ARABEL

Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging

Richtlijnen voor auteurs

13/02/2022

Guidelines for authors

Please, download here the latest version of the author guidelines.

Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society is a publication of Arachnologia Belgica (ARABEL), the Belgian Arachnological Society, and aims to publish research on all orders of the Arachnida from Belgium and across the world. The journal is published twice a year on the 1st of June (summer issue) and the 1st of December (winter issue). Deadline for submission is 1st of April and 1st of October. All articles will be peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers.

Contributions

There are five types of contributions that can be submitted to Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society: Research article, Scientific report, Short note, Announcement and Arachnological contributions.

  • Research articles are articles describing original research in a “classical” way. This type of manuscript always consists of Abstracts, Introduction, Material and methods, Results and Discussion. Also review articles are published under this category. Abstract can contain max. 300 words. (Download the template here). For articles with taxonomic content, please see the remark below.
  • Scientific reports are generally longer articles describing the results of arachnological inventories. This can for example be the result of the arachnological part of a pitfall trap research or the description of the arachnofauna of a certain area using different methods. The content can be more detailed, compared to research articles and can describe local distribution of different individual species. The abstract can contain max. 500 words. (Download the template here).
  • Short note can maximally be three pages long, including references, figures, tables, etc. It can be a continuous text without the classical subdivisions of a research article. Abstract can contain max. 100 words and should only be written in English regardless of the language in which the short note is written. For example, a short note written in Dutch should only have an English abstract, not a Dutch one. Author names and affiliation should be placed at the end of the note and authors can use only one affiliation. (Download the template here).
  • Announcement can be a text or flyer (figure) announcing an event or research project. This can also be a call for specific observations or a collaboration request for a certain project. If the announcement is provided as text, it should have a title and be followed by a correspondence (e-mail) address. An announcement has a length of maximum one page.
  • Arachnological contributions is an online journal that is published under the same ISSN-number as Journal of the Arachnological Society. An issue of Arachnological contributions is always published as supplement to an issue of Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society. Arachnological contributions has the goal to publish long articles from intensive fieldwork (such as species catalogs) or very extensive review articles. Please contact the editors of Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society before submitting. (Download the template here). For articles with taxonomic content, please see the remark below.

Remark: for taxonomic papers, which may involve species descriptions or redescriptions (suitable for publication as Research articles), extensive revisions, or faunistic inventories with a significant taxonomic emphasis (suitable for publication as Arachnological contributions), please adhere to the structure provided in the following document: download the template here.

Upon submission, the authors should indicate to which article type they want to submit. In addition to the guidelines below, we encourage authors to follow the format of an article in the most recent issue.

Papers should be submitted to Pallieter De Smedt: Pallieter.desmedt@ugent.be

General guidelines

  • Manuscripts can be written in three different languages; English, Dutch or French. Papers in English are encouraged. If a manuscript is written in Dutch or French, an English title should also be provided. For Research articles and Scientific reports, abstracts should be written in the three languages mentioned above (except for Short notes and Arachnological contributions). Abstracts are concise and factual.
  • Manuscripts are written in Calibri font size 11. Legends of Tables and Figures should be in Calibri font 9 (see further details below).
  • Subsections are not numbered and a maximum of three title levels is allowed (Heading 1: font size 12, bold; Heading 2: font size 11, bold & italic; and Heading 3: font size 11, italic).
  • Add a reference list at the end of the manuscript. This is not a bibliography. Species lists are added as a table in the appendix after the references and not as Online appendix (see below). The species list will be published together with the article.
  • Nomenclature should follow the latest version of the World Spider Catalog https://wsc.nmbe.ch/. In the species list, species are mentioned followed by the author that first described the species. Per species, numbers of males and females are given if data is available. Only the first time a species is mentioned in the text, the author of the original description should be added.
  • Authors mention their affiliation(s) and e-mail address. The corresponding author should be indicated if this is not the first author. Only the e-mail address of the corresponding author will be published.

References

Citations within the text

Before submitting the manuscript, please check each citation in the text against the References and vice-versa to ensure that they match exactly. The last names of authors in the text and in the reference list are written in small caps (Please note that the web version of the Guidelines for authors does not allow us to display in small caps).

  • One author: SMITH (1990) or (SMITH 1990)
  • Two authors: BROCK & GUNDERSON (2001) or (BROCK & GUNDERSON 2001)
  • Three or more authors: SMITH et al. (1998) or (SMITH et al. 1998)

When citing more than one source, in-text citations should be ordered by the year of publication, starting with the earliest one: (SMITH et al. 1998, 2000, 2016; BROCK and GUNDERSON 2001; FELT 2006).

Reference list

  • Journal article:

JACOBS, J., ARTOIS, T. & JANSSEN, M. (2021). First observation of Cryptachaea blattea (Urqhart, 1886) on a green roof in Antwerp, Belgium (Araneae, Theridiidae). Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society 36(2): 49-54.

  • Book:

ROBERTS, M. J. (1998). Tirion spinnengids. Tirion, Baarn. 397 pp.

  • Book chapter:

ELMQVIST, T., ZIPPERER, W. & GÜNERALP, B. (2016). Urbanisation, habitat loss, biodiversity decline: Solution pathways to break the cycle. In SETA, K., SOLECKI, W. D. & GRIFFITH, C. A. (eds) Routledge handbook of urbanisation and global environmental change, pp. 139-151. Routledge, London, UK.

  • Report:

VRIENS, L., BOSCH, H., DE KNIJF, G., DE SAEGER, S., GUELINCKX, R., OOSTERLYNCK, P., VAN HOVE, M. & PAELINCKX, D. (2011). De Biologische Waarderingskaart. Biotopen en hun verspreiding in Vlaanderen en het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest. Mededelingen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. INBO.M.2011.1, Brussel. 416 pp.

  • Web ref:

BRITISH SPIDERS (2021). Spider and Harvestman Recording Scheme website the national recording schemes for spiders and harvestmen in Britain. Summary for Zodarion italicum (Araneae). http://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Summary/s/Zodarion+italicum (2021-04-10).

Figures

Small illustrations should be grouped into plates and numbered with letterings. For the review process, figures (in lower resolution) can be directly inserted within the text files. The original figures in a higher resolution format must be retained for the final production of the accepted paper. At this stage, final images or illustration plates (preferably at 300 dpi resolution and RGB colour space) must be sent to the editor separately in TIFF (using LZW compression) or JPEG format. For manuscripts with numerous illustrations, if TIFF files are too big (exceeding 3 MB with LZW compression), then it should be submitted in JPEG. Figures should be uniform to the written text. Every figure should be referred to in the text. Every figure needs a legend below the figure that should be in Calibri font 9. The legend of figures should follow this format:

Figure #: General description. A. Specific description for Fig. #A. B. Specific description for Fig. #B. C. etc. … Abbreviations list (if applicable). Scale bars (if applicable).

Tables

Tables should be submitted as edible text and not as images. Every table needs a caption above the table that should be in Calibri font 9. Avoid using vertical lines and shading in tables. Keep the use of horizontal lines to a minimum. The caption of tables should follow this format:

Table #: Title and description of the table.

Online appendix

The online appendix can be used for large amounts of pictures from e.g. pitfall trap locations or characteristic habitats. Also, species lists per sublocation can be added here. This is also the place for movies or presentation slides. The online appendix should be formatted by the authors following the same guidelines as for research articles.

Editorial team:

Pallieter De Smedt –  pallieter.desmedt@ugent.be

Arnaud Henrard – arnaud.henrard@africamuseum.be

Garben Logghe – garbenlogghe@hotmail.com

Bram Vanthournout – bram.vanthournout@hogent.be

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