Welcome to Environmental DNA!

On behalf of the editorial team, I welcome you to Environmental DNA. This new and timely fully double-blinded journal features top tier papers that pertain to the analyses of environmental DNA (eDNA) defined in its broadest term and including ancient DNA, non-invasive sampling, diet analyses, metabarcoding, metagenomics, microbial ecology, and pathogens in order to address questions of both basic and applied relevance. Papers published in Environmental DNA are expected to apply the highest standards of quality in the field of eDNA science. We also expect that papers published in Environmental DNA will be of interest to a large audience and will have implications of relevance to a broad diversity of fields. Over the last decade, the detection of DNA from substrates (broadly defined as environmental DNA, eDNA), including ancient DNA, DNA collected in the environment through non-invasive sampling, as well as from bulk analyses of pooled cells and organisms (metabarcoding and metagenomics) has gained immense momentum in evolutionary ecology, conservation biology, and environmental sciences. While there are many excellent journals that publish eDNA papers, such studies generally represent a minor focus to them such that eDNA papers are sparsely distributed across numerous journals. This makes it difficult to document the increasing importance and vast potential of eDNA studies, which hampers the growth of this fast evolving field of investigation. Therefore, it is timely to launch a new journal that will lead the field and contribute to move the study of eDNA (including metabarcoding and metagenomics) beyond a species detection tool and allow it to become a line of multidisciplinary scientific inquiry itself. Given its ever increasing breath of applications, including for policy decisions and fields outside of life sciences, there is no doubt that Environmental DNA will attract a broad and diverse audience, including evolutionary and conservation biologists, ecologists, microbiologists, environmental consultants and biologists, managers within industry, and government agencies, as well as the general public with an interest in citizen sciences. The journal concentrates on primary research articles covering all taxonomic groups from microbes, fungi, plants, and animals inhabiting all types of environments, including past environments. We also welcome submissions pertaining to the development of genomic resources (e.g. marker development, reference data bases), technical and analytical methods (from the field to the keyboard), physical eDNA properties, computer programs, and bioinformatic pipelines. We also publish synthesis, perspective, or meta-analysis papers, as well as invited reviews and will operate a flexible policy regarding the publication of relevant and timely special Issues, solicited or not. To provide a rigorous and efficient review process for such a breath of eDNA applications, we have assembled an international team of exceptional associate editors who are at the forefront of the field. Louis Bernatchez - Editor in Chief Université Laval, Québec, Canada Kristy Deiner University of Zurich, Switzerland Dagmar Frisch University of Birmingham, UK Thomas Gilbert Natural History Museum, Denmark Daniel Heath University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada Margaret Hunter U.S. Geological Survey, USA Michael Stat Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Philip Francis Thomsen Aarhus University, Denmark Taylor Wilcox National Genomics Centre, Montana, USA Hiroki Yamanaka Ryukoku University, Otsu, Japan An Editorial advisory board comprised of researchers who have made outstanding basic and applied contributions to the broad field of eDNA science completes the editorial team. Current advisory board members are: Holly Bik, Mike Bunce, Simon Creer, Melania Cristescu, Laura Epp, Nathan Evans, Elise Furlan, Neil Gemmell, Caren Goldberg, Erin Grey, Robert Hanner, Anaïs Lacoursière, Gordon Luikart, Kristi Miller, Toshifumi Minamoto, Luisa Orsini, Michael Pfrender, Pierre Taberlet, Alice Valentini, Lisette Waits, Robert Wayne, Eske Willerslev, Satoshi Yamamoto. Our editorial team, assisted by dedicated referees, is committed to providing rapid decision times without compromising the quality of papers being published. We have already succeeded in keeping processing times to a minimum. For papers handled so far, the average time from submission to first editorial decision was 35 days, and average time from (re)submission to final decision 39.6 days. As you can see, there are ample good reasons to publish in Environmental DNA: It is the only fully Open Access journal specializing on eDNA research; We have an excellent Editorial Board composed of male and female leaders in eDNA research; It is one of the very few journals operating double-blinded peer review in the biological and environmental sciences; Environmental DNA covers all disciplines and all conceptual, methodological, and analytical aspects pertaining to eDNA research. So become part of the Environmental DNA journal community! We look forward to publishing your best eDNA papers!

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.