Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. AIMS AND SCOPE

Ornitologia Neotropical (ISSN 1075-4377) publishes high-quality research on Neotropical birds. The journal has an emphasis on natural history but welcomes contributions from all aspects of avian biology. Reports of range extensions and local species lists are only of interest to the journal if they have broad implications for Neotropical biogeography. In this regard, single observations should either constitute noteworthy records for the whole region (e.g., the first record for South America) or be accompanied by a thorough review of other records from the literature that provide support to the main thesis of the paper (e.g., a process of range expansion, etc.). First country records of species are better published in national journals. 

Open Access Policy. Ornitologia Neotropical provides inmediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

2. TYPES OF PAPERS

Ornitologia Neotropical published four types of papers: normal full-length papers, short communications, comments, and review papers. Editorials, book reviews, and obituaries are occasionally included.

Articles: These are original descriptive, experimental, comparative, or theoretical papers full-length papers in all areas of Neotropical ornithology. There are no page charges for the first eight printed pages (see page costs below).

Short Communications: These are usually suitable for original descriptive observations and studies based on local or small sample sizes. There are no page charges for the first four printed pages (see page costs below). Short communications should not exceed six pages, without figures and tables.

Reviews: Beginning Vol. 34 (2023) Ornitologia Neotropical will publish review papers on current topics of all aspects of Neotropical Ornithology. Review papers will be invited by the editorial team, or by welcoming proposals from authors having topics of interest. Reviews will be revised. Please email ornitologia.neotropical@gmail.com and share your ideas with us. Reviews have no page limit, but we aim at four printed pages.

Comments: Beginning Vol. 34 (2023) Ornitologia Neotropical will accept manuscripts that do not adhere to the formal structure of a scientific paper. Comments will be suitable for notes on methodology, citizen science, conservation policies, equipment, and others. Comments should have a maximum of two printed pages and will be reviewed at the discretion of the Editor. 

3. MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Submitting a manuscript carries the implicit assumption that the work has not been previously published, that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and that all authors have read and approved the submission. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the “Author Guidelines” will not be considered for publication.

Ethical Policies: Ornitologia Neotropical disapproves of falsification of data and plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors' own work without proper citation; these are considered unacceptable practices. Manuscripts submitted to Ornitologia Neotropical may be screened with anti-plagiarism software.

When submitting your paper you will be asked for the names of three potential reviewers, including their email addresses, and affiliations. Indicating three reviewers is mandatory.

ONLINE SUBMISSIONS-INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

Interested in submitting to this journal? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin the five-step process.

4. GENERAL FORMAT

Manuscripts should be submitted in English or Spanish. Double-space throughout, including tables, figure legends, and references. All pages, including tables and figure captions, should be numbered, starting with page 1. Insert continuous line numbers throughout the manuscript. 

All parts of articles and short communication manuscripts should be arranged in the following sequence: title page, text with references, tables (each on a separate page), figure legends, and figures. Do not hyphenate words at the ends of lines. Do not right-justify the text. Leave only one space after each word or punctuation sign. Use font ‘Calibri’ for the whole text.

Use italic characters instead of underlining words that must be italicized, e.g., scientific names of species. In addition, the following Latin terms or expressions should be italicized: fide, vice versa, sensu, in vivo, in vitro, in situ, ad libitum, a priori, a posteriori. Other Latin terms, except scientific names, should be left unitalicized. 

There are some differences between UK and USA spelling of some English words and in comma rules (e.g., enumerations); in both cases, use the USA rules. Authors not fluent enough in the language (Spanish, or English) of a given part of their manuscript (abstract or text) are urged to have these parts revised by somebody who can correct and polish their writings.

Bird research and ethical policies: Research submitted to Ornitologia Neotropical must have been performed in accordance with the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority. Experimental or manipulative studies should also follow animal welfare recommendations described in the "Guidelines to the use of wild birds in research."

If appropriate, include in the acknowledgments that experiments and procedures comply with the current laws of the country and that the study was approved by a Bioethics Committee whose name must be stated.

5. MANUSCRIPT STRUCTURE

Manuscripts should be organized as follows: title page, abstract & keywords page, text, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. Optional Supporting information can be uploaded on the journal website. Short communications can merge Results and Discussion in a single section. Please make sure that all the items are present. 

Title Page: (numbered as page 1, with items presented in the following sequence). All titles (First title, author names, abstract, second title, and resumen/resumo) must be in bold capital and bold lowercase letters.

First Title: in English, in BOLD CAPITAL letters (no period at the end). Always put the common name of species in the title (if appropriate), followed by the scientific name NOT IN PARENTHESIS, in italics, capitalized. If a common generic name is mentioned in the title, it must be followed by the scientific generic name NOT IN PARENTHESIS.

Author names: If more than one address for authors, author names should be referred to their respective addresses by using a superscript lowercase Arabic numeral (e.g. Smith¹). No period after author names.

Author addresses: at the time research was carried out, centered. Current addresses, if different, should also be indicated with a different superscript number. All addresses, if more than one, should be given a superscript Arabic numeral to refer to the respective author. Put a period at the end of each address. Indicate the e-mail address of the corresponding author.

Running head: 36 characters or less, all caps. No dot or period at the end. Do not write running heads on each page.  

Abstract: should not exceed 300 words for full-length papers or 150 words for short communications.

Second title: in Spanish is inserted between the abstract and the Resumen. Capitalize the first word of the second title; all other words should be lowercase except proper nouns.

Resumen: a translation of the abstract in Spanish. Assistance can be provided for authors not familiar with these languages.

Keywords: the heading in bold capital and bold lowercase characters, followed by 5 to 7 keywords in alphabetical order, capital, and lowercase characters. All keywords will be in English only, for indexation purposes (e.g., BIOSIS, Zoological Records, etc.). Do not repeat words already in the title.  

TEXT. With sections presented in the following order:

INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, REFERENCES

These headings should be left justified and in all caps. Depending on the manuscript these headings can be omitted (e.g. short communications) or modified (e.g. RESULTS & DISCUSSION).

If appropriate, subtitles are placed at the start of a new paragraph and must be in bold (e.g.: Breeding of Buteo ventralis.)

Paragraph indentations: All paragraphs in the introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections, except the first one, must be indented.

Taxonomy and bird names: Ornitologia Neotropical follows the taxonomy and nomenclature of the latest versions of the “AOS checklist North and Middle American Birds” and “AOS checklist of South American Birds”. For islands in the Caribbean indicate the reference being followed.

Common names in English are Capitalized; e.g. Red Siskin, Southern Giant Petrel, Red-rumped Cacique, Pale-browed Tinamou. However, when not using the exact common name, no capitals are used. E.g. “Like for all caciques, the nests of Red-rumped Caciques were difficult to reach”. Acoording to language rules, names in Spanish are not capitalized, e.g. petrel gigante, guácharo, pato de alas azules. However, when the name refers to a proper name, capitals should be used, e.g. colibrí de las Bahamas, colibrí de Inagua.

PLEASE NOTE, STARTING IN VOL 34 (2023) AND FOLLOWING THE INTERNATIONAL CODE OF ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE (ICZN), SCIENTIFIC NAMES WILL NOT BE ENCLOSED IN PARENTHESIS, e.g., Cacicus cela Linnaeus, 1758 (Icteridae); Steatornis caripensis Humboldt, 1817 or Vanessa atalanta atalanta (Linnaeus, 1758). The parentheses around the author citation indicate that this was not the original taxonomic placement. In this case, Linnaeus published the name as Papilio atalante Linnaeus, 1758.

REFERENCES

All references or citations (except for papers in preparation) referred to in the text, tables, and figure legends must be listed at the end of the text under the heading “REFERENCES”. Verify all bibliographic references with original sources, especially for author names, titles, years, journal titles, volume and page numbers, accents, and spelling in a language other than English. All references must be referred to in the text, tables, figure captions, etc. Documents in preparation are only mentioned as “in prep.” in the text, and do not appear in the reference list. We recommend using a reference manager (Mendeley, EndNote, etc.) to format references.

Citations in the text:

(Johnston 1988, Ali 1990, McNeil 1997)                                             In chronological order

(Nelson & McNeil 1981)

(McNeil 1991a, 1991b)

(McNeil 1991a, 1991b, 1996; Ouellet 1985, Rappole 1990)

(McNeil et al. 1975) [note et al. not in italics]

(McNeil in press)

(McNeil 1975: 175)                                                                    Cite a special page

According to McNeil & Rompré (1988), ...

McNeil & Rompré (1988) reported ...

(see McNeil 1997)

(fide McNeil 1997)

(McNeil in prep.)                                                                     Papers “in prep.” are not listed in the reference section 

Reference format in reference list: References should follow the following format for character types, punctuation, spaces, and indentations. Note: Use medium-long dashes (Alt+0150) to mark the interval in page (–) numbers (MS Word).  Any work with 10 authors or more should list only the first 10 authors and follow by ‘et al.’.

For articles in scientific journals: Journal names should be given in full. Examples:

Adamoli, J, E Sennhauser, JM Acero & A Rescia (1990) Stress and disturbance: vegetation dynamics in the Dry Chaco Region of Argentina. Journal of Biogeography 17: 491–500. https://doi.org/10.2307/2845381

McLaughlin, JD (1977) The migratory route of Cyclocoelum mutabile (Zeder) (Trematoda: Cyclocoelidae) in the American Coot, Fulica americana (Gm.). Canadian Journal of Zoology 55: 274–279. https://doi.org/10.1139/z77-036

Poulin, B, G Lefebvre & R McNeil (1994) Characteristics of feeding guilds and variation in diets of bird species of three adjacent tropical sites. Biotropica 26: 187–198. https://doi.org/10.2307/2388808

Rojas, LM, R McNeil, T Cabana & P Lachapelle (In press) Diurnal and nocturnal visual capabilities in shorebirds as a function of their feeding strategies. Brain Behavior and Evolution 58: – . 

Thibault, M & R McNeil (1995) Predator-prey relationship between Wilson's Plovers and fiddler crabs in northeastern Venezuela. Wilson Bulletin 107: 73–80.

Reports: For reports, in addition to authors’ names, title, and year, provide the publisher's name in full length (do not use acronyms) and the city, state or province, or country where published. Examples:

CETESB (1991) Avaliação do estado de degradação dos ecossistemas da Baixada Santista. Companhia Estadual de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental, São Paulo, Brazil.

Toresani, NI, HL López & SE Gómez (1994) Lagunas de la provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de la Producción de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Books and book chapters: For all books, in addition to authors’ names, title, and year, provide the publisher's name, and the city, state or province, or country where published. Examples:

American Ornithologists’ Union (1998) Check-list of North American birds. 7th ed. American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C., USA.

Balzarini, MG, L Gonzalez, M Tablada, F Casanoves, JA Di Rienzo & CW Robledo (2008) Manual del usuario. Info-stat, versión 2008. Editorial Brujas, Córdoba, Argentina.

Boletta, P (1998) Clima. Pp 7–21 in Casas, R. (ed). Desmonte y habilitación de tierras en la región chaqueña semiárida. FAO, Santiago, Chile.

Cambell, B & E Lack (1985) A dictionary of birds. Poyser, Carlton, UK.

del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, & J Sargatal (1992) Handbook of the birds of the world. Volume 1: Ostrich to ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.

Kear, J (1970) The adaptive radiation of parental care in waterfowl. In Poole, A (ed.). The birds of North America, no. 47. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Lack, D (1954) The natural regulation of animal numbers. Oxford Univ. Press, London, UK.

Matheu, E & J del Hoyo (1992) Family Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills). Pp. 472–506 in del Hoyo, J, A Elliott & J Sargatal (eds). Handbook of the birds of the world. Volume 1: Ostrich to ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.

Meyer de Schauensee, R & WH Phelps Jr (1978) A guide to the birds of Venezuela. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Moore, J & NJ Gotelli (1990) A phylogenetic perspective on the evolution of altered host behaviours: a critical look at the manipulation hypothesis. Pp. 193–229 in Barnard, CJ & JM Behnke (eds). Parasitism and host behavior. Taylor & Francis, London, UK.

Ralph, CJ, S Droege & JR Sauer (1995) Managing and monitoring birds using point counts: standards and applications. Pp. 161–169 en Ralph, CJ, S Droege & JR Sauer (eds). Monitoring bird populations by point counts. General Technical Report PSW-GTR-149, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Albany, California, USA. https://doi.org/10.2737/PSW-GTR-149

Sallabanks, R & FC James (1999) American Robin (Turdus migratorius). In Poole, A & F Gill (eds). The birds of North America, No. 462. The birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/tbna.462.p

Walsberg, GE (1983) Avian ecological energetics. Pp. 161–220 in Farner, DS, JR King & KC Parkes (eds). Avian Biology. Volume 7. Academic Press, New York, New York, USA. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-249407-9.50012-0

Instituto de Botánica Darwinion (2015) Flora Argentina. Plantas vasculares de la República Argentina. Available from/Disponible de http://www.floraargentina.edu.ar/ [Assessed 20 August 2015/Consultado el 20 de agosto de 2015].

Zar, J. H. (1999) Biostatistical analysis. 4th ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA.

Use “ed.” if only one editor name, and “eds” if more than one occurs.

Dissertations or Theses: Díaz, DOF (1993) Comparación de la disponibilidad diurna y nocturna de presas para aves limícolas, en el complejo lagunar de Chacopata, Edo. Sucre. Tesis de licenciatura, Univ. de Oriente, Cumaná, Venezuela.

Goater, CP (1989) Patterns of helminth parasitism in the Oystercatcher, Haematopus ostralegus, from the Exe Estuary, England. Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Exeter, Exeter, UK.

Poulin, B (1992) Dynamique temporelle et spatiale de l’avifaune des milieux xériques du nord-est du Venezuela. Thèse de doctorat, Univ. de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Yorio, PM (1991) Relevos durante la incubación y deserción de nidos: sus efectos sobre el éxito reproductivo del Pingüino de Magallanes. Tesis Doctoral, Univ. Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Use “M.Sc. thesis”,“Ph.D. thesis ”, “Ph.D. diss.”, “Tesis doctoral”, “Tesis de licenciatura”, Tesis de maestría”, and “Tesis de grado”, “Dissertação de mestrado” or “Tese de doutorado”.

Online citations

BirdLife International (2008) Leptotila conoveri. In: IUCN Red list of threatened species. Version 2009.1. Available at http://www.iucnredlist.org [Accessed 16 September 2023]

Gill, F & D Donsker (eds) (2010) IOC world bird names (version 2.5). Available at http://www.world-birdnames.org/ [Accessed 15 May 2023]

Comments:

• no comma before ‘ &’ in author names.
• no period after initials or ed/eds
• full names of journals, in italics;
• book publisher with the city and the full name of federal states (USA/Mexico/Brazil)

TABLES AND FIGURES

Cite each Table and Figure in the text numbered using Arabic numbers (i.e., Table 1, Table 2, etc.; Figure 1, Figure 2) in order of appearance.

Each Table should be allocated a separate page, double-spaced throughout. Each Table should have a legend above it, intelligible without the need to refer to the text. Begin with “Table 1.”, and end the legend with a period (.). Create tables using the table option in MS Word. Include horizontal lines above and below boxhead, and at the end of tables. Avoid using footnotes; instead, indicate references from legend to table body text by superscript numerals or asterisk (*).

Figure legends: Include all figures legends one after the other. As with Tables, figure legends should be largely understandable without referring to the text. Begin Figure legends with “Figure 1.” And end the legend with a period. Upon initial submission, all figures should be inserted at the end of the document and properly labeled. ORNITOLOGIA NEOTROPICAL encourages the judicious use of color in figures and also the inclusion of high-quality color pictures depicting relevant aspects of the study species, habitats, or methods. All figures included should be mentioned in the text. Upon acceptance, we may request high-quality figures as separate files for typesetting.

Supporting information: Complementary facts and details, not crucial for the understanding of the paper, but helpful for readers can be uploaded and published as “Supplementary Materials”. Materials appropriate for inclusion as Supplementary Materials might be: Methodological details, large tables, tables of statistical analysis, maps, or images. Supplementary material may be subject to review but it will not be edited, corrected, or checked by the Journal. It will be published as received. Please cite all supplementary material as Supplementary Material Table S1 or Supplementary Material Figure S1. Supplementary material will not be subject to page charges.

OTHER INSTRUCTIONS

Date and time format: Use the European system of dating (e.g., 30 June 1998) and the 24-hour clock (e.g., 08:00 h and 23:00 h), and refer to standard time (not daylight saving time). Specify that you refer to standard time (e.g., EST for Eastern Standard Time) at the first reference to the time of day.

Numbers and Numerals: Write out numbers one to nine (e.g., five chicks, three samples) unless numbers are statistics or measurements (e.g., 7 mm, 6 months, 2 min), but use numerals for larger numbers (e.g., 15 chicks, 20 samples). If a number is in a series with at least one number being 10 or more, use numerals only (e.g., 7 males and 15 females).

Decimals are marked by the period (.) for English texts and comma (,) for Spanish or Portuguese texts. Use 50%, not 50 percent (no space between number and %).

Reporting statistical results: Please report statistics in full, including effect sizes and their associated standard errors (SE) or confidence intervals (e.g. 95% CI), also for non-significant results. Report sample sizes (N) and appropriate degrees of freedom (df). Use a reasonable number of digits after the decimal separator (2 to 4 usually makes sense) and be consistent in their use. For very small p-values use p < 0.0001.

STATISTICAL ABBREVIATIONS AND FORMATS (meaning of each symbol indicated in [])

In all cases, respect the spacing as shown:

• (mean = 8.23, SD = 2.3, N = 4)
• (mean ± SD)
• SD [standard deviation]
• SE [standard error]
• CV [coefficient of variation]
• CI [confidence interval]
• N [sample size]
• r = [correlation coefficient]
• R² = [R square value]
• rs = [Spearman Rank Correlation]
• df = [degrees of freedom]
• t = or t-test [Student’s t-test]
• G = 18.77
• = –10.0 Use Alt + 0150 for the minus sign with word processors under Windows. There is no space between the minus (–) and the number.
• (Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, H = 19.47, P < 0.002)
• (F_89,90 = 0.789, P = 0.57)
• df = 70.0
• Mann-Whitney U-test, U =
• χ2
• 8–10: To mark any numerical interval, use (–) with Alt + 0150 in word processors under Windows.

The same applies to page numbers in references.

Non-statistical Abbreviations:

In all cases, respect the spacing as shown:

• e.g., i.e.,
• in litt.
• vs (for versus)
• a.s.l. (for “above sea level”) s.n.m. (para “sobre el nivel del mar”)
• c. (for circa)
• cf. (for confer)
• “pers. com.” (e.g., McNeil pers. com.)
• “pers. observ.”
• “sensu” “sensu lato” (sensu Sibley & Ahlquist 1990)
• “prov.” or “Prov.”
• Mun. (for “municipality” o “municipalidad”)
• sp. or spp.
• Indet. (for “indetermined” o “indeterminado”)
• unpubl. (for “unpublished”)
• in prep. (McNeil in prep.)
• Approx. 56
• 20°C (No space; use Alt + 0176 for °)
• 86% (No space)
• 43°18’01”S or 43°25’23”N with “W” and “E” in all languages. Use “Alt + 248” for °, “Alt + 0147” for “ and “Alt + 0148” for ”, “Alt + 0145” for ‘ and “Alt + 0146” for ’. There is no space between characters.
• m m² m³ cm² cm³ mm mm² mm³ km ha g kg
• l (liter)
• s (second) ms (millisecond) h (hour) min (minute) 10-min (with dash)

However, do not abbreviate:

• day, month, year
• 16-bit (with normal dash)
• kHz Hz
• Pa hPa
• Fac. of (Faculty of ... ) Fac. de (Facultad de ....)

User-defined Abbreviations: They must be written out in full length the first time the abbreviation is used in the text (e.g., “second-year (SY) birds”. ... We captured SY males between 10 May and 30 June.”) Minimize the use of such abbreviations. Do not use ♂ y ♀ symbols. Use “male” or “female” in all cases.

6. PAGE COSTS

Authors are required to pay Article Processing Charges of US$70 for Research Papers (up to 8 printed pages) and US$50 for Short notes (up to 4 printed pages). Each printed page in excess of eight for full papers, and in excess of four for short communications costs US$70. To estimate page costs allow ~5800 characters with spaces per typeset page and roughly half a page per figure or table. Note that these are only estimates and exact page numbers will only be known after typesetting is complete. Extensive adaptations of final versions (e.g., concerning guidelines, and stylistic shortcomings) will require extra costs. Alterations of galleys based on authors’ request (not due to editing) will be charged with US$5 per line. However, publishing in Ornitologia Neotropical is not contingent on being able to pay, and we honor genuine waiver requests.