Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship

Introducing the Fellowship

The Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship was established to contribute to the development of early career aquatic scientists and their outreach to peers in the context of scientific publishing, including open-access publishing, peer review, and writing. Fellows get exposure to all, and experience in most, aspects of the publishing process. The skills developed are aimed to enhance the Fellows’ research careers and future contributions to journals as peer reviewers and editorial board members. The Fellows also undertake activities to share their learning and experiences with the scientific community, particularly other early-career researchers, via a range of outreach activities. The Fellows serve a two year period working with the Editors of ASLO journals, currently Limnology and Oceanography: Letters. The overarching program goals are:

  • To provide professional development for early-career aquatic scientists in scientific publishing, open-access publishing, peer review, and scientific writing
  • To give Fellows experience in publishing to be able to contribute in the future as an effective reviewer, editor, and writer
  • To have the Fellows disseminate their experiences to fellow early-career scientists in an outlet or forum of their choice

The Editorial Fellowship is named after Raelyn Cole who was Managing Editor of ASLO’s flagship journal, Limnology and Oceanography, from 1965-1996 with her long and productive tenure recognised with the Tommy and Yvette Edmondson Distinguished Service Award. The Fellowship is supported by the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship Fund which was established from a very generous initial contribution from Dale Cole and Family and matched by ASLO. Additional solicitation of contributions are ongoing, with annual interest proceeds from the Fund supporting the Fellowship.

Calls for Fellows applications are announced every two years, and will include details on eligibility requirements, stipend and other benefits, details of activities, and application requirements. The call will be announced via email to members, and will be posted to the RCEF Blog.

The Raelyn Cole Fellows

Rosie Gradoville

Rosie Gradoville

2021-2023

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia

Rita Franco-Santos

Rita Franco-Santos

2022-2024

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia

Erin Peck

Erin Peck

2023-2025

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, USA

Frank Akamagwuna

Frank Akamagwuna

2024-2026

Rhodes University, South Africa

Jessica Turner

Jessica Turner

2025-2027

University of Connecticut Avery Point, USA

 

Past Fellows

Bridget Deemer, 2020-2022
United Stated Geological Survey, USA

Scott Hotaling, 2019-2021
Utah State University, USA

Kelsey Poulson Ellestad, 2018-2020
Roosevelt University, USA

Laura Falkenberg, 2017-2019
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

 

The RCEF Blog

The RCEF blog will feature posts from the Fellows and ASLO Editors on topics related to scientific writing, editing, and publishing. In addition, announcements regarding ECR initiatives will be posted here. With a posting frequency of 4-6 weeks, it will be an area worth returning to to access an ever-growing body of resources.

Publications from the RCEF Fellows

Soranno, P.A. and Falkenberg L.J. 2018. How editorial fellowships at society journals can provide opportunities for early career researchers in publishing: a case study of the Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellowship. Limnology & Oceanography Bulletin 27: 88 Read article

Falkenberg, L.J. and P.A. Soranno. 2018. Reviewing reviews: An evaluation of peer reviews of journal article submissions. Limnology & Oceanography Bulletin 27: 1-5. Read article

Curto, T. 2018. Message from the Executive Director: Interview with Laura Falkenberg, ASLO’s first Raelyn Cole Editorial Fellow. Limnology & Oceanography Bulletin 27: 15-17. Read article

Workshop Presentations

The Fellows aim to increase awareness of practices around peer review and scientific publishing by presenting workshops on these topics at conferences. The workshops presented to date are listed below. If you are organizing a conference and would like to include a similar event, please contact us (via e-mail at [email protected] or Twitter @rcef_aslo).

Falkenberg, L.J. 2019. How to be an effective peer reviewer. 12th International Temperate Reefs Symposium. Hong Kong, China.

Poulson-Ellestad, K.L. and Falkenberg, L.J. 2019. Writing effective abstracts and summaries. ASLO 2019 Aquatic Sciences Meeting: Planet Water, Challenges and Successes. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Gradoville, M.R., Deemer, B.E. Your Roadmap to Effective and Efficient Peer Review: A Webinar with ASLO Editors. September 21, 2021. Recording available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utntl1VGy5g

Santos, I., Gradoville, M.R., Sarne, F. How to Write Effective Reviews (and Improve Your Own Manuscript). Ocean Sciences Meeting, February 2022, Honolulu, HI (virtual).

More About The Fellows

Rita Franco-Santos (2022-2024)

Rita Franco-Santos is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia. Rita's research focuses on the potential of kelp-derived carbon (golden carbon) to contribute towards carbon sequestration and climate mitigation. She will combine experiments, laboratory analyses, and modeling approaches to try and trace the pathways and fate of golden carbon and the potential of kelp forests to be considered as a blue carbon ecosystem; and use these results to help inform policy on blue carbon in Australia. Rita is also very excited to use the opportunity offered by the RCE fellowship to engage her fellow early career researchers from countries in the Global South in the peer review process, especially those who do not speak English as a first language.

Erin Peck (2023-2025)

Erin Peck (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center in Amherst, MA, USA. Her research addresses the impacts of episodic sediment delivery events, sea level rise, and human land-use change on salt marsh morphodynamics and sediment biogeochemistry. As an RCEF, Erin is excited to learn from the ASLO editorial team and contribute to improving access to and transparency in academic publishing. Her research focuses on quantifying rates of vertical accretion and lateral change over decades to centuries in intertidal areas using short-lived radioisotopes and geospatial techniques

Frank Akamagwuna (2024-2026)

Frank Akamagwuna is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, South Africa. Frank’s research focuses on community ecology and ecosystem functioning of freshwater ecosystems, where he has explored multiple dimensions including trait-based biomonitoring and stable isotopes to monitor freshwater pollution. His current research interest is ecosystem ecology and emerging contaminants in river systems, focusing on plastic pollution. He applies socio-ecological approaches to understand better the impacts of emerging contaminants on biodiversity and society.

Jessica Turner (2025-2027)

Jessie Turner is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Connecticut. Jessie’s research focuses on water clarity, particles, and light in aquatic ecosystems from local to global scales.  Her current research focuses on remote sensing of phytoplankton types in the Southern Ocean to assess different species’ carbon uptake. She has also investigated how large particles export carbon in the deep ocean, how farmed oysters filter particles, how shoreline armoring impacts clarity in estuaries, and how clarity varies over decadal time scales in estuaries using observations, numerical modeling, and satellites.

Past Fellows

Rosie Gradoville (2021-2023)

Mary R. (Rosie) Gradoville is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Rosie’s research focuses on the ecology of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms in the oceans. She uses field-based approaches to better understand the biogeography and environmental controls of uncultivated nitrogen-fixers in the North Pacific. Rosie enjoys scientific writing and publishing and is excited to join the ASLO editorial team through the RCE Fellowship.

Bridget Deemer (2020-2022)

Bridget Deemer is a postdoctoral ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Southwest Biological Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. As an aquatic biogeochemist, her research crosses scales to investigate how lakes and reservoirs can affect the transport and transformation of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other biologically relevant elements. She is also interested in the science/policy boundary and currently contributes scientifically to the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program.

Scott Hotaling (2019-2021)

Scott Hotaling is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Washington State University. His research spans a variety of disciplines from community ecology to genome biology with a focus on high-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems. He is particularly interested in how climate change will affect alpine stream ecosystems in North America and is part of a team seeking to address this question using long-term data in the Teton Range of Wyoming.

Laura Falkenberg (2017-2019)

Laura Falkenberg is a marine biologist and ecologist. During her Fellowship term, Laura was initially a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Marine Biogeochemistry and Oceanography section at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and later an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research examines how human activities affect the physiology of marine biota, and how these responses then impact ecosystems and human societies

Kelsey Poulson-Ellestad (2018-2020)

Kelsey Poulson-Ellestad is Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Biological, Physical, and Health Sciences at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. As an aquatic chemical ecologist, her research focuses on the influence of chemical signalling in planktonic interactions and the consequences of these interactions on community composition, primary productivity, and ultimately ecosystem functioning.

 

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