Announcing two new manuscript categories in ethology

Abstract

The Editors of Ethology are pleased to announce two new manuscript categories that we feel will offer novel and exciting opportunities for those conducting ethological research. The first of these we term Behavioural Notes. The intent of this initiative is to allow those studying behaviour to describe well-documented, novel observations of behaviour in individual species that could lead investigators to ask new questions or to redirect their research in important ways. We are pleased to offer two exemplars in this issue (de Kort et al., 2018; Rutz & Deans, 2018). The second category, Ethological Methods, is intended to make it possible to publish detailed, carefully developed and presented novel ethological methods, or to offer comparative assessments of methods. We have used the term ethological rather than behavioural to recognize that methods of assessing the endophenotype, including patterns of gene expression, hormonal or physiological transitions, are relevant to understanding Tinbergen's four levels of ethological study (Tinbergen, 1963), and hence, our understanding of behaviour. Behavioural methods are of course equally welcome. We note that this landmark paper was published in Ethology, under its earlier name, Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie (please check out our virtual issue celebrating Tinbergen’s influential article.). We are pleased to continue to encourage the broad ethological perspective set out by Niko Tinbergen. We would like to conclude by noting that Ethology has always been supportive of submissions that report negative results, as well as those that replicate earlier experiments, as long as the implications of the findings clearly enhance our understanding of the factors that influence behaviour in a way that is relevant to our broad readership. We strongly encourage such submissions. Further issues concerning transparency and reproducibility in scientific research will be addressed in more detail in a subsequent editorial focused upon our policies.