Pensoft Publishers announced the launch of Nature Conservation, the next member of Pensoft’s family of high technology open-access journals for biodiversity science. Its goal is to mobilize ideas and data in all theoretical and applied aspects of nature conservation – biological, ecological, societal, economic, and legal. The journal’s broad scope and innovative use of media encourage interdisciplinary and integrative approaches.
Nature Conservation is a new-generation open-access journal launched by Pensoft Publishers. The journal is platform comprising both innovative technologies and a routine medium for publication of data related to the vast area of basic and applied research in conservation of nature. Nature Conservation builds upon the success of its sister journals ZooKeys, PhytoKeys, BioRisk, and NeoBiota, and is supported by an editorial team of highly renowned specialists in the field. The composition of papers in the inaugural issue largely reflects the focus and scope of the new journal, which are also outlined in the opening Editorial paper.
The journal was established within the framework of the European Union’s Framework Program 7 large-integrated project SCALES: Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales.
“Nature Conservation is dedicated to provide a venue for those ecologists and conservationists who are keen to see their works published in a way better than ever, through innovative publishing technologies, as well as through widest possible, barrier-free distribution of works at no charge to the reader”, said the Editor-in-Chief Dr. Klaus Henle, from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig, Germany.
Like the rest of Pensoft’s journals, Nature Conservation will be published in four different formats: (1) high-resolution, full-color print version; (2) PDF, identical to the printed version; (3) HTML version on the journals website, in order to provide links to external resources and semantic enhancements for published texts and interactive reading; (4) XML version, compatible with PubMedCentral archiving, thus providing a machine-readable copy to facilitate future data mining. Neither restrictions nor charges are imposed on the use of color illustrations for all formats, and submission of multimedia is encouraged.
“Nature Conservation will advance beyond current standards in many aspects, for instance by the implementation of cutting-edge, semantic Web tools, but also in the scope of papers it will consider. Alongside with conventional papers, we established the category of “Applied Conservation Papers” that would bring to life the precious knowledge hidden in project reports, protected areas inventories, Natura 2000 studies and so on.”, added Prof. Lyubomir Penev of Pensoft Publishers in Sofia, Bulgaria, the managing editor of the new journal.
The journal aims particularly at facilitating better interaction between scientists and practitioners. A major goal of Nature Conservation is to support synergistic interactions among scientists, policy-makers, and managers. The journal will also provide opportunities and focus on open data publishing of qualitative biodiversity and environmental datasets.
“It is exciting to see the launch of Nature Conservation at a time of radical change in publishing towards opening up access to data and results obtained from public funding. The focus on interdisciplinary studies is welcome, and the explicit goal of blending biology and ecology with the humanities is long overdue.The conservation of nature has always been a political and social issue. I have no doubt that this new journal will quickly find its place in the international conservation community.” commented Prof Chris Margules from James Cook University, Australia, member of the editorial team of Nature Conservation.
