EDIT - European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy -

Scientific Publishing by Natural History Institutions - THIS EVENT IS PAST Find the report of the conference here. Find the current list of journals from EDIT institutions here. The 8th of December 2008 the Museum national d'Histoire Naturelle and EDIT held a meeting on scientific publishing by natural history institutions. This first meeting on scientific publishing brought together 12 EDIT publishing departments. By way of this meeting EDIT and the MNHN want to make a start with the creation of a platform to exchange knowledge and explore opportunities for collaboration. During the meeting, presentations and discussions showed that there are clear differences in the organisation of scientific publishing but that EDIT institutions are facing similar challenges at the strategic, editorial and technical levels of publishing. During the meeting a draft agenda for a second meeting, and a list with recommendations to the EDIT steering committee and directors (see report) were put together. The second meeting should further investigate the possibilities to develop a collective answer to the issues raised by the publishing representatives during the meeting of December 8. The second meeting is planned for June 2009. Natural history institutions are unique in academia when it comes to publishing scientific journals and series. Among the EDIT institutions more than 100 titles are published of which are 67 research journals, most of them covering taxonomy and systematics. EDIT recognises that the scientific journals and series of natural history institutions are a window to the work of taxonomists and to the research on collections. These titles are a valuable infrastructure for the taxonomic community, but they can play a much more efficient role if integration of information on access and quality are further optimised.