Submissions

Author Guidelines

Download HERE the Good gractice guide in PDF
Download HERE the Authorship Form in PDF

Scope

Scientia Marina welcomes original manuscripts on all aspects of marine research including, but not limited to the following fields: Physical and Chemical Oceanography, Marine Biology and Ecology, Fisheries Research, Genetics, Marine Geology, Systematics and Marine Biogeography, Coastal Dynamics, Ecosystem Management and Global Change. Preference will be given to manuscripts of a multi-disciplinary nature and to those of broad interest to marine scientists and beyond. Studies of local interest or of a descriptive nature will not be considered unless a considerable scientific advance is shown. While the aim is to continue being a reference journal for the Mediterranean Sea, there are no geographic restrictions.The following types of contributions are published in Scientia Marina: Research Articles, Reviews, Perspectives and Replies.

The CSIC Editorial Board has determined to publish only the online edition of the journal, starting with the first issue of volume 78(2014). Therefore, the printed edition and its associated subscriptions subscriptions have been discontinued.

Editorial policy

Manuscripts that do not fall within the scope of Scientia Marina and those that do not follow the Instructions to Authors will be returned to the authors. Manuscripts are assigned to one of the Scientific Editors, who critically evaluates their scientific merits, chooses at least two appropriate referees and evaluates the reviewer’s comments. The Editor-in-Chief decides to accept or reject them based on the reports and recommendations of the Scientific Editor. Every five years, Scientia Marina publishes the list of reviewers who have given their consent to be disclosed.

The manuscripts of the journal Scientia Marina published on paper and in electronic format are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and their origin must be cited in any partial or total reproduction. However, the authors retain the right to disseminate their own work.

Online publication

The corresponding author will receive galley proofs and will be responsible for the final version of the published article. Accepted articles appear online as “Forthcoming articles” as soon as the galley proofs have been approved by the authors and the Editor-in-Chief. No changes can be made after online publication. The dates of submission, acceptance and online publication will appear at the beginning of each article.

Submission of manuscripts

• Submission of a manuscript implies that all co-authors have approved and agree on the contents of the submitted text, tables and graphic material. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all co-authors have the correct information on the submitted manuscript. Manuscripts must not be submitted simultaneously to any other journal.
• A single file in PDF format (including text, tables and figures) must be sent.
• Language: Contributions must be in English. Submitted manuscripts will first be checked for language. Scientists who use English as a foreign language are strongly recommended to have their manuscript proofread by a native English-speaking colleague. Manuscripts which are substandard in this respect will be returned without review.

• Please include the title, the complete name (given name and family name) and postal address of the author(s), and the e-mail address of the corresponding author.
• From 1 January 2017, it is a condition of publication for all the authors to provide an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). The benefits of registering an ORCID iD are outlined here.
• Title: Titles that include species names must also specify the necessary taxa and subtaxa, so that readers not acquainted with the species may at least know the zoological/botanical group the species belongs to.
• Summary: No longer than 200 words, in a single paragraph.
• Running title: A short title not exceeding 50 characters must be included.
• Keywords: Please provide 6 to 8 keywords. In agreement with the recommendations of the IOC-UNESCO, we recommend that the authors use the ASFA Thesaurus to identify the right keywords for their articles.

• Length: For Research Articles and Reviews, the total number of typed pages should not exceed 30 and will usually be lower (fewer than 7000 words, including references and figure legends). For Perspectives and Replies, the total number of typed pages should not exceed 15 and will usually be lower (fewer than 3500 words, including references and figure legends). In all cases, font size 12 is recommended. Leave 25 mm margins on all sides. Manuscripts must be presented double-spaced throughout. Pages and lines must be numbered.
• Sections: For Research and Review articles, follow the usual sections (INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS and DISCUSSION). Avoid a single section on Results and Discussion. For Perspective and Reply articles, the structure of the manuscript is free. Avoid numbering sections. Main headings should be in capital letters, subheadings in bold type sentence case.
• Do not use ampersands (&); instead use the word "and"
• Some Latin abbreviations are set in roman type because they have been thoroughly incorporated into English (note that no comma follows the abbreviations). These include: e.g., i.e., ca., in situ, vs and per se.
• Figures and tables should be numbered sequentially in the order in which they appear in the text. Do not place figures or tables in the main body of the text, but at the end of the manuscript. Place every table and every figure on a separate page. Figure parts should be labelled with capital letters (A, B, C, etc.). References to figures in the main body of the text should be abbreviated in parentheses (Fig. 1), (Fig. 1A, B) or (Figs. 1 and 2) but written out in full in running text. For example, “The Balearic Islands (Fig. 1) are separated from the Iberian Peninsula by…”; “The bathymetric distribution of the species is shown in Figure 3.”
• Note the style of citing figures in the following examples: "The Balearic Islands (Fig. 1) are separated from the Iberian Peninsula by…"; "The bathymetric distribution of the species is shown in Figure 3."

• Genetic nomenclature: Use the zebrafish system (see http://zfin.org/zf%20info/nomen.html) for gene and protein nomenclature originating from fish species. Genes should be in italic lower-case text and proteins in non-italic lower-case text with the first letter capitalized. The article by Chakrabarty [Chakrabarty, P. (2010). Genotypes: a concept to help integrate molecular phylogenetics and taxonomy. Zootaxa 2632, 67-68] can be used as a general guideline for genetic nomenclature.
• Sequence data: Manuscripts containing novel amino acid, DNA, RNA and genomic sequences will only be accepted if they carry an International Nucleotide Sequence Databases (INSD) accession number from the European Biology Laboratory (EMBL), GenBank Data Libraries (GenBank) or the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ). The database accession number must be given in the Materials and Methods or Results sections of the manuscript. For taxonomic papers that refer to sequences derived from specimens preserved in collections, authors should reference the individual voucher from the collection. Lengthy nucleotide sequences will not be published except on very restricted occasions when these data are of general interest and importance. Refer to the original reference when the sequence used is already published.
• All new nomenclatural acts referring to new species must be registered in ZooBank to comply with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICNZ).

• Use International System units (km, m, kg, g, etc.).
• Use the symbol “t” for metric tons.
• Use the symbols h, min and s for hours, minutes and seconds.
• Use spaces between the quantity and the units (e.g. 2 m, 3 kg, 7 g). Exceptions: degree Celsius °C, latitude or longitude units and % (e.g. 37°C; 41°N, 1°17’E and 10%).
• Do not include spaces between arithmetic symbols and numeric values: >, < (e.g. >7, <7, a=b+1).
• Do not use • in mathematical formulae or between units to denote the multiplier terms, except when its omission may lead to confusion.
• Abbreviations for “standard deviation” and “standard error” are “sd” and “se”, respectively.
• Use a dot “.” as a decimal marker: Do not use any symbol to separate thousands (e.g. 5200 or 10300).
• Salinity is a dimensionless unit and should not have units such as ‰. It is valid to state once in the paper that salinity was measured in practical salinity units (psu), but thereafter no units should be used.

• When several references are cited between brackets they must follow a chronological order. Note the style of punctuation in the following examples:

... poses systematic problems (Hulley 1981, Smith and Millar 1995, Carter et al. 2001).

... in coastal upwelled waters (Olivieri 1983a,b, Salat 2000, 2002, Horstman SFRI unpublished data).

... following the opinions expressed by Margalef (1978).

Roel et al. (1985) reported that...

• Ensure that there is a perfect match between references in the text and in the reference list. All references, both published and in press, that are cited in the text, tables or figures must be included in the reference list. However, it is not necessary to include the reference when the scientific name of a species is cited in full [e.g. Liocarcinus depurator (Linnaeus, 1758)].

• A description of the files to be published attached to the main manuscript, their filenames and/or identification, and contents.

• We recommend a maximum rate of 1 page of citations for every 4 pages of text in the manuscript (from Introduction to Discussion).
• No more than 3 references can be cited to support any statement.
• References must be ordered alphabetically.
• Journal names must always be abbreviated.
• Papers “in preparation” or “submitted” are not acceptable as references. Once accepted, they may be quoted as “in press”, but not before.
• The format of the references must be strictly followed.
• The list of references should include the complete list of authors, year of publication, title (in the original language), journal, volume and page numbers. Journal abbreviations should be in accordance with the standardized journal title abbreviation of PubMed/NCBI Journals (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals).
• Follow the punctuation and style shown in the examples below:

Pauly D. 2009. Beyond duplicity and ignorance in global fisheries. Sci. Mar. 73: 215-224.

Rossi S., Fiorillo I. 2010. Biochemical features of a Protoceratium reticulatum red tide in Chipana Bay (Northern Chile) in summer conditions. Sci. Mar. 74: 633-642.

Merino G., Maynou F., García-Olivares A. 2007. Effort dynamics in a fisheries bioeconomic model: A vessel level approach through Game Theory. Sci. Mar. 71: 537-550.

Margalef R. 1974. Ecología. Ediciones Omega, Barcelona, 951 pp.

Romero E. 2010. Sources of plankton variability in an urbanized coastal ecosystem. PhD thesis, Tech. Univ. Catalonia, 244 pp.

• Please pay especial attention to the citation of articles within books according to the following examples. Do not forget to give the publisher and place of publication and to check the punctuation:

Ruiz-Villarreal M., Bolding K., Burchard H., Demirov E. 2005. Coupling of the GOTM turbulence model to some three-dimensional ocean models. In: Baumert H.Z., Simpson J.H., Sundermann J. (eds), Marine Turbulence: Theories, Observations and Models. Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 225-237.

Pichon A., Correard S. 2006. Internal tides modelling in the bay of Biscay. Comparisons with observations. In: Morán X.A.G., Rodríguez J.M., Petitgas P. (eds), Oceanography of the Bay of Biscay. Sci. Mar. 70S1: 65-88.

• Tables should be consecutively numbered with Arabic numerals and typed on separate pages.
• Table headings should be given above each table.
• Tables should be designed to fit in the format of the printed page.
• Vertical lines should not be used.

• When you are submitting a manuscript, place the figures at the end of the manuscript and list their legends separately.
• Figures presenting the study area should include a small general map showing a larger geographical region. Maps must show the locations cited in the text, the names of seas or oceans and the main isobaths. Please avoid political maps.
• Drawings, graphs and photographs should be carefully presented on separate sheets. Figures must be prepared so that, after reduction to fit the size of the journal page (16.9 cm for full page width or 8.1 cm for one column width), characters and symbols will still be readable.
• All figures included in a manuscript should use the same font type.
• Avoid very thin or very thick lines.
• Please do not draw with hairlines. The minimum line width is 0.2 mm (0.5 pt) measured at the final scale.
• Map figures must indicate °N, °S, °E or °W.

Once the manuscript has been accepted for publication, the authors will be asked to send the final version. The text must be sent in Microsoft Word format. The illustrations must be sent separately from the text. Image files should not be embedded in a word-processor file.

Vector graphics exported from a drawing program should be stored in Encapsulated PostScript ( EPS) format. Fonts used in the graphics (use preferably Times) must be included. Suitable programs include Freehand, Illustrator and Corel Draw.

Most presentation programs, such as Excel and Power Point, produce data that cannot be processed because they do not support the export of EPS data.

Halftone images store colour illustrations as CMYK and monotone as greyscale in TIFF or JPEG format. Whenever you use JPEG format, choose maximum quality instead of high compression in the options window. Suitable programs include Photoshop, Picture Publisher and Photo Paint.

Please send comments to scimar@icm.csic.es or ICM (CSIC) - Passeig Maritim de la Barceloneta, 37-49. E-08003, Spain.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Below you will find instructions for the following procedures:

- How to register at Scientia Marina

- How to send an original manuscript to Scientia Marina

- How to check a revision report and submit a revised version of a manuscript

How to register at Scientia Marina

1.- On the journal’s website, click on the link “Register”:

2.- On the registration page, fill in all the fields (the “Family name” field is optional but highly recommended) using lower case only for your e-mail, username and password. After reading the Privacy Statement you will need to consent to the collection and storage of your data and complete the Captcha. Receiving notifications of new publications and news is optional.

3.- You will receive a message with a link to activate your account at the provided e-mail address. Once it is activated, you will be able to log in to your account with the credentials you created.

How to send an original manuscript to Scientia Marina

1.- On the journal’s website, log in by clicking on “Login”:

2.- Enter your username and password. When you return to the journal’s homepage, click on “Make a Submission”:

Before submitting, please review the Submission Preparation Checklist and read the Author Guidelines, the Copyright Notice and the Privacy Statement. When you have all the required documents ready, click on “New Submission”.

In subsequent logins, you will be taken to your user dashboard. There click on “New Submission” to submit a new article. You will be shown any articles received and in process under the “My Queue” tab):

3.- As you will see on the new submissions page, submitting a manuscript is a four-stage process. When it has been completed, a final section called “Next steps” provides information on follow-up.

3.1.- “Start”

In this stage you must select the language in which the article is written and the section of the journal in which you think it would fit. You must indicate that you have prepared all the items on the “Submission requirements” list and, optionally, you may send comments to the editor. You must comply with the terms of the Copyright Statement and the collection and storage of your data as the author of the article in accordance with the Privacy Statement of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

Then press “Save and continue”.

3.2.- “Upload submission”

In this stage, you upload the files that make up the article and its additional documents to the management module.

Select the component of the article that you are going to contribute and upload the corresponding file. Then click on “Continue”. You will see the file metadata, with the possibility of editing them. Click on “Continue” without editing the metadata.

You can now select “Add Another File” to return to “Upload file”. Without modifying the default option “This is not a revision of an existing file”, select the new “Article Component” and upload the file. Click “Continue” until you reach step 3, “Confirm”. Repeat this process until you have uploaded all the files, and then click on “Complete”.

If after completing the submission you realize that you have forgotten to upload a file, you can do so by clicking on “Upload File” located in the upper right-hand corner of the “Upload Submission” tab:

Once you have uploaded all the submission files, press “Save and continue”.

3.3.- “Enter Metadata”

In this stage you enter the metadata of the article according to the journal guidelines. These are:

- The title in Spanish and English. If the article is written in another language, first enter the title in this language and then in English.

- A summary or abstract in the same languages as the title.

- A list of contributors. Although it was not necessary when registering as a journal user, in this section it is compulsory for authors to have their ORCID identifier and affiliation correctly indicated. Add the information of any additional authors using the link “Add contributor”:

- Keywords. Insert the article’s keywords in both languages. The keywords must be entered one term at a time, pressing “Enter” after each one.

- Funding data. Please state any entities that have supported the research published in the article. After selecting “Add funder”, insert the name of the funder again, which will trigger an internal search that will return the institution’s standardized name and DOI. If the institution does not have a DOI, it cannot be entered in this field. Enter the grant numbers and click on “Save”.

To finish this stage of entering metadata, click on “Save and continue”.

3.4.- “Confirmation”

Here you confirm the submission metadata that were recorded with the uploaded files. Before clicking on “Finish Submission”, go back to the previous stages and review the information and files provided to check that they are all correct.

3.5 “Next steps”

When you click on “Finish Submission”, the article will be sent to the journal and its staff will contact you to continue with the process, as indicated in the “Next Steps” section.

How to check a revision report and submit a revised version of a manuscript

Once your submission has been reviewed, the journal’s staff will send you a review report. When you receive it, you must log in to the journal and, in the “Submissions” section of your dashboard, you can check whether your submission is in the Review stage and whether the editorial staff have requested any modifications or revisions to the manuscript:

By clicking on the title of your submission, you will be taken to the workflow of your submission, and you can check the information related to its review. You will find any notifications that the editorial staff have sent you, any attachments that the reviewers have added and, if requested, the possibility of providing a new version of the manuscript with the requested modifications by clicking on “Upload file”:

Research data policy

We recommend that authors deposit the data obtained from the research carried out for the preparation of their article in a repository of recognized prestige, whether specific to the discipline or of a generalist nature. The repository must be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and preferably in open access.

There are several repositories that conserve and disseminate concrete data such as results of surveys, observations, interviews, simulations, automatically collected data, samples and models. If necessary, authors can consult the Registry of Research Data Repositories, re3data, taking into account that each repository has its own deposit rules.

Those CSIC authors who would like to deposit their datasets in Digital.CSIC may do so by following these guidelines. They can use the Servicio de Archivo Delegado made available by the Technical Office of Digital.CSIC and the Red de Bibliotecas CSIC.

Digital.CSIC generates DOIs for datasets and associated software and is certified as data repository in re3data and Repository Finder. More information at Política de datos en Digital.CSIC.

If the author has deposited datasets in a repository, they should mention it in the article, providing a brief description of the type of data deposited, the name and URL of the repository, the identification code and the data of the licence for use and distribution. This information must be included at the end of the article, immediately before the References, under the heading “Data availability”.

Download HERE the Good practice guide in PDF
Download HERE the Authorship Form in PDF