Avian Conservation and Ecology - Écologie et conservation des oiseaux: Editorial Policies

ACE-ÉCO Home > About the Journal > Editorial Policies

Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope
Section Policies
Peer Review Process
Publication Frequency
Open Access Policy

Focus and Scope

Avian Conservation and Ecology (ACE-ÉCO) is an open-access, fully electronic scientific journal, sponsored by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Bird Studies Canada. It publishes papers that are scientifically rigorous and relevant to the bird conservation community, to exacting editorial and production standards, in a cost-effective electronic approach that makes them widely available in real-time. Although ACE-ÉCO is intended in part to enhance the international profile of Canadian ornithology and applied avian science, contributions are welcomed from all over the world.

ACE-ÉCO publishes research that simultaneously addresses questions pertaining to conservation and ecology. In addition to describing research that is scientifically sound and rigorous, each manuscript submitted to ACE-ÉCO should strive to present ecological science relevant to conservation, or conservation research leading to advances in ecological science. The name of the journal - Conservation AND Ecology - defines its intended publication niche. Distinctions between research with origins in "pure" ecology or in "applied" conservation and management are blurring. There is a need for ecologists to address societal issues of practical concern, and for managers to access research to address ecological uncertainties underpinning conservation efforts. Accordingly, manuscripts will not require a special section for ‘management implications’, as these will be evident in the rationale for the research and the discussion of results. ACE-ÉCO is intended to complement other publications, such as traditional ornithological journals, conservation publications, general ecology journals and those focused on specific groups of birds.

Behavioural studies will be welcomed if they have a bearing on conservation issues (e.g., whether and how extinction risk covaries with mating systems and human activities, and why it might be expected to; or whether and how dispersal is affected by habitat alteration, and why it might be expected to). Similarly, impact studies will be welcomed if the consequences of documented effects are examined in a mechanistic ecological context (e.g., whether and how landscape-level habitat alteration by industrial forestry alters processes affecting community dynamics, and why it might be expected to). Studies conducted in areas essentially free of human influence are relevant if they represent controls against which impacted areas are compared in the same manuscript. They may also represent model systems of ecological phenomena with consequences for conservation, provided that the connection to conservation is explicitly stated in the rationale for the research. ACE-ÉCO does not consider manuscripts which simply document phenomena, such as counts or population trends or basic life histories of species.

Écologie et conservation des oiseaux (ACE-ÉCO) est une revue scientifique sous format électronique accessible en ligne qui est publiée sous l’égide de la Société des ornithologistes du Canada et d’Études d’oiseaux Canada. La revue publie des articles scientifiquement rigoureux qui s’adressent aux personnes impliquées dans la conservation des oiseaux. Les articles publiés ACE-ÉCO rencontrent des critères élevés de qualité et sont diffusés selon une approche économiquement efficace qui permet un accès rapide à la communauté d’utilisateurs de cette recherche. Bien que la revue vise en partie à consolider le profil international de l’ornithologie et de la conservation des oiseaux au Canada, les contributions de partout ailleurs dans le monde sont les bienvenues.

ACE-ÉCO publie des travaux qui touchent à la fois la conservation et l’écologie. En plus de rencontrer les critères de base de l’excellence scientifique, chaque manuscrit soumis à ACE-ÉCO devra présenter des travaux de recherche écologique qui sont pertinents pour la conservation ou des études portant sur la conservation qui ont des retombées pour la science écologique. Le nom de la revue – écologie ET conservation – décrit la niche visée. Les distinctions s’estompent rapidement entre la recherche en écologie fondamentale et celle qui vise à appliquer les concepts écologiques à la conservation. En effet, les écologistes accordent une attention grandissante aux problèmes environnementaux auxquels fait face la société tandis que les gestionnaires doivent de plus en plus recourir à la recherche de pointe pour relever les défis soulevés par la conservation. Conséquemment, les manuscrits ne doivent pas inclure une section portant sur les retombées des travaux pour l’aménagement puisque celles-ci devraient être évidentes de par la nature même de la problématique et la discussion des résultats. ACE-ÉCO vise à compléter les publications existantes, telles que les revues d’ornithologie, de conservation, d’écologie en général et celles portant sur certains groupes particuliers d’oiseaux.

Les études comportementales seront les bienvenues dans la mesure où elles ont des retombées pour la conservation (ex. : le taux d’extinction et sa covariation possible en fonction des systèmes d’appariement et des activités humaines; ou encore les effets de l’altération des habitats sur la dispersion des individus et leurs causes possibles). De la même façon, les études d’impact seront jugées pertinentes si les conséquences des effets mesurés sont analysées dans le contexte de processus écologiques (ex. : de quelle façon l’altération de l’habitat par la foresterie industrielle altère les processus qui influencent la dynamique des assemblages d’espèces). Les études effectuées dans des régions essentiellement soustraites à l’influence humaine seront pertinentes si ces régions constituent des témoins que l’on compare à des zones traitées dans le cadre du même manuscrit. Elles peuvent également être utilisées à titre de modèles pour étudier des phénomènes écologiques ayant des conséquences pour la conservation, à condition que le lien avec la conservation soit décrit explicitement dans la problématique de recherche. ACE-ÉCO ne considèrera pas pour publication des manuscrits qui ne font que documenter des phénomènes, tels que les tendances des populations ou l’histoire naturelle de certaines espèces.

Section Policies - Manuscript Types

Research Papers
	Open Submissions Peer-Reviewed	Indexed
	Standard papers reporting research results using the classical format (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Literature Cited). Length restricted to 6000 words exclusive of tables, figures and literature cited. Publication fees are $750 CDN for research papers.


Letters
	Open Submissions Peer-Reviewed	Indexed
	Relatively short papers designed to attract attention to innovative concepts or techniques which have the potential to strongly influence the research area. Letters will be of interest to a broader audience than topics addressed in standard research papers. For example, a letter describing a major advance in the estimation of juvenile survival by an innovative method to track bird movements over long time intervals and/or distances is likely to be of interest to avian ecologists generally. Statistical analyses supporting the concept or technique may be preliminary, but nevertheless robust with respect to the inferences drawn. Letters describing innovative concepts or techniques accompanied by too few data, or inappropriately analyzed, will not be accepted. Length is restricted to 3000 words, exclusive of tables, figures and literature cited. Publication fees are $750 CDN for letters.

Forum
	Open Submissions Peer-Reviewed	Indexed
	Short papers (1000 word limit) designed to respond/follow up on papers published in recent issues, or to respond to issues raised in other forum articles. Forum papers may also raise attention on issues that were not specifically addressed in the journal. The Editors-in-Chief reserve the right to limit ongoing debates on the same topic to one response and one counter-response. Publication fees are $375 CDN.

Essay
	Open Submissions Peer-Reviewed	Indexed
	In-depth reflection on an issue with major implications for avian conservation. Even though no original data are required for this manuscript type, the article must present an original, insightful perspective. Max. length: 3000 words. Publication fee: $750 CDN.

Peer Review Process

The Editor-in-Chief makes an initial appraisal of each manuscript. If the topic and treatment seem potentially appropriate for the journal, the manuscript is assigned to a subject editor who oversees the review process. Once the review process has been completed, the subject editor recommends acceptance, revision, or rejection of your manuscript. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Avian Conservation and Ecology has a "double blind" review process: authors are not told who is reviewing their manuscript and reviewers do not know whose manuscript they are reviewing. Author identity is revealed only to Subject Editors, Guest Editors and EICs. Reviewers are informed of the author's identity upon acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. After a decision is reached, a reviewer is free to contact the authors privately about the manuscript.

A decision on the manuscript generally may be expected within 3 months of submission; delays in obtaining reviews may prolong this process. Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically, and all correspondence takes place via e-mail. Although the peer review process is accelerated by the use of electronic communication, traditional high-quality, peer-review standards are applied to all manuscripts submitted.

Publication Frequency

Regular issues are published twice annually, with issues available as 'in progress' as soon as articles are published.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work.

For more information about this open source publishing system, please contact the Managing Editor or read about the Public Knowledge Project's Open Journal System, upon which this publishing system is built.

To learn more about Resilience Alliance Peer Review and Publishing Services, see the recent RA Publishing announcement in the December 2005 issue of Ecology and Society.

Author Fees

Avian Conservation and Ecology levies a charge of $750 Cdn for all Research papers, Letters and Essays, and a charge of $375 Cdn for Forum articles accepted for publication. This fee helps the journal offset its operational costs and permits it to continue to offer full text articles free of charge. There is no charge for manuscript submissions that are not accepted for publication.

Authors are invoiced by email by the Managing Editor once their articles are accepted for publication. Payment is due within 30 days of invoice date. Interest is charged at 1% per month on overdue accounts. For more information please contact the Managing Editor

Indexing of ACE-ÉCO

ACE-ÉCO is indexed in Thompson Scientific's Zoological Record. It is also listed with CAB Abstracts (http://www.cabi.org), Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org/).

ACE-ÉCO is currently under review by Thompson Scientific for possible inclusion in Science Citation Index Expanded and Current Contents. We will update this page when the journal has successfully reached an indexing agreement with Thompson Scientific.

Reviewer Guidelines

Reviewers are asked to use this site (http://www.ace-eco.org/login.php) to agree to review, request a time extension, read the assigned manuscript and submit their review. Passwords are provided in most email correspondence with the journal. If you have forgotten your password, simply press the "forgotten your password?" link below the login prompt and follow the steps to have your password emailed to you. At anytime, reviewers may contact the Journal office for more information on how to use the website, or help obtaining a new password.

To submit your review, click "Edit or Submit Review". The form for submitting your review consists of three parts (please complete all three):

a cover letter to the editor, providing a brief, candid summary of your opinion of the paper,

the rating sheet, and your recommendation whether to accept, reject, or request revision, and

comments for the author (please do not include your recommendation to accept or reject the paper in this section).

Manuscript type and length
Different manuscript types have different style and length requirements. If a manuscript exceeds the posted word length limit, please bring it to the Subject Editor's attention.

Confidentiality
Editors and reviewers must keep all unpublished ACE-ECO manuscripts and any reviews of those manuscripts confidential, except to solicit assistance from a colleague on a specific technical point. Reviewers who agree to review a manuscript must conduct the review themselves and must not pass the manuscript on to another person without first requesting permission to do so. Reviews and recommendations are also considered confidential.

Time
In fairness to the author(s), you should return your review within 3 Weeks. If it seems likely that you will be unable to meet this deadline, please request an extension or notify the journal of your inability to complete the review in the specified time using the "Request Extension" button.

Conflicts of interest
Subject Editors, Special Feature Editors and reviewers who feel they cannot participate objectively in the review process must decline to edit or review using the "decline" button (for editors) or "Unable to do the review" button (for reviewers) on the ACE-ECO website.

If an editor or reviewer has a previous or present connection with the author(s) or an author's institution that might be construed as creating a conflict of interest, but no actual conflict exists, the editor or reviewer is required to mention this issue in the "Comments to the editor" section at the beginning of his/her editorial recommendation or review (respectively). If the reviewer can’t identify an author from the MS, then there is presumed to be no conflict of interest.

Comments for the author(s)
What is the major contribution of the paper? What are its major strengths and weaknesses, and its suitability for publication? Please include both general and specific comments bearing on these questions, and emphasize your most significant points.

General Comments:
Importance and interest to this journal's readers
Scientific soundness
Originality
Degree to which conclusions are supported by the data

Specific Comments:

Presentation

Length

word limits

Methods

Data presentation

Statistical design and analyses

Errors

Citations

Author Guidelines

Overlap

Discussion

Journal Management Committee

ACE-ÉCO's editorial and publishing policies are overseen by a joint management committee with representatives from both Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Bird Studies Canada. As of June 2008, the management committee members are as follows:

Erica Nol

Jon McCracken

Kathy Martin

Keith Hobson

Nicola Koper

Susan Hannon

Avian Conservation and Ecology - Écologie et conservation des oiseaux. ISSN: 1712-6568