Author Guidelines

Brief Background

Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (ISSN online: 1807-0205; and ISSN print: 0031-1049) is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal published by the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo.

Its first issue was launched in 1940/1941 by the Zoology Department of the São Paulo State Secretariat of Agriculture (Brazil). Initially under the name Papéis Avulsos do Departamento de Zoologia da Secretaria de Agricultura (ISSN 0369-8467) and, since 1967, its name has been Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia.

In 1969, the Department of Zoology was incorporated into the University of São Paulo as the Museum of Zoology, and the journal subsequently became one of the University's publications. It began publishing its online version in 2002 and, in the following year, it was admitted into the SciELO Brazil Collection. In 2006, it was indexed in the Directory Open Access Journal (DOAJ), it joined the University of São Paulo Scientific Journals Portal and was indexed in SCOPUS in 2008.

From those subsequent years to the present, the journal has consistently improved its editorial processes and policies, thereby enhancing the quality of the research it publishes.

Open Access

All articles content published by this journal, except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-type CC-BY. According to that license, the article and all its content can be shared, adapted, reused, copied, and redistributed in any medium or format, for any lawful purpose, since the authors receive the appropriate credits for their work.

In this model the copyright is retained by the authors of the articles published in Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia.

The metadata of the published articles (authors’ names, affiliation, identifiers, article and journal titles, keywords, abstracts, funding information, references data, dates, e-location etc.), except where identified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Type  CC0 1.0 . Which means those data are dedicated to the public domain and they can be copied, modified, distributed, performed and interoperated by platforms and systems, even for commercial purposes, without asking permission. That allows the articles and the journal indexing in databases, repositories and other platforms, increasing the visibility of the research published by them.

Authors are encouraged to share the published version of the manuscript with their colleagues and deposit it in institutional repositories when necessary.

Open Science Compliance 

This journal follows the Diamond Open Access model,  which means that the journal content is freely accessible online without barriers, i.e., with neither subscription fees for readers nor article processing charges (APCs) for authors.

The Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia editorial policy also adheres to research communication in the Open Science modus operandi and the journal requests that authors complete the Open Science Compliance Form upon submission.

Ethics in Publication 

The journal has adopted the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on publication ethics.

Research or publication misconduct (plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data and results, conflict of interest, etc.) and ethical issues concerning the editorial and peer-review processes will be treated in accordance with the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and SciELO Guidelines on Best Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication. 

Zoological Nomenclature: All contributions must follow the rules and recommendations of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Code), including the Appendix A - Code of Ethics of the ICZN Code (https://code.iczn.org/appendices/appendix-a-code-of-ethics/).

The journal has policies and guidelines for Authors, Editors, Reviewers and Editorial Team on Authorship and Contributionship, Conflict of Interest,  Funding, Plagiarism Prevention, Use of IA Technologies, Animal Experimentation, Third-party content use, Retractions and Corrections. Please, refer to the specific section for details of each subject. 

Focus and Scope

• Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia primarily covers the areas of Zoology, publishing original contributions in systematics, paleontology, evolutionary biology, ecology, taxonomy, anatomy, behavior, functional morphology, molecular biology, ontogeny, faunistic studies, and biogeography.
• The journal is of interest to researchers and professionals from Zoology, Biodiversity, Ecology, Biology, and related areas.
• The submission of theoretical and empirical studies that explore the principles and methods of systematics are encouraged.
• Its abbreviated title is Pap. Avulsos Zool., which should be used in bibliographies, footnotes, bibliographical references, and strips.
• The journal has adopted a continuous flow of publication (rolling pass) in a single annual volume from 2018 on.
• All contributions must follow the rules and recommendations of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Code).
• Relevant specimens must be deposited in national or international public museums or collections.
• Tissue samples should be linked to their voucher specimens, and all nucleotide sequence data (aligned and unaligned) should be submitted to European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ),  BOLD Systems (Barcode of Life Data System) or GenBank. 
• ZooBank is the Official Register of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Code) for registration of new nomenclatural acts, published works, and authors.
• The editorial team of Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia is going to register articles that contain nomenclatural acts in ZooBank. Such articles will receive a Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) that is going to be included in the published version.
• The registration of new names in ZooBank is recommended (not a requirement) to authors.  

Digital Preservation 

This journal follows the standards defined in the SciELO Program Digital Preservation Policy.

As the journal is hosted on the USP Journals Portal and also utilizes the Open Journal Systems (OJS) submission platform, developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), all the journal content is automatically archived and digitally preserved through the dedicated PKP Preservation Network and the IBICT’s Cariniana Network.

Indexing Sources

• Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)
• Biological Abstracts*
• BIOSIS Previews*
• CAB Direct (CABI)
• Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ)
• Diretório de Políticas Editoriais das Revistas Científicas Brasileiras (DIADORIM)
• Latindex (Catálogo 2.0 and Diretório)
• Portal Brasileiro de Publicações e Dados Científicos em Acesso Aberto (OASISBR)
• Portal de Revistas Eletrônicas da USP
• Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO)
• SCOPUS
• ULRICH’s (International Periodicals Directory)
• Zoological Record*

*Disable the default filter of the Core Collection of the Master Journal List to visualize the journal profile in those databases.

Bibliographic Journal Information 

• Full title: Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 
• Abbreviated Title: Pap. Avulsos Zool. (Online)
• Publication by: Universidade de São Paulo. Museu de Zoologia
• Frequency: Irregular
• Publication mode:: Continuous Publication (CP)
• Year of creation of the Journal: 1940
• ISSN (Online): 1807-0205

 

Websites and Social Media

• Official Website: https://revistas.usp.br/paz/ 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pazmzusp 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paz_journal/ 
• X: https://x.com/PAZ_journal 

EDITORIAL POLICY

Preprints 

Preprint is a manuscript made available in open access on a preprint web server before being published by a journal.

Manuscripts that not contain nomenclatural acts and that are deposited in established and trustworthy preprint servers as bioRxiv (https://www.biorxiv.org/) or SciELO Preprints (https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo), will be evaluated and considered for submission. 

Authors must fill the Open Science Compliance Form with the preprint information and submit it in the journal submission platform along with the manuscript archives.

After approval and publication in the Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia, authors must update the preprint record in the preprint server, informing that the manuscript has been published and including the link DOI of the published version of the article.

The journal does not encourage the deposit in preprint repositories of manuscripts containing nomenclatural acts.  

To avoid possible confusion in the priority of scientific names and validity of publication, manuscripts containing nomenclatural acts as new description of species, genera, families etc, will not be accepted for the submission process and publication if they are previously published as preprint, once that practice conflicts with the ICZN rules.

Unfortunately preprints are not considered permanent registers of scientific works (published works) in the context of the ICZN Code. Please, for further information, refer to the item 9.9 of the Article 9 (https://code.iczn.org/criteria-of-publication/article-9-what-does-not-constitute-published-work/ ) and the Article 8 (https://code.iczn.org/criteria-of-publication/article-8-what-constitutes-published-work/ ) of the ICZN Code. 

Peer Review Process

• Initially, the Editor checks all submitted manuscripts to verify whether it fits within the journal scope and policies. The article can be rejected directly; returned to the author for improvement and re-submission; or can be sent to the next step of the editorial process.
• In order to verify text similarity and prevent duplication or plagiarism occurrences, all manuscripts approved in the first trial will be submitted to the tool Ithenticate (Turnitin).
• After that, the manuscript is sent to the Coeditor or Associated Editor according to its subject. The editor responsible for the submission will manage all the review process including the designation of referees.
• Authors are invited to suggest referees at the moment they submit their manuscript through a message to the editor on the OJS platform.
• All submissions are subject to analysis by at least 2 (two) referees qualified to evaluate the manuscript and one Editor.
• The peer-review type adopted is “single-blind”, in which the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author.
• If there are divergent or conflicting reviewers’ recommendations, the editor can analyze them and decide to accept or reject the paper or, if necessary, send it to a third reviewer.
• Once a manuscript is accepted, providing the changes suggested by the referees, the author is requested to return a revised version incorporating those changes (or a detailed explanation of why the reviewer’s suggestions were not followed) within a maximum of 15 (fifteen) days upon receiving the communication by the Editor.
• After final approval, the editor must inform the journal technical support whether the manuscript needs to be sent to an English language editing service for writing improvements and corrections.
• The name of the editor responsible for the submission is presented in the published version of the article.

 

Editors, Coeditors, Associate and Invited Editors are expected to:

• Declare any conflicts of interest before accepting to conduct a peer-review process.
• Conduct the peer-review and editorial process of the manuscript following the journal policies present in the Author Guidelines.
• Decide to Accept or Reject based on scientific quality and overall style according to the Author Guidelines and to good practices in clear and concise academic writing.
• Preserve the reviewers’ identity.
• The use of AI tools is not allowed for the work of assessing the manuscript's quality, methodology, and scientific contribution. For more information, please, refer to the section "Adoption of software using Artificial Intelligence Resources".
• The journal has adopted the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on publication ethics. It is recommended to read the most recent COPE Code of Conduct and Core Practices (click here).

Reviewers are expected to:

• Declare any conflicts of interest before starting the review process.
• Assess the manuscript as to the quality and relevance of research, clarity of text, and compliance with the Author Guidelines.
• Keep the confidentiality of the data and information obtained by reviewing the manuscript.
• When the research data is deposited in a Research Data Repository, the reviewer should test the link informed by the authors in the manuscript, confirm if it is cited in the Material and Methods section, if the author included the Data Availability Statement, and finally if its reference is included in the references list. See the Research Data section in the Author Guidelines.
• The use of AI tools is not allowed for the work of assessing the manuscript's quality, methodology, scientific contribution and generating review reports. For more information, please, refer to the section "Adoption of software using Artificial Intelligence Resources".
• The journal has adopted the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on publication ethics. It is recommended to read COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (click here).

Proofs

• Page-proofs with the revised version will be sent by email to the corresponding author.
• Page-proofs must be returned to the Editor, preferentially within 48 (forty-eight) hours.
• Only necessary corrections in proof will be permitted.
• The omission of returning the proof will mean automatic approval of the version with no changes and may result in a delay in publication.

Open Data

The Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia encourages the publication of research data related to manuscripts submitted to the journal as tables, figures, databases, codes, materials, áudio, or other data used to validate the research results. 

Authors must fill the Open Science Compliance Form with the research data information and submit it in the journal submission platform along with the manuscript archives. 

The journal recommends the deposit of scientific data in appropriate repositories and its citation in accordance with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable).

Authors can use their institution's data repository or choose a data repository from re3data.org (https://www.re3data.org/search?query=dryad) and SciELO list of recommended repositories (https://wp.scielo.org/wp-content/uploads/Lista-de-Repositorios-Recomendados_pt.pdf).

Authors of accepted manuscripts may choose to deposit their data in the journal Dataverse in Scielo Data. For more information, please, refer to the "Research Data" section of the Instructions to Authors.

From December 2025 on, a Data Availability statement must be included in the submitted manuscript (refer to the Research Data section of the Instruction to Authors). 

Third-party datasets used in the preparation of the manuscript must be cited and referenced, in accordance with this journal's standards. 

Tissue samples should be linked to their voucher specimens, and all nucleotide sequence data (aligned and unaligned) should be submitted to European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ),  BOLD Systems (Barcode of Life Data System) or GenBank. 

Fees

There is no publication fee or Article Processing Charge (APC) to submit or publish in Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia.

Ethics and Misconduct, Correction and Retraction Policy

The Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scientific record.

Allegations of misconduct, requests for corrections, and doubts concerning articles published in this journal must be sent to the Editor (contact information). All cases will be initially assessed. Depending on the gravity of the occurrence, the case will be referred to the authors’ institutions for formal investigation, as institutions have the essential authority to access primary research data and related documents not available to the journal. When necessary, the journal will also form a commission of specialists to evaluate specific cases, in strict accordance with the COPE Guidelines and SciELO Guidelines and Guides listed below. Finally, retractions, corrections, or expressions of concern will be published as applicable, strictly following the outcomes of these assessments and guidelines.

• Guidelines on Best Practices for Strengthening Ethics in Scientific Publication
• Guide to recording, marking and publishing Correction (portuguese only)
• Guide for registering, marking and publishing a retraction (portuguese only)
• Guide for registering, tagging and publishing Addendum (portuguese only)

Policy on Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of interest can be of a personal, commercial, political, academic, or financial nature. They may arise when authors, reviewers, editors or editorial teams possess interests that could influence the preparation, evaluation or publishing of manuscripts.

Upon submitting the manuscript, authors are responsible for acknowledging and disclosing financial or other conflicts that may have influenced the work.  If there is a conflict of interest, even a potential one, the author(s) must declare it in the Comments do the Editor email through the journal submission platform.

Authors must include a conflict of interest statement in the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, it must be declared. For examples, authors can refer to the “Conflict of Interest Statement ”section of the “Instructions to Authors”.

Editors, reviewers and editorial team must declare any conflict of interest using the Discussion email functionality of the journal submission platform.

Adoption of similarity software

From May 2020 on, the journal has adopted the tool iThenticate (Turnitin) to prevent duplication and plagiarism occurrences.

All submitted manuscripts are evaluated by the Editor who assesses their quality and compliance with the journal's scope and policies. Then, they are uploaded in the iThenticate tool for similarity verification. If needed, the authors are contacted for adjustments or, in case of any misconduct identification, the manuscripts are rejected.

Adoption of software using Artificial Intelligence Resources

The Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia does not adopt or recommend any artificial intelligence tool in its editorial or review processes.

Reviewers and Editors are not allowed to upload the entire manuscript or any of its parts into generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyze it or generate review reports. This is because it is currently unclear whether these technologies utilize input data for model training and/or risk suggesting manuscript content to other users. Unpublished manuscripts contain sensitive, confidential information, particularly those that include nomenclatural acts. 

Furthermore, Editors and Reviewers must not delegate the intellectual work of assessing the manuscript's quality, methodology, and scientific contribution to AI tools.

The journal adopts the COPE position on the use of AI tools in research publications, which states that AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

The Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.

Authors, when using AI or AI-assisted technologies in the research and the manuscript preparation, must include a statement before the “References” section as the following model:

 

GENERATIVE AI AND AI-ASSISTED TECHNOLOGIES STATEMENT

During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [Tool Name / Service - and Date or Period of Use] for [Reason/Use]. After using this tool/service, the authors have reviewed and edited the content appropriately and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This statement does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar or spelling. If there is nothing to communicate, there is no need to add this statement. 

The journal does not recommend the use of conversational Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, for standardizing bibliographic references.

This is because these tools may alter reference elements or generate inaccurate reference data. The list of references in a manuscript indicates to readers the resources used by the authors in their research. Furthermore, they serve as the basis for generating bibliometric indicators (citation counts, Impact Factor, H-Index, etc.). Therefore, inaccurate references can cause confusion and misunderstandings for reviewers and readers regarding the literature used in the research, and may lead to the generation of inaccurate science and publication indicators.

Gender and Sex Issues

The editorial team of Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia, as well as authors publishing in the journal, must always adhere to the guidelines on Sex and Gender Equity in Research - SAGER. The SAGER guidelines comprise a set of guidelines that guide the reporting of information on sex and gender in study design, data analysis, and the results and interpretation of findings. Additionally, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia adheres to a policy of gender equity in the formation of its editorial board.

Ethics Committee, Permits, Licences and Authorizations 

Authors must cite in the Material and Methods section all pertinent permits, licenses, and authorizations that were mandatory to conduct the study (environmental authorities, health safety authorities, ethics committees, etc.) and, when necessary, must state any adherence to international and/or national protocols related to experiments and laboratory procedures.

Animal Experimentation: The authors must follow all guidelines established by the local ethics committees on animal research and provide a statement confirming that all relevant institutional and national animal welfare laws, guidelines, and regulations were followed in the care and use of experimental animals. For Brazilian researchers, please refer to the guidelines established by the National Council for Animal Experiment Control (Concea, Brazil) available at:

https://www.gov.br/mcti/pt-br/composicao/conselhos/concea/paginas/publicacoes-legislacao-e-guia/guia-brasileiro-de-producao-manutencao-ou-utilizacao-de-animais-para-atividades-de-ensino-ou-pesquisa-cientifica . For more information, please, refer to the Ethics Committee and Animal Experimentation Statement section of the Instruction to Authors.

Copyright

Authors of articles published by Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia retain the copyright to their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, provided the original work is correctly cited. In return, the author agrees not to submit the manuscript to another journal simultaneously and grants Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia  the right of first publication.

Intellectual Property and Terms of Use

All the content of the journal and the articles published by Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia, except where otherwise specified, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license.

Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia journal is responsible for the journal website information and its update.

Authors retain the copyright to their works, licensing them under the Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, which allows articles to be reused and distributed without restriction, provided the original work is correctly cited. In return, the author agrees not to submit the manuscript to another journal simultaneously and grants Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia the right of first publication.

The scientific content, opinions expressed, citations and references of the manuscripts submitted and published are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board.

Third-Party Content

Previously published content as figures, tables, illustrations, etc. must be accompanied by written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce.

Author Self-Archiving

Authors can share the published version* of the manuscript with their colleagues and post them on personal websites or institutional repositories for academic purposes while providing bibliographic details that credit, if applicable, its publication in this journal.

* Published version – the article published in PDF format is available at the Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia website.

Instead of sending a PDF file of your article to colleagues, the journal recommends to the authors sharing the reference of their article with the DOI as an active link, so it will be possible to count all article statistics of views and download.

Sponsors and Promotion Agencies 

• Universidade de São Paulo, Agência de Bibliotecas e Coleções Digitais (https://www.abcd.usp.br/) .

 

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Submission of Manuscripts

General Information

• Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia adopts the Open Journal System (OJS) as submission and publication platform. 
• All submissions are performed through the “Portal de Revistas da USP“.
• Before submitting your manuscript, please read all the journal Editorial Policies and Author Guidelines in order to prepare all documents, archives and manuscript for submission. 
• Please, use the checklist to confirm if your submission is in compliance with the journal specifications.
• From May 2020 on, the journal has adopted the tool iThenticate (Turnitin) to prevent duplication and plagiarism occurrences. To avoid self-plagiarism occurrences, it is recommended to cite and include in references list the author’s previous works used to produce the manuscript. If the manuscript is derived or is part of the author’s thesis or dissertation, it can be cited in the text (for instance, in the Material and Methods section) and included in the list of references.
• All works approved upon their final publication in the Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia will receive their Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

 

Zoobank Registration

• • ZooBank is the Official Register of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Code) for registration of new nomenclatural acts, published works, and authors.
  • The editorial team of Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia is going to register articles that contain nomenclatural acts in ZooBank. Such articles will receive a Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) that is going to be included in the published version.
  • The registration of new names in ZooBank is recommended (not a requirement) to authors.
  • If the nomenclatural acts are already registered in Zoobank by the authors, please, include the LSID in the manuscript and inform the Editorial Team.

Conflict of Interest Statement:

• Authors must declare if there is any conflict of interest at the submission of the manuscript.
• A section with the statement of Conflict of Interest must be included after the Acknowledgments section.
• For more information, refer to the Policy on Conflict of Interest section.

Example 1:

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Authors declare there are no conflicts of interest.

Example 2:

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Dr. [Author's Name] received grant funding from the [Name of the Company or Organization] which operates in the study area. This company had no role in the design of the study, data collection, or interpretation of the results.

Ethics Committee and Animal Experimentation Statement

• Authors must cite in the “Material and Methods” section and include a statement, when applicable, that the research was approved by the Institutional Research Committee (IRB) and/or inform licences and authorizations needed to perform the research. Please, refer to the policy in the “Ethics Committee, Permits, Licences and Authorizations” section for more information. 

Example:

ETHICAL STATEMENT

The care and handling of the animals were performed according to the institutional guidelines and were in compliance with the [Insert National/International Guideline]. All procedures were reviewed and approved by the [Insert Full Name of the Ethics Committee] under protocol [Insert Approval/Protocol Number]. All laws, regulations and permits necessary for the research were followed and obtained.

Types of Documents Accepted

• Editorials
• Original Articles
• Errata

Authors’ Contributions

All Authors must meet the two minimum criteria:

• Actively participate in the results discussion.
• Review and approve the final version of the paper.

An authors’ contributions statement must be included in a section at the end of the article for works written by 2 (two) or more authors. The statement has to include the individual contribution of each author.

From November 2020 on, the journal adopts the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), which means that every contribution statement must be described using the CRediT 14 (fourteen) contributor roles as follows: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft and Writing - review & editing. Click on the items to see the definition of each role.

Example:

AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS: NS, AL: Conceptualization; NS: Methodology, Software, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Investigation; NS, AL, HR: Writing – review & editing; AL: Funding acquisition; AL, HR: Supervision. All authors actively participated in the discussion of the results, they reviewed and approved the final version of the paper.

Acknowledgements section may contain a declaration of other kinds of contributions.

Manuscript Preparation

IMPORTANT: You must correctly complete all fields for each AUTHOR: Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Email, ORCID, URL (if there is), Institution/Affiliation, and Country.

• From 2019 on, the inclusion of the ORCID ID for each author is mandatory.
• The fields for the manuscript should also be filled with the information: Title, Abstract, Area, and Sub-Area of Knowledge, Keywords, Language, and Funding/Support Agencies.
• The manuscript must be sent only in ENGLISH.
• Manuscripts should be sent in the format “.DOCX” or “.RTF” to the journal submission system, along with a submission letter explaining the importance and originality of the study.
• Pictures, graphics, and illustrations even inserted in the text must necessarily be sent in separate files, in the original format in which they were created.
• The files must be sent in separate files formats: “.PSD”, “.TIF”, “.JPG” “.PCX”, “.GIF” or “.BMP” for figures; “.EPS”, “.CDR”, “.WMF”, “.AI”, “.PPTX” or “.XLSX” for graphics; and “.MOV”, “.AVI”, “.MPG”, “.MP4” or “.M4V” for videos.
• Tables should be placed at the end of the manuscript.
• Always keep updated the email and the address of the author(s) or corresponding author.
• The authors may suggest potential reviewers/referees.

Authors whose native language is not English are encouraged to have their manuscripts revised by a native English-speaker before submission.

 

Article Submission Format

The manuscripts must be double-spaced between lines, justified text, and Calibri font, body 11 (eleven) (except for special symbols not included in this font).

The text should be organized in the following sections, each started on a new page, in the order, and numbered consecutively: Title Page, Abstract with Keywords, Body Text, Acknowledgments, References, Appendices, Tables, and Figure Legends.

Scientific names of species and genera, and other Latin terms, must be italicized in all sections of the manuscript.

(1) TITLE PAGE: Should include the Title, Running Title, Author(s) Name(s), ORCID numbers(s), Institution(s), and Address(es). The title should be concise and, where appropriate, should include particulars about families and/or taxa of higher categories. New taxa names should not be included in the titles.

(2) ABSTRACT WITH KEYWORDS: All papers should have an abstract and keywords in English. The quality of the abstract is of great importance since it can be reproduced in other vehicles. Therefore, it must be written in an intelligible form as it may be published separately and should summarize the main facts, ideas, and conclusions of the article. Telegraphic abstracts are unacceptable. Finally, the abstract should include all new taxonomic names for reference purposes. Abbreviations should be avoided. It should not include bibliographical references. Abstracts and keywords must not exceed 350 (three hundred and fifty) and 5 (five) words, respectively.

(3) BODY TEXT: The main body text varies with different types of papers, but should usually include the following sections: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Statements (Author's Contributions, Conflict of Interest, Funding, etc), Acknowledgments,  and References. The main headings of each section of the body of the text should be written in capital letters, bold and centered. Secondary headings should have only the first letter capitalized, bolded, and centered. Tertiary headings should be the first letter capitalized, in bold and indented left. In all cases, the text should start on the next line.

Digital Assets

TABLES

• All tables should be numbered in the same sequence in which they are cited in the text.
• Legends should be self-explanatory, without the need to resort to text.
• Tables should be formatted preferentially towards the portrait, remaining the sense landscape for exceptional cases.
• In the text, tables should be referred to as Table 1, Tables 2 and 4, Tables 2-6.
• Use “TABLE” in the table(s) heading(s).

FIGURES

• All figures should be numbered in the same sequence in which they are cited in the text.
• Each illustration of a composite figure should be identified by a capital letter and referred to in the text as, for example: Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B.
• When possible, the letters must be positioned in the lower-left corner of each illustration of a composite figure.
• Photographs in black and white or color must be sent at high resolution (300 DPI minimum).
• Use “Fig(s).” for referring to figures in the text, and “fig(s).” when referring to figures in another paper.
• Use “FIGURE” in the figure(s) heading(s).
• The figures will be printed in black and white but maintained in color in the final PDF file.

Citations and References

The journal adopts an adapted APA Style, as follows:

(4) REFERENCES: Citations in the text should be given as follows: Martins (1959) or (Martins, 1959) or (Martins, 1959, 1968, 2015) or Martins (1959a, b) or Martins (1959: 14-20) or Martins (1959: figs. 1, 2) or Martins & Reichardt (1964) or (Lane, 1940; Martins & Chemsak, 1966a, b) or Martins et al. (1966) or (Martins et al., 1966), the latter when the article contains 3 (three) or more authors. There is no need to provide a full reference when authors and date are presented only as an authority of taxa.

(5) REFERENCES MODELS: References should be arranged alphabetically and according to the following format, respecting the titles in italics. Journal titles must be written in full (not abbreviated):

• Journal Article – Author(s). Year. Article title. Journal title, volume: initial page-final page.
• Journal Article (print and online version with different dates, for instance: ahead-of-print, online first, etc.) – Author(s). Year online. Article title. Journal name, volume: initial page-final page, Year on print.
• Books – Author(s). Year. Book title. Publisher, Place of publication.
• Books Chapters – Author(s). Year. Chapter title or part. In: Author(s) or Editor(s), Book title. Publisher, Place of publication, volume or part, initial page-final page.
• Dissertations and Theses – Author(s). Year. Title of dissertation or thesis. (Masters Dissertation or Doctoral Thesis). University, Place of publication.
• Electronic Publications – Author(s). Year. Document title. URL (preferably the DOI number as URL).
• Datasets – Author(s). Year. Title. Version. Publisher. [dataset]. URL (preferably the DOI number as URL). – See more in the Research Data section.

For all reference types, when available, authors should provide the DOI number as url.

 

Supplementary Documents

Research Data:

• Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia recommends the deposit of scientific data in appropriate repositories and its citation in accordance with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable).
• Tissue samples should be linked to their voucher specimens, and all nucleotide sequence data (aligned and unaligned) should be submitted to European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ),  BOLD Systems (Barcode of Life Data System) or GenBank. 
• Authors are encouraged to deposit their data in a research data repository.
• Authors of accepted manuscripts may choose to deposit their data in the journals' Dataverse in Scielo Data.
• Before depositing the dataset, please read the SciELO Data Terms and Conditions of Use and SciELO Research Data Preparation Guidelines.
• For submitting the dataset, please follow the SciELO Research Data Deposit Guidelines.
• After saving the dataset as a draft, authors have to edit the Terms and choose the Creative Commons License that better suits their dataset (see step 7 on page 6 of the Guide). For more on Creative Commons Licenses please refer to https://creativecommons.org/licenses.
• Authors must make sure that they activated the option “submit for review” (see step 8 on page 7 of the Guide).
• Data curation level: according to the SciELO Data methodology, this journal will perform the Level 1 of Data Curation (Basic Curation), in which the content and metadata are quickly checked. Any doubts or corrections will be addressed to the dataset authors. For more on Data Curation Policy, please, refer to the SciELO Data Guidelines in Portuguese or in English.
• Please, contact the journal team for further information.
• The data repository chosen must guarantee the preservation of the data and provide a persistent identifier such as a DOI or Handle system so it can be accessible and citable.
• Journal will make exceptions for sensitive information such as the location of endangered species.

Data Availability Statement

From December 2025 on, Manuscripts must be accompanied by a data availability statement for the data used or generated in the research underlying the texts, according to the examples below:

 

DATA AVAILABILITY

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [Name of the Repository] at [Dataset Link DOI].

 

DATA AVAILABILITY

All datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are contained within the article and its supplementary materials.

For datasets containing sensitive information as endangered species location, or financial, ethical, security reasons, the author(s) can include the statement below:

DATA AVAILABILITY

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. The data are not publicly available due to [state the reason].

 

Dataset citation 

Datasets used in the research, deposited in a scientific research data repository, should be cited in the manuscript “Materials and Methods” section and its reference (with the DOI number) should be included in the reference list. 

Datasets References Examples:

Dataset deposited in a scientific research data repository:

• Botham, M.; Roy, D.; Brereton, T.; Middlebrook, I. & Randle, Z. 2013. United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: species trends 2012 [dataset]. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/5afbbd36-2c63-4aa1-8177-695bed98d7a9. 
• United States Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Office of Applied Studies. 2015. Treatment Episode Data Set – Discharges (TEDS-D) – Concatenated, 2006 to 2011. Version V5 [dataset]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 23 Nov. 2015.  https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR30122.v5. 

Article supplementary information deposited in a scientific research data repository:

• Yoon, J; Sofaer, H.R.; Sillet, T. S.; Morrison, S.A. & Ghalambor, C.K. 2017. Data from: The relationship between female brooding and male nestling provisioning: does climate underlie geographic variation in sex roles? Journal of Avian Biology, 48(2): 220-228. https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.f89h2.

Dataset published as data paper:

• Bovendorp, R. S.; Villar, N.; Abreu Junior, E. F. de; Bello, C.; Regolin, A. L.; Percequillo, A. R. & Galetti, M. 2017. Atlantic small-mammal: a dataset of communities of rodents and marsupials of the Atlantic forests of South America [data paper]. Ecology, 98(8): 2226-2226. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.1893.

Funding:

Research grants from funding agencies or any financial support must be declared in the FUNDING section, along with, when applicable, the activities supported by the specific grant. Any other support information can be included in the Acknowledgments section.

Example:

FUNDING:  This  study  was supported  by  the [Funding Agency Name], under the grant [grant number or code] to [author or authors initials] and  [grant number or code] to [author or authors initials] , and by the [Funding Agency Name], grant [grant number or code]  to  [author or authors initials].

Additional Information

• Always refer to the Authors Guidelines on the journal websites: www.revistas.usp.br/paz or www.scielo.br/paz.

Contact

Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), Avenida Nazaré, 481, Ipiranga, CEP 04263-000, São Paulo, SP, Brasil, email: publicacaomz@usp.br , Phone: +55(11) 2065-8133.