The Prairie Naturalist

The Prairie Naturalist (ISBN 0091-0376) is published quarterly by the Great Plains Natural Science Society.

Suggestions for Contributors
The Prairie Naturalist is devoted to research on the North American Great Plains and its biota. Manuscripts containing original material on any aspect of the biology of the North American Great Plains and the organisms living in this region will be considered from individuals without regard to membership in the Great Plains Natural Science Society.

Send manuscripts and correspondence to:

Dr. Elmer J. Finck, Editor
The Prairie Naturalist
Department of Biological Sciences
Fort Hays State University
600 Park Street
Hays, KS 67601-4099  USA
E-mail: efinck@fhsu.edu
Telephone: (785) 628-4214
FAX: (785) 628-4153.
Allow about 6 months for manuscript review.
Book Reviews and books for review should be sent to:
Douglas H. Johnson, Book Review Editor
University of Minnesota
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation
204 Hudson Hall
St. Paul, MN 55108
Telephone: 612-624-4716.
Style.  Authors should follow a clear and concise style. Use active voice whenever possible. The CBE Style Manual (6th edition or later) is a good reference for manuscript preparation and general rules of style; note, however, that we prefer the style of Literature Cited given on this website. Additional information on style rules is provided at the bottom of this webpage.

Preparation.  Manuscripts should be prepared in 8½ x 11-inch format, single sided, double spaced throughout, and have a one inch margin all around. Please number your pages. Do not include headers or footers. Lines should be numbered.
 
Manuscripts of more than three pages and containing figures and/or tables will typically be considered Feature Articles.  These should have sections, with appropriate headings, such as Study Area, Methods, Results, and Discussion, capitalized and centered.  All Articles must also include an abstract and an alphabetical list of key words.  Manuscripts of three or fewer pages will typically be considered Notes.  Notes do not usually contain tables or figures; however, short tables and figures of due importance to the manuscript may be included in a Note. Notes do not have an abstract or key words.
 
Electronic submission of the manuscript as an e-mail attachment is preferred.  Please include cover letter in e-mail text.  Hard copy submission is still acceptable; in this case, please mail four copies of manuscript with cover letter.

Figures.  Figures should be sharp and clear and must significantly relate to the text.  Scale should be indicated when appropriate.  Letters and symbols must be large enough to be clearly legible after reduction. Captions should be typed on a separate sheet at the end of the manuscript.  Figures must be referenced in the text.  Following acceptance, final manuscript submission should include figures attached as separate files in the format in which they were created.

Tables.  Tables should be double spaced and included as separate pages in the text.  Tables must be referenced in the text. Authors are encouraged to record data in tabular form but must avoid incorporation of data of little relevance to the readers. Please consider the size of the journal (6 x 9 inches) when preparing tables. Tables should be submitted electronically on disk as part of the final manuscript submission.

References.  Authors cited in the text of Articles and Notes should be indicated in parentheses by last name and year of publication: (Wade 1967). When a citation has more than two authors, the name of the first author followed by "et al." should be used. Where two or more papers by the same author(s) have appeared in one year, the style should be: (Stewart 1967a, 1967b).

References cited in the text of Articles and Notes should be listed at the end of the manuscript under the Literature Cited heading. Journal titles should not be abbreviated. In a listing for a book, the title is not underlined, and the number of pages is not included. See a recent issue of The Prairie Naturalist or the Style Rules below for specific examples.

Notes.  In Notes, the author's name(s) should be at the end of the note, not at the beginning as in Articles. All other style rules for Articles apply to Notes.

Page charges and Reprints.  Page charges for published manuscripts are $40.00 per page for members of GPNSS and $45.00 per page for non-members. Additional charges for figures and tables are as follows:
 
Figures: $5 each
Tables:             ½ page, 1-4 columns, $12
                        ½ page, 5 + columns, $20
                        full page, 1-4 columns,  $24
                        full page, 5 + columns, $40
 
Paper or pdf reprints may be ordered at the time galley proofs are sent to authors.  Beginning with manuscripts submitted in 2007, cost of pdf reprints will be based on length of manuscript:  1-4 pgs = $30, 5-8 pgs = $50, 9-12 pgs = $70, 13+ pgs = $90.
 
The Prairie Naturalist accepts page charge payments in the form of checks, money orders, government purchase orders, or credit cards.

Click on a subject category to see titles published in The Prairie Naturalist in the last 5 years.
 
Mammalogy
Ornithology
Ichthyology
Botany
Invertebrates
Herpetology

Editorial Policy
    1. Manuscripts on any aspect of the biology of the North American Great Plains and the organisms living in this region will be considered  for publication.  Studies on grassland habitats in areas outside this region will also be considered.
    2. Manuscripts must be based upon information that has not been published elsewhere and must not have been simultaneously submitted to any other journal.
    3. The Assistant Editor will acknowledge receipt of the manuscript.
    4. Each manuscript will be sent to two individuals for review. The reviewers will be specialists in the subject of the manuscript and will be selected by the Associate Editor for that subject.
    5. A pool of potential reviewers will be maintained by the Editor and Associate Editors. This pool will consist of individuals who have previously reviewed articles for The Prairie Naturalist and others who volunteer to serve and who indicate appropriate areas of expertise.
    6. Reviewers who fail to thoroughly evaluate manuscripts will be removed from the reviewer pool.
    7. Reviewers will be expected to evaluate the manuscript on the basis of scientific accuracy, readability, and suitability for The Prairie Naturalist.
    8. Reviews will be prepared on a page that may be transmitted to the author(s). Additional comments may be written on the copy of the manuscript.  Reviews may be signed or anonymous. If the latter, the review must be transmitted with a signed cover letter.
    9. Reviewers will be asked to complete the review in five weeks or to return the manuscript to the Associate Editor.
    10. If the review process requires more than six  months, the Associate Editor will notify the author(s) of the reasons for the delay and the anticipated notification date.
    11. If the two reviews are contradictory, the Associate Editor will submit the manuscript to a third reviewer.
    12. The Associate Editor will inform the author(s) of the acceptability of the manuscript within a reasonable time after the receipt of the last of the reviews.
    13. Manuscripts returned to authors for minor revision must be retyped following the editorial style rules of The Prairie Naturalist.
    14. Manuscripts returned to authors for major revision must be resubmitted in retyped condition. Three copies will be required for additional review.
    15. The Associate Editor will notify the author(s) that they have a limited time, currently five weeks, in which to complete the revision of any manuscript returned for revision. Manuscripts received later than the acceptable time will be treated as new manuscripts and subjected to the usual review process.
    16. Two paper copies of the final version of a manuscript and a copy in Word or WordPerfect on a PC-formatted 3.5-inch diskette or attached to an e-mail must be submitted to the Associate Editor. Any figures and tables also should be submitted electronically at this time. High-quality illustrations may be submitted as paper copies.
    17. The Editor will indicate acceptance of the final manuscript by submitting a form showing the date of acceptance, the issue in which the manuscript will be published, the probable number of pages, and the estimated publication charges.
    18. Following acceptance, manuscripts will be published in the next issue in which space is available.
    19. Two copies of galley proofs will be sent to the designated author. One copy, appropriately marked with corrections, is to be returned to the Assistant Editor within three days of receipt.
    20. Printer's errors will be corrected at no additional charge. Extensive author's corrections and added content will be billed to the authors at a specified rate.
    21. The Editor will prepare an annual report for presentation at the annual meeting in Great Plains Natural Science Society. The report will also include the number of pages published, separated by type of article, and the extent to which page charges were assessed.
    22. Suggestions for contributors will be published annually in the March issue.An abbreviated version of this information will be published on the inside back cover of each issue.
Style Rules
     ARTICLES
The title should adequately but briefly describe the contents of the paper. We suggest the title be limited to 10 words or less. Capitalize all major words. Then give the names of all of the authors, in all capitals; use the full first name, not just the initial. The addresses of the authors are then given; if the authors have different addresses, note which address goes with which author by putting the author's initials in parentheses at the end of the address. If an author's present address is different from that listed on the paper, it may be given in a footnote. See a recent issue for how title, author, and address are given.

A suggested running head, up to 6 words, should be provided. It may be given at the top of the title page. The style is: Author's name(s): Running Head (underlined).

An abstract not exceeding 250 words is required. It should state the principal objectives of the study, briefly describe the methods used, and summarize the main results and conclusions. The abstract should include only information given in the article.

Key words should be listed after the abstract. Up to eight are allowed; they are used to compile a key-word index for each volume.

The text of the article may be divided into categories such as Methods, Results, Discussion, etc. The category heading should be in all capitals and centered. An Acknowledgments section may be included (please note our preferred spelling). A Literature Cited section follows the article.

REFERENCES and LITERATURE CITED
All references cited in the text should be listed alphabetically by first author's last name at the end of the manuscript, under the heading Literature Cited. Each entry for an article must include name(s) of author (s), year of publication, title of article, name of journal, its volume, and page numbers of the article. The first author is listed last name first, then initials. Second and other authors are listed with initials first. Spell out "and." If there are two authors, separate them with a comma. If there are more than two authors, use commas after each name, including the next-to-last. When two or more papers by the same author(s) are listed, spell out the author's name(s) in each entry; do not substitute with a line. When citing more than one paper by the same author(s), the order should be from oldest to youngest. See examples below.

Articles cited in the text should be indicated by authors' last name and year of publication in parentheses, with no comma after the name(s), e.g., (Bremer 1977). When a cited article has two authors, spell out "and", e.g., (Potvin and Harrison 1984). When citing an article with more than two authors, the last name of the first author is used, followed by "et al." and the date, e.g., (Gipson et al. 1978). The "et al." is not underlined nor italicized nor followed by a comma. When citing more than one paper, put them in chronological order from oldest to youngest. If two or more papers by the same author(s) were published in the same year, distinguish them, both in the text and in Literature Cited, by letters placed after the year (Faanes 1983a, 1983b).

Personal communications or unpublished data referenced in the text should include the person's full name, their affiliation or institution, and "pers. comm." or "unpubl. data." Although papers that are in press may be cited, those in preparation or in review should be treated as personal communications or unpublished data.

In the title of a cited article or book, only the first word and proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized. Titles are not underlined nor italicized. However, scientific names in a title are italicized or underlined. Journal titles are not abbreviated.

If the citation is for a book, follow the title with a period, the name of the publisher (spelled out), and the city, state, and country of publication, if not USA. For a book that is a second edition or subsequent edition, follow the title with a comma, then "second edition" or edition number as appropriate. See examples below.

In citing a thesis or dissertation, follow its title with: Ph.D. Dissertation or M.S. Thesis, as appropriate, name of university (spelled out), and city. Include the state, province, or country unless it is part of the name of the university. See examples below.

In citing a chapter or article in a book, the page numbers of the article are given, but not the number of pages in the book. Name(s) of editor(s), publisher, city, state, and country (if not USA) are also included. The second and subsequent lines of citations should be indented ("hanging indent"). See examples below for sequence and punctuation.

EXAMPLES:

Boesch, D. F., D. Levin, D. Nummendal, and K. Bowles.  1983.  Subsidence in
    coastal Louisiana: causes, rates, and effects on wetlands.  United States Fish
    and Wildlife Service FWS/OBS-83/26.  Washington, D. C.

Bremer, P. E.   1977.  Pelican kill.  Loon 49:240-241.

Emmons.  L. H.  1995.  Mammals of rainforest canopies.  Pp. 199-233 in Forest
    canopies (M. D. Lowman and N. M. Nadrani, editors). Academic Press,
    San Diego, California.

Fannes, C. A.  1983a.  Aspects of nesting ecology of least terns and piping plovers
    in central Nebraska.  Prairie Naturalist 15:145-154.

Fannes, C. A.  1983b.  Breeding birds of wooded draws in western North Dakota.
    Prairie Naturalist 15:173-187.

Findley, J. S.   1993.  Bats, a community perspective.  Cambridge University Press,
    Cambridge, England.

Geiser, F., A. J. Hulbert, and S. C. Nicol (editors).  1996.  Adaptations to the cold:
    Tenth International Hibernation Symposium.  University of New England Press,
    Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.

Gipson, P. S., I. K. Gipson, and J. A. Sealander.  1975.  Reproductive biology of wild
    Canis (Canidae) in Arkansas.  Journal of Mammalogy  56:608-612.

Green,  J. C., and R. B. Janssen.  1975.  Minnesota birds: where, when, and how many.
    University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Herkert, J. R.  1994.  The effects of habitat fragmentation on midwestern grassland bird
    communities.  Ecological Applications 4:461-471.

Herkert, J. R.  1995.  An analysis of midwestern breeding bird population trends
    1996-1993.  American Midland Naturalist 134:41-50.

Johnson, D. H.  1999.  The insignificance of statistical significance testing.  Journal of
    Wildlife Management 63:763-772.

Lack, D.  1964.  Population dynamics.  Pp. 659-661 in A new dictionary of birds
    (A. L. Thompson, editor).  McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, New York.

Pollock, K. H., J. D. Nichols, C. Browne, and I. E. Brownie.  1990.  Statistical inference
    for capture-recapture experiments.  Wildlife Monographs 107:1-97.

Potvin, M. S.,  and A. T. Harrison.  1984.  Vegetation and litter changes of a Nebraska
    sandhills prairie protected from grazing.  Journal of Range Management 37:55-58.

Snyder, M. V.  2001.  Seasonal variation in hematology, body composition, and food
    caches of eastern woodrats (Neotoma floridana).  M.S. Thesis.  Emporia State
    University, Emporia, Kansas.

Snyder, W. D.  1984.  Management procedures for northern bobwhites in eastern
    Colorado.  Colorado Division of Wildlife, Special Report 56.  Fort Collins, Colorado.

Stearns, S. C.  1992.  The evolution of life histories. Oxford University Press, Oxford,
    England.

Svihovec,  L. K.  1967.  A comparison of the ecological distribution of small mammals in
    southwestern North Dakota.  M.S. Thesis.  University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

Western Migratory Upland Game Bird Technical Committee.  1992.  Pacific Flyway
    Management Plan for the Western Management Unit Morning Dove.  Portland, Oregon.

Wilkins, L. A., and E. G. Cooch.  1999.  Waterfowl population status, 1999.  United
    States Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D. C.

Willey, D. W.  1998.  Movements and habitat utilization by Mexican spotted owls within
    the canyonlands of Utah.  Ph.D. Dissertation.  Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.

Zar, J. H.  1999.  Biostatistical Analysis.  Fourth edition.  Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
    River, New Jersey.

TABLES and ILLUSTRATIONS
Authors are encouraged to record information in tabular form but must avoid incorporation of data of little relevance to the readers. Both tables and figures must be referenced in the text. Illustrations that do not relate significantly to the text will be deleted.

If at all possible, tables and figures should be imported into the document (if in WordPerfect or Word format) or saved as an image file on the submitted disk. If saved as a separate image file, the author should indicate where the table or figure should be placed.

If tables or figures cannot be submitted on a disk, they should printed on separate sheets and placed in numerical order (using Arabic numerals) following Literature Cited. Tables, table legends and figure legends should be double spaced. One copy of each illustration must accompany each copy of the manuscript. Photocopies are satisfactory for the initial submission of the manuscript and review purposes. Each figure should be identified on the back with number, author's name, and indication of the top of the figure. Lettering must be large enough for readability after the figure is reduced to fit the printed page. Scale should be indicated. No part of the figure should be typewritten. Figure and table captions are written as titles, not as complete sentences (e.g., Table 1. Seasonal habitat use by black-billed magpies in eastern Montana.). Avoid adding other information here; to the greatest extent possible, all information should be in the table or footnotes to the table, or included in figures. List all figure captions, double-spaced, on 1 separate page, not on the figures themselves.

Features of a good figure:


     NOTES
Notes have a title in all capital letters that is incorporated into the first line of the note. Notes do not have subheadings and normally do not have tables or figures. There is a separate Literature Cited section. The author's name(s) should be at the end of the note. Acknowledgments should precede the author's name(s).

     GENERAL RULES OF STYLE
Authors should follow a clear and concise style. The CBE Style Manual, 6th ed. (American Institute of Biological Sciences, 1401 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22209), is a good reference. Use active voice whenever possible. Some specific conventions adopted by The Prairie Naturalist are noted below.

Capitalization
Common names of organisms are not capitalized except for proper nouns or adjectives that are part of the name, e.g., green-winged teal, American coot, Cooper's hawk. Book and article titles in Literature Cited are not capitalized, except for the first word and proper nouns and adjectives. The words county, river, etc., following a proper name are capitalized in the singular but not in the plural, e.g., Stutsman County, but Ransom and Sargent counties.

Abbreviations
Do not abbreviate titles of journals in Literature Cited. Do not abbreviate book titles (including conference proceedings published as a book), names of publishers, or name of a university in a thesis citation.

The name of a state or province is not abbreviated.

In the text, reference to a figure uses the abbreviation "Fig." In the figure caption, the word "Figure" is spelled out.

Units of measure, when used with a number, are abbreviated but no period is used. Longer time periods are not considered measurements and are not abbreviated (e.g., 2.7 mm, 3 g, 18 km, 12 hr, but three months, six weeks, two years).

Do Not Abbreviate:

A word that begins a sentence.
The words river, county, etc., following the name.
A unit of measure that follows a spelled-out number at the beginning of a sentence: Ten milligrams is the lethal dose.
A unit of measure that is not preceded by a number: ... weighed to the nearest gram.
Descriptive modifiers that are used in a sentence in the text: The study area was located 7 mi northwest (not NW) of Amidon.
The words "greater," "more," "less," etc., in a sentence in the text: Clutches of more than four eggs (not "Clutches of >4 eggs")....
The name of a state, province, etc..
The name of the university in citing a thesis.
The name of the publisher of a book in Literature Cited, except the words Inc. or Ltd.
Numbers
The use of the metric system is preferred. However, if original measurements were non-metric, do not convert them to metric because precision may be misrepresented.

In general, spell out numbers one through nine; use numerals for 10 and above. Use numerals when followed by a unit of measure: 1 g; 18 mm. Use numerals for expressing a decimal quantity: 0.1 g, 1.2 m. Use numerals when expressing a range of numbers, as: Litter size averages 4 to 6 young. When the word "from" is used in expressing a range, the word "to" should also be used: Distance varied from 17 to 25 km.

In a series where some parts contain numbers of 10 or more and some parts less, use numerals for all: The 7 chickadees, 9 nuthatches, and 13 redpolls at my feeder....

Spell out a number at the beginning of a sentence; avoid large numbers or decimals at the beginning of sentences.

Use numerals when writing dates: On 7 June 1980 we....   In June 1980 we observed... (year is not set off by a comma).

Use commas in numerals with four or more digits, e.g., 4,700 and 10,350.

The 2400 time system should be used: 0830 hr = 8:30 a.m.; 2300 hr = 11:00 p.m.

Hyphens and Compound Words
In general, compound words used as adjectives should be hyphenated: three-year-old male; a 150-m transect. Compounds consisting solely of verbs are hyphenated. A phrase containing a participle or an adjective is hyphenated when it precedes the word it modifies, but it is not hyphenated when it follows the word it modifies: fine-grained soils; well-known man, but the man was well known. A two-word modifier containing an adverb ending in -ly is not hyphenated: a carefully preserved specimen. A compound modifier containing a number is usually hyphenated: a two-thirds majority; a 40-ha field. Compounds derived from two or more nouns are usually written open, with no hyphen.

Scientific Names
If a species has a universally accepted common name, use both the scientific and common names the first time the species is mentioned, both in the abstract and in the body of the paper. Thereafter use the common name. If the species has no universally accepted common name, refer to it by scientific name, but if using only a scientific name, provide some information on what the organism is, for readers not familiar with that taxon. Common names are not capitalized, except for proper names or adjectives that are part of the name (e.g., Cooper's hawk). After the first use of the scientific name, the generic name may be abbreviated to the first initial. However, when two genera with the same first initial have been discussed, spell out the generic name to avoid confusion, and always spell out the generic name when it begins a sentence. Underline genus and species but not names of higher taxa.

We prefer that scientific names not be used in the title of the paper, except where there is no accepted common name. Do not cite the authority for a scientific name unless there is a clear reason for doing so, and never include it in the title.

Preferred references for correct scientific and common names are the following:

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