Manuscripts and 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, managingeditortz@gmail.com or online. Manuscript must be written in clear and coherent English Language in MS-word, double-spaced and have 3cm margins throughout. 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. Scientific names must be italicized and authority given at first mention. Number all pages in sequence 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 250 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 and Acknowledgements. Results should consist of a summarization of the important data using tables and figures where possible. The findings should be discussed in the Discussion section, which should not be mere repeat of the results.

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

Okogwu, O.I., Elebe, F.A. and Nwonumara, G.N. 2022. Combinations of cypermethrin and dimethoate alter behavior, hematology and histology of African Catfish, Clarias gariepinus. Environ. Anal. Health Toxicol.  37(4), https://doi.org/10.5620/eaht.2022028.

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.

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. 

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.

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 citatons. 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.

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 EPS, TIFF or PNG formats and a minimum of 300dpi is preferred.

Tables: Tables 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.

Plates: The journal will only accept laser-print of images or very high quality photographs fully annotated and titled, if electronic format is not available. Plates will be published in black and white, otherwise contributors will pay for colour production per page.

A descriptive legend must accompany each illustration and must define all abbreviations therein.

Tables, figures, plates, etc. must immediately follow the text to which it relates. Figures and plates 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 accept of Zoology or related discipline. It must follow the pattern of The Zoologist-Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgement and References

Reviews: Systematic reviews of current topics of interest to a wide audience. Authors of review articles should be specialist in that area and the review should result from years of studies on the topic and present critical analysis of the subject.

Short Communications: Article containing essential information that author(s) need 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

Copyright

The copyright is to the Zoological Society of Nigeria (ZSN) under Creative Common licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. The License 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 license. The authors are responsible for the content of original, reviewed and published manuscript and accuracy of the references and 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.