Guidelines for Authors

Manuscript will be carefully scrutinized for evidence of plagiarism, duplication and data manipulation; in particular, images will be carefully examined for any indication of intentional improper modification.

Any suspected misconduct ends up with a quick rejection and is then reported to the US Office of Research Integrity.

Ensure that your work is written in correct English before submission. Professional copyediting can help authors improve the presentation of their work and increase its chances of being taken on by a publisher.

The Corresponding Author must submit the manuscript online-only through our Manuscript Submission System.

Authors are kindly invited to suggest potential reviewers (names, affilitations and email addresses) for their manuscript, if they wish.

Manuscript preparation

If authors have trouble accessing the site, please contact the editorial office (email: paolo.audisio@uniroma1.it)

All papers should be written in clear and concise English (UK or USA). We recommend that authors have their manuscripts checked by an English language native speaker before submission; this will ensure that submissions are judged at peer review exclusively on scientific merit. Authors are encouraged to see a recent paper issue of FE, for details and useful examples about general format of each paper to be submitted.

FE considers for publication only original articles that have not previously been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere. The submitted paper needs to be accompanied by a short cover letter stating the author’s agreement for publication, number of pages, figures and tables, and indication of possible supplementary material. Dissemination of data from single original research to more articles is not encouraged. The text should be strictly adhering to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in these Authors Guidelines.

All authors of accepted papers should participate in writing the manuscript by reviewing drafts and approving the final version.
The submission file is in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) format. The text including references, figure and table legends should be 1.5 spaced. Page margins should be at least 2 cm on all sides. The text should be in Times New Roman 12-point font, with 1 cm indent at the beginning of each paragraph, except the first of each section. All pages should be numbered.

Use italic font for scientific names only (taxa of the genus- and the species-groups) or for subchapter headings, if needed.

Essential Figures, Tables and illustrations should be placed after References. Non-essential Figures, Graphics and Tables must also be uploaded supplementary files. Manuscripts should not exceed 40 (1.5 space, 2 cm-margin) pages, written on one side only, Tables and Figures included, or not exceed 15,000 words or 100,000 characters. Larger papers and monographs are occasionally published, following previous contacts with the Editor in Chief, and depending on available financial support.

For Research Articles, manuscripts should include the following sections: Title, Author(s) information, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References. The first page should include only the Title, Author(s) information, Abstract and Key words.

For Review Articles, sections should be organized as follows: Title, Author(s) information, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, subtitles, Discussion (or Conclusion), Acknowledgements, References.

Short manuscripts (1-4 printed pages) are considered as Scientific Notes; they should include Title, Author(s) information, Abstract, Key words, main text, Acknowledgements, References. The information regarding "Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions" should be embedded in text of manuscript. Otherwise, authors can also follow the same general scheme foreseen for Research articles.

If any public or private Organization supported the study, this should be indicated in the Acknowledgements (or in a following Funding section).

The Title should be informative, concise and reflecting the content of manuscript; title should not exceed 25 words.
Full names and affiliation of all authors including e-mail address are required.
Unless relevant for the content of the paper (e.g., in nomenclatural notes or in type material revisions), the authorship of a taxon cited in the title should not be included in the title itself, but firstly reported in the abstract. In the title, any taxonomic reference regarding the treated taxa (particularly Order and Family ranks) should be placed in a separate final row, among brackets, e.g.:

A revision of the genus Pediacus
(Coleoptera: Cucujidae)

Author(s) informations should include the author(s) full name(s) (lowercase), surname(s) (capital), and, in case of multiple authors, authors’ name should be separated by a comma, also the last one preceeded by a simple comma (without “and” or “&”). Complete postal and electronic address and affiliations of each author should be provided (in italic, except e-mail), grouped together below the row(s) including the name(s) of the author(s), linked by individual numbers (in quote character) to the last letter of each author’s surname above. The names of the official Institutions of affiliation should be preferably indicated in English, but authors are free to use their original names when written in other local languages (except if written in Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, or other not-Latin alphabets). Corresponding author (if more than one author) should be indicated by an asterisk (*), and reported below the Author(s) information lines. See example files for other details.

The Abstract should summarize the manuscript content in no more than 250 words or 1500 characters (exceptions are allowed when a long series of new nomenclatorial acts need to be listed in the abstract). References and abbreviations should not be used in the abstract. Five (minimum) to eighth (maximum) Key words should be selected, reflecting the content of the manuscript, and preferably avoiding duplications with words used in the title. It should include any new name, new synonymy, new combination and other new nomenclatorial acts. In addition, a "Running head title" must be provided, including author’s name(s) (first author’s surname, first and second author’s surnames separated by “&”, or first author’s surname followed by “et al.” if more than two Authors) and abbreviated title of 70 characters and spaces (maximum).

Authors are requested to provide the names of at least two reviewers (with e-mail addresses and affiliations) relevant to the subject of their papers. The submitted manuscripts, except those rejected by the Editor in chief or by a member of the Editorial Board (those that not conform to the guidelines or are judged outside the aims and scopes of Fe), will be examined by reviewers. The Editor will notify rejection, need for revision, or possible acceptance within 10 weeks from manuscript submission.

Any taxonomic treatment should follow the latest version of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, and related recent amendments (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted-sites/iczn/code/). Names of genera and species must be in italics and abbreviations for new taxa names and nomenclatural acts in bold (e.g., gen. nov., sp. nov., syn. nov., comb. nov., stat. nov.). The fully written author name and description year is required at the first mention of a taxon in the main text (e.g., Brassicogethes epeirosi (Audisio, Mancini & De Biase 2006)). Morphological descriptions and keys should be as concise as possible. Male (♂) and female (♀) symbols should be used for examined material, or $ and @, respectively. Description(s) of new taxa should always include a short Diagnosis, to be located right below the row where the new taxon is first named in its formal description.

All types examined by the author should be indicated, with their location, either in the synonymy or in the elucidation of specimens examined. Misidentifications cited in synonymy should be mentioned as e.g. “Easton, 1956, nec Rebmann, 1944” instead of using the term “not” or “non”.

 

Citation of References

Citation of References in text should follow this example:

“Our molecular analysis also depicts a close position of the three target genera, which all grouped together in the same clade (as also suggested by morphological analyses: Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal 1999; Audisio et al. 2009a; Jelínek, 1978, 1980b, 1992; Cline, unpublished data). Three recent papers suggested a different phylogenetic position of the genus Xedia (Bologna 2013; Moore & Allen 2013; Stoch 2014a).”

In case of more than one reference by the same  author(s) in the same year, subscripts  a, b,  c,  are placed immediately  after the year. Reference to  “personal communication”, “unpublished work”, or “unpublished data” is done only in the text.

Nobiliary particles and other prefixes to surnames (e.g. van, van der, Von, von, De, de, D’, d’, Mc), need to be considered as part of the surname itself (exceptions are allowed only for Linnaeus C. von). Therefore, in the main text and in the References, these prefixes should be written in their extended version, before the surname (the first letter in upper case: e.g. Von Trotta, Van Der Linden, De Felicis, De Oliveira, etc.) and fully considered when alphabetically ordering the authors listed in the References.

Format of References

Only published papers, papers with DOI number, or papers which are officially in press, are included in References, all in alphabetical order, according to the Harvard system (only those mentioned in the text). Titles of publications originally written in Cyrillic or Arabic characters, or ideograms must be translated into English with indication of original language between square brackets. Names of Journals strictly need to be mentioned in extensive and complete format, in normal Roman type. Only genus- and species-group scientific names of the paper’s title need to be written in italic.

Unpublished reports, dissertations and theses should be cited in the text as footnotes or parenthetically and not  listed in the references section, as follows:

Strika S. 2004. Morfologia al SEM e Filogenesi Cladistica del genere Meligethes Stephens (Insecta, Coleoptera, Nitidulidae). Master degree dissertation in Natural Sciences [tutor: P. Audisio], Department of Human and Animal Biology, Sapienza Rome University, Rome, 128 pp. (unpublished).

Journal papers [Where available, URLs and DOI number for the References should be provided]:

  • Beumer C., Martens P. 2013. IUCN and perspectives on biodiversity conservation in a changing world. Biodiversity and Conservation, 22: 3105–3120, DOI: 10.1007/s10531-013-0573-6 [without final full stop after DOI number].
  • Heino J. 2002. Concordance of species richness patterns among multiple freshwater taxa: a regional perspective. Biodiversity and Conservation, 11: 137–147
  • Nikulina O.N. 2007. New data on larvae of weevils of the genus Lixus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) from Central Asia. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 86(9): 1086–1092. [in Russian]
  • Reitter E. 1874. Beschreibungen neuer Käfer-Arten nebst synonymischen Notizen.Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 24: 509–528.

Online journal papers or books:

Proceedings:

  • Antonini G., Audisio P., De Biase A., Mancini E., Rector B.G., Cristofaro M., Biondi M., Korotyaev B.A., Bon M.C., Konstantinov A., Smith L. 2008. The importance of molecular tools in classical biological control of weeds: two case studies with yellow starthistle candidate biocontrol agents. Proceedings of the XII International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds (22-27 April 2007), La Grande Motte, France, pp. 263-269. CAB International Wallingford, UK.
  • Hawes C.J. 2004. The Stag beetle Lucanus cervus (L.) (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) in the County of Suffolk (England): Distribution and Monitoring. Proceedings of the 3rdSymposium and Workshop on the Conservation of Saproxylic Beetles (07th-11th July 2004), Riga, Latvia, pp. 51-67.

Books:

  • Howard F.W., Moore D., Giblin-Davis R.M., Abad R.G. 2001.  Insects on Palms. CABI Publishing, NewYork, 400 pp.
  • Scopoli J. 1763. Entomologia Carniolica exhibens Insecta Carniolae indigena et distributa in ordines, genera, species, varietates. Methodo Linnaeana. Joannis Thomae Trattner, Vindobonae [Wien], xxxii + 420 pp.

Book chapters:

  • Gaston K.J. 1996. Spatial covariance in the species richness of higher taxa,  pp. 221–242. In: Hochberg M.E., Clobert J., Barbault R. (eds), Aspects of the genesis and maintenance of biological diversity. Oxford Univ. Press.

Software programs:

  • Goloboff P.A., Farris J.S., Nixon K.C. 2003. T.N.T. Tree Analysis using New Technology. Program and documentation, available at http://www.zmuc.dk/public/phylogeny/tnt.
  • Swofford D.L. 2003. PAUP*. Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods). Version 4b–10. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Date, altitude, geographic coordinates, and other sampling information

Date. The following formats should be used: 5 Nov 2008 (not: November 5th, 2008; 5.xi.2008; 5 XI 2008, or others); 26 May-4 Jun 2003; 2-9 Aug 2009

Altitude. The following formats should be used: 1850 m (not: 1850 m a.s.l.; 6070 feets); 1400-1900 m (not: 1400/1900 m; 1400/1900 m a.s.l.)

Geographic coordinates. The following formats (following WGS84 system, simplified) should be preferably used: 40.45.36N, 73.59.02E or 40.45.36.000N, 73.59.02.400E or 40.760N, 73.984E (not: 40° 45' 36.000" N, 73° 59' 2.400" E and others, including those following the UTM system). Use of a homogeneous format in each individual paper is highly recommended.

The following sequence should be used, when all data available:

Country: (State or Region), locality/municipality (province or district), geographic coordinates, altitude, date of collecting, ecological data, collector(s), number of specimens (sex), Museum(s) or private collections where specimen(s) are preserved.

For any new taxon of the species-group described, a depository of the holotype in a freely accessibile and preferably public collection should be provided, accordingly to article 16.4.2 of ICZN. Information written on original labels of type specimens of previously described taxa should be reported as more accurately as possible, always included between commas or square brackets.

See example files for other minor details.

Arranging figure plates

Drawings, photographs, maps and graphs are considered as figures. Figures should be labeled using Arabic numbers and referred to in the text as Fig. 1, Figs 2-3, etc. Should total number of individual figures exceed 100, each plate must be associated with a single figure number, and each individual figure indicated with lowercase letters, in alphabaetical order; in this case, figures should be referred to in the text as Fig. 2 a, Figs 3 a-d, Figs 4 a, c, f, etc. See example files for details. Preparing figure plates on a separate page using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw or analogous programs is preferred. Electronic formats of figures should be in TIFF or JPEG (minimum 300 dpi resolution) and size 16x21 cm. Please note the preferred locations of figures in the text. Figures should contribute significantly to the paper. All lines, curves, symbols and numerals should be thick and/or big enough to be easily seen when reduced to fit journal format. Combination of more than one graph into composite figures is encouraged, especially when this contributes to clarity. Figure captions should be arranged strictly following the examples below and typed within the main text file, on separate page(s) at the end of the Word document:

Figs 1-7 – Loewia latifrons Mesnil, 1973. 1, dorsal view of a ♂; 2, lateral view of a ♀; 3, left antenna, ♂; 4, epiphallus; 5, basiphallus; 6, metathoracic spiracle. Scale bar: 1 mm (Figs 1-2); 0.5mm (Fig. 3); 0.20 mm (Figs 4-5); 0.1 mm (Fig. 6).

Fig. 1 – Loewia latifrons Mesnil, 1973: habitus of a ♂. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.

Fig. 42 – Male genitalia of Meligethes spp. a, Meligethes atratus (Olivier, 1790); b, M. flavimanus Stephens, 1830; c, M. violaceus Reitter, 1873; d, M. cyaneus Easton, 1957. Scale bar: 0.2 mm.

Tables

Tables should not simply repeat data given in the text and should be limited in size and typed single-spaced. Number tables consecutively in the text and print each table on a separate page. Tables should be short, self‐explanatory, labeled using Arabic numbers, and referred to in the text as Table 1, Table 2, etc. Tables must fit the size of a vertical page and not exceed its size. The legends must be clear, concise and allow a full understanding. Include a brief title for each table, and define all abbreviations and units of measure used in the table. Be sure to label all column and row headings clearly.

Table legends should be provided following the examples below and typed within the main text file, on separate page(s) at the end of the Word document, after figure captions:

Table 2 – List of morphological characters used in cladistic analysis.  

Please note that long lists of acronyms of Museal Institutions and collections, measurements, genes, primers, etc. (usually inside Material and Methods) must be all organized as Tables.

Peer review policy: All manuscripts submitted to our journal are critically assessed by external and/or in-house experts in accordance with the principles of peer review, which is fundamental to the scientific publication process and the dissemination of sound science. Each paper is first assigned by the Editors to an appropriate Associate Editor who has knowledge of the field discussed in the manuscript. The first step of manuscript selection takes place entirely in-house and has two major objectives: i) to establish the article’s appropriateness for our journals’ readership; ii) to define the manuscript’s priority ranking relative to other manuscripts under consideration, since the number of papers that the journal receives is much greater than it can publish. If a manuscript does not receive a sufficiently high priority score to warrant publication, the editors will proceed to a quick rejection. The remaining articles are reviewed by at least two different external referees (second step or classical peer review).

Authorship: all persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should only be based on substantial contributions to i) conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; and to ii) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and on iii) final approval of the version to be published. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Any part of an article critical to its main conclusions must be the responsibility of at least one author.

Protection of Animals in Research: When reporting experiments on animals, authors will be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.