Publication Guide
The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is the leading international professional society for the science and practice of conserving biological diversity. It was founded on 8 May 1985 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the close of the Second Conference on Conservation Biology, with Michael Soule as its first president, and today it is headquartered in Washington, DC, with thousands of members across academia, government, and conservation practice worldwide.
SCB publishes three peer-reviewed journals in partnership with Wiley, all hosted on Wiley Online Library: Conservation Biology (the society's flagship, launched in 1987), Conservation Letters (a fully open-access rapid-communications journal launched in 2008), and Conservation Science and Practice (a fully open-access applied journal launched in 2019). This guide covers which journal fits your paper, the open-access options and APCs, peer review, and how to submit.
Which SCB journal fits your paper?
The three journals serve different kinds of conservation papers, budgets, and open-access requirements. Use the guide below to choose the right route for your manuscript.
| You're most likely to... | Choose this route |
|---|---|
| Have a substantial research, review, or synthesis paper on the science of conserving biodiversity | Conservation Biology - the flagship title since 1987. Contributed Papers up to 7,000 words; reviews up to 8,000. Subscription-based with a hybrid OA option, so no fee is required to publish. |
| Have a concise, high-impact finding with immediate policy or management implications | Conservation Letters - fully open access, short-format letters modeled on the rapid-communications tradition. One of the highest-cited journals in the conservation category. |
| Have applied work: practical experience, monitoring results, planning tools, or implementation case studies | Conservation Science and Practice - fully open access with the lowest APC of the three, a 20% SCB member discount, and several APC-free article types (Comments, Letters, Innovations in Practice). |
What SCB publishes
3 peer-reviewed journals, all conservation-focused:
- Conservation Biology - the society's flagship, published bimonthly since 1987. Covers the science and practice of conserving Earth's biological diversity across all ecosystems and regions, spanning natural and social sciences. Consistently one of the most-cited journals in the field.
- Conservation Letters - launched in 2008 as SCB's rapid, policy-relevant letters journal. Fully open access (CC BY), publishing empirical and theoretical research with immediate implications for conservation.
- Conservation Science and Practice - launched in 2019 for the applied side of the field: policy, planning, management, and practical conservation experience. Fully open access (CC BY).
Open access & APCs
SCB offers all three OA routes through its Wiley partnership. APCs below are Wiley's current list prices (USD, before tax); prices are revised periodically, so always check the journal's APC page before submission.
| Journal | OA model | APC |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation Biology | Hybrid (subscription + optional OA) | ~$3,400 for the OA option; publishing without OA is free |
| Conservation Letters | Gold OA (CC BY) | ~3,120) |
| Conservation Science and Practice | Gold OA (CC BY) | ~1,790); Comments, Letters, and Innovations in Practice are APC-free |
Three things keep costs down. First, SCB membership earns a 20% APC discount on the two fully-OA titles. Second, authors at institutions with Wiley Read & Publish (transformative) agreements can often publish OA at no direct cost - check the ESAC registry or your library. Third, corresponding authors from countries on Wiley's Waivers and Discounts List receive automatic APC waivers or discounts.
Green OA self-archiving of the accepted manuscript is permitted under Wiley's standard policies, with embargo terms varying by journal and institutional agreement.
Peer review process
- Model: single-anonymized peer review across the SCB journals.
- Conservation Biology workflow: the Editor-in-Chief performs an initial editorial screen, then routes the manuscript to a regional editor, who may recommend rejection, nominate reviewers, or assign a handling editor. The journal screens submissions with iThenticate for text overlap.
- Turnaround: varies by title and season; the letters-format journals are designed for faster decisions than the flagship. Check each journal's author guidelines for current expectations.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Match your manuscript's scope, length, and OA needs using the decision table above.
- Read the author guidelines. Each journal has title-specific guidelines on Wiley Online Library, including word limits and the SCB Code of Ethics.
- Prepare your manuscript. Use the journal's template on SciSpace and the SCB author-year citation style.
- Submit via ScholarOne. All three journals use Wiley's ScholarOne submission portals.
- Track your submission. ScholarOne provides status updates, reviewer communication, and revision handling.
Ethics and integrity
SCB journals follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, and authors must comply with the SCB Code of Ethics. Conservation Biology screens all submissions with iThenticate plagiarism detection and does not consider work published in substantial part elsewhere. As a society publisher working with Wiley, SCB also inherits Wiley's research-integrity, data-sharing, and retraction frameworks.
