Mississippi River Research Consortium (MRRC)

Special Issue of Hydrobiologia for Upper Mississippi River Synthesis Papers

Guidance for Authors

In 2008, the Mississippi River Research Consortium (MRRC) intends to publish a collection of synthesis papers in association with the MRRC’s 40^th anniversary (Table 1).  At the 39^th MRRC annual conference in April 2007, and with the MRRC Executive Board’s approval, your interest in contributing to this effort was solicited.  Consequently, each of you agreed to lead up a contribution in your area of expertise, which gave us a really good start.  Since that time, we have worked with the MRRC Executive Board to identify an outlet for these contributions, define a broad vision for what we would like these submissions to accomplish, and develop details and instructions for each of you as authors.   

Table 1.  Topic and author list for solicited contributions synthesizing trends in Upper Mississippi River research and management.

Theme

Forty years of Upper Mississippi River adaptive research and management:  probing the past and navigating the future.

Vision

The 40^th year of the MRRC provides an opportunity to step back, take stock, and chart paths forward.  Our vision is to bring significant research expertise and experience to bear in synthesizing the content, conduct, and application of research on one of the world’s great rivers.    Because the Upper Mississippi River is perhaps the world’s best studied great river, we anticipate this synthesis to contribute broad and useful insights, as well as deep and hard-won understanding, to a worldwide audience of scientific peers and applied managers.

Goal

Our goal is for each contribution to provide a comprehensive, current understanding within each topical area.  While this may certainly include a synthesis of past MRRC contributions, we are aiming for a more complete synthesis including comparisons with other systems from around the world.  Also, please note our intent here is synthesis, not review.  Drawing linkages among the topical areas, when supported and appropriate, should also be a key consideration to authors.  Additional details concerning prospective manuscript content are provided in sections below.

Outlet

We have identified Hydrobiologia as the outlet for our contributions and we intend to sign into contract with them shortly.  Importantly, Hydrobiologia provides us with international exposure and a broad multidisciplinary audience, which the Executive Board feels is commensurate with the subject material and the goals of this effort.  For collective efforts such as this one, Hydrobiologia insists that an editorial committee be assembled to manage the production, review, and submission of all papers.

Editorial Committee

The MRRC Executive Board has assembled an Editorial Committee to manage our contributions (Table 2).  The Editorial Committee will be responsible for (1) providing production guidance and support to all authors; (2) managing the peer review process for all contributions; (3) assuring submissions meet the format and content standards for Hydrobiologia; and (4) submitting all contributions to the journal.  The Editorial Committee represents a central resource for all authors, so please use them accordingly.

The Editorial Committee presently intends to use the well-established and well-documented peer review procedures used by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC).  Authors who are UMESC employees (see Table 1) will understand this peer process well.  As manuscript authors, UMESC employees (N >=7) will need to use this process regardless, so we are arranging to have all submissions use the UMESC process.  The Editorial Board will provide more details on the UMESC peer review process to all authors once some additional details have been negotiated with UMESC.

Susan Romano will serve as the lead editor.  Each manuscript will be assigned to an associate editor who will manage the review process.  Authors will be notified who is managing their review and upon the commencement of the review.  Once review is initiated, authors should direct questions and concerns directly to the associate editor responsible for your paper.

Table 2.  Listing of Editorial Committee members and their contact information for the MRRC Hydrobiologia synthesis.

Author responsibilities

Authors are first and foremost responsible for generating a synthesis paper in the agreed subject area by established deadlines (see below).  Additionally, the MRRC Executive Board wishes to publish an abstract for each intended manuscript submission in the 40^th Annual Proceedings of the MRRC (April 2008).  Authors should plan to submit an abstract from their synthesis efforts coincident with deadlines published in the annual open call for papers for the 40^th conference (http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/mrrc.html).  Finally, the MRRC Executive Board wishes to highlight this important initiative within the Consortium by providing slots in the 2008 conference program for dedicated platform presentations in each subject area.  The Board feels this will bring ownership of this initiative to all MRRC members while simultaneously providing subject area authors an opportunity to road test their synthesis work and get valuable feedback from the broader MRRC membership ahead of manuscript submission.

Manuscript details

Manuscripts should not exceed 30 double-spaced pages, Times New Roman, 12 point font.   Figures, tables, and literature cited sections are inclusive of these limits.  The manuscript should be submitted in the format of Hydrobiologia - see Instructions for Authors, available at:  http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/instr_print_10750.060427.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-127451-p35762444. 

Color images may need special arrangements due to cost.  Please notify the Editorial Committee (Table 2) as soon as possible if color will be required in your submission.  This will require the Editorial Committee to identify additional funding sources, so lead time is key.

Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editorial Committee, not the journal.  Upon submission to the Editorial Committee, submit manuscripts electronically to Susan Romano (s-romano2@wiu.edu) in either MSWord2003 or 2007 format.  Each table and each graphic must be submitted as a stand-alone file, rather than integrated into the draft manuscript.  Table and figure filenames must coincide with their ordering within the manuscript (e.g., Ickes_Figure_1; Ickes_Table_3).

Deadlines

The submission deadline for a review-ready draft is May 30, 2008.  This submission should be made to the Editorial Committee, not the journal.  Please provide at least three (3) potential reviewers on a separate page with your manuscript submission.

Editorial revisions and recommendations will be returned to the authors by August 1, 2008.

The final revised manuscripts will be due to the MRRC Editorial Committee by October 1, 2008. 

Final submission to Hydrobiologia will be made by the editorial committee.

Suggested Template for Manuscript Development

1.      Introduction:  Importance – Why synthesize this information?

2.      Past research, review of literature, and suggested research needs.

3.      Synthesis:  Provide thoughtful, overall conclusions about what research review and trend analyses indicate.

4.      Linkages:  How does this subject impact other topic areas?

5.      Management Applications: 

a.     Local scope of contributions

b.     Broad, worldwide scope of contributions

Resources

Several resources are at your disposal as you begin to prepare your submission.

First, and perhaps most obvious, are your peers.  There are centuries of experience within your peer networks and within the MRRC membership.  Use these resources to the fullest extent possible.

Second, we will shortly be establishing a section within the MRRC web site for this initiative.  There, you will find this document, links to Hydrobiologia materials, and other similar information that may help you.  We will notify you once the site is active.

Third, we have recently scanned and built a keyword database for all past MRRC platform abstracts.  While we are moving to serve these via the MRRC website, this capability may still be a few month away.  In the meantime, we have created CD-ROMs with all scanned abstracts and the searchable database.  Susan Romano and Rick Anderson are in possession of 6 copies for authors located in the southern half of the Upper Mississippi River System.  Please coordinate with Susan and Rick if you wish to receive a copy.  Brian Ickes is in possession of the remaining copies for northern authors.  If you happen to be a UMESC author, these files are available on the following network path:  U:\brian_ickes\MRRC_Abstracts.

Best of luck to you all.  The Editorial Committee thanks you for your time and efforts in advance.  By volunteering, you have demonstrated a deep dedication to both the river and the research agencies and institutions that seek to conserve, protect, and understand it.  If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact one or more members of the Editorial Committee.

Last updated on November 27, 2007
http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/mrrc/hydrobiologia_instructions.html