Papers must present scientific results that are essentially new and that have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should preferably be submitted as electronic data, in which case the text, tables, and figures must be combined in a single PDF or MS-Word file, but JPEG files for figures are acceptable if it is difficult to merge the figures into a PDF or Word file. Times Roman (+ Symbol) or Times New Roman font should be used in the text and tables. Pages and lines in the text must be numbered consecutively through the entire text. The file name must include the corresponding author's name. The manuscript files (not more than about 20 MB) should preferably be uploaded to the FTP server at Springer-Verlag, Tokyo (host name: ftp.springer-tokyo.co.jp; user name (ID): irsubmit; password: ichthyolres). Before electronic submission, the corresponding author should give his/her name, postal address, telephone and facsimile numbers, and e-mail address to the Editor-in-Chief, Seishi Kimura, by e-mail. If the manuscript is a single, small file (not more than 2MB), it may alternatively be sent as an e-mail attachment to the Editor-in-Chief. An electronic manuscript saved on a CD mailed to the Editor-in-Chief is also acceptable. If assistance is required in creating and/or uploading the electronic manuscript, contact the Editor-in-Chief.

If electronic submission is not possible, send three high-quality copies of the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief:
Seishi Kimura
Fisheries Research Laboratory, Mie University
4190-172 (P.O. Box 11) Wagu, Shima, Mie 517-0703, Japan
Tel. +81-599-85-4604, Fax +81-599-85-5492
e-mail: kimura-s@bio.mie-u.ac.jp

Authors are welcome to suggest three or more potential reviewers. E-mail and postal addresses of the reviewers need to be provided

Manuscripts must be written in English and typed in double-line spacing (25–28 lines per page) with 25-mm margins. Short reports should not exceed four printed pages, including references, illustrations, and tables. An average printed page contains approximately 6200 characters including spaces, or about 1000 words.

Copyright transfer. Authors transfer the copyright to their article to The Ichthyological Society of Japan effective if and when the article is accepted for publication. The copyright covers the exclusive and unlimited rights to reproduce and distribute the article in any form of reproduction (printing, electronic media, or any other form); it also covers translation rights for all languages and countries. For U.S. authors the copyright is transferred to the extent transferable.

Authors of a new taxon. A new scientific name for a taxon proposed by one, two, or three authors will be accepted. New names proposed by more than three authors are not acceptable.

Manuscripts. Please organize your manuscript as follows:

• Title page, including title of paper; all authors' full names, institutions, and addresses at which the research was conducted [plus current affiliation(s), if applicable]; address to which proofs should be sent, including e-mail address and phone and fax number; suggested running head within six words; type of paper; number of text pages, number of figures, and number of tables. Authorship of scientific names should be included in the title only when nomenclatural problems are involved.
  
• Abstract (no more than 100 words for short reports and 350 words for other papers) and 3–5 key words.
  
• The text of the paper should be divided into the following sections, if appropriate: Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgments; Literature Cited; Tables; Figure Legends. No heading is needed for the introduction. Author(s) should use bold-face for the following headings: Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Literature Cited; italics for Acknowledgments. Subheadings in the Materials and Methods section should be italic; those in both Results and Discussion should be bold. All contributors must pay attention to the manuscript form by checking the articles published in the recent issues. Please include, at the end of the acknowledgments, a declaration that any experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfill the above mentioned requirements.

Footnotes should be avoided whenever possible.

Generic and specific names should be italicized

Common abbreviations and symbols such as µm, mm, cm, g, ºC (for Celsius), and % should be used. Measurements should be given in metric units.

Literature citations in the text should indicate the author's surname with the year of publication in parentheses, e.g., Carlin (1992); Brooks and Carlin (1992).

Literature cited at the end of the paper should be listed in alphabetical order by the first author’s name:

Journal papers:

names and initials of all authors; year; full title; journal title abbreviated in accordance with international practice; volume number; first and last page numbers: Takata Y, Sasaki K (2005) Branchial structures in the Gasterosteiformes, with special reference to myology and phylogenetic implications. Ichthyol Res 52:33–49 A paper published online but not yet in print can be cited using the DOI: Leis JM, Hay AC, Trnski T (2005) In situ ontogeny of behaviour in pelagic larvae of three temperate, marine, demersal fishes. Mar Biol. DOI 10.1007/s00227-005-0108-0

Single contributions in a book:
	names and initials of all authors; year; title of article; editor(s); title of book; edition; volume number; publisher; place of publication; page numbers: Kumazawa Y, Yamaguchi M, Nishida M (2000) Mitochondrial molecular clock and the origin of euteleostean biodiversity. In: Kato M (ed) The biology of biodiversity. Springer, Tokyo, pp 35–52

Books:
	names and initials of all authors; year; title; publisher; place of publication: Marshall NB (1979) Developments in deep-sea biology. Blandford, Poole

Tables and figures. . Tables must be numbered consecutively with arabic numerals and submitted on separate pages from the text. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters.

Illustrations must be restricted to the minimum needed to clarify the text. All figures (photographs, graphs, or diagrams) should be cited in the text and numbered consecutively throughout. Figure legends must be brief, self-sufficient explanations of the illustrations Submit all figures in their preferred sized when printed on separate pages or sheets and do not integrate them into the text. The Editor reserves the right to reduce or enlarge illustrations. Inscriptions should be legible, with initial capital letters and appropriately scaled to the size of the drawing. Magnification should be indicated by scale bars. Color illustrations will be accepted. However, the authors will be expected to make a contribution toward the extra costs (approx. 110 000 yen for the first and 60 000 for each additional page).

Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM) for a paper will be published in the electronic edition of this journal and the material provided is submitted in electronic form together with the final version of your manuscript after acceptance.

ESM may consist of:
information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings (avi, .mpeg, animated GIFs, or any other common file format); information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, etc. large quantities of original data that relate to the paper, e.g. additional tables, large numbers of illustrations (color and black & white), etc.

Legends must be brief, self-sufficient explanations of the ESM. ESM is to be numbered and referred to as S1, S2, etc.

Proofs must be corrected upon receipt and returned immediately to the publisher. Extensive corrections to the content at proof stage are not allowed. Offprints may be ordered when the page proofs are returned. Original manuscripts will not normally be returned. Original artwork will be returned only at an author’s request.

Excess-length charges. Note that papers that exceed 25 printed pages for reviews, six printed pages for full papers, or two printed pages for short reports and others are subject to page charges. Non-members receive 25 free printed pages for reviews, but are limited to three free printed pages for full papers, and one free printed page for short reports and others. Currently, 6000 yen is charged for each page in excess of the limit.