Conservation: A New Open Access Journal for Rapid Dissemination of the Transdisciplinary Dimensions of Biodiversity Conservation

We are pleased to launch the new peer-reviewed open access journal, Conservation, published by MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute), which offers an exciting new opportunity to publish comprehensive reviews, original research articles, communications, case reports, letters, commentaries, and other perspectives related to the biological, sociological, ethical, economic, methodological, and other transdisciplinary dimensions of conservation. In addition, we are interested in explorations of the multiple linkages between human society and nature. Conservation is devoted to providing a global forum for practitioners and scholars to disseminate their research. We welcome submissions involving transdisciplinary approaches that advance conservation practices as well as scientific understanding of topical issues.

The idea behind Conservation was sparked by our crisis over nature conservation, and the earliest literature we found in this regard is a book by Myers (1979) [1] which raised concern over the extinction of species resulting from habitat destruction by humans, although we humans appreciated the variety of life forms (later referred to as biological diversity) at an earlier stage of human history. Coinciding with the emerging concerns surrounding nature conservation during the 1980s, the concept of biodiversity and conservation began to be discussed actively among scientists [2,3]). The term “biodiversity” appeared for the first time in the title of a publication by Edward O. Wilson, who presented results from the National Forum on Biodiversity [3]. During this same decade, Michael E. Soulé, considered as the grand architect of conservation biology, dynamized this discipline through a series of events and publications related to the conservation of biological diversity. In the early 1990s, international recognition of the importance of biological diversity and conservation increased. Since then, conservation biology has been recognized as a scientific discipline [4]. Notably, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), a broad and functional definition of biological diversity or biodiversity was reached and covers three main levels: diversity of species, genetic diversity, and diversity of ecosystems [4].

The convergence between the use of the concept of biodiversity and the declaration of conservation biology as a new scientific discipline led to a new configuration of studies related to the interaction, adaptation, emergence, and disappearance of species [4]. In March 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment released its report highlighting the progressive and substantial loss of biodiversity globally, with 10%–30% of mammal, bird, and amphibian species threatened with extinction as a result of human activities. As the number of species threatened with extinction continues to rise, scientists are being asked to identify the factors causing species’ declines and to develop recommendations for the management of their recovery. In this sense, most indicators of the state of biodiversity (e.g., covering species population trends, extinction risk, habitat extent/condition and community composition) are showing declines with no recent significant reductions in rate, whereas indicators of pressures on biodiversity (e.g., resource consumption, invasive alien species, nitrogen pollution, overexploitation, and climate change impacts) are increasing [5].

The growing concern over conservation issues in the past three decades sets the stage for a new open access journal to share the latest scientific studies on conservation. For example, a search in the Web of Science (period 1990–2020) using the keyword “conservation” as the subject shows a total of 382,441 articles published on this topic. The main research areas publishing on conservation topics are ecology (16.8%), environmental sciences (12.9%), biodiversity and conservation (9.8%), plant sciences (5.3%), and zoology (5%). The growing interest in conservation can be considered from the timeline of published papers, with Figure 1 showing a progressive increase in publications on this topic since 1990. Moreover, we can observe the increasing role of open access journals in the publication of conservation research (Figure 1).

Conservation provides an advanced forum for studies on all aspects related to conservation issues, including biodiversity and environment conservation, resource recycling, conservation and sustainable management, conservation planning and governance, conservation ethics and ecology, creative and multidisciplinary solutions for conservation and restoration, as well as heritage conservation and restoration. In addition, we welcome submissions highlighting transdisciplinary advances in the science and practice of conservation, with application in management and policy decisions. Calls for Special Issues will address conservation-related issues from different angles. In the coming weeks, we will launch a call for submissions to the first Topical Collection “Frontiers in Global Biodiversity Conservation”, for which we encourage scientists working on biodiversity conservation to submit their manuscripts to this inaugural issue.

One main advantage of Conservation is the rapid yet rigorous peer review process, whereby all manuscripts are reviewed by two to four experts in the field (for further details, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/editorial). The experience of other established MDPI journals has shown that authors receive reviews and news of the first editorial decision within about two weeks, and if they are invited for revision, will be expected to promptly resubmit their manuscript. Following final acceptance, the paper will be published online in about three to four days. This reduces the time elapsed between manuscript submission and publication to four to six weeks without compromising standards of high quality. Moreover, authors are encouraged to publish the reviewers’ comments and their responses together with their article in the interests of promoting a fully transparent publication process. In addition, reviewers who provide thoughtful, accurate, and timely reviews are recognized and rewarded with vouchers to be used toward publishing in Conservation or other MDPI journals.

We hope that the advantages of open access, high-quality standards, and rapid publication will encourage scientists and practitioners to choose Conservation as a venue to disseminate their research. We are looking forward to receiving your submissions to Conservation.