MALAYAN NATURE JOURNAL Guidelines for Authors - Malaysian ...

MALAYAN NATURE JOURNAL
Guidelines for Authors
The Malayan Nature Journal (MNJ) is an internationally peer-reviewed journal that has
been published by the Malaysian Nature Society since 1940. It is published quarterly
and in the near future we will also be introducing earlly online publication.
MNJ publishes original papers on the biology and conservation of Malaysia and the
surrounding region. Topics may include terrestrial, fresh water or marine studies in
biogeography, conservation biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, natural resource
management, population biology, restoration ecology, or taxonomy and systematics.
Research articles, short notes, reviews and commentary pieces may be submitted.
Submission
Electronic submission is preferred. Articles should be submitted, as a single document
(MS word or pdf) by email to editor.mns@gmail.com. Hardcopies can also be sent to
the MNJ Managing editor, JKR 641, Jalan Kelantan, Bukit Persekutuan, 50480 Kuala
Lumpur.
The submitted document should contain, 1) a one page cover letter outlining the
significance of the contribution, the type of paper (article, review etc) and, if
possible, contact details for three potential referees, 2) a title page with the title,
authors, contact information for the corresponding author, and institution addresses
for all authors, and 3) the manuscript being submitted.
Style and length
Research articles should not normally exceed 5000 words (including references and
figure legends) or 8 tables and figures. Under some circumstances authors may
request permission to submit longer articles by writing to the Editor. Articles should be
divided into the following sections; Abstract (200 words), Keywords (5-10),
Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and
References (up to ~30).
Short notes should not exceed 1000 words (3 figures or tables), and should be divided
into the following sections; Abstract (100 words), keywords (5-10), main text,
Acknowledgements, and References (up to ~10). Short notes are for brief studies of
interest that do not warrant a full-length article.
Review articles should not exceed 5000 words (8 figures or tables), including
references and figure legends. Reviews should include an Abstract (200 words),
Keywords (5-10), main text, Acknowledgments, and References (up to 50). The main
text may be subdivided as is suitable for the topic in question. Reviews may include
information from outside the region where appropriate.
Commentary should be brief (up to 1000 words, including figure legends and
references) discussion articles, such as new hypotheses or discussions of policy, based
on new findings. Commentary pieces include an Abstract (100 words), keywords (5-
10), main text, Acknowledgements, and References (up to 10).
Manuscript Format
Manuscripts should be 12 pt text, with double line spacing throughout (ie including
figure legends and tables), and should be left-justified. Please also provide line
numbers.
Title: The title of the manuscript should be concise, appropriately informative and
should contain key terminology to facilitate retrieval by modern searching
techniques.
Authors: The names and institutional addresses of the author(s) should be included on
the title page. For the corresponding author, the full correspondence address,
including email address and telephone numbers, should be provided. In compliance
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with normal ethical standards, all authors should have made a significant scientific
contribution to the paper and have read the manuscript before it is submitted.
Abstract and Key Words: The abstract should objectively describe the problem
studied, why it was important to study, the most important findings and their
significance.
Place key words below the abstract. Supply 5-10 key words for indexing,
including vernacular and scientific names of principal organisms, geographic area,
phenomena and entities studied and methods. These should be chosen to facilitate
retrieval by modern searching techniques and should not include words already
mentioned in the Title.
Citations and References: Text citations should give the author’s name and year of
publication (Wong 1992). One or two authors are cited as (Wong and Ong 1992)
while more than two are cited as (Wong et al. 1992). Multiple citations are separated
by commas and listed chronological order. Avoid over referencing.
In preparing the Reference section, contributors should include authors’
names, year of publication, title of article, name of publication in full, volume number
and inclusive pages for chapters of books or journal articles. References should be
listed in alphabetical order.
Authors are particularly urged to ensure that citations and
bibliographic details are accurate. Correct references are the responsibility of
the author.
Tables: Tables should be stand alone (i.e. the reader should understand the
content of the table without reference to the text) and referenced in the text.
Each table should be started on a separate page, and these should be
grouped at the end of the manuscript. Tables should be arranged with
regards to the dimensions of the print area of the page (13 x 20cm).
Each table should be numbered with Arabic numerals and
accompanied by a title (e.g. Table 1: The number of species …) .
Figures: Figures should be clearly drawn and saved as raster graphics
(bitmap, tiff, png, eps), not vector graphics (e.g. Jpeg), at a minimum of 300
dpi. Photographs should preferable be saved at 600 dpi. Figures should be
submitted embedded in the manuscript. Drawings should be planned to
stand 50% reduction. Please use scale-bars rather than quoting magnification,
as these will be affected by the amount of reduction. Please keep the
manuscript file size to

and should be stand-alone (i.e. a reader should be able to understand the
figure without reference to the main text).
The cost of COLOUR figures must be borne by the author. Acceptance
of such illustrations is at the discretion of the Hon. Editor.
Once a paper has been accepted for publication the authors will be
asked to submit the original figures as separate digital files or original drawings
or slides.
Species names
On first mention of a species name family and if appropriate higher
taxonomic levels should be give in parenthesis after the name. It is the
responsibility of the author to ensure that all names follow current taxonomy. If
there has been a recent change of name the old name may be given in
parenthesis where appropriate.
If common English or local names are used the scientific name should
be given in parenthesis on first mention. The use of common names is
discouraged and would only be appropriate in the case of well-known
species.
Numbers and Measurement Units
The metric system and SI units should be used. In the text, numbers from one
to ten should be spelled in full and numbers of 11 or more should be written in
as numerals: thus, two days but 11 leaves. Numbers preceding units should be
written as numerals; thus: 8 cm and 7-10 mm.
For other parameters of style, authors may consult the Chicago Manual of
Style or a current issue of the Malayan Nature Journal.
Review process and Proofs
It is our target to reduce submission-to-decision time to two months. The initial
review should take one month or less. Once a revision is requested, authors
should note that if a manuscript is not revised and returned to MNJ within 8
weeks for a full length article or 4 weeks for short articles, it will be treated as a
new manuscript and will be subject to the full review process.
In their own interest, authors should retain a complete copy of the
manuscript identical in every respect to the material submitted. MNS bears no
responsibility for material that may be lost.
Authors will receive proofs of their papers before publication. These should be
corrected (not revised) and returned to the editor within 2 weeks.
Reprints
Authors will receive a pdf copy of their article, which they may distribute
under the restrictions of “Fair use of Copyright”. We suggest this means putting
on a personal website or sending out to people who write in requesting
reprints. Mass online distribution, however, is not permitted. Twenty-five
hardcopy reprints are supplied free and the authors may order more in
advance by writing to the managing editor, the additional cost of which is
borne by the authors.
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