Amateurs in ornithological basic scientific research: many data - few publications?

Since many years, amateurs have played an important role in scientific orni thology. In this paper which is based on a symposium convened by Dachverban d Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) on the meeting of the German Ornithologists Society in Leipzig in 2000 we give examples of significant contributions to basic scientific research by amateur ornithologists. The contributions of amateurs to scientific ornithology range from casual observations (we propo se common aims and quality criteria for annual bird reports) to sound and c omprehensive population studies. We review some problems amateurs face duri ng their work. Difficulties are often related to publishing results in scie ntific papers. We suggest solutions: ornithological societies, editors of j ournals, libraries and the ringing centres support the work of amateurs. We invite readers to discuss further promotions of scientific ornithological work of amateurs.