The journal publishes contributions from all of the disciplines of biological and applied environmental sciences. Full-length contributions, checklists, reviews, short communication and book reviews are published in English only. Manuscripts submitted are reviewed critically by at least two referees selected in the field of the manuscript subject. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for all decisions regarding publication and a decision will be made in consultation with an Associate Editor. Authors should assure that their manuscript in whole or in part is not copyrighted, published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
Preparation of manuscripts
Before submitting a manuscript, authors should check to ensure that the following instructions have been carefully followed. Manuscripts prepared in a style different from that of the journal will be returned for correction before review. All manuscripts must be written throughout in English. Authors are strongly encouraged to have their manuscripts language checked before submission. The text must be carefully checked for grammatical and typing errors to avoid correction in the proof. All tables and images should also be carefully checked. Manuscripts must be prepared in 12-point font size, Times New Roman, 1.5- spaced throughout, except for headings and subheadings which must be typed in 14-point bold font with a left hand margin of 4 cm and a right-hand margin of 2 cm. Do not right justify the text. Use upper and lower case for headings and names. References within the text body are cited by the author name and year system.
Structure of the text body
General
Full-length papers should be organized into Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References and Tables and Figure legends. Keywords and a running title must be typed after the abstract. A running title of not more than 50 characters, including spaces, must be provided.
Author' names and Addresses
Use the full first name, middle initial and surname for each author. For example: Smith B. Williams or Abdul-Rahman Y. Al-Jundi. Use the ampersand "&" instead of "and" before the name of the last author. Insert uppercase number 1 after the full name of the first author to indicate his/ her address in the next line. Use consecutive numbers for other authors when their addresses are different from the first author. Insert uppercase asterisk "*" after the name of the corresponding author in case of more than one authorship in the paper. Give the full mailing address of authors and the e-mail of the corresponding author.
Use the full first name, middle initial and surname for each author. For example: Smith B. Williams or Abdul-Rahman Y. Al-Jundi. Use the ampersand "&" instead of "and" before the name of the last author. Insert uppercase number 1 after the full name of the first author to indicate his/ her address in the next line. Use consecutive numbers for other authors when their addresses are different from the first author. Insert uppercase asterisk "*" after the name of the corresponding author in case of more than one authorship in the paper. Give the full mailing address of authors and the e-mail of the corresponding author.
Abstract
The abstract must summarize what has been done and its significance. It must be subjective (factual), not indicative, i.e., statements such as "the results of the experiment are described, and the significance noted" tell us nothing. A concise abstract of not more than 250 words for full-length papers, checklists and reviews should be provided. The content of the title must not be repeated. Do not give authorities for species/genus names in the abstract. Avoid citing references, tables and figures in the abstract section.
Keywords
Four to seven keywords, representing the main content of the article, must be provided.
ntroduction
The introduction must define the problem within the context of existing knowledge. Ensure that those not working in your particular field are able to understand the objectives of the work. For taxonomic papers, all Latin binominals should have the correct authorities quoted at their first citation or at some convenient point such as a list of species. For non-taxonomic manuscripts describing work on one or a few species, however, authorities need be given only for the species studied but not for species in cited references. The preferred location for these authorities is the Materials and methods. Examples of referring to references in the introduction (as well as in the materials and methods and the discussion) include: Williams (2014) or (Williams, 2014), Jones & Adam (2015) or (Jones & Adam, 2015) and Barnett et al. (2016) or (Barnett et al., 2016). Do not use italics for any word or abbreviation except for the scientific names.
Materials and methods
Be as concise as possible but with sufficient detail to enable others to repeat your work.
Results
Only material pertinent to the subject may be included. Data must not be repeated in figures and tables. Naming of new species must follow ‘International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria for animals, plants, algae, fungi and bacteria. Any species de novo must be deposited in a well known museum or herbarium with a reference to its serial number(s) there. For deposited samples and sequences submitted to GenBank, the accession numbers need to be mentioned here. SI units should be used throughout. However, litre and molar are permitted. Abbreviations such as sec, cc or hr should be avoided.’
Discussion
This part should interpret the results in relation to the problem outlined in the Introduction. The Discussion should place the results within the context of the broad scientific discipline of the study. The Results section may be combined with the Discussion only in certain manuscripts such as checklists or reviews.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements may be used to credit sources of significant support, technical assistance, critical reviews of the manuscript and financial support, but should be as concise as possible.
References
The references section must contain an alphabetical list of all published works cited in the manuscript. All works in the list of references must have an author, date, title, full details of publication and page numbers. Citation of transliterated or translated titles must include an indication of the original language, e.g. in Arabic.
Examples:
Articles in journals:
Gabriels, W.; Lock, K.; De Pauw, N. & Goethals, P.L.M. (2010). Multimetric macroinvertebrate index Flanders (MMIF) for biological assessment of rivers and lakes in Flanders (Belgium). Limnologica, 40: 199-207.
Books:
Sze, P. (1998). A biology of the algae, 3rd edition. WCB/McGraw-Hill, Boston, 278 pp.
Chapters in books:
Uden, N. & Fell, J.W. (1968). Marine yeasts. In: Droop, M.R. & Wood, E.F. (eds.) Advances in microbiology of the sea. Acad. Press, London: 167-201.
Online articles with DOI:
Smales, L.R.; Al-Hasson, H.A.H.; Al-Niaeem, K.S. & Al-Azizz, S.A. (2016). A new species of Neorhadinorhynchus (Acanthocephala: Cavisomidae) from Platax teira (Ephippidae) from Iraqi marine waters. Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., 140(1): 90-95. DOI:10.1080/03721426.2015.1115458.
Websites:
WoRMS (2016). World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org. (Accessed 31 March 2016).
M. Sc or Ph. D. thesis:
Al-Salmany, S.O.K. (2015). Parasitic infections of some fish species from Euphrates River at Al-Qaim city, Anbar province. M. Sc. Thesis, Coll. Sci., Univ. Tikrit: 193 pp. (In Arabic).
Article within a conference proceeding:
Abdullah, S.M.A. & Mhaisen, F.T. (2011). Some ecological aspects of the crustacean Ergasilus barbi parasitizing gills of Liza abu from Greater Zab and Lesser Zab rivers in north of Iraq. Second Sci. Conf. Biol. Scs., Coll. Sci., Univ. Mosul, Mosul: 16-17 Nov. 2011: 145-152.
Figures
Figures must be numbered in Arabic numerals consecutively as they are mentioned in the text. Legends of figures must be typed together as a list on a separate page. Magnifications should be given as bar lines in the figure and defined in the legend. Photographic illustrations may be mounted as plates, but must be clearly marked with the figure number and divided by white lines not more than 2 mm wide. Lettering of all figures should be uniform in style. Do not embed figures within the text body of submitted manuscripts. Submit figures separately in a generic graphics format (e.g., jpeg, eps or tiff, minimum resolution 300 dpi). Photographs must be of good contrast as there is a loss of contrast in printing. Authors are encouraged to submit illustrations in color if necessary for their scientific content.
Tables
Tables must be numbered in Arabic numerals followed by the title. Additional explanations should be shown as footnotes directly under the table. No vertical lines will be printed. Each table should be printed on a separate manuscript page with its legend.
Cover letter
A cover letter must be sent to the editor providing a justification for considering their article for publication and to describe the manuscript’s contribution to the field and the suitability of the manuscript to this particular journal.
Reviewing of manuscripts
Submitted papers will be reviewed independently by at least two reviewers selected either by the Editor-in-Chief, or by an Associate Editor. The corresponding author will be informed directly when a decision has been made on manuscript acceptability. Papers subject to revision must be returned within one month after the author has been notified.
Proofs
After typesetting, the corresponding author will receive proof of the manuscript. The proof should be carefully checked for printer’s errors and returned within three working days.
