Preparation of Manuscripts

Footnotes
Footnotes to text should be avoided; most footnote material can be incorporated in the text (parenthetically if necessary) to the benefit of readers, editors, and printers.

Title page
Running Head. -- A running head of not longer than 40 letters and spaces should be provided at the top of the title page.

Title. -- Titles should be concise, informative, tell what the paper is about and what it found. It should contain keywords necessary for digital search and retrieval methods. Avoid vague declarations (e.g., "effects of ..."); strive for information content (e.g., fungi kill tardigrades"). The maximum length is 120 characters. Do not include the authority for taxonomic names in the title or in the abstract. Titles may not include numerical series designations. The first letter of the first word in the title is capitalized. All other words, except for proper nouns, are lower case.

List of Authors. -- For each author, give the relevant address – usually the institutional affiliation of the author during the period when all or most of the research was done. Each author’s present address, if different from this, and the author's email address should appear as a footnote at the bottom of the title page.

Individuals listed as authors should have played a significant role in designing or carrying out the research, writing the manuscript, or providing extensive guidance on the execution of the project. Those whose role was limited to providing materials, financial support, or review should be recognized in the Acknowledgments section.

Abstract and key words
The abstract should explain to the general reader why the research was done and why the results should be viewed as important. It should provide a brief summary of the research, including the purpose, methods, results, and major conclusions. Do not include literature citations in the Abstract. Avoid long lists of common methods or discursive explanations of what you set out to accomplish,

The primary purpose of an abstract is to allow readers to determine quickly and easily the content and results of a paper. Abstracts should not exceed 200 words for Reports, Notes, and Communications, and 350 words for articles and for Data Papers.

Following the Abstract, list up to 12 key words. Words from the title of the article may be included in the key words. Each key word should be useful as an entry point for a literature search.

Body of the article
If appropriate, organize your article in sections labeled Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. You may need to add a section for Conclusions. Brief articles usually do not require a label for the Introduction. If the nature of your research requires a different organization, specify the level of each section heading (1^st-order head, 2^nd-order head, etc.) in the margin.

A brief Introduction describing the paper's significance should be intelligible to the general reader of the journal. The Introduction should state the reason for doing the research, the nature of the questions or hypotheses under consideration, and essential background. The Introduction is not a place for a lengthy review of the topic!

The Methods section should provide sufficient information to allow someone to repeat your work. A clear description of your experimental design, sampling procedures, and statistical procedures is especially important. Do not describe commonplace statistical tests in Methods, but allude to them briefly in Results. If you list a product (e.g., animal food, analytical device), supply the name and location of the manufacturer. Give the model number for equipment specified. Supply complete citations, including author (or editor), title, year, publisher and version number, for computer software mentioned in your article.

Results generally should be stated concisely and without interpretation, though in complex studies modest interpretation of individual parts can provide context helpful for understanding subsequent parts. The Discussion should explain the significance of the results. Distinguish factual results from speculation and interpretation. Avoid excessive review.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments, including funding information, should appear in a brief statement at the end of the body of the text.

Literature cited (and other citations)
Avoid excessive citations; cite only essential sources. Before submitting the manuscript, check each citation in the text against the Literature Cited to see that they match exactly. Delete citations if they are not actually cited in the article. The list should conform in sequencing and punctuation to that in recent issues of the journal. All journal titles should be spelled out completely. Provide the publisher’s name and location when you cite conference proceedings or other books.

The Literature Cited section of a paper may refer only to permanently archived material. If a reasonably diligent scholar 20 years in the future could not be assured of finding a particular source, it would not be acceptable as literature cited. Because Internet sources typically have a short half-life, they may not be included in Literature Cited sections unless there is reasonable evidence of permanency (e.g., Ecological Archives). As a general rule, any publication that has an ISSN or ISBN is acceptable, but should be referenced by name (the URL may be added, but is not essential).

Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the Literature Cited. These materials may be listed in the text as personal observations (by an author of the present paper), personal communications (information from others), public communications (information in published abstracts, or information publicly distributed over the Internet but not permanently archived), unpublished manuscript, or unpublished data. The author(s) is expected to verify for all "personal communications" that the authority cited agrees to the use of his or her name. For public communications, the reference should include date printed or accessed, and title of the source, and basic access information such as URL.

Tables
Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. Start each table on a separate page. Provide a short descriptive title at the top of each table; rather than simply repeating the labels on columns and rows of the table, the title should reveal the point of grouping certain data in the table. Statistical and other details should be provided as footnotes rather than appearing in the title. Never repeat the same material in figures and tables; when either is equally clear, a figure is preferable. Do not include any class of information in tables that is not discussed in the text of the manuscript.

At the submission and review stages, embedded image files are acceptable for tables. Final versions of accepted manuscripts must have “true” tables in an editable format, created by using the “Insert Table” function, rather than using tabs or spaces. For example, in Microsoft Word you should select “Table, “Insert”, “Table”, then specify the number of rows and columns and fill in the individual cells.

Tables cannot contain colors, shading or graphics. If such enhancements are needed, the information should be formatted as a figure.

Figures
Number figures in the order in which they are discussed in the text. Group the figure legends in numerical order on one or more pages, separate from the figures. The figure title (i.e., Figure 1) should be given as the first two words of the legend.

Electronic file formats:
All figure files should be in eps, pdf, tiff, or jpeg format, or embedded in Word or PowerPoint. See below for sizing. Low resolution figure files will not be suitable for publication. Thus, we may require new versions of figures for the final version of an accepted manuscript.

Size:
There should only be one figure on each page. The resolution should be 600 dpi (dots per inch). If you make tiff files, please use the "LZW compression" option when saving the files. That will significantly reduce the file size, without adversely affecting the image quality.

Type guidelines for figures:
Most figures will be reduced to single-column width in the journal (76 mm, 3 inches, or 18 picas) and should be completely legible at that size. After reduction, all lettering should be no smaller than a 6-point font size.
· Sans serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred.
· Nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols, and units used in a figure should match those used in the text and tables.
· Use italics only as used in the text (e.g., variables, species names). All Greek letters should be set upright (roman, not italic).
· Avoid boldface lettering.

Lines and fills:
Axis lines, tick marks, error bars, etc. should be thick enough to survive reduction to final print size (at least 1 point wide, following reduction). Anything smaller is likely to fade out. Tick marks also need to be long enough to show up when reduced. Fills should be sufficiently different so they can be distinguished upon reduction.

Color figures:
The cost of printing color figures will be billed to the author (currently $360 per figure). You will be asked to confirm that you are willing to pay the costs of reproducing the figure in color.