Recent Ornithological Literature Online

Recent Ornithological Literature Online

An Introduction

Revised June 2002

Go to list of issues currently available

Recent Ornithological Literature (ROL) is a serial compilation of citations and abstracts from the worldwide scientific literature that pertain to birds and the science of ornithology. The ROL deals chiefly with periodicals, but also announces new and renamed journals and provides abstracts of conference proceedings, reports, doctoral dissertations, and other serial publications. The entries are prepared by scientists who voluntarily scan journals for ornithological articles, generally according to their geographic region and special scientific interests. Papers dealing exclusively with domestic birds and their husbandry are excluded, unless applicable to non-domestic species.

The Recent Ornithological Literature (ROL) was published for many years as a printed supplement to The Auk, The Emu, or The Ibis. In 1998, the societies that publish those journals, the American Ornithologists’ Union, the British Ornithologists’ Union, and Birds Australia (formerly the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union), decided to discontinue the printed version and to switch to an online version instead. The last printed issue was No. 75, which accompanied Auk 115 (2), April 1998, and Ibis 140 (3), July 1998. Starting with Issue 76, the ROL has been posted on BIRDNET. Nos. 74 and 75 have also been posted and other recent back issues will be posted as time permits. In 2000 a more sophisticated database was started by the BOU- ROL Database.

ABSTRACTORS WANTED

This operation needs and welcomes additional abstractors. If you would like to help, please contact your regional editor or the Managing Editor to learn which journals lack coverage and to receive instructions for preparing entries.

FEEDBACK

We invite comments on all aspects of the ROL. The series has undergone revision to make it more useful ever since it began and it is still open to improvement. Send your suggestions to any of the editors listed below.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

ORGANIZATION OF ABSTRACTS

The entries within each issue or batch are classified according to their main subject field. Every subject has a code number to aid searching (e.g., B316 = Territoriality & home range). The Table of Contents for each issue identifies the fields and subjects represented by entries in that issue. Some of the subject codes include a list of subordinate topics in order to indicate their scope, but such lists are not inclusive. The fields and subjects are arranged alphabetically except under “Paleornithology,” where they are arranged chronologically. Within the ROL issue, entries are first sorted on subject categories and then are listed alphabetically by authors. Papers that do not fit well into one of the subtopics are placed directly under the main heading, e.g., “General”. The section “Avian biology and life history” is for papers that deal with more than one major topic of a species (e.g., breeding habits and conservation, species' life history accounts). This section, as well as the “Distribution and Avifaunas” section, is subdivided geographically in order to aid in finding papers on particular species. Only the first or second record for a State, Province or country is included under “Distribution and Avifaunas;” included as well, are regional or taxa-specific summaries of distribution, significant changes in breeding and wintering ranges, and related topics.

New subtopics are added from time to time, but previously published issues will not be revised and their entries will not be reclassified. Therefore, you may need to search under different subtopics or under the main heading if you do not see the specific subtopic for which you are looking.

SEARCHING THE ABSTRACTS

Subjects listed in the Table of Contents are linked to the subject categories of abstracts. Issues can be searched while on the Internet. Go to your browser’s Edit menu, choose Find (Ctrl + F), and enter the word or code number to search for, i.e., author, scientific name, subject code number, or geographic region, as given in the Table of Contents. You may also find it helpful to search for other key words or taxonomic synonyms, which are given at the end of many entries. Search in every likely category for relevant articles. Each abstract is assigned to only one primary subject code, but alternative subject codes are also given at the end of many abstracts. While the entries have been checked several times, spelling errors may remain, and these will thwart searches.

At this time, there is no online keyword-type search function for ROL Online. Entries can be searched by downloading the document and using your word processor’s search function (see instructions, below) to look for words, subject codes, etc.

We encourage you to download issues, wholly or in part, so that they can be searched off-line, using any word processor. In this manner you can also search more than one ROL at a time (which you cannot do online). These issue files may not remain available online forever, yet they should be useful for many years, so by downloading you will have them for your own use.

Each issue is available in PC Word and WordPerfect file versions. Macintosh versions are not provided at this time. You can download the HTML version, but it is likely to lose the formatting, making it difficult to read, and downloading is likely to take a long time because the file is not compressed. Most issues of the ROL will take from 50 to 150 pages of paper, if printed using a relatively small pitch size and narrow margin settings.

AUTHOR’S ADDRESS

Entries include the primary author’s postal and e-mail addresses when these are given in the original paper. In cases where a secondary author has been designated to receive requests for information or reprints, that person is indicated in the address section with his/her initials.

REFORMATTING FOR DATABASES

Once a file is downloaded, the entries can be reformatted for direct loading into most databases by using simple search-and-replace or copy routines based upon the basic ROL file format:

· Subject code is within {curly braces} at the beginning of the entry and followed by a single space.

· Authors' names (surname first for first author) coded in the Small Capital of font attributes.

· Year of publication.

· Title, coded in bold. Titles in [brackets] are English translations; words in [brackets] are inserted by the ROL to clarify the title.

· Name of publication (standard BIOSIS abbreviation, if abbreviated), volume number, and pagination (issue number not provided unless paginated separately).

· Author’s address, if known, inside a set of parentheses; E-Mail address also included, when available.

· 1/M dash (—) [may be 3 hyphens in some downloadable file versions] followed by the abstract and/or list of scientific names of birds. If published in a non-English language, that is indicated, as well as the language of any summary.

· Another 1/M dash [or 3 hyphens] and the abstractor’s initials if more than the scientific names are provided.

· Alternative subject codes and/or key words in { curly braces}.

· ROL issue number in {curly braces} in case different files, or portions thereof, are later merged.

· All scientific names in titles and abstracts are in italics. All ranges of dates, pagination, etc., are identified with either an 1/N dash (–) or 2 hyphens, depending upon file version.

· Cautionary note: as with all such electronic materials, some exceptions to the above formatting, as well as spellings of names and places, may have escaped our extensive edits, for which we apologize.

COVERAGE

Since the ROL strives for global and comprehensive reporting, we encourage users to recommend to their regional editors periodicals that ought to be included. If you know of articles or serials that do not appear to be routinely covered by ROL, please send reprints, entries, or journal issues to the regional editor responsible for coverage of the geographical area where they are published, or to the Managing Editor.

A log of all serials and papers cited by ROL issues since early 1991 is available upon request from the Managing Editor. Within the log file, journals are listed alphabetically according to full title, following the Serial Sources fo BIOSIS Previews Database. Abbreviated titles (per BIOSIS list) are given for all journals and full titles are also given in cases where the abbreviations may not be clear. For each vol. of the serial, the inclusive pages of all the papers cited and the ROL issue in which they appeared are given. As of June 20, 2002, approximately 1055 serials have been scanned since 1991. The log is available in a spreadsheet file and is >500 KB in size.

DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS

The ROL includes abstracts of doctoral dissertations, starting with those completed since January 1, 1995. Authors who wish to have their dissertation included should prepare an entry in ROL style and send it to one of the regional editors. Submission via e-mail or on a diskette (WP, RTF, or ASCII) is welcomed. Entries should include: author's name, year of completion, title, "Ph.D. dissert.", university name and location, (author's postal and e-mail addresses), and an abstract.

Go to list of issues currently available

EDITORS

Will Cresswell (Palearctic [incl. Indian Subcontinent] Editor, British Ornithologists’ Union), Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. E-mail to: mwill.cresswell@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Robert Dowsett (African Literature Editor), E-mail: Dowsett@aol.com

Jay M. Sheppard (Managing Editor, American Ornithologists’ Union), 3359 Cranberry South, Laurel, Maryland 20724-2419, USA. E-mail: jmsheppar@aol.com

William K. Steele (Australasian Editor: incl. Japan & Philippines, Birds Australia), 415 Riversdale Road, East Hawthorn, Vic 3123, Australia. E-mail: research.projects@raou.com.au

Dr. James Vanden Berge ( Nearctic Literature Coeditor: North America & Hawaii, American Ornithologists’ Union), E-mail: vandenberge@aol.com

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE ABSTRACTORS

Recent Ornithological Literature (ROL) is a compilation of abstracts that pertain to ornithology and come from the periodic, worldwide scientific literature. The ROL depends upon a cadre of volunteer abstractors and editors around the globe who scan and compile the material. We are constantly looking for more volunteers to help in this effort. If you are interested in helping in this volunteer effort, please contact one of the editors. The more abstractors working on this effort and the more serials that are regularly being scanned and abstracted are what makes this such a valuable resource for ornithologists around the world. Here is a little more insight into what would be involved in abstracting for the ROL.

Worldwide there are about 125–175 abstractors scanning 500–700 serials. Each is responsible for all the ornithological papers in a particular journal. Below is a list of serials not being currently scanned for the ROL that have been covered in the past. This list is constantly changing, so some serials not on the list may need an abstractor. Please examine it to see if there are any you regularly receive.

As an abstractor, it really boils down to your time, what your interests might be, and what serials are accessible to you already. Most abstractors send about 10–50 abstracts per year, a few do over 100, while others only 1–5. We can always use help on the many local States/Provincial/Country journals, some of which you see on the current list. If you read two or more languages, there are many serials in non-English languages in need of scanning. You do not have to reside in the country in which the journal is published.

The list of serials needing to be scanned is changing regularly. Thus, picking from the list should be done fairly soon. You will have to have access to your assigned journals—personal subscriptions, library copies, or colleagues who have the unusual journals coming to them. If you want some other journal not on this list, we will have to see if it is already being scanned by somebody elsewhere in the world (you might want to search our database to see if there are any recent citations from that serial).

The wide ranges of fields and sources for the citations found in the ROL are what makes this resource so valuable. We have covered serials dealing with art history, languages, library science, urban design, mathematics, as well as those more biological in nature—molecular biology, anatomy, vertebrate zoology, wildlife management, pests, pesticides, genetics, botany, marine ecology, climatology, entomology, etc., etc. You name the field, we probably have had one or more scanned.

Most of our abstractors are now using E‑Mail to correspond and send in their material as ATTACHED, word processing files. It certainly does make contact, submissions and processing by the editors a lot easier.

The ROL editors have prepared a set of instructions on format, codes, and other useful information in preparing ROL abstracts. If you are still interested, PLEASE contact the appropriate regional editor with your requested serial(s) to scan and for further information.

African:

Bee-eater

Birdwatch Seychelles

Durban Mus. Novit.

J. E. Afr. N.H.S. & Nat. Mus.

Kenya Birds

Mirafra

Promerops

S. Afr. J. Wildl. Res.

S. Afr. J. Zool.

Vulture News

Nearctic (www=avail. online):

Acta Protozool.

Adv. Study Behav.

AFA (Am. Fed. Avicult.) Watchbird

Alabama Birdlife

Am. For.

Am. J. Physiol.

Am. J. Vet. Res.

Am. Mus. Novit.

Ann. Parasitol. Hum. Comp.

Antarc. J. U. S.

Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol.

Arch. Nat. Hist.

Arct. Anthropol.

AZPA (Assoc. Zool. Pks. Aquar.) Reg. Conf. Proc.

Biol. Behav.

Biol. Oceanogr. www

BioScience

Bull. Enviorn. Contam. Toxicol.

Bull. Mar. Sci. www

Bull. Texas Ornithol. Soc.

California Fish Game

Caryologia

Continental Shelf Res. www

Contr. Sci. (Los Angeles Co. Mus.)

Cryptozoology

Cytobios

Cytogenet. Cell Genet.

Deep-Sea Res. www

Ecography

Ecol. Monogr.

Écoscience (nee Nat. Can. (Quebec)) www

Environ. Monitor. Assess.

Environ. Res.

Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci. www

Ethnology [Univ. Pittsburgh]

Ethology

Evol. Biol.

Folia Zool.

Game Bird Gazette

Genome

Hereditas

Horm. Behav.

Int. J. Parasitol.

Int. J. Remote Sens.

J. Alabama Acad. Sci.

J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci.

J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc.

J. Evol. Biol.

J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. www

J. Fish. Biol.

J. Helminthol. Soc. Wash.

J. Hered.

J. Idaho Acad. Sci.

J. Louisiana Ornithol.

J. Mar. Res. www

J. Med. Vet. Mycol.

J. Mol. Evol.

J. Nat. Hist.

J. Plankton Res. www

J. Range Manage.

J. Soil Water Conserv.

J. Theoret. Biol.

J. Trop. Ecol.

Landscape Ecol.

Landscape Urban Plan.

Limnol. Oceanogr. www

Louisiana Dept. Wildl. Fish. Spec. Publ.

Louisiana Ornithol. Soc. News

Mammal Species

Mar. Biol. www

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. www

Mar. Ecol. www

Mar. Mammal Sci.

Mem. Nuttall Ornithol. Club

Miscl. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan

Mol. Biol. Evol.

Monogr. Syst. Bot. Gard.

N. Am. J. Fish. Manage.

Nemouria

North. J. Appl. For.

Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan

Occas. Pap. West. Found. Vertebr. Zool.

Ornithol. Monogr.

Parasitology

Perspect. Ethol.

Photogram. Eng. Remote Sens.

Physiol. Behav.

Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.

Proc. Annu. Meet. Soc. Ecol. Restor.

Proc. Ark. Acad. Sci.

Proc. California Acad. Sci.

Proc. Helminthol. Soc. Washington

Proc. Kentucky Acad. Sci.

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

Proc. Nova Scotia Inst. Sci.

Proc. Oklahoma Acad. Sci.

Proc. Vertebr. Pest Conf.

Remote Sens. Environ.

Res. Explor.

Restoration Ecol.

Science (Washington, D.C.)

Scient. Mar.

Smithsonian Contrib. Zool.

Tchebec

Texas Birds

Texas J. Sci.

Trans. Illinois St. Acad. Sci.

Trans. Nebraska Acad. Sci.

Trans. Northeast. Sect. Wildl. Soc.

West. J. Appl. For.

Wisconsin Dept. Nat. Resour. Tech. Bull.

Palearctic (last vol.):

Acta Ornithoecol. (2)

Acta Zool. Sinica

Acta Zoologica Lituanica

Almoraima (Revista de estudios Campogibralterenos) (19 )

Alula

Anz. Ver. Thuring. Ornithol. (2)

Apus (8)

Aves (27)

Avian Ecology & Behaviour

Avifauna Ukraini

Avifauna Picarde

Baltic Birds (5)

Behaviour (131)

Berkut (3)

Bioacoustics (5)

Biol. Rev. (70)

Biol. Con. Fauna

Biological Conservation (58)

Bird Numbers (4)

Birdwatch

BTO Res. Report

Bubo (5)

Buceros: Envis newsletter: Avian ecol. & inland wetlands

Bull. Korean Inst. Ornithol.

Buteo

BWP Update

Cahiers d'Ethologie

Calidris (21)

Casarca (CASARCA BULLETIN OF GOOSE AND SWAN STUDY GROUP OF EASTERN EUROPE and North Asia)

Cent. for Protected Areas & Watershed Manag./Wildlife Conserv. Soc. Rep.

Charadrius (29)

Corax (15)

Cormorant (7)

Courser (3)

Dodo (31)

Ecol. Model. (56)

Emirates Bird Rep. (19)

Etologia (3)

Experientia (46)

Falke (37)

Fauna

Funct. Ecol. (7)

Gabar (6)

Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. (83)

Heron (23)

Hirundo (1995)

Hong Kong Bird Report 1995

Hornbill (4)

I-WeBs Reports

IBN Res. Report

ICES J. Marine Sci.

Int. Wader Stud.

Irish Birds

Israel J. Zool. (41)

J. Arid Environments (38)

J. Biogeogr.

J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. (89)

J. Arid Environments

J. Exp. Biol. (198)

J. Marine Systems

J. World Pheasant Assoc. (17)

JNCC Report

Korean J. Ornithol.

Laporan (Mollucan journal)

Le Comoran

Le Biève

Malayan Nature Journal

Marine Ornithol. (19)

Materials of Zool. & bot. stud. in Fan Si Pan summit area (N. Vietnam)

Mergus (9)

Monitoring Griefvögel Eulen Europas

Nat. Reserves in Ukraine

Naturwissenchaften (80)

Netherlands Institute for Sea Research Report 1997-7

Newsletter World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls

Nyala

Oiseaux Rev. Fr. Ornithol. (61)

Okologie der Vogel (14)

Oman Bird News 21

Oriolus (60)

Ornithologia

Oryx

Oxyura (8)

Panurus (5)

Papageienkunde

Pardela

Parrot Biology

Passer (30)

Phoenix (14)

Picus (19)

Picus

Porphyrio

Publicatiile Soc. Ornitol. Romane

Restoration Ecol. (3)

Rijksinstituut voor Kust en Zee Report RIKZ-97.001

Riv. Ital. Ornitol. (62)

Rivista Piemontse di Storis Naturale

Roadrunner

RSPB and Forestry Authority brochure

Russ. J. Ornithol. (3)

Sandgrouse (19)

Sarawak Museum Journal

Scot. Bird Rep. (28)

Scot. Birds (19)