期刊名称：SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
 期刊简介(About the journal)
投稿须知(Instructions to Authors)
编辑部信息(Editorial Board)
About the journal
The Journal was established in 1903 as the proceedings of the annual meetings of the SA Association for the Advancement of Science. The annual volume became a monthly publication in August 1947. Since 1973, the Journal has in turn had a close association with Macmillan Journals in London (the publisher of Nature), the Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of SA (AS&TS), the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology, and the National Research Foundation. The Journal is now the official publication of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).The editorial staff are housed in the NRF building in Pretoria.
Instructions to Authors
The South African Journal of Science accepts articles from any source on the understanding that they are the original work of the authors named, and that they are being offered only to the South African Journal of Science.
Since the Journal serves a multidisciplinary readership, articles should serve multidisciplinary or multi-institutional areas of interest, and authors are requested to write their papers and reports in a manner and style that is intelligible to specialists and nonspecialists alike. Articles are judged by referees at the discretion of the Editor.
Various kinds and categories of article are welcome. (Please consult a recent issue of the Journal for examples.) Research communications are of three kinds: Research Letters, Research Articles, and Review Articles. Research Letters are shorter reports (normally no longer than 1 500-2 000 words of text), and should be up-to-date accounts, usually preliminary, of interesting and noteworthy scientific developments. Although these reports may be concerned with very particular advances, they should be of wider than specialist interest. Research Articles are longer papers (normally no more than 6 000 words in length). Here the criteria of intelligibility and wider interest are strictly applied. Review Articles (up to 6 000 words long) should be up-to-date surveys of important current developments in science. Preference is given to concise, reader-friendly submissions.
Submission of manuscripts for consideration
Enquiries: Potential contributors are invited, before formal submission, to enquire (preferably by e-mail) whether or not a particular article would be of interest, or to obtain advice about the way in which a manuscript should be prepared for submission.
Covering letter: When submitting a manuscript, authors should furnish a separate covering letter with the following information: the name(s) and title(s) of the author(s); the position, affiliation, and contact details of each author; and the author to whom all correspondence should be addressed. In addition, authors are encouraged to provide the names and full contact details (including e-mail addresses) of possible referees to evaluate the work. The covering letter should also include a declaration that the research material in the paper submitted to the Journal has neither been published elsewhere nor is being considered elsewhere for publication.
Hard copy and electronic format: Manuscripts for consideration should be submitted in hard copy and, to expedite the review process, in Microsoft Word electronic format as well (for use as an e-mail attachment).
The hard copy should be printed on A4 paper on one side of the paper only, in double spacing, using Arial/Swiss/Helvetica or Times Roman fonts, with each page clearly numbered. (Contributors should keep presentation consistent and simple, and avoid using a range of type styles and sizes, special fonts, or elaborate formatting.) The first line of each paragraph should be indented. Tables, diagrams, and other artwork should not be incorporated in the main text of an article: each item should be presented on a separate page at the end, and captions should be presented together (on one or more pages) separate from other material. Tables and figures (including photographs) should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals.
Three hard copies (the original printout plus two clear copies) of all items should be submitted, together with an electronic (disk) copy. In the case of electronic copies, tables and figures should not be embedded in the main text file but submitted separately.
Presentation of content
The opening paragraph of each research paper should make clear the purpose and main conclusions of the work being reported. All submissions should be concise and reader-friendly, take proper account of previous relevant literature, and avoid undue repetition of facts or experimental methods already in the public record. A short abstract (up to about 200 words), written concisely in simple words and phrases, must accompany each research article and letter.
Authors submitting a paper for consideration should consult the notes below as well as a recent issue of the Journal, and note and follow the house style of presentation.
Abbreviations should be used sparingly, and should be defined at their first use unless they are very familiar (e.g. DNA, E. coli). The significance of statistical tests should be written in the form P < 0.001, or 'n.s.' for 'not significant'. 'Degrees of freedom' is abbreviated as 'd.f.'; 'standard error' is abbreviated as 's.e.' (and 'standard error of the mean' as 's.e.m.'); 'coefficient of variation' is abbreviated as 'CV'.
Units should conform to the SI convention and be abbreviated accordingly. Metric units and their international symbols are used throughout, as is the decimal point (not the decimal comma), and the 24-hour clock (e.g. 08:00; 17:25). When radiocarbon dates are quoted they should be accompanied by a laboratory index number and a statement of probable error. The term 'mass' should be used (instead of 'weight'). Prefixes for mass numbers should precede the symbols of the elements (e.g. 14C).
Spacing and punctuation: There should be one space (not two) between sentences; one space before unit terms (e.g. 5 kg, 5 cm, 5 mmol, 5 days); no space before % or ?(e.g. 5%, 23°C, 26?0'S). Thousands/millions are marked with a space, not a comma (e.g. 1 000, 1 000 000). Ranges are expressed with an extended hyphen, not with a short hyphen (e.g. 3-5 km).
Dates, italics, and spelling: Dates are written in the following style: 13 July 1973. Phrases within the text that are not English (for example, et al.) must be italicized. The British (not the American) spelling convention is followed.
References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, layout, and presentation of their references, and for compiling the typescript in the Journal's house style. Footnotes and acknowledgements should not be included among the references. 'Personal communication', 'unpublished observations', and 'manuscript in preparation' should be incorporated in the text. Papers accepted for publication in a (named) journal may be cited, but not those merely submitted for publication.
References to the literature must be indicated by numeric superscripts within the text, and listed at the end of the manuscript in order of citation. References should not be set as footnotes of endnotes as defined in MSWord.
Articles in periodicals are cited by full title and inclusive pagination. Titles of periodicals are abbreviated in accordance with the World List of Scientific Periodicals. References provided in manuscript submissions should be presented, formatted, and punctuated in the style of the following example:
1. Freiman M.T., D'Abreton P.C. and Piketh S.J. (1998). Regional airflow over the southern Drakensberg mountains of South Africa. S. Afr. J. Sci. 94, 561-565.
References to quotations, chapters or articles in books should follow the style of the following examples:
2. Lovegrove B. (1999). In The Living Deserts of Southern Africa, chap. 1, pp. 40-41. Fernwood Press, Cape Town.
3. Mason S.J. and Tyson P.D. (1999). The occurrence and predictability of droughts over southern Africa. In Drought, a Global Assessment, vol. 1., ed. D.A. Wilhite, pp. 113-134. Routledge, London.
4. De Villiers C. and Visser W. (1998). Survey of Environmental Reporting in SA, 5th edn, p. 93. KPMG, Cape Town.
References to published conference papers should provide details as follows:
5. Moll E.J. (1994). The origin and distribution of fairy rings in Namibia. In Proceedings, 13th Plenary Meeting AETFAT, Zomba, Malawi, eds J.H. Seyani and A.C. Chikuni, pp. 1203-1209. National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens of Malawi, Zomba.
Thesis references should be presented as follows:
6. Singo N.M. (1996). A survey of the indigenous relishes of the Vhavenda and their agricultural potential, pp. 25-26. M.Sc. thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
Newspaper references follow the example below:
7. Kirk P. (2001). New AIDS battle looms. Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg), 11-17 May, 4.
Preparation and submission of diagrams
New printing technology requires updated specifications for preparing diagrams, tables, graphs, and other visual material for reproduction in the Journal. Authors should pay special attention to the details below (and to enquire about special needs as necessary).
Hard copies
?The original of each figure or diagram must be submitted together with three clear copies. (Free-hand and typewritten lines or lettering are not acceptable.)
?Each diagram, table, graph, photograph or other piece of artwork must be submitted in high resolution hard copy appropriate for scanning. Photographs: three unmounted sets are required (glossy prints with good contrast where possible). Line drawings: the original (rather than a photographic copy) is preferable.
?Line drawings and diagram originals should be in Indian ink on cartridge or drawing quality paper. Hard copies of computer-generated figures of laser printer quality are acceptable, but avoid using fine screens or stipples that lose quality on reduction. Do not use tints.
?Figures, when reduced, should fit comfortably within one of the following column-compatible sizes, with widths of either 88 mm or 180 mm. Although they may be prepared and submitted in larger than final size, labelling and lettering should be sized so that the smallest elements are clearly readable when reduced to the smallest possible printed size compatible with clarity. (Test by reducing copies on a photocopier to the required width, then verifying for clarity of detail: if 50% figure reduction is necessary to fit within the column width, original labels should, for example, be 14 point in size; if 60% reduction is necessary, original labels can be 12 point in size; if 65% reduction is required, original labels can be in 11 point size.) Line widths, when reduced, should measure within the range of 0.1 mm (the minimum for the thinnest hairlines) and 0.35 mm (for the boldest lines). Letter and number sizes should be used with consistency, to ensure a professional printed result.
Electronic diagrams and illustrations
?Artwork may, in addition, be supplied in electronic format (as a back-up). Corel-DRAW (version 8, 9, or 10) is ideal for printing purposes (but line thickness should be set by the operator, as defaults are often too fine for reduction). If Excel diagrams are submitted, each must be placed on a separate page in Microsoft Word, or saved as a Windows metafile or enhanced metafile (.WMF). EPS (encapsulated PostScript) files are also acceptable. Black-and-white line drawings should ideally be supplied at 1 200 dpi (but no less than 600 dpi). Authors must specify in which program diagrams have been drawn.
?Photographs and artwork in colour must be supplied at high resolution (at least 300 dpi) for good quality reproduction, in TIF (preferably) or JPEG format.
?No illustrations saved in the native formats of specialized statistical packages should be submitted.
?No specialized fonts should be used in labelling. Use Arial/Swiss/Helvetica or Times Roman only. (If a specialized font is unavoidable in material sent electronically, supply the font itself as well, in TrueType or in PostScript Type 1 format.)
Originals of artwork will be returned to the author on request (after publication).
If an author is unable to supply artwork in the appropriate form, and additional Journal time is needed to modify diagrams for publication, that time will be charged to the author (fees are available on enquiry).
Final accepted and updated manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word-or RTF (Rich Text Format)-and accompanied by an identical printed copy. Figure captions and tables should not be incorporated in the main text but set out on separate sheets of hard copy. A covering letter must confirm that the final manuscript has been approved by all the cited authors.
Proofs
Authors will receive provisional page proofs, either electronically as PDF files or in printed form by post or fax; these must be returned promptly to the Editor (within a week) to avoid delays in publication. Substantial changes made at proof stage will be charged to the author.
Reprints
Fifty free offprints of an article are sent to the author after publication (which should be shared among authors if there is more than one). Additional offprints and CDs with screen- and print-enhanced versions of the paper in Adobe Acrobat (versions 3 or 4) may be ordered in advance from the Editor (prices available on enquiry).
Strict adherence to these guidelines and authorial conformity to the Journal's house style streamline the processing of manuscripts, expedite publication, and enable the South African Journal of Science to continue publishing research papers without charging page fees.
This set of guidelines is available on www.nrf.ac.za or from the Editor (on request). Manuscripts for consideration should be sent by post to the Editor, South African Journal of Science, P.O. Box 2600, Pretoria 0001, South Africa, by fax to (+27 12) / (012) 481 4007 or 349 1179. Electronic versions may be sent by e-mail to sajs@nrf.ac.za
Editorial Board
Editorial Staff:
Editor: Graham Baker
Editorial Assistant: Eldaleen Jacobs
Details of address:
P O Box 2600, Pretoria, 0001
Tel: +27 (0)12 481 4090
Fax: +27 (0)12 349 1179
e-mail:
sajs1@nrf.ac.za for Graham Baker
sajs@nrf.ac.za for Eldaleen Jacobs
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