Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences
Editorial policy. The Editorial Board publishes articles on all aspects of science that are of general interest to the Mississippi scientific community. General articles include short reviews of general interest, reports of recent advances in a particular area of science, current events of interest to researchers and science educators, etc. Research papers of sufficiently broad scope to be of interest to most Academy members are also considered. Articles of particular interest in Mississippi are especially encouraged.
Research papers are reports of original research. Submission of a manuscript implies that the paper has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
Manuscripts. Submit the original plus two clear copies of the manuscript, together with a covering letter, to the Editor of the Journal. The covering letter should authorize publication; give the full names, addresses, and telephone numbers for all authors; and indicate the author of correspondence to whom bills, proofs, reprints, and other correspondence should be sent. Notify the Editor of any changes prior to publication. All manuscripts should be typed, double spaced throughout, including literature lists, tables, and figure legends, on 8 x 11 inch paper with 1 inch margins on all sides. Place the last names of each author, an abbreviated title, and the page number at the top of each page.
General articles. The format for general articles is flexible. You may use any style and organization appropriate to the subject matter. However, if the manuscript includes literature citations, tables, or figures, these should conform to the style and format given below for research papers.
Research papers. The following sequence should be used:
Title page. Give the concise title of the paper and the full name and complete address of each author. If a scientific name of an organism appears in the title, include an indication of its taxonomic position (e.g., "Survival of Scenedesmus acuminatus (Chlorophyceae) in darkness"). Indicate with a superscript number the author to contact regarding correspondence and reprints if there are multiple authors.Abstract. Include a concise abstract of no more than 250 words. This abstract should contain only objectives, results, and conclusions, and should not make reference to tables or figures or to literature. It should be useable by abstracting services without change.Introduction. Discuss briefly the rationale for and purpose of the investigation. You may include important findings. Consider that many readers will not be expert in the particular field.Materials and methods. Include sufficient detail so that the results of your investigation could be duplicated.Results. Report data you have collected. Tables and figures may be appropriate, but a prose description of significant data is necessary. Note that the significance of your data should be reported in the Discussion section. Metric units (International System of Units, SI) must be used for quantitative data.Discussion. Report the significance of the results of your research here. In this section you must convince your readers that you accomplished the purpose of your research described in the introduction. You may combine results and discussion into one section, in which case a brief Conclusions section may be appropriate.Acknowledgments. Financial or other assistance should be acknowledged in this section rather than in the body of the text.Literature cited. List references alphabetically. Cite references in the text by author and year of publication (e.g., Smith, 1975; Black and Jones, 1982; Smith et al., 1989; Jones, 1985a, 1985b). The following examples illustrate the style to be used in the literature list.
Wilson, M.C. 1988. Euphoria and other behavioral sequelae to cocaine abuse. J. Miss. Acad. Sci. 33:25-27.
Evert, R.F., R.D. Warmbrodt, and S.E. Eichhorn. 1989. Sieve-pore development in some leptosporangiate ferns. Amer. J. Bot. 76:1404-1413.
Bold, H.C., C.J. Alexopoulos, and T. Delevoryas. 1980. Morphology of plants and fungi, 4th ed. Harper and Row, New York. 819 pp.
Keohn, R.K., A.J. Zera, and J.G. Hall. 1983. Enzyme polymorphism and natural selection. Pages 115-136 in M. Nei and R.K. Koehn, eds. Evolution of genes and proteins. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.
Tables. Reference tables sequentially in the text. Type each table on a separate page. A descriptive title including the table number in Arabic numerals must appear at the top of each table. Keep footnotes to a minimum. Use superscript lower case letters to mark footnotes.Figures. Reference figures sequentially in the text. Submit original art with black ink or laser print on white paper or a glossy black and white photograph. Plan drawings so that lettering and lines will remain visible if reduction is necessary for journal page constraints. Drawings and photographs where a scale is needed must contain a measured mark. Type figure legends double spaced on a separate page from the figures. Number legends sequentially with Arabic numerals followed by a descriptive title. Include sufficient explanatory material to interpret the figure.
Consult recent issues of the Journal for further guidance. The Editor uses the Council of Biological Editors Style Manual for guidance.
Review. All papers submitted for publication will be peer-reviewed. You are encouraged to have one or more of your colleagues review the manuscript before submitting it for formal review.
Proofs and reprints. When a manuscript is accepted for publication the author of correspondence will receive a proof. Changes in proof are limited to errors made by the printer. The author of correspondence will receive 50 reprints without charge. If additional reprints are desired, an order must be placed at the time the corrected proof is returned.
Page charges. Authors or their institutions must pay page charges of $40 per printed page. The remainder of the printing cost comes from Academy membership dues. Papers may be rejected for failure to pay costs of previously published papers.
All correspondence concerning publication should be directed to the Editor of the Journal:
Dr. Kenneth J. Curry, Editor
University of Southern Mississippi
Post Office Box 5018
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5018