The Museum disseminates the research studies of its scientific staff and affiliated scientists by publishing three serials. Short papers that cover topics in zoology are published in the Novitates, while longer zoological monographs are issued in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Anthropological monographs appear as Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History.
Page Charges
The Museum usually defrays page charges for publications by Museum staff (including emeriti), postdoctoral fellows, graduate students (whose principal advisors are Museum curators), and research associates. Other (nonaffiliated) authors are required to fund 100% of publication costs, which are currently estimated at $85.00 per printed page.
Copyright Release
All authors who are not AMNH employees must sign a copyright release letter that allows the Museum to reproduce and distribute the publication in various media; this is specifically relevant to our goal of providing electronic access to all scientific publications. Copyright release letters are sent from the editorial office when submitted manuscripts are placed in production. No manuscripts from non-Museum authors will be processed until a signed copyright release letter is received by the production editor.
Chargeable Costs
Authors are responsible for the following costs unless authorization is obtained to bill departments, divisions, or other sources: all color-reproduction charges, additional reprints (more than the 200 free reprints provided by AMNH), excessive author-generated text corrections (averaging more than two per printed page), or author-generated illustration corrections.
Special Funds Supporting Publication Costs
Authors are responsible for assuring that all sources of funding (outside institutional sources, AMNH Fellowship funds, AMNH Division funds, etc.) for publication costs are identified on the Submission Form (see below) that accompanies submitted manuscripts.
Printed Error Correction Policy
Requests for correction of egregious printed errors are handled as follows: a reprint is ordered after responsibility for the error(s) is established. [NOTE: The Musuem does not supply errata sheets for correction of errors.] The cost of reprinting is the responsibility of the printer (for unacceptable printer’s errors), the Museum (editorial errors), or the author (authors’ errors). Reprinting at the Museum’s or printer’s expense is not justified for errors not noticed by the author in proofs of text and/or illustrations. Authors must bring printed errors to the attention of the editor immediately (normally upon receipt of advance copies mailed to the author from the printer). Authors concerned about reproduction of especially sensitive illustrations should alert the editor beforehand.
Authors must fill out and submit the Manuscript Submission Form along with 3 hard copies of the manuscript and 3 copies of accompanying illustrations. Authors should consult Guidelines for Submitting Text, general Guidelines for Submitting Illustrations or Guidelines for Submitting Digital Illustrations for instructions when preparing manuscripts and illustrations for publication. See Guidelines for References to format the bibliography.
A covering letter that included the names, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, and telephone numbers of 3 or more qualified outside (non-AMNH) reviewers should be addressed to the appropriate Associate Editor as follows:
Meng Jin (Paleontology) jmeng@amnh.org
Lee Herman (Invertebrate Zoology) herman@amnh.org
Charles Spencer (Anthropology) cspencer@amnh.org
Robert Voss (Vertebrate Zoology) voss@amnh.org
After the anonymous peer review process is completed, the Publications Committee Chair, in consultation with the Associate Editor, either approves the manuscript for production, returns the manuscript to the authors for revision, or rejects the manuscript . Only after the manuscript has been approved by the Publications Committee should original illustrations (or digital illustration files and high-quality laser printouts) and the electronic text file be submitted for review to the Managing Editor of Scientific Publications, Mary Knight (mknight@amnh.org).
The document will be placed in production after final illustrations and correctly formatted manuscript are approved by the Managing Editor.
Printed issues of the Novitates and Bulletin can be purchased from the Museum Library (which also handles subscriptions, institutional exchanges, and copyright permissions). The Library provides information about these services on their Museum Publications site where you will also find lists of these publication titles, authors, and prices.
Electronic versions of Novitates and Bulletins issued after January 2000 are available at http://www.bioone.org via institutions that subscribe to the BioOne consortium of biological journals.
A brochure listing the anthropological reports published from 1896 to the present in the Anthropological Papers, Novitates, and Memoirs as well as the James Arthur Lecture on the Evolution of the Human Brain can be obtained from the Anthropology Department at FAX number 212-769-5334.