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Vita Marina Instructions to Authors

VITA MARINA publishes high quality papers on aspects of any marine invertebrate phylum although there is a strong emphasis on recent molluscs. VITA MARINA is published quarterly, usually together with the newsletter Spirula. Each volume contains over 100 pages and numerous color plates.

Two types of manuscripts are considered:

Manuscripts with a scientific content describing original, unpublished research as well as review articles.
Examples of this category are:

• Revisions of genera, families etc. (also containing introduction(s) of new taxa and parts on ecology and/or anatomy)
• Systematic works on all groups of all kinds
• Faunistic works
• Bio-historical studies

The second category of articles has no scientific pretensions although the content is scientifically justified.
The text and photographs are of a high quality. Examples of the second category are:

• Expedition and field trip reports
• Reports of diving trips with excellent photographs of living animals.

Small articles on field trip reports, club meetings, collecting techniques, unusual shells etc. are usually published in the newsletter, Spirula.

General Requirements:

• Text preferably in English or Dutch (for other languages please contact the editor).
• Manuscripts should contain an abstract and key words
• Text should preferably be sent on floppy-disk (preferably 3,5" MS-DOS / MS-Windows; 3,5" Macintosh can also be processed). Plain ASCII format or popular word-processor formats will be accepted. The text should be accompanied by a paper printout. If you are not able to send your manuscripts in one of the above mentioned ways, please contact the editor. The manuscript can be submitted by E-mail in parallel to speed up the processing.
• Latin names of genera and species should preferably be italicized in the text.
• Manuscripts should be accompanied by illustrations of high quality (black & white and color prints or slides, line drawings, maps, graphics etc.). Illustrations may not be incorporated in the text but should be send on paper separately. If you do have a high quality manuscript but you can not supply illustrations, please contact the editorial staff.
• Manuscripts should be accompanied by all usual references (bibliography, material used etc.).
• The metric system should be used rather than the Imperial system ("centimeter" instead of "inch", "kilometer" instead of "mile" etc.).
• Authors should respect the "Code of ethics" as published in appendix A of the "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature".
• Deposition of type material in a recognized public museum is a requirement for publication of papers in which new species are described. Deposition of representative voucher specimens in such institutions is strongly encouraged for all other types of research papers. This insures that future workers will have easy access to this material and that species determinations can be checked.

Processing of Manuscripts:

Upon receipt, every manuscript is acknowledged. Articles with a scientific content are sent for critical review by two referees. These reviews serve as the basis for acceptance or rejection (usually with guidelines for improvement). Articles of the second category are accessed by the editorial staff on content, readability and photographs after which a decision is made to publish it in Vita Marina, to reject it or to suggest publication in the newsletter, Spirula.
Accepted manuscripts are returned to the author for consideration of the reviewers' comments. Support is provided for photographs, layout-matters and spelling. A finalized version of the manuscript is returned to the editor and sent to press. One set of proofs is sent to the author for correction.
The author receives 10 free offprints of the article, additional copies may be purchased.

Editorial staff:

Manuscripts, corrected proofs and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be sent to: Editor Vita Marina, P.O. Box 64628, 2506 CA, Den Haag, The Netherlands.
Tel.: +31.70.3551245 / Fax: +31.70.3551245
E-mail: spirula@wxs.nl / WWW: http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula

Members of the editorial staff:

Jan Paul Buijs - j.p.buijs@research.kpn.com
Henk Dekker - spirula@wxs.nl
Willem Faber - spirula@wxs.nl
David Feld - spirula@wxs.nl
Jeroen Goud - jgoud@pi.net
Theo Kemperman - theo.kemperman@pi.net
Gijs Kronenberg - spirula@wxs.nl

Graphic Editor:

Leo Man in 't Veld

Members of the advisory board:

Dr. A.C. van Bruggen
Dr. H.E. Coomans
Prof. Dr. E. Gittenberger
Prof. Dr. L.B. Holthuis