ISSN 1139-6709
Versión impresa

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

• Scope and policy
• Form and preparation of manuscripts
• Additional information
• Sending of originals

The title page should comprise: title of paper, first name(s) and surname(s) of author(s), location( s), the address to which proofs are to be sent, and the fax number and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

The Abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. Abstracts are used by information retrieval systems. The abstract should not exceed 200 words. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited. Immediately following the Abstract, up to five keywords should be supplied; these will be used for indexing purposes.

The Introduction should be concise and define the score of the work in relation to other work done in the same field. It should not give an exhaustive review of the literature.

Materials and methods should give sufficient detail to allow the experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Subheadings should be used.

Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the author’s experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature.

The Discussion should be confined to interpretation of the results (without repetition), also in light of the pertinent literature on the subject. When appropriate, the results and discussion sections can be combined.

Acknowledgements should be presented after the discussion section. Personal acknowledgements should only be made with the permission of the person(s) named.

References. The list of references should include only works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Unpublished work in preparation, Ph.D. and Masters theses, etc., should be mentioned in the text only, in parentheses. Citations in the text should be by numbers in square brackets referring to an alphabetized list at the end of the paper. References should be in the following style:

1. Carr NG, Mann NH (1994) The oceanic cyano-bacterial picoplankton. In: Bryant DA (ed) The molecular biology of cyanobacteria. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 27–48

2. Madigan MT, Martinko JM, Parker J (1997) Brock biology of microorganisms. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

3. Margulis L, Jorgensen JZ, Dolan S, Kolchinsky R, Rainey FA, Lo S-C (1998) The Arthromitus stage of Bacillus cereus: intestinal symbionts of animals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95: 1236–1241

Citation of articles that have appeared in electronic journals is allowed if access to them is unlimited and their URL is supplied.

Nomenclature of organisms. Genus and species names must be in italics. Each genus should be written out in full in the title and at first mention in the text. Thereafter, the genus may be abbreviated, provided there is no danger of confusion with other genera discussed in the paper. Spelling should follow the instructions to authors of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. Nomenclature of protists should follow the Handbook of Protoctista (Jones and Bartlett, Boston).

Figures and tables. These should be restricted to the minimum needed to clarify the text; a total number (F + T) of five is recommended. The quality of photographic prints should be such that good reproduction is ensured. On the back of each figure, the first author’s name, the figure number and the top should be marked lightly in soft pencil. Legends must be typed in double-line spacing on a separate sheet and appended to the text. The size of photographs should not exceed the printing area (17.6 x 23.6 cm). For color illustrations the authors will be expected to make a contribution towards the extra costs of 485.00, US $ 534.00 plus 16% VAT per article. Color pictures may be accepted for use on the cover of the issue in which the paper will appear.

Tables must be numbered consecutively with arabic numerals and submitted separately from the text at the end of the paper. Tables may be edited to permit more compact typesetting. The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures and tables.

Editorial charges. If an accepted manuscript requires particularly heavy editorial work, authors may be requested to pay an editorial charge of Euro 180 per paper to the editorial office. The acceptance of a paper does, however, not depend on the author’s ability to pay this charge. If the research was not funded, authors may send the Editor-in-Chief a written request for charges to be waived.

Complements. These papers serve to express or clarify the author’s point of view on a microbiological topic of international relevance or to comment on a recently published article or book. These papers should not exceed 6 printed pages. References may be cited if necessary.

Book reviews. Reviews of recent books of special interest in the field of both Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Microbiology, and the history and sociology of Microbiology are welcome. Please contact the Editorial Office for details.

Proofs. Proofreading is the responsibility of the author. Only typesetting errors should be corrected. The corrected page proofs must be returned by the date requested.

Editorial Office, International Microbiology
Apartado 16009, 08080 Barcelona. Spain
e-mail: int.microbiol@telefonica.net
http://www.im.microbios.org

Authors are to send the final version of their manuscript – after acceptance for publication – in electronic form. Please follow the special technical instructions as printed in this journal.

Manuscripts should be submitted in final form. They should be prepared in accordance with the journal’s accepted practice, form and content; manuscripts should be checked carefully to exclude the need for corrections in proof. Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced throughout on one side of the paper only and with wide margins. The author should mark in the margin where figures and tables are to be inserted.