Guide for Authors

Marine Mammal Science publishes significant new findings on marine mammals resulting from original research on their form and function, evolution, systematics, physiology, biochemistry, behavior, population biology, life history, genetics, ecology and conservation. Range extensions, unusual observations of behavior, and preliminary studies of a few individuals are published only where there is sufficient new information to render the manuscript of general interest. Low priority will be given to confirmatory investigations of local or regional interest. The Journal endorses the principle that experiments using live animals should be undertaken only for the purpose of advancing knowledge. Consideration should be given to the appropriateness of experimental procedures, species of animals used, and number of animals required. All animal experimentation reported in Marine Mammal Science must be conducted in conformity with the relevant animal care codes of the country of origin. The Editor will refuse manuscripts in which evidence of adherence to such codes is not apparent. Marine Mammal Science publishes

  1. Articles: important original research;
  2. Review Articles: critical appraisals which place recent research in a new conceptual framework;
  3. Notes: short communications on current research, important preliminary findings or new techniques;
  4. Opinions: invited contributions on selected topics;
  5. Letters: a forum for communications in response to papers previously published in Marine Mammal Science, opinion, interpretation, and new information about all topics of interest to marine mammalogists;
  6. Obituaries and In Memoriam Notices: Obituaries are short announcements of recent deaths of Society for Marine Mammalogy members and In Memoriam notices are longer descriptions of the career and accomplishments of recently deceased members who have made major contributions to the field of marine mammal science and the Society.

Articles, Review Articles and Notes are subject to peer review. Any Letter challenging published results or interpretations is transmitted to the author of the published work with an invitation to respond. The Letter and its response are published simultaneously. Letters are judged by the Editor on appropriateness of the subject and interest to readers. Obituaries and In Memoriam Notices require contacting the Editor before submitting material. Brief Obituaries and In Memoriam Notices will be published after review by the Editor.

Manuscript Preparation

The manuscript should be concise, logical, and unequivocal. Publication is facilitated if authors double-check for typographical and other errors and ensure that manuscripts and figures meet the requirements outlined below. Manuscripts that do not conform will be returned for correction before consideration. If in doubt, consult the Editorial Office. Authors are charged for excessive changes in proof.

The Society for Marine Mammalogy has created a pilot program to cover the cost of editing for the quality of English for authors for which English is not their primary language (ESL – English as a secondary Language). For an author who meets this condition, and whose paper is likely to become acceptable for publication as determined by the Editor-in-Chief, he/she will be notified of the opportunity to request that their paper be edited for quality of English and clarity. If requested and approved, once the paper is at the stage of minor revision, the EIC will have an English editor, proofread the paper and provide a Word file edited for English and clarity. The English editor will provide the file within a reasonable period of receiving the paper (usually 6-10 days). In editing the paper, if any editing, inadvertently changes the meaning of something, the author can correct the edit and let the EIC know. The cost for this editing will be covered by the Society for Marine Mammalogy and will be managed by the EIC. It is possible that papers for which the English is sufficiently poor to understand content upon initial submission might be returned to the author for improvement to a level where content is sufficiently clear for reviewers to follow. Reviewers will be instructed to ignore quality of English in their review as long as it does not impede their ability to understand the substance of the paper. If you have any questions about the program, contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Manuscripts must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document or in a document format that can be imported into Microsoft Word. The submission should not be in Adobe PDF format.

A full-length Article includes a title page, abstract, keywords, text, acknowledgments, literature citations, tables, figure captions, and figures. Notes and Letters do not have an abstract and are prepared in narrative form without headings, except for “Literature Cited.” All parts of the manuscript, including footnotes, tables, and figure captions, should be typewritten, double-spaced with margins at least 2.5 cm wide. Number all pages of the manuscript beginning with the title page and include line numbers on each page. Underline only when the material is to be set in italics or italicize directly. Use capital letters only when the letters or words are to be capitalized. Do not end a line of text with a hyphen.

Title Page

The first page should contain only the title, the name(s), and affiliation(s), (plus current affiliation, if different) of the author(s). The title should be brief and contain words useful for indexing and information retrieval.

  • Do not use “and” or “&” between last two authors.
  • Forenames are spelled out; initials are spaced out.
  • Use superscript numerals to indicate affiliation and place below author name(s).
  • Street names, PO box number, and ZIP (postal) code are not allowed.
  • List department, institution, city, state (if US), or country (outside USA)
  • USA state names are spelled out; include province for Canada and state for Australia

Corresponding Author

  • The heading “Correspondence” should be set in bold and roman.
  • Complete mailing address with email ID is required. Phone and fax numbers not needed.
  • Provide country names other than USA.
  • Email starts on a new line. Use “Email” without a hyphen.

English Abstract and Key Words

The abstract, of not more than 200 words typed on a separate page, should precisely reflect the contents of the paper, and focus attention on the purpose of the study, principal results, conclusions and their significance. Below the abstract, provide and identify as such three to ten key words or short phrases that will assist in cross-indexing your article. The heading “KEYWORDS” should be set in all caps, bold, and roman. The key words should be set in lowercase (except for proper nouns, etc.); alphabetical order; separated by commas; no end period Wiley has compiled guidelines to enable you to optimize the discoverability on the web of the most public part of your article (the title and the article abstract).

Article discoverability is increasingly important as researchers are finding content through more specific search criteria and less through browsing the literature. Optimizing your article for search engines will greatly increase its chance of being viewed and/or cited in another work.

In addition to enhancing specific author metrics (individual article downloads and citations) creating an article that gets high returns through search engines helps Marine Mammal Science. Just as relevance is crucial to career advancement for you, it is also integral to library renewal decisions for the journal.

Wiley has compiled guidelines to enable you to optimize the discoverability on the web of the most public part of your article (the title and the article abstract).

Non-English Abstract

The English abstract may be translated into a foreign language and provided as a second abstract, following the English abstract in the paper. The language to which the abstract is translated may be chosen by the author. It is recommended that the language be the primary language of the author or the language of the country in which the work was conducted, if applicable. A non-English abstract is not required but optional.

Text

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition) must be followed. Spelling should be standard U.S. (not British) to conform to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. Units should conform to the Système International d’Unités (SI). Non-standard abbreviations must be defined the first time they appear. Mathematical symbols, Greek letters, and unusual symbols should be identified clearly; superscripts and subscripts should be legible and carefully placed.

Standard Abbreviations

General

ns (nanosecond), ms (millisecond), s (second), min (minute), hr (hour); do not abbreviate day, week, month, year

g (gram), mg, kg, Hz, kHz, MHz, km, m (meter), mm, cm, cc, mi (mile), ft, in. (note period), kn (knot), ha, gal, ml, L (liter, spell out when used alone).

Statistics

p (probability), xˉ (mean, x-bar above), SD, SE, CV, SEM, N (total sample size), n (subsample size), df, r (correlation coefficient), t, F, U, Z (statistical tests); letters (except Greek) in equations are italicized.

t(177) = 3.52, p < .001, 95% CI [0.35, 0.95]

When using a statistical term in narrative text, use the term, not the symbol.

Latin words and phrases

i.e., (note comma); e.g., (note comma); ca. (only used with dates); c.f.; in vivo; in situ; vs.; etc.; per se; et al.; via; sensu; sensu faro; sensu stricto; a priori. These common ones are not set in italics.

Acknowledgments

List all acknowledgments briefly under a single heading at the end of the text on a separate page. If applicable, give the permit number(s) under which the work was conducted.

Reference List

References should be cited in the text in the following form:

  • One author: Smith (2000) and (Smith, 2000).
  • Two authors: (Smith & Jones, 2004) and Smith and Jones (2004).
  • Three or more authors: Smith et al. (1993) and (Smith et al., 1993).

References are cited alphabetically, not chronologically in the text.

References should be double-spaced and listed alphabetically as “REFERENCES” in the following standard form, giving the journal titles in full and each author’s last name starting with a full capital followed by lowercase for the rest of the name. Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI, regardless of whether you used the online version or the printed version.

References with 21 or more authors: include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipse (…) (but not an ampersand), and then add the final author’s name.

Akaike, H. (1974). A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 19(6), 716–723. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1974.1100705

Delarue, J. (2008). Northwest Atlantic fin whale vocalizations: Geographic variations and implications for stock assessments [Unpublished master’s thesis]. College of the Atlantic.

Dugan, P. J., Rice, A. N., Urazghildiiev, I. R., & Clark, C. W. (2010, May 7). North Atlantic right whale acoustic signal processing: Part I. Comparison of machine learning recognition algorithms [Paper presentation]. IEEE Long Island Systems, Applications and Technology Conference, Farmingdale, NY.

Laake, J., Punt, A., Hobbs, R., Ferguson, M., Rugh, D., & Breiwick, J. (2009). Re-analysis of gray whale migration surveys 1967-2006 (NOAA Technical Report NMFS-AFSC-203). U.S. Department of Commerce.

Leatherwood, S., & Reeves, R. R . (1983). The Sierra Club handbook of whales and dolphins. Sierra Club Books.

Murchison, A. E. (1980). Detection range and range resolution of echolocating bottlenose porpoise (Tursiops truncatus). In R.-G. Busnel & J. F. Fish (Eds.), Animal sonar systems (pp. 43–70). Plenum Press.

U.S. Federal Register. 1997. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; change in listening status of western population of Steller sea lion as endangered. FR 62(108):30772– 30773 (5 June 1997). National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce.

Reference list order:

  • General: arranged alphabetically by author surname.
  • Several works of same first author:
    ” Single author: arranged chronologically.
    ” Single author, same year: arrange alphabetically by title of the work (excluding A, An, The); exception: works part of series, then arrange in series order (Part 1 and Part 2); indicate by placing lowercase letters immediately after year to help differentiate in-text citation.
  • Multiple author works: single author first, followed by multiple author works.
  • Only multiple author works: follow alphabetical order for second author and then the third author and so on.
  • Several works of two or more authors in same order: arrange chronologically.
  • Several works of two authors or more authors in same order, same year: see single author, same year.
  • Several works of authors with same surname: arrange alphabetically by first initial.
  • Alphabetize the prefixes M’, Mc, and Mac literally, not as if they were all spelled Mac. Disregard the apostrophe: MacArthur precedes McAllister, and MacNeil precedes M’Carthy.
  • Group authors (Agency, Association or Institution): alphabetize using first significant word of name; full name to be used; a parent body precedes a subdivision (University of Michigan, Department of Marine Biology).
  • Author designated as anonymous: alphabetize as if anonymous were a true name.
  • No author: title moves to author position, alphabetize by first significant word of title.

Citation of personal communications and unpublished data are not to be included under ‘Literature Cited’ but should be referenced as footnotes that include the complete name and address of the source and the month and year of the communication or notification of the unpublished data. If the unpublished data citation is from the author or a coauthor, a footnote with details is not required. Meeting abstracts should not be cited as such or included in the Literature Cited Section. If information from an abstract is the only source of support for a point being made, it must be treated as a personal communication or unpublished data and have received prior approval from the author of the abstract before being cited. Such citations should be used minimally and shall not comprise a critical component of a major point being made in the manuscript because the validity or reliability of such data cannot be evaluated properly by readers. A paper may be cited ‘in press’ only if it has been accepted in final form by a journal. Papers ‘submitted’ or ‘in preparation’ may not be cited as such, but information in them may be cited as ‘personal communication.’ Any citation of information based on a manuscript submitted or in preparation, must be with the explicit permission of the lead author or person who provided the information. Citations of non-refereed documents (e.g., contract reports, environmental impact statements, meeting working papers) and gray literature is discouraged and should not be used as “one more example” of a point when primary peer-reviewed literature is cited to support the point. However, if there is no primary peer-reviewed literature to support important findings or the interpretation of those findings presented in the manuscript, they may be cited. Such citations should only be referenced in the Literature Cited section if the reference is readily available to the reader. The source for the reference must be given, including if necessary the address where it can be obtained. Any document bearing a ‘Do not cite without permission’ statement may be cited only with the explicit permission of the lead author. A statement that all necessary permissions have been obtained must be included in the cover material accompanying the submitted manuscript. Authors must double-check all literature cited; they are solely responsible for its accuracy.

Tables

Authors using Word or WordPerfect must use those programs’ table editors to create tables. Each table should be included in the text of the paper approximately where you would like it to be located (at first mention of it) but it should also be submitted as a separate file.

Do not create tables by typing single lines of text followed by a hard return, with spaces or tabs used to align columns. Such tables will have to be rekeyed by the copy editor, causing a possible delay in publication and an increased probability of error in the rekeyed data.

Do not embed tables from other applications into word-processing files unless the tables are converted to the word processor’s native format. If the embedded table cannot be edited using the word processor’s table editing and formatting commands, it will have to be rekeyed.

Do not break large tables into smaller ones merely to accommodate page breaks or to create subsections.

In a table, each row of data must be in a separate row of table cells.

Figures

Please read this information carefully to avoid publication delays. All figures will be reproduced exactly as transmitted, so authors must take special care to prepare high-quality files. Check with your technology support personnel if you need help with producing the proper files.

Filename is Ms#_Fig#.ext, e.g., 2271_Fig1.pdf or 2271_Fig2.tif. If there are several parts to a figure, label them as 3(a), 3(b), 3(c), etc. (note use of lowercase letters).

Each figure should be included in the text of the paper approximately where you would like it located (after the first mention of it) but also provide it as a separate file. If you have a multipart figure, the Press prefers to receive these as a single file, with panels labeled within the image, rather than as multiple files. However, if necessary you may transmit each part of the figure separately along with a document that shows how they should be laid out (including white space). Figures consisting of more than one panel should include lowercase panel designations (“a,” “b,” “c,” etc.).
Line art (charts, graphs, line drawings) should be prepared using a vector drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw and the files submitted in EPS, AI, or CRD format. The minimum resolution is 600 dpi. Photographs should be in TIFF format with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Combination photograph and line illustrations should be in TIFF or EPS format with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. Do not embed photographs in Word, PowerPoint, or PDF files.

Check that figures are well labeled, e.g., units on the x- and y-axes are marked.

Ensure that spellings and abbreviations on the figures are consistent with those used in the text (and journal style).
Fonts and line thickness should be large enough to still be legible but not excessively large after reduction to fit the maximum size of figures in Marine Mammal Science (11.7 x 17.5 cm).

Font styles and sizes should be consistent within and between figures. Use standard fonts such as Times, Arial, Helvetica, or Symbol. Sans serif fonts such as Arial and Helvetica are ideal and should be used whenever possible.
Keys and scale bars should be placed inside the figure whenever possible.

Avoid placing labels over shaded areas of a figure. Best results are obtained from black lettering on a white background. If the area requiring a label contains shading, it is best to create a white box and place the black label within.

Omit any extraneous information, such as page numbers, figure numbers, author names, or manuscript number, from the figure. Figures themselves should not contain a title or text that is duplicated in the figure legend. Figure legends should be included separately with the manuscript text.

More detailed information on the submission of electronic artwork can be found at: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp.

Equations

To produce display equations—equations that sit by themselves on a line—use the Equation Editor included with Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.

To produce in-line math—small equations or single characters that appear within a line of regular text— you can insert the necessary characters like other normal text. If the desired math is too complex or not available as individual characters, then use Equation Editor.

Statistics

Most papers require statistical analyses to support interpretation of the data. Use of appropriate statistical analyses is critical. Not all scientists are proficient at determining the correct or most appropriate analyses to be used for the nature of the data or design of the study. If none of the authors is a statistician or quantitative biologist, it is important for the authors to consult with someone who has the appropriate expertise to provide guidance on statistical analyses. There has been frequent inappropriate use of lack of statistical significance being stated as “no significant differences” and interpreting this to mean things are not different or are similar. Such statements will no longer be allowed in MMS papers. See Armhein et al. 2019 in Nature 567: 305-307 for discussion of  the problems with how statistical significance is being used inappropriately.

Registration of Nucleotide and Amino Acid Sequences

Newly reported DNA or amino acid sequences must be deposited in the appropriate public databases (GenBank/EMBL/DNA Data Bank of Japan or UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot). Accession numbers must be included in the final version of the manuscript prior to publication.

Taxonomic Usage Policy

Taxonomic usage in Marine Mammal Science should follow the List of Marine Mammal Species and Subspecies on the Society for Marine Mammalogy website. This list will periodically be updated as appropriate. Authors wishing to use a different nomenclature should explain the departure in a footnote. The Editor may seek input from the Society’s Committee on Taxonomy before accepting a departure.

Authorship Policy

Everyone listed as an author on a paper in Marine Mammal Science is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; OR to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; OR creation of new software used in the work; AND have contributed to drafting the work or substantially revising it for content; AND agrees to be accountable for their own contributions and for ensuring that the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Corresponding Author

There can only be one corresponding author and this person is solely responsible for (i) communicating with the journal and managing communication between co-authors; (ii) including all qualifying authors in the author list and getting their approval for submission of the manuscript and the order in which the authors are listed; (iii) distributing the proofs to all co-authors and returning all proof corrections to the journal office; (iv) responding to any queries regarding the published paper.
Author Contributions
As of March 2020, the corresponding author is required to indicate the contribution role for each author using the CRediT Contributor Role Taxonomy at submission of a manuscript. This information will be included in the publication as the author contribution statement. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all co-authors prior to submission.
To comply with CRediT:
• The role(s) of all authors should be listed, using the categories defined by CRediT; for more information, visit CRediT’s website here.
• Authors may have contributed in multiple roles.
• CRediT in no way changes the journal’s criteria to qualify for authorship.
• If there are contributors whose input does not rise to the level of authorship, ensure that proper acknowledgements are included in the manuscript.

ORCID iD

As of March 2019, authors are required to use an ORCID iD in order to create an account in Marine Mammal Science‘s ScholarOne site and submit to the journal. ORCID iD is a unique and persistent identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and follows you throughout your career, regardless of changes to your institution or location.

Your author iD will be deposited to Crossref where the ORCID record will be automatically updated upon article publication. (Please note you must give permission for Crossref to do so.) Learn more about ORCID and Crossref’s automatic update functionality here.

Additional Resources (PDFs):
How to associate your iD with your ScholarOne account;
How to provide your iD during manuscript submission.

PRE-PUBLICATION, DATA SHARING AND ARCHIVING, AND DATA CITATION POLICIES

This journal will consider for review articles previously available as preprints on non-commercial servers such as ArXiv, bioRxiv, psyArXiv, SocArXiv, engrXiv, etc. Authors may also post the submitted version of their manuscript to non-commercial servers at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Marine Mammal Science encourages authors to share their data and other artefacts supporting the results in their paper by archiving them in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper. For example:
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] http://doi.org/[doi], [reference number].

For more examples of data availability statements, please visit Wiley Author Services’ data sharing and citation resources page.

To find an appropriate public repository, visit re3data.org or fairsharing.org to find registered and certified data repositories relevant to your subject area. Please contact the editorial office if you have any questions.

In recognition of the significance of data as an output of research effort, Wiley has endorsed the FORCE11 Data Citation Principles and is implementing a mandatory data citation policy. Hence, Marine Mammal Science requires data to be cited in the same way as article, book, and web citations and authors must include data citations as part of their reference list. Data citation is appropriate for data held within institutional, subject focused, or more general data repositories. It is not intended to take the place of community standards such as in-line citation of GenBank accession codes.

When citing or making claims based on data, authors must refer to the data at the relevant place in the manuscript text and in addition provide a formal citation in the reference list. We recommend the format proposed by the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles:
Authors; Year; Dataset title; Data repository or archive; Version (if any); Persistent identifier (e.g. DOI)

Policy for Papers Based on Samples Obtained Lethally

• Researchers should use alternative non-lethal procedures when they are available and satisfy the objectives of the research.
• Animals should be killed in the most humane and rapid method available.
• Any population or stock-scale impacts should be minimized through prudent selection of animals (e.g. avoidance of reproductive females if possible) and sample size.
• Where possible on-going activities outside the research community (e.g., hunting, bycatches, whaling, strandings) should be utilized as a source of material for scientific studies of marine mammals.

The journal’s current policy is to allow publication of papers that include data from lethal sampling as long as the sampling has been done legally in the country from which the samples were obtained. If research is conducted outside of territorial waters, legal documentation requirements fall to the principal investigator’s country of residence and the sampling must have been done legally for that country. Samples obtained from directed lethal take exclusively for the purposes of scientific research may be used only if the sampling is legal in the researchers’ home/host countries and the appropriate permits have been received.

Policy Regarding Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism

Marine Mammal Science believes that repeating text (full sentences or paragraphs) verbatim or nearly verbatim from previously published papers without giving proper attribution is not acceptable, whether the paper from which the text has been taken was by another author (plagiarism) or the same author (self-plagiarism). When such an issue is raised by a reviewer or Editor for a paper, and it is for plagiarism, the paper will likely be rejected without the ability for resubmission, although cases deemed minor may be given the opportunity to be remedied. Major cases may also be brought to the attention of the author’s institution. If it is for self-plagiarism, the nature and extent of the overlap in text will be examined through software that cross references published material, and a determination of the course of action that should be taken will be made by the Editor in consultation with Wiley publication ethics advisors. It is recognized that methodology often follows previously developed methods, and thus descriptions may be the same or similar. This is fine but be sure you acknowledge the source of previously published methodology. If it is large amounts of text verbatim use quotation marks along with the source, but if it is paraphrased, providing the source is sufficient. A first case of self-plagiarism being considered for an individual author will likely not result in a rejection or retraction, but the author will be notified in writing and be required to revise the paper appropriately. The author will be cautioned that a second offense would likely result in rejection/retraction of the paper and future submissions by the author would be checked by the cross-referencing software before being considered. Please see the following for discussions of self-plagiarism: http://www.ithenticate.com/plagiarism-detection-blog/bid/65061/What-Is-Self-Plagiarism-and-How-to-Avoid-It#.WL1TsoWcGwc https://ori.hhs.gov/avoiding-plagiarism-self-plagiarism-and-other-questionable-writing-practices-guide-ethical-writing

Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mmsci. Useful guidelines can be found in ScholarOne’s “Quick-Start Guide for Authors” and “Tips for Uploading Files in Manuscript Central” located here. Please contact the editorial office at marinemammalscience@gmail.com if you have problems submitting your manuscript. A manuscript number will be assigned to each new submission and sent to the submitting author via return email. In all correspondence beyond the initial submission, please put your assigned manuscript number on the subject line of your email. Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that if it is accepted for publication, copyright of the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media, shall be assigned exclusively to The Society for Marine Mammalogy. The Society will not refuse any reasonable request by the author for permission to reproduce any of his or her contributions to MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE. Authors are responsible for the publication fee of $15.00 (U.S.) per printed page or part thereof. If funds for publication are not supplied by an agency or grant, a waiver of the publication fee may be applied for by email to the Editor at marinemammalscience@gmail.com. Please write “waiver request” and the manuscript number on the subject line.

The F. G. Wood Student Scholarship and John R. Twiss Jr. Student Award

Forest G. Wood, a founder of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, was noted for his editorial skills. All students submitting manuscripts accepted for publication in Marine Mammal Science should indicate at the time of submission if they want to be considered for this award. The Board of Editors will select the winner from among the accepted manuscripts submitted during the interval between successive Biennial Conferences on the Biology of Marine Mammals. The John R. Twiss Jr. Award is for a student paper based on innovative research related to marine mammal habitat and ecosystem conservation. If your paper fits the criteria for this Award and you want to be considered for it, then also indicate at the time of submission.