Fisheries is the monthly peer-reviewed membership publication of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Its goal is to provide timely, useful, and accurate information on fisheries science, management, and the fisheries profession for AFS members. Some types of articles which are suitable for Fisheries include fishery case histories, review or synthesis articles covering a specific issue, policy articles, perspective or opinion pieces, essays, teaching case studies, and current events or news features. We particularly encourage the submission of review articles on topics of current interest in fisheries science and management and will waive page charges for such topical review articles. Short research articles may be considered if the research has broad implications or applications and the article can be readily understood by professionals of a variety of backgrounds. We also encourage articles that will expose our members to new or different fields and recognize the varied interests of our readers. Because this is the mostly widely read fisheries science publication in the world, potential articles should appeal to a broad portion of fisheries professionals. Lengthy, specialized, or highly technical research articles should be submitted to one of the five AFS journals.

REVIEWED ARTICLES

*IMPORTANT
The maximum length of articles accepted in Fisheries is 12 typeset pages (including photos, figures, tables, pull quotes, titles, translations, etc. Please utilize the Word Count feature in Microsoft Word for word and character counts. If you only want to count on a certain amount of text, highlight that text, and use the word count feature.)

One full page of article text with absolutely no figures, tables, pull quotes, titles, headers, translations, photos is approximately 880 words or 6100 characters including spaces. Please adhere to this standard when considering Fisheries for submission.

Features, Perspectives, and Review Articles
We encourage submission of topical manuscripts of broad interest to our readership that addresses contemporary issues and problems in all aspects of fisheries science, management, and policy. Articles on fisheries management; aquatic resources; economics; educational/administrative concepts, controversies, techniques, philosophies, and developments; and other general interest, fisheries-oriented subjects will be considered. Policy and issue papers are welcome. Papers are judged on scientific and professional merit, relevance, and interest to fisheries professionals. Features and perspectives generally should not exceed 4,500 words (excluding references and tables) and should not cite more than 40 references. Please consult the senior or managing editor PRIOR to submission for a length or reference limit exemption for review articles or articles of Society-wide significance.

Please submit your manuscript online using our manuscript tracking website at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fisheries. If you cannot submit your manuscript online, please e-mail or phone the managing editor for instructions, Sarah Fox, at sgilbertfox@fisheries.org or 301/897-8616 x220 (for fastest responses, please e-mail).

Essays
Essays are thought-provoking or opinion articles based upon sound science. Essays may cover a wide range of topics, including professional, conservation, research, AFS, political, management, and other issues. Essays may be submitted in conjunction with a full feature article on the same topic. Essays can be up to 1,500 words, may include photographs or illustrations, and should not cite more than eight references. However, essays should provide scientific documentation, unlike unreviewed opinion pieces (below). Essays are peer-reviewed based on the following criteria: contribution to the ongoing debate, logical opinion based on good science, persuasiveness, and clarity of writing. Reviewer agreement with the opinion of the views expressed is not a criterion. Essays do not have page charges or abstracts. Essays should be formatted and submitted online as above.

Fisheries Education
New this year, Fisheries will consider acceptance of teaching case studies and education-related topics. Teaching case studies are short topical articles comprehensible for undergraduate students that include a background of the case, discussion questions, teaching notes, and references. Peer review of teaching case studies and educational topics will be handled by a special committee of the AFS Education Section.

Materials to Submit
• Assemble manuscript in this order: title page, abstract page, text, references, tables, figure captions. Tables may included at the end of the article file or may be submitted as separate files. Figures should not be embedded in the article file and should be submitted separately.
• Authors are strongly encouraged to submit a word processing file in either Word or plain text formats. Figures/images should be in TIF, JPG, EPS, or PDF formats and tables should be in Excel or Word formats.
• Word count is extremely important. (See above.)
• The cover letter should explain how your paper is innovative, provocative, timely, and of interest to a broad audience. It should also include a list of colleagues who have seen the manuscript in draft. The cover letter can also be used to provide further explanation if part of the information has been published or presented previously.

General Instructions
• Consult current issues for additional guidance on format.
• Manuscripts should be double-spaced, including tables, references, and figure captions.
• Leave at least a 1-in margin on all sides. Indent all paragraphs. Number pages sequentially.
• Please number lines for use as reference points by the reviewers.
• Use dictionary preference for hyphenation. Do not hyphenate a word at the end of a line. Use Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, to answer grammar or usage questions.
• The first mention of a common name should be followed by the scientific name in parentheses. Our standard is Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, 6th edition.
• Cite each figure and table in the text. Organize text so each is cited in numerical order.
• Use metric units of measure. Imperial equivalents may be given in parentheses.
• Define abbreviations the first time they are used in the text.
• Spell out one-digit numbers unless they are units of measure (e.g., four fishes, 3 mm, 35 sites). Use 1,000 instead of 1000; 0.13 instead of .13; % instead of percent.
• Use the name-and-year system for references in the text as follows:
1. One author: Jones (1995) or (Jones 1995);
2. Two authors: Jones and Jackson (1995) or (Jones and Jackson 1995);
3. Several authors: Jones et al. (1995) or (Jones et al. 1995). But include author names in references.
4. Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published: Jones and Smith (in press) or (Jones and Smith in press).
5. Personal communications: (J. Jones, Institute for Aquatics, pers. comm.).
6. Within parentheses, use a semicolon to separate different types of citations (Figure 4; Table 2), (Jones and Smith 1989; Felix and Anderson 1998). Arrange lists of citations chronologically (oldest first) in a text sentence.
• DO NOT cite more than three references for a specific point.
• For quotations include page number (Jones 1996:301).
• Institutional authors may be cited as acronyms in the text but must be defined in the reference list.

Title Page
• Type the title near the middle of the page, centered, in caps and lowercase.
• Keep the title short, preferably less than seven words; it should accurately reflect the paper’s content. Use common names.
• Below title, include author(s) name(s), title(s), affiliations, city, and state. In multi-authored works, indicate which author is responsible for correspondence.

Abstract Page
• Type the abstract as one paragraph. You can copy and paste this into the online form.
• Do not cite references or use abbreviations in the abstract.
• Ensure that the abstract concisely states (150 words maximum) why you did the study, what you did, what you found, and what your results mean.

Text
• See “General Instructions.”
• Set all type at left. Boldface primary subheads and italicize secondary subheads.
• Insert tabs—not spaces—for paragraph indents.
• Italicize any words that should appear in italics.
• Avoid footnotes by including the information in the text.

References
• Double-space between each reference entry but do not indent text. References will be formatted during the production process.
• Alphabetize entries first by the surnames of senior authors and the first word or acronym of corporate authors; second, by the initials of the senior authors with the same surname; and third, by the surnames of junior
authors. References by a single author precede multi-authored works by the same senior author, regardless of date.
• List multiple works by the same author(s) chronologically, beginning with earliest date of publication.
• Distinguish papers by the same author(s) in the same year by putting lowercase letters after the date (1995a, 1995b).
• Use a long dash when the author(s) is/are the same as in the immediately preceding citation.
• “In press” citations must have been accepted for publication, and the name of the journal or publisher must be included.
• Insert a period and space after each initial of an author’s name.
• Do not abbreviate journal names. Verify all entries against original sources, especially journal titles, accents, diacritical marks, and spelling in languages other than English.

Tables
• Tables may be included with the article or submitted as separate files.
• Double-space everything, including the table title and column headings.
• Use single horizontal lines to separate column heads and to indicate the end of the table—other horizontal lines are not needed. Never use vertical lines.
• Use sentence-style captions for tables, not fragments.
• Capitalize only the first letter of the first word in each column and row entry (except initial caps for proper nouns).
• Tab between column items— DO NOT “space” between columns.
• Type “NA” (not applicable) where no entry applies in the table body. Do not add filler dashes.
• Label footnotes with lowercase, superscript letters, starting from the beginning of the alphabet (a, b, c).
• Redefine, in the table’s caption or in a footnote, any acronyms that are used in the table but are mentioned only infrequently in the text.

Illustrations
Illustrations are photographs, drawings, or figures. All illustrations will print in black-and-white unless an extra payment is made for color. Consult the editor about color costs if interested. Prepare illustrations using professional standards, and consult issues of Fisheries for examples.
• For review on the manuscript tracking system, we prefer digital photos (or scans). However, original film photos and slides can be used for final production. The managing editor or production editor will contact you after acceptance and let you know when to send original photos.
• Identify all people who appear in photographs, and identify photographer or agency responsible for photo. Caption must be in sentence, not fragment, form. Photos are not considered figures and do not need to be referenced in the text.
• Electronic photos should have good contrast, a size of at least 4 x 6 inches, at least 300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution, and be saved in EPS, TIF, or JPG formats. For black-and white figures and graphs, please use a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. We cannot accept PowerPoint files. Hardcopy also must be submitted for production purposes after acceptance.

Page Proofs and Reprints
The corresponding author will receive page proofs of the article (sent as a PDF file via the Central Article Tracking System) approximately four to six weeks prior to publication. Check carefully for typographical errors and possible problems with the placement or captions of illustrations. Extensive revision is not allowed at this stage. Indicate any changes and return page proofs within 48 hours to via the Central Article Tracking System. Reprint ordering instructions will be provided to the corresponding author with the page proofs.

Page Charges, Peer Review, and Copyright
Page Charges are US$85 per published page, plus a $30 flat fee, and are billed to the author within two months of publication. Page charges will be waived for topical review articles. AFS members may request full or partial subsidy of their papers if they lack institutional or grant funds to cover page charges. Technical reviews and acceptability of manuscripts are independent of the need for subsidy.

All manuscripts will be reviewed by two or more outside experts in the subject of the manuscript and evaluated for publication by the science editors and senior editor. Authors may request anonymity during the review process and should structure their manuscripts accordingly.

Papers are accepted for publication on the condition that they are submitted solely to Fisheries and that they will not be reprinted or translated without the publisher’s permission. See “Dual Publication of Scientific Information, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 110:573-574 (1981). AFS required an assignment of copyright from all authors, except for articles written on government time or for the government that cannot be copyrighted. Authors must obtain written permission to reprint any copyrighted material that has been published elsewhere, including tables and figures. Copies of the permission letter must be enclosed with the manuscript and credit given to the source.

UNREVIEWED ARTICLES

Unit News and Other Departments
AFS members are encouraged to submit items for the Unit News, Member Happenings, Obituaries, Letters to the Editor, and Calendar departments. Dated material (calls for papers, meeting announcements, and nominations for awards) should be submitted as early as possible, but at least eight weeks before the requested month of publication. AFS Unit News and Letters should be kept under 400 words and may be edited for length or content. Obituaries for former or current AFS members may be up to 600 words long and a photo of the subject is welcome. Do NOT use the online manuscript tracking system to submit these items—the text and 300 dpi digital photos for all departments except the Calendar should be e-mailed to the managing editor at sgilbertfox@fisheries.org, or mailed to the address below. Calendar items should include the date, event title, location, and contact information, and should be sent to the editor at sgilbertfox@fisheries.org.

For information about submitting a Students’ Angle column, please contact Student Subsection President Jeff Fore at jdfore@mizzou.edu.

Fisheries News
Brief items for the Fisheries News section are encouraged. Typical items include conservation news, science news, new programs of significance, major policy or regulatory initiatives, and other items that would be of interest to Fisheries readers. News items for the section should be no more than a few paragraphs; please consult the managing editor about submitting longer news articles.

Fisheries Forum (formerly Guest Editorials)
Authors are encouraged to submit most opinion pieces about fisheries science or management as essays for peer review. Occasionally, editorials about professional or policy issues may be inherently unsuitable for a scientific review. Sometimes these pieces are submitted by a committee, agency, or organization. Editorials should be 750–1,500 words, may be edited for length or content, and referred for outside review or rebuttal if necessary. A disclaimer may accompany Fisheries Forum editorials stating that the opinion is that of the author and not the American Fisheries Society.

Book Reviews
Please contact Book Review Editor Francis Juanes at 413/545-2758, juanes@forwild.umass.edu,if you want to be added to the list of potential book reviewers.

New books (preferably two copies) submitted for review should be sent to:

Francis Juanes
Professor of Fisheries Biology
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA, USA, 01003-4210
Tel: (413) 545-2758
Fax: (413) 545-4358
email: juanes@eco.umass.edu

QUESTIONS?
Sarah Fox, Managing Editor
American Fisheries Society
5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 110
Bethesda, MD 20814-2199
301/897-8616, ext.220
sgilbertfox@fisheries.org
(for fastest responses, please e-mail).

Detailed instructions for using the online manuscript tracking system are available at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fisheries

Also see the Fisheries “Guidelines for Reviewers” at fisheries.org.