Animal Biology IfA

Animal Biology

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Instructions for Authors

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Scope

Animal Biology (AB) publishes high quality papers and focuses on integration of the various disciplines

within the broad field of zoology. These disciplines include behaviour, developmental biology, ecology,

endocrinology, evolutionary biology, genomics, morphology, neurobiology, physiology, systematics and

theoretical biology. Purely descriptive papers will not be considered for publication. Animal Biology is

the official journal of the Royal Dutch Zoological Society since its foundation in 1872. The journal was

initially called Archives Néerlandaises de Zoologie, which was changed in 1952 to the Netherlands Journal

of Zoology, the current name was established in 2003.

Ethical and Legal Conditions

The publication of a manuscript in a peer-reviewed work is expected to follow standards of ethical

behaviour for all parties involved in the act of publishing: authors, editors, and reviewers. Authors,

editors, and reviewers should thoroughly acquaint themselves with Brill’s publication ethics, which may

be downloaded here: brill.com/page/ethics/publication-ethics-cope-compliance.

Animal Ethics

Submission of a manuscript implies that any experimental research that is reported has been performed

with the approval of the ethics committee of the institution where the work was carried out. Research

carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and any experimental

research on animals must follow national legislation and internationally recognized guidelines. A

statement to this effect must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript, including the name of

the body which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Manuscripts will be

returned to the author without review if the editorial office considers that the research has not been

carried out within an ethical framework.

Online Submission

Authors should submit their manuscript online via the Editorial Manager (EM) online submission

system at: editorialmanager.com/ab.

First-time users of EM need to register first. Go to the website and click on the "Register Now" link in the

password. If you should forget your Username and Password, click on the "send login details" link in the

codes will then be e-mailed to you.

Prior to submission, authors are strongly encouraged to read the “Instructions for Authors.” When

submitting via the website, you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the

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Instructions for Authors

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various files. A revised document is uploaded the same way as the initial submission. The system

automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing purposes. All

correspondence, including the editor’s request for revision and final decision, is sent by e-mail.

The general process of online submission is explained in the “Author's Manual,” which is available online.

In brief, during the online submission you should be prepared to enter the following information:

− Article Type (Original article/Review)

− Title

− Authors (First names, initials of middle names and last names - in that order - of all authors)

− Abstract (max. 250 words); Keywords (in alphabetical order, max. 6)

− Additional Information:

o Confirm that the manuscript was checked by a qualified native English speaker

o Confirm that the article conforms to the journal’s style guide and instructions

o Indicate whether your manuscript includes colour figures

o Indicate whether you have an image available for consideration as journal cover

− Comments (this can also be uploaded as a cover letter file). Here you can also indicate whether

you want to share the link of your manuscript’s evaluations in Peerage of Science

(peerageofscience.org).

− Suggest Reviewers (min. 2)

− Oppose Reviewers (optional)

− Attach Files (Manuscript, Cover letter, Table, Figure, Supplementary material, Suggested cover

image)

Contact Address

Editorial inquiries, proposals and suggested special issue topics should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr.

Martijn Egas: [email protected]. For questions about the Editorial Manager system, authors

can also contact the Brill EM Support Department at: [email protected].

Submission Requirements

Language

Contributions to Animal Biology should be written in English. Spelling (British or American) should be

consistent throughout. The journal office does not offer extensive English-language editing services. If

authors are unsure of correct English usage, they are responsible for getting their manuscript proofread -

prior to submission - by a person proficient in English. Manuscripts in which English grammar and/or

style are difficult to understand will be returned to the author for revision before scientific review.

Length

Contributions should, as a rule, not exceed 12 printed pages (ca. 20 double-spaced manuscript pages

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with standard typeface), including figures and tables. Longer papers are sometimes allowed but only if

extra space is offered by the Editor-in-Chief.

Manuscript Requirements

General

Manuscripts submitted for publication should be typewritten, using a standard Roman font, with double

spacing and broad margins. The pages and lines must be numbered continuous, starting on the title page.

The title page should contain: full title, name(s) of author(s) (first name fully written, only using capitals

for the first letter), name(s) and address(es) of the institute(s) where the study was carried out. Author

names should be separated by commas and between the last two names by ‘&’ (ampersand symbol);

references to the authors’ institutes and addresses (if more than one) should be indicated with

superscripted numbers next to the authors as well as preceding the institute’s name in ascending order.

The institutes where the work has been done should be indicated under the authors, first letters of major

words in capitals. Please make sure that the full contact details of the corresponding authors (name,

postal address and e-mail address) to whom decisions, proofs and a PDF file of the paper should be

directed are included, and mark the corresponding author with an asterisk (*). E.g., John Smith

1,*

and

John R. Doe;

1, 2

Centre for Zoological Science,

Institute for Integrative Biology.

Authors are strongly encouraged to consult a recent issue of Animal Biology to familiarize themselves

with style and lay-out of the journal. A summary of style requirements follows below.

Title

Only use a capital letter for the first letter of the title and any words, such as genus and family names,

that require a capital.

Abstract and Keywords

Manuscripts should be preceded by an abstract containing a summary of the aims, the results in words

(please avoid using numbers and values) and the conclusions of the study. The abstract should not

exceed 250 words, and should be followed by a list of keywords (alphabetically ordered, max. 6),

separated by semicolons.

Headings

Main section headings should be in bold (Abstract, Introduction, Material and methods, Results,

Discussion, Acknowledgements, References or other variants, if appropriate). Use capitals only for the

first letter of the heading and first letters of proper names, separated by white lines from text.

Subheadings are in italic type, aligned left, with capitals only for the first letter of the subheading and

first letters of proper names, followed by an empty line.

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Sub-subheadings should be indented and in italic type, with capitals only for first letter of the sub-

subheading and first letters of proper names, followed by a period and the text on the same line.

Headings should not be numbered in any way.

Statistics

Means should be reported with their standard errors/standard deviations (and medians and

interquartile ranges/confidence limits) and their associated sample sizes. Give full details of statistical

analysis either in the text or in tables or figure legends. This information should include the type of test,

the data to which it was applied, the value of the relevant statistic, the sample size and/or degrees of

freedom, and the probability level (use italics for F, P, N and other variables). For example:

ANOVA: F

2,22

= 8.79, P = 0.012 (note the two degrees of freedom in the subscript to F)

Paired t test: t

= 1.89, P = 0.06 (note the degrees of freedom are here in the subscript)

Chi-square test: X

= 0.20, N = 12, P = 0.92

Spearman rank correlation: r

= 0.97, N = 25, P < 0.001

Mann-Whitney U test: U = 95, N = 27, P < 0.05

Post hoc significance should preferably be indicated with small letters a, b, c, etc.

Italics

The use of italics other than in scientific names, (sub) headings, and variables, as well as spacing of text

and phrases, should be avoided.

Figures and Tables

Do not represent results both in a figure and a table. Instead, choose the most effective way for

displaying your data. The words “figure, fig., figs., table, tables” should be put in the text in lower case,

except at the beginning of a sentence and at the beginning of a legend or heading. They should be

numbered in the order as they appear in the text.

Tables

Tables must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. They should carry a heading line above the

table and a legend text below the table briefly stating the nature of the facts assembled. Abbreviations

and/or symbols included in the table need to be listed below the table in alphabetical order, separated

by semi-colons (e.g., “Abbreviations and symbols: Ap, appendix; No, number; arrow, lumen; *, P < 0.05”).

Each table must be on a separate manuscript page.

Figures

Figure files must be submitted separately, as figure files (.tif, .jpeg, etc.) and not as word files. If submitted

as word files, the submission will be returned to the author for correction.

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Authors are responsible for taking care of reproduction fees, if any, see point 6 of the legal conditions

listed above.

Full-colour figures are accepted and can be included in the digital version of the final paper. There is no

charge for full colour images or figures in either the print or electronic edition. Upon acceptance of the

paper, authors are encouraged to submit a high-quality photograph of the animal(s) on which the work

was conducted, for consideration as a cover image for the issue.

Figures should be uploaded as separate source files as .jpeg, or .tif (not .pdf). Figures must be numbered

consecutively in Arabic numerals in the order as they appear in the text. When a figure has several parts

or panels, these should be labelled with capital letters A, B, C, etc. (small letters a, b, c, etc. are reserved

for indicating significant differences, see above).

Figures must be in final form for printing. Small figures should be apt for reproduction at 6 cm width.

Figures needing a large size should not exceed a width of 11.5 cm, or a length of 18 cm; enough space

should be left below each figure for the caption. Lines, lettering and symbols should be suitable for the

required reduction. Lettering and labels should be in Arial font.

The quality of the figure must be suitable for printing - the resolution should be a minimum of 300 dpi

and minimally 600 dpi for line art. The image itself must be sharp, and any text in the figure should be

legible (at least font size 8 or larger when printed in its final size, see dimensions above).

Figure captions should be added on a separate sheet at the end of the main text. Abbreviations and/or

symbols included in the figure need to be listed alphabetically, separated by semi-colons (e.g.,

“Abbreviations and symbols: Ap, appendix; No, number; arrow, lumen; *, P < 0.05”).

Footnotes

Footnotes and abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible.

Supplementary Material /Data Files

To support and enhance your manuscript, Animal Biology accepts electronic supplementary material,

including supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound or video clips,

large appendices, data tables and other items that cannot be included in the article PDF itself. Authors

should submit the material in electronic format together with the other manuscript files and supply a

concise and descriptive caption for each file. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly

usable, please provide the data in one of the broadly accepted file formats for video, audio, etc. and limit

the file size (e.g., for video: max. 3 GB). Supplementary files supplied will be published online at FigShare

(www.figshare.com), to which reference is made in the published article on Brill Online Books and

Journals, and vice versa.

For these text files, text should be preceded by a centred title header including the following on separate

lines:

- Animal Biology (Times New Roman, italics, 9 pt)

- Article title (Times New Roman, bold, 14 pt)

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- First name + initial + family name of each author, with several authors separated by commas and the

last one preceded by “and” (Times New Roman, bold, 10 pt) The heading "Supplementary material"

(right-aligned, Times New Roman, bold, 12 pt) should then be followed by the supplementary text, tables

and figures. Main text should be single spaced, concise, justified-aligned, in font type Times New Roman

at size 12 pt. The supplementary file should be submitted in DOC(X) format and will be published online

in PDF format.

Text Citations

References in the text should be cited in chronological order and in the following form: White & Kinney

(1974) or (Kinney, 1974; White & Kinney, 1974). Where there are more than two authors, only the first

should be named, followed by et al. (not in italics): Doe et al. (2011) or (Doe et al., 2011). A comma must

be inserted between author and year, or between et al. and year, unless the year is between parenthesis;

references should be separated by semicolons. Both the introduction and discussion must include an

adequate number of citations for effective arguments to be established.

References

In the list, references should be listed in alphabetical, and then chronological order, under the first

author’s name and should only include publications cited in the text. Journal names must be abbreviated

according to their official abbreviation and should be in italics. No space must be inserted between the

initials of the first names. No empty lines must be inserted between references. The year of publication

should be between parentheses. Volume numbers are not written in bold (and issue numbers of a

volume should not be included). The two last authors or editors in a citation are separated by “&”.

Abstracts of conferences should not be listed in the reference list, but cited in the text as unpublished

data, personal observation or personal communication.

References must be typed in the following order and form, respectively:

Anderson, 2002

Anderson, 2003

Anderson & Bateman, 2002

Anderson, Bateman & Jones, 2001

Reference List

Journal Articles

Please list the doi number whenever possible.

Ketterson, E.D., Nolan, V., Wolf, L. & Ziegenfus, C. (1992) Testosterone and avian life histories - Effects of

experimentally elevated testosterone on behavior and correlates of fitness in the dark-eyed Junco

(Junco hyemalis). Am. Nat., 140, 980-999.

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Book

Hill, R.W., Wyse, G.A. & Anderson, M. (2008) Animal Physiology. Second Edition. Sinauer Associates,

Sunderland.

Chapter in a Book

Brown, J.H. (1975) Geographical Ecology of Desert Rodents. In: M.L. Cody & J.M. Diamond (Eds) Ecology

and Evolution of Communities, pp. 315-341. Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.

Web References

If unavoidable, references to websites can be used. In that case, the full URL as well as the date when last

accessed should be given. If available, further information should also be given (e.g., DOI, author names,

dates, reference to a source publication, etc.). Web references can be listed within the reference list.

Data Repositories

When it is not possible to publish a data set as a supplementary file, Animal Biology encourages authors

to deposit the data set on which the results are based in a publicly-accessible data repository (examples

are: DRYAD, GenBank, UniProt; and model organism databases such as FlyBase, Wormbase, etc.). This

section is only when a data set is available in a repository and the text should then include: 1. the name of

the repository; 2. the permanent identifier, accession number and/or persistent hyperlink for the data

set. The following phrasing is recommended:

"The data set supporting the results of this article can be found in the [name of the repository] repository

under permanent identifier [permanent identifier, accession number and/or persistent hyperlink for the

data set]."

Publication

Proofs

Upon acceptance, a PDF of the article proofs will be sent to authors by e-mail to check carefully for

factual and typographic errors. Authors are responsible for checking these proofs and are strongly urged

to make use of the Comment & Markup toolbar in a PDF editor to note their corrections directly on the

proofs. At this stage in the production process only minor corrections are allowed. Alterations to the

original manuscript at this stage will result in considerable delay in publication and, therefore, are not

accepted unless charged to the author. Proofs must be corrected without delay and returned to the

Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Martijn Egas: [email protected].

Page Charges

The Journal has no page charges.

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E-Offprints

A PDF file of the article will be supplied free of charge by the publisher to authors for personal use. Brill

is a RoMEO yellow publisher. The Author retains the right to self-archive the submitted (pre-peer-review)

version of the article at any time. The submitted version of an article is the author's version that has not

been peer-reviewed, nor had any value added to it by Brill (such as formatting or copy editing). The

Author retains the right to self-archive the accepted (peer-reviewed) version without any embargo

period. The accepted version means the version which has been accepted for publication and contains

all revisions made after peer reviewing and copy editing, but has not yet been typeset in the publisher’s

lay-out. The publisher’s lay-out must not be used in any repository or on any website

(brill.com/resources/authors/publishing-books-brill/self-archiving-rights).

Consent to Publish

Transfer of Copyright

By submitting a manuscript, the author agrees that the copyright for the article is transferred to the

publisher if and when the article is accepted for publication. For that purpose the author needs to sign

the Consent to Publish which will be sent with the first proofs of the manuscript. The signed form

should be sent to the journal manager.

Open Access

Should the author wish to publish the article in Open Access he/she can choose the Brill Open option.

This allows for non-exclusive Open Access publication under a Creative Commons license in exchange

for an Article Publication Charge (APC), upon signing a special Brill Open Consent to Publish Form.

More information on Brill Open can be found on brill.com/brillopen.