THE CONDOR
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
The Condor publishes original research reports and review articles
pertaining to the biology of wild species of birds. Submit two paper
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
E-mail: condor@hderi.org
Please DO NOT staple hard copies. We encourage authors to submit a
PDF version of their manuscript in addition to paper copies. Send PDF
files on a CD, 3.5” floppy disk, (both MacIntosh and PC are
acceptable), or zip disk. 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. David L. Swanson, Biology Department
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, SD 57069
E-mail: dlswanso@usd.edu
News and Notes is devoted to noncommercial ornithological news. Contributors of announcements and requests for assistance should note that the Ornithological Newsletter is published more frequently and more quickly than The Condor, edited by
Dr. Cheryl L. Trine
3889 Valley View
Berrien Springs, MI 49103
E-mail: ctrine@andrews.edu
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.
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, thirdorder headings are
indented unless they follow a main or second-order heading (see
examples in
recent issues 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 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 roman (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. Cite statistical software and any other analysis programs (e.g., Avisoft, DISTANCE, Paup*) here and in the Literature Cited. 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. When reporting the results of AIC analyses, please follow the advice of Anderson et al. (2001; Suggestions for presenting the results of data analyses. Journal of Wildlife Management 65:373–378).
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. 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 2003).
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
crosshatching. Preferred point symbols are 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 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/photographs or digital images. Hardcopies must be
no larger than 21 × 28 cm (8.5 × 11 inches). Photographs
must be sharp monochrome and of good contrast. Digital images must be
at least 300 dpi resolution grayscale TIFF files. 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 or scan. Make sure all axes are labeled. 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.
TIME AND DATE
Use the 24-hour clock and retain the colon (18:30). Times should be
reported as local time 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 are 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,
not kJ/day).
STATISTICAL FORMAT
Follow 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 = 0.56
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)
z (Wilcoxon test)
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)
AICc (note that the subscript c is italicized)
ELECTRONIC 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 likely 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 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 e-mail
(preferred) or courier, within 48
hours to
The Condor
High Desert Ecological Research Institute
15 S.W. Colorado Ave.
Bend, OR 97702
(E-mail: condor@hderi.org ).
Copyright© 2005 by the Cooper
Ornithological Society