Words from the Editor

Reptile Conservation (ARC) has made many advances since our last published issue. A quick glance at this issue verifies again our continued commitment and resolve to publish a journal of the highest standards devoted exclusively to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles worldwide. To review let me elaborate further. The journal is now open access. This means anyone with an Internet connection and web browser can access the contents of the journal free-of-charge with absolutely no restrictions and/or registration. Go to the PubMed Central website at http://www. pubmedcentral.nih.gov/, review the list of journals, and click on Amphibian and Reptile Conservation. The journal can be retrieved as either exact reproduction of the actual journal pages (PDF) and/or as HTML files. All the original photographs, tables, graphs, etc. are available online for all the world to read, use, and exchange. The journal is also permanently archived (online) by PubMed Central at the National Library of Medicine (NLM, the world’s largest medical library) under the auspices of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). ARC does not charge any fees whatsoever for an author(s) to publish in the journal. Authors publishing in the journal also retain full copyright to all their material. Furthermore, the journal will always be available in hard copy (printed edition) for those who prefer to read it in this format. I feel it very important to elaborate on the importance of open access publishing. In a perfect world, all journals (and literature) would be open access. To advance scientific study and further the benefit to human health, and especially environmental conservation (Fonseca and Benson 2003), it is imperative for organizations, societies, and publishers to advance the open access model for scientific publication. In a recent 194-page report of the STM (Science, Technical, and Medical) journal industry by Sami Kassab financial analysts at BNP Paribas (http://www.bnpparibas.com/en/home/default.asp), it warned about the impact of changes in the scientific publishing industry (BioMed Central 2003a). It was estimated in the report that the global scientific research community could save more than 40% in costs by switching entirely to an open access model. Societies should continue to increase organizational functions and offer an ever-increasing number of member benefits separate and therefore outside of the publication(s) aspect. In this way, being a society member is a valued benefit separate from receiving the publication(s). At the very least, members should be able to access the societies publications full-text online from home. I am a member of several scientific societies but cannot access their content online from home; academic libraries are where I need to go now for online access.