Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology has initiated a new section dedicated to exceptional, original publications that result from graduate or undergraduate student research and carry the name of the student as the lead author.
Papers in this category will be published under the heading "Featured Student Research". Furthermore, each featured paper will be highlighted in the Springer Table of Contents Alerts that is sent to about 5,000 e-subscribers each month.
This initiative is intended to honor the highest quality student research. Distinguished papers will be recommended by Associate Editors for Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, following the standard peer review process.
Students who wish their papers to be considered for the honor should explain in the cover letter accompanying the submission the main reasons why the paper represents a significant contribution to the field, and mark the appropriate box for the Featured Student Research paper during the online submission process.

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology publishes reviews, original contributions and commentaries dealing with quantitative empirical and theoretical studies in the analysis of animal behavior at the level of the individual, group, population, community, and species. The section "Methods" considers submissions concerning statistical procedures and their problems, as well as with problems related to measurement techniques.

Special emphasis is placed on ultimate functions and evolution of ecological adaptations of behavior, in addition to mechanistic studies of proximate cause.

Among aspects of particular interest are intraspecific behavioral interactions, with special focus on social behavior including altruism, cooperation and parental care; pre- and postzygotic sexual selection;kin recognition and kin selection, group structure, social networks; interspecific behavioral interactions including competition, resource partitioning, speciation, foraging, mutualism, predator-prey interactions and parasitism; signalling, behavioral ecophysiology, information processing and neuroecology; behavioral genetics; sociogenomics, behavioral plasticity and behavioral syndromes; dispersal and orientation in space and time; and relevant evolutionary and functional theory.