Behavioral Ecology
Instructions To Authors
Please note that the journal now encourages authors to complete their copyright licence to publish form online.
Authors who publish their papers under our open access model or who are NIH-funded will have their paper automatically deposited in PubMed Central.
Behavioral Ecology publishes original articles, reviews, and commentaries on all aspects of the field of behavioral ecology, encompassing both empirical and theoretical work and covering both animals (ranging from microbes to humans) and plants. Behavioral Ecology construes the field in its broadest sense to include (1) the use of ecological and evolutionary processes to explain the occurrence and adaptive significance of behavior patterns, (2) the use of behavioral processes to both predict ecological patterns and inform conservation and wildlife management strategies, and (3) comparative analyses relating behavior to the evolutionary context or environment in which it occurs. The journal accepts papers in areas such as habitat selection; foraging, anti-predator, mating, and parental care strategies; dispersal and migration; sexual selection; cooperation and conflict; communication; spacing and group behavior; social organization; and the appropriate use of statistics or novel methods of data collection and analysis. A broad range of approaches are sought, including theoretical modelling; experimental, field, and laboratory-based studies of individual species; and molecular and genomic approaches to understanding behavioral plasticity and evolution. The originality and general significance for the field of behavioral ecology as judged by the referees and Editors will be important criteria for the decision to accept submissions to the journal for publication.
Manuscripts must be in English and are accepted for consideration with the understanding that they have been submitted solely to Behavioral Ecology, that they have not been previously published (either in whole or in part), and that similar but not identical papers are not published, in press, or submitted elsewhere. Future work of authors who violate the principle of no-double publication will not be welcome at the journal. All authors must be aware of and approve submission of the manuscript, and all individuals entitled to authorship should be named.
Prior Publication
Previous publication does not include a short abstract/poster, being part of a PhD thesis, or posting as a non-peer reviewed online preprint using a server such as bioRxiv.org, provided that entries are updated to acknowledge that the article has been accepted by Behavioral Ecology. If accepted, you will need to update the status of any preprint, including your paper’s DOI.
Manuscripts that have been through a formal peer review process and been accepted by overlay journals, such as those hosted by Peer Community In are considered previously published and not eligible for submission to Behavioral Ecology.
Forum
Behavioral Ecology publishes four types of article in its Forum section: ‘Invited Idea’, ‘Invited Review’, ‘Invited Commentary'.
‘Invited Idea’ is a short piece (normally less than 2000 words) containing new ideas, approaches and perspectives of current or emerging interest. It does not include new data, and often provides a new perspective on an issue or on old data. It is peer reviewed in the standard way.
‘Invited Review’ is a commissioned review, synthesis, or meta-analysis that is both forward-looking and of exceptional significance. It should contain about 7000 words and 50 references, with 2-3 figures or small tables and is peer-reviewed in the standard way.
Each Invited Review article is accompanied by a short ‘Invited Commentary' from 2-4 leading researchers in the field, published at the end of the article with a short response from the ‘Invited Review’ author(s). These commentaries make up the third type of Forum article. They are not peer reviewed, but simply checked for suitability by the Forum Editor. They are very short (500-700 words total), contain no original research, and usually include 1-8 references.
Invited reviews and commentaries are made free to view when published online.
Authors who wish to contribute to the Forum section should contact the Editor-in-Chief with a full proposal.
Comments on Published Articles
Comments are critiques of Original Articles and are published in the electronic journal with contributions listed in the contents of the relevant hardcopy issue. They should be brief (normally less than 1000 words), have no abstract, and contain no more than 5 references. The author(s) of the Original Article being critiqued must be contacted and trivial points of difference or misunderstanding resolved; this correspondence must be submitted in a cover letter accompanying the Comment article. They will be subject to full peer review; if accepted for publication, they will be forwarded to the author(s) of the critiqued article, who will be given the opportunity to respond.
Ethics
Behavioral Ecology expects that authors will observe the highest standards with respect to publication ethics. For example, the following practices are unacceptable: (1) falsification or fabrication of data; (2) plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors' own work in whole or in part; (3) misappropriation of the work of others such as omission of qualified authors; (4) withholding information of relevance to assess possible conflicts of interest (e.g. financial support); (5) Failure to meet reasonable requests for access to data on which conclusions lie, etc. Allegations of unethical conduct will be discussed initially with the corresponding author. In the event of an unresolved dispute, the matter may be referred to the author's institution and funding agencies for investigation and adjudication.
The Journal applies plagiarism detection software (iThenticate) to submitted manuscripts and reserves the right to decline submissions suspected of plagiarism at any point during the assessment process. It will also retract articles found to violate plagiarism guidelines after publication. In addition, the Journal reserves the right to report any suspicion of plagiarism to the senior author's institution. Oxford University Press, publisher of Behavioral Ecology, is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Journal adheres to the COPE code of conduct and guidelines for authorship.
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更多详情：
https://academic.oup.com/beheco/pages/information_for_authors
