INSTM Bulletin is indexed and abstracted in :
FAO-ASFA Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ProQuest)
1.Manuscript submission overview
3.2.1. Abstract: 200–250 words
3.3.3. Extended Abstracts from Symposia or Workshops:
There are restrictions on the length of the manuscript, as the text should be concise and complete. Full experimental details should be included to ensure reproducibility of results. The Manuscripts submitted to the INSTM Bulletin-MFS should neither be published previously nor be under consideration for publication in another journal.
The INSTM Bulletin: Marine and Freshwater Sciences publishes 4 types of manuscripts:
Manuscripts must be written in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). The manuscript should be presented with 1.5 line spacing, with page and line numbering. It should be written in Arial, 11 point font. All elements must be single-spaced, including the title, abstract, references, table and figure captions. The submission of a manuscript is in the form of a single Microsoft Word electronic file to facilitate peer review.
When accepted separate individual files in the editable formats listed below should be provided:
All files uploaded to the system should contain the author’s last name and the type of file uploaded in their title. (For example: Author's name_Research Article.doc or Author's name_Data.doc or Author's name_Image_1.jpg). Manuscripts should respect the international codes:
The manuscript should be presented in the following order: Title Page, Abstract, Keywords, Text, Acknowledgments, References, Appendix (if any), Tables, and Figures.
Particular consideration should be paid to the title, keywords and abstract as these elements are indicators of the manuscript content in bibliographic databases and search engines.
All manuscripts submitted to the INSTM Bulletin: Marine and Freshwater Sciences should include an unnumbered title page which contains these sections:
Abstract should not exceed 250 words (one-half typed page). The abstract should describe briefly the objective of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract may be presented separately from the article, so it should be capable of being self-sufficient. Therefore references should be avoided and standard/non-standard abbreviations should be avoided, but if they are essential, they should be defined at the first mention in the abstract itself.
List keywords for the work presented, separated by semicolon. Keywords should be different from these used in the title. The required number of keywords 3–7 using British or American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms. Where relevant these should include the main species concerned / the geographical area.
The text should be written correctly (style, synthesis, punctuation), brief, carefully edited and signed by all authors. Use this Article Template (link to be added) which details the sections that can be used in a manuscript (Articles). Sections that are not mandatory are listed as such. Review papers and other article types have a more flexible structure.
must be written in a compact form, without sections, in order to deliver a clear and concise result or observation. It includes an introduction, a methodological section and a combined ‘Results & Discussion’ section. Simple reports of known species must be written in the ‘short note’ format and must clearly provide new findings on the ecology of the species. Short notes will appear at the end of each issue of the INSTM Bulletin: Marine and Freshwater Sciences.
Review articles are selective in scope, focused and concise, rather than being comprehensive or entirely historical. They may be somewhat speculative to provoke interesting discussions and stimulate creative experimentation. There is no strict format for reviews, but they must include at least an Introduction, and Concluding Remarks, which bracket the main text.
The extended abstract is an extended version of conference (or workshop) abstract. It should not exceed 4 pages in total. The organization may follow that of a regular paper with shorter sections.
The text shall contain at a minimum the following components (additional headings may be included, numbered consecutively):
The Introduction must place the focus of the manuscript into a broader context. Classically, an introduction raises interesting scientific questions elaborated from the review of the current knowledge.
A report of field studies may need a detailed site description, which can be given in a separate section of the manuscript. Limit the information to that needed for understanding and interpreting the results. If only a few words are needed to describe the study site, include them in Methods.
The Materials and Methods section must provide enough details for reproduction of the experiments and/or analysis. Submit detailed protocols for newer or less established methods. Well-established protocols may be simply referenced. The section should be divided into subsections, each with a concise and informative subheading. The Materials and Methods section should be written in past tense.
The Results section must describe the results that are required to support the conclusions of the paper. The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise and informative subheading. The Results section should be written in past tense.
The Discussion must spell out the major conclusions and interpretations of the work including explanations of the significance of the work. The Discussion should be concise and tightly argued. If warranted, the Results and Discussion may be combined into one section, as appropriate.
Is not mandatory if the conclusions are included in the discussion section.
Funding sources should be acknowledged at the end of the manuscript. Persons who contributed to the work but are not included in the authorship should be listed with a short description of their contribution.
A complete reference should give the reader enough information to find the relevant article. Authors should pay particular attention to spelling, capitalization and punctuation. Please use the format of citing references according to the 7th edition of APA standards. References prepared with a bibliography software package are recommended, such as EndNote, Reference Manager or Zotero.
The examples are as follows:
(Smith, unpublished data) ; (Smith and Brown, submitted for publication); (Smith, personal communication); (Smith and Brown, presented at the 4th Symposium on Food Microbiology, Overton, IL, 13 -15 June 1989); (Odell, April 1970, Process for batch culturing, U.S. patent 484,363,770); (Smith, 20 June 1999, Australian Patent Office); ... from the GenBank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html) ; ... using ABC software (version 2.2; Department of Microbiology, State University, http://www.stu.micro).
Examples of common bibliographic formats:
Format: Author, A., Author, B., & Author, C. (Year of publication). Title of article. Journal Title, Volume (issue number), page numbers. DOI or URL
Example: Ghozzi, K., Giangaspero, A., &Babba, H. (2018). Détection des parasites entériques (Giardia duodenalis, Toxoplasma gondii) dans les mollusques bivalves du littoral tunisien. INSTM Bulletin, 45 (sp), 27-31. http://hdl.handle.net/1834/15146
Note: Conference proceedings published in a journal follow the same format as journal articles.
Format: Author, A., & Author, B. (Year of publication). Book Title. (edition). (Volumes).Publisher. DOI or URL.
Example: Chouba, L. (2018). La qualité chimique du littoral tunisien: tendance des métaux traces. Universitaires Européennes.
Notes:
Format: Author, A (Date of Completion). Title of Thesis. [Level of Thesis, Degree-Granting University]. Database or Repository. URL.
Example: Ben Ismail, S. (2014). Étude de la dynamique dans la Méditerranée Centrale. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Tunis El Manar, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Tunisie]. IOC-UNESCO OceanDocs repository. http://hdl.handle.net/1834/14611
Note: A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, an institutional repository, or an archive. When a dissertation or thesis is unpublished, include the description “[Unpublished doctoral dissertation]” or “[Unpublished master’s thesis]” in square brackets after the dissertation or thesis title.
Report:
Format: Agency / author.(date). Title (Series. report number). Publisher. URL
Example: Sharp, G.D. (2003). Future climate change and regional fisheries: a collaborative analysis. (FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 452). FAO.http://www.fao.org/tempref/docrep/fao/006/y5028e/y5028e00.pdf
Webpage on a Website:
Format: Name of the organization. (accessed on Day Month Year). Title of the webpage. Name of the website. URL
Example: Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (17 December 2020).Toxic algal blooms cause more economic damage to aquaculture than any greater storm. https://ioc.unesco.org/news/toxic-algal-blooms-cause-more-economic-damage-aquaculture-any-greater-storm
For guidance on formatting not listed here, see the APA Style.
All relevant photographs, graphs, schemes, maps and diagrams should be named as Figure.
Positioning Figures and Tables: Figure captions should be below the figures; table heads should appear above the tables. Insert figures and tables after they are cited in the text. Use “Figure 1”and “Table 1” in bold fonts.
Figure Labels: Use 9 point Arial for Figure labels. Use words rather than symbols or abbreviations when writing Figure axis labels to avoid confusing the reader. If units are included in the label, present them within parentheses. Do not label axes only with units. In the example, write “Magnetization (A/m)” or “Magnetization (A·m–1)”, not just “A/m”. Do not label axes with a ratio of quantities and units. For example, write “Temperature (K)”, not “Temperature/K”.
Figures should not duplicate information found in tables. Figures are provided in TIF, BMP, JPG formats with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Authors are encouraged to provide figures in color. Multi-part figures should be labeled with uppercase letters (A, B, etc.), Arial 9 pt. Inside the figures, Arial 9 pt font is recommended. Figures and diagrams in the Word format should be grouped within a single object. All figures should be numbered with the author’s surname and/or the title of the article included. The figure files must be named, for example: Amara1.tif, Amara_2.tif, etc., organized in the Amara_Figures folder. Each figure should be referenced in the article. For contributions referring to photographs taken from social media and citizen science platforms, authors should provide proof that the information/photo provider has been contacted and granted permission.
Online Supplementary Material may be used to enhance a publication and increase its visibility on the Web. All material that is essential to the understanding of an article should be included in the article itself. Closely related material that enhance understanding of an article and increase its visibility may be placed in an appendix.
Other material (directly relevant but not essential to the conclusions of the paper) should be cited in the main text, named clearly and submitted in a separate file with the original manuscript and with all subsequent submissions. In the appendixes, Figures, Tables, etc. should be labeled starting with ‘A’, e.g., Figure A1, Figure A2, etc.
Supplementary files will undergo editorial review and the Editor(s) reserve(s) the right to limit the scope and length of supplementary material. For ease of reader access, files less than 10 MB are recommended. Acceptable files and formats are Word or PDF files, and multimedia files (MPEG, AVI, or QuickTime formats).
Authors are encouraged to submit multimedia files with their manuscripts (e.g., video footage, audio clips, data sets, and enhanced figures). Digital files in EPS and TIFF formats are preferred for images (optimal resolution for line artwork is 800 dpi and for halftones is 300 dpi). The acceptable video formats are: MPEG and QuickTime
Microsoft Word template is recommended for manuscript preparation.
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the items of the submission checklist, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
All manuscripts and related materials should be submitted to INSTM Bulletin: Marine and Freshwater Sciences at https://instm-bulletin.tn. You may access the manuscript submission page through this link.
To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:
FAO-ASFA Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ProQuest)
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