Dear colleagues, our editorial team has developed the below, revised aims & scope for our journal (see also https://www.journals.elsevier.com/forest-policy-and-economics ). As an innovation they now include and invite different kinds of short commentary articles. With these short, peer-reviewed, and fully citable commentary articles we aim to substantially intensify academic debate. They enable science-based, concise and quick responses by authors to recent developments in the field and guarantee a timely reply by the editors. We want to encourage you to submit such commentary manuscripts from now onwards. In addition, please feel free to spread the word in your networks. We are looking forward to intensified academic debates through your commentaries as well as your - research articles, - literature reviews, or - special issue contributions to Forest Policy and Economics. With best regards, Lukas Giessen -------------------------------------- Lukas Giessen Editor in Chief, Forest Policy and Economics (Elsevier) http://www.journals.elsevier.com/forest-policy-and-economics/ Revised Aims & Scope: Forest Policy and Economics is a leading scientific journal that publishes peer-reviewed policy and economics research relating to forests, forested landscapes, forest-related industries, and other forest-relevant land uses. It also welcomes contributions from other social sciences and humanities perspectives that make clear theoretical, conceptual and methodological contributions to the existing state-of-the-art literature on forests and related land use systems. These disciplines include, but are not limited to, sociology, anthropology, human geography, history, jurisprudence, planning, development studies, and psychology research on forests. Forest Policy and Economics is global in scope and publishes multiple article types of high scientific standard. Acceptance for publication is subject to a double-blind peer-review process. The journal publishes the following, peer-reviewed, citable article types: * Research articles are full-length original scientific publications based on clearly defined methods and adequate data * Review articles provide a systematic, analytical overview of a specific field of scientific literature based on the analysis of existing international publications * Special Issues consist of a collection of articles resulting from previous scientific exchange among a group of writers. Contributions to Special Issues are invited by the Guest Editor(s). Potential Guest Editors are invited to submit brief proposals for Special Issues, including envisaged contributions, to any of our Editors at any time. * Commentaries are science-based, peer-reviewed, short communications (approx. 1000-3000 words) formulated as one of the following types: * Science Critiques: Critically discuss previous research published in our journal or in other high-impact outlets with direct relevance to our aims and scope. Critiques ideally address other authors' theories, hypotheses, methodologies, or conclusions, or a mix thereof, in a critical and straightforward yet constructive manner. Authors embed their line of reasoning into current scientific literature; critiques are not based on opinion. Through Science Critiques, authors quickly advance scholarly debate. * Research Trends: These articles identify emerging empirical phenomena and issues of importance that should be addressed by future research. Ideally, such contributions propose research agendas, raise analytical research questions, and propose methods for the future study of the phenomenon. The commentaries should be embedded in existing scientific knowledge and related literature. * Policy Forum: These are short commentary pieces on contemporary, internationally relevant forest or forest-related policy issues that enable researchers, policy makers, and practitioners to make timely contributions to policy debates. Contributions are based on research, expert analysis, literature review, or practitioner reflections regarding concrete policy issues. Pure opinion pieces will not be considered. Forum articles should be written in an accessible style and supported by real world examples and/or referenced scientific evidence. Lukas Giessen Senior Researcher and Head of Working Group International Forest Policy Chair Group of Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, University of Goettingen Buesgenweg 3 37077 Goettingen / Germany Tel. +49 551 39 33726 http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/135009.html Editor in Chief, Forest Policy and Economics (Elsevier) http://www.journals.elsevier.com/forest-policy-and-economics/ Google Scholar link: https://scholar.google.de/citations?hl=en&user=voULQt4AAAAJ&view_op…