Department of Environment and Conservation

Information for Authors

Conservation Science Western Australia publishes scientific research and technical investigations carried out by the Department of Environment and Conservation. All papers are refereed by scientists outside the Department.

Address editorial correspondence and submissions to The Editor, Conservation Science Western Australia, Science Division, Department of Environment and Conservation, Locked Bag 104, Bentley Delivery Centre, Western Australia 6983.

Include a completed Approval Form for Scientific and Technical Publications with all scientific and technical manuscripts submitted.

Only papers of a high standard will be published. Submission of a paper implies that the material has not been published or submitted elsewhere. The journal assumes that all authors of a multi-authored paper agree to its submission and accept intellectual responsibility for it.

Initially forward a PDF or Word document of the manuscript and all accompanying material to the Editor, including an abstract. Manuscripts received will be submitted to two referees for critical comment. If both referees consulted agree on whether the manuscript is acceptable or unacceptable this will be passed on to the senior author. If the referees disagree a third referee will be sought. If there is still doubt the Science Publications Committee will decide on the matter.

Print manuscripts on one side of the paper with double spacing and 3 cm margins. Number the pages of the manuscript consecutively throughout the entire paper, beginning at the title page, and including those pages containing references, appendices, tables, illustrations, captions, all of which are placed after the text.

Following refereeing, the authors must return a revised manuscript with electronic copies of all material within six months, otherwise it will be rejected or treated as a newly submitted manuscript requiring refereeing.

Manuscripts that do not meet submission requirements will be returned to the author.

Because the journal is freely available on the Internet, no reprints are available for authors.

Style

Authors are advised to consult the most recent journal issue published for directions on style; however, specific points to note are as follows.

Spelling conforms with the Oxford English Dictionary. However, use ‘program’ and ‘focused’. Use also –ize endings (with the exception of ‘compromise’ or ‘comprise’), –lyse endings and –our (unless in Latin words).

Quotation marks — use single quotation marks when quoting a word or phrase. For longer quotations, indent as a paragraph without use of quotation marks.

SI units are used for exact physical quantities and measurements, except where a non-SI Australian legal unit of measurement is appropriate e.g. 5 ha not 50 000 m²

Numbers referring to unit measurement (e.g. 10 cm) are never spelt out unless forming the beginning of a sentence. All numbers under 10 not referring to units of measurement are spelt out.

Identify abbreviations the first time they are used.

Cite references in full using the Harvard system (name and year in text, alphabetical listing). If two or more works by different authors are cited at one point in the text, use a semicolon to separate them. Thus: (Smith 1998; Jones 1986). Present these citations alphabetically unless there is a special reason to order them chronologically. Thus: (Darwin 1859; Avise 1999).

Examples of correct format for the reference list are:

Journal article

Abbott I (1980a) The floras of 37 southwestern Australian islands. Western Australian Herbarium Research Notes 3, 19-36.

Book

Brown A, Thomson-Dans C, Marchant N (1998) Western Australia’s Threatened Flora. Department of Conservation and Land Management, Como.

Chapter in a book

Villiers TA (1972) Seed dormancy. In Seed Biology : Volume 2 (ed. TT Kozlowski), pp. 219-281. Academic Press, New York.

Report or Bulletin

Strelein GJ (1988) Site classification in the southern jarrah forest of Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management Western Australia, Research Bulletin No. 2, Como.

Accuracy of the references is the responsibility of authors.

Personal communications - use a footnote to refer to these, with the affiliation and location of the person noted. In the text use abbreviation ‘pers. comm.’.

Illustrations, figures or maps — when these are computer generated ensure that the density of any tints is not less than 30%, and that there is a significant difference between varying tints. Use the abbreviation, ‘Fig.’ for all references to figures in text. Add labels to figures and maps using a sans serif typeface.

Graphs — do not need to be bounded by lines. Ensure that symbols, columns, curves and labels are large enough to withstand reduction and will be legible when printed in black and white. Horizontal lines used in histograms to guide the readers eye must be unobtrusive. These problems can be avoided if authors prepare figures at size (the width of one column, two columns, half page or entire page).

Preferred file formats for figures — line drawings should be saved as encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Windows Metafile (WMF) or Excel. Photographs and other figures should be saved as TIFF or EPS.