Start of the new year brought significant changes in the editorial staff of Silva Fennica yet they have gone mostly unnoticed. Our past Editor-in-Chief Professor Matti Maltamo stepped down by the end of 2024, after six years of distinguished service in leading Silva Fennica. His term included several changes starting from the dealing with the effects of article processing charges set just before his term to increased transparency and reproducibility requirements at mid-term to the request of opening research data and codes during his last year. The work for enhancing open science was recognised in 2022 when the Finnish Open Science Coordination awarded the “Promoter of Open Science” prize for the Finnish Society of Forest Science, the publisher of Silva Fennica. Matti was the natural choice for receiving the prize on behalf of the Society in the award ceremony.

Our new Editor-in-Chief is Professor Annamari Laurén who has become familiar to those authors who have either received an editorial decision or submitted a manuscript this year. Annamari is the Professor of Peatland Forestry at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has wide experience on management of forest soils, both organic and mineral, ecosystems ecology and forest management. Annamari has a passion for good science and she is keen for maintaining and improving the quality of science published in Silva Fennica. The journal’s future looks bright with less expected changes than during Matti’s period in service. On behalf of the publisher, Finnish Society of Forest Science, and the editorial colleagues, I warmly thank Matti for his excellent service as the Editor-in-Chief and welcome Annamari to work with us for ensuring the Everyone’s Right to Good Forest Science.

As our authors and reviewers know, the seven Subject Editors of Silva Fennica take care of the peer-review process. Critique on the peer-review in general is in many ways justified yet no better way has emerged to ensure the quality of published science. Thus, the Subject Editors play a crucial role in the editorial process and their thoughtful recommendations on accepting, revising or rejecting manuscripts make Silva Fennica a reliable source of scientific information on forests.

Two of our Subject Editors also stepped down by the end of 2024: Svetlana Saarela of Norwegian University of Life Sciences served six years as the Subject Editor for Forest Management Planning and Inventory and Samuel Bartels of the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, served four years as the Subject Editor for Forest Ecology. Svetlana did a great job in handling the large number of manuscripts on forest management planning, inventory and remote sensing we received during the past years. Her recommendations were always well-justified. Svetlana continues still as the editor responsible on the special issue “Complex remote sensing-assisted forest surveys”. She does not handle ordinary manuscripts anymore and will leave the editorial staff after the special issue will be completed. Samuel handled peer-reviews of the wide field of forest ecosystems, community ecology and biodiversity. He was especially skilful in keeping the review times fast – not an easy task in the saturated peer-review landscape. Most remarkably, he did not speed the reviews by lowering quality. Samuel himself made important notes on the manuscripts he handled. We warmly thank Svetlana and Samuel for their service in Silva Fennica. We will miss you!

Our new Subject Editor for Forest Management Planning and Inventory is Dr Gaia Vaglio Laurin of the Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Italian National Research Council. She is a renown scientist on remote sensing of vegetation and monitoring the effects of global change on vegetation. We are happy to welcome Gaia in our dynamic editorial team.

I also extend my thanks and recognition to the work of our continuing Subject Editors. We are happy to keep two of our original Subject Editors on board. They are Hanne K. Sjølie, the Subject Editor for Forest Economics and Policy, and Henrik Heräjärvi, the Subject Editor for Wood Material Science. The three other continuing editors are Christian Kanzian, the Subject Editor for Logistics and Forest Engineering, Anna Lintunen, the Subject Editor for Ecophysiology and Climate Change, and Sergio de Miguel, the Subject Editor of Silviculture and Forest Management. Also the Associate Editor for Biometry and Methods Lauri Mehtätalo continues in our editorial staff helping the Subject Editors in complex methodological issues. Our Copy Editor Karipekka Byman continues making the pages and giving the last touch of quality for our website.

All our Subject Editor make valuable voluntary contributions for the quality of Silva Fennica in particular and forest sciences in general. Small society publishers of science, like the Finnish Society of Forest Science, could not work without the voluntary and – unfortunately – often invisible work of the scientist who responsibly review, edit and manage scientific journals. The voluntary contributions of the Subject Editors have made it possible to keep and improve the scientific quality of Silva Fennica. At this moment when we say good bye to Matti, Svetlana and Samuel and welcome to Annamari and Gaia, we want to express our sincere thanks to the whole editorial staff of Silva Fennica. Thank you, keep going.

Pekka Nygren
Executive Manager, Finnish Society of Forest Science
Managing Editor, Silva Fennica