Authors: Dries Brote, Dustin J Marshall, Gerlinde B De Deyn, and Pedro R Peres-Neto

Published in: Oikos

Oikos has a long-standing tradition in publishing original and innovative research on all aspects of ecology. The journal’s emphasis has always been on theoretical and empirical work aimed at generalization and synthesis across taxa, systems and ecological disciplines. At the same time, Oikos has always been a little quirky – a little odder than other, equally valuable ecologically focused journals. This balance of quirkiness and rigour was best captured but John Lawton’s View from the park contributions that influenced our thinking and practice in ecology. The “View from the Park” essays remain timely and relevant; Lawton presciently communicated key concerns about ecological research that continue to resonate 20 years later:

• the disparate and uncoordinated study of processes and patterns across too many haphazardly chosen model species,
• the lack of a proper theoretical basis in many ecological studies,
• mismatches between experimental and natural scales, and
• the overestimation of ecological relevance of the researchers’ own pet species.

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Bonte D, Marshall D, De Deyn GB, Peres-Neto PR (2018) 20 years after View from the Park: advance ecology and avoid editorial rejection in Oikos, PDF DOI