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A Brief History of Peer-Reviewed Mountain Journals

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A Brief History of Peer-Reviewed Mountain Journals 10th anniversary report eco.mont – Volume 10, Number 2, July 2018 84 ISSN 2073-106X print version – ISSN 2073-1558 online version: http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/eco.mont https://dx.doi.org/10.1553/eco.mont-10-2s84 A brief history of peer-reviewed mountain journals: how platforms for knowledge relevant to sustainable mountain development emerged Anne B. Zimmermann, Susanne Wymann von Dach, Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel, David Molden & Thomas Breu Keywords: publishing, peer review, mountains, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, sustainable development Abstract Dedicated academic mountain journals emerged as of the beginning of the 20th century from a need to collect very diverse work focusing on mountains as a fascinating and challenging environment as well as a place of unique liveli- hood systems. We present a brief overview of the four peer-reviewed, indexed journals that exist today for moun- tain scholarship and show how strongly connected they are with an understanding of science linked to sustainable development. This specificity is confirmed by the fact that – as of the 1970s – a number of leading mountain scholars from around the world started engaging not only in research but also in policy action to ensure that mountains and mountain development are taken into account in key global sustainable development documents. What has been the added value of mountain jour- Spanish – with a view to “opening French-language think- nals and what was the motivation for launching them? ing to the world even more” (JAR-RGA 2018). Authors’ On the occasion of eco.mont’s tenth anniversary, the affiliations are now thoroughly international and the editors of the journal Mountain Research and Development quarterly issues cover a remarkable variety of topics were asked to tell the story of mountain journals. The and concerns, often in thematic issues. story starts with the Revue de géographie alpine, launched by the French geographer Raoul Blanchard in 1913 Mountain Research and Development (MRD) with the double aim of bringing together work on the In the early 1970s, a large group of scientists from European Alps (and on the French Alps in particular) several countries involved in UNESCO’s innovative and making it accessible to a broader scientific public interdisciplinary Man and the Biosphere program – (RGA 1913). Publication of mountain research in spe- most of them geographers as well – joined efforts to cifically dedicated journals thus began as a European organize international conferences focusing on envi- geographer’s concern with a fascinating and often ronmental concerns in mountains that are of signifi- challenging environment in which human communi- cance also to lowland communities (Ives 1981). The ties had developed well-adapted and often unique live- focus on mountains, highland-lowland interactions, lihood systems and cultures. This concern with both and development in mountains thus became a world- environmental and developmental issues, along with wide scientific concern in the context of the nascent a recognition of the need to make research relevant global sustainable development debate. MRD emerged to society, has been a key characteristic of mountain from this international research collaboration with a | downloaded: 23.9.2021 journals, of which the following are the main indexed development concern in 1981. MRD’s founding edi- ones published in English: Journal of Alpine Research / tor Jack Ives declared: “The challenge to influence mountain Revue de géographie alpine (JAR-RGA); Mountain Research management by urging, and providing, a sound scientific base and Development (MRD); Journal of Mountain Science for decision making lies at the heart of our purpose – to seek (JMS); and the now ten-year-old eco.mont. Here is their a better balance between mountain environments, human wel- story in a nutshell. fare, and development of resources” (Ives 1981, p. 4). From the beginning, MRD was distributed free of charge Journal of Alpine Research / Revue de in developing countries (Ives 1990). Mountain scien- géographie alpine (JAR-RGA) tists’ development concerns also translated into a joint Published since its inception by the Institut de effort with development and policy actors to ensure Géographie Alpine at the University of Grenoble, that Chapter 13 was included in Agenda 21 by 1992 France, JAR-RGA became a bilingual journal in 2004. (Mathieu 2011; Messerli 2012; Price 2015). The focus remained the Alpine Arc in Europe until To address salient societal issues, in 2000 MRD 2012, with occasional articles on other mountain re- launched a new section presenting transformation knowl- gions worldwide included in focus issues to enable a edge, with articles targeting a much broader audience comparative perspective on mountain issues. On the including decision- and policy-makers. It was later en- https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.119447 occasion of the journal’s one-hundredth anniversary hanced by a double-blind peer review process – pio- in 2013, JAR-RGA’s editors decided to go open access neering what is now being internationally called for and make English the first language of articles. They (Future Earth 2014): transformation knowledge as key for also decided to publish translations into other Euro- sustainable development. The established academic source: pean Alpine languages – French, German, Italian, and section offering mainly systems knowledge also now at- Zimmermann et al. 85 tracted and supported more authors from the global It is thus obvious that sustainable mountain de- South; and as of 2009, MRD went open access, as a velopment matters to scientists worldwide. Clearly, means of making scientific knowledge and develop- English has become the lingua franca of their work – ment debates entirely accessible to the South. In 2013, whether for better or for worse is not something to then-editors-in-chief Hans Hurni (CDE, University be debated here. This led several national and regional of Bern) and David Molden (ICIMOD) launched a mountain research communities to decide to publish third peer-reviewed section presenting target knowledge their work in English. The most recent case is that of (Hurni et al. 2013). Thus, the journal now offered all the Russian journal Sustainable Development in Mountain three dimensions of knowledge for sustainable moun- Territories, launched by the North Caucasian Institute tain development. of Mining and Metallurgy (State Technological Uni- versity) as a quarterly in 2009: it is now seeking ways eco.mont – Journal on Protected Mountain of making key articles in Russian become available to Areas Research and Management an English-speaking audience, while also translating The need for linking science and practice is also selected articles from MRD for its Russian scientific what drove the launching in 2008 of eco.mont – Journal readership. on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management, pub- As a final note, in addition to consulting mountain lished open access twice a year. Representing a vibrant journals (Table 1), readers looking for work relevant to European scientific community concerned with the mountains and mountain development will certainly future of mountains, founding editors Axel Borsdorf also find articles in disciplinary journals explicitly or (University of Innsbruck) and Günter Köck (Austrian not explicitly devoted to mountains (Körner 2009; Academy of Sciences) aimed to offer “a platform specifi- Sarmiento & Butler 2011). These journals have also cally for scientists and practitioners working in and on protected been informing debates about mountain-specific mountain areas in Europe and overseas”, calling for papers challenges and dynamics. So what is the advantage from both the academic and practice communities. eco. of specific mountain journals? They bring together mont has succeeded in publishing an impressively large knowledge from different disciplines to strengthen number of articles despite the comparatively narrow the debate and the knowledge on mountain-specific definition of its scope – arguably a sign of the impor- challenges, also integrating the different views in tance of mountains in efforts to achieve SDG 15 of the one place. This integration and contextualization of 2030 Agenda, i. e. to conserve our natural environment knowledge is crucial for transformation towards sus- while offering new development options to humanity. tainable development. This mountain journal thus also reveals a strong com- mitment to disseminating knowledge for sustainable References mountain development, and to using adequate modes of enhancing this knowledge through rigorous review Borsdorf, A. & G. Köck 2008. Editorial. eco.mont – that takes into account interdisciplinary and transdisci- Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Manage- plinary approaches (Borsdorf & Köck 2008). ment 1(1): 3–8. Future Earth 2014. Future Earth Strategic Research Journal of Mountain Science (JMS) Agenda. Paris. Meanwhile, on the other side of the earth, in Chi- Hurni, H., D. Molden, A. Zimmermann & S. na, research on mountain environments and mountain Wymann von Dach 2013. MountainNotes becomes development had obviously also become a strong con- MountainAgenda: MRD’s third peer-reviewed section. cern. In 2004, JMS was launched by the Institute of Mountain Research and Development 33(4): 362–363. Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Acade- Ives, J.D. 1981. Editorial. Mountain Research and De- my of Sciences, with the explicit aim of enhancing in- velopment 1(1): 3–4. ternational
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