An international journal reporting on the application of ethology to animals managed by humans.
Official Journal of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE)

INTRODUCTION • Types of paper BEFORE YOU BEGIN • Ethics in Publishing • Policy and ethics • Conflict of interest • Submission declaration • Copyright • Retained author rights • Role of the funding source • Funding body agreements and policies • Language and language services • Submission PREPARATION • Article Structure • Results • Discussion • Essential title page information • Abstract • Abbreviations • Nomenclature and Units • Math formulae • Footnotes • Artwork • Tables • Limitations • References • Supplementary material • Submission checklist AFTER ACCEPTANCE • Use of the Digital Object Identifier • Proofs • Offprints AUTHOR INQUIRIES

Types of paper

1. Original Research Papers (Regular Papers)
2. Review Articles
3. Letters to the Editor
4. Book Reviews

Original Research Papers should report the results of original research on topics that are within the scope of the journal ( http://www.elsevier.com/locate/applanim). The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.

Review Articles Review Articles should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest. They may be spontaneously submitted or invited. Invited reviews will normally be solicited by the Review's Editor, but suggestions for appropriate review topics may be sent to:

D. Weary
Department of Animal Science and Centre for Applied Ethics
University of British Columbia
Suite 208 - 2357 Main Mall
Vancouver V6T 1Z4
Canada
e-mail: dan.weary@ubc.ca

Letters to the Editor offering comment or useful critique on material published in the journal are welcomed. The decision to publish submitted letters rests purely with the Editors-in-Chief. It is hoped that the publication of such letters will permit an exchange of views which will be of benefit to both the journal and its readers.

Book Reviews will be included in the journal on a range of relevant books which are not more than 2 years old. Book reviews will be solicited by the Book Review Editor. Unsolicited reviews will not usually be accepted, but suggestions for appropriate books for review may be sent to the Book Review Editor:

M. Mendl
Department of Clinical Veterinary Science
University of Bristol
Langford House
Langford BS40 5DU
UK
e-mail: mike.mendl@bris.ac.uk



Ethics in Publishing

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

Policy and ethics

Animal Experimentation
Circumstances relating to animal experimentation must meet the International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals as issued by the Council for the International Organizations of Medical Sciences. They are obtainable from: Executive Secretary C.I.O.M.S., c/o WHO, Via Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, or at the following URL:
http://www.cioms.ch/frame_1985_texts_of_guidelines.htm

Authors may also wish to refer to the ethical guidelines published on the website of the International Society for Applied Ethology http://www.applied-ethology.org/ethicalguidelines.htm, or read the following article: Sherwin, C.M., Christiansen, S.B., Duncan, I.J., Erhard, H., Lay, D., Mench, J., O'Connor, C., and Petherick, C. (2003), 'Guidelines for the ethical use of animals in applied animal behaviour research', Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 81: 291-305.
Unnecessary cruelty in animal experimentation is not acceptable.

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.

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.

Copyright

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). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. 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.

Retained author rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.

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 and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/funding.

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.

Language and language services

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). 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.

In addition, the International Society for Applied Ethology can help members with the preparation of manuscripts for publication in Applied Animal Behaviour Science (and other English-language journals). Non-members of this Society will first need to join to gain access to this service: contact the Membership Secretary, Hans Spoolder, e-mail: hans.spoolder@wur.nl. Members should send requests for assistance to Dr Hanno Würbel, Animal Welfare and Ethology, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Frankfurter Str. 104, 35392 Giessen, tel.: +49 (0)641 99 38750; fax: +49 (0)641 99 38759; e-mail: Hanno.Wuerbel@vetmed.uni-giessen.de. Include the paper title, authors, contact address (including fax and e-mail if possible), key words and the journal to which the paper will be submitted. Do not send the manuscript. You will be sent the details of someone who will help you with the English of your paper. The helper should be acknowledged in your paper, but will not expect to be included as an author.

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.

Submit your article
Please submit your article via http://ees.elsevier.com/applan/



The use of English, punctuation and grammar should be of a sufficient high standard to allow the article to be easily read and understood. Do not quote decimals with naked points (e.g. use 0.08, not .08). Times of day should be in the format 10:00 h. Numbers less than 10 should be text, unless they are followed by a unit of measurement or are used as designators e.g. seven pigs from Group 3 were each trained for 7 days, with three sessions each lasting 3 min. Numbers greater than nine should be written as numerals.

Article Structure

Manuscripts in general should be organized in the following order:
•Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
•Name(s) of author(s) - we would like to publish full first names rather than initials, and would appreciate it if you would provide this information
•Complete postal address(es) of affiliations
Full telephone, Fax No. and e-mail address of the corresponding author
Present address(es) of author(s) if applicable
Complete correspondence address including e-mail address to which the proofs should be sent
•Abstract
•Keywords (indexing terms), maximum 6 items
•Introduction
•Material studied, area descriptions, methods, techniques and ethical approval
•Results
•Discussion
•Conclusion
•Acknowledgment and any additional information concerning research grants, etc.
•References
•Tables
•Figure captions
•Tables (separate file(s))
•Figures (separate file(s)).

Manuscripts should have numbered lines, with wide margins and double spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary one may refer to sections. Avoid excessive usage of italics to emphasize part of the text. Articles should not normally exceed 25 pages of text (11-point font, aligned left and double spaced) and contain a maximum of six or seven Tables and Figures in total.

Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to "the text". Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

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 "sets the scene" for your work. Do not over-reference statements; two or three key references should suffice unless each adds something specific. The introduction should not normally be more than 750 words (approximately three pages).

Material and 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.

When locations are given, it should be remembered that this is an international journal and provide the state/county and country, or longitude and longitude for lesser-known locations. Full details of commercial products and technical equipment should be provided, as necessary, including name of the model, manufacturer and location of manufacture, and any Trademarks. As appropriate, a statement should be made that the work has received ethical approval or that the authors have read the policy relating to animal ethics and confirm that their study complies. Data collection and collation: units of all measures need to be specified; the experimental design should be explained together with an explanation of the experimental unit; the ways in which data are derived must be specified (e.g. individual scores were summed for the four, 12-h periods and the mean used for the analysis); the methods used for determining the normality of distribution of the residuals and homogeneity of variances need to be specified; any transformations of data need to be described; statistical analyses need to be reported in full.

Results

This section should include only results that are relevant to the hypotheses outlined in the Introduction and considered in the Discussion. Present results in tabular or graphical form (see following sections) wherever possible. Sufficient data should be presented so that the reader can interpret the results independently. If data have been transformed then these are the data that should be presented because these were the data analysed. For biological meaning, back-transformed means (but not errors) should be presented. Include the type of test, the precise data (including a measure of variability) to which it was applied, the value of the relevant statistic, the sample size and/or degrees of freedom, and the probability level (abbreviated as an upper case P). Any assumptions that have been made should be stated. In doubt, a statistical expert should be consulted.

Discussion

The discussion should interpret the results, and set them in the context of what is already known in the appropriate field. This section should normally start with a brief summary of the main findings. The discussion should be focused and limited to the actual results presented, and should normally not exceed about 1500 words. All results presented in the Results section should be discussed (if they do not warrant discussion, they do not warrant inclusion) and there should be no presentation and discussion of results that have not been presented in the Results section (i.e. no new data presented in the Discussion). Any necessary extensive discussion of the literature should be placed in the Discussion, and not in the Introduction.

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

It should provide a brief "take home" message and briefly outline the application/implications of the study's findings.

Essential title page information

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• 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. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will 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.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

As this is the most-read part of a paper, it is useful to provide some data and significance levels in the description of the main results. The Abstract should not be longer than 400 words.

Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Nomenclature and Units

1. Authors and Editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. 2. All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals. 3. All biocides and other organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified. 4. For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the official recommendations of the IUPAC-IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed. Units and abbreviations should conform to the Systeme International d'Unites.

Math formulae

Present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

In chemical formulae, valence of ions should be given as, e.g. Ca²⁺, not as Ca⁺⁺. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols e.g. ¹⁸O. The repeated use of chemical formulae in the text is to be avoided where reasonably possible; instead, the name of the compound should be given in full. Exceptions may be made in the case of a very long name occurring very frequently or in the case of a compound being described as the end product of a gravimetric determination (e.g. phosphate as P₂O₅).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

Artwork

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, 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 finalised, 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: color or grayscale 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 (color or grayscale): 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 optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color 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 which can arise by converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color 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.

Figure captions should be understandable without reference to the main text. Figures should not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Tables

Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Table captions should provide sufficient detail that the Table can be understood without reference to the main text.

Limitations

Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and lay-out of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.

References

Citation in text
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication" Citation of a reference as "in press" implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web references
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. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

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 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.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."
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.
Examples:
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.

Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations: http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service): http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Supplementary material

Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, 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 ensure that data are provided 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. Video files: please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will be used instead of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

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)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color 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. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with 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 (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return them to Elsevier 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. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.



For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright, frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.