The European Journal of

Taxonomy:

towards an E-journal for

descriptive taxonomy

Patrick Grootaert (RBINS)

Laurence Bénichou (MNHN) Steve Dessein (NBGB) Daphne Duin (EDIT)

Isabelle Gérard (RMCA) Graham Higley (NHML) Koen Martens (RBINS)

CETAF October 2010

Taxonomic journals in NHIs

• Within EDIT consortium≈ 25 out of 28 EDIT members are publishers

≈ 79 journals (+ 45 book/ monograph series)

≈ 70% available online (55 journals)

≈ 28% (22 journals) with Impact Factor

(of which 58 % <1 = 13 journals)

CETAF October 2010

Taxonomic journals in NHIs

• Small journal (without IF) that fail to attract good papers

• Good journals (with IF) that attract more papers than they can publish rapidly

• Journals commercially outsourced that have lost editorial control (rush for ever increasing IF...)

=> All would benefit from a joint initiative like EJT

CETAF October 2010

Why do NHI need a new journal?

1. Real need for a high quality, peer-reviewed

e-journal in systematic biology

– That accepts descriptive taxonomic work

– Provides all services of high level analytical

journals

=> Previous EDIT meetings and the success of

new journals such as Zootaxa, Zookeys show

that such a journal would be highly valued by

the taxonomic community

CETAF October 2010

Why do we need a new journal?

2. The world of scientific publishing is changing fast: online access, open access, DOI and cross referencing tools,...

No single NHI has all the resources to follow these rapid developments

Need for:

• Distinction of labour between editorial (scientific) and publishing (technical) aspects

• Need for collaboration between the different NHI

CETAF October 2010

Digital revolution in electronic scholarly publishing: complexity

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

Open Access

Berlin and Budapest Declaration

Green Road

Golden Road

IngentaConnect

Intellectual Property rights (IPR)

Really Simple Syndication

RSS

Extensible Markup Language

XML

Backlog

Not-for-profit

Trackback

Application Programming Interface

APIINTERNATIONAL CODE OF BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE

Pay-per-view

CETAF October 2010

Taxonomic journals

• Classic journals shy away from descriptive taxonomy– No single species description, need to add analytical part

– J nat Hist, Zool. Scripta, Invert Syst,...

• Paradox of taxonomic publishing:

– Some journals can’t get the papers (no IF)

– Other journals don’t want the papers (want to increase

their IF)

CETAF October 2010

What do we want: mission statement

European Journal of Taxonomy

– web-based,

– free and open access journal

– on descriptive systematics in zoology, entomology, botany and palaeontology

– peer-reviewed

– including :• descriptions of new taxa,

• taxonomic revisions,

• continental and global checklists,

• review and opinion papers related to taxonomic and systematic research.

AND SETTING NEW STANDARDS FOR TAXONOMIC PUBLISHING

CETAF October 2010

Setting a new standard in taxonomic

publishing

• Increased accessibility and visibility (through DOI & Crosslinking)

• Guaranteed storage and electronic document integrity through BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library)

– Taxonomic papers have long ‘shelf’-time

• Automatic links to Encyclopedia of Life, Species 2000, WoRMs, FADA, GBIF, Zoobank, IPNI, ...

• Xml-based content harvesting technologies

=> Need for technical expertise in taxonomic publishing

CETAF October 2010

We want an E-journal...

With ‘E’ standing for

• Electronic = web-based, using novel E-

technologies

• European anchorage

– Published (and paid) by European NHI

– Authors should deposit specimens in European

collections

CETAF October 2010

The European Journal of Taxonomy

• Title of the journal to be

owned by a consortium

of (mainly) European NHI

• Boards of active editing

(scientific) and

publishing (technical)

staff from the NHI

• Rotating Editor-in-Chief

CETAF October 2010

Organisation

• Journal will be a collaborative effort

beween Museums and institutions– Core of participating partners

• Financial contributions

• Man-power resources

– Circle of supportive partners

• Some NHI may integrate extant bulletins into this new journal (eg. Brussels, Tervuren)– Name of old journal always mentioned on webpage

– Salaries of scientific staff presently acting as editors and technical publishers will thus be liberated

CETAF October 2010

Organizational charts 1. Steering Committee

Representatives of institutions that signed CPA

Chair: to be elected from the group

Meets once yearly

Appoints Editor-in-Chief

Appoints Publications head

Signs off budget proposals and DoW

prepared by MC

1. Steering Committee

Representatives of institutions that signed CPA

Chair: to be elected from the group

Meets once yearly

Appoints Editor-in-Chief

Appoints Publications head

Signs off budget proposals and DoW

prepared by MC

Scientific Publishing in Natural History Institutions

7th-8th October 2010

2. Management Committee

Production team, desk editors,

IT staff, Editor in chief, Topical Editors

Chair: Publications head

Meets when necessary

Day-to-day management

Prepares budget and DoW

2. Management Committee

Production team, desk editors,

IT staff, Editor in chief, Topical Editors

Chair: Publications head

Meets when necessary

Day-to-day management

Prepares budget and DoW

3. Editorial Board

4 topical editors

(entomology, zoology, botany, palaeontology),

associated editors

Chair: Editor in Chief

Defines editorial scope

Editorial management

3. Editorial Board

4 topical editors

(entomology, zoology, botany, palaeontology),

associated editors

Chair: Editor in Chief

Defines editorial scope

Editorial management

4. Associated Group

Institutions with an interest in EJT

Friends of the journal

4. Associated Group

Institutions with an interest in EJT

Friends of the journal

Ownership

Technicalmanagement

Scientific decisions

Advantages for

Natural History Institutions

1. Publishing taxonomic literature is part of the mission of most NHI

2. If NHI pool resources:

– Higher critical mass of tools when pooling expertise

– Increased authority in the field

– Higher influence

– Higher visibility (than in small, hidden journals)

of the dissemination of taxonomic knowledge

CETAF October 2010

Advantages for

Authors

• Publish descriptive work in journal with good impact factor

• Publish in journal with all the novel services offered by web based info-platforms

=> high exposure and visibility

=> Reflects positively on

the journal

Readers

• Easy and free access

• Papers are of high scientific

and technical quality

Publishing Staff

• Transfer of expertise

• Learning from competitive

position

CETAF October 2010

Advantages for NHI

3. Visibility of NHI in taxonomic publishing

4. Positive image through collaborations, sharing expertise, sharing resources

5. By producing an excellent journal: increase image of

taxonomy => taxonomy is worth funding

6. Our own data are in our own hands => not all scholarly publications should be in the hands of commerical companies

• decision making

• spending public money

CETAF October 2010

Remaining issues

• Journal exchange programs

– Exchange programs are not without cost

– Re-evaluation of these programs is urgent

• EDIT questionnaire in progress

– Exx of NHM London (Bratislava EDIT report)

• More than 100 years

• 35% of total library (220 – 330 kE)

• Costs for exchange: 71 kE

• Electronic exchange

=> Will be c 66% in 5 years time

EDIT - Copenhagen Oct 2010 -

martens@naturalsciences.be

% Electronic Exchanges

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

% Electronic Exchanges

Schedule

� 12th December 2008: 1st meeting on Scientific publishing in Natural History

Institution, 1st presentation of the project, Paris

� 22nd June 2009: 2nd meeting on Scientific publishing in Natural History

Institution, 2nd presentation and discussion, Bratislava

� 15th December 2009: presentation of the project to the BoD, Carveiro

� 1st April 2010: Business plan

� 16th June 2010: Copyright Publishing Agreement negociated, Brussels

� October 2010: signature CPA

� November 2010: Creation of Editorial Board

� From January 2011: online submission system available

� March 2011: implementation and Launch of EJT

Scientific Publishing in Natural History Institutions

7th-8th October 2010

Thank you for your attention!!

Please join!!!

EDIT - Copenhagen Oct 2010 -

martens@naturalsciences.be