Author Guidelines

Title: The title should be written in sentence case (only scientific names, geographic locations, or other proper nouns should be capitalized, i.e. Elater ferrugineus L., Italy, etc.), and should include an accurate, clear and concise description of the reported work, avoiding abbreviations. The titles of taxonomic papers should always include the upper rank taxa separated with a colon in the following order, in brackets: (Class: Order: Family). The Phylum and/or Class can be included optionally, depending on the community accepted practice in publishing on the respective phylum or class.

Authors and affiliations: Provide the complete names of all authors. The “last name” (family name, surname, or generally the part of the name which cannot be abbreviated) should be written in capital letters. Detailed address for correspondence, including university name, institute, or department, street, city, state/province (if applicable), and the country is needed only for the corresponding author. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the author list and the individual contributions to the study are accurate and complete. If the article has been submitted on behalf of a consortium, all consortium members and their affiliations should be listed after the Acknowledgments section.

Abstract and keywords: Please have your abstract and keywords ready for input into the submission module. Keywords should be in alphabetical order and ideally differ from the words used in the title. The abstract should include the following sections: background (Why the study was initiated? Why this type of study is needed? What was the aim of the present paper?), very concise methods, results, and conclusion (with a closing remark—What is the importance of the present findings? and What directions it sets for future research?). Please note that the Conclusion is not a summary of the results, but a more general statement. The abstract should be informative (without general words), original, factful (provide a summary of the content of the article and key results of the study), written in good English. It should be followed by up to 6–8 keywords that convey the principal problems of the article.

Body text: All papers should be in grammatically correct English. Authors are asked to certify that their manuscripts are written in fluent English or edited by a professional English language editor prior to submission. Use either British/Commonwealth or American English provided that the language is consistent within the paper. A manuscript must be written with precision, clarity, and economy. The voice – active or passive – and the tense used should be consistent throughout the manuscript. Avoid the use of parenthetical comments and italics or bold for emphasis. This journal discourages the use of quotation marks except for direct quotations, words defined by the author, and words used in unusual contexts. Short quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks (“). Long quotations should be on a separate line, italicized, but without quotation marks. Single quotation marks are to be used only for a quotation that occurs within another quotation.

Spacing, fonts, and page numbering: Single-space all material (text, quotations, figure legends, tables, references, etc.). Separate paragraphs with a blank line. Use a 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman or Arial).

Capitals: Capital letters should be used only at the beginning of a sentence, in proper names and in headings and subheadings, as well as to indicate tables, graphs, and figure/s within the text. Software names should be written with capital letters (e.g., ANOVA, MANOVA, PAUP).

Italicization/underlining: Scientific names of species and genera, long direct quotations and single letter symbols for variables and constants (except for Greek letters), should be italicized. Two-letter (three-, etc.) symbols for variables and constants should NOT be italicized. These symbols in illustrations and equations should be in italics to match the text. Italics should not be used for emphasis, and not in abbreviations such as e.g., i.e., et al., etc., cf. Underlining of any text is not acceptable.

Abbreviations: Abbreviations should be followed by ‘ (full stop or period; for instance: i.e., e.g., cf., etc.). Note that you shouldn’t add a full stop at the end of abbreviated words if the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the full word. For example, you should abbreviate “Eds”, “Dr”, “Mr” without full stop at the end. All measures, for instance mm, cm, m, s, L, should be written without full stop.

Footnotes: Avoid footnotes in the body text of the manuscript. It is always possible to incorporate the footnote into the main text by rewording the sentences, which greatly facilitates reading. Additionally, footnotes are not always handled well by software, and their usage may cause failures in the text processing.

Geographical coordinates: It is strongly recommended to list geographical coordinates as taken from GPS or online gazetteer, or geo-referencer. Geographical coordinates must be listed in one of the following formats:
Please also consider submitting a table of localities with your manuscript, either as a spreadsheet or in CSV text format. By doing so you will make your specimen localities much more easily available for use in biodiversity databases and geospatial investigations. The geospatial table will be put online as supplementary material for your paper. A minimum table will have three fields: species (or subspecies) name, latitude and longitude. A full table will have the same data for each specimen lot as appears in the text of your paper. Please check latitude/longitude carefully for each entry.

Units: Use the International System of Units (SI) for measurements. Consult Standard Practice for Use of the International System of Units (ASTM Standard E−380−93) for guidance on unit conversions, style, and usage.

Statistics: Use leading zeroes with all numbers, including probability values (e.g., P < 0.001). For every significant F−statistic reported, provide two of values (numerator and denominator). Whenever possible, indicate the year and version of the statistical software used.

Web (HTML) links: Authors are encouraged to include links to other Internet resources in their article. This is especially encouraged in the reference section. When inserting a reference to a web-page, please include the http:// portion of the web address.

Supplementary files: Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as Supplementary Files. Tabular data provided as supplementary files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), as an Open Office spreadsheets (.ods) or comma separated values file (.csv). As with all uploaded files, please use the standard file extensions.

Headings and subheadings: Main headings: The body text should be subdivided into different sections with appropriate headings. Where possible, the following standard headings should be used: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References.

These headings need to be in bold font on a separate line and start with a first capital letter. Please do not number headings or subheadings.

Introduction − The motivation or purpose of your research should appear in the Introduction, where you state the questions you sought to answer, and then provide some of the historical basis for those questions.
Methods − 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 in papers describing field studies, simulations, or experiments. 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 used. Supply complete citations, including author (or editor), title, year, publisher, and version number, for computer software mentioned in your article.
Results − Results should be stated concisely and without interpretation.
Discussion − Focus on the rigorously supported aspects of your study. Carefully differentiate the results of your study from data obtained from other sources. Interpret your results, relate them to the results of previous research, and discuss the implications of your results or interpretations. Point out results that do not support speculations or the findings of previous research, or that are counter-intuitive. You may choose to include a Speculation subsection in which you pursue new ideas suggested by your research, compare and contrast your research with findings from other systems or other disciplines, pose new questions that are suggested by the results of your study, and suggest ways of answering these new questions.
Conclusion −This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.
References − The list of References should be included after the final section of the main article body. Reference numbers should be inserted between single-spaced entries in the list, example [1] [2]. Authors are requested to include DOIs and/or links to online sources of articles, whenever possible!
Where possible, the standard headings should be used in the order given above. Additional headings and modifications are permissible.
Subordinate headings: Subordinate headings (e.g. Field study and Simulation model or Counts, Measurements and Molecular analysis), should be left-justified, italicized, and in a regular sentence case. All subordinate headings should be on a separate line.

English Language Editing

This journal has well-defined policies for English language editing.
Authors are required to have their manuscripts written in fluent English or edited by a professional English language editor BEFORE submission. Authors have to confirm by checking a tick box in the submission process that they have followed the above requirement:
“The text is edited by a professional English language editor, duly acknowledged in the manuscript. I am aware that non-edited manuscripts could be rejected prior to peer-review”.
The submission process includes an option to request a professional linguistic editing at a price of EURO 12 per 1800 characters:
The authors are NOT obliged to use Journal’s linguistic services, but they must ensure that their manuscripts have passed a proper linguistic editing before submission.

Citations and References

Citations within the text: Before submitting the manuscript, please check each citation in the text against the References and vice-versa to ensure that they match exactly.
Citations in the text should be formatted as follows:
[1] or [1-3]
Note: The citations format depends on the way it is incorporated within the article’s text:
Authorship references for species should include a “,” between author and year:
Brianmyia stuckenbergi Woodley, 2012.

References: It is important to format the references properly, because all references will be linked electronically as completely as possible to the papers cited. It is desirable to add a DOI (digital object identifier) number for either the full-text or title and abstract of the article as an addition to traditional volume and page numbers. If a DOI is lacking, it is recommended to add a link to any online source of an article.
List all authors cited in the References. For multi authored papers, give all author names in full; the abbreviation “et al.” is only allowed in the text. All journal titles should be spelled out completely and should not be italicized. Ensure that the References are complete and arranged according to name and year of publication. Personal communications and submitted manuscripts should be listed as unpublished results in the text and not listed in the References section.

Published Papers:

Polaszek A, Alonso-Zarazaga M, Bouchet P, Brothers DJ, Evenhuis NL, Krell FT, Lyal CHC, Minelli A, Pyle RL, Robinson N, Thompson FC, van Tol J (2005) ZooBank: The open-access register for zoological taxonomy: Technical Discussion Paper. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 62: 210–220.

Accepted Papers:

Same as above, but ”in press” appears instead of the year in parentheses.

Electronic Journal Articles:

Mallet J, Willmott K (2002) Taxonomy: Renaissance or Tower of Babel? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(2): 57 – 59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(02)00061-7

Paper within conference proceedings:

Orr AG (2006) Odonata in Bornean tropical rain forest formations: Diversity, endemicity and applications for conservation management. In: Cordero Rivera A (Ed.) Forest and Dragonflies. Fourth WDA International Symposium of Odonatology, Pontevedra (Spain), July 2005. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 51–78.

Book chapters:

Mayr E (2000) The biological species concept. In: Wheeler QD, Meier R (Eds) Species Concepts and Phylogenetic Theory: A Debate. Columbia University Press, New York, 17–29.

Books:

Goix N, Klimaszewski J (2007) Catalogue of Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Canada and Alaska. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 166 pp.

Book with institutional author:

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999) International code of zoological nomenclature. Fourth Edition. The International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, London.

PhD thesis:

Dalebout ML (2002) Species identity, genetic diversity and molecular systematic relationships among the Ziphiidae (beaked whales). PhD Thesis, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Link/URL:

BBC News: Island leopard deemed new species http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Citations of Public Resource Databases: It is highly recommended all appropriate datasets, images, and information to be deposited in public resources. Please provide the relevant accession numbers (and version numbers, if appropriate). Accession numbers should be provided in parentheses after the entity on first use. Examples of such databases include, but are not limited to:

Providing accession numbers to data records stored in global data aggregators allows us to link your article to established databases, thus integrating it with a broader collection of scientific information. Please hyperlink all accession numbers through the text or list them directly after the References in the online submission manuscript.
All journal titles should be spelled out completely and should NOT be italicized.
Provide the publisher’s name and location when you cite symposia or conference proceedings; distinguish between the conference date and the publication date if both are given. Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the References. They should be quoted in the text as personal observations, personal communications, or unpublished data, specifying the exact source, with date if possible. When possible, include URLs for articles available online through library subscription or individual journal subscription, or through large international archives, indexes and aggregators, e.g., Pub Med Central, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, etc. URLs for pdf articles that are posted on personal websites only should be avoided.
Authors are encouraged to cite in the References list the publications of the original descriptions of the taxa treated in their manuscript.

Ordering references: All references should be ordered alphabetically by author name (but see below).
If the references have the same first author and a varying number of co-authors, the ordering should be based on the number of co-authors starting with the lowest; all articles with the same first author and two or more co-authors (thus cited as et al. in the text) should be listed chronologically, as follows:

Smith J (2018) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3897
Smith J, Gunderson A (2017) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 10–20. https://doi.org/10.3897
Smith J, Gunderson A, Brock B (2011) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 20–30. https://doi.org/10.3897
Smith J, Brock B, Gutierrez R, Gunderson A (2013) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 15–30. https://doi.org/10.3897
Smith J, Brock B, Gunderson A (2015) Article Title. Journal Name 1: 10–30. https://doi.org/10.3897

If both the first author and year of publication match within the categories above, the references are distinguished by adding the letters ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc. after the year of publication and this marking is followed in the in-text citations, respectively.

Illustrations, Figures and Tables

Figures and illustrations are accepted in the following image file formats:

EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
TIFF (at least 300dpi resolution, with LZW compression)
PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
JPEG (preferred format for photos or images)
GIF
BMP
SVG

Vector files in any of the following formats EPS, SVG or PDF are requested for phylogenetic trees and cladograms.

The journal is printed in B5 paper size with the maximum printing area of 128 mm × 199 mm. Whenever possible, individual figures should be prepared as composite figures.
Should you have any problems in providing the figures in one of the above formats, or in reducing the file below 20 MB, please contact the Editorial Office at journals@pensoft.net

Figure legends: All figures should be referenced consecutively in the manuscript; legends should be listed consecutively immediately after the References. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals − i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc.); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 300 words.
Illustrations of measurable morphological traits should bear mute scale bars, whose real size is to be given in the figure captions.
Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Figure citations in the text should always be with Capital “F” and En-dash for ranges. One figure with a full stop, figures without.
Example: Fig. 1, Figs 1–3, Fig. 2A–E.
Citations of figures from other publications should always be Lower Case (fig. / figs). When two subsequent figures or parts are cited (for instance figures 1 and 2 or A and B), a comma should be used.
Example: Figs 1, 2 and Fig. 1A, B.
Parts belong to one figure.
Example: Fig. 1A, B and Fig. 2A-E.

On the use of Google Maps
All uses of Google Maps and Google Earth Content must provide attribution to Google, according to Google Maps/Earth Additional Terms of Service (see also Permission Guidelines for Google Maps and Google Earth). The attribution should be visible on each map in the form, for example: “Map data 2019 (C) Google”.
Tables: Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, maximum 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.
Small tables can be embedded within the text, in portrait format (note that tables on a landscape page must be reformatted onto a portrait page or submitted as additional files). These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the ‘Table object’ in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review. Do not use tabs to format tables or separate text. All columns and rows should be visible, please make sure that borders of each cell display as black lines. Colour and shading should not be used; neither should commas be used to indicate decimal values. Please use a full stop to denote decimal values (i.e., 0.007 cm, 0.7 mm).
Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as Supplementary Files. Tabular data provided as supplementary files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls), as an Open Office spreadsheets (.ods) or comma-separated values file (.csv). As with all uploaded files, please use the standard file extensions.