The same, but different: Introducing a new chapter at Journal of Biogeography

Abstract

Journal of Biogeography (JBI) has a proud, 50-year history of publishing broad scope studies at the intersection of biology and geography. Developments in 2023, during which there was a work stoppage from the editorial board and subsequent resignations, hindered the journal in that mission. We acknowledge the issues raised by Williams et al. (2023) and are confident that the new editorial structure—implemented in 2024 and outlined below—will ensure the journal continues to thrive and publish globally relevant and innovative biogeography research.

Our new structure moves away from a single Editor-in-Chief and streamlines the Editorial Board. The journal is now edited by a team of Senior Editors, who contribute equally to journal strategy and directly handle all manuscripts submitted to the journal. In this way, we aim to ensure manuscripts are handled in an efficient, consistent, and timely manner. The recruitment of the Senior Editors considered geographical diversity alongside subject expertise directly relating to the submissions profile of the journal. Despite these changes, our scope remains the same; we aim to publish biogeographical research that is scientifically important and of broad general interest. Along these lines, JBI continues to be a sister publication to two other distinct but complementary titles within the broad field of biogeography; we encourage authors of globally relevant macroecological studies to consider Global Ecology & Biogeography , and those that apply biogeographical principles to questions of biodiversity conservation to consider Diversity & Distributions . The editors of all three journals are happy to answer questions from authors on which journal fits their work best.

We would also like to emphasise that manuscripts will be evaluated purely based on scientific content, not on the quality of the written English. While the advent of AI will increasingly play a role in scholarly publishing—there will inevitably be a multitude of tools that will help authors (e.g. https://en.wileyeditingservices.com/english-language-checker-service-recommender)—it is still vital that editors in general are understanding when it comes to the inherent obstacles that exist for non-English speakers in our community. The current Senior Editorial team has only two members with English as a first language; the barrier of using a second language to communicate professionally is one we are familiar with and sympathetic to.

The Senior Editors are backed up by an Editorial Advisory Board, who will provide advice and steer on how best to position the journal within the field of biogeography. As a team, we will be focussed on the best strategy to expand the journal's audience beyond regular readers (e.g. biogeographers, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, conservation biologists, botanists, zoologists) to include other stakeholders, such as policymakers.

The first initiatives from that new structure are now in place, and we are proud to announce three developments at JBI, all focussed on increased equity and diversity for both authors and readers:

As huge amounts of data become increasingly accessible due to the research community, the need to ensure as much of that data as possible is available for review becomes more imperative. Journal of Biogeography has, for some time, mandated sharing of data after acceptance. We feel that it is time for the next step, and we will now be mandating data sharing at submission . Playing an essential role in abetting trust and to increase scientific research scrutiny and replicability, JBI reviewers and editors will have the option to thoroughly evaluate all inferences made in submitted manuscripts, and as such ensure the research we publish adheres to FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) principles (Wilkinson et al., 2016) and minimum standards for ecological open data (Jenkins et al., 2023).

Extending earlier results on double-blind versus single-blind peer reviewing procedure (e.g. Fisher et al., 1994; Huber et al., 2022; Ucci et al., 2022), a recent study (Fox et al., 2023) provided an in-depth and randomised trial of the effects that double-blind peer review has on the publication process. To our minds, the conclusions from that study provide compelling evidence that authors from lower or middle-income countries and/or non-English speaking countries face bias in the review process. Furthermore, double-blind review seems to increase the representation of female authors in ecology or evolution journals (Budden et al., 2008). In this context, we are moving Journal of Biogeography to double-blind peer review , and hope this will prove to be a more equitable form of evaluation. Leading ecological societies (e.g. British Ecological Society, Nordic Society Oikos) have already adopted or are in the process of implementing this policy, as have our sister journals Diversity and Distributions & Global Ecology and Biogeography. We are excited that JBI is joining this position.

The Judith Masters Fund was established by JBI (Dawson, 2023) to increase access and/or reach for underrepresented scientists. Here, we announce an open call for proposals to provide funding for biogeography meetings/symposia . Priority will be given to those held in the Global South. The organisers would be offered a place on the Editorial Advisory Board and their opinions sought on future strategic direction of the journal. The Senior Editors would also offer advice and guidance on amplifying/publishing any outcomes from the meetings. JBI hopes to help fund two of these per year. In this way, we believe the journal can help improve access to the global scientific community for researchers from underrepresented areas and build a thriving biogeography community where it is most needed. Please contact the editorial office ([email protected]) with a brief proposal (<500 words) including a tentative budget if you are interested.

We strongly believe that these updates, alongside the new editorial structure, will improve author experience. We shall thus endeavour to maintain the highest standards of editorial service to our author community. After celebrating the 50th anniversary of the journal last year, we believe the best way we can serve the biogeography community is by implementing these changes, with hopefully more to come. This is a time to look ahead as an exciting new chapter for Journal of Biogeography begins.