Scope and Content
The Bulletin publishes letters, longer commentaries, and philosophical and methodological items related to the science of ecology. In addition, the Bulletin publishes announcements of meetings; reviews of meetings, of software useful for ecological research and teaching, and of other tools for ecologists; articles about the teaching of ecology; obituaries for deceased members and resolutions of respect for former ESA officers, winners of major awards, and certain other ecologists; announcements; and reports of official actions by the Society. Previously published items from other sources can be republished in the Bulletin if the contributor obtains permission of the author and the copyright holder and clearly identifies the original publication. Bulletin content is not peer reviewed and, therefore, the Bulletin does not accept articles that are too technical or specialized to be evaluated for publication without scientific review.
See Submitting to the Bulletin, for information on where to send contributions.
Types of contributions
Manuscript Preparation. The manuscript should be submitted as a WordPerfect or Microsoft Word (for Mac or Windows) manuscript, preferably as an e-mail message attachment to bulletin@esa.org. E-mailed photographs and diagrams must be in .tif or .eps format. Other forms of electronic copy (text embedded in e-mail messages, diskettes sent by post) or hard copy can be submitted if absolutely necessary. If formatting could be troublesome (e.g., tables, European alphabet characters, etc.), hard copy also should be sent via fax to E. A. Johnson at (403) 289-9311, or via post. Hard-copy manuscripts should be double-spaced, with ample margins. Plain formatting must be used on hard-copy and electronic manuscripts. PLAIN FORMATTING consists of a single font of a single size, left justification throughout, line spacing the same throughout, and up to three different weights of headings. Other formats will not be accepted for publication. The author should THOROUGHLY PROOF the manuscript for accuracy, paying special attention to phone and fax numbers and web site and e-mail addresses, which are frequently incorrect.
Photo Gallery submissions. The photo(s) should illustrate ecological processes or an ecological research design. Several photographs showing aspects of a study or steps in a process are welcome. Refer to recent Photo Galleries for examples. Photos should be connected to an article published in ESA journals. Please provide a caption for each photo including the photographer’s name, a brief paragraph describing the related study, the title and full names of all authors of the article, and the ESA manuscript number and or volume and date of publication. E-mail the file(s) as an attachment to the Editor of the ESA Bulletin at bulletin@esa.org.
Letters to the Editor and Commentaries. Please indicate if letters are intended for publication, as this is not always obvious. The Bulletin publishes letters, longer commentaries, and philosophical and methodological items related to the science of ecology. There are no page limits, but authors may be asked to edit their submissions for clarity and precision. Previously published items from other sources can be republished in the Bulletin if the contributor obtains permission of the author and the copyright holder and clearly identifies the original publication.
Meeting Announcements. Submit a brief prose description of the upcoming meeting, including title, a short paragraph on objectives and content, dates, location, registration requirements, and meeting contact person’s name, street address, and phone/fax/e-mail address. Please do not submit meeting brochures in the expectation that the Editor will write the prose description; he won’t. Compare the Publication deadlines of the Bulletin with the meeting deadlines to be sure the announcement will appear in time.
Symposia and Meeting Reviews. The Bulletin publishes reviews of symposia and workshops at the annual ESA meeting, as well as important and appropriate meetings that are unrelated to the annual ESA meeting. The reviewer should strive for a synthetic view of the meeting or symposium outcome (i.e., how the various presentations fit or conflict with each other and with current scientific thought on the topic). Review length is open, although about four double-spaced pages should be sufficient to capture the essence of most meetings.
The following advisory items are provided to help focus your review.
a) Meeting title, organizer, location, sponsoring organizations? For symposia, please list the title and authors, and the presenter, for each paper in the symposium.
b) What were the meeting/symposium objectives (i.e., what scientific problem was the meeting organized to solve)? Who cares (i.e., what was the relevance of this scientific problem to related ones under examination)?
c) How well did the meeting meet the objectives? Were there specific papers delivered or roundtables/discussion groups that were exemplary in reaching the objectives? You may concentrate the review on only the outstanding papers to the exclusion of all others, or give a comprehensive view of all presentations/meeting activities, or examine a selection of papers that neither describes all, nor focuses on a very few. There is insufficient space to publish long excerpts from any individual presentation. Please limit quotations to one or a few paragraphs.
d) What new was discussed? What previously weak hypotheses were strengthened, confirmed or supported? Were any new or innovative hypotheses presented that forced participants to rethink current concepts?
e) Was there anything important that the meeting accomplished that may not have been part of its explicit objectives?
f) What subjects relevant to the meeting objectives were missing or left out? Did the scientific components of the problem that were included produce a strong slant or serious void by virtue of blind spots by the organizers, failure of invitees to appear, or similar difficulties?
g) Are there plans for a proceedings issue, web page, or meeting summary document, and if so who is editing it, who is publishing it, and when and where will it appear (i.e., where can interested folks learn more about the meeting)?
Obituaries and Resolutions of Respect. The death of any deceased member will be acknowledged by the Bulletin in an Obituary upon submission of the information by a colleague to the Historical Records Committee. The Obituary should include a few sentences describing the person's history (date and place of birth, professional address and title) and professional accomplishments. Longer "Resolutions of Respect" (up to three printed pages) will be solicited for all former ESA officers and winners of major awards, and for other ecologists after approval by the President. Solicited Resolutions of Respect will take precedence over unsolicited contributions, and either must be submitted to the Historical Records Committee before publication in the Bulletin. See more details at ESA policy on publication of Obituaries and Resolutions of Respect.
Specialty Columns. The Bulletin includes several subject matter columns, each with its own Editor. The material in each column is either written by its Editor or is provided by contributors at the invitation of the Editor, although potential contributors may contact the Editors directly with ideas and proposals for articles. The columns include:
Ecology on the Web. Annotated links to web sites that are of interest to a broad range of ecologists. We have no biases about the types of web sites that are included, and encourage you to submit your own or other's web sites, blogs, wikis, etc., along with a short annotation (150 words or less). The annotations should provide readers with a brief description of the contents of the site and why the site is of interest. Please feel free to be creative in both your annotations and web site selections.
Emerging Technologies: Articles and reviews primarily focused on computer software and hardware relevant to research and teaching activities in ecology.
Ecology 101: Descriptions of approaches to teaching ecology, especially details of lab and field exercises designed to teach specific ecological concepts and principles.
Ecological Education K-12: A forum that stimulates and shares good practice in schools. Submissions may include: ideas and lesson plans for science of ecology; practical activities for the classroom or field; resources to liven up classroom teaching or home study, e.g., downloadable movies, photos, graphs, animations; concept introductions for different grade levels; teaching evaluation of student learning; developments in science education and education research of interest to teachers; other web material.
Focus on Field Stations: Reviews of remote facilities that facilitate teaching and research experience in the field, and that promote field research as a basis for ecological understanding.
See Submitting to the Bulletin, for information on where to send contributions.
rev. 4/3/09
