Contributions in Ethnobiology

Contributions in Ethnobiology follows APA, Seventh Edition (2020). We recommend authors consult the APA Style website and other locations, such as the Purdue OWL and other academic institutions' resources, when preparing their manuscripts.

APA provides guidance on formatting the text, for mechanics of style, grammar, headings, tables and figures, references, and more. We encourage authors to review APA’s guidelines for bias-free language. Authors can find information in APA properly referencing racial and ethnic identities, including for Indigenous Peoples. APA Style provides instructions for citing interviews, oral histories, historical photographs, and more.

While we ask authors to consult APA to prepare their manuscript, this document provides supplemental instructions for length, acknowledgements, names, measurements, dates, numbers, tables, and figures.

Length

The length for monographs ranges from 100 to more than 400 pages with 7” x 10” being the standard size of printed pages. 

Acknowledgments

Authors may, optionally, include an Acknowledgments section in the front matter (after the Title Page and before the Abstract).

In edited volumes, each individual chapter may optionally include Acknowledgments. In this case, the Acknowledgments should go after the text and before the References section.

Common Names, Scientific Names and Voucher Specimens

Common names of plants and animals are not capitalized, unless they are a proper name.

Examples: big- leafed maple, Douglas maple.

Scientific names and Latin binomials should be cited in the style of the relevant biological discipline. Genus and species are italicized. Authorities of plants are cited the first time mentioned, whether that be in the text, in a figure, or in a table.

Example: Zea mays L.

The locations where voucher specimens have been deposited for curation should be put in a footnote.

Vernacular and Indigenous Language Terminology

For languages that are not written with the Latin alphabet, vernacular or Indigenous terminology used as data should be transliterated with a consistent phonemic orthography or practical alphabet. A brief characterization of the orthographic conventions used should be given in a footnote at the first occurrence in the text.

To increase readability, Indigenous terms should be indicated by bold face italics.

Non-English common names are italicized only—not in bold face—upon their first use in the text, unless they appear in an English-language dictionary.

Measurements

Use metric units for all measurements (e.g., cm, ha, kg). English units may be added in parentheses, spelled out. An exception is when the author cites another researcher who originally used English measurements.

Dates

Dates should be followed by BP, BC, or AD (not BCE or CE). If the dates are calibrated they should say cal BC or cal AD.

Numbers

Numbers with four digits or more should use commas.

Example: 5,000

Tables

Tables should be formatted in Word. Do not format using tabs. Send tables as separate files. Captions can be at the end of the text document or in a separate Word file.

Figures

Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions for all images for which they are not the creator. The editorial team is not available to do this work for authors.

All figures (including charts and images) should be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). All figures should include a title and credit the source.

Note where each figure will appear within the manuscript, using the figure number as a place marker; such as “Figure 1 Goes Here.” Send figures as separate files and also send all of the captions together in a separate Word file. Figure file names must include the figure number (e.g., Figure-1.jpg, Figure-2.png, etc.).

Figures should be submitted at a size that will fill a full-page width or column without resampling (full page size is 7” x 10”; live area, within page margins is 5.33" x 8.17").

Photos and other bitmap figures should be high resolution (300 pixels per inch at print size) jpg, tif, psd. For example, a photograph that will be reproduced at 5" x 5" should be 1,500 px x 1,500 px. Maximum image width: 1,600 px (5.33" @ 300 ppi); maximum image height: approximately 2,400 px (8" @ 300 ppi), depending on space required for figure caption. Photographs should be color or black and white images of good contrast and sharpness.

Line drawings or vector images (created using a drawing program like Illustrator) can be in ai, eps, or pdf format with fonts embedded or type converted to outlines.

Graphic charts should be submitted in editable formats, such as MS Word objects, if possible. Charts should be clean and clearly labeled. Shadows and other 3-D effects are discouraged. Chart captions are written in the manuscript text, not within the chart. All axes, elements, and legends must be fully labeled without unnecessary abbreviations.

Figure Costs

Authors who wish to include figures (photos, tables, charts, etc.) in their publications, should consider the cost differences between printing color vs black photos. Printing costs are charged by Kindle Direct Publishing. Production costs are charged by Takahashi Design. Authors who wish to negotiate the costs of their figures and how to pay for them are welcome to discuss the topic with the editors of Contributions in Ethnobiology.

Takahashi Design

The cost for format/layout figures is roughly estimated to be $120–140 per 12 figures. However, time to format images and tables varies considerably.  The inclusion of photos and tables adds formatting time and thus costs. They also increase page counts, which results in higher printing costs. Cost estimates prior to production may differ significantly from actual costs after production is completed.  

Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle Direct Publishing is the company who prints Contributions monographs. All print copies are ordered through Amazon.com. We do not have initial print runs. Previous Contributions monographs have been printed in the Premium Color option that enables authors to print all figures in color.