Instructions for authors

Scope

The Australian Museum currently publishes two scientific journals: the Records of the Australian Museum (print and online) and the Technical Reports of the Australian Museum (online only).
The Records of the Australian Museum publishes the results of research that typically relates to Australian Museum collections.
The Technical Reports of the Australian Museum publishes the results of research relating to natural history (field-based or laboratory-based), or to expeditions relating to cultural activities, typically within Australasia. It can also publish more general identification guides and descriptive papers if placed in an appropriate conceptual setting.
More information and examples of published papers are freely available at our website and search page: https://doi.org/10.3853/issn.2201-4349

Publishing policy

Authors are expected to observe a high standard of ethical behaviour and follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines. This includes: all authors agreeing to the submission of a manuscript and all phases of its revision, appropriate recognition of each author or persons who have contributed to the paper, the use of appropriate and respectful language within the paper, the use of sensitivity statements when appropriate, peer review, and declaration of conflicts of interests when appropriate.

Peer review

The Records of the Australian Museum and the Technical Reports of the Australian Museum are both peer-reviewed journals. All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by the Editor or Associate Editors, who may decline a work that falls outside the scope of the journal or is of insufficient quality. The Editor or Associate Editors select reviewers and make the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. Reviewers’ names are not disclosed unless the reviewer waives anonymity. We ask reviewers and authors not to directly contact each other while the manuscript is under consideration.

Licence to publish

All authors, or the corresponding author on their behalf, must sign a Licence to Publish when a manuscript is submitted, and certify that the research described has adhered to the Australian Museum’s Guidelines for Research Practice—or those of their home institution providing they cover the same issues, especially with respect to authorship and acknowledgment. The signing of the License to Publish assumes that all authors of a multi-authored paper agree to its submission. The results must also not have been published nor are being considered for publication elsewhere.

Open access

The Records of the Australian Museum and the Technical Reports of the Australian Museum are both open access publications and available on the Australian Museum website. PDF copies of each publication are externally archived at the Australian National eDeposit (NED), and works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). The journal is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Format

Section headings for a submitted manuscript must be clearly visible with each level treated consistently throughout the paper. The headings should usually include the following primary headings with appropriate subheadings:

Abstract—should be intelligible by itself and commence with a clear broad statement of the context of the work, then briefly summarise the aims and methods, provide the main findings, and conclude with a statement of the main implications of the results. The Abstract may include taxonomic authorities associated with taxon names but should not include reference citations.
Key words—include words not already in the title.
Running title—a shortened title of no longer than 50 characters that will be placed at the top of each right page.
Introduction—should commence with a paragraph for general, non-specialist, readers that provides a broad context or general background to the study topic. The Introduction should cover essential background literature and clearly indicate the reason for the work and conclude with clear aims of the study (e.g. The aims of this study were to: 1) aaaa, 2) bbbb, and 3) cccc.). The Introduction should not include methods or results.
Materials and methods—this section needs enough detail to allow replication or revisiting the studied material. Commercial equipment mentioned, such as analytical instruments, should include the full model name and manufacturer. Data analyses including and computer software version details must be provided. Stratigraphic practice should follow the International Stratigraphic Guide (second edition) and Field Geologist’s Guide to Lithostratigraphic Nomenclature in Australia.
Results—the results section is usually subdivided into primary, secondary, and occasionally tertiary-level subheadings. The results need to be concise and without interpretation. The data provided must address the aims discussed in the Introduction. Tables and figures are used to illustrate key points.
Discussion—the scientific significance of the results should be discussed and placed in context with the available literature. Where appropriate include a section on the implications of the findings.
Footnotes should be avoided.
Acknowledgments—provide details if needed.
Conflicts of interest—provide details if needed.
References—close attention is needed to ensure the references are constructed correctly and consistently.
Appendix—include additional data, such as large tables, if needed.
Data sharing platforms, e.g. figshare—The figshare website (https://figshare.com/) is used by some authors and publishers to provide additional data relating to the manuscript. When used it needs crosslinking of the ‘doi’ back to the AM publication. The author(s) needs to provide the figshare ‘doi’ to the Editor and the Editor needs to provide the author with the paper ‘doi’. The author needs to include a sentence after the Reference list that provides the details of the figshare ‘doi’: e.g. “Supplementary information for Late Quaternary mammal introduction and extinction records from archaeological cave deposits in Timor-Leste (see Louys et al., 2023). https://doi.org/10........” (Of the figshare file or similar)

Figures

Figures should normally be original and not published elsewhere. Figures reproduced from other works must cite the original source and permission for reproduction must be obtained where relevant.
Figures must be numbered sequentially and normally referred to in sequential order in the text. The exact placement of figures and tables will be decided during the editing process.
Figures should be referred to in the text as Fig. 1 or Figs 1–2 etc. within the manuscript. Note that no full stop is needed for abbreviations ending in the same letter as the full word.
Figures, tables, and appendices cited from other publications should be in lower case, e.g., fig. 1 or table 1.
All images should typically be rectangular or square and scalable to a width of 83 mm (= one text column) or 172 mm (= both text columns including central gutter) up to 229 mm depth (the number of lines in a caption limits the depth). Scale bars should be vertical or horizontal with the thickness normally approximately equal to an upper case 14 pt letter ‘I’.
All figures must be provided as digital images in TIFF, high resolution JPG or PSD format suitable for Adobe Photoshop. Halftone and colour images must be at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at final size (at this resolution 2031 pixels = printed-page width = 172 mm) and all labelling must be sharp. Black and white line images (bitmaps) must be at a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi at final size (at this resolution, 8160 pixels = printed-page width).
When submitting the manuscript for initial review (especially where there are many figures) authors are encouraged to submit the figures compiled with their respective captions grouped into one or more PDFs, or when there are fewer figures, to embed them at the end of the manuscript with their respective captions. The captions can still be listed at the end of the submission manuscript to allow for review.
When submitting the revised manuscript figures must be submitted separately and the captions placed one under the other at the end of the manuscript after the References.

Photographs

Permission needs to be obtained from the copyright holder of each photograph and the photographers name should be included within the figure caption. If the photograph contains people, then permission should normally be sought from each person for their image to be published.

Maps

When maps are provided, north should typically be indicated as well as a scale bar. Any symbols on the map need to be fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. Maps taken from Google Earth (or similar program) must include the appropriate attribution information on the figure, within the figure caption or in the Materials and methods.

Tables

Tables must be original and not published elsewhere unless submitting a review.
Tables must be numbered and referred to in sequential order in the text.
Tables should be referred to in the text as Table 1 or Tables 1–2 etc.
Tables must be included separately at the end of the manuscript after the References.

Taxonomy

Taxonomic works should have a section headed ‘Systematics’ or ‘Taxonomy’ that includes the species rank and higher ranks up to at least order. Each rank should include the author and year. For example:

Taxonomy

Order Diprotodontia Owen, 1877

Family Petauridae Bonaparte, 1832

Subfamily Petaurinae Bonaparte, 1832

Genus Petaurus Shaw, 1791

Petaurus australis Shaw, 1791

All scientific names and higher ranks mentioned in the text, at first use, should include the author and year and include the citation in the reference list.
The account of each new taxon should include a ‘Diagnosis’ and/or ‘Description’ section.
Authors should consult the most recent version of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
Identification keys are desirable and when used must be dichotomous and not serially indented.
Synonymies should be in short form and include taxon author, year, pagination, and figure numbers. An em-dash must separate taxon name and author, except in the case of reference to the original description.
Proposed type material should be explicitly designated and where possible, the institutional/ collection registration number referred to.

ZooBank

Authors are requested NOT to register their proposed taxonomic names and works in ZooBank prior to manuscript submission; these will be handled by the Editor to enable a more streamlined publication process. If the author has already acquired ZooBank numbers for their manuscript and proposed taxa, the Editor will liaise with the contact author to coordinate release of the names on the date of publication.

Voucher specimens

Research should be undertaken on specimens available in established permanent public collections where possible. Australian Museum material cited in a publication should be registered and the registration numbers cited where possible.

DNA sequence data

All DNA sequence data referred to in the submission must be made available in an INSDC Participating Database (EMBL, GenBank, DDBJ) and accession numbers must be provided.

References

Multiple references from the same first author in the same year should be cited alphabetically (e.g., Jones, 1995a, 1995b; Smith, 2007a; Smith & Jones, 2020d). In the text, the names of two coauthors are linked by ‘and’, e.g., . “Jones and Smith (2015) noted that….”. The use of ‘&’ is used for authors listed after a scientific name. e.g. Sminthopsis youngsoni McKenzie & Archer, 1982 or when placed in brackets, e.g. (Jones & Smith, 2015). Where there are more than two authors include the first author´s name followed by ‘et al.’.
All references (Author, Year) cited in the main text must be listed at the end of the paper, with the names of authors arranged alphabetically and then chronologically. Authors must cross check all references in the text with the reference list in detail.
Titles of all books and journals must be included in full and not abbreviated. Papers that have not been accepted for publication must not be included in the list of references. If needed, these may be referred to as personal communication (e.g. D. Jones, pers. comm.) or ´unpublished data´ (e.g., B. Smith, unpub. data). Authors must ensure they have permission to cite material as a personal communication and can provide unpublished data if required by a reviewer.
The References section must conform with the journal style. See the examples below for the style used in citing references.

Book
Krajewski, C., M. Westerman, M., and P. Woolley. 2024. The Evolution of Dasyurid Marsupials. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 368 pp.
Ord, M. 1988. Historical Drawings of Moths and Butterflies. Harriet and Helena Scott. Ash Island series. Volume 1. Sydney: Craftsman House, 147 pp.
Van Dyck, S., I. Gynther, I., and A. Baker, eds. 2013. Field Companion to the Mammals of Australia. Sydney: New Holland, 573 pp.

Book chapter
Bookstein, F. L. 1991. Thin-plate splines and the atlas problem for biomedical images. In Information Processing in Medical Imaging. IPMI 1991. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Volume 511, eds. A. C. F. Colchester and D. J. Hawkes, pp. 326–342. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0033763
Ebbe, B. and G. Purschke. 2021. Ampharetidae Malmgren, 1866. In Handbook of Zoology, a Natural History of the Phyla of the Animal Kingdom. Volume 3: Sedentaria III, Errantia I, ed. G. Purschke, M. Böggemann, and W. Westheide, pp. 50–65. Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

Journal article
Edgar, R. C. 2004. MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic Acids Research 32(5): 1792–1797.
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh340
Ginot, S., A. Herrel, J. Claude, and L. Hautier. 2019. Morphometric models for estimating bite force in Mus and Rattus: mandible shape and size perform better than lever-arm ratios. Journal of Experimental Biology 222: jeb204867.
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204867
McEvey, S. F. 1982. Drosophilidae (Insecta: Diptera) of three Torres Strait islands, with description of a new species of Drosophila. Australian Journal of Zoology 29: 907–919. [Dated 1981, published January 1982]
McEvey, S. F. 1990a. New synonym of Drosophila yakuba Burla, 1954 (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Systematic Entomology 15: 335–338.
McEvey, S. F. 1990b. New species of Scaptomyza from Madagascar and Mauritius with a note on terminology (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Annales de la Société entomologique de France (Nouvelle serie) 26: 51–64.
Veatch, E. G., P. H. Fabre, M. W. Tocheri, T. Sutikna, E. Wahyu Saptomo, G. G. Musser, and K. M. Helgen. 2023. A new giant shrew rat (Rodentia: Muridae: Murinae) from Flores, Indonesia and a comparative investigation of its ecomorphology. In Contributions to Mammalogy and Zooarchaeology of Wallacea, ed. K. M. Helgen and R. K. Jones.
Records of the Australian Museum 75(5): 741–764.
https://doi.org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.75.2023.1781

Thesis
Veatch, E. G. 2014. A Morphological Analysis of the Humerus and Calcaneus of Endemic Rats from Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. Master of Arts thesis, The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.

Webpage
Burbidge, A.A. and Woinarski, J. 2020. Petauroides volans (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T40579A166500472. [Accessed 16 October 2024]
https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T40579A166500472.en
If EndNote is used, Chicago 16th B output-style closely approaches the required specification. CrossRef-minted DOIs are inserted during copyediting (see crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery/); DOI minted by other agencies (e.g., DataCite) should be entered by authors.

Style

Spelling should follow the Australian Macquarie Dictionary.
Use ‘ise’ (e.g., realise) or ‘isation’ (e.g. organisation) ending rather than ‘ize’ or ‘ization’.
(-) Use a hyphen to link words together. e.g., deep-sea, Guerra-García, 2- and 3-articulate, Tri-Mixor, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7747-789X
(–) Use an ‘en-dash’ (the width of the letter n) for alphanumerical ranges, e.g., page numbers in the reference list 26–47, years 2022–2024, elevation 15–25 m, figure lettering Fig. 3a–d, or months May–July.
(—) Use an ‘em-dash’ (the width of the letter m) for breaks in the text or subject, sometimes used instead of parentheses but can also be used singly. For example, they are used at the start of the second line in a key couplet. They should also be used in tables instead of blanks—they guide readers through dense datasets. Authors often use em-dashes where a comma, a colon, or parentheses, might otherwise be used.
Use the Oxford Comma where needed to prevent ambiguity or misreading. E.g. 1) …., 2)…. , and 3)….
Except for commonly used abbreviations, definitions for these should be given in the ‘Materials and methods’ section.
Sentences should not begin with numerals or abbreviations, such as the initial of a genus name.
Metric units must be used except when citing original specimen data. The metric equivalent should typically be included in brackets.
Use commas in numbers (except years) with four or more digits, e.g., 1,262.
Include the page number with the author and year when using a quote, e.g., (Jones, 2022: 62).
The sex of specimens examined may be coded for males as m# and females as f#. These can be replaced by the Editor to ‘♂’ [male] or ‘♀’ [female] signs.
Do not use ‘etc.’ except where referring to a sequence, e.g., 1, 2, 3 etc.
It is desirable to include geo-spatial coordinates. The use of degrees, minutes and seconds is preferred.
The Editor reserves the right to modify manuscripts to improve communication between the author and reader.

Manuscript submission

Papers can be submitted directly to the Editor at the Australian Museum via email or other service for large files such as WeTransfer or Dropbox.

Manuscripts must be in English using:
> 12-point Times New Roman font
> 1.5-line spacing throughout
> margin of at least 3 cm on the left-hand side
> line numbering marked in the left-hand margin
> page numbering that is consecutive throughout, including the references, figure captions and tables
> any links to third party bibliographic software used in preparation of the manuscript (e.g., EndNote) must be removed
A separate summary page should be included with the submission giving:
> the full title of the paper
> full name, institutional address, email address, and ORCID (if held) of each author
> the corresponding author responsible for checking page proofs should be indicated
> a suggested running-head of no more than 50 characters
> the number of figures
> the number of tables
> the number of appendices
Figures must be provided as separate files that are numbered Figure 1, Figure 2 etc in the revised manuscript. See comments above for first submission manuscript.
Anthropological manuscripts (both text and images) may deal with culturally sensitive material. Responsibility rests with authors to ensure that relevant approvals have been obtained prior to submission of the manuscript.