african natural history


Click image to view publications

Instructions to authors

Contact: Dr Herbie Klinger (hklinger@iziko.org.za)

Preparation and style of manuscripts

Authors should submit three word-processed copies on A4 paper; width of text 170mm x 243,  double-spaced throughout.  Three copies of all illustrations and tables should accompany each copy of the manuscript. Original copies of figures  should not be sent until the manuscript has been accepted for publication when a diskette containing the text-files and figures may be submitted. For text files unformatted MS Word files are required. For illustrations Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand is acceptable. Manuscripts should be paginated serially, starting with the title page. Tables and a list of captions of figures should be typed separately, and their positions indicated in the text. Footnotes should be avoided unless short and deemed necessary. Authors are responsible for the scientific content and accuracy of the text.

Manuscripts that do not conform to the standards required, will be returned to the authors for revision before copies are sent for review.

Only manuscripts written in English will be considered for publication. Authors whose first language is not English should seek the assistance of a competent linguist prior to submission. British, not American English spelling should be used.

The metric system of SI (Système International) must be used for most units. If the original measurements were made in imperial units, conversion figures should be included in the text, and a double scale with both types of units added to maps and figures.

Time should be referred to in terms of the 24 hour clock (23:45), and dates in the form of 21 May, 1945.

Authors should be consistent in the use of stratigraphic nomenclature. As a rule, the use of “lower” and “upper” should refer to rocks, whereas “early” and “late” should be used for time units, e.g. early Cenomanian, late Maastrichtian.

  1. Title. This should be as short as possible but informative, and include the geographic, taxonomic and stratigraphic limits where applicable. The title should not include abbreviations, numerical values or active verbs, nor the names of new genera and species.
  2. Author’s (s) name(s).
  3.  Physical address(es) of authors where work was carried out and e-mail address(es)  where available.
  4.  Number of figures and /or tables.
  5.  Abstract. An abstract of not more than 200 words which should summarize the main facts and conclusions and be intelligible to the reader without reference to the text. It must not read as an introduction to the text and should not contain abbreviations or references.  
  6. Key words. Up to seven of these should be at the end of the abstract and in lower case unless by convention capitalized and separated by colons.
  7. Table of contents giving hierarchy of headings and subheadings.
  8.  Introduction.
  9. Subject matter of the paper divided into sections to correspond with those given in table of contents. 
  10. Summary, if paper is lengthy. 
  11. Acknowledgements. Keep these as short as possible. 
  12. References. 
  13. Abbreviations, where these are numerous.

Illustrations

All illustrations, whether photographs or line drawings are termed figures (plates are not printed). The position of each illustration should be indicated in the text. Computer-generated material and scans should be of a high resolution (300-600 DPI).If there is any doubt, original material should be made available. Computer-generated graphics should be submitted on CD’s or sent by e-mail. (anything over 2MB is too big to send).  In the case of original artwork, all illustrations are to be marked on the back in pencil. To prevent damage during handling, a fly sheet should be mounted over the front of the illustration.

  1. Photographic illustrations. Photographic conventions should be adhered to as far as possible. E.g. specimens are to be illuminated from the top left  (NW).  Fossil material should, where possible, be coated with ammonium chloride prior to photography. Single photographs should normally use the full width of a page or column of text and may be submitted unmounted. Composite photographic illustrations should be mounted on a white or black background. Care should be taken to match the tones and contrasts on composite illustrations for optimal reproduction. Each of the figures should be numbered clearly. Figures should be numbered on the fly sheet or on a photocopy of the original for typesetting by the printers. Transfer lettering is not acceptable  Single photographs should be of the same size as to be printed. Composite photographs should not exceed the size of the printed page of  this journal, i.e. 170mm x 243. Each photograph should have a metric scale for magnification; alternatively  the magnification should be indicated in the explanation to the figure. Magnifications should ideally be rational fractions or multiples, e.g. x0,5, x1, x2 &tc.; not  e.g.1.65
  2. Line drawings. Figures may either be computer generated or drawn  in black ink on  good quality white background. Illustrations should be reducible to the width of a single column of text, or to the size of a printed page of this journal. All lettering should be legible and clear, and, after reduction, not be less than 9-12 pt sans serif font.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the references. Manuscripts with obvious incomplete or inaccurate references will be returned to the authors. All references cited in the text, synonomies, explanations to figures and tables should be included in the list  of references.

  1. References in the text should be as follows:
    Kennedy (1988) described
    Kennedy (1988:108, fig. 15) described
    As described  (Reeside 1927a, 1927b; Cobban 1951)
    As described (Cooper & Kennedy :119)
    As described (Gale et al.1996)
    Note, no comma separating name and year.
    Pagination indicated by colon, not p.
    Names of joint authors connected by ampersand
    et al. in text for more than two joint authors, but names of authors in full in list of references.
  2. Full references at the end of the paper, arranged alphabetically by names, chronologically within each name, with suffixes a,b &tc for more than one paper by the same author in that year.
    For books give title in italics, edition, volume number, number of pages, figures and tables, place of publication, publisher.
    Titles of journals should be in italics, and spelt out in full. All words in journal titles apart from a, the, of, and &tc should be capitalized. Volume number in bold, part number normal, followed by colon (:) and page numbers. Plate and figure numbers to be included if separate from pagination.
    Translate only those titles that are in non-Latin alphabets and indicate original language in square brackets [ ]

Examples:

ADKINS, W.S. 1928. Handbook of Texas Cretaceous fossils. University of Texas Bulletin 2838: 1-385, pls 1-37.
ATABEKIAN, A.A. & KHAKIMOV, F.C. 1976. [Campanian and Maastrichtian ammonites from Central Asia]. Akademia Nauk Tadchikskoi SSR Institut Geologii 1976: 1-146, pls 1-13 [In Russian].
BANDEL, K., LANDMAN, N.H. & WAAGE, K.M. 1982.  Micro-ornament on early whorls of Mesozoic ammonites : implications for early ontogeny. Journal of Paleontology 56(2): 386-391, text-figs 1-2.
BIRKELUND, T. 1981. 7. Ammonoid shell structure. In: HOUSE, M.R. & SENIOR, J.R. eds. The Ammonoidea. Systematics Association Special Volume 18: 177-214.
COBBAN, W.A. 1962a. New Baculites from the Bearpaw Shale and equivalent rocks of the Western Interior. Journal of Paleontology 36(1): 125-135, pls 25-28.
COBBAN, W.A. 1962b. Baculites from the lower Part of the Pierre Shale and equivalent rocks in the Western Interior. Journal of Paleontology 36(4): 704-718, pls 105-108.
COLLIGNON, M. 1971. Atlas des fossiles caractéristiques de Madagascar (Ammonites) XVII (Maestrichtien). iv + 44pp., pls 640-658. Tananarive : Service Géologique.
FAVRE, E. 1869.  Description des mollusques fossiles de la Craie des environs de Lemberg en Galicie. 187 pp., 13 pls.  Geneva and Basle : H. Georg.
HÄGG, R. 1930. Die Mollusken und Brachiopoden der Schwedischen Kreide. 1. Eriksdal. Sveriges Geologiska Undersøkning Ser. C, Ǻrsbok)  23(8): 1-93.
HANCOCK, J.M. & KENNEDY, W.J. 1993.  The high Cretaceous ammonite fauna from Tercis, Landes, France. Bulletin de l’Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique (Sciences de laTerre) 63: 149-209.
HOEPEN, E.C.N. VAN 1921. Cretaceous Cephalopoda from Pondoland. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 8: 1-48, pls 1-11.
KOSSMAT, F. 1895-1898. Untersuchungen  über die Südindische Kreideformation. Beiträge zur Paläontologie und Geologie Österreich-Ungarns und des Orients 9 (3-4)(1895): 97-203 (1-107), pls 15-25 (1-11); 11 (1)(1897): 1-46 (108-153), pls 1-8 (12-19); 11(3) (1898): 89-152 (154-217), pls 14-19 (20-25).
ORBIGNY, A. D’. 1850. Prodrome de Paléontologie stratigraphique universelle des animaux mollusques et rayonnés 2. 428 pp. Paris : Masson.
WRIGHT, C.W. 1957. In: MOORE, R.C. (ed) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part L, Mollusca 4, Cephalopoda Ammonoidea. xxii+490 pp. New York : Geological Society of America & Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.

Systematic descriptions

Systematic papers must conform to the current editions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and International Code of Botanical Nomenclature unless there is good reason to do otherwise, in which case this should be justified.

Names of new taxa, combinations, synonyms &tc when used for the first time, must be followed by the appropriate Latin  abbreviation, e.g. gen. nov., sp. nov. comb.nov. &tc. In discussions, the generic name must be given in full when first mentioning the species. Subsequently it may be abbreviated to the initial capital letter, unless confusion with another genus is likely. At the beginning of a paragraph, the genus name must be written out in full.

Synonomies should be arranged according to chronology of bibliographic references. e.g.:

Pseudocalycoceras dentonense  (Moreman, 1942)
Figs 101-121

1927 Acanthoceras sp. A; Moreman, p.  95, pl. 15, fig. 2.
1942 Eucalycoceras dentonense Moreman, p.  205, pl. 33, figs 4-5; text-fig. 2k.
1942 Eucalycoceras indianense Moreman, p. 206, pl. 33, figs 9-10; text-fig. 2l.
1959 Eucalycoceras dentonense Moreman; Matsumoto, p. 97, text-fig. 51.
1969 Eucalycoceras (Proeucalycoceras) dentonense Moreman; Thomel, p. 650.
1972 Psudocalycoceras dentonense (Moreman); Cobban & Scott, p. 63, pl. 13, figs 11-29; pl.   15, figs 1-7; 10-13.
1975 Pseudocalycoceras sp. aff. P. dentonense (Moreman); Matsumoto & Kawano,  p. 13, pl. 1, fig. 1; text-fig. 3.
1981 Pseudocalycoceras dentonense (Moreman); Wright & Kennedy p. 37, pl. 5, fig.  4; pl. 6, figs 3,6,7; text-figs 15A,B, E-H; text-figs 19S,T.

In describing new species, the following headings should be included:

  1. Derivation of name
  2. Type specimen (s), holotype, lectotype, paratypes and catalogue numbers
  3. Material
  4. Diagnosis
  5. Description
  6. Remarks or Discussion
  7. Occurrence. Geographic and/or stratigraphic occurrence

The systematic description should be preceded by a list of institutions where material is housed, accompanied by the institutional abbreviations, e.g. NHM, the Natural History Museum, London; NMB, National Museum, Bloemfontein.

Submission of manuscripts:
The Editor-in-Chief,
African Natural History,
Natural History Division Collections,
Iziko Museums of Cape Town,
P.O. Box 61,
Cape Town 8000
South Africa.

Proofs.  Two sets of proofs will be sent to the author or corresponding author if there is more than one. Corrections should be restricted to mistakes and printing errors, and not to rewriting text. The authors may be charged for extensive revisions made on the proofs. Authors are expected to return proofs within one month of receipt thereof.  50 reprints of the paper will be supplied free of charge to the authors; additional copies in multiples of 25 may be ordered on return of the proofs. On acceptance of the manuscript, the author(s) do so on the understanding that copyright is assigned to the publishers.