SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS FOR micropaleontology

GENERAL POLICIES

We publish research of regional or international significance on the systematics, biology, evolution, distribution and ecology of microfossils and their living representatives, with applications in paleoclimatology, paleoceanography and biostratigraphy.

Articles as well as theme issues, monographs, and special papers dealing with research questions are published after anonymous peer review. Short notes on preparation techniques, taxonomic notes and other professional information are accepted, as well as book reviews and memorials. We also donate space for noncommercial announcements.

Authors are not required to pay page or plate charges, and there is no fixed limit on number of pages or plates. Authors may be asked to contribute towards the cost of special features such as color printing and fold-out pages. Each author and co-author is entitled to a high quality PDF of their published article, for unrestricted distribution, and a printed copy of the issue in which their work is published.

Terms and requirements: By the act of approving the corrected page proof in the final form of the manuscript, the author(s) agree to grant to The Micropaleontology Project, Inc., the copyright to their work in the submitted form, including the right to grant reproduction in that form to third parties. All other rights are retained by authors.

PREPARATION AND SUBMITTAL OF MANUSCRIPT

Please review the main points of Micropaleontology requirements before submitting manuscript. The digital files should be uploaded to Micro Man, the Micropress Manuscript Manager. Detailed instructions and suggestions are found below.

Pre-review: Authors should obtain pre-submittal comments on their work from at least two colleagues of their choice. Pre-review forms are available for the authors' convenience. The names and email addresses of pre-reviewers are required with submittal. Note that the objective of pre-review is not to obtain an endorsement, but to improve the paper before submittal.

Text format: Text documents (including captions and references) must be formatted double spaced in any 10 to 12 point standard font face. NOTE: submittals are manuscripts, not publications! Typographical refinements (other than italics and boldface) are not appropriate, and must be removed by the editor before the paper can be prepared for publication. In particular, the right margin of text should be unjustified, and there should be no forced hyphens or other adjustments for the sake of appearance. Complex mathematical statements and other expressions using special characters or diagrammatic notation should be submitted separately as graphics, for insertion in the text.

Subject heads: No more than three levels of subject heads should be used. The top level must be written in ALL CAPITALS ROMAN BOLD FACE,, the second level in lower case Roman bold face, and the third level in lower case italic bold face.. Only proper nouns should be capitalized in second and third level heads, and all subject heads must be on a separate line without a following period or other punctuation (except for query? and exclamation point!). Paragraph titles in lower case italics may be placed at the beginning of a paragraph, followed by a period or colon, but only where the paragraphs are in a list. Quoted text, if extensive, should be indented.

Illustrations: Photographic and other shaded images should be prepared in grey-scale TIF or JPG format at 300 to 360 dpi. Line art (diagrams, tables, maps) should be in black and white TIF or JPG format at 1000 to 1200 dpi. Proprietary file formats such as IMG, BMP, AI, PSD, etc. will not be accepted. Reduced-size copies (less than 100Kb each) should be used in the first submittal to make reviews easier to manage, but full size images will be required for publication.

Captions and explanations should be confined to separate text captions as far as possible, and not be placed within a figure. Any "sideways" text on tables and diagrams should be placed to run upwards, with the left down, so that the words will be right side up when the page is rotated clockwise.

Document identification: We strongly recommend that all documents be given a characteristic name, i.e., "Jones.doc." and "Jones_fig_1.TIF", not just "Manuscript.doc" or "fig_1.TIF".

Author name and address: Each author's name should be written out in full. Chinese names may be written according to custom with family name first. The address of each author should not be more than is necessary for postal delivery; full organizational address is not required.

English correction: Authors whose English is not fluent are strongly advised to ask for advice from a colleague. Papers whose English is a problem for reviewers will be returned for improvement. As far as possible, however, the quality of English will not be considered in judging a paper, and the wording of accepted papers will be the responsibiliy of the editors.

Size estimation: A full page of text in Micropaleontology will contain approximately 1,000 words, or 5,200 characters including spaces; this is approximately 3 to 4 typescript pages, depending on author's font and spacing. The captions to plates and figures take up more area, equivalent to 600 words per full page. Full-page plates and figures should be prepared with an aspect ratio of 0.74 width to height, for a final size to fit inside an area of 7 x 9.5 in 177 x 235 mm). Half-column graphics will fit a width of 3.25 in (85mm).

Figure numbers and superimposed arrows, labels, and other emphasis should be inserted on plates and figures by the author no smaller than 8 point at published scale. No caption should appear on the plate.

STYLE

We recommend that authors consult recent issues for all questions of style.

Grammatical usage: We do not dictate planktic vs planktonic, benthic vs benthonic, stratigraphic vs stratigraphical, or other choices where there is ample precedence for either one. The use of conjunctions (and, but, then, however, therefore, nonetheless) to begin sentences is deplorable. Periods and commas are not placed inside a quotation or parenthesis, if they are not an original part of the phrase. Fowler's English Usage is a good general source for word usage, punctuation and other such matters. For scientific writing questions, we recommend Suggestions to authors of the United States Geological Survey.

Title: Titles should be brief, identifying the purpose of the paper without extra words. Detailed location, sample and well numbers, and other specific information may be of interest to the author, but such data are usually not the subject of the paper. For the benefit of searches and indexes, include as many keywords as possible -- in particular, the name or adjective identifying the taxonomic group(s) under discussion.

Abstract: The abstract must summarize the problem and conclusions. A mere description of the contents is not acceptable.

Taxonomic citations: In the body of the paper, we ask that all taxonomic names, when they are first mentioned, are given in full, with author and date. (Names used solely as descriptors, as in biozones or biofacies, are exempt). In papers that do not have a systematics section or list, it is desirable that this first citation should include the original combination for a reassigned taxon, as follows: Aus cus (Jones) (=Aus bus, 1900).

Reference citations: Citations in the text refer to the author (last name only, NOT all caps) and date of the reference in question, with page or plate number added if necessary, as follows:

"We refer to papers by Author (2005; 2006) and Author et al. (2007)."

"We agree with other workers (Author 2005; 2006; Author et al. 2006)."

"We note a statement by Author (2005, p. 101).

The term "et al." should be used only in place of three or more (not two or more) author names. "Et al." stands for the authors included, and no others; two papers by "Author et al." cannot be treated as repetitive unless all authors are the same.

Footnotes are not permitted. Formatted characters such as superscript, italics and bold face should be executed, not merely indicated.

Abbreviations: The abbreviations of units of measurement are considered to be symbols, not words, and thus do not use periods (km, cm, mm, µm, nm, mi, ft, in, kg, g, lb, oz, myr, kyr, yr, mo, hr, sec). These symbols are not separated by a space from the numerical values (e.g., 753km; 25µm). Periods are omitted as well from abbreviations of the more common titles (Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms, Sr, Jr, PhD) and the letters in acronyms. All acronyms except the most common (such as USA, UK, USGS, NY, DSDP, etc.) should be followed by an explanation in parenthesis when introduced, e.g., UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). The geochronometric expressions Ma (million years before present) and ka (thousand years before present) are treated as phrases. They are not interchangeable with the symbols representing simple quantities of time (Myr, kyr, and so on). The commonly abbreviated latinisms (etc., et al., viz., e.g., s.s.) are not italicized. On the other hand the words ex and et by themselves are italicized, as is vs for versus, which by convention is italicized without a period.

Synonymies: These do not need to be complete histories of a combination, but ideally should cover the significant citations. The example below is adapted from W. Kiessling's (1999) Late Jurassic radiolarians from the Antarctic Peninsula, Micropaleontology, v. 45, supplement 1, p. 46. Citations in synonymy need not be included in the list of rereferences. The taxon under discussion is shown in boldface italics.

Genus Perispyridium Dumitrica 1978
Type species: Trilonche ordinaria Pessagno 1977a.

Range and occurrence: Middle Jurassic to late Jurassic, early late Tithonian. Worldwide in all known provinces.

Perispyridium ordinarium (Pessagno)
Plate 10, figs. 9. 10.

Trilonche ordinaria (?) PESSAGNO 1977a, p. 79, pl. 6, fig. 14
Trilonche ordinaria Pessagno - WAKITA 1982, pl. 6, fig. 9
Perispyridium ordinarium (Pessagno) group - BAUMGARTNER et al., 1995a, p. 418, pl. 3100, figs. 1-6 (with complete synonymy).

Curatorial information: The field location of type material, and preferably that of all described specimens, must be given as exactly as possible. A good rule of thumb is to describe a locality well enough for later workers to be able to duplicate the sample. Wherever possible, specimens should be tied to individual sample localities on a map, or to individual sample levels in sections and cores. The depository and catalogue identification of all described material is required.

Taxonomic rules: ICZN is used for heterotropic protozoans such as foraminifera, radiolaria, and tintinnids. ICBN applies to the "algal" (i.e. chloroplast-bearing) protists including diatoms, coccoliths, silicoflagellates, ebridians, prasinophytes, acritarchs, and dinoflagellates. Botanical rules of taxonomy also apply to Bacteria.

References: Cited works are listed alphabetically by author name (in CAPITALS) and then chronologically. Note that "Mc" comes in order, and not before "Ma". Honorifics are detached (for example, write ORBIGNY, A. D', and G†MBEL, C. W. VON). Serial and book titles are italicized and spelled out in full. Abbreviations for vol., no., pp., and so on are omitted. All words in serial titles are capitalized but only proper nouns in book titles. Genus and species level names in article and book titles may be italicized.

AUTHOR, A. A. and AUTHOR, B. B., 1998. Article title. Serial Name Spelled Out in Full, 1:23-45.

__________, 1999. Chapter or paper title. In: Editor, C. C., Ed., Book title spelled out in full, 12-34. City: Publisher. Series or sponsor, no. 100.

AUTHOR, A. A. and COAUTHOR, C. C., 1990. Book title spelled out in full. City: Publisher, 1234 pp., 56 pls.

Note that only author names that are exactly repeated in successive references are replaced by a dash. The final name in a list of authors is not set off by a comma before the "and" or "et al."

A work in preparation, as well as unpublished reports, correspondence, internal documents, e-mail, and Internet postings (except for formal electronic publications) should be cited "AUTHOR, A. A. (written communication, Date)". These are not listed in References.

A work may be listed in the references if it is actually in press, i.e., formally accepted for publication. No year or volume number should be indicated. Dissertationsthat that are published for distribution can be considered as books. The titles of unpublished dissertations and internal reports are given in quotation marks.

Plate captions: Captions to illustrations individual specimens must give full taxonomic title, followed by other defining characters such as its gender, orientation, condition, and so on. The size of the specimen, the size of the relevant scale bar on the plate, or the magnification of the view at published size (NOT the original ocular or instrument magnification) must be indicated, either in the individual description, or in the caption heading if it applies to all specimens. The repository and catalogue number of each specimen is required, unless a covering statement is included in the text.

Figure and table captions: These should begin with a brief descriptive phrase, e.g., "Index map of sample sites." The abbreviations and graphic symbols used in the figure or table should be explained. When the same symbols are used in a series of figures, it is only necessary to explain them completely in the first caption. A long caption, bringing out the point of the figure or table, is preferable to a cursory statement that merely identifies the content, even if the caption repeats discussion that is also found in the text.

Review: Reviewers are anonymous, unless they wish otherwise. The author(s) may inform the Editor, in the cover letter, of appropriate and/or hostile reviewers, although the Editor is in no way bound to act according to this information. Reviewers who identify themselves to authors should be acknowledged in the final draft.

In regard to reviewer comments, authors are free to decide what should go into the final draft, but the Editor's judgment on the adequacy of response to the reviews is final.

There is no time limit for returning a final draft. Authors should not introduce significant new data, or substantially change the scope or purpose of the work, without consulting with the Editor. In such cases a second round of review may be called for.

Final drafts and proofs: Final draft will be submitted in Micro Man, including any revised illustrations. Uploaded documents will overprint earlier documents with the same title. If the paper is accepted, the author will approve final proofs in full-page mockups (not galley proofs), in which text, illustrations and all other material will be shown exactly as in the final printed page. Minor word changes and replacement sections may be returned as corrections by email, while marked up pages should be scanned and returned by fax or PDF. We do not ask for complete proofs to be returned.