Deadline extended for contributions to the ‘Grasslands of Asia’ special collection

In response to the encouraging interest in the ‘Grasslands of Asia’ special collection, dedicated to the largest continent on Earth and the gaps in the classification of its grasslands, the editors decided to extend the deadline for (preliminary) abstracts submission until 31 January 2023.

To be accepted for publication - in line with the scope of the Vegetation Classification and Survey journal - the papers should develop, test or apply vegetation typologies or present vegetation-plot databases or tools in ecoinformatics. Welcome are any typological approaches at any spatial scale. Colour illustrations, in particular photo plates of the vegetation types studied, are strongly encouraged, and do not incur any additional charges.

“While studies based on extensive original data are particularly encouraged, accepted would be also regional and even local studies if they come from underrepresented regions or methodologically innovative,” note the editors Jürgen Dengler, Idoia Biurrun, Pavel Krestov, Alireza Naqinezhad and Arkadiusz Nowak in the collection’s description.

Since the special collection was inspired by the first Asian Grassland Conference, which took place in April 2022, contributions presented at the event are especially welcome.

Once submitted, the manuscripts will undergo peer review and - if accepted - will be published straight away. The whole ‘Grasslands of Asia’ special collection is expected to be concluded in mid-2023.

“Vegetation Classification and Survey is dedicated to publishing attractive classification papers and therefore allows for longer manuscripts than do most journals,” reminds Prof. Jürgen Dengler, Chair of the Guest Editors and also one of the Editors-in-Chief of the journal.

Thanks to the generous support of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS), which was recently extended, articles submitted by mid-2023 are exempt from APCs, provided that the first author is an IAVS member. It’s worth it to remind that membership is free of charge for scientists from many Asian countries.

Procedure and deadlines: 

• By 31 January 2023, (preliminary) abstracts (max. 300 words), structured into “Question(s)”, “Study area”, “Methods”, “Results” and “Conclusions” need to be emailed to dr.juergen.dengler@gmail.com;
• By 15 February 2023, submitted abstracts will have been evaluated and the authors will be informed whether their contributions are invited or declined.
• By 30 April 2023, the invited papers need to be submitted to the journal. Non-invited manuscripts might be considered on a case-by-case basis.

You can follow the Vegetation Classification and Survey on Twitter and Facebook, and also IAVS on Twitter and join the Association’s Facebook group.

Photo caption: Onobrychis cornuta alpine grasslands in Damavand, Alborz, Iran. Credit: A. Naqinezhad.