Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Journal of Ethnobiology publishes original research articles between 5000 and 8500 words in length including narrative, tables, notes, and references with a limit of 5 figures.

Submission Process

1. Manuscripts should be submitted online through Scholar One Manuscripts (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ethnobiology). Authors who face constraints on internet access may email the editors directly at editor@journalofethnobiology.org.
2. We differentiate between the requirements for new and revised submissions.
   
   1. For initial submission, text, tables, and low-resolution figures should be combined into a single file (.doc, .docx, or .rtf format) to facilitate the review process. Do not upload figures and tables as separate files at this time.
   2. If your paper is accepted, you will be asked to provide high-resolution figures, tables, figure captions, and the body of the manuscript as separate files for production (see below).

Tips for Passing Editorial Review

Please read the following manuscript requirements carefully. Ensuring that your manuscript meets these criteria will greatly increase the chance that your work will move forward to editorial and peer review.

1. We will not conduct extensive copyediting of If English is not your primary language, you should seek the assistance of a native speaker of English with technical experience in your field of study. Manuscripts with unacceptable writing will be returned to the author(s).
2. Bibliographical references must be prepared according to this Journal of Ethnobiology Style Guide (see below). Pay special attention to formatting author names, journal article titles, publishers, web resources, and articles with DOIs (see below).
3. The relevance of your question, findings, and argument must be clearly communicated and effectively situated with respect to relevant literature.

1. Manuscript Structure
   
   In many cases, the standard structure for reporting scientific research (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion [IMRaD], and sometimes Conclusion) will be the most appropriate format.
   
   
   1. Introduction. Frame your paper in the context of a larger ethnobiological discussion that highlights the boundary of that understanding (e.g., in terms of existing models, untested assumptions, hypotheses, etc) and how your study moves those boundaries along. The section should be richly and meaningfully referenced. Subsections are not allowed within the Introduction. Aim for 3-9 paragraphs.
   2. Methods (with Study site as a sub-section or a separate section). Describe the study site, population, ecology, sampling methods, etc. Include a statement about ethics approval, as appropriate. Sub-heading are useful for organizing multiple methods and for organizing your subsequent Results.
   3. Results. Whenever possible and appropriate, present results in tables and graphics and then interpret those in your text. Do not provide long, listy paragraphs of data. Consider organizing your Results into sub-sections that correspond to your Methods section.
   4. Discussion. Many papers get turned back because they are under-discussed. An easy way to think of the Discussion is that it, is outward looking, whereas Results are more inward looking. It is sometimes helpful to start your Discussion with a concise, one-paragraph summary of the most important conclusions from our Results. This frames the important topics you want to discuss further in this section. Sub-headings may be appropriate.
   5. Conclusions/Recommendations. This section is optional; it is often its function is fulfilled by the final paragraph or paragraphs of the Discussion. Sometimes it is useful to pull out key points in a separate section. This is not a restatement of results or discussion points already presented, but must be distinct in what is being said. In an applied piece of work, it may be useful to build this section around the recommendations – and it is often useful to identify recommendations for different audiences (e.g. “for researchers …”, “for communities”, and “for policy-makers …”).
      
      
2. Manuscript Formatting
   
   Please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for any formatting issues not covered in this guide. The online version can be found at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html.
   
   
   1. Papers should include the following elements, in order: First page with title and author information (see 4.1 below), Abstract and Keywords, Main Text, Notes (in rare cases), Acknowledgments (optional), and References Cited (see Section 4, Parts of the Manuscript, below).
   2. Use a standard 12 pt font
   3. Double-space abstracts, main body of text, notes, acknowledgments, and figure and table captions.
   4. References cited should be in alphabetical order, single-spaced with a hanging indent, and single-spaced between each reference (see below).
   5. Formatting should be accomplished using available word processor features (e.g., indents, hanging indents, bullet lists, etc.). Do not use tabs or the space bar to align text or to create hanging indents. Do not use a return to align text within a paragraph.
   6. All manuscripts should be formatted to US Letter size (8.5” x 11”) with 1” margins; do not use custom margins.
      
      
3. Writing Conventions: Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar
   
   
   1. Use US English spelling and grammatical conventions, including: punctuation precedes closing quotation marks, comma precedes last item of a series of three or more, note reference numbers are placed inside punctuation (see 4.6 below).
   2. Terms, phrases, and living organisms in any language other than English should be in italics. Exceptions are commonly used Latin phrases, i.e., in situ, per se, etc. Otherwise, all text should follow American rules for spelling (e.g., color, NOT colour). Exceptions to this are direct quotes and words in the titles of cited documents written in regionally specific English.
   3. Use only commonly recognized acronyms that facilitate comprehension by Acronyms must be introduced in parentheses at first full mention.
   4. Bold text is only used in titles and headings. Indicate emphasis with italics, not bold or underlining. This should be done sparingly.
   5. Use words to indicate values less than or equal to ten, unless part of a measurement or a numerical series, in which case numerals should be used. Numerals should be used for values greater than ten. Any number that appears at the beginning of a sentence should be written as a word rather than a numeral.
   6. Percentages should normally be expressed as a numeral with the percentage sign (%), unless they begin a sentence. For example, “Wood charcoal made up 16% of the assemblage” but “Sixteen percent of the assemblage consisted of wood charcoal.”
   7. Reference to centuries and millennia should be spelled out (e.g., seventeenth century; the mid-twentieth century; the third millennium BCE). Reference to decades is context dependent (e.g., the 1890s saw an enormous increase…; during the thirties, traffic decreased…).
   8. Era and radiocarbon time scale abbreviations do not use periods (e.g., AD; BC; BP).
   9. When presenting dates, do not use spaces between ranges, and write “yrs”, not “years” (e.g., 1200–2400 cal yrs BP). Use an en dash rather than a hyphen to separate dates.
   10. Clarifying statements should follow an em dash after the initial statement (e.g., initial statement—clarifying statement). Do not use en dashes.
   11. Use metric units for all measurements (e.g., cm, m, ha, kg). Measurements cited from another work that uses Imperial or US customary systems of measurement (e.g., inch, foot, yard) are an exception to this rule.
   12. Indent extended quotations (three or more lines) from research subjects or from written sources by 0.5” on the left margin; do not use quotation
   13. Nesting parentheses should be done with square brackets. For example: …since it became a distinct science (roughly 200 years ago [Rudwick 1976]).
   14. Double quotation marks are sometimes used to indicate words or phrases that are used in an unusual way or to indicate the author’s disagreement with the accepted meaning. These are sometimes referred to as “scare quotes” or “ironic quotes” and should be used sparingly, if at all. They should not be used solely for emphasis. American usage avoids single quotation marks except to mark quotations within quotations.
   15. Country names should be spelled out in running text (e.g., United States) but may be abbreviated in tables if accompanied by a key. Mailing addresses should include full country names except for the United States (USA) and United Kingdom (UK).
   16. 3.16. As proper names, the Journal capitalizes terms such as Indigenous, Indigenous Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples. Other uses of the term indigenous (e.g., “indigenous plants”) are not capitalized. For further details, visit:
       https://journals.uvic.ca/journalinfo/ijih/IJIHDefiningIndigenousPeoplesWithinCanada.pdf and
       http://assets.brand.ubc.ca/downloads/ubc_indigenous_peoples_language_guide.pdf
       
       
4. Parts of the Manuscript 
   
   
   1. Title 
      The title should appear at the top of the manuscript, above the abstract and/or introduction, and should include the following information in the format indicated. Mailing address is only necessary for the corresponding author. See example below:
      
      Title
      Author^1* and Author <sup>2
      
      1</sup>Affiliation, Mailing address.
      ²Affiliation.
      *Corresponding author (email address)
      
      
   2. Abstract and Keywords 
      Each manuscript must include a one-paragraph abstract that briefly (fewer than 250 words) summarizes the article. The abstract should be preceded by the word Abstract in bold. Abstracts should be double spaced. Abstracts are only published in English. Immediately following the abstract text, provide no more than five keywords in lowercase, unless using a proper noun; separate by a comma.
      
      Abstract. Each manuscript must include an informative, one-paragraph abstract that briefly (fewer than 250 words) summarizes the article. The abstract should be preceded by the word Abstract in bold. Abstracts should be double spaced. Abstracts are only published in English. Immediately following the abstract text, the word Keywords (as one word) should appear in bold text, followed by a colon and a maximum of 5 keywords.
      
      Keywords: editing, Journal of Ethnobiology, formatting, manuscript, abstract
      
      
   3. Body 
      Headings divide the body of the manuscript into sections.
      
      
      1. First-Order Headings
         First-order headings are centered, bold, and in mixed case with all major words capitalized. Leave an extra blank line before the heading. Text following a first-order heading should be indented.
         
         Example:
         
         Paragraph above.

         Discussion

         Paragraph below….

      2. Second-Order Headings
         Second order headings are flush-left, bold, and in mixed case with all major words capitalized. Leave an extra blank line before the heading. Begin the text after the heading on the next line and indent.
         
         Example:
         
         Paragraph above.
         
         Coconut Cultivars in Southern India

         Paragraph below….

      3. Third-Order Headings
         These should be used sparingly. They are flush-left, in italics, and in mixed case with all major words capitalized. Begin the text on a new line and indent.
         
         Example:
         
         Paragraph above.
         Assessment of the Modern Coconut Hybrid
         

         Paragraph below….

   4. Notes 
      Footnotes at the bottom of the page are not permitted. The Journal discourages the use of endnotes except for source references to unpublished information. If included, they should appear immediately before the References Cited section, with the first-order heading “Notes.” If you use software to organize these notes, you must convert them to regular text and remove any embedded field codes before submission. In-text references to endnotes are superscript and appear inside regular punctuation. For example:
      
      Sequential note references are placed inside¹, not outside, regular punctuation².
      
      
   5. Acknowledgments 
      If you would like to include an Acknowledgments section, place it after any Notes and before the References Cited section, marked by a first-order heading.
      
      
   6. References Cited 
      Works referred to in the text should be listed in a separate section under the first-order heading References Cited. Do not list works that are not cited in the text. Names of authors cited (and editors of edited volumes) should have the surname in full, with first and middle names as initials. Book and journal titles should be italicized and spelled out in full; do not abbreviate journal titles. Only the journal volume number should be given, not the issue number. For online-only journals, issue numbers or other relevant identifiers such as article numbers may be used in lieu of page numbers. An article’s DOI (Document Identification Number) should be provided if available. Titles of referenced works should in mixed case with all major words capitalized.
      
      References cited should be in alphabetical order, single-spaced with a hanging indent (0.5”), and single-spaced between each reference. Punctuation and spacing should follow the examples given below.
      
      Works by the same first author should appear in chronological order regardless of the number of authors on the work.
      
      Works in review must include “Manuscript available at [web address]” or “Manuscript available from [email address].” The publication date should be the date of the most recent draft. For works formally accepted for publication and still in press, the anticipated publication date may be used, and “In press” in lieu of volume and page numbers. If available, a pre-publication online “early edition” should be referenced with DOI and URL.
      
      
      1. Examples of Reference Types
         
         Books
         

         Barnett, T. 1999. The Emergence of Food Production in Ethiopia. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, vol. 45. Archeopress, Oxford.

         Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. L. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker. 2007. Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

         Edited Books

         Wilson, D. E., and D. M. Reeder, eds. 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, 3rd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.

         Chapters in Edited Books
         

         Au, T. K., and L. Romo. 1999. Mechanical Causality in Children’s Folkbiology. In Folkbiology, edited by D. C. Medin and S. Atran, pp. 355–402. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

         Translated Books

         Latour, B. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Translated by A. Sheridan and J. Law. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

         Journal Articles
         
         Example 1: With pagination, no DOI

         Boster, J. S., and J. C. Johnson. 1989. Form of Function: A Comparison of Expert and Novice Judgments of Similarity among Fish. American Anthropologist 91:866–889.

         Hiroshi, K. 2015. The Skin as a Surface of Composition: The Use of Animal Body Parts and Plants in Various Practices of the Panamanian Emberá. Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America 13:11–24. Available at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol13/iss2/2/. Accessed on December 19, 2015.

         Example 2: With pagination and DOI

         Cuerrier, A., N. J. Turner, T. C. Gomes, A. Garibaldi, and A. Downing. 2015. Cultural Keystone Places: Conservation and Restoration in Cultural Landscapes. Journal of Ethnobiology 35:427–448. DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-35.3.427.

         Setalaphruk, C., and L. L. Price. 2007. Children’s Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Wild Food Resources: A Case Study in a Rural Village in Northeast Thailand. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 3:33. DOI:10.1186/1746-4269-3-33.

         Example 3: Online only, no pagination

         Tengö, M., and K. Belfrage. 2004. Local Management Practices for Dealing with Change and Uncertainty: A Cross-scale Comparison of Cases in Sweden and Tanzania. Ecology and Society 9(3):4. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art4/.

         Thibeault, J., A. Seth, and M. Garcia. 2010. Changing Climate in the Bolivian Altiplano: CMIP3 Projections for Temperature and Precipitation Extremes. [online] Journal of Geophysical Research:Atmospheres 115(D08103). DOI:10.1029/2009JD012718.

         Published and Unpublished Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

         Daniels, P. S. 2009. A Gendered Model of Prehistoric Resource Depression: A Case Study on the Northwest Coast of North America. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 305012620).

         Karst, A. 2005. The Ethnoecology and Reproductive Ecology of Bakeapple (Rubus chamaemorus Rosaceae L.) in Southern Labrador. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.

         Motta, P. C. 2007. Os Aracnídeos (Arachnida: Araneae, Scorpiones) na Comunidade Quilombola de Mesquita, Goiás: Um Estudo de Caso sobre Etnobiologia. Master’s Thesis, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil. Available at: http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/3013. Accessed on December 23, 2015.

         Wolverton, S. 2001. Environmental Implications of Zooarchaeological Measures of Resource Depression. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

         Reports

         Peri, D. W., and S. M. Patterson. 1979. Ethnobotanical Resources of the Warm Springs Dam: Lake Sonoma Project Area, Sonoma County, California. Report number DACW07-78-C- 0040. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco.

         Multiple References by Same Author

         Driver, J. C. 1985a. Prehistoric Hunting Strategies in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 9:109–129.

         Driver, J. C. 1985b. Zooarchaeology of Six Prehistoric Sites in the Sierra Blanca Region, New Mexico. Museum of Anthropology University of Michigan Technical Report 17.

         Driver, J. C. 1992. Identification, Classification and Zooarchaeology. Circaea 9:35–47.

         Electronic Audio Files/Podcasts

         Pyne, S. 2011. Fire and Life. Interview by Dr. Biology. Ask a Biologist Podcast. Available at: http://askabiologist.asu.edu/podcasts/fire-and-life. Accessed on August 12, 2011.

         Conference Presentations

         Balée, W. 2015. Ethnobiology of Saps, Resins, and Latexes. Paper Presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology. Santa Barbara, CA. Available at: https://ethnobiology.org/conference/abstracts/38. Accessed on December 15, 2015.

         Hovsepyan, R. 2010. Preliminary Data on the Prehistoric Agriculture of the Southern Caucasus (The Main Phases of Development). Paper Presented at the 15th Conference of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany. Wilhelmshaven, Germany (www.nihk.de).

         Films

         Flaherty, R. J., dir. 1922. Nanook of the North: A Story of Life and Love in the Actual Arctic [Film]. Révillon Frères, Paris.

         Exhibitions

         Zavala, A., cur. 2015. Frida Kahlo's Garden [Exhibition]. New York Botanical Garden, New York. May 16–November 1.

         Works in Review or In Press

         Gremillion, Kristen J. 2014. Fire Ecology of the Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky. Manuscript submitted to Journal of Ethnobiology. Manuscript available from email@address or at http://www.manuscript.com/gremillion2014.

         Websites (other than online journals)

         American Artichoke Association. The Amazing Artichoke [web page]. URL: http://www.artichokeassociation/amazing/.org. Accessed on December 12, 2012.

         Ethnobiology Letters. 2016. Author Guidelines [web page]. URL: http://ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/about/submissions#authorGuidelines. Accessed on January 1, 2016.

      2. Citation of References in Text
         Do not use a comma after the last name before the date (1). Quotations and other page- specific references use a colon after the date with no space between the colon and the page number (2). Two author citations are separated with “and” (3). Texts with three or more authors use “et al.” not followed by a comma, not italicized (4). Citations within a single set are listed in alphabetical order. Citations by different authors are separated by semi-colons (4, 5). Citations within parenthetical statements are bracketed (6). Multiple citations by the same author are separated with a comma. Citations by the same author and from the same year are distinguished by lower case letters and separated by commas (7). Reference to a figure or table should be included within the same parentheses as the citations at the end of the same sentence rather than a separate set of parentheses (8). Multiple authors and/or figures and tables within a citation are separated by semi-colons (8). Reference to two figures or tables is separated by “and”, not a comma or semi-colon (9).
         
         
         1. This information is considered important for the management and conservation of marine habitats (Drews 2005).
         2. In one of the best descriptions of the protocol I have found, paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson (1942:144) noted that one first assumes “that the bones of different [taxa] have characteristic forms, more or less constant for any one [taxon].”
         3. Compact bone is most often used as an ivory substitute (Espinoza and Mann 2000).
         4. Regional approaches comparing faunas from multiple sites analyzed by diverse research teams are becoming more common today (Barberena et al. 2009; Martinez and Gutiérrez 2004; Otaola 2010; Santiago and Vázquez 2011).
         5. In the early history of zooarchaeology, it was paleontologists and zoologists who identified archaeologically recovered faunal remains to taxon (e.g., Gilmore 1949; Merriam 1928; White 1953).
         6. Paleontology has had a standard protocol for reporting identifications since it became a distinct science (roughly 200 years ago at the hands of Georges Cuvier [Rudwick 1976]).
         7. My PhD took a regional approach to a valley in the northern Rocky Mountains (Driver 1981, 1985a, 1985b; Lyman 1986).
         8. Black cats are mellow, and calico cats are crazy (Brown 1982; Mitchell 1993; Smith 2001; Figure 1).
         9. Black cats are mellow, and calico cats are crazy (Brown 1982; Mitchell 1993; Smith 2001; Figures 1 and 2; Tables 3 and 4).
            
            
   7. Appendices.
      Appendices, if included, should be submitted as a separate document. Appendices should be included only if the information it contains is both 1) necessary in order to comprehend and evaluate the research presented in the article, and 2) cannot be effectively presented in tables or figures placed within the article itself.
      
      
   8. Figures: Charts and Images
      Images for final submission should be sent separately as .tiff, .jpg, .psd, or .eps files. Photographs should be of good contrast and sharpness. Files should be at a resolution of at least 600 dpi (1200 dpi preferred for line art, i.e., black and white only with no shades of gray). All color images will be converted to grayscale for the print version of the journal; color images may be used but will only appear in color in the digital version of the journal. Graphic charts should be submitted in editable formats, such as MS Word objects, if possible. Charts should be clean and clearly labeled. Shadows and other 3-D effects are discouraged. Chart captions are written in the manuscript text, not within the chart. All axes, elements, and legends must be fully labeled without unnecessary abbreviations.
      
      Figures should be submitted at a size that will fit on a page of the journal without further reduction (maximum size of image plus caption: 5 x 7.75 inches). All figures should be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text. Captions for Figures and Tables should be submitted as a separate document labeled “Captions”. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain any necessary permissions.
      
      
   9. Tables
      For accepted papers, tables should be numbered sequentially as they appear in the text. Each table should be submitted in a separate electronic file and clearly named.
      
      Tables should have borders across the top and underlining the column headings, and across the bottom. No borders on either side of the table or dividing individual cells. Text should be left-justified, in 12 pt. font with 1.5 spacing. Column headings should be in bold text with initial caps only. Formatting within tables and cells should not be accomplished with such shortcuts as multiple spaces and overlays. Use portrait or landscape orientation as needed. Table legend items should be identified by superscript letters (a, b, etc.) within the table, with corresponding notes listed in a single, left-justified column immediately below the last row, in 12 pt. font with 1.5 spacing.
      
      Table Example:
      
      

      Site	Site name	Site typea	Date in radiocarbon years (cal BP)
      EaSe 76	Cochrane Bay	Settlement	3500–2800
      EaSe 2	Bliss Landing	Settlement	4000
      DlSd 15	Tokenatchb	Lookout/Camp	300
      EaSd 2	Flea Village	Fort	500

      ^a First legend item.
      ^b Second legend item.
      
      
   10. Supplementary Files
       Supplementary files that exceed usual limits, including multimedia files as well as large appendices or tables that are not essential for understanding the text, should be submitted separately as “Supplementary Materials.” These supplementary materials will be published as electronic files linked to the online version of the paper available at the website of BioOne, a nonprofit publisher that makes electronic versions of Journal of Ethnobiology available to its subscribers (all members of Society of Ethnobiology have access, as do many libraries). Please cite such materials within the article text according to the format, e.g., (Supplementary Figure 1), (Supplementary Table 1), (Supplementary Video 1).
       
       Please note that color images must be converted to grayscale for print publication. We cannot reproduce color images in the printed version of the journal. However, we can provide color images to subscribers in the online version of the journal on BioOne.
       
       
5. Identification of Living Organisms
   
   The Journal of Ethnobiology requires that nomenclature for all botanical and/or zoological species conform to either the International Code of Nomenclature of Algae, Fungi and Plants or International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Taxonomic authorities should be provided at first mention in the text or in a specimen table (in most instances, common names are preferred in the manuscript title). For botanical taxa, authors should refer to the International Plant Names Index (http://www.ipni.org/index.html) or Tropicos (http://www.tropicos.org) for accepted authority names for taxa at the level of species and below. For zoological taxa, ZooBank, the Official Registry of Zoological Nomenclature (http:www.zoobank.org) should be consulted.
   
   After first mention, a living organism should usually be identified by the first initial of the genus and the full species term only or by the common English name. For example, after mentioning it once, the Madagascar girdled lizard should be identified as: Madagascar girdled lizard or Z. madagascariensis. Exceptions include lists of species in the same genus and multiple genus names starting with the same letter. In the latter case, genus names should be abbreviated with the minimum number of letters necessary to distinguish them. For example, in subsequent references, the neotropical ants Acromyrmex coronatus and Atta sexdens should be written as Ac. coronatus and At. sexdens, unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence.
   
   Common English names for living organisms should not be italicized. Non-English vernacular names for living organisms should appear in italics with no initial capital (unless at the beginning of a sentence). For example, to cite the indigenous name in the Xavante language of the red brocket deer, write: pône. Common names for plants and animals should not be capitalized unless there is a proper noun in the specific name. For example, Douglas-fir and Saskatoon berry versus salalberry; and western red cedar. Birds are an exception to this rule. If the common name for a bird refers to a specific species then the first letter of each word is always capitalized. Thus, Bald Eagles vs. eagles.
   
   
6. Location of Voucher Specimens
   
   The locations where voucher specimens have been deposited for curation should be put in a note or in the acknowledgements. The collection and depositing of voucher specimens in association with a submitted maunscript referencing botanical and/or zoological taxa is strongly encouraged. Editors will evaluate individual manuscripts as to the necessity of this task within the larger context of the research goals and questions.