APEX JOURNAL

Manuscript Submission
Please follow these instructions carefully when preparing your manuscript to ensure that your submission is dealt with speedily. During online submission authors will be required to agree to the Author's Declaration confirming that: 1. The work as submitted has not been published or accepted for publication, nor is being considered for publication elsewhere, either in whole or substantial part. 2. The work is original and all necessary acknowledgements have been made. 3. All authors and relevant institutions have read the submitted version of the manuscript and approve its submission. 4. All persons entitled to authorship have been so included. 5. The work conforms to the legal requirements of the country in which it was carried out, including those relating to conservation and welfare, and to the journal's policy on these matters.

Manuscript Structure
Submitted manuscripts must be double spaced with sequential line numbers throughout the entire document. Pages should be numbered consecutively, including those containing acknowledgements, references, tables and figures. Standard Papers: Standard papers should not normally be longer than 12 printed pages (a page of printed text, without figures or tables carries c. 800 words). The typescript should be arranged as follows, with each section separated with two spaces Title page. This should contain: - A concise and informative title (as short as possible). Do not include the authorities for taxonomic names in the title. -A list of authors' names with names and full addresses of institutions. Author first names should be provided in full. -The name of the correspondence author indicated using an asterisk, to whom decisions and, if appropriate, proofs will be sent. Email address, fax number and current address, if different from above, should be provided.

Article Types
Three types of manuscripts may be submitted:

Regular articles: These should describe new and carefully confirmed findings, and experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper should be the minimum required to describe and interpret the work clearly. Short Communications: A Short Communication is suitable for recording the results of complete small investigations or giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus. The style of main sections need not conform to that of fulllength papers. Short communications are 2 to 4 printed pages (about 6 to 12 manuscript pages) in length. Review: Submissions of reviews and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged. Reviews should be concise and no longer than 4-6 printed pages (about 12 to 18 manuscript pages). Reviews manuscripts are also peer-reviewed.

Review Process
All manuscripts are reviewed by an editor and members of the Editorial Board or qualified outside reviewers. Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible, and the journal strives to return reviewers comments to authors within four weeks. It is the goal of Apex-Journals to publish manuscripts within six weeks after submission. Summary: This is called the Abstract on the web submission site. The Summary must not exceed 350 words and should list the main results and conclusions, using simple, factual, numbered statements. The final point of your Summary must be headed 'Synthesis', and must emphasize the key findings of the work and its general significance, indicating clearly how this study has advanced ecological understanding. This policy is intended to maximize the impact of your paper, by making it of as wide interest as possible. This final point should therefore explain the importance of your paper in a way that is accessible to non-specialists. We emphasize that the Journal is more likely to accept manuscripts that address important and topical questions and hypotheses, and deliver generic rather than specific messages. Key words: A list in alphabetical order not exceeding ten words or short phrases, excluding words used in the title. One of the keywords must be the subject category that you select for your manuscript as part of the submission process (e.g. "Habitat fragmentation", "Dispersal", etc.). Introduction: Explain the reasons for carrying out the work outline the essential background and clearly state the nature of the hypothesis or hypotheses under consideration. Materials and methods: Provide sufficient details of the techniques employed to enable the work to be repeated. Do not describe or refer to commonplace statistical tests in this section but allude to them briefly in Results. Results: State the results and draw attention in the text to important details shown in tables and figures.

Discussion: Point out the significance of the results in relation to the reasons for doing the work, and place them in the context of other work. Acknowledgements: If authors refer to themselves as recipients of assistance or funding, they should do so by their initials separated by points (e.g. J.B.T.). Do not acknowledge Editors by name. References: In the text, a reference identified by means of an authors name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first authors name should be mentioned, followed by et al. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like a and b after the date to distinguish the works.

Examples:
Abayomi (2000), Agindotan et al. (2003), (Kelebeni, 1983), (Usman and Smith, 1992), (Chege, 1998; Chukwura, 1987a, b; Tijani, 1993, 1995), (Kumasi et al., 2001) References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Kingori, University of Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication). Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Examples:
Cox P, Wilkinson PM, Anderson JM (2001). Effects of fungal inocula on the decomposition of lignin and structural polysaccharides in Pinus sylvestris litter. Biol. Fert. Soils. 33: 246251. Burghouts TBA, Van Straalen, Bruignzeel LA (1993). Spatial heterogeneity of element and litter turnover in a Bornean rown forest. J. Trop. Ecol. 14: 477506. Tables: Each table should be on a separate page, numbered and accompanied by a legend at the top. They should be referred to in the text as Table 1, etc. Do not present the same data in both figure and table form or repeat large numbers of values from Tables in the text. Figures: Figures and their legends should be grouped together at the end of the paper, before the appendices (if present). If figures have been supplied as a list at the end of the text file (as recommended), they should appear above their respective legend. The word figures should be abbreviated in the text (e.g. Figures 1, 2 and 3), except when starting a sentence. Photographic illustrations should also be referred to as Figures.

Appendices / supporting information: Please note that Journal no longer publishes Appendices in the printed version, but supporting information may be published in electronic form. Instructions for the preparation of supporting information are available here and general instructions on supporting information can be found here. In order to promote the advancement of science through the process of documenting and making available the research information and supporting data behind published studies, the editors of this journal strongly encourage authors to make arrangements for archiving their underlying data.

Manuscript Format General Guidelines

Prepare manuscripts carefully with attention to all details. Manuscripts that depart from these guidelines will be returned without review. Assemble manuscripts in this order: title page, abstract, text (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and Literature Cited), tables, figure legends, and figures (with figures submitted as separate files in Manuscript Central). It is generally inappropriate to combine Results and Discussion. In the Introduction, state the reason for the study, the context, and the objectives or hypotheses being tested. The Methods section should include sufficient details for the study to be repeated, and should contain a subsection describing the statistical tests and procedures used. Cite statistical software (e.g., SAS) and any other analysis programs here and in the Literature Cited. In the Discussion, explain the importance of the results and place them in the context of previous studies. 1. Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout (including the title page, tables, and figure legends); use the same font (no smaller than 12 point) throughout the manuscript. 2. Text lines should be numbered starting with the Abstract and continuing through Acknowledgments. 3. Margins should be at least 2.5 cm (1 in) on all sides of the page. 4. Place the first author's last name and the page number (starting with the abstract on page 2 and continuing through the Literature Cited) in the upper right corner of each page. 5. Write in the active voice and use U.S. English and spelling throughout the manuscript, except for foreign literature citations. 6. Table and figure citations should be in numerical order, e.g., do not cite Fig. 2 before the first citation to Figure 1. Authors should use recent issues of the Journal as a guide in preparing their manuscripts.
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