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Author Guidelines
Submission of manuscripts
All manuscripts must be original work that has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts may be in English or French, but French manuscripts should be provided with an Abstract in English. Electronic submission, in MS-Word or a programme compatible with it (pdf is not acceptable) is preferred, and submissions should be sent to the Editor at lvfo-sec@lvfo.org. For authors unable to submit electronic copies, typed manuscripts (3 copies) can be sent to the Editor, Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation, and P.O. Box 1625, Jinja, Uganda.
Page layout and format Manuscripts should be submitted on A4 size (check ‘page size’ on the computer) with 2.5 cm margins all round. Printed manuscripts should be double-spaced but electronic manuscripts
may be single-spaced. The manuscript should then be arranged in the following sequence; Title page, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References, with figures and tables on separate pages after the text. The Results and Discussion may be combined in short communications, and review papers may use other formats. Excessive subheadings should be avoided and sections should not be subdivided beyond three levels; the decimal system of numbering should not be used. All pages should be numbered but footnotes,
headers and footers must not be used.
Scientific names of organisms should include the authority (but not the date) when first mentioned and authors should take note of the different conventions employed by botanists and zoologists. Plant names should therefore be written as Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms, while animal names are given as Protopterus annectens Owen or Limnothrissa miodon (Boulenger), depending on whether or not the original generic name is being used. Generic names should be abbreviated on second and subsequent use, e.g. E. crassipes, P. annectens.
Title page
The title page should include the title, the name(s) and address(es) of the author(s) and the e-mail address of the corresponding author. The author’s address should always be the one where he/she was when the work was done; if it has changed since then the new address should be
indicated as well.
Abstract
Each paper should have an abstract not exceeding 150 words, which should summarise the significant findings of the paper. Note that abstracts do not have paragraphs and should not contain references. The abstract should be followed by up to six key words.
Introduction
The Introduction should briefly review the state of knowledge about the topic of the paper, citing the most appropriate and recent literature. It should not be used as a thesis-type literature review and excessive literature citations should be avoided. The research questions should be
clearly set out with some indication of how the investigation being described would be expected to add to existing knowledge.
Methods
The methods used should be clearly set out so that readers can fully understand what was done, and it is essential that authors include the dates of field sampling; there is already a considerable amount of historical data in the literature which cannot be used because it is undated. Standard methods, e.g. for chemical analyses, need not be described in detail provided a standard literature citation is included. It is not necessary to describe standard statistical methods but unusual or little-used methods should be accompanied by a literature citation.
Results
The results of the work should be presented as clearly and concisely as possible and authors should ensure that the results obtained from all the methods are given; for example, one frequently sees statements like “... all fish were measured to total and standard length and weighed...” only to find that one or two of these measurements are omitted from the Results. All measurements should be given in metric units (non-metric units should include the metric equivalent) in accordance with the System International d’Unites (SI) e.g. mm, m2, kg ha-1 and so on, using the superscript rather than the solidus (/). The 24-hour clock should be used for the time
of day, e.g. 1645 hours not 4.45 pm, while calendar dates should be given as 18 April 1996. In the text, single-digit numbers should be written in full, except when used with units of measure, e.g. five boxes, 10 g, 5-cm size classes. Numerals should be used for numbers with two or more digits,
e.g. 34 samples, 2.5 hours. Statistics should be presented as follows: name of test, number of observations or degrees of freedom, and probability level. Probability must be expressed in standard statistical format, i.e. p > 0.05 (= not significant), p < 0.05 (= significant), p < 0.01 (= highly significant) and p < 0.001 (= very highly significant).
Discussion
The Discussion should outline the significance of the results and how they contribute to knowledge and understanding of the topic, and whether or not the research questions were answered. Speculation should be avoided and conclusive statements should be supported by data or appropriate literature citations. Authors should resist the temptation to write a second literature
review in the Discussion and should avoid making general statements about the topic that do not relate specifically to the Results.
As a rule, paragraphs headed “Summary”, “Conclusions”, or “Conclusions and Recommendations” should be avoided. These tend to repeat things that have, or should have been, included in the Discussion and usually contribute very little to the paper. They may be used in review papers that might follow the standard format suggested here for most other papers..
Acknowledgements These should be brief and limited to those who actually made it possible to do the work being reported (include sources of funding).
References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their references and these should be carefully checked before submission. References should be listed as follows:
1. Papers:
Verburg, P., R.E. Hecky and H. Kling (2003). Ecological consequences of a century of warming in Lake Tanganyika. Science 301: 505-507.
[Journal titles should be given in full and part numbers should not be included unless each part begins with page one.]
2. Books:
Bell-Cross, G and J.L. Minshull (1988). The Fishes of Zimbabwe. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, Harare.
[Publisher and place of publication should always be given; include the country if the town is not well known, e.g. “Science Publishers, Enfield, New Hampshire, USA”.] 3. Book Chapters:
Reynolds, J.E., D.F. Gréboval and P. Mannini (1995). Thirty years on: the development of the Nile perch fishery in Lake Victoria. In: T.J. Pitcher and P.J.B. Hart (eds) The Impact of Species Changes in African Lakes. Chapman and Hall, London: pp. 181-214. [Editor(s), publisher, place of publication and page numbers must always be included]
4. Conference proceedings:
Odongkara, O.K., R.O. Abila and P.O. Onyango (2005). Distribution of economic benefits from the fisheries. In: The State of the Fishery Resources of Lake Victoria and Their Management. Proceedings of the Regional Stakeholders Conference, Entebbe, 24-25
February 2005. Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, Jinja, Uganda: pp. 124-131. [Include editor(s) if these are named]
5. Unpublished documents:
These should be avoided as far as possible since they are generally not reviewed, produced in limited numbers, have a restricted distribution and are difficult to locate. If they must be cited then as much information as possible should be given, including page numbers. Note that university theses are also unpublished documents and should also be avoided as far as possible.
References should be listed in alphabetical order and then chronologically when more than one reference by the same author is cited. When more than one paper by the same author in the same year is cited, then the citations should be qualified by a letter, e.g. Darwin (1996a; 1996b). These should be cited in the order in which they appear in the text, i.e the first citation is 1996a, the second 1996b, and so on. References with multiple authors, but the same first author, should be cited alphabetically according to the second author, e.g. Watson, Crick and Darwin (1995)
would precede Watson, Darwin and Crick (1993).
Tables and Figures
These must not be embedded into the text but given on separate pages with each table or figure on a separate page.
Tables
Authors should examine a current issue of the journal for the style of tables. Each table should be numbered in the sequence in which they appear in the text and have a legend above; this should be fully explanatory so that the reader can understand the table without having to read the text. Explanatory footnotes can be included and indicated by superscript letters; do not use the footnote function on the computer but type the footnote at the bottom of the table.
Tables should not be inserted into the text as objects and authors should use the table template function directly in the text or copy and paste from Excel. For tables with text it may be necessary to place more than one sentence in a cell but this must be avoided with numbers; no cell should have more than one. All numbers should be formatted to the right or centred, and not to the left which in MS-Word is the default setting.
Authors should ensure that all data are given to a constant degree of precision. For example, the default in Excel is to omit the decimal point in whole numbers and this is often carried over into tables copied from Excel; this can be avoided by setting the desired number of decimal places. It should be remembered that a value of “30.0” has a greater degree of precision than a value of “30.”
Figures
Authors should check a recent issue of the journal for the style of figures. Each figure should be numbered in the order in which it is presented in the text and have a caption below; this should be fully explanatory and enable the reader to understand what is shown in the figure without resorting to the text.
Authors should note some common problems with Excel, the most widely-used graphics programme, and should not rely on the default settings. In particular:
(a) Check the proportions of the figure to ensure that axes are the appropriate length;
(b) Delete the horizontal grid lines and remove the coloured background;
(c) Do not use the default colours for lines and symbols as they are usually too faint and too small;
(d) Points and lines must be clearly visible after reduction;
(e) Ensure that lettering on axes is large enough to be visible on reduction; do not use ‘bold’ font;
(f) Do not include a title in the figure and do not enclose it in a box.
The scale on maps and microphotographs should be indicated by a scale bar; scales such as “1:50,000” or “magnification x100” will change if the map or figure is reduced. Photographs can be scanned but authors should remember that “jpeg” and other image files can be very large and it
may be necessary to convert them to “pdf” format, at least for editing purposes. Colour photographs can be used in the final electronic version of the paper, but may be in monochrome in printed versions; authors should consult the Editor if they want printed versions to be in colour and may have to bear the costs.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
- Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
- The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
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