Publisher Profile
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Dr. Lucy Kerhoulas
Editor-in-Chief, Northwest Science
Associate Professor
Forest Physiology
Department of Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management
Cal Poly Humboldt
Northwest Scientific Association
Northwest Science
BioOne publishing partner since: 2009
Tell us about yourself.
I backpacked a lot in high school and always felt very drawn towards plants. They’ve always made me really happy. I like that they stay in one place and I think they’re beautiful offerings of the Earth. I had a little plant press that I’d hike with and started making arts and crafts like cards and bookmarks with the various collections I’d made. Once in college, I was sure I wanted to study Botany and the rest is history. Living among the redwoods, it was a natural deepening, to focus my botanical interests on trees.
In 2019, I was trying to publish a senior thesis that I’d advised with an undergraduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt where I’m now an Associate Professor in Forestry. A colleague had recently published a senior thesis in Northwest Science and I thought that might be a good fit for this paper on bigleaf maples, a common tree throughout the Pacific Northwest. So, that is how I first got involved with the Northwest Scientific Association (NWSA). During the submission process I checked a box indicating that I was interested in expanding my involvement with the society and in 2020 I joined the Board of Directors.
Tell us about your society.
NWSA was founded in 1923 in Spokane, WA, USA. A group of educators and scientists got together to form a uniquely interdisciplinary scientific organization focused on the Pacific Northwest region, spanning from Alaska to Montana, to northern California. A lot of the society’s history can be found on the Northwest Scientific Association website. Since 1927, we have published a quarterly, regional journal, Northwest Science. We also host annual meetings at various locations to showcase different scientific aspects of the region. The meetings typically consist of two days of talks with a handful of keynote presentations, lots of social mixers, an evening poster session, and a day of local field trips. They are very fun and collegial, have a lot of student involvement, and are great opportunities for networking and professional development. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of NWSA, the talks cover a broad range of topics including geology, forestry, lichenology, fisheries, wildlife, and everything in between. This society is unique and important for the regional scientific community, as we provide a network to build collaborations across fields and support students launching into their early careers. Our society is also a tribute to our amazing region, celebrating and spotlighting all aspects.
Tell us about your journal.
Northwest Science has been in continuous publication since 1927. It was started by the NWSA to be a peer-reviewed journal focused on the natural sciences in northwestern North America, including Alaska, western Canada, and the northwestern United States. Its audience is largely regional, with content aimed towards scientists, academics, students, land managers, and nature lovers. The journal is important to the scientific community because it offers a deep dive into all natural aspects of an incredible region on Earth. Its pages feature articles on geology, birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, pollinators, streams, lakes, the ocean and coast, mountains, volcanos, plants, trees, and more. It’s unusual, to have a scientific, peer-reviewed journal be so interdisciplinary. Also, our small, friendly journal provides careful reviews and edits to our authors, making publishing accessible to early-career researchers. As such, we publish a lot of papers with graduate student authors; for many of these authors, this is their first publication. So, Northwest Science plays an important role in the scientific community by offering a bit more hand-holding when needed as a paper moves through all of the steps between submission and publication.
Tell us about your field.
What are the current trending topics and research areas? What are the biggest challenges researchers in your field are grappling with right now?
In the Pacific Northwest, shifts in climate change, land use, and fire regimes are affecting numerous aspects of many ecosystems. There is therefore a lot of current research investigating ecosystem responses to climate, fire, and land management activities through myriad lenses. For example, how does exposure to wildfire affect tree drought responses and how do these trends vary with fire and drought severity, across forest types, and across geographic locations? These are complex topics with many moving parts. It’s wonderful to have so many scientists studying these systems from so many angles. A big challenge in natural sciences in general these days is learning how to navigate this field with the development of artificial intelligence while maintaining research integrity. More recently, federal politics have also been an issue, with job cuts, furloughs, funding cuts, and a lot of uncertainty limiting progress.
Tell us about the impact of your society’s work.
The research published in Northwest Science affects people beyond scientists and academia by offering a fun bouquet of paper topics. It’s the type of journal that you can pick up and flip through and learn something surprising and eye-opening. I think this journal really speaks to a wide range of people with any sort of interest in the natural world. Uniquely, this journal features peer-reviewed, scientific content that can appeal to folks interested in fish, flowers, trees, mammals, bugs, water, rocks, tidal zones – the list goes on. The public are inherently interested in these topics, as the natural world is the landscape in which we live our lives. Learning about the various aspects of this natural world, through Northwest Science’s diverse coverage, enriches our lives and strengthens the connection between people and nature, making the world a bit brighter and more sparkly.
Tell us about your society’s partnership with BioOne.
Northwest Science’s partnership with BioOne has dramatically expanded NWSA’s ability to support scientists, authors, and members by providing an online platform where our journal can be accessed by a worldwide readership. This accessibility advances our mission to support regional science. Prior to this partnership, from 1927 to 2007, our journal was print-only, and distribution was largely to a limited geographic region. By bringing our journal online, BioOne expanded our readership, the impact of our authors’ work, and the impact of our journal. The online platform also enhances journal content accessibility for NWSA members. Recently, we shifted to a pay-to-print model for members after an internal poll indicated that many people only wanted online access, as it’s easier to search for specific volumes, issues, papers, authors, and topics than sorting through a mountain of printed issues. Another motivator for members wanting this switch was reducing paper use, to help the environment. A bonus of this shift is that it greatly reduced our printing costs, as only about a third of members wanted to pay a modestly elevated membership fee to receive printed issues; with this financial saving, we were able to substantially lower our author publication fees.
Tell us about your participation in BioOne’s Subscribe to Open pilot.
NWSA chose to participate in S2O because it seemed like a risk-free win-win that supported our mission to promote scientific research and disseminate scientific knowledge. We believe that open access (OA) publication is essential for equitable and inclusive universal access to knowledge. For our small journal, the idea of forgoing revenue from gated articles seemed impossible, as our society depends on this revenue to function. BioOne’s S2O pilot allows us to publish OA while maintaining a guaranteed revenue to support our society. If the S2O pilot is successful, having the journal be OA will foster learning in our readers by giving them easy access to scientific information. OA publication will also increase research impact for our authors and journal, as OA publications are often cited more than gated publications due to their greater accessibility. Knowledge gained from our journal will expand beyond our readers through the vast network of interdisciplinary collaborations among our readers and the rest of the world. Via S2O, we hope that Northwest Science will reach people around the globe who are interested in any natural aspect of northwestern North America that previously did not have access to its pages due to financial barriers.
November 3, 2025