Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation (JTBC) is a free, open-access, international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ITBC), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). This journal publishes two main categories of papers: (1) full-length research articles or reviews; and (2) short notes or communications. JTBC is devoted to the publication in all fields that are of general relevance to tropical biology and conservation in Southeast Asia, particularly in Borneo. The scope of topics we publish include:

• Taxonomy and biodiversity
• Ecology
• Natural product chemistry
• Nature tourism

All authors are expected to follow the highest standards of publication ethics. All manuscripts must comply with the policies of the JTBC Journal Policies. The JTBC reserves the right to decline submissions of suspected plagiarism or a high degree of AI-generated writing at any point during the assessment process. Any articles found to violate the guidelines after publication will be retracted.

The JTBC publishes two main categories of manuscripts:

• Full-length articles or reviews (up to 8,000 words)
  • Full-length articles are original works that follow the format of traditional research papers that will advance knowledge and understanding on taxonomy and biodiversity, ecology, natural product chemistry or nature tourism in Southeast Asia, particularly Borneo, that are hypothesis driven and based on the analysis of data. Data utilised in the paper to test hypotheses must be based on any rigorous, replicable approaches and can be (but not limited to) experimental, observational, genetic, etc..
  • Reviews must cover a topic of interest in fields that are of general relevance to tropical biology and conservation in Southeast Asia, particularly in Borneo. The review must offer a significant synthesis and interpretation of the topic discussed.

• Short notes or communications (up to 2,500 words)
  • Short notes cover novel natural history or field observations and include (but not limited to) significant species range extensions, new country records of previously unreported species and opportunistic single event or limited behavioural observations. Short note articles must be of importance and report previously unrecorded species, or unreported or unconfirmed aspects of biology or natural history. Ideally, submissions must offer an interpretation of the observations in a larger context of taxonomy and biodiversity, ecology, natural product chemistry or nature tourism in Southeast Asia, particularly Borneo. All short notes are expected (although not required and subject to editor discretion) to include high quality photo, video or audio recordings that documented the reported observations.
  • Communications can express opinions or thought-provoking commentary on current issues or previously published papers in taxonomy and biodiversity, ecology, natural product chemistry or nature tourism in Southeast Asia, particularly Borneo. It may also provide insights on particularly interesting or original developments in the abovementioned fields.

1. Preparation of manuscripts

Manuscripts submitted must be in British English. Manuscripts are assessed based on academic rigour and sound reasoning. Nonetheless, it is not the reviewers’ nor the editors’ responsibility to provide language assistance. If necessary, the author(s) should ensure that external help has been consulted for language editing services, prior to manuscript submission.

Author(s) must strictly adhere to the formatting instructions for JTBC. Failure to comply will cause delays in publication and can be grounds for manuscript rejection. Manuscripts that fail to conform to journal’s style will be returned unreviewed to the authors for reformatting. Please adhere to the JTBC manuscript template that can be downloaded from the link below. Author(s) should refer and consult recent papers published in JTBC before submitting a manuscript.

All manuscripts should follow this format:

• Microsoft Word Document (.doc or .docx)
• Text to be in Times New Roman (12 point, except if stated otherwise for particular sections below), and double line-spaced throughout
• Insert continuous line numbers
• All paragraphs should be justified
• Do not indent paragraphs
• Page numbers should be in the centre of the footer, in Times New Roman (10 point)
• All headings should be centred, in upper case and bold
• Sub-headings should be left aligned, in sentence case and in bold

The JTBC manuscript template can be downloaded here.

All manuscripts must include a title page, which should contain the following:

• The title in title case, i.e., capitalise major words, use lowercase for minor words (short conjunctions, articles, prepositions) and bold
• Running Heading (no longer than 50 characters)
• Names of Author(s) as first name(s) in sentence case, followed by surname/preferred name in uppercase
• Institutional Affiliations of Author(s)

• Corresponding Author email address

Manuscript structure:

• Full length articles or reviews (up to 8,000 words)
  • Title page
  • Abstract (no longer than 250 words)
  • Keywords (4–6 words)
  • Introduction
  • Material and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion (Results and Discussion may be combined)
  • Conclusions (if appropriate)
  • Acknowledgments (include relevant permit numbers and funding source)
  • References
• Short notes or communications (up to 2,500 words)
• Title page
• Introduction, material and methods, results and discussion should be presented in one continuous block of text, without any headings
• Acknowledgements (be brief, include relevant permit numbers and funding source)
• References

Other points to note:

• The JTBC is read by an international readership. When possible, the name of the state/province/territory and country should be included when describing study sites.
• All species and genus names should be italicised. All other words should not be italicised, including et al., sensu stricto, etc.).
• Common names of species, including those not in English, should use upper case letters for the first letter of each word, e.g., Poring, Gulupu, Kinabalu Birdwing, Bornean Tree-hole Frog, Maroon Woodpecker. Common names that refer to groups of a taxon should use lower case for the first letter, e.g., bamboos, apple snails, butterflies, tree frogs, woodpeckers.
• All numbers less than 10 should be spelled in full, except in the Material and Methods and unless in a measurement, designator or in a range, e.g., 1 min, day 4, 3–4 months.
• SI units and metric measurements should be used throughout the manuscript.
• Abbreviations or acronyms should be spelled out fully in the text or legend the first time it appears. Avoid using abbreviations or acronyms in the title.
• Equations should be created using the Insert Equation tool in Word.
• Dates should have months spelled out in full and years presented in four digits, i.e., 1 January 2024.
• The format of presenting geographic coordinates should remain the same throughout the manuscript.

2. Title and running heading

The title should be concise. The higher classification of taxa should be included in the title in parentheses, in descending order, separated by colons: e.g., “The vipers (Reptilia: Squamata: Viperidae) of Borneo”. If the title includes the name of the study site, the name of the state/province/territory and country should also be included. A running heading (no longer than 50 characters) to be used in the page header should be provided.

3. Authors and affiliations

In accordance with the policies of the JTBC, authorship should only be claimed for those who have contributed substantially to the study. Adding of authors after submission should be avoided. For authors who do not have institutional affiliations, the city, state/province/territory and country should be provided.

4. Abstract

All full length articles should contain and Abstract, which should be no longer than 250 words. The abstract should include a brief rationale and objectives of the study, summary of the methods, key results and implications of the study.

5. In-text citations

Citations of references in the text are by the surname of the author and year of publication, e.g.:

• one author: Smith (1998) or (Smith, 1998)
• two authors: Smith & Gomez (1999) or (Smith & Gomez, 1999)
• three or more authors: Smith et al. (1999) or (Smith et al., 1999)

Multiple references should be arranged chronologically, followed by alphabetically. Multiple references by the same author(s) should be listed chronologically, with the publication year(s) separated by a comma. Multiple references by the same first author, in the same year, with three or more co-authors should use lower case letters (a, b, c) with the year, separated by a comma. The order of citation should be arranged alphabetically following the names of the co-authors. E.g., “(Mohamad, 1990, 1998; Choy et al. 2019a, b; Pius, 2019; IUCN, 2023)”.

It is recommended that the authorship of scientific names by cited at the first mention of the species according to the respective naming conventions of each taxa:

• Algae, fungi and plant names should follow the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants
• Zoological names should follow the format designated by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

6. References

All references that are cited in the text must be listed in the References at the end of the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that all citations in the text are listed in the References, and vice versa.

The references should be listed in alphabetical, followed by chronological order, with a hanging indent of 12.7 mm. Journal names should be given in full. The digital object identifier (DOI) should be included if available. The style and punctuation of the examples below should be followed accurately:

Beaman JH, Edward PS (2007) Ferns of Kinabalu, an Introduction. Sabah: Natural History Publication (Borneo). 198 pp.

Chung AYC, Bosuang S, Majapun R, Nilus R (2016) Diversity and geographical ranges of insects in Crocker Range Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation 13: 135–155. https://doi.org/10.51200/jtbc.v13i.404.

Choy SC (1996) Distributional ecology of freshwater fishes in tropical rainforest streams of Borneo. In: Edwards DS, Booth WE, Choy SC. (eds.). Tropical Rainforest Research — Current Issues. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 74. Dordrecht: Springer. pp 377–386. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1685-2_38.

Choy SC (2015) Twenty two years of inland aquatic science (1993 to 2015) and its application in Queensland: Achievements, learnings and way forward. The Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 120: 23–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/p.357795.

Choy SC, Chin PK (1994) Freshwater fishes from the headwaters of the Belalong-Temburong River system, Brunei Darussalam, Borneo. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 42(4): 757–774.

Choy SC, Page TJ, De Mazancourt V, Mos B (2019a) Caridina malanda, a new species of freshwater shrimp (Crustacea: Decapoda: Atyidae) from the Wet Tropics World Heritage area, north-eastern Queensland, Australia. Zootaxa 4652(1): 113–125. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4652.1.5.

Choy SC, Page TJ, Mos B (2019b) Taxonomic revision of the Australian species of Australatya Chace 1983 (Crustacea, Decapoda, Atyidae), and the description of a new species. Zootaxa 4711(2): 366–378. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4711.2.8.

Esau K (1964) Structure and development of the bark in dicotyledons. In: Zimmermann MH. (ed.). The Formation of Wood in Forest Trees. New York: Academic Press. Pp. 37–50.

IUCN (2023) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2023-1. https://www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed 13 March 2024).

Jeffrey S (2024) Three crucial wildlife papers for the Cabinet. Daily Express, 10 March 2024. https://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/230314/three-crucial-wildlife-papers-for-the-cabinet/ (Accessed 13 March 2024).

Ngadan SD (2015) Local communities’ attitudes toward crocodiles and human-crocodile conflicts in Sarawak. Proceedings of the 17th Malaysian Forestry Conference, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Pp 515–523.

7. Figures and tables

In the initial submission and when submitting a revised manuscript, figures and tables should be placed at appropriate points in the text (preferably after the paragraph that contains its first mention in the text). Each figure and table should be numbered according to the order of appearance in the text, i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2, and Table 1, Table 2. All figures and tables should fit within the A4 size page format. If the full manuscript file exceeds 5MB, please insert the figure captions at the end of the text, after References, remove all images from the file and submit them individually in JPG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) format.

Composite figures should be labelled alphabetically, according to the sequence of its arrangement. Text within figures (e.g., graphs) should be of reasonable size for ease of readability. Figure captions, table text and legends should be presented in 10 point. The table legends and figure captions should be standalone, i.e., should be understandable to someone who has not read the text.

Upon acceptance, the copy editor will request for figures to be submitted individually in JPG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) format, with the minimum resolution of 300 dpi. The editors reserve the right to request for unmodified or original images, and failure to provide these images could result in the rejection of a manuscript.

The JTBC discourages authors from submitting tables and figures as supplementary data. As much as possible, key data should be presented within the main text. If it is necessary to provide large volumes of data as supplementary information, authors should deposit the data in a suitable public repository (e.g., Figshare) and cite the DOI accordingly.

8. Submission of manuscripts

For the initial submission of manuscript and when submitting a revised article, upload a Word file containing the complete paper. The title page should only contain the title, name of authors, affiliation, addresses, contact details, running heading, keywords and corresponding author. If the full manuscript file exceeds 5MB, please insert the figure captions at the end of the text, after References, remove all images from the file and submit them individually in JPG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) format. Funding information and if applicable, each research and/or ethical permit approval number must be listed in the acknowledgements.

Manuscripts and the completed Manuscript Submission Form should be submitted via the link on the Submissions page. All manuscripts are subjected to peer review by two independent reviewers.

Later, upon acceptance, the copy editor will request for figures to be submitted individually. Upload a Word file containing the revised text, including figure captions placed at the appropriate locations in the text. Remove all graphics from this file. Instead, figures should to be submitted as separate files in JPG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) format. Filenames should clearly correspond to the number (and part) of figure(s) enclosed in each file.

9. Revision of manuscripts and publication process

Manuscripts will be sent to the Managing Editor who will handle the peer-review process. The Managing Editor will make a provisional decision based on comments by the reviewers. The corresponding author will receive the provisional decision along with the reviewer comments.

The author(s) should respond to each of the comments and revise the manuscript accordingly. The revised manuscript (clean and tracked changes versions), along with a letter detailing the authors’ responses to each comment (including justification for any disagreements) should be returned to the Managing Editor by the stated deadline.

The manuscript will only be accepted once all the reviewers’ comments or recommendations have been addressed, and the format of the manuscript (including tables and figures) comply with the JTBC format. The Editor-in-Chief will convey the final decision to the corresponding author.

Upon acceptance, the proofs in PDF format will be sent to the corresponding author for checks and correction, together with the Transfer of Copyright Form.

Upon receipt of the corrected proofs and Transfer of Copyright form, the final PDF of the paper will be prepared and published on the JTBC website. The final PDF will also be sent to the corresponding author immediately upon publication.

10. Article processing charges

There are no article processing charges for publishing in the JTBC. This journal provides immediate free access to all published articles.

11. All manuscripts dealing with new species description(s) or nomenclatural acts must follow the respective codes of the taxa.

For example, species descriptions of new animal species must in accordance with The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature by the ICZN. In such cases, for compliance with Article 8.5 of the ICZN Code, authors of new species descriptions and/or nomenclatural acts are required to register their new name(s) in Zoobank (http://zoobank.org/) and send the registered Life Science Identifiers (LSID) for the names to the JTBC editorial team latest by the proof stage of the paper to be included in the subsequent publication. For more information regarding this matter, authors may refer to the The Code of the ICZN : https://www.iczn.org/the-code/the-international-code-of-zoological-nomenclature/

Please note that registration of new species names in the respective databases for respective taxa is mandatory for all papers describing new species and/or dealing with nomenclatural acts to be published in JTBC.