GUIDE FOR AUTHORS 



Policy. The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural His- 

 tory) Zoology, was established specifically to accommodate 

 manuscripts relevant to the Collections in the Department of 

 Zoology. It provides an outlet for the publication of taxo- 

 nomic papers which, because of their length, prove difficult 

 to publish elsewhere. Preference is given to original contribu- 

 tions 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 submis- 

 sions will be reviewed by at least two referees. 



Manuscripts. Initially three clear, complete copies should 

 be submitted in the style and format of the Bulletin. The text 

 must be typed double-spaced throughout, including refer- 

 ences, tables and legends to figures, on one side of A4 paper 

 with 2.5 cm margins. All pages should be numbered consecu- 

 tively, 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 impos- 

 sible 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; be consistent with parenthetic use) by: 

 hyphen, two hyphens and three hyphens, respectively. 



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 correspon- 

 dence. 



Synopsis. Each paper should have an abstract not exceeding 

 200 words. This should summarise the main results and conclu- 



sions 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 Meth- 

 ods 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. Foot- 

 notes 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, Antho- 

 zoa) 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. 1981. Form and distri- 

 bution of silica in sponges, pp. 453-493. In: Simpson, T.L. & 

 Volcani, B.E. (eds) Silicon and Siliceous Structures in Biolog- 

 ical 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 deriva- 

 tions 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 photo- 

 graphs 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. Leg- 

 ends, 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. 



