*NOTICE -Please note that PNIE is available from the official website (https://www.nie-ecobank.kr/pnie/pnieOverview.do) in electronic format only.

Enacted August 5, 2020

Revised March 19, 2024

Revised June 23, 2025

AIMS AND SCOPE

Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea (PNIE; pISSN 2765-2203, eISSN 2765-2211) is an open access and online journal aimed at promoting outcomes of basic ecological researches carried out in Korea and abroad. The journal focuses on not only basic ecological research on terrestrial and aquatic populations, communities, ecosystems and landscapes but also applied issues such as data science and climate change based on ecological research.



GENERAL INFORMATION

PNIE is the official English language journal of the National Institute of Ecology (NIE) of the Republic of Korea. PNIE started its first issue in November 1, 2020. PNIE is published quarterly in a year (February 1, May 1, August 1, November 1). The Journal publishes research papers, invited reviews and data papers. This multidisciplinary journal is a showcase of original researches being conducted by the ecologists in Korea and abroad. And PNIE is committed to represent ecological research from Asia-Pacific region. Worldwide cooperative research initiatives are also welcome. PNIE is indexed in Google Scholar and KCI (Korea Citation Index).

CONTACTS

For subscription and all other information visit our website available from: https://acoms.accesson.kr/pnie/oprs/main/jrnlMain.do To subscribe to this journal or renew your current subscription, please contact us through Tel (+82-41-950-5421), or E-mail (pnie@nie.re.kr).

OPEN ACCESS

This is an open access journal available free of charge. Articles published in PNIE are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For any commercial use of material from the open access version of the journal, permission MUST be obtained from the Editorial Board.

EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

PNIE adheres to the research and publication ethics policies outlined in International Standards for Editors and Authors (https://publicationethics.org/resources/international-stan-dards-for-editors-and-authors) and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals (https://www.icmje.org/recommendations); International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Any studies involving human subject must comply with the principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2024; https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/). Clinical research should be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), as well through patient consent. A patient’s personal information cannot be published in any form. However, if it is absolutely necessary to use a patient’s personal information, the consent of the patient or his/her guardian will be needed before publishing. Animal studies should be performed in compliance with all relevant guidelines, including the standards described in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the guidelines provided by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

Cases that require editorial expressions of concern or retraction shall follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowcharts available from: https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts. If correction is needed, it will follow the ICMJE Recommendation for Corrections, Retractions, Republications and Version Control available from: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/corrections-and-version-control.html.

Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Minimum standards are as follows: First, it shall publish a correction notice as soon as possible, detailing changes from and citing the original publication on both an electronic and numbered print page that is included in an electronic or a print Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing; Second, it shall post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made through K-Mark; Third, it shall archive all prior versions of the article. This archive can be either directly accessible to readers; and Fourth, previous electronic versions shall prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article via K-Mark.

1. Copyright

The copyright for all publications is owned by NIE. Permis- sion must be obtained from the NIE for any commercial use of materials. All authors must sign a “Copyright Transfer Agreement” and submit it online through the PNIE electronic submission system (https://acoms.accesson.kr/pnie/oprs/ main/jrnlMain.do).

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC)

2. Copyright Transfers

Any usage rights are regulated through the Creative Commons License. NIE Publishers uses a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC), which permits reusers to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes only if attribution is provided. Authors of approved manuscripts shall acknowledge that the copyright of the manuscript is held by the NIE and shall agree that NIE holds the rights to publish, transmit, sell, and distribute the manuscript through academic journals or other media.

3. Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper. This journal follows the data sharing policy described in “Data Sharing Statements for Clinical Trials: A Requirement of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors”. The ICMJE's policy regarding trial registration is explained at https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/clinical-trial-registration.html. If the data sharing plan changes after registration this should be reflected in the statement submitted and published with the manuscript, and updated in the registry record.

4. Desk Rejection

During the pre-review evaluation, Editors-in-Chief or Subject Editors check the manuscript for compliance with the journal's guidelines, focus, and scope. At this point, they may reject a manuscript prior to sending it out for peer review, specifying the reasons. The most common ones are non-conformity with the journal's focus, scope and policies and/or low scientific or linguistic quality. In such cases, authors are encouraged to considerably improve their manuscript and resubmit it for a review. We encourage authors whose manuscripts have been desk rejected due to being out of the scope of this journal to consider another potentially suitable title from the PNIE Editorial Board.

In case the manuscript is suitable for the journal but has to be corrected technically or linguistically, it will be returned to the authors for improvement. The authors will need to resubmit.

5. Peer Review

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our reader- ship. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer reviewed by two anonymous reviewers and the Editor. We adopt single-blind peer review in which case, not only authors but also reviewers do not know each other. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board, who 

reserves the right to refuse any material for publication. Authors should abide by the decision made, and if asked to submit a revised version of their manuscript, do so by the designated due date.

Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of scientific content, the Editor and the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

6. Ethical Considerations

Any experiments involving animals must be demonstrated to be ethically acceptable and where relevant conform to national guidelines for animal usage in research.

In taxonomic papers, type specimens and type depositories must be clearly designated and indicated. Authors are required to deposit the name-bearing type material in internationally recognized institutions (not private collections).

When the research is carried out in areas for which research permits are required (e.g. nature reserves), or when it deals with organisms for which collection or import/export permits are required (e.g. protected species), the authors must clearly detail obtaining these permits in the Acknowledgments section.

7. Authorship Policy

All listed authors must have contributed significantly to the paper, and all authors must be in agreement with the content of the submitted manuscript and must approve of the final version. Please see “Research and Publication Ethics” for detailed information on authorship and author’s responsibilities.

8. Conflicts of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to, patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships. If there are no competing interests, the statement should read, “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.” Additionally, potential conflicts of interest of editorial board members should also be disclosed in the manuscript.

9. Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the COPE. Note this journal uses the iThenticate tool of the Similarity Check program to screen published and submitted content for originality. For more information on Similarity Check, see https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/. All manuscripts submitted to PNIE are subject to screening using the iThenticate tool for textual similarity to other previously published works.

Reproduction of Copyright Material. If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is the author’s responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

1. Select Article Type

• Original (Research) Articles

Original (Research) Article is publishing research on basic ecological research on terrestrial and aquatic populations, communities, ecosystems, and landscapes, as well as ecological research in general. Manuscripts include a title page (with a running title), abstract and keywords, text (introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion), conflicts of interest, acknowledgments, funding, references, tables, figures, and figure legends.

• Review Articles

Review Article is expected to be focused discussion of defined topics relevant to the scope of PNIE. General remarks are same with original article. Manuscripts include a title page (with a running title), abstract and keywords, text, conflicts of interest, acknowledgments, funding, references, tables, figures, and figure legends.

• Case Reports

Unique cases that make an important teaching point or scientific observation may be suitable for case report. This should consist of title page, abstract, text (including introduction, case report, and discussion), conflicts of interest, acknowledgments, funding, references, tables, figures, and figure legends.

2. Submission

Thank you for your interest in PNIE. Note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submit- ted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Once you have prepared your submission in accordance with the Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online at https://acoms.accesson.kr/pnie/oprs/main/jrnlMain.do.

• At least two files should be submitted.

The covering letter and the manuscript. The covering letter should be up- loaded as a file not for review. Figures and tables should also be uploaded as separate files. Figures and tables should also be uploaded as separate files.

• Submissions should be double-spaced.

The top, bottom and side margins should be at least 30 mm. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.

• MS Word format is preferred.

The submission system will prompt you to use an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCiD) to help distinguish your work from that of other researchers.

For help with submissions, please contact:

• Homepage: https://www.nie.re.kr

• E-mail: pnie@nie.re.kr

• Tel: +82-41-950-5421

We look forward to your submission.

3. Publication Charges

There is no charges to publish a article in PNIE. There is also no submission fee. PNIE is academic journal is published with the support of the NIE.

4. Preparing Your Submission

Submissions should be double-spaced. The top, bottom and side margins should be at least 30 mm. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page.

• The entire article should be supplied as a single file; only figures and tables should be supplied as separate files.

• Figures must be supplied as high resolution .tif or .eps files. For more information, refer to ‘Figures' later in this document.

• Specify the first author’s surname, the journal title and the manuscript number.

• MS Word format is preferred.

1) Covering letter

Papers are accepted for publication in the journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the covering letter.

The covering letter must also contain an acknowledgment that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript. The role of each author should be written.

Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest.

If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorization to reproduce the material, must be attached to the covering letter.

2) Pre-submission English-language editing

Authors for whom English is a second language may be recommended to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English.

3) Style of the Manuscript

Spelling. The journal uses US spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

Units. All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units.

Abbreviations. Abbreviations should be used sparingly–only where they ease the reader’s task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.

Trade names. Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used.

Zoological nomenclature. All papers must conform to the latest edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Upon its first use in the title, abstract and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species and authority) in parentheses. Genus names should not be abbreviated at the beginning of paragraphs.

Genetic nomenclature. Standard genetic nomenclature should be used.

Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: “These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345.”

Addresses are as follows:

DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) https://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Submissions https://www.ebi.ac.uk GenBank https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION AND FORMAT

 

1. Word Length

The length of an article (including references, tables and appendices) should not exceed 20 printed pages for research papers and invited reviews.

2. Parts of the Manuscript

Manuscripts should be presented in the following order: (i) title page, (ii) abstract and keywords, (iii) text, (iv) author contributions, (v) conflicts of interest, (vi) acknowledgments, (vii) funding, (viii) supplementary information, (ix) references, (x) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes), (xi) figure legends and (xii) appendices. Figures and supporting information should be supplied in separate files, if relevant. Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Each subsection is given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on a separate line.

 1) Title page

The title page should contain:

(i) a short informative title that contains the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations;

(ii) a short running title of less than 40 characters;

(iii) the full names of the authors and ORCIDs of the authors;

(iv) the author's institutional affiliations at which the work was carried out.

The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

2) Abstract and keywords

All articles must have a brief abstract that states in 250 words or fewer the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references.

Up to six key words (for the purposes of indexing) should be supplied below the abstract in alphabetical order. For the selection of keywords, refer Medical Subject Heading in Index Medicus or in internet site, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.

3) Text

Authors should use the following subheadings to divide the sections of their manuscript: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

(1) Introduction

Study rationale and relevant background information should be described clearly and concisely.

(2) Materials and Methods

Study materials and methods should be described in the following order: study design, materials and methods. Ensure correct use of the terms sex (when reporting biological factors) and gender (identity, psychosocial or cultural factors), and, unless inappropriate, report the sex and/or gender of study participants, the sex of animals or cells, and describe the methods used to determine sex and gender. If the study was done involving an exclusive population, for example in only one sex, authors should justify why, except in obvious cases (e.g., prostate cancer). Authors should define how they determined race or ethnicity and justify their relevance. Any study using human subjects or materials should be approved by the IRB, as well through patient consent. Affiliation name of IRB and approval number must be clearly stated as the following: “This study was approved by the IRB of [Name of Affiliation] (Approval Number)”. Any study using animals should state the IACUC approval and number. Any other ethics approvals should also be listed. If no ethical approvals were achieved or required, please state the reason (e.g., “In this study, the IRB of [Name of Affiliation] approved the exemption and allowed authors to review the patient’s records with no need for the informed consents.”)

(3) Results

Study results should be reported in a clear and logical manner.

(4) Discussion

The results must be explained in relation to the hypotheses proposed in the Introduction. Keep in mind that the Discussion must not be a mere restatement of the results. Authors must emphasize new and important discoveries of the study and state the conclusions drawn from the results in relation to the purpose of the study. The shortcomings and limitations of the study must also be mentioned.

(5) Author Contributions

Enter all author contributions in the submission system during submission. The contributions of all authors must be described using the CRediT Taxonomy of author roles. Read the policy. To qualify for authorship, all contributors must meet at least one of the seven core contributions (conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, and data curation), as well as at least one of the writing contributions (original draft preparation, review, and editing). Authors may also satisfy the other remaining contributions; however, these alone will not qualify them for authorship. Contributions will be published with the final article, and they should accurately reflect contributions to the work. The submitting author is responsible for completing this information at submission, and it is expected that all authors will have reviewed, discussed, and agreed to their individual contributions prior to manuscript submission.

• Example of author contributions:

Conceptualization: ***, ***. Data curation: ***, ***. Formal analysis: ***, ***. Funding acquisition: ***, ***. Investigation: ***, ***. Methodology: ***, ***. Project administration: ***, ***. Resources: ***, ***. Software: ***, ***. Supervision: ***, ***. Validation: ***, ***. Visualization: ***, ***. Writing – original draft: ***, ***. Writing – review & editing: ***, ***.

(6) Conflicts of Interest

The authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest possibly influencing the research or interpretation of data at the time of submission. In particular, all sources of funding for a study should be explicitly stated. Statements on conflict of interest have no influence on the editorial decision to publish. If there are no competing interests, the statement should read, “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.” Additionally, potential conflicts of interest of editorial board members should also be disclosed in the manuscript.

(7) Acknowledgments

Any persons that contributed to the study or the manuscript, but not meeting the requirements of an authorship could be placed here. For mentioning any persons or any organizations in this section, there should be a written permission from them.

(8) Funding

For each source of funds, both the research funder and the grant number should be listed here. If there is no funding resource, the following is an example of a sentence that can be used: “None".

4) References

The Harvard (author, date) system of referencing is used (examples are given below). In the text, give the author’s name followed by the year in parentheses: Smith (2000). If there are two authors use ‘and': Smith and Jones (2001); but if cited within parentheses use ‘&': (Smith & Jones, 2001). When reference is made to a work by three or more authors, the first name followed by et al. should be used: MacDonald et al. (2002). In the reference list, references should be listed in alphabetical order.

In the reference list, cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when seven or more, list the first six followed by et al. Do not use ibid. or op cit. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. A. Smith, unpubl. data, 2005). All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.

(1) Journal article

Sugumaran, M., Saul, S.J., and Ramesh, N. (1985). Endogenous protease inhibitors prevent undesired activation of prophenoloxidase in insect haemolymph. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 132, 1124–1129. http://doi.org/10.1016/0006-291x(85)91923-0

(2) Book

Chapman, R.F. (1971). The Insects Structure and Function, 3rd ed. Elsevier.

(3) Web Sites

Chapman, K., and Brown, M. (2010). The future of digital library in Asia. Digital Libraries, 7, 111-119. Retrieved May 5, 2010 from https://www.diglib.org/publist.htm.

GBIF. (2024). Global biodiversity information facility. Retrieved December 9, 2024 from www.gbif.org.

(4) Chapter in a book

Driever, M. (1993). Maternal control of anterior development in the Drosphila embryo. In M. Bate, and A.M. Aris (Eds.), The Development of Drosophila Melanogaster (pp. 387–424). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

(5) Conference Abstract

Hong, K.D., and Kim, L.P. (1997). The sources and migratory pathway of locusts in Korea. Paper presented at The 50th Annual Meeting of The Entomological Society of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

References in articles

We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting. EndNote reference styles can be searched for here: https://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp. Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here: https://www.ref-man.com/support/rmstyles.asp.

5) Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate page with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

6) Figure legends

Type figure legends on a separate page. Legends should be concise but comprehensive–the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

(1) Figures

All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. Figures should be sized to fit within the column (80 mm), intermediate (110 mm) or the full text width (167 mm).

Do not embed figures in the Word document–they must be supplied in separate files. Figures must be supplied as high resolution (at least 300 d.p.i.) files, saved as .eps or .tif. Line figures should be supplied in .eps format as at least 600 d.p.i. For very simple line figures, .xls and .ppt files will be accepted. Combination figures (with an image and text) should be in .eps format as at least 600 d.p.i. They can be supplied as .tif files but if so should be at least 600 d.p.i. and line work should not appear jagged. Line figures should be supplied as sharp, black and white graphs or diagrams, drawn professionally or with a computer graphics package. Lettering must be included and should be sized to be no larger than the journal text.

Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration.

7) Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

8) Supporting Information

Supplementary information is information that is not essential to the article but that provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online, and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

9) Other Manuscript formats

General guidelines are same as for original articles.

(1) Case Reports

Unique cases that make an important teaching point or scientific observation may be suitable for case report. Abstract should be written in English within 150 words in one paragraph. This should consist of title page, abstract, text (including Introduction, Case Report, and Discussion), conflicts of interest, acknowledgments, funding, references, tables, figures, and figure legends.

(2) Review Articles

Review Article is expected to be focused discussion of defined topics relevant to the scope of PNIE. General remarks are same with original article. Manuscripts include a title page (with a running title), abstract and keywords, text, conflicts of interest, acknowledgments, funding, references, tables, and figures. Abstract should be written in English within 150 words in one paragraph. The text can be written in free style. The review articles should be submitted in the same way as regular papers and received the same review process.

AUTHOR LICENSING

If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

1. Accepted article received in production

When your accepted article is received by the production team, you (corresponding authors) will receive an email asking you to login to sign a publication license at this point.

2. Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.