GUIDE FOR AUTHORS 



Aims and scope. The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural 

 History) Zoology, was established specifically to accommodate 

 manuscripts relevant to the Collections in the Department of Zool- 

 ogy. 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 speci- 

 mens 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 Mu- 

 seum. All submissions will be reviewed by at least two referees. 



Submission of manuscripts. Initially three clear, complete cop- 

 ies should be submitted in the style and format 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. tPlease 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 paren- 

 thetically. 



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); sug- 

 gested 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, Acknowledge- 

 ments (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. Authori- 

 ties 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, W.D. 198 1 . 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 supple- 

 mentary 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 



drawings - 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 with a line weight and lettering suitable for the same reduction 

 throughout, ideally not more than 40%. After reduction the smallest 

 lettering should be not less than 10 pt (3 mm). Tracing paper should 

 ideally be avoided because of the possibility of shadows when 

 scanned. All artwork must have bulletin, author and figure number 

 included, outside of the image area, and must be free of pencil, glue 

 or tape marks. 



PHOTOGRAPHS - All photographs should be prepared to the final size 

 of reproduction, mounted upon stiff card and labelled with press-on 

 lettering (eg Letraset). They can be mounted on white or black 

 background; a black background must be evenly black all over; any 

 background must be free of all pencil and glue marks within the 

 image area. All figures should be numbered consecutively as a 

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

 explain symbols and letters. Photos, when components of figure- 

 plates should be abutted, trimmed as regular rectangles or close 

 trimmed up to edge of specimen. Joins etc. can be removed at the 

 scanning stage but at extra cost. Cropping instructions, if any, should 

 be indicated on an overlay or marked on a photocopy of the figure. 

 SIZE - Maximum size of artwork for use of flatbed scanners is A3. 

 Larger artwork has to be reduced photographically prior to scan- 

 ning, therefore adding to expense. 



Symbols in text. Male and female symbols within the text should 

 be flagged within curly brackets to enable setter to do a swift global 

 search. 



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. 



