Scope: Plankton and Benthos Research is a peer-reviewed journal publishing quarterly original papers, reviews and notes dealing with any aspect of the biology and ecology of planktonic and benthic organisms and their interactions with the environment in any aquatic system. Submission of a paper is held to imply that it represents an original contribution not previously published and that it is not being considered elsewhere.

Submission of Manuscripts: Manuscripts should be submitted to one of the Editor-in-Chiefs, according to the contents of the manuscript. A cover letter stating why the submission is appropriate for the scope of the journal, why the manuscript will be of interest to the journal's readership, and explaining the novel aspects of the work, should be attached to the submitted manuscript. If possible, please suggest 3–5 potential reviewers who have not been involved with the study or are otherwise close collaborators with the authors. Submissions by e-mail are recommended, though submission of hardcopies (original and two photocopies) by post is also acceptable. By e-mail, manuscripts are to be attached as MS-Word or pdf documents; figures and tables are to be sent as separate attachment files (jpg or pdf), as Excel files, or embedded in text files.

The Editor-in-Chief of The Plankton Society of Japan

Dr. Ken Furuya, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Soka University, 1–236 Tangi, Hachioji, Tokyo 192–8577, Japan.
Phone and Fax: +81–42–691–8166, E-mail: kfuruya@fs.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp

The Editor-in-Chief of The Japanese Association of Benthology

Dr. Satoshi Wada, Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Minato-cho 3–1–1, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041–8611, Japan.
E-mail: wadas@fish.hokudai.ac.jp

Copyrights: After acceptance, copyright resides with either The Plankton Society of Japan, or The Japanese Association of Benthology, depending on which Editor-in-Chief receives the manuscript. The copyright holder is indicated on the first page of each paper in the journal. To use the materials published in Plankton and Benthos Research, authors are requested to obtain permission through the appropriate Editor-in-Chief.

Preparation of Manuscripts:

Please prepare your manuscript following the instructions below. A manuscript not following the instructions will be returned without review.

Ethical responsibilities of authors and authorship principles

Authors should follow the guidelines (Section IV: Presenting Research Results) issued by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-kousei/data/rinri_e.pdf).

Basic style for full-length papers and notes

Manuscripts must be written in English on A4-sized sheets, leaving ample (20–30 mm) margins. It is strongly recommended that, before submission, they be checked by native English speaker(s) or professional language editing services if the author/s is/are not native English speaker(s). Use double spacing throughout. Number each page in the lower margin and each line in the left margin.

The first page of the manuscript should contain: title, author name(s), affiliation(s), mailing address(es), including postal code(s), and running head of not more than 40 letters. In full-length papers, the sequence of material should be: Abstract (page 2, not exceeding 250 words, followed by up to five key words in alphabetical order), text (from page 3, including Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Acknowledgements), References, Tables, Figure legends and Figures. Tables and Figures can be made in separate files from the text.

Notes up to 4 printed pages, with introduction, methods, results and discussion presented in a single section without headings: Abstract, Key words, Acknowledgements and References as in full-length papers.

See recent papers, downloadable from the official website of Plankton and Benthos Research (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/pbr).

Scientific name of taxon

All scientific names of genera and lower categories must be underlined to appear in italics or be directly italic. The complete scientific names (genus, species, authority and year: e.g. Calanus sinicus Brodsky, 1962) should be given for each animal species, without the year for algae, fungi and plant species (e.g. Praestephanos suzukii (Tuji et Kociolek) Tuji), the first time they are mentioned (excluding Title and Abstract). Generic names should be spelt out when first appearing in each headed section (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion) and at the beginning of a sentence. If each section is subdivided under subtitles (e.g. Results, Discussion), the above-mentioned style is applied to each.

Organism occurrence data

Biogeographic data from accepted manuscripts is supplied via the Biological Information System for Marine Life to the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and therefore, to enable this, once accepted, authors are requested to send the latitude/longitude values dates and, if applicable, collection depths for each species/organism occurrence to the Responsible Editor.

Geographical names

Use of geographical names should follow the International Hydrographic Organization guidelines.

Figures and Tables

In text and legends, Figure(s) should be abbreviated as Fig(s). except at the beginning of sentences when it should be spelt in full. Legends of tables and figures must be self-explanatory. Figure files embedded or separately attached should be down-sized to reduce the total size of attached files (max 8MB) as far as possible for reviewing purposes. High resolution figures for printing (pdfs) and Tables in Excel format will be requested after acceptance.

Units and numbers

The International System of Units (SI) should be used, but Celsius is recommended for temperature. Example: 100 ind. m^–3, 2.0 cells mL^–1, 0.3 mm sec–1, 40%, 50.0°C.

References

References in the text should be written as follows: Abe (1986) for a single author, Sato & Saito (1980) or (Sato & Saito 1980) for two authors, and Sato et al. (1980) or (Sato et al. 1980) for more than two authors, and be separated by commas for multiple citations. In References, all published articles referred to in the text should be listed alphabetically and chronologically. Refer to the following sample citations:

Journal:

Kanaya G, Tanimura A, Niiyama T, Toyohara H (2019) Cellulase activity and stable isotope signature of benthic macroinvertebrates in estuarine habitats: potential assimilation of land-derived organic matter. Plankton Benthos Res 14: 315–319.
Tuji A, Niiyama Y (2012) A checklist of Japanese aquatic blooming cyanobacteria with comments on their taxonomy. Bull Plankton Soc Jpn 59: 30–34. (in Japanese with English abstract)
Aoki N (1999) Mechanism for formation of hypoxic water and its movement. Kaiyo Monthly 31: 477–485. (in Japanese)

Book:

MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 203 pp.
Pierrot-Bults AC (1997) Biological diversity in oceanic macrozooplankton: more than counting species. In: Marine Biodiversity: Patterns and Processes (eds Ormond RFG, Gage JD, Angel MV). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 69–93.

Thesis:

Malt SJ (1983) Studies on the taxonomy and ecology of the marine copepod genus Oncaea Philippi. PhD thesis. University of London, UK.

Internet:

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan (2007) Annual statistics on fishery and aquaculture production. Available at: http://www.maff.go.jp/toukei/abstract/1_9/44a.htm (accessed on 1 May 2009)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of each reference is not needed in submitted manuscripts.

Electronic materials

Electronic supplementary materials can be provided to support and enhance the manuscript, including video clips, sound recordings, high-resolution color images, animations, and background datasets. Electronic supplementary materials should be submitted in electronic format together with manuscript files. The supplementary files will be published online at J-Stage.

Proofs, Page Charges and Reprints: Authors will receive page proofs, which should be checked and returned to the Publisher within 3 days of receipt. Authors will be charged for any extensive changes made to the proof. The cost of the first 10 and 4 printed pages of a full-length paper and a note, respectively, will be waived; excess costs (¥7,000 per page) will be charged to the author(s). Author(s) should pay the costs of color prints (about ¥50,000 per page), but color figures can be published in the online version for free. Reprints should be applied for using the reprint order form sent out with the proofs.