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Author Guidelines

JCRM publishes scientific papers on matters of importance to the conservation and management of whales, dolphins and porpoises, with a particular focus on papers relevant to the IWC Scientific Committee. 

JCRM welcomes both full papers and short communications. 

 

Short communications

Short communications present original and significant material usually limited to a single finding, interesting observation or an important technical/methodological advance.

Short communications are limited in length to no more than 5 printed pages or ~2500 words and normally include up to one figure (multi-panel) and one table.

The manuscript should follow the normal format for Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Key Words, Acknowledgements and References, but the Main Text should not include subheadings and the Abstract should not exceed 100 words. Each paper should begin with 'Short Communication:' followed by the title.

 

Heading styles

  • Standard font is Calibri
  • Title - Bold, 24pt., sentence case, centre aligned
  • LEVEL 1 - BOLD, CAPITALS, 11pt., ranged left, followed by one line space
  • Level 2 - Bold, sentence case, 11pt., ranged left, followed by no line space
  • Level 3 - Italics, sentence case, 11pt., ranged left, followed by no line space

 

Cetacean names

Please use approved IWC common names in the text. Only use Latin names for the first mention and in brackets after the common name.

 

Keywords

Please choose from the approved list.

 

Preferred spellings

'British' English spelling should be used unless the author is from the United States, in which case 'American' spellings may be used. The published version will use 'British' spellings.

 

Hyphens

(a) These are used in compound adjectives, preceding a noun:

  • e.g., age-length key, length-specific method;

but not where part of the compound adjective consists of a number:

  • e.g., 3cm long earplug, a 500kW lamp.

(b) Hyphens are omitted where a compound noun is sufficiently familiar to be printed as one word:

  • e.g., ultrasonic, daytime, interspecific, overexploitation, northeastern, whalewatching;

except where this would result in an awkward spelling:

  • e.g., infra-red, night-time, photo-identification.

 

Capitals

(a) Common examples are given below:

  • Area (when referring to Area I, etc.), Sector, Division, Initial Management Stock, Antarctic, South Atlantic Ocean, Northern Hemisphere, Scientific Committee, Table 1, Fig. 1, Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Bryde's whale and Hector's dolphin (i.e., where named after a person);

but please note:

  • central North Pacific, sub-committee, sub-Arctic, sei whale, common dolphin, etc.

 

Numbers, dates, map references

(a) Numbers under 10 should be spelt out. Figures should be used for percentages (where % rather than percent is used):

  • six sperm whales but 6% of sperm whales.

(b) Commas should be inserted into numbers with four or more digits:

  • e.g., 6,789; 2,060,313.

(c) Decimal points should be indicated by full stops, not commas. Zeros should be included:

  • e.g., 0.12.

(d) There should be no space between numbers and abbreviated units:

  • e.g., 6m, 25kg.

(e) Dates should be in the form day/month/year:

  • e.g., 17 March 1983.

(f) Map references should be in the form: 42º6'S, 23º42'W.

 

Abbreviations

(a) Where the last letter of an abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the full word then no full stop is necessary:

  • e.g., Fig. 1 but Figs 1-7.

(b) Capital abbreviations do not require full stops:

  • e.g., WC, USA, MSYR, 60°N, CV, SD, SE, etc.

(c) Commonly used abbreviations for quantities have no full stop:

  • e.g., 6cm, 22m, 14ft, 456kg.

(d) If a personal communication is used, abbreviate as `pers. comm.'.

 

Italics

Italics should be used for:

  • Book titles and journals (e.g., Moby Dick);
  • Vessel names (e.g., Shonan Maru No. 2, Moonlight Tango);
  • Latin names of plants and animals (e.g., Eubalaena glacialis);
  • Foreign words not part of everyday English (e.g., et al.);
  • Trade names (e.g., Guinness).

 

Quotations

Use single quotation marks. Use double quotation marks for a quote within a quote.

Within a quotation, follow the style and punctuation of the original. If omitting a section, please indicate by three full stops in square brackets (e.g., [...]).

If interpolating a word or phrase, please use square brackets [my italics].

 

Equations, mathematical references

(a) Ensure superscripts and subscripts are easily discernible.

(b) Show all symbols and please spell out Greek letters the first time they occur in the margin.

Clearly distinguish between: the letter l, the number 1, the letter O, the number 0 (e.g., by underlining the letters). 

Use italics for letters indicating parameters: e.g., y = mx + 66c + vz

 

Miscellaneous

Do not use a comma prior to and in a list (e.g., green, white and orange).

Data are NOT data is.

If a colon is used prior to a list of points, the points should be separated by semi-colons but should not begin with a capital.

 

References

(a) In the text:

  1. Where more than two co-authors are involved, please use: O'Flaherty et al. (1983);

  2. If more than one reference is made then a semi-colon should be used: e.g., Irving, 1982; James, 1881; Watterson, 1987;

  3. In references to the Scientific Committee or other International Whaling Commission reports, IWC is used: e.g.,  'It was agreed last year (IWC, 1983) that [...]';

  4. Where referencing more than one paper by the same author in the same year, please use 1981a, 1981b, etc.

(b) In the reference list:

  1. All authors' names should be included;
  2. Surnames always precede initials: e.g. Bannister, J. L., Best, P. B. and Cawthorn, M. W., except for editors of books in example (v) below;
  3. References to journal articles should include: the title of the paper (sentence case), the journal title (italics and abbreviated), the volume, issue and page numbers;
  4. References to books should include: the book title (italics with initial capitals for major words) and the publisher;
  5. References to a chapter within a book should include: the title and page numbers of the article, the editor's name, the title of the book and the publisher;
  6. Reference to an unpublished paper from the IWC Scientific Committee or any other meeting should include: the title of the paper, the number/reference of the paper, the title and date of the meeting, and the number of pages should be given along with an e-mail address or other method by which the paper can be obtained;
  7. The reference list should be arranged in alphabetical order by author and, within this, by date of publication.
  8. DOI numbers will be included before publication where possible, so please provide DOI numbers before submission to save time. 

 

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this Journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this Journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

 

Publicity

When submitting a paper to JCRM, authors agree that, upon publication, the paper may be promoted by the IWC. This might be via a range of means including the IWC website and Twitter feed. Authors are invited to provide their Twitter handles, web links and any other information that may be useful.