Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Interbull Bulletin is the official publication of the International Bull Evaluation Service (Interbull), published by the Interbull Centre. It contains technical and scientific reports presented at Interbull meetings and workshops. All authors whose reports have been accepted for presentation at the meetings and workshops are required to submit a written report according to the present guidelines.

Articles published in the Interbull Bulletin usually contain results from very recent analyses which are meant to stimulate debate and scientific exchange regarding genetic evaluation of cattle. In order to shorten the time between submission and publication, the Interbull Bulletin does not implement  peer review for research reported to the Interbull open meetings/workshops. Authors are, therefore, fully responsible for the contents of their reports.

Due to the expanding role of the Interbull Centre (e.g. its role as an academic unit and as one of the European Union’s Reference laboratories) other types of articles, such as review articles and special reports might be also published in the Interbull Bulletin. For these articles the peer review could be implemented. Authors of the articles presented to the Interbull meetings/workshops can also request to have their work peer reviewed.

The Interbull Bulletin is published electronically. All articles are freely downloadable and proper credit must be given when used as references.

Interbull Centre is responsible for editorial and publishing management of the Interbull Bulletin and holds the ultimate decision upon inclusion of submitted scientific reports.

No publishing charges are requested.

Information about the Interbull Bulletin's publication policies can be found here.

If you are an author and need help submitting your article, please download our How-to Guide.

Language

Please write your text in good English, use decimal points (not decimal commas) and a space for thousands (e.g 10 000).

General formatting

Please submit your manuscript in MS-Word format, using the Interbull Bulletin Format Template.
The Interbull Bulletin Format Template, includes examples and is available for reference when submitting your article.
Please download it here.

Article structure

Manuscripts in general should not exceed ten (10) pages and can be organized in the following order (points in bold are essential):

• Title

• Name of the author(s) and their affiliation

• Abstract

• Keywords (indexing terms)

• Introduction

• Material and methods

• Results

• Discussion

• Conclusion

• Acknowledgments and any additional information concerning research grants, etc.

• References

Initial information

Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

Author names and affiliations: Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of editing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is provided along with the complete postal address.

Present/permanent address: If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was a visiting scientist at an institution different from the permanent address at the time of research, a "Present address"' (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract

All submissions require a concise abstract. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions, and as it is often presented separately from the article it must be able to stand alone. References should be avoided, but if essential then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

The abstract should not be longer than 400 words.

Keywords

Following the abstract a maximum of six keywords should be provided Avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Regarding abbreviations, only those firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Units and nomenclature

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUB: Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents:  http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iubmb/ for further information.

Authors and Editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

All biotica (mammals, crops, plants, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals. All biocides and other organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified.

Math formulae

Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics.. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Equations should be numbered serially at the right-hand side in parentheses. In general only equations explicitly referred to in the text need be numbered.

The use of fractional powers instead of root signs is recommended. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.

Levels of statistical significance which can be mentioned without further explanation are *P< 0.05, **P< 0.01 and ***P< 0.001.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Table footnotes:

Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

Within-text graphics

Tables, figures, charts, etc. should appear in their correct place in the text. Please ensure that the size and lettering is uniform across all graphics and number them according to their sequence within the text. All graphics should be of good resolution and easily legible, however, they should not be disproportionally large for the content (graphics should not exceed the size of a regular journal page).Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

References

References concerning unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.

How to reference the Interbull Bulletin:

Fuerst, C. and Gredler, B. 2009. Genetic evaluation for female fertility traits in Austria and Germany. Interbull Bulletin 40, 3-9

Reference style

Text: All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;

2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;

3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.

Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A. 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.

Reference to a book:

Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.

Journal abbreviations source

Journal names should be abbreviated according to:

Index Medicus journal abbreviations:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;

List of serial title word abbreviations:  http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;

CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):  http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Publication Policy

Publication in the Interbull Bulletin is open only to those who present at Interbull Meetings or Interbull Technical workshops. Further to that, the only other criterion is that papers comply with the “Author Guidelines”.

Papers submitted which do not comply with either one of these criteria will be rejected.

Open access

By submitting to the Interbull Bulletin authors agree to its open access policy, where all papers are available free of charge on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

License

The copyright remains with the author, however on submission authors agree to grant the Interbull Bulletin the license to publish the paper online and in print.

Duplicate publication

The Interbull Bulletin has no restrictions regarding dual publication of papers published within it. Authors are free to publish it in other journals as well as on personal and institution websites.

Authorship

It is the responsibility of the submitting/corresponding author to ensure that all listed authors agree with the content of the paper and its submission to the Interbull Bulletin. Receipt of a paper will be taken to mean that this has occurred.

All communication from the Interbull Bulletin will be with the corresponding author.

Review process

The Interbull Bulletin is not peer reviewed and all information contained in the articles is the full responsibility of the authors.

Submitted papers are checked to see if they are formatted according to the Bulletin’s style guide and re-formatted if they are not.  Submissions are not changed in any other way.

Plagiarism

All submissions should be free of plagiarism and fabrication (e.g. of data or results).

Availability of data and materials

The corresponding author must be willing to provide any data which can be used to replicate or extend the findings of the submitted paper. Reasonable requests from readers for data will be forwarded to the corresponding author. If there are any restrictions concerning the availability of data, these should be made clear either in the paper or in comments during the submission process.

Bioethics

Experiments utilizing animals must comply with the institutional guidelines of where the research was performed. Receipt of a paper by the Interbull Bulletin will be taken to mean that these guidelines have been followed.

Uppsala, March 2012.