1. The text is by preference supplied in MS Word, so that it can easily be set inside the used format. What does the editor-in-chief do, and what not:
   1. Responsibilities of the AUTHOR:
      1. Formatting of the CONTENT (species names in italics, authors behind every species name, parentheses, format of the bibliographical references, correct abbreviations, …). As such, it is important to read and understand the tips below, and when in doubt ask for assistance, so that the article is handed in publication-ready.

   2. Responsibilities of the Editor-in-chief:
      1. Ensure revision of the article (peer-review)
      2. Placing of the text (and photo’s) in the format used for Gloria Maris

   3. For a scientific article, it is recommended to write in English (although that is not mandatory), and to follow a structure as can be seen in most standard articles. Don’t hesitate to have a look at the sample on our website to get inspired.
      1. FIXED parts of such a structure are:
         1. Title
         2. Author(s) and contact details

• Key Words

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Abbreviations used

• Bibliographic references

1. After the “Abbreviations”, various paragraphs can occur which are optional and related to the nature of the article. These can concern:
   1. Materials and methods
   2. Systematics

• Discussion

1. Description(s) of the (new) species
2. Etymology
3. Acknowledgements

• …

3. Always follow the provisions of the International Code for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN; “the Code”) with regards to availability of a name, accepted/rejected works, binomen / trinomen, synonymy, homonymy, Chresonymy, typification and the ethical Code. (in brief: follow the Code).
4. A few points of attention when following the Code:
   1. Don’t forget the Code of Ethics. Always be polite towards other / earlier authors. Opinions can differ, and that is ok.
   2. Use of subgenera: In itself, there is no rule stating subgenera are not allowed, yet the Code is quite clear in stating that the name of an organism in Zoology is either a binomen (Genus + species) or a trinomen (genus + species + subspecies). This is why Molluscabase accepts the name WITHOUT subgenus, and the name WITH subgenus is considered an “alternative representation”.
   3. Avoid the use of infrasubspecifiec names (forma, var., … etc) as they have no value at all in Zoology. If you use historical names which are considered infrasubspecific, try to comply to article 64 concerning the use of such names. In case of doubt, ask a colleague-collector, specialist or refer to Molluscabase.

5. A good article becomes a great article by paying attention to details:
   1. TIP: Set the language format of your article beforehand (preference: Engels (UK); other variations of English are accepted too, provided they are used in a consistent fashion to avoid a mix of e. g. UK English and US English). Attention: Microsoft Word has a bad habit of adapting language in accordance with what you write or the style you use. TIP: Use “Markup” or “Track Changes” so that you can see where MS Word adapts itself, so that you can intervene.
   2. Abstract and Key words are amongst the most valuable elements to give your article visibility on the busy internet.
      1. TIP: Write these two after you have finished the rest and think of “Summary” when writing the abstract.
      2. TIP with the Key words: Words which were already used in the title, do not need to be repeated in the Key Words, unless there are no others to add. e. g.: If a title already contains “Mollusca: Gastropoda”, they don’t require repetition and you can build the “Key words” in a top-down fashion: e. g. Higher classification, families, genera, species, localities, authors: Caenogastropoda, Cerithioidea, Turritellidae, Cerithiidae, Turritella, Haustator, terebra, cochlea, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Shopland, Abubakr. (obviously depending on what you discuss and what not)

• Don’t lose sight of your formatting: Higher classification: never italics e. g.: Mollusca, Gastropoda, Caenogastropoda. These are never written in bold, nor do they need to be in capital letters.

1. Abbreviations used:
   1. For museums and universities, it is recommended to use the standard abbreviations as used in Molluscabase, accompanied by the country of the institution. e. g.: OUMNH – Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Oxford, United Kingdom)
   2. For references to private collections, you can use the CXX format, where XX is the abbreviation of the owner of the collection. e. g.: CFS = Collection Frank Swinnen (Lommel, Belgium)

2. Mention of type-genus or –species: In the systematic part of an article, there is no necessity to mention the type-genus of a family. Mentioning the type species of a Genus, however, is highly recommended – by preference accompanied by the correct reference and whether it is by “original” or “subsequent designation”, or “by monotypy”. TIP: All that information is readily available in WoRMS and Molluscabase.
3. Mentioning a species in accordance with the Code: Genus species Author, year (Genus and species in italics, author and year not, no comma following the species name)
   PS: Pay attention to when the author needs to be placed between brackets: ONLY when the current genus differs from the genus in the original description! e. g.: Murex ficus Linnaeus, 1758 =>Ficus ficus (Linnaeus, 1758) Attention: brackets themselves never in italics! Second example: Turritella maculata chionia Melvill, 1928 =>Turritella chionia Melvill, 1928 (NOT between brackets as the genus didn’t change). Remark: “var.” is NOT in italics. Same goes for “forma”.
4. First mention of a specific name: always with author: A specific name which is used for the first time in an article (excluding the Abstract), is always followed by its author and the year of description. Further on in the text, it is for Gloria Maris not explicitly required to mention the author behind the species name, yet it would be recommended to do so anyway. Especially in cases where a homonymy is concerned or linked from the past, it is highly recommended to mention the author each time a species name is written. Also, in plate indexes it is recommended to mention author and year each time. TIP: Most simple method is to always mention the full name including author and year to avoid confusion.
5. Additional: After the first mention of a taxon, the genus name can be abbreviated e. g. Ficus ficus (Linnaeus, 1758) at first mention, and afterwards ficus (Linnaeus, 1758) is accepted.
6. New species, combinations, names, synonyms … sp. nov. ; nom. nov. ; syn. nov. ; new. comb. : always in bold, never in capital letters, never in italics. TIP: Be careful with the auto-formatting of MS Word, which always corrects the first letter after a full stop to a capital letter. It is recommended to switch the autoformatting off.
7. References to earlier authors: Pay attention to spaces, commas and colons: a few examples:
   1. Author (year: page) (attention: colon + blank)
   2. Author (year, pl. x, fig. y) (always comma and blank, plate abbreviated as “pl.”)

• Author (year, pl. x, figs y-z) (always comma and blank)

1. Attention: “fig.” (with full stop) for 1 figure, “figs” (without full stop) for multiple figures. Idem for “pl.” and “pls”.
2. Attention: for figure or plate references INSIDE the article: Pl., Pls, Fig., Figs (with capital letter).

1. Author names: Be careful with:
   1. Linnaeus (**): In principle, the following mentions are acceptable: Linnaeus, Linné, L.. It is recommended to use 1 method consistently throughout the article – by preference “Linnaeus”. (cf. infra) TIP: Simply always use “Linnaeus”.
   2. Common last names: ALWAYS mention the author’s initials when there is a risk of confusion. Examples: D. Monsecour, K. Monsecour, J. Adams, G. Adams, A. Adams, H. Adams, C. B. Adams; W. Smith, J. Smith, E. A. Smith; F. Haas, G. Haas, R. MacAndrew, V. W. MacAndrew, W. Wood, S. V. Wood Sr, S. V. Wood Jr, … and many others. TIP: Copy what Molluscabase and WoRMS list as author with initials.

• “Sowerby” (***): ALWAYS mention the initials, and where applicable I, II or III. See table below for further details.

1. Names are treated in accordance to their origin:
   1. German nobility: “von” is a part of the first name: e. g. as author: Martens, 1880, Born, 1778. Examples in bibliography: Martens, E. von (1880), Born, I. von (1778)
   2. “Monterosato”: Tommaso di Maria Allery, Marquese di Monterosato: analogue to Martens: e. g. as author: Monterosato, 1881. Example in bibliography: Monterosato, T. A. di (1881)
   3. TIP: Copy Molluscabase or WoRMS. Those are correct and up to modern standards in most cases.

2. Solander / Lightfoot and the “Portland Catalogue” (Lightfoot, J. (1786). A Catalogue of the Portland Museum, lately the property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased; which will be sold by auction by Mr. Skinner & Co. [book]. London. viii + 194 pp.).
   1. History: Daniel Solander (pupil of Linnaeus) started working on the catalogue though got involved in a busy life with Joseph Banks and even went along with Cook on his first circumnavigation. When Solander passed away, the catalogue was unfinished and was later completed by the Revd. Lightfoot.
   2. As it is impossible to say whom of the two introduced which name in the Catalogue, Lightfoot (who eventually published it) is considered author – let it be between square brackets. Example: Cypraea pantherina [Lightfoot], 1786. In cases where the original genus has changed over the years, that becomes (e. g.): Jenneria pustulata ([Lightfoot], 1786) – thus between square AND rounded brackets.

3. Chresonymy (*):
   1. Please ensure a difference between true synonyms and chresonyms. A synonym simply is a different name given to a same species. A chresonym is a subsequent mentioning of the species in historical literature without change of the specific name though possibly with a change of taxonomical placement (different (sub)genus).
   2. Example of a synonymy (accepted name, with the synonym underneath in a “synonymy list”):
      1. Turritella exoleta (Linnaeus, 1758)

Turbo torcularis Born, 1778

• Example of a chresonymy (using fictitious references):
  1. Turritella exoleta (Linnaeus, 1758)

Turbo exoletus Linnaeus, 1758 (original combination)

Turritella exoleta (Linnaeus, 1758) as listed by Lamarck (1822:356), Chenu (1844;20), Chen (2025:158).

Turritella (Torcula) exoleta (Linnaeus, 1758) as listed by Aires (1916:240); Vos (2010:87)

Torcula exoleta (Linnaeus, 1758) as listed by Petuch (1987:24, 2020:187)

1. Bibliographic references (according to WoRMS / Molluscabase generator (****)):
   1. Please pay attention to comma’s, blanks and full stops behind the name of an author and the initials. E. g.: Adams, C. B. (Adams, comma, blank, C, full stop, blank, B, full stop, blank). Gloria Maris opts to have the author in bold in the Bibliography for better readability.
   2. Year: between brackets

• Complete title of the work: The title of an article is never in italics, but the name of the magazine in which it was published is. (cf. infra) The name of a single book is always in italics.

1. Volume (and possibly the part within a volume), pages (pp. xx-yy), plates (pls a-b): never italics.
   1. Example 1: Adams, A. (1865) On some new genera of Mollusca from the seas of Japan. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. ser. 3, 15(2): 322-324. [fictitious reference]
   2. Example 2 based on the previous and also considered acceptable: Adams, A. (1865) On some new genera of Mollusca from the seas of Japan. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Series 3, Volume 15, part 2, pp. 322-324, pls 1-5. [fictitious plate numbers are added here to serve as a complete example]

2. TIP: Copy references from Molluscabase and adapt if needed (not all references are already formatted to the new standards).

1. The plates:
   1. Ensure these are delivered in at the least 300dpi. A higher resolution is also ok, yet 300 is the minimum to obtain good quality at printing.
   2. Please ensure that the background of the plate(s) is ONE COLOUR of black. Ever so often, a colour difference can be observed between the background surrounding a shell and the global background. It does not have to be black, but whichever colour is used, please ensure that there are no colour differences in the background.

(*) Chresonymy: References to the specific use of a name by an author other than the original author, possibly in combination with a different (sub)genus (different taxonomical placement). Thus: reference to an opinion of a later author about what a specific name represents.

(**) Linnaeus was promoted to nobility in 1761, and as such could be mentioned for the 2nd edition of the Fauna Suecica (1761), M. L. U. (1764), 12th edition of the “Systema” (1767) and the “Mantissa” (1771) as “Linné”, and for the 1st edition of the Fauna Suecica (1746) and the 10th edition of the “systema” (1758-1759) as “Linnaeus”. It is however recommended to use 1 method consistently throughout an article – by preference “Linnaeus”. The use of “Linné” could cause confusion with Carl von Linné jr (1741- 1783), who continued his father’s work until he himself passed away – only 5 years after his father. For information: Linnaeus’ (Sr) collection was only sold to Sir J. E. Smith after the death of Linné jr.

(***) The 5 Sowerby’s which can be related to Mollusca:

[Also see: Petit, R. (2009) George Brettingham Sowerby, I, II & III: their conchological publications and Molluscan taxa. Zootaxa 2189: 1–218]

(****) When adding literature in WoRMS or Molluscabase, the different parts of a bibliographic reference are entered separately, upon which the system generates the reference in accordance with a fixed format. In order to evolve towards standardisation that format is described above.