Nature and Culture
Information for Contributors
The Board of Editors welcomes contributions. Authors should submit articles as word attachments by e-mail, formatted as Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format files. Electronic submissions are preferred but mailed contributions will be reviewed. Please note that all correspondence will be transmitted via e-mail. Submissions without complete and properly formatted reference lists may be rejected. Manuscripts that have been accepted for publication but do not conform to the Nature and Culture style will be returned to the author for amendment. Articles submitted to this journal will undergo editorial screening and double-blind peer review by at least three external reviewers.
E-mail submissions to the Managing Editor: nature.culture(at)ufz.de
Further correspondence may be directed to:
Sing C. Chew and Matthias Gross
E-mail: sing.chew@ufz.de
E-mail: matthias.gross@ufz.de
Mailed submissions will include a PC formatted disk with three hard copies of the article. Send to:
The Managing Editor
Nature and Culture
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research -UFZ
Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology
Permoserstr. 15
04318 Leipzig, Germany
Article Length
Research articles should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, although longer papers may be considered. Contributions for the Perspectives section will be 2000 to 5000 words. Review Essays must have a minimum of three titles reviewed and be 2000 to 4000 words in length.
Formatting
The document must be set at the US letter or A4 paper size standard. The entire document (including the notes and references) should be double-spaced with 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides. A 12-point standard font such as Times or Times New Roman is required and should be used for all text, including headings, notes, and references. An unusual character or diacritical mark should be flagged, as the character may not translate correctly during typesetting.
Cover Page
The cover page should provide the title of the article, complete contact information for each author (address, phone, fax, and e-mail), biographical data of approximately 100 words for each author, and any acknowledgments. Please provide a total word count and indicate the number of tables and/or figures as included.
Abstract/Keywords
The article must include an abstract of 100 to 150 words and 6 to 8 keywords. The abstract should include the research question or puzzle, identify the data, and give some indication of the findings. Keywords will be drawn from the content and not duplicate the article title.
Copyright/Permissions
Upon acceptance, authors are required to submit copyright agreements and all necessary permission letters for reprinting or modifying copyrighted materials. Authors are fully responsible for obtaining all permissions.
Style Guide
The Nature and Culture style guide is based on the Chicago Manual of Style with some deviations based on house preferences.
Please note that the journal uses US punctuation and spelling, following Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary or the American Heritage College Dictionary.
Italicize isolated non-English words that do not appear in the standard US dictionary. The word should be italicized on every use.
Dates, Numbers and Ranges
Dates should be set day/month/year, with no comma in between the elements, e.g., 26 January 1988.
In general, use words for numbers that are less than 10, and numerals for all other numbers.
Do not abbreviate inclusive numbers (ranges) in text or references as preferred by the house style, for the purpose of clarity and completion.
Hyphens are not used for inclusive numbers following the prepositions from or between. These ranges are separated by the words to or and. For example, use "from 1924 to 1928" not "from 1924-1928," or "between 1924 and 1928" not "between 1924-28," however, it is correct to refer to the fiscal
Notes/Citations
Parenthetical notes or comments may be included as endnotes but should be kept short and to a minimum.
Note numbers or asterisks should not be placed on essay titles, section headings, epigraphs, or the contributor's name.
In-text citations should follow the author-date system, with the full documentation given only in the reference list.
Author-Date Examples
(Smith 1987; Pickett and White 1985)
Jones's research (1977, 1979a, 1979b)
(Kant n.d.; McGinnis forthcoming)
Single Author with Multipple Sources
(Smith 1993: 63; 1998: 124-169; 2001: 104)
Three Or More Authors
(Jones et al. 2001)
Authors with Same Last Name
(D. Smith 1981; G. Smith 1999)
References
Referencing should follow the author-date system, with full documentation in the reference list, including the publishers' names and authors' full first names, when known. Note that article/chapter titles are to be capitalized and enclosed within quotation marks.
The reference list must be in Alphabetical order. For multiple listings under an author's name, list the oldest publication first, followed by the next publications, in chronological order.
Every author mentioned in the reference list must be cited in the main text or notes, and every author cited in the main text and notes must be listed in the reference list.
Reference Examples
Book
Wagner, Roy G. [1975] 1981. The Invention of Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
—. 1986. Symbols That Stand for Themselves. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Two Authors (Use Comma to Separate)
Apffel-Marglin, Frederique, and Stephen A. Marglin, eds. 1996. "The Frequency
—of Crickets." Vol. 10, Decolonizing Swamps. Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press.
Chapter/Essay in a Book (Note Placement of Page Numbers and Editors)
Franklin, Sarah. 1995. "Romancing the Helix." Pp. 63-77 in Romance Revisited,
—eds. Jill Stacy and Laurence Pearce. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Article in Journal
Joyce, Christopher. 1992. "Western Medicine Men Return to the Field." Bioscience 42 (6): 399-402.
Translations
Cortázar, Julio. 1969. Cronopios and Famas. Trans. Paul Blackburn. New York: Random House.
Wereszyncki, Henryk. Koniec sojuszu trzech cesarzy [The End of the Three Emperors' League;
—summary in German]. Warsaw: PWN, 1977.
Article in a Newspaper or Magazine
Green, Megan. 2005. "The Turning of the Soil." Nature Times, sec. 3, April 1.
New York Times.
—2000. "The Obituary of Iggy the Frog." October 31.
Dauer, Tom, and Klaus Jacob. 2000. "Fruchtbare Zerstörung." Die Zeit 54 (February 7): 41-42.
Symposium
Speth, James D., and Deirdre Davidson. 1975. "Seasonal Variability in Early Hominid Predation."
—Paper presented at symposium, Archeology in Anthropology: Broadening Subject Matter. Seventy-fourth
—annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, September 4.
Dissertation
Downer, John. 1975. "Necessity and Knowledge in the Later Philosophy of Wittgenstein." PhD diss.,
—University College of North Wales.
Unpublished Material
Marciniak, Edward, and Nancy Jefferson. 1985. "CHA Advisory Committee Appointed by Judge Marvin E.
—Aspin: Final Report" (December). Chicago. Unpublished.
Weingart, Peter. 1992. "Struggle for Existence: Selection and Retention of a Metaphor." Faculty
—Working Paper 86, Research Group on Biological Foundations of Human Culture, University of Amazonia.
Organization As Authoring Agent
Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council. 1982. Map 2000: Metropolitan Area Plan for the Year
—2000. Chicago: Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council.
Materials in Archives
Egmont Manuscripts. n.d. Phillips Collection. University of Georgia Library, Athens.
"Minutes." 4 July 2000. Fols. 10-12, Edward Alsworth Ross Papers in the Archives of the State
—Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Internet/World Wide Web Sites
Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees. 2000. "Evanston Public Library Strategic Plan,
—2000-2010: A Decade of Outreach." Evanston Public Library.
—http://www.epl.org/library/strategic-plan-00.html (accessed 30 May 2001).
Artwork
Tables and corresponding captions should be placed in separate files; only placement indicators should appear in the main text. Tables should be numbered consecutively as they appear in text. Please number items individually (table 1, 2, 3, 4) as opposed to grouping items together (table 1, table 2a, 2b, 2c).
Figures and corresponding captions should be placed in separate files; only placement indicators should appear in the main text. As with the tables please be sure to number the figures consecutively.
For optimal reproduction figures or photos should be submitted as TIFF (resolution at 300 dpi) or EPS (800 dpi), black and white, with all fonts embedded. Additionally, all images should be approximately 4 x 4 inches at the resolution indicated. Figures may also be submitted on glossy camera-ready paper.