Why statistical innovations?

Abstract

Ecology is excited to introduce a new article type, “Statistical Innovations,” which replaces “Statistical Reports.” Statistical Innovations will extend Ecology's long tradition of publishing the most important developments in quantitative methods within the general field of ecology. For over a century, Ecology has issued seminal work advancing the analysis of ecological data, including the development of key modeling frameworks that have been widely adopted in the analysis of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. The journal has played an important role in the uptake of new approaches to data collection and analysis by publishing “how-to” guides and highlighting both the strengths and limitations of various quantitative techniques. The collection “A century of statistical Ecology,” collated in April 2024 and available at https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1939-9170.century-stat-ecology, reviews the critical role that Ecology has played in the development of the field of statistical ecology to date.

We want Ecology to remain at the forefront of quantitative innovations as the need for complex quantitative methods continues to grow to handle the myriad types of modern ecological data. While many statistical ecology papers have become increasingly technical, with more targeted audiences, it is critical for the most significant methods developments to reach the broad ecological community. Ecology is the ideal outlet for such papers given the journal's long history of impactful work in this area.

We introduce Statistical Innovations with the goal of publishing the very best statistical ecology papers that have wide appeal. We define statistical ecology broadly to include any research that studies ecological systems using mathematical equations, probability, and empirical data. Statistical Innovations articles take a data-first perspective by putting the analysis and interpretation of data at the forefront. We encourage submissions focused on any biological level from individuals to macrosystems and analyses of data across time and/or space. Submissions that focus on model validation, model selection, syntheses about statistical tools, and best practices that transcend subdisciplines are also welcomed and encouraged. In the future, we hope that Statistical Innovations will grow to encompass new developments in ecology related to machine learning, artificial intelligence, and as yet unexplored topics.

To provide a smooth and efficient publishing process for authors, we plan to “Fast Track” Statistical Innovations submissions and introduce a new peer review process that instructs reviewers to focus on the big picture in shorter, more targeted reviews. Handling editors will take an active role in streamlining the process to minimize the number of revisions required for publication. Additionally, the only constraints on length are those for a standard article at Ecology, which removes the restrictions that had been on Statistical Reports. Complete details are available in the author guidelines at https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/19399170/author-guidelines.

Scientists are flooded with research papers in the current publishing landscape. For the past 100 years, Ecology has been an important and reliable source of information published by the Ecological Society of America. We envision that Ecology will remain at the forefront of sound, trusted, and expertly reviewed statistical ecology research on critical topics in our changing world.