Perspectives in Biosecurity – Author Guidelines

Aim and Scope

Perspectives in Biosecurity is a multi-­disciplinary electronic journal of research papers, and other outputs, covering all aspects of the field of biosecurity, including, but not restricted to: invasion biology and ecology, invasive species identification/diagnostics, management and eradication/control, new invasive species records, modelling, biosecurity law and policy, relationships between human society and invasive species.

Features

  • No page charges for publication
  • Articles published yearly (online only)

Peer-review policy

All manuscripts are screened by the editorial board to assess that they match the journal’s aims and scope. The senior editors assign those manuscripts deemed to be appropriate for peer review to an associate editor.

Perspectives in Biosecurity operates a double-blind peer-review system. Reviewers will be sourced from both domestic and overseas institutions. All manuscripts are normally reviewed by two experts, but where there is disparity regarding the merits of the work, an additional review may also be requested, or one of the journal’s editors may give an evaluation.

Author Instructions

Author-and-Submission-Instructions-for-Perspectives-in-BiosecurityDownload

Types of manuscripts

The journal primarily publishes:

  • The journal primarily publishes:
  • Research papers of 5,000 words
  • Short Communication of 1,000 to 3,000 words
  • Reviews of 5,000 to 10,000 words

Due to the multi-­‐disciplinary nature of biosecurity, other output types including creative and multimedia ones will be considered at the discretion of the editors.

Manuscript submission

Manuscripts should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents to epress@unitec.ac.nz with Perspectives in Biosecurity in the subject field. All documents must be:

  • In English
  • Double-­spaced
  • Pages and lines numbered continuously

Please confirm in your submission that:

  • All authors have approved the submission.
  • All relevant animal welfare and conservation permissions have been obtained (i.e. animal ethics approvals and collecting/research permits).
  • All graphic imagery permissions have been attained and appropriately attributed to the source.

Contact ePress at epress@unitec.ac.nz if you wish to submit files that cannot be emailed due to size.

The process

Once you have submitted your work following the submission guidelines detailed above, you will be sent an email of receipt. Your work will then be viewed by the editorial team and you can expect to have a response within two to four working weeks. If the editorial team has decided to steer your work towards publication, it will undergo the double blind review process, this can take up to three months. Reviewer feedback will be collated and sent to you.

On acceptance

Authors will be asked to email the revised manuscript (including any responses to referee comments) as a Microsoft Word document within two months of receiving an acceptance email. All figures must be supplied electronically as separate .jpg files, as large as possible. Page proofs will be sent by email to authors for approval and papers will appear online as they are approved.

Copyright

Copyright is maintained by the author as ePress operates an open access Creative Commons International Licensing system. All publications are automatically assigned the Attribution-­‐ Non-­‐Commercial license, however, if an author would prefer a different license this can be requested at the time of submission. For information on

Manuscript style

Papers must use SI units, UK English and the appropriate macrons in Māori (please visit http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/ for guidance on using macrons in Māori words). Correct taxonomic nomenclature must also be used.

Research papers and short notes are to include the following elements:

  • Title: Informative and concise description of the content of the paper.
  • Authors: Include the names of all authors who have had a significant role in the research. Include the addresses of all authors and the email address of the corresponding author/s.
  • Abstract: A summary of the main findings of the paper (up to 300 words).
  • Keywords: Up to ten keywords.
  • Text: The main headings will normally be Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. It is permitted to have a combined Results and Discussion section.
  • Acknowledgements: Acknowledge all those who provided significant assistance to the research, sources of funding, details of Animal Ethics approvals, permit numbers and landowner approvals for research and/or specimen collection.
  • References: Use the Harvard Name-­Year system. It is the authors’ responsibility to maintain accurate and up-to-date referencing and citations. Contact ePress if you require further instruction.
  • Tables: Each table should be on a separate page after the reference section, numbered with Arabic numerals, in the same order as they are referred to in the text of the paper, and with a short title at the top. Please do not use vertical lines. Horizontal lines should only be used at the top and bottom of the table and between the headings and the body of the table.
  • Figures: These can be photographs, line drawings, maps or graphs and must be submitted initially on separate pages and numbered to follow the order they appear in the text. Figures must be clear and easy to interpret. Colour figures are acceptable as this is an online publication. Figure legends should be presented after the references in the initial submission.

Reviews and other output types will follow some of the above conventions, but due to their nature, there will be some differences.