Editorial

Abstract

Ecological Monographs is the Society's journal for comprehensive papers that integrate and synthesize research findings with the broader scientific literature. We publish original research articles, concepts and syntheses papers, and reviews. All of these types of papers establish new benchmarks in the field, define directions for future research, and contribute to fundamental understanding of ecological principles. Many of the papers explicitly transcend the boundaries between “basic” and “applied” ecology and derive principles for ecological management in its broadest sense. By many measures, 2011 was a great year for the journal. A total of 130 manuscripts were submitted to Ecological Monographs. More than half of the manuscripts that we received were sent out for review—as authors have become more familiar with the new (since 2009) scope of the journal, fewer submissions are being returned without undergoing external peer review—and average time from submission to a first decision for these reviewed manuscripts was 72 days. The overall acceptance rate has increased from 22% in 2010 to 29% in 2011, but Ecological Monographs is still one of the most selective journals in the field. The journal's impact factor increased nearly 20% in 2010 and continues to rank among the top 10 ecological journals. According to the ISI Journal Citation Reports, the 2010 impact factor of Ecological Monographs was 5.938 (ranked 8th among ecological journals), its five-year impact factor was 8.83 (a 6% increase from 2010, and 4th-ranked among ecological journals), and the cited half-life of more than ten years continues to show the lasting value of its papers to the ecological sciences. We have also virtually eliminated our backlog of manuscripts to be published, and most articles are scheduled for publication immediately following acceptance. Nearly every author is taking advantage of our on-line-before-print option, which assigns papers a citable digital object identifier (doi) within days of final acceptance and makes the final version available immediately thereafter to subscribers and the scientific news media. The new requirement (as of January 1, 2011) that authors archive data associated with papers published in Ecological Monographs has not slowed the pace of submissions or of publication, and we have successfully integrated data archiving methods with the Dryad International Data Repository. In 2012, we join the other ESA journals in implementing new guidelines for submitting and archiving computer code used for novel statistical analyses (see http://esapubs.org/preparation.htm#Sta). Together, the availability of data and code provides greater transparency for our methods and ensures that analyses presented in Ecological Monographs can be replicated by others. The end of 2011 also marks the end of Aaron Ellison's first three-year term as Editor-in-Chief (EIC). This benchmark was accompanied by a self-assessment of progress at the journal and a formal review of the EIC by the ESA Publications Committee, chaired by Joshua Schimel. The overall review was positive, and Ellison has been reappointed to a second three-year term by the ESA Governing Board. At the same time, both the self-assessment and the committee's review identified three key challenges for the journal: how to reduce the number of manuscripts rejected following review only by the EIC and/or a subject-matter editor; how to appropriately handle the broad topical diversity of manuscripts submitted to the journal; and how to better inform authors about the scope of the journal. These three challenges are interrelated. The scope of the journal is clearly defined on the website of the ESA's journals, but many authors still submit manuscripts that are little more than “long” Ecology papers, and these types of papers are the ones most likely to be rejected following editorial review. The topical diversity is handled by the increasingly large editorial boards of Ecology and Ecological Applications, adhoc subject-matter editors, and of course, hundreds of peer-reviewers, but certain topical areas, notably ecosystem science writ large, are still underrepresented, both in submissions and in manuscripts sent out for review. To decrease the likelihood that manuscripts focused on ecosystem dynamics are not being slighted in the editorial process, and to provide additional oversight of the overall editorial review process of manuscripts submitted to Ecological Monographs, Aimée Classen has been appointed Associate Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Manuscripts submitted to Ecological Monographs are complex, integrative, and lengthy, and they demand substantial time and effort from reviewers, editors, and the professional staff in the Ithaca Publications Office. As always, we remain most grateful to the volunteer subject-matter editors on the boards of both Ecology and Ecological Applications and the community of reviewers who continue to read, thoughtfully review, and edit these manuscripts conscientiously and in a reasonable amount of time. The dedication of our editors and reviewers are more than matched by the talented professional staff who work assiduously with authors to move their manuscripts through to publication as quickly as possible.