ISSN 0327-9383
printed version
ISSN 1666-0536
online version

Instructions to authors

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Sending of manuscripts

MASTOZOOLOGÍA NEOTROPICAL is a biannual (June and December) peer-reviewed journal. It is dedicated to the publication of original investigations dealing with all aspects of the biology of mammals, alive or extinct, from the Neotropical region. It is directed to researchers in mammalogy, students, graduate students, and the general public. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed by the Associate Editors and by internationally renowned specialists in the different subjects. Manuscripts may be written in English, Portuguese or Spanish. MASTOZOOLOGÍA NEOTROPICAL publishes articles and notes. Notes should not exceed 3000 words, while articles may be up to 12000 words. Other kind of articles and contributions like dissertation abstracts, books reviews, comments, and news, are also welcome.
Funds for the publication of MN come from SAREM’s (Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de los Mamíferos) own resources which include member subscriptions. Consequently, members of SAREM not in arrears for dues can publish in the Journal with no cost per page. The basic cost per printed page for authors that are not members of SAREM is u$s 15 for 1 to 10 pages, u$s 10 for 11 to 25 pages, and u$s 20 for more pages.

1. General. All contributions should be written in letter size 12, preferably Times New Roman or Arial, double-spaced throughout, paper size A4, with ample margins (2.5 cm). All pages should be numbered. Boldfaces cannot be used. The scientific names, of generic or inferior category, must be written in italics. The metric system for measurements and degree centigrade for temperatures (ºC) must be used. In the text, figures should be referred to as Fig. or Figs. To separate decimals use periods, instead of commas (e.g., 25.6). Use words for values from one through nine and numerals for larger values. When designating the time, use the 24 hours system and write it as 06:30 or 20:00. The diverse Latin expressions, as are e.g., et al., vide, fide, i.e., must be written in normal font. Footnotes are not allowed.

2. First (title) page. Contains: 1. Title (centered, in uppercase in normal font, except the scientific names that will be written in italics with upper and lower case). 2. Name(s) of author(s) (in upper and lower case). 3. Authors’ addresses (should include e-mail or Fax number). 4. A short title. 5. Name of corresponding author.
Short title. Leaving a space after the institutional address a short title (IN UPPER CASE, not more than 50 characters) should be included.

Example (title page):

DISTRIBUCIÓN Y SISTEMÁTICA DE LOS MURCIÉLAGOS DEL GÉNERO Eptesicus (CHIROPTERA-VESPERTILIONIDAE) EN LAS YUNGAS DE ARGENTINA

Alejandro A. Medina¹, Diego Rodriguez² y Juan M. Castaño¹

¹ PIDBA, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 255, 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina. Teléfono: 0381-4331339. E-mail: pidba@arnet.com.ar. ² Sección Mastozoología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional
de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205, 4000 San
Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina.

Short title: EL GENERO Eptesicus EN LAS YUNGAS.

Send proof to:
Alejandro A. Medina
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales
Universidad Nacional de Tucumán
Miguel Lillo 255
4000 San Miguel de Tucumán
Tucumán – Argentina
Teléfono 0381-4331339.
E-mail: pidba@arnet.com.ar

3. Second and following pages: they will contain the abstract, key words, and body text.
Spanish and English manuscripts will include an ABSTACT (in US English) and a RESUMEN (in Spanish); also, Key words (in US English) and Palabras clave (in Spanish). Portuguese manuscripts will include an ABSTRACT, a RESUMO (in Portuguese), Key words and Palavras chave (in Portuguese). The abstract should not exceed 250 words in the case of regular articles, or 100 words in the case of notes. There should be no more than five key words and these should not repeat words in the title.
Articles should be divided into sections, preferably: INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, and LITERATURE CITED. Other headers can be added if needed. Always use UPPERCASE for the main headers. For notes, no sections are required.
Subtitles. Subtitles must be underlined, without period, and text must start, indented, in the following line.
For notes, no division into sections will be used.

LITERATURE CITED

The authors should be careful to include all citations from the text in the Literature Cited section, and vice versa. Avoid citation of abstracts from meetings and congresses. The citations of unpublished theses are allowed, but only if the original manuscripts are deposited in the Institutional Library where the degree of the author was obtained.
For citations within the text, write the name of the author followed by a comma and then the year of publication (Yepes, 1944). For citations within a paragraph follow this format: Yepes (1944), with the year within parenthesis. For papers written by two authors, both must be mentioned: Cabrera and Yepes (1940). For papers with more than two authors write the name of the first, followed by et al. and the year of publication, after a comma (Flores et al., 2001) or Flores et al. (2001). When several authors are to be cited within a paragraph, follow a chronological order: Ameghino (1889), Reig et al. (1987), Springer et al. (1994), Pascual (1995), Patton et al. (1996), D’Elía (2003). When several authors are included within parenthesis, each citation must be separated by semicolon: (Ameghino, 1889; Reig et al., 1987; Springer et al., 1994; Pascual, 1995; Patton et al., 1996; D’Elía, 2003).

Please refer to the following examples:

PEARSON OP. 1995. Annotated keys for identifying small mammals living in or near Nahuel Huapi National Park or Lanín National Park, Southern Argentina. Mastozoología Neotropical 2:99-148.
MASSOIA E y A FORNES. 1967. El estado sistemático, distribución geográfica y datos etoecológicos de algunos mamíferos neotropicales (Marsupialia y Rodentia) con la descripción de Cabreramys, género nuevo (Cricetidae). Acta Zoológica Lilloana 23:407-430.
SIEGEL S. 1956. Non-metric statistics for the behavioral sciences. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. MARES MA, RA OJEDA, JK BRAUN y RM BARQUEZ. 1997. Systematics, distribution, and ecology of the mammals of Catamarca Province, Argentina. Pp. 89-141, en: Life among the muses: Papers in Honor of James S. Findley (TL Yates, WL Gannon y DE Wilson, eds.). Special Publication, The Museum of Southwestern Biology 3.
NABTE MJ. 2003. Dieta de Athene cunicularia (Aves: Strigiformes) en el nordeste de la provincia del Chubut, Argentina. Tesis de licenciatura inédita, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
MYERS P. 2001. Mammalia. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu

APPENDIXES

If necessary, after the literature cited the authors may include an appendix to provide additional details of the specimens examined.

TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables and figures, preceded by the corresponding legend, should be provided at the end of the manuscript, one per page. Images containing lines and text should be designed to support a reduction of at least 50% of its original size. For the process of reviewing a manuscript, files of low resolution are acceptable, but they should be, however, of such a quality that allows to understand what is expressed in the image (for the review process use JPG files). In case the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author will be required to send images of higher quality and resolution (TIFF format, 600 dpi). Try to design images that can fit in one column (6.6 cm wide). Photographs are welcome, but they must be clear and with a good contrast.

Manuscripts not satisfying the editorial instructions will be returned to the authors. The manuscripts (preferably in only one file, including figures and tables, in DOC, RTF, or PDF format) should be electronically sent to:

Ulyses F. J. Pardiñas
Editor Responsable Mastozoología Neotropical
<ulyses@cenpat.edu.ar>

THE REVIEW PROCESS

Immediately after the reception of a manuscript, this will be sent to an Associate Editor, to start the review process. All manuscripts will be subject to at least two peer reviews, and the editor will notify the author with respect to the results of the evaluation. The authors will be able to submit the results of their investigations to be published in Mastozoología Neotropical, considering the following rules: the information contained in the manuscript must be original, and must not have been submitted to any other journal (this implies that the main author must guarantee that none of the co-authors has sent a version of the document, nor part of it, for publication in another journal). Fragmentation of information must be avoided. No fictitious names for authors must be used. The authors submitting a manuscript accept the responsibility for their included co-authors.