INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Ichthyology & Herpetology, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH), invites submissions of original work dealing with the biology of amphibians, reptiles, or fishes or using those organisms as models for testing hypotheses of broad significance. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to, such areas as ecology, conservation, life history, evolution, systematics, morphology, paleontology, taxonomy, biogeography, phylogeography, and physiology. Principal criteria for acceptance of articles are quality and significance of research, breadth of interest, and clarity and conciseness of expression. The journal does not publish range extensions, listings of species inhabiting geographic areas, teratological notes, or unsolicited review articles. The journal welcomes methodological submissions. Final acceptance of a paper for publication requires compliance with the style and format of the journal. Manuscripts cannot have been published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. ASIH members receive a waiver of page charges, a reduced cost for open access, and a subsidy toward figure costs. Membership can be obtained by visiting the main ASIH membership page ( https://www.asih.org/membership ).

COPYRIGHT

ASIH retains copyright to all materials and works published in Ichthyology & Herpetology. All authors implicitly agree to transfer copyright (or equivalent rights) for their manuscript and images to ASIH. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the copyright (except where excluded) for their article and images will be transferred to ASIH upon article acceptance. The written contents of your study may not be reproduced elsewhere without the express consent of the ASIH Secretary (but see Green Open Access, Self-Archiving, Non-commercial Preprint Servers, and Dissertation Chapter Deposition below). All images published in the journal that do not have prior copyright will be released under a Creative Commons CC BY license upon publication. The CC BY license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists with a reference to the published research. Manuscripts that contain non-original artwork must include an explicit statement of usage with permission of the copyright holder, which will be noted in the figure caption.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Authors are encouraged to contact the Editor at leo@ichsandherps.org with any questions or assistance needed. Ichthyology & Herpetology provides free, professional English editing for all accepted manuscripts and on request will provide editorial assistance to authors whose first language is not English or to those with other language barriers prior to or during submission for manuscripts considered suitable for review. All aspects of manuscript processing and publication in Ichthyology & Herpetology are electronic, including submission, review, correspondence, and publication. Manuscripts must be submitted online via the Ichthyology & Herpetology PeerTrack manuscript submission website ( https://www.editorialmanager.com/asih ).

The editorial office will pre-screen each manuscript upon submittal. If deemed appropriate, the manuscript will then be reviewed by an Associate Editor and selected outside reviewers. Acceptance will be based upon the quality of the science and the appropriateness of the manuscript for the journal. Ichthyology & Herpetology does not have a shorter contributions or notes category, but concise articles that are often published elsewhere as notes are welcome and will not be discriminated against during editorial review because of brevity.

Online Submission Procedure

Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:

• All Authors
  • First Names, Middle Names/Initials, Last Names
  • Postal Addresses
  • Work Telephone Numbers
  • Email Addresses
  • Twitter or Instagram handles (as desired)
  • ORCID IDs (as desired)
• Title and running head
• Abstract
• A decision on whether you want the manuscript open access (see OPEN ACCESS section below)

And gather the following manuscript files:

• Article file in MS Word (contact the Editor in advance regarding other formats for all text files).
• Cover Letter in MS Word. See below for necessary content.
• Title Page in MS Word. See below for necessary content. File is submitted separately to facilitate double-anonymous peer review.
• Acknowledgments in MS Word. File is submitted separately to facilitate double-anonymous peer review.
• Tables/Data files as separate files in Word or Excel (NOT embedded in article file). Color and shading are forbidden in tables.
• Figures as separate files in JPG, TIF, or PDF format (NOT embedded in article file).
• Figure(s) that authors want associated with any social media posts. These can be manuscript files or a supplemental file added independently for social media purposes. This file or these files will be shared with all official Ichthyology & Herpetology announcements, so ensure that an author holds the copyright or that Ichthyology & Herpetology has the permission of the copyright holder to use the image(s).
• Any associated data files or scripts for review and inclusion on the Ichthyology & Herpetology supplemental website.
• Any supplemental tables, text, figures, or movies for review and inclusion on the Ichthyology & Herpetology supplemental website.

After logging into the Ichthyology & Herpetology PeerTrack Editorial Manager system, author(s) should select "Submit New Manuscript." After making this selection, authors will be presented with seven screens that gather detailed information about your manuscript and allow you to upload the pertinent files. The sequence of screens is as follows:

(1) The "Article Type Selection" page is where authors choose which of the manuscript submission categories is appropriate for their submission. This is also the page where the corresponding author can include their ORCID ID.

(2) The "Attach Files" page is where authors submit their manuscript files using the browse button or by simply dragging and dropping manuscript files into the system. Begin with the main article file. Following the article, add the additional files, being sure to update the item type, and provide a minimal description (e.g., Cover Letter, Figure 1, Supplemental Table 1). Submissions can include a diversity of file types as needed, but all submissions must include a separate cover letter, title page, article file, and acknowledgments file. Once the files are uploaded, they should be arranged in the preferred order.

(3) The "General Information" page is where authors select the content category that is most related to their submitted manuscript.

(4) The "Review Preferences" page is where authors identify reviewers that they want to recommend or exclude.

(5) The "Additional Information" page is where authors answer questions ranging from potential conflicts of interests to Twitter handles to author's preference for open access.

(6) The "Comments" page is where authors can note any additional comments, suggestions, or concerns that they want the editors and staff to be aware of that have not already been addressed during submission. These will not be shared with the reviewers.

(7) The "Manuscript Data" page is where authors provide title, running head, abstract, and author information. When possible, the authors, title, and abstract will be populated from the uploaded files automatically by the system.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

The Ichthyology & Herpetology PeerTrack Editorial Manager system allows for many different manuscript categories, but non-staff authors and non-committee chairs should only submit manuscripts in one of the following eight categories.

Research Articles are peer-reviewed reports of the results of empirical research or editor-solicited reviews. Reviews should provide "state of the art" perspectives offered by ASIH members. Those seeking to submit an otherwise unsolicited review should contact either the Editor or an appropriate Associate Editor. There is no minimum length of manuscript, but manuscripts should be fewer than 60 pages unless previously approved by the Editor.

Symposium Summary Articles are also subjected to the peer-review process. These manuscripts are submitted by the organizers of symposia who must contact the Editor prior to submission.

Symposium Contributions are also subjected to the peer-review process. Symposium organizers must contact the Editor prior to submission. These manuscripts will have the symposium organizers serving as handling editors.

Award-Winning Contributions are also subjected to the peer-review process. These invited contributions can be made by authors who served as President of ASIH, have been awarded ASIH plenary research awards (Fitch, Gibbs, Nelson, or Stewart), or who have won ASIH student oral presentation (Stoye) or poster (Storer) awards in the preceding 60 months.

Points of View are typically solicited by editorial staff or discussed with the editorial staff before submission. These pieces are typically critiques of data and/or interpretations published in Ichthyology & Herpetology or Copeia, but they may also discuss topics broadly relevant to the biology of amphibians, reptiles, and fishes. They will be subjected to peer review at the discretion of the Editor. Often, these will allow one to several responses.

Historical Perspectives are typically solicited by the Society historians. These pieces may be edited and are not peer reviewed. Those seeking to submit an unsolicited historical perspective should contact the appropriate Society historian.

Scientist Spotlights are a series published in an attempt to improve diversity within ASIH by featuring perspectives and accomplishments of ichthyologists and herpetologists with identities that have often been excluded and/or marginalized. Nominations (including self-nominations) to be featured should be addressed to the co-chairs of the Committee for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. These pieces may be edited and are not peer reviewed.

Obituaries are typically solicited by editorial staff or Society historians. These pieces may be edited and are not peer reviewed. Those seeking to submit an unsolicited obituary should contact either the Editor or the appropriate Society historian.

MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

The format of the submitted manuscript must follow Ichthyology & Herpetology style and format. The editorial office reserves the right to edit manuscripts for style, grammar, and clarity after acceptance. These edits will occur before proof production, so authors will see the resulting changes for comment before publication. All submitted manuscript pages must be numbered, double-spaced throughout, and all lines numbered continuously. Manuscripts will be returned to authors if line numbers are not included in the submission. Ichthyology & Herpetology generally follows The Chicago Manual of Style. This style guide mandates the use of the Oxford or serial comma, allows contractions, permits sentences to begin with acronyms, and forbids sequential parentheses (i.e., back-to-back parenthetical statements). Parenthetical statements nested within parenthetical statements should use parentheses () for the complete statement and brackets [] for the internal/more restrictive statement. All measurements must be in SI units and abbreviations (except for common ones pertaining to measurement, time, or statistical test) must be defined at first use. Footnotes (other than in tables) are not permitted. Generic and specific names are italicized; italics are not used for emphasis or for abbreviations such as "e.g.," "i.e.," or "et al." Scientific names must not be used as adjectives (e.g., use "populations of Aspidoscelis," not "Aspidoscelis populations"). Taxonomic authorities should appear only when nomenclatural issues or ambiguity are involved. Recognized common names of organisms specify unique singulars, are regarded as proper nouns, and must be capitalized. All fish common names that are included in the current edition of the American Fisheries Society and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico must be used. Similarly, all amphibian and reptile common names that are included in the current edition of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding must be used. Institutional abbreviations used in text and in Material Examined must follow the ASIH codons (M. H. Sabaj. 2020. Codes for Natural History Collections in Ichthyology and Herpetology. Copeia 108:593–669), which is available for download ( https://bit.ly/ASIH_Codons ). Authors using these collection codes are encouraged to include the following sentence in their Materials and Methods section: "Institutional abbreviations follow Sabaj (2020)." Material Examined should never include bold or all caps formatting to designate countries or other qualifiers.

All submissions must be in English, although we encourage abstracts, identification keys, table headers, figure legends, and new common names to be provided in multiple languages where appropriate. Submissions should consist of a cover letter, title page, article file (including literature cited), acknowledgments, tables (if any), figures (if any), and supplemental material (if any). Article files are arranged in the following order: abstract, body of text, literature cited, figure captions, appendices (if any). Title page (including author addresses), acknowledgments, tables, figures, and supplemental files must be submitted as separate, independent files (one file per table or figure) and not included as part of the article file. The title page and acknowledgments are separated from the article file to preserve anonymity during double-anonymous peer review. If the title page and acknowledgments or other identifying information are included in the manuscript, it will compromise the double-anonymous review, but the journal will still send the submission out for peer review. Ensuring author anonymity during review is the responsibility of the corresponding author.

COVER LETTER

All Ichthyology & Herpetology submissions should include a cover letter of 500 or fewer words that briefly states the significance of the research, agreement of authors for publication, and information regarding the preferred size (one-column, one-and-a-half column, or two-column width) of figures. The editorial office has final say over all figure-size designations and use of color, but authors are encouraged to note their preferences. If an author has a preferred Associate Editor(s), they should include that information in this letter. This file will only be seen by the editorial staff, and it will not be seen by the reviewers of the manuscript.

TITLE PAGE

The title page is mandatory and must contain the following entries in order:

• Title of manuscript, using title capitalization. New taxonomic names may not appear in the title.
• Full names of all authors in the order of authorship; use trailing superscript Arabic numeral for institutional affiliation(s).
• Suggested running head of 75 characters or fewer.
• Author address(es), to include department, institution, postal address, ORCID ID, and email. For multiple authors, format individual entries separately and use leading superscript Arabic numeral to associate author with address entry. Author to receive reprint requests may be specified with "Send reprint requests to this address."
• Twitter and Instagram handles may be provided for any author who wishes to be tagged or referenced in social media postings regarding the article. We can also tag author institutions or organizations if desired.

ARTICLE FILE

The article file consists of the abstract(s), body of text, literature cited, figure captions, and appendices.

Abstract is required of all research submissions and must present a concise summary of the investigation—what was done, observed—and interpretations/significance of the findings and not simply list the topics discussed or preface the Introduction. The abstract is untitled in the text and must be limited to a single paragraph. One or more non-English translations of the English version is permitted and encouraged (contact Editor if more than three languages are desired). Literature citations in the abstract are not permitted.

Body of Text may employ named sections at three levels (i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary) and cannot be lettered or numbered. Primary sections are all caps, bold font, left justified, and employ the following heads: MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, DATA ACCESSIBILITY, LITERATURE CITED, and figure captions. Note that the Introduction is not titled in the article file text. If appropriate, Material Examined follows Discussion, and appendices follow figure captions. Large Material Examined sections will be moved to an online supplemental file to reduce publication costs at the discretion of the editorial office.

If only two heading levels are used, follow this format:

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study site.—

If three heading levels are used, follow this format:

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study sites

Study site a.—

Study site b.—

Taxonomic Accounts: Papers that include taxonomic accounts, such as taxonomic reviews and new species descriptions, may substitute the following standard presentation for the RESULTS section: (1) taxonomic name in bold font, ZooBank act identifier (if registered by author), common name(s), table and figure appearances of new name (these should be left justified and each appears on a separate line); (2) holotype, paratype(s), non-type material; (3) diagnosis (Ichthyology & Herpetology requires diagnosis by demonstration—a true differential diagnosis that specifies the features that serve to differentiate the new taxon from all others at rank [or a geographically limited subset at rank], along with the taxa that share the alternative state[s] is preferred); (4) description; (5) supplementary notes, such as coloration, ecology, distribution, comparisons, etc. as appropriate; (6) etymology. Items 2–6 are formatted as second-level sections. Listing of specimen material must follow standard style and order of presentation; see a recent issue for examples. Please note that all uses of new taxonomic names that appear BEFORE the formal description (i.e., RESULTS section [1]), should include the phrase ", new species" after the scientific name (e.g., Homo sapiens, new species). Also note that Ichthyology & Herpetology exclusively uses "new species" and not "n. sp." or "sp. nov."

All new taxa must include ZooBank identifiers, and the editorial office is happy to register the names for authors. Authors who would like to register the names and acts themselves should consult the ZooBank website ( http://www.zoobank.org ) to find the information needed to register new names. The site includes several video tutorials ( http://www.zoobank.org/VideoGuide ) that familiarize you with the website, show you how to create an account, and show you how to register a publication and a new name. After registration, please include the nomenclatural act identifier (e.g., urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B792CF27-E709-4BFE-8318-0C5CCBC7C0C5) on the line below any new name in the manuscript and the publication lsid in the Data Accessibility section. See recent Ichthyology & Herpetology (not Copeia) publications for guidance.

All manuscripts that include newly published or altered phylogenetic trees must include the tree file(s) for submission to the Open Tree of Life project ( https://tree.opentreeoflife.org ). We request that you provide the final Newick tree file(s) with all of the terminals properly labeled to match the scientific names in your paper. These tree files will be made available on the Ichthyology & Herpetology supplemental website and will be uploaded to the Open Tree of Life website by the Ichthyology & Herpetology editorial office.

Supplemental Information: Ichthyology & Herpetology provides a platform ( https://www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/supplemental ) for supplemental files that are not essential to a reader’s understanding of the research (e.g., tables, figures, video or audio files, programming scripts, spreadsheets, databases, Newick trees, or alignments). Supporting information should be submitted in .doc, .pdf, .txt, or .xls formats for most files. We will also accept specialized file types for media (.aiff, .mpeg, .mov, .mp4, or .wav) and discipline-specific file types (e.g., .nex or .tre for phylogenetic studies). Supplemental data files will not be edited and should conform to Ichthyology & Herpetology style. Editors and reviewers will view the files during peer review, but the editorial office will not copyedit, typeset, or format supplemental data. Please note that each individual file is limited to 20 MB, so large videos may need to be broken into smaller videos, have their resolution decreased, or be uploaded to YouTube or equivalent. Each file should be submitted as a separate file on the Ichthyology & Herpetology PeerTrack manuscript submission website and given a title that indicates its supplemental status (e.g., Supplemental Figure A). To cite supplemental material within the manuscript, use in-text citations such as "(Supplemental Table A)." Alternatively, authors may choose to deposit supplemental material in another digital repository, such as Dryad, as long as it is a permanent, stable repository.

With any use of supplemental material, a primary section with the heading DATA ACCESSIBILITY should be included following the Discussion section (or Material Examined if included). This section should include the DOI of the supplemental material and any other identifying information.

For a Dryad submission, follow this format:

Supplemental material is available from the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/XXX/dryad.XXX.

When using the Ichthyology & Herpetology supplemental site, follow this format:

Supplemental material is available at https://www.ichthyologyandherpetology.org/XXX.

The correct URL for articles using the Ichthyology & Herpetology supplemental site will be added by the editorial office prior to publication.

Literature Cited is double-spaced and formatted identically for all manuscripts. The year of publication that should be cited is the formal print publication year for printed journals or final typesetting, not the available online year in the form of an accepted manuscript or similar (if earlier). Titles of journals are provided in full without terminal punctuation. Names of authors use bold, standard font. References are listed alphabetically by author surname. When there is more than one article with the same first author, organize references alphabetically by second (then third, or fourth, etc.) author surname. If there are more than 15 authors, list the first 14 authors, add an ellipsis (…), and add the last author name. See examples of formatting below.

Journal article with more than 15 authors

Alföldi, J., F. Di Palma, M. Grabherr, C. Williams, L. Kong, E. Mauceli, P. Russell, C. B. Lowe, R. E. Glor, J. D. Jaffe, D. A. Ray, S. Boissinot, A. M. Shedlock, C. Botka . . . K. Lindblad-Toh. 2011. The genome of the green anole lizard and a comparative analysis with birds and mammals. Nature 477:587–591.

Typical journal article

Taylor, R., and C. C. Van Dyke. 1985. Revised procedures for staining and clearing small fishes and other vertebrates for bone and cartilage study. Cybium 9:107–119.

Chapter in an edited book

Bevier, C. R. 2016. Physiological and biochemical correlates of calling behavior in anurans with different calling strategies, p. 63–79. In: Amphibian and Reptile Adaptations to the Environment: Interplay between Physiology and Behavior. D. V. de Andrade, C. R. Bevier, and J. E. de Carvalho (eds.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.

Authored book

Nelson, J. S., T. C. Grande, and M. V. H. Wilson. 2016. Fishes of the World. Fifth edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Edited book

Caira, J. N., and K. Jensen (Eds.). 2017. Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (2008–2017): Tapeworms from Vertebrate Bowels of the Earth. University of Kansas, Natural History Museum, Special Publication No. 25, Lawrence, Kansas.

Unpublished dissertation

Baldwin, C. R. 1992. Larvae and relationships of epinepheline serranids (Teleostei: Percoidei). Unpubl. Ph.D. diss., College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Website

IUCN. 2021. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-3. https://www.iucnredlist.org (accessed 15 December 2021).

Manuscripts submitted, preprints, abstracts, in-house or intra-agency reports, and any works not readily obtainable through normal channels may not be placed in Literature Cited, but must instead be cited in text as unpublished work ("unpubl.") or personal communication ("pers. comm."). Ichthyology & Herpetology does not consider preprints published articles; therefore, preprints such as those available on bioRxiv should be formatted in-text with this format: (Laurin et al., 2019: bioRxiv 352609) as they are not citable peer-reviewed literature.

Commercial and readily available software cited in the text must specify the version and source (author/publisher) and conform to the following guidelines:

(1) when the software is identified by author name(s) and where there exists a published reference or an unpublished online reference to the software, the author/date is cited in text as for a standard text citation (e.g., "Bouckaert et al., 2014"; "R Core Team, 2016") and a corresponding full citation is entered in the Literature Cited section using standard Ichthyology & Herpetology style. For example:

Bouckaert, R., J. Heled, D. Kühnert, T. Vaughan, C-H. Wu, D. Xie, M. A. Suchard, A. Rambaut, and A. J. Drummond. 2014. BEAST 2: a software platform for Bayesian evolutionary analysis. PLoS Computational Biology 10:e1003537.

R Core Team. 2016. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/

(2) when the software is identified by product name only (e.g., SigmaPlot, version 14.0), the commercial source with URL (when available) is specified in parentheses (e.g., Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA; https://www.systatsoftware.com ), and there is no corresponding entry in the Literature Cited section.

In-text citations must be in chronological order, with a comma separating author and year, and a semicolon between citations (e.g., "Smith, 2005, 2009; Johnson et al., 2017"). When citing more than one publication by an author in the same year, use "a" and "b" designations (e.g., "Smith, 2005a, 2005b"). Please note that the "a" reference must be cited first in the body of text. Text citations must agree with the Literature Cited. Citation strings should be limited to the minimum necessary to support the given statement; over-citation for the appearance of scholarship is not permitted.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments identify individuals by name and do not list professional titles. Institutional affiliation may be provided where acknowledging institutional (rather than personal) support. It is Ichthyology & Herpetology policy that neither ASIH editors nor reviewers, in the conduct of their duties, be acknowledged for improvement of manuscripts, but they can be acknowledged for help prior to submission. Collecting permits, institutional animal care protocols, and accession numbers for molecular data and voucher specimens (if not listed elsewhere) must be cited in the Acknowledgments.

TABLES

Tables must be submitted as separate files, not embedded in the manuscript file. Tables (numbered in Arabic) must each appear with a short heading beginning "Table X" and be double-spaced, use bold font and sentence capitalization, and have no associated graphics or vertical lines. Tables cannot include color or shading (exceptions can be made, but these require prior approval from the Editor and will incur publication costs). Tables should be understandable without reference to the article. Table headings and the table itself should include full species names and ideally repeat abbreviations used in the article text or figure captions. Tables must be numbered consecutively in the order of their reference in the text; citation style is "(Table 1)". Tables must not be submitted as images. Word or Excel files are preferred.

FIGURES

Figures must be submitted as separate files, not embedded in text files or as a single combined PDF. Figure captions are listed sequentially beginning with "Fig. X." and are included in the article file following the Literature Cited. Figures should be understandable without reference to the article. Captions should include full species names and ideally repeat abbreviations used in the article text or table headings. Figures are numbered consecutively in the order of their reference in the text; citation style is "(Fig. 1)".

Only digital files can be used for publication. We highly recommend that all non-vector-based images (e.g., color, grayscale, or black and white images/photographs prepared with software such as Adobe Photoshop) be submitted as TIF files. These images should be submitted at desired publication size with a resolution of at least 300 dpi, although 600 dpi is preferred for optimal results. We recommend that vector-based images (e.g., cladograms or files prepared with software such as Adobe Illustrator) be submitted as PDF files. We strongly discourage the use of Microsoft PowerPoint for the creation of figures.

Labels on figures should be sufficiently large (at least 3.0 mm high after reduction) to guarantee optimal results. Lettering within figures (e.g., axis titles, labels, etc.) should be in lowercase type with the first letter capitalized, without full stop, and using a sans serif font (e.g., Gill Sans, Helvetica). Parts of figures should be indicated by bold, upright (not italic), uppercase letters in a sans serif font without periods or parentheses. When several drawings or photographs are grouped as a single "plate," they must be arranged as one unit on a single page and each lettered with an uppercase block letter. Do not include titles such as "Figure 1" in the figure itself. Genus and species names must be in italics. Measures should have a single space between the number and the unit and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Unusual units or abbreviations must be defined in the figure caption. Scale bars rather than magnification factors should be used, with the length of the bar defined in the caption, rather than on the bar itself. We recommend using a color vision deficiency-friendly palette (e.g., blue-orange rather than red-green).

Figures will be published at either one-column (~87 mm, 3.43 in), one-and-a-half-column (~135 mm, 5.32 in), or two-column (~183 mm, 7.2 in) widths at the discretion of the editorial office. Maximum column length is 245 mm. Because the relationship among image resolution, file size, and dimensions can be confusing with non-vector-based images, it is perhaps helpful to think about the number of pixels required across the image at a given resolution as a guide for preparing figures:

• one-column width, 3.43 inches X 400 dpi = approx. 1370 pixels across
• one-column width, 3.43 inches X 600 dpi = approx. 2060 pixels across
• two-column width, 7.2 inches X 400 dpi = approx. 2880 pixels across
• two-column width, 7.2 inches X 600 dpi = approx. 4320 pixels across

EDITORIAL POLICIES

ASIH endorses the principle that experimental use of live animals should only be for the purpose of advancing knowledge. Any research involving live animals or the collection of live animals for taxonomic research must include a statement indicating that the research on these animals followed the ASIH "Guidelines for Live Amphibians and Reptiles in Field and Laboratory Research" ( https://bit.ly/ASIH_Herps ) or the "Use of Fishes in Research" guidelines ( https://bit.ly/ASIH_Fishes ). When organisms are maintained in the laboratory or when experimental procedures are performed in the field, animal care protocols should be approved by the academic institutions and/or the governing bodies of protected areas. These institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) protocol numbers or equivalent, when available, must be cited in the Materials and Methods or Acknowledgments.

All collecting and international transport of specimens must follow national and international laws. It is critical that authors abide by all specimen-collecting laws for their research published in Ichthyology & Herpetology and that requisite permits and licenses are reported in the Materials and Methods or Acknowledgments. Reports involving sampling or removal of organisms from natural populations must indicate, in text, tables, or supplementary information, the depository and catalog numbers or other identifier of voucher specimens.

Analyses based on molecular sequence data must cite the relevant GenBank accession numbers, SRAs, or equivalent in the text. Holotypes of taxa described in Ichthyology & Herpetology as new to science must be deposited in large collections and secondary types of these taxa should be distributed among one or more additional collections.

Authorship implies responsibility. All authors should have played a significant role in designing and performing the research and in writing the manuscript. Those whose roles were limited solely to providing materials (to include financial support), collecting data, or reviewing the manuscript should be recognized in Acknowledgments. Honorary authorship must be avoided. Authors interested in designating author contributions should list these in the Acknowledgments; we recommend using the CRediT roles when possible ( https://casrai.org/credit/ ).

COSTS

Page charges for non-members are billed to the corresponding author at or before the distribution of page proofs and are assessed at $200 per PDF page (these charges include figures). While page charges are waived for members, members are limited to ten figures at no charge. Each figure over ten will be assessed at $50 per figure (e.g., a paper with 15 figures would be assessed at a cost of $250). Figure charges are billed to the corresponding author at or before the initial distribution of page proofs. The editorial office reserves the right to publish a color image in grayscale if the color is judged to be unnecessary. Any author on a publication with an outstanding balance will be forbidden from publishing in Ichthyology & Herpetology until payment is made. Contact the ASIH Business Office ( https://bit.ly/ASIH_Business ) for membership rates and payment procedures.

Reviewers for Ichthyology & Herpetology are eligible for a $250 figure subsidy credit for each review they submit within 20 days. Authors should note this service subsidy in the cover letter when submitting a manuscript that will use this subsidy. It is not the responsibility of the editorial office to identify and offer fast-reviewer subsidies to authors.

OPEN ACCESS

Ichthyology & Herpetology has several open-access policies ranging from a full "Gold Open Access" option for members to formal permission for free "Green Open Access" for the deposition of submitted manuscripts into non-commercial preprint servers such as bioRxiv and post-acceptance digital repositories.

Gold Open Access: Authors can pay to make their research freely available to all interested parties from both the BioOne ( https://bioone.org/journals/ichthyology-and-herpetology ) and membership-based ( https://meridian.allenpress.com/copeia ) journal websites upon publication of their article. Members of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists can make their recent articles fully open access for $750, and non-members can make their article fully open access for $3,500. Members of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists can also make older articles (>3 years before current calendar year) fully open access for $500.

Green Open Access, Self-Archiving, Non-commercial Preprint Servers, and Dissertation Chapter Deposition: Prior to acceptance for publication, Ichthyology & Herpetology allows authors to deposit manuscripts in non-commercial preprint servers such as bioRxiv. Upon acceptance of a paper in Ichthyology & Herpetology, it is important that authors update the article in the preprint server to the accepted version and add the following text: "This article has been accepted for publication in Ichthyology & Herpetology." Upon publication, authors should provide a link from the preprint to their formal publication via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and update the text on their preprint server manuscript to: "This article has been published in Ichthyology & Herpetology."

Ichthyology & Herpetology allows authors to deposit their accepted manuscript in non-commercial digital repositories associated with their employers or affiliated institutions at any time after publication as long as the following conditions are met: 1) the manuscript, tables, figures, and supplemental material are included in manuscript form (i.e., not the type-set proof or final publication), 2) the copyright to the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and year is noted, and 3) the full published citation and DOI are included.

Personalized Open Access for 50 Days for Free: All Ichthyology & Herpetology authors are given a personalized link to share that provides at least 50 days of free access to their article from the date of publication. This link will take readers directly to the final version of the article and does not require registration or login. This service is provided to help authors share Ichthyology & Herpetology research with the press and social media without any barriers to access.