Occasional papers in Zoology
Published online at http://zoonova.afriherp.org
by Afriherp Communications, Greenford, United Kingdom
Author Instructions
Scope
ZooNova accepts original papers in English on any zoological topic, but particularly on ecology, behaviour, biodiversity, conservation, zoogeography, morphology, taxonomy and systematics. ZooNova has adopted an online-only publishing policy from issue 5 onwards as there is little to no demand for print issues.
Charges
ZooNova operates as a free service to zoology. There are no author charges and all papers are freely available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Please use the contact email address should you wish to make a voluntary donation towards operating costs.
Submission
Papers should be submitted by email to submit(at)afriherp.org as MS Word or RTF files. The preferred font is Times New Roman 12 point and page size is A4. Tables and illustrations (colour or monochrome) should be submitted as separate jpeg or tiff files (150 dpi is suitable for online viewing) as should equations using non-standard fonts and symbols. Their position in the text should be indicated by the figure or table number within { }. Labels should be inserted after the number but still within the { }. Special symbols when first used should be followed by a written description (e.g. male or female symbol, degree, etc.) and by an arbitrary two letter code (e.g. MS for male symbol) to be used for subsequent examples of the symbol. This is to ensure that the symbols can be reinserted if they are not displayed properly in the editing software. If you have any questions, please contact the relevant editor.
Layout
The standard layout for papers is:
1. Title
2. Author details
2a. Author name/s
2b. ORCID identifier (optional)
2c. Author addresses (including corresponding author e-mail)
3. Abstract
4. Key Words
5. Running header
6. Main body including -
6a. Introduction
6b. Methods and materials:
6c. Results
6d. Discussion
6e. Conclusions
7. Acknowledgements
8. References
Some flexibility is allowed in the layout to allow for the requirements of different topics. Line spacing and heading formatting is not critical as this will be adjusted in the editing process.
Papers that include nomenclatural acts
Papers including nomenclatural acts are required by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (Article 8.5.3.) to comply with the following:
- that the work be registered in ZooBank before it is published,
- that the work itself state the date of publication and contain evidence that registration has occurred,
- that the ZooBank registration state both the name of an electronic archive intended to preserve the work
- and the ISSN or ISBN associated with the work.
As part of the editorial process, editors of ZooNova will ensure that these four requirements are met (i.e. there is no need for authors to register their manuscripts prior to submission to the journal). Also note that registration of new scientific names and nomenclatural acts is not required. That is, there is no need to register the actual nomenclatural act included in the paper and this is entirely optional, complying with ICZN Recommendation 10B.
Recommendation 10B. Registration of names encouraged. Authors are encouraged to include registration numbers from the Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature for new names and nomenclatural acts introduced in their publications, and to register names and acts that have been previously published.
ZooNova will also register any new nomenclatural acts prior to publication, If you have any specific requirements, please discuss this with the subject editor prior to final typesetting.
Peer Review
All submissions will be subject to independent peer review. In general, ZooNova uses peer review to ensure that the final published version achieves the required standards of scientific process and presentation. It is not intended that peer review should be used as a form of scientific censorship.
Referees
Authors are encouraged to provide the names and contact details of at least three potential referees. ZooNova reserves the option to make use of additional or alternative referees. Referees are required to provide detailed criticism of papers which will lead to improvement of the final versions.
Copyright assignment
Copyright remains with the author/s. Submission of a paper for publication in ZooNova is subject to the automatic granting of a licence to ZooNova (Afriherp Communications) and its representatives for the publication of the paper as a portable document format (PDF) file distributed on the Internet as a single document, in printed form as a single document and included with other papers in a single printed issue.
Plagiarism
ZooNova has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism (see https://www.scribbr.com/category/plagiarism/), detection of plagiarism in a submission will be grounds for rejection (unless remedied). Similarly, detection of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) (e.g., ChatGPT and Jasper) without acknowledging the source/s could also be interpreted as plagiarism (see https://www.quetext.com/blog/is-using-ai-content-plagiarism).
Legal deposit requirements
ZooNova deposited appropriate printed copies of its publications in the UK deposit libraries as required by UK legislation. It also provided copies to Zoological Record. Following changes to the processes in both cases, we have been advised that electronic (PDF) copies are being collected by both the British deposit libraries and Zoological Record directly from our website.
Archiving
Papers published in ZooNova are archived in the British Deposit Libraries and with Zenodo.org as a permanent DOI repository.
Reference style
Click here for examples of the accepted formatting of references and citations for ZooNova.
Last updated 22 September 2023
For further information please contact submit(at)afriherp.org