《鳥(niǎo)類保護(hù)與生態(tài)》是由加拿大鳥(niǎo)類學(xué)家和鳥(niǎo)類研究協(xié)會(huì)主辦的一份開(kāi)放獲取、完全電子化的科學(xué)期刊。我們發(fā)表的論文科學(xué)嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)，與鳥(niǎo)類保護(hù)社區(qū)有關(guān)，并采用成本效益高的電子方法，使科學(xué)家和公眾可以實(shí)時(shí)免費(fèi)獲得這些論文。ACE是一個(gè)完全索引的ISSN期刊，歡迎來(lái)自世界各地科學(xué)家的貢獻(xiàn)。雖然該期刊的名稱暗示著保育與生態(tài)的出版生態(tài)位，但我們認(rèn)為透過(guò)生態(tài)保育的主題更能體現(xiàn)我們的宗旨。因此，我們特別感興趣的是，通過(guò)對(duì)生態(tài)原則和過(guò)程的深入了解，利用科學(xué)合理和嚴(yán)格的方法來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)鳥(niǎo)類保護(hù)的貢獻(xiàn)。預(yù)計(jì)論文將從一端的純保護(hù)和管理到另一端的更純生態(tài)的連續(xù)統(tǒng)一體，但我們的重點(diǎn)將放在那些與保護(hù)目標(biāo)直接相關(guān)的貢獻(xiàn)上。獲考慮的文件類別的補(bǔ)充資料:我們鼓勵(lì)在任何生態(tài)水平(從個(gè)體到生態(tài)系統(tǒng))發(fā)表關(guān)于鳥(niǎo)類的論文，這些論文對(duì)保護(hù)問(wèn)題有很強(qiáng)的假設(shè)驅(qū)動(dòng)方法。ACE上的論文最好能在引言中清楚地闡述假設(shè)和預(yù)測(cè)。然而，我們也認(rèn)識(shí)到描述性研究的價(jià)值，這些研究清楚地定義了研究結(jié)果對(duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)世界保護(hù)目標(biāo)的價(jià)值。在這種情況下，作者有責(zé)任證明他們的描述性研究可以在當(dāng)前知識(shí)和未來(lái)研究方向的范圍內(nèi)提供重要的價(jià)值。關(guān)于物種自然歷史的論文通常不會(huì)被考慮。然而，如果行為研究與保護(hù)問(wèn)題有關(guān)(例如，滅絕風(fēng)險(xiǎn)是否以及如何與交配系統(tǒng)和人類活動(dòng)同時(shí)變化，以及為什么可能會(huì)這樣;或者棲息地的改變是否以及如何影響擴(kuò)散，以及為什么可能會(huì)影響擴(kuò)散)。如果在機(jī)械性生態(tài)環(huán)境中審查有記錄的影響的后果，則歡迎進(jìn)行影響研究(例如，工業(yè)林業(yè)對(duì)景觀一級(jí)生境的改變是否以及如何改變影響人口增長(zhǎng)或社區(qū)動(dòng)態(tài)的進(jìn)程，以及為什么預(yù)期會(huì)改變進(jìn)程)。如果在基本不受人類影響的地區(qū)進(jìn)行的研究代表了對(duì)受影響地區(qū)進(jìn)行比較的控制，那么這些研究是相關(guān)的。它們也可能代表生態(tài)現(xiàn)象的模型系統(tǒng)，并對(duì)保護(hù)產(chǎn)生影響，只要研究的基本原理中明確說(shuō)明了與保護(hù)的聯(lián)系。我們認(rèn)識(shí)到，統(tǒng)計(jì)處理數(shù)據(jù)的范圍日益擴(kuò)大，包括頻率、信息理論和貝葉斯方法。然而，我們提醒作者不要拒絕瑣碎的零假設(shè)，因?yàn)檫@些假設(shè)通常提供很少的支持替代假設(shè)的洞察，除非在嚴(yán)格的實(shí)驗(yàn)框架中進(jìn)行。

Avian Conservation and Ecology is an open-access, fully electronic scientific journal, sponsored by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Bird Studies Canada. We publish papers that are scientifically rigorous and relevant to the bird conservation community in a cost-effective electronic approach that makes them freely available to scientists and the public in real-time. ACE is a fully indexed ISSN journal that welcomes contributions from scientists all over the world.While the name of the journal implies a publication niche of conservation AND ecology, we think the theme of conservation THROUGH ecology provides a better sense of our purpose. As such, we are particularly interested in contributions that use a scientifically sound and rigorous approach to the achievement of avian conservation as revealed through insights into ecological principles and processes. Papers are expected to fall along a continuum of pure conservation and management at one end to more pure ecology at the other but our emphasis will be on those contributions with direct relevance to conservation objectives. Additional information on types of papers considered:We encourage papers on birds at any ecological level (individuals to ecosystems) that have a strong hypothesis driven approach to conservation problems. Papers in ACE will ideally have clearly articulated hypotheses and predictions laid out in the Introduction. However, we also recognize the value of descriptive studies that clearly define the value of the findings to real-world conservation objectives. In such cases, the onus will be on the authors to demonstrate that their descriptive study can provide significant value within the scope of current knowledge and future research directions. Papers on the natural history of species will typically not be considered. However, behavioral studies are welcomed if they have a bearing on conservation issues (e.g., whether and how extinction risk covaries with mating systems and human activities, and why it might be expected to; or whether and how dispersal is affected by habitat alteration, and why it might be expected to). Impact studies are welcomed if the consequences of documented effects are examined in a mechanistic ecological context (e.g., whether and how landscape-level habitat alteration by industrial forestry alters processes affecting population growth or community dynamics, and why it might be expected to). Studies conducted in areas essentially free of human influence are relevant if they represent controls against which impacted areas are compared. They may also represent model systems of ecological phenomena with consequences for conservation, provided that the connection to conservation is explicitly stated in the rationale for the research. We recognize the increasing scope of statistical treatments of data that range among frequentist, information theoretic and Bayesian approaches. However, we caution authors against the approach of rejecting trivial null hypotheses as these usually provide little insight into the support for the alternate hypothesis unless conducted in a strict experimental framework.