Copeia is a broadly based scientific journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) that publishes results of original research performed by societal members in which fish, amphibians, or reptiles are used as study organisms. The journal does not publish range extensions, listings of species inhabiting geographic areas, teratological notes, or unsolicited review articles. Principal criteria for acceptance of articles are quality and significance of research, clarity and conciseness of expression, breadth of interest, and compliance with the style and format of the journal. Manuscripts cannot have been published or submitted elsewhere.

All aspects of publishing in Copeia are electronic, including submission, review, and correspondence. Manuscripts must be submitted online via the “Copeia Submit” link located on the ASIH website (www.asih.org). Format stipulations are listed as “Instructions for the Author” under the “Publications” link. Manuscripts will be rejected without review if not properly formatted.

The Editorial Office will pre-screen each manuscript upon submittal. If deemed appropriate, the manuscript will then be reviewed by a Sectional Editor and selected outside reviewers. Acceptance will be based upon the quality of the science and the appropriateness of the manuscript for the journal. Each manuscript must stand on its own merits and be a substantial contribution to the field.

THREE CATEGORIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION:

Research articles are peer-reviewed reports of the results of empirical research. Manuscripts may not exceed 50 pages and 10 figures without the prior approval of the Editor.

Comments are most often critiques of data and/or interpretations published in Copeia (or elsewhere). These can be either extemporaneous or solicited and may be subjected to peer review at the discretion of the Editor.

Announcements are in subjects of interest to Copeia readers. These are edited and must be received four months before issue date.

MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

The format of a submitted manuscript must be strictly adhered to, or it will be returned to authors without review. Each submission receives a Copeia Checklist associated with the online article files that details format problems that require correction prior to acceptance. Manuscripts will be rejected if these problems remain uncorrected in subsequent revisions.

Beginning with the 2008 volume, Copeia will change to a new and larger page format, with new style for text, captions, tables, and literature cited. Authors should carefully review the new style specification below to avoid delays in manuscript processing resulting from non-compliance.

All pages must be numbered, all aspects left justified and double-spaced throughout, and all lines numbered continuously (i.e., number sequence not restarted each page; in MS Word line numbering is selected under “Page Setup”, “Layout” menus). Page setup must use US-Letter page length of 28 cm, 2.5 cm (1 in) margins on all sides of each page, proportional-spaced font style is preferred and font size may be no smaller than 11-point. Do not use two spaces after periods, colons, or anywhere else in the manuscript. Do not use back-to-back [“)(“] parentheses; use brackets within parentheses. All measurements must be in SI units and abbreviations (except for common ones pertaining to measurement, time, or statistical test) must be defined at first use. Footnotes (other than in tables) are not permitted. Generic and specific names (and nothing else except secondary headings, genetic loci, and some statistical abbreviations) are italicized, and taxonomic authorship should appear only when nomenclatural problems are involved. Recognized common names of organisms specify unique singulars, are regarded as proper nouns, and must be capitalized. Institutional abbreviations used in text and in Material Examined must follow ASIH standard code designations as listed on the ASIH website under “Standard Institutional Codes” or as published in Leviton et al., Copeia 1985:802--832 (Authors using such abbreviations are encouraged to insert the following sentence in their Materials and Methods section: “Institutional abbreviations are as listed at http://www.asih.org/codons.pdf”).

All submissions must be in English and consist of letter of submission, article file, tables, and figures. Article files are arranged in the following order, each of these sections begin on a new page: cover page, abstract, body of text (including acknowledgments at end), literature cited, figure captions, appendices (if any), author addresses. Tables and figures must be submitted as separate, independent files (one file per table or figure) and not included as part of the article file. All aspects must be double-spaced.

COVER PAGE is mandatory as the first page of the article file and must contain the following entries in order:

(1) title of manuscript, using title capitalization. New taxonomic names may not appear in the title
(2) names of authors [firstname, middle initial(s), lastname; multiple entries use trailing superscript Arabic numeral (see 5 below) and are comma-delimited]
(3) suggested running head (35 characters max.)
(4) six key words not found in the title
(5) author address(es), to include department, institution, postal address, and e-mail. For multiple authors, format individual entries on separate line as hanging indent, use leading superscript Arabic numeral to associate author with address entry. Author to receive reprint requests may be specified with “Send reprint requests to this address”.

Example:
¹ Department of Biological Sciences, 524 Exeter Hwy, Alphabeta University, Normal, Illinois 60607; E-mail: somebody@alphabeta.edu.
² Division of Paraphyletic Vertebrata, Dead Museum of Natural History, 1899 Eigenmann, Santa Rosalia, California 95524; E-mail: jdhaseman@dmnh.org. Send reprint requests to this address.

ABSTRACT is required of all submissions and must present a concise summary of the main facts, ideas, and conclusions of the paper and not simply list the topics discussed or preface the Introduction. The abstract is untitled in the text and a non-English translation of the English version is permitted. Literature citations in the abstract are not permitted.

BODY OF TEXT may employ named sections at only two levels (i.e., primary and secondary), and cannot be lettered or numbered. Primary sections are all caps, bold font, left justified, and employ the following heads: MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, LITERATURE CITED, and figure legends. Note that the Introduction is not titled in the article file text. If appropriate, MATERIAL EXAMINED follows DISCUSSION, and appendices follow figure legends. Text following primary section heads begins on a new line, is left justified, and is NOT indented. Secondary sections are italicized, bold font, left justified, conclude with a period and an em-dash (or triple hyphen), and are followed immediately by text. Subsequent paragraphs under both primary and secondary sections are indented. Papers that include taxonomic accounts, such as taxonomic reviews and new species descriptions, may substitute the following standard presentation for the RESULTS section: (1) taxonomic name in bold font, common name(s), table and figure appearances of new name (these left justified and each appear on separate line), (2) holotype, paratype(s), non-type material, (3) diagnosis (a true differential diagnosis that specifies the features that serve to differentiate the new taxon from all others at rank, along with the taxa that share the alternative state(s) is preferred), (4) description, (5) supplementary notes, such as coloration, ecology, distribution, comparisons, etc. as appropriate, (6) etymology. Items 2--6 are formatted as second-level sections. Listing of specimen material must follow standard style and order of presentation; see a recent issue for examples.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS identify individuals by first initial and full surname and do not list professional titles. Institutional affiliation may be provided where acknowledging institutional (rather than personal) support. It is Copeia policy that neither ASIH editors nor reviewers, in the conduct of their duties, be acknowledged for improvement of manuscripts. Collecting permits, Institutional Animal Care protocols, accession numbers for molecular data and voucher specimens (if not listed elsewhere) must be cited in Acknowledgments.

LITERATURE CITED is double-spaced and formatted identically for all manuscripts. Names of authors use bold, standard font (do NOT use ‘SMALL CAPS’), titles of journals are provided in full without terminal punctuation.

Examples:
Fink, W. L. 1981. Ontogeny and phylogeny of tooth attachment modes in Actinopterygian fishes. Journal of Morphology 167:167–184.
Menezes, N. A. 2003. Família Synaphobrachidae, p. 34. In: Catálogo das Espécies de Peixes Marinhos do Brasil. N. A. Menezes, P. A. Buckup, J. L. Figueredo, and R. L. Moura (eds.). EDUSP, São Paulo, Brazil.
Taylor, R., and C. C. Van Dyke. 1985. Revised procedures for staining and clearing small fishes and other vertebrates for bone and cartilage study. Cybium 9:107–119.

Manuscripts submitted, abstracts, in-house or intra-agency reports, software manuals, website URLs, and any works not readily obtainable through normal library channels may not be placed in Literature Cited, but may instead be cited in text. Unpublished work (“unpubl.”) and personal communication (“pers. comm.”) must be so specified; software may include version, brief title, publisher/source, date, and URL.

Multiple text citations appear in chronological order, are delimited by semicolons, and must agree with Literature Cited. Citations strings should be limited to the minimum necessary to support the given statement; over-citation for the appearance of scholarship is not permitted.

TABLES (numbered in Arabic) must each appear with a short heading beginning “Table x. “ on a separate sheet and be double-spaced, use bold font and title capitalization, left justified, with no associated graphics or vertical lines. Tables must be numbered consecutively in the order of their reference in the text, citation style is “(Table 1)”, and location of each table should be indicated in the right margin of text as “T1,” “T2,” etc. Standard tab-delimited text is required. Tables may NOT be submitted as MS Excel spreadsheet files or be composed as “draw table” items within cells in MS Word.

FIGURES must be submitted as separate files, not embedded in text files or as a single PDF. When several drawings or photographs are grouped as a single “plate”, they must be arranged as one unit on a single page, and each lettered with an uppercase block letter in the upper corner of each element. Figures must not include numbering or identification. Figure legends are listed sequentially beginning with “Fig. x.”, use bold font, double-spaced, and are included in the article file following the Literature Cited. Figures are numbered consecutively in the order of their reference in the text, and location of each figure should be clearly indicated in right text margin as “F1,” “F2,” etc.

Only digital files can be used for publication. Figures for initial submission/review may be submitted as lower resolution PDF for faster upload; however, a PDF is 1200 dpi by default and source images converted from lower resolutions will be interpolated and may suffer pixelation and other consequences. Prior to final acceptance, low resolution files should be replaced by publication-quality files in TIFF or Jpeg formats; however, for optimal appearance in both the printed paper journal, in author reprint pdfs, and in the online journal, we highly recommend that all images be submitted as TIF files (see below). To ensure that images are reproduced at the highest quality, please follow these guidelines for the final submission of figures for accepted manuscripts:

• Halftone images (e.g., color, grayscale, or black and white images/photographs prepared with software such as Adobe Photoshop) should be submitted as TIF (.tif) files with a resolution of at least 300 dpi, although 600 dpi is preferred for optimal results. If the figure contains text (beyond figure part labels), the file must be at least 400 dpi.

• Vector or line drawings (e.g., cladograms or files prepared with software such as Adobe Illustrator [.ai] or Corel Draw [.cdr]) and graphs should be submitted as TIF (.tif) files. Use of EPS or PDF files is strongly discouraged, as we find that these images do not reproduce well when converted to PDF for the online version of Copeia and for author reprints at standard (screen) resolution. We also discourage use of Microsoft Powerpoint and Excel for creation of figures because these programs do not save to TIF or JPEG formats.

Figures will be published at either one (=96 mm, 3.78 in) or two column (=198 mm, 7.8 in) widths at the discretion of the Editor. Maximum column length is 245 mm. Because the relationship between image resolution, file size, and dimensions can be confusing, it is perhaps helpful to think about the number of pixels required across the image at a given resolution as guide for preparing figures:

one column width, 3.78 inches x 400 dpi = approx. 1500 pixels across
one column width, 3.78 inches x 600 dpi = approx. 2300 pixels across
two column width, 7.8 inches x 400 dpi = approx. 3100 pixels across
two column width, 7.8 inches x 600 dpi = approx. 4700 pixels across

Authors are encouraged to submit figures at final publication size. Do not submit color artwork unless color reproduction at cost to author is intended. Ensure that black-and-white versions prepared from color originals are saved in grayscale mode and not as RGB or CMYK files with color discarded. The cost of color reproduction is $300 per plate for ASIH members, $800 per plate for non-members. Color images selected for the outside cover of Copeia are published in the article file at no cost to authors. To ensure a high quality reproduction of your color image(s), it is recommended that you submit a hard copy of the color image(s) printed from an inkjet printer, color laser printer, or photograph to the Editor immediately after final acceptance of your manuscript. Most color monitors are not properly calibrated to the same color and gamma standards as employed in production. In the absence of hardcopy color print, authors will be billed for post-proof color balance modifications that are not attributable to printer error.

Labels on figures should be sufficiently large (at least 2.0 mm high after reduction) to guarantee optimal results. Lettering within figures (e.g., axis titles, labels, etc.) should be in lowercase type with the first letter capitalized, without full stop, and using a sans-serif font (e.g., Arial, Helvetica). Parts of figures should be indicated by bold, upright (not italic), uppercase letters in a sans-serif font without periods or parentheses. Genus and species names must be in italics. Measures should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Unusual units or abbreviations must be defined in the figure legend. Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined in the legend or materials and methods section, rather than on the bar itself.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists endorses the principle that experimental use of live animals should only be for the purpose of advancing knowledge and must conform with National Institutes of Health (NIH) animal care guidelines. If organisms are maintained in the laboratory, or if experimental procedures are performed in the field, then requisite Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol numbers must be cited in Acknowledgments. Reports involving sampling or removal of organisms from natural populations must indicate, in text, the depository and catalog numbers of voucher specimens and, in Acknowledgments, the numbers of requisite permits and licenses. Analyses based on molecular sequence data must cite the relevant GenBank accession numbers in the text. Holotypes of taxa described in Copeia as new to science must be deposited in National or International Centers [designated in Poss and Collette, Copeia 1995(1)]. Secondary types of these taxa should be distributed among several museums.

Authorship implies responsibility. All authors should have played a significant role in designing and performing the research and in writing the manuscript. Those whose roles were limited solely to providing materials (to include financial support), collecting data, or reviewing the manuscript, should be recognized in Acknowledgments. Honorary authorship must be avoided.

ON-LINE SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:

• All Authors

o First Names, Middle Names/Initials, Last Names
o Postal Addresseso Work Telephone Numbers
o E-mail Addresses

• Title and running head (you can cut and paste this from your manuscript)
  
  
• Abstract (you can cut and paste this from your manuscript). This is for descriptive purposes only and does not stand for or replace the Abstract section of the article file.
  
  
• Article file in MS Word (contact the Editor in advance regarding other formats).
  
  
• Tables/Data files in Tab Separated form.
  
  
• Figures as separate files in TIFF or JPEG format (but NOT imbedded in article file).

After pressing the “Continue” button, you will be presented with five screens that gather detailed information about your manuscript and allow you to upload the pertinent files. The sequence of screens is as follows: (1) form asking for author, title, abstract, and file quantities; (2) form asking for the actual file locations on your computer (via an open file dialog). After completing this screen, your files will be uploaded to our server; (3) form asking you to select the order in which the files should appear in the merged PDF created for the reviewers; (4) a completion screen that will provide you with a manuscript tracking/identification number; (5) an approval screen that will allow you to verify that your manuscript was uploaded and converted correctly. Once the files have been converted (this step may be lengthy, depending on file sizes), you MUST EXAMINE AND APPROVE the new PDF files before the submission is complete. If you do not explicitly approve the PDF files, your manuscript will not be submitted. You may return at a later time to approve these files, OR you can check for completion of file conversion and approve the PDF files by pressing the “Continue” button at the bottom of this screen, and following the links with the red arrow on the next screen.