Open
Access Policy Statement of The
Zoologist
Effective 01 December, 2022
The
Zoologist switched to Open
Access publication under the Open Access Licence Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
The
Zoologist Open
Access policy is as stated below:
1. The
copyright is to the Zoological Society of Nigeria (©The Zoological Society of Nigeria).
2. Articles
published in the journal are distributed under Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
3. The
Licence permits non-commercial use, copying, redistribution, remixing and adaptation of articles published in The
Zoologist provided
the original work is properly cited and the new work has identical licence.
4. Authors that publish their
articles in The
Zoologist,
therefore agree to the distribution under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
The forgoing is for all
authors and readers of The
Zoologist,
consequently all previous volumes will be gradually available to readers Free.
Editorial
Policy
The
Editorial Team targets a maximum of one
month to
take final decision on all submitted manuscripts. All accepted articles will be published immediately as online first. The
Zoologist provides
excellent editorial services and mentorship to young academics and authors whose native language is not English.
All
manuscripts submitted to the journal are believed to be original and are neither under review by another journal nor published elsewhere. The journal operates a three-stage review system.
In the first stage, manuscripts are subjected to first editorial review, which includes plagiarism check. Manuscripts outside the coverage area of the journal or that do not meet the
journal’s quality or have high plagiarism score are rejected at this point. At the second stage, manuscripts that pass editorial review are subjected to peer review. At the third stage,
recommendations of the reviewers on the manuscripts are subjected to second editorial review and the final decision taken by the editors.
Blind
copies of manuscripts are sent to two anonymous expert reviewers.
The
decision of the editors on the manuscript is final. Authors are advised to subject their manuscripts to plagiarism check as the journal will check all articles for plagiarism before
acceptance. Any article that fails plagiarism test will be rejected and the author(s) so informed.
Change
of authorship
Authors
are advised to considered carefully all authors and order of authors before submission of manuscripts. Request for inclusion and/or exclusion of author(s) or change of the position of
author(s) can only be considered before acceptance of the manuscript and will be approved in only exceptional cases. The authors been added or removed must also indicate in writing that
they agree to the change. The corresponding author and all authors of the manuscript must indicate in writing the reasons for the change in authorship. After acceptance of the manuscript
no request for change in authorship will be entertained.
After
Acceptance
The
corresponding author of an accepted manuscript will receive the galley proof by email and will be required to proofread and correct minor editorial errors in the manuscript. Major
corrections that change the number of pages and structure of the manuscript will require the approval of the Editor-in-Chief and may necessitate another review of the manuscript. Authors
are advised to pay keen attention to ensure that the galley proof are error-free.
The
Zoologist publishes online first; accepted articles are published immediately in PDF format. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned to the article, which makes it fully searchable.
Errata
The
editorial team will work closely with authors and the publisher to ensure that all articles are published error-free but where major errors are identified after publication, such errors
will be corrected as errata in the next volume of the journal.
Repository
Policy
Authors of articles published in The Zoologist
are free to deposit all versions (submitted, accepted, galley proof and published versions) of their articles in any repository of their choice without any restriction.
Initiative for Open
Citations
The Zoologist endorses Initiative for Open
Citation (I4OC) because the initiative will increase the availability of structured, separable and open data on citations. This will increase availability of citation data to researchers
from Africa and other developing countries. Consequently, enhancing the opportunities of researchers from these regions to make significant scholarly contributions, otherwise unattainable
were these resources to be held in paid platforms.
INSTRUCTION TO
AUTHORS
Manuscripts suitable for publication in
The
Zoologist should be
derived from original empirical research or reviews in Zoology, Life Sciences and related disciplines. It must be scientifically sound and written in coherent English Language. Each
submitted manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter stating its contribution to knowledge, that the authors agree to its submission to The
Zoologist and that the
manuscript is not under review by another journal.
Manuscripts
must be submitted at The Zoologist website https://publications.zoologicalsocietyofnigeria.com or
https://thezoologist.zoologicalsocietyofnigeria.com. The Manuscript
should be submitted with evidence of payment of processing fee of N6,000
for contributors from Nigeria and $25 for contributors from other countries. All editorial
correspondence should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor, The
Zoologist,
Department of Zoology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria via the e-mail addresses; zooibadan@yahoo.com and managingeditortz@gmail.com. The manuscripts must be
written in clear and coherent English Language in MS-word, double-spaced and have 3cm margins throughout. Scientific names must be italicized and the authority given at first mention.
Pagination of the manuscript should be sequential beginning with the title page.
All studies on human
subjects must be accompanied by ethical approval from an Institution competent to grant such approval or from the relevant government agency.
Manuscripts should be
divided into the sections given below:
Title
page: The first page of the manuscript should
contain the complete title of the paper, the names of authors and their affiliations, the name and email address of the corresponding author, 16-digit
ORCID of at least one of
the authors and a short running title of not more than 30 characters.
Abstract: Abstracts should not exceed 200 words. Three
to six key words for use in indexing should be listed immediately below the abstract.
Text: Regular articles should not exceed 25
manuscript pages. The text should be divided into: Introduction, Materials and
methods, Results, Discussion,
Conclusion, Conflict of Interest and Acknowledgements. Results should consist of a summarization of
the important data using tables and figures where possible.
References: In the text, references should be cited
consecutively with the authors surname and year of publication in brackets e.g. (Ringim and Aliyu 2018; King and Akpan 2020). Use the abbreviation et al for citing more than two authors (e.g.
Fagade et
al 1995). The reference
list should be arranged alphabetically by first authors' surname.
Examples
of references
1.
Journal articles
Daben, M.R., Asor, J.E.,
Okon, O.E., Mwansat, G.S. and Dakul, D.A. 2023. Effects of n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol bark extracts of Entada
Africana Guill and Perott
(Fabaceae) on the snail Bulinus
globosus.
Nig.
J. Parasitol.
44(2): 281-294.
Edeh, I.C., Nsofor, C.I., Ikechukwu, C.C.,
Olisa, C.S., Afoemezie, P.I. and Chidubem-Nwachinemere, N.O. 2022. Bacterial assessment of smoke-dried fishes sold at three landing market sites in Anambra State, Nigeria. Zoologist.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tzool.v21i1.3.
Ugwumba, O.A. 1989. Distribution and growth of
the ten-pounder Elops lacerta
(Val) in the fresh, brackish and
marine environment in Lagos, Nigeria. Arch. Hydrobiol.
115(33): 451-462.
2.
Book or Thesis
Smith, T.M. and Smith, R.L. 2015. Elements of
Ecology (9th ed.). Pearson, Boston, 621pp.
3.
Chapter in Book
Adelana, S.M.A., Abiye, T.A., Nkhuwa, D.C.W.,
Tindimugaya, C. and Oga, M.S. 2008. Urban groundwater management and protection in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: S.M.A. Adelana and A.M. Macdonalded (eds.), Applied
Groundwater Studies in Africa.
Taylor and Francis, London, 231–260.
References must be written
in accordance to The
Zoologist style. Journal title
should be abbreviated according to the web of science guide.
Nomenclature and
Units
All abbreviations must be written in full at
first mention. SI units are strongly recommended, when it is necessary to use non-SI units, authors are required to give SI unit equivalent.
Artworks
Artwork submitted as JPG, EPS, TIFF or PNG
formats and a minimum of 300dpi is preferred.
Tables: Tables must be submitted
as editable documents and should be titled and designated with Arabic numerals conforming to order of their appearance. They should be used primarily for presentation of data too complex
to be included in the text; however, they must be referred to and keyed into the text.
Figures: This should be numbered
consecutively with Arabic numerals in the same order as they appear in the text. Author’s name, figure number and an arrow indicating the orientation of the illustration should be at the
back. Figures must also be keyed into the text.
A descriptive legend must
accompany each illustration and must define all abbreviations therein. Authors
should not present the same data in Table and figure, rather the one that best illustrates the data should be used.
Tables, figures and plates
must immediately follow the text to which it relates. Figures will be published in black and white. However, authors that desire colour publication of figures should contact the publishing
department as additional fee per colour page published will be required.
All manuscripts submitted
to The
Zoologist must be submitted solely
to the journal, and must not have been published in any substantial form in another journal, in any other language, or be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Permission
Authors intending to
include published tables, figures, text and plates in their manuscript must obtain permission
from the copyright owner(s) and submit evidence that such permission was granted along with the manuscript.
Types
of Manuscript Acceptable to The Zoologist
Original
Research Article: Articles based on
scientific research on any aspect of Zoology or related discipline. It must follow the pattern of The Zoologist-Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion,
Acknowledgement, Conflict of Interest and References.
Reviews: Systematic reviews of
current topics of interest to a wide audience. Authors of review articles should be specialists in that area and the review should result from years of studies on the topic and present
critical analysis of the subject.
Short
Communications: Articles containing
essential information that author(s) need to communicate to readers quickly.
Editorials: Short communications on
important subjects authored by the editors or editorial nominees.
Letters
to the Editor and Responses: Articles written to the
editors or response from editors that may contain useful information to readers
Conflict
of Interest
Authors must declare
conflict of interest where applicable or state otherwise if not applicable.
Copyright
The copyright is to the
Zoological Society of Nigeria (ZSN) under Creative Common
licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. The
Licence permits non-commercial use, copying, redistribution, remixing and adaptation of articles published in The
Zoologist provided
the original work is properly cited and the new work has identical licence. The authors are responsible for contents of the original, reviewed and published manuscript and accuracy of the
references and also for any violation of copyright agreement.
Publication
Fee
Authors whose articles are
accepted are required to pay a publication charge of N45,000 (Nigerian authors) and
$120 (foreign authors) per article of 6 journal typeset pages, additional pages attract additional charge of N8,000 ($27) per page.