About this Research Topic

Background

We are delighted to present the inaugural Frontiers in Conservation 'Women in Human-Wildlife Dynamics” series of article collections.

At present, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. Long-standing biases and gender stereotypes are discouraging girls and women away from science-related fields, and STEM research in particular. Science and gender equality are, however, essential to ensure sustainable development as highlighted by UNESCO . To change traditional mindsets, gender equality must be promoted, stereotypes defeated, and girls and women should be encouraged to pursue STEM careers.

Within the field of conservation (which spans a range of STEM disciplines), equality, inclusivity and diversity are also critical to sustainability. Therefore, Frontiers in Conservation is proud to offer this platform to explore the work and roles of women across all aspects of conservation. We are particularly interested in hearing work describing any of the following aspects of women in Human-Wildlife Dynamics (HWD):
• The role of women in HWD practice – living with wildlife (e.g., as persons or members of communities affected by human-wildlife interactions), those working with others who live with wildlife (e.g. as practitioners involved in mitigating conflicts over wildlife or facilitating coexistence), and those involved in other HWDs, for example the Wildlife Economy (concurrently fostering wildlife and human development).
• Women as researchers in HWD – at any stage of their career.
• Women in leadership roles in HWD (e.g. as community or family role models, policy-makers, senior governmental roles, leaders in corporate, charitable or other NGO HWD work).
• Women as advocates, educators, artists and innovators in HWD - highlighting the role women play in different domains and areas in fostering equality and creating more balanced relations with wildlife.
• Whilst we wish to highlight positive roles and outcomes for and by women in HWD, we also seek to explore challenges, barriers or issues faced by women in HWD, and the strategies or recommendations for overcoming these, where appropriate.
• Inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborations and those integrating traditional knowledge and the perspectives of First Nations and indigenous peoples are especially supported.

The work presented here highlights the diversity of roles that women fill across the entire breadth of Human-Wildlife Dynamics and presents advances in theory, experiment, methodology, advocacy, equality and practice with applications to compelling problems.
To holistically represent the field of HWD and the women involved, we invite contributions in non-conventional formats, alongside conventional scientific writings. For example, we encourage submissions based on storytelling narratives, biographies (including but not limited to autobiographies), case studies, essays and commentaries/opinion pieces as well as the full range of scientific articles using either quantitative, qualitative or mixed research methods from any discipline (e.g. brief reports, full articles, reviews, please see the journal website for Article Types A-D). All submissions will be peer-reviewed in accordance with good publishing standards and reviewers (as nominated by authors and/or editors) will be selected according to subject expertise and relevant experience with the format used.

As an Open Access journal, a fee is chargeable for publication of articles in this journal. However, authors with no (or limited) institutional support or any other means of covering publication costs are encouraged to utilize the Frontiers Fee Support program . Applications for fee support can be lodged and processed PRIOR to submission of your manuscript.

One full fee waiver is available for submissions to this Research Topic, and is being offered at the discretion of the Guest Editorial team. In order to ensure the fee waiver goes to authors in most need of this level of financial support, applications will be assessed prior to and independently of the processing, reviewing and handling of any paper(s) submitted by the authors. Fee waiver support is aimed at supporting authors who would otherwise be unable to publish in this Research Topic. Even if partial fee support has been offered by the journal’s fee support program, please complete this survey in order to be considered.
The deadline for these applications is the 15th February 2022.

Authors are asked to submit an abstract (250 words max.) to the Topic editors prior to a full submission. A covering letter should provide an explanation of the submission, i.e. how it fits with one or more themes of the Special Topic, a brief background to the woman/women involved as subjects or authors (we welcome submissions from authors of any gender as long as one or more of the themes of the Special Topic is/are addressed). For any reports involving human subjects (named or anonymized), a statement regarding ethical review and confirmation of informed consent to the use of data derived from human subjects is mandatory (regardless of whether the subject(s) are authors on the submission or not). Likewise, assurance of compliance with relevant animal welfare standards is required for work involving animals and details of ethical review also provided. Details of the journal’s policy on ethical review can be found here . Please confirm your compliance with these ethical review requirements in your Cover Letter accompanying your abstract (and will also need to be included in any manuscript subsequently invited for full submission). Feedback on your abstract will be provided in regards the suitability of the intended submission for the Special Topic, and authors are welcome to ask queries or discuss their ideas for submission with the Topic Editors at any point prior to submission. Following abstract approval, authors will then be invited to make a full submission to the Special Topic.

Keywords: Women in stem, Human-Wildlife Dynamics, Women in Conservation, Conservation Dynamics

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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