Author Guidelines for Submitting Manuscripts to Zoological Research

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Published bimonthly, Zoological Research (ZR) is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open-access journal publishing original articles, review articles, research reports, letters to the editor, editorials and notes focusing on Primates and Animal Models, Conservation and Utilization of Animal Resources, and Animal Diversity and Evolution. To assist you in formatting your articles correctly for submission to Zoological Research, please use this attached guide.

PRESUBMISSION INQUIRIES

The editors strongly encourage authors who are interested in submitting work for potential publication in Zoological Research to send a presubmission inquiry prior to any formal manuscript submission. All presubmission inquiries should be sent via e-mail to zoores@mail.kiz.ac.cn.

Information in the presubmission inquiry should include: 1) an abstract, 2) the title, 3) the full author list (names and affiliations for corresponding author and all co-authors), and 4) a cover letter specifying the significance of the current study.  The authors are also encouraged to include the entire manuscript in their presubmission inquiry as this would be helpful for the editorial office to have a thorough evaluation.

 Regarding review articles, additional information should include: 1) a list of the most recent reviews on the topic and 2) a brief statement highlighting the distinctiveness of your review.

 The editors shall provide feedback within 48 hours. In the event of a positive response, you will be invited to submit your manuscript online @: https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/zr.

SUBMISSIONS

All paper submitted to Zoological Research must follow the submission instructions. Failure to do so may result in rejection of the manuscript or delays in publication. Please be aware that we only publish articles in English, and not Chinese. If you have a Chinese-language manuscript you are interested in publishing, please contact one of our editors and they can assist you in getting the article translated into English, which will then be polished by our English speaking editors. Manuscripts should submitted through our website at https://www.zoores.ac.cn/ or https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/zr.


FORMATTING

All papers should follow the standard format for Zoological Research and be double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1”inch margins. The paper should include the following elements:

1) A full title, no more than 250 characters;        

2) An abbreviated running title of around 50 characters which succinctly explains the purpose of the paper;

3) A cover letter or email, briefly explaining (a) the relevance of their research; (b) stating that the paper being submitted for publication must not have been published, accepted for publication, or be under consideration for publication, either in whole or in part, elsewhere in any other language; and (c) that all authors and co-authors agree to the paper’s submission to Zoological Research.

4) Any accompanying tables, figures or data the authors wish to have appended to the published paper. 

NOTE on Copyright: If tables, figures or other data have from another source, authors should submit a letter from the copyright holder granting authorization for use of the material. Authors may use their article elsewhere after publication provided that prior permission is obtained from the publisher.

PUBLICATION PROCESS

All articles undergo initial review by our editors and then are either sent out for peer-review or language editing if they are deemed acceptable. Following peer-review, the corresponding author is invited to return the revision within three weeks (for minor revision) or six weeks (for major revision) after receiving the reviewers’ and editors comments. If we or the reviewers recommend that your article could benefit from English-language editing, the editorial staff and the submitting author will jointly arrange the schedule with our English speaking editors, who will revise the language of the manuscript and then return it to the author for final review. Pending acceptance of this version, a final revision will be approved by our editorial staff and review board, and proofs will be sent to the corresponding author directly preceding publication. Acceptance of the final proof should be sent back to the editorial office as soon as possible, ideally within three days. 

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE (APC)

Papers submitted from 1 June 2022 will be subject to a new APC standard, based on article type, pages, and figures:

1) “Letter to the Editor”: a charge of 1 000 USD is required for papers up to and including three pages; a 100 USD surcharge (per page) is required for papers of four or more pages.

2) “Research Article” and “Review Article”: a charge of 1 500 USD is required for papers up to and including 10 pages; a 100 USD surcharge (per page) is required for papers between 11–15 pages (inclusive); a 200 USD surcharge (per page) is required for papers of 16 or more pages.

3) Regarding all article types, a 100 USD surcharge is required for each page containing color figures.

There are no charges for submission, supplementary data, or unsuccessful articles. Some items (Editorials, Comments, Research Highlights, Corrections, Addendums, Retractions, and Invited Contributions) are published free of charge.

For ZR updates regarding our new APC policy, please click the following link (https://www.zoores.ac.cn/news/policies/22_en.htm).

ETHICS

All submitted manuscripts should abide by ethical rules and the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals produced by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Human and animal experiments require full compliance with local, national, ethical, and regulatory principles, and local licensing arrangements and respective statements of compliance (or approvals of institutional ethical committees where such exists) should be included in the article text. The following statement should be included in the “Materials and methods” section: Ethical approval: “All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were strictly followed. All animal sample collection protocols complied with the current laws of XX (country name).” If applicable (where such a committee exists): “All animal procedures performed in this research were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or organization at which the study was conducted (include name of committee + permit number)”. The following information should be included in the “SCIENTIFIC FIELD SURVEY PERMISSION INFORMATION” section: permission/document/series numbers for conducting scientific field surveys and/or material transfer agreements. “COMPETING INTERESTS” and “AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS” sections should also be included.

STYLE & LENGTH

Generally manuscripts should be no longer than 15 000 words, including references and all figures and tables. Whenever possible, authors should try to avoid abbreviations or complex technical terminology. When needed, all abbreviations should be standard, abiding by common zoological and genetic nomenclature and using standard unit measurements (for standard gene names, authors can go to http://www.genenames.org/ or be redirected from PubMed-Gene; for human genome variation please visit http://varnomen.hgvs.org/). Authors are expected to register all new taxonomic names with ZooBank, the Official Registry of Zoological Nomenclature, after the manuscript has been accepted for publication. All nucleotide, genome sequencing and RNA-seq data should be submitted to the NCBI, GSA (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/gsa/), Science Data Bank (https://www.scidb.cn/en),  EMBLor DDBJ databases.

Generally document type like "Letter to the editor" should not exceed three publication pages (two pages would be preferable). Some related materials could be presented as online supplementary material. All manuscripts should contain the following information and be organizing in this order:    

I. Title Page   

The title page should include (i) full title of the paper, not to exceed 250 characters, (ii) full names of all authors with listings of their respective institutional affiliations, (iii) full postal, email, and telephone contact information for the corresponding author.   

II. Abstract   

Each paper should be preceded by an abstract of no more than 250 that presents the purpose, importance, basic methods and key findings of the research. Avoid using abbreviations, citations or references to other parts of the text whenever possible.   

III. Keywords   

Each papers should include around 5 keywords (for indexing), provided immediately below the abstract.  

IV. Text   

The main text of a manuscript should be organized into four parts:   

Introduction should summarize the rationale and give a concise background. Use references to provide the most salient background rather than an exhaustive review.  

Materials and methods provide technical information to allow the fieldwork or experiments to be repeated. Describe new methods or modifications and identify unusual instruments and procedures in detail.  

Results emphasize or summarize only important observations. Simple data may be set forth in the text without the need of tables and figures. This section can be combined with the discussion if needed.  

Discussion should deal with the interpretation of results that emphasizes any new and important aspect of the research as it relates to the broader field and scholarship. The discussion should also end with a brief conclusion, recapping the major findings and contributions of the paper.  

V. Competing interests  

Authors should state all financial and personal relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.  

VI. Author contributions  

Those with authorship credit must have made substantial contributions to the concept and design of the original research, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or draft of the article, or critical revision of intellectual content, or final authority for the approval of the article. Each author should have participated sufficiently to accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript.  

VII.Acknowledgment(s)  

Acknowledgements may indicate (a) contributors that do not warrant authorship; (b) technical help or assistance; and (c) material support. Foundation items should be put in the footnote of the first page.   

VIII.Tables and figures  

All tables and figures must be numbered consecutively by Arabic numerals based on the order they appear in the manuscript. Tables and figure legends should be combined with the main text as one file. Only high-quality drawings and original photographs (preferably as JPEG or TIFF files) suitable for reproduction can be accepted. Actual enlarging multiples or the length unit (bar, in μm or nm) should be marked in photos produced by microscopy. Three-line tables (no vertical line) are requested.  

IX.References  

Citations should appear in the text using the (Author, Year) system with corresponding references appearing at the end of the paper. Listed references should be complete and include all details. The full list should be collated at the end of the paper and arranged alphabetically by authors (then chronologically for authors). The first three authors of a paper should be listed, followed by et al. If originally published in Chinese or another non-European language, please translate the article title into English and provide a note at the end, denoting the original language, e.g., [in Chinese], [in Vietnamese], [in Marathi], etc. The EndNote referencing style file for ZR and its instructions can be downloaded from our website: https://www.zoores.ac.cn/news_list_en.htm?column=policies.

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST   

Please ensure all of the following elements are included in your final submission to our journal:

Cover letter / email specifying appropriate details

Title page with author information, corresponding author contact data, full & running titles

Abstract less than 250 words

Properly organized manuscript

Standardized abbreviations, measurements and nomenclature

Cross-checked references

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