Research frontiers of early-career biogeographers

Abstract

editorial ISSN 1948-6596 Research frontiers of early-career biogeographers Research done for a doctorate provides opportu- nities for innovative and cutting-edge research. PhD students are typically fully dedicated, not yet tainted by prejudices from a long career, and ea- ger to overcome obstacles to establish themselves in their chosen career. Research conducted at this stage of a biogeographer’s career, overseen by established practitioners, is an opportunity to push forward the boundaries of knowledge, ex- plore new areas and approaches, and, sometimes, break well-established paradigms. Student members represent about one third of the International Biogeography Society’s (IBS) membership. This year the IBS and Frontiers of Biogeography are conferring a new award, aimed at promoting new knowledge and new en- ergy in the field of biogeography. Following an initiative of the IBS’ Early Career Biogeographers Committee, we have established the Doctoral Dis- sertation Award, to recognize an outstanding doc- toral thesis in the field of biogeography. This award will be granted periodically to the best doc- toral dissertation, starting biennially to coincide with the IBS early-career conferences. Candidates are judged on the basis of thesis abstracts submit- ted to Frontiers by recently graduated PhDs (up to two years after obtaining their PhD). To be consid- ered for the award, candidates should submit a thesis abstract to Frontiers, indicating that they wish to be considered for the award. The subject matter must fall within the remit of the journal. All thesis abstracts received by Frontiers at any time can be put forward for consideration for the prize in the next round of judging. Different coun- tries have different systems (e.g., studying for a PhD takes longer in the USA than in the UK), and these differences are considered in the judging process. Candidates may therefore wish to pro- vide an outline of the process by which their edu- cational institute awards the PhD. The main purpose of the Doctoral Disserta- tion Award is to recognize outstanding perform- ance at this important stage in the career of a re- searcher. The winner of the award will receive a certificate and a grant to cover a portion of the travel and registration costs for attending the next early-career conference (preferably) or other IBS meeting 1 . This prize complements the other two regular IBS awards 2 , the Alfred Russel Wallace and MacArthur and Wilson awards, which recognize outstanding mature and mid-career scientists, respectively. It furthers the efforts of the IBS to promote early-career biogeographers (Santos 2011), in conjunction with the early-career confer- ences that started in 2011. These meetings pro- vide space for young scientists to meet and ac- tively discuss the field and their careers. The meetings create an excellent atmosphere for net- working, developing interactions that will lead to successful collaborations, and forming bonds that will help produce a more comprehensive and inte- grative biogeography (Nogue et al. 2011). The mechanism of judging via Frontiers of Biogeography thesis abstracts takes profit from this journal’s efforts to promote the work of young biogeographers (see, for example, Morales- Castilla 2013). The pressure to publish in high- profile, peer-reviewed journals has resulted in a gradual, but unavoidable, evolution from PhD the- ses as monographs to collections of papers, with little or sometimes no effort to provide a synthesis of the work. The value for the student of a well- developed, holistic discussion of the contribution of the dissertation research is one of the recurrent themes of conversations during the receptions after PhD defences 3 . Many argue that such syn- thesis benefits both the student’s development and the advancement of research. However, the number of people that believe that such effort is worthless unless it is published is increasing. These were the main reasons why the Frontiers editorial board created the thesis abstract section in the first place, along with the benefit of pro- moting the already-published papers. 1 http://www.biogeography.org/html/Meetings/index.html 2 http://www.biogeography.org/html/About%20IBS/about_ibs.html 3 Also called vivas or examinations, depending on the academic system. frontiers of biogeography 5.3, 2013 — © 2013 the authors; journal compilation © 2013 The International Biogeography Society