International Workshop on Forest Science Publishing

Foreword

Pekka Nygren — 2015-10-14

Scientific peer-review - a time for renovation?

Mikko Mönkkönen — 2015-10-14

Ability of the peer review system to deliver what is expected from it is increasingly challenged. Peerage of Science (PoS) is a web-based service, offering new innovations to solve the problems in the current peer-review processes. This keynote talk describes how PoS pursues to keep the traditions of scientific peer-reviewing that are worth retaining and to fix the parts that are broken.

Open Science: challenges for a forest science journal

Erwin Dreyer — 2015-10-14

Open science gains momentum as important funding agencies require compliance to its guidelines. These requirements imply, in addition to open access to journal content, several innovations. Many forestry journals are in severe competition with specialised journals that publish a growing fraction of forest science. Open science also offers an opportunity for the development of our journals, which we should not miss.

Scientific publication viewed from the Editor’s chair

Pierre Bernier — 2015-10-14

Editors are the entry point of manuscripts into the peer-review evaluation system. They have to be both scientists and managers, deal with authors, editorial boards and reviewers, and interface with the underlying publication process and the publishers who actually underwrite the evaluation, formatting, printing and distribution part of the system.

Bibliometric analysis of publications authored by research groups in forestry, wood and paper science: a case study of Slovenia

Maja Peteh — 2015-10-14

We present a bibliometric analysis of all publications by Slovenian researchers in forestry, wood and paper science during the period 2005-2013. The relative proportions of different publication types (academic, non-academic, grey literature) are presented, also according to country of publication and year. The differences in publication activity among researchers are presented.

The Spanish Journal of Rural Development (SJRD): An example of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary journal on issues of rural areas

Ignacio J. Diaz-Maroto — 2015-10-14

The Spanish Journal of Rural Development (SJRD) is a journal edited by the Galician Association of Researchers for Rural Development (AGAIDERU) which publishes original research articles of practical application in different fields of rural zones (forestry, agronomy, rural sciences, international cooperation and socioeconomic issues). The overall focus is on the sustainable rural development of local populations.

Australian Forestry: The challenges of sustaining a strong regional journal

Mark Brown — 2015-10-14

Australian Forestry is a peer-reviewed publication published by the Institute of Foresters of Australia that is important to both the forest industry and the forestry research community in Australia. In recent years the journal has struggled to remain viable in the face of a number of structural changes in the Australian forest industry and forestry research community, and increased tension between pressure on academic researchers to publish in journals with a high impact factor and the desire to communicate research results to an industry readership at tolerable cost. In 2014 the management of the journal was changed, including the establishment of a new editorial board to oversee a strategic review of the journal and provide strategic management into the future.

As part of this review an extensive survey was commissioned of members of the Institute of Foresters of Australia on their views of the journal. The survey was conducted to get a better profile of both the market within Australian foresters and the expectations of that market. Along with this survey the journal publishing report was reviewed for the previous 2 years. The review was intended to gain insight into the publication results but also see how the publication metrics aligned with the perceptions and expectations provided by the readership survey.

The publishing centre Silva Slovenica and monograph series Studia Forestalia Slovenica

Peter Železnik — 2015-10-14

Silva Slovenica is the publishing centre of the Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI), founded in 1949. The publishing centre concentrates its efforts in publishing scientific monographs and co-publishes the main Slovenian scientific journal in the field of forestry, wood science and paper, but it also publishes professional publications, leaflets and brochures for promotion of certain applied and implementation results important for the civil forest service, forests and forest ecosystems.

Through the project EUFORINNO, SFI gained resources, needed for the internationalization and professionalization of its publishing centre and the monographs series. Its activities have been intensified in the last three years in several activities:

- development of a publishing system from author through technical preparation of texts with proofreading and print, which rationalises all costs of the publishing process;

- preparation of documents according to the Slovenian and international copyright law (Declaration of authorship and publication);

- set-up of the open access repository SciVie, which authors can use as their home repository;

- activities concerning obtaining DOI for published e-material (e.g. membership in a specific DOI organization).

Since its establishment the scientific outputs of the Slovenian forest and wood science were published in a scientific and professional monograph series Strokovna in znanstvena dela. With no. 122 in the year 2005 the series was renamed into Studia Forestalia Slovenica (ISSN 0353-6025). It is published in cooperation with the Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources and Department of Wood Science and Technology at Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. By now 146 titles have been published, and among most prominent monographs the photo-monograph The Virgin Forest was published in 2014.

As a small publishing centre we are flexible, cost effective and adaptable to needs of authors, and expect to proliferate as such also after the project EUFORINNO reaches its end.

SciVie – Sciences de la Vie from the past and for the future

Maja Peteh — 2015-10-14

We report the launching process of a multi-institutional repository (SciVie) to broaden access to published work and grey literature in forest research. We describe the digitalization process and the strategies used to accomplish this goal.

Acta Silvae et Ligni

Tine Grebenc — 2015-10-14

The scientific publications were always the key way of disseminating the research outputs and also an important stage in their evaluation and putting in frame of international importance. Recently changes in scientific communication due to European Commission activities and worldwide are encouraging researches to open science, in particular publications and available data to all communities. These shifts are also reflected in publishing activities of the Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI). The European project EUFORINNO has offered a financial support to publishers of Acta Silvae et Ligni to focus and intensify activities for improvement of the journal.

Acta Silvae et Ligni is the only Slovenian scientific journal dedicated to publish original or review scientific and professional contributions from the fields of forests, forestry, wood science and technology, forested landscape, nature and the environment. Journal in particular supports the development of scientific and professional terminology in Slovenian language. The journal is published in cooperation of three institutions: the Slovenian Forestry Institute, Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources and Department of Wood Science and Technology at Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. In 2013, with no. 100, its current title has been introduced with the purpose of boosting the internationalization of the journal. Several other changes have also been done on graphical design, home page, policy strategy, open access to bring the journal closer to all levels of readers, and a fully electronic submission system. The journal is under evaluation within two major databases, Web of Science and Scopus. Also the process of obtaining DOI for all articles has been lounged (e.g. membership in a specific DOI organization).

In addition the digitalization process of 643 articles from the Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva was conducted and entered into the repository SciVie.

With all these activities we try to enable use and re-use of new and old materials that might otherwise not be readily accessible, and we thus support the advancement of forest research and development.

Selecting the right journal for a manuscript

Johanna Witzell — 2015-10-14

The selection of the journal for the manuscript may significantly influence the author’s career, and it can also strongly determine the impact that the reported findings will have. The process of selecting the journal for a manuscript should thus be done carefully and considering the publication goals.

Reproducibility in forest sciences

Pekka Nygren — 2015-10-14

Reproducibility requires that study materials, methods, and analyses are well described. Special attention must be made on data exclusion and inclusion criteria. Biological materials and environmental conditions should be reported following appropriate standards when available. Data and software should be made publicly available when possible yet only the authors are responsible on the accuracy and reproducibility of the reported work.

Respond to peer review in the spirit of helpfulness

Sari Palmroth — 2015-10-14

Pre-publication peer review aims at improving the overall quality of scientific articles. All publishing scientists serve as reviewers and many as journal editors. Peer review works best when each partaker is able to view each article (they write, review or handle) through all of these roles. For an author revising a manuscript, this means responding to editors and reviewers’ comments respectfully, thoroughly and with evidence.