Information for authors

Our IG BSSW e.V. relies on the BSSW Report and the BSSW homepage www.ig-bssw.org as a liaison and information organ. To keep it interesting and up to date, we are always interested in good quality contributions. To ensure that writing and submitting articles does not remain a closed book, the editor at the time, Stephan TANNER, has written a short guide, such as is also used in scientific journals. The main purpose of this information is to avoid confusion, misunderstandings, errors and delays and to clarify the most common questions right away.

Editorial deadline

The following deadlines apply to publications in the BSSW Report:

Edition Editorial deadline
Report 1 31.01.
Report 2 30.04.
Report 3 31.07.
Report 4 31.10.
Submission of articles

Submitting and publishing an article in the BSSW Report and on the homepage is not dependent on IG BSSW membership. Anyone can submit suitable writings and illustrations directly to the relevant Division Leaders (this is the best way) or directly to the Editor by post or email. The section leaders will look through the submitted material and check it for suitability for the BSSW Report. Copyright of text and images remains the property of the authors, but the article should not be submitted in the same form to another journal at the same time or have already been submitted. An article signed by name does not have to represent the opinion of the editors or IG BSSW e.V., but should, for example, follow generally accepted laws of nature or valid rules of nomenclature. The decision to publish a contribution will be made in consultation between the editor and the responsible section leader. If necessary, the editorial office and the section leader will support the author in making changes or additions to the article. There is no entitlement to publication if the material appears to be professionally unsuitable, contains offensive passages (e.g. personal attacks), political content or similar. If an author feels that he/she has been treated unfairly, he/she may lodge a written complaint with the IG leader. The final decision will then be made collegially by the IG BSSW e.V. board and the editorial board. This cannot be appealed.

Type of articles

The BSSW Report publishes husbandry reports, breeding reports, travel reports, observations, book reviews, literature reviews, reports from the regional groups and club life, etc. with a focus on BSSW in the broader sense. As our journal is read by both beginners and specialists, care must be taken to ensure that it is clearly presented for non-specialists as well. Due to its relatively small circulation, the BSSW Report does not publish primary publications in the fields of taxonomy or systematics that can claim first description status.

Preparation of the manuscript

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There is an article template available for download here. Other manuscripts should be submitted as text files whenever possible, which can be done either by email or on data media. We expressly point out that manuscripts and images must be submitted separately as individual files. Embedded images are not suitable for publication, as extracting them is always fraught with loss. Please remember that all editorial work is done voluntarily and unpaid. Please avoid special formatting of any kind in your manuscript (hidden formats, page numbers, footnotes, special fonts, etc.), as these must all first be eliminated in the processing procedure. Please limit yourself to the two fonts Times Roman (Times, Times New Roman) and Symbol (for special characters, e.g. µ S s a). Latin names at genus and species level are printed italic. Surnames of persons are printed as small caps (small caps and capital letters are two different formattings), regardless of whether it is a literature passage or not.

Captions should also be included below the text in the manuscript.

Tables should not already be set in the manuscript, but the entries should be written with tabs (for the columns) as well as with breaks (for the individual lines). The word “table” should be placed above this section of text. Otherwise, the formatting must first be removed and then added again in the typesetting programme. This takes more time than typesetting an entire article.

The creation of a bibliography is the author’s task and this should be appended to the article at the end. In principle, all references cited in the text should also be cited in the appendix. We do not have a specific format for the bibliography, as long as the information can be used to locate the designated reference.

Photos and illustrations

A report should, if possible, be submitted together with some (between two and four, if documentarily necessary, in individual cases also more) meaningful pictures. This together with the desired picture caption (important!) at the end of the article. Digital images, graphics, drawings or computer scans should be submitted as complete originals in *.jpg, *.pdf, or *.tif format. Please make sure to name the images in a meaningful way (e.g. Figure_1.jpg). A file name such as __DSC_0251.jpg is not suitable for identifying a picture motif. Other image formats may also be submitted.

The pictures should be sent in unedited if possible. We can process the images on a colour calibrated monitor and can therefore better judge how the images will appear in print. We also correct minor errors, but do not (!) carry out professional image processing; we simply do not have the time for that.

Please always give credit to the author of the pictures, if they are not all taken by you directly. Don’t forget to add meaningful and clear captions to your report.

If you wish, the editorial team will be happy to assist you with photo material. There are bound to be some useful pictures in the pool which could benefit an article. A lack of images should therefore not be an obstacle to submitting an article.

Processing

The design of the article layout is solely in the hands of the editorial team. The section leaders work with the authors if changes to the text are necessary, so that the changes can be approved by the latter. Minor stylistic or formalistic corrections are made without further consultation. If major revisions are necessary, the editorial team consults with the respective authors. This process is intended to promote good quality publication while guaranteeing the personal elements of an article. Before the final publication, the authors receive a pdf file with the finalised text and the embedded images in a greatly reduced resolution. Small corrections can then still be made directly in the text and should be back with the editors within five days.

An article is dated as soon as it reaches the editorial office. Printing is always aimed at promptly, but can also be postponed, as the aim is to achieve a workload that is appropriate for the division. The original files of texts and images are deleted after processing and are not passed on to third parties. The editorial office only archives the complete layout file, which remains the copyright of IG BSSW e.V.. Layout files in final print resolution are also not passed on to the authors and third parties. Individual articles are selected by the editors to be included as appetisers on the homepage. In this case, too, the copyright remains with the authors.

We hope that this explanation clarifies the process of publishing somewhat and would be pleased to welcome more new names as authors.

Your IG BSSW e.V. editorial team