Advantages and Disadvantages of Bird Banding

   Banding Paper Guidelines 

This assignment is designed to provide each student with experience conducting research using scientific literature and compiling information into a technical document. Students will conduct a thorough search of the literature on the advatnages and disadvantages of bird banding as a research technique , and write a paper including all of the information listed below, written in a scientific style. Your paper should be at least 2 pages, not including a separate title page and source page.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Make sure you use your own words when writing this account (i.e., most of the words in your account should be your own!). Read scientific papers and re-write the information in your own words.

Cite a source whenever you use information (not just the exact words) from a published source. You should have a document in your hands to cite it, do not cite an article from another manuscript unless you have my permission.

FORMAT:

The following sections must be included, and their absence will result in lost points. In some cases, little information may exist on a particular species for a particular section. In this case, see me for further instruction.

Literature cited:

Include the correct citation for all references used in the species account. The format must follow the format from a major journal (ex. below). For information on the correct format see the Manuscript Guidelines for the Journal. 

All references in the literature cited section must be referenced in the body of the species account, meaning no extraneous references in either the body of the paper or within this section, they MUST be in both to be counted for points.  Be sure you have conducted a thorough literature search and included all appropriate references. Each section of the species account (e.g., distribution, physical characteristics, food habits, reproduction, etc.) should be supported with references. For example, with food habits, species that are widely distributed will often have different items in their diet in different locations. It is very difficult to give a set number of references for all species as some species have been well studies while others have yet to be studied in detail. A good rule of thumb would be to shoot for about 5-10 references. MOST (almost all) of your references must come from peer-reviewed literature (articles in scientific journals).

If you need help finding appropriate sources or formatting, ask for help. If in doubt, follow the guidelines of a current major journal.

Example formatting from the journal Oecologia:

Author last name, First Initials (year). Title of paper. Journal name volume#:page#.

OR

Boecklen, W. J. (1997). Nestedness, biogeographic theory, and the design of 

nature reserves. Oecologia 112:123-142.

            Multiple authors are written as: Boecklen, W.J., C. J. Watson, and R. Williams (2012).

An in paper citation of the above would be:

            (Boecklen 1997) OR (Boecklen et al. 2012)