The manuscript should include: Title Page, Abstract, Keywords, Main text of the article with Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion (optional), Acknowledgments (optional), References, Figures or other Illustrations, Tables, Tables and/or Figures captions. All sections, excluding illustrations, should be prepared in Microsoft Office Word. Figure’s and Table’s captions should be verbless sentences. Please avoid long descriptions in figure captions – all necessary information should be included in legends.

• Use double-spacing throughout the whole text.
• Pages should be numbered consecutively.
• Please write your text in 12-point font.

Title Page

The title page must contain the full title, running title and key words.

Very important: Due to the review system (double blind) adopted by the Editorial Office in which authors and reviewers remain anonymous, front page does not contain any information identifying the author! (i.e. name, last name, affiliation, etc.). All this information is inserted during registration of your manuscript in the Editorial Manager system.

Keywords

Provide 4 to 8 key words.

Abstract

A short abstract, consisting of not more than 200 words, should be submitted on a separate page. It should not include repetition of the title, literature references, tables or illustrations. An abstract of Original Research should indicate the scope of the report, the methods used, and the main results. An abstract of a Review Paper should indicate the scope and the main points of the article.

Introduction

This contains a formulation of the subject, a statement on the current stage of development of the subject with leading references, and a clear definition of the article’s aim. It should not include tables or illustrations.

Materials and Methods

This section contains a description of the procedures employed and time when the study was conducted; it must be sufficiently detailed to enable other researchers to repeat them.

Results

This section describes only the results obtained during the research presented in the article. Results and discussion may be combined or kept separate, and may be further divided by subheadings.

Discussion

This section compares the author’s/authors’ results with those of other researchers and explains theoretical and logical aspects of the problem in question, deductions and conclusions. Conclusions should be included at the end of discussion or as a separate section, in accordance with the stated aim of the paper.

Acknowledgements

State source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, etc. Authors may include other appropriate acknowledgements (for example, to other scientists for their help or advice).

• References and citations of articles and books should be limited to published work or work in press and should be indicated in the text by the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication as follows (Higler 1986), (White, Morgan 1999) or to indicate authorship for two authors use ampersand (&) e.g. White & Black (1994); for more than two authors use et al.: (Smith et al. 1989). Use semicolon to separate different citations (Higler 1986; White, Morgan 1999). Papers by the same author published in the same year should be distinguished by small letters of the alphabet added after the year (Marshall 1999a), (Marshall 1998; 1999a,b). Do not use author’s initials text citations unless necessary to distinguish two authors of the same surname.
• References to unpublished observations, personal communications, papers in preparation (not in press), should be cited as follows: (E. Wilk-Woźniak, unpublished observations (personal communications, paper in preparation, etc.)). Include all authors in these citations – do not use et al. Don’t list them as references!

This part describes standards for preparing the references in the APA style. OandHS use EM’s “Reference Checking” tool, which automatically checks the validity of references listed in each manuscript’s bibliography (See details in Instructions for Authors – EM System usage).

Note: References list must be prepared as a separate file.

The following sections give detailed instructions on citing books, journal articles, newspaper articles, conference papers, theses, webpages, and others. Please provide all the required elements in the references to your paper. Please pay particular attention to spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Accuracy and completeness of references are the responsibilities of the author. Before submitting your article, please ensure you have checked your paper for any relevant references you may have missed. A complete reference should give the reader enough information to find the relevant article. Reference Checking will attempt to find each publication’s citation in PubMed and/or CrossRef. However, Reference Checking will not search for books or in press articles, as these texts are not listed in PubMed or CrossRef. If the Reference Checking tool is able to find the citation in PubMed and/or CrossRef, a link to that citation is created. If the Publication has Reference Checking enabled, Authors will see a link that says “View Reference Checking Results”. Clicking on the “View Reference Checking Results” link will allow the Author to see the results of the reference check. If the bibliographic entry is listed and “Validated”, then the reference checker was able to find a match in either PubMed, Cross Ref or both. If the entry is listed as “Not Validated”, the reference checker was not able to locate the citation in CrossRef or Pubmed. Publication citations that cannot be matched with an entry in either PubMed or Cross Ref will be listed as either “Not Validated”, meaning the tool views the citation as a Journal reference but cannot locate it on PubMed or CrossRef OR as Not Checked, meaning the citation does not appear to be from a Journal.

Note: Authors should view the Reference Checking Results and attempt to resolve any problems with references prior to submitting.

APA style reference list

This section comprises a complete list of all works cited in the text. All authors’ names up to 5 should be given. The abbreviation “et al”. should be used for papers with more than 5 authors and following the first 5 names. Please provide the first and the last pages for excerpts from journals, books, etc. In references to books, bulletins and reports, give the number of pages, the city and the publisher. If a paper is written in a foreign language, give the title in English and indicate the language in which the paper is written at the end of the reference as follows: (In Polish). If the paper has an English summary, add (English summary). For references starting with the same surname and initials, list single-author works first, in chronological order; list two-author works second, in alphabetical order of the second author, then chronologically; list multi-author works third, arranged only chronologically:

• Higler, F. (1999).
• Higler, F., Morgan, J. (1989).
• Higler, F., Vested, K. (1983a).
• Higler, F., Vested, K. (1983b).
• Higler, F., King, L., Evans, R., Eliot, W. (1987).
• Higler, F., Evans, R. & King, L. (1990).

1. Book

a) Book (one author)

• Format: Author. (Year of publication). Book title. Place of publication: Publisher.
• Example: Baxter, R. (1982). Exactly Solvable Models in Statistical Mechanics. New York: Academic Press.

b) Book (two or more authors)

• Format: Author1, Author2 & Author3. (Year of publication). Book title. Place of publication: Publisher.
• Example: Kleiner, F.S., Mamiya, C.J. & Tansey, R.G. (2001). Gardner’s art through the ages (11th ed.). Fort Worth, USA: Harcourt College Publishers.

c) Book chapter or article in an edited book

• Format: Author(s) of a chapter. (Year of publication). Chapter title. In Editors of the book (Eds.), Book title (Chapter page range). Place of publication: Publisher.
• Example: Roll, W.P. (1976). ESP and memory. In J.M.O. Wheatley & H.L. Edge (Eds.), Philosophical dimensions of parapsychology (pp. 154–184). Springfield, IL: American Psychiatric Press.

d) Conference proceedings

• Format: Author(s). (Year of publication). Title. In Conference name, Date (Page range). Place of publication: Publisher.
• Example: Field, G. (2001). Rethinking reference rethought. In Revelling in Reference: Reference and Information Services Section Symposium, 12–14 October 2001 (pp. 59–64). Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Australian Library and Information Association.

e) ebook

• Format: Author(s). (Year of publication). Title. Publisher. Retrieving date, http address. DOI.
• Example: Johnson, A. (2000). Abstract Computing Machines. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Retrieved March 30, 2006, from SpringerLink http://springerlink.com/content/w25154. DOI: 10.1007/b138965.

f) Thesis

• Format: Author(s). (Year of publication). Title. Information, Place of publication.
• Example: Begg, M.M. (2001). Dairy farm women in the Waikato 1946-1996: Fifty years of social and structural change. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

g) Report

• Format: Author(s). (Year of publication). Title. Place of publication: Publisher. (Report number)
• Example: Osgood, D.W. & Wilson, J.K. (1990). Covariation of adolescent health problems. Lincoln: University of Nebraska. (NTIS No. PB 91-154 377/AS)

h) Government publication

• Format: Institution name. (Year of publication). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
• Example: Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy. (1997). The national drug strategy: Mapping the future. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

2. Article

a) Journal Article (one author)

• Format: Author. (Year of publication). Article title. Journal Title. Volume (issue): range of pages. DOI.
• Example: Nikora, V. (2006). Hydrodynamics of aquatic ecosystems: spatial-averaging perspective. Acta Geophys. 55(1): 3–10. DOI: 10.2478/s11600-006-0043-6.

b) Journal Article (two or more authors)

• Format: Author1, Author2 & Author3. (Year of publication). Article title. Journal Title. Volume (issue), range of pages. DOI.
• Example: Cudak, M. & Karcz, J. (2006). Momentum transfer in an agitated vessel with offcentred impellers. Chem. Pap. 60(5): 375–380. DOI: 10.2478/s11696-006-0068-y.

c) Journal article from an online database

• Format: Author(s). (Year of publication). Article title [Electronic version]. Journal Title. Volume (issue), range of pages. Retrieved date of access, from name of database. DOI.
• Example: Czajgucki, Z., Zimecki, M. & Andruszkiewicz, R. (2006, December). The immunoregulatory effects of edeine analogues in mice [Abstract]. Cell. Mol. Biol. Lett. 12(3): 149–161. Retrieved December 6, 2006, from PubMed database on the World Wide Web: http://www.pubmed.gov. DOI: 10.2478/s11658-006-0061-z.

d) Newspaper article (no author)

• Format: Article title. (Publication date). Journal Title. page.
• Example: Amazing Amazon region. (1989, January 12). New York Times, p. D11.

e) Encyclopedia article

• Format: Author. (Year of publication). Article title. In Encyclopedia title (volume number, pages). Place of publication: Encyclopedia name.
• Example: Bergmann, P.G. (1993). Relativity. In The new Encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501–508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.

3. Other formats

a) Webpage

• Format: Author/Sponsor. (last update or copyright date). Title. Retrieved date of access, from URL.
• Example: Walker, J. (1996, August). APA-style citations of electronic resources. Retrieved November 21, 2001, from http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/apa.html.

b) Lecture note

• Format: Author(s). (Date of presentation). Lecture title. Lecture notes distributed in the unit, at the name of the teaching organization, the location.
• Example: Liffers, M. (2006, August 30). Finding information in the library. Lecture notes distributed in the unit Functional Anatomy and Sports Performance 1102, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia.

c) Patent

• Format: Author. (Year). Patent number. Location. Issue body.
• Example: Smith, I.M. (1988). U.S. Patent No. 123,445. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

d) Standard

• Format: Issue body. (Year). Standard name. Standard number. Location.
• Example: Standards Association of Australia. (1997). Australian standard: Pressure equipment manufacture. AS4458–1997. North Sydney.

e) Video

• Format: Producer, P.P. (Producer), & Director, D.D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion picture [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio or distributor.
• Example: Zhang, Y. (Producer/Director). (2000). Not one less [Motion Picture].China: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

f) Audio recording

• Format: Songwriter, W.W. (Date of copyright). Title of a song [Recorded by an artist if different from a song writer]. On Title of album [Medium of recording]. Location: Label. (Recording date if different from a copyright date).
• Example: Taupin, B. (1975). Someone saved my life tonight [Recorded by Elton John]. On Captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy [CD]. London: Big Pig Music Limited.

g) Mailing list

• Format: Author. (Exact date of a posting). Subject line of a message. Message posted to followed by a name of a mailing list, archived at followed by an address of the archived version of the message
• Example: Hammond, T. (2000, November 20). YAHC: Handle Parameters, DOI Genres, etc. Message posted to Ref-Links electronic mailing list, archived at http://www.doi.org/mail-archive/reflink/msg00088.html.

h) Computer software

• Format: Author(s). (Year). Title [computer software]. Location: Company.
• Example: Ludwig, T. (2002). PsychInquiry [computer software]. New York: Worth.

Note: Please, use DOI number if possible!

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): The DOI identification system for digital media has been designed to provide persistent and reliable identification of digital objects. Information on the DOI and its governing body, the International DOI Foundation, can be found at http://www.doi.org. In the editions of OandHS papers, the DOI appears at the top of the first page in its PDF version; in the printed editions, the DOI appears at the same location as in the PDF version.

Note: Electronic versions of figures should be submitted as separate files! Not attached to the text file.

Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies has an option EM’s Artwork Quality Checking (AQC) system enabled. Figures submitted to the Publication will be processed through AQC. The AQC system analyzes the artwork, and provides the results back to the Editorial Manager. These results are then made available to the Author and/or the Editor on designated pages. (See details in Instructions for Authors – EM System usage). Figures and/or Tables captions* should be fully explanatory. Be sure to explain all abbreviations used. Whenever possible, the information in Tables should instead be presented in a Figure. All tables and figures should be cited in the text consecutively. Please add list of figures/tables as a separate file. Color graphics are preferred as they are more useful in the online version of the manuscript.

Photos and figures

They should be of high quality (a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, preferably in the format TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, WPG). Legends**, if required, should be an integral part of figures. All figures should not require additional processing. Printed photographs must show good contrast and be accompanied by their electronic versions saved as high-resolution TIFF, GIF, BMP or JPG files. Please do not use satellite maps/pictures from online sources which you do not own/do not have copyrights (print screen, screenshots from websites). All figures must be referred to in the text, e.g. (Fig. 1) in their ascending order. A written copyright permission must be obtained for any graphics already published elsewhere in the same form. The source of the material should be credited at the end of the figure caption. The copyright holder may specify the exact language to be used.

Tables

They should not duplicate the text. Tables should be planned to a maximum size of 12 × 18 cm (for bigger ones please contact the editorial staff). Footnotes to tables should be indicated by lower-case superscript letters, beginning with a), b), c), etc. in each table. Titles for each table should enable the reader to understand the data without referring to the text. All tables must be referred to in the text, e.g. (Table 1) in their ascending order. A written copyright permission must be obtained for any tables already published elsewhere in the same form.

* Caption – description of figure (example: Figure 1. Study site)

**Legend – explanation of symbols used in figure (example: ● sampling point)

Use an unspaced hyphen (-) for compound terms or to connect two words that describe a particular concept.

Use an unspaced en dash (–) to represent a range of values/numbers or dates (including page ranges in reference lists) or to represent directions (Warsaw–Berlin road, north–south). However, an en dash should not be used when the words “from” or “between” introduce a range, or when values in the range are negative (especially the second value):

incorrect:

• from 12–15 mg l⁻¹
• between 12–15 mg l⁻¹
• −5– −7°C

correct:

• from 12 to 15 mg l⁻¹
• between 12 and 15 mg l⁻¹
• from −5 to −7°C

Use a spaced en dash (–) for insertions in a sentence in places where otherwise you would use commas or parentheses.

Use a thin space with such symbols as greater than, less than, equals.

Use a thin space in equations before and after the mathematical symbols like: =, <, >, +, − etc., but no space when the symbol is part of the value, e.g. −0.5, −4°C.

• Please use only the International System of Units (SI), if possible.
• Use thousand million instead of billion or use 10⁹.
• Run together numbers with up to four digits (i.e. 1000 and not 1,000 or 1 000).
• Numbers with more than four digits should be given as, for example, 10 000 or 100 000 (and not 10,000 or 100,000) – use a half-space or thin space to separate groups of 3 digits (also in numbers with decimals).
• The standard index format of numbers is preferred (example: 4.5 × 10⁻⁴ for 0.00045), instead of the normalized scientific format (example: 4.5E−4 for 0.00045), which is often suggested in Microsoft Office Excel.
• Use the decimal point: 1.25.
• Metric and Celsius units must be used.
• Use the expression: km hr^-1 not km/hr or km per h, g l^-1 not g per liter.
• Use a space between a numeral and a unit of measure, exception is degree, percent and Svedberg (5^oC, 5%, 5S).
• Specialized technical or scientific terms, abbreviations and acronyms should be explained the first time they are used.

• Do not use commas after “e.g.” and “i.e.”
• Use curved quotation marks (“…”).

Italicize:

• species and varieties, but not classes, orders and families;
• scientific names of bacteria and protozoa;
• p, o, m, n, cis, sec, sic, trans, syn in chemical names;
• genes, genotypes, loci, markers, mutants, alleles, operons;
• mathematical variables;
• a, b, c, d in chlorophyll names.

These should be typed in italics except Author(s) name, e.g. Cladophora albida (Hudson) Kützing. Spell out full generic and specific names on the first use: Ulva linza. Thereafter, the genus name may be abbreviated to the first letter: U. linza. If the name appears frequently and may be confused with another genus whose first letter is the same, spell both names out every times. Never abbreviate generic names when used alone; also, do not abbreviate a species name when a subspecies is recognized. For example: B. thuringiensis israelensis, not B. t. israelensis.

Use abbreviations sparingly and only if terms are repeated frequently. Define all but the obvious standard symbols and abbreviations when first mentioned in the text, these should be expanded in parentheses. Avoid using nonstandard abbreviations in titles and headings.

Except for function names, numbers, Greek letters and parentheses, these should be printed in italics. Equations should be numbered with Arabic numerals consecutively throughout the text: these numbers should be placed in parentheses on the right hand margin.

The preferred way of expressing geographical coordinates is: degrees, minutes and seconds of arc (DMS: ddd° mm′ ss.s″) or degrees and decimal minutes (DMM: ddd° mm.mmm′).

Use the following order for brackets: {[()]}.

These should be avoided if possible. However, if deemed absolutely essential, footnotes should be indicated by superscript numbers in the text and placed at the foot of the page to which they apply. They should be numbered throughout the text consecutively.

Before publishing your paper, we will send you the proof. Please check it carefully. After your acceptance, it will not be able to correct manuscript.