Authors’ Guidelines

General Policies
The International Oak Society will accept articles for International Oaks from members or non-members as long as the material presented is pertinent to the genus Quercus. Written contributions may be scientific/technical papers, historical, horticultural, instructional or general interest material (stories/articles of a particular tree, event, place, person, etc.) or letters to the editor; a mix of categories is accepted.

Material may be previously published or unpublished. The author’s name, title, address, telephone and/or fax number, and e-mail (if available) should be included. Any contributions longer than 7500 words must be approved in advance by the editor.

Copyrights
International Oaks is not copyrighted, but authors, photographers, and artists may claim copyrights on their work. Anyone wishing to use portions of International Oaks for other publications should secure permission from the author, photographer or artist, and include a credit line indicating International Oaks as the source of the material. All contributors submitting work thereby release their contribution for publication under the terms stated herein. Authors take full and sole responsibility for securing releases for use of material obtained from other sources, and agree to indemnify the International Oak Society against any claim of plagiarism involving their contribution.

Format
Contributions will be accepted in legible format in English only. Text should be restricted to a single, standard font, preferably Times or Times New Roman. No more than two levels of subheadings should be included. Electronic files written in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word are preferred and must be accompanied by a paper copy. Text may be submitted via e-mail or on floppy disks or CDs. Do not add page numbers, borders, headers, or footers. Double space all text, including citations, use no indents, and avoid bold type, custom margins, and other optional format codes. Authors submitting papers in other formats must pay $10 US per manuscript page, in advance, to help defray the additional costs of reformatting for publication.

 

Illustrations and photographs may be submitted via postal mail on CDs (no DVD or zip disks accepted) in IBM-compatible TIFF or high-resolution JPEG format. Please do not send GIF files downloaded from internet sources, as these tend to have too poor quality for print reproduction. PowerPoint images are not acceptable because of frequent incompatibility for printing. The minimum size
for images is 5 inches (13 cm) at no less than 300 DPI resolution for digital art. All artwork should be submitted as separate files, not Imbedded in the body of the work. Please include full but concise captions and credit lines, exactly as they are intended to appear in publication. Drawings, slides, or photos may be mailed to be scanned, and these will be returned upon request. Illustrations and photos should be sharp and compatible with monochromatic reproduction. Style, citation methods, and abstracts are left to the reasonable discretion of the author. Refer to the current Council of Biological Editors (CBE) Style Manual for Biological Journals for general guidelines.

Tables and charts which are not submitted in camera-ready form (or in an electronic format approved in advance by the editor) may be rejected, or subjected to a minimum $30 US production fee. Do not place tables or charts within text files. Patterns rather than colors should be used for purposes of clarity in monochromatic reproduction. All measurements should be expressed in metric units, or in metric followed (in parenthesis) by English.

Scientific names, with authority or with reference to the treatment in a specified standard taxonomic manual, must be included for each taxon discussed. In names of nothotaxa, the multiplication sign is preferable, with no space between the symbol and the initial letter of the epithet. A space is desired on both sides of the symbol in cases of formula names. If the mathematical symbol is not available, a lower case Arial “x” may be used, with the same space suggestions. The “x” is not italicized or underlined.

Author’s byline and address should include all information as intended for publication. Image captions of 8 to 16 words or less are requested, and should accompany any images provided.

Review
The editorial committee and editor reserve the right to edit all contributions for grammar, correct English translation, current nomenclature, generally accepted taxonomic concepts, scientific accuracy, appropriateness, length, and clarity, but assume no responsibility to do so. If such review results in significant disputes of factual material, the author will be contacted if possible, or the paper may be rejected. Every effort will be made to retain the original intent of the author. After initial review, work is returned to author(s) for approval before final publication.

 

Please send disks or hard copy material to:

Guy Sternberg
Starhill Forest Arboretum
12000 Boy Scout Trail
Petersburg, IL 62675-9736
USA


text files may be e-mailed to
guy@starhillforest.com