Join The Crustacean Society!

This one is for the professionals in the audience.

I just received an email from Fred Schram, the editor of The Journal of Crustacean Biology (JCB). It was a classic “good news / bad news” scenario.

First the good news (slightly edited):

In recent years, we have introduced many changes to the journal including:

• Color-coded volumes for easy shelf-retrieval
• On-line submission of articles through AllenTrack
• Digital production that is helping to hold down costs
• New website for ease of access: jcbonline.org

More changes are on the way in the coming months:

• Choice of on-line as well as hard copy publication
• Reduced rates for students
• Enhanced production values
• Advanced notice of articles accepted for publication
• Increased ease of links to meeting and other important web-sites

Submissions to JCB are up; we have a wider array of authors from an increasing number of countries across the globe; we are recording increasing number of hits in BioOne to JCB articles as evidenced by a rise in income from BioOne and JSTOR; our impact factor is rising. In other words, people are using JCB!

Now the bad news:

However, while we continue to move JCB into the digital age, our membership in The Crustacean Society (TCS) has been slipping away. Sad to say, in 2010, for the first time TCS ran a deficit. There appears to be a curious disconnect. Because of the internet, use and access to the JCB are up. But people do not seem to realize that if we do not have enough TCS members, there will not be a journal.

Sometimes people ask what they get from scientific societies. High quality journals at a reasonable price compared to for profit publishers is a major one. If you do research with crustaceans, consider joining the Society!

To join, just click on: http://tcs.allenmm.com

Full disclosure: I am a member of The Crustacean Society, have published, and have a paper in press in, The Journal of Crustacean Biology.