Publication Guidelines

Instructions for Authors

Scope of the Journal

Banisteria accepts manuscripts that contribute to the public and scientific knowledge of the natural history of Virginia, including those derived from natural history observations, small-scale field projects, distribution surveys and reviews, species inventories, reports for contracted environmental projects, and unpublished theses. Biographies of naturalists influential in the field of Virginia’s natural history are welcomed by the editor, who will also consider publishing obituaries of recently deceased Virginia naturalists. The journal also is suited for papers on the history of natural history as it pertains to Virginia.

To qualify for publication in Banisteria, a manuscript must pertain in some way to the flora, fauna, geology, geography, climatology or Native Americans of the Commonwealth. The editor may consider manuscripts on any aspect of natural history from neighboring states if the information concerns a species native to Virginia or the topic is directly related to regional natural history. Papers may be full length or shorter contributions (notes). The editor will be happy to assist authors during the preparation of their manuscripts, because they would rather help get natural history information published for others to use than to have it remain on the shelf or in someone’s desk.

Beginning in 2020, Banisteria has a section of citizen science papers dealing with natural history. Citizen science projects are conducted outside the realm of scientific research organizations, usually by people who are not scientists, but have an avid interest in collecting data that will increase our understanding and appreciation of natural history. An example of citizen science papers may be projects carried out by members of the Virginia Master Naturalist program, seasonal counts carried out by bird clubs, or high school or college science projects dealing with natural history.

Publication format

Beginning with volume 54 in 2020, Banisteria articles are published in an electronic-only format and posted for free download on the Society’s website. This format saves the society the costs of printing and mailing, allows for the inclusion of color photos at no cost to the authors, and increases the speed of publication.

Animal care and use, voucher specimens

Research in Banisteria submissions should comply with animal care and use guidelines for appropriate major societies. As appropriate, authors should identify the nature of any required research or collecting permits and approvals (e.g., animal care and use guidelines), and the disposition of voucher specimens collected as part of their study. 

Submission of papers

All manuscripts should be sent to the editor, Todd Fredericksen (tfredericksen@ferrum.edu), with a list of names, email addresses, and qualifications for at least three potential reviewers. The editor will seek at least two peer reviews for each manuscript. One of the associate editors will serve as the editor for any papers written by the editor. Manuscripts, including figures and tables, should be submitted electronically as email attachments. Microsoft Word format (.doc, .docx) is preferred. Contact the editor if you are unable to submit your manuscript electronically. Please do not attempt to produce “camera-ready copy.”

Manuscript preparation

All manuscripts, including Shorter Contributions, Historical Contributions, and Citizen Science papers should be arranged in the following order: title, author’s name, author’s affiliation and address, abstract, keywords, text, acknowledgements, references, tables, figure legends, figures. Long manuscripts should have standard sections (e.g., Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion), although some papers may not be amenable to such division, and short manuscripts and citizen science papers (less than 4-6 pages) need not have these sections.

All pages should be numbered, including tables. Text (12-point font; Arial or Times New Roman) should be double-spaced throughout. To assist reviewers, add continuous line numbering for every part of the manuscript.

Manuscripts must meet style and format requirements before they can go to production. No changes to text, figures, or appendixes will be made after the manuscript is published electronically.

Titles, author names, affiliations, and contact information

Titles should be clear, concise, and include the most important terms of your manuscript. If possible, these should be no longer than 20 words. A separate short title (a running head) of approximately 40 characters and spaces is required at submission. The running head should be included on a separate line, above the full title.

Each author’s name should be flagged with a superscripted number that corresponds to their affiliation. The title and the author’s name and address should be centered at the top of the first page. Indicate corresponding author(s) for manuscripts with more than a single author and provide an email address.

Abstracts

The abstract should be included on a separate line, below the author’s addresses and should be no longer than 250 words.

Keywords

Banisteria requires from two to six keywords or key phrases to help with indexing and cross referencing. Keywords should not duplicate terms that appear in the title. Place the keywords, in alphabetical order, on a separate line following the abstract. 

Text

The text should begin on the first page beneath the abstract and keywords. 

  • Italicize rather than underline scientific names and provide authority name(s) at first mention (separately for the title, abstract, and text). Pay attention to whether the naming authority should be in parentheses, which denotes that the species has been reclassified since the original description. 
  • If appropriate, provide common names for the organisms discussed. Do not capitalize common names unless proper nouns are included (i.e., Carolina wren, Rafinesque’s big-eared bat).
  • Do not use indented lists (numbers or bullets).
  • Place commas after … e.g., … i.e.,
  • Do not italicize … i.e., e.g., or et al.
  • Use parentheses instead of brackets, except when nested, like: (xxx) instead of [xxx] except when (xxx [yyy]).
  • All double spaces in the manuscript should be removed.
  • Use double quotes (“xxx”) instead of single quotes (‘xxx’), except when a quote is nested within another quote.
  • Subheadings should be placed on a separate line with the first letter of the first word and proper names capitalized.
  • Spell out dates in the DD Month YYYY format, e.g., 15 December 2024.
  • Use the International System of Units (SI) for all measurements.
  • Provide geographic location in decimal degrees, (e.g., 37.1376°, -80.5667°).
  • Display formulas should be done in the equation editor included with Microsoft Word.

Acknowledgements

Note this is the accepted spelling. Please acknowledge funding sources, agencies or landowners, field or lab assistants, as necessary. Permitting information may be listed in this section, as well.

References

  • List in-text citations chronologically, then alphabetically for the same year. Use commas between authors and year published: one author (Smith, 1940), two authors (Smith & Jones, 1941), three or more authors (Smith et al., 1943). Separate multiple citations within a sentence with a semicolon.
  • Cite unpublished work as (C. G. Smith, unpublished data). Manuscripts in review should be considered unpublished, cited as such in the text, and not listed in the References. Authors should have written permission (from original source) for any use of unpublished data that is not their own.
  • Cite personal communications as (C. G. Smith, VMNH, personal communication). The editor may request that acronyms be spelled out.
  • The following examples should be carefully reviewed. Please note the sequence of information, the use of capital vs. lower case letters, initials, the use of spaces, parentheses, abbreviations, the use of m-dashes (not n-dashes or hyphens) to separate page numbers, the inclusion of total number of pages and city of publication for books, the use of full journal and press names rather than abbreviations, etc. Note that only the first author’s surname precedes their initials, for all other authors and for the list of editors of the parent publication, the initials are given before the surname; spaces between the author’s initials; the use of ampersands (&) instead of “and” to separate authors names; space between colon and page numbers. For book titles, capitalize all major words; for all other source titles (reports, articles, theses, etc.) only capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title, and proper nouns. Note the following examples for different types of citations.

 

Journal articles with a single author:

Carr, L. G. 1965. Floristic elements in southwestern Virginia: a phytogeographical consideration. Castanea 30: 105–145.

Journal articles with two authors:

Hoffman, R. L., & S. M. Roble. 2000. Fourteen ground beetles new to the Virginia fauna (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Banisteria 16: 36–40.

Journal articles with three and more authors:

Wagner, D. L., J. W. Peacock, J. L. Carter, & S. E. Talley. 1995. Spring caterpillar fauna of oak and blueberry in a Virginia deciduous forest. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 88: 416–426.

Books:

Mitchell, J. C. 1994. The Reptiles of Virginia. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. 352 pp.

Chapters in a book:

Handley, C. O., Jr. 1979. Mammals of the Dismal Swamp: a historical account. Pp. 297–357 In P. W. Kirk (ed.), The Great Dismal Swamp. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

Reports:

The Nature Conservancy. 1975. The preservation of natural diversity: A survey and recommendations. Report to the U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, DC. 189 pp. (include report series and number if present).

Dissertation/Thesis:

Ostby, B. J. K. 2005. Characterization of suitable habitats for freshwater mussels in the Clinch River, Virginia and Tennessee. M. S. thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. 203 pp.

Websites:
Virginia Botanical Associates. 2016. Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora. c/o Virginia Botanical Associates, Blacksburg, VA. http://vaplantatlas.org/. (Accessed 1 December 2016).

Tables

Tables should be placed toward the end of the document, after the References and before the figures, if there are any. 

  • Each table should appear on a separate page, using a font size of 10-, 11-, or 12-pt.
  • A caption should precede each table and identify the table as briefly as possible. Please ensure caption text is stand-alone, addressing the who-where-when of collected/surveyed items.
  • Except for basic horizontal lines, tables should be free of lines, boxes, arrows, colors, or shading. All tables should only include the following three horizontal lines: one under the title, above the column headings; one between the column headings and the body of the table; and one at the bottom of the table.
  • All tables need to be referenced within the manuscript and numbered using arabic numerals in the order in which they are first referenced (i.e., Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
  • In Word, tables must be produced using the table editor (in the menu choose “Insert” and then “Table”).

Figures

All figures should be separate files and appear on separate pages. Figure legends should precede the figures and should be placed on a separate page after any tables (after the References).

  • Do not present the same information in both a table and a figure.
  • Please ensure legends’ text is stand-alone, addressing the who-where-when of collected/surveyed items.
  • All figures (graphs, maps, photos, etc.) must be referred to in the text, and numbered in the order in which they are first referenced using arabic numerals (i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). 
  • Use Fig. instead of Figure, if used within parentheses.
  • Color figures are preferred.
  • Once the manuscript is accepted, separate files of the figures (.jpg, .tiff, .gif, .png) at a minimum 300 dpi may be requested.

Abbreviations

The following common abbreviations are accepted in Banisteria: n (sample size), no. (number), SVL (snout-vent length; define on first usage), DBH (diameter at breast height), yr (years), mo (months), wk (weeks), h (hours), min (minutes), s (seconds), P (probability), df (degrees of freedom), SD and SE (standard deviation and standard error), ns (not significant), l (liter), g (gram), mm (millimeter), and C (degrees Celsius). Male and female symbols may also be used if appropriate. Do not abbreviate dates or undefined terms.

Online supplements

Authors have the option to include supplementary online files referenced in their articles. Supplementary files can be of a wide variety of formats, including datasets, graphics, images, text, protocols, audio or video files. Each element of any supplementary material should be referenced in the main text. These materials will be made available electronically as separate files and posted on the journal’s website at the same time that the PDF of an article is posted. 

Reprints

Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Page charges

Page charges are waived if the sole or first author is a member of the Virginia Natural History Society. Authors of manuscripts who are not members will be assessed a publication charge of $50.