African Journal of Ecology

Published in association with the East African Wildlife Society

Edited by:
Frederick Kayanja, Bryan Shorrocks and Julius Lejju

Print ISSN: 0141-6707
Online ISSN: 1365-2028
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 48 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 103/124 Ecology
Impact Factor: 0.621

TopAuthor Guidelines

Submission of manuscripts

Papers should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/afje. Full upload instructions and support are available online from the submission site via the 'Get Help Now' button. Please submit your covering letter or comments to the editor when prompted online.

Retain the original figures until the manuscript has been accepted for publication.

If you are unable to submit your paper online, please send it to the relevant address below.

Reviews:
Frederick Kayanja
Mbarara University Liaison Office
PO Box 7062
Kampala
Uganda

Authors based in Africa (excluding South Africa):
Julius Lejju
Mbarara University of Science and Technology
PO Box 1410
Mbarara
Uganda

Authors based outside Africa or in South Africa:
Bryan Shorrocks
Environment Department
University of York
Heslington
York
YO10 5DD
UK

Contributions should be limited to 3500 words for full papers, or to 1000 words for Notes and Records, exclusive of tables, figures and references. The number of words must be stated on the title page of the article.

Hard copy: Three typed copies should be submitted double-spaced on one side of A4 or 8´´ × 11´´ paper with margins of at least 3 cm. Pages must be numbered.

Disk: A disk should not be included with the initial submission, but a IBM or Mac compatible disk should be provided with the final version. Copies of instructions for diskette submission are sent to authors of accepted papers or can be obtained directly from Prof. Kayanja, Prof. Shorrocks or Dr. Lejju: scrupulous adherence to these instructions can speed publication.

Spelling and grammar
Authors must ensure that spelling and grammar are correct. Particular attention should be paid to scientific names and author citations. Manuscripts with spelling and grammar mistakes will be returned to the authors.

Reviewer suggestions
Obtaining feedback from reviewers is the main cause of delay in publishing manuscripts. It is very helpful if authors can suggest 2-3 reviewers who are competent and willing to review the manuscript. We also routinely ask AJE authors to review manuscripts. If you are asked to review a paper, please try to reply promptly with constructive and useful comments.

Preparation of manuscripts
On the editorial side, authors are asked to ensure the following:

1. The manuscript must conform exactly to the African Journal of Ecology's house-style, checking that all reference citations in the text match those in the References, and all figures, tables and appendices are cited in the text. For a copy of the Instructions to Authors, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/aje
2. If applicable, please ensure that the authorities are correctly cited using Authors of Plant Names by R K Brummitt and C E Powell (Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, 1992; ISBN 947-643-44-3) or visit www.ipni.org.
3. Wiley-Blackwell has introduced clearer guidelines for the preparation of digital artwork. Please refer to these before submitting your revised manuscript. They can be found by visiting http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

Manuscripts that fail to conform to the above will be returned for further revision.

Title Page: This should contain:
1, Title;
2, Names of author(s);
3, Full postal address(es);
4, email address(es);
5, Six keywords for indexing purposes (full papers only);
6, Name of corresponding author, to whom proofs will be sent;
7, Running title of no more than 45 characters, including spaces.

Full Papers: These should be structured as follows beginning each section on a separate sheet.
1, Title page (as above);
2, Abstract of not more than 200 words;
3, Introduction;
4 Material and Methods;
5, Results;
6, Discussion;
7, Acknowledgements (optional but brief);
8, References;
9, Tables;
10, Figure Legends;
11, Figures.
Appendices are not permitted. Displayed items (tables and tables) should be limited to six.

French translations of the abstracts are kindly provided by Jacqueline and Jean-Pierre d'Huart.

Notes and Records: The above format should be followed except that no Abstract is required and the Results and Discussion sections may be conflated if so desired. No more than three displayed items (tables and figures) should be included.

Journal Conventions: Vernacular names should be in lower case and be accompanied by the scientific names in italics on first mention. The authority for the name should also be included. Foreign words and names of muscles etc. are italicized. SI units are preferred. Measurements should be given in figures, e.g. 10 cm, except when beginning a sentence. A number which is not a unit of measurement is spelled out unless it is greater than twenty.

Illustrations: Good quality drawings or glossy prints of figures should be provided. They should be unlabelled and any lettering shown on an overlay or on a photocopy. Computer-generated diagrams should be printed on good quality paper with a laser or high-quality inkjet printer using a minimum of 600 dpi. Photographs are acceptable if essential to the text. They should be original (i.e. not re-photographed), half-tone prints, unmounted with lettering indicated on overlays or photocopies. Magnification should be given where appropriate. Colour prints are acceptable only at the author's expense. A copy of the colour work agreement form which must be included with all papers containing colour images can be downloaded here. Details of charges are given on the form. A scale should be included on all maps and the direction of north indicated. Where possible, digital versions of your figures should be included on the disk submitted after acceptance. Ideally these should be sent in PS, EPS or TIF format. Avoid using tints if possible; if they are essential to the understanding of the figure, try to make them coarse as this aids their clear reproduction. For more details on submission of electronic artwork, please see http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

If you wish to submit a cover image, please send this along with your manuscript at the time of submission. If your image is chosen, you will not be charged for colour work.

References in Articles
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.

EndNote reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

Extensive reference lists are to be avoided and only essential citations should be included. References should follow the Harvard system and should be indicated in the text by the name of the author(s) with year of publication e.g. 'Jones (1996) reported that...' or 'It has been shown (Jones, 1995; Smith & Brown, 1996)...'. Please note the punctuation. For papers by more than two authors, use et al. except in the case of a paper by three authors, when all names should be given when first mentioned and et al. used subsequently. Several papers by the same author(s) in the same year should be cited with a, b, c etc. after the date. References to theses or to unpublished reports should be avoided if possible but when essential they should be cited as if they were books. References should be listed, double spaced, in alphabetical order and in the form of the following examples. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the latest (4th) edition of the World List of Scientific Periodicals.

HAMILTON, A.C. (1982) Environmental History of East Africa. Academic Press, London.

DOBSON, A.P. & MAY, R.M. (1986) Disease and conservation. In: Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity (Ed. M.E. SOULE). Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Ma.

STRUHSAKER, T.T., LWANGA, J. S. & KASENENE, J.M. (1996) Elephants, selective logging and forest regeneration in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. J. Trop. Ecol. 12, 45-64.

Access to Data
Data that is integral to the paper must be made available in such a way as to enable readers to replicate, verify and build upon the conclusions published in the paper. Any restriction on the availability of this data must be disclosed at the time of submission.

Data may be included as part of the main article where practical. We recommend that data for which public repositories are widely used, and are accessible to all, should be deposited in such a repository prior to publication. The appropriate linking details and identifier(s) should then be included in the publication and where possible the repository, to facilitate linking between the journal article and the data. If such a repository does not exist, data should be included as supporting information to the published paper or authors should agree to make their data available upon reasonable request.

Supporting Information
Supporting Information, such as data sets, additional figures or tables, or audio or video clips, that will not be published in the print edition of the journal, but which will be viewable via the online edition, can be submitted.

It should be clearly stated at the time of submission that the authors intend for the Supporting Information to be made available through the online edition. Supplementary Material will be made available in electronic form free of charge either through the journal's Web pages or on request from Blackwell Publishing. Alternatively, if the size or format of the Supporting Information is such that it cannot be accommodated on the journal's Web site, the author agrees to make the Supporting Information available free of charge on a permanent Web site, to which links will be set up from Annals of Human Genetics' Web site. The author must advise Blackwell Publishing if the URL of the Web site where the Supporting Information is located changes.

The availability of Supporting Information should be indicated in the main manuscript by a paragraph, to appear after the References, headed 'Supplementary Material' and providing titles of figures, tables, etc. The Supporting Information should be submitted to the Editorial Office in final form, ready for viewing, or alternatively, if the size or format is such that it cannot be submitted, the author should make the Supporting Information available for viewing in final form via the Web by the Editorial Office and by reviewers. No changes can be made subsequently by the Editorial Office or the Publisher. This Supporting Information is an integral part of the article and will be reviewed accordingly.

Proofs and offprints
The corresponding author will receive an e-mail alert containing a link to a website. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site.

Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following website: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen, and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Hard copy proofs will be posted if no e-mail address is available; in your absence, please arrange for a colleague to access your e-mail to retrieve the proofs.

Proofs must be returned to SPS within three days of receipt. Proof corrections should be kept to a minimum and be clearly marked using recognized symbols.

Please note that if you have registered for production tracking e-mail alerts in Author Services, there will be no e-mail for the proof corrections received stage. This will not affect e-mails alerts for any later production stages.

A PDF offprint of the online published article will be provided free of charge to the corresponding author, and may be distributed subject to the Publisher's terms and conditions. Additional paper offprints may be ordered online. Please click on the following link, fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields: http://offprint.cosprinters.com

If you have queries about offprints please e-mail offprint@cosprinters.com

Copyright Transfer Agreement
Authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) for all papers accepted for publication. Submission of the CTA is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. Please note that signature of the CTA does not affect ownership of copyright in the material. Government employees need to complete the Author warranty sections, although a licence does not need to be assigned in such cases. After submission, authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various medium/circumstances (please see the form for further details). Download either the Copyright Transfer Agreement or the Online Open Exclusive Licence Form, and send it to the Production Editor upon acceptance of the manuscript for publication. Please note the Online Open Exclusive Licence Form is for use with OnlineOpen material ONLY.

OnlineOpen
OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley InterScience, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive.

For the full list of terms and conditions, see http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/authorresources/onlineopen.html#OnlineOpen_Terms.

Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the payment form AND exclusive licence form available from our website at:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/age_oof.pdf (Online Open Form - please note this form is for use with OnlineOpen material ONLY)
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/age_elf.pdf (Exclusive licence form)

Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform an Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen if you do not wish to. All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

Colour Charges
It is the policy of the African Journal of Ecology for authors to pay the full cost for the reproduction of their colour artwork. Therefore, please note that if there is colour artwork in your manuscript when it is accepted for publication, Wiley-Blackwell requires you to complete and return a Colour Work Agreement Form before your paper can be published.

If you are unable to access the internet, or are unable to download the form, please contact the Editorial Office at sa29@york.ac.uk or the Production Editor at aje@wiley.com.

Once completed, please return the form via fax, email, or post to the Production Editor at:

Ika Lestari
Wiley-Blackwell
Blackwell Publishing Services Pte Ltd
#05-01 Parkview Square
600 North Bridge Road
Singapore 188778
Fax: +65 6511 8288
Email: aje@wiley.com

Any article received by Wiley-Blackwell with colour work will not be published until the form has been returned.

* To read PDF files, you must have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not have this program, this is available as a free download from the following web address: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

The journal allows authors to publish figures in colour free of charge in the online edition. Authors must provide their figures in digital format (EPS or TIF files at high resolution) and indicate to the Editorial Office that they wish to publish in Black & White in the print edition and in colour in the online edition. In this case, (a) a single version of the figure should be supplied in colour which will be converted by the publishers to black and white for the print journal and (b) the figure legend should not refer to colour as it will be used for both versions.

Early View publication
African Journal of Ecology is covered by Blackwell Publishing's Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text papers published online in advance of inclusion in a print issue. Articles published online are complete and final: the author's corrections are incorporated and changes cannot be made after Early View publication. Articles are given an unique digital object identifier (DOI) code, which allows the article to be cited and tracked. After print publication the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article.