Author information pack

Types of article

Research papers

Animal Behaviour publishes original papers relating to all aspects of the behaviour of animals, including humans. Papers may be field, laboratory or theoretical studies. Preference is given to studies that are likely to be of interest to the broad readership of the Journal and that test explicit hypotheses rather than being purely descriptive.

Reviews
These should address fundamental issues relating to behaviour and provide new insights into the subject(s) they cover. Original interdisciplinary syntheses are especially welcome. Reviews should be no longer than 6000 words (excluding references) and should include an abstract of up to 300 words. In the first instance, a preliminary outline of up to 600 words should be submitted online (see Contact details for submission below). The decision as to whether to proceed to a full review then rests with the Executive Editors or invited advisers. Contributions submitted on this basis will be subjected to the same refereeing process as normal manuscripts.

Essays
These should address fundamental issues relating to behaviour and provide new insights into the subject(s) they cover. In contrast to Reviews, Essays provide an opportunity for authors to express opinions, consider the subject area in a historical context and speculate on its future development. Essays should be no longer than 6000 words (excluding references) and should include an abstract of up to 300 words. In the first instance, a preliminary outline of up to 600 words should be submitted online (see Contact details for submission below). The decision as to whether to proceed to a full essay then rests with the Executive Editors or invited advisers. Contributions submitted on this basis will be subjected to the same refereeing process as normal manuscripts.

Commentaries
The Commentaries section of the Journal provides an opportunity to raise issues of general importance to the study of behaviour, including statistical analysis, theory, methodology and ethics. Unless there are clearly broader implications for the study of behaviour as a whole, critiques of particular papers or issues of more local interest should be reserved for the Forum section (see below). Decisions as to whether borderline submissions are more appropriate to the Commentaries or Forum section rest with the Executive Editors. Contributions should be brief, normally not more than six printed pages, and should not contain an abstract. Methodological contributions may be longer, and may contain an abstract, subject to the discretion of the Executive Editors. The initial decision as to prima facie merit rests with the Executive Editors or invited advisers. Contributions with prima facie merit are subjected to the same refereeing process as normal manuscripts, but responses or complementary articles may be solicited by the Executive Editors at their discretion. Other contributions are returned unrefereed to the author(s).

Forum
The Forum section is published on ScienceDirect with contributions listed in the contents of the relevant hardcopy issue and cited as indicated in References below. The section accepts critiques of published papers relevant to the areas of interest of the Journal, and provides an opportunity for constructive exchanges on issues surrounding particular fields of study. Submission, review and acceptance procedures are as for Commentaries (see above), but there is no word limit. In the case of Forum critiques of published papers, the author(s) of the target article must be contacted and trivial points of difference or misunderstanding resolved; this correspondence must be submitted in a cover letter accompanying the Forum article.

More general correspondence on matters relating to behavioural research is published, unrefereed, in the newsletters of ASAB and ABS. Such correspondence should be sent to the newsletter editors: Dr. Lisa M. Collins, Queen's University Belfast, Department of Biological Sciences, Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, UK, email: asabnewslettereditor@gmail.com) for ASAB; Regina H. F. Macedo, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia DF 70910-900, Brazil (fax: +55 61 3274 1141; email: rhfmacedo@unb.br) for ABS.

Single and Double Blind Peer Review
Animal Behaviour has instituted a double-blind peer review process (i.e., where neither the authors' nor the reviewers' identities are known to each other). Reciprocal anonymity is suggested to provide a more objective and potentially less biased assessment of manuscripts, and help ensure that the process is fair to both junior and well-established scientists. The switch to double-blind review requires some changes to editorial procedures, and we ask potential authors to pay close attention to our revised submission guidelines. Our policy with respect to reviewers is to allow them to waive anonymity if they wish, and in accord with this, authors may also choose to submit their papers without being blinded, giving both authors and reviewers maximum flexibility in how they wish their work and comments to be assessed. Animal Behaviour is one of the foremost journals in its field, and the implementation of double-blind review aims at ensuring our reputation for integrity, fairness and openness to new ideas.

Contact details for submission

• Authors should submit manuscripts online to (http://ees.elsevier.com/anbeh). When submitting online, authors are requested to select the article type (Research paper, Review, Essay, Review/Essay Proposal, Commentary, Forum). Each category of article is further divided into US and UK articles (e.g. US Research paper, UK Research paper, etc.) depending on whether the US or UK Editorial Office is responsible for processing the manuscript. Authors whose current address is in the Americas, or neighbouring islands, or who are members of the Animal Behavior Society should select the US article types and authors in other geographical areas or who are members of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour should select the UK article types. Hard copies are not required in addition to copies submitted online. Authors who are submitting a manuscript online for the first time should read the Author Tutorial on the submission site. For enquiries relating to submissions via EES, please contact the Journal Manager at Elsevier via email (yanbe@elsevier.com).
• For other general correspondence:
The address of the UK office is: Dr A.K. Turner, Managing Editor, Animal Behaviour Editorial Office, School of Biology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K. (fax: (0) 115 9 513 249, email: angela.turner@nottingham.ac.uk).
The address of the US office is: Kris Bruner, Managing Editor, Animal Behavior Society Central Office, Indiana University, 402 N. Park Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-3828, U.S.A. (fax: 812 856 5542; email: krbruner@indiana.edu).
Correspondence about book reviews handled through the North American office should be sent to: Dr P. Loesche, Department of Psychology, Box 351525, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, U.S.A. (email: loes@uw.edu).
Resubmitted manuscripts should also include the following:

•A detailed explanation of how the author has dealt with each of the reviewers' and Editor's comments. These comments should be uploaded as 'Revision Comments' on EES.

Ethics in Publishing

Animal Behaviour publishes papers by scientists conducting research at locations around the globe. Publication is, therefore, based upon mutual trust between publisher and authors. Professional integrity in the conduct and reporting of research is an absolute requirement of publication in the journal, as is a willingness to share information with other members of the scientific community. Consequently, as a condition of publication in Animal Behaviour, authors must agree both to honour any reasonable request for materials or methods needed to verify or replicate experiments reported in the journal and to make available, upon request, any data sets upon which published studies are based. Anyone who encounters a persistent refusal to comply with these guidelines, or has reason to suspect some other departure from acceptable standards of scientific conduct, should contact the appropriate Executive Editor (European or American) of the journal. The Executive Editor will act in accordance with the guidelines of the U.K. Committee on Publication Ethics (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk) (European Editor) or the Animal Behavior Society Code of Ethics (North American Editor) and may inform an author's institution of a purported infraction. Statements on scientific integrity by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and Animal Behavior Society can be found at, respectively, http://www.asab.org and http://.animalbehaviorsociety.org.

Originality and Plagiarism

As noted in Elsevier's publishing and ethical guidelines, authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. If authors have used the work and/or words of others, please ensure that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Plagiarism takes many forms, from 'passing off' another's paper as the author's own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

For further information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication, see also http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.

Animal Welfare

The research should adhere to the ASAB/ABS Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research (updated in each January issue of the Journal and on the Journal Web site: http://www.elsevier.com/framework_products/promis_misc/ASAB2006.pdf), the legal requirements of the country in which the work was carried out, and all institutional guidelines. The Guide to Ethical Information Required for Animal Behaviour Papers (http://www.elsevier.com/framework_products/promis_misc/ethyanbe.doc) should be consulted and its requirements met. ASAB and ABS endorse the ARRIVE guidelines for reporting experiments using live animals (http://www.nc3rs.org.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=1206&page=1357&skin=0).

Conflict of interest

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest. Further information and an example of a Conflict of Interest form can be found at: http://elsevier6.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/286/p/7923/.

Submission declaration

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Animal Behaviour will not consider submissions that have been published elsewhere, nor will it republish data found in other publications, unless the data are re-evaluated to provide new information not found in the original. Abstracts that both appear in published conference proceedings with ISBNs or ISSNs, such as special editions of journals, and provide explicit quantitative summaries of the key results, are considered as prior publication. Overlap between submitted manuscripts and published abstracts containing qualitative descriptions of the manuscript will be allowed, provided that such abstracts are not verbatim reproductions of the abstract contained within the submitted manuscript. Include all abstracts and other published materials in a cover letter accompanying the submitted manuscript on EES.

Changes to authorship

This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts:
Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, fax, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Requests that are not sent by the corresponding author will be forwarded by the Journal Manager to the corresponding author, who must follow the procedure as described above. Note that: (1) Journal Managers will inform the Journal Editors of any such requests and (2) publication of the accepted manuscript in an online issue is suspended until authorship has been agreed.
After the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue will follow the same policies as noted above and result in a corrigendum.

Copyright

This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research: Open Access and Subscription.

For Subscription articles
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.

For Open Access articles
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete an 'Exclusive License Agreement' (for more information see http://www.elsevier.com/OAauthoragreement). Permitted reuse of open access articles is determined by the author's choice of user license (see http://www.elsevier.com/openaccesslicenses).

Retained author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights. For more information on author rights for:
Subscription articles please see http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Open access articles please see http://www.elsevier.com/OAauthoragreement.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Open access

This journal offers authors a choice in publishing their research:

Open Access
• Articles are freely available to both subscribers and the wider public with permitted reuse
• An Open Access publication fee is payable by authors or their research funder
Subscription
• Articles are made available to subscribers as well as developing countries and patient groups through our access programs (http://www.elsevier.com/access)
• No Open Access publication fee

All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Permitted reuse is defined by your choice of one of the following Creative Commons user licenses:
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY): lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text and data mine the article, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation, and license their new adaptations or creations under identical terms (CC BY-NC-SA).
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): for non-commercial purposes, lets others distribute and copy the article, and to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), as long as they credit the author(s) and provided they do not alter or modify the article.

To provide Open Access, this journal has a publication fee which needs to be met by the authors or their research funders for each article published Open Access.
Your publication choice will have no effect on the peer review process or acceptance of submitted articles.

The publication fee for this journal is $2,200, excluding taxes. Learn more about Elsevier's pricing policy: http://www.elsevier.com/openaccesspricing.

Language and language services

Manuscripts should be written in British English. Authors who are unsure of correct English usage should have their manuscript checked by someone proficient in the language. Manuscripts in which the English is difficult to understand may be returned to the author for revision before scientific review. Papers that are accepted but incorrectly prepared or whose English is poor, may also be subject to delays in the press. After acceptance, the Editorial Offices will edit papers in accordance with the house style and will help authors to communicate effectively.
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission please visit http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support site at http://epsupport.elsevier.com for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions: http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions

Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail. Before submitting online, make sure you have the following details: all authors' names and addresses and their permission to proceed with submission, the details of any licences/permits/institutional approval you had for the study, suggestions for referees and any opposed referees. You will need to upload a cover letter, title page, acknowledgments and manuscript.

Referees

Please submit, with the manuscript, the names and e-mail addresses of 4 potential referees.
In case of double blind peer review, please make sure that all text that may reveal your identity is excluded from the source files.

Language

Please write your text in good English (British usage only is accepted). Use decimal points (not decimal commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).

Use of word processing software

It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. Microsoft Word is preferred; pdfs are not acceptable. See http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/howtosubmitpaper for a guide to formatting documents, including LaTeX.
The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible.
Type all manuscripts with double line spacing and aligned left, including the abstract, references, figure legends and tables.
Use a font size of 11 or larger.
Manuscripts should have continuous line numbers, page numbers and wide margins throughout (including the abstract, references, figure legends and tables).
Indent each new paragraph.
Use consistent punctuation; insert only a single space between words and after punctuation.
Type text without end-of-line hyphenation, except for compound words. Use initial capitals only for proper names (e.g. names of people, places or proprietary products), not for animals or for words such as 'experiment' or 'group'. Initial capitals may be used to label categories of behaviour or specifically defined measures. Do not use italics for these, for emphasis or for foreign words.
Use two returns to end headings and paragraphs.
Do not use lower-case 'l' (el) for '1' (one) or 'O'(oh) for '0' (zero); they have different typesetting values.
Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication ). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on Electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your wordprocessor.

Article structure

Subdivision - unnumbered sections

Divide your article into clearly defined sections. Each subsection is given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Subsections should be used as much as possible when cross-referencing text: refer to the subsection by heading as opposed to simply "the text".
The usual main headings for Research papers are: Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments and References (no heading is used for the Abstract or Introduction). Papers should not be forced to fit into this pattern of headings, however, if they do not naturally do so. Type main headings in capitals on a separate line on the left of the page. Type subheadings in italics at the left of the page on a separate line, and begin the main words with a capital letter. Type sub-subheadings in italics on a new line, aligned full left. Start the text on a new line after subheadings and sub-subheadings. When presenting multiple experiments, authors may use main headings for the titles of each experiment, with the Methods and Results of each experiment listed as subheadings. Try to keep subheadings short enough to fit within a single column.

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
The Introduction should be brief, not normally exceeding two manuscript pages. Keep references to a minimum by citing reviews rather than primary research papers where appropriate.

Methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
Give the names and addresses of companies providing trademarked products. Always state sample sizes (the number of animals used in the study) and the age, sex, breed/strain and source of animals. Full details of testing or observational regimes should be given. If captive animals were used, include details of housing conditions relevant to the study (e.g. cage size and type, bedding, group size and composition, lighting, temperature, ambient noise conditions, maintenance diets) both during the study and during any period before the study that might bear on the results. The Methods section may also contain a description of the kinds of statistics used and the activities that were recorded.
Ethical note. Where ethical considerations arise from the study, these should be addressed in the Methods, either in the main Methods section itself (where the additional discussion is relatively minor), or in a separate subsection of the Methods headed Ethical note. Any ethical implications of the experimental design and procedures should be identified, and any licences acquired to carry out the work specified. Procedures that were taken to minimize the welfare impact on subjects, including choice of sample sizes, use of pilot tests and predetermined rules for intervention, should be described. Any steps taken to enhance the welfare of subjects (e.g. through 'environmental enrichment') should also be indicated. If the study involved keeping wild animals in captivity, state for how long the animals were captive and whether, where and how they were returned to the wild at the end of the study.

Results

Results should be clear and concise. This section should include only results that are relevant to the hypotheses outlined in the Introduction and considered in the Discussion. The text should complement material given in Tables or Figures but should not directly repeat it. Give full details of statistical analysis either in the text or in Tables or Figure legends. Include the type of test, the precise data to which it was applied, the value of the relevant statistic, the sample size and/or degrees of freedom, and the probability level. Number Tables and Figures in the order to which they are referred in the text.
Means and standard errors/standard deviations (and medians and interquartile ranges/confidence limits), with their associated sample sizes, are given in the format X +SE = 10.20+1.01 g, N = 15, not X = 10.20, SE = 1.01, N = 15.
For significance tests, give the name of the test followed by a colon, the test statistic and its value, the degrees of freedom or sample size (whichever is the convention for the test) and the P value (note that F values have two degrees of freedom). The different parts of the statistical quotation are separated by a comma. Note use of italics for F, P, N and other variables.
If the test statistic is conventionally quoted with degrees of freedom, these are presented as a subscript to the test statistic. For example:

ANOVA: F1,11 = 7.89, P = 0.017
Kruskal-Wallis test: H11 = 287.8, P = 0.001
Chi-square test: X22 = 0.19, P = 0.91
Paired t test: t12 = 1.99, P = 0.07

If the test is conventionally quoted with the sample size, this should follow the test statistic value. For example:

Spearman rank correlation: rs = 0.80, N = 11, P, < 0.01
Wilcoxon signed-ranks test: T = 6, N = 14, P < 0.01
Mann-Whitney U test: U = 74, N1 = N 2 = 17, P < 0.02

P values for significant outcomes can be quoted as below a threshold significance value (e.g. P < 0.05, 0.01, 0.001), but wherever possible should be quoted as an exact probability value. Departure from a significance threshold of 0.05 should be stated and justified in the Methods. Marginally nonsignificant outcomes can be indicated as exact probability values or as P < 0.1. Nonsignificant outcomes should be indicated with an exact probability value whenever possible, or as NS or P > 0.05, as appropriate for the test.

State whether a test is one tailed or two tailed (or specific or nonspecific in the case of Meddis' nonparametric ANOVAs). One-tailed (or specific) tests should be used with caution. Their use is justified only when there are strong a priori reasons for predicting the direction of a difference or trend and results in the opposite direction can reasonably be regarded as equivalent to no difference or trend at all. Authors are referred to Kimmel (1957, Psychological Bulletin, 54, 315-353).

Do not quote decimals with naked points, for example quote 0.01, not .01, or normally to more than three decimal places (the exception being P values for significance tests, which may be quoted to four decimal places where appropriate, e.g. 0.0001).

Regressions and analyses of variance. The significance of regressions should be tested with F or t but not the correlation coefficient r. R2 should be quoted with both regressions and parametric analyses of variance.

Multiple range tests. Unplanned multiple range tests following ANOVA should be avoided unless their appropriateness for the comparisons in question is verified explicitly. Authors are referred to the review by Day & Quinn (1989, Ecological Monographs, 59, 433-463).

Power tests. Where a significance test based on a small sample size yields a nonsignificant result, explicit consideration should be given to the power of the data for accepting the null hypothesis. Authors are referred to Thomas & Juanes (1996, Animal Behaviour, 52, 856-859) and Colegrave & Ruxton (2003, Behavioral Ecology, 14, 446-447) for guidance on the appropriate use of power tests. Providing a value for power based on a priori tests is preferred. Values of observed power are not appropriate. Authors should consider effect sizes and their confidence intervals in drawing conclusions regarding the null hypothesis.

Transformations. Where data have been transformed for parametric significance tests, the nature of the transformation and the reason for its selection (e.g. log x, x 2, arcsine) should be stated.

Discussion

It is often helpful to begin the Discussion with a summary of the main results. The main purpose of the Discussion, however, is to comment on the significance of the results and set them in the context of previous work. The Discussion should be concise and not excessively speculative, and references should be kept to a minimum by citing review articles as much as possible.

Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, as a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as 1, 2, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: equation (A1), equation (A2), etc.

Essential title page information

Title. This should be brief and informative, and should not exceed 120 characters. Avoid abbreviations, as well as part numbers unless the papers are to be published consecutively in the same issue of the Journal.

Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g. a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Affiliations should not include street, box number, postal (zip) code, country (when that is obvious) or city, state, province, etc., when that is redundant with the University name.

Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.

Correspondence. At the bottom of the page, give the full postal address and e-mail address (if desired) of the corresponding author and the present addresses of any co-authors if different from their affiliations; e-mail addresses of co-authors may also be given.

Word count. Include a word count for the text.

Reviews. These should address fundamental issues relating to behaviour and provide new insights into the subject(s) they cover. Original interdisciplinary syntheses are especially welcome. Reviews should be no longer than 6000 words (excluding references) and should include an abstract of up to 300 words. In the first instance, a preliminary outline of up to 600 words should be submitted online (as a Review proposal). The decision as to whether to proceed to a full review then rests with the Executive Editors of invited advisers. Contributions submitted on this basis will be subjected to the same refereeing process as normal manuscripts.

Essays. These should address fundamental issues relating to behaviour and provide new insights into the subject(s) they cover. In contrast to Reviews, Essays provide an opportunity for authors to express opinions, consider the subject area in a historical context and speculate on its future development. Essays should be no longer than 6000 words (excluding references) and should include an abstract of up to 300 words. In the first instance, a preliminary outline of up to 600 words should be submitted online (as an Essay proposal). The decision as to whether to proceed to a full essay then rests with the Executive Editor or invited advisers. Contributions submitted on this basis will be subjected to the same refereeing process as normal manuscripts.

Title document
The title document should contain the title of the article, all affiliations of the corresponding author and co-authors and the corresponding author's address. In case of double blind peer review, this information should not appear in any other file, in order not to yield the authors identity to the reviewer.

Abstract

The Abstract should describe the purpose of the study, outline the major findings and state the main conclusions. It should be concise, informative, explicit and intelligible without reference to the text. Abstracts should usually be limited to 300 words. Use both common and scientific names of animals at first mention in the Abstract unless they are given in the title. Avoid using references; if used, give the journal name, volume and page numbers, or the book title and publisher.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal for research articles, essays, reviews, commentaries and forum articles. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that convey the core findings of the article and should be submitted in a separate file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters including spaces and each bullet point should be on a separate line). See http://www.elsevier.com/highlights for examples.

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide up to 10 keywords, using British spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first mention in the abstract and the main text. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Nomenclature and units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.

Database linking

Elsevier encourages authors to connect articles with external databases, giving their readers one-click access to relevant databases that help to build a better understanding of the described research. Please refer to relevant database identifiers using the following format in your article: Database: xxxx (e.g., TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN). See http://www.elsevier.com/databaselinking for more information and a full list of supported databases.

Math formulae

Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible. Single-letter variables should be italics. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text.

Footnotes

Use footnotes only to add information below the body of a Table.

Artwork

Image manipulation
While it is accepted that authors sometimes need to manipulate images for clarity, manipulation for purposes of deception or fraud will be seen as scientific ethical abuse and will be dealt with accordingly. For graphical images, this journal is applying the following policy: no specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.

Electronic artwork

General points
•Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
•Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
•Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
•Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
•Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
•Provide captions to illustrations separately.
•Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
•Submit each figure as a separate file.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".

Please do not:
•Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
•Supply files that are optimized for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); otherwise, the resolution is too low;
•Supply files that are too low in resolution;
•Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Colour artwork

If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures, then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g. ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise by converting colour figures to "greyscale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.

Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Number tables consecutively, with Arabic numerals, in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript symbols. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Do not divide tables into two or more parts. Tables should not contain vertical rules, and the main body of the table should not contain horizontal rules. Large tables should be narrow (across the page) and long (down the page) rather than wide and short, so that they can be fitted into the column width of the Journal.

References

Check that all references in the text are in the reference list and vice versa, that their dates and spellings match, and that complete bibliographical details are given, including page numbers, names of editors, name of publisher and full place of publication if the article is published in a book. Check foreign language references particularly carefully for accuracy of diacritical marks such as accents and umlauts. For papers in the course of publication, use 'in press' to replace the date and give the journal name in the references. Cite unpublished manuscripts (including those in preparation or submitted), talks and abstracts of talks in the text as 'unpublished data' following a list of all authors' initials and surnames. Do not include these in the reference list.

Web references

Because of the ephemeral nature of many Web sites, other Web citations will be reviewed by the Editors to ensure they are appropriate to an archival journal. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

References in a special issue
Please ensure that the words 'this issue' are added to any references in the list (and any citations in the text) to other articles in the same Special Issue.

Reference management software
This journal has standard templates available in key reference management packages EndNote (http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp) and Reference Manager (http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to wordprocessing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal style which is described below.

Reference style

Text:
All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication. Note that 'et al.' is not in italics.
Do not use commas to separate the author's name from the date. Use lower-case letters to distinguish between two papers by the same authors in the same year (e.g. Packer 1979a). List multiple citations in chronological order (e.g. Zahavi 1972; Halliday 1978; Arnold 1981a, b), using a semicolon to separate each reference.

Reference List:
References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication. To help readers locate 'et al.' citations with the same first authors in the reference list, list references with three (or more) names after those with two, by date, as in the following sequence: Marin & Silva 1992; Marin, Silva & Lopez 1986; Marin, Lopez & Silva 1989

Use the following system for arranging your references:

a. For periodicals
Robinson, M. H. & Robinson, B. 1970. The stabilimentum of the orb web spider, Argiope argentata: an improbable defense against predators. Canadian Entomologist, 102, 641-645.
b. For books
Bailey, N. J. 1981. Statistical Methods in Biology. 2nd edn. London: Unibooks.
c. For multiauthor books
Emlen, S. T. 1978. The evolution of cooperative behaviour in birds. In: Behavioural Ecology (Ed. by J. R. Krebs & N. B. Davies), pp. 245-281. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.
d. For theses
Smith, J. K. 1985. Investigations on a freshwater crab. Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham.
e. Forum articles should include volume and part number and Web site address and be cited as:
Johnson, A. R. 1999. Scent marking in hyaenas: reply to Jones. Animal Behaviour, 57, F41-F43.
Note that journal titles in the reference list should be written in full.
In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles of publications in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated, and a notation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek, with English abstract)" should be added.
Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press". References concerning unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.

Video data

Elsevier accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. Authors who have video or animation files that they wish to submit with their article are strongly encouraged to include links to these within the body of the article. This can be done in the same way as a figure or table by referring to the video or animation content and noting in the body text where it should be placed. All submitted files should be properly labeled so that they directly relate to the video file's content. In order to ensure that your video or animation material is directly usable, please provide the files in one of our recommended file formats with a preferred maximum size of 50 MB. Video and animation files supplied will be published online in the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. Please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or animation or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your video data. For more detailed instructions please visit our video instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Note: since video and animation cannot be embedded in the print version of the journal, please provide text for both the electronic and the print version for the portions of the article that refer to this content.

AudioSlides

The journal encourages authors to create an AudioSlides presentation with their published article. AudioSlides are brief, webinar-style presentations that are shown next to the online article on ScienceDirect. This gives authors the opportunity to summarize their research in their own words and to help readers understand what the paper is about. More information and examples are available at http://www.elsevier.com/audioslides. Authors of this journal will automatically receive an invitation e-mail to create an AudioSlides presentation after acceptance of their paper.

Supplementary data

Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Google Maps and KML files

KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files (optional): You can enrich your online articles by providing KML or KMZ files which will be visualized using Google maps. The KML or KMZ files can be uploaded in our online submission system. KML is an XML schema for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within Internet-based Earth browsers. Elsevier will generate Google Maps from the submitted KML files and include these in the article when published online. Submitted KML files will also be available for downloading from your online article on ScienceDirect. For more information see http://www.elsevier.com/googlemaps.

Submission checklist

It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
•E-mail address
•Full postal address
•Telephone and fax numbers
•All necessary files have been uploaded
•Keywords
•All figure captions
•All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
•Further considerations
•Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked"
•References are in the correct format for this journal
•All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
•Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
•Colour figures are clearly marked as being intended for colour reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced in colour on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
•If only colour on the Web is required, black and white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes For any further information please visit our customer support site at http://epsupport.elsevier.com.

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly 'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. Example of a correctly given DOI (in URL format; here an article in the journal Physics Letters B):
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2010.09.059
When you use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader© version 7 (or higher) available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/systemreqs. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Offprints

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail (the PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use). For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent once the article is accepted for publication. Both corresponding and co-authors may order offprints at any time via Elsevier's WebShop (http://webshop.elsevier.com/myarticleservices/offprints). Authors requiring printed copies of multiple articles may use Elsevier WebShop's 'Create Your Own Book' service to collate multiple articles within a single cover (http://webshop.elsevier.com/myarticleservices/offprints/myarticlesservices/booklets).

Author's Discount
Contributors to Elsevier journals are entitled to a 30% discount on most Elsevier books, if ordered directly from Elsevier.

For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission) please visit this journal's homepage. For detailed instructions on the preparation of electronic artwork, please visit http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. You can also check our Author FAQs at http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ and/or contact Customer Support via http://support.elsevier.com.