Field Bryology - Guidelines for Authors

Field Bryology is published three times a year by the British Bryological Society. All members receive a copy as part of their annual subscription. Institutional subscriptions to Field Bryology are also available; details of how to subscribe can be found here. The contents of the current issue (Vol. 95, June 08) with links to online PDFs of two of the articles are available here.

Items for publication and enquiries for advertising space should be addressed to the Editor (Ian Atherton, 78 Moat Close, Bramley, Hampshire RG26 5AF, UK). Items for inclusion in the 2008 issues of Field Bryology should be sent to the Editor by the following dates:

Articles on all subjects related to field bryology will be considered, including ecology, conservation, recording, distribution, taxonomy and identification, and reports of field meetings. They should be of general interest to all of our members both in the UK and worldwide. Remember that the reader may not necessarily be a professional scientist and may not be familiar with the subject of your article. Please use subheadings within the article to break up the text. Field Bryology is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal and is not a suitable place for primary scientific publication. Full scientific studies and descriptions of new species that require full peer review should be submitted to a research journal such as Journal of Bryology.

Articles for inclusion in some of the new regular sections, such as Bryophytes Abroad, Conservation Corner, Hot off the Press and Opinion, etc., will normally be solicited by the Editor, but the Editor will always be happy to consider unsolicited material for these sections.

Images are always welcome and add immensely to the readability and interest of all types of article. Field Bryology is printed in colour and attractive colour photographs are always welcome. Permission must be obtained to reproduce photographs and legends must be supplied.

Authors should supply brief biographical information and details of their title, name, job title, full address, telephone, fax and e-mail address.

Please note that published articles become the copyright of BBS and may be reproduced on our web page.

Material submitted for publication should be provided as word-processing files, either on disk (preferably CD or DVD) or by email. Authors are encouraged to circulate drafts of their articles to fellow bryologists for comment prior to submission. In addition, the Editor may invite other bryologists to comment on submitted articles before they are published.

There is no strict upper or lower limit on the length of articles. However, ideally they should be somewhere in the range of 500-3,000 words (approx. 1-6 printed pages, excluding images). Ultimately, the article will have to fit into the available space and it may have to be edited to make this possible. However, you will receive a proof for approval before publication.

Photographs should be supplied as TIFF, JPEG or EPS files. The resolution should be at least 300 dpi at final size (approx. 2,000 pixels wide for a double-column figure) ­ the standard output from most digital cameras will usually be sufficient. For photomicrographs, magnification should be shown by a scale bar.
 
Line drawings should be of a quality suitable for direct reproduction. The maximum printed size is 135 x 205 mm. Artwork can be sent to the Editor at the address above for scanning; alternatively, line drawings can be sent in PowerPoint, Illustrator or EPS format (fonts embedded), or TIFF/JPG files of scans [please note that scans of line drawings should be at least 600 dpi, preferably 1,200 dpi, at final size (approx. 4,000 or 8,000 pixels wide for a double-column figure)].

References in the text should be cited as follows: two authors, Laurel & Hardy (2007) or (Laurel & Hardy, 1996); three or more authors, Laurel et al. (2007) or (Laurel et al., 2007). References to papers by the same author(s) in the same year should be distinguished in the text and the reference list by the letters a, b, etc. (e.g. 2007a or 2007a, b).

The style of references in the reference list should follow the examples shown below.

Sample reference to a paper in a journal:
Sotiaux, A., Pioli, A., Royaud, A., Schumacker, R. & Vanderpoorten, A. (2007). A checklist of the bryophytes of Corsica (France): new records and a review of the literature. Journal of Bryology 29, 41-53.

Sample reference to a whole book:
Smith, A. J. E. (2004). The Moss Flora of Britain and Ireland, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sample reference to a book chapter or section:
Porley, R. & Hodgetts, N. (2004). Woodland and epiphytes. In Mosses and Liverworts (New Naturalist Series No. 97), pp. 147-186. London: HarperCollins.

Only papers accepted for publication but not yet published may be cited as 'in press' in the reference list, and the reference must include the name of the journal. References to papers not yet accepted should be cited in the text as unpublished results, giving the surname(s) and initials of all the author(s). Such papers should not appear in the list of references. Permission must be obtained for any personal communications or citations of other workers' unpublished results.

Taxonomy should aim to follow the current census catalogue (Blackstock, T.H., Rothero, G.P. & Hill, M.O. (2005). Census Catalogue of British and Irish Bryophytes Updated 2005. British Bryological Society) available here.

Field Bryology is currently published three times a year and is an invaluable resource that is sent free to all BBS members. It is the official record of the society and its business, and contains official details, announcements, reports of meetings, plans for future meetings etc. as well as a number of small scientific papers, usually on the taxonomy and distribution of UK bryophytes.

Back numbers of the Bulletin from No 23 are available at £1.00 each and from No 82 at £ 2.00 from the librarian.

The cumulative index to the BBS Bulletin is incorporated in the new Cumulative Index of BBS Publications (1896 - 2004) which includes the Transactions, Journal and other publications. It is now available for downloading as a pdf or rtf file on Phil Stanley's web page (www.pemas.demon.co.uk).

Institutional Subscriptions

Institutional subscriptions to the British Bryological Society’s bulletin, Field Bryology, are now available at £20 per annum, including postage.

If you wish to subscribe, you should send details of the delivery address and the appropriate payment or mandate to the BBS Treasurer, Dr D.S. Rycroft, Department of Chemistry, Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.

Payment must be by a £ Sterling cheque payable on a London bank or by credit card mandate (Barclaycard, Visa, Mastercard, Eurocard only). The cost to the Society of payment by credit card is 5% of the subscription so the mandate should be for a total of £21.05.

Back issues of Field Bryology are available for £3 per issue plus postage. If you wish to purchase back issues, please contact the BBS Librarian, Dr K.J. Adams, School of Health & Biosciences, University of East London, Romford Road, Stratford, London E15 4LZ, UK.