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Instructions for authors

July 2008

Animal Welfare
ISSN 0962-7286

Editor: James K Kirkwood
Universities Federation for Animal Welfare
The Old School, Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8AN, UK
Tel:+44 (0)1582 831818
Fax: +44 (0) 1582 831414
Email: ufaw@ufaw.org.uk
Website: www.ufaw.org.uk

Editorial Assistant: Steve Weddell   Tel: 01434 382252   Email: journal@ufaw.org.uk

 

Aim and scope of the journal

Animal Welfare is an international scientific and technical journal. It publishes the results of peer-reviewed scientific research, technical studies and reviews relating to the welfare of kept animals (eg on farms, in laboratories, zoos and as companions) and of those in the wild whose welfare is compromised by human activities. Papers on related ethical and legal issues are also considered for publication. The journal also includes letters to the editor, commentary on topical issues such as developments in legislation and codes of practice relating to animal welfare and book reviews.

 

Abstracting

The journal is covered by the Science Citation Index and is abstracted in: Biological Abstracts; CAB Abstracts; Current Contents/Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences; Current Primate References; EMBASE; Focus on: Veterinary Science & Medicine; Humans & Other Species; Research Alert; SciSearch; Toxicology Abstracts; Veterinary Update; it is indexed in Zoological Record.

 

Refereed papers in Animal Welfare include:

 

Policy on studies involving live animals

Animal Welfare will not include papers based on work that involves unnecessary pain, distress, suffering or lasting harm. Manuscripts describing research involving live animals must include appropriate details, in the methods section, of animals used, housing and feeding, experimental design, experimental procedures, ethical considerations, and licences and approvals under which the work was carried out (see Materials and methods).

 

Other restrictions

Material submitted must not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Papers should not normally exceed 10 000 words (c20 pages of the journal including tables, diagrams and references).

 

Submission of manuscripts

Papers should be submitted to the Editor by e-mail and a paper copy and computer disk or CD-ROM must also be sent by post. The author should keep a copy of all submitted material.  All manuscripts must be word processed in Microsoft Word.

The author will be required to confirm in a covering letter that:

 

Style

Papers must be written in the English language. Articles should be written in a style that is readily comprehensible.

 

Preparation of manuscripts

Authors should consult a recent edition of the journal to familiarise themselves with the journal's conventions on format.

Manuscripts should be word processed in Microsoft Word using Times New Roman font, double-spaced with lines numbered. The pages should be numbered consecutively and securely fixed together. The contents will usually be organised into an Abstract (followed by keywords), Introduction, Materials and methods section (including statistical analyses), Results, Discussion, Conclusion and Animal welfare implications. A running title must be supplied (of no more than 7 words).

 

Title page

Give the full title and running title of the paper and the name(s) of the author(s). For multi-author papers the full e-mail, telephone, fax and postal addresses of the correspondent should be given, plus the addresses of the other authors. The correspondent must be clearly indicated.

Centre the title in bold letters. Name(s) and institutional address(es) of author(s) should be centred under the title in upper and lower case, eg

Advances in the assessment of animal welfare

AN Other

University of Wheathampstead

 

Abstract

To consist of not more than 250 words. It should outline clearly and concisely the main findings without reference to the text and end in a brief statement on the paper's conclusions and animal welfare implications. This should not contain details of statistical analyses or references (eg P > 0.01).

 

Keywords

Six keywords should be noted in alphabetical order below the abstract. These should include 'animal welfare' and the common name of the main species involved (where appropriate). The keywords will be used for abstracting and indexing the article.

 

Materials and methods

The description of the methods should be sufficiently detailed to allow replication of the work. In studies involving animals, provide details of numbers used and of species, strain, age, sex, source and other relevant characters. Full details should be given of experimental design, procedures and testing or observational regimes. Description of the statistical analyses should also be included as a subdivision of the methods section (see recent paper for format). If the animals were kept in captivity, provide relevant details of housing, feeding and management (eg type of housing and environment, diet and feeding regime, group size and composition, and acclimation and routine management procedures).

Where ethical considerations arise (eg if procedures compromise animal welfare or other ethical concerns), these should be addressed in the methods section. Any ethical implications and justifications of the experimental design or procedures should be described; details should be provided of licences or other permissions required for the work (eg from ethical review bodies). Measures undertaken to minimise the adverse welfare impact on animals involved, including choice of sample size, use of pilot tests and predetermined rules for intervention, should be described. The fate of all animals used in the study should be detailed. Steps taken to enhance the welfare of animals involved (eg through environmental enrichment) should also be outlined.

Data should be subjected to appropriate statistical analyses, with the chosen methods clearly described. Relevant references or details of software packages should be cited.

When expressing statistical probabilities, follow the following style: n = 7; ns - not significant; P < 0.05, P = 0.1, one-tailed P < 0.01 (capital, italic P, single space either side of < or = sign); F5,25 = 2.61; where appropriate, indicate the number of degrees of freedom (as df = 3).

 

Animal welfare implications

To be set out at the end of the text as a subdivision of the discussion or conclusion.

 

References

List at the end of the text in alphabetical and chronological order of authors with the minimum of punctuation. Book and journal titles should be quoted in full, with the original spelling and punctuation, and italicised. For example, American spellings of 'behavior' and 'color' are to be used if they have been published as such. Supply details of editor(s) and name and location of publisher for books and published conferences/symposia. For unpublished proceedings etc supply exact details of title, venue, date, location and sponsoring organisation.

The references must be listed in the following style:

 

Main headings

On a separate line, left-aligned in bold title case, eg

Animal health

 

Subheadings

On a separate line left-aligned in bold italics, eg

Respiratory disorders

 

Sub-subheadings

Avoid if possible; otherwise should be on a separate line left-aligned in italics.

 

Abbreviations

Acronyms should be in full the first time they appear, eg World Health Organisation (WHO). Full stops should not be used in contractions, for example ie etc eg, nor within acronyms. Figure or Table should not be abbreviated.

 

Footnotes

May be used in the text only when essential. Number consecutively and mark using superscripts. Insert each one immediately below the line citing it with a line's spacing above and below. Footnotes to tables are to be indicated using superscript numbers and placed below the table.

 

Foreign words and phrases

Should be in italics except for common phrases (eg 'post mortem'), amputated phrases (eg 'post hoc') and abbreviations. However, 'et al' should be in italics.

 

Locations

Give as latitude and longitude (specifying degrees, minutes and seconds).

 

Measurements

To comply with the abbreviations in the International System of Units (SI).

 

Numbers

One to nine should be written in words unless they precede units of measurement. Numbers 10 and above should be written as numerals except at the beginning of a sentence. The 24 hour clock should be used for times of day, eg 1400h and, if relevant, corrected to standard local time. Zero should be inserted before the decimal point for values less than one, eg P = 0.05. A space should separate groups of three digits in whole numbers exceeding four digits (100, 1000, 10 000 etc).

 

References within the text

Cite with minimum punctuation, eg:

• '... carried out by Smith and Jones (1985) ...';
• '... (Smith & Jones 1985)...' ie use an ampersand when reference is in parentheses;
• '... (Smith 1985; Jones 1986; Smythe 1986), ...' ie put two or more references in chronological and then alphabetical order, and separate each author's references by a semi-colon;
• '... (Smith et al 1985)...' ie use et al for three or more authors;
• '... (Smith 1986a, b; 1988)...' ie by an author in the same and in a subsequent year;
• '... (Smith in press)...' ie has been accepted for publication but is not yet published;
• '... (Smith 1980, 1986, 1990; Jones 1981, 1982)...' ie group all references to one author's work together.

For detailing specific points within multi-chapter or lengthy volumes the reference may include the chapter or page numbers, eg (Smith 1987 Ch 7) or (Smith 1987 p 3-4). Citations of personal communications and unpublished data should be avoided if possible. When they have to be used they should include the named source of the personal communication and the date.

• Check that spellings of authors' names and publication dates in the text and references are consistent.
• Ensure that all references in the text appear in the reference section.
• Ensure that all references in the reference section are cited in the text.

 

Scientific and common names

When first mentioned in the paper, species should be described by the common English name and defined by the full scientific name, eg rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Thereafter either rabbit or O. cuniculus may be used, preferably the former. Names of genera and species or subspecies should be in italics. Nomenclature for outbred laboratory animals should conform to that recommended by the Committee on Nomenclature, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Washington DC, USA.

 

Spelling

This should be English and - except for quotations and references - conform to the first entry in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

 

Trade products

Give the brief address from where the product may be obtained eg '...Kong Ball' (supplied by the Company of Animals, Chertsey, Surrey)...'. Denote any T or ® marks required.

 

Tables

Each table should be typed on a separate sheet and its place in the text indicated. Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals (eg Table 1, Table 2 etc). Titles should be brief and placed above the table. Titles between tables should be as consistent as possible. Additional information, such as the key or acknowledgement, should be shown below. Wherever possible, tables should be created using the table feature. Tables must be portrait (not landscape) and designed to fit the journal page format.

 

Figures

Please note that figures must follow the format below.

Figures should not be larger than A4 size, and must be cited in the text at least once.

Figures should be as simple as possible; particularly avoid three-dimensional graphics. There should be no enclosing lines on graphs or keys. Arial font should be used throughout for all text. Axis labels should be in arial 8 point bold throughout and tick labels should be in arial 7 point regular (ie not bold). Decimal points must be full stops and not commas.

Standard error bars should be shown where possible. For data points these extend below and above the point with short horizontal lines denoting the ends. For histograms these extend above each block with a short horizontal line denoting the end.

 

Captions (Figure number plus title)

The figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and 'Figure' written in full, (eg Figure 1, Figure 2 etc). This should be accompanied by a brief title and a caption that is self-explanatory, needing no reference to the text.

Similar figures should have the same format and similar titles/captions, so they can be easily compared (this also applies to Tables).

Figures that share captions should be marked (a), (b) etc in the top left-hand corner and if they have the same x-axis and/or y-axis measurement it may be possible to share axis labels.

 

Labels

All axis labels to be in arial 8 point bold. All tick labels to be in arial 7 point regular (ie not bold).

All letters in lower-case except the first letter of the first word.

No full stops after labels and no underlining.

Graph axis headings should include both parameter and unit.

All decimal points should be full stops and not commas.

Système International (SI) units should be used, noted in negative exponent form and in brackets at the end of the heading (as used in the Journal of Zoology; Applied Animal Behaviour Science; Nature), eg 'Corticosterone concentration (ng ml-1)'.

 

Keys

Keys should be included within the graph in a blank space, preferably at the top right-hand corner (not enclosed in lines).

Only use shadings which are sharp and are easily distinguished from each other. Black, white and greyscale are preferred.

Use large and preferably solid symbols (circles, triangles and squares) for data points.

 

Photographs

Photographs are welcomed, and should be submitted as either GIF, TIF, BMP or JPEG images along with the original submission. A bar scale with relevant units should be shown, or the magnification indicated where relevant.  Any photographs that would be suitable for the cover should also be submitted.

Authors wishing to publish coloured prints should contact the editorial office to discuss charges.

 

 

Permissions

Any figures that have been taken directly from other manuscripts must have copyright permission from both the author and the publisher, or only the author if the material is unpublished. This permission must be submitted in writing with the necessary signatures when the manuscript is submitted.

 

Letters

Readers are invited to submit and respond to observations and opinions on topical animal welfare issues, as well as on material published in the journal. Publication will be subject to editorial discretion and the journal reserves the right to edit for clarity and style.

 

Proofs

These are supplied in advance of publication by e-mail and must be returned by the specified date; any delay in returning the proof may result in the paper being held over until a subsequent issue. Only essential corrections should be made. Charges may be levied for authors' errors.

 

Reprints

The corresponding author of a paper will be supplied with a complimentary copy of the relevant journal issue and 25 free reprints. Further copies may be ordered at extra cost at the proof stage.

 

Copyright

The copyright of each paper published becomes the property of UFAW and written permission must be sought to reproduce any part or whole of the paper. However, UFAW will not put undue limitations on the author to use the material in other works.

 

Section Editors

Companion animals - Cats and Dogs

Professor Dennis C Turner
Institute for Applied Ethology and Animal Psychology (IEAP)
Vorderi Siten 30, PO Box 32,
CH-8816 Hirzel, Switzerland

Companion animals

Professor Daniel Mills
Animal Behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Group
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Lincoln
Riseholme Park
Lincoln LN2 2LG

Laboratory animals

Professor Jann Hau
Department of Experimental Medicine
University of Copenhagen
3B Blegdamsvej
DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark

Poultry

Professor Joy Mench
Department of Animal Science
2245 Meyer Hall
University of California
Davis, CA 95616-8521, USA

General animal welfare science

Professor David Mellor
Room 267, College of Sciences
Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand

 

Farmed mammals and fish

Professor Christine Nicol
University of Bristol
Langford House
Langford
Bristol BS25 1BS

Zoo animals

Dr Christoph Schwitzer
Head of Research
Bristol Zoologial Gardens
Clifton
Bristol BS8 3HA
Email: cschwitzer@bristolzoo.org.uk

 

Ethics and philosophy

Professor Peter Sandøe
Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment
Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
Groennegaardsvej 8,
DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark

 

Wild animals

Dr Kate E Littin
Animal Welfare Group
Biosecurity New Zealand
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House, 25 The Terrace
P O Box 2526 Wellington
New Zealand

 

Editorial Advisers

Dr Robert Baker - Australia
Dr M F Bouissou - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France
Professor D Broom - University of Cambridge, UK
Professor M Stamp Dawkins - University of Oxford, UK
Mr Roger Ewbank - Ealing, London, UK
Dr Michael Festing - University of Leicester, UK
Professor Benjamin Hart - University of California, Davis, USA
Mr C Barrie Hart - Berkhamsted, Herts, UK
Professor David Morton - University of Birmingham, UK
Dr James Serpell - University of Pennsylvania, USA
Professor John Webster - University of Bristol, UK
Professor P R Wiepkema - Oosterbeek, The Netherlands

 

 

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