A call for papers that could be of interest to many ESP members was launched this week. IJBESM, an open access journal affiliated with the ESP is hosting a special issue on the outcomes and advancements of science-policy interfaces such as IPBES. Science-policy interfaces, such as IPBES, are crucial to bring the global biodiversity crisis and its consequences on the policy agenda. Recently, it has brought us Nature’s Contributions to People, new conceptual frameworks, calls to incorporate social sciences and the humanities, and to involve Indigenous and Local Knowledge and recognition of the plural values involved in nature-society interactions.
Are such science-policy interfaces advancing science on biodiversity, ecosystems and people? What new conceptual and methodological developments have they brought, how are they dealing with multiple evidence sources, and what can we learn from the both the multi-disciplinary efforts and the interactions between multi-disciplinary scientists and policy makers?
Please contribute your original research or perspective papers to this open access Special Issue in IJBESM. More info.
Guest Editors: Patricia Balvanera, Harini Nagendra, Patrick O’Farrell & Sander Jacobs.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL:
Interdisciplinary and inclusive venue
- IJBESM’s new co-Editors in Chief, Berta Martín-López and Alexander van Oudenhoven recently broadened the Journal’s scope, e.g. by embracing contributions from anthropology, sociology, humanities and other social sciences, in addition to the more classical natural sciences.
- You can read their Editorial here, which marks the transition to the new Editors.
- IJBESM also embraces the trend towards more inclusive and context-specific research approaches that reflect cultural realities and include other knowledge systems, such as indigenous and local knowledge, and provide research findings that are perceived as legitimate too.
Equity principle
- The Editors envision to have gender balance in the Editorial Board by the end of 2018. Adhering to three criteria of inclusiveness (i.e. region, gender and seniority level) in the Editorial Board will spur more diverse representation of reviewers, authors and research contributions.
Fair review process and constructive feedback
- The journal adheres to a double-blind peer review policy, which helps to ensure that everyone is treated equally, regardless of career phase, geographical region or gender. Review is coordinated by experienced editors who offer support, advise and who go beyond simply conveying the reviews to the authors.
Open access and broad audience
- IJBESM is an Open Access journal with an affordable publication fee, and various financial support models for authors from lower income countries. ESP members receive 15% discount on their publication fee.
- Since the shift to OA, the annual number of downloads in 2017 tripled as compared to the most successful year up until then.
- The Journal has published many SIs before (overview here), on different topics relating to human-nature relationships but not limited to ecosystem services. SI papers have been among the Journal’s most highly cited and downloaded.
- Authors submitting to IJBESM are encouraged to highlight recommendations that are relevant for decision making on ecosystem services, landscape management, land-use planning and biodiversity conservation.