The Issue 1 of Volume 12 of 2014 is the first to be published with Elsevier, our new partner for the production and distribution of Natureza & Conservacao, The Brazilian Journal of Nature Conservation.
The partnership established between the Brazilian Society for Ecological Science and Conservation (ABECO; Associacao Brasileira de Ciencia Ecologica e Conservação) and Elsevier is a step forward to our desire to make Natureza & Conservação a renowned and internationally recognized journal in the field of Ecology and Conservation Biology. It also sets a milestone in the history of the journal, first published in 2003.
Natureza & Conservação grew together with ABECO through the efforts of a handful of very dedicated people, who helped to make ABECO internationally known and led Natureza & Conservação to its current status. The journal was originally conceived within a non-governmental organization (the O Boticário Foundation for Nature Protection) and after seven years after its conception, ABECO started to edit it, with continuous support form the O Boticario Foundation. It was a big transition and the reformulation of the journal also followed a significant change in journal’s aims and scope and a reorganization of the editorial board. Since then, Natureza & Conservação has broadened its scope, from particular conservation studies and actions applied to protected areas, to scientific studies on conservation at all scales focused on multiple aspects of biodiversity. The new profile of the journal prioritized the publication of studies that used general scientific principles and were of broad conservation interest. Our goal was to ensure that papers were scientifically sound and could provide solid background for decision-makers (Diniz-Filho & Loyola 2010).
Two years later, papers published by Natureza & Conservação were scientifically solid and have had a real impact on decision-making process (e.g. Metzger 2010, Mittermeier et al. 2010). We are now attracting more contributions from other countries, especially from developing ones (e.g. Colombia, Argentina), where conservation problems are likely to be more difficult to solve. We have also published papers related to biodiversity in a broad sense, not necessarily with a clear or direct conservation goal (e.g. Bertrand & Morisot 2012). This was expected as the journal has become more diverse (Loyola & Diniz-Filho 2012).
Now, after four years, the impact factor of Natureza & Conservação has risen from 0.27 to 1.47, and we attributed this fast increase in our impact to the invitation of submissions from respected scientists worldwide, the publication of special issues led by renowned scientists, and our careful recruitment of editors who have served on reputable international journals to guarantee the quality of accepted papers (Loyola & Diniz-Filho 2013). Brazilian science is steadily improving in quality and quantity and the country ranks the 8th position in the global scientific production of papers in the field of Conservation Biology. Nevertheless, our production is highly concentrated. Over the last decade, Brazilian scientists working with Conservation Biology published 71% of their research in only three major international journals (see Grelle et al. 2009). With this partnership with Elsevier, we hope Natureza & Conservação to become more and more international, standing as an important venue for publishing papers from conservation biologists all around the globe. As the Editor-in-Chief, I would like to thank you for your special support during the last four years as a reader, author and/or reviewer. We have worked with more than two hundred fifty reviewers during the last four years and your work is extremely important and invaluable to us. Thanks also to you that access the journal from your institution, library or research center; and to all the members of ABECO, who receive the journal freely and have always supported Natureza & Conservação.
As we said back in 2010, “to achieve [our] scientific purposes, we expect that researchers worldwide take note of papers published in N&C, and because of the generality of conservation science published they should be viewed not as case studies of local interest, but rather as examples and models that can be tested or replicated elsewhere” (Diniz-Filho & Loyola 2010). We hope our first and forthcoming issues published with Elsevier helps us to achieve our initial purposes and that it helps Natureza & Conservation to establish as a solid and recognized journal in Ecology and Conservation Biology.
