Our History

Avian Conservation and Ecology (ACE) was created in December 2005 by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Birds Canada to provide conservation science articles from the “radical middle ground” that is simultaneously basic and applied avian ecology. From the beginning, it aimed to be entirely open-access and deliver to a broad audience at little or no cost, and in a timely fashion. It was also originally focused almost entirely on papers that test rigorous a priori scientific research hypotheses. These guiding principles continue to be followed, particularly the journal’s commitment to address problems and questions related to avian conservation that are based on sound ecological principles and processes. Starting in 2012, the journal’s niche broadened to include descriptive studies describing patterns and trends, so long as the research has strong direct relevance to conservation objectives. The journal has grown splendidly to fill the unique need in avian conservation publishing that it originally set out to fill. It has also won a fiercely loyal following of readers, authors, reviewers, editors, managing editors, and others who firmly believe in the journal’s focus and scope and in its happy all-time commitment to its sole non-profit publisher, The Resilience Alliance.          

2005

Founding co-editors-in-chief: Thomas D. Nudds, Marc-André Villard

2009

1st special feature: Bird Conservation in the Boreal Forest

2011

100th article published

2012

New co-editors-in-chief: Keith A. Hobson, D. Ryan Norris

2013

Popular special feature: Quantifying Human-related Mortality of Birds in Canada

2019

Hit by web users an impressive 1.8 million times to date

2019

Impact factor climbs to a record-high of 2.5

2019

New co-editor-in-chief: Alexander L. Bond

2021

400th article published

2021

New co-editor-in-chief: Judit K. Szabo