Author Guidelines
The online submission process entails the following steps:
Step 1: Specifying the manuscript type, and submitting a covering letter
Step 2: Specifying the authors and author contact information
Step 3: Specifying the title, abstract, and keywords
Step 4: Uploading the body text
Step 5: Specifying the list of attachments and then uploading those attachments
Step 6: Final verification of the manuscript
The author interface for each of these steps includes details on how to enter the information required.
Organizing your submission
Manuscripts submitted to Madagascar Conservation & Development must be composed of separate files to allow processing by our software. Important: Manuscripts that have embedded figures or tables or macros in the body text cannot be processed and will generate errors during the submission procedure.
Before attempting an online submission, please separate your submission into the following file types:
- Body text (Word)
- Tables (1 Excel file, each table on separate work sheet)
- Figures (TIF or JPG, , each figure as separate image file)
- Equations (TIF or JPG, each figure as separate image file)
- Supplementary material (PDF)
TIF and JPG image formats should be adequate for most non-animated figures. If you are unable to save in one of these formats please contact the editorial office.
Word Limits
The word limit pertains to the abstracts and the main body of the article only. Please refer to the section policies for further information. References, figures, tables, acknowledgments and appendices are not included in the word count. Authors are encouraged to keep their articles to the maximum word limit given in manuscript types.
Abstracts, Acknowledgments and Keywords
Please have your abstracts, acknowledgments and keywords prepared and ready to input directly into the submission interface, either by typing or pasting them. Do not include them in the body text of your manuscript. If the body text is written in English then add an extended French abstract; if the body text is written in French, then add an extended English abstract. Provide keywords in English and French. The word length for abstracts is defined under manuscript types.
In case you need a translation go to translation fees.
Body Text
All papers must be in English or in French. Write with precision, clarity, and economy: use the active voice and first person whenever appropriate. If at all possible, avoid the use of parenthetical comments and italics or bold for emphasis. Direct quotations should be embedded in the text and enclosed in double quotation marks (“”). Words defined by the author and words used in unusual contexts should be embedded in single quotation marks (‘’). In an English body text all French or Malagasy terms should be in italic. Use American or British spellings, but within an article use the one or the other only (i.e., be consistent and do not mix the two).
Spacing, fonts, page numbering:
Double-space all material (body text, figure legends, table captions, references, etc.). Separate paragraphs with a blank line. Use a 12-point font using Times New Roman.
Italicization/ Underlining:
Please italicize scientific names and the symbols for all variables and constants except Greek letters in the text. Symbols in illustrations and equations should be italic to match the text. Do not underline text.
Footnotes:
Please avoid any kind of footnotes in the text. Footnotes are not handled well by the journal software; their inclusion may result in a failed submission. Also, please avoid Footnotes below Tables; instead use these symbols (in order) in the Table caption: †, §, |, #, ††, §§, ||, ##.
Units:
Use the following formats for time indications: 1830-2000h, 1830h; for descriptions of areas/extents: 65 m x 20 m area, or 65 x 20 m2; for percentage 50%; for orders: the 8th, 1st; for dates: 11 August 2005, for cardinal directions: northeast, southwest, southwestern, south, western, southeast; for coordinates include longitudes, latitudes and altitudes: E043° 53’ 38.5”, S23˚ 12’ 37.5”, 1550 m.
Web links:
Authors may, where absolutely necessary, include links to other internet resources in their article (e.g., Madagascar Conservation & Development <http://www.journalmcd.net/>). This is especially encouraged in the reference section. When inserting a reference to a webpage, please include the http:// portion of the address.
Headings and subheadings:
Main headings: The body text should be subdivided into different sections with appropriate headings. Where possible, the following standard headings should be used. These headings must appear on a single line by themselves, and be in UPPER CASE and font size 14. No numbering of headings or subheadings is needed. Subheadings are also on a single line in font size 12 ending with a colon.
Abstract
Introduction
etc
References:
Listing of authors of a French or other non-English reference if the body text is in English: Author1, Author2 & Author3. If the body text is in French, then all French citations are Author1, Author2 et Author3; all non-French references are: Author1, Author2 & Author3. For references listing more than 10 authors, list Author 1 et al.
Examples
— journal article: Razafimanjato, G., Sam, T. S. and Thorstrom, R. 2007. Waterbird monitoring in the Antsalova region, western Madagascar. Waterbirds 30: 441–447.
— chapter in book: Randrianandianina, B. N., Andriamahafaly, L. R., Harisoa, F. M. and Nicoll, M. E. 2003. The role of protected area in the management of the island’s biodiversity. In: The Natural History of Madagascar. S. M. Goodman and J. P. Benstead (eds.), pp 1423–1432. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
— book: Soulé, M. E. 1987. Viable Populations for Conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
— dissertation: Homewood, K. M. 1976. Ecology and Behaviour of the Tana Mangabey (Cercocebus galeritus galeritus). Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, University College, London.
Attachments
All tables, figures, text appendices, videos, computer simulations, and databases constitute attachments to the body text of the manuscript. As such, they must be submitted as separate files to be handled properly by our software. During the submission process you will be required to select your attachment type from a drop down list, and type or paste its associated caption – these steps are repeated until you have input the captions for all of your attachments. You will then upload the attachment files, and our software will generate a web page for each attachment based on the file names and captions provided. Do not include captions or titles in the attachment files themselves.
Equation files are not considered attachments. Please see the Equations section below for information on how to format equations.
Tables:
Supply tables as Excel files. Please note that tables are automatically converted for display on the Web and that the conversion software is very literal in its translation. Make sure that both row and column entries are denoted by the proper row and column divisions of the table function in the word processing software.
Important: The use of tabs, spaces or blank lines instead of tables cells to separate information is not acceptable.
Single space all tables. All title and caption information is entered separately during the submission process and should not appear in the table file.
Avoid redundancy: Never repeat the same material in figures and tables; when either is equally clear, a figure is preferable. Do not include information in tables that is not discussed in the text of the manuscript.
Figures:
Figures must be supplied as graphic files (in TIF or JPG formats).
They should be clear and sharp at 300 dpi and no wider than 700 pixels (unless given explicit permission by the managing editor).
Do not include title and caption information in the figure. All title and caption information are entered separately during the submission process.
Ensure text is legible when scaled to final size; text should be in Arial font.
We may ask you to supply high resolution, print-quality versions of your figures.
Initial upper case letters are preferred except where SI requires lower case letters for unit abbreviations (e.g., dbh, ln).
Use italic lettering for single-letter variables, constants, and scientific names in illustrations to make them consistent with the text.
Color figures are accepted; however, authors should ensure that color figures are also legible when viewed in black and white.
Solid black bars in bar graphs tend to overwhelm other parts of the graph; use shaded, or hatched bars in preference to black ones.
Photographs of organisms and habitats add interest and "reality" to scientific data. We encourage you to include such a photograph where appropriate. It remains to the Editors discretion to include it in the final publication.
Supplementary Material:
SM is not peer reviewed, nor copy edited or formatted prior to publication, and consequently authors must ensure that their submitted SM is formatted correctly before acceptance. For Supplementary Material consisting of plain text, or text with embedded images, equations or tables, authors must upload the file in pdf format, formatted according the journal’s style. Include a heading and caption in your pdf, where the heading "Supplementary Material" is all caps and bold and the caption is Sentence Case and bold. A single SM has no identifying number or letter, and is referred to in the main article as "Supplementary Material." Multiple appendices should be identified as 1, 2, 3, etc.. Table and figure numbers in appendices should be keyed to the letter identifying that appendix: Fig. SM1.1, for Figure 1 in Supplementary Material 1; Table SM2.3 for Table 3 in Supplementary Material 2. Equations should be numbered similarly: SM2.3, for Equation 3 in Supplementary Material 2, and so. Tables are formatted with a double line above the heading, and single lines below the heading and below the last table row (see example). Enter all title and caption information when asked during the submission process, and upload each Supplementary Material as a separate file.
All other non-text appendices, such as databases, video or sound files may be uploaded using an appropriate file type for the file contents. Supplementary Material should be labeled logically to indicate content (i.e. "Program#.filetype", "Sound#.filetype"). Captions should describe the attachment fully (by content, file format, usage, software required to run them, etc.) and are uploaded separately during the submission process.
Equations:
Insert a tag in the form <eqn#> into the body text of your manuscript wherever you would like an equation to appear, where # = 1,2,3...n and indicates the sequential number of the equation. Once you have uploaded the body text, you will be prompted to upload your equation(s). Upload each equation as a separate graphic file named eqn#.gif, where # corresponds to the tags inserted into the body text. Any one equation may be specified any number of times by inserting the appropriate tag in the manuscript in multiple locations.
