effective publishing

[JEAN MICHEL MAES]

Dear Mary Barkworth,
Many journals are printed when funds are available. In the case of our
journal, Revista Nicaraguense de Entomologia. In theory we publish an issue
each 3 months. In reality, in February 2000 we have printed all the issues
of 1998 and 1999. When we made the edition, we have no idea when the
journal will be print. So your idea of mention the printing date on the
cover will be a bigger mess, you will have :
1) editing date.
2) theorical printing date.
3) real printing date.

As a library, we sometimes received 3 or 4 years of a journal at once. And,
perhaps hard to believe, we are very glad to receive it, because we know
that in many tropical countries, publishing a journal is not a routine,
it's a very hard work.

I do not see what it the problem. In many cases you have, including for new
species :
genus species AUTHOR date [printed date].
I do not know what's the code tells about that. I suppose that the valuable
date is the printing date, but I think if there is no conflict, the best
would be to put the editing date.

I said "if there is no conflict" because as an editor, I can print a book
or a journal now and put the date as 1995 on it. Then the species looks
like published in 1995. I think the best way is refers to the abstract
company, they note when they receive the journal.

Mail is also a problem but not so big. A journal "ground mail" from
Nicaragua takes 1 to 2 weeks to reach Europe. A journal from Mexico takes 1
to 2 months to reach Nicaragua or Europe...

Sincerely,

Jean-Michel Maes.

At 09:39 AM 26/04/00 -0600, you wrote:
>I would add to Pieter's comment that it would be helpful if journals would
>specify the date when an issue was actually made available.  I had written
>actually printed, but I recently became aware of a journal that was
>printed one year after the date that appears on the front cover and, from
>what I was told, not sent out for another 6 months.  I do not have hard
>information about the latter situation. The distribution aspect could have
>been a problem with a country's mail service or the receiving institution,
>but there are a distressingly large number of journals that are printed
>after the date on their cover.  Whether the problem lies with the journal
>editors or printer is immaterial, it creates a messy situation. There is
>probably little that can be done about it, but it would be nice if
>societies that like to publish taxonomic papers would consider voluntarily
>adopting a policy of stating the actual date of printing on the cover.
>
>Mary Barkworth
>_______________________________________________________________
>
>I would like to modify Brian's point (c) as the need for the publisher to
>specify unambiguously the edition or version used to produce a batch of
>books, as well as the need for subsequent authors to unambiguously cite
>the specific edition or version. Perhaps a unique identifier per print run
>such as a batch number may even have to be specified. This implies that
>any subsequent, even minor corrections will probably strictly have to be
>identified as, and cited as, a next edition of the publication.
>
>I am sure publishers do realise, and cater for these sorts of
>implications, but it may be wise for taxonomists to liase closer with them
>on such points.
>
>
>--------------------------------
>Pieter J.D. Winter
>Herbarium Curator
>University of the North
>Private Bag  X 1106
>0727 SOVENGA
>South Africa
>pieterw at unin.unorth.ac.za
>
>
Jean-Michel MAES
Museo Entomologico
Asociacion Nicaraguense de Entomologia
AP 527 - Leon
NICARAGUA

tel 505-0-3116586

FAX 505-0-3115700

jmmaes at ibw.com.ni

httm://www.sdnnic.org.ni/museo_entomologico.htm
httm://www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/workers/jmaes.htm