Authors' Guide
Instruction for Authors
Format-free submission — To save the valuable time of the researchers we now accept manuscript submissions using a format-free style. It means that you can submit your paper without needing to worry about formatting your manuscript to meet that journal's requirements, yet a consistent text (IMRAD, Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion) and general citation format is acceptable to start the review. Once accepted, then we do the major work of formattings the manuscript to the journal style. At this step, we may ask the authors for some necessary items. If you are yet willing to format your manuscript please follow the instruction.
Preparation of Manuscript
1. General issues
The submitted manuscripts should be written in a high level of English language (either American or British for consistency). Before submitting your manuscript, Authors are required to ensure they have carefully read and adhere to all the journal’s guidelines and instructions to authors. Needless to say, manuscripts not meeting these instructions will be returned. There are no limitations for words, authors, figures, and the total length of the manuscript. Preliminary demands on appropriate topics may be emailed to the Editor. For the double blind peer-review to happen, each author's full name with their affiliation and current address/phone/fax/email information along with a brief biographical note needs to be provided on a separate page. Manuscripts meeting all the criteria in the Manuscript Submission Guidelines can be sent to the Editor, but the final submission should be done via the online submission system, after registration. The Editors may decide to decline a manuscript without peer review if it is inferred to be outside the journal’s scope, poorly written or formatted, or without significant without significant scientific value.
Direct submission via email - jibs@modares.ac.ir - is also available for the authors, who may occasionally have encountered the technical issues.
The authors are encouraged to provide the names of three or more potential reviewers with their full addresses and email. However, the Editors do not have any obligation to use the recommended reviewers. The recommended reviewers should not be from the same institution with which any of authors affiliated, or research collaborator, and/or coauthor of papers and patents, or in any other way has a conflict of interest. Authors need to complete and return an Assignment of Copyright form when the paper is accepted for publication. Please note that the maximum file size that may be uploaded through our online submission system is 20 MB.
A Graphical Abstract is a mandatory element at the time of submission to JIBS. The Graphical Abstract is a stand-alone figure representing at least 2-3 highlights of the scope of the paper, can be Interpreted with no legend enclosed. It should be prepared as an image file (TIF, JPEG) with a dimension of W20, H10 cm, and resolution of 300 dpi, with minimum text incorporated.
2. Cover letter
Manuscripts submitted to JIBS should be accompanied by a cover letter (See the template) approving that all authors have agreed to the submission. The letter should be written and signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors. It should also confirm that the manuscript has not been previously published nor is being considered for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts submitted to JIBS should be accompanied with the following notes as parts of the cover letter:
1. All authors agree to its submission and the corresponding author has been authorized by co-authors.
2. This article has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
3. The text, illustrations, and any other materials included in the manuscript do not infringe upon any existing copyright or other rights of anyone.
4. This article does not violate any copyright or other personal proprietary right of any person or entity, and it contains no abusive, defamatory, obscene, or fraudulent statements, nor any other statements that are unlawful in any way.
5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to share the PDF version of their work freely in public repositories or on their website after publication in JIBS.
3. File types
Electronic files conforming to the journal's guidelines will be accepted. A preferred format for the text and tables of your manuscript is Word docx, doc or rtf.
- Double-spaced
4. Structure of the manuscript
The manuscript should be structured as follows: Title page, Abstract, Keywords, main text, Conflict of Interests, Authors' Contributions, Acknowledgements, References, Figure and table legends. These headings need to be in bold font on a separate line and start with a first capital letter. Please do not number headings or subheadings.
Abstract should provide an informative, self-explanatory, and concise summary of the paper. The Abstract should be minimum 100 words and maximum 300 words in length. Standard nomenclature should be used in full and abbreviations should be avoided. Genus and species names must contain the author and year of description (separated by a comma) at first appearance. Any new names or new combinations proposed in the paper should be mentioned. No literature should be cited in the abstract.
Keywords: The abstract should be followed by a list of 5 keywords that preferably do not overlap with words in the title. Keywords should express the precise conceptual components of the manuscript, as they are used for indexing purposes.
Main Text
The arrangement of the main text varies with different types of systematic papers, but should usually the IMRaD format (Introduction, Material and methods, Results, and Discussion) should be used for dividing the main text. Latin names of taxa of the genus and species must be italicized in the main text, with author(s). At the first appearance in the main text, genus and species names must contain (an) unabbreviated name(s) of the author(s) and year of description, separated by a comma. The author(s) and year of description should be omitted in all subsequent appearances.
Introduction
The Introduction with no subheadings should provide a clear statement of the problem or purpose of the research provided. A review of relevant literature should be presented in the introduction. On the other hand, the literature review should be limited to information that is essential for the studied area. The general approaches and objectives of the new research based on the relevant hypothesis should be explained in the Introduction. Objectives should describe the main purpose(s) of the research. All new aspects of the research including methodology can be justified here.
Material and methods
It contains necessary information and procedures for other researchers to be able to repeat it. Subsections can be considered where a variety of different methods are used. A clear description of the sampling procedures, experimental design, dates, statistical analyses, laboratory equipment, software, and terminology must be provided. Methods in general use need not be described in detail and previously published procedures should be cited. For the computer software, the name of the publisher and year of publication should be cited. The trade name and model number of laboratory and technical equipment must be given, where are cited in the manuscript. The exact label of the type specimens should be placed within quotation marks. Dates should preferably be formatted without spaces and with months in Roman numbers (e.g., 21.vi.201). Body part terms specific to a given taxon should be explained in this section to be indicated preferably in figures, followed by an accepted terminology.
All recorded taxa including newly described species should be deposited in the institutional collection and national or international museums. Subsequently, an accession (registration) number should be provided from those depositories, before acceptance of papers to avoid unnecessary delay of publication. Holotype should not deposit in private collections. If needed, the primary type specimens should be deposited in collections of the country of origin.
Results
This part may contain tables, lists, and figures. Focus on the important points of results in this section but avoid repeating information provided in tables or figures. Results should be presented as simply as possible with clarity and precision. Speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section. The International System of Units (SI) for measurements should be used throughout the manuscripts.
Taxonomic considerations - The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature must be strictly followed. Author(s) of species name must be provided when the scientific name of any insect (or other animals) species is first mentioned. Download the quick guide for the taxonomic items.
Tables, Figures and their captions
Figures and figure legends
All illustrations, including photographs, graphs, drawings, and maps will be treated as figures, even if they are arranged in plates. All figures should be referenced consecutively in the manuscript and referred to as “Fig.” or “Figs” in the text. Line drawings are preferred for species description, although high-quality grayscale or color photographs are also acceptable. Line drawings should be scanned at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi (mode: Grayscale) and saved in TIFF format with LZW compression. Each plate (illustration) should be saved as in print size (up to 177×230mm), with some bottom space for figure legends. Magnification must be indicated by scale bars with appropriate units on both drawings and photographs, where appropriate. The color photographs should be originally prepared at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and saved as a TIFF file (flattened with LZW compression). The illustration files should be named as their content (i.e., Figure 01.tif; Figure 02.tif). Composites of line drawings, grayscale, and color illustrations need to be prepared as TIFF images at a resolution of 600 dpi and tightly cropped. Lettering or numbering of the figures must be done directly on graphic files and should be in a uniform style.
Use only Arial fonts (in upper case) 8-12 points for labeling or numbering the illustrations. Figures with several parts should be merged into a single plate. Photographs and illustrations of poor quality as well as the poorly assembled plate will not be accepted and will result in a delay in the review and publishing process. The author(s) have to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.
Figure legends must be self-explanatory and should be typed in numerical order and listed after the list of references on a separate sheet. Small illustrations should be grouped into plates. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts. The legend must include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text. The genus and species names should be kept unabbreviated and followed by the name of author(s) and year of description, separated by a comma. Figure legends should be prepared as follows:
Figures. 1–9. Lysiphlebus orientalis Starý & Rakhshani sp. nov., female paratype (DPPZ): 1. Head and mouthparts, 2. Mesoscutum, 3. Antenna, 4. Forewing, 5. Propodeum, 6. Petiole.
Tables
Tables need to be prepared using the "Table" feature of Microsoft Word software. Tables prepared using Excel or other spreadsheet programs are not acceptable. Tables should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals and given at the end of the manuscript. Table formatting should be kept simple as much possible. Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table. All abbreviations in the table must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, •, or a, b, c, can be used (in the same order). Statistical measures such as SE should be identified in the headings. Table headings need to be aligned left in all cases such as when they are related to various columns. Number tables sequentially and cite in the manuscripts as Table 1, Table 2, etc. The word ‘Table’ should be written in full. Number the tables in their order of appearance in the manuscript. Rules used for tables must be minimal horizontal to ensure clarity
Tables should have clear titles and explanatory footnotes (labeled with lower-case letters, in alphabetical order). Do not repeat the details provided in the main document.
Submitting supplementary files
TMU Press does not currently accept supplemental files.
Format-free submission — To save the valuable time of the researchers we now accept manuscript submissions using a format-free style. It means that you can submit your paper without needing to worry about formatting your manuscript to meet that journal's requirements, yet a consistent text (IMRAD, Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion) and general citation format is acceptable to start the review. Once accepted, then we do the major work of formattings the manuscript to the journal style. At this step, we may ask the authors for some necessary items. If you are yet willing to format your manuscript please follow the instruction.
Preparation of Manuscript
1. General issues
The submitted manuscripts should be written in a high level of English language (either American or British for consistency). Before submitting your manuscript, Authors are required to ensure they have carefully read and adhere to all the journal’s guidelines and instructions to authors. Needless to say, manuscripts not meeting these instructions will be returned. There are no limitations for words, authors, figures, and the total length of the manuscript. Preliminary demands on appropriate topics may be emailed to the Editor. For the double blind peer-review to happen, each author's full name with their affiliation and current address/phone/fax/email information along with a brief biographical note needs to be provided on a separate page. Manuscripts meeting all the criteria in the Manuscript Submission Guidelines can be sent to the Editor, but the final submission should be done via the online submission system, after registration. The Editors may decide to decline a manuscript without peer review if it is inferred to be outside the journal’s scope, poorly written or formatted, or without significant without significant scientific value.
Direct submission via email - jibs@modares.ac.ir - is also available for the authors, who may occasionally have encountered the technical issues.
The authors are encouraged to provide the names of three or more potential reviewers with their full addresses and email. However, the Editors do not have any obligation to use the recommended reviewers. The recommended reviewers should not be from the same institution with which any of authors affiliated, or research collaborator, and/or coauthor of papers and patents, or in any other way has a conflict of interest. Authors need to complete and return an Assignment of Copyright form when the paper is accepted for publication. Please note that the maximum file size that may be uploaded through our online submission system is 20 MB.
A Graphical Abstract is a mandatory element at the time of submission to JIBS. The Graphical Abstract is a stand-alone figure representing at least 2-3 highlights of the scope of the paper, can be Interpreted with no legend enclosed. It should be prepared as an image file (TIF, JPEG) with a dimension of W20, H10 cm, and resolution of 300 dpi, with minimum text incorporated.
2. Cover letter
Manuscripts submitted to JIBS should be accompanied by a cover letter (See the template) approving that all authors have agreed to the submission. The letter should be written and signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors. It should also confirm that the manuscript has not been previously published nor is being considered for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts submitted to JIBS should be accompanied with the following notes as parts of the cover letter:
1. All authors agree to its submission and the corresponding author has been authorized by co-authors.
2. This article has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
3. The text, illustrations, and any other materials included in the manuscript do not infringe upon any existing copyright or other rights of anyone.
4. This article does not violate any copyright or other personal proprietary right of any person or entity, and it contains no abusive, defamatory, obscene, or fraudulent statements, nor any other statements that are unlawful in any way.
5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to share the PDF version of their work freely in public repositories or on their website after publication in JIBS.
For any technical problems in submitting a manuscript to this journal, please contact the Editorial Office at jibs@modares.ac.ir
3. File types
Electronic files conforming to the journal's guidelines will be accepted. A preferred format for the text and tables of your manuscript is Word docx, doc or rtf.
- Double-spaced
- All margins: 3 cm
- The text should be standard 12 points
4. Structure of the manuscript
The manuscript should be structured as follows: Title page, Abstract, Keywords, main text, Conflict of Interests, Authors' Contributions, Acknowledgements, References, Figure and table legends. These headings need to be in bold font on a separate line and start with a first capital letter. Please do not number headings or subheadings.
Title page: Include title, author names, and affiliation, address of the corresponding author (including e-mail address), and short running title.
Title should be short, concise, and informative describing the contents of the paper. The titles containing fewer than five words probably require be expanded, accordingly. Higher taxa must always be specified and placed in parentheses, which should be separated by comma (e.g., Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae). The title should be in a sentence case. Only the first letter of scientific names, localities, and names of persons should be written in capital.
Authors with full first name (s), and last name (s) must be provided.
Affiliations: The full address of all authors for correspondence, including institutional affiliation (University, Institute), city, state/province (if applicable), and the country as well as an e-mail address and ORCIDs (https://orcid.org/) should be provided. Professional titles should not be listed.
A short Running title, not exceeding 10 words should be provided.
Corresponding Author Contact details: Full contact details are needed for the corresponding author. For other authors, academic affiliation is required. To assist anonymous peer review this information should be presented independently to the main text of the article.
Abstract should provide an informative, self-explanatory, and concise summary of the paper. The Abstract should be minimum 100 words and maximum 300 words in length. Standard nomenclature should be used in full and abbreviations should be avoided. Genus and species names must contain the author and year of description (separated by a comma) at first appearance. Any new names or new combinations proposed in the paper should be mentioned. No literature should be cited in the abstract.
Keywords: The abstract should be followed by a list of 5 keywords that preferably do not overlap with words in the title. Keywords should express the precise conceptual components of the manuscript, as they are used for indexing purposes.
Main Text
The arrangement of the main text varies with different types of systematic papers, but should usually the IMRaD format (Introduction, Material and methods, Results, and Discussion) should be used for dividing the main text. Latin names of taxa of the genus and species must be italicized in the main text, with author(s). At the first appearance in the main text, genus and species names must contain (an) unabbreviated name(s) of the author(s) and year of description, separated by a comma. The author(s) and year of description should be omitted in all subsequent appearances.
Introduction
The Introduction with no subheadings should provide a clear statement of the problem or purpose of the research provided. A review of relevant literature should be presented in the introduction. On the other hand, the literature review should be limited to information that is essential for the studied area. The general approaches and objectives of the new research based on the relevant hypothesis should be explained in the Introduction. Objectives should describe the main purpose(s) of the research. All new aspects of the research including methodology can be justified here.
Material and methods
It contains necessary information and procedures for other researchers to be able to repeat it. Subsections can be considered where a variety of different methods are used. A clear description of the sampling procedures, experimental design, dates, statistical analyses, laboratory equipment, software, and terminology must be provided. Methods in general use need not be described in detail and previously published procedures should be cited. For the computer software, the name of the publisher and year of publication should be cited. The trade name and model number of laboratory and technical equipment must be given, where are cited in the manuscript. The exact label of the type specimens should be placed within quotation marks. Dates should preferably be formatted without spaces and with months in Roman numbers (e.g., 21.vi.201). Body part terms specific to a given taxon should be explained in this section to be indicated preferably in figures, followed by an accepted terminology.
All recorded taxa including newly described species should be deposited in the institutional collection and national or international museums. Subsequently, an accession (registration) number should be provided from those depositories, before acceptance of papers to avoid unnecessary delay of publication. Holotype should not deposit in private collections. If needed, the primary type specimens should be deposited in collections of the country of origin.
Results
This part may contain tables, lists, and figures. Focus on the important points of results in this section but avoid repeating information provided in tables or figures. Results should be presented as simply as possible with clarity and precision. Speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section. The International System of Units (SI) for measurements should be used throughout the manuscripts.
Taxonomic considerations - The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature must be strictly followed. Author(s) of species name must be provided when the scientific name of any insect (or other animals) species is first mentioned. Download the quick guide for the taxonomic items.
Discussion
Discussion should interpret the findings of the given results and make a comparison with findings of past studies. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The last segment of the discussion may comply with a conclusion. A summary of evidence and any significant conclusions that have been drawn from the work may be carefully integrated with specific suggestions and recommendations related to the study can be given here.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments of the research institutions, companies, governmental bodies, or people who have contributed or financially supported the research, should be typed in a single paragraph directly who lack the necessary conditions for authorship. For example, you may acknowledge those who only provided technical help, those who assisted you in writing, or any authority who helped you merely through general support. Preceding the References. The ‘Acknowledgements’ section should include a list of any contributors. Authors suggested to mention if they have been helped in writing and should disclose the identity of the party that has financially supported such assistance.
Funding
All the research articles are required to have a funding acknowledgment in the form of the sentence below. All authors are asked to report their funding regularly and under a separate heading, otherwise, they need to affirm that: “this research received no specific grant from any funding agencies”. The name of the funding agency must be written in full, followed by the grant number in square brackets: For example: This work was supported by the Tarbiat Modares University [grant number xxx].
References
See the Reference Style Guide
Discussion should interpret the findings of the given results and make a comparison with findings of past studies. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The last segment of the discussion may comply with a conclusion. A summary of evidence and any significant conclusions that have been drawn from the work may be carefully integrated with specific suggestions and recommendations related to the study can be given here.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments of the research institutions, companies, governmental bodies, or people who have contributed or financially supported the research, should be typed in a single paragraph directly who lack the necessary conditions for authorship. For example, you may acknowledge those who only provided technical help, those who assisted you in writing, or any authority who helped you merely through general support. Preceding the References. The ‘Acknowledgements’ section should include a list of any contributors. Authors suggested to mention if they have been helped in writing and should disclose the identity of the party that has financially supported such assistance.
Funding
All the research articles are required to have a funding acknowledgment in the form of the sentence below. All authors are asked to report their funding regularly and under a separate heading, otherwise, they need to affirm that: “this research received no specific grant from any funding agencies”. The name of the funding agency must be written in full, followed by the grant number in square brackets: For example: This work was supported by the Tarbiat Modares University [grant number xxx].
References
See the Reference Style Guide
Tables, Figures and their captions
All tables and figures together with their captions appear after references within the same file. The captions should be comprehensible without reading the manuscripts. Original files of the figures in high quality should be sent via email (jibs@modares.ac.ir; or jibseditorial@gmail.com) or uploaded via web transfer hosts (DropBox, WeTransfer, GoogleDrive, etc…), after acceptance.
Figures and figure legends
All illustrations, including photographs, graphs, drawings, and maps will be treated as figures, even if they are arranged in plates. All figures should be referenced consecutively in the manuscript and referred to as “Fig.” or “Figs” in the text. Line drawings are preferred for species description, although high-quality grayscale or color photographs are also acceptable. Line drawings should be scanned at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi (mode: Grayscale) and saved in TIFF format with LZW compression. Each plate (illustration) should be saved as in print size (up to 177×230mm), with some bottom space for figure legends. Magnification must be indicated by scale bars with appropriate units on both drawings and photographs, where appropriate. The color photographs should be originally prepared at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and saved as a TIFF file (flattened with LZW compression). The illustration files should be named as their content (i.e., Figure 01.tif; Figure 02.tif). Composites of line drawings, grayscale, and color illustrations need to be prepared as TIFF images at a resolution of 600 dpi and tightly cropped. Lettering or numbering of the figures must be done directly on graphic files and should be in a uniform style.
Use only Arial fonts (in upper case) 8-12 points for labeling or numbering the illustrations. Figures with several parts should be merged into a single plate. Photographs and illustrations of poor quality as well as the poorly assembled plate will not be accepted and will result in a delay in the review and publishing process. The author(s) have to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.
Figure legends must be self-explanatory and should be typed in numerical order and listed after the list of references on a separate sheet. Small illustrations should be grouped into plates. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts. The legend must include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text. The genus and species names should be kept unabbreviated and followed by the name of author(s) and year of description, separated by a comma. Figure legends should be prepared as follows:
Figures. 1–9. Lysiphlebus orientalis Starý & Rakhshani sp. nov., female paratype (DPPZ): 1. Head and mouthparts, 2. Mesoscutum, 3. Antenna, 4. Forewing, 5. Propodeum, 6. Petiole.
Tables
Tables need to be prepared using the "Table" feature of Microsoft Word software. Tables prepared using Excel or other spreadsheet programs are not acceptable. Tables should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals and given at the end of the manuscript. Table formatting should be kept simple as much possible. Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table. All abbreviations in the table must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, •, or a, b, c, can be used (in the same order). Statistical measures such as SE should be identified in the headings. Table headings need to be aligned left in all cases such as when they are related to various columns. Number tables sequentially and cite in the manuscripts as Table 1, Table 2, etc. The word ‘Table’ should be written in full. Number the tables in their order of appearance in the manuscript. Rules used for tables must be minimal horizontal to ensure clarity
Tables should have clear titles and explanatory footnotes (labeled with lower-case letters, in alphabetical order). Do not repeat the details provided in the main document.
Submitting supplementary files
TMU Press does not currently accept supplemental files.
After acceptance
Proof
A proof will be sent to authors for checking and confirmation before publication. Alterations other than correction of printer's error will be allowed only at the editor's discretion. Manuscripts after being corrected must be returned to the editorial office within 15 days.E-Prints
TMU Press journals are all open access free journals and the PDF of all their articles will be available after acceptance.