1. General remarks
1.1. Matica Srpska Journal for Natural Sciences (short title: Matica Srpska J. Nat. Sci.) publishes manuscripts and review articles as well as brief communications in different scientific fields as indicated by the title of the journal. Review articles are published only when solicited by the editorial board of the journal. Manuscripts that have already been published either fully or partially or have been submitted for publication to other journal will not be accepted. The journal is issued twice a year.
1.2. The manuscripts should be written in correct English language in terms of grammar and style. The manuscripts should be submitted electronically as a separate file to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and also enclosed with the written consent of the authors for publication of the manuscript.
1.3. Upon receipt of the manuscript, the authors will receive a manuscript ID, which has to be referred to in any further correspondence. The authors will be notified of the manuscript reception within seven days, and about the reviewers’ opinion within two months after submission. All submitted manuscripts are reviewed and proofread.
2. Planning and preparing of the manuscript
2.1. The manuscript should be provided on A4 size pages (21 x 29.5 cm) in electronic format with 2.5 cm margins, first line indent, and 1.5 line spacing. When writing the text, the authors should use Times New Roman font size 12 and for the abstract, keywords, summary, and footnotes the same font size 10.
2.2. First name, middle initial and last name should be given for all authors of the manuscript and their institutional affiliations, institution name, and mailing address. In complex organizations, a full hierarchy should be mentioned (e.g. University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences – Department of Biology and Ecology). The institution of employment of each author should be stated below the author’s name. The position and academic degrees should not be cited. If there is more than one author, institutional affiliation for each author should be indicated separately. The name and mailing address (postal or e-mail address) of the author responsible for correspondence should be given at the bottom of the first page. If there is more than one author, the address of only one author should be given, usually the first one.
2.3. The text of the original articles should be organized into Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Material or Methods, or Material and Methods, Results or Results and Discussion, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Summary and Keywords in Serbian language, and Acknowledgements (if there are any). Original articles should not be longer than 10 pages, including the references, tables, legends, and figures.
2.4. Titles should be informative and not longer than 10 words. It is in the best interest of the authors and the journal to use words in titles suitable for indexing and electronic searching of the article.
2.5. The authors should submit the title of the article with last name and the initials of the first author. (if the article has more than one author, et al. should be used for other authors) and running title of not more than five words.
2.6. There should be listed up to 10 keywords using words and phrases that describe the content of the article in the best way and that allow indexing and electronic searching of the paper. The keywords should be given alphabetically and divided by commas.
2.7. The Abstract in English language and Summary in Serbian language should be a short and informative presentation of the article. Depending on the length of the article, the Abstract can have from 100 to 250 words. Summary written in Serbian language can be 1/10 length of the article and should contain the title of the article, first, middle initial, and last names of the authors, authors’ institutional affiliation and address, and keywords.
2.8. Information about financial support, advices, and other forms of assistance if necessary, should be wtitten at the end of the article under the Acknowledgements. Financial support acknowledgement should contain the name and the number of the project, i.e. the name of the program from which the article originated, and the name of the institution that provided the financial support. In case of other forms of assistance the author should submit the first name,
middle initial, last name, institutional affiliation, and the address of the person providing the assistance or the full name and the address of the assisting institution.
3. Review articles should be organized into Abstract, Keywords, Text of the manuscript, Conclusion, and References; Summary and Keywords in Serbian language should be submitted. Review articles should not be longer than 12 pages, including references, tables, legends, and figures.
4. Brief communication should be written according to the instructions for original articles but should not be longer than five pages.
5. References
5.1. References should be listed alphabetically. Examples:
(a) Articles from journals: Last name CD, Last name CD (2009): Title of the article. Title of the journal (abbreviated form) 135: 122-129.
(b) Chapters in the book: Last name ED, Last name AS, Last name IP (2011): Title of the pertinent part from the book. In: Last name CA, last name IF (eds.), Title of the book, Vol. 4, Publisher, City
(c) Books: Last name VG, Last name CS (2009): Title of the cited book. Publisher, City (d) Dissertations: Last name VA (2009): Title of the thesis. Doctoral dissertation, University, City
(e) Unpublished articles: designation “in press” should be used only for papers accepted for publishing. Unpublished articles should be cited in the same way as published articles except that instead of journal volume and page numbers“in press” information should be written.
(f) Articles reported at scientific meetings and published in extenso or in a summary form: Last name FR (2011): Proceedings, Name of the meeting, Meeting organizers, Venue, Country, 24-29.
(g) World Wide Web Sites and other electronic sources: Author’s last name, Author’s initial. (Date of publication or revision). Title, In: source in Italics, Date of access, Available from: <Available URL>. Where there is no publication date available n.d. (no date) should be used. Where there is no author available, transfer the organization behind the website or the title to the author space.
5.2. References in the text should include author’s last name and the year of publishing. When there are two authors both should be cited, but in case of three or more authors, cite the first author only and follow with et al.
5.3. If two or more articles of the same author or authors published in the same year are cited, the publishing years should be marked with letters a, b, c, etc., both in text and reference list.
5.4. The names of the periodicals should be abbreviated according to the instructions in the Bibliographic Guide for Authors and Editors (BIOSIS, Chemical Abstracts Service, and Engineering Index, Inc.).
5.5. References should not be translated to the language of the article. The names of cited national periodicals should be given in their original, shortened form. For example, for the reference in Serbian language, put (Sr) at the end of the reference.
6. Units, names, abbreviations, and formulas
6.1. SI units of measurement (Système international d’unités) should be used, but other officially accepted units are acceptable when necessary.
6.2. The names of living organisms should be given using Italics font style.
6.3. Abbreviated form of a term should be put into parenthesis after the full name of the term when it appears first time in the text.
6.4. Chemical formulas and complex equations should be drawn and prepared for photographic reproduction.
7. Figures
7.1. Authors may use black-and-white photographs and good quality drawings.
7.2. A caption with the explanation should be put below each figure.
8. Tables
8.1. Tables should be submitted on separate sheets of paper and attached to the end of the manuscript.
8.2. Tables should be numbered using Arabic numerals.
8.3. Table captions should always be positioned above the tables.
8.4. The place of the tables in the text should be indicated on the left margin.
9. Electronic copy of the article
9.1. After the acceptance of the article, a printed copy and a CD with final version of the manuscript should be sent to facilitate the echnical processing of the text. Articles should be written in Microsoft Word format and sent to the Editorial Office of the Matica Srpska Journal for Natural Sciences, 1 Matica Srpska Street, 21000 Novi Sad (Uredništvo Zbornika Matice srpske za prirodne nauke, Matice srpske 1, 21000 Novi Sad).
9.2. Before printing, the manuscripts shall be sent to the authors for the approval of final version. Corrections of the text prepared for printing should be restricted to misspelling and printing errors as much as possible. For major changes of the text, a fee will be charged.
Corrected manuscripts should be returned to the Editorial Office as soon as possible.