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Guidance for authors

Research on any aspect of mammal biology is accepted, particularly on British and European mammals, and papers that evaluate the current or develop new research into survey and monitoring techniques.

Otter by Sophie Hall

All articles are peer reviewed prior to publication on the website.

The following guidelines should help guide authors in the preparation of their work for submission as a Mammal Communication, in order to be considered for publication:

Presentation

  • Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout with margins of 25 mm.

  • Text should be 12 point Times New Roman font.

  • Use UK English when proofing.

  • Tables, figures and their legends should be at the end of the manuscript. Their preferred location within the text may be indicated. Footnotes should be avoided.

  • Please ensure that graphs will be legible at the width they are likely to be reproduced: 9 cm if fitted into a single column, 18cm if full page width.

  • Tables should be editable and created in Word not pasted in Excel or other formats.

  • Pages and lines should be numbered.

Submission of papers

  • Please email mamcoms@themammalsociety.org with the heading ‘Mammal Communications Submission’

  • All elements (tables and figures) should be contained in a single file (.doc or .docx only). Files will be converted to PDF for upload to the website.

  • All files should be formatted to minimize memory use to facilitate transmission by email and be no larger than 3Mb except by prior arrangement with the Editor. Graphics can be compressed using standard software before being pasted into documents as pictures or .jpg rather than .tif or .bmp.

  • The title of the file should include the correspondence author’s surname and one or two keywords.

Scope

  • Short research papers on European Mammals or any aspect of mammal research to investigate or evaluate innovative surveys and research techniques are particularly welcomed.

  • Contributors are urged to make their subject matter as concise as possible.

  • Articles should be no longer than 2000 words, including abstract, plus references and tables.

  • All submissions should include a title page and a list of references.

Title page

  • The title should include the name and address of all authors.

  • The correspondence author should be clearly identified and should give an email address.

  • The title should be concise and informative.

  • Five keywords should be provided.

  • The total word count including all text, references and tables, should be provided.

Conventions

  • All scientific names should be italicized.

  • Names of families and orders are not italicized.

  • Normal, lower case typescript should be used for common names.

  • Numbers should be spelled out up to nine where they are used to qualify an object; otherwise, and for numbers above nine, they should be given as numerals.

  • Units of measurement may be spelled in full or spelled in full on the first usage and then consistently abbreviated.

  • Where abbreviations are used for units there should be a non-breaking space (Ctrl+Shift+space) between numeral and unit. 19 ha not 19ha

  • Line numbers should be provided.

References

  • All cited sources should be listed at the end of the manuscript, before figures and tables, ordered alphabetically by author.

  • Due to space restrictions please keep to key references only.

  • For joint authors ‘&’ should be used in both text and references.

  • For two authors, names should be spelled out in full at the first mention and thereafter the first name and et al. should be used.

  • Where more than two authors are responsible use et al. in the text but give all the authors in the references.

  • Reference to papers in the text should be as (Jones 1972) or ‘Jones (1972) said‘.

  • For multiple authors in the list of references, initials come last Cassini, M.H. & Krebs, J.R. not Cassini, M.H. & J.R. Krebs. Use ampersand (&) rather than the word ‘and’. Long lists of names should be separated by commas: e.g. Brainerd, S.M., Helldin, J.O., Lindström, E.R., Rolstad, E., Rolstad, J. & Storch, I.

  • Journal titles to be written out in full. Book, Journal and Report names to be in italics. Titles of journal articles in normal font with italics for species names.

Example of journal reference:

Croose, E., Birks, J.D.S. & Martin, J. (2016) Den boxes as a tool for pine marten Martes martes conservation and population monitoring in a commercial forest in Scotland. Conservation Evidence 13: 57 – 61.

Example of report reference:

Mathews, F., Kubasiewicz, L.M., Gurnell, J., Harrower, C.A., McDonald, R.A. & Shore, R.F. (2018) A Review of the Population and Conservation Status of British Mammals: Technical Summary. A report by the Mammal Society under contract to Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage. Natural England, Peterborough.

Example of book reference:

Teerink, B.J. (1991) Hair of West-European Mammals: Atlas and Identification. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Example of web reference:

GWCT (2018) National Gamebag Census. Available at: https://www.gwct.org.uk/research/long-termmonitoring/national-gamebag-census/ [Accessed 12 September 2018]