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Author Guidelines

Before submission, please read About the Journal and create an account. Then start with the submission of the manuscript.
 

Instructions for authors

 
1. Manuscripts
The Acta Biologica Slovenica journal publishes original scientific articles and reviews articles in the wider field of biology. We accept:
  • Original Research: these are comprehensive descriptions of original research and include a theoretical survey of the topic, a detailed presentation of results with discussion and conclusion, and a bibliography according to the IMRAD outline (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). In this category, ABS also publishes methodological articles, as they present an original method, which was not previously published elsewhere, or they offer a new and original usage of an established method. The originality is judged by the editorial board if necessary after consultation with the referees (MS Word Template).
  • Reviews:  will be published in the journal after consultation between the editorial board and the author (MS Word Template).
  • Brief Notes: generally takes one of the following forms: i) a substantial re-analysis of a previously published article in Acta Biologica Slovenica or in another journal; ii) an article that may not cover 'standard research' but that is of general interest to the broad readership of Acta Biologica Slovenica; iii) a brief report of research findings adequate for the journal's scope and of particular interest to the community (MS Word Template). Brief notes may be edited for clarity or length and may be subject to peer review at the editors' discretion. Brief reports of research work will be peer reviewed.
  • Data Article: these are short, digestible articles that describe and provide access to research data (MS Word template).
  • Field Note: these are new records of plants, algae, fungi, and animals for a joint column under the title Significant records of plants, algae, fungi, and animals in SE Europe and adjacent regions with selected relevant data (MS Word template). Submission should be sent directly to handling editors for the appropriate field: Simona Strgulc Krajšek (plants and algae), Tina Klenovšek (animals), and Matevž Likar (fungi).
All articles will be reviewed before the publication. The authors are responsible for manuscript content and originality. The editors decide the form and date of publication of the article.
 
2. Peer review process
All manuscripts in Acta Biologica Slovenica peer-reviewed. The editors, upon receipt, examine them and check for plagiarism. Afterwards, the authors are (if necessary) asked to correct or change the manuscript. After correcting the manuscript, it is sent to anonymous reviewers (single-blind review). The reviewers receive a manuscript with the author's name and affiliation, and the authors get the review(s) without the reviewers' names. If the reviews require the manuscript to be corrected or augmented, the review will be sent to the author to correct the manuscript. Manuscripts with major corrections are subject to a second review. The editor-in-chief and managing editor has the right to suggest improvements regarding content and technical aspects. The article may be rejected for publication by the reviewers or editors.
 
3. Originality
On submitting a manuscript for publication, the authors should declare that the work submitted is original and unpublished and is not in the process of being considered for publication at any other publisher. They should also declare that the work (in whole or in part) will not be sent to other publishers before the decision of the editorial board on its publication. By submitting a manuscript to Acta Biologica Slovenica you agree to comply with the Publication Ethics and Malpractice State as an authored.
Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT do not currently meet our authorship criteria. In particular, the attribution of authorship carries its own responsibility for work that cannot be effectively applied to the LLM. The use of LLM should be adequately documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in an appropriate alternative section) of the article.
The rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence generative imaging has created new regulatory issues with copyright and research integrity. As publishers, we strictly adhere to applicable copyright law and best practice regarding publication ethics. As the legal issues surrounding AI-generated images and videos remain largely unresolved, they cannot currently allow their use for publication. The use of non-generative machine learning tools to manipulate, combine or enhance existing images or graphs must be disclosed in the appropriate section of the article and will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
 
4. Scope of manuscripts
Manuscripts must be prepared with these instructions. Articles should not exceed 30,000 characters with spaces. In exceptional cases and in agreement with the editor, articles may be longer than this.
 
5. Language
Acta Biologica Slovenica publishes scientific articles in Slovene or English. All articles have titles, abstracts, keywords, images, and table captions in both Slovene and English. Authors are responsible for the quality of the language.  The editorial board proofreads Slovene texts (entire text) and English titles, abstracts, keywords, chapter headings, images, table captions, and summaries. In the case of foreign authors, Slovene-language translation of the required bibliographic elements (title, abstract, keywords, table and figure captions) will be provided by the editorial board.
 
6. Article title
The title of the article should be brief and understandable and should summarise the essence of the presented research. The title should be written in Slovene and English and should not contain abbreviations or formulas. For foreign language authors, the editorial board will take care of translating these into Slovene.
 
7. Authors and affiliations
All names are listed together and separated by commas. Provide exact and correct author names as these will be indexed in official archives. Affiliations should be keyed to the author's name with superscript numbers. The corresponding author(s) should be marked with an asterisk in the author list. Provide the exact contact email address of the corresponding author(s) in a separate section.

The authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (†) in the author list of the manuscript. Please use the appropriate standard statement(s) to indicate equal contributions:

  • Equal contribution: These authors contributed equally to this work
  • First authorship: These authors share first authorship
  • Last authorship: These authors share last authorship

 

8. Abstract
For all articles, the authors must prepare an abstract in both English and Slovene. The abstract must give concise information on the content of the article and should not exceed 300 words. For foreign language authors, the editorial board will take care of translating these into Slovene.
 
9. Keywords
The authors should provide up to eight keywords in English and Slovene, and these must represent the research field covered in the article. For foreign language authors, the editorial board will take care of translating these into Slovene.
 
10. Body of the article
The articles should have the structure of a scientific work with the following chapters when appropriate: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References and Appendix. Appendices are marked with small letters (a, b, c, ...). The Results and Discussion sections can be grouped into the Results and Discussion section.
 
11. Tables and figures
The tables should be clear and adjusted to the dimensions of the journal (A4). The font size used should not be less than 8 point. Figures (drawings, photographs, graphic images, charts, etc.) should be clear, sharp, and high-resolution (300 dpi). The positions of tables and images should be clearly indicated in the text. The number of tables and figures should be appropriate for the scope and content of the article. All captions for the tables and figures must be listed in both English and Slovene. The caption for a table is written above the table, while the caption for a figure is written below the figure. With regard to positioning, the images should be included in the text and added to the manuscript as image files in an appropriate format.
 
Examples:
Table 1. MLST sequence type, virulence-associated genes and virulence plasmid-associated sequences among the E. coli isolates from the dishwasher rubber seals. 
Figure 1. Kemijska struktura polimerne različice 1,3-oktilpiridinijeve soli (APS8).
 
12. Citation of the references in the text
We use the APA standard of citing to quote the references in the text and at the end (References). We quote the authors according to the following principles: one author (surname, year), e.g. (Cankar, 1984); the work of two authors (surname & surname, year), e.g. (Cankar & Prešeren, 1984); the work of more than two authors (surname et al., year), e.g. (Cankar et al., 1984). If the author's name is stated in the text, it is enough to write only the annotation year, e.g. Cankar (1984). When we cite two or more sources, they should be sorted according to the year of publication and separated by semicolons (Cankar, 1984; Prešeren et al., 1985). Standards are indicated only with the abbreviation of the standard and year of issue, for example (SIST EN 113, 1996). Legislation is referred to by the abbreviation appearing in the Official Journal, for instance (BPD 98/8 / EC, 1998). Only publicly accessible literature should be provided. Citing internal reports, expert opinions, unpublished data, etc., should be avoided.
 
13. CRediT author statement
CRediT is an initiative that enables authors to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a published work.
Example: F. P.: Conceptualization, Methodology I. C.: Original draft preparation I. T.: Visualization, Investigation
 
14. Scientific names of taxa
The scientific names of genera, species and intraspecific taxa are written in italics (Picea abies (L.) Karst.).
 
15. Format and form of the manuscript
The article should be written and saved in a Word template and exported to pdf format. The figures should be included in the text and sent as image files for positioning. Manuscripts with all attachments should be submitted using the online form by following the given instructions.
 
16. Graphic design
To ensure their correct position, the authors should insert all graphic elements in the text. The backgrounds of the charts must be white. In the case of bar diagrams with only one row of columns, the columns should be white with a black border, and hatching or other forms of shading are unnecessary. 3D charts are to be avoided, and 2D charts are used whenever possible.
 
17. Images
  • Images taken with a digital camera must have a resolution of at least 2.1 million pixels (the width should be at least 80 mm for one column, at 300 dpi resolution).
  • Images should be scanned at a resolution of 300 dpi.
  • All images must be sent in the original tiff, jpg or equivalent format. The correct position should also be indicated in the text.
  • Images that have important colour shades must be stored in the CMYK colour system and TIFF format.
  • All images should be captioned in the manuscript. At the end of the caption, the source or author should be added in brackets.
  • Drawings should be made in one of the standard computer drawing programs. A minimum line thickness of 0.25 points or 0.15 mm must be used. We do not accept bad photocopies and drawings made with a pencil. If possible, avoid drawing in Word.
 
18. Section "References"
We use the APA method of citing. References should be arranged in alphabetical order based on the first authors' surnames. Some examples:
 
Book
Hocking, A.D., 2014. Spoilage Problems - Problems Caused by Fungi. In: Batt, C., Patel, P. (eds.): Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology, 2nd ed. Academic Press, Amsterdam, pp. 471–481.
 
Book chapter
Kononenko, V., Imani, R., Repar, N., Benčina, M., Lorenzetti, M., Erman, A., Drobne, D., Iglič, A., 2017b. Phototoxicity of Mesoporous TiO2+ Gd Microbeads With Theranostic Potential. In: Iglič, A:, Garcia-Sáez, A., Rappolt, M. (eds.) Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid Self-Assembly, Academic Press, 26, 153–171.
 
Journal article
Thandra, K.C., Barsouk, A., Saginala, K., Aluru, J.S., Barsouk, A., 2021. Epidemiology of lung cancer. Contemporary Oncology, 25 (1), 45. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5114%2Fwo.2021.103829
 
If there are more than seven authors, mention the first six and last authors.
Zhu, X., Pan, S., Xu, M., Zhang, L., Yu, J., Yu, J., ... Luo, S., 2020. High Selectivity of an α-Conotoxin LvIA Analogue for α3β2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Is Mediated by β2 Functionally Important Residues. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 63 (22), 13656–13668. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00975
 
Computer program
Oksanen, J., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., O'Hara, B., Simpson, G. L., Solymos, P., Stevens, M. H. H. & Wagner, H. (2008). vegan: Community Ecology Package (R package version 1.15-1) 
 
For more examples, please visit
 

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in "About the Journal" section.
  • Where available, DOI for the references have been provided.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it submitted to another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word document (Research article template / Data Article template / Field note template).
  • Provide two independent reviewers in the cover letter.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published online in journal Acta Biologica Slovenica by University of Ljubljana Press / Biotechnical Faculty (Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Biological Society of Slovenia (Večna pot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
  2. Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
  3. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  4. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

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