Articles
Author Instructions
Introduction
Welcome aboard authors! We are delighted that you have accepted our invitation to participate in the production of The Rattlesnakes of Arizona. Your inclusion in this exciting book project was not random, but rather based on your outstanding academic achievements and/or personal involvement with the species of snakes we highlight. Our intent in publishing The Rattlesnakes of Arizona is to provide a celebration of the diversity of rattlesnakes in Arizona. This will be accomplished by way of the art of Tell Hicks and a range of talented authors providing chapters that we expect to be descriptive, synthetic, bold, and compelling. Also, authors will provide interesting and insightful species accounts. Beyond Tell’s art, The Rattlesnakes of Arizona will be profusely illustrated with color images of the species that inhabit Arizona, emphasizing their variation, habitats, and behaviors. To provide constructive feedback, the editors will select two (2) reviewers for each chapter. Our goal is to have The Rattlesnakes of Arizona published by late 2014.
Information on the progress and production of this book will be made available Online via a link at a secure Web site at Chiricahua Desert Museum (CDM). This site will allow us to openly (and privately) communicate our progress as a social network. Hence, the main goal of this link is to encourage authors to communicate with each other about their chapters and related issues. Also, as an aid to authors, we will post PDFs of up-to-date papers on rattlesnakes and related topics (e.g., ecology, evolution, phylogeny, physiology, and so forth). Also, if an author has questions or requests, we will post them. This site will be made available in mid April.
Finally, contact us (e-mail or phone) at any time if you need information or clarification on this project.
Chapters
The “front chapters” listed above are intended to be review in nature. As per earlier discussions, we want you to provide information in a descriptive yet synthetic style. To that end, we would like these chapters to resemble the general structure of review papers in the highly respected peer-reviewed journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TREE). Three examples are provided below. Importantly, we want you to be creative, exploratory, bold, and ambitious in your review, which includes using images a typical journal would reject on the basis of saving space. In each chapter we would like a concluding section on future directions.
Write in first-person, including the abstract. Unlike TREE, include author names (rather than numbers) in the text. Moreover, in-text citations should be arranged by chronological order (e.g., Smith, 1998; Albert and Jones, 2010). Use "et al." for three or more authors (Brown et al., 1990). Papers accepted for publication should be cited as in press (e.g., Smith, in press). Unpublished works (including manuscripts submitted for publication) should be cited as unpublished (Brown, unpublished).
TREE Examples (These papers will be made available as PDFs on 1 June 2012)
-Lehtonen, J., M. D. Jennions, and H. Kokko. 2012. The many costs of sex. TREE 27: 172-178.
Species Accounts
Headings for the species accounts will resemble those of other publications (e.g., Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Ernst and Ernst, 2012).
Binomial Name
Common Names
Phylogeny and Evolution
Description (with emphasis on geographic variation; also, similar species)
Distribution and Habitats (with emphasis on total range and Arizona. Physiography and biomes
(We are considering using a standardized satellite range map. If so, instructions will be sent to
you at a later date.)
Ecology and Behavior (with emphasis on reproduction. foraging, diet, and predation)
Population Status and Conservation (with emphasis on regional abundance, state laws)
Personal Notes (your personal experiences and opinions)
References
We have a range of digital images but we encourage all authors to submit exceptional photos (digital) for their chapters and/or species accounts, especially those that emphasize variation, behaviors, and habitats. Localities of each image is required but should be simply listed as part of a mountain range or specific part of a county. No exact localities should be listed to help protect the population from possible exploitation/commercial collection.
References
Journals
Cook, S. F., Jr. 1955. Rattlesnake hybrids: Crotalus viridis x Crotalus scutulatus. Copeia 1955: 139–141.
Klicka, J., and R. M. Zink. The importance of recent Ice Age in speciation: a failed paradigm. Science 277: 1,666–1,669.
Mata-Silva, V., J. D. Johnson, and A. Rocha. Crotalus lepidus (Rock Rattlesnake). Feeding Behavior. Nat. Hist. Notes. Herpetol. Rev. 42: 439.
Raibekas, A. A., and V. Massey. 1996. Glycerol-induced development of catalytically active conformation of Crotalus adamanteus L-amino acid oxidase in vitro. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93: 7,546–7,551.
Young, R. A., and D. M. Miller. 1980. Notes on the natural history of the Grand Canyon Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis abyssus Klauber. Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc. 15: 1–5.
Dissertations and Theses
Hammerson, G. A. 1981. An Ecographic Analysis of the Herpetofauna of Colorado. Unpublished dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Book Chapters
Glenn, J. L., and R. Straight. 1982. The rattlesnakes and their venom yield and lethal toxicity. Pp. 3–119 In A. T. Tu (Ed.), Rattlesnake Venoms: Their Actions and Treatment. Marcel Dekker, New York.
Books
Campbell, J. A., and W. W. Lamar. 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. 2 Vols. Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.
Fowlie, J. A. 1965. The Snakes of Arizona. Azul Quinta Press, Fallbrook, California.
Gloyd, H. K., and R. Conant. 1990. Snakes of the Agkistrodon Complex: A Monographic Review. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Contributions to Herpetology 6, Ithaca, New York.
Graur, D., and W.-H. Li. 2000. Fundamentals of Molecular Evolution, 2nd ed. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Organizations/Websites
IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2006. Global Amphibian Assessment. (www.globalamphibians.org; viewed 4 May 2006)