The Condor publishes original research reports and review articles pertaining to the biology of wild species of birds. Submit two copies of all materials, including text, tables, figures, and illustrations, to Dr. David S. Dobkin, Editor, The Condor, High Desert Ecological Research Institute, 15 S.W. Colorado Avenue, Suite 300, Bend, OR 97702, USA (telephone and fax: 541-382-1117, condor@hderi.org). We encourage authors with access to Adobe Acrobat to provide a PDF version of their manuscript on a 3.5″ floppy disk (both MacIntosh and PC are acceptable). Be aware that in some software applications, some symbols do not convert to PDF, so proofread PDF files carefully before submitting.
A cover letter should accompany the manuscript. Authors should suggest names of three or four potential reviewers (including their postal and electronic addresses) for their manuscript, but the use of such reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor. In the cover letter, the author must indicate the extent to which the data have been used in other papers and reports that are published, in press, submitted elsewhere, or soon to be submitted. Please also provide an e-mail address for the corresponding author.
TYPES OF PAPERS
Manuscripts are published as Feature Articles, Short Communications, Commentaries, Book Reviews, or items for News and Notes. Feature Articles are longer manuscripts, whereas Short Communications are generally fewer than 10 typed pages (excluding Literature Cited) or deal with one primary finding. Commentaries are brief papers that comment on articles published previously in The Condor. Ornithological books are reviewed in the Book Reviews section. Interested book reviewers should contact Dr. Barbara E. Kus, Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-4614, (barbara_kus@usgs.gov). News and Notes is devoted to noncommercial ornithological news. Contributors of announcements and requests for assistance should note that the Ornithological Newsletter, edited by Dr. Cheryl L. Trine, 3889 Valley View, Berrien Springs, MI 49103 (ctrine@andrews.edu), is published more frequently and more quickly than The Condor.
FORMAT FOR SUBMITTED MATERIAL
GENERAL GUIDELINES
Authors should read these instructions carefully before preparing a manuscript for submission. Papers that are not in Condor format will be returned.
1. Double-space and left-justify the entire manuscript, including the title page, text, literature cited, figure legends, and tables. Use the same size font (at least 12 point) throughout the manuscript. Provide at least 3-cm margins and use only one side of standard (8.5 × 11 inch) or A4 (21 × 30 cm) paper.
2. Put the first author's name in the upper right-hand corner of every page. Number text pages beginning with the Abstract through the list of references. Avoid footnotes in the text.
3. Write in the active voice and use U.S. English and spelling throughout the manuscript, except for foreign literature citations.
4. Use real italics. not underlines, and real superscripts and subscripts, not raised or lowered characters. Use normal font, not bold.
5. Give the scientific name in parentheses at the first mention of a species, both in the abstract and in the article. Scientific and English names of birds should follow the AOU Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed., 1998; and supplements published in Auk) or an authoritative source for other regions. Do not give subspecific identification unless it is pertinent and has been critically determined. Capitalize common names of bird species (e.g., Red-winged Blackbird), but not bird groups (e.g., blackbirds), throughout the manuscript. This rule includes all references, figures, and tables.
6. Minimize use of nonstandard abbreviations or acronyms that must be memorized by the reader in order to follow your paper.
MANUSCRIPT
Correct sequence for sections of a submitted manuscript is Title page, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, Literature Cited, Figure legends, Figures, and Tables. Indent each new paragraph (use 0.5-inch tabs), except the first paragraph that follows a heading. Each main heading is capitalized (INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, LITERATURE CITED). Second-order headings are also capitalized and appear on their own line. Third-order headings are italicized, followed by a period, and set in to the first line of the paragraph. Like other paragraphs, third-order headings are indented unless they follow a main or second-order heading (see examples in recent issues, e.g., Condor 103:667–677 and these instructions).
Title page
Place the title, all authors' names, affiliations and addresses, and the e-mail address of the corresponding author on the title page. Provide an abridged title shorter than 60 characters as a running head in the upper portion of the same sheet. Current addresses not given above should be given as footnotes in the lower portion of the title page. Titles usually do NOT include scientific names of species. Start the Abstract on the next page.
Abstract
Feature Articles, Short Communications, and Commentaries should have an abstract that informs readers of essential points in the text. The abstract should be concise, informative, and intelligible without reference to the article itself. Avoid statistical information in the abstract. Abstracts are to be shorter than 250 words for Feature Articles and shorter than 150 words for Short Communications and Commentaries. Indent and italicize the word Abstract; the first sentence of the Abstract follows immediately. Authors are encouraged to provide a technically competent Spanish translation of the title and abstract if possible. This abstract is in addition to the English version and does not substitute for it.
Key words
The term Key words: is indented and in italics, followed by up to seven key words in alphabetical order. The key words are also in italics, except for genus and species, which are in normal type.
Introduction
The Introduction begins on a new page; it should provide the aims and significance of the research and place it within the framework of existing work. Limit the use of citations; in general there are few points that cannot be supported by three or fewer references. Long lists of citations are seldom required and detract from the readability of the manuscript. Avoid parenthetical phrases and “i.e.,” “e.g.,” “cf.,” and “see. …”
Methods
This section should provide enough information for the reader to be able to replicate and critically evaluate the research. The Methods should contain a subsection (STATISTICAL ANALYSES) describing the statistical tests and procedures used. End this subsection with a statement to the effect that the values reported in the Results section are means ± SE (or SD). Then in the Results section, simply present the values. Indicate the significance level of statistical tests.
Results
The Results section should include only results pertinent to the hypotheses or questions raised in the Introduction and treated in the Discussion. Use the same number of decimal places for means and SE or SD (e.g., 38.9 ± 1.2, not 38.9 ± 1.23); usually only one or two decimal places are necessary. Round off percentages to whole numbers. The text should not duplicate material presented in tables or figures. The text should make clear the relevant sample sizes, degrees of freedom, values of statistical tests, and P-values. Test statistics should be rounded to one (t-test, χ2, F, etc.) or two (r, r2, etc.) decimal places.
Discussion
It is useful to start the Discussion with a statement that summarizes the main results. The Discussion should develop the significance and importance of the results and set them into a framework of previous research. The discussion should follow logically from the results. Additional statistical tests and results are usually inappropriate here and should be treated in the Results section, except in unusual cases.
Literature Cited
Cite references in the text as, for example, Darwin and Huxley (1993), or in parentheses as (Darwin and Huxley 1993). Do not use commas between author and year; do use a comma, and never a semicolon, between different citations by the same or different authors. List multiple citations in chronological order and use lowercase letters to indicate separate papers by the same author in the same year, e.g., (Zar 1973, Giles 1994a, 1994b). For citations with three or more authors, give the first author's surname followed by “et al.” and then the date, e.g., Schmuckvogel et al. 1999.
Cite references in the Literature Cited section in alphabetical order according to the authors' surnames. Do not abbreviate names of publications. Type references in upper and lower case (including all authors' names) in the following form:
Ankney, C. D., and R. T. Alisauskas. 1991. The use of nutrients by breeding waterfowl. Proceedings of the International Ornithological Congress 20:2170–2176.
Fraga, R. M. 1986. The Bay-winged Cowbird (Molothrus badius) and its brood parasites: interactions, coevolution, and comparative efficiency. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA.
Nolan, V., Jr. 1978. The ecology and behavior of the Prairie Warbler Dendroica discolor. Ornithological Monographs 26.
Ralph, C. J., G. L. Hunt Jr., M. G. Raphael, and J. F. Piatt [eds.]. 1995. Ecology and conservation of the Marbled Murrelet. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-GTR-152.
Rappole, J., and D. Warner. 1980. Ecological aspects of migrant bird behavior in Veracruz, Mexico, p. 353–393. In A. Keast and E. S. Morton [eds.], Migrant birds in the Neotropics: ecology, behavior, distribution, and conservation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
SAS Institute Inc. 1990. SAS/STAT user's guide. Version 6, 4th ed. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC.
Cite papers in proceedings from international ornithological congresses, Current Ornithology, and Studies in Avian Biology as journal articles rather than edited volumes. Spell out journal names and institutions completely. Cite Internet resources only if they are important, reasonably permanent, and not readily available in print. Include the date you last accessed the website and use the following format:
Shipman, J. W. [online]. 2000. The Christmas Bird Count database project. < http://www.nmt.edu/∼shipman/z/cbc/homepage.html> (15 March 2001).
FIGURES
Figures should be simple and easily comprehended without reference to the manuscript. Figures will be published directly from the submitted material and should be professional-quality or laser-printed hardcopies (for PDF files, use high-resolution images). All figures should use the same style of lettering (in a sans serif font such as Arial or Tahoma) and presentation, with details and text made large enough to allow for reduction; figures are generally reduced to fit one column (7 cm wide) of the journal.
Figures must be monochrome unless the author has funds to support color printing. Do not use three-dimensional graphs or odd fills. Preferred shadings are black, white and cross-hatching; avoid stippling and shades of gray, which do not reproduce well. Preferred point symbols are unfilled (clear) and solid circles, squares, and triangles. Give keys and other explanations either in the figure legend or on the figure itself; however, symbols themselves should not appear in the legend. Do not describe unfilled or clear symbols as “open.”
Legends for all figures should be typed on a separate sheet labeled Figure Legends. Number the figures in the order they appear in the text (e.g., FIGURE 1, FIGURE 2, etc.). Figure legends should not repeat information already mentioned in the text or in tables.
Illustrations should be submitted either as original artwork or a sharp, high-contrast photograph, never larger than 21 × 28 cm (8.5 × 11 inches). Photographs must be sharp and of good contrast, made from monochrome (black and white) film whenever possible. Photographs must be glossy or luster-finish, on single-weight paper, and preferably mounted on artist's mounting board. Each figure or illustration should have the authors' names and figure number (e.g., Fig. 1) written lightly in pencil (not pen) either in a corner or on the back.
For sound spectrograms (sonograms), use the actual tracing if it is sharp, clear and relatively short. If intensity differences are not important, then submit a high-contrast photograph of the lettered spectrogram. If the graph is long, faint, or blurred, make a pen-and-ink tracing if possible. All figures will be destroyed after publication unless we are otherwise notified by the author.
TABLES
Keep tables as simple as possible. They should be intelligible without reference to the manuscript and should not restate results given in the text. Each table should begin on a separate, unnumbered page, and should be numbered with an Arabic numeral in the same order as it appears in the text (i.e., TABLE 1, TABLE 2, etc.). Do not use vertical lines in the table; use horizontal lines for the main heading and the end of the table, but not in the body of the table. The table must be typed in 12-point font and double-spaced throughout, including caption and footnotes (if necessary, use more than one sheet of paper for a table). Do not include extensive raw tabular material either as tables or appendices. Such data can be made available to interested readers by request from the author or posted on the author's web site.
STATISTICAL FORMAT
Follow The Condor format for statistical indices, including capitalization, italics, superscripts, and subscripts. The following are in italics:
n (sample size, lowercase)
P (probability rounded to no more than two decimal places; use P < 0.001 as the smallest P-value). Examples:
If P = 0.019, report as P = 0.02
If P = 0.003, report as P < 0.01
If P = 0.564, report as P > 0.5 or P = 0.56
ta (t-test, with subscript a = degrees of freedom; specify independent or paired t-test and two-tailed or one-tailed test in Methods: Statistical Analyses)
Fa,b (F-ratio, with subscripts a,b = appropriate degrees of freedom)
U (Mann-Whitney U-test)
r (simple correlation coefficient; Pearson r)
rs (Spearman rank-order correlation)
R (multiple regression coefficient)
G (G-test)
The following statistical information is set in normal font, not italics:
SD (standard deviation)
SE (standard error)
χ2a (chi-square, where subscript a = degrees of freedom)
CV (coefficient of variation)
df (degrees of freedom)
TIME AND DATE
Use 24-hour clock and retain the colon (18:30, 07:00). Times should be reported as local time together with appropriate time zone. Give dates as day month year (20 September 1968) and year ranges as 1989–1991, not 1989–91. Abbreviate seconds (sec), minutes (min) and hours (hr), but not day, week, month, or year. Names of months may be abbreviated in figures or long tables.
NUMERALS
Spell out numbers less than 10, except for measurements, such as 5 km (but nine blackbirds). Hours, minutes, and seconds are units of measurement. Use metric measurements throughout. There is neither a comma nor a space in numbers less than 10 000, e.g., 1232 larks. In numbers greater than 9999, separate the hundreds and thousands places using a space, e.g., 22 432 murres. Precede decimal fractions by a zero, (0.97, not .97). Round percentages to the nearest whole number (57%, not 57.3%; <1%, not 0.3 or 0.8%), unless there is some compelling reason not to do so. Do not use slant lines in expressions of units; instead, use exponential form or the word per throughout text, tables, and figures (e.g., use kJ day−1 or kJ per day, not kJ/day).
DISK VERSIONS OF ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS
Accepted manuscripts will be published directly from an electronic version. We will provide instructions for preparation of the electronic version once a manuscript is accepted. Upon final acceptance of the manuscript, payment of page charges ($100 per printed page) is requested if funds are available for this purpose.
REVISIONS
Revisions of tentatively accepted manuscripts must be completed and returned to the Editor within 75 days. Manuscripts returned beyond that time will be treated as new submissions. Authors of accepted manuscripts are invited to submit sharp photographs or slides for use as cover illustrations for The Condor.
PROOFS AND REPRINTS
Proofs, typescripts, and reprint order forms ordinarily will be sent to the first author. Please inform the editorial office well in advance of any change in address or alternate system for handling proofs. Check proofs carefully for errors. Author-related changes will be charged to the author at $3.50 per change. Please send any proof changes via courier, e-mail, or fax within 48 hours to The Condor Production Office: 2515A Rugby Ct, Bozeman, MT 59715 <condor@hderi.org> 406-586-5394.
