The Royal Society of Tasmania

The advancement of knowledge

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Scope

To be considered for publication, manuscripts must be of primary interest or relevance to Tasmania and the wider Australian community and be easily understood by a general audience. A printable PDF of this page can be downloaded from this link.

Publication priorities are:

  • promoting Tasmanian historical, scientific, cultural, and technological knowledge
  • fostering Tasmanian public engagement and participation in the quest for objective knowledge
  • recognising excellence in academia and supporting Tasmanian academic excellence; and
  • providing objective advice on policy or broad issues of relevance to Tasmanians.

Publication length and category

Manuscripts must contain new and previously unpublished content and be of interest to a wide readership. All papers are subject to peer review.

Full Paper: Typically, 2,000 to 8,000 words maximum length including references. Associated plates, figures, tables and appendices can be submitted. Longer papers will be reduced by the Editor.

Short Note: Typically, up to 2,000 words including references and can include one to two associated plates, figures or tables.

Review Paper: Typically, 2,000 to 6,000 words maximum length including both narrative and systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Can include two to four plates or figures. Usually on a broad subject theme of relevance and wide interest to the Tasmanian community.

Manuscript preparation

Presentation

Papers should be well written with a minimum of jargon, presented in clear, concise English with spelling according to the Macquarie Dictionary. The Editor reserves the right to adjust or reduce the text for clarity, conformity to style, and publication standards.

  • font Calibri 12 point
  • 1.5-line spaced copy
  • do not justify – use ragged right
  • number all pages consecutively, including references, figure legends, appendices
  • number every fifth line (automatic in Word) to assist reviewers
  • use commas (not spaces) to signify numbers greater than 999 e.g., 1,000, 10,500.

Structure

  • Title: be concise and appropriately informative about work provided
  • Author(s): Names in full. Include author(s) institution or affiliation address and contact email for the paper citation
  • Abstract: Maximum 200 words stating concisely the aim of the study, how it was undertaken, principal findings, conclusions and if any future implications
  • Key words: provide 2–8 words for use in abstracting journals.

Order of contents

  • Introduction
  • Subsection headings – or for scientific research papers use Materials, Methods then Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements (including relevant permit numbers for scientific research and conflicts of interest)
  • References
  • Appendix (or Appendices)
  • List of captions for figures, plates and tables.

Citation format

  • Lower case for common names, scientific name in italics
  • Journal names and book titles in italics
  • do not use footnotes
  • published material e.g., Brown (1983), Brown & Green (1985), Brown et al. (1987), Brown et al. (in press), (Brown 1983, p. 5), in text (Brown 1983, Brown & Green 1985, Green 2000)
  • any information supplied personally to the author(s) e.g., (T.O. White pers. comm.); do not include in the list of references; obtain permission from the person for them to be quoted
  • include the relevant page numbers of a lengthy cited work e.g., (1983, pp. 110-116)
  • do not refer to papers ‘in preparation’; cite as (author(s) unpubl. data).
  • References have no bold and no full stops in author initials

Examples of reference format for papers, journals, books, etc.: (order author alphabetically oldest date first)

Artyukhin, YB & Burkanov, VN (2000). Incidental mortality of seabirds in the drift net salmon fishery by Japanese vessels in the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone, 1993–1997. In Kondratyev, AY, Litvineko, NM & Kaiser, GW (eds). Seabirds of the Russian Far East. Ottawa, Canadian Wildlife Service Special Publication: 105–116.

ABARES (2021). Broad Land Use in Tasmania. https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectionimages/abares/land-use-tas-state-large.png (accessed 21 July 2021).

Bingham, M (1998). The distribution, abundance and population trends of gentoo, rockhopper and king penguins in the Falkland Islands. Oryx 32: 223–232.

Charleton, KJ (2002). Variation in sooty shearwater burrow entrance density, burrow use and chick emergence: Science and traditional environmental knowledge approaches. Unpublished MSc Thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin.

Chiswell, SM & Rickard, GJ (2006). Comparison of model and observational ocean circulation climatology’s for the New Zealand region. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: C10011, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JC003489.

Davison, AC & Hinkley, DV (1997). Bootstrap methods and their application. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 592 pp.

Hawke, DJ, Smith, S & Newman, J (2005). Using isotope analysis to identify incorporation of marine nutrients in terrestrial birds at Snares Islands. Notornis 52: 108–111.

IUCN (2001). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2001 Categories & Criteria (version 3.1), www.iucnredlist.org (accessed 22 January 2023).

Kellermann, J (2005). New combinations for two species of Spyridium (Rhamnaceae: Pomaderreae) from the Grampians, Victoria. Muelleria 22: 97–104.

MacKenzie, DI & Fletcher, D (2005). Characterisation of seabird captures in NZ fisheries. Report to Ministry of Fisheries for Project ENV2004-04. April 2006. Unpublished report to the Ministry of Fisheries, Wellington: 99 pp.

Marchant, S & Higgins, PJ (eds) (1993). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 2: Raptors to Lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia: 1,048 pp.

Tables, Figures and Plates

Number consecutively in the order of their first reference in the text.

Tables

  • Tables should be ‘stand-alone’, with sufficient information in the caption for the table to be understood without reference to the text
  • Explain symbols and abbreviations (e.g., n.d. = no data) in the footnotes to the table which should be superscripted by sequential numbers
  • Should be constructed in Word using ‘insert table’
  • Do not format tables using the tab or grid ‘default’ in Word.

Figures and Plates

  • Line drawings and maps are figures, photographs are plates
  • Refer to as fig. 1 or plate 1
  • Supply captions for all figures and plates. Plates require acknowledgement of the photographer.
  • Colour or black and white maps, figures or illustrations are acceptable
  • Use keys within the artwork to explain symbols or colours used in the illustrations
  • Maps require bar scales or objects of known or stated dimensions to indicate scale
  • Electronic figures should be provided in TIF, JPG, EPS or PDF formats as single files. Do not embed in a Word document as they lose resolution and are difficult to retrieve.

Appendices

Material presented as Appendices (labelled 1, 2, 3, etc.) are accepted at the Honorary Editor’s discretion, and may be printed in a smaller type than the rest of the paper.

Conventions

The Botanical, Zoological and Stratigraphic Codes of Nomenclature should be fully observed. Use of SI units of measurement is strongly preferred where consistent with the means of measurement.
Australian Government Style Guide: https://www.stylemanual.gov.au/

Use of copyrighted materials or permission to reproduce

Verbatim quotations of text must be acknowledged, and the source given (with the relevant page number/s). Authors must specifically acknowledge the source of illustrations that have been previously published elsewhere and are not their property and must obtain permission for publication of text or illustrations covered by copyright.

Permission to use material previously published by The Royal Society of Tasmania can be obtained upon application to the Council via the Honorary Editor.

Submission process

Please contact the Honorary Editor at editor@rst.org.au with any queries or to submit papers.

Please submit your paper electronically as a Word doc to The Honorary Editor at editor@rst.org.au

All figures, plates and tables must be submitted separately to the Word document as TIF, JPG, PDF or EPDS files. If the document exceeds the email size limits, please notify the Editor to share using, e.g., Dropbox. Alternatively, send a USB thumb drive to The Honorary Editor, The Royal Society of Tasmania, GPO Box 1166, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia. Please include your email address and the name of the person to contact for editorial queries, proofs etc.

Submission date

Manuscripts can be submitted at any time – but those submitted after 31 August may not make the year’s volume.

Peer-review process

All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by the Editor, who may reject a paper if it is outside the journal’s scope or of insufficient quality. Accepted submissions are sent to independent assessors for peer reviewer. The Editor will then take into consideration the advice of reviewers before deciding to recommend accept, amend or to reject the paper. That decision will be final. If the paper is not accepted, a copy will be retained by the Society. The Society retains copyright of accepted papers.

Post publication

Authors are issued with a pdf of their published paper. The Society encourages paper distribution and authors may copy their paper as a reprint. Reproduction of synopses in abstracting journals is authorised. All papers are available on-line soon after the Volume is published.

https://figshare.utas.edu.au/Royal_Society_of_Tasmania