Guidelines for Manuscript Preparation and Submission
Summary

Tips for electronic submission

Purpose and Content

Title

Names and Addresses

Abstract

Key Words
Text
Abbreviation
Statistics
Standard Format
Introduction
Material and Methods
Results
Discussion
Key words provide an index for the filing of articles. Key words provide the following information (when appli- cable): 1) Taxonomy (e.g. Reptilia, Squamata, Gekkonidae, Gekko gecko).  2) Geography (e.g. China, Thailand). 3) Subject (e.g. taxonomic validity, ecology, biogeography). The order of taxonomy, geography, and subject should be observed. Manuscripts must be in English and spelling must be correct and consistent. Use Webster's New International Dictionary for reference. For clarity, use active voice whenever possible. For example, the following sentences in active voice are preferable to those in passive voice. Active voice: "Lizards were extremely common on the site." and "I examined three female snakes." Passive voice: "Lizards were observed to be extremely common on the site." and "Three female snakes were examined." Do not abbreviate unless the full phrase has already appeared. Scientific names may be abbreviated only if they have appeared fully in the same paragraph. Never begin a sentence with an abbreviation of a scientific name. Statistics must be accompanied by sample sizes, significance levels, and the names of any tests. Investigators should pay careful attention to independence and applicability of tests, and randomness of samples. One of the most frequent examples of nonindependence is the use of multiple, paired t-tests instead of analysis of variance (anova). In general, multiple tests on the same data set are not valid. Descriptive statistics are in many cases more appropriate than inferential statistics. Manuscripts following standard format should include introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections. While other formats are acceptable, the editors encourage the use of standard format. Please do not type in all capital letters. The introduction typically states the significance of the topic and reviews prior research. This section should clearly state where, when, and how research was carried out. Include sample sizes. Protocols designed by other investigators must be properly cited. Research materials and their manufacturers should be listed. The reader must be able to replicate the methods of the author(s). This section states the results and their significance to the investigation. Figures and tables may be used to clarify, but not to replace, results statements in the text. Statistics should be used when applicable. Large amounts of data should be avoided, or included as an appendix at the end of the article. The discussion is a synthesis of the introduction and the results. No new information should be discussed unless it was presented in the results section. New findings should be discussed in relation to prior research. The author(s) should feel free to present several possible interpretations of the results. The editors particularly encourage suggestions of future research in Asian herpetology.
Manuscript Preparation
Overview
Section Headings
Figures
Tables
Typeface
Please do not attempt to replicate the formatting style of AHR in your manuscript. All formatting except italics will be removed in the production process. Bold and underlined text should be used only to identify section head- ing levels (see below). Extraneous formatting is counterproductive and increases the production costs of the jour- nal. There are a few simple guidelines that authors must follow. Articles will be published using three section heading styles. All heading levels must be on their own line, and left justified. For the purposes of manuscript submission, Level 1 heading is bold , and generally reserved for Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion; Level 2 is italic , and Level 3 is underlined. Figures must be referenced in order in the text. Each figure illustration (line art or photograph) submitted must be "camera ready" for publication with no modifications necessary other than reduction. AHR does not publish "plates"; please refer to these as figures numbered sequentially. Do not write on figure; do not mount more than one figure to a sheet. AHR cannot be responsible for redrawing, touching up, or otherwise modifying figure illus- trations for authors. In addition, figure illustrations submitted must: 1) be of publication quality with typeset text. 2) be mounted on a separate 21.5 x 28 cm (8.5 x 11 inch) sheet with figure number on back. 3) be on a separate sheet from figure legend. 4) not have poor type or handwriting on the face of the figure. 5) The TIFF file format is preferable for electronic versions of figures, but Photoshop, JPEG, or PICT formats are acceptable. Resolution of electronic versions of figures must be at least 600 dpi for line art, or 300 dpi for gray- scale and color images. 6) Figures will be reduced to either 1 column (3.25") or two columns (6.5"). Times Roman typeface is preferred. In order to avoid wasted effort, please follow the above instructions care- fully. Please note: AHR will not alter or lay out figures for publication. Any figure requiring modification will be returned, and may cause significant delay in publication. Figure Legends. Figure legends should be typed on a separate sheet. Legends should explain the figure without reference to the text. A figure and legend should make sense if separated from the rest of the article. For example: Figure 2. Lateral view of live Psammodynastes pulverulentus holding a prey lizard ( Anolis car- olinensis ). Note buccal tissue surrounding the enlarged anterior maxillary and dentary teeth of the snake. Color Figures. AHR may publish color figures at the discretion of the editors. AHR is now published both on paper and electronically. Printing costs of color figures may be required for the paper version of AHR. Color fig- ures will be published free of charge in the electronic version. If you submit color figures, please indicate if you wish them to be considered for publication in color in the paper version. Otherwise, they will be converted to black and white in the paper version. Tables must be referenced in order in the text. Each table should be typewritten, double spaced on a separate sheet. For electronic submission, prepare tables as columns separated by one tab only. Do not use spaces to sepa- rate columns. End rows with a single carriage return. Twelve point type is preferred. Supply a detailed list of special characters (greek letters, male or female symbols, etc.) that are not part of a standard font.
Literature Cited
Journal article
Journal article from a journal that uses year instead of volume
Journal article, title translated, article not in English
Article in book
Government publication
Abstract of oral presentation
Accurate and standard references are a crucial part of any article. This is especially important when dealing with publications from many different countries. The reader must be able to precisely identify any literature cited. References in the text must be checked for consistency with references in the literature cited section. All refer- ences cited in the text must be in the literature cited section. The literature cited section may not contain any ref- erences not mentioned in the text. Articles containing inaccurate or inconsistent literature citations will be returned for correction. References in Text. 1) References to articles by one or two authors must include both surnames in the order they appear in the original publication. References to articles by more than two authors must include the first author's surname, followed by "et al." 2) The year of article follows the authors, separated only by a space. 3) References with the same author and year are distinguished by the lower case characters "a, b, c, . . ." 4) References cited in text are listed in alphabetical order by first author. For example, "My results also incorporate literature records (Marx et al., 1982; Marx and Rabb, 1972; Mertens, 1930; Pope, 1929; Wall, 1909, 1910a, 1910b, 1910c)." References in Literature Cited. 1) References must include all authors, in the order that they appear in the orig- inal publication; "et al." is never used in a literature cited section. 2) The first author is listed surname first, ini- tial(s) last. All other authors are listed initial(s) first, surname last. 3) References with the same author and year are distinguished by the lower case characters, "a, b, c, . . ." 4) References cited are listed in alphabetical order by first author. 5) Names of journals are not abbreviated. See below for examples: Dial, B. E. 1987. Energetics and performance during nest emergence and the hatchling frenzy in loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). Herpetologica 43(3):307-315. Gatten, R. E. Jr. 1974. Effect of nutritional state on the preferred body temperatures of turtles. Copeia 1974(4):912-917. Ananjeva, N. B. 1986. [On the validity of Megalochilus mystaceus (Pallas, 1776)]. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute, Leningrad 157:4-13. (In Russian). Note that for Acta Herpetologica Sinica, the year must precede the volume number. This is to distinguish between the old and new series, and between 1982-1987, Vols.1-6 (new series) and 1988 with no volume number, numbers 1 and 2 (new series). Cai, M., J. Zhang, and D. Lin. 1985. [Preliminary observation on the embryonic development of Hynobius chin- ensis Guenther]. Acta Herpetologica Sinica 1985, 4(2):177-180. (In Chinese). Book Pratt, A. E. 1892. To the snows of Tibet through China. Longmans, Green, and Co., London. 268 pp. Huey, R. B. 1982. Temperature, physiology, and the ecology of reptiles. Pp. 25-91. In C. Gans and F. H. Pough (eds.), Biology of the Reptilia, Vol. 12, Physiological Ecology. Academic Press, New York. United States Environmental Data Service. 1968. Climatic Atlas of the United States. Environmental Data Ser- vice, Washington, D. C. Arnold, S. J. 1982. Are scale counts used in snake systematics heritable? SSAR/HL Annual Meeting. Raleigh, North Carolina. [Abstr].
Thesis or dissertation
Anonymous, undated
Copyright
Submission of Manuscripts
Moody, S. 1980. Phylogenetic and historical biogeographical relationships of the genera in the Agamidae (Rep- tilia: Lacertilia). Ph.D. Thesis. University of Michigan. 373 pp. Anonymous. Undated. Turpan brochure. Promotion Department of the National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China, China Travel and Tourism Press, Turpan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Asiatic Herpetological Research reserves the copyrights to all material published therein, except that excluded by permission of the editors. Any material under a prior copyright submitted to Asiatic Herpetological Research must be accompanied by the written consent of the copyright holder. Authors should submit letter quality, double spaced, single-sided manuscripts both in English and in the original language on 21.5 x 28 cm (8.5 x 11 inch) white bond paper. If possible, include a computer diskette containing the manuscript. Macintosh diskettes, Zip disks, or 3.5" magneto-optical (MO), containing Adobe FrameMaker, Word Perfect, Microsoft Word, Claris Works, Macwrite, Write Now, or text files, or 3.5" MS/PC DOS diskettes, Zip disks, or 3.5" MO with Adobe FrameMaker, Word Perfect, Microsoft Word, RTF, or ASCII files are prefera- ble. Please indicate author, computer, file format, and file name in writing on the disk. The TIFF file format is preferable for electronic versions of figures, but Photoshop, JPEG, or PICT formats are acceptable. Resolution of electronic versions of figures must be at least 600 dpi for line art, or 300 dpi for grayscale and color images. Fig- ures will be reduced to either 1 column (3.25") or two columns (6.5"). Manuscripts will be reviewed. The editors will attempt to choose reviewers whose research knowledge most closely matches the content of the manuscript. Asiatic Herpetological Research requests $25 US per printed page from authors with funds available. Please indicate if funds are available. Send manuscripts by postal mail to Editors, Asiatic Herpetological Research, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720-3160 USA. Send manuscripts by Internet email to asiaherp@berkeley.edu as a MIME attachment with binhex or uuencode encoding. If you use email to submit, an editor will acknowledge receipt of your manuscript. Please note that it is possible for your email message to disappear on the Internet without being delivered. If your mes- sage is returned, or not acknowledged, you may want to try again or to send your manuscript by postal mail.