Chapter 8. A three-year journey on a ground-breaking paper

David Lindenmayer, Jerry F. Franklin

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Scientific publishing has always been tough, but its getting harder and harder every day. Indeed, I have seen assessments indicating that the average paper in the ecological sciences might go to 3-4 different journals before it “finds a home” and is eventually published. Of course, this is in the context of what I call ‘Type III errors’ in science publishing in which really bad papers are published (that probably should not be) as well as really good papers that are rejected (and sadly sometimes never get published at all).

In this article, I briefly outline some key aspects of the journey involved in publishing a major paper titled: “Disturbance-stimulated flammability” that eventually appeared in the journal Biological Reviews (Lindenmayer & Zylstra, 2024). This was a three-year journey, and a very painful one at that. I have published many scientific papers in my time (more than 920 in peer-reviewed national and international journals) and the journey I describe here was, without doubt, one of the most difficult. However, in many ways, I am grateful for the input from the various referees along the way. This is because, on reflection, there is no doubt that their comments made for a paper that was, eventually, a far better contribution than it would otherwise have been.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe back stories to publishing in Biological Sciences: a collection of reflections
EditorsJohn Measey
PublisherCRC Press
Chapter8
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2023

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