BIOTROPICA

Published bimonthly, BIOTROPICA reaches over 4,000 institutional and personal subscribers around the world. BIOTROPICA publishes reports of original research on the ecology, conservation and management of all tropical ecosystems, and on the evolution, behavior, and population biology of tropical organisms. Special issues published from time to time quickly become indispensable references for workers in the field. Commentaries generate thought-provoking ideas that frequently initiate fruitful debate and discussion, while Reviews provide authoritative and analytical overviews of topics of current conservation or ecological importance. The newly instituted category Insights replaces Short Communications.

Important information for authors:

The Short Communications section has been replaced by a new submission category, Insights.

From November 1^st 2007 BIOTROPICA will no longer consider submissions under the Short Communications category. Short manuscripts are always welcome, but they will be evaluated as standard papers. The Short Communications section will be replaced by a new section titled Insights.

Insights is a forum for presenting new and exciting work in a concise format. Papers submitted to this section should present work that either substantially advances a field, or provides new perspectives on existing theories and concepts. Particularly fascinating results on a narrower field would also be permissible. Insights articles differ from Commentaries in that they should be data-based and empirical. Submitting authors are requested to explain very clearly in a cover letter why their paper deserves to be considered in the Insights section.

Insights papers will be prominently published near the beginning of each issue (after Commentaries but before standard Papers). Submissions to this section will be given priority treatment for processing and publication, with a rapid review and editorial process. Thus, we aim to publish Insights articles online within two months of submission, and in the printed version of BIOTROPICA within four months of submission.

To facilitate this, Insights papers have to be concise, with no more that 2000 words of text, and up to two figures or tables, with the option of more text, tables or figures printed online. The abstract is restricted to 50 words in which the novelty and impact of the paper is emphasised.

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The Editor and Editorial Board of BIOTROPICA assure authors of the efficient handling of their manuscripts, a professional appearance for their articles, and the wide circulation of their ideas. Articles must be submitted in English, although BIOTROPICA strongly encourages second abstracts to be submitted in the language(s) relevant to where the study was completed. These abstracts will be published as Online Supplementary Material.

BIOTROPICA Editorial Board 2008

Editor-in-Chief: Jaboury Ghazoul
Editorial Assistants: Christopher Kaiser and Nancy Bunbury

Editorial Board along with each editor's expertise.

1. Luis F. Aguirre, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Cochabamba, Bolivia. Bats, New World bats, community ecology, ecomorphology, conservation biology, forest fragmentation.
2. Adolfo Amézquita, University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. Amphibians, bioacoustics, behaviour, ecophysiology.
3. David Bickford, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Herpetology, conservation biology, ecology and climate change.
4. Nico Blüthgen, University of Würzburg, Germany. Plant-insect interactions, ecological networks, community ecology, ants, and pollination.
5. Luz Boyero, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Tropical stream ecology, stream macroinvertebrate communities, latitudinal gradients in diversity and ecological processes.
6. Corey Bradshaw, University of Adelaide, Australia. Conservation biology, extinction dynamics, regulation, modeling, invasive species.
7. Francis Brearley, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Mycorrhizas, nutrient cycling, phenology, plant-soil interactions, secondary succession.
8. Emilio Bruna, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. Plant demography and population ecology, ant-plant mutualisms.
9. Robin Chazdon, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA. Forest succession and dynamics, plant ecophysiology.
10. Priya Davidar, Pondicherry University, India. Pollination and seed dispersal ecology, rarity, biodiversity assessments, monitoring, tree diversity and dynamics.
11. Anthony Di Fiore, New York University, USA. Primates, New World monkeys, seed dispersal, feeding ecology, phenology, population genetics, social organization, reproductive strategies.
12. Lee Dyer, Tulane University, USA. Tropical entomology, tri-trophic interactions, chemical ecology, insect herbivores and their natural enemies.
13. Bryan Finegan, Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Education (CATIE), Costa Rica. Secondary forest ecology and management.
14. José Fragoso, University of Hawaii, USA. Wildlife ecology and management, seed dispersal and predation, indigenous peoples and management systems, animal movement.
15. Mauro Galetti, Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Brazil. Frugivory and seed dispersal by vertebrates.
16. Thomas Gillespie, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
17. Kevin Hyde, University of Hong Kong. Microfungi, endophytes, fungal diversity, fungal taxonomy.
18. Beth Kaplin, Antioch New England Graduate School and National University of Rwanda, Rwanda. Primate ecology and conservation, forest phenology, regeneration dynamics, seed dispersal ecology, protected areas conservation.
19. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, India. Forest soils, hydrology, applied and spatial statistics, remote sensing, GIS, ecosystem services.
20. Michael Lawes, University of Natal, South Africa. Primatology, avian community ecology, fragmentation, historical biogeography, plant community ecology, forest ecology, forest conservation, community forestry, metapopulation biology, sexual selection, brood parasitism.
21. Soon Leong Lee, Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), Malaysia. Ecological genetics of tropical plants, impacts of logging and forest fragmentation, Dipterocarpaceae, forest genetic resources conservation and management.
22. Thomas Lewinsohn, State University of Campinas, UNICAMP, Brazil. Community ecology, biodiversity, plant-animal interactions, herbivory.
23. Qing-Jun Li, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China. Reproductive biology (pollination, breeding systems) of tropical plant groups and communities, plant-animal interactions.
24. Rebecca Morris, University of Oxford, UK. Community ecology, indirect interactions, food webs, insect herbivory, host-parasitoid interactions.
25. Vojtech Novotny, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic. Community and evolutionary ecology of herbivorous insects, species diversity and host-plant specialization in herbivore communities.
26. Marielos Peña-Claros, Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal, IBIF, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Tropical forest management.
27. Diego Perez-Salicrup, National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, Mexico. Tropical forest ecology and management, ecology of lianas.
28. Michelle Pinard, University of Aberdeen, UK. Tropical forest silviculture & ecology, carbon offsets, participatory management, biodiversity monitoring.
29. Mauricio Quesada, National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, Mexico. Nectar-feeding bats, reproductive biology of trees, phenology, effects of fragmentation on reproductive biology, genetic structure of tree populations, hybridization and gene flow.
30. Philip Rundel, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Adaptations of plants to environmental stress, plant ecophysiology and population ecology.
31. Ann Russell, Iowa State University, USA. Biogeochemistry of tropical and managed systems, plant species traits and ecosystem properties, belowground processes, and carbon sequestration.
32. Shoko Sakai, Kyoto University, Japan. Ecology and reproductive biology of tropical plants, tree structure and architecture.
33. Navjot Sodhi, National University of Singapore, NUS, Singapore. Birds, conservation biology, extinctions and urban ecology.
34. Kathy Stoner, National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, Mexico. Bat and primate behavior, ecology, and conservation, vertebrate pollination and seed dispersal, mammal community ecology, effects of forest fragmentation.
35. Philip Stouffer, Louisiana State University, USA. Distribution, migration, and community ecology of birds.
36. David Westcott, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO, Australia. Tropical ornithology and biodiversity conservation.
37. Rainer Wirth, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Ant-plant interactions, herbivory, ecology of ants, forest structure, forest fragmentation with emphasis on edge effects.

The Editors wish to thank the following recent members of the Editorial Board for their services to BIOTROPICA.

William Hoffmann, North Carolina State University, USA.
David Dudgeon, University of Hong Kong, China.
Donald Feener, University of Utah, USA.
Kevina Vulinec, Delaware State University, USA.
William Magnusson, INPA, Brazil.

Instructions for Authors

General

Manuscripts for consideration in BIOTROPICA may cover any aspect of tropical biology and conservation. Articles must be of general interest to the global community of tropical biologists, with contents of lasting value and significance.

BIOTROPICA offers four publication categories: Paper, Insights, Review, and Commentary. Preference will be given to papers devoted to the presentation and discussion of original research or thinking that either:

(1) address clearly identified ecological concepts or conservation challenges (Paper, up to 5,000 words);

(2) provide an authoritative opinion on current issues in ecology or conservation, or a thought-provoking commentary on a previously published paper (Commentary, up to 2,000 words);

(3) describe a concise empirical study that represents a particularly interesting or original development in the field (Insights, up to 2,000 words);

(4) contain significant review, synthetic, and interpretive qualities (Review, up to 8,000 words).

Word counts exclude title page, abstract(s), literature cited, tables, figures, or appendices).

Special Sections and Special Issues are also published through special arrangements with the Editor-in-Chief.

Cover Letter

For all submissions authors are requested to provide a cover letter that details the novelty, relevance and implications of their work, and a brief explanation of the suitability of the work for BIOTROPICA. The number of words in the manuscript should also be given in the cover letter.

A cover letter is also required for revised manuscripts and resubmissions, in which the responses to the reviewers' comments and resulting changes made to the manuscript are clearly detailed.

Page charges and reprints

BIOTROPICA allows free published pages for first authors who are members of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (senior authors only), although voluntary contributions are most welcome. Page charges ($60/page) will be waived in cases where authors have no funds to support these costs. Authors who are members of ATBC will be permitted to publish one free color figure per year. A free PDF of published articles will be provided to all authors. Reprints may be purchased from the publisher at additional cost and must be ordered when corrected proofs are submitted.

Manuscript submission

Online submission and review of manuscripts is mandatory, effective January 1, 2005. When your manuscript has been prepared in accordance with the pre-publication checklist (see links at the end of this section, below) and you are ready to submit, please go to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bitr . Please follow the instructions for creating your user account and for submitting your manuscript and cover letter. Authors may suggest reviewers and subject editors when you submit. On-line help is provided with the *Manuscript Central ^TM Online User Guide, which can be downloaded from that website. If you are unable to submit your manuscript through that website, please contact the Biotropica Editorial Office for assistance.

Preparation of Manuscript

For details on manuscript form and style, please refer to the pre-publication checklist (see links at the end of this section, below) and to a recent issue of BIOTROPICA. From January 1, 2007 papers must be submitted in the English language. English abstracts are required for all papers except for commentaries (250 word limit for papers and reviews and 75 word limit for short communications). From January 1, 2007 second abstracts in Spanish, Portuguese or French will no longer be printed in the journal. Authors are, however, strongly encouraged to provide a second abstract in the language of the country in which the research was conducted for publication as Supplemental Online Material on Blackwell's website.

Authors whose native language is not English

Our goal is to publish the very best papers in tropical ecology, regardless of the authors' native language. To this end reviewers are asked to judge the quality of a manuscript based on its science, and not on language. Nevertheless, a manuscript that is clearly written in good English is easier to understand, and is likely to receive a more sympathetic review. Authors should therefore make every effort to ensure that the English is of good quality. Our advice is that authors requiring English language assistance should enlist the help of a native speaker or a colleague in the first instance. BIOTROPICA does offer an English copy editing service, at a cost of $25 per hour.

Copyright

In order for articles to be distributed as widely as possible authors must grant Blackwell Publishing Ltd an exclusive license to publish the above Article on behalf of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC). This is done through an Exclusive Licence Form which grants authors rights to re-use the Article under conditions as specified by Blackwell Publishing.

Pre-publication Checklist

Authors should follow the pre-publication checklist (version: January, 2008).       pdf           rtf

Guidelines for Reviewers

      pdf           rtf

Table of Contents of Past Issues

Note: These pages will open in a new window. For issues starting the year 2005, you will be taken to the relevant page on the Blackwell-Synergy website.