ARC Guidelines for Paper Submissions
Page Charges
A fee of US$20 per page will be charged for the first 10 pages of an article or for articles less than 10 pages total. For example, the charge for an article which is 10 pages total in the finished publication-ready PDF format will be $200 and for an article with 9 pages total it will be $180, and so forth. Thereafter page charges will be accrued at $10 per page. For example, a 20-page article will be $200 for the first 10 pages and $100 for the next 10 pages, for a total of $300. In rare cases, an extra charge will be incurred for excessive edits which are requested at the PDF stage. No author will be denied publication in ARC because of a lack of funds to cover the page charges. If you do not have the funding support to pay the page charges, please contact us to discuss the matter.
First Step
1. PREAPPROVAL must be given by us (via email) before sending us your submission. Please contact us directly at: arc.publisher@gmail.com and send us your proposed title along with a brief abstract detailing your proposal (species and significance as it applies to conservation) you would like to submit. We will get back to you by email regarding the suitability of your paper for ARC and any scheduling issues we may be experiencing. Not all papers are preappoved for submission to us but when not, alternate publishing outlets are suggested for you to use if you are interested.
2. Consult a recent paper from the journal located on the ARC home page under "NEWLY PUBLISHED." This will answer most of your formatting, style, and reference issues. PLEASE FOLLOW THEM BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR PAPER!
Submission
All submissions should be sent to the ARC Journal Publisher at: arc.publisher@gmail.com
When submitting a paper, you need to attach:
- The manuscript with a list of figures, photographs, and tables at the end of the document.
- The figures and photographs, as separate attachments. Letters used within photos (A,B, etc.) should be white with a black outline.
- Tables, as a separate attachment.
- Provide three recommended unbiased peer reviewers, with most current email address(es).
- The Official ARC Copyright Agreement Form signed and sent to us at: arc.publisher@gmail.com
- All official collecting permits, premissions, etc. shall be provided and listed in your publication or will be rejected outright. Consideration will only be given for papers with proper documentation. Please contact the editor for further details.
Article scope and content
Contributed or invited manuscripts may focus on a wide variety of topics (see below) and authors are encouraged to submit all works supporting amphibian and reptile conservation.
Scientific:
Biology, natural history, diversity of amphibians and reptiles, country overviews, faunal inventories and checklists, threat assessments, and notes on declines and disease, new species descriptions, ecology, surveys, techniques, husbandry, physiology, diet, reproduction, rearing, thermal biology, behaviour, aquaculture, reviews of species, their conservation assessment, harvesting, farming, pet trade, and both their in situ and ex situ conservation needs.
Cultural:
To discuss regulations and restrictions, and other political or cultural aspects relating to amphibian and reptile conservation breeding programs.
Development and histories of CBPs with their successes, shortcomings, impediments, publicity, and support.
Citizen Science, Networking, and Information Technology relating to amphibian and reptile conservation.
Article types:
- REVIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES (>6,000 words). These are generally views of "the bigger picture" from authors with extensive expertise in the field. They may be either scientific in nature, or discuss non-scientific issues relevant to conservation (e.g., policy, social, or institutional issues). They may be either peer-reviewed, or reviewed by ARC editors for clarity of presentation and content, at the discretion of the editors.
- SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES (generally ~4,500 words or more). Peer-reviewed. Examples of topics within the scope of ARC are discussed in some detail in the "Article scope and content" section above.
- REPORTS (~2,500 words or more). These often report observational studies that are more substantial than the brief "field note" types of observations. Abstract 200 words, one graph or map, and one image preferred depending on subject and content. Reviewed by editors for clarity of presentation and content. Approved for publication by senior editor or independent board members.
- NOTE ON SHORT COMMUNICATIONS (less than ~10 manuscript pages or 2,000 words). These are generally not accepted by ARC. Exceptions may be made for cases of outstanding conservation interest (e.g., species at extremely high conservation risk, very poorly studied species or regions, impending IUCN [re]assessment, etc.). Please contact the editor before submission if you think your paper might meet these criteria. For most shorter papers, we suggest submission to Herpetological Review (https://ssarherps.org/publications/herpetological-review/) or Herpetology Notes (http://www.herpetologynotes.seh-herpetology.org/).
- NOTE ON NEW SPECIES DESCRIPTIONS. We encourage the submission of articles which include the descriptions of new species. Because of the unique risk of losing naming priority in the more intensively studied taxa, articles with new species descriptions may be fast-tracked at the editor's discretion.
Content and layout
TITLE PAGE
The title of the article should be brief and describe the content of the article. If a particular species is written, include the publisher of the original description. If a higher taxonomic group is written, no reference is needed. Common names of species may be included in the title at the authors discretion.
Full names, institutional addresses, and email addresses for all authors; label corresponding author.
ABSTRACT
The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and must be structured as background, significance, methods, results, conclusions, summary.
Six to ten keywords should be given, not including words in the title.
INTRODUCTION
The introduction needs to be accessible to those without specialist knowledge in the field. The introduction must clearly state the background of the research and its aims and hypothesis. The section should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article.
METHODS
Describe in detail the experimental design including any animals used and their providence and housing, GenBank information for genetics, full description of source of materials used, what is being tested and how it is assessed i.e., statistical models.
USE OF STATISTICS
Describe the statistic(s) used, including for example, which experiment type of each analysis was used and its use for that data.
RESULTS
The Results and Discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. In either case clearly state the results of each experiment in a scientific form.
DISCUSSION
The discussion needs to relate the results of the study to the topics and hypothesis in the Introduction and perhaps methods. In the discussion results should be rounded off to make reading easier. Such as: 67 ± 2% expressed as ~65%, and 33 ± 7% as ~35%
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. Future directions to further the research field may be suggested. The length should be from 100 to 300 words.
OTHER INFORMATION
Authors' information - short biographies and pictures
It is generally appropriate to include an author short biography and author photograph depicting the author in his normal work environment. This section of the paper is to be listed at the end of the paper (for examples, see recent publications from the journal).
You may choose to use this section to include any relevant information about the author(s) that may aid the reader's interpretation of the article, and understand the background of the author(s). This may include details about the authors' qualifications, current positions they hold at institutions or societies, or other relevant information.
FORMAT
Images
Images for the article should be submitted in as high a quality as jpg, giff, or tiff, and should not exceed a file size of 4 MB.
Image of authors, for author's biographies, should be approximately 300 x 450 pixels whether horizontal of vertical.
List of Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined in the text at first use. If a term is only used a few times in the article do not use abbreviations.
Common and Scientific Names
Use the common name with scientific name only once when the species is introduced or infrequently. The common name should only have proper names such as cities or locations or peoples or entities names with a capital. ie. Pearsons desert rat, green anole, Sydney funnel web spider, elephant, Polar bear.
REFERENCE FORMAT
For EndNote users, a reference template for Amphibian & Reptile Conservation is available [currently being updated].
(Windows users: right click and "Save target as." Mac users: control + click and "Save linked file as." Make sure final file name is ARC.ens with no .txt file extension.)
(A) For articles authors and article dates; alphabetical by surname of first author and et al. for many authors should be cited in the manuscript. In-text citations should be within brackets. References should be separated by semicolons and should not italicize "et al." Citations by the same authors in the same year should be given a lowercase letter after the year (example: Stow and Sunnucks 2004a,b) and repeated author names within the same in-text citation should be omitted (example: Emlen 1994, 1997).
References can be placed in alphabetical order of first authors surnames, then by the least recent date.
Example: (Ané et al. 2007; Emlen 1994, 1997; Hey 2011; Lemos-Espinal et al. 1997; Omland 1999; Pagel and Meade 2006; Storey 2006; Stow and Sunnucks 2004a,b; Wiens et al. 2008)
Alternatively, references to a historic theme may be ordered by the most recent date then in alphabetical order of first authors surnames.
Example: (Castoe and Parkinson 2006; Knight et al. 1992; Kraus et al. 1996; Malhotra et al. 2010; Parkinson 1999; Parkinson et al. 1997, 2002).
(B) For articles with a very large number of references, authors may number references consecutively to correspond with their order of use in the reference list. In this case, in-text citations should still be in parentheses and use number ranges for consecutive citations (1-3; 8).
Notes for references
Only articles and abstracts that have been published, are In Press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited.
Unpublished abstracts, unpublished data, and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but these citations may be included in the text and referred to as "data not shown" or "pers. comm." giving the first initial and surname of involved researchers (J. Smith, pers. comm.).
Obtaining permission to quote personal communication(s) and unpublished data from cited colleagues is the responsibility of the submitting author(s).
Citations in the reference list should include all named authors, up to the first nine and also including the final author to make 10, before abbreviating with et al.
Any "In Press" articles cited must be provided if requested by the editorial office.
Links and URLS
Internet links, including links to the authors' own website(s), should be referenced in the reference list. Links should be provided in full, including the title of the site and page, the URL of the page, and the date accessed, such as:
Link / URL:
The Mouse Tumor Biology Database. Available: http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/mtbwi/index.do [Accessed: 12 September 2011].Link / URL with author:
Roth M. 2011. Experts identify world's most threatened sea turtle populations. Available: http://www.iucn.org/?8331/Experts-Identify-Worlds-Most-Threatened-Sea-Turtle-Populations [Accessed: 03 October 2011].Link / URL for newsletter:
Janzen P. 2010. Cooperative breeding of amphibians by zoos and private herpetologists in the "German speaking area." AArk Newsletter (March 2010). Available: http://www.amphibianark.org/Newsletters/pdf_newsletters/amphibian%20ark%20news%2010.pdf [Accessed: 14 October 2011].Article within a journal:
Wiens JJ, Kuczynski CA, Smith SA, Mulcahy DG, Sites JW, Townsend TM, Reeder TW. 2008. Branch lengths, support, and congruence: Testing the phylogenomic approach with 20 nuclear loci in snakes. Systematic Biology 57(3): 420–431.
Article within a journal supplement
Orengo CA, Bray JE, Hubbard T, LoConte L, Sillitoe I. 1999. Analysis and assessment of ab initio three-dimensional prediction, secondary structure, and contacts prediction. Proteins 43(Supplement 3): 149–170.
In press article
Hey J. 2011. Isolation with migration models for more than two populations. Molecular Biology and Evolution. [In Press].
Published abstract
Zvaifler NJ, Burger JA, Marinova-Mutafchieva L, Taylor P, Maini RN. 1999. Mesenchymal cells, stromal derived factor-1 and rheumatoid arthritis [abstract]. Arthritis & Rheumatism 42: s250.
Article within conference proceedings
Jones X. 1996. Zeolites and synthetic mechanisms. Pp. 16–27 In: Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996, Baltimore. Editor, Stoneham SY. Butterworth-Heinemann. 326 p.
Book chapter, or article within a book,
Emlen ST. 1997. Predicting family dynamics in social vertebrates. Pp. 228–253 In: Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach. Editors, Krebs JB, Davies NB. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell. 425 p.
Whole issue of journal
Ponder B, Johnston S, Chodosh L. 1998. Innovative oncology. In: Breast Cancer Research.
Whole conference proceedings
Smith Y. 1996. Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore, Butterworth-Heinemann. 282 p.
Complete book
Krause J, Ruxton GD. 2002. Living in Groups. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 224 p.
Monograph or book in a series
Hunninghake GW, Gadek JE. 1995. The alveolar macrophage. In: Cultured Human Cells and Tissues. Editor, Harris TJR. Academic Press, New Yor, New York, USA. 54–56. [Series Editor, G Stoner. Methods and Perspectives in Cell Biology, Volume 1.]
Book with institutional author
Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification. 1995. Annual Report. London, United Kingdom.
Ph.D. Dissertation
Davis AR. 2009. Kin dynamics and adaptive benefits of social aggregation in the Desert Night Lizard, Xantusia vigilis. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
M.S. Thesis
Ricards JJ. 1961. Variation and biogeography of the western ground snake, Sonora semiannulata Baird. M.S. Thesis, Department of Biology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.