About the Journal

Focus and Scope

eTropic disseminates new research from Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and allied fields on the variety and interrelatedness of nature, culture, and society in the tropics. Tropical regions of the world include: Equatorial Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Northern Australia, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean Islands, Latin America, the Pacific, the southern states of America and Hawai'i, USA. 

Special Issues draw scholars together under important themes pertaining to the Tropics

eTropic is an open access journal indexed in Scopus, Ulrich's and DOAJ, and archived in Pandora and Sherpa/Romeo. DOIs and Crossref are used. eTropic is ranked Scimago Q1.

Peer Review Process

eTropic is committed to rigour and integrity in research and the peer-review process. For more information please read our Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. 

Step by step process

The Editorial Assistant will acknowledge receipt of all contributions. All material submitted to eTropic is subject to a first review by the Editor or the Special Issue Editors.  This preliminary review is to assess the overall quality of the contribution, its alignment with eTropic’s Focus and Scope and, where applicable, the special focus of the Call for Papers. Authors are informed promptly when the Editor assesses a contribution as not appropriate for an eTropic issue.

The contributions that pass the preliminary review are subject to a second double-anonymous peer review, a process that ensures the anonymity of the author and the reviewer. Editors are responsible for nominating appropriate Editorial Board members, International Editorial Board members, or external experts to review manuscripts. Peer Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field of research relevant to the contribution. Each contribution is subject to two double-anonymous peer reviews. Reviewers use the Manuscript Review Form to ensure standardisation of the review process, they make objective recommendations, declare any conflicts of interest, treat review material confidentially and point out relevant published work which is not yet cited. Reviews are generally conducted within two months after submission of a contribution, or after the closing deadline of a Call for Papers. 

Editors are responsible for the evaluation of peer review reports and the final decision on publication. In line with best practice for international refereed journals, authors may be asked to revise their manuscript. If substantial revision is required manuscripts may be re-reviewed before a decision to publish is made. Once a paper is accepted in its final form, page-proofs will be sent to the senior author for checking. Final acceptance of manuscripts for publication is at the discretion of the Editors. For submission instructions see the Author Guidelines.

Publication Frequency

eTropic publishes two themed special issues per year.

Open Access Policy

Creative Commons CC BY 4.0.

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Submission of contributions to eTropic and access to published research are free of charge.

Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

eTropic is committed to rigour and integrity in research and the peer-review process. The journal subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The section below summarizes the key responsibilities of Editors, Editorial Board Members, International Editorial Board Members, Peer Reviewers and Authors. This section also outlines the Procedures for Handling Misconduct.

Editor Responsibilities

Code of conduct. All Editors, including the Editor-in-Chief and Special Issue Editors, agree to abide by the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors as formulated by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Disclosures and conflict of interest. Editors declare any conflicts of interest that have the potential to influence the review and assessment of a manuscript.

Equality. All contributions and authors are equal. Editors assess manuscripts solely on their academic merit and appropriateness for publication in eTropic without discrimination.

Submissions by Editors are not treated differently to any other submission. Authors who are Editors will not be involved in the assessment of the manuscript at any stage, including the selection of referees and final determination on publication. At no time will communication on the progress of the manuscript be made in any way different from the normal channels of communication. The decision to publish a contribution will only be possible with the receipt of favourable referee reports and editorial review.

Confidentiality. At no time will an Editor disclose the name of a referee to anyone outside the Editorial Board. All reviewers are sent an official email of recognition for their review and a list of contributing reviewers is included in the eTropic annual report.

Editors do not circulate, discuss or cite manuscripts before publication except with the Editorial Board and Peer Reviewers for reviewing and assessing the manuscript.

Misconduct. The Editors are committed to identifying and preventing the publication of papers where research misconduct (including plagiarism) has occurred. In the event that misconduct is suspected, identified or reported, the Editors will investigate and, where necessary, reject, retract or correct published material. Authors will be given reasonable opportunities to respond to any suspected, identified or reported misconduct. As appropriate, the Editors will refer matters to employers, professional associations and law-enforcement agencies.

Editorial Board, International Editorial Board, and Peer Reviewer Responsibilities

Peer Reviewers play a crucial role in assisting the Editors in assessing the quality of manuscripts and in improving the quality of published work in the journal. Peer Reviewers are selected by the Editor or by on referral to the Editor, based on their expertise in the field of research relevant to the contribution.

Reviewers make objective recommendations, declare any conflicts of interest, treat review material confidentially and point out relevant published work which is not yet cited in the manuscript.

Disclosures and conflict of interest. Editorial Board members and reviewers declare any conflicts of interest that have the potential to influence the review and assessment of a manuscript.

Equality. All contributions and authors are equal. Editorial Board members, International Editorial Board Members, and Reviewers assess manuscripts solely on their academic merit and appropriateness for publication in eTropic without discrimination.

Submissions by Editorial Board Members or International Editorial Board Members will not be treated differently to any other submission. Authors who are Board Members will not be involved in the assessment of the manuscript at any stage, including the selection of referees and final determination on publication. At no time will communication on the progress of the manuscript be made in any way differently to the normal channels of communication. The decision to publish a contribution will only be possible with the receipt of favourable referee reports, and editorial review.

Confidentiality. Editorial Board Members, International Editorial Board Members, and Reviewers do not circulate, discuss or cite manuscripts before publication except with each other for reviewing and assessing the manuscript, or with the express written permission of the Editors. Where a Board Member or Reviewer wishes to discuss manuscripts with colleagues for review or assessment this is discussed with the Editors and the names of those involved are provided.

Author Responsibilities

Authorship rules. eTropic adopts the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines for defining authorship. These guidelines set high standards and are used internationally across many disciplinary fields.

Authors meet the following 4 criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; and
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who do not meet these criteria should be named in the Acknowledgements.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research, alone, does not justify authorship.

Author affiliations should reflect the institution for which the author works or where the research was undertaken. No changes to author affiliations will be permitted after an article is accepted.

Disclosures. Authors must supply details of the sources of all funding (both monetary and in-kind) contributing to the research. 

Research ethics. Where manuscripts contain research involving human subjects, details of review by an appropriate ethics committee (including reference numbers) are provided in the manuscript.

Published research influencing the research is cited in text and listed in the References. Papers may be cited as 'in press' where they have been accepted for publication.

Authors must retain accurate documentation of data associated with manuscripts. We encourage authors to lodge data in a suitable organisational/disciplinary repository, where applicable.

Originality. Authors are prohibited from publishing the same research in more than one publication without written permission from the Editor. By submitting to eTropic, Authors declare that their work is original and not plagiarised.

Misconduct. Authors warrant that no research misconduct (including plagiarism) has occurred in the research contained in the article. If authors discover any misconduct or significant errors subsequent to publication they are obliged to immediately report it to the journal editors for review. Review may result in the correction or retraction of articles.

Procedures for Handling Misconduct

1. Misconduct and unethical behaviour related to work published or under consideration in eTropic (including plagiarism) can be reported to the Editors by anyone at any time. Allegations should provide sufficient information to clearly identify the alleged misconduct and unethical behaviour and person/s involved. The Editors will acknowledge receipt of all allegations of misconduct and unethical behaviour. All allegations will be treated confidentially. Allegations which are not related to the journal will not be considered by the Editors.

2. The Editors investigate any allegation, giving the subject of allegation reasonable opportunity to respond to the allegation. The Editors will review the information provided in the allegation and any response to the allegation. Where deemed necessary, the Editors will seek the confidential advice of relevant Editorial Board Members, taking care to maintain confidentiality.

3. The Editors will make a decision about what action should be taken in response to the allegation after reasonable investigation of the matter. In all cases the person/s who made the original allegation and the subject of the allegation will be informed of the outcome. No action will be taken where the Editors determine that the allegation is baseless (e.g. resulting from a misunderstanding). Where minor errors are identified in published work, corrections will be published. Where research misconduct is identified in published work, the work may be retracted. As appropriate, the Editors will refer matters to employers, professional associations and law-enforcement agencies.

Free Publication and Open Access

Creative Commons CC BY 4.0. Submission of contributions to eTropic is free of charge. Access to research published in eTropic is free of charge.

Journal History

eTropic was founded in 2002 to provide a multidisciplinary venue for the dissemination of new research on the variety and interrelatedness of nature, culture, and society in tropical regions across the world. This research is also the focus of The Cairns Institute of tropical studies at James Cook University.

eTropic reflects world-wide scholarly developments in the dynamic area of tropical studies from arts, humanities, social sciences and allied fields. It is a peer-reviewed, open access journal under the chief editorship of Associate Professor Anita Lundberg, an experienced Board of Editors, and a distinguished International Editorial Board.

eTropic is indexed in Scopus, Ulrich's, DOAJ and Google Scholar. It is archived in Pandora and Sherpa/Romeo. eTropic uses DOIs and Crossref. It has a Scimago Q1 ranking.