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INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
CalCOFI Rep., Vol. 52, 2011 (pdf version)

CalCOFI Reports is a peer-reviewed journal. Papers submitted for publication in the “Scientific Contributions” section are read by two or more referees and by arbiters when necessary; “Symposium” papers are invited by the convener of the annual symposium and are reviewed and edited at the convener’s discretion.The “Reports, Review, and Publications” section contains newsworthy information on the status of stocks and environmental conditions; the papers in this section are not peer reviewed; the CalCOFI Editorial Board will not consider unsolicited review papers.

The CalCOFI Editorial Board will consider for publication in the “Scientific Contributions” section manuscripts not previously published elsewhere that address the following in relation to the North Pacific, the California Current, and the Gulf of California: marine organisms; marine chemistry, fertility, and food chains; marine fishery modeling, prediction, policy, and management; marine climatology, paleoclimatology, ecology, and paleoecology; marine pollution; physical, chemical, and biological oceanography; and new marine instrumentation and methods.

Submission Guidelines
Submissions must be received no later than January 15 of the year in which publication is sought. Please submit manuscripts as MS word documents in electronic format via email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . (use Word; see “Manuscript Guidelines” below for more details on preparing tables and figures). Manuscript should be submitted to:

CalCOFI Coordinator
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
8604 La Jolla Shores Drive
La Jolla, California 92037-1508 USA
Fax: (858) 546-5656

The manuscript should contain the following parts:

A title page containing the manuscript’s title, your name, your institutional affiliation and contact information (address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address), and a word count
An abstract of no more than 150 words that succinctly expresses only the manuscript’s most central points, using the active voice
Body of the text, including any footnotes
Literature cited, in alphabetical order
Acknowledgments, if any
Tables
Figures and captions

Manuscript Guidelines
Length.
Unless previously approved by the Scientific Editor, manuscripts should not exceed 6,000 words, including title page, abstract, text body, footnotes, acknowledgments, and literature cited but excluding figures and tables.

Text.
Double-space all elements of the text, allow margins of at least 1 inch on all sides, and use a standard font (such as Times or Times New Roman) no smaller than 12 points. Number the pages consecutively. Eliminate all nonessential formatting. Indicate subordination of heads consistently; for example, use all caps for the main heads, boldface for the next level, and italics for the third level.To indent paragraphs, use the tab key, not the space bar or a “style” feature of any sort. Never use letters for numbers or vice versa; in other words, do not type the lowercase “el” for the number “one” or the capital letter “oh” for zero. Use your word-processor’s automatic footnoting feature to insert footnotes.
Acknowledgments, if included, should be placed at the end of the text and may include funding sources. Place the entire text (title page, abstract, text body, footnotes, acknowledgments, and literature cited) in one document file, and label it with your name— for example,“Smith text.doc.”

Tables.
Use your word-processor’s Table feature, rather than spaces or tabs, to create the columns and rows. Use minimal formatting, and do not insert vertical or horizontal rules. Double-space the tables and use a standard font, such as Times or Times New Roman. Number the tables consecutively, and provide a brief title for each. Place explanatory material and sources in a note beneath the table. Place the tables in a separate file labeled, for example,“Smith tables.doc,” and place this on the disk with the text file. Provide one printout of each table, gathered together at the end of the text printout submitted. Be sure each table is specifically referred to in the text.

Figures.
Figures must be in black and white. Submit figures—whether drawings, graphs, or photographs—as high-resolution electronic files as separate files. Label the files, for example,“Smith fig 1” and “Smith fig 2.”The preferred file formats are JPG and PDF. If you are submitting as a PDF, please embed all fonts. In the printed volume figures will appear in black and white only and may be reduced from their original size. Contributors are advised to make a trial reduction of complex figures to ensure that patterns, shading, and letters will remain distinct when reduced. Include a north arrow and latitude and longitude lines on maps. Use consistent labels and abbreviations and the same style of lettering for all figures if possible. Number figures consecutively, and specifically refer to each in the text. Provide a caption for each figure. Gather the captions together, and place them at the end of the electronic text file, following the “Literature Cited” section; include the captions in the printouts.

Editorial Style
For matters of editorial style, contributors should consult recent editions of CalCOFI Reports. Contributors may also refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed.Whenever possible, write
in the first person, and use active verbs. Use the full name of a CalCOFI Rep., Vol. 52, 2011 person, organization, program, or agency when mentioning it for the first time in your manuscript. Double-check the spelling of non-English words, and include special characters such as accents and umlauts. Use correct SI symbols for units of measure in figures, tables, and text (other units may be given in parentheses). Prepare equations in accordance with similar expressions in the printed literature.

Cite sources in the text as Smith (1999) or Smith and Jones (2000) or (Smith and Jones 2000; Gabriel et al. 1998) (the latter when there are three or more authors).There should be no comma between author and date. In the “Literature Cited” section, show sources alphabetically by the first author’s surname, and secondarily in chronological order with earliest dates first. Provide surnames and first initials of all authors; do not use “et al.” for multi-authored works. No source should appear in the “Literature Cited” section unless it is specifically cited in the text, tables, or figure captions. Personal
communications and unpublished documents should not be included in the “Literature Cited” section but may be cited in the text in parentheses; use footnotes only when parentheses will not suffice.
Abbreviate journal titles to match BIOSYS usage. Each source must be complete according to the following guidelines:

ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL:
Barnes, J.T., L. D. Jacobson,A. D. MacCall, and P.Wolf. 1992. Recent population trends and abundance estimates for the Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax). Calif. Coop. Oceanic Fish. Invest. Rep. 33:60–75.

BOOK:
Odum, E. P. 1959. Fundamentals of ecology. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Saunders. 546 pp.

CHAPTER IN A BOOK:
Wooster,W. S., and J. L. Reid Jr. 1963. Eastern boundary currents. In The sea, M. N. Hill, ed. New York: Interscience Pub., pp. 253–280.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, we will provide further guidance regarding preparing it for editing.

CalCOFI 2012

California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations

CalCOFI Report Vol 52, 2011 (Complete report pdf; individual pdf links below)

CalCOFI Report Vol 51, 2010 (Complete report pdf; individual pdf links below)

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