Journal of Avian Biology

Distributed on behalf of the Nordic Society Oikos

Edited by:
Thomas Alerstam

Print ISSN: 0908-8857
Online ISSN: 1600-048X
Frequency: Bi-monthly
Current Volume: 41 / 2010
ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking: 2008: 1/18 Ornithology
Impact Factor: 2.327

TopAuthor Guidelines

General
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being simultaneously considered for publication elsewhere and, in cases of multiple authorship, that the manuscript has been read and approved by all its authors. Manuscripts judged to be potentially suitable for the journal are sent out to external reviewers. Authors will usually be notified within two months of the acceptance, rejection or need for revision of their manuscript. 50 offprints are supplied free but additional ones can be ordered at cost. An order form is enclosed with the two sets of proofs that the author will receive directly from the printers, together with the original manuscript.

Copyright
Authors will be required to sign an Exclusive Licence Form (ELF) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the ELF 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 Exclusive Licence Form does not affect ownership of copyright in the material. (Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various medium/circumstances (please see the form for further details).

Manuscript submission
You are welcome to submit your ms electronically. Please send the ms as one Word or PDF-file to jab@ekol.lu.se. We request a single file. If submitting your ms electronically is not an option, send the manuscript in two hard copies, each copy including tables and illustrations, to the Managing Editor.
They should be in English, either American or British English as long as it is used consistently. Any figures should be in the form of copies ; originals will be requested if and when the paper is accepted. The manuscript should contain a brief abstract presenting information on, e.g. study topic, methods, results and conclusions, and should be useful for indexing and information retrieval. The address of the author(s) should be given on the manuscript. If available, the inclusion of an e-mail address to the corresponding author is useful.

Manuscript format
In general, the format of the manuscript when first submitted is not particularly important, but authors will save time and effort by using a recent issue of the journal as a guide. The text should, however, be type-written or in the form of a good PC print-out, double-spaced in with margins wide enough for the reviewer to write comments. When a manuscript has been accepted for publication, an edited copy will be returned to the author for approval and amendments. At this time a final draft will be requested, together with the text on diskette, if possible.

Tables
Tables should have a legend above them and be intelligible without recourse to the text.

Illustrations
Copies of all illustrations, whether diagrams, graphs, maps or photographs, should be included with each manuscript copy. The legends for Figures should be written on one or more separate sheets. Illustrations are normally printed in single- one-and-a-half or double-column width. Plan your figures, for instance labels on the axes of graphs, for the smallest (printed) size possible. Simple fonts, such as Geneva or Helvetica, are preferable to, e.g., Times. Colour plates may be included at the author's expense.

References
References In the reference list, please use the abbreviations for journal titles used in Biological Abstracts. For other details relating to references, see a recent issue of the journal.