Thank you to our Guardians of Science

This is the first issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management (JWM) for which I served as Editor-in-Chief (EIC). I am deeply grateful for the trust and support of The Wildlife Society (TWS) and honored to follow in the footsteps of the esteemed EICs that have preceded me.

Foremost, I want to acknowledge the indelible legacy of our outgoing EIC, Paul Krausman. His collective time as EIC for JWM spanned 11 years (he served another 5 years as EIC for Wildlife Monographs), which contrasts to an average of ~2.5 years for the 31 other JWM EICs (Krausman 2022a). No other EIC for JWM oversaw such a dramatic scope of change in the publishing arena as Paul. To elaborate on that point, consider that Paul's EIC career began in 1988 with a drive to Texas for the transfer of “boxes upon boxes” of printed manuscripts (Krausman 2022a) and culminated with navigating how to embrace the benefits and guard against the perils of artificial intelligence in scientific publishing (Krausman 2023a). Paul deftly guided, protected, and improved our flagship journal through innumerable challenges over his career. I am grateful for his expertise and thoughtful leadership of JWM and his mentorship as he passed the torch to me.

In reviewing Paul's editorials, key aspects of his legacy as EIC became apparent and invariably underscored his goal of publishing “the best science in the field available to advance wildlife management and conservation” (Krausman 2022a). Towards that end Paul often offered tips for communicating science effectively (Krausman 2016a, b, 2017a, b, 2018a, 2020a, 2024a; Krausman and Cox 2020), providing specific guidance to graduate students and first-time authors (Krausman 2021a, 2024b), establishing a WILD program to improve the quality of English writing and by extension the accessibility of JWM to international authors (Krausman 2015a), emphasizing ethics in science and publishing (Krausman 2016c, 2021b), and providing insights into how to get publications noticed (Krausman 2016e). As EIC, Paul often sought and was responsive to author concerns (Krausman 2017c, 2022b)—summarizing and streamlining author guidelines (Krausman 2017d, e, 2018b), explaining the necessary evils of page charges (Krausman 2017f) and rejections (Krausman 2020b), clarifying content differences between JWM and the Wildlife Society Bulletin (Krausman 2016d), highlighting the benefits of publishing with Wiley (Krausman 2017g), and being transparent about journal metrics from submissions and impact factors to the timing of each stage of review from submission to production (e.g., Krausman 2023c). It is evident through these editorials not only how much Paul cared about the quality of JWM papers but how much he cared about the people behind them from those conducting the research, and those reviewing and helping refine the insights gained, to those relying on the published information to help conserve our wildlife legacy.

At every available opportunity Paul emphasized the debt owed to “everyone involved in the publication of our research from the authors that submit their work, to the referees, Associate Editors, EICs that make final decisions, TWS staff, the publisher, and, of course, the readers” (Krausman 2022a). Collectively, these are the “Guardians of Science” (Krausman 2021b) upon which the integrity of our journal depends. Following Paul's lead, I want to take the time here to especially thank the publications staff, Anna Knipps and Allison Cox, along with our committed board of Associate Editors (see https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/19372817/editorialboard.html), without whom the whole enterprise would crumble. And given the incredibly important and often thankless job provided by referees, we will continue to recognize all of our reviewers for the previous year in the third issue of JWM (e.g., Krausman 2023b). Voluntary peer-review is the backbone of scientific integrity, and the value of our committed set of reviewers is incalculable. I also want to thank the TWS Publications Committee, TWS Council, and Wiley staff, each of whom supports the society's publications in innumerable and important ways. Lastly, thank you to the 328,180 downloaders, representing a minimum of article readers, so far in 2024 (as of 11-12-24 8:56 AM). To each of you, a tremendous debt is owed.

As incoming EIC, I'm as honored to work with such a talented and dedicated group of people as I am humbled by Paul's legacy—he left big shoes to fill, literally and figuratively. I look forward to building on the legacy left by Paul and previous EICs, meeting the demands of the ever-changing publishing arena, and ensuring the integrity and accessibility of the best available wildlife science for current and future wildlife professionals.