A new journal called Evolution: Education and Outreach has just been launched. We've been hearing about this for almost a year and it's good to see the first issue. The publisher is Springer [Evolution: Education and Outreach]. The mandate is ...The journal will connect teachers with scientists by adapting cutting-edge, peer reviewed articles for classroom use on a variety of instructional levels. Teachers and scientists will collaborate on multi-authored papers and offer tools for teachers such as unit and lesson plans and classroom activities, as well as additional online content such as podcasts and powerpoint presentations.Dr. Niles Eldredge, Curator Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (USA) and Gregory Eldredge, of John F. Kennedy High School in Bronx, New York (USA) are the editors-in-chief.
The editorial board contains a lot of recognizable names so this should be a good journal. I'm looking forward to seeing the first articles.
Editorial Board:
Brian Alters, McGill University
Sarah Brem, Arizona State University
Daniel R. Brooks, University of Toronto
Roy Caldwell, University of California Museum of Paleontology
Joel Cracraft, American Museum of Natural History
Douglas Eernisse, California State at Fullerton and National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
Douglas Eldredge, Lincoln High School
Joseph Fail, Johnson C. Smith University and National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
Linda Froschauer, National Science Teachers Association, President-Elect
Douglas Futuyma, SUNY Stony Brook
Michael Gaspar, JFK High School
Adam Goldstein, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
Myles Gordon, New York, NY
Joseph L. Graves, Jr., North Carolina A & T State University
T. Ryan Gregory, University of Guelph
Kristin Jenkins, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
David Kohn, Drew University
Sir Harold Kroto, Nobel Laureate, Florida State University
Bruce S. Lieberman, University of Kansas
Ronald L Numbers, University of Wisconsin, Madison
William Miller III, Humboldt State University
Eugenie Scott, National Center for Science Education, University of California, Berkeley
Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History
Telmo Pievani, University of Milan II
Judy Scotchmoor, University of California Museum of Paleontology
Ilya Temkin, New York University
Anna Thanukos, University of California Museum of Paleontology
John Thompson, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jory P. Weintraub, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
Matthew Williams, Manhattan Village Academy
David Wilson, SUNY Binghamton
[Hat Tip: The Panda's Thumb]
Good idea, but it is really a shame that the organizers went with Springer, one of the most Open Access hostile publishers around. Note that while access is advertised as being free "during 2008", there is no indication that it will continue to be so in 2009, etc. A journal for public outreach has to reach the public -- and the only way to do so is make sure the journal is Open Access.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It was an unfortunate choice. If you want your article to be available of the web you have to pay for it and many authors won't be able to afford the fee.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the normal publication process (whereby an article is submitted to the journal and access to that article is granted to customers who have purchased a subscription), Springer now provides an alternative publishing option:
Springer Open Choice. A Springer Open Choice article receives all the benefits of a regular subscription−based article, but in addition is made available publicly through Springers online platform SpringerLink. To publish via Springer Open Choice, upon acceptance please visit the link below to complete the relevant order form and provide the required payment information. Payment must be received in full before publication or articles will publish as regular subscription−model articles. We regret that Springer Open Choice cannot be ordered for published articles.
The charge is $3000 and that's outrageous.
Jonathan Badger said: "Note that while access is advertised as being free "during 2008", there is no indication that it will continue to be so in 2009, etc."
ReplyDeleteThe journal has extended its free access online until the end of 2009.
But the problem remains; this should be an open access journal. Nevertheless, as Larry mentioned, along with Open Access comes high fees for authors, particularly in publishers like Springer.