Submissions

Author Guidelines

Contributions describing nematological research in tropical and subtropical nematology will be emphasized, but research about nematodes of temperate and other regions will be considered if they are scientifically sound and of general interest. Articles on plant-parasitic, entomophilic, and free-living nematodes are equally welcome. Research notes, review articles, and Symposium Proceedings will be considered. Please contact the Editor in Chief with your suggestions for research review articles. Manuscripts accepted for publication must be scientifically sound, replicated and repeated in time and/or space, suitable for the audience of the journal, and prepared according to the guidelines provided below. Manuscripts must not have been published previously or simultaneously submitted elsewhere. A checklist is provided to assist in manuscript preparation. Please complete the Author Checklist and submit it with your manuscript. Manuscripts should be written in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. All articles in Nematropica include abstracts in English and Spanish (or the language in which the article was written). Authors must provide a well written translation of their abstracts. Manuscripts may be submitted electronically. Portions of articles in Nematropica may be reprinted without permission, provided that Nematropica is cited as the original source.

Submission Procedure

The Editor-in-Chief of Nematropica for 2025-2028 is Dr. Danny Humphreys-Pereira (danny.humphreys@ucr.ac.cr). Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to the Operations Manager, at nematropica@gmail.com.  You will receive acknowledgement of receipt and a number assigned to your manuscript.

Accompanying E-mail message should include the following information:

• Title of article
• Type of article (Research Report, Research Note, Review Article, Symposium Proceeding)
• Name, affiliation, email, and mailing addresses (including postal code) of corresponding author
• List of attached documents
• A statement that all authors have reviewed the manuscript and approved its submission to Nematropica.
• Completed Author’s Checklist for submitted manuscripts (see below).
• A statement indicating that at least one of the authors is a current member of ONTA.  We no longer accept manuscripts from non-members.

Manuscript Preparation

Microsoft Word for Windows is the preferred file format for text. Manuscript pages should be numbered in the upper right corner and lines of text on each page should be numbered.

Each table should be placed on a separate page following the references at the end of the document. Prepare tables in the table format with one data field per cell. Captions for figures should be provided in a list at the end of the text, following the references and tables. Double-space the entire document (including tables) and use a 12-point Times New Roman font. Bold type is only used in the title. A running head of no more than 60 characters is included under the author affiliations. Consult a published Nematropica article for further formatting requirements.

Illustration files should not be merged, imbedded, or linked to the text file, but kept completely separate.  Figure numbers placed within the body of the text will be used to determine the placement of illustrations. Appropriate formats for figures are JPEG or TIFF with at least 300 dpi. Figures can also be prepared in a Word file provided each figure is in a separate file and not embedded within a document and figure captions and/or name (ie. Fig. 1) are not included in the file. Manuscripts that do not conform to Nematropica format may be returned to the author to correct serious format difficulties prior to the review process.

Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to Nematropica are subjected to peer-review. Upon submission, the manuscript to be reviewed is distributed to 2 qualified reviewers. Authors will receive an acknowledgement email with a reference number for the manuscript. Authors should refer to this number in all correspondence with the Editor. Reviewers have 4 weeks to review the submission and to recommend to the Editor-in-Chief acceptance (generally with revision) or rejection.

Authors who wish to publish in Nematropica must be willing to act on the recommendations of reviewers and editors. Suggested revisions that substantially change the author’s intent or appear to be in error may be rebutted with a documented explanation in an e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief when the revised manuscript is returned.

If the manuscript is accepted with revision, the Editor-in-Chief returns the manuscript to the corresponding author. Authors should then make any suggested changes in the article and return it to the Editor-in-Chief by email fully formatted with italics, subscripts, etc. within 4 weeks. The author must also return marked manuscripts and address reviewer’s comments in a separate document. In an email message, the author should explain how criticisms were dealt with and why criticisms may not have been accepted. The revised article will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and, if judged acceptable for publication, will be checked for formatting and final submission for layout of pdf. Unless authors have permission from the Editor-in-Chief for a brief delay in revision, a manuscript requiring more than 4 weeks for revision should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief as a new submission. Authors will receive an acceptance email. There are no page charges for members of ONTA.

Types of Articles

Research Reports

Research Reports are full-length articles. They should describe original work that represents a significant advance in the understanding of a particular issue or concept or that leads to practical solutions to existing problems. The work described must not have been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis). Data reported in Nematropica must be from scientifically valid, replicated plots or observations, repeated experiments in time and/or space, and subjected to appropriate statistical analysis.

Research Notes

Research Notes are short articles that report new findings relevant to readers of Nematropica. Notes are shorter than a Research Report and include an Abstract and Resumen but do not include section headings (Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion). Abstracts for Notes are limited to 200 words. Notes provide an outlet for science-based findings that are important to crop advisers, growers, diagnosticians, researchers, regulatory officials, and other practitioners. Notes are intended to stand alone and should not include preliminary reports of work that will later be presented in full-length papers. Similar to research reports, data reported must be from scientifically valid, replicated plots or observations, repeated experiments in time and/or space, and subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. Notes are not abstracts and must not duplicate abstracts published or submitted elsewhere.

Review Articles

Reviews are articles that summarize and analyze a topic of importance to plant-parasitic nematology for those who are not specialists in the topic area of the review. Readers should be able to learn what is known and what questions remain unresolved about the subject. Reviews should include an introduction to the problem or issue including why the topic is of interest and a discussion of the issues or new information as it relates to tropical or subtropical nematology. The body of the review may be subdivided using headings that describe the major ideas being discussed. Reviews should cite suitable references to document statements that are not considered general knowledge and may also provide a list of printed and/or electronic resources for further information.

Symposium Proceedings

Proceedings from a Symposium presented at an annual ONTA meeting may be published in Nematropica. However, it is important that one member of the symposium should act as overall organizer and ensure that: (1) every speaker agrees to submit a manuscript within 3 months of the symposium; (2) revisions are made in a timely manner following peer-review; (3) the organizer prepares an introduction to the symposium that sets the context for readers so they understand why the symposium is important; and, (4) agreed-upon deadlines are enforced.

Manuscript Formatting Guide:

Research Reports should contain the following sections and appear as illustrated below. See the description of different types of publications provided above for formatting variation for Notes and Review articles.

ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT, THE TITLE SHOULD APPEAR SINGLE SPACED IN ALL CAPITAL, BOLD LETTERS AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. SCIENTIFIC BINOMIALS SHOULD BE ITALICIZED.

Name(s) of the author(s) should appear under the title, centered on the page, with a designation* for the corresponding author.

Institutional addresses for all authors should be left justified. The corresponding author should include additional information including postal code, telephone and fax numbers, and an e-mail address.

Running Head: should be 60 characters or less and follow author affiliations

ABSTRACT

Author1, A. A., B. B. Author², and C. C. Author³. 2011. Title of Manuscript in 12- pt font double spaced. Nematropica 41:00-00.

The abstract serves as the summary, written in past tense, one paragraph of no more than 1,300 spaces, and must be on a separate page, along with the key words. It should be self-explanatory and intelligible in itself and include the rationale for the study, objectives and topics covered, a brief description of methods, results, and conclusions.

Key Words: Key words should follow the abstract and be in alphabetical order.

RESUMEN/RESUMO/RÉSUMÉ

Author1, A. A., B. B. Author², and C. C. Author³. 2011. Title of Manuscript in Spanish/Portuguese/French in 12 pt. font double spaced. Nematropica 41:00-00.

Abstract written in English will be translated into Spanish by the authors.

INTRODUCTION

Briefly describe the problem and the reasons for conducting the research. Authors should establish the context of their research at the beginning of the article and then present objectives of the research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials and methods should describe the research methods used in enough detail that readers could duplicate the experiments or directly find the specific methods necessary for duplicating experiments in the referenced literature. All experiments outlined must be replicated and repeated in time and/or space. Experimental designs should be fully described, and the statistical analysis procedures used should be specified. Subheadings for Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion sections should be in uppercase and lowercase letters and italicized.

RESULTS

Experimental results should be clearly described. Data in figures and tables should not be repeated in the results section.

DISCUSSION

The discussion should relate work presented in the manuscript to other published material and address the strengths and weaknesses of the presented research. Major conclusions should be supported by the results from experiments.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors should use this space to acknowledge people making significant contribution to the research presented, funding sources, etc.

LITERATURE CITED

All citations and references submitted with the manuscript must adhere to the APA (American Psychological Association) style guidelines. Please refer to the latest edition of the APA manual for detailed instructions on in-text citations, reference list entries, and formatting requirements.

TABLES

Each table should be placed on a separate page following the references. They should be self-explanatory and numbered with Arabic numbers (i.e. 1, 2, 3). The title of the table should be placed at the top and notes at the bottom. Notes should be designated with lower case superscript letters (x, y, z) with the last note of a table having the z superscript. Prepare tables in the table format with one data field per cell. 

Table 1. Effect of soil treatment on root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) gall rating at 35 and 70 DAP^x in all trials.

^x Days after planting.

^yGall rate is a 1 to 10 scale with 1= no galls and 10= severe galling (Zeck, 1971).

^zMeans with the same letter are not significantly different.

FIGURES

Figures should be provided as separate files and be at least 300 dpi in a jpeg format. Captions for figures should be provided in a list at the end of the text, following the tables.