Author Instructions
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Open access
- Journal policy
- Submission procedure
- General presentation
- Use of inclusive language
- Types of manuscript
- Title
- Authors and addresses
- Summary text and image for the Table of Contents
- Abstract
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- Acknowledgements
- Documentation
- Units
- Tables
- Figures
- Supplementary Material
- Proofs and reprints
- Biographical Memoirs
Publishing Policies
Historical Records of Australian Science insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at http://www.publish.csiro.au/hr/PublishingPolicies.
Peer review
Historical Records of Australian Science is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review. The Editors are responsible to maintain high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and work together with the Editorial Board to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by an Editor, who may reject a paper before peer review when it is outside the journal’s scope or is of insufficient quality. Editors select reviewers and after at least two review reports are received, they make the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. The final decision is made by an Editor.
Under our single-blind policy, reviewers’ names are not disclosed to the authors. To increase transparency, reviewers may choose to sign their reports. We ask reviewers and authors not to directly contact each other while the manuscript is under consideration, rather keep all communication through ScholarOne with the Editor’s involvement.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for Historical Records of Australian Science should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see http://www.publish.csiro.au/hr/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
It is the author's responsibility to secure any necessary permission for publication, including permission to reproduce images used in Figures. The journal assumes that all authors of a multi-authored article agree to its submission. For further details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Open access
Authors may choose to publish their article Open Access on payment of a publication fee. See Open Access for more details.
HRAS is a bi-annual journal that publishes two kinds of unsolicited manuscripts — Historical Articles and Historical Documents — on the history of science in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific. The journal also publishes Reviews, Memoirs of deceased Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, Book Reviews, and an Annual Bibliography of the history of science in Australia and the southwest Pacific.
Historical Articles, Historical Documents, Reviews and Memoirs are subject to a formal process of peer review and are considered on the understanding that they are the result of original research that has not, and will not, appear elsewhere in substantially the same form. The journal is published in January and July.
There are no page charges.
Submission procedure
All manuscripts should be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts. This online management system can be reached directly through this link or from the link on the journal’s homepage. First-time users should register via the ‘Register here’ link, and subsequently log in with existing username and password. Once logged in, click on the ‘Author Centre’ link and proceed. It is essential to include name, address, fax (where possible) and telephone numbers and email address of the Corresponding Author.
If you encounter any difficulties, or you have any queries, please contact:
Historical Records of Australian Science
CSIRO Publishing
Locked Bag 10
Clayton South VIC 3169
Australia
Telephone +[61 3] 9545 8404
Email publishing.hras@csiro.au
- Manuscripts should be prepared as Word documents, double-spaced with generous margins (at least 3 cm).
- Appropriate subheadings should be used with initial capitals only.
- Spelling should follow the Oxford English Dictionary, and style generally that of Fowler’s Modern English Usage and the Australian Government Publishing Service Style Manual.
- Do not include full points in acronyms: thus CSIRO (not C.S.I.R.O.) and IUHPS for the International Union for History of Science (not I.U.H.P.S.).
- Use single quotation marks for first order quotations, and double quotation marks for quotations within quotations. Punctuation marks that are not part of quoted material should be placed outside the quotation marks.
- Attention of the editors should be drawn to unusual alphabets, symbols, special characters and mathematical and chemical formulae.
- Use hyphens (-) to link words (south-west, larger-than-life). Use en dashes (–) between dates and page numbers (1825–96, 123–125). Use em dashes (—) without spaces before and after to mark insertions or clauses (the end—or conclusion—is nigh).
- Give dates as 1 January 1900; Monday, 1 January 1900, January 1900. Do not use apostrophes in dates: 1980s (not '80s or 1980's).
- Inclusive dates should be given as 1900–1, 1945–50.
- All passages in foreign languages should be translated into English, either in the text or provided in a footnote, with the source of the translation noted.
- Use capitals sparingly. Ethnological groups should be given initial capitals.
example 1 — The Australian Academy of Science becomes the academy in subsequent references.
example 2 — I went to the University of Melbourne today. I went to Melbourne today to look at the university.
example 3 — The Queen of England flew to Australia in a light aeroplane. The queen felt nervous about the journey.
example 4 — Prime Minister Alfred Deakin was the second prime minister of Australia.
example 5 — The Aborigines were the first people in Australia.
Use of inclusive language
These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
HRAS publishes two kinds of unsolicited manuscripts:
Historical Articles
Original scholarly pieces of peer-reviewed research of no more than 8000 words in length (without consultation with the editors) (including references). Appendices, documents and other materials can be included in 'Supplementary Material'.
Historical Documents
Either hitherto unpublished or obscurely published primary sources (word limit subject to negotiation), along with a peer-reviewed scholarly introduction of between 4000 and 6000 words (including endnotes). The introduction will appear within the journal and the document(s) will appear in 'Supplementary Material'.
The journal also publishes a number of commissioned manuscripts:
Reviews
Review articles by leading scholars on current areas of research and/or debates about theoretical and methodological issues in the history of science in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific, commissioned by the Editors.
Memoirs
Biographies of deceased Fellows of the Academy of Australian Science, commissioned by the Academy. The memoirs are between 5000 and 8000 words (including endnotes).
Bibliographies of Fellows’ publications are included in 'Supplementary Material'.
Book Reviews
Critical appraisals of recently published books (and other media) on the history of science in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific, commissioned by the Book Review Editor.
Annual Bibliography
A list of print and digital publications on the history of science in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific arranged by subject.
Title
Make the title concise and informative. It should contain the main keywords but additional keywords may also be suggested. An abridged title, for use as a running head, should also be provided.
Authors and addresses
Please include full first name, initial(s) and surnames for all authors, and current contact details (mail and email) of the Corresponding Author. Supply of an ORCID iD is required by the submitting author. We encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID iDs to their author accounts in our submission system. To learn more about ORCID, please visit https://info.orcid.org/researchers/.
Summary text and image for the Table of Contents
Please provide a three-sentence paragraph of 50 to 80 words written for interested non-experts, journalists, and other social media contributors. This text will be included with your title in the table of contents that is available online; it is an opportunity to enlarge the audience for your article. The text should be free from scientific or scholarly jargon, and written at the level of an article in a science or history magazine. Your first sentence should engage the readers, convincing them that this is an important area. The second sentence should introduce the aim of your paper, and state your main findings. The final sentence should describe how the findings fit into the bigger picture, for example whether there are implications or impact of the findings on your area of research, or how a biographical memoir illustrates the scope of scientific research in Australia.
Authors must also provide an image for use on the journal webpage alongside the listing of their article and summary text. The image should be a figure from the article, or, a photograph of the author(s) and should ideally be in colour. The image must be in square format to be reproduced at an actual size of 40 mm x 40 mm. If necessary please crop the original image to this aspect ratio and size. A detail of an original illustration is suitable—see website for examples. If a photo credit is required please provide details.
This summary text and image will be used in the online Table of Contents, email alerts and RSS feeds to promote the paper and assist in providing a context for the reader.
Abstract
Manuscripts should be accompanied by a brief summary for use by appropriate abstracting journals. This should state the scope of the work and the principal conclusions reached.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
Wang, L., Edwards, D., Bailey, A., Carr, L., Boreham, C., Grosjean, E., Anderson, J., Jarrett, A., MacFarlane, S., Southby, C., Carson, C., Khider, K., Palu, T., and Henson, P. (2021). Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
Fiddes, S., Pepler, A., Saunders, K., and Hope, P. (2020). Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset]. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
Digital Earth Australia (2021). Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest
A ´Conflicts of Interest´ section should be included at the end of the manuscript. It should identify any financial or non-financial (political, personal, professional) interests/relationships that may be interpreted to have influenced the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, please include the statement "The authors declare no conflicts of interest".
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading 'Declaration of Funding' at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: "This research did not receive any specific funding".
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
Documentation
All manuscripts should be rigorously documented, with published source information provided in short citations in footnotes and in full citations in References. Manuscript or other primary source information should be cited in full in footnotes.
In the text, footnotes should be indicated with superscript numbers throughout (1), running sequentially through the article. Superscript numbers should be placed outside punctuation at the end of a sentence, after punctuation within a sentence, or, if necessary to be very specific, after a phrase in a sentence. A superscript number for a footnote providing the source of a quotation should be placed at the end of the quotation, not at the end of the author of the quotation (Bacon said, 'Knowledge is power.'1). Multiple references (and comments) can be placed within a single footnote, separated by full stops, such as: Darwin (1888) p. 22. Curie (1921) pp. 55–77. Do not insert more than one superscript number at the same point in the text.
The published sources will appear at the end of the manuscript under the title 'References'. In the References give titles of books in full using title capitals. Give titles of book sections and journal articles using initial capitals, and provide first and last page numbers. Give the titles of journals in full using title capitals (see examples below).
Give only initials for author forenames (Smith, A. B.).
Use single quotation marks for first order quotations, and double quotation marks for quotations within quotations. Punctuation marks that are not part of quoted material should be placed outside the quotation marks.
Use hyphens (-) to link words (south-west, larger-than-life). Use en dashes (–) between dates and page numbers (1825–96, pp. 123–125).
HRAS no longer uses Latin phrases and abbreviations but replaces them with plain English. Some examples: et al. (and others); n.b. (note or note that); i.e. (that is); e.g. (for example); ca (approximately); per se (specifically), sic (as given).
Examples of citations of source information in footnotes and in References:
- Book
Give publisher and place of publication where possible.
footnote: Clark (1978) p. 91.
reference: Clark, C. M. H. (1978) A History of Australia, MUP, Melbourne.
footnote: Home and others (1998) p. 7.
reference: Home, R. W., Lucas, A. M., Maroske, S., Sinkora, D. M., and Voigt, J. H. (eds) (1998) Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, vol. 1: 1840–1859, Peter Lang, Bern.
footnote: Anonymous (1999).
reference: Anonymous (1999) Urban Stormwater: Best Practice Environmental Management Guidelines, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood.
- Section in a book
footnote: Dyason (1977) p. 45.
reference: Dyason, D. (1977) 'After thirty years: history and philosophy of science in Australia, 1946–1976', in Melbourne Studies in Education, ed. S. Murray-Smith, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 45–74.
footnote: Hayman and Collett (1990).
reference: Hayman, P. T. and Collett, I. J. (1990) 'Estimating soil water: to kick, to stick, to core or to computer?', in Proceedings of the 8th Australian Agronomy Conference, Toowoomba, Australia, ed. M. Ashghar, vol. 2, Australian Society of Agronomy, Toowoomba.
- Journal article
footnote: Hammersley (1982) pp. 55–60.
reference: Hammersley, H. (1982) Radiation science and Australian medicine, Historical Records of Australian Science, 5(3), 41–63.
footnote: Rae (2018).
reference: Rae, I. D. (2018) Radiocarbon dating at the Museum of Applied Science Victoria 1952–70; a pioneer venture, Historical Records of Australian Science, 29(1), 14–27.
footnote: Horton and others (2019) p. 19.
reference: Horton, P., Chow, W. S., and Barret, C. (2019) Joan Mary Anderson 1932–2015, Historical Records of Australian Science, 30(1), 19–31.
- Newspapers
footnote: Anonymous (1878).
or
footnote: Anonymous (1878) News of the day.
reference: Anonymous (1878) News of the day, Advertiser (Adelaide), 1 February, 18.
- Manuscript materials (only given in footnotes)
footnote: ML MSS 988/1, f. 7, Mitchell Library, Sydney, New South Wales.
footnote: Letter, W. H. Bragg to J. P. V. Madsen, 29 April 1909, Bragg-Madsen correspondence, Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, ACT.
- Internet references
footnote: Smith (2003).
reference: Smith, A. (2003) 'Sloan, Judith (1954 – )', in 'Encyclopedia of Australian science', http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004358b.htm, viewed October 2015.
Take special care checking the accuracy of source information citations; we take no editorial responsibility for them.
Units
Authors may use appropriate historical units and currencies, and may choose to give the metric equivalents or conversion factors in an endnote. Otherwise, use the SI system, especially for exact measurement of physical quantities. Use the negative index system; e.g. g m-2, kg ha-1, m m-2 s-1.
Tables
Refer to every table in the text. Number each with an Arabic numeral and supply a heading. If using Microsoft Word, please use Table Formatting (i.e. use table cells).
Figures
A small number of illustrations may accompany a historical article. Refer to every figure or illustration in the text, and number all illustrations in a common sequence. Take particular care that photographs accompanying each copy of the manuscript (as electronic files) show all relevant features. Colour figures are accepted and must be supplied in CMYK and not RGB format.
Each Figure will require a caption that will be placed below the Figure. The caption should include brief details about the content of the Figure, followed by the source of the Figure, and acknowledgement of appropriate permission to reproduce. Examples of captions:
- Figure 1. Anne Bermingham with the gas line in which carbon dioxide samples were prepared for counting. The photograph, by an unknown photographer, was probably taken for publicity purposes at the time of the opening of radiocarbon dating laboratory in 1961. Reproduced with permission of Museums Victoria.
- Figure 2. Morrison with the Model 21.102 mass spectrometer at CSIRO in 1949. Photograph courtesy of the Morrison family.
- Figure 3. Growth curves for humans (left) and mice (right). Reproduced with permission from Robertson (1909).
- Figure 4. Hermann Beckler, n.d. Courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
Computer-generated figures must be saved as follows: Please note that Adobe Illustrator is the preferred program for line and/or graph figures and (editable vector graphic) .eps files are the preferred format for photographs:
- for Adobe Illustrator, save as .eps (encapsulated postscript) files;
- for Sigmaplot, save in .eps format. Native SigmaPlot files (.jnb format) are not acceptable;
- for PowerPoint, save in .wmf/windows metafile format;
- for Excel, save as an Excel 97 worksheet (must contain spreadsheet and embedded chart);
- for CorelDraw, save as an .eps file that can be opened by Adobe Illustrator
Scanned photographs must be saved as .tiff files; all supplied .tiff files must be compatible with Adobe Photoshop, which is the preferred program. If figures are prepared in a 'paint' program, line art should be saved at 600 dpi, and greyscale or colour images should be saved at 300 dpi. Electronic photographic work should be submitted at the intended print size (85 mm wide for one column and up to a page width of 175 mm), on Zip disks or CD-ROM if necessary.
Supplementary Material
Material that cannot be contained within the word limit, such as extensive tabulations or citations, can be submitted through the relevant section of ScholarOne Manuscripts and will be considered for separate online publication via a link to the journal’s website included in the text of the article.
The documents associated with Historical Document manuscripts will be included in Supplementary Material. The bibliographies of deceased Fellows will also be included in Supplementary Material.
Proofs and reprints
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author for checking prior to publication. Proofs should be checked and returned to the production editor within seven days. At this stage, only essential alterations and correction of typesetter errors will be accepted. A charge will be made for excessive changes. PDF files of published articles will be provided to corresponding authors.
Biographical Memoirs
Biographical memoirs of deceased Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science are commissioned by the Council of the Academy. While as a general rule authors of memoirs are selected from the Fellowship, the Council may, when appropriate, appoint authors who are not Fellows of the Academy. The Council is keen to ensure that a high standard is maintained in biographical memoirs, so that they will become established as authoritative accounts of the life and work of deceased Fellows. In addition to an account of the Fellow’s scientific work, the memoir should include an assessment of its significance. Personal aspects of the Fellow should be included; relevant anecdotal material is welcome.
It is desirable that memoirs should be published within a reasonable time after the decease of the Fellow. In the event of an author failing to deliver the typescript within a year of accepting authorship, the Council will consider the advisability of inviting another author to write the memoir. If circumstances arise in which an author finds it impossible to meet their deadline, they should consult an Editor.
Memoirs of Fellows who were also FRS are published in parallel in the Royal Society’s Biographical Memoirs.
The memoir should be between 5000 and 8000 words in length (including references and excluding the bibliography of Fellow's publications). Authors must not exceed the specified maximum limit without prior consultation with an Editor.
Care should be taken to include the following particulars whenever possible: (1) place and exact date of birth of the subject; (2) place and exact date of death of the subject; (3) full name, occupation and place of residence of the father; (4) forenames, maiden name and occupation (if any) of the mother; (5) the subject's place in the family and the number of brothers and sisters; (6) full name of the wife or husband, with parents' names and professions if appropriate; year of marriage; number of sons and daughters (if any of these has attained distinction, the fact should be briefly noted); (7) the subject´s place of education from secondary school onwards; (8) the year of the more important civil or academic distinctions and service promotions. Academic distinctions should include degrees, scholarships and exhibitions, fellowships, academic prizes and honours conferred by learned societies.
A photograph of the subject should accompany each biographical memoir. The Academy holds photographs of many Fellows, and the author of a memoir may use such a photograph when available, or may provide a more appropriate one. The date, or approximate date, on which the photograph was taken, should be indicated. Additional illustrations may be included as appropriate.
Abstract. Authors should provide a brief abstract of the memoir, suitable for use by the standard abstracting services. This should not normally exceed 75 words in length.
References. References to sources cited in the Memoir, including publications by the deceased Fellow, should be documented in the same way as in research articles. This is a change from previous practice in HRAS where items in the 'Bibliography' could be indicated by numbers inserted in the text.
Bibliography. A bibliography of the Fellow’s publications should be prepared, arranged chronologically and normally in one sequence. If the list is known to be less than complete, this should be stated. Careful attention should be paid to the preparation of this list. Standard abbreviations should be used for journal titles (see ´Journal Abbreviation Resources on the Web´ http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/j-abbrev.html). The bibliography of a Fellow's publications will be treated as 'Supplementary material'.
