BIOTROPIA Vol. 22 No.

1, 2015

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

BIOTROPIA, The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical
Biology is a scientific publication of the Southeast Asian Ministers
of Education Organization (SEAMEO) - Southeast Asian
Regional Centre for Tropical Biology (BIOTROP). It publishes
articles in the broad areas of tropical ecosystems and
environmental impacts, biodiversity conservation and sustainable
development, and environmental and forest biotechnology.
Starting from 2012, BIOTROPIA has been successfully
indexed by SciVerse SCOPUS (Elsevier), CrossRef and DOAJ.
Articles published in the journal are papers reporting results of
original research, reviews on specific topics not available elsewhere
in up-to-date form and short communication in which advances in
knowledge of significance are briefly announced.
Submission of paper is taken to imply that it has not been
submitted to other journals and that, if accepted, will not be
published elsewhere. All papers submitted for publication in
BIOTROPIA are evaluated by reviewers/experts in the field and
subjected to editorial revision. Authors may suggest names of
potential reviewers. BIOTROPIA uses anonymous reviewing, in
which the identities of authors and reviewers are kept confidential.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Manuscript in the Microsoft Word file should be sent through
our Open Journal Systems (OJS) address: http://journal.
biotrop.org/index.php/ biotropia.
BIOTROPIA publishes the following article types:
Research article
A full article is expected to present an original and important major
advance in bioscience having wide research scheme and deep
discussion of the findings. Structure of the article consists of
Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, and
References (see Manuscript Format in details). The article should
be typed in paper length of 15 pages or 4,000 - 5,000 words
(including figures and tables). Papers, in English, with spelling
conforming to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English,
should be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font, on-half
spaced with margins on all four sides of 2 cm on standard A4
paper.
Short communication
These should differ from full papers on the basis of scope or
completeness, rather than quality of research. They may report
significant new data arising from problems with narrow, welldefined limits, or important findings that warrant rapid publication
before broader studies are complete. Their text should neither
exceed 1,500 words (approximately 6 pages of typescript) nor be
divided up into conventional sections. When submitting Short
Communication, authors should make it clear that their work is to
be treated as such.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Overview of manuscript sections for Research article
Manuscripts for research article submitted to BIOTROPIA should
be divided into the following sections (in this order):
Title page
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results and Discussion
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
Illustrations and figures (if any)

Tables and captions

Preparing additional files
Title page
The title page should:
provide the title of the article, maximum 14 words
list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses
for all authors
indicate the corresponding author
Abstract
The Abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and
must be structured into separate sections: Introduction, the
context and purpose of the study; Results, the main findings;
Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications. Please
minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the
abstract.
Keywords
Four to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.
Introduction
The Introduction section should be written in a way that is
accessible to researchers without specialist knowledge in that area
and must clearly state - and, if helpful, illustrate - the background
to the research and its aims. The section should end with a brief
statement of what is being reported in the article. Standard
chemical symbols and abbreviations may be used in the text, but
full term should be given at the first mentioned. Units of
measurements should be spelled out except when preceded by a
numeral. If no-metric measurement units are used the metric
equivalent should be mentioned.
The complete scientific name of every organism must be cited
when it is first mentioned in the text. The generic name may be
abbreviated thereafter, except when there are references to other
genera with the same initial. The use of common names must be
accompanied by the correct scientific name on first use. Example:
a. Sourgrass (Paspalum conjugatum)
b. P. conjugatum
c. Paspalum conjugatum and Pinus merkusii
Materials and Methods
The methods section should include the design of the study, the
type of materials involved, a clear description of all comparisons,
and the type of analysis used, to enable replication.
For studies involving human participants a statement detailing
ethical approval and consent should be included in the methods
section.
Results and Discussion
The Results and Discussions should be incorporated into a single
section. The Results and Discussions section may be broken into
subsections with short, informative headings.
Conclusions
The Conclusions section should clearly state the main conclusions
of the research and provide a clear explanation of their
importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.
Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article
by making substantial contributions to conception, design,
acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who
was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for
important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria
for authorship. Please also include the source(s) of funding for
each author, and for the manuscript preparation. Authors must
describe the role of the funding body, if any, in design, in the
collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the

BIOTROPIA Vol. 22 No. 1, 2015

manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for

publication. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed
materials essential for the study. If a language editor has made
significant revision of the manuscript, we recommend that you
acknowledge the editor by name, where possible.
Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those
mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.
References
References cited in the text should be presented according to the
CBE (Council of Biology Editors) Style Manual, latest edition. The
list of References should be given at the end of the paper,
immediately following the section on Acknowledgement, if any.
Examples of the BIOTROPIAreference style
Article within a journal
Dick CW, Etchelecu G, Austerlitz F. 2003. Pollen dispersal of
tropical trees (Dinizia excels: Fabaceae) by native insects and
African honeybees in pristine and fragmented Amazonian
rainforest. MolEcol 12: 753-64.
Article within a journal supplement
Kudavidanage EP, Qie L, Lie JSH. 2012. Linking biodiversity and
ecosystem functioning of dung beetles in South and Southeast
Asian tropical rainforests. Raffles BZool 25 (Suppl): 141-54.
In press article
Kharitonov SA, Barnes PJ. Clinical aspects of exhaled nitric oxide.
Eur Respir J, in press.
Published abstract
Lesley J, Sadnip G, Gordon W. Absence of CD47 in protein 4.2-deficient
hereditary spherocytosis in man: an interaction between the Rh complex
and the band 3 complex [abstract]. Blood 2002, 1878-85.
Article within conference proceedings
Callaos N, Margenstern M, Zhang J, Castillo O, Doberkat EE.
2003. Formaldehyde release from pressed wood products. In:
Touroski V, editor. Formaldehyde: analytical chemistry and
toxicology. Proceedings of the symposium at the
th
187 meeting of the American Chemical Soc. p 101-16.
Kalter RJ. 2000. Macro and micro economic implications of
bovine somatotropin on the dairy industry. In: BIO EXPO 86.
Proceedings: 1986 Apr 29-May 1; Boston. Stoneham (MA)
:Butterworh. p 203-15.
Book chapter, or article within a book
Fry G, Tress B. 2007. Integrative landscape research: facts and
challenges. In: Wu J, Hobbs R, editor. Key Topics in Landscape
Ecology. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press. p 24668.
Complete book
Lewontin RC, Levins R. 2007. Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical
Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health. New York (US):
Monthly Review Press.
Monograph or book in a series
Hopkins HCF, Huxley CR, Pannell CM, Prnace GT. 2005. The
alveolar macrophage. In: Cultured Human Cells and Tissues.
Edited by Harris TJR. New York (US): Academic Pressp 54-56.
[Stoner G (Series Editor): Methods and Perspectives in Cell Biology,
Vol 1.].
Book with institutional author
Food and Agriculture Organization. 2011. State of world's forest
2011. Rome.
PhD thesis
Widayati KA. 2012. Catagorization in Macaca fascicularis. PhD thesis.
Bogor (ID): Institut Pertanian Bogor.

Electronic Journal Article with DOI

Yencho GC, McCord PH, Haynes KG. 2008. Internal heat
necrosis of potato - a review. Am J Potato Res [Internet]. [cited
2011 Jan 18]; 85(1):69-76. Available from: http://www.
springerlink.com.ezproxy.tru.ca/content/915131u45576313l
/fulltext.pdf doi: 10.1007/s12230-008-9008-4
Electronic Journal Article Non DOI
Parris K.M., Velik-Lord M, North JMA. 2009. Frogs call at a higher
pitch in traffic noise. Eco Soc [Internet]. [cited 2011 Jan 20];
1 4 ( 1 ) : 1 - 2 4 . Av a i l a b l e f r o m : h t t p : / / w w w.
ecologyandsociety.org/.
Webpage
PDRHealth [Internet]. 2010. Montvale, NJ: PDRHealth; [cited
2011 Jan 24]. Available from: http://www.pdrhealth.com/
Webpage with Personal Author
Mulhauser G. [Internet]. 2010. An introduction to cognitive
therapy & cognitive behavioural approaches. Newton Abbot
(UK): Counselling Resource.com; [updated 2010 Nov 2; cited
2 0 1 1 Ja n 2 2 ] . Av a i l a b l e f r o m : h t t p : / /
counsellingresource.com/types/cognitive-therapy.
Preparing illustrations and figures
Illustrations should be embedded in the text file for clarity
purposes. However, we also require authors to submit separate
JPEG files of the illustrations and figures for printing purposes.
Each figure should include a single illustration and should fit on a
single page in portrait format. If a figure consists of separate parts,
it is important that a single composite illustration file be submitted
which contains all parts of the figure. There is no charge for the
use of color figures.
Graph should not contain gridlines.
Figure legends
The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file at
the end of the document, rather than being a part of the figure file.
For each figure, the following information should be provided:
Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals - i.e. Figure 1,
2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend,
up to 300 words.
Please note that it is the responsibility of the author (s) to
obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce
figures or tables that have previously been published
elsewhere.
PROOFS
Proofs will be sent by E-mail to the corresponding author who is
expected to proofread the article carefully. The corrected proof
should be received by the administration within five working days.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION FEE
There is no charge for the submissions. Five off prints are given
free of charge to the identified recipient author. Please note that
we will not give the journal unless there is a request from the
authors.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check
off their submission's compliance with all of the following items,
and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to
these guidelines.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be
used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not
be made available for any other purposes or to any other parties.