Il Naturalista Siciliano

The Società Siciliana di Scienze Naturali publishes Il Naturalista Siciliano, journal distributed in Italy and outside the country, which contains original articles connected with natural history research in the Mediterranean area, articles of general interest (methodologies, reviews, etc.) and book reviews. Papers not exceeding two printed pages are published as Short notes.
Access to publication is not restricted to members of the Società Siciliana di Scienze Naturali.
Manuscripts should be sent to the Editor-in-chief (e-mail: bruno.massa@unipa.it); papers prepared in accordance with the Instructions to authors will be examined within two months by the Editorial board.
Scientific papers, reviews and short notes are published once they are deemed acceptable after a thorough process of peer-review. The decision (acceptance, request for improvement, refusal) will be notified to the first author together with other relevant information (expected date of publication, specification of charges for the authors, etc.) within four months after the deposit of the manuscript.
The authors should conform to the arrangement of articles published in the most recent issues of Il Naturalista Siciliano.
Each article should include: NAME(S) of AUTHOR(S), TITLE, SUMMARY in the language of the paper followed by another SUMMARY in Italian or in English (the second summary should begin with a translation of the title in italics).
Parole chiave and Key words must follow respectively RIASSUNTO and SUMMARY.
The chapters titles should be written in capital (INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS, BIBLIOGRAPHY), the paragraphs titles in italics.
The bibliography should list references in alphabetical order under the (first) author's name, and chronologically for the same author, as follows.
Journals must be abbreviated according to the World List of Scientific Periodicals.

RUGGIERI G., 1978. Una trasgressione del Pleistocene inferiore della Sicilia occidentale. Naturalista sicil., Palermo, 2: 159-171. FIORI A., 1928. Nuova flora analitica d'Italia. Ricci, Firenze.

The address(es) of the author(s) should appear at the end of the article.
Tables should be clearly typed, and contain a legend.
Illustrations should be numbered consecutively, and the legend written at the end of the paper.
The author should mark in the margin of the manuscript the approximate place where tables and figures have to be inserted in the text.

Short notes are printed in 8-point and should comprise: NAME(S) of the AUTHOR(S), TITLE in the language of the text followed by a translation of the title in Italian or in English, text and BIBLIOGRAPHY as in the articles, address(es) of the author(s).

The authors are requested to send back the corrected proof-sheets within two weeks; the Editorial board will correct the revise.
When returning the proofs the authors should communicate the number of requested reprints and to whom the eventual invoice should be made out. Additionally, a pdf format of the paper will be provided to authors.

A page charge of Euro 20.00 (non members of the Società) and Euro 15.00 (members) per printed page is assessed; it includes all the b/w figures. Authors are invited to agree upon costs of particular tables or color figures directly with the Redaction.

The publication of an article in a peer reviewed journal is an essential model for the journal "Il Naturalista Siciliano”.
It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behaviour for all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer and the publisher.
Our ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
Open access
Open access is the free and unrestricted access to peer-reviewed scholarly content, predominantly journal articles
Policy on open access to Il Naturalista Siciliano articles
Articles published in “Il Naturalista Siciliano” are freely accessible through the online website, as pdf files. Each printed issue of the journal is sent to all members of the Società Siciliana di Scienze Naturali, but also to Libraries, Museums, Societies and Institutions in Italy and abroad, according to subscriptions or exchanges. The Società Siciliana di Scienze Naturali, editor of Il Naturalista Siciliano, believes that free and open access to publicly-funded research offers significant social and economic benefits. As major bodies charged with investing public money in research, the Research Councils take very seriously their responsibilities in making the outputs from this research publicly available – not just to other researchers, but also to potential users in business, charitable and public sectors, and to the general public.
Copyright
Authors of articles retain copyright under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use provided the original author and source are credited (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Peer Review Systems
All the Ms submitted for publication on Il Naturalista Siciliano are subject to peer review by two anonymous referees who pass their revision reports to the Editors; on that basis Editors may decide if an article is suitable of publication and if minor or major revision is needed.
Publication decisions
The editor of Il Naturalista Siciliano is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published.
The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
Fair play
The editor of Il Naturalista Siciliano at any time evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
Confidentiality
The editor and the editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.
Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
Confidentiality
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Standards of Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.
Duties of Authors
Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.
Data Access and Retention
Authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
Authorship of the Paper
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.