Editorial: launching Software Notes

Abstract

Ecography is currently experiencing a very exciting time. The number of submissions is rising steadily (31% over the last two years alone) and we have been able to publish more and more excellent papers every year. This success has resulted in a substantial increase in the journal’s impact factor, currently reaching 3.340 and Ecography papers are being identified as essential readings by the scientific community (e.g. Elith et al. 2006, Witt and Malaikal-Witt 2007, Dormann et al. 2007, Soininen et al. 2007, Araujo et al. 2008). We are constantly working to improve the quality of the papers we publish to enhance the relevance of the journal to our broad readership and keep it abreast of developments within the scientific community. In this issue, we are broadening the journal’s profile by launching Software Notes, a section specifically tailored for reports on relevant software in the field of ecology. The first paper in this section, RangeModel: tools for exploring and assessing geometric constraints on species richness (the mid-domain effect) along transects, (Colwell 2008) appears in this issue. We look forward to seeing many submissions to the section in the near future. Software Notes are brief, typically not exceeding 4 printed pages. The aim of the section is to provide readers with concise reports describing software of general interest to the readership of Ecography, and to offer authors of software a first choice outlet for their work. Software Notes are peerreviewed, citable in a standard format, and their impact as measured by number of citations is, therefore, assessed on an equal footing with traditional journal papers. Ecography has a tradition of strong manuscript promotion and will now extend this to include software within its field. Manuscripts in this section will be given high priority in the publication process.