Meet PLOS Climate Academic Editor Florian Diekert

In this interview, we get to know Florian Diekert of the University of Augsburg, who recently joined PLOS Climate as an Academic Editor in the journal’s Economics section.

Could you tell us about your research background and your current work?

My work is driven by curiosity. I want to better understand the bi-directional feedback loop between humans and nature to foster sustainable development. How do people react to their environment and which policies help to solve collective problems? To find answers to this question, I studied Economics and International Relations and worked closely with natural scientists (in particular marine biologists). I use dynamic bio-economic models to project (optimal and non-cooperative) resource management under tipping risk. I use administrative and citizen-science based data to better understand compliance with rules and regulations, adjustments to climate-drive resource shifts, and monetary and non-monetary incentives to provide public goods. I use economic experiments to study the effect of early warning signals on resource management decisions and how to support cooperation among groups (both in the lab and in the field).

Why did you decide to join PLOS Climate as an Academic Editor?

The mission of PLOS Climate, to “disseminate rigorous research, […] with a commitment to open research principles that empower […] to understand dynamic, changing climates and take positive, evidence-based action”, is something that I wholeheartedly agree to. If PLOS Climate were a party, I would vote for them. As scientist as well as a citizen, I embrace the idea of “understanding something to take action”. Moreover, I am convinced that open research principles are essential to achieve this aim. Therefore, I feel very honoured to help with this endeavour.

What kinds of submissions to PLOS Climate would you encourage?

I encourage submissions that take a holistic view: that integrate human behavior when making projections, that apply conceptual models to real-word data, that link between the concrete case and the broader pattern. Whether inter- or monodisciplinary, we need rigorous science to help us focus our attention because climate change is moving fast. That is, I would like to see many papers that present robust and replicable results in a humble and transparent way so that we can either better understand the problem or better understand which solutions work when, where, and why.