Message for ISRS Members

FA Zapata fazapata at zoology.up.ac.za
Thu Jun 7 05:20:54 EDT 2001


Dear Coral listers and ISRS memebers,

	Knowing that I may be entering rough waters, with all due respect to Dr.
Done and ISRS members, and not knowing what kind of problems are causing the
delay in the publication of Coral Reefs and what sort of negotiations are
being worked out with Springer-Verlag, isn't it perhaps time to re-evaluate
how the society should publish its journal (Coral Reefs)? If we think about
the primary purpose of the journal as a means of communicating our research
findings, shouldn't we consider alternative options? For one, with the
current ease and relatively much lower cost of publication on electronic
media and widespread access to the internet, shouldn't we consider the
option of publishing the journal online based on the ISRS web page with free
access to the full text of papers but without losing the rigour of peer
review and high quality of the papers?

	Some of you may be aware of the current debate on the future of scientific
publishing (see for instance
http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/index.html ). Maybe it is time
that we ISRS members debate the future of our society's journal as well. As
an ISRS member from a less-developed country, I regularly experience the
frustration of not having access to the primary literature because of its
incredibly high cost. While Coral Reefs has been exceptional to some extent
in this regard (although many students in less developed countries cannot
afford to subscribe to the journal), many other journals are completely out
of reach due to their high cost. For instance, my university has never had
subscriptions to some of these journals, or has cancelled its subscritptions
because could not afford them any more. I imagine that similar situations
occur at other institutions throughout the third world. Since most coral
reefs are in third-world countries, I would think that it is in the interest
of the society to provide access to its journal to scientists, managers,
policy makers, and students in these countries. Perhaps the ISRS could set
an example for other scientific societies.

Just some food for thought.

Fernando A. Zapata
Dpto. de Biologia
Universidad del Valle
Cali, Colombia
On leave at:
Department of Zoology and Entomology
University of Pretoria
Pretoria 0002
South Africa

Ph. (+ 27-12) 420-4611
Fax. (+ 27-12) 362-5242

E-Mail: fazapata at zoology.up.ac.za


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov]On Behalf Of Terry Done
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 1:25 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Message for ISRS Members


Coral Reefs

I am happy to say that Volume 19(4) of Coral Reefs is now in the mail, and
I apologize to members for delay, and thank you for your patience.  For
those new members who paid in Bali to commence membership in 2001, we still
hope that you will receive all four issues of Volume 20 this calendar year.
Dick Dodge and his editorial team are working hard with publisher Springer
Verlag to bring this about.

Best wishes,

Terry Done
President
International Society for Reef Studies







Dr Terry Done
Leader Sustaining Living Marine Resources Project
Australian Institute of Marine Science
PMB #3 Mail Centre,
Townsville Qld          4810
Australia

Phone 61 7 47 534 344
Fax   61 7 47 725 852
email: tdone at aims.gov.au

WEBSITE for 9th International Coral Reef Symposium
www.nova.edu/ocean/9icrs

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