In Discussion with Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin's Associate Editors

The Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin has been published since 1990 and over that time its editorial board has taken a range of different forms. In 2022, the Bulletin switched to a model where the Editor in Chief (myself, Laura Falkenberg) is supported by three Associate Editors (AEs, Fig. 1). Following an open call for applicants, our first team of AEs was comprised of Carolina Barbosa, Clara Mendoza-Lera, and Michael Meyer. Over the past two years, we have worked together to bring you eight issues of the Bulletin. With their terms concluding earlier this year, original AEs Carolina and Clara are stepping down from their roles, while Michael has extended for a second two year stint. To fill the vacant positions, another open call was announced earlier in 2024. The successful applicants were Jemma Fadum and Alberto Scotti, with this their first issue as AEs. Here, I sit down to reflect with the outgoing and incoming AEs on their role with the Bulletin.

EiC: Carolina, what activities during your time as an AE with the Bulletin did you enjoy or benefit the most from undertaking?

CB: As an early career researcher, the activities I enjoyed and benefited most from were reviewing manuscripts, networking trough reaching out authors, and writing pieces for the Bulletin. All these activities helped me acquire skills to improve my own work and expand my collaborations, which was very important for my professional and academic development.

EiC: Clara, what is a key lesson that you learnt that you'll take away from your time with the Bulletin and be able to apply elsewhere?

CM-L: Working with the Bulletin I have learnt that scientists do very interesting things beyond their research, that these contributions enrich them as scientists and individuals. This work is often not valued enough, and yet it can be crucial outreach work to bring science to society and teach key lessons to the aquatic sciences community. It also enriches our teams, research centers, teaching, …. After my work with the Bulletin, I try acknowledge it, promote it, and value it when recruiting.

EiC: Michael, as the continuing AE, how do you think the first two years of experience are going to shape how you approach the next two?

MM: Over the past two years, I learned a different aspect to reviewing manuscripts. In a traditional scientific journal, you might expect to lean upon your expertise to guide the review, but with the Bulletin, you have to lean in on how the piece flows, how editorial a piece is, and how much the community might appreciate such as piece. It's a slightly different way of thinking, but reviewing for the Bulletin pushes me to think about what someone could take away from any given piece. Further, reviewing for Bulletin has helped me think critically about what the author's core message is and then focus on amplifying or clarifying that core message, rather than dissecting data or interpretations. Moving into the next two years, I hope to amplify this skill developed and help authors think of novel, creative ways to share their main message, thereby helping Bulletin circulation extend beyond its regular readership.

EiC: Jemma, what motivated you to apply to join the Bulletin as an AE?

JF: During graduate school, I participated in the LOREX program (Limnology and Oceanography Research Exchange; https://www.aslo.org/lorex/). Even now, several years later, I still feel that the comradery and connections I found through that experience have been one of the most personally and professionally enriching experiences within my career. Applying to join the Bulletin felt like a natural progression in my effort to be more involved in our ASLO community and the aquatic sciences more broadly.

As a reader, I have appreciated the diverse topics and voices I find in the Bulletin and was excited about the opportunity to be involved in these community minded pieces, contribute new ideas, and continue to support the effort to produce pieces that serve the broad readership of the Bulletin. I also wanted to learn more about the publishing process from the editor's perspective.

EiC: Alberto, are there any topics in particular you want to focus on getting pieces about for the Bulletin?

AS: First of all, I want to mention how the Bulletin has always been a truly inspiring source of information for me, especially during the very first years of my research career. The content that is currently organized under the Virtual Issues really constitutes a must-read for all researchers and scientists, in particular early career ones (https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/topic/vi-categories-15396088/d451681b-72f1-4ab4-a0ae-f2789676725d/15396088). As an ideal continuation to one of the topics I feel particularly attached to (“Science Meets Policy”), I'd like to be able to get pieces analyzing the links between freshwater/marine science and its policy implications, in terms of: (i) general considerations on how successful marine- and freshwater-related science has been informing policy measures and (ii) examples of the contribution of science to policy making (e.g., experiences of involvement of scientists in committees, steering groups, etc.). Apart from my personal interest, I think this topic is showing every day how relevant it can be, not only for us as scientists, but also as citizens. In the last decades the debates on issues such as climate change or the biodiversity crisis have polarized opinions at all levels. Thus, it would be interesting to disclose the roles of science within these debates, and how science can feed these debates. Moreover, I am sure that such a topic may be inspiring for scientists who do not see themselves staying in academia but, for example, moving to careers as science communicators.

EiC: Thanks to all the AEs for their contributions to the Bulletin and ASLO more broadly, it is a pleasure getting to collaborate with you all on this journal.

LJF declares she is the Editor of L&O Bulletin.