Submissions

Author Guidelines

The mission of NATURA SLOVENIAE is to foster the understanding of the natural history of Central and Southeastern Europe by publishing the results of field-biological research and data. Manuscripts reporting significant and new distributional records, species lists from all kingdoms as well as ecological, biogeographical, biodiversity and conservation studies are welcome. Papers are published in English or Slovenian language.

The journal is being published by University of Ljubljana Press on behalf of the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana and the National Institute of Biology (Slovenia).

The address of the Editor in Chief: Maja Zagmajster, Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot 111, SI1000 Ljubljana; maja.zagmajster@bf.uni-lj.si

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Manuscripts should be submitted via the web portal of the University of Ljubljana Press: https://journals.uni-lj.si/NaturaSloveniae

All manuscripts will be subject to peer review, normally by two referees. Authors are invited to suggest the names and contacts of potential referees, although the editor reserves the right to select any other. Once reviewed by the referee(s), the manuscript should be revised by the author or authors themselves. The revised manuscript should be returned with marked changes (Track changes tool can be used) along with a clean version (no marked changes or comments) and a rebuttal letter explaining the changes made.

The submitted manuscript must not have been previously published in any form and must not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere (in other journals, bulletins or congress publications). 

TYPES AND FORMAT OF CONTRIBUTIONS

Manuscripts may be submitted for consideration as Scientific Papers, Short Communications and Field Notes (see below). Other formats of contributions are also welcome (review articles, comments, opinion papers), but should be discussed beforehand with the editor.

The title of the contribution should be informative, clear and concise. The title should be followed by the name(s) and full affiliations of the author(s), with postal and e-mail addresses. ORCID numbers are optional.

Each contribution should contain the abstract which includes concise information about the objectives, methods used, results and conclusions. The abstract should not exceed 250 words for Scientific Papers, 200 words for Short Communications and 100 words for Field Notes.

Authors should include five to maximum ten keywords, written in alphabetical order, which must accurately reflect the field of research and content covered in the paper. A Field Note does not contain key words.

Scientific Papers and Short Communications should include a Summary following the main text of the manuscript. The purpose of the Summary is to provide comprehensive information for Slovenian or non-Slovenian speaking readers when the contribution is written in English or Slovenian, respectively. The Summary should not be a repetition of the abstract but contain more information on objectives, methods, results, discussion, and may include citations from the reference list or mentions of figures and tables. The recommended length is about 500 words for Scientific Papers and 300 words for Short Communications. Non-Slovenian speaking writers can provide English Abstract, Keywords and Summary. These will be translated into Slovenian by the editorial team.  A Field Note does not contain a Summary.

Manuscripts should be submitted in one of the major text editing formats such as Microsoft Word (docx, doc) and ODF text document (odt), preferably using »Times New Roman« size 12 font, align left and margins of 3 cm on A4 pages. Double spacing should be used between lines, which should be numbered continuously for the whole manuscript. The manuscript title and headings of chapters and subchapters should be written in bold font size 14. The scientific names of all genera and species must be written in italic.

ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES

Papers should contain up to ten figures and/or tables. Tables and figures, including legends, should be inserted in the manuscript at the desired position. The resolution of figures in the manuscript may be reduced to ensure a manageable file size. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, figures should be submitted separately as high-quality vector or raster graphics, in pdf, svg, jpg, or tiff formats. Figures should be prepared without graphical elements such as borders and captions; those can be added in the manuscript using the word processor instead. Please contact the editor if you need assistance with preparing graphics of sufficient quality.

Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript (Figure 1, Figure 2 …, Table 1, Table 2 …). Each Figure and Table should be referred to at least once in the main manuscript text, in abbreviated form (Fig. 1 or Figs. 1, 2; Tab. 1 or Tabs. 1, 2).

Tables and figures along with their titles and legends should contain enough details to be self-explanatory. Titles should be given in both languages (English and Slovenian), regardless of the language of the main text. For non-Slovenian speaking writers, Slovenian translations will be provided by the editorial team.

When photographs are included, the author’s name and surname should be given in brackets.

OTHER FORMAT GUIDELINES

All dates are written with numbers, no matter the language of the contribution, it is the form: Day. Month. Year, for example 23. 5. 2000, 16. 6. 2015.

Vernacular names should not be capitalized, an exception being naming after a person (e.g. Savi's pipistrelle). When vernacular and scientific name are used together, the following applies: the scientific name follows the vernacular without brackets only in the title, while in the text it should be given in parentheses. Both names together should be used only at the first mention in the contribution text, while later only one form should be used consistently. Each scientific name should at least once be written in full, i.e. including taxonomic authority and year of description.

Coordinates of localities should be given in WGS84 decimal degrees format. For Slovenia, they can also be in the valid ETR89 coordinate system. The coordinate system must be clearly indicated.

REFERENCES

Citing of the references and the format of the reference list should follow the Council of Science Editors (CSE) style (https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/scientific-style-and-format), using Name-Year system, with some modifications (listed below): https://www.mcgill.ca/library/files/library/
cse-name-year-citation-style-guide.pdf

In the text:

The author’s surname and the year of publication are enclosed in parentheses immediately following the text to which it refers:

Most females lay eggs in the first half of June (Fritz 2003) and…

If a reference has two authors, both surnames are included separated by “&” (this is different to instructions in the link!). For works with three or more authors, only the first author’s name is included, followed by  et al.:

…marked turtles by marginal notching (Vamberger & Kos 2011)…

…does live downstream along the Sava River in Croatia (Šalamon et al. 2013)…

If several sources are cited at once, they should be listed in chronological order and alphabetically among references published in the same year, separated by a semicolon. Two or more works written by the same author in the same year should be marked by a designator (a, b, c…) to distinguish them. The same designators are used in the reference list.

… (Müller 1921; Seifert 2007a, 2007b; Ionescu-Hirsch et al. 2009; Lapeva-Gjonova & Kiran 2012; Wiezik & Wieziková 2013).

If the author of a reference is an organization, institution, university, etc., an abbreviated form of the name is used in the in-text citation, by retaining the first letter of each word in the name, or some other recognized abbreviation:

… (FAO 2007).

Reference list:

The reference list should follow the below examples, but see the above given citation guidelines:

[ARSO] Agencija Republike Slovenije za okolje. 2022. Podnebne značilnosti oktobra 2022. Ljubljana (SI): Agencija Republike Slovenije za okolje, Ministrstvo za okolje, podnebje in energijo. [accessed on 26.11.2022]; https://meteo.arso.gov.si/met/sl/climate/current/climate_month/

Balestrieri A, Remonti L, Prigioni C. 2015. Towards extinction and back: Decline and recovery of otter populations in Italy. In: Angelici FM, editor. Problematic Wildlife. Springer International. Switzerland. p. 91-105. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22246-2_5

Gregorc T, Nekrep I. 2010. Poročilo skupine za vidro. In: Vinko D, editor. Raziskovalni tabor študentov biologije Most na Soči 2010. Ljubljana (SI):  Društvo študentov biologije. p. 12-21.

Kruuk H, Conroy JWH, Glimmerveen U, Ouwerkerk EJ. 1986. The use of spraints to survey populations of otters (Lutra lutra). Biological Conservation. 35: 187-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(86)90050-9

Gorički Š, Stanković D, Snoj A, Kuntner M, Jeffery WR, Trontelj P, Pavic M, Grizelj Z, Năpăruș-Aljančič M, Aljančič G. 2017. Environmental DNA in subterranean biology: Range extension and taxonomic implications for Proteus. Scientific Reports. 7: 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45054

Citing legislation documents:

Slovenian legislation: Citation in the text: (Ur. l. RS 2002) or (Ur. l. RS 2004).

Reference list:

Ur. l. RS. 2002. Pravilnik o uvrstitvi ogroženih rastlinskih in živalskih vrst v rdeči seznam. Uradni list RS, no. 82/02, 42/10.

Ur. l. RS. 2004. Uredba o zavarovanih prosto živečih živalskih vrstah. Uradni list RS, no. 46/04, 109/04, 84/05, 115/07, 32/08 – odl. US, 96/08, 36/09, 102/11, 15/14, 64/16, 62/19.

EU legislation, international conventions: Citation in the text: (OJ EC 1992)

Reference list:

OJ EC. 1992. Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. Official Journal of the European Communities L 206, 22.7.1992. p. 7-50.