In our very first Insect Conservation and Diversity issue, Leather et al. (2008a, 2008b) succinctly justified the need for our journal as a research forum to further the aims of effective conservation of insect diversity. This journal filled a publication gap then, and it continues to do so, as one of the top-ranked journals in Entomology. Almost 20 years later, we have seen remarkable growth in research outputs and conservation actions, especially in response to widespread concern over insect declines (Didham, Barbero, et al., 2020). However, there are still many opportunities to increase engagement and improve successful outcomes for insect conservation. Accessible and relevant information is urgently needed, along with stronger connections between academic researchers, people with traditional knowledge and learned experience, and the practitioners, stewards and policy makers who can translate research into conservation actions. We are excited to launch a new article category called Conservation Notes to address a major gap in the publishing options for insect conservation researchers and practitioners. Our vision is to provide a new forum for researchers, practitioners, naturalists and other experts and enthusiasts to publish small-scale rigorous research that contributes explicitly to the conservation of insects (as well as other arthropod species more broadly). In this category, we welcome articles that do not meet the standard guidelines for Original Articles or Short Communications but demonstrate clear and well-supported conservation implications at any scale. This includes individual species, broader taxonomic groups, ecological communities, as well as functional links between insect taxa and ecological functions, processes or services. Manuscripts must meet the standard journal data accessibility requirements and will undergo the rigorous evaluation and peer review process we follow for all submissions at Insect Conservation and Diversity. Conservation is a broad term with multiple interpretations. Here, we consider conservation as any scientific research or evidence-based actions that support the persistence, recovery and protection of insects and their interactions. We welcome submissions of Conservation Notes focused on any taxonomic group of insects or other arthropods, emphasising that species do not need to be formally listed under a recognised conservation framework (e.g., IUCN Red List, or a government threatened species list) to warrant conservation action. However, we will not accept papers that solely focus on common cosmopolitan taxa (e.g., the European honey bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758) or those that are predominantly of agricultural, medical, veterinary or forensic relevance. Submissions must be based on original unpublished data. Studies that rely entirely on pre-existing data, such as biodiversity datasets, museum specimens or previously published observations, are not eligible. All Conservation Notes must include access to an accompanying publicly available relevant dataset, unless there are legitimate legal or ethical concerns to justify otherwise. Our existing category of Short Communications will remain, and although word counts for both categories will be the same (in the region of 4000 words), Short Communications will stay distinct from Conservation Notes in several ways. Conservation Notes will focus explicitly on evidence/knowledge that will improve conservation actions and outcomes, while Short Communications may cover a range of entomological topics within our journal scope that may not have explicit relevance to conservation practice. Short Communications remain focused on strong hypothesis-driven study designs, while Conservation Notes will consider observational sampling designs, provided they have a strong study foundation and a demonstrated conservation focus. Short Communications typically follow the standard structure of a full research article, while Conservation Notes may follow any structure, although they must include a description of repeatable methods and follow the standards of rigorous data presentation. Finally, Conservation Notes specifically require a high-quality original figure, preferably a photograph or infographic, that clearly represents the study system. We are excited to launch this new category advocating evidence-based insect conservation and we look forward to receiving submissions to Conservation Notes. Manu E. Saunders: Conceptualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing; investigation. Diana E. Bowler: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Jason Bried: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Abby Davis: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Elaine Evans: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Michael P. D. Garratt: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Friederike Gebert: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Nick Littlewood: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Jessica R. Marsh: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Myles H. M. Menz: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Alan J. A. Stewart: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Og DeSouza: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Maximillian P. T. G. Tercel: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Marta Vila: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Raphael K. Didham: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing; investigation. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Saunders et al. (Wed,) studied this question.