Editorial
Editorial – A new era for Entomologia Generalis
Desneux, Nicolas; Biondi, Antonio
Entomologia Generalis Volume 37 Number 1 (2018), p. 1 - 5
published: Jan 29, 2018
manuscript accepted: Dec 19, 2017
manuscript revision received: Dec 19, 2017
manuscript revision requested: Dec 19, 2017
manuscript received: Dec 19, 2017
DOI: 10.1127/entomologia/2017/0587
Open Access (paper may be downloaded free of charge)
Abstract
Entomologia Generalis is an international journal publishing high quality research articles for almost four decades on advances in basic and applied entomology. The journal, initially named Entomologia Germanica (Gustav Fischer Verlag), was founded in 1978 by Prof. Wilhelm Steffan. With volume five the former name was changed to Entomologia Generalis. From 1983 to 2013 the journal was published by E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, under the ownership and editorship of Prof. W. Steffan.
In 2013, at the age of 80, Prof. W. Steffan decided to hand over the journal to Schweizerbart and Prof. Hannes Paulus took over as interim Editor-in-Chief. The importance of the journal has been growing throughout its history, and is currently indexed in main key international scientific databases.
Since 1997 it is indexed in the Web of Science database under the subject category of Entomology. This was achieved by the journal’s editors, who served with crucial commitment and passion for entomological science.
In 2016, the journal started writing a new page to the story, with Prof. H. Paulus and associate editors stepping down from their editor positions and the editorial board being entirely renewed on the impulse of Dr. Nicolas Desneux, the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief. The new editorial team deeply acknowledges the accomplishments of the previous boards over the past decades, which undoubtedly contributed to establishing the journal’s worldwide reputation in general and applied entomology. All new editors sincerely thank the previous editorial teams for the work carried out and the achievements reached so far.
As of 2018, the new Entomologia Generalis editorial team is composed of the Editor-in-Chief and a
The new editorial team has a renewed interested to publish novel, original research articles as well as key review articles that meet the main challenge of being of broad interest to the Entomologia Generalis readership rather than being too specific on narrow topics. New articles should provide relevant insights that go beyond the study system considered. Therefore, studies should be hypothesis-driven and they should aim at including new concepts rather than testing simple factors.
Entomologia Generalis invites the submission of high quality papers that advance the knowledge of the ecology and biology of arthropods (e.g. Desneux et al. 2012, Wiman et al. 2015, Hamby et al. 2016), and on their importance for key ecosystems services, e.g. biological control and pollination (Wratten et al. 2012, Garibaldi et al. 2013, Perovic et al. 2018). Studies providing key insights into multi-trophic interactions, and more broadly food webs, are also highly welcome (Ings et al. 2009, Haddad et al. 2011, Jaworski et al. 2015, Sobhy et al. 2015). Moreover, the journal will devote special attention to contributions providing significant advances (i) of the fundamental knowledge and in sustainable control strategies of arthropod pests, including those affecting stored products (Phillips & Throne 2010), urban pests (Rust & Su 2012) and vectors of diseases (Grafton-Carwell et al. 2013, Benelli 2015, Benelli & Romano 2017), (ii) on the biology and ecology of beneficial arthropods (Pekas et al. 2016, Benelli et al. 2017), (iii) on the spread, impact and management of invasive pests (Asplen et al. 2015, Sylla et al. 2017, Biondi et al. 2018), and (iv) on potential side effects of pest management methods (Desneux et al. 2007, Biondi et al. 2012, Di Prisco et al. 2013, Sanchez-Bayo 2014). Pest sustainable management strategies that include the use of non-chemical control tools, such as pheromones, agronomic practices, bioinsecticides, etc. (Witzgall et al. 2010, Pavela & Benelli 2016, Fekri et al. 2016, Haye et al. 2016, Isman 2017), as well as the characterization of pesticide resistances in pests (Silva et al. 2011, Tabashinik et al. 2013) are welcome, where they provide major advance in the field. Finally, wide scale field studies (both in space and time) on pest management practices, and their agronomic and environmental outcomes (Lu et al. 2012, Sjöberg et al. 2015) will be also considered a priority for publication in Entomologia Generalis.
Authors should prepare their manuscripts carefully following the new guidelines for authors (http://www.schweizerbart.de/journals/entomologia/instructions). Submissions not prepared according to these instructions will be returned to authors without review. Another major reason for early manuscript rejection will be poor writing style and/or English language. In many cases, manuscripts submitted to scientific journals present grammatical mistakes and/or improper writing style (Wallwork 2016). Authors, which are not native English speakers, should consider getting their manuscript reviewed – before submission – either by a colleague(s) who has excellent writing and language skills and/or by a professional scientific proof-editing service. The editorial team will handle the submitted manuscripts quickly and competently, by performing a preliminary screening to assess, whether the submission meets the minimum scientific, experimental and writing standards, and whether the manuscript contains plagiarism (which may lead to straight rejection). For original research articles, the editorial team will check whether (i) the experiments have been properly
repeated in space and/or in time (e.g. field studies should involve multiple years and/ or multiple field replicates, laboratory studies should ensure the independence of the replications), and (ii) whether all the employed materials and methods are sufficiently described to enable repeating the experiment elsewhere in the future.
The peer-review process is usually carried out by two or three independent, qualified and anonymous referees which are invited by the Associate Editors. Authors’ suggestions on potential referees are always welcome (these should be communicated in the submission cover letter) but the final choice is the editors’. A manuscript may be subject to as many revision steps as needed, and the decision (namely, acceptance or rejection) is not related to number of steps. Editor decisions will be based both on the reports of the referees and judgment of the editor(s). The timing of the decisions will depend on the time taken by the referees to return their reports. Accepted manuscripts will be type edited and finally proof read by the editors and by the authors. As soon as all these steps will be performed and prior the definitive publication, i.e., before inclusion into an Entomologia Generalis issue, accepted papers will be made available online as preprints on the website of the journal. It is our aim that the present editorial material will provide future Entomologia Generalis authors with a useful guide for shaping and writing their manuscripts and for identifying the journal as a key tool for global dissemination of their most relevant research in basic and applied biology and ecology of arthropods. We expect that the new editorial strategy will support the continuous improvement of the excellent scientific reputation of the journal, as well as the selection and publication of the best worldwide scientific contributions on Entomologia Generalis research fields. To achieve this goal, we will rely on the essential and volunteer help from qualified referees that we thank in advance here. We also warmly thank the new Associate Editors that have agreed to be part of the new editorial team.
Nicolas Desneux & Antonio Biondi