Editorial
Authors: Čufar Katarina , Kropivšek Jože 
Published: January 2023

This issue of the journal Les/Wood is special for several reasons. Most of the related activities were carried out during the Covid-19 lockdown, which was very challenging for our authors, reviewers and editorial board. However, despite all the inconveniences caused by the pandemic, four eminent scholars from abroad joined the journal and its editorial board. Among them are: Prof. Manuela Romagnoli, PhD, Department of Innovation of Biological Systems, Food and Forestry DIBAF, Tuscia University, Viterbo, Italy; Prof. Denis Jelačić, PhD, Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb, Croatia; Krishna K. Pandey, PhD., Institute of Wood Science & Technology, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Bangalore, India; and Alan Crivellaro, PhD, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK. We are glad that they accepted our invitation, and we hope for fruitful further cooperation, which is undoubtedly very important for the international recognition of the journal.

In this issue we are publishing seven scientific articles, four of them in English. We are especially pleased that there are new names among the authors, and young authors in particular. Two of them have already acquired prestigious projects, while another two are at the beginning of their PhD studies and publishing articles in a scientific journal for the first time.

Kavyashree Srinivasa, PhD from India has obtained a project (NewSiest-867451) under the EU research innovation programme H2020, MSC-IF (Marie Skłodowska-Curie – Individual Fellowship), which proves the excellence of her research. As part of the two-year project, she is currently employed at the Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, pursuing detailed post-doctoral research under the mentorship of Prof. Marko Petrič, PhD. She completed a master’s degree in chemistry and obtained her PhD from the Institute of Wood Science & Technology in Bangalore (FRI DU, Dehradun), India. She was a recipient of the Ron Cockcroft award from the International Research Group on Wood Conservation (IRG-WP) in 2013.

Arnaud Maxime Cheumani, PhD from Cameroon has acquired the project “SilWoodCoat”, which bears the “Seal of Excellence” and is funded by the ARRS, a testament to the outstanding nature of both the researcher and the project. He currently works at the Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana under the mentorship of Prof. Marko Petrič, PhD., developing silicate-based wood coatings. He is a chemist by basic education, but in his research focusses mainly on polymers and polymer composites connected to wood science. He obtained his PhD from the University of Bordeaux-France in 2009, and is an assistant professor at the University of Yaoundé 1 in Yaoundé in Cameroon. Prior to this he worked on several research projects dealing with wood-cement composites, liquefied wood, development of wood coatings, wood modification with poly (lactic acid) and composites made of natural polymer fibres.

Nina Škrk has been working as a young researcher under the mentorship of Prof. Katarina Čufar, PhD at the Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana since the autumn of 2019. She is enrolled in the PhD study of Biosciences, Wood and Biocomposites. In her research she focuses on the effects of climate change in the 21st century on trees and wood. This is her first publication of a scientific article in a scientific journal.

Irena Sochová has been a PhD student at Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic since November 2019. She works within the Wood Processing and Timber Technology programme with a focus on dendrochronology. The main topic of her dissertation is the oak tree-ring standard chronology as a tool for dendro-archaeological analyses in the Western Ukraine. Currently she is also employed at CAS, the Global Change Research Institute in the Czech Republic. This is her first publication of a scientific article in a scientific journal.

The main feature of this issue is the introduction of the practice of the world’s leading scientific journals regarding open access of their research data, which is basis for (empirical) scientific articles. We joined the activities of the RDA (Research Data Alliance) of the Slovenian hub, which is coordinated by the Social Science Data Archive with the support of the RDA EU 4.0 project. Thus, one of the articles in this issue (Škrk et al., 2020) is accompanied by the publication of the scientific data (photographs), which are freely available through the Repository of the University of Ljubljana (RUL). In publishing the data we were guided by Mojca Kotar, PhD from University Library Services, University of Ljubljana, Janez Štrebe, PhD from the Faculty of Social Science, University of Ljubljana, by Sebastian Dahle, PhD from Department of Wood Science and Technology, University of Ljubljana, and by Darja Vranjek from INDOK, Department of Wood Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana. Thank you all for your work, we truly appreciate your efforts.

Special thanks go to all the reviewers of the Les/Wood journal, who did excellent job once again in a very short time. In addition, we would like to thank the technical support team, proof-readers Paul Steed and Darja Vranjek, librarian Maja Valič, technical editor Anton Zupančič and designers from DECOP d.o.o., Železniki.