Frequently asked questions about ZOOTAXA
Manuscript information | Publication information | Subscription information  | Purchase reprints & opne access

Manuscript preparation, submission & review

Does Zootaxa consider manuscripts in languages other than English?
No, Zootaxa is published in English. 

Does Zootaxa allow abstracts in languages other than English?
Yes, this should be in addition to an abstract in English. Abstract in languages with special fonts/characters (e.g. Chinese) should be supplied as a scanned TIFF image (at least 600 dpi as 1 bit image).

Does Zootaxa prefer manuscripts on a particular taxonomic group?
No, Zootaxa welcome manuscripts on all zootaxa. 

Will Zootaxa consider a monograph consisting of about 400 manuscript pages?
Yes.  The longest paper published so far is of 1295 pages. For long manuscripts of several thousand pages, the authors are advised to break these into a multi-volume contribution simply because books over 1000 pages are difficult to bind and too heavy to hold. 

Will Zootaxa consider a short note of one page to three pages?
Correspondence of one page to three pages can be considered to fill the blank pages in multipaper issues.  These include (1) opinions and views on issues of general interests to systematic zoologists, (2) commentary of or additions/corrections to papers previously published in Zootaxa, (3) obituary in memory of deceased systematic zoologists, and (4) taxonomic/nomenclatural notes of importance.  Commentaries on published papers are intended for scholarly exchange of different views/interpretations and should not contain personal attacks; authors of original papers will be invited to reply to comments to their papers.   All manuscripts will be subjected to peer review before acceptance by subject editors. 

How do you determine the importance of short correspondence?
This can be shown in the following example: new distribution records.  Just another new distribution record for a common species A or B is not important, but a new distribution record of an endangered species or an invasive species is considered important.  A new record for a higher taxon (e.g. family) in a continent where it was not known is considered important.

Will Zootaxa consider manuscripts written in memory of a taxonomist?
Yes, especially  if the manuscript includes detailed descriptions of his/her contribution to the taxonomy of his/her group (e.g. with a list of his/her publications and/or the new zootaxa he/she established). 

How is the quality of the papers published ensured?
We ensure the quality of papers through peer review. Only manuscripts accepted by peers and recommended for publication by editors will be published.

How are manuscripts reviewed and processed?
When a manuscript is received by an editor, he/she will have it reviewed by at least two peers qualified to evaluate the manuscript and he/she normally asks the reviewers to complete the review in one month. Once the review and/or revision of the ms is completed, the responsible editor will then either reject or accept the manuscript. If the manuscript is accepted, he will forward files in the required format to the Chief Editor (Dr Zhang) for processing. Dr Zhang, with support of editorial staff, will then work with the author and the publisher/printer to ensure that the manuscript will be published within one month or so (although long manuscript may take longer).

Do you accept photographic images generated from digital cameras?
Yes, provided that it is equal to or greater than the acceptable resolution, which is 300 dpi.

Will there be a provision to publish colour plates in your journal? What will the costs be?
Yes, Zootaxa has a provision to publish colour plates. The unique advantage that Zootaxa offers is that the publication of colour plates in the online edition is free of charge (while the print edition is printed as B&W). A charge is only applicable if you desire colour plates in the print edition as well. Costs varied with the number of plates in the paper. For many authors, publication of papers with colour plates is too expensive. Zootaxa provides an economical way for authors to preserve colour in the online edition without any cost to them. 

Can I submit my manuscript by e-mail?
Yes, this is preferred as it is faster and saves paper (and hence the forest and the environment). Please submit manuscripts by e-mail as attachments to the Editors responsible for your taxa or subject area, or to the Chief Editor if none of them specialize in your taxa.  Please submit text in ms word or RTF and the figures in TIFF (line drawing scanned at 600 dpi and half tone at 300 dpi). Submit text in RTF along with PDF is recommended, as the former allows reviewers to insert comments and suggestions directly with the ms. Alternatively, you can send three copies of the manuscript by mail.
 
How can I submit very large files of scanned figures by e-mail?
When large plates are scanned at 600 dpi, the size of the TIFF files can be very large and these files can be difficult to transmit by e-mail because some e-mail servers limit the size of outgoing/incoming mails.  If you can, please use LZW compression when you save the file in TIFF. This will reduce the size of the file significantly without the loss of resolution. Please try to attach only one file to one message to reduce the size of each mail. Please make sure that line drawings are scanned as B&W line drawing (1 bit) but not grey scale images (8 bit). Please save colour images and grey scale plates as jpg file (highest quality). This will reduce file size considerably. If you have compression tools, you may zip several files and submit the zipped file.  It is important to remember that the matter size for plates in Zootaxa is 14cm wide and 20 cm high.  Please do make the final plate size larger than this.  If you crop your plates to the right size,  use compression and send plates over several e-mails, you will have no problem sending the files for publication. See here for detailed information on preparing plates.
Authors of accepted manuscripts can also send the files by ftp to the editor.  Please ask your subject editor or Dr Zhang for login and password.

How you select subject editors and what are their roles?
Subject editors are established specialists of their taxa and are those people who are willing to help colleagues to publish papers in Zootaxa. They can be either nominated by colleagues, or by themselves to the editor, who will review candidate's background and suitability for the roles, and then make a decision.  Subject editors organize the reviews of manuscripts submitted to them and have the authority to reject/accept manuscripts after peer review.

Publication information

Why this new journal? Do we need it when we have so many journals already?
There are millions of zootaxa waiting to be discovered, described and analyzed. Many of them will probably become extinct before they are ever known. Most other journals have fixed printed pages per issue and fixed number of issues per year; as a result, many these journals cannot accept monographic works and many authors have to wait several months or even years for publication when their papers are accepted. Some of these journals levy page charges so that authors without funds are unable to publish in them. ZOOTAXA provides a solution to these problems. 

How is this journal funded when you do not levy page charges?
This journal is currently published with funding by the Publisher, who has made available sufficient funds for the production of the journal. Any journal that does not ask authors to pay for the cost of production will have to reply on subscriptions in one way or another.  Because this is a new journal and the number of subscriptions is slowly picking up, the production cost, at the moment and in the near future, is and will be largely provided by the publisher.

How soon can manuscripts be published after the final revised version is accepted?
We aim to publish papers within one month after the final revised version is accepted for publication, assuming that authors return corrections within 1 week after receiving proof. Short papers can take less time, whereas very long monographs of hundreds of pages may take longer to page-set by the printer and to proofread by the authors. Most papers so far published were issued within 30 days after acceptance by editors.  As far as we know, this speed is not matched by other journals.

Is the online edition of Zootaxa published before the print edition? 
No, the print and online editions are published concurrently, as this is important for taxonomic papers with new names.  The official date of publication will be clearly stated on the front page of each paper. 

Does Zootaxa meet the criteria of valid publication set by ICZN?  I have not seen any statement in your journal that print copies have been deposited in at least five major publicly accessible libraries?
Yes, Zootaxa is a valid publication by International Code of Zoological Nomenclature criteria.   The print edition of Zootaxa, like other publications, is issued for the purpose of providing a permanent public and scientific record. 

Which edition is more complete and authoritative? Print or online?
This is a good question because major indexing/abstracting journals need to decide which one to use. For Zootaxa, both editions are generated from the same file and they thus match in format, text and page numbering, and therefore provide the same content and citation/bibliographical data. However, the online edition can be richer in information because it can contain bookmarks and interactive links. 

Is the print edition of Zootaxa produced using acid-free paper?
Yes, Zootaxa is printed on acid-free, permanent paper (80g, white).  Colour plates are printed on glossy paper (100g).

Will this journal be covered by major indexing/abstracting journals/databases?
Yes, it is indexed by Biosis in Zoological Record and by ISI in Science Citation Index Expanded and Current Contents/Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences.

I found an error in my paper published in Zootaxa. Can I correct it?
Yes, we can publish errata for you. Please send your corrections to the chief editor. 

Are all published issues provided online? Or is the current issue only kept online?
Yes, all published issues are online.
 
 

Subscription information

How do I subscribe to this journal?
You can subscribe to the online edition, the print edition or both editions. Standing orders for both editions are preferred and recommended for libraries. You can also purchase individual issues. Subscriptions rates can be worked out from the information here, where contact addresses can also be found. Write to zootaxa (at) mapress.com to request an invoice by e-mail, or if you need more information. You may also order it from your regular agent.
If you are a specialist of a group (e.g. insects) and want only papers on Insecta, then a standing order for the entomological subset of Zootaxa can be arranged.
From 2008, online edition of various taxa can be subscribed for a flat rate. 

What is an IP address?
It is a series of four numbers separated by periods,  e.g. "000.000.00.00". It is a unique number for your computer. Access to online files of Zootaxa is by IP filtering and you need not to type a login, nor remember password. The publisher needs to know your IP address to configure the system to allow your access. To find IP address of your computer, visit:  http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/nph-traceroute.pl from your computer. The IP address appears at the end of the top line of the display. If you do not have a static IP address, the publisher can send PDF files to you by e-mail. For very long monographs, delivery of electronic version may be better done by e-mail because online viewing can be very slow. 

How do you maintain a low subscription rate?
In addition to no page charge, we want to ensure that readers pay a low subscription rate compared to similar journals. We can do this by minimizing cost using modern e-technology in publishing.

Is there a reason for my library to subscribe to both the online and print edition?
Yes, because each edition may provide advantages that the other does not have. The online edition is optimised for online viewing and thus the images in the papers are reduced to resolutions optimised for this purpose. This is its disadvantage compared to the print edition, which is produced at high resolutions. On the other hand, the print edition is disadvantaged in lacking interactive links that can be included in the online edition. 

Reprints, open access and links

Reprints, open access, colour plates and interactive links can be purchased pre- publication when corrections to proofs are returned. You will be provided an order form with information. Orders can also be placed after the paper is published, although we strongly encourage you to order pre-publication.

In the past we mailed reprints and provided open access pre-payment.  Due to significant delay of payments by many authors, it is not possible for us to provide services pre-payment.  

Effective 1 May 2006, all service will only be provide after payment is received.