LIFE: Leveraging Innovations From Evolution

Integrative and Comparative Biology (ICB), formerly American Zoologist, is one of the most highly respected and cited journals in the field of organismal biology. 

ICB publishes works of original research, reviews, and perspectives. 

LIFE workshop participants publishing their LIFE article in ICB are entitled to 12-15 free-to-publish pages (roughly 600 to 700 words per page) upon acceptance. 

Colored images are free online. 

Papers received before January 31, 2025 will get a free colored figure in print as well. 

ICB is a subscription model journal, yet articles are free to read online after one year from publication. 

For further details see: https://academic.oup.com/icb

Initial submission. In order to publish in issue 1 of 2025, please submit your manuscript between October 1, 2024 and March 1, 2025.

Forming author teams. To facilitate collaborative writing, we will use Google  sheets (shared via the LIFE Slack account) to collect information on tentative author teams and manuscripts.  To access the Slack account and the Google slideshow, contact Jen Wisecaver (jwisecav@purdue.edu).

Please use the Google slideshow to submit a list of names for your tentative author team and a provisional manuscript title by February 1st, 2024.

Developing your manuscript. An information and planning session will be held virtually on Zoom January 11th at 3 pm EST, 12 noon PST. ICB will email you a Zoom invite or contact Suzanne Miller (icbjournal@sicb.org).

To facilitate peer feedback, we invite author teams to share a link to their manuscript draft or outline in the same Google slides by April 1st, 2024. 

Article formats

ICB strongly encourages authors to consider a Vignette format. This format has been introduced recently by journals to report out from workshops, panels, and brainstorming sessions.

👁️‍🗨️Instructions and examples of Vignettes

ICB also accepts Perspective papers. 

👁️‍🗨️Instructions and examples of Perspectives

ICB also accepts Science Practice papers. 👁️‍🗨️Instructions for and examples of Science Practice Papers

Collaborative writing

To support your writing team, please use the 'collaborative writing' guidelines on how to assign team roles, hold meetings, and provide effective feedback to team members