Issue 5.1

The first issue of 2014 is now online, and is freely available – enjoy! This month we have included articles on estimating extinction rates, demographics, missing data, networks, and large-scale experiments. There are 2 open access articles: Using time-to-event analysis to complement hierarchical methods when assessing determinants of photographic detectability during camera trapping by Richard Bischof et al., and Designing forest biodiversity experiments: general considerations … Continue reading Issue 5.1

If you could invent a method, what would it be?

At INTECOL 2013, Methods’ Associate Editor, Barb Anderson, interviewed a number of delegates and asked them: If you could invent a method, what would it be?

The answers in this podcast are given by the following people:

  1. Carsten Dormann, University of Freiburg, Germany (00.17)
  2. Helen Roy, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK (00.36)
  3. Georgina Mace, University College London, UK (01.01) Continue reading “If you could invent a method, what would it be?”

Data archiving mandate

Until now, Methods and the other BES Journals have recommended that authors should archive any data associated with their papers; from 6th January 2014, this will be required for publication. The thinking behind this is that all raw data should be preserved in a usable form for future generations of researchers; a third-party should be able to reproduce a study independently and perform their own … Continue reading Data archiving mandate

Altmetrics: how was the trial for you?

Last May we started a trial with Altmetric, using their tools to track the online presence of papers, e.g. on Twitter, blogs, and Facebook. Each paper gets an Altmetric score, which is updated as more data comes in. So, for example, this paper currently has a score of 42 (and boy will I be upset with myself if this blog post pushes it higher than … Continue reading Altmetrics: how was the trial for you?

What are the newest methods being used?

At INTECOL 2013, Methods’ Associate Editor, Barb Anderson, interviewed a number of delegates and asked them: What is the newest method that you currently use?

The answers in this podcast are given by the following people:

  1. Bill Sutherland, University of Cambridge, UK (00.18)
  2. Georgina Mace, University College London, UK (01.04)
  3. Simon Leather, Harper Adams University, UK (01.12) Continue reading “What are the newest methods being used?”

Issue 4.12

mee-4-12-coverlargeThe final issue of the year is now available online!

One of this month’s articles, ‘Calculating the ecological impacts of animal-borne instruments on aquatic organisms’ by Todd Jones et al., was picked up by the press after the University of British Columbia published the press release ‘Tagging aquatic animals can disrupt natural behaviour‘. Todd also summarises his study in an accompanying video which can be viewed on the Methods YouTube channel.

There are 2 freely available application articles included in this issue: ‘Animal social Continue reading “Issue 4.12”

Be nice to vandals, and they won’t be vandals?

Sometimes you read a paper and think “ooh, that’s cool”. As an editor you get the added delight that it’s a manuscript submitted to your journal, so you get to think “ooh, I really want to have that in the journal”. This is followed by “I hope it’s good enough”. At Methods we’ve just published one of those manuscripts where that was my reaction. And it was good enough.
Continue reading “Be nice to vandals, and they won’t be vandals?”

An interview with the Tea Bag Index team

The Tea Bag Index is an innovative, cost-effective, well-standardised method recently covered in MEE, used to gather data on decomposition rate and litter stabilisation using commercially available tea bags as standardised test kits. In this video, David Warton interviews 2 of the authors, Joost Keuskamp and Mariet Hefting from Utrecht University, who explain how it works and what they plan to do with it in … Continue reading An interview with the Tea Bag Index team

Issue 4.11

Issue 4.11 is now online! This issue includes articles on distance sampling, statistics, survey data, seed dispersal, decomposition, food webs and species diversity. This month we’d like to highlight 2 open access papers: Rapid Bayesian inference of heritability in animal models without convergence problems, by Jon Ahlinder and Mikko J. Sillanpää, and Spatial models for distance sampling data: recent developments and future directions, by David … Continue reading Issue 4.11

BES Virtual Issue: Ecología en América del Sur

Taking place this week is the joint meeting of the Argentinian Ecological Association and the Chilean Ecological Society. To mark this event, the BES journals would like to highlight some of our South American content to date. Read the Virtual Issue here: Ecología en América del Sur. Continue reading BES Virtual Issue: Ecología en América del Sur