General terms

While Copernicus Publications and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin welcome any original scientific work for publication, we expect the following:

• The work submitted for publication has not been published before, except in the form of abstracts, preprints, published lectures, theses, discussion papers, or similar formats that have not undergone full peer review, and it is not under consideration for peer-reviewed publication elsewhere. Manuscripts based on conference proceedings should include a significant novelty compared to the conference paper and the proceedings publication should not make out more than 60% of the manuscript content.
• The authors are aware that their submission will be automatically checked for plagiarism. In their own interest, they should avoid dubious cases (e.g. exact copies of site or method descriptions) by using quotation marks and citing the original work.
• Its submission and possible later publication has been approved by all authors and, tacitly or explicitly, by the responsible authorities and/or the institutes where the work was carried out. Hereby, all co-authors have granted the corresponding author (technically: first contact) the submission rights for all manuscript versions requested during the peer-review process.
• If and when the manuscript is accepted for peer-reviewed publication, it may be reused under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License but may not be submitted for peer-reviewed publication elsewhere.
• The authors have secured the right to reproduce any material in their work that has already been published elsewhere.
• The authors have agreed to the licence and copyright agreement.
• The authors have agreed to the article processing charges valid on the date of manuscript submission (receipt of electronic files).
• The authors have agreed to and are in compliance with the general obligations for authors.
• From submission to publication, the authors of a manuscript are formally represented by the registered contact author(s). After publication, the authors of a manuscript are formally represented by the corresponding author(s) specified in the published paper.
• With regards to the evaluation of manuscripts, the chief editors and the referees will follow their guidelines as summarized in the general obligations for editors and the general obligations for referees.
• The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in the articles of FR, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.
• The members of the editorial board try to guide the review process as carefully as possible but cannot take legal responsibility for the outcome and aftermath of acceptance or rejection.
• While the advice and information is believed to be true and accurate on the date each article is published, neither the authors, the editors, MfN, nor Copernicus Publications can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may have occurred. MfN and Copernicus Publications make no guarantee, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Any opinions expressed in FR are the views of the authors and are not the views of Copernicus Publications or MfN.