Scope
Strombus publishes original scientific articles on all aspects of Malacology: taxonomy, systematics, paleontology, evolution, biogeography, physiology, ecology, behavior, archaeozoology, biomedicine, cultural zoology, etc.
Both original research articles and research notes are accepted. For other types of publications (book reviews, obituaries, etc.), please contact the editorial team.
Guidelines for manuscript preparation
Authors are asked to closely follow the guidelines below to avoid delay in the revision process.
General presentation
Manuscripts should be written in English. If English is not the first language of the author(s), please consider, prior to submission, a revision by a native speaker or a person well-versed in the language. Please note that language editing will not affect the decision on acceptance/rejection of the manuscripts. Both American and British English spellings are accepted, as long as this choice remains constant throughout the whole text.
The manuscript should be submitted as a text document (.doc, .docx, .odt, or .rtf). The text should be justified, with a 12-point font size of a commonly used font (Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, etc.), and line spacing 1.5.
Title: Bold. Authorship of taxa should not appear in the title. When including high-ranking taxa, limit the number to two, separated by a comma, e.g., “Gastropoda, Strombidae”.
Short running head: An abridged version of the title to be used as header. Maximum 50 characters.
Author(s): First and last names should be spelled in full; middle names should be abbreviated. Affiliations should be indicated by numbers in multi-authored papers.
Abstract: Maximum 300 words. Authors are encouraged to also include a translation of the Abstract into one or two additional languages aligned with the topic of the manuscript.
Keywords: Up to five, arranged alphabetically. They should not repeat the title.
Main text: The main text normally consists of Introduction, Material and Methods, Results (or Systematics), Discussion, and Conclusion. The main text should be followed by the Acknowledgements, References, Figure Captions (if any) and Table Captions (if any). Footnotes should be avoided.
Use of hyphens and en-dashes: Hyphens should be used to link compound words and some prefixes. En-dashes (–) should be used to link spans, like size ranges, page numbers, figure numbers, and years.
Voucher material: Authors are required to deposit voucher material in open natural history collections, such as museums, universities and other research institutions. Registration numbers should be provided.
Ethics of animal research: When applicable, the methodology must be in accordance with international, national and/or institutional legislation and regulations for collection and/or ethical treatment of animals. Permits should be noted.
Nomenclature: Nomenclature and nomenclatural acts must be in agreement with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (4th ed., 1999). The names of all genus and species level taxa should be italicized and authorship should be given. For taxa that are the focus of the study, the original description should be listed in the References section.
Species identification: Authors must be explicit on how species were identified, e.g., use of type specimens or other comparative material, specialized literature, consultation with experts.
Taxonomy: Headings of all taxonomic categories in taxonomy papers should be bold and centered. Synonymies should be presented in condensed format, in chronological order of usage. Diagnoses and descriptions must be presented in “telegraphic” taxonomic style, unless regular full sentences are needed for clarity.
Figures: Figures should be indicated in the text as “Fig. 1” and so forth. Figure captions should be placed at the end of the manuscript, after the References. All figures should be submitted as high resolution (minimum 300 dpi) .tiff or jpeg files. All figures must be prepared in a manner ready for publication (i.e., we do not offer figure editing services).
Tables: Tables should be presented as separate Word or Excel documents or equivalent formats. They should be referred to in the text as “Table 1” and so forth. Table captions should be placed at the end of the manuscript, after the References or Figure Captions.
Supplementary material: If necessary, supplementary files should be provided in appropriate format: a single .pdf file including text, tables, and figures; or separate files for large datasets, spreadsheets, videos, etc. They should be mentioned in the main text.
References
References in the text should be presented as: “Smith (2001) said…” or “… (Smith 2001)” or “… (Smith 2000a, 2000b; Brown & Smith 2004; Smith et al. 2010).” Note that contrary to regular references, the authorship of taxa should have a comma separating the author’s name and the year.
The references should be listed alphabetically. Authors’ names should be in bold. Journal (and book) titles should be in italics and spelled out in full. When a book title contains a genus or species name, it should not be italicized. The format for each type of reference is as follows:
- ARTICLE: Gould S.J. & Vrba E.S. (1982) Exaptation: a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology 8(1): 4–15.
- BOOKS: Pilsbry H.A. (1899) Manual of Conchology. Second Series: Pulmonata. Vol. 12. American Bulimulidae: North American and Antillean Drymaeus, Leiostracus, Orthalicinae and Amphibuliminae. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Philadelphia.
- CHAPTERS: Ponder W.F., Colgan D.J., Healy J.M., Nützel A, Simone L.R.L., Strong E.E. (2007) Caenogastropoda. In: Ponder W.F. & Lindberg D.L. (Eds.) Molluscan Phylogeny. University of California Press, Los Angeles. Pp. 331–383.
- WEBSITES: Author. (2012) Title of website. Publisher name. Available from: http://xxx.xxx.xxx/ (Date of access: 02/x/2020).
Note the use of en-dashes for pagination.
Research notes
Short manuscripts (up to four pages of text, with 1.5 spacing) can be submitted as Research Notes. There should be no Abstract or headings. All other regular guidelines apply to Research Notes. References should be cited as in full papers.
Manuscript submission
All manuscripts received will be peer-reviewed before publication. Manuscripts will be taken for revision only if they are not being concomitantly considered for publication elsewhere.
If possible, the corresponding author should indicate up to three referees qualified to review their manuscript. Likewise, any potential referees to be avoided should be indicated, providing a reasonable justification.
Reviewers, normally two per manuscript, will have 30 days to complete their revision. Receipt will be readily acknowledged. Use the button below to submit your manuscript.
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