The first years of «Nature Conservation Research». What has been achieved?

Abstract

The journal «Nature Conservation Research» (hereinafter – journal NCR) was founded in 2016. It is published by the Fund for Support and Development of Protected Areas «Bear Land». This review paper is aimed to characterise the first five years of the publishing activities of the journal NCR. We present the actual values of scientometric indicators of the journal NCR, and the main characteristics of the journal, interesting for authors (e.g. peer-review time, rejection rate). To characterise citation parameters of the journal NCR, we have used articles published in 2016–2020. For other characteristics, we have considered a period of 2016–2021. In addition, we have considered some aspects of the recognition of the journal NCR by the authors who have submitted manuscripts from 22.09.2020 to 14.04.2022. As a result of the journal NCR’s development, during 2016–2021, it was included in the databases of the Russian Index of Science Citation (RISC) (in 2016), Directory of Open Access Journals (in 2016), Emerging Sources Citation Index within Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) (in 2017), Scopus (in 2017), as well as in the list of peer-reviewed journals accepted by the Russian Higher Attestation Commission (in 2017). To date, the journal NCR is classified to the 2nd quartile (Q2) according to values of CiteScore2021 = 2.9 (Scopus) and SJR2021 = 0.362 (Scopus or Scimago Journal Ranking), and to the 3rd quartile (Q3) according to the value of JCI2021 = 0.36 in Journal Citation Report (Clarivate Analytics). The Impact factor RISC2021 is 2.969. In late 2021, the mean peer-review time, i.e. the time from submission to the acceptance decision, was 20.9 ± 1.5 (min–max: 5.4–51.7) weeks, and the rejection rate was 57.8%, where the main part of manuscripts has been rejected without peer-review starting (desk rejection). The main reasons for desk rejection were predominantly the inconsistency of the manuscript with the research scope or the main requirements of the journal NCR. The highest number of articles published in 2016–2020, is devoted to mammals, vascular plants, and insects. However, the highest number of citations was received by articles devoted to the IUCN Red List assessment, wildfires, and insects. Researchers from 53 organisations, managing Protected Areas in Russia, Hungary, Philippines, and Morocco, have published articles in the journal NCR in 2016–2020. In the papers published in 2016–2020, 691 Protected Areas served as the study area. Authors have found the journal NCR predominantly based on recommendations by their colleagues, but the role of databases Scopus, WoS CC, and the research network ResearchGate is high, too. For the authors, the indexation of a journal in international databases (Scopus, WoS CC), free publication, and open access to the content play a paramount role for submitting a manuscript to the journal NCR. The majority of the authors read previously published articles before preparing and submitting a manuscript to the journal NCR. About 25% of the authors permanently follow the content of papers published in the journal NCR. The full main text in English is available in the Appendix at the end of this review paper.