ISSN 1676-0603 online version in portuguese
ISSN 1676-0611online version in spanish
ISSN 0102-8650 online version in english

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and editorial policy
• Preparation of manuscripts
• Sending the manuscripts

BIOTA NEOTROPICA is an electronic, peer-reviewed journal edited by the BIOTA/FAPESP Program: The Virtual Institute of Biodiversity. This journal's aim is to disseminate the results of original research work, associated or not to the program, concerned with characterization, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity within the Neotropical region.

BIOTA NEOTROPICA does not publish papers that include description of new species of taxonomic groups which Nomenclatural Code requires printed copies. Authors are responsible to check if the specific requirements of the Nomenclatural Code of the organism they are working with. If your taxonomic group does require printed copies of your publication you should look for another journal to submit your paper. From volume 13 (2013) onwards the production, and deposit in reference libraries, of the printed version of Biota Neotropica will be discontinued.

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that their content has not appeared, or will not be submitted, elsewhere in substantially the same form, because once published their copyrights are transferred to BIOTA NEOTROPICA as established in the Copyright Transfer Agreement signed by the author(s).

Since March 1st 2007 the Editorial Board of BIOTA NEOTROPICA established a charge per printed page. From 1st of January 2012 onwards this charge will be of US$ 25,00 (twenty five American dollars). This is the cost per page of PDF production. Payment details will be informed to authors at the final stages of the editing process, and should be paid directly to Cubomultimidia, company in charge of producing the PDFs for Biota Neotropica.

The submission of papers for publication in BIOTA NEOTROPICA is made EXCLUSIVELY through the site http://biota.submitcentral.com.br/login.php. Papers may be submitted in the following categories:

Articles (exclusively in English)
Inventories
Short Communications (exclusively in English)
Thematic Revisions (exclusively in English)
Taxonomic Revisions
Identification Keys

All papers accepted for publication in BIOTA NEOTROPICA must have a title, an abstract, and keywords in English and in Portuguese or Spanish. For more details please consult the item instructions for authors.

The institution responsible for the electronic publication of BIOTA NEOTROPICA is the BIOTA/FAPESP Program: The Virtual Institute of Biodiversity with support from the National Center for High-Performance Processing/CENAPAD-SP, based in Campinas, São Paulo. BIOTA NEOTROPICA is published only online via the Internet using the World Wide Web as a platform.

Papers that only report a new occurrence of one or more species in a region where its presence would be expected, but the record had not been done before, are not eligible for publication in BIOTA NEOTROPICA.

BIOTA NEOTROPICA publishes four numbers per year. Therefore, all papers accepted by the "ad hoc" referees and by the Editorial Board by March 31 will be included in number 1 of the current year; all papers accepted by the "ad hoc" referees and by the Editorial Board by June 30 will be included in number 2, papers accepted by September 30 will be part of number 3, and papers accepted by December 31 will be part of number 4 of the year.

All papers submitted for publication in BIOTA NEOTROPICA will be assessed at least two "ad hoc" referees. BIOTA NEOTROPICA uses the anonymous peer review process, i.e. author(s) will not have access to the identity of the referees. Once articles are accepted, they will be published in the issue in progress.

This publication is sponsored by the State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation/FAPESP through the BIOTA/FAPESP Program.

Online submission and review of manuscripts is now mandatory for all types of paper. Please prepare your manuscript following the instructions for authors given below before submitting it online at http://biota.submitcentral.com.br/login.php. If submission is completed successfully, a manuscript ID will appear on screen and an e-mail acknowledgement will follow.

All subsequent correspondence should be sent to the Managing Editor, Tiago E. M. Duque Estrada at tiagode@unicamp.br.

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that their content has not appeared, or will not be submitted, elsewhere in substantially the same form, because once published their copyrights are transferred to BIOTA NEOTROPICA as established in the Copyright Transfer Agreement signed by the author(s).

BIOTA NEOTROPICA publishes eight types of papers, from which only Editorials are written by the Editorial Commission or by an invited researcher, and have therefore distinct rules of submission.

Papers submitted in the categories Article, Thematic Review or Short Communication must be written entirely in English. Along with the English version author(s) should also submit Title, Abstract and Keywords in Portuguese or Spanish. Authors are responsible for the correct use of English, and it is strongly recommended that the review of the final manuscript is made by specialized services, such as American Journal Experts/AJE, Nature Publishing Group Language Editing or Edanz. If the Editorial Board considers that English does not meet the standards of the journal a paper may be refused, even after being approved by the Area Editor.

Since 1st of January 2011 [(volume 11(1)] paper submitted as Article, Thematic Revision or Short Communication must be written in English. Together with the manuscript author(s) must submit a version in Portuguese or Spanish of the Title, the Summary and the Keywords.

Papers submitted as Point of View, Identification Key, Inventory or Taxonomic Reviews can be written in English, Portuguese or Spanish, but with complementary versions of titles, abstract and key-words in English when originally written in Portuguese or Spanish or in Portuguese when written in English.

Publication Policy

BIOTA NEOTROPICA appears four times a year and publishes original research papers on all aspects of Neotropical biodiversity characterization, conservation, restoration and sustainable use. We aim to bring important work on Neotropical biodiversity to a wide international audience and therefore only publish papers that transcend the limits of case studies. Both experimental and theoretical studies are accepted, as are descriptive or historical accounts, although these must offer insights into issues of general interest.

Papers should have a broad interest, and submissions of reports that break new ground or advance our understanding of Neotropical biodiversity are particularly welcomed.

All submissions will be assessed by one or more editors to determine whether they fall within the broad remit of BIOTA NEOTROPICA and meet the above-mentioned requirements. Papers that do not fulfill these criteria are likely to be rejected without review. This reduces the burden on both the refereeing community and the editorial system and enables authors to submit, without delay, to another journal. After this initial screening, all types of papers are subject to peer review and authors can expect a decision, or an explanation for the delay, within three months of receipt. If a revision is requested, the correspondence author should submit the revised manuscript within twp months. Otherwise, revisions may be treated as new submissions and sent for further evaluation by new referees, unless there are special reasons for prolonged delay agreed, in advance, with the editor.

Types of papers

Here is presented a brief description of what the Editorial Commission understands by each type of paper:

Editorial

For each volume of BIOTA NEOTROPICA, the Editor-in-Chief can invite a researcher to write an Editorial paper on relevant themes, both from scientific and policies on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in Neotropical region point of views. This Editorial, with no more than 3000 words, must be written in English.

Point of View

This section will serve as forum to academic discussion of relevance to the Journal. In this section the researcher must write a short manuscript expressing in a provocative way his (her) points of view on the theme chosen. The Editorial Commission may publish reply or considerations of other researchers stimulating the discussion on the theme. The content inside each Point of View and of all responses to it is of full responsibility of their authors.

Articles

Articles are submitted spontaneously by their authors in the System of Submission of the Journal at http://biota.submitcentral.com.br/login.php. Starting on volume 11 all articles must have their full version submitted exclusively in English, with versions of Title, Abstract and Keywords also in Portuguese or Spanish. The manuscript must bring new data, not published or submitted to publication, in part or entirely, in other journals or books, and must be results of research in characterization, conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in Neotropical region. It is expected that the manuscript elaborates on a theme of scientific interest inside the scope of the Journal, includes a review of the specialized bibliography of the theme, and discuss with other recent papers published on international literature.

Thematic Reviews

Thematic Reviews also are submitted spontaneously by their authors in the System of Submission of the Journal. Starting on volume 11 all articles must have their full version submitted exclusively in English, with versions of Title, Abstract and Keywords also in Portuguese or Spanish. It is expected that this kind of manuscript manages to systemize the development of concept or scientific theme related to the scope of the journal based on the essential references to the understanding of the theme of review and includes also recent publications on the matter.

Short Communications

Those are short articles spontaneously submitted by their authors, starting on volume 11 all articles must have their full version submitted exclusively in English, with versions of Title, Abstract and Keywords also in Portuguese or Spanish. The manuscript must bring new data, not published or submitted to publication, in part or entirely, in other journals or books, and must be results of research in characterization, conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in Neotropical region. It is expected that the manuscript indicates in a succinct way a new component in the themes of scientific interest related to the scope of BIOTA NEOTROPICA based on recent literature.

Papers that bring only the register of a species in an area not reported before, but within its expected distribution ranger, will not be considered for publication in BIOTA NEOTROPICA.

Identification Keys

Identification Keys are submitted spontaneously by their authors in the System of Submission of the Journal. Due their importance at local and regional level they may be submitted on their full version in Portuguese, Spanish or English, with Titles, Abstract and Keywords in Portuguese or Spanish, if the full version in English. If the full version is in Portuguese or Spanish, an English version of Titles, Abstract and Keywords must be submitted. It is expected that the manuscript elaborate in the best possible way the taxonomic group that is being characterized by the Identification Key. It must be solidly based on taxonomic literature of the group.

Inventories

Inventories are submitted spontaneously by their authors in the System of Submission of the Journal. Due their importance at local and regional level they may be submitted on their full version in Portuguese, Spanish or English, with Titles, Abstract and Keywords in Portuguese or Spanish, if the full version in English. If the full version is in Portuguese or Spanish, an English version of Titles, Abstract and Keywords must be submitted. The manuscript must bring new data, not published or submitted to publication, in part or entirely, in other journals or books, and must be results of research in characterization, conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in Neotropical region. It is also expected that the manuscript presents not only the list of species, but also the criteria used by authors (taxocenose, guild, locality etc.), the method used and the geographical coordinates of the studied area. It must be strongly based on the best taxonomic literature available for the group, and must inform clearly the institution where testimony specimens are deposited.

Taxonomic Reviews

Taxonomic Reviews are submitted spontaneously by their authors in the System of Submission of the Journal. Due their importance at local and regional level they may be submitted on their full version in Portuguese, Spanish or English, with Titles, Abstract and Keywords in Portuguese or Spanish, if the full version in English. If the full version is in Portuguese or Spanish, an English version of Titles, Abstract and Keywords must be submitted. The manuscript must bring new data, not published or submitted to publication, in part or entirely, in other journals or books, and must be results of research in characterization, conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity in Neotropical region. It is expected that the manuscript elaborate extensively on information about the taxon reviewed, elucidate the major taxonomic issues, and highlight the importance and necessity of the review. It must be solidly based on taxonomic historical and recent literature of the group, and must inform clearly the institution where the testimony specimens are deposited.

The submission

The submission system of BIOTA NEOTROPICA (http://biota.submitcentral.com.br/login.php) uses a 6 steps process:

Step 1 - Title, Abstract and Keywords (in English) are inserted. The abstract must have not more then 350 words, and at least 3 keywords are required. Authors may consult a list of keywords used in papers published in previous numbers of BIOTA NEOTROPICA.

Step 2 - Register of authors of the manuscript. It is possible to check if co-authors are previously registered in the system reducing the time to fill the affiliation's fields in the form. It is required special attention for the selection of the corresponding author/co-author, because he or she must be available during the whole time of editorial process of the paper.

Step 3 - At this step it is necessary to suggest, at least 4 and a maximum of 6, potential reviewers for the manuscript, including at least two from foreign institutions, preferably from English speaking countries. All names suggested must be followed by the institutional affiliation of the nominees and the respective e-mail for correspondence. Referees suggested may or may not be selected by the Editorial Commission.

Authors may also list referees that they DO NOT want to review their manuscript. These will not be indicated by Editors to participate in the editorial process of the paper.
Step 4 - This is an extremely important step of the submission process. It is the one where all the files related to the manuscript must be inserted in the system. We strongly suggest careful reading of the topic "Files Formatting" in this instruction for more details on the subject.

Step 5 - This is another important step in the process. It is where the authors are going to characterize the manuscript. The type of manuscript, the area of knowledge and a checklist of the previous steps to see if they were correctly done. This step is finalized with the submission of an optional letter to the Editorial Board.

It is important to highlight that in this step the authors will produce the Copyright Transfer Agreement that must be printed and signed, and then sent by mail. Authors must also agree with the fee established for printed page. The no agreement with copyrights transference and fee payments will stop the publishing process. To be possible to offer free access to articles, and download of them, since March 1st, 2007 the Editorial Board of BIOTA NEOTROPICA has established the fee for published page. Starting January 1st, 2011 this fee is US$ 25.00 for Page printed and published in the Volume 11 number 1.

1) Final step of revision and conclusion of submission.

Manuscripts that are in accordance with the rules will be sent by the Chief Editor to Associate Editors, which will select at least two reviewers. The Associate Editors are responsible for evaluation of the manuscript, sending feedback to authors and reformulated versions of the work to the reviewers. Once all requirements and recommendations made by reviewers and the Associate Editors are met, the manuscript is preliminarily accepted and forwarded to the Chief Editor. It is for the Editor in Chief, in agreement with the Editorial Board, to finally accept the paper. These rules apply to papers in all categories whose manuscripts are submitted spontaneously.

Once the paper is definitely accepted, the Portuguese or Spanish and the English versions of the Abstract will be published on the current online volume of BIOTA NEOTROPICA, but before that the authors will do a final review of the Summary / Abstract, Keywords, institutional affiliations and the author for correspondence. Simultaneously with the online availability of Abstracts, the final versions of files are sent, by the Editor in Chief, to Cubomultimídia that will produce the PDF. It is vital that authors insert in Submission System the definitive version of the work (including text, tables and figures), incorporating the latest changes / corrections suggested by reviewers and/or the Associate Editor, because it is this version that will be forwarded by the Editor in Chief to Cubomultimidia. All the care took in this step will significantly reduce the need for changes in the proofs of the manuscript.

Before being published, all manuscripts will be formatted in accordance with established standards by the Editorial Board for each category. Images and tables will be diagrammed and included in the final text according to the standards previously established. The editors reserve the right to include electronic links only to internal references to figures and tables cited in the text, as well as the inclusion of an index, when appropriate. During the proof phase, a PDF file with the final format will be presented to the author for prior approval before publication. It is still reserved to the publishers, the right to use images of works published for the graphic design of the site, always with correct information of authorship.

Files preparation

The manuscripts must be sent in DOC or RTF format (MS Word for Windows version 6.0 or higher). All texts should use Times New Roman font, size 10, and for Titles and subtitles use size 12. Bold, italics, underline, subscript and superscript can be used where appropriate, but refrain te excessive use of these resources. In special cases (see formula below) can be used the following sources: Courier New, Symbol and Wingdings. Articles may have hyperlinks that the author deems appropriate. The inclusion of electronic links is encouraged by editors to make the manuscript richer. Links must be included using the resources available in MS-Word for it.

During submission, the manuscript sent to the BIOTA NEOTROPICA must be divided into two files: a file containing the entire text of the manuscript, including the main body of the text (first page, abstract, introduction, material, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments and references) and tables, with titles in Portuguese and English; and a second file containing the figures and their captions in Portuguese and English. It is essential that the author check the files carefully whether the figures, graphs or tables are effectively in the desired format. Detailed descriptions of the two files follow.

Main Document

The main part of the document, including title, abstract, and keywords in Portuguese or Spanish and English, bibliographic references tables and figure legends should be in a single file named Principal.rtf or Principal.doc Figures should not be included in this file. The manuscript must be in the following format:

Title: concise and informative

Titles must be in English and in Portuguese or Spanish, using capital letters only in the first word and in those for which there are specific orthographic or scientific rules

Running title
Author(s)

Complete name of author(s); institution(s) and full address, whenever possible with electronic links to the institution. Please designate the corresponding author and respective email.

Abstract

Abstracts shall have a maximum of 350 words.

Title in English and in Portuguese or Spanish

Abstract in English

Keywords in English

Title in Portuguese or Spanish

Abstract in Portuguese or Spanish

Keywords in Portuguese or Spanish

Keywords should be separated by coma and should not repeat words already used in the title. Capital letters should be used only in words for which there are specific orthographic or scientific rules

Main body of the manuscript

1. Sections

If the text is an article, short communication, inventory or identification key, it must have the following structure:

Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgments
References

Results and Discussion may be merged into a single section. Do not use footnotes, include the information directly on the text as this makes reading easier and reduces the number of electronic links of the manuscript.

2. Special cases

In the case of Inventories a list of species, environments, descriptions, pictures, etc. must be sent separately so they can be organized in accordance with specific formatting. In the case of Identification Keys, the key must be sent separately so that it can be adequately formatted. In the case of referencing collected material it is mandatory to include the geographic coordinate in degrees, minutes, and seconds (Ex. 24°32'75" S e 53°06'31" W). In the case of endangered species only degrees and minutes should be mentioned.

3. Subtitles

The titles of each section should not be numbered; initial letters should be capital and should be in bold (Ex. Introduction, Material and Methods etc. ). Only 2 subtitle levels are accepted after the title of each section. Only one numbering level is permitted as well as only one level of items. Titles and subtitles must be numbered using Arabic numbers followed by a dot (".") in order to help in identifying the hierarchy when formatting the document. (Example: 1. subtitle; 1.1. sub subtitle)

4. Bibliographic references

Include bibliographic citations in accordance to the following standard:

Silva (1960) or (Silva 1960);

Silva (1960, 1973);

Silva (1960a, b);

Silva & Pereira (1979) or (Silva & Pereira 1979);

Silva et al. (1990) or (Silva et al. 1990);

(Silva 1989, Pereira & Carvalho 1993, Araujo et al. 1996, Lima 1997).

Unpublished data shall be cited as (A.E. Silva, unpublished data).

In the case of taxonomic material, for citation, follow specific rules of the type of organism studied.

5. Numbers and units

When referring to numbers or units, write numbers up to nine, unless when followed by a unit of measure. For decimal numbers use commas "," when the article is in Portuguese (10,5 m) and point "." when the article is in English (10.5 m). Use the International System Units (SI), separating the units from the value with a space (except in the case of percentages, degrees, minutes and seconds); use abbreviations always when possible. For compost units use exponentials and not bars (Ex.: mg.day-1 instead of mg/day, µmol.min-1 instead of µmol/min). Do not add spaces to change the line if a unit does not fit in the line.

6. Formulas

Formulas that can be written in a single line, even when it is necessary to use special types of letter (Symbol, Courier New e Wingdings), should be included in the text (Ex. a = p.r² or Na₂HPO, etc.). Formulas of any other kind, or equations, should be considered as a figure and follow their standards.

7. Figures and tables references

Figures and Tables should me mentioned as Figure 1, Table 1, etc.

8. References

Adopt the following format:

SMITH, P.M. 1976. The chemotaxonomy of plants. Edward Arnold, London.

SNEDECOR, G.W. & COCHRAN, W.G. 1980. Statistical Methods. 7 ed. Iowa State University Press, Ames.

SUNDERLAND, N. 1973. Pollen and anther culture. In Plant tissue and cell culture (H.F. Street, ed.). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, p.205-239.

BENTHAM, G. 1862. Leguminosae. Dalbergiae. In Flora Brasiliensis (C.F.P. Martius & A.G. Eichler, eds.). F. Fleischer, Lipsiae, v.15, pars 1, p.1-349.

MANTOVANI, W., ROSSI, L., ROMANIUC NETO, S., ASSAD-LUDEWIGS, I.Y., WANDERLEY, M.G.L., MELO, M.M.R.F. & TOLEDO, C.B. 1989. Estudo fitossociológico de áreas de mata ciliar em Mogi-Guaçu, SP, Brasil. In Simpósio sobre mata ciliar (L.M. Barbosa, coord.). Fundação Cargil, Campinas, p.235-267.

FERGUSON, I.B. & BOLLARD, E.G. 1976. The movement of calcium in woody stems. Ann. Bot. 40:1057-1065.

STRUFFALDI-DE VUONO, Y. 1985. Fitossociologia do estrato arbóreo da floresta da Reserva Biológica do Instituto de Botânica de São Paulo, SP. PhD Thesis, University of São Paulo, São Paulo.

FISHBASE. http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm (último acesso em dd/mmm/aaaa)

Periodical titles must be abbreviated in accordance to the "World List of Scientific Periodicals" (http://library.caltech.edu/reference/abbreviations/) or the National Catalog/CCN-IBICT (http://ccn.ibict.br/busca.jsf).

How to cite papers published in BIOTA NEOTROPICA

ROQUE, F.O.; CORREIA, L.C.S.; TRIVINHO-STRIXINO, S. & STRIXINO, G. 2004. A review of Chironomidae studies in lentic systems in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Biota Neotrop. 4(2): http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v4n2/pt/abstract?article+BN0310402200 (last access in day/month/year)

Each paper published in BIOTA NEOTROPICA has an individual electronic address that appears just below the name(s) of the author(s) in the PDF version of the paper. This individual code is composed by the number received by the manuscript when submitted (031 in the above example), the volume number (04), the fascicle number (02) and the year (2004).

9. Tables

Table titles of papers in Portuguese or Spanish must be bilingual - Portuguese/Spanish and English - so that foreigner readers can understand the data presented.

10. Figures

Figures, when a manuscript is first submitted, should be of low resolution, to allow an easy transmission and download of attached files by ad hoc referees that not always have a high speed internet connection available. All figures should be in one "Zipfile" with no more than 2 Mbytes. The size of the image must, when possible, have a proportion of 3x2 or 2x3 between height and width.

Texts inserted within the figures must use sans-seriff fonts such as Arial or Helvética for a better readability. Figures that in reality are a composition of various others must be sent, each part, as a separate file indicated by letters (Ex: Figure1a.gif, Figure 2a.gif, etc.) Use bar scales to indicate the size. Figures should not have legends; these must be specified in a separate file (see below). Authors are encouraged to open all figure files before submission, and check whether all (photos, graphics, maps, drawings, etc.) are in the correct format.

Once the manuscript is accepted for publication all figures must be sent with the best resolution possible, directly to Cubomultimidia, the company responsible for the production of our PDFs.

11. Legends

Figure legends should be part of the Principal.rtf or Principal.doc file. Each legend must be contained in a paragraph and must be clearly identified in the beginning of the paragraph as Figure N, where N is the number of the figure. Composite figures may or not have independent legends. If a table has a legend, this must be included in this file, in a separate paragraph that begins with Table N, where N is the number of the table. Figure legends of papers in Portuguese or Spanish must be bilingual - Portuguese/Spanish and English - so that foreigner readers can understand the data presented.

Papers to be considered for publication in BIOTA NEOTROPICA should be submitted only through the manuscript submission site http://biota.submitcentral.com.br/login.php?lingua=en

All material sent in accordance to the instructions will be revised by at least two "ad hoc" referees selected by the Editorial Board. The comments made by the referees will be sent, without identification, to the author(s). The final acceptance of the article will depend on the decision of the Editorial Board.