Instruction for authors

Dear authors,
Your paper will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee of the Conference and, after the jury, it will be set the works to bepublished in the journal Scientia Parasitologica.
In this respect, we present the following rules editing of the paperthat you can find also on journal website: http://scientia.zooparaz.net/

Instruction for authors

Before submitting a manuscript to Scientia Parasitologica, please carefully read these instructions.

Aim of the journal

Scientia Parasitologica is a peer-reviewed international journal covering all fields of general, human and veterinary parasitology (i.e. molecular parasitology, epidemiology, immunology, taxonomy, ecology of host-parasite interactions, clinical and pathological findings, therapeutic trials, GIS aspects, etc.). The journal is published quarterly (four issues per year): March, June, September, December. It was formerly known as Revista Scientia Parasitologica (volumes 1-10) between 2000 and 2009.

Types of articles accepted

Scientia Parasitologica publishes the following types of articles (in brackets the number of manuscript pages):

  • • invited or suggested reviews (maximum 15 pages)
  • • original research articles (maximum 10 pages)
  • • short research notes (maximum 5 pages)
  • • book reviews (maximum 2 pages)
  • • opinions (maximum 2 pages)

General rules for manuscripts

Scientia Parasitologica has a no publication fee policy. All original research articles and short research notes must show new results obtained by the authors. Editors should be informed in the case of any previous results published elsewhere (even partly). When submitting a manuscript, authors are taking full responsibility on any eventual duplicate publication of results. In some case, the editorial board can decide that a manuscript submitted as an original research article should be re-submitted as a short research note if the data given is too short.

All manuscripts should be written in English. Manuscripts written in poor English will be rejected without revision, but are subject to re-submission after corrections by the authors. For initial preparation of the manuscripts use a general text editor (i.e. Microsoft Office ®, OpenOffice.org etc.). The recommended page format is A4, with 12 TNR font, and 1.5 line spacing. Titles and headings should be written in bold. Each line of the manuscript must be numbered. Please follow the example from our webpage for any details (www.scientia.zooparaz.net/sample.doc).

Biological nomenclature

Genus and species names must be in italics in all instances they appear (title, abstract, article main body, references etc.). When a species appears for the first time in the text, genus should be written in full (i.e. Ascaris lumbricoides). All subsequent appearances should have the genus name abbreviated (i.e. A. lumbricoides). Generally, first reference to any taxa in the text should be followed by authorship and year of description. Exception refer to well known parasites (i.e. Toxoplasma gondii, Ixodes ricinus, Fasciola hepatica, etc.). All nomenclature used should follow the rules stated by international codes:


Submission of manuscripts

All manuscripts should be sent by email as a single document (*.doc, *.docx), with all tables and figures included at the end, to the technical editor (amihalca@usamvcluj.ro). A reply from him to the corresponding author will confirm that the manuscript has been received and the peer-review process is to begin. If the editorial and/or advisory board finds the manuscript suitable for publication, it will be sent to two reviewers following a double-blinded review system. The comments of the reviewers will be sent to the corresponding author (through the editor) and will be usually subject to revision. After each revision by the authors, the manuscript will be sent again to the reviewers if major changes are required and if the reviewer(s) specifically ask this. These steps will be repeated until the manuscript is suitable for publication. After a manuscript is accepted, proofs will be sent to corresponding author for final approval prior to publication.

Citation of references in the text

Correct references are the responsibility of the authors. Ensure that all references cited in the text are included in the reference list and vice-versa. If not, the manuscript will be rejected without revision.

Cited references in the text should be written in brackets at the end of the paragraph or within the text as follows:

  • • If the cited reference has one author use: “Smith (2007) has shown that …” or “It has been shown that….(Smith, 2007)”.
  • • If the cited reference has two authors use: “Smith and Johnson (2005) published data on …” or “Similar data have been published (Smith and Johnson, 2005)”.
  • • If the cited reference has three or more authors use: “Smith et al. (2006) found that …” or “Another DNA sequence was used for identification (Smith et al., 2006)”

If more authors are cited at the end of one paragraph:

  • • Order the citations according to year of publication and separate them using semicolons: “(Smith, 2001; Johnson, 2002; Baker, 2008)”.
  • • If two or more citations in the list are published in the same year, use alphabetic order for them: “(Baker, 2001; Smith, 2001; Johnson, 2002)”.
  • • If the same author(s) are cited as consecutive list references use: “(Smith et al., 2001; 2003)” or “(Smith, 2003; 2005)”. If the chronological order in the list is not consecutive use the previous rules: “(Smith et al., 2001; Johnson, 2002; Smith et al., 2003)”.
  • • For the same format of citation with the same author(s) and the same year, use letters after the year: “same observations were made by Smith (2001a) and by Smith (2001b)”. This applies even the first name initials are not the same.
    When citing from books having editor(s), please refer to the author(s) of the cited chapter(s). Citation of unpublished data, personal communications and personal observations should be avoided as much as possible. Citation of internet URLs should be also avoided, but exceptions are accepted from case to case.


Structure of the articles

All manuscripts should contain the following sections: title page, article body and references. Article body has different structure, according to the type of manuscript (see below).

Title page should contain the following parts:

  • • Title must be clear and as concise as possible. Avoid titles like “Study of …”, “Researches regarding …” etc. Parasite species names in title should generally contain in brackets their corresponding higher taxa (Phylum: Class: Family). Do not mention in title authors of taxa and years of description, except for the manuscripts dealing with taxonomic revisions and re-description of species.
  • • Authors must be written with both their first and last names in full, and the middle name abbreviated; last name should be capitalized (i.e. John W. SMITH). All other formats are not acceptable (i.e. John W. Smith, J.W. SMITH, Smith J.W. etc). Do not use comma (“,”) before the last name (i.e. John W., SMITH).
  • • Affiliation must be given for all authors. Include both, institution name and department, with the official English translations. Use superscript number format (i.e. John W. SMITH1). For the corresponding author give full address (mailing address, email, institution phone and fax). However, also providing only email address is acceptable. To mark the corresponding author use the envelope sign () in superscript (i.e. John W. SMITH1). If an author has more than one affiliation, all should be specified.
  • • Keywords (3-8) should be provided for each manuscript. Avoid if possible repetition of words from the title.
  • • Abstract should be concise, with no references included in the text. Do not exceed 300 words.


Article body must follow specific structures according to the type of article:

  • • Review articles are subject to authors’ decision regarding their structure. However, an Introduction heading is recommended.
  • • Original research articles must follow a general structure comprising: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussions, Acknowledgements (if applicable). Sub-headers for each of the above sections are accepted and encouraged if needed.
  • • Short research notes should be written with no headings and a limited number of paragraphs. However, the structure recommended for Original research articles is acceptable.
  • • Book reviews are accepted with the written accept of the book’s publisher. No headings should be used. It is recommended to include also a copy of the first cover, with the written accept of the copyright owner.
  • • Opinions of well-known researchers (i.e. with a significant number of publications in peer-reviewed journals) are occasionally accepted for publications. Formats are subject to authors’ decision, but usually contain no headers.


Reference list should be formatted as following:

  • • The entries in the reference list should be arranged in alphabetical order. Use the sort options of the text editor.
  • • If applicable, diacritics must be used when giving the names of authors.
  • • References to journal articles should contain names and initials of all author(s), year of publication, article title, abbreviation of the name of the journal according to the List of Serial Title Word Abbreviations (International Serials Data System, 20, rue Bachaumont, 75002 Paris, France. ISBN 2-904938-02-8), volume, number and page numbers. Use the following formats:
    • o Pozio E. 2007. World distribution of Trichinella spp. infections in animals and humans. Vet. Parasitol. 149:3-21.
    • o Smith J.W., Snyder J.M. 2005. New locality records for third-stage larvae of Anisakis simplex (sensu lato) (Nematoda: Ascaridoidea) in euphausiids Euphausia pacifica and Thysanoessa raschii from Prince William Sound, Alaska. Parasitol. Res. 97:539-542.
    • o Modrý D., Petrzelková K.J., Pomajbíková K., Tokiwa T., Krízek J., Imai S., Vallo P., Profousová I., Slapeta J. 2009. The occurrence and ape-to-ape transmission of the entodiniomorphid ciliate Troglodytella abrassarti in captive gorillas. J. Eukaryot. Microbiol. 56:83-87.
  • • References to books or book chapters:
    • o Dick T.A. 1983. Species and intraspecific variation. In: Campbell W.C. (Ed.), Trichinella and Trichinosis. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 31-73.
    • o Dick T.A., Pozio E. 2001. Trichinella spp. and trichinellosis. In: Samuel W.M., Pybus, M.J., Kocan, A.A. (Eds.), Parasitic Diseases of Wild Mammals, second edition. Iowa State University Press, Ames, pp. 380-396.
    • o Campbell C.C., Pozio E., Bruschi F. (Eds.). 1994. Trichinellosis. ISS Press, Rome.
  • • References to conference proceedings:
    • o Fay F.H., Rausch R.L. 1964. The seasonal cycle of abundance of Echinococcus multilocularis in naturally infected arctic foxes. Proceedings of The First International Congress of Parasitology pp. 765-766.
  • • References to Internet URLs:


Figures

Scientia Parasitologica publishes only high quality, original figures (photos, diagrams, charts etc). Printed version will contain only black and white figures, whereas the online version will be in full-color. Authors should note that the figure legends will be the same in both versions, so do not use references to colors (i.e. blue arrow, red arrowhead etc.).
All figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, and the position of each, should be indicated in the text as following: ”Lesions consisted of infiltrations (figure 1) or massive tissue destruction (figures 2, 3)”.

At the initial manuscript submission, figures should be included at the end of the manuscript, before tables. Prior to publication, for the review process, low resolution images should be used in order to avoid excessive file size. Use of composite figures is accepted. In this case, each figure in the composition should be labeled with consecutive letters (a, b, c, d, etc.). For labeling figures always use the low right corner. For microphotographs always use scale bars. The use of guides within photos is recommended (i.e. arrows, arrowheads etc.); use only black or white guides. Always explain guides in the figure legend. For charts, graphs and diagrams use simple templates. Do not overload the charts and graphs with to much data. Use standard deviation in charts and/or graphs, where applicable.

After acceptance of the manuscript, authors will be kindly asked to send the figures as separate files, in high resolution *.jpg or *.tiff files. All diagrams, charts and other figures should be converted and sent as image files. For large resolution images, two size formats are accepted for figures: 2126x1535 pixels (corresponding to 18x13 cm at 300 pixels/inch or 9x6.5 cm at 600 pixels/inch). For special cases, other size formats could be accepted by the editor.

Figure legends must be included after each figure. Use brief notes. If applicable, specify the staining technique. Always include in the figure legends references to figure guides (arrows, arrowheads etc.). In review articles, copyrighted images are accepted, but prior to publication the written accept of the copyright holder is needed.

Tables

Use of tables is recommended for simplifying data presentation (i.e. under Materials and methods or Results sections). Large tables should be avoided. If many data are to be presented, authors must divide them over two or more tables. Tables must be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables. All tables must be included at the end of the manuscript, after the figures. Never use landscape page layout for table pages. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses. Any explanations to the understanding of the table should be given as footnotes at the bottom of the table.