Submissions

Author Guidelines

AIMS AND SCOPE                                        

Basic and Applied Herpetology (B&AH) publishes original Research Papers and updated Reviews about especially interesting issues dealing with any aspect of amphibians and reptiles worldwide. Authors can also submit Short Notes if these are organized around hypotheses appropriately argued and analysed quantitatively.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

Manuscripts should be submitted through the online submission system available here.

Submission of a manuscript implies, without further acceptance by authors, that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract), that it has not been submitted for publication elsewhere, and that its content and publication in B&AH has been approved by all co-authors.

Manuscripts will be evaluated by at least two anonymous reviewers, selected by the editorial board among scientists with a recognized expertise in the work described in the submission. By default, the review will take the form of a single-blind process (authors’ names will be known to the reviewer). Authors may request to have their submission reviewed under a double-blind procedure. It is authors’ responsibility to eliminate personal information from the contents of manuscript files if they request a double-blind review of their submission.

Editors will decide on the acceptability of the submission for publication on the basis of the outcome of the reviews provided by the selected reviewers. In the evaluation process, editors may request from the advice of associate editors. Handling and associate editors will be known to authors during the review process.

For those submissions considered suitable for undergoing a review process, editorial decisions are expected to be communicated within a 90-day period after manuscript submission.

ADVANCED ONLINE PUBLICATION

Corrected proofs of accepted articles will be published online and a digital object identifier (DOI) will be assigned for ahead-of-print citation. 

USE OF REPOSITORIES

Authors are allowed to deposit a copy of the accepted or published versions of their articles in any institutional or other repository of their choice. Authors are allowed to deposit a copy of the submitted version of their papers in any institutional or other repository of their choice, provided it is cleary indicated that the paper is under evaluation for publication in Basic and Applied Herpetology.

FORMAT AND STYLE

B&AH publishes papers in English. Only exceptionally, manuscripts in Spanish and Portuguese will also be considered for publication, although manuscripts in English will be given preference in the review and edition process. Manuscripts in Spanish or Portuguese must include an English version of the abstract and keywords.

Original manuscript submissions are preferred to have no formatted text. Authors must simply follow these indications:

• Provide a running title of maximum 50 characters (including spaces).
• Include full addresses of all authors.
• Provide 3-6 keywords.
• Type text double-spaced and include line numbers.
• Use italics only for scientific names of genera and species.
• Write the main titles (Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion) in separate lines.
• Manuscripts should be arranged as follows: title page, abstract page(s), text, tables and figures.
• Do not use small caps or caps for reference authors’ names.

REFERENCES

For references in the text give full surnames of the first author followed by the publication year and separated by a comma (Pleguezuelos, 1997). For papers with two authors, use the term “&” to separate surnames (Semlitsch & Bodie, 2003). Papers with three or more authors will be quoted with the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.’ (note italics) (Stuart et al., 2004). To distinguish between two papers by the same author(s) in the same year use lower-case letters (a,b) after the year, without space, arranged in alphabetical order as the references are quoted in the text (Harris et al., 2004a,b). List multiple citations in chronological order, using alphabetical order for citations within the same year. Separate citations with semicolons (Tyler, 1991; Wake, 1991; Blaustein et al., 1994a,b; Stuart et al., 2004). If the citation is part of the sentence, move the surname(s) of the author(s) out of the brackets and delete the comma.

“As pointed by Pleguezuelos (1997)”

“Blaustein et al. (1994a) reviewed the situation of amphibians”

The reference list should include all and only the references mentioned in the text, tables and figures. Cite references in the reference list in alphabetical order according to the authors' surnames. Multiple citations for the same author should be organized as follows: single citations first (in chronological order), two-author citations second (in alphabetical order), three or more authors third (in chronological order). Spell out (i.e. do not abbreviate) the names of all journals. The references should conform to the following formats: 

Articles in periodicals:

• Stuart, S.N.; Chanson, J.S.; Cox, N.A.; Young, B.E.; Rodrigues, A.S.L.; Fishman, D.L. & Waller, R.W. (2004). Status and trends of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide. Science306: 1783-1786.

Books:

• Vitt, L.J. & Caldwell, J.P. (2009). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles, 3^rded. Academic Press, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA.

Book chapters:

• King, R.B. (2009). Population and conservation genetics, InJ. Mullin & R.A. Seigel (eds.) Snakes: Ecology and Conservation. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA, pp. 78-122.

Web pages:

• IUCN (2010). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, v. 2010.3. International Union for Nature Conservation and Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland. Available at http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Retrieved on 10/31/2010.

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

Authors can submit with their manuscripts supporting material related to the work (additional tables and figures, detailed protocols, data logs, audio and video recordings, etc.) according to these guidelines:

• The supporting material will be quoted in the text as tables or figures with the letter S before the number (Table S1, Fig. S2).
• Supporting material must be submitted as a separate file. 

BIOETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Because right animal use and care is an area of major concern to the AHE and APH, authors must guarantee that all animals used for research purposes are treated ethically and in accordance with the applicable regulations. Therefore, authors are recommended to state in the manuscript that they have followed the corresponding legislation on animal care. Editors might request from authors as much information as they consider necessary to confirm the fulfilment of such premises. Failure to comply with these bioethical principles will suppose immediate rejection of the article, regardless of the reviewers’ recommendation.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.