Updates from the Oikos Editorial Office
The staff of the Oikos Editorial Office has put together a short review of the OEO highlights of 2020 (and outlook for 2021).
An extraordinary year
The year 2020 was in many ways remarkable, for the OEO and the world at large. We were, and still are, faced with a pandemic that has put extra pressure on our editors, reviewers, and production team. Nevertheless, due to the extraordinary work done by everyone involved and thanks to our flexible approach, we were able to keep the journals running (nearly) as usual.
Last year the OEO also went through a major reorganization process that involved restructuring the production workflow to increase efficiency of production processes and to improve author services. This effort is ongoing and a number of new features are in the pipeline for 2021.
New headquarters
While OEO employees have primarily been working from home offices since mid-March of 2020, shortly before that the office moved to a new location at the Geocentrum in Lund. After 25 years at the Ecology Building, the OEO needed to find new office space as more rooms were needed for researchers and University administration. The Ecology Building was a wonderful place for the OEO, putting us in direct contact with researchers and editors who over the years have published many articles in the NSO journals. We will miss this opportunity for instantaneous feedback on our management of the journals, but we maintain a close link to the Ecology Building with several of the OEO staff being involved in research at the Department of Biology in Lund.
At our new home we have found many open doors and lots of help to set up our offices and activities that are essential for the management of our journals. We are truly grateful for this.
Farewell to colleagues
The OEO recently had to say farewell to two long-serving members of the staff and esteemed colleagues. Their work has been invaluable and they will be duly missed.
Lis-Marie Nilsson handled the economics of the Oikos Editorial Office and the Nordic Society Oikos for 14 years. Her many tasks included reporting taxes, handling official requests from authorities, and making sure everyone got their salaries; she was a cornerstone in financial reporting and the complex work leading up to the yearly budgets. “Whenever there was a question on money, legal documents, or official reports, Lisa had the answer,” said Linus Svensson, OEO Director.
Gunilla Andersson left her position as copy-editor and proof-reader after 32 years. In addition to copy-editing and proofreading manuscripts for a number of journals and monographs, she also produced logos, coordinated tasks with local printshops, knew her way around Photoshop and InDesign, “showed a remarkable interest in fonts and quality of paper for printing, and appreciated the difference between CMYK and RGB.” NSO and the Oikos Editorial Office wish Gunilla and Lisa the very best of luck in their future endeavors.
Next horizons
Finally, OEO staff has been involved in the set-up and launch of a new NSO website and NSO member platform. Both serve as new outlets for information to the members and the community of ecologists at large about NSO, our journals, and our societies. We hope that the website and platform will become a new hub for ecologists in the Nordic countries and beyond. Learn more about it here.