We strongly encourage symposium organizers and speakers to submit photographs relevant to the symposium topic. Please submit images to the managing editor (Suzanne Miller; email: icbjournal@sicb.org). A good time to ask your authors for images is around the time of article submission and revision.

Our managing editor is a trained artist and will generate a cover based on your submissions or will work with you on designs (see Design process below). We encourage symposium organizers to share with us their ideas for covers. Please look at covers of the past few years to generate ideas and to get a sense for ICB's cover style (visit the journal website: https://academic.oup.com/icb).

Option 1. Submit images for our managing editor to design your cover.

The managing editor collects images and selects their top choices to propose to the editor in chief for the final decision. If you are unable to submit images, ICB will draw on its own pool of images.

Option 2. Propose a cover design to our managing editor.

The managing editor may invite symposium organizers to develop their own designs. Please consult with the managing editor about cover ideas that strongly deviate from ICB’s design guidelines (below).

Please note that all cover designs are subject to approval by the editor in chief to ensure that ICB's cover guidelines are followed.

Relevance

The design should be centered around a high-resolution image relevant to the content of the issue. Such relevance can take many forms and we encourage you to think beyond the literal.

Image elements

The cover should form a coherent composition. We prefer a single photo, but may allow multiple images if the design is clearly coherent. We may allow a combination of photos and graphic elements (such as lines, drawings, text labels) if those graphic elements support the photographic elements.

Image quality

Photographs should be uncompressed, high resolution (at least 4MB), and have good dynamic range in brightness. Drawn images must meet high professional standards.

Image enhancement and alternation

We allow photos that have been altered to enhance their clarity and visual appeal, including photos taken with filters or imaging techniques that require artificial colors, as long as those alterations are not misleading or falsifying the scientific or image content.

Visual appeal

The cover should be clear, visually engaging, and appropriate for a scholarly journal. It should have a level of complexity that maintains a single focus yet contains enough detail to invite a closer look.

Copyrights

Please ensure that you are the copyright holder of any images that you propose, or that you have obtained written permission from the copyright owner (written permission to be submitted with the images).