Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science
Journal / Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science / Submissions

 

 
Editorial Policy

The Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science (WIOJMS) is the research publication of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA). It publishes original research papers or other relevant information in all aspects of marine science and coastal management as original articles, review articles, and short communications (notes). While submissions on tropical and subtropical waters of the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea will be given primary consideration, articles from other regions of direct interest to the western Indian Ocean will also be considered for publication.

All manuscripts submitted to the Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science are accepted for consideration on the understanding that their content has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by any other journal. Manuscripts and all illustrations should be prepared according to the instructions provided below. Submissions will be subject to a pre-review by the Editor-in-Chief or a member of the Editorial Board and those that fall within the remit of the journal, make a substantial contribution to the field of research, and are in the correct style and format, will be sent for review. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria will be rejected. Every manuscript will be double-blind reviewed by at least two referees competent in the field of interest.

The research studies must comply with international and national ethical guidelines, including the use of animals in research as well as sampling of endangered species and sensitive habitats.

Submission

Authors should submit an electronic version of the manuscript online by registering as an author on the AJOL website and following the submission prompts. This can be accessed directly or via the link provided at the journal’s page on the WIOMSA website. Authors are asked to suggest the names of at least two referees with respective email contacts in the submission message to the editor, avoiding suggested reviewers from the author(s) institution.

The submission must be accompanied by the following documents:

• Complete manuscript single file in word format with the following content sequence:
  • cover page with title, authors and affiliations;
  • manuscript (title, abstract, keywords, introduction, main body text, acknowledgements, and references);
  • tables in editable Word format;
  • figures (maps, graphs and others) in best possible resolution.
• Original files of graphs and diagrams (such as Excel, Power-point, e-Primer, R script, etc.).
• Files of maps (pdf, tiff or jpeg) in high resolution.

In each published WIOJMS issue, the cover has a different colour photograph relevant for the themes of the respective articles. Should the author(s) have high-quality images for which they hold the copyright, they may propose its inclusion as cover for the issue.

The Manuscript

1. The manuscript is your own original work, and does not duplicate any other previously published work, including your own previously published work.

2. The manuscript has been submitted only to the Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science; it is not under consideration or peer review or accepted for publication or in press or published elsewhere.

3. By submitting your manuscript to the Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science, you are agreeing to any necessary originality checks your manuscript may undergo during the peer-review and production process.

4. Contributions must be written in English. Any consistent spelling and publication styles may be used. Please use single quotation marks, except where ‘a quote is “within” a quotation’. Long quotations of 40 words or more should be indented without quotation marks. If English is not your first language we suggest that an English-speaker edits the text, before submission.

5. The journal recommends that authors have their manuscripts checked for language by an English native speaker before submission.

6. All persons who have a reasonable claim to authorship should be named in the manuscript as co-authors and should have been involved in the fundamental aspects of the manuscript; the corresponding author acts on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. The order of names should be agreed by all authors.

7. The manuscript must be typed in a normal type font (e.g. Times New Roman font size 12, or Arial font size 11) and 1.5 line spacing. Sequential line numbers should be inserted on the manuscript. The total number of pages should not exceed 20 manuscript pages (excluding figures and tables), both for Original Articles and Review Articles. Short Communications must not exceed 8 manuscript pages.

8. Species names must be in italics; the genus is written in full at the first mention in the Abstract, again in the main text, figure and table legends, and abbreviated thereafter.

9. Tables and Figures (maps, graphs and others): originals of all figures should follow the Guidelines for illustrations on the WIOMSA website. The lettering should be of a size readable after reduction for the final layout. Authors are requested to indicate the recommended position of figures and tables in the left-hand margin of the text. A separate sheet at the end of the document should be used for each table and figure, with the corresponding legend.

10. The international system of units (SI Units) must be used throughout; abbreviations and acronyms should be identified where they first appear; mathematical symbols and formulae should be used only when absolutely necessary and should be clearly defined in the text.
A complete Original Article manuscript must include the following: title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references, tables and figures (with figure legends) in that order.

          a. Title Page: this should contain a concise title and the names of authors followed by affiliations and their complete postal addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. The corresponding author and email address must be indicated.
          b. Abstract: the abstract should not exceed 200 words and should be a single paragraph. It should briefly describe the main points of the manuscript.
          c. Keywords: four to six key words are required for indexing purposes. Keywords must be written in lower case letters unless when referring names, separated by comas. Avoid using the same words as in the title.
          d. Introduction: a brief survey of relevant literature and objectives of the work should be given in this section. Thus, the introduction should largely be limited to the scope, purpose and rationale of the study.
          e. Materials and Methods: the methodology used should be clearly explained, including relevant references, such that another person can repeat the procedures. It should provide the framework to gain answers to the questions or problems identified. Sampling methods must be elaborated as well as analytical frameworks and model specifications.
          f. Results: the text should be as objective and descriptive as possible. Only material pertinent to the subject should be included. Avoid presenting the same information in both graphical and tabular form.
          g. Discussion: this section could be combined with the above to present “Results and Discussion”. It should interpret the results in view of the problems identified in the introduction, as well as in relation to other published work. The final paragraph of this section could include concluding remarks and recommendations for future work.
          h. Citations: authors should be cited using their surnames, followed by the year of publication. Two authors should be separated by ‘and’. If there are more than two authors, only the first author, followed by “et al.”, should be given. This and other Latin or foreign terms should be italicized.
          i. Acknowledgement/s: this section should be brief. Authors are advised to limit acknowledgements to substantial contributions to the scientific and technical aspects of the paper, financial support or improvements in the quality of the manuscript.
          j. References: the reference section must contain an alphabetical list of all references mentioned in the text of the manuscript, and the journal rules should be followed strictly. Limit punctuation and special fonts as indicated and give all journal names in full. Cross checking of references in the text to the cited literature and vice-versa is the responsibility of the author(s). Examples for citations from periodicals, books and composite works are given below:
                  • Periodicals. Here the following should be sequentially listed: author’s name/s, initials, year of publication, full title of paper, periodical (in full), volume, first and last page numbers.
                          Example: Richardson K, Beardall J, Raven J (1983) Adaptation of unicellular algae to irradiance: An analysis of strategies. The New Phytologist 93: 157-191
                  • Books. The following should be listed: author’s or editor’s name, initials, year of publication, full title, publisher, place of publication, total pages.
                          Example: Kirk TJO (1983) Light and photosynthesis in aquatic ecosystems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 401 pp
                  • Composite works or serials. The sequence should be as above, but also should include full title of paper followed by In: editor(s) if any, full title of publication, publisher, etc., and the first and last page numbers.
                          Example: Sathyendranath S, Platt T (1993a) Remote sensing of water-column primary production. In: Li WKW, Maestrini SY (eds) Measurement of primary production from the molecular to the global Scale. ICES Marine Science Symposia, Vol. 97, Copenhagen. pp 236-243
                  • Articles with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
                          Example: Gooseff MN, McKnight DM, Lyons HJ, Blum RJ (2002) Weathering reactions and hyporheic exchange controls on stream water chemistry in a glacial meltwater stream in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Water Resources Bulletin 38 [doi: 10.1029/2001WR000834]
          k. Tables and Figures: each table and figure should be numbered consecutively, accompanied by a complete caption, and must be cited in the text. Please follow the Guidelines for illustrations for details.
          l. Supplementary material: in case it is found relevant, authors may submit appendices with relevant information of major interest for the interpretation of the manuscript results. This is not applicable for the raw data of normal research. The editors will decide its eventual inclusion as appendices.

12. A complete Review Article manuscript must include the following: title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, main body text (the central sections vary with specific divisions according to the theme), acknowledgements, references, tables and figures (with figure legends) in that order.

13. A complete Short Communication manuscript must include the same structure as an Original Article in a shorter format.

Failure to follow any point of these guidelines may delay or compromise the editorial process. Unless there are communication problems, all communications and exchange of documents shall be made strictly via the AJOL editorial interface. Authors must comply with timing for processing manuscripts, either requested revisions or proof check, or otherwise inform the editors of any delays.