Guide for Authors
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 250 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 250 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: Anahita J.N. Kazem, Institute of Biology, Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU),
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway (fax: +47 7359 1309; email:
anahita.kazem@bio.ntnu.no) 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 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. (fax: 206 616 4794; email:
loes@u.washington.edu). 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).
Additional
Information
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.
Page charges
This journal has no page charges.
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.
• If ethical considerations arose in the course of the study, the author should
describe in the manuscript (see Methods) how those considerations were addressed. For example, information may need to be provided on
the following areas: housing and general maintenance, disposal of animals including release of wild-caught animals, culling of litters,
techniques causing desertion, aggression, predation, use of live animals as food, parasitism, techniques or manipulations (e.g. physiological,
pharmacological, genetic, blood and tissue sampling, use of anaesthetics and restraints, plumage alterations), trapping, marking, radiotagging,
food or water deprivation, manipulation of diets and access to food, social deprivation, brood manipulations, environmental manipulations,
conservation implications, details of licences/permissions obtained for the study. If authors fail to include relevant information, we
shall request a revision and resubmission of the paper. In exceptional cases, where unresolved ethical questions remain, the manuscript
may be sent to the ABS Animal Care Committee or the ASAB Ethical Committee for additional refereeing. In such cases, the decision as
to whether the manuscript is accepted for publication remains with the Editor or, in the final instance, the Executive Editor.
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.
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
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
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.
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:
F
1,11 = 7.89,
P = 0.017
Kruskal-Wallis
test:
H
11 = 287.8,
P = 0.001
Chi-square test:
X
2
2 = 0.19,
P
= 0.91
Paired
t test:
t
12 = 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:
r
s = 0.80,
N = 11,
P, < 0.01
Wilcoxon signed-ranks test:
T = 6,
N = 14,
P < 0.01
Mann-Whitney
U test:
U = 74,
N
1 =
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.
R
2 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 250 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 250 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 250 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. 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 and Accession numbers
Elsevier aims at connecting online articles with external databases which are useful in their respective research communities.
If your article contains relevant unique identifiers or accession numbers (bioinformatics) linking to information on entities (genes,
proteins, diseases, etc.) or structures deposited in public databases, then please indicate those entities according to the standard
explained below.
Authors should explicitly mention the
database abbreviation (as mentioned below) together with the actual database
number, bearing in mind that an error in a letter or number can result in a dead link in the online version of the article.
Please
use the following format:
Database ID: xxxx
Links can be provided in your online article to the following databases (examples
of citations are given in parentheses):
•
GenBank: Genetic
sequence database at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) (GenBank ID: BA123456)
•
PDB:
Worldwide Protein Data Bank (PDB ID: 1TUP)
•
CCDC: Cambridge Crystallographic
Data Centre (CCDC ID: AI631510)
•
TAIR: The Arabidopsis Information
Resource database (TAIR ID: AT1G01020)
•
NCT: ClinicalTrials.gov
(NCT ID: NCT00222573)
•
OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance
in Man (OMIM ID: 601240)
•
MINT: Molecular INTeractions
database (MINT ID: 6166710)
•
MI: EMBL-EBI OLS Molecular
Interaction Ontology (MI ID: 0218)
•
UniProt: Universal Protein Resource
Knowledgebase (UniProt ID: Q9H0H5)
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 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.
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 files which
will be visualized using Google maps. The KML 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. 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.2010.09.059
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks 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. For an extra charge, paper offprints can be ordered via the offprint order form which is sent
once the article is accepted for publication. 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.
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. 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 (
http://www.elsevier.com/authorFAQ)
and/or contact Customer Support via
http://support.elsevier.com.
