Journal of EcologyNewsстатья из журнала
Аннотация: The ISI® 2007 Impact Factor for Journal of Ecology is 4.422, resulting in the Journal retaining the same excellent rank position (twelfth) that it occupied last year among listed ecology journals. Journal of Ecology was also listed for the first time among the plant science journals. In this category, which covers the full breadth of plant sciences, Journal of Ecology was ranked 11 out of 152 journals. The Immediacy Index, a measure of how much the research published within a journal is cited in the year of its publication, was 0.591, and the citation half-life of articles in the Journal remains at more than 10 years. Once again, the most widely-used metrics of journal quality confirm that the articles published in Journal of Ecology are among the most frequently and rapidly cited, and among the most enduring contributions to both ecology and plant science. Printed copies of Journal of Ecology are scheduled for delivery to print subscribers at the start of the month of publication (January, March, May, July, September and November each year). For the increasing number of subscribers with online subscriptions, the full content of each issue is available online approximately 1 week before print publication on Wiley-Blackwell's InterScience website, at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118509661/home. For those who have electronic subscriptions, individual articles are also accessible as soon as they are ready for publication, so that they can be viewed online before being assigned to an issue of the Journal. These Early View articles are in their final, published form. Although they initially lack page numbers and volume/issue details, they are considered fully published, and are available for downloading, and for citing, using their doi number, as soon as they appear online. All articles published in the four Journals of the British Ecological Society are freely available from InterScience from 2 years after publication of the issue in which they appear. Any authors of articles in the Journals who wish to make their full articles free to all readers as soon as they are published, can do so by using the Online Open service (more details, including the fee payable, can be found at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/authorresources/onlineopen.html). Journal of Ecology publishes the most innovative and novel research on all aspects of plant ecology, both terrestrial and aquatic. The Journal is especially well-known for publishing articles on population and community ecology, but we also encourage submissions on all topics in plant ecology, including responses to climate change, and theoretical and modelling articles. Submission rates remain very high, so that we continue to be very selective over what we publish. Currently our acceptance rate is around 23%. During the last 12 months, the mean time to first decision for reviewed articles has been 34 days, and the average time from final acceptance to Early View publication in 2008 was 45 days. The names of reviewers for the Journal between mid-October 2007 and mid-October 2008 were published in issue 6 of volume 96 (pages 1328–1329) in November 2008. Reviewing is interesting, educational and informative work. It is also rewarding, in that it contributes to the presentation of the best science in the best possible state at publication. It therefore benefits our field of research when we participate in this activity. We thank all those who have reviewed manuscripts for the Journal, especially those who have done so as promptly as requested, and urge everyone invited to review to play their part in this vital activity. As always, we also owe a huge debt of gratitude to our Board of Associate Editors, who help us in making recommendations on the great majority of submissions. To date, the most cited articles published in Journal of Ecology in 2008 are several articles from the first Special Feature that we have published, on Plant Dispersal across Multiple Scales: Linking Models and Reality. This collection of articles was Guest-Edited by James Bullock and Ran Nathan (Volume 96 (4), pp. 567–697). Also well-cited is a review entitled ‘Facilitation in plant communities: the past, the present, and the future’ by Brooker et al. (2008). We have a second Special Feature in the early stages of preparation (Soil–Plant Interactions and the Carbon Cycle, Guest-Edited by Richard Bardgett and Gerlinde de Deyn), scheduled for publication later this year, and we will also publish the forthcoming BES Symposium entitled Facilitation in Plant Communities (which will be Guest-Edited by Rob Brooker and Ray Callaway), probably early in 2010. This symposium will take place in Aberdeen from 20–22 April 2009 (full details available at http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/articles/meetings/current/2009annualsymposium/bookingform/). It promises to be a very exciting gathering to discuss one of the fastest-developing fields in plant ecology. In 1940, Journal of Ecology started publishing the Biological Flora of the British Isles – authoritative and comprehensive autecological accounts of individual species. During 2008, the series passed its 250th published account. (The complete list of accounts published to date can be found at http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/articles/publications/journals/ecology/Biological%20Flora/). Articles on three species –Mercurialis perennis (Jefferson 2008), Paris quadrifolia (Jacquemyn et al. 2008) and Primula elatior (Taylor & Woodell 2008) – were added to the list during 2008, and three more accounts are anticipated during 2009. There is still a very long way to go to fulfil the original aim of complete coverage of the British flora. Tony Davy, the Editor of the accounts, is always pleased to receive offers to write new accounts. Writing these accounts involves rewarding scholarship, and is far less daunting than is often thought. If you are interested in writing an account, you are invited to contact Tony ([email protected]), who will be pleased to advise you. In 2008, Journal of Ecology began to publish a new brand of articles under the general title Future Directions. The articles in this series are intended as brief statements – not more than four published pages in total – in which authors advance ideas for a step-change in our approach to a field of ecological research. It is often asserted that ecologists, like other scientists, play it safe with their research and writing. Future Directions articles are intended to release our creativity, by allowing authors to be innovative and even provocative about the ways in which they think a given field should move, and the critical things that need to be done next. This style of article offers the opportunity for authors to present ground-breaking ideas and thoughts, and to take risks. In last year's Journal of Ecology News we invited all our readers to contribute their ideas to the Future Directions series. We repeat that invitation now. In 2008 we published three articles under the Future Directions banner (Pickett & Cadenasso 2008; Moles et al. 2008; Turner 2008), and another (Williams et al. 2009) is published in this issue. We would like to hear from all of you with exciting new ideas in need of a publication outlet. When accepted, these articles are given priority in the publication queue, so your next Eureka! moment can be offered to our wide readership for critical evaluation in near record-breaking time! The Harper Award for the best article published in Journal of Ecology in 2008 by a young author is given to Lucía Vivanco (Vivanco & Austin 2008). Her article, published with Amy Austin, was entitled ‘Tree species identity alters litter decomposition through long-term plant and soil interactions in a natural forest ecosystem in Patagonia’. Understanding the ways in which variation in plant diversity and composition affect decomposition is complicated by differences in the spatial and temporal scales at which plant and soil processes operate, and by the potential for long-lived plants to modify their soil environment in ways that can influence decomposition. Vivanco and Austin used a novel approach to isolate the effects of single tree species and mixtures of tree species on soil properties and rates of decomposition. They located ‘tree-triangles’ in the forest where the canopies of three tree species intersected. These triangles were either composed of three individuals of the same species, or of three different tree species. They found that tree species affected rates of litter decomposition both directly and indirectly. Direct effects were driven by differences in litter quality between the three tree species, whereas indirect effects were caused by the unique soil conditions that the tree species created in their immediate environment. The most surprising discovery, however, was that individual tree species modified their soil environment in ways that enhanced the decomposition of their own litter, thereby creating a home-field advantage for the breakdown of the species’ own litter. The mechanisms involved were not identified, but the authors suggested that trees encourage the development of soil decomposer communities that rapidly decompose their own litter. The Editors selected this article because of its elegant experimental approach, but also for the importance of its findings with respect to understanding how long-term plant–soil feedbacks regulate decomposition processes and forest dynamics at the ecosystem scale. Articles by two other young authors are also worthy of an honourable mention. Julian Norghauer and colleagues Jay Malcolm and Barbara Zimmerman (Norghauer et al. 2008) used a careful experimental approach to test three key hypotheses concerning interactions between seedlings of an Amazonian tree (Swietenia macrophylla) and a specialist herbivore moth (Steniscadia poliophaea). They found that the moths were attracted to gaps in the understorey and then searched within them for young leaves to forage on. These findings allowed Norghauer et al. to present a new conceptual model on this topic. The second of these papers was by Seema Mangla (Mangla et al. 2008). Working with colleagues Inderjit and Ragan Callaway, she used an experimental approach to study the manner in which a notorious invasive plant (Chromolaena odorata) accumulates native soil pathogens (Fusarium spores) in its rhizosphere, which in turn inhibit the growth of native plants. There have been several studies on this general topic, but Mangla et al. used a comprehensive experimental approach that identified a new route by which invasion can be facilitated. There has been much movement on the Managing Editor front since the last Journal of Ecology news. Barney Davies worked with us for a regrettably short period, during which he made a meteoric impact on many people he interacted with on behalf of the Journal. Barney left last June to take up a new post in publishing in the field of neurobiology. We thank him for the huge contribution he made to the Journal during his time with us, and wish him success in his new post. Gerwyn Clegg filled the position of Managing Editor after Barney's departure. The Editors of the Journal thank Gerwyn for filling the role brilliantly well, at short notice and with precious little time to learn on the job. We are pleased that we still have Gerwyn working with us for some of his time, and we continue to appreciate his efficiency, skill, good sense and good humour. We are also delighted that our new Managing Editor, Andrea Baier, has now joined us. Andrea will already be a familiar name to many authors and reviewers. We appreciate the dynamism and new ideas that she is already bringing to our work with the Journal. During 2008, we appointed three new Associate Editors – Richard Bradshaw, for his expertise on the relationships between vegetation dynamics and climate change, palaeoecology, and management and conservation of forest systems, Steve Bonser, for expertise on life histories, competition and herbivory, and Rene van der Wal, for expertise on soil–plant–herbivore interactions, ecosystem processes, invasive species, climate change and arctic ecology. Their involvement with the Journal is already leading to increased numbers of submissions in several of these fields. Scott Collins ended his period on the Board. We are most grateful for his contributions to reviewing and identifying the best submissions for publication. Throughout 2008 we have continued to select articles from within each issue of the Journal and highlighted them as Editor's Choice articles. These articles are available for reading at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/JEC_EdsChoice.pdf. Judging by web-page access figures, these summaries appear to be very popular, and we hope to continue to publish these selections. Most of the Editor's Choice articles have also been published in the BES Bulletin.
Год издания: 2008
Издательство: Wiley
Источник: Journal of Ecology
Ключевые слова: Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies, Botany and Plant Ecology Studies, Species Distribution and Climate Change
Открытый доступ: bronze
Том: 97
Выпуск: 1
Страницы: 1–3