Author Guidelines
SECTION I - Manuscript preparation
1- Manuscript file formatting
All manuscripts submitted to Sociobiology must be written in English, with clarity and readability in mind. Manuscripts are subject to editing to ensure conformity to editorial standards and journal style.
- Submit manuscript as an MS Word or RTF file with a page size Letter, 8.5 x 11".
- Use continuous line numbering on all pages of your manuscript.
- Type all as double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, and do not right justify text.
- Use the font Times (New) Roman with a size of 12 point.
- Left-justify the title, author line, affiliation lines, subheadings, text, and References Cited.
- Insert tabs, not spaces, for paragraph indents.
- Use italicization only to indicate scientific names (including viruses), symbols or variables, and words that are defined.
- Use quotation marks for quoted material only.
- Use American English spelling throughout and follow Merriam-Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed., for guidance on spelling.
- Number pages consecutively, beginning with the title page.
- Lines in the manuscript must be numbered.
- Begin each of the following on a separate page and arrange in the following order: title page, abstract and key words (three to six words), manuscript text, acknowledgments, references cited, footnotes, tables, figure legends, and figures.
- Type all captions on a separate page and put each figure and table on a separate page.
- Make sure the file size (in Word, Libre Office or TRF format) does not exceed 2MB. This is the maximum upload file size in the OJS setup. If the manuscript is larger than that due to figures of high resolution, leave only figure legends in the manuscript file. Prepare figures in JPG or GIF format with size up to 2MB and upload individual figures as supplementary files. During the upload of supplementary files, in step 4, name the files with titles corresponding to the number of figures in the manuscript text. Check the option "Present supplementary files to reviewers".
- The sequence to correctly upload files in steps 2 (original article) and 4 (supplementary files) of the electronic submission is to choose the file (OJS will access your File Manager program), to click the Upload button, and then click the button "Save and continue". Upload as many supplementary files as needed repeating this sequence. After you are finished with the uploads, click "Save and continue". You will reach stpe 5 "Confirmation". Click the button "Finish Submission".
2- Manuscript Preparation Instructions
2.1- Front page
Justify the complete name and the regular and electronic mail addresses of corresponding author on the upper right of the page.
Center-justify the title using capital initials (except for prepositions and articles).
Scientific names in the title must be followed by the author's name (without the year) and by the order and family names in parentheses.
Author(s) name(s) should be center-justified below the title using small capital letters. Only initials of the first and middle names of authors shall be provided, followed by the family names in full. Names of different authors are separated by commas, without the use of "and' or "&' (Examples: RJ GUPTA; LG SIMONS, F NIELSEN, SB KAZINSKY).
Skip one line and list each authors' affiliation identified by call numbers whenever more than one address is listed.
Skip another line and provide a running title, no longer than 60 characters.
2.2 - Page 2 – Abstract
The abstract must be easy to understand and not require reference to the body of the article. Only very important results must be presented in the abstract; it must not contain any abbreviations or statistical details. Type ABSTRACT followed by a hyphen and the text. The abstract must be one-paragraph long and not exceed 250 words. Skip one line and type Keywords. Type three to five keywords separated by commas, preferably ones not present in the title.
2.3 - Main Text
Introduction - This section of the manuscript must clearly contextualize the research problem and state the scientific hypothesis being tested, as well as the research objectives.
Material and Methods - This section must provide enough information for the research to be replicated. Please include the statistical design and, if necessary, the name of the program used for analysis.
Results and Discussion - This section can be grouped or kept as separate sections. In Results, mean values must be followed by the mean standard error and the number of observations. Use two decimals for mean values and for standard errors. Articles for which Analisys of Variance was performed shall present an ANOVA table containing sources of variation, DF, SS, F statistics and P-value.
Conclusions must be stated at the end of discussion.
Acknowledgments - The text must be concise and contain the recognition to people first, and then institutions and/or sponsors.
References - Under the section title, type the references, in alphabetical order, one per paragraph, with no space between them.
- The authors’ family names are typed first in full, followed by capital initials, followed by period.
- Use a comma to separate the names of authors.
- Add the reference year after the authors' family name, between parentheses.
- Please avoid citations of dissertations, theses, and extension materials. Do not cite monographs, partial research reports, or abstracts of papers presented at scientific meetings.
- Whenever possible type the DOI number at the end of the reference. Most articles published in the 2000's have a DOI number.
Examples of reference style:
Book
Hölldobler, B. & Wilson, E.O. (1990). The Ants. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 732 p
Chapter or article in an edited book
Cushman, J.H. & Addicott, J.F. (1991). Conditional interactions in ant-plant-herbivore mutualisms. In C.R. Huxley & D.F. Cutler (Eds.), Ant-plant interactions (pp. 92-103). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chapter or article in an edited book, online
Author, A. (year). Title of book. [details about the format if available].
Retrieved from web address or DOI Journal article
Bolton, B. (2011). Catalogue of species-group taxa. http://gap.entclub.org/contact.html. (accessed date: 1 March, 2011).
Matsuura, K., Himuro, C., Yokoi, T., Yamamoto, Y., Vargo,
E. L. & Keller, L. (2010). Identification of a pheromone regulating caste differentiation in termites. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 107: 12963-12968. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1004675107
- The issue number should be indicated only if each issue of a journal begins on page 1.
- Capitalise only the first letter of the first word of an article title and subtitle, and any proper nouns.
- Capitalise the first letter of every main word in the journal title.
- Include a digital object identifier (DOI) if provided
Journal article, online
Liu, N., Cheng, D.M., Xu, H.H. & Zhang, Z.X. (2011). Behavioral and Lethal Effects of α-terthienyl on the Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA). Chin. Agri. Sci., 44: 4815-4822. Retrived from: http://211.155.251.135:81/Jwk_zgnykx/EN/Y2011/V44/I23/4815
Group or organisation as author
Organisation Name. (Year). Details of the work as appropriate to a printed or electronic form.
Tables
Tables must be placed separately, one per page, after the References section. Please number tables consecutively with Arabic numbers at the same order they are referred to in the text. Footnotes must have call numbers. Use the word "Table" in full in the text (example: Table 1).
Example of a table title:
Table 1. Frequency of the four types of ovaries within the colonies of Angiopolibia pallens.
Figures
Insert the list of figures after the tables. Use the abbreviation "Fig" in the titles and in the text (such as Fig 3). Figures must be in jpg or gif format, according to the following guidelines:
Use JPEG for photographs and images of realistic scenes
Generally speaking, JPEG is superior to GIF for storing full-color or grey-scale images of "realistic" scenes; that means scanned photographs and similar material. Any continuous variation in color, such as occurs in highlighted or shaded areas, will be represented more faithfully and in less space by JPEG than by GIF.
JPEG has a hard time with very sharp edges: a row of pure-black pixels adjacent to a row of pure-white pixels, for example. Sharp edges tend to come out blurred unless you use a very high quality setting. Edges this sharp are rare in scanned photographs, but are fairly common in graphics files: borders, overlaid text, etc. The blurriness is particularly objectionable with text that's only a few pixels high. If you have a graphics with a lot of small-size overlaid text, don't JPEG it, save it as GIF.
Use GIF for black and white, simple line and text graphics.
GIF is the abbreviation for Graphics Interchange Format. The images saved in this format lose a lot of color information by being reduced to 256 colors (8 bits per pixel). That makes it not such a good format for photographs and large images but ideal for storing graphics with a limited number of colors such as line and bar graphics, simple drawings, logos, text, diagrams, small images or pictures in greyscale.
Use original or high resolution figures (with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi). Whenever possible, graphs shall be prepared in MS Excell or a similar/compatible open source program.
Example of a figure title:
Fig 1. Nest of Angiopolibia pallens. A – General view of a nest. B – The combs suspended from those above by pedicels. The large arrow indicates the main pedicel, the small one indicates an auxiliary pedicel.
3- In-text Citations
Scientific names
Write the scientific names in full, followed by the author's family name, when they are first mentioned in the Abstract and in the body of the text, e.g.: Polistes canadensis (L.). Use the abbreviated generic name (e.g.: P. canadensis) in the rest of the manuscript, except in tables and figures, where the species name shall be typed in full.
One author
When you refer to a single author, include the author's family name and year of publication, using one of the forms shown here.
Ginsberg (2005) argues that local diversity of bees is driven by species selection from a regional diversity pool. or
Local diversity of bees is driven by species selection from a regional diversity pool (Ginsberg, 2005).
Multiple authors
For two authors, include the family names of both authors and year.
According to Smith and Velasquez (2009) chaparrals are a source of endemism for ants in the Venezuelan Andes. or
Chaparrals are a source of endemism for ants in the Venezuelan Andes (Smith & Velazquez, 2009).
Use 'and' when family names are outside parentheses; use '&' when family names are inside parentheses.
In the case of three or more authors, cite first authors’ family name, plus 'et al.' and the year.
Multiple references
If more than one reference has to be cited, follow the chronological order of publication, separated with semicolons (for example: Xia & Liu, 1998; Saravanah, 2003; Balestreri, 2006; Ustachenko et al., 2010). Use 'and' when family names are outside parentheses; use '&' when family names are inside parentheses.
Secondary source
Some citations refer to one author (secondary) who cites another (primary).
Yamamoto (as cited in Harvey, 2010) disagrees with the taxonomic review of the genus Camponotus presented by Gold (2008).
Note: The entry in the reference list is under Harvey.
Article or chapter in an edited book
If a chapter or article written by a contributor author to an edited book has to be cited, acknowledge the author of the chapter or article. This author is cited in text (that is, in the body of the paper) in the same way as for one or more authors.
Group or organisation as author
Whenever the author is a government agency, association, corporate body or the like, which has a familiar or easily understandable acronym, it is cited as follows:
The reduction of industry polluting particles in Cleveland resulted in the increase of bee species richness in park areas in the 1990’s (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2006).
Note: The entry in the reference list is under Environmental Protection Agency.
Personal communication
Personal communications are understood as letters, e-mails, personal interviews, telephone conversations and the like. They must be in text only and are not included in a reference list.
J. Ahmed (personal communication, May 11, 2010) indicated …
… (L. Stainer, Senior Researcher, Social Insects Study Centre, personal communication, June 4, 2009)
4 - Scientific Notes
Manuscripts that report new geographic occurrences, trophic interactions or new methods for the study of social insects can be submitted. But records of species or host associations to new localities in geographical regions that they are already known are no longer accepted for publication. Records of species or associations known to a geographical region may be considered only if including new ecological zones.
Distribution records must not be based on political borders, but on ecosystems.
Manuscript requirements are the same as for scientific articles. However, Introduction, Material and Methods, and Results and Discussion are written without subtitles. The abstract must have up to 100 words and the text no longer than 1,000 words. Figures or tables can be included if highly necessary, but not exceed the limit of two figures or tables per note.
5- Reviews
Extensive interpretative or evaluative articles on current topics related to the biology of social insects, can be published upon invitation by the Associate Editors. The Editorial Board is not responsible for the opinions expressed in reviews.
SECTION II - Important reminders on submission process
6 - Fill in Metadata Forms
It is important to fill in all metadata forms with an asterisc (mandatory fields) during the five steps of the submission process. Addicionally, please include metadata on all authors that appear in the manuscript. The first field that appears can be filled in with submitter metadata, and by clicking the button "Add author" new forms will appear for us much authors as needed. Author metadata is important for abstractinc and indexing purposes. Rememeber that in modern days indexing agencies have online data harvesters. Any omission or lack of accuracy in authors, disciplines and keywords metadata can affect the visibility of authors work.
7 - List of Potential reviewers
Put together a list of four potential referees (with a PhD or Doctor of Science degree) that you will inform in the text box "Comments to the Editor" during the submission process. In the list you must provide the complete name, Institutional Afiliation, Country, e-mail address and three key words that best decribe the area of expertise of each potential referee. At least two referees must be from countries different from the author's country of origin.
8 - Journal Access
Accepted manuscripts will be published free of charges and fees, reprints will not be provided. The authors and the general public will have full online access to PDF files of all published articles.
Further Information:
Gilberto Marcos de Mendonça Santos
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana
Av. Transnordestina s/n Novo Horizonte
Feira de Santana – BA Brazil
44036-900
E-mail: sociobiology.gmms@uefs.br
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided on Comments to the Editor).
- The file is in Microsoft Word, LibreOffice or RTF document file format.
- URLs and/or DOI numbers for the cited references are provided in the "References" section whenever possible. THE ABSENCE OF DOIs CAN RESULT IN IMMEDIATE REJECTION OF SUBMISSION.
- Tables and pictures are inserted at the end of the Microsoft Word, LibreOffice or RTF file. Furthermore, pictures for definitive editing are prepared in separate .jpg or .gif files with at least 300 dpi resolution.
- All in-tex citations have their corresponding references listed in the reference section. References are in accordance with Author's Guidelines. REFERENCES OUT OF REQUIRED FORMAT CAN RESULT IN IMMEDIATE REJECTION OF SUBMISSIONS.
- You have put together a list of four potential referees (with a PhD or Doctor of Science degree) that you will inform in the text box "Comments to the Editor". In the list you have the complete name, Institutional Afiliation, Country, e-mail address and three key words that best decribe the area of expertise of each potential referee. At least two referees must be from countries different from the author's country of origin.
Copyright Notice
Sociobiology is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Privacy Statement
Names and adresses informed in this journal will be used solely for the purpose of managing submissions, and will not be available to third parties.
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