New EiC for Ecography: Christine Meynard

I am really truly exited to be assuming the role of Editor-in-Chief in Ecography. This represents a huge honor to me, both because Ecography is a leading journal in macroecology, and because this has been one of my favorite journals of all times. It is also an honor to be the successor of such a prestigious list of previous editors-in-chief, as Miguel put it in his own farewell, and I hope I can live up to the task. Miguel Araújo, from whom I am taking the relay, left the journal with an excellent record of accomplishments, an amazing team of subject editors, and a high impact factor. I am therefore very thankful that both Miguel and the Nordic Society have entrusted me with this role. The journal represents today a publication venue that sets the standards for the forefront in macroecological research. It is also the only journal, among those that are focused on macroecological studies, that is owned by a scientific society. This gives us a unique place in the publication landscape where we can work in the interest of the community, and above all, to keep scientific standards that are separate from the publishing industry’s economic interests. As such, we work closely with the other journals of the Nordic Society, as well as with other editors, reviewers and authors, to keep the publication process as fair and transparent as possible. Each journal has its place in this landscape, and we definitely need different publication venues to represent the diversity of our community, of our goals and of our field studies. In this context, we will keep working for scientific excellence, and will keep up with our efforts to contribute back to the scientific societies that are closely related to our field.

As you may already know, I am not new to the journal. I started as a Subject Editor in 2012, and then as a Deputy-Editor-in-Chief in 2022. Since then, I have been working along with Miguel Araújo, and the two other Deputy-Editors, Dominique Gravel and Jens-Christian Svenning, as part of the senior editor team. I owe much to them, and to the great team of subject editors with whom I have had the chance to interact over time. Ecography will continue promoting research in ecology at large scales, as it has always been the case. I am not expecting to change the focus and scope of the journal. We will keep our priorities in studies that are original and novel, that incorporate or develop new theories or new insights into old theories, and on their empirical tests. However, as we expressed in a recent editorial, ecology is at a cross road where we are asked to address more and more large-scale ecological problems that affect human livelihood. Large-scale monitoring and prediction, as a way to anticipate and mitigate negative impacts, has become central, not only to science, but also to human societies. As such, I am expecting an increase in submissions in areas that address these intersections between large-scale ecology and different anthropogenic activities, especially those that can create a bridge between theory and practice. Technology and interdisciplinarity may be another key element in this macroecological turning point. Here again, we are not interested in technology per se but rather on studies that can apply such technology to empirically test macroecological theories and methods, or propose new insights that allow a better understanding of the relationships between organisms and their environments.

Finally, in the first months as part of my new role, I will be trying to renew our subject editor team. We are aware of the fact that our journal would not be what it is without the huge work that they do, and we are incredibly grateful for it. With a publication environment that seems to be tiring everyone out, from authors to reviewers to editors, we are looking forward to expand our editorial team so that we can alleviate the general workload. Diversifying our own board is part of the task, and we will also be looking for new ideas to improve our publication process, and to encourage a sense of community among our editors.

I am looking forward to getting to know you all better!

Christine Meynard

Editor-in-Chief

Ecography

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