Open Call for Papers: Special Feature on Realising the Promise of Large Data and Complex Models

In an era of rapid global change, ecologists are increasingly asked to provide answers to big, urgent questions of global concern. On the one hand, responding to such requests seems increasingly feasible – given the rapid increase in the ability to collect ecological data at ever-higher spatio-temporal scales, new, unsolved questions can be tackled and increasingly realistic models can be developed, pushing the boundaries of the questions which can be answered. However, large datasets and complex models can lead to ”big” trouble, in terms of handling and manipulating the data, in addition to fitting complex models to data and interpreting the output.

Harriet RhodesFebruary 22, 2021May 19, 2021Leave a comment

Methods papers

Transparent Peer Review Pilot Update

As part of our goal towards more open science, Methods in Ecology and Evolution and Journal of Ecology are participating in a transparent peer review pilot. Now, over a year since it began in November 2019, we review the success of the trial so far.

Harriet RhodesFebruary 19, 2021February 19, 2021Leave a comment

Journal Issues

February Issue Out Now!

Our second issue of the year is now online!

Senior Editor Lee Hsiang Liow has selected five featured articles, find out all about them below. We also have one article from the Special Feature on Citizen Science, a joint venture across the British Ecological Society journals which held an open call for papers. Read all about the Special Feature in this editorial.

Harriet RhodesFebruary 4, 2021February 4, 2021Leave a comment

Uncategorized

Animal Social Networks Joint Special Feature out now!

We are excited to announce that our January Issue, including the Animal Social Networks Special Feature, is now online! All the articles in this issue are free to access – find out more about them below.

Joint with the Journal of Animal Ecology, we held a successful open call for papers, soliciting original research capturing novel methodological developments or applications of social network theory to new empirical questions.

Read all about the Special Feature in the editorial Animal social networks: Towards an integrative framework embedding social interactions, space and time by editors Sebastian Sosa, David Jacoby, Mathieu Lihoreau and Cédric Sueur.

Harriet RhodesJanuary 11, 2021January 11, 2021Leave a comment

Virtual Issues

Machine Learning Virtual Issue

We are pleased to announce our Machine Learning Virtual Issue is now online.

This collection of MEE articles showcases exciting advances and applications of machine learning (ML) across a wide range of ecological and evolutionary disciplines.

From the analysis of reef structure and tree crowns, to species and individual animal identification, biological overlap, content analysis, biodiversity assessment and counting animals, ML automates the extraction of meaningful information from large digital collections.

Our Associate Editors Arthur Porto, Marta Vidal-Garcia, Miguel Acevedo, Theoni Photopoulou and Sarab Sethi curated this virtual issue by selecting their favourite MEE articles that use machine learning. Find out below why these papers were chosen, and how they are helping to progress research in ecology and evolution.

Harriet RhodesDecember 18, 2020January 6, 20252 Comments

Ecology, Editor Recommendations, Methods 10th, Methods 10th Anniversary

10th Anniversary Volume 11: Climate Change

To celebrate our anniversary, we are highlighting a key article from each of our volumes. For Volume 11 we selected ‘The handbook for standardized field and laboratory measurements in terrestrial climate change experiments and observational studies (ClimEx)’ by Halbritter et al. (2019).

In this post, Jessica Royles, one of our Associate Editors with expertise in climate change, selects her favourite MEE papers in this field.

Harriet RhodesDecember 17, 2020Leave a comment

Ecology, Evolution, Methods 10th, Methods 10th Anniversary

10th Anniversary Volume 10: R packages

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we are highlighting a key article from each of our volumes. For Volume 10 we selected ‘An automated approach to identifying search terms for systematic reviews using keyword co‐occurrence networks’ by Grames et al. (2019), an Application article introducing the R package litsearchr.

In this post Thomas White and Laura Graham, two of our Associate Editors with expertise in Application articles, highlight their favourite of our papers about R packages.

Harriet RhodesDecember 16, 2020December 16, 2020Leave a comment

Meetings

Methods at the Festival of Ecology!

Welcome to all the Methods editors, authors, reviewers and readers attending the British Ecological Society’s Festival of Ecology – the online version of our annual conference.

With a huge number of amazing talks, posters and workshops to choose from, it may be difficult to choose what to attend this week. Below is a list of conference content by our editors and authors that may be of interest to you.

If you can’t make a live session, the plenary lectures and thematic sessions are being recorded and videos will be uploaded to the conference platform the following day.

Don’t forget that presenter networking sessions run twice per day and these give you an opportunity to ask live questions while presenters of the on-demand talks and posters are online.

Follow #BES2020 and @MethodsEvolEcol for the latest updates!

Harriet RhodesDecember 16, 2020December 15, 2020Leave a comment

Ecology, Field Methods, Methods 10th, Methods 10th Anniversary

10th Anniversary Volume 9: Acoustic Monitoring Editor’s Choice

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we are highlighting a key article from each of our volumes. For Volume 9 we selected ‘Estimating effective detection area of static passive acoustic data loggers from playback experiments with cetacean vocalisations’ by Nuuttila et al. (2018).

In this post, three of our Associate Editors with expertise in acoustic monitoring, Sarab Sethi, Camille Desjonquères and Lian Pin Koh, select their favourite MEE papers in this field.

Harriet RhodesDecember 15, 2020December 15, 2020Leave a comment

Methods 10th, Methods 10th Anniversary

10th Anniversary Volume 7: eDNA Editor’s Choice

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we are highlighting a key article from each of our volumes. For Volume 7 we selected ‘The ecologist’s field guide to sequence‐based identification of biodiversity’ by Creer et al. (2016).

In this post, two of our Associate Editors with expertise in eDNA, Lynsey Harper and Chloe Robinson, select their favourite MEE papers in this field.

Harriet RhodesDecember 11, 2020December 11, 2020Leave a comment

Methods Blog

Author: Harriet Rhodes