Instruction for Author

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Journal Description

Journal Policies

The Sarawak Museum Journal is published by the Sarawak Museum Department. As it is a Government Department in the State of Sarawak, it should be clearly understood that responsibility for facts and opinion rests exclusively with authors of the articles, and their writings do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the Sarawak Museum Department, or that of the State Government of Sarawak. The Sarawak Museum Journal practises a double-blind peer-reviewed system on each manuscript prior to its publication in the journal. All manuscripts considered for publication will be peer-reviewed by independent referees.

Aims and Scope

The Sarawak Museum Journal (SMJ) is devoted to the advancement of knowledge in the natural and human sciences. The SMJ welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the criteria of this journal from but not limited to Sarawak.

One issue is published annually by the Sarawak Museum Department in printed and electronic versions.

The Sarawak Museum Journal encourages submission of manuscripts dealing with all interdisciplinary topics related to Ethnography, Archaeology, Natural History, History, Conservation and Museology.

The Sarawak Museum Journal published original research work, either as full length articles or as short communications, review articles and special issues.

One issue is published annually by the Sarawak Museum Department in printed and electronic versions.
The Sarawak Museum Journal encourages submission of manuscripts dealing with all interdisciplinary topics related to Ethnography, Archaeology, Natural History, History, Conservation and Museology.
The Sarawak Museum Journal published original research work, either as full length articles or as short communications, review articles and special issues.

Publication Ethics

SMJ is very committed against publication malpractices and encourages the editors, authors, and reviewers to seriously recognise the standard of proper ethical behaviour. This journal follows the guidelines issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) on publication ethics to deal with potential acts of ethical misconduct. Manuscript submission to SMJ implies that:

The manuscript has not been published in other scientific journals and conferences/seminars proceedings except as a part of academic thesis and abstract.
The manuscript is submitted to this journal after approval from all of its co-authors.
The manuscript submitted is declared to be the author(s’) original work and there is no plagiarism and fabrication of data and the images.

Indexing

Malaysian Citation Index (MyCite)

Processing and Publication Fee

No Processing and Publication Fee

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Submission Checklist

Authors are therefore requested to submit:

The manuscript in Microsoft Word (.docx / .doc) format and concisely written in English language or in Malay (please provide a Title and an Abstract in English).
Cover letter: The submission must include a cover letter explaining the novelty of the work and in what way does the manuscript benefit Sarawak or the journal.
Title page: A separate title page of the manuscript should include:

Title
Name of Author(s), Email address(es) and Affiliation(s)
Acknowledgements
Author Contribution
Declaration of Competing Interest
Running Title

Please submit via online submission at https://forms.gle/hcUtdBehxcfqhq8y6

ARTICLE TYPE

Original Full Length Research Paper

Authors are therefore requested to submit:

Abstract (Please provide an abstract of 150-300 words)
Keywords (Please provide 3-6 keywords related to the manuscript)
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References
Figures and Tables
Appendices (where applicable)

Short communication

Shorter report on research results follows the similar structure as an original full length research paper.

Review Articles

Review articles encompass manuscripts that review previously published primary research papers. It should give a critical overview of current trends and thoughts. The articles should be ordered accordingly in the following sequence:

Abstract (Please provide an abstract of 150-250 words)
Keywords (Please provide 3-6 keywords related to the manuscript)
Introduction
Sub-section
Conclusion
References
Figures and Tables
Appendices (where applicable)

STYLE AND FORMAT

File Format
The manuscript to be typed using Times New Roman font with double spacing. Manuscript files can be in the following formats: (.docx / .doc ) Microsoft Word documents.

Length
No limit of length. There are no restrictions on word count, number of Figures, Tables and supporting information. However, the authors are encouraged to present and discuss the findings concisely.

Font Sizes
13 pt for Title (Bold with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns)
11 pt for name(s) of author(s)
11 pt for main text and sub-title (bold)
11 pt for Abstract (justified)
10 pt for References (justified)
To add symbols, use the Insert → Symbol function in your word processor.

Headings
Please use NO more than three levels of displayed headings. Follow this guide to show the level of the section headings in your article:

First-level headings: Bold, All uppercase letters (e.g. INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS)
Second-level headings: Bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns. Bold, with upper and lowercase letters (e.g Study Area, Morphological Studies of Brachyuran Crab)
Third-level headings: Italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns. Italics, with upper and lowercase letters (e.g Animal-Relationship with Environmental Parameters)

Spacing
Manuscript text should be double-spaced.

Page and line numbersPlease include page numbers and line numbers in the manuscript file (Use continuous line numbers).

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention in the text and used consistently thereafter.

Tables
Tables must be supplied as TIFF, JPEG files.
Captions to be at the top and numbered consecutively within the manuscript. Caption Font size: 11 or 10 pt
Show clearly in the manuscript text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 about here].

Figures
Figures/image must be supplied as TIFF, JPEG files.
Captions to be at the bottom and numbered in a single sequence based on their order within the manuscript. Caption Font size: 11 or 10 pt
Figures (charts, graphs or any illustrations) and Tables should be clearly presented. Permission must be obtained for the use of any tables or figures, if you are reproducing them from another source (including the Web) before submission.

Footnotes
Should be assembled at the end of the main text as Notes. Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those for the tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data).

Nomenclature
Please use correct and established nomenclature:
Species name: Write in italics, the genus and species (e.g., Chonerhinos naritus) in the title of the manuscript and at the first mention of the species. After first mention, the first letter of the genus name followed by the full species name may be used (e.g., C. naritus).

Units of measurement:
Use SI units.

Citation And References
Cite references in the text by the author’s surname and year of publication. The following are examples of citations

Single author: ….(Yeap, 2004)
- OR ...as reported by Yeap (2004)...
Two authors: …...(Simon & Micheal, 2001)
- OR…. Simon and Micheal (2001) stated that…...
Three or more authors: …..(Tan et al., 1988)
- OR ….following method by Tan et al. (1988)
Single author or same authors in the same parenthesis: (Sara & Rose, 2015a, 2015b)

In-Text Quotation

Single author: ….(Yeap, 2004, p. 123)
- OR ...as reported by Yeap (2004, p. 123)...

Reference List

The References section at the end of the manuscript should list all references cited in the text in alphabetical order of the first author’s surname. Titles of the journals or conference proceedings are not to be abbreviated.

All references mentioned in the text must be included in reference list.

The following are examples of reference writing:

Journal
Hadil, R. (2007). The second resource assessment of the tiger shrimp, Penaeus
monodon of Kuala Baram, Miri, Sarawak. Malaysian Fisheries Journal 6(2): 111-124.

Smith, T. J., Boto, K. G., Frusher S. D. & Raymond, G. L. (1991). Keystone species and mangrove forest dynamics: The influence of burrowing crabs on soil nutrient status and forest productivity. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science. 33: 419-432.

Book

Likens, B. (2005). Ecology: Population ecology. In Biology, edited by Campbell

N.A. & Reece J.B. Seventh Edition. Pearson-Benjamin Cummings: San

Francisco.

Article or abstract in a Conference Proceedings:

Erséus, C. (1992). Hong Kong’s marine oligochaetea: a supplement. In:

Morton, B. (ed.) The marine flora and fauna of Hong Kong and southern China III.

Proceedings of the Fourth International Marine Biological Workshop. 11-29 April 1989.

Plates
Captions to be at the bottom and numbered in a single sequence based on their order within the journal. Caption Font size: 11pt

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. Should be as brief as possible. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be mentioned in the Acknowledgments. It is expected that those being acknowledged have given their permission to be named.

Author Contribution

The contributions of all authors must be described, e.g., L. John has conceived the ideas, designed the methodology, specimen identification, data analysis and led the writing of original draft; A. Ismail, S. Grace and T. Lee have been involved in specimen identification and data analysis. Author Contributions will be published with the final article , and all co-authors should accurately reflect their contributions to the work.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Proof

Before the / an article can be published, one set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. At this stage, No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed.
Corrected proofs should be returned within 3-5 days upon receipt of the proofs by the author.
The SMJ Production team reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated and will do everything possible to get articles corrected and published as quickly and as accurately as possible.
In order to do this the cooperation of authors is much-needed.

Language-Editing and Copyediting Manuscripts

Proof-reading is solely the responsibility of the author.
Prior to submission, authors are encouraged to use language-editing and copyediting services. Obtaining this service is the responsibility of the author, and should be done before initial submission. These services can be found on the web engine search terms (e.g. use search term “proofread editing service” and “language editing service”).