Apology for the lack of blog posts & new issue coming soon

I'm sorry for how infrequently I have been writing blog posts lately.  My family and I recently moved from Ottawa to Peterborough, Ontario (about 250 km west of Ottawa), to be closer to our extended family.  Moving, looking after my kids while my wife worked as a post-doc doing bird ecology, and looking for a job all took a lot of time. I would have been a bit of a jerk as a father if I'd found the time to blog but no time to hang a swing for my daughter, for instance.  I just started a job in the Fisheries Policy section of Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources, we found daycare, and things are settling down, so my journal work won't be as neglected as it has been over the past couple of months.  My apologies to you for my hiatus, and thank you for your patience as I catch up on neglected tasks.

Good news: our next issue (volume 127 issue 2) is about to be published!  This issue has some really cool research.  I may be biased, but I volunteer for this journal because I love Canadian wildlife, and this issue has some great wildlife research across geographic and taxonomic scales.  Alberta prairie weasels, Ontario soil nematodes, ancient seabirds of B.C., Arctic owls, and killer invasive plants in Manitoba among other cool articles.

Instead of hitting refresh on our journal site every two minutes to find out if the issue has been published, just register as a Reader on our site and you will receive the table of contents once the issue is published.  Because internet = magic!

Media attention for our cougar-vs-skunk article

The Ottawa Citizen published a story today (Aug 8 2013) about an article in our latest issue.  The research article describes competition for deer meat between a cougar and a skunk.  The article's supplementary video shows the interaction very clearly, with the cougar frightened away by the skunk.

Thank you to Tom Spears for writing the article.  The more people know about the nature around us, the more they will care about it (hopefully).

New issue: vol 127 issue 1

Lots of great stuff all over the geographic and taxonomic maps!  Tracking Canada goose migrations.  Meadow voles OM-NOM-NOMing on bioenergy crops.  The (lack of) effect prescribed burning has in controlling trembling aspen encroachment into grassland.  A new bee for Canada (beauty cover photo).  A taxonomic distinction between "coywolves" and other wolf and coyote taxa.  And an article with video supplement showing a Cougar scared away from its deer kill by a brave hungry skunk.  All this and more - just browse below!

Articles
--------
Taxonomic Implications of Morphological and Genetic Differences in Northeastern Coyotes (Coywolves) (Canis latrans × C. lycaon), Western Coyotes (C. latrans), and Eastern Wolves (C. lycaon or C. lupus lycaon) (1-16)
Jonathan G. Way

Spring Migratory Pathways and Migration Chronology of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis interior) Wintering at the Santee National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina (17-25)
Molly M. Giles, Patrick G. R. Jodice, Robert F. Baldwin, John D.Stanton, Marc Epstein

Visitations by Snowshoe Hares (Lepus americanus) to and Possible Geophagy of Materials from an Iron-Rich Excavation in North-Central British Columbia (26-30)
Roy V. Rea, Christina L. Stumpf, Dexter P. Hodder

Community-Based Observations of Marine Mammal Occurrences in Groswater Bay, Labrador (31-37)
Keith G. Chaulk, Daniel Michelin, Melva Williams, Tony Wolfrey

The Ocean Pout, Zoarces americanus, and the Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola: Additions to the Marine Ichthyofauna of the Lower Saint John River System, New Brunswick, with a Summary of Marine Fish Reported from the Estuary (38-43)
Donald F. McAlpine

Suspected Selective Herbivory of Bioenergy Grasses by Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) (44-49)
Heather A. Hager, Frances E. C. Stewart

Prescribed Burning Has Limited Long-Term Effectiveness in Controlling Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) Encroachment into Fescue Grassland in Prince Albert National Park (50-56)
Digit D. Guedo, Eric G. Lamb


Notes
--------
Consumption of Truffles and other Fungi by the American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and the Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) (Sciuridae) in Northwestern Ontario (57-59)
Jocelin N. Teron, Leonard J. Hutchison

First Record of the Bee Melitta americana (Smith) (Hymenoptera: Melittidae) for Quebec and Canada (60-63)
André Payette

Encounter Competition between a Cougar, Puma concolor, and a Western Spotted Skunk, Spilogale gracilis (64-66)
Maximilian L. Allen, L. Mark Elbroch, Heiko U. Wittmer

Plant Climbing in the Northern Two-lined Salamander, Eurycea bislineata, in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario (67-69)
David L. LeGros

Age Structure of Moose (Alces alces) Killed by Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) in Northeastern Minnesota, 1967–2011 (70-71)
L. David Mech, Michael E. Nelson

Indirect Cannibalism by Crèche-aged American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) Chicks (72-75)
Alisa J. Bartos, Marsha A. Sovada, Lawrence D. Igl, Pamela J. Pietz


Tributes and Obituaries
--------
Tribute to George F. Ledingham (1911–2006), a Conservation Leader for Western Canada (76-81)
Daniel F. Brunton, C. Stuart Houston, Mary I. Houston


Book Reviews
--------
"Where to Watch Birds in Canterbury (New Zealand)" by Nick Allen. 2012. [book review] (82)
Roy John

"The World’s Rarest Birds" by Erik Hirschfeld et al. 2013. [book review] (82-83)
Roy John

"Concealing Coloration in Animals" by Judy Diamond and Alan Bond. 2013. [book review] (83-84)
Roy John

"The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors" by Richard Crossley et al. 2013. [book review] (84-85)
Howard O. Clark

"Ecology and Conservation of the Sirenia. Dugongs and Manatees" by Helene Marsh et al. 2011. [book review] (85-86)
Ted Armstrong

"The Snakes of Ontario: Natural History, Distribution and Status" by Jeffrey C. Rowell. 2013. [book review] (87-89)
Ronald J. Brooks

"Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians" by Karl B. McKnight et al. 2013. [book review] (89)
Roger Applegate

"More Than Birds: Adventurous Lives of North American Naturalists" by Val Shushkewich. 2013. [book review] (90)
Roy John

"Climate Change Biological and Human Aspects (Second Edition)" by Jonathan Cowie. 2013. [book review] (91)
Brent Tegler

"Dinosaur Train" produced by The Jim Henson Company et al. [TV series review] (91-93)
Jay M. Fitzsimmons

"Protection of the Three Poles" edited by Falk Huettmann. 2012. [book review] (93-94)
Marco Restani

New titles (95-96)



News and Comment
--------
Can we Create Alvars or Fully Restore those Damaged? (97-101)
Paul M. Catling

Outstanding Service from Associate Editors; Upcoming Meetings & Workshops (101-102)


Errata
--------
Erratum: book reviews (102)

Reference formats: little method, lots of madness

Last night some sort of planetary transit event must have occurred, because for some reason a bunch of ecologists independently started questioning/venting on Twitter about the abundance of oh-so-slightly-different reference formats between journals.  I happen to love the subject of reference formatting (neeeerd!).  It's like those few times when someone says "Please tell me more about insect classification" - so exciting but so rare.

This post is on the subject of reference formats.  Why are there so many styles?  Are some better than others?  Should there be one style to rule them all?

WE'RE CHANGING OUR REFERENCE FORMAT
The Canadian Field-Naturalist will be changing its reference format in the near future.  Our current format is incompatible with reference management software (e.g., EndNote, Mendeley) that more and more authors are using (with good reason - they're great).  So we'll be changing to a straightforward reference format and providing an EndNote style file on our site to benefit authors using EndNote.  I also intend on supplying a Mendeley style file some time, but that's a trickier task.  Expect our new reference format in the next few months.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY REFERENCE STYLES?
Each journal chooses its own formatting style.  There are a shocking number of tiny decisions that go into a format.  Should the volume number be bolded?  Should the year be enclosed in parentheses?  Should author names in the References section be displayed as:

1. Wallace, A. R.
2. Wallace, A.R.
3. Wallace, A R
4. Wallace, AR
5. Wallace, Alfred Russel
6. Wallace

Given so many choices, most journals' formats differ from each other in one or two small ways.

ARE SOME STYLES BETTER THAN OTHERS?
Yes.

COULD YOU ELABORATE PLEASE?
1) Space-saving formats (are really annoying)
Omitting article titles from references, using journal abbreviations, and using numbers instead of author names in citations all have the effect of reducing text and thus saving space and money for publishers.  However, the benefits of these space-saving approaches have diminished in recent years as journals are disseminated more online, where pages are free.

What do ecologists think about these types of formats?

@cbahlai I'm with you! I know it looks cleaner, but I prefer seeing the author names cited in-text so u don't have to jump b/w text and refs
— Andrea Kirkwood (@KirkwoodLab) July 15, 2013

Reducing information about a reference (e.g., omitting article titles, using journal abbreviations) is not only annoying but reduces the likelihood of finding the correct reference.  References frequently have errors (Aronsky et al., 2005).  If there is some redundancy in reference information in a journal format then a reader can still track down the article despite an error (e.g., the journal name was listed incorrectly but the authors and article title were correct).  Journal abbreviations are the spawn of Satan (Fitzsimmons, personal communication to himself 2013).  There is no authoritative list a poorly-known list (EDIT: thanks to Alex Bond @thelabandfield for notifying me of the list) of how journals should be abbreviated, so everyone does it differently, and abbreviation errors are extremely common (Aronsky et al., 2005).

We will include article titles and full journal names in our new reference format.  Because we're not jerks.  We also won't have our article titles in all-caps, like one of our peer journals, because that's rather shouty.

Evolution (the journal) needs to stop shouting at everyone.
— Thomas White (@TomEdWhite) July 14, 2013

2) Readability
There has been some research on the effects of abstract and reference formats on readability.  When I say some research on the topic, I mean I know of only three studies.

1. Hartley (1981) found readers generally preferred a certain order of elements in references (e.g., putting the date after authors' names).
2. Hartley and Betts (2007) found readers generally preferred structured abstracts (i.e., abstracts split into multiple mini-paragraphs) over traditional abstracts.
3. Scialfa et al. (1998) found some reference formats were not only preferred by readers but also used more efficiently by readers than other reference formats.

That's. About. It.  It seems that journals' formats are based not on experimentally demonstrated superiority of one style over another, but on the way the journal has done things for years (Wager & Middleton, 2002).  There are valid considerations for style that may vary between journals (Hartley, 2002), but frankly I don't think many editors give a damn (it's journal content that usually excites them, not formatting details, and appropriately so).

SHOULD THERE BE ONE REFERENCE FORMAT TO RULE THEM ALL?
For decades researchers have lamented how silly it is to have scientists waste so much time on formatting idiosyncrasies. Below are a sample of such editorials/essays/articles, followed by the only counter-argument against universal reference styles I have yet found.

• Friedberg, E. C. 2005. Call for a cull of pointlessly different reference styles. Nature 437:1232.
• Garfield, E. 1974-1976. Uniformity of editorial policy on titles in citations will aid referees, librarians, and authors. Essays of an Information Scientist 2:229-230. (the author was a pioneer of scientometrics, and invented the impact factor)
• Leslie, D. M. J. and M. J. Hamilton. 2007. A plea for a common citation format in scientific serials. Serials Review 33:1-3. (this article provides estimates of hours wasted by formatting)
• Salvagno, G. L., G. Lippi, M. Montagnana, and G. C. Guidi. 2008. Standards of practice and uniformity in references style. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 46:437-438. (includes tables showing the format distinctions of 100 high-impact journals)
• Stoldal, P. M. and D. B. Gordon. 1974. Uniformity of references. Science 186:1158-1159.

The only counter-argument I've found in praise of a diversity of reference formats is:

• Donovan, S. K. 2006. Research journals: toward uniformity or retaining diversity? Journal of Scholarly Publishing 37:230-235.

Donovan argues that the diversity of journal formats should be appreciated, in contrast to a Big Brother boring world in which everything from reference formats to page sizes is consistent across journals. He also expresses concern about journals' independence if uniform reference formats are imposed upon them.  While I respect him for voicing a minority opinion, I personally feel the efficiency of a small number of reference formats would trump embracing diversity for diversity's sake.

ONE (OR A FEW) UNIVERSAL STYLES: HOW DO WE GET THERE?

@cdnsciencepub @sgero @thelabandfield @AvianBiology @CanFieldNat Refs should be standardized for sure, but how do you get all pubs to agree?
— ScienceBorealis (@ScienceBorealis) July 16, 2013

Rather than a top-down decision by some authority, I think converting to a small number of reference styles could be accomplished easily, starting with the mega-publishers. The mega-publishing companies run a huge number of scientific journals (see Morris, 2007 for some already-dated analyses).  If one or a few of them decided to use a standard style, that would go a lot of the way toward universality.  Independent journals, such as The Canadian Field-Naturalist, could choose at our discretion to use whatever style the bigshots adopt.  As more journals pile on, the costs of not adopting the style would emerge as authors might avoid submitting to journals that require unique formatting.

CONCLUSION
Scientific journals are full of well-researched content, but the format of the journals themselves is often the product of arbitrary choices made years ago rather than critical assessment of costs and benefits.  We'll change to a simple reference format to aid authors (easy to write), readers (we'll include full titles of articles and journals), and machines (gotta prepare for our text-mining overlords).  If a universal style comes out that meets our minimal criteria, we will gladly switch to it.  And if such a standard style is developed, hopefully it goes better than this XKCD comic (tweeted to me by librarian @dupuisj):



REFERENCES CITED (in whatever format I please):
Aronsky, D., J. Ransom, and K. Robinson. 2005. Accuracy of references in five biomedical informatics journals. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 12:225-228.

Hartley, J. 1981. Sequencing the elements in references. Applied Ergonomics 12:7-12.

Hartley, J. 2002. On choosing typographic settings for reference lists. Social Studies of Science 32:917-932.

Hartley, J. and L. Betts. 2007. The effects of spacing and titles on judgments of the effectiveness of structured abstracts. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58:2335-2340.

Morris, S. 2007. Mapping the journal publishing landscape: how much do we know? Learned Publishing 20:299-310.

Scialfa, C. T., J. K. Caird, K. Connolly, and C. Cosmescu. 1998. Effects of APA reference format on search performance and preference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 4:44-54.

Wager, E. and P. Middleton. 2002. Effects of technical editing in biomedical journals. Journal of the American Medical Association 287:2821-2824.

Beyond Baby Beluga: Natural history themed kids' music for Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!  Our present to you: two suggestions of kids' music with the theme of natural history and science.  Our journal isn't officially promoting these artists or anything, we just think dads deserve to listen to some variety (Baby Beluga is fine ... the first hundred times).

1. ACORN: THE NATURE NUT
If you grew up in Canada and are now in your 30's, you probably remember The Nature Nut's kids' TV series.  John Acorn is an Alberta naturalist, a lecturer at the University of Alberta's Biology Dept., author of numerous wildlife guides, and a general nut about nature.  Insects are his main love.  I had the pleasure of seeing him perform some of his songs about butterflies at the International Butterfly Conference in Edmonton a few years ago - it was awesome.  You can buy his two CDs for $19.95 each.
http://www.acornthenaturenut.net/services.html

2. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: HERE COMES SCIENCE
Each track celebrates and explains different aspects of science (e.g., My Brother the Ape).  It's pretty awesome.  If you've never heard They Might Be Giants, they have a similar sound as Barenaked Ladies in my opinion.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/id328074265?s=143455

Any other suggestions?  Leave them in the comments for the benefit of naturalist parents everywhere (including me - I'm craving a bit of music diversity right now).

New Jewel Beetle guide - FREE!

It seems too good to be true for us insect enthusiasts.  A new beetle field guide that is free.  No asterisks of any sort.  Just free heavenly insect goodness.

Double-helping of natural history!

BOOK:
Paiero, S.M, Jackson, M., Jewiss-Gaines, A., Kimoto, T., Gill, B.D. and S.A. Marshall. 2012. Field Guide to Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America. Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 164 maps. 411p.  Available in English or French.

PUBLISHER:
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in conjunction with the University of Guelph, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Invasive Species Centre.

WHAT ARE JEWEL BEETLES?
The beetle family Buprestidae are known as jewel beetles for their beautiful irridescent colours. Their larvae burrow in plants, including the dastardly invasive Emerald Ash Borer (dunh-dunh-DUUUN).

WHAT DOES THE GUIDE LOOK LIKE?
I won't provide a full book review, but the picture below indicates some of the interesting doo-dads the book has for its species pages.

Silhouettes of the actual size of the species; ID focal points; buttons to indicate larval host plants; etc.  I like the layout.  Personally, I would like to see a "Natural history notes" section for each species with a brief note about the species' habits (like in co-author Stephen Marshall's incredible book on the insects of Eastern North America). However, I can understand the lack of such information since: a) such information is likely unknown for many of the species and b) the book is intended as an identification guide only.  Its identification keys, for example, are wonderful.

FREE, YOU SAY?
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency often makes it identification guide books freely available.  For a group with many pest species, such as the jewel beetles, it likely pays off to have ID guides in the hand of lots of Canadians.  This jewel beetle guide is free, as is its shipping, to people in Canada or anywhere else the USA.  Supplies are limited.  To place an order, call 1-800-442-2342.


INFO FROM PUBLISHER:

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in conjunction with the University of Guelph, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Invasive Species Centre, has recently published the “Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles of Northeastern North America”.

This 411 page field guide (6×9*) covers 164 jewel beetle species for northeastern North American (Manitoba and eastward) and includes 2 identification keys for the 23 genera in the region: one a technical key adapted from previously published works, and the other a “field key”, designed for use with a hand lens or digital camera and which uses characters that are more easily observed.  Each species is fully illustrated with high magnification colour photos of the dorsal & ventral views, head and male genitalia (plus additional colour morphs or variations when available).  A review of taxonomic synonyms, ESC & ESA approved common names, and all known larval host plants is provided in addition to thorough morphological diagnoses, characters useful for differentiating similar species, and notes on species abundance, habitat preference and economic importance. 

This guide is intended to assist municipal foresters, arborists, technicians, entomologists, woodlot owners and naturalists in recognizing specimens encountered in the field. 

This book is available in both English and French.  The cost of the book and shipping is free.  To place an order, please phone 1-800-442-2342.

Paiero, S.M, Jackson, M., Jewiss-Gaines, A., Kimoto, T., Gill, B.D. and S.A. Marshall. 2012. Field Guide to Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America. Canadian Food Inspection Agency. 164 maps. 411p.

UPDATE (DEC 20 2013)

Good news & bad news for those of you wanting a copy of this guide.

Bad news: So many people wanted hardcopies of the guide that they've almost run out of them. There is not enough money to ship copies to people outside Canada and U.S.A.

Good news: pdf copies of the guide are available for free, in English or French. For pdf copies, and details about how in-demand the guide has been, see this blog post by co-author Morgan Jackson.

Natural history interpretations of NHL series: Penguins vs Bruins

From a natural history perspective, nobody should be surprised the Boston Bruins won this series.