Ideas in Ecology and Evolution – A new open-access model dedicated to the rapid release of creativity in peer-review publication

It is better to be wrong than boring".-Jacob Weiner It may seem bold, if not brazen, for the first words published in a new peer-reviewed journal to suggest wrong is right.It may seem scurrilous to suggest the broken clock is still right twice a day.And it may seem to most that only a dreamer would ponder the value of a simple stone found along a beach.Yet, commonly in the progress of science, it is necessary to be wrong before choosing the right path along the often circuitous journey that leads to truth.The broken clock owner needs to find a way to make the flawed timepiece right more often.Repair?Replace?That's discovery.The stone on the beach may indeed turn out to be worthless, but another one discovered nearby becomes a beautiful sculpture when the inspired beachcomber is an Inuit artisan.That's creativity.Wrong can be exciting, especially when it's instrumental in the process of discovery.Creativity, challenge, and controversy are the catalysts of scientific enquiry.And so, acknowledging the complex and often nebulous interplay between wrong, right and boring, we launch Ideas in Ecology and Evolution (http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/IEE).It's an open-access, peer-reviewed publication designed for forward-thinking ecologists and evolutionists.Ideas in Ecology and Evolution will publish only lively, short forum-style articles that develop new ideas or that involve original commentaries on topics broadly focused on applied or fundamental ecology or evolution.They may encompass any level of biological organization, and involve any taxa, including humans.Articles may concern subject matter within any recognized sub-discipline of ecology or evolution, or they may be broader in scope, including articles that aim to inform fields of study outside of biology.All articles will be joined by a conceptual foundation in the core principles of ecology and evolution studied by biologists.Maybe this sounds traditional.But here's the difference: Ideas in Ecology and Evolution will get under your skin.As a rapidly published repository for cutting-edge, novel thinking and opinionpieces, it will make readers raise an eyebrow with intrigue.Modelers, empiricists, educators and the media will consider it a catalogue, brimming with original ideas and hypotheses that have been critically evaluated by professional biologists.The contents can be explored, debated, tested and tried on wide audiences.As a reliable source of inspiration, Ideas in Ecology and Evolution will guide the direction and progress of future research and public awareness in ecology and evolution.And it will never be boring. Summary of unique combination of features• A novel scope, publishing exclusively short 'ideas and perspectives' -style papers, not reviews, and with no experimental data or mathematical modelling, thus serving as a rapid and easily accessible source of inspiration for further research and public debate aimed at a broad base of readership, from students to professionals in both science and the media.• The speed of 'blog-style' communication combined with formal credit as a peer-reviewed publication; accepted papers are published on-line, with volume