GUIDE FOR AUTHORS 



Policy. The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 

 Zoology, was established specifically to accommodate 

 manuscripts relevant to the Collections in the Department of 

 Zoology. It provides an outlet for the publication of taxonomic 

 papers which, because of their length, prove difficult to publish 

 elsewhere. Preference is given to original contributions in 

 English whose contents are based on the Collections, or the 

 description of specimens which are being donated to enhance 

 them. Acceptance of manuscripts is at the discretion of the 

 Editor, on the understanding that they have not been submitted 

 or published elsewhere and become the copyright of the Trustees 

 of the Natural History Museum. All submissions will be 

 reviewed by at least two referees. 



Manuscripts. Initially three clear, complete copies should be 

 submitted in the style and formal of the Bulletin. The text must be 

 typed double-spaced throughout, including references, tables 

 and legends to figures, on one side of A4 paper with 2.5 cm 

 margins. All pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning 

 with the title page as p. 1 . SI units should be used where 

 appropriate. 



Whenever possible a copy of the text, once the paper has been 

 accepted, should also be provided on floppy disc (see below). 

 Discs should only be sent after final acceptance, as papers 

 generally need revision after refereeing. If it is impossible to 

 provide an appropriate disc please ensure that the final 

 typescript is clearly printed. 



Authors are requested to ensure that their manuscripts are in 

 final format, because corrections at proof stage may be charged 

 to the author. Additions at proof stage will not normally be 

 allowed. Page proofs only will be sent. 



Word-processor discs. Please follow these instructions. 



1. Ensure that the disc you send contains only the final 

 version of the paper and is identical to the typescript. 



2. Label the disc with the author's name, title of the paper 

 and the word-processor programme used. Indicate whether IBM 

 or Apple Mac (IBM preferred). 



3. Supply the file in the word-processor format: if there is a 

 facility to save in ASCII please submit the file in ASCII as well. 



4. Specify any unusual non-keyboard characters on the 

 front page of the hard copy. 



5. Do not right-justify the text. 



6. Do not set a left-hand margin. 



7. Make sure you distinguish numerals from letters, e.g. 

 zero (0) from O; one ( 1 ) from 1 (el) and I. 



8. Distinguish hyphen, en rule (longer than a hyphen, used 

 without a space at each end to signify 'and' or 'to', e.g. the 

 Harrison-Nelson technique, 91-95%, and increasingly used 

 with a space at each end parenthetically), and em rule (longer 

 than an en rule, used with a space at each end parenthetically) 

 by: hyphen, two hyphens and three hyphens, respectively. Be 

 consistent with rule used parenthetically. 



9. Use two carriage returns to indicate beginnings of 

 paragraphs. 



10. Be consistent with the presentation of each grade of 

 heading (see Text below). 



Title. The title page should be arranged with the full title; 

 name(s) of author(s) without academic titles; institutional 

 address(es); suggested running title; address for correspondence. 



Synopsis. Each paper should have an abstract not exceeding 200 

 words. This should summarise the main results and conclusions of 



the study, together with such other information to make it suitable 

 for publication in abstracting journals without change. References 

 must not be included in the abstract. 



Text. All papers should have an Introduction, 

 Acknowledgements (where applicable) and References; Materials 

 and Methods should be included unless inappropriate. Other 

 major headings are left to the author's discretion and the 

 requirements of the paper, subject to the Editors' approval. Three 

 levels of text headings and sub-headings should be followed. All 

 should be ranged left and be in upper and lower case. 

 Supra-generic systematic headings only should be in capitals; 

 generic and specific names are to be in italics, underlined. 

 Authorities for species names should be cited only in the first 

 instance. Footnotes should be avoided if at all possible. 



References. References should be listed alphabetically. 

 Authorities for species names should not be included under 

 References, unless clarification is relevant. The author's name, in 

 bold and lower case except for the initial letter, should 

 immediately be followed by the date after a single space. Where 

 an author is listed more than once, the second and subsequent 

 entries should be denoted by a long dash. These entries should 

 be in date order. Joint authorship papers follow the entries for 

 the first author and an '&' should be used instead of 'and' to 

 connect joint authors. Journal titles should be entered in full. 

 Examples: (i) Journals: England, K..W 1987. Certain Actinaria 

 (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from the Red Sea and tropical 

 Indo-Pacific Ocean. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural 

 History), Zoology 53: 206-292. (ii) Books: Jeon, K.W 1973. The 

 Biology of Amoeba. 628 p. Academic Press, New York & 

 London, (iii) Articles from books: Hartman, WD. 1981. Form 

 and distribution of silica in sponges, pp. 453^493. In: Simpson, 

 T.L. & Volcani, B.E. (eds) Silicon and Siliceous Structures in 

 Biological Systems. Springer- Verlag, New York. 



Tables. Each table should be typed on a separate sheet designed 

 to extend across a single or double column width of a Journal page. 

 It should have a brief specific title, be self-explanatory and be 

 supplementary to the text. Limited space in the Journal means that 

 only modest listing of primary data may be accepted. Lengthy 

 material, such as non-essential locality lists, tables of 

 measurements or details of mathematical derivations should be 

 deposited in the Biological Data Collection of the Department of 

 Library Services, The Natural History Museum, and reference 

 should be made to them in the text. 



Illustrations. Figures should be designed to go across single 

 (84 mm wide) or double (174 mm wide) column width of the 

 Journal page, type area 235 x 174 mm. Drawings should be in 

 black on white stiff card or tracing film with a line weight and 

 lettering suitable for the same reduction throughout, either 50%, 

 30% or 25%. After reduction the smallest lettering should be not 

 less than 10 pt (3 mm). All photographs should be prepared to 

 the final size of reproduction, mounted upon stiff card and 

 labelled with press-on lettering. Components of figure-plates 

 should be abutted. All figures should be numbered consecutively 

 as a single series. Legends, brief and precise, must indicate scale 

 and explain symbols and letters. 



Reprints. 25 reprints will be provided free of charge per paper. 

 Orders for additional reprints can be submitted to the publisher 

 on the form provided with the proofs. Later orders cannot be 

 accepted. 



