Amphibia-Reptilia is published four times a year and isavailable in both paper and on-line version for all full members of theSocietas Europaea Herpetologica. It is indexed in the ISIJournal Citation Reports data base.
The instructions to authors are available athttp://www.gli.cas.cz/SEH/amphrept/instructions.htm. Recent issues ofAmphibia-Reptilia should also be consulted before to submit amanuscript. Some papers are available freely on the web.
SUBMISSION
Manuscripts must be sent to one of the editors in charge of therespective subject area: by e-mail to M. Denoël and D.J. Harris andin triplicate with a copy on CD-rom or floppy disk to L. Luiselli.
Dr. Mathieu Denoël (general biology and ecology of amphibians):Chargé de Recherches FNRS, Behavioral Biology Unit, University ofLiège, Quai van Beneden 22, 4020 Liège, Belgium. E-mail:Mathieu.Denoel@ulg.ac.be
Dr. Luca Luiselli (general biology and eco-ethology of reptiles): viaOlona 7, I-00198 Roma, Italy. E-mail: lucamlu@tin.it
Dr. D. James Harris (genetics and systematics), Centro deInvestigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos(CIBIO/UP), Campus Agrário de Vairão, PT-4484-661, Portugal.E-mail: james@mail.icav.up.pt
PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscriptsmust be printed double-spaced, with wide margins (3 cm;1.25''), page and line numbering throughout the entire text. Britishspelling should be used. Authors whose English is not their firstlanguage should consult English native speakers to adjust their textlinguistically. Manuscripts may be submitted as articles (around 5--8printed pages) or as short notes (around 3--4 printed pages). Notesshould be prepared without dividing the text into sections. Manuscriptsshould follow the following order: title, authors (first and lastnames), affiliation (including the e-mail of the corresponding author),running head, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results,discussion, acknowledgements, references, tables, figure legends(grouped together). The main headings are written in bold, the secondheadings in italics, and the scientific names of species are written initalics.
Format.At the time of first submission, acceptable electronicformats are MS Word (.doc) for the text and a single MS Word or betterpdf file for the figures. Tables should be provided in the text file.English native speakers are welcome to submit a single pdf file fortheir manuscript (including figures and tables). Better quality formatsmay be requested before final acceptance (e.g., EPS, TIF or JPEG). Allhyperlinks and field codes (e.g., from bibliographic databases) must beremoved. Files should not be too large to facilitate e-mailcommunication during the review process. Bad quality pictures maycompromise acceptance.
Abstract.The abstract should represent a brief summary of thetopic, aims, results and interest of the work. They should be presentedin only one language (English) and not be too long with respect to thetext. Short notes do not have abstracts.
Introduction.The introduction should clearly states theobjectives of the study and places it within the concept of previouspublications. Conceptual introductions are preferred over toodescriptive texts. The introduction should not just describe a studyspecies or group but give an overview of a more general topic inherpetofauna and possibly other animals.
Materials and Methods.They should be presented in a smallerfont than the rest of the manuscript. They should be explained in enoughdetails to allow replication. The sample sizes and the number ofindependent replicates should be clearly quoted. For experimental work,details on both the housing and observation conditions should be stated.Environmental conditions should be controlled as much as possible toavoid biased results. The statistics should be detailed in the methods,particularly when complex models were used.
Results.Anecdotic results should not be presented unless theyare of primary importance. Instead, they should be stated in thediscussion as personal observations. Results should focus on the mainargument of the manuscript. Comparisons should be tested withstatistical tests. Sample sizes should be clearly presented.
Discussion.The discussion should start with a brief summary ofthe results. The results should be discussed in the context of theexisting literature. The discussion should not focus only on the studyspecies or group but found arguments in other model species to make itmore conceptual. The literature should be covered in sufficient detailson both the topic and study group. Each paragraph should focus on adifferent idea, but too small paragraphs should be associated with otherparagraphs.
Literature citationsshould be in chronological order asfollows: Boulenger (1880) or (Boulenger, 1880; Mertens and Wermuth,1960). Where there are more than two authors, only the first should benamed, followed by ``et al.'' (not in italic). References should belisted in alphabetical, and then chronological order, under the firstauthor's name and should refer only to publications cited in the text.List references with three or more author names after those with two.Journal names must be abbreviated. No space must be provided between theinitials of the first names. Volume numbers are written in bold. The twolast authors or editors in a citation are separated by a comma.Abstracts of conferences should not be listed in the reference list, butcited in the text as unpublished data or personal observation.
References must be typed in the following order and form:
Arnold 2002
Arnold 2003
Arnold, Peterson 2002
Arnold, Pfrender, Jones 2001
Myers, E.M., Zamudio, K.R. (2004): Multiple paternity in an aggregatebreeding amphibian: the effect of reproductive skew on estimates of malereproductive success. Mol. Ecol. 13: 1951-1963.
Kiesecker, J.M. (2003): Invasive species as a global Problem. Towardunderstanding the worldwide decline of amphibians. In: AmphibianConservation, p. 113-126. Semlitsch, R.D., Eds, Washington, Smithsonian.
Zug, G.R., Vitt, L.J., Caldwell, J.P. (2001): Herpetology. AnIntroductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles, 
Edition. SanDiego, Academic Press.
Acknowledgements. They should be kept brief butcollecting permits and funding agencies should be listed.Individuals are identified by their last name and the initials of theirfirst name.
Statistics.Means and standard errors (SE) / deviations (SD) ormedians and quartiles or ranges should be given as:
mm.Statistical symbols, such as n, F, t, U, Z, rmust be indicated in italics. Degrees of freedoms are indicated as asubscript to the test statistic (F2,265, t17). The name ofthe test should be given as its first appearance in front of the symbol(e.g. ANOVA, Mann-Whitney). P values for significant results should bequoted as below a threshold significance value (P < 0.05, P < 0.01,P < 0.001). Exact probabilities should be given for non significantresults. Multiple post-hoc tests have to be used with caution to avoidexperiment error by chance only. When transformations are used, theyshould be stated in the materials and methods. The multiple use ofindividuals should be controlled or avoided. Multivariate analyses areusually requested when several explanatory variables are tested for onedependent variable or when one explanatory variable is expected toexplain several dependent variables.
Abbreviations.The International System of Units should beused. Do not give unexplained abbreviations for institutions, etc.
Ethics. The authors should explain and justify in a coverletter all techniques which have caused injuries or death of animals. Inthe Materials and Methods of their manuscript, they should detail asprecisely as possible the conditions of maintenance, transport,anaesthesia, and marking of animals. When available, references shouldbe added to justify that the techniques used were not invasive. Whenalternative techniques exist to euthanasia, but were not used, themanuscripts may not be considered for publication.
Tablesshould be numbered consecutively with arabic numbers (inbold font) and submitted on separate pages. The table is only composedof horizontal lines above and beneath. Footnotes should be indicated bylower-case suffix letters. According to their size, tables should bedone to fit one or two columns of a journal page. Very small tablesshould be avoided and their results placed in the text.
Illustrations,whether photographs, maps or diagrams, should benumbered consecutively (in bold font) and submitted on separate pages.An electronic version must be provided. Illustrations should be drawnclearly in deep-black ink and after reduction, lettering and numberingshould not be smaller than 1 mm. If dimensions are important a measuringline should be given on the photograph. Maps should include geographiccoordinates, the indication of the North, and a scale. Legends should belisted on separate pages. All symbols should be explained in thecaption. According to their size, figures should be drawn to fit one ortwo columns of a journal page. The number of illustrations should not betoo high given the length of the text. Colour reproductions cannot bepublished unless the author(s) agree to bear the costs (545 euros in2004). To guarantee a good printing resolution, the figures should be inan original TIF or EPS file with an original resolution of 600 or 1200dpi. The figures should be in full colour (i.e., CMYK and not in RGB).
Copyright.It is a fundamental condition that submittedmanuscripts have not been published and will not be simultaneouslysubmitted or published elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, theauthors agree that the copyright for their article is transferred to thepublisher if and when the article is accepted for publication. The useof general descriptive names, trade marks, etc., in this publication,even if the former are not specifically identified, is not to be takenas a sign that such names are exempt from the relevant protective lawsand regulations and may accordingly be used freely by anyone.
Review process.All manuscripts that are not editoriallyrejected are sent for peer review. Manuscripts are usually reviewed byat least two external reviewers and one the three co-editors. Members ofthe advisory editorial boards may be chosen for reviewing a paper, butmore specialised external reviewers are usually chosen instead or incomplement. Reviewers are given one month to send back their comments.The first decision is usually given within two or three months fromreceipt.
Proofswill be sent to the authors only once. Correctionsshould be limited to typographical errors. The costs of any otherchanges, involving time-consuming and expensive work, will be charged toauthor(s). If absolutely necessary, additions may be made at the end ofthe paper in a ``Note added in proof''. The Co-editors reserve the rightto publish manuscripts in any order they think fit (normallychronologically).
Offprints.A password-protected pdf-file will be supplied witheach article for personal use. Offprints may be ordered at prices shownon the reprint order form, which will be sent to the correspondingauthor with the proofs.
The Editors,
Mathieu Denoël
D. James Harris
Lucca Luiselli
VSPPostal address: P.O. Box 9000, 2300 PA Leiden, The Netherlands