Author guidelines – IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group

FrogLog sections

Publication process

[email protected] Most papers are published 2 – 8 weeks after acceptance. Requests for publication in a specific edition or accelerated publication can be made by sending an email to .

Manuscript selection

FrogLog is committed to prompt evaluation and publication of submitted papers. Articles should be submitted to [email protected]. Our submission and review process is fully electronic and authors will be notified of decisions by e-mail only. Please follow the formatting instructions below to ensure speedy response.

FrogLog aims to be an inclusive newsletter; however, priority will be given to ASG regional members when manuscript submission is particularly high within a regional focus edition.

Due to the nature of FrogLog we aim to publish articles from a range of authors and can provide some language editing assistance in exceptional circumstances in order to publish an article that might otherwise not be submitted. Please correspond directly with the editorial team in such situations.

Submission requirements and condition of acceptance

Authorship – All authors must agree to be so listed and must have seen and approved the manuscript, its content, and its submission to FrogLog.

Synopses of already published material are encouraged.

Prior to publishing in FrogLog authors are encouraged to submit their work to a peer reviewed journal(s). Please note that FrogLog is not a peer reviewed journal but an IUCN SSC Specialist Group newsletter.

After publication, authors may post the accepted version of the FrogLog paper on the author’s personal Web site.

Setting up your manuscript

Files should be formatted for standard U.S. letter paper.

Here are some things to keep in mind in crafting a manuscript for a typical FrogLog submission:

So we can automatically recognize and format the sections of your paper, please indicate the main sections with headings followed by a colon: Title:, Authors:, Affiliations:, Main Text:, References and Notes:, Acknowledgments:, Figure #: and Table #:.

Titles should be no more than 90 characters.

Authors and their affiliated institutions, linked by superscript numbers, should be listed beneath the title on the opening page of the manuscript. This information will then be published at the bottom of the article.

Subheadings – Use descriptive clauses, not full sentences. Two levels of subheadings may be used if warranted; please distinguish them clearly.

Text starts with a brief introduction describing the article’s significance, which should be intelligible to readers in various disciplines. Technical terms should be defined. Symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms should be defined the first time they are used. All tables and figures should be cited in numerical order.

References and notes (further examples below) are numbered in the order in which they are cited, first through the text, then through the references, the table, and finally, figure legends. Each reference should have a unique number; do not combine references or embed references in notes.

Acknowledgments are a brief statement at the end of the references and notes labeled “Acknowledgments.”

Tables should be included after the references and should supplement, not duplicate, the text. Each table should include a legend. The first sentence of the legend should be a brief descriptive title. Every vertical column should have a heading consisting of a title with the unit of measure in parentheses. Units should not change within a column.

Figure legends should be double-spaced in numerical order. No single legend should be longer than about 200 words. Nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols and units used in a figure should match those used in the text. The figure title should be given as the first line of the legend. Any individually labeled figure parts or panels (A, B, etc.) should be specifically described by part name within the legend.

Figures should be submitted electronically as part of the manuscript file upload. Figures may be embedded directly in the manuscript file however, for better quality we ask that all figures are also provided as individual files. Allowable formats for manuscript files are .pdf, .ps, .eps, .prn, .doc, .docx, .wpd, as discussed below.

Graphs should be labeled on the ordinate and abscissa with the parameter or variable being measured, the units of measure and the scale. Scales with large or small numbers should be presented as powers of 10. Definitions of symbols should usually appear in the figure legend and not in the figure. Simple solid or open symbols are preferred as they reproduce well and should be used where possible. Avoid the use of light lines and screen shading. Instead, use black-and-white, hatched, and cross-hatched designs for emphasis. Use heavy lines or boxes for emphasizing or marking off areas of the figure.

Composite figures should be labeled A, B, C, etc.

Units should be metric and follow Système international d’unités (SI) convention.

Submitting you manuscript

Preparing Your Electronic Files

The maximum total email size for each manuscript submission is 10 MB (including figures and supporting online material). If larger figure files or supporting online material files are necessary, please send an email to [email protected].

How to Save Files in Acceptable Formats

We now convert most submissions including hard copies to PDF files for initial evaluation and review. To ensure accurate conversion of manuscripts, we are able to accept only the following formats:

.doc (Microsoft Word, version 6.0 and higher).

.docx (Microsoft Word 2007, 2008 or 2011 for Mac, and 2010). This is our preferred format.

Naming Files

Name all files starting with the last name of the first author. Follow this by an indication of whether this is the text or the figure name. The file name ends with the extension.

Examples of acceptable file names are:

smithtext.doc

smithtextfigs.prn

smithfig1.eps

smithtextfigs.ps

smithms.ps

smithsupp.pdf

Reference Style

FrogLog uses a numbering system for references and notes. This allows explanatory or more detailed notes to be included with the references. Journal names are abbreviated using common abbreviations to save space.

Place citation numbers for references and notes within parentheses, italicized: (18, 19) (18-20) (18, 20-22). Do not use superscript numbers. Citations are numbered sequentially, first in the text, then through the references and notes, then through the figure and table captions, and finally through the supporting online material. The Acknowledgments follow as an unnumbered note.

Each reference should be listed only once. Separate individual references from other references and from any text notes. (This is a change from our previous style to simplify referencing and facilitates online linking of references.) Each reference should have its own number and not include other text.

Any reference to a personal communication should be given a number in the text and placed, in correct sequence, in the references and notes. It must be accompanied by a written letter of permission. At the time of publication, all cited references must be published.

Notes should be used for information aimed at the specialist (e.g., procedures) or to provide definitions or further information to the general reader that are not essential to the data or arguments. Notes may cite other references (by number).

Please do not place tables within notes.

For journal articles, list initials first for all authors, separated by a space: A. B. Opus, B. C. Hobbs. Do not use “and.” Use et al. (italics) for more than five authors. Journal titles are in italics; volume numbers follow, in boldface. Do not place a comma before the volume number or before any parentheses. You may give the full inclusive pages of the article. Journal years are in parentheses: (1996). End each listing with a period. Do not use “ibid.” or “op. cit.” (these cannot be linked online).

For whole books, monographs, memos, or reports, the style for author or editor names is as above; for edited books, insert “Ed.,” or “Eds.,” before the title. Italicize the book title and use initial caps. After the title, provide (in parentheses) the publisher name, publisher location, edition number (if any), and year. If these are unavailable, or if the work is unpublished, please provide all information needed for a reader to locate the work; this may include a URL,Web or FTP address. For unpublished proceedings or symposia, supply the title of meeting, location, inclusive dates, and sponsoring organization. There is no need to supply the total page count. If the book is part of a series, indicate this after the title (e.g., vol. 23 of Springer Series in Molecular Biology).

For chapters in edited books, the style is as above, except that “in” appears before the title, and the names of the editors appear after the title. After the information in parentheses, provide the complete page number range (or chapter number) of the cited material.

Style Examples

Journals

1. E. Recuero, J. Cruzado-Cortés, G. Parra-Olea, K. R. Zamundio, Ann. Zool. Fenn. 47, 223 (2010).

2. J. Collins, A. Storfer, Diversity and Distributions 9, 89 (2003).

3. L. Ochoa-Ochoa, N. Urbina-Cardona , L. B.Vázquez, O. Flores-Villela, J. Bezaury-Creel, PLoSONE 4, e6878 (2009).

4. J. Kohler et al., Bioscience 55, 693 (2005). [Use et al., where more than five authors are included]

Books

1. J. Gupta, N. van der Grijp, Eds., Mainstreaming Climate Change in Development Cooperation (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2010).

2. M. Lister, Fundamentals of Operating Systems (Springer-Verlag, New York, ed. 3, 1984), pp. 7-11. [third edition]

3. R. Davis, J. King, in: Machine Intelligence, E. Acock, D. Michie, Eds. (Wiley, New York, 1976), vol. 8, chap. 3. [use short form of publisher name, not “John Wiley & Sons”]

4. D. Curtis et al., in: Clinical Neurology of Development, B. Walters, Ed. (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1983), pp. 60-73. [use “Univ.”]

5. Principles and Procedures for Evaluating the Toxicity of Household Substances (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 1977). [organization as author and publisher]

Technical reports

1. G. B. Shaw, Practical uses of litmus paper in Möbius strips (Tech. Rep. CUCS-29-82, Columbia Univ., New York, 1982).

2. F. Press, A report on the computational needs for physics (National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, 1981). [unpublished or access by title]

3. Assessment of the carcinogenicity and mutagenicity of chemicals (WHO Tech. Rep. Ser. No. 556, 1974). [no author]

4. UNEP, Report of the Sixth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (UNEP/CBD/COP/20/Part 2) Strategic Plan Decision VI/26 in CBD (UNEP, Nairobi, 2002); www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/cop/cop-06/official/cop-06-20-en.pdf. [the easiest access to this source is by Internet]

Paper presented at a meeting (not published)

1. M. Konishi, paper presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Anaheim, CA, 10 October 1984. [sponsoring organization should be mentioned if it is not part of the meeting name]

Theses and personal communications

1. B. Smith, thesis, Georgetown University (1973).

2. G. Reuter, personal communication.

Preprints

1. A. Smette et al., in press (available at http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0012193). [if now published, omit the URL and provide only a standard reference]

2. K. Abe et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., in press (available at http://arXiv.org/abs/hep-ex/0107061).

Published Online Only

1. N. H. Sleep, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 10, Q11010 (2009), doi:10.10/2009G.

Website

1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Beaufort Wind Scale, http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/beaufort.html (2012).

2. AIMS, https://www.aims.gov.au/docs/data/data.html

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2 (IUCN, 2012; www.iucnredlist.org).

For specific species accounts:

K. Manamendra-Arachchi, A. de Silva, Polypedates fastigo. In: IUCN 2011. (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2., 2004).

Recent publications – abstract guidelines

Each edition of FrogLog contains modified abstracts from recent publication relating to amphibian conservation and similar subjects of interest. Although modified abstracts are requested we are able to publish original abstracts if permission is obtained by the authors from the original publishers. Abstracts should be in the region of 150-450 words and may include one figure. The abstract is designed to draw attention to the full publication and as such should have the same title as the original publication. An abstract template can be found here and should be sent to [email protected] for inclusion in FrogLog.

General notes

Please take a look at previous editions of FrogLog to get a sense of the publication style. You can view the latest edition of FrogLog here: https://www.iucn-amphibians.org/resources/froglog/froglog/archives/

Following are some general guidelines on preferred style for manuscripts submitted to FrogLog:

The first letter of common species names should be capitalized
Website is one word
Space between unit of measure and number (1 cm)
When using et al. – add comma before year (et al., 1990)
All articles’ titles should be in upper case except for abstracts included in the recent publications section
Italicize all Latin names
Space between words and dashes
No space between numbers, use commas (1,000)
Superscript exponents (4²)
Semi-colon between references (Smith, 1990; Doe, 1995)
When using x between numbers have space between (60 x 60)
Space between number and figure within text (Fig. 1)
Periods and commas inside quotes
et al., should be italicized
Comma before etc.
Use double quotes
After introducing an acronym, use only the acronym
Only use one single space after all punctuation marks such as periods (no double spaces anywhere in written text or captions)

Picture Labels

Figure titles should be spelled out except within text

After figure should be colon