Wiley Journal Manuscript Formatting Guidelines

Wiley is one of the world’s largest academic publishers, operating over 1,700 peer-reviewed journals spanning the physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, humanities, engineering, and medicine. Its portfolio includes prestigious titles such as Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Heart Association, British Journal of Haematology, and hundreds of society journals published in partnership with organizations like the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the British Ecological Society.

Despite this breadth, a single misunderstanding traps thousands of authors every year: the scope and limits of Wiley’s Free Format submission policy. Understanding exactly what Free Format does — and does not — waive is the single most important piece of knowledge you can have before uploading your manuscript to a Wiley submission portal.

This guide covers every Wiley formatting requirement in depth: document settings, mandatory disclosures, structural sequence, tables and figures, journal family differences, and the five most common causes of editorial desk returns — so your manuscript clears the editorial office on the first attempt.

2. Understanding Wiley’s Free Format Policy

Wiley introduced Free Format in 2017, and today over 1,100 of its journals participate. The policy was designed to reduce the wasted effort authors invest in reformatting rejected papers before resubmission to a second journal. In practice, Free Format means:

• Reference style is flexible: You may use any consistent, recognised reference format for the initial submission — APA, Vancouver, Chicago author-date, or numeric — without switching to the journal’s house style.
• Overall layout is relaxed: You are not required to match the published journal’s column layout, section ordering beyond the journal’s required sequence, or precise heading capitalisation.
• Post-acceptance reformatting is mandatory: Once a paper is accepted, the journal will require full reformatting to their specific house style before final publication.

A common misconception is that Free Format means “anything goes.” It does not. The policy is narrowly scoped to reference formatting and template layout. The manuscript must still be complete, professional, and readable — with all mandatory content sections present. Think of Free Format as removing the stylistic checklist, not the content checklist.

To confirm whether a specific journal participates in Free Format, look for the “Free Format” badge on its Wiley Online Library homepage, or check the “Submission” section of the journal’s Author Guidelines page. If it is not listed as Free Format, full formatting compliance is required from initial submission.

3. Core Document Formatting

The following settings apply to virtually all Wiley journal submissions, Free Format or otherwise. These are the baseline technical requirements that ensure your manuscript is legible for peer reviewers and processable by the editorial system.

• Font: Any standard academic font is acceptable under Free Format. The most commonly used are Times New Roman at 12pt or Arial at 11pt. Avoid decorative or sans-serif-heavy fonts that reduce readability at screen resolution.
• Line Spacing: Double-spaced (2.0x) throughout the entire manuscript, including the abstract, references, figure legends, and tables. Reviewers annotate manuscripts in the line gaps; single or 1.5 spacing frequently triggers an editorial return.
• Line Numbers: Continuous line numbers are strongly recommended by Wiley and explicitly required by the majority of individual journals. In Word, enable continuous (not restarting) line numbers via Layout → Line Numbers → Continuous. Do not use per-section or per-page restart. Reviewers cite line numbers in their comments; missing line numbers slow the review process and can prompt editorial intervention.
• Margins: 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides. Do not reduce margins to fit more content — this is one of the clearest signals of an unformatted submission to editorial assistants.
• Page Numbers: Bottom-center, starting from the title page. Most journals require continuous page numbers throughout.
• File Format: Microsoft Word (.docx) is the strongly preferred format for initial submission. Some Wiley journals also accept PDF, but .docx is always the safe choice as it allows editorial annotations and post-acceptance production work.
• Paper Size: US Letter (8.5 × 11 in) or A4 — confirm in the journal’s Guide for Authors. European society journals often require A4; US-based society journals frequently require Letter.

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Figure 1: Microsoft Word Layout ribbon showing continuous line numbering dropdownClose

Figure 1: Enable continuous line numbering via Layout → Line Numbers → Continuous in Microsoft Word before submitting to any Wiley journal.

4. Standard Manuscript Structure

Most Wiley journals follow standard IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) structure for primary research articles, though some social science and humanities journals use a more narrative organisation. The typical required sequence is:

1. Title Page: Full manuscript title, complete author list with superscript affiliation numbering, full institutional affiliations for each author, corresponding author name and email address, and ORCID iDs (now enforced for corresponding authors at nearly all Wiley journals, increasingly required for all co-authors).
2. Abstract: Word limit varies by journal — typically 150–250 words for research articles, with structured sub-headings (Background / Methods / Results / Conclusion) required by many clinical journals. Always check the Guide for Authors for the specific journal; Free Format does not waive the abstract word limit.
3. Keywords: Between 4 and 8 keywords in most journals (see FAQ below). Keywords must not repeat words already present in the title; they should be indexing terms that researchers in your field would actually use in a database search.
4. Main Text (IMRaD): Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion (sometimes combined as Results and Discussion). Some specialised journals use different structures — for example, case reports use Introduction / Case Presentation / Discussion / Conclusion.
5. Acknowledgments: Grant agencies, institutional support, technical assistance.
6. Conflict of Interest Statement: Mandatory — see Mandatory Disclosures section below.
7. Data Availability Statement: Increasingly enforced — see Mandatory Disclosures section.
8. Funding Statement: Names of funding agencies with grant numbers.
9. Author Contributions: Required by a growing number of Wiley journals, using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) system.
10. References: In the style permitted under Free Format, or the journal’s house style if Free Format is not offered.
11. Figure Legends: On a separate page after references, each legend numbered to match its figure.
12. Tables: Each table on a separate page after figure legends, with title above the table.

For initial Free Format submission, figures may be embedded in the Word file for reviewer convenience. After acceptance, Wiley production will request separate high-resolution image files.

Wiley Standard Heading Hierarchy

Wiley manuscripts enforce a clear 4-level heading system configured in Microsoft Word styles. Consistent heading levels ensure automated cross-referencing and XML compilation during post-acceptance typesetting:

• Level 1 (Heading 1): Centered or flush left, Bold, Title Case or All Caps (e.g., 1 | INTRODUCTION).
• Level 2 (Heading 2): Flush left, Bold, Title Case (e.g., 1.1 | Kinematic Constraints).
• Level 3 (Heading 3): Flush left, Bold Italic, Sentence Case (e.g., 1.1.1 | Lagrangian mechanics and energy conservation).
• Level 4 (Heading 4): Indented 0.5 in, Bold Italic, run-in with prose ending with a period.

Heading Hierarchy

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1Level 1: Flush left or centered, bold title case

2Level 2: Flush left bold sub-section

3Level 3: Bold italic paragraph lead

4Integrated Word Styles pane with keepWithNext

Figure 2: Microsoft Word showing Wiley 4-level heading hierarchy and Word Styles pane configurationClose

Figure 2: Figure 2: Wiley 4-level heading hierarchy in Microsoft Word: Level 1 (bold title case), Level 2 (flush left), Level 3 (bold italic), and Level 4 (run-in), backed by configured Word Styles and keepWithNext paragraph protection.

1Level 1: Flush left or centered, bold title case

2Level 2: Flush left bold sub-section

3Level 3: Bold italic paragraph lead

4Integrated Word Styles pane with keepWithNext

5. Mandatory Disclosure Statements

Wiley mandates a suite of disclosure statements that have become progressively more strictly enforced since 2022. These are not optional boilerplate — their absence is the leading cause of editorial returns across Wiley’s journal portfolio. Each must appear as a labelled, standalone section heading, not embedded in the Acknowledgments paragraph.

Conflict of Interest Statement

A Conflict of Interest (COI) statement is required by every Wiley journal, without exception. Crucially, the statement must appear explicitly even when no conflict exists. The standard affirmative nil-declaration phrasing is:

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

When conflicts do exist — financial relationships, patent ownership, employment by a company with an interest in the research outcome, consulting fees — each author’s specific conflict must be described individually. Wiley also requires authors to complete ICMJE Disclosure Forms for biomedical journals.

Data Availability Statement

Wiley’s data sharing policy has expanded significantly since 2024. Most journals now require a Data Availability Statement (DAS) that specifies where the data supporting the findings can be accessed. Accepted statement types include:

• “The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.”
• “The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [DOI or URL].”
• “Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.” (for review articles)

The DAS must be a distinct, labelled section — not a sentence hidden inside Acknowledgments. Journals that require a DAS but do not receive one will return the manuscript for correction before entering peer review.

Funding Statement

List all funding sources with the full name of the funding agency (as registered in the Crossref Funder Registry) and the specific grant or award number. Do not abbreviate agency names — “NIH” should be “National Institutes of Health,” and “EPSRC” should be “Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.”

Author Contributions (CRediT Taxonomy)

An increasing number of Wiley journals now require formal Author Contributions using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework. CRediT defines 14 standard contributor roles: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft, and Writing – Review & Editing. Each author should be mapped to one or more roles. For example:

J. Smith: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft. A. Patel: Formal Analysis, Visualization. L. Chen: Supervision, Funding Acquisition, Writing – Review & Editing.

6. Tables and Figures

Academic Table Format (3-Line Rule)

All Wiley journals follow the standard academic 3-line table convention, also called the booktable or publication-quality table format. The rules are:

• Top rule: A thick horizontal line above the column headers (typically 1.5–2pt in Word).
• Header rule: A thin horizontal line below the column headers, separating headers from data rows.
• Bottom rule: A thick horizontal line below the last data row.
• No vertical lines: Vertical column dividers are never used in academic tables published by Wiley. They are a reliable marker of an improperly formatted table.
• No internal horizontal lines: Only the three outer/header rules appear; rows are not separated by horizontal lines.
• Table title: Placed above the table, styled as “Table 1. [Title text in sentence case].”
• Table notes: Placed below the table, introduced with a superscript letter or the abbreviation “Note.”

Tables must be submitted as editable Word tables — never as images or screenshots of spreadsheets. See our detailed guide on formatting 3-line academic tables in Word.

Figures

For initial Free Format submission, figures may be embedded inline in the manuscript Word file to help reviewers understand the context. However, the following standards apply at all stages:

• Figure captions: Placed below the figure, styled as “Figure 1. [Caption text in sentence case].” Scale bars must be described in the caption, not on the figure alone.
• Post-acceptance resolution: Wiley production requires separate figure files at a minimum of 300 DPI for halftones (photographs), 600 DPI for line art (graphs, diagrams), and 1,200 DPI for combination artwork. Accepted formats: TIFF, EPS (for vector), and occasionally high-resolution PDF. JPEG files are generally not accepted for final production.
• Colour figures: Confirm whether your target journal publishes colour figures free of charge (most Wiley journals now do online) or charges for print colour. If colour is used, ensure figures are interpretable in greyscale as well.
• Width constraints: For two-column published layouts, figures must fit within one column (approximately 84mm) or span the full text width (approximately 174mm). For production, do not submit figures with dimensions that fall between these values.

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Figure 3: Correctly formatted Wiley manuscript in Microsoft Word with continuous line numbers, 3-line table, and mandatory disclosure sectionsClose

Figure 3: Figure 3: A correctly formatted Wiley manuscript in Microsoft Word: continuous line numbers (left margin), double spacing, a 3-line academic table with no vertical rules, and the mandatory Conflict of Interest and Data Availability sections clearly labelled before the References.

7. Wiley Journal Families to Know

Wiley’s portfolio spans several distinct publishing groups, each with house-style tendencies that persist even under Free Format. Understanding which family your target journal belongs to helps you anticipate the post-acceptance reformatting requirements.

Wiley-Blackwell (Humanities & Social Sciences)

Journals published under the Wiley-Blackwell imprint — including titles in sociology, political science, psychology, law, and literature — typically use author-date citation styles (Chicago, APA, or Harvard) and may have footnote-heavy formatting requirements. Word counts for these journals are often higher than STEM journals, frequently exceeding 8,000 words for full articles.

Wiley Online Library Biomedical Journals

Biomedical journals in the Wiley portfolio — including Journal of Internal Medicine, Clinical & Experimental Immunology, and numerous society-partnership journals — use the Vancouver numeric citation style. Structured abstracts with mandatory subheadings (Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, Conclusions) are the norm. ICMJE authorship criteria and mandatory ethics statements (IRB/ethics committee approval, informed consent) are strictly enforced.

FEBS Journals

The Federation of European Biochemical Societies journals (including FEBS Letters, The FEBS Journal, and Molecular Oncology) have a specific house style with numbered references in order of citation, structured abstracts, and a mandatory “Structured Digital Abstract” using the MINT framework for molecular interactions. These specific requirements persist regardless of Free Format.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Annals of the NYAS publishes themed volumes and uses a specific house style including numbered references, conflict of interest disclosures via a dedicated portal, and specific structured sections. Each Annals theme issue typically has its own supplementary guidelines distributed by the volume editors.

8. 5 Common Editorial Return Causes at Wiley

The following five issues account for the vast majority of manuscripts returned by Wiley editorial offices before they enter peer review. Addressing all five before submission will significantly increase your chances of moving directly to the reviewer assignment stage.

1. Missing Conflict of Interest Statement. This is the single most common cause of pre-review editorial returns at Wiley. Even when no conflict exists, the nil declaration must be present as an explicit, standalone, labelled section. A COI disclosure buried inside Acknowledgments or omitted entirely will trigger an automated editorial hold. Verify that your COI section appears between Acknowledgments and your Data Availability Statement.
2. Data Availability Statement absent. Since 2024, Wiley has enforced DAS requirements across most of its portfolio. Manuscripts lacking a DAS are now routinely returned with a template email asking for the statement before peer review begins. Even for studies using proprietary or sensitive data, a statement explaining the restrictions is required — the absence of data sharing is acceptable; the absence of a DAS section is not.
3. Abstract word count exceeded. Free Format waives reference style requirements but never abstract word limits. Wiley journals use automated submission system checks that flag overlong abstracts. An abstract that exceeds the stated limit by even a few words will generate an immediate system error or editorial return request. Count your abstract words precisely before submission.
4. Author ORCIDs missing. ORCID iDs are now strongly enforced for corresponding authors at all major Wiley journals and are increasingly required for all co-authors. Many Wiley submission portals (ScholarOne and Editorial Manager) require ORCID authentication during account creation, but the iD must also appear on the manuscript title page. An ORCID iD takes the format https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000. If you do not have an ORCID, register at orcid.org — registration is free and takes two minutes.
5. Figures at insufficient resolution. Wiley editorial offices flag embedded figures below 300 DPI immediately, particularly for clinical and life sciences journals where figure clarity is critical for reviewer evaluation. If you are embedding figures in the manuscript for Free Format initial submission, ensure even the embedded versions are at the correct resolution. Export figures from your graphing software at 300 DPI minimum; do not screenshot charts from Excel or statistical software.

Before submitting to Wiley, ensure your tables follow the 3-line academic table standard and your manuscript has continuous line numbers inserted. If your paper has already been desk-rejected elsewhere, our desk rejection turnaround guide walks through a complete reformatting checklist. See also our comparison guide: Elsevier journal formatting guidelines.