• Step 1: Specifying the manuscript type, and submitting a covering letter
• Step 2: Specifying the author information, title, abstract, and keywords for the manuscript
• Step 3: Uploading the body text
• Step 4: Specifying the list of attachments and uploading those attachments (tables, figures, equations, appendices)
• Step 5: Final verification of the manuscript

The author interface for each of these steps includes details on how to enter the information required.

Formatting a Manuscript

1. Organizing your submission
2. Abstract, acknowledgments and keywords
3. Body text
• Spacing, fonts, and page numbering
• Underlining/italicization
• capitalization
• Footnotes
• Units
• Statistics
• Web (HTML) links
• Headings and subheadings
• Literature cited
4. Attachments
   • Tables
   • Figures
   • Text and table appendices
   • Other appendices
5. Equations, Greek symbols and statistics

• body text (rich-text format)
• tables (each table is an individual file, in rich-text format)
• figures (each figure is an individual image file: JPG, GIF, PNG)
• equations (each figure is an individual image file: JPG, GIF, PNG)
• appendices (most formats: text-only appendices must be in rich-text format)

• Enter your abstract, acknowledgments and keywords directly into the submission interface, either by typing or cut-and-paste.
• Do not include them in the body text of your manuscript.
• Abstracts should be 300 words or less.

• The Council of Science Editors (CSE) Style Guide, is recommended for details of style.
• Manuscripts are currently accepted only in English.
• Write with precision, clarity, and economy:
  use the active voice and first person whenever appropriate.
• Use American spellings (e.g., behavior, not behaviour) except for titles published in British/Commonwealth English.


Spacing and Fonts

Single-space all material.
Separate paragraphs with a blank line.
Use a 12-point font (preferably Times Roman).

Underlining/Italicization

Italicize scientific names and the symbols for all variables and constants except Greek letters in the text.
Symbols in Illustrations should be italic to match the text.
Italics should NOT be used for emphasis.
Do not underline text.

Capitalization

For common names of birds, follow the Ornithological Societies of North America style (AOU checklist), with initial capital letters: Black-throated Green Warbler. For all non-avian taxa, use lower case for common names

Footnotes

Avoid footnotes in the body text; most footnote material can be incorporated in the text for the benefit of readers and editors. Additionally, footnotes are not handled well by our journal software, and their inclusion may result in a failed submission. Footnotes below tables are acceptable; instead of numbers, please use (in order): †, ‡, §, |, ¶, #, ††, ‡‡, §§, ||, ¶¶, ##.

Units

Use the International System of Units (SI) for measurements. Consult Standard Practice for Use of the International System of Units (ASTM Standard E-380-93) for guidance on unit conversions, style, and usage. (The Standard can be purchased from ASTM, 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103). When preparing text and figures, note in particular that (1) SI requires the use of the terms mass or force rather than weight; (2) when one unit appears in a denominator, use the solidus (/); for two or more units in a denominator, use negative exponents; and (3) use a capital L as the symbol for liter.

Statistics

Use leading zeroes with all numbers <1, including probability values (e.g., P < 0.001). For every significant F statistic reported, provide two df values (numerator and denominator). Whenever possible, indicate the year and version number of the statistical software used.

Web (HTML) links

Authors may include links to other Internet resources in their article [e.g., the Breeding Bird Survey (http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/bbs.html)]. When inserting a reference to a webpage, please include the http:// portion of the address.

Headings and subheadings

Main headings: The body text should be subdivided into different sections with appropriate headings. Where possible, the following standard headings should be used. These headings must appear on a single line by themselves, and be UPPER CASE.



INTRODUCTION	The motivation or purpose of your research should appear in the Introduction, where you state the questions you sought to answer, and then provide some of the historical basis for those questions.
METHODS	Provide sufficient information to allow someone to repeat your work. A clear description of your experimental design, sampling procedures, and statistical procedures is especially important in papers describing field studies, simulations, or experiments. If you list a product (e.g., animal food, analytical device), supply the name and location of the manufacturer. Give the model number for equipment used. Supply complete citations, including author (or editor), title, year, publisher, and version number, for computer software mentioned in your article.
RESULTS	Results should be stated concisely and without interpretation.
DISCUSSION	Focus on the rigorously supported aspects of your study. Carefully differentiate the results of your study from data obtained from other sources. Interpret your results, relate them to the results of previous research, and discuss the implications of your results or interpretations. Point out results that do not support speculations or the findings of previous research, or that are counterintuitive.
CONCLUSION
LITERATURE CITED	The list of Literature Cited should be included after the final section of the main article body. A blank line should be inserted between single-spaced entries in the list.


Where possible, the standard headings should be used in the order given above. Additional headings may be used and modifications to these heading suggestions are permissible

Secondary headings should be left-justified, bolded, and lowercase except for the intial letter of the first word which should be uppercase (e.g. Study site). Tertiary headings should be left-justified, italicized, and lowercase except for the intial letter of the first word which should be uppercase. (e.g. Field study and Simulation model). All lower headings must appear on a line by themselves.

Literature cited

• Each citation in the text must be included in the Literature Cited section.
• Every reference in the Literature Cited must be referred to in the text.
• The list should conform in sequencing and punctuation to that found in recent issues of Avian Conservation and Ecology.
Formatting references:

• All journal titles should be spelled out completely (i.e., do no abbreviate journal titles).
• In the titles of articles, capitalization of the common names of organisms and the spellings of all words should agree exactly with that used in the original publication.
• Provide the publisher's name and location when you cite symposia or conference proceedings; distinguish between the conference date and the publication date if both are given (see example, below).
• Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the Literature Cited. They may be listed in the text as personal observations (by an author of the present paper), personal communications (from others), or unpublished x, where x = data, manuscript, or report; provide author names and initials for all unpublished work and abstracts.
• Links to online, freely available articles are permitted.
• Do not include links to password-protected websites or an author's website. Exceptions to this rule include links to Birds of North America species accounts and links to author's websites that post a software program that is not available by any other means and is integral to the paper.
PLEASE CHECK A RECENT ACE PUBLICATION FOR DETAILS OF STYLE. Common Errors to Avoid:

1. Insert spaces between initials except in Washington, D.C.
2. Last name appears first for first author; initial(s) first for subsequent authors.
3. In journal citations, there is no space between the colon and the page range.
4. Books and conference proceedings must include publisher information: name, city, state or province (if pertinent), country.
5. Conference proceedings must include the city, state/province, country, and year in which the conference was held. Conference dates are typically included, although not required. The editor(s) of the Proceedings should be included, if possible.
6. Journal articles in press should include the volume number of the journal even if the page range is not known.


6. Attachments (tables, figs, etc.)

All tables, figures, text appendices, videos, computer simulations, and databases constitute attachments to the body text of the manuscript. As such, they must be submitted as separate files to be handled properly by our software. During the submission process you will be required to select your attachment type from a drop down list, and then type or paste its associated caption – these steps are repeated until you have input the captions for all of your attachments. You will then upload the attachment files, and our software will generate a web page for each attachment based on the file names and captions provided. Do not include captions or titles in the attachment files themselves.

Equation files are not considered attachments. Please see the Equations section below for information on how to format equations.

• Tables
• Figures
• Text and table appendices
• Other appendices

Tables
• Supply tables in rtf format.
• Ensure that row and column entries are denoted by cell divisions using the table function in the word processing software. That is, tabs, spaces or blank lines instead of table cells to separate information will not work.
• Do not use horizontal or vertical lines to separate cells
• Use regular font in column headings (that is, no bold or italics)
• Single space all tables.
• Caption information is entered separately and should not appear in the table.
• Never repeat the same material in figures and tables; a figure is preferable.
• Do not include information in tables that is not discussed in the text of the manuscript.

Figures


• Figures are added during Step 5 of the submission process.
• Do not include title and caption information in the figure.
• Figures must be in .GIF, .JPG, or .PNG formats.
• Figures must be clear and sharp.
• the image will be printed at either 16 or 7.5 cm wide - text should be legible, clear, and sharp at that size
• Font must be large and legible at the smaller size; in Arial font.
• 72 dpi and no wider than 700 pixels (unless given explicit permission by the managing editor).
• We may ask you to supply high resolution, print-quality versions of your figures.
• Do not place a border around your figures
• Color figures must be legible when viewed in black and white.
• Use shaded, or hatched bars in preference to color or black ones.
• Initial upper case letters are preferred except where SI requires lower case letters for unit abbreviations (e.g., dbh, ln).
• Use italic lettering for single-letter variables, constants, and scientific names in illustrations to make them consistent with the text.
• Use bar graphs in preference to pie charts
Appendices

Appendices are not copy edited nor formatted prior to publication so authors must ensure that their appendix is formatted correctly.

Appendices should be uploaded as a PDF, formatted according the the journal's style.

The top margin of the appendix must be 4 cm.

Include a heading and caption in your pdf, where the heading "Appendix #." is left aligned, bold and the caption is Sentence Case.

A single appendix is referred to in the main article as "the Appendix." Multiple appendices should be identified as 1, 2, 3, etc..

Table and figure numbers in appendices should be keyed to the letter identifying that appendix: Fig. A1.1, for Figure 1 in Appendix 1; Table A2.3 for Table 3 in Appendix 2. Equations should be numbered similarly: A2.3, for Equation 3 in Appendix 2, and so on (see example).

Tables are formatted with a double line above the heading, and single lines below the heading and below the last table row (see example).

Enter all title and caption information when asked during the submission process, and upload each appendix as a separate file.

Other appendices

All other non-text appendices, such as databases, video or sound files may be uploaded using an appropriate filetype for the file contents. Appendices should be labeled logically to indicate content (i.e. "Program#.filetype", "Sound#.filetype"). Captions should describe the attachment fully (by content, file format, usage, software required to run them, etc.) and are uploaded separately during the submission process.

7. Equations and Greek characters

Equations

Insert a tag in the form <eqn#> into the body text of your manuscript wherever you would like an equation to appear, where # = 1,2,3...n and indicates the sequential number of the equation. Once you have uploaded the body text, you will be prompted to upload your equation(s). Upload each equation as a separate graphic file named eqn#.gif, where # corresponds to the tags inserted into the body text. Any one equation may be specified any number of times by inserting the appropriate tag in the manuscript in multiple locations.

Greek characters

To include Greek characters in your manuscript please either use the "Insert -- Symbol" feature in Microsoft Word, or write out the full name of the Greek character and enclose the word in parentheses (e.g., <alpha>, <beta>) within the text of your manuscript (click here for a complete list of Greek characters and the associated full name).