Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research is published by K&DM International Publishers in co-operation with ALTER-Net.

 

Never before has our planet's biological diversity been so threatened by human activity. Yet it plays a vital role in maintaining the health of ecosystems, as well as providing us with many valuable resources essential for our survival. For these reasons alone it is important that we understand biodiversity and the pressures it faces, so that we can develop credible responses. This requires effective scientific research.

European biodiversity research is rich and varied. It is also dispersed and disconnected and cannot be easily marshalled to deliver the information and knowledge required to address major biodiversity issues at a European scale. ALTER-Net is a five year project funded by the European Union's Framework VI programme. ALTER-Net is a Network of Excellence: its 24 partner institutes from 17 European countries are aiming to build lasting integration of biodiversity research, monitoring and communication capacity.

www.alter-net.info

 

Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research is an electronic, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal devoted to the translation of biodiversity related scientific knowledge towards governmental and non-governmental policy makers. The journal publishes articles based on existing peer-reviewed research articles in the field of biodiversity research including an array of disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

Aims and Scope
Policy and decisions that affect the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity should be based on the best available scientific evidence. Global and regional discussions have shown that much of the available science and experience is not being effectively used, and that interfaces between science and policy must be significantly improved.
Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research aims to improve the science-policy interface by helping to focus the support of science and scientists on the needs of those setting policy and taking decisions. Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research allows scientists to assemble and communicate knowledge adapted to the needs of policy makers.
Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research translates the knowledge provided by the "knowledge holders" and produces articles that are authoritative and supported by evidence, useful and timely, and relevant to the policy maker's needs; reviewed by qualified experts to ensure that the article is thorough and widely accepted by knowledgeable persons; independent of any vested interests or political, commercial or financial influence; and informative about uncertainties and the limits of applicability of the knowledge. The articles preserve the intellectual property rights of knowledge holders.
Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research focuses on how to gather relevant information and to ensure that it is made accessible and useful to the policy makers and other stakeholders who need it.
Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research enables a time- and cost-effective way to build on existing scientific information, to gather existing knowledge, derive policy-relevant information, and to deliver the peer-reviewed result to the science-policy interface. It is intended to provide a consistent way to interrogate a complex landscape of knowledge, and to do so in a way that permits correct attribution of knowledge to those who provide it.

Knowledge users and knowledge providers
The main potential "knowledge users of Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research are public or private decision-makers. Their decisions affect international, regional or national biodiversity governance. They may include governments and administrations, Civil Society Organisations and businesses. They may also include other organisations with a responsibility for biodiversity governance, management, research and capacity building.
The "knowledge providers" called upon to provide information on any particular issue are scientists/authors who publish scientific research in peer reviewed scientific papers

Biodiversity research needed to underpin policy
Biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human systems are intricately linked and co-evolving. The biodiversity-related knowledge that can underpin policy or management includes but goes well beyond the biological and other natural sciences. Biodiversity research necessarily touches on a wide range of issues and disciplines, and is intrinsically interdisciplinary.

Quality assurance, peer review and public consultation
The aim is to provide reliable knowledge that is fit for purpose. This means that it should be of high scientific quality. For this reason only articles based on existing peer-reviewed scientific articles are acceptable as the basis for articles submitted to Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research.
Peer review, the conventional and reliable method to evaluate the quality of academic knowledge, can be used for those organisations and networks that generate academic knowledge. The purpose of the peer review is mainly to ensure that impartial experts believe that the synthesis is thorough, and that its conclusions are supported by the available evidence and widely accepted by the communities with knowledge in the various fields.
Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research therefore ensures that its articles are properly and publically validated by appropriate authorities. Articles published in Inspiredd by Biodiversity Research  will be reviewed based on an extended community of peers including scientists, policy makers and communication experts.
Not all relevant knowledge is necessarily peer reviewed. For example, articles may include sections based on information from legislators, lawyers or doctors, or citizen-based science including CSOs, people responsible for managing biodiversity, associations concerned with the countryside, including hunters and fishermen, the private sector, or from local and traditional knowledge. To ensure a maximum participation from scientific and non-scientific knowledge holders the peer review process will be proceeded by a public consultation. Feedback given by the wider community will also be reviewed by the peers. Where this feedback is relevant the peers will ask the authors to include the information gathered by the public consultation.