History and evolution of the journal Landscape Ecology

Since their first appearance in the seventeenth century, peer-reviewed journals have played an instrumental role in advancing science. To paraphrase Day and Gastel (2006), a scientific study is not completed before its results have been published in a peer-reviewed outlet. When a new field of study is emerging, it may be difficult for the researchers to find a place to publish their results. Thus, whether a discipline has a well-established journal is often considered an important indicator for assessing its maturity. Landscape ecologists had their days when finding a mainstream journal to publish their results was challenging, but to their credit those days are gone. Today, landscape ecologists have a well-established journal of their own, Landscape Ecology. For 25 years, the journal has documented what landscape ecologists do, how they do it, and what they find. The pages of the journal, therefore, are an important part in recording the development of this field.