Submissions

Submission Preparation Checklist

Before you submit, please check that your manuscript meets every item below. Submissions that miss any of them will be returned to you before peer review, which only delays your work.

Scope and Originality

• The manuscript fits the journal's Aims and Scope and is one of our article types: Original Research Article, Review Article, Case Report or Short Communication.
• It has not been published before and is not under consideration by another journal. Any related preprint or conference abstract is disclosed in the cover letter.
• The text is original and all sources are properly cited, in line with the Plagiarism Policy. We screen every manuscript with iThenticate.

Preparing for Double-Blind Review

• Author names, affiliations and contact details are in a separate title page file, not in the main manuscript.
• Self-citations are written in the third person, and file properties do not reveal the authors' identities.
• An ORCID iD is given for the corresponding author, and for co-authors where possible.

Manuscript Content

• The manuscript follows the Author Guidelines: title, abstract, keywords, main text and references in the standard structure.
• Experimental design, replication, location, season and statistical methods are described in enough detail to reproduce the work.
• Scientific names are italicised, and crop varieties, animal breeds and pathogen strains are stated precisely.
• All tables and figures are numbered, labelled and cited in the text.
• All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness, with DOIs wherever they exist.

Required Statements

• A Conflict of Interest (Competing Interests) statement, including "none" where that applies
• A Funding statement disclosing every source of support
• A Data Availability Statement, with accession numbers for any sequence data
• An AI Use Declaration naming any generative AI tool used and for what
• An animal ethics statement naming the approving committee (IAEC or equivalent) and reference number, for any work using animals
• Owner consent for publication, for veterinary case reports and client-owned animals
• Informed consent and ethics approval, for surveys or other research involving people

Permissions and Authorship

• Permission has been obtained to reuse any figures, tables, photos, datasets or other material that the authors did not create.
• Every listed author meets the ICMJE authorship criteria and has approved the submitted version.

Publication Costs

• The authors have read the Article Processing Charges page. Any waiver request is included with this submission, because requests made after acceptance cannot be considered.