Karoo Special Issue - African Journal of Range and Forage Science

Posted 26 November 2018 by NISC under Announcements & Notices • Journal: African Journal of Range & Forage Science
Karoo Special Issue - African Journal of Range and Forage Science

It has been nearly 20 years since Dr W Richard J Dean and Dr Suzanne J Milton published an edited volume concerning southern Africa’s drylands and over a decade since a research journal has dedicated one of its issues to the Karoo. 

The Karoo Special Issue (KSI), published in African Journal of Range and Forage Science, Volume 35, Issue 3 & 4  is thus a truly influential issue. 

The Karoo is an arid to semi-arid area across the western third of South Africa, comprising the Succulent Karoo and Nama-Karoo biomes. Its environment and people have experienced considerable changes, and now face new challenges as the Anthropocene unfolds. The Anthropocene relates to the current geological age during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The special issue brings together new information in 20 papers, a mixture of reviews, research articles and commentaries, significantly adding to the previous syntheses of Karoo knowledge.

While previous ecological research on land-use practices in the Karoo has emphasised the impact of grazing by domestic livestock on vegetation, the KSI brings an historical depth to this use that has rarely been highlighted before, together with an analysis of several new data sets that have hitherto not been explored extensively. The issue is also a multi-displinary issue. 

Dedicated to Dr Suzanne J Milton and Dr W Richard J Dean the KSI papers, many of which were written by their colleagues, friends or former students, represents a Festschrift that celebrates and honours their research as well as the inspiration and leadership they have to a generation of scientists. 

The special issue can be accessed here

 

The editorial experience was excellent: the reviewers were timely and their feedback was generative. The co-editor of the special issue was proactive about communicating information to me. In latter stages, the staff that shepherded the essay through the copy-editing stages was also very helpful and in good contact.
- Author - Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies
The paper was wonderfully laid out and rapidly published
- Author- Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology
The review process is quick and is being done within the reasonable time. After acceptance, NISC is also quick enough to send proofs and is very efficiently publishes the accepted paper online before its print version.

- Author - Southern Forests: A Journal of Forest Science
A very supportive, personal and committed editorial team, which takes quality of the work very seriously. I learned a lot through the experience of publishing with Anthropology Southern Africa, and felt supported throughout the process.
- Author - Anthropology Southern Africa
Since 1995, NISC has systematically built up competence and the necessary capacity in all aspects of publishing high-level research journals, with the professionalism needed to flourish in the increasingly competitive world of international research publications. No other publisher in South Africa commands the necessary technical skills, experience, competence, enthusiasm and resources to the same degree as NISC, in my view.
- Graham Baker, Editor of the South African Journal of Science (1973-2008)