Instructions for authors 2015

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Illustrations

Designate all (photographs, graphs, line drawings) as Figures (abbreviate Fig., Figs.) and number consecutively in Arabic numerals. A plate of drawings or photographs is treated as one figure with letters for each element. The use of capital letters in this case is highly recommended for readability. Do not place numbers on single figures that stand alone. Type legends consecutively in paragraph form after Literature cited. See recent issue of Mycologia for format. Plates and figures should be planned so that the figures are numbered consecutively in the order that they appear in the text to allow proper placement in the published paper.

Figures must be designed to fit a maximum of 8.2 cm (3.25 inches, one column) or 17.1 cm (6.75 inches, two columns) wide by 23.4 cm (9.25 inches) high, including space for the legend after reduction. Cover dimensions are 18.3 × 21.2 cm. The minimum resolution for figures is 300 dpi, sized for the final print dimensions; higher resolution may be desirable for figures such as micrographs; 400–600 dpi is preferred. Plan figures to use the full one- or two-column width. Figures should be sufficiently less than the maximum page height to permit insertion of the legend beneath. Individual graphs usually will be reduced to one column. Numbers and letters for figures, graphs and drawings should be approximately the same style and size as those in the text of Mycologia (i.e. 12 point). Use uppercase and lowercase, not all capitals. Reduction or enlargement of numbers and letters should be taken into account when planning figures, graphs and drawings if they will not be reproduced at the original size. Graphs and photographs preferably should be printed at actual size.

Omit horizontal lines, gridlines and all background shading from graphs; label both axes. Multiple graphs with the same x-axis may be stacked vertically with only the bottom x-axis labeled. If the y-axis is the same for a set of stacked graphs the axis label should be centered vertically on the group of graphs.

Acceptable formats to upload figures are EPS, PDF, JPG, TIF, GIF and PSD. A figure that is initially prepared with drawing tools in PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator, or similar programs should be saved in one of the vector formats, EPS or PDF; if saved in a raster (bit-mapped) format such as JPG, GIF, TIF or PSD, problems of resolution may arise that are difficult or impossible to address. Furthermore, files cannot be acceptably converted from raster to vector formats. Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt) files cannot be used for figures or plates, so please convert figures prepared as .ppt files to one of the formats listed above.

Print publication in color is expensive so color should be used in illustrations only when it is essential to convey scientific information. A quick test for suitability is to ask whether color is referenced in the legend. Please do not use color coding for phylogenetic trees or other graphics that include text if black- and-white symbols can be used as effectively. Please do not save graphics that are intended for grayscale halftone print publication as color (CMYK or RGB) files. Papers containing color figures for print publication are subject to additional charges of $800 per color page. Corresponding authors who are members of MSA are entitled to one free color page per year. Color publication fees may be waived at the discretion of the executive editor; approval for a color page waiver must be obtained before publication. Color versions of print grayscale figures may be submitted for online color publication and incur no additional publication costs.

Footnotes

Avoid them in the text. If used cite them numerically and place at the end of the article after the legends. Do not use your word processor footnote or endnote command. Do not include acknowledgments, except required institutional statements, in footnotes. Lengthy descriptions of tabular material should not be in footnotes to tables but incorporated into the text. Footnotes to the text use superscript numbers and tables use superscript lowercase letters.

Tables

Keep them to a minimum. Before constructing determine whether the data might be better treated in narrative form in the text. Almost all short tables can be put in such form. Each table begins on a separate page. Tables are numbered in Roman numerals, and the word(s) Table (or Supplementary table) begins at the left margin. The title follows in paragraph form, double-spaced. Titles must be a single sentence; if further explanation is required footnotes should be used. Omit vertical lines. Do not use Excel format. See a recent issue of Mycologia for guidance in formatting and use of horizontal separation lines.