review model: double-blind — anonymize the manuscript and author identities; provide a separate title page.
• Article types & word limits: Contributed Papers 7,000 in current Wiley listings; use the live Instructions for Authors page for the final caps on Research Notes, Reviews, Essays, Conservation Practice and Policy, Comments, Diversity, Letters, and any Registered Reports route.
• Abstract: ≤ 300 words (none for Letters, Comments, or Diversity).
• Word count: runs from the first word of the Abstract through the last word of Literature Cited; excludes tables, figure legends, and text in tables.
• Exhibits: about one table/figure per four pages of text.
• Style: Conservation Biology Style Guide (author-date); IMRAD for Contributed Papers, Research Notes, and Practice & Policy.
• Data: data-availability statement for research/synthesis articles; the journal-specific Wiley tier encourages data sharing, so archive shareable data/code in a DOI-capable repository and document restrictions for sensitive data.

Preflight checklist

Article type & length

• Article type chosen and its word cap met (count Abstract → Literature Cited)
• Abstract ≤ 300 words, states problem + approach + finding (omit where the type forbids it)
• Exhibit count within ~one per four pages; extras moved to Supporting Information

Anonymity (double-blind)

• No author names, affiliations, or acknowledgments in the manuscript
• Self-references neutralized ("as we showed in…" removed)
• Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties, comments)
• Separate (non-anonymous) title page prepared as a distinct file

Format & content

• Style Guide formatting; consistent author-date citations; title-style rules followed
• IMRAD order where required; no combined Results/Discussion; no separate Conclusion
• Figures/tables/maps self-contained and accessible; sensitive localities masked (see conbio-figures-and-tables)
• Conservation relevance stated explicitly (see conbio-conservation-relevance-and-implications)

Compliance & data

• Ethics / permits / animal-care / human-subjects compliance stated
• Data-availability statement drafted; data/code package staged for a public repository (see conbio-reporting-and-data-policy)
• Sensitive-species data masked; restricted-data access path provided

ScholarOne file manifest (stage the upload in this order)

cobi on Manuscript Central expects the pieces as separate files, not one merged PDF. Assemble:

1. Anonymized main document — blinded manuscript with the abstract, IMRAD body, Literature Cited, and the Supporting Information paragraph; no names, affiliations, or acknowledgments.
2. Separate title page — the non-anonymous file carrying authors, affiliations, ORCID, and the corresponding author. Keep it out of the blinded document entirely.
3. Figures, tables, and maps — self-contained, colorblind-safe, legible in grayscale, with sensitive localities masked (see conbio-figures-and-tables).
4. Supporting Information — full model output, balance/sensitivity runs, protocols.
5. Statements — data-availability statement, ethics/permits/animal-care/human-subjects declarations, and any conflict-of-interest text.

Confirm the exact file prompts, declaration wording, and any per-type caps on the live Wiley Instructions for Authors page during upload week; treat all of them as live-check items.

Anonymization scrub sequence (the most common avoidable failure)

Run these in order before the blinded document is final:

• Strip document metadata: author name in file properties, tracked-change authorship, comment initials, and the PDF producer/author fields.
• Neutralize self-citation: change "as we showed in (Author 2021)" to "as shown in (Author 2021)"; keep the reference in Literature Cited so the argument is intact.
• Blind fieldwork tells: an unusual site name, a named permit number, or a lab-specific dataset can identify the group as surely as a byline — describe the site generically in the blinded copy.
• Move all acknowledgments and funding to the title page; they routinely leak identity.

Anti-patterns

• Leaving author identifiers in the text, acknowledgments, or file metadata (breaks double-blind)
• Merging the title page into the blinded manuscript instead of uploading it as a separate file
• Abstract over 300 words; word count outside the chosen type's cap
• Sending a long paper to the Research Note or Comment type
• Choosing Registered Reports after results exist
• Submitting with no data-availability statement or with sensitive locations exposed

Output format

【Article type】Contributed Paper / Note / Review / Essay / Practice & Policy / Comment (cap met? Y/N)
【Anonymized】text + self-refs + file metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Abstract】word count (≤300, or N/A)
【Word count】within cap (Abstract→Literature Cited)? [Y/N]
【Style Guide + IMRAD + title rules】[Y/N]
【Data-availability statement + package staged】[Y/N]
【Next】await decision → conbio-revision-and-rebuttal on revision

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — reference managers, anonymization, repro tooling
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official Conservation Biology URLs behind every fact in this pack