Guidance for authors: general information

The journal Archives of natural history provides an avenue for the publication of papers on the history and bibliography of natural history in its broadest sense. Papers primarily concerned with nomenclatural matters, including conservation or rejection of names, or the designation of types, cannot be considered. Papers written by individuals who are not members of the Society for the History of Natural History are welcome. Short papers are published without charge, but when a paper exceeds ten printed pages, the charge to non-members (including members in arrears) will be £40 for each page beyond ten pages

Short notes of less than 1,500 words or three printed pages are welcome.

The intellectual property rights (copyright) pertaining to papers, short notes and book reviews will be assigned to the Society for the History of Natural History. Alternatively, authors who are unable by reason of their employment to assign these rights will be required to grant a licence to publish.

Instructions for authors
Instructions for authors (July 2011) are available as a pdf file. (You will require Adobe Acrobat version 6 at least). If you have any difficulty, or require the Instructions in another format, please contact the Honorary Editor.

Submission of copy and presentation

Submit two copies of the typescript and photocopies of illustrations to:

Honorary Editor, Archives of natural history, Society for the History of Natural History, c/o Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom.

Typescripts must be double spaced, including notes and references, on one side of A4 or equivalent sized paper. All pages must be numbered. All margins should be at least 25mm (1in) wide. Text, notes and references should be fully justified. The abstract and key words must be printed on a separate page, numbered serially with the rest of the paper

Divide long papers into sections with headings in capital letters and subheadings in lower case.

Type explanatory notes as endnotes not footnotes.

The total number of words, including references and notes, should be printed at the end of the typescript.

Sequence and format of papers. Follow the sequence and format of papers and short note in this issue.

Abstract and key words. An abstract, in English of not more than 200 words, on a separate page, must accompany each paper. Authors whose first language is not English may provide an abstract in their own language to follow the English abstract.

Provide not more than six key words (or very brief phrases), separated by n-dashes. These should not duplicate words or phrases in the title.

Short notes. Follow the title with the text, notes, acknowledgements and references, with headings in capital letters. No abstract or key words. The author’s name (in capital letters) and address are printed at the end.

Conventions
Whereas British English is preferred papers in which American English is used are acceptable. Quotations must follow the original source exactly, and spelling should not be amended. Authors should follow the Oxford dictionary for writers and editors for spelling and other format advice.

Titles of books and serial publications, both in text and references, should be in italics. Cite publications in the text in parentheses without a comma between author and date, for example (Nelson 1980a: 34, 1980b, 1980c), (Nelson 1980a; Lucas 2007: 208).

Short quotations should be enclosed in double quotation marks. Begin quotations longer than 50 words on a new line and indent without quotation marks.

Type dates as 17 March 1999, March 1999. Use words for numbers under twelve and Arabic numerals above, except at the beginning of sentences. Numbers above 999 should have commas, for example 10,267.

Abbreviations: Do not use: eg., etc., i.e., viz., but these are permitted:
    c. (for circa) or fl. (for floruit) before dates
    et al. (for publications by more than two authors)
    ms, mss, f., ff (in Notes)
    p., pp (in References).

Names of American states should be written in full.

Scientific and vernacular names: Species names of animals and plants are printed in italics. When a date is included in an authority the author’s name is followed by a comma, for example Linnaeus, 1758. The authorities for botanical names should follow R. K. Brummitt & C. E. Powell’s Authors of plant names, and may be abbreviated. Acronyms of herbaria should be in bold and be enclosed in parentheses, for example (DBN). Vernacular names of plants and animals should not have capital initials unless convention demands these, or they are in a quotation.

NOTES. Notes are for unpublished references and internet sources.

Cite personal communications in notes, dated and with the names of the individuals, for example,
    ¹ J. Cain to E. C. Nelson, pers. comm., 27 March 2002.

Citation of internet-based sources is discouraged because of their fleeting nature. Citations to internet materials are treated in the same manner as manuscripts, and must be placed in a numbered note: for citation of on-line dictionaries of biography and similar works, see below. Date when the site was first published and date of access are essential, for example,
    ² URL (accessed 8 March 2002): www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/cain/projects/diverse/diverse.htm (J. Cain, 2002 “Diversifying assessment in undergraduate history of science courses”).

REFERENCES. No initial capital for titles of papers, serial publications and books, except for proper names, for example, Archives of natural history but Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History. Do not cite works in preparation.

Example of full reference to journal articles and research papers:
    ANONYMOUS, 1845 Heathers in North America. The gardeners’ chronicle 4 May: 356.

Example of full reference to books: note: The place of publication is included but not the publisher’s name.
    BURKHARDT, F. and SMITH, S., 1991 The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Volume 7 1858–1859. Cambridge.

Example of on-line publications:
     DRAYTON, R., 2004 Lindley, John (1799–1865). Oxford dictionary of national biography. (URL: www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16674 accessed 15 February, 2006).

Example when a publication date is not explicit or the work is in press:
    EWEN, A. H. and PRIME, C. T. (editors), [1975] Ray’s flora of Cambridgeshire. Hitchin.

For more complex citations follow recent issues of Archives of natural history.

Illustrations should be provided as photocopies with the submitted paper. High quality electronic images on a CD-ROM, or original artwork, will be required only when a paper has been formally accepted. Authors who wish to include full-colour illustrations will be required to meet the cost of printing each colour page. The print area of a page in Archives of natural history is 20 × 13cm; this proportion should be kept in mind when preparing figures.

References to illustrations should be to Figure 1, etc. Acknowledgement of copyright and permission to reproduce an image should be included, for example:

    Figure 2. Magnolia campbellii; original painting in Chinese ink, 1988. © W. Williams (reproduced by courtesy of the artist).

Bibliographies. Follow the conventions regarding references and precedents in recent issues of Archives of natural history.

Final copy, proofs and corrections. Following acceptance, the final text is required in typescript and as an electronic file in the exact style of the Archives.

A PDF galley proof will be sent to the author(s) by the Honorary Editor who will send the corrected master electronic file to Edinburgh University Press. Final page proofs will be supplied to the author through the Press, again in PDF format. The only corrections permitted to the page proofs are those correcting errors in typography and layout. Page-proof corrections will not be accepted by e-mail.

All copy-edited papers for an issue will be sent to Edinburgh by 1 January (for part 1) and 1 July (for part 2). Final page-proofs will be issued by the Press by e-mail soon afterwards, and the issues will be published at the beginning of April (part 1) and October (part 2).

For more detailed instructions available in pdf format click here. Authors may also obtain a printed version by writing to the Honorary Editor at the address given above (see Submission of copy above).