Five decades of biogeography: A view from the Journal of Biogeography

Abstract

The first issue of Journal of Biogeography (JBI) was published by Blackwell Scientific in March 1974. Volume 1 summed to 279 pages over four issues, and its remit was broad-biology, geography, palaeontology, genetics, human modification of the environment, effects on biotic distributions, their medical relevance, and more (Watts, 1974). Although other journals carried some biogeographical papers (e.g. see Cowell & Parker, 2004), JBI remained the sole journal dedicated to publishing biogeography until the early 1990s when two sister titles-Biodiversity Letters and Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters-were created to accommodate growth in the field (Figure 1), the rise of global environmental concerns (Stott, 1991) and momentum captured in newly coined concepts such as 'biodiversity' (Stott, 1993). These sister journals metamorphosed into the now more familiar titles Diversity and Distributions (DDI) and Global Ecology and Biogeography (GEB) in the late 1990s to publish the burgeoning studies of, respectively, biological invasions (Richardson, 1998) and macroecology (Whittaker, 1999). Throughout, JBI continued to act as the most inclusive venue for biogeography, its content shifting through the years as the interests of authors and readers waxed and waned.The commitment to represent the full breadth of biogeography has remained a constant since (Linder, 2016;Whittaker, 2005), as has the commitment that JBI should be a journal about biogeography, by biogeographers, and for biogeographers both as authors and as readers (Linder, 2016).Changes in biogeographical journals also have reflected changes in publishing. JBI, for example, transitioned from its initial sub-A4sized format to A4 in 1989A4 in (Whittaker, 2014. The editorial introducing GEB also noted the adoption of email for handling reviews, encouraged authors to submit electronic versions of revised manuscripts 'by disk', and referred to the journal website as a key source of information; papers could be downloaded as PDF files, and HTML versions were on the immediate horizon (Whittaker, 1999). A halfdecade later, 'Online-Early' was imminent, allowing digital publication online before print issues and citation using the Digital Object Identifier (DOI); referral pathways, to transfer articles among sister journals, were starting to take shape (Whittaker, 2005). Around the same time, Online Supporting Information was enabled, which accompanied >80% of articles in JBI a decade later (Whittaker, 2014); the proportion for research articles is now >95%. Linder (2016) remarked on the emergence of data repositories, the surge of papers relying on 'recycled' data, and the need for recognition of data authors, deposition of new data, and policies for data access.

Science maps for biogeography—The field's place within the sciences and its change over the past quarter century

“…Our analysis of the use of keywords over the past quarter century confirms that most of the above‐mentioned topics are indeed still in focus (see Figure 1a,b for focus areas within biogeography). During the 2010s, phylogeography formed the most substantial fraction of papers in the Journal of Biogeography (Dawson et al, 2023), mirroring the increasing availability of genetic data and software for modelling and advanced statistical analysis. The proportion of papers that includes ‘computing’ in our analysis increased from 10 to 30% (Figure 1c).…”

“…Other concepts or terms that are experiencing an almost explosive growth (Figure 5b) are 'environmental justice', 'Anthropocene' and 'rewilding', of which the latter grows out of biogeographical research on the past and presence distribution of fauna and flora. Indeed, rewilding may be the poster-child for the societal relevance of basic biogeographic insights (Dawson et al, 2023). Between 1995 and 2020, technical terms, such as 'ecoregions', 'macroecology' and 'island biogeography', have rarely appeared in the media, despite their importance in biogeographical research.…”

History and philosophy of geography I: Heterodox progress, critical scepticism and intellectual voluminosity

“…The intellectual histories and geographies reviewed here express a drive to self-reflectivity and further normative considerations that seems also to occur in other subfields such as critical geoeconomics (Mallin and Sidaway, 2023), biogeography (Dawson et al, 2023), historical geography (Boulanger and Fassier-Boulanger, 2022) or political geography (Dodds et al, 2022; Grove and Bennett, 2023).…”

Celebrating Judith Masters and introducing a memorial fund to support scholars under‐represented in biogeography

“…While contributing to compiling a suite of papers previously published in the journal into an online Virtual Issue highlighting the contributions of women biogeographers (Figure 2), Judith stood out in emphasizing intersectional issues, including for women in developing nations, institutional differences within nations, and, by extension, non‐women biogeographers in developing nations. Judith's advocacy and probing questions became a strong influence on the formation and development of the Global Biogeography Initiative , which kicked off with a Virtual Issue in January 2023 (Dawson et al, 2023; Figure 2). Judith would consistently recalibrate misunderstandings about inequities, or highlight risks such as the disempowerment of emerging researchers by conflating science and pseudoscience, the tendencies for initiatives to enrich a small already relatively benefited subset, and unintended but nonetheless emergent neo‐colonialism during well‐intended diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.…”