Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Journal of Melittology publishes articles in all areas of melittology. We welcome manuscripts presenting significant and original results that expand the understanding and public awareness of bees. Papers should employ a multi-family classification of Anthophila such as that used by Michener (2007), or provide a strong rationale for why an alternative family classification is used. We encourage potential authors to discuss any possible manuscript with one of the editors prior to submission to make certain the paper is, 1) appropriate for the journal, and 2) composed properly (e.g., proper style, proper English, &c.). This will avoid undue delays for any paper and avoid rejection on the grounds of unsuitability. Contributions follow several formats:

Articles: Regular articles can be of any length and report important additions to melittology. They should include an abstract that summarizes the results and their implications. Typically the abstract should not be more than 300 words in length, although exceptions can be made for this. Abstracts are only printed in English, but alternative language abstracts may be placed online.

Brief Communications: Brief communications are short articles reporting new data or ideas. They should be 10 or fewer typed, single-spaced pages (including literature cited) and include no more than 2 figures and/or 2 tables. They should include abstracts no longer than 3 sentences. In some instances, brief communications may be delayed in publication to be published along with other short articles all at once and in the same issue number. They follow the format of normal issues for the journal. Refer to recent issues of Brief Communications for formatting.

Reviews / Commentaries: Reviews provide a current synthesis of a particular topic and suggest future directions for the field. Commentaries express wholly new points of view or set out speculations based on scholarly review of recently published works. They must go beyond the works being reviewed and include discussions of new directions, new syntheses, and/or resolutions to old questions. These contributions will normally be solicited, but authors may submit proposals to the Editors.

Historical / Biographical / Popular Notes: These contributions provide information or comments on the history of melittology, significant contributors to melittology, or popular accounts designed to engage or education the public about some aspect of melittology. These contributions will normally be contributed or solicited by the Editors, but authors may submit proposals to the Editors.

Books / Media Reviews: Reviews evaluate recently published books or monographs, or media (e.g., CDs), and set the reviewed work in the context of the field. Book/media Reviews are ONLY solicited by the editors and the journal will not consider unsolicited submissions in this category.

GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Manuscripts follow the style and format of recent articles published in the Journal of Melittology. Do not use embedded formatting in MS Word (headings styles, &c.), as use of these will delay production and publication. Mathematical expressions must be clearly typed; leave two blank lines before and after each equation. Text Standard section titles include, but are not limited to: Introduction, Material and Methods, Systematics (or Systematic Paleontology), Discussion, Acknowledgements (optional), and References. Section titles may be altered to best fit the contents of a give paper, although the right to impose these specific section headings falls to the Editors. Section headings should be centered and separated from text by a space. Secondary headings are indented, separated from text by a colon, and printed in caps+small caps.  Titles may not contain the names of authors of taxa.

Taxonomic papers should strictly conform to the latest edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Papers submitted under alternative “codes” will not be considered for review. Authors should NOT register and generate ZooBank LSIDs for their papers and taxa as this is automatically a process of the production of papers in the journal. Taxonomic descriptions must be in telegraphic style, i.e., with minimal use of articles and verbs. Descriptions of new taxa (at any categorical rank) must include a diagnosis, description, etymology, and designation of types (type genus, type species, holotype, &c.). Type material must be deposited in an accessible collection, preferably a public museum or university, and the location of all material must be explicitly state in the manuscript. Diagnoses can be in telephonic or telegraphic style. For original descriptions of new taxa the terms “new species”, “new genus”, or similar phrases should be used, although abbreviated forms (e.g., n. gen., n. sp.) may be employed in tables. The use of these terms should not be repeated throughout the text each time the name is mentioned. Authorship of all new taxa must be made explicit and indicated in the abstract and with the original description. New taxonomic names should be in boldface in the abstract and at their original proposal in the text. Elsewhere in the text such names should not be boldfaced. When writing “et cetera”, please use the abbreviated form of “&c.” in italics. When using the abbreviations for exempli gratia (e.g.), id est (i.e.), or the like, please italicize the abbreviation and separate it from the following text by a semicolon. Footnotes in the text should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Footnotes are permitted for tables. Citing taxa At the first mention of a genus- or species-group name, the taxonomic authority should be indicated. Inclusion of the date is optional but if dates are provided, then these should be treated as a citation and included in the bibliography. At the first mention of a specific epithet in combination with a generic name, the generic name must be written in full. Subsequent mentions should abbreviate the generic name with the exception when the name starts a sentence. Sentences must not begin with abbreviations. In lists of material (type material, material examined, &c.) the depository of each individual must be made explicit (we do not accept general statements about deposition, e.g., "paratypes distributed among the following museums..." is not allowed and it must be clear in which institution each specimen is located).

FORMAT FOR REFERENCES

NOTE: For Indexing purposes the system will ask you to submit your bibliography into the website during the submission process. You MUST still include your full bibliography in the MSWord file of your submitted manuscript.

Only published or in press articles, books, and miscellany should be cited (allowable exceptions are dissertations and theses). Published abstracts from meeting proceedings are permissible. Reference to unpublished information may be cited in the text in the following formats: Gonzalez, unpubl. data; Gonzalez, in prep.; Gonzalez, pers. comm. The Journal of Melittology does not permit the use of “in litt.” citations. References should be cited within the text as follows: Engel, 2005; Michener, 2007; Michez et al., 2012; Grimaldi & Engel, 2005. Multiple citations should be separated by a semicolon. Manuscripts not conforming to this format will be returned to authors to correct before the paper will be considered. Use an ampersand (&) in the text and bibliography for multiple authors, and “et al.” (italicized) in the text for papers with more than two authors. Articles with the same authors and appearing in the same year should be noted with letters (e.g., 2001a, 2001b). Ordering of references is alphabetical by authors and then by year. Papers originally in the Latin alphabet should be written as they appear in their original form. Those in language utilizing an alternative alphabet (e.g., Cyrillic, Chinese, Arabic) should be either, 1) transliterated into the Latin alphabet with an indication in brackets of the translated title and, at the end of the citation in brackets the original language, or 2) translated into English with an indication of the original language in brackets at the end of the citation. Lastly, if a date is provided as part of a taxonomic name, the this must be treated as a citation and the appropriate work included in the bibliography.

Article in a journal: Journal titles should be written in full (no abbreviations!) and be italicized. Immediately following the journal title should be, in plain text, the volume number, with the issue number in parentheses. A colon should separate this from the page numbers, with page numbers separated by an en-dash (not a hyphen!). Examples include:

Engel, M.S. 2005. Family-group names for bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). American Museum Novitates 3476: 1–33.

Gonzalez, V.H., T. Griswold, & R. Ayala. 2010. Two new species of nocturnal bees of the genus Megalopta (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) with keys to species. Revista de Biología Tropical 58(1): 255–263.

Michener, C.D. 1996. A review of the genera of Brachynomadini and a new South American genus (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Nomadinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 69(1): 87–96.

Rozen, M.A., & J.G. Rozen, Jr. 2010. The pupa of the bee Protoxaea gloriosa (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae: Oxaeinae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 83(1): 76–79.

Authored books: Book titles should be italicized. The publisher should be listed separated from the location (city and state or city and country) by a semicolon. Another semicolon should separate the location from the total pages of the work.

Grimaldi, D., & M.S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK; xv+755 pp.

Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World [2nd Edition]. Johns Hopkins University Press; Baltimore, MD; xvi+[i]+953 pp., +20 pls.

Edited books:

Grande, L., & O. Rieppel, eds. 1994. Interpreting the Hierarchy of Nature: From Systematic Patterns to Evolutionary Process Theories. Academic Press; New York, NY; ix+298 pp.

Chapter in a book:

Brady, R.H. 1994. Pattern description, process explanation, and the history of morphological sciences. In: Grande, L., & O. Rieppel (Eds.), Interpreting the Hierarchy of Nature: From Systematic Patterns to Evolutionary Process Theories: 7–31. Academic Press; New York, NY; ix+298 pp.

Michez, D., M. Vanderplanck, & M.S. Engel. 2012. Fossil bees and their plant associates. In: Patiny, S. (Ed.), Evolution of Plant-Pollinator Relationships: 103–164. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK; xv+477+[6] pp.

Dissertation/thesis: Dissertation and theses should be treated as though they were books with issuing university in place of the publisher.

Gonzalez, V.H. 2008. Phylogeny and classification of the bee tribe Megachilini (Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Megachilidae), with emphasis on the genus Megachile. PhD dissertation, University of Kansas; Lawrence, KS; 274 pp.

Website:

Moure, J.S., D. Urban, & G.A.R. Melo, eds. 2012. Catalogue of Bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) in the Neotropical Region – online edition. [http://www.moure.cria.org.br/catalogue; last accessed 20 November 2012].

FIGURES/TABLES

Figures must not be embedded into the text of the manuscript, and should be submitted under the 'supplemental files' of the submission process (in TIFF format at a minimum of 300 dpi - figures that are pixelated or with low-resolution labels will be rejected).  Figures, when published, will be reduced to a maximum of 5.25 inches in width and 6.5 inches in length; calculate line thickness and symbol sizes accordingly.  Figures must be 5.25 inches wide (no exceptions), and may not exceed 6.5 inches in length, and authors should take this into consideration when designing their figure files.  No individual figure should be more than 20 MB in size (we cannot accept larger figure file sizes and authors submitting figures larger than 20 MB will be asked to remake their figures).  It will save time in the production of your manuscript if all figures are sized to 5.25 inches width (no longer than 6.5 inches), are at a minimum of 300 dpi, and are no larger than 20 MB (deviating from this will require you to remake your figures). It is preferable and will greatly speed publication if all figures can be produced in suitable form for the journal, otherwise manuscripts may be delayed. All text in figures need to be in Arial and no smaller than 11 point. Figures must be provided in TIFF format with a resolution no less than 300 dpi (no greater than 450 dpi), and in RGB or CMYK for color images. The journal style requires that figures be numbered throughout, and not lettered (i.e., individual images in a plate are numbered, not denoted by letters). Figure legends should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Refer to a current issue of the journal for format and style. Tables All tables (including appendices) must be single spaced. Do not separate tables from their footnotes and use numbers to indicate footnotes to tables (not letters or other symbols). Tables are much more difficult to typeset than other portions of the text. Thus, use of tables should be sparing.

Acknowledgement

An acknowledgements section is optional, but encouraged, and should be concise and placed at the end of the text and before the references. In the acknowledgements no titles (e.g., Prof., Dr., Mrs.) may be used.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Manuscripts must be in English. Authors whose native language is not English must have the language professional edited by a native English speaker for correct usage and clarity prior to submission. Manuscripts whose writing contains numerous errors will be returned without review. Manuscripts are submitted online via the Journal of Melittology website.