Skip to main content

About

Aims and scope

Fire Ecology is the international scientific journal supported by the Association for Fire Ecology. It publishes peer-reviewed articles on all ecological and management aspects relating to wildland fire. We welcome submissions on topics that include a broad range of research on the ecological relationships of fire to its environment, including, but not limited to:

  • Ecology (physical and biological fire effects, fire regimes, etc.)
  • Fire management
  • Fire science and modeling
  • Fuel
  • Inter- or cross-disciplinary fire-related topics
  • Law and policy
  • Planning and risk management
  • Social sciences (geography, sociology, anthropology, etc.)
  • Technology transfer products

Why publish in Fire Ecology?

  • We are the official publication of the Association for Fire Ecology.
  • Our international scientific journal publishes articles on all ecological and management aspects relating to wildland fire, and welcomes submissions that include a broad range of research on the ecological relationships of fire to its environment.
  • Open access publication ensures that your article can be easily discovered, accessed, used, and shared, maximizing your impact and acting as a springboard for further discovery.

Open access

All articles published by the Fire Ecology are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

As authors of articles published in the Fire Ecology you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article, according to the SpringerOpen copyright and license agreement.

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, SpringerOpen can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Article-processing charges

Open access publishing is not without costs. Fire Ecology therefore levies an article-processing charge (APC) for articles accepted for publication.

Technical notes, field notes, book reviews and classic reprints are short article types and are therefore subject to a lower APC of $1,350 | €1,095 | £860*. The Association for Fire Ecology membership discount does not apply to these article types.

Original research, reviews, forum articles and monographs are subject to the full APC of $2,390 | €1,990 | £1,690*

Waivers

In special cases, the Editor may be able to grant an author a waiver for all publication costs. The author must secure the waiver before submitting the manuscript by e-mailing the Managing Editor (editor@fireecology.net) with a justification for the waiver. Manuscripts that present highly novel results or that will generate broad interest from the fire ecology and management community will be given priority. Authors outside of North America and/or Early Career Researchers are also encouraged to inquire with the Editor about a possible waiver. The author must be a member in good standing of the Association for Fire Ecology to be considered for a waiver.

Please note that waiver requests can take up to 5 business days before completing the submission process.

Association for Fire Ecology Members Discount

Members of the Association for Fire Ecology are eligible for a 15% discount on original research, reviews, forum articles, monographs and a 45% discount on short notes, book reviews or classic reprints. This is applied through a SpringerOpen membership account number which can be obtained directly from the Association for Fire Ecology if you are a member in good standing. Please send an e-mail to office@fireecology.net and ask for the SpringerOpen membership account number before submitting your paper. Please do not start the submission process without first obtaining the SpringerOpen membership account number if you want the AFE member discount.

Editorial Board Members Discount

Editorial Board Members are entitled to a 20% discount when submitting an original research, review, forum article and monograph as corresponding author to the journal! During the submission process, please select the option "I believe that I am eligible for a waiver or discount on the article processing charge" and indicate in the “Reason” field that you are a Fire Ecology Editorial Board Member.

Reviewers Discount

If you accept an invitation to review for the journal and we receive your report within the deadline, you are entitled to a 15% discount when submitting an original research, review, forum article and monograph as corresponding author to the journal! During the submission process, please select the option "I believe that I am eligible for a waiver or discount on the article processing charge" and indicate in the “Reason” field that you are a reviewer and the title or the manuscript number of the paper you reviewed.

Membership Program

If the submitting author's institution is a Member, the cost of the article-processing charge is covered by the membership, and no further charge is payable. In the case of authors whose institutions are Supporter Members, however, a discounted article-processing charge is payable by the author. We routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries. For other countries, article-processing charge waivers or discounts are granted on a case-by-case basis to authors with insufficient funds.

For further details, see our article-processing charge page.


*plus VAT or local taxes where required

Indexing services

All articles published in Fire Ecology are included in:

  • Science Citation Index Expanded
  • Scopus
  • AGRICOLA
  • BIOSIS Reviews
  • Current Contents

The full text of all articles is deposited in digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. You can also access all articles published by SpringerOpen on SpringerLink.

Fire Ecology has an Impact Factor of 5.364 (2021) .

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.

Fire Ecology operates a single-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous.

Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two or more experts who will be asked to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board.

Benefits of single-blind peer review

Single-blind peer review is the traditional model of peer review that many reviewers are comfortable with, and it facilitates a dispassionate critique of a manuscript.

Editorial policies

All manuscripts submitted to Fire Ecology should adhere to SpringerOpen's editorial policies.

Once your article is accepted, it will be processed by production and published shortly afterwards. In some cases, articles may be held for a short period of time prior to publication. If you have any concerns or particular requirements please contact the Journal.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Citing articles in Fire Ecology

Articles in Fire Ecology should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Article citations follow this format:

Authors: Title. Fire Ecol [year], [volume number]:[article number]

Appeals and complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint should follow the procedure outlined in the BMC Editorial Policies.

Benefits of publishing with SpringerOpen

High visibility

Fire Ecology's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience. 

Speed of publication

Fire Ecology offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF; the article will then be available through Fire Ecology and SpringerOpen.

Flexibility

Online publication in Fire Ecology gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Fire Ecology are included in article alerts and regular email updates. 
In addition, articles published in Fire Ecology may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Fire Ecology

Copyright

Authors of articles published in Fire Ecology retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work (for further details, see the copyright and license agreement).

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from SpringerOpen, please click here.

Affiliated with

Annual Journal Metrics