Ten simple rules to bridge ecology and palaeoecology by publishing outside palaeoecological journals

PLoS Comput Biol. 2024 Oct 15;20(10):e1012487. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012487. eCollection 2024 Oct.

Abstract

Owing to its specialised methodology, palaeoecology is often regarded as a separate field from ecology, even though it is essential for understanding long-term ecological processes that have shaped the ecosystems that ecologists study and manage. Despite advances in ecological modelling, sample dating, and proxy-based reconstructions facilitating direct comparison of palaeoecological data with neo-ecological data, most of the scientific knowledge derived from palaeoecological studies remains siloed. We surveyed a group of palaeo-researchers with experience in crossing the divide between palaeoecology and neo-ecology, to develop Ten Simple Rules for publishing your palaeoecological research in non-palaeo journals. Our 10 rules are divided into the preparation phase, writing phase, and finalising phase when the article is submitted to the target journal. These rules provide a suite of strategies, including improved networking early in the process, building effective collaborations, transmitting results more efficiently to improve cross-disciplinary accessibility, and integrating concepts and methodologies that appeal to ecologists and a wider readership. Adhering to these Ten Simple Rules can ensure palaeoecologists' findings are more accessible and impactful among ecologists and the wider scientific community. Although this article primarily shows examples of how palaeoecological studies were published in journals for a broader audience, the rules apply to anyone who aims to publish outside specialised journals.

MeSH terms

  • Ecology*
  • Ecosystem
  • Paleontology
  • Periodicals as Topic*
  • Publishing

Grants and funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The following co-authors were funded: NS received funding from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences; XB has received funding from the postdoctoral fellowships programme Beatriu de Pinós (grant number 801370), funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and by the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801370; SOB received funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant: PZ00P2_208687); SP-R was supported by the European Research Council grant ERC-CoG-2021-101045309 TIME-LINES; SGAF acknowledges support from Trond Mohn Stiftelse (TMS) and University of Bergen for the startup grant ‘TMS2022STG03; TF received funding from the Ramsay Fellowship and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101017833;.. AH is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Ramón y Cajal Scheme [RYC2020-029253-I]. EM was funded by the Spanish Council of Science and Innovation (ref. PID2022-138059NB-I00). KM was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (grant 2020/39/D/ST10/00641). The other authors received no specific funding for this work.