The same, but different: Introducing a new chapter at Journal of Biogeography

Journal of Biogeography (JBI) has a proud, 50-year history of publishing broad scope studies at the intersection of biology and geography. Developments in 2023, during which there was a work stoppage from the editorial board and subsequent resignations, hindered the journal in that mission. We acknowledge the issues raised by Williams et al. (2023) and are confident that the new editorial structure—implemented in 2024 and outlined below—will ensure the journal continues to thrive and publish globally relevant and innovative biogeography research. Our new structure moves away from a single Editor-in-Chief and streamlines the Editorial Board. The journal is now edited by a team of Senior Editors, who contribute equally to journal strategy and directly handle all manuscripts submitted to the journal. In this way, we aim to ensure manuscripts are handled in an efficient, consistent, and timely manner. The recruitment of the Senior Editors considered geographical diversity alongside subject expertise directly relating to the submissions profile of the journal. Despite these changes, our scope remains the same; we aim to publish biogeographical research that is scientifically important and of broad general interest. Along these lines, JBI continues to be a sister publication to two other distinct but complementary titles within the broad field of biogeography; we encourage authors of globally relevant macroecological studies to consider Global Ecology & Biogeography, and those that apply biogeographical principles to questions of biodiversity conservation to consider Diversity & Distributions. The editors of all three journals are happy to answer questions from authors on which journal fits their work best. We would also like to emphasise that manuscripts will be evaluated purely based on scientific content, not on the quality of the written English. While the advent of AI will increasingly play a role in scholarly publishing—there will inevitably be a multitude of tools that will help authors (e.g. https://en.wileyeditingservices.com/english-language-checker-service-recommender)—it is still vital that editors in general are understanding when it comes to the inherent obstacles that exist for non-English speakers in our community. The current Senior Editorial team has only two members with English as a first language; the barrier of using a second language to communicate professionally is one we are familiar with and sympathetic to. The Senior Editors are backed up by an Editorial Advisory Board, who will provide advice and steer on how best to position the journal within the field of biogeography. As a team, we will be focussed on the best strategy to expand the journal's audience beyond regular readers (e.g. biogeographers, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, conservation biologists, botanists, and zoologists) to include other stakeholders, such as policymakers.