Submission Guidelines

The Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences accepts papers in the areas of systematics, taxonomy, evolution, biogeography, and ecology. Certain specialized historical reviews are also considered. After preliminary review by the Managing Editor, papers will be sent to peer reviewers.

(This information may also apply to the occasional serials of the Academy: Monographs, Special Publications and Notulae Naturae. Contact the Managing Editor regarding submissions to these series.)

What to Submit

Electronic files of the manuscript and all illustrations must be submitted to the editor via email attachment or FTP site. Paper copies are not needed. The manuscript file must be arranged in the following order: abstract, full text, acknowledgements, literature cited, figure legends. Table and figures should be submitted in separate files. For screening and review purposes submit illustrations as jpg (jpeg) or tif or PDF format files; images may be 300 dpi at the intended publication size. Higher resolution image files will be requested for manuscripts accepted for publication. Also include the names and contact information, email addresses preferred, of three potential peer reviewers. Manuscripts that do not comply with the specifications listed here and below will be returned to the author.

Format

Manuscripts must be in English; multi-lingual abstracts are permitted when necessary.

Manuscripts must be double-spaced, in any clear printing font. Leave adequate margins of at least 1 inch, or 3.5 cm, on all sides. If “A4” or another paper size not standard in the U.S.A. is used, leave at least 2 inches (or 5 cm) of space at the bottom of each page. (Standard USA size is 8.5 x 11 inches.) All pages are to be numbered staring with the first page. Manuscripts are to be formatted as follows:

  • Title of manuscript.
  • Names of authors: first name, middle initial(s), last name. Mailing address and email (optional) for each author. In the case of multiple authors from the same institution include address under each author’s name. In the case of multiple affiliations for a single author include both affiliations on separate lines.

Department of Ichthyology, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, Drexel University, 3201 Arch Street, Suite 240, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

E-mail:author@drexel.edu

  • Abstract. The abstract must present a concise summary of the main facts, ideas, and conclusions of the paper. Literature citations are not permitted.
  • Key Words. Key Words are optional and are limited to a maximum of six and must not appear in the title.
  • Body of the text. The text should be divided into the primary sections with the following headings: INTRODUCTION, MATERIAL AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, and LITERATURE CITED followed by a list of figure captions. Primary section headers are to begin on a new line, centered on the page in all caps and regular font. Text following the primary section heads begins on a new line, is left justified and is indented. Papers that include taxonomic accounts, such as new species descriptions and taxonomic reviews, may use the following presentation in the RESULTS section:

 

  1. Taxonomic name in bold font, figure and table appearances of the new name. All centered. Note that it is acceptable to designate a subset of taxon-name authors from the authors of the manuscript. 

    Genus species (author(s), year)

    Figure(s) x-x, Table(s) x-x

     

  2. Type material, holotype, paratype(s), non-type material. Note that all text after the taxonomic name is left justified and indented with a hard return between each new section.

     Holotype.— ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date.

    Paratype.— ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date.

    Non-type material.— ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date. ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date. ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date. ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date. ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date. ANSP 0000, XX mm SL; locality; collector, date.

  3. Diagnosis
  4. Description
  5. Supplementary notes such as coloration, ecology, distribution, comparisons, etc. as appropriate.
  6. Etymology

 

  • Acknowledgments. Identify individuals by first initial and full surname and do not list professional titles. Institutional affiliation may be provided where acknowledging institutional (rather than personal) support. Collecting permits, Institutional Animal Care protocols, accession numbers for molecular data and voucher specimens (if not listed elsewhere) must be cited in Acknowledgments. 

 

  • Literature Cited. All journal and book titles must be spelled out in full. No journal-title abbreviations are allowed. For bibliographical style, follow the following formats. Note that italics are used only for scientific names and to indicate individually authored papers in a longer, edited volume.

Amossé, A. 1941. Diatomées du Sahara septentrional et central. Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Afrique du Nord 32: 126-152.

Håkansson, H. 1990. A comparison of Cyclotella krammeri sp. nov. and C. schumannii Håkansson stat. nov. with similar species. Diatom Research 5: 261-271.

Klee, R., S. Schiefele, and E. Hert. 1990. Planktische und benthische Diatomeen des Malawi Sees. In: Ricard, M. (ed.). Ouvrage dédié à la mémoire du Professeur Henry Germain (1903-1989). Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, pp. 125-137.

Loginova, L. P., and G. K. Khursevich. 1990. Iskopaemaya diatomovaya flora Ozera Baikal. In: Novye predstaviteli iskopaemoi fauny i flory Belorussii i drugikh rayonov SSSR. Nauka i Tekhnika, Minsk, pp. 146-174. [In Russian.]

Sherman, John W. 1976. Post-Pleistocene diatom assemblages in New England lake sediments. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Delaware, 312 pp.

Stoermer, E. F., and M. L. Tuchman. 1979. Phytoplankton assemblages of the nearshore zone of southern Lake Michigan. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office, report EPA-905/3-79-001, 89 pp.

Follow these formats when citing references in the text:

Amossé (1941)

Klee et al. (1990)

Stoermer and Tuchman (1979)

(Amossé, 1941; Klee et al., 1990; and Stoermer and Tuchman, 1979)

Use “et al.” when the reference has three or more authors.

Figures

Figures must be submitted as jpg (jpeg), tif or PDF format files; images may be 300 dpi at the intended publication size. In cases where several images are grouped together in a single figure they must be arranged as one unit and fit within the dimensions of a single page, and each lettered with an uppercase 14pt  block letter (A, B, C, etc) in the upper left corner of each element. In cases where a figure would benefit from spanning facing pages, exceptions can be made with approval from the Production Editor. All text on figures will be Helvetica font. A font size of 10pt is recommended for labels on figures and should be no smaller than 6 pt.

While low resolution files will be accepted for initial submission and review, we require high resolution digital files for publication. When creating figures we recommend putting image, labeling lines and text elements on separate layers so that edits to figures can be made more easily. Halftone files (color, grayscale, or black and white images prepared with software such as Adobe Photoshop) are to be submitted in TIF format with a resolution of 600 dpi with layers expanded. While files as low as 300 dpi will be accepted, these images will not print at the best quality. Vector or line drawings (maps, cladograms, graphs or other files prepared with software such as Adobe Illustrator) can be submitted as TIF files or Adobe Illustrator files (with all imported images embedded in the file). If submitting as a TIF file, vector images must be at least 600 dpi with a resolution of 1200 dpi preferred.

Figures will be published at either single column width (7.4 cm, 2.9 in) or full page width (15.24 cm, 6 in) with a maximum height of 20 cm, 7.87 in. For figures that extend to maximum height, figure captions will appear on the facing page.

Tables

Do not incorporate tables into the text of the manuscript. Each table must be submitted as a separate file and numbered consecutively as they appear in the text. When citing tables in the text follow the format “(Table 1).” Table headers must be in 8 pt font and all other text must be no larger than 9 pt (preferred) and no smaller than 6 pt.

Table dimensions will be edited to fit page dimensions of 6 x 7.875 inches (15.24 x 20 cm) for final publication and can be oriented vertically or horizontally on the page.

Types and Nomenclatures

Type specimens for new taxa must be deposited in a recognized repository prior to publication. Data to this effect must be included in the text. All pertinent articles of the most recent editions of the respective international codes of zoological or botanical nomenclature will be followed. All new zoological names must be registered with ZooBank (www.zoobank.org) and LSID indentifiers must be provided to the editors before publication. For Algae, names should be registered with Algaebase (www.algaebase.org).

Accepted Papers

The final, revised version of manuscripts accepted for publication must be submitted in an electronic format. Specifications will be communicated to the author upon acceptance of a paper for publication. Page charges in the amount of $40.00 per printed page and $40 per color figure will be assessed to the author submitting the manuscript.

The final format of text and illustration layout will be edited to conform to Proceedings style.

Authors will receive page proof, and may also be queried by the editor during the initial stages of editing. Significant alterations made after page proof is received from the printer will be charged to the author and may result in postponing the publication of the paper. All offprints and copies of the completed whole publication are ordered at the author's expense.