Before submitting a manuscript please read carefully the Instructions for Authors below.

Please note that by publishing in the journal you will subscribe to the following code of ethics. On submission you certify that:

• The material submitted has not been published before, either in the present or in a modified form.
• The manuscript is not in the process of review in any other journal.
• A paper accepted for publication will not be published elsewhere (wholly or partly), without the written permission of the RSAS.
• Submission of the manuscript has been approved by all authors.

Please note that it is mandatory to include a cover letter to the editor on submission of the manuscript. The cover letter will state:

• that all the authors approved that the paper be submitted to the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius;
• that the article is original and is the work of the authors.

Please label your paper ‘Manuscript submission’ and name your manuscript with the name of first author.

Please send your manuscript file by email to: The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius <rsas.mu@gmail.com>. In 72h (excluded weekends) you will receive the confirmation by email with the registration number. (If you have problems contact the secretary)

Instructions for Authors

Article Categories

Full-length papers and short communications on original research, review articles, selected presentations at conferences and special issues dedicated to specific events will be considered for publication in the Journal.

Research Article

Original research devoted to new findings and results in the defined fields should have the introduction written with non-specialists in mind. A Research Article should be organized as follows: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, References and Author Biographies of less than 75 words.

Review Article

Review Articles focussing on one topical aspect of a research field rather than providing a comprehensive literature survey should be a narrative in simple, non-specialist language, organized as follows: Abstract, Keywords, main text article, Acknowledgements, Author Biography. It should not be focused on the authors' own work.

Papers must be concise and well written. Articles should consist of around 3000 words excluding the abstract. The Editorial Committee reserves the right not to publish any article exceeding this length.

Submission of a manuscript to the Editorial Committee will be taken to imply that the material is original, and has not and will not be submitted in similar form to another journal for publication. Original articles will be submitted to the Editorial Committee for review. Authors are requested to provide a list of at least two potential reviewers including their email addresses. These suggested reviewers need not necessarily be used by the Editor.

Copyright of papers that are published in the Journal is vested in the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius.

However, any views expressed in the articles will be considered as being those of the authors and not necessarily reflecting those of the Society.

Preparation and Presentation of Manuscripts

1. Contributions should be written in clear and concise English using British conventions of spelling and grammar, or in clear and concise French using recognised conventions of spelling and grammar.
2. The manuscript should be double-spaced, with one inch margins on all sides.
3. Manuscripts submitted should be in MSWord for Windows or MSWord for Mac, but not in PDF format. The accepted font is Calibri 12 point. Please save your document as *.DOC or *.DOCX (Microsoft Office Word File)
4. Use SI metric system for units of measurement. However, there may be occasions when it is appropriate to cite the units actually used in the study (e.g. feet, arpents), in which case the SI equivalents must be placed in brackets.
5. Scientific names should be given in full in the text when a genus or species is first mentioned and written in italics, e.g. Phelsuma ornata. For subsequent mentions the genus may be given by the initial only e.g. P. ornata.
6. Cite references by name and year of publication, e.g., Arnold (1979). When the referenced are in brackets there is no comma separating the name and date, e.g. (Arnold 1979). When several references are in brackets, the references are separated by a semi-colon and in chronological order, e.g. (Arnold 1979; Staub 1976). When there are two authors (Cole & Harris 2011) or Cole & Harris (2011), for example, should be used. If there are more than two authors et al. should be used after the first name, for example (Zuel et al 2012). Personal communications and reference to unpublished data should be cited in the text giving the initials and name (e.g., E.N. Arnold, pers. comm. or F. Staub, unpubl. data).
7. Tables must be computer generated and should be clearly understandable without reference to the text. They should have descriptive headings, and be numbered consecutively as they are mentioned in the text, using Arabic numerals, e.g. Table 1, Table 2. Tables must be double-spaced, presented on separate pages, and grouped together at the end of the manuscript. Reference to the tables must be made in the text at the appropriate places. All tables, illustrations and photographs will be suitably placed in the text by the Editor.
8. Illustrations and photographs. Original figures should be supplied only once the paper has been accepted. Please provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please be sure that all imported scanned material is scanned at the appropriate resolution: 1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour. Maximum size for illustrations is 16 x 24 cm.
   
   Figures must be saved on separate pages to text and numbered chronologically as they are referred to in the text using Arabic numerals. Reference to figures in text must be (Fig. 1), (Figs 2 and 3), (Figs 2, 3 and 4, (Figs 2 to 5). Please do not embed figures in the manuscript file.
   
   Files should be saved as listed below:
   
   a) The printed page size (for illustrations to be reproduced to scale)
   
   b) Black and white line drawings: Resolution 1200 dpi for published print size. Mode Bitmap (black and white) or grayscale. Image format BMP, TIF or High quality JPG.
   
   c) Black and white line drawings with grey tones: Resolution 600 dpi for published print size. Mode grayscale. Image format TIF or High quality JP G.
   
   d) Colour and black and white photographs: Resolution minimum 300dpi for published print size. Mode RGB for colour and grayscale for black and white photos. Image format BMP, TIF or High quality JPG.
9. Footnotes should be used sparingly and must be numbered consecutively throughout the article.
10. Structure of Articles:
    
    Title page: This should contain the title of the paper, the name or names and address of the authors, the e-mail address of the corresponding author and the abstract. The paper itself must start on a new page.
    
    Title. This should be concise, specific and informative and including the maximum number of relevant key words to facilitate retrieval and indexing by bibliographic searching techniques.
    
    Abstract. The abstract should not exceed 100 words and should state briefly the purpose of the paper, the main results and conclusions. It should be followed by a list of up to five key words. Acronyms and abbreviations must be avoided in the abstract.
    
    Full-length research articles will present original information and must be divided in clearly defined sections as described in Article Categories above.
    
    Review articles will cover well targeted subjects, bringing a new approach or vision on the matter. The structuring will be less rigid and headings appropriately named according to the needs of the article.
    
    Short Communications will consist of short notes (800 words maximum), with the title, author/s, article starting on the first page.
    
    Acknowledgements should follow the Conclusion and immediately precede the References.
    
    References. References should be listed alphabetically at the end of the papers in the format shown below. The title of each journal must be given in full.
    
    ARNOLD, E.N. 1979. Indian Ocean giant tortoises: their systematics and island adaptations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 286B, 127-145.
    
    BAKER, P. 2008. "Economy, Environment and Society at Kilise Tepe, Southern Central Turkey: Faunal Remains from the 1994-1998 Excavations." In Archaeozoology of the Near East VIII: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on the Archaeozoology of Southwestern Asia and Adjacent Areas, edited by E. Vila, L. Gourichon, A. M. Choyke and H. Buitenhuis, Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon. 49: 407-430.
    
    COLE, N.C., & HARRIS, S. 2011. Environmentally-induced shifts in behaviour intensify indirect competition by an invasive gecko in Mauritius. Biological Invasions, 13, 2063-2075. doi:10.1007/s10530-011-0025-8
    
    HUME, J.P. 2014. Fossil discoveries on Mauritius and Rodrigues. In Western Indian Ocean Tortoises, edited by J. Gerlach, pp. 203-228. Manchester, Siri Scientific Press.
    
    MONTAGGIONI, L. 1973. Histoire géologique de l’ile Rodrigue. Info-Nature, Ile Réunion, 9: 52–59.
    
    MOURER-CHAUVIRE, C., BOUR, R., RIBES, S & F. MOUTOU. 1999. The avifauna of Réunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 89: 1-38.
    
    STAUB, F. 1976. Birds of the Mascarenes and Saint Brandon. Port Louis, Mauritius, Organisation Normale des Entreprises. 110 pp.
11. Author copies. A free pdf of articles with a limit of 50 downloads will be available to the authors.

Thank you for publishing in our Journal!