EDITORIAL GUIDELINES: COTINGA
Neotropical Birding and Conservation’s annual journal Cotinga provides a forum for news, notices, recent publications, expedition results, reviews and publication of studies on Neotropical birds by contributors from all parts of the world. The accent of papers and short notes is on new distributional and temporal information, including new country records, new data concerning biology, particularly breeding, and novel interpretations concerning taxonomy, particularly descriptions of new taxa. Cotinga does not consider papers on aberrant plumages or diet. Papers or notes in English, Spanish or Portuguese are considered and accepted subject to editing and refereeing. All papers/notes or enquiries should be sent to the Senior Editor of Cotinga, Juan Freile: jfreileo@yahoo.com.
Guidelines for contributors
Papers should be written clearly, scientific and vernacular names should appear together at the first mention of a species, after which either can be used alone, and names should preferably follow the South American Checklist Committee (SACC: www. museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm) or the American Ornithological Society (1998 and subsequent updates; for Middle American and Caribbean birds).
For all ‘main papers’ (but not ‘short communications’), a summary, usually Spanish (but Portuguese for papers concerned with Brazil, and French for those dealing with relevant islands in the Lesser Antilles and French Guiana) is required. Authors unable to provide a summary in the alternate language should prepare text in English and apply to the editors for assistance.
Contributors of papers describing the avifauna of a particular region/locality that includes a species list should provide an evidence category denoting whether a species was recorded on the basis of the following: sight record, tape-recording, photograph or specimen. References should be cited in alphabetical order at the end of the paper in the same style as the current issue of Cotinga. Internet sites/pages, academic theses and unpublished reports are acceptable as references, but should only be cited in extremis.
Authors should save all graphics files in either .jpg or .tiff formats with a file resolution of at least 300 dpi. Never save graphics in MS Word or similar word-processing package. Long tables are best treated as appendices. Please note that the editors reserve the right to reject any submissions that do not conform to the guidelines presented here.
Any author wishing to submit a map should discuss this with the Senior Editor before submission. We cannot accept copyrighted material (e.g., Google Maps/Earth imagery). We strongly advise authors to use alternative non-copyrighted sources for mapping (e.g., OpenStreetMap, USGS Satellite Imagery) and to follow each source’s attribution guidelines and terms of use.
All contributions, including Short Communications, are subject to peer review, by one or more independent referees. The Editorial Board reserves the right to make changes that it deems necessary, and, in the minimum of cases, without prior reference to the author. Authors will receive an electronic proof to check. It is assumed that all contributors understand and accept these conditions.
Any person submitting a manuscript, photographs or other materials for publication in Cotinga must own all relevant intellectual property rights. On submission, all intellectual property rights in text will be assigned to Neotropical Birding and Conservation (NBC) and a perpetual, royalty-free licence will be granted to NBC to print and use photographs / other images. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to ensure that all relevant rights can be transferred or licensed to NBC. Where this is not possible, the author(s) should make NBC aware of any restrictions on the use of materials and will be responsible for any loss to the NBC resulting from any infringement or alleged infringement of the intellectual property rights of any third party. Any rights transferred or licensed to the NBC as described above shall revert to the author or authors or be cancelled (as applicable) only in the event of rejection or withdrawal of the manuscript.
