Instructions for Contributors

Editorial Focus

Founded by Raymond Pearl in 1929, Human Biology publishes original scientific articles, brief communications, letters to the editor, review articles, and book and software reviews on the general topic of biological anthropology. Our main focus is understanding human biological variation and human evolution through a broad range of approaches.

Human Biology is the official publication of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics (AAAG) (http://anthgen.org/), an educational and scientific organization founded in 1994. AAAG aims to promote the study of anthropological genetics, as this field is broadly defined, to facilitate communication between individuals engaged in the study of anthropological genetics and to foster cooperation among anthropological geneticists.

We encourage investigators to submit any study on human biological diversity presented from an evolutionary or adaptive perspective. Priority will be given to interdisciplinary studies that seek to better explain the interaction between cultural processes and biological processes in our evolution. Methodological papers are also encouraged. Any computational approach intended to summarize cultural variation is encouraged. Studies that are essentially descriptive or concern only a limited geographic area are acceptable only when they have a wider relevance to understanding human biological variation.

Manuscripts may cover any of the following disciplines, once the anthropological focus is apparent: human population genetics, evolutionary and genetic demography, quantitative genetics, evolutionary biology, ancient DNA studies, biological diversity interpreted in terms of adaptation (biometry, physical anthropology), and interdisciplinary research linking biological and cultural diversity (inferred from linguistic variability, ethnological diversity, archeological evidence, etc.).

Submitting a Manuscript

Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to human.biology@mnhn.fr. For other mailing needs, the address of the editorial office is Human Biology, c/o Nancy Wise, Museum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle, PO Box 139, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.

Submissions should consist of a "cover letter" to the executive editor (Franz Manni) and a single PDF file. The PDF file must include a title page, an abstract, the full text of the article, the reference section, and the tables and figures and corresponding captions (please see the Manuscript Organization section for more details). Although a PDF is the preferred format for submission and review, a Microsoft Word document will be required for the final revised manuscript.

Editorial Process

All submitted articles go through a two-stage review. A first selection (prereview) is made by the editors on the basis of the abstract only. Manuscripts that are not within the focus of the journal or that are otherwise inappropriate will be rejected at this stage; otherwise, manuscripts are forwarded to researchers familiar with the particular subject area for a specialized review. After a paper is reviewed, it is returned to the author for revisions (if necessary) or rejected. Authors whose papers are accepted will need to sign a copyright transfer agreement. We cannot publish papers without the signed form. Once a paper has been accepted and an issue assigned, it will be copyedited according to the style of the journal, which incorporates elements of style from various standard style manuals (e.g., the Chicago Manual of Style). The copyedited manuscripts are then typeset. The journal reserves the right to charge authors for part of the costs involved in publishing long articles or those containing much tabular material. Authors will receive page proof, which they are to proofread carefully and return promptly.

Manuscript Organization

General

Authors should submit their revised manuscript as a Microsoft Word document (Word 2003 or earlier version; if you are using Word 2007, please save the file as a Word 2003 document). The manuscript should be double-spaced throughout, including the author affiliations, the Literature Cited, the figure captions, and the tables. The article should follow the style of Human Biology and should be written concisely.

The manuscript should be organized as follows. The first page should be a title page, including the title of the paper, authors' names, complete authors' affiliations, and key words.

The second page should contain the abstract of the paper (500 words maximum). The abstract should give a summary of the article and not be merely descriptive of it. For example, state the results and the conclusions; do not use such...