Chosen by all. Free for everyone.
The Journal of Biogeography has for many years featured an “Editor’s Choice” article in each issue: a contribution considered to represent a particularly interesting facet or matter of broad interest. While the increased profile has been beneficial, one of the downsides of this process has been that the article was not as widely accessible as possible, as it was mostly behind the journal’s paywall. However, beginning with volume 47 of the journal (January 2020), we are making one smaller and one larger change to this featured research.
The first (smaller) change, is that it will become the “Editors’ Choice.” The article will be chosen each month through discussion by the entire senior editorial board of the journal, i.e. chosen by all. The idea here is that we will ensure broad representation across the many disciplines within biogeography and seek input from the editors who have handled all of the papers during the review process. Primary among the characteristics of the chosen articles will be that they “[are] scientifically important and of broad general interest,” “address understudied, vexing, and urgent questions”, and “advance our basic understanding” (see JBI: Scope). However, many articles each month meet these criteria, so we also will take into consideration other aspects, such as the articles being initially well-prepared and receiving and being responsive to good initial reviews.
The second (larger) change, is that the Editors’ Choice article will be ‘full access‘ — i.e. free to everyone — for two years at no cost to the author. Given that the article and authors are being recognized for outstanding biogeographical research in all respects from project conception through to publication, we feel it should be receive a commensurate reward. Putting it infront of the paywall for two years, so that it is accessible to everyone globally at no cost, is our ‘thank you’ to you as authors for your creativity and hard work.
We will continue to work to add value to all papers that we publish in the Journal of Biogeography, and to ensure equitable access to these opportunities. Other recent initiatives include return of the author contributed Cover Image, at no cost to authors, and increased social media effort on your behalf.