Putting Publication into Practice: A Summary of the Impact of Selected Articles Published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems

This article introduces a special issue of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (AQC) whose contributions demonstrate examples of the practical impact of the authors' previous AQC articles on the conservation of aquatic ecosystems. The submitting authors of all articles published in AQC since 2009 were invited to express their interest in writing an article for the special issue. The 20 articles selected for publication discuss 33 AQC articles published from 2004 to 2019, spanning a wide range of geographical locations, habitat types, species groups, and impacts on aquatic conservation. The two impacts reported most frequently are ‘Undertaking practical management of habitats and species’ and ‘Establishing partnerships’, closely followed by ‘Restoring habitats/reintroducing or translocating species’. Many authors demonstrate the importance of their articles in raising awareness across an extensive range of organizations. Some impacts occur soon after publication (e.g. introduction of conservation guidelines), whereas others (e.g. influencing policy) take far longer. Authors report a wide range of methods for disseminating research results appropriate for different audiences, such as technical handbooks, seminars, magazine articles, media broadcasts, and field workshops. To assess whether ‘conventional’ measures of impact match authors' perceptions, three metrics were calculated for the 33 AQC articles discussed in this issue: the number of citations, the number of downloads, and the Altmetric Attention Score. These metrics were not significantly higher for the 33 articles than the corresponding median metrics of the articles in the issues in which the 33 were published. The goal of AQC is to continue to encourage scientists to recognize and promote the application of their research to practical conservation and management. Given the growing threats to aquatic ecosystems, much remains to be done to make this process even more effective.