Since its launch in 1998, Applied Vegetation Science has been maturing as a journal and covering a broad range of different topics. While the journal's historic trajectory is etched into the collective memory of its editorial board, such perspectives are inherently shaped by individual scholarly interests and expertise. For this reason, we decided to perform a systematic review to provide a data-driven account of how our scope has evolved and complement our anecdotal impressions of the journal's thematic trajectory with an empirical framework. By understanding how the journal has adapted to emerging ecological challenges, we hope to derive insights on how to ensure our future editorial direction is grounded in an objective understanding of our past. Previous editorials have reflected on specific publication themes (e.g., Price et al. 2024) or have explored the breadth of topics published over a 5-year range using network analysis (Price et al. 2022). In this editorial, we took a closer look at the representation of different research themes disseminated in the journal's entire 27-year history. We retrieved 1378 publications for our analysis from Clarivate Web of Science on December 18, 2025, excluding Editorials, Letters, Corrections, Commentaries, and Forum articles. Articles were assigned to themes manually based on the predominant topics stated in the publication's title and abstract. Based on categories outlined in the journal's Guidelines for Authors and preliminary reading, we opted for the following themes: (1) climate change; (2) land use change and pollution; (3) spatial ecology (including mapping and remote sensing); (4) invasive species ecology and management; (5) seed, seed bank, and dispersal ecology; (6) fire ecology and management; (7) restoration and reclamation; (8) vegetation survey and classification; (9) vegetation change and succession (including vegetation history and historic legacy effects); and (10) database reports. In addition, while we focused on predominant themes rather than habitat types, we recognized that some habitat-specific themes were prevalent, and hence, we added the categories (11) grassland ecology and management, including papers on grazing, browsing, and forage production; (12) forest ecology and management; and (13) wetland ecology and management. In some cases, an article was assigned to two or more predominant topics. Papers with themes not covered by these categories were assigned to (14) Other topics. This group included, for example, publications on rare species ecology and management and weed and crop management. The most frequent topic covered by Applied Vegetation Science publications included articles exploring restoration and reclamation (Figure 1). This theme has been the focus of the journal's inaugural issue in 1998, with papers featuring research on species introductions and the advantage of using functional traits in measuring restoration success (Price et al. 2024). Despite the challenges of a dynamically evolving and increasingly competitive publication field, the journal has been a steady publisher for research in restoration and reclamation ecology over the years (Figure 2, Price et al. 2022). Research articles on grassland ecology and management, including papers on grazing and browsing, were the second most frequent topic in the journal (Figure 1). This trend reflects the role of domestic and wild herbivores for shaping vegetation, the current and historic importance of livestock for human livelihood, and the fact that grasslands are some of the most threatened habitat types in many regions worldwide. In fact, an entire Special Issue in the journal has recently explored the link between grazing and vegetation (Török et al. 2024), which likely contributed to a strong publication increase for the topic at the end of the analyzed period (Figure 2). Finally, vegetation change and succession, including vegetation history and historic legacy effects, were the third most published topic in the journal. The popularity of this topic is likely driven by the desire to inform restoration practice through an understanding of early colonization dynamics and an interest in documenting vegetation change in an era of anthropogenic pressures. Papers in this category featured a variety of methodological tools, such as palynological studies (Behling et al. 2007) and resurvey analyses of permanent and quasi-permanent vegetation plots, as featured in a Special Issue of the journal (Hedl et al. 2017). We interpret this triad—restoration, grassland management, and vegetation change—as an indication of the maturation of the field, with successional theory providing the foundation for the practical methodologies applied to one of the world's most critical ecosystems. While our Special Issues acted as catalysts, this trend signals the journal's successful alignment with a global publishing landscape that increasingly demands a cohesive, theory-to-action approach to biodiversity conservation and land-use sustainability. Applied Vegetation Science is committed to publishing quality peer-reviewed research in applied plant community ecology. Although we did not analyze the geographic representation of publications in the journal, an analysis for the sister journal, Journal of Vegetation Science (Wagner et al. 2023), and a network analysis over 5 years of publication in Applied Vegetation Science (Price et al. 2022) showed that contributions from Africa, Asia, and Oceania were underrepresented in the journal. The journal of Applied Vegetation Science welcomes submissions from these regions that align with its scope and is continuously trying to diversify its Editorial Board and Editorial Review Board. Each year, the Chief Editors of Applied Vegetation Science assign an Editors' Award for an excellent article published in the previous year. The award for articles published in 2025 goes to Giacomo Quattrini and co-authors for their article on “Standardised Drone Procedures for Phytosociological Data Collection” (Quattrini et al. 2025). In their contribution, the authors tested the usefulness of drone-based imagery for vegetation assessments. Specifically, they compared how drone-based assessments compared to traditional, on the ground phytosociological assessments in terms of species abundance estimates and vegetation classification, using forest and grassland communities as study systems. Although the drone-based procedure captured only a subset of species compared to the on-the-ground approach, it enabled a correct assignment of surveyed vegetation to a pre-defined phytosociological unit. The paper points to drone-based imagery as a complementary tool to on-the-ground surveys, especially when large areas need to be assessed. Two other papers caught the Chief Editors' attention. A contribution by Bradley J. Butterfield and Emily C. Palmquist explored how hydropeaking—daily flow fluctuations—affect riparian communities in arid regions, using the Glen Canyon Dam along the Colorado River (United States) as an example (Butterfield and Palmquist 2025). The authors found hydropeaking to reduce habitat suitability for some facultative wetland species while eliminating the presence of obligatory wetland species, thus changing plant distributions on a regional and local level. The paper stood out due to its usage of a large and region-wide analysis to address the impacts of hydrodams on plant communities. A paper by Louison Bienvenu and co-authors explored the effects of solar parks on grassland vegetation in southern France (Bienvenu et al. 2025). The study design consisted of an assessment of plant community structure in plots located outside panels (unshaded), inter-rows between panels (partial shading), and microhabitats under panels (constantly shaded). The authors found lower species richness and a shift in plant species composition below panels, which points to a possible detrimental effect of solar panels on plant communities. The Chief Editors found this paper to be timely given an increase of solar panels in open landscapes in many regions worldwide. After 15 years of service, Milan Chytrý retired from his Chief Editor position for Applied Vegetation Science and Journal of Vegetation Science in 2025. From 2017, he also served as the Chair of the Editors. Jodi Price also retired last year from her role as Chief Editor for both journals, having served as the Receiving Editor for Applied Vegetation Science for 4 years. We would like to thank both Milan and Jodi for their dedicated and professional leadership, which helped to keep both journals on a successful track. We are grateful to the community of editors and reviewers, who provided indispensable support during the peer-review process last year. Among the new Associate Editors, we welcome Anikó Csecserits, Martin Diekmann, Felicia Fischer, Johannes Kollmann, Ralf Ohlemuller, and Jianshuang Wu. We would like to thank José Paruelo, who stepped down as Associate Editor, and all the reviewers who provided valuable feedback on submitted manuscripts during the last year (Appendix 1). Last March, Applied Vegetation Science was among some Wiley journals to migrate from the ScholarOne Manuscript platform to the Research Exchange (ReX) platform. All manuscript submissions and resubmissions are now processed exclusively through ReX. The transition phase brought major logistical changes to how manuscripts are processed for the journal. We would like to thank our Editors, Editorial Review Board members, reviewers, and authors of submitted manuscripts for their patience during this phase. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. List of Referees We thank the referees who served Applied Vegetation Science from 1 January to 31 December 2025. Those who reviewed more than twice are indicated by asterisks. Accompanying publication data and R scripts can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18249484.
Wagner et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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