Ecological Management & Restoration

Published on behalf of the Ecological Society of Australia Inc.

Edited by:
Dr Tein McDonald

Print ISSN: 1442-7001
Online ISSN: 1442-8903
Frequency: Three times a year
Current Volume: 11 / 2010

TopAuthor Guidelines

Please direct all inquiries, early drafts and submissions to: the editor, Dr Tein McDonald, at teinm@ozemail.com.au

Ecological Management & Restoration is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting improved ecosystem management and restoration within the context of ecologically sustainable utilization. It seeks original-contributions from both scientists and practitioners, which focus on the management and restoration of plant and animal communities but will consider cross-disciplinary contributions where highly relevant to improved management of ecosystems. Articles that interpret already published research data are welcome, but articles that have been published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere will not be accepted. While the Journal will focus on Australasia, contributions from elsewhere will be considered if distinctly relevant to Australasia.

Contributions that fit any of the following formats will be accepted. Format types 5-10 are peer reviewed by researchers and practitioners familiar with the subject matter. Length is to be minimised. Length limits are now expressed in terms of 'journal pages'. (See list below, noting word limit approximations include references and any long tables.)

1. Letters - 1/3 journal page ( 2. News items or notices of events - 1/3 journal page ( 3. Publication (e.g. book, CD) reviews - 1 journal page (c. 800 words)
4. Guest editorials - 1 journal page (c. 800 words)
5. Comment pieces - 4 journal pages (c. 3500 words)
6. Short technical or research notes - 2 pages (c. 1500 words + 1 tab/fig)
7. Feature articles - 10 pages (c. 5000 words, incl. boxes + tab/figs)
8. Review articles or perspectives - 5 pages (c. 4000 words + 1 tab/figs)
9. Technical reports - 7 pages (c. 4000 words + tab/figs)
10. Research reports - 7 pages (c. 5000 words + tables and figures)

Preference will be given to contributions that are the most relevant, reliable and readable and the Editor may suggest changes to manuscripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve the communication between author and reader. Potential contributors should contact the Editor for more detailed information on preferred style and format to optimize the chance of meeting the Journal's selection criteria. Please contact the Editor if you would like to write a review article as these are normally invited contributions, subject to negotiation with the Editor. We will not accept partisan promotions or contributions that fall outside the Journal's philosophy.

Authorship
All authors must have made a significant contribution to the manuscript. Participation solely in the acquisition of funds or the collection of data does not justify authorship, nor is general supervision of the research group sufficient for authorship.

Copyright
Authors publishing in the journal must have signed an Exclusive Licence form. In signing the form it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the form, and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Authors will be asked to submit the form during the review process. Authors can download the form from http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/emr_elf.pdf

Style of manuscripts
All manuscripts should be written in a style readily accessible to the broad readership, which includes land managers and practitioners. Use active, short sentences and a minimum of jargon, balanced with strong scientific reliability. Include illustrations and quotes where these can more clearly convey a point.

Spelling should conform to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of current English Usage. All measurements should be in SI units and per m2, per cent etc should be used except in tables or formulae. Specify any special characters used to represent non-keyboard characters.

Spell out numbers less than 10 where not followed by a unit. Give scientific names for all species in parentheses, after the most widely used common name (with first letter capitals), thence only use common names. Use only one space after punctuation marks. Authorities for scientific names need not be cited in the title, but should be cited when introduced in the text (or cite a standard taxonomic reference text with which the article's nomenclature is consistent). Ensure all material (including tables but excluding electronic figures) is in a single file and that this represents the final revision.

Submission of manuscripts
All manuscripts should be submitted via email. All pages (including illustrations) should be numbered consecutively. Provide full contact details of the author/s (including email addresses and first names) on a -separate title page. Post-review revisions not returned by authors within 6 months may lose their place in the publication queue.

References
If adding points of clarification, please include these in the text rather than using endnotes or footnotes. Cite references in the text by providing the author's name and the year of the publication in parentheses, e.g. (Smith 1988). If referring to two publications by the same author in the same year, use (Smith 1988a,b). When citing more than one reference per point, use (Smith 1988; Paulson 1989) and for three or more authors per publication, use (Smith et al. 1990). List the full references in alphabetical order at the end of the article or paper, without the use of abbreviations, as follows:

Journal articles
Green R. J. (1993) Avian seed dispersal in sub-tropical rainforest. Wildlife Research 20, 535-557.

Books
Harrington G. N., Wilson A. D. and Young M. D. (1988) Management of Australia's Rangelands. CSIRO Publications, Melbourne.

Chapters in books
Fox M. D. and Adamson D. (1979) The ecology of invasions. In: A Natural Legacy - Ecology in Australia (eds H. F. Recher, D. Lunner and I. Dunn) pp. 135-152. Pergamon Press, Sydney.

Electronic material
Daiyi N., Ford L. and Rose D. (2002) Life in Country: Ecological restoration on Aboriginal homelands. Cultural Survival Quarterly 26. Available from URL: http://www.culturalsurvival.org.

Please limit the reference list to those which are of primary relevance and, for papers, not exceeding 50 references. Longer reference lists will be considered for major review articles. All items in the reference list must be available to the public. If a document is not, please refer to it (or any other unpublished citations) in the text by citing the source's name and the year in paren¬theses, e.g. (J. Smith, pers. comm., 1988).

Figures
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text.

Line figures should be supplied as sharp, black and white graphs or diagrams, drawn professionally or with a computer graphics package; lettering should be included.

Photographs must be supplied as .tif or .eps files at a resolution of at least 300 d.p.i.

For instructions on the supply of digital figures see www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/digill.asp

Preferred structure of different contribution types
Letters, news items or notices of events, guest editorials, comment pieces and book reviews need not follow a particular structure. If a letter, editorial or comment is controversial or relates to the work of others, an alternative viewpoint or brief reply may be published in the same issue.

Short technical or research notes outline completed projects, trials or works in progress that are unpublished elsewhere. These should be as brief as possible and writing style should be plain, precise and compact. They should include a heading block, up to five key words, an outline of the main question, the methods used, main results and a concise statement of the major implication to management or theory. References should be confined to a few key sources (10 references maximum). One table or graphic may be included. The title and author/s should be presented as follows:
Experimental tubestock planting of forbs into reconstructed grassland. J. Spencer1 and S.Cummings2 (1School of Agriculture, Marlborough University, PO Box 42, Marlborough, Vic. 3981 Australia. 2Enviroco P/L, PO Box 11, Wade, Vic. 3982, Australia

Categories for the Notes & Abstracts section of the journal include:
1. Rainforest
2. Grassland/grassy understorey
3. Wetland
4. Other communities
5. Fauna & habitat
6. Coastal & marine
7. Pollution issues & solutions
8. Riparian & stream ecology
9. Fire Ecology & Management
10. Planning, monitoring & assessment
11. Policy & legislation
12. Landscape pattern & design
13. Integrating ecosystems & industries
14. Cultural & socio-economic issues & solutions
15. Restoration & management theory
16. Techniques & methodology
17. Threatened species
18. Genetic issues
19. Indigenous land management
20. Weeds & feral animal issues
& solutions
21. Landscape arts & aesthetics
22. Education & communication
23. Community involvement
24. Organizations
25. Web sites
26. Book reviews
27. Conference reports
28. News items

Feature articles, interviews and profiles
Feature articles provide in-depth discussion of projects or themes and are structured more like a serious magazine article than a formal report. These should be understandable to a broad audience, although you can assume that the reader is a keen observer or participant in the field of improved ecosystem management or restoration. Discuss your topic in a way that sets it in a broader context; including social, economic and cultural aspects if relevant to the success of the project. In particular, draw out aspects that may be of interest to managers or researchers elsewhere. A high level of editorial involvement may be expected. Profiles and interviews should focus on ideas and actions. Photographs showing people, actions and contrasting before and after views of sites are highly desirable as are diagrams, maps and tables.

Review articles
Reviews, by definition, are rigorous 'overviews' of work to date on a certain subject area, but should nonetheless be written in an interesting, readable style. Material should be illustrated where appropriate, using photographs, diagrams, maps, tables, charts and graphs. Reviews will be subject to editorial negotiation and peer review by researchers and managers. Please follow the guidelines for presentation given under 'Research reports'.

Technical reports
Technical reports focus on reporting field or laboratory projects that provide hard data for analysis and discussion. While a sequencing of 'introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements and references' is desirable, these should not be presented in as strict a formula as in research reports, but rather, should be incorporated within a narrative. Any experimental design must be rigorous and adequately described and statistical tests should be reported in parentheses or an appendix. Discussion may include opinion and speculation where rigorous and highly relevant to the topic. Title page and detailed format and submission instructions given for research reports also apply to technical reports.

Research reports
Research reports may involve monitoring or experiments carried out in the field or the laboratory, but should demonstrate the highest standard of scientific rigour. Writing style should be concise but readable, using plain English wherever possible. Define any specialist terms used.

Material should be presented in the following order:
Title page: Should contain the contribution's full title, followed by the full name(s) and address(es) of the authors. Include the full contact details (including telephone, fax and email) of the corresponding author.
Summary: The abstract must be brief but informative, and intelligible without reference to the main text. It should not exceed 300 words and should describe the work's scope and main findings. Literature references should not be included. Give scientific names of major organisms studied.
Key words: Key words (5-10) should be provided below the summary to assist indexing of the article.
Introduction: This section should include sufficient background material to set the work in its full research and management context. Aims should be clearly stated and justified.
Methods: At least a brief outline of methods is needed within the paper, with any complex or less readable details provided as 'Method details' at the end of the paper. (If doing this, parenthesize a note 'See method details'.) Be concise in method descriptions but provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be repeated by others.
Results: Results should be presented in a readable sequence using text, tables and figures. (Avoid repetitive presentation of the same data in different forms.) The Results section should not contain material appropriate to the Discussion section.
Discussion: This should consider the results in relation to any hypotheses advanced in the Introduction and place the study in the context of other work. This section should provide substantive discussion of implications
of the work to improved ecological management and/or restoration
practice. Only in exceptional cases should Results and Discussion be
combined.
Acknowledgements: Financial and technical assistance should be acknowledged here.
References: List references and personal communications as described for all contributions in the general section above.
Tables: Tables must be typed on separate sheets. They should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals with a descriptive title above the table. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in paren-theses. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Use tabs not spaces in electronic format.
Figures: All illustrations (including photographs) are classified as figures and should be numbered consecutively. Figure legends should be self-explanatory and all should be collated and typed on a separate sheet. The legend should incorporate definitions of any symbols used.

Online guidelines
If possible, authors should visit the Blackwell Publishing websites for authors at www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/journal.asp and www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/digill.asp which detail further information on the preparation and submission of articles and figures.

Author material archive policy
Authors who require the return of any submitted material that is accepted for publication should inform the Editorial Office after acceptance. If no indication is given that author material should be returned, Blackwell Publishing will dispose of all hardcopy and electronic material two months after publication.

Checklist
Before sending your manuscripts, via email, please check that:
1. The reference section is correctly formatted and that references cited in the text and tables are included in the references (and vice versa).
2. Pages are numbered.
3. All contact details are provided.