Marine Biology Research welcomes papers on all aspects of marine biology (ecology, biodiversity, evolution, physiology, and behaviour). Marine Biology Research will consider applied aspects (environment, fisheries) insofar as they contribute to more general biological insight. See also the Marine Biology Research Aims and Scope page.

Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and has been read and approved by all the authors. Submission of a manuscript means that the authors automatically agree to assign exclusive copyright to Taylor & Francis. Articles published in this journal are protected by copyright, which covers translation rights and the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute all articles printed in the journal. No material published in the journal may be stored on microfilm or videocassettes or in electronic databases and the like, or reproduced photographically, without the prior written permission of Taylor & Francis.

Decisions on publication are based on the opinions of at least two reviewers (whose names will not be revealed to authors). Manuscripts are subject to editorial revision. The right is reserved to introduce such changes as may be necessary to make contributions conform to editorial standards. The journal cannot be held responsible for the opinions or statements expressed by its authors.

The following categories of papers are considered:

1. Original articles, 2. Invited reviews, 3. Short reports, 4. Book reviews. Invitations for reviews may come directly from the editors. Authors who wish to publish a review should contact the editors to reach an agreement on the scientific topic and the maximum length. Short reports should have four or less printed pages and shall consist of short research articles, mini-reviews, communications, or comments to relevant topics. Findings of range extensions of marine organisms need to be accompanied by either detailed biogeographic information, systematically oriented comparative data, or ecological data revealing impacts or interactions.

Single issues of Marine Biology Research may be devoted to specific research themes as 'Thematic Issue' to present the results of larger collaborative efforts deriving, for instance, from projects or meetings. Thematic issues will appear as regular issues with the only difference that a thematic issue coordinator will have the responsibility for concerted submission after having reached the agreement with the editors.

Submission of manuscripts Manuscripts may only be submitted online via Marine Biology Research Manuscript Central, web-based manuscript submission and handling system. Click on 'online submission' which directs you to Manuscript Central log in page. Here authors either create an account or enter an existing account to log in their 'author center' to upload manuscripts. If authors have difficulties in submitting manuscripts electronically, they can ask help via 'Get Help Now' link, on right hand corner of every screen.

Authors should upload papers electronically as a MS Word file and Figures as separate TIFF or EPS format files. A title page, with the corresponding authors full name, e-mail address and fax number, an abstract and key words are also required. All manuscripts must conform to the style standards provided below and available on the journal homepage. Manuscripts that do not conform to these instructions for authors will be returned for revision and retyping.

Upload line artwork as EPS files (with an EPS extension - e.g. Fig3.eps). Use a postscript printer driver, freely available at the Adobe website, to generate the EPS file. Upload photographs as TIFF files, uncompressed, at a resolution of minimum 300 dpi at final size.

All submissions will be acknowledged by an e-mail which includes the Manuscript ID number. This ID number must be referred in the subject line of any correspondence with the editorial office (marinebiology@imr.no). Status of submitted manuscripts can be viewed via the author center.

All papers will be refereed prior to acceptance. Authors should suggest at least four potential referees of recognized competence (name, e-mail address) during submission of papers. Submitted materials must not have been published, accepted for publication or be under consideration elsewhere. Manuscripts that do not conform to the following instructions will be returned without review.

All manuscripts should be in English (American or British) and written in 12 pt Times New Roman and double-spaced.

Original papers should be as brief as possible, succinctly written, and only exceptionally exceed 10 printed pages. Avoid extensive reviews or excessive references in the Introduction and Discussion. Organize and upload original papers in the following order: Title page, Abstract + up to 5 key words, Manuscript proper, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Figure legends, and Figures. Number all pages consecutively.

1. Title page. The title must be short and concise, followed by the name, address and e-mail address of the author(s). It should also provide a running head (max. 60 units).

2. Abstract. This should be a single paragraph limited to a maximum of 200 words, except for invited reviews. It must be informative and complete in itself and - in qualitative terms - report on the main result or discovery presented in the paper.

3. The manuscript proper. This is organized into an Introduction, Material and Methods, and - usually - into Results and Discussion. Material and Methods should be written as condensed as possible, but sufficiently detailed to allow reproduction of experimental procedures. Footnotes will not be accepted. Points of insertion of figures and tables should be indicated. References in the text should be indicated by author name(s) and year of publication.

4. Acknowledgements should be kept brief and placed before the reference section.

5. References. References should follow the CBE style. Only works actually cited in the text should be included in the references. In the actual text, place inside brackets the author's name and year of publication. Publications from the same author in a single year should use a, b, c, etc. Articles with two authors should be cited with 'and' between the names (e.g. Smith and Jones 1990). Where there are three or more authors, the citation should give only the first author followed by 'et al.' (e.g., Smith et al. 1928). Spelling in the reference list should follow the original. References should then be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the article. Journal names should be written in full according to the following examples:

Journal article:
Strand E, Huse G, Giske J. 2002. Artificial evolution of life history and behavior. American Naturalist 159:624-44.

Book:
Fenchel T, King GM, Blackburn TH. 1998. Bacterial Biogeochemistry. San Diego: Academic Press. 307 pages.

Chapter in Book:
Thingstad TF. 2000. Control of bacterial growth in idealized food webs. Chapter 8 in: Kirchman DL, editor. Microbial Ecology of the Oceans. New York: Wiley-Liss, Inc., p 229-60.

Marine Biology Research strongly recommends the full citation of original species descriptions when appropriate. In case of difficulties to locate this literature, assistance can be provided. Unpublished results and personal communications must not appear in the reference list and reference to unpublished master's and doctoral theses should be avoided.

6. Tables. These should be given a concise heading and numbered with Arabic numerals. Excessive use of tables should be avoided.

7. Figures and figure legends. Colour illustrations are welcomed, but will be reproduced at the author's expense. Figure legends should be self-explanatory.

Online-only supplementary material
'Background' information which is relevant to a target article but which does not lend itself to traditional printing either due to length or format (video clips) might be added to the article as online-only supplementary material. Such 'background' information might include: detailed descriptions of mathematical models, long lists of localities for material collected, oceanographical data-lists or fauna-flora lists, raw data for molecular biology cladograms, large amounts of illustrative material, video-clips etc. For such supplements, the core article contains a brief explanatory paragraph and a live URL web link to the data. The data are hosted either by Taylor & Francis or by the author. Such supplementary data will be public domain with free access.

General advice
Non-standard abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided - and if absolutely necessary should be spelled out the first time it appears in the text followed by the abbreviation in brackets. SI-units should preferably be used. Scientific Style and Format. The CBE Style Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, 6th edition) should be consulted for further conventions applied by Marine Biology Research.

Review process
All papers will be handled by a Subject Editor and undergo a referee process. After papers have been returned for revision, authors must re-submit the revised manuscript within 30 days for minor revisions and within 60 days for major revisions.

Submission of revised manuscripts. Resubmit revised manuscripts via Marine Research Biology Manuscript Central site and upload: 1) the revised paper, 2) a marked copy of the original version, indicating where changes have been made, 3) any figures in separate electronic files and 4) any rebuttals that you feel are appropriate.

Proofs. Proofs will be sent as a PDF file to the corresponding author. If any corrections are to be made these should be marked on a printed version of the file and returned with least possible delay (preferably within 48 hours). Authors will be liable to pay for any alterations that they make which are not due to printer's errors. The article cannot be published until the publisher has received the signed Copyright Assignment form.

Copyright
It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found at www.informaworld.com/authors_journals_copyright_position. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Reprints. Corresponding authors will receive free online access to their article through our website (www.informaworld.com). Reprints of articles published in Marine Biology Research can be purchased through Rightslink® when proofs are received or alternatively on our journals website. If you have any queries, please contact our reprints department at reprints@tandf.co.uk.