I. Publishing in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology
1. Submission of manuscripts for consideration for publication.
All manuscripts are to be submitted to Dr. Darren C. J. Yeo (dbsyeod@nus.edu.sg), Managing Editor, RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY, Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge Singapore 119260, Republic of Singapore. Authors are required to follow the guidelines in these Instructions to Authors. Papers submitted to this journal may not be submitted elsewhere unless they have been withdrawn or rejected. Authors whose complete manuscripts require more than 20 pages in the journal are requested to write to the editors before submission. It would be preferable, where possible, that representative material from papers published in this journal could be deposited in the Zoological Reference Collection (ZRC) of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.
2. Page Charges.
The cost for the first 20 printed pages in the journal will be borne by the publisher: the School of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. Longer manuscripts will be charged US$30 per page in excess of 20 pages. Colour pages are charged in sets of four: US$500 for each first page, and US$100 per page for the next three pages.
3. Reprints.
Authors will receive two reprints free of charge via airmail. Additional reprints are not provided free of charge, but may be purchased at cost at S$0.30 per page. Reprints are normally available from the printer only two weeks after the journal is published. Authors are charged for postage and may choose surface mail or airmail delivery. The order form for reprints is included with the final proofs.
4. Provisional acceptance of manuscript.
All manuscripts will be sent to an Associate Editor who will have them reviewed by a minimum of two referees. The Associate Editor decides on provisional acceptance or rejection based on comments submitted by the referees. The author will receive notification of the decision with his returned manuscript, the referees' comments, and a copy of these Instructions to Authors.
5. Submission of manuscript for acceptance and publication.
Manuscripts will only be accepted once the author has attended to all of the referees' recommendations and ensured that the format of the manuscript and illustrations comply with these Instructions to Authors. Non-compliance with the latter will delay publication, as manuscripts (including illustrations) will be returned to authors for re-formatting. Should the author disagree with the referees' comments, the author is required to provide reasons in writing.
6. Proofs.
The final proofs are sent to authors for correction, together with Form 5 (Agreement for the Transfer of Copyright) and Reprint Order Form. A charge will be levied for excessive author corrections to the manuscript at this point. The completed Form 5 (Agreement for the Transfer of Copyright) and Reprint Order Forms must be submitted with the returned proofs. The tentative date of publication of the next issue is provided. Should the proofs be returned early, this will be the issue number in which the manuscript may appear. Should the proofs be delayed by a late reply or excessive corrections, the manuscript will be re-scheduled for publication.
7. Notification of publication.
Two copies of the paper will be sent to the corresponding author immediately upon publication via airmail for his early reference.
II. Presentation of the manuscript
1. Special requirements for initial submissions.
Manuscripts submitted must be double-spaced throughout including tables and legends. This will provide space for corrections and annotations by the editors and referees. A cover page must be included, consisting of the full title of the paper, the name of the author(s) and professional affiliation(s). The complete manuscript must be submitted in triplicate including photocopies of all figures. Photocopied figures provided must fit the 160 mm by 230 mm page size. Original figures and a word processor-version of the manuscript are not required at this point.
2. Special requirements for corrected manuscripts.
Once the manuscript is provisionally accepted, it is returned to the author with the referees' and Associate Editor's recommendations. The author is required to respond to each of the comments and incorporate necessary changes into the manuscript. The author should also provide justification for any disagreement with the recommendations. The corrected manuscript should be single-spaced throughout, i.e. as it would appear in the journal. A cover page is not required. The words, "THE RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY XXXX XX(X): XX-XX" followed by three blank lines and a short running title of no longer than 35 characters must appear before the title.
One printed copy of the corrected manuscript including all the original illustrations, and a word processor document (of the same version) on a floppy disk must be submitted to the Associate Editor. The format of the journal should be complied with strictly. Deviation from the format will cause delays in the publication, as it will be returned for corrections.
All commonly used word processing programs are acceptable. The disk label should clearly state the name of the author(s) and abbreviated title, the program name and version number. Should there be difficulty in providing a soft copy of the manuscript in any of the acceptable versions, please seek the Editor's advice in advance.
3. General guidelines.
Manuscripts must be typed on one side of good quality paper, with margins of at least 2 cm throughout. All paragraphs should be only left justified. Do not indent paragraphs. Do not substitute "I" or "l" for "1". Page numbers should be centred below the text. Use British spelling; metric measurements; 24 hour designation of time (e.g. 2300 hours); the appropriate regional authority for names of geographical locations, with equivalent names in square brackets. e. g. Ampang [=District], Pulau [=Island], Teluk [=Bay].
All numbers less than ten should be spelt in full, except in the Material section of taxonomic papers. All species and genus names are to be italicised. All other names are NOT to be italicised, (e.g. sensu stricto, fide, et al.). The names of vessels should be capitalised. All scientific names must be used in accordance with the 4th Edition of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature (1999). The manuscript should be arranged into sections such as - Introduction, Methods, Taxonomy or Systematics, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements and Literature Cited. These headings should be centred, and in caps and bold. Sub-headings should begin paragraphs and appear italicised and bold, followed by a hyphen.
4. Title and Abstract.
The title should be centred, bold and capitalised. The higher classification of any taxa in the title must be included in brackets separated by colons, in descending order. Two lines should be left before listing the authors names in bold, followed by three blank lines, and the abstract. All articles should be accompanied by an abstract of not more than 500 words, clearly stating the results and conclusions of the paper. The names of all newly described taxa should be mentioned. No citations should be made. Key words (4-6 words) should be listed following the abstract.
5. Citations in the text.
References in the text are to be cited by the author's surname and year of publication as follows: for a single author: (Chan, 1985); for two authors: (Polhemus & Polhemus, 1988); for three or more authors: (Harrison et al., 1950). Citations of direct quotations in the text should include the page numbers. Citations should take the following form: Both Cantor (1846: 195) and Blanford (1888: 187) concur that ...Lekagul & McNeely (1988) considered it ...In Singapore, recent sightings were all in or near mangroves (Yang et al., 1990).... general accounts (Kloss, 1908; Chasen, 1924, 1940; Harrison, 1966) did not include ...Only a taxonomic authority should appear in parentheses immediately following a binomial name, e. g. Lutra sumatrana (Gray, 1865). If any other reference is cited, there should be a clear indication that it is not a taxonomic authority, either by modification, e. g. "In Asia, there is intraspecific variation of L. lutra (see Harris, 1968).", or by rearrangement, "There is intraspecific variation of L. lutra in Asia (Harris, 1968)." More than one citation in a sentence should be listed in chronological order, e.g. "In series of papers, Bott (1966, 1968, 1970) revised¡"
6. Taxonomic papers.
All scientific names proposed must be in accordance with the 4th Edition of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature (1999). Descriptions of new taxa by one author in a paper under another's name are discouraged (eg. Lim, in Tan & Ong, 1986). New taxa with more than three authors will not be accepted. New taxa must carry the appropriate indications, e.g. Palapedia, new genus; Palapedia valentini, new species (do not use 'sp. nov.', 'gen. nov', 'n. sp.' or 'n. gen.'). In previously described species, a comma must be inserted after the author's name, e.g. Garthasia americana (Garth, 1939). Relevant figure numbers should be listed under the heading, in normal text, within brackets. Supra-generic taxa that appear as headings should be capitalised only. Genus and species names that appear as headings should be bold, and accompanied by the author and the year. Synonymies must be cited in the short form (taxon, author, year, page), but the full reference must be provided in the Literature Cited. A telegraphic style is required for descriptions, diagnoses and keys. The origins of all new names must be briefly explained in a paragraph of its own, Etymology. In the case of new genera, the gender must be stated. The use of keys is encouraged. Keys should not be indented. Only the first line of each couplet is numbered with Arabic numerals; the second couplet must start with short dash. Insert a blank line after each couplet.
7. Materials and methods.
Methodology should be clearly and concisely stated. Lists of abbreviations should appear here. Any deviation from the standard format of the RAFFLES BULLETIN that has been approved by the Editors must be explained in this section.
8. Material examined.
The depositories where type specimens are kept or distributed must be clearly stated, including catalogue numbers if possible. These depositories should be responsible public institutions and not private collections. Abbreviations of depository names should be official ones and should be listed in the Materials and Methods section. The holotype and paratype data must be clearly designated in separate paragraphs. The gender of specimens must be spelt in full; symbols are not acceptable. If the sex is not known, the abbreviation of the word example, 'ex.' will be used. Repetitious localities should be given locality or station numbers particularly with expedition material. Dates are to be written as 5 Feb.1994, with period in between month (represented by a three-letter abbreviation) and year. If a different format is necessary, authors are required to seek the approval of the editor. The material should be listed as follows: number of specimens and sex (remarks about specimen's condition or measurements) (depository catalogue number), locality, collector's name preceded by 'coll.', date of collection. Specimen lots are to be separated by semi-colons.
9. Literature Cited.
All authors cited, including authorship of taxa, must be listed at the end of the manuscript under the section Literature Cited. The full citations are listed in alphabetical and chronological order.
The first author's surname appears first, followed by his initials; those of junior authors are listed in reverse. Journal references should include the paper's title, the journal name in full (italicised), volume (bold), issue (bracketed), and page numbers.
Book references should include title of book, editor, publisher, city of publication and the page numbers of the chapter or the book. All references are to be complete; a period after author's initials should be followed by a single space; the word 'pages' is abbreviated to 'pp.' and 'page' to 'p.'. The references should follow the formats of the examples listed below precisely, including the punctuation, style and spacing:
King, B., M. Woodcock & E. C. Dickinson, 1975. A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia. Collins, London. 480 pp.
Murphy, D. H., 1990. The natural history of insect herbivory on mangrove trees in and near Singapore. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 38(2): 119-204
Nakasone, Y. & M. Agena, 1984. Role of crabs as degrader of mangrove litters in the Okinawan mangals, and food habits of some estuarine fishes. In: Ikehara, S. & N. Ikehara (eds.), Ecology and Physiology of the Mangrove Ecosystem. College of Science, University of Ryukyus. Pp. 153-167.
It is the author's responsibility to verify that all citations in the text are listed in the Literature Cited and vice versa.
10. Tables.
Tables must be presented on separate pages. They should be organised to fit the page format. All tables must have their own headings, be self-explanatory, and not require reference to the text. Lengthy headings are to be avoided, but supplementary notes are allowed. Tables should be numbered with arabic numbers, e.g. Table 1, Tables 2-4. Table should be formatted with horizontal lines (usually three, two to separate the heading, and a single line at the bottom) and no vertical lines.
11. Illustrations.
All line drawings, photographs (print or slide transparency), maps or graphs are referred to as 'figure(s)', abbreviated as 'Fig.' or Figs.". Figures will not be returned to authors unless requested for. An outline of the page size and the size of legends is provided in the Appendix.
All figures must fit within the 160 mm by 230 mm page format (including legends) either directly, or after reduction. If the illustrations require reduction, provide photocopied-reduced versions. Unsatisfactory work may be returned for modification.
Figures must be numbered in a single series throughout with arabic numerals, in a sequence that follows some order. Each part of a composite figure should be numbered alphabetically, also in some order (e.g. in the sequence of its arrangement). All labels used on figures must be of the sans-serif font type, e.g.12345ABC.
Legends for all figures must be provided on a separate sheet, be self-explanatory, and not require reference to the text. Circled annotations should be made in the margins of the manuscript as to where the figures should be inserted.
Figures should be mounted on thick card, and the back should bear the author's name, manuscript number, figure number and reduction factor. In providing an indication of size, scale bars are preferred, and must be inserted close to the relevant figure. Measurements referring to identifiable parts of the figure (e.g. SL) may be included in the legend. Magnification numbers are not allowed, except in EM photos, but the exact value must be inserted by the author in the final proofs.
Line drawings should be drawn in black ink on high quality tracing paper and lettered with stencil or transfer letters. Guide lines and pencil marks should be removed. Graphs should be plotted on white paper with a graphics plotter or a high quality laser printer (at least 300 dpi). Symbols used on maps should preferably easily available for reproduction in the legend by the typesetter, and includes: lmnpstu=:5HIJ. A symbol should not be used in different sizes to represent different items.
Black and white photographs (glossy format) should have high contrast and show fine detail. All colour transparencies (slides) must be accompanied by a sketched outline or colour print copy that indicates the desired orientation and cropping of the slide.
12. Long manuscripts.
A table of contents should be provided for long manuscripts. This will be placed between the abstract and the introduction. An index of species and genera should be provided in taxonomic papers, if the arrangement of taxa has not been alphabetical, as in a phylogenetic arrangement. This is placed at the end of the manuscript, after Literature Cited.
