The Emu evolves

Scientific publishing is in a state of flux. Improved electronic communication and international accessibility has promoted a move away from traditional print copy in favour of online electronic access. The move to institutional subscription packages favours the growth of the larger publishers, which can then enable global access to a larger range of published resources than the smaller publishing companies. Improved accessibility has also encouraged the growth of open access publishing, which shifts the publication costs from the subscriber to the author, and has important implications for the development and maintenance of existing journals. Although uptake of open access publishing in ornithological research is currently limited compared to other fields (11% in 2011 of all scientific articles across fields and growing; van Noorden 2013), predictions are that this is likely to increase. Finally, the more recent advent of open peer review, where reviewers are identified during the peer review process, is likely to have long-term ramifications for the traditional peer review approach. Demands on busy academics to provide fast peer review without recompense or recognition for their services have driven this interesting recent trend. What all these changes mean for scientific publishing and in particular the ornithological sciences is far from clear, but it is clear that considerable change is afoot, driven in part by powerful global publishing companies. Scientific publishing is now an enormous commercial business ($9.4 billion in global revenue in 2011), within many major players yielding approximately 40% profit margins (van Noorden 2013). Within these dynamic changes in the publishing market, society journals need to strike a balance between meeting the organisational remit, accessing an international audience, publishing the best scientific research and meeting the financial restrictions imposed by the available budget. It is within this framework that Emu – Austral Ornithology has moved publishers from the Australian-based CSIRO Publishing to the larger scale publishing company Taylor & Francis, which is responsible for publishing this first issue of 2017. It is worth noting that the move to the new publisher involves transfer of the digital archive of the back catalogue of published material, accessible from the journal’s new submission page (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/temu20) – a substantial endeavour given the scale of the published material over the last 115 years.

Readers will be aware that the journal has a long and illustrious history. First published in 1901 The Emu was intended to be an ‘outward and visible sign of union’, as well as to ‘provide a recognised means of communication between all interested in ornithology, whatever their branch of that study may be and afford all an opportunity of recording facts and valuable observations …’ (Anon 1901). The journal’s scope was originally defined as Australia, the Malay Archipelago, New Guinea and Oceania including Fiji, New Zealand and New Caledonia (Legge 1902); however, from the outset content was very much Australian and New Zealand focused, reflecting where most of the union members lived (Robin 2002). Even at the early stages of the publication there was debate as to the content. By 1906 the then President of the AOU (Australasian Ornithological Union) C. S. Ryan wrote ‘… The Emu, is carrying out admirably the first object; indeed it has succeeded in this direction far beyond the most sanguine expectations – in fact, the complaint has been (if it be a complaint) that the journal is too popular – should be more scientific; …’ (Ryan 1907). The tension between the scientific and popular, and the need to keep up the subscription base has continued throughout the publication’s history (Robin 2002). BirdLife Australia currently also owns and manages Australian Birdlife, featuring popular ornithology articles, and Australian Field Ornithology, first published in 1959, which documents a range of survey and monitoring studies, as well as new natural history observations. Within this context Emu – Austral Ornithology aims to focus on the most novel scientific studies relevant to austral ornithology, enabling the BirdLife publication suite to cover all material from the most ornithologically popular to the most scientifically important. In doing so, Emu – Austral Ornithology remains relevant to BirdLife Australia, the Australian ornithological community and the wider international scientific community. The remit therefore remains to highlight the most important scientific advances in ornithology within the southern hemisphere, whilst emphasising the relevance of these studies to avian conservation. Not all articles have a central conservation focus, but the majority of journal content has relevance to the support and conservation of austral bird populations, particularly those which are declining, threatened or vulnerable, which sadly number many more species than in 1901. The international perspectives presented by the journal help to draw parallels across the southern hemisphere and develop a truly international slant on avian conservation. This approach sets BirdLife Australia’s scientific journal of prime relevance to BirdLife International’s aims to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity.

What do all these changes in the world of publishing mean for the smaller society publications, such as Emu – Austral Ornithology? The Editor of The Ibis recently captured many of the issues faced by smaller ornithological journals, whilst addressing the requirements of society members (Donald 2016). Several points raised in this Editorial are relevant to the situation that Emu – Austral Ornithology finds itself in today. First and foremost authors require efficient and effective management of their submissions in a timely manner. With this in mind we are happy to report that the Editorial Board continues to strive to keep processing times down (mean decision time; submission to first decision = 55 days in 2015). As for Emu – Austral Ornithology, The Ibis also struggles to reach a balance between descriptive conservation-relevant natural history and hypothesis-driven science and, just as for Emu – Austral Ornithology, the resulting balance reflects current Editorial policy. For every complaint that Emu – Austral Ornithology receives that it has moved too far from its Australian/New Zealand roots, another complaint arises that the publication needs to continue to pursue the best international science, in line with the first AOU President, Colonel Legge’s original manifesto in 1901. It seems that birds of a feather do not always flock together. Second, both journals currently deal with open access by operating on a hybrid model of publishing, where authors have the option to purchase open access for their published articles or to rely on journal subscriptions for accessing their material. Emu – Austral Ornithology adopted this model whilst published by CSIRO Publishing and continues it with Taylor & Francis. With the increased requirements of international research funders for some research to be published in open access format, the uptake of this publishing model may increase over time. In terms of open peer review, both authors and reviewers may be interested to know that currently Emu – Austral Ornithology has no plans to introduce this approach. Finally, both journals recognise the growing importance of social media for the dissemination of information, and the recent change of publisher for Emu – Austral Ornithology has allowed for the appointment of a Communications Editor in 2016, who will be disseminating journal content as it appears online.

And so in these changing times it seems also that The Emu continues to evolve. The move to a larger publishing company with more international bases should enable Emu – Austral Ornithology to increase international accessibility and in so doing highlight and educate the international community about ornithology in the southern hemisphere. We operate in a global scientific community and it is vital that although Emu – Austral Ornithology is a regional journal, the focus is embedded into the international ornithological network. Birds do not respect national boundaries and conservation issues are often not purely national problems. The declines seen, for example in the numbers of Australian shorebirds making use of the East Asian–Australasian flyway are a classic example of why it is important that management of Australasian bird conservation challenges is viewed from an international perspective (Szabo et al. 2016).

At this time of transition it is important to express thanks for the tremendous professional support and development provided by CSIRO Publishing over the last 15 years of association, which enabled Emu – Austral Ornithology to grow from its original ‘in house’ publishing model to a true scientific journal with both a national and international profile. With our new publishers we look forward to a process which will allow the journal to further develop, reflecting the exciting changes in the world of scientific publishing, whilst engaging across the international ornithological community.