Instructions to Authors
(revised June 16, 2008)

The CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARTHROPOD IDENTIFICATION is a web-based journal devoted to the publication of works that contribute significantly to the recognition and documentation of Canada's arthropod fauna. We encourage the submission of digital keys and associated products that facilitate the identification of arthropod groups that include Canadian species. The CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARTHROPOD IDENTIFICATION is fully reviewed to ensure uniformly high standards. Manuscripts will be evaluated by a minimum of two reviewers who will assess the significance and quality of the work, its suitability for publication, and they will recommend revisions to the manuscript. Reviewers will be selected by the appropriate member of the editorial board. The journal is housed on the Biological Survey of Canada web site. Each published page will carry a distinctive standard identifier for the e-journal, including title. The running head will include the journal name, publication number, original publication date, and dates of revisions. Significant revisions will require editorial approval and re-posting with a modified running head (see comments below under “Updates and Errata”).

Scope
Contributions must review the taxonomy and identification of one or more groups of terrestrial arthropods. Each contribution is expected to include novel and fully illustrated identification guides to at least one taxon for a significant habitat, ecozone or geopolitical region. Contributions must deal with the Canadian fauna, but need not be restricted to Canada, and we welcome more inclusive submissions covering areas including all or part of Canada (such as the Great Lakes region, eastern North America, the entire continent, or the World) or habitats of significance to Canada (such as North American spruce forests or the Great Lakes). Contributions may be at any taxonomic level.

Criteria for publication
Contributions to the journal must include useful tools for arthropod identification, must be original, and must not have been offered for prior or simultaneous publication elsewhere. Updates, regionalizations and newly illustrated guides based on older printed works are welcome, especially if they include significant new distributional or taxonomic data. Most authors will include printable dichotomous keys, but alternative key formats are encouraged to supplement or replace traditional dichotomous keys. We strongly encourage authors to include links to regional databases, maps, and related products, and we insist that all submissions include high-quality illustrations and/or photographs (see "other instructions to authors" below for some technical recommendations regarding format, image size, etc.).
Authors are urged to deposit voucher specimens in recognized institutions, and to specify the location of such vouchers.
All genus- and species-level taxa should include scientific authorities when first used in the abstract and in the body of the paper (but not in the title). When using common names for insects, the official Entomological Society of Canada list (http://www.esc-sec.ca/commonnames.html) should be followed if a common name for the species is listed there.

New taxa
We encourage the inclusion of new distributional data, new taxonomic characters, new insights into morphology, new biological information and other data relevant to understanding regional arthropod diversity. New combinations, synonyms, and homonyms are welcome if properly substantiated. Descriptions of new taxa are now accepted and print copies of CJAI PDF files are deposited in multiple publicly accessible libraries to meet current ICZN requirements.

Copyright
Copyright for all illustrations and photographs will normally remain with the author, although the BSC holds copyright to the published product as a whole. If someone other than the author holds copyright to the illustrations or photographs it must be clearly indicated on the photos/figures and it is the author's responsibility to ensure that they are used with appropriate permission.

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
To ensure compliance with the International Code of Zoological
Nomenclature, printed copies of all issues of CJAI are deposited in 5 libraries as follows:

Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Acquisitions / Exchange
PO Box 37012
NMNH 25, MRC 154
Washington, DC 20013-7012

University of Alberta Library
Bibliographic Services - Serials
5th Floor, Cameron
Edmonton, AB T6G 2J8

Western Australian Museum Library
Locked Bag 49
Welshpool, DC
Western Australia 6986

Library, ECORC
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
4061 Neatby Building
Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6

Canadian Museum of Nature
Library
P.O. Box 3443, Station D
Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4

File formats and technical guidelines
We wish to avoid extensive technical editing and substantial modifications to files, so contributions must be web-ready as submitted for publication unless special arrangements are made with the technical editor. Some general guidelines, and specific guidelines for alternative formats, are provided below. Editorial policies other than those outlined here, including recommendations for citing references, follow those posted for The Canadian Entomologist (http://www.esc-sec.ca/journal.html).

FIGURES
We recommend using a vector-based program such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw to assemble plates; however TIFF or GIF files are acceptable.

All photographs should be provided as high quality JPEGs of between one and three MB per image; line drawings should be converted to JPEG or GIF formats. All captions and labels must be embedded in the figures or plates.
A cover image should be included with each submission, for use as an icon for the main page and an illustration for the abstract page.

Allowable formats for submission to the CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARTHROPOD IDENTIFICATION:

CJAI papers are normally published in at least two versions (interactive and printable), but reviews are on the basis of a single submitted version. To simplify the review process, and to minimize demands on our reviewers, we prefer to ask reviewers to comment only on a text file and associated figures, with the understanding that the paper will be formatted for CJAI between review and publication.  Submitted manuscripts will normally be text files with associated figures, but authors should give careful consideration to the final format and organise their image files accordingly. Detailed explanations of some alternative formats are provided below. Most current authors are choosing to publish in a simple dichotomous key format, with final pdf and html versions developed from a text file with figures appropriately grouped into plates (see format one below; see also CJAI5 and CJAI6). Authors who routinely work with Microsoft PowerPoint may prefer to use format two, in which case their work can be submitted as PowerPoint files and later converted to html (a simple conversion; see CJAI4 for an example of a paper produced in PowerPoint and converted to html). Format two is perhaps the easiest way to make an interactive key, and detailed instructions are provided below. Authors with more experience may wish to publish custom html keys (see, for example CJAI1), and should read over the comments in Format three below.

1) Format one: Dichotomous keys developed from text files 
Manuscripts for papers to be published in dichotomous key format should be submitted for review as text files with figures grouped into plates. Once reviewed and accepted, standard dichotomous keys prepared using text-editing software such as MS Word will be published in both html (best for online usage) and pdf (best for printing) versions. To facilitate this approach authors must provide two slightly different versions of their accepted manuscripts. The two versions can either be web-ready html and pdf files, or they can be text files set up so they can be easily converted to html and pdf files. Instructions are provided for both approaches below.

1a) Submitting accepted manuscripts for publication.
Authors are encouraged to submit web-ready final versions of their publications, preferably converted to HTML using the widely available web publishing software Adobe Dreamweaver. Alternatively, we will accept text files formatted according to the following instructions:
One file will be formatted into the PDF version with plates and other will become the HTML version with hyperlinks to illustrations with embedded captions (see the most recent issues for examples). The text file for conversion to html must have the plates appropriately hyperlinked to the text; this can be easily done using most word processing software (MS Word includes simple instructions for creating links: click on "help" and type "create hyperlinks"). The optimum organization of plates can be different in the HTML and PDF versions. PDF versions typically include more images per plate, and may have all figures organized into species plates; HTML versions also include plates made of pairs or sets of photographs illustrating alternative character states. In both cases captions should be embedded in the plates; figures in at least the PDF version will have to be numbered sequentially in the text and the plates.

Format two: Dichotomous keys developed from PowerPoint files
A template and simple instructions for making an interactive key using PowerPoint is provided here. You can also download and print the PDF version. This is probably the easiest way to make an interactive key, especially for authors unfamiliar with html. The CJAI technical editor can easily convert your PowerPoint key to html for publication.

Format three: Custom Html key format
HTML submissions must be compatible with commonly used browsers (IE, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Safari). Flash and Javascript submissions are welcome. The width of the design should not exceed 1024 pixels. We recommend Times New Roman and Arial font for the main text. Leave space to add a running head. Images should be linked to the key by opening a separate window to allow comparison. Click here for more information. A text (MS Word or similar) file of your paper is also required for the PDF version. Images for this file should be made into plates. The following submissions were done using the custom HTML key format CJAI01 and CJAI07 (In Press)

Format four: Keys developed using specialized identification software such as Lucid: Commercial software is available for the development of both dichotomous and non-dichotomous (matrix) keys, and we encourage authors to use these tools to develop novel keys. Lucid3 and Lucid Phoenix submissions are welcomed. See www.lucidcentral.com for more information, and see CJAI01 for an example of Lucid key published in CJAI. CJAI authors may also wish to use on-line tools offered by Discover Life, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Biological Information Infrastructure and the Biological Survey of Canada.  These tools allow authors to build electronic identification guides, map distributions, present image galleries, and publish taxon pages.  They include the 20q identification software, Global Mapper, and a large number of translators to import data from spreadsheets, databases, web pages, and other formats.  For technical support in setting up and using the tools, please contact Discover Life (dl@discoverlife.org ).  For on-line help see http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/id/20q/20q_help.html . Papers published on CJAI should include a printable file and must not depend on links to other sites for functionality; papers developed using 20q must therefore be converted to a stand-alone, dated version to appear as a numbered issue of CJAI. We suggest that authors provide a PDF as a dated issue of CJAI, with links to the dynamic Discover Life maps and keys.

Other formats
Please contact the editors if you are working in a different format to discuss possible conversion techniques.

Editorial committee and review process
The Editorial committee includes an editor-in-chief and an editorial board made up of regional editors (with differing taxonomic expertise). Contributions must be submitted electronically, via email, ftp, website posting or on CD. Submissions should be sent to the editor-in-chief. The editor or associate editor (member of the editorial board) will seek reviewers.

Updates and errata:

One of the advantages of web publication is the capacity for future updates, additions and corrections, but it is important to maintain the integrity of a dated “as published” version of each paper. Updates additions and corrections will therefore be dealt with in the following ways:
1) Minor updates, notes and corrections can be submitted to the editor for linkage to the original paper using an “updates” link (see, for example CJAI05, the Identification Atlas of the Vespidae).
2) Significant small additions can be added to the original text in highlighted blocks to distinguish it from original text. This approach might be justified for changed species names or similarly small but important changes. All changes must be identifiable using the “updates” link.
3) Significant additions can be submitted, either by the original authors or other contributors, and published as associated “notes” or as separate refereed papers.
4) Significant revisions will require re-publication of a revised version as a new paper under a slightly altered title (i.e., Revised key to the ...).

Page charges/subscription costs
The CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARTHROPOD IDENTIFICATION is currently open access, with no subscription charges and no mandatory page charges.  Support for the journal is being provided in part by the Biological Survey Foundation, a registered charity that supports the publication work of the Biological Survey. Therefore, contributors and supporters are encouraged (but certainly not required) to make donations to the Foundation (tax receipts will be issued to individuals).  A contribution of 15$ per page is suggested; invoices or tax receipts can be sent out on request. For further details about the Biological Survey Foundation please see the BSC website (http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/english/overview.htm#bsf).

Editor in chief:
S.A. Marshall
Department of Environmental Biology
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1
samarsha@uoguelph.ca

Technical editor:
David, K. B. Cheung,
Department of Environmental Biology
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1
dcheung@uoguelph.ca

Editorial board, CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ARTHROPOD IDENTIFICATION:
S.A. Marshall, Guelph (editor)

R.S. Anderson, Gatineau (Coleoptera)
V.M. Behan-Pelletier, Ottawa (Soil arthropods)
C.M. Buddle, Montreal (Other terrestrial arthropods)
J.M. Cumming, Ottawa (Diptera – Lower Brachycera)
D.C. Currie, Toronto (Diptera – Nematocera)
C. Favret, Montreal (Hemiptera)
T.D. Galloway, Winnipeg (Parasitic Insects)
D.J. Giberson, Charlottetown (Aquatic Arthropods)
J.H. Huber, Ottawa (Hymenoptera)
J.F. Landry, Ottawa (Lepidoptera)
O. Lonsdale, Ottawa (Diptera - Higher Diptera)
G.G.E. Scudder, Vancouver (Hemipteroids)
F.A.H. Sperling, Edmonton (Lepidoptera)