Content is welcome from everyone, professionals and amateurs alike, so please consider contributing. All queries and contributions can be sent to pete@dispar.org.
It is a requirement that contributions have not been published before and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. However, we are happy to receive contributions of previously published works so long as permission has been obtained for their publication on the web.
dispar aims to publish works that are of high quality. Where relevant, contributions will be subject to peer review (this does not apply to trip reports, event reports and reviews).
We aim to implement a lightweight process with some simple steps:
The dispar "house style" (the format used within articles) follows the Harvard (author-date) system with the following exceptions:
When writing a piece of work you should provide references to the sources used. A reference is the detailed bibliographic description of the item from which you gained your information. References are briefly cited within the text, based on the primary author's name and date, and then described in full at the end of your work in a reference list. In order to find out more about a document the reader can simply look up the author's name in the reference list.
To link the information you use in your text to its source (such as a book or article), put the author's name and the year of publication at the appropriate point in your text.
This was first described in Ford (1945).
If the author's name is not naturally placed in a sentence, then put the author's surname and date in brackets.
There is some evidence (Ford, 1945) that this species is capable of surviving winters in the British Isles.
Some additional "rules" for citing authors are:
In order to find out more about the document a reader can simply look up the author's name in the reference list. All publications cited must be listed in full in a References section at the end of the article. Conversely, all references listed in the References section must be referred to in the text. Authors are responsible for ensuring these are accurate. List references alphabetically by the (first) author. You should not break down the list by types of material (books, articles, web pages, etc.).
Books should be referenced using the format: Author(s) (Year) Title. Edition (if not the first), Place of Publication: Publisher.
Ford, E.B. (1945) Butterflies. London: Collins.
Thomas, J. and Lewington, R. (2014) The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland. 3rd ed., Gillingham, Dorset: British Wildlife Publishing.
Agassiz, D.J.L., Beavan, S.D. and Heckford, R.J. (2013) Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles. Telford, Shropshire: Field Studies Council.
Some additional "rules" for referencing books are:
A book chapter or page can be referenced using the format: Author(s) (Year) Title of chapter. In: Author(s) Book title. Place of publication: Publisher, Pages (use p. or pp.).
Journal articles should be referenced using the format: Author(s) (Year) Title of article. Title of journal, Volume (Part/Issue/Month), Pages (use p. or pp.).
Harrison, J.W.H. (1946) The Lepidoptera of the Hebridian Isles of Coll, Tiree and Gunna, with some remarks on the Biogeography of the Islands. Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation, 58, p.58.
Web Pages and other electronic references can be referenced using the format: Author(s) (Year) Title of document [Online] Organisation responsible (optional). Available from: web address [Accessed date].
Eeles, P. (2014) The Irish Mountain Ringlet [Online]. Available from: http://www.dispar.org/reference.php?id=1 [Accessed 25 September 2014].