Introducing Chelonian Conservation and Biology Volume 20: Turtles and Tortoises Can Help Us Through Challenging Times

When Chelonian Conservation and Biology was launched in November 1993, the editorial team of John Behler, Peter Pritchard, and Anders Rhodin stated in the inaugural Editorial Introduction that they envisioned a journal that would serve the turtle and tortoise research community by publishing papers that would highlight the “diverse investigational endeavors” and multi-disciplinary nature of the turtle research and conservation community. Fast-forward to 2021 and as you will see in this Issue 1, CCB has been able to fulfill our founders’ goals and keep bringing you interesting and informative articles about our favorite creatures.

The technological world was a very different place in 1993; many of us were just learning about electronic mail (e-mail), the World Wide Web launched that year in the public domain, and that annum marked the creation of the first-ever PDF file. Without the Internet as we know it today, communication occurred via written and typed letters, in person meetings, and telephone conversations. And rather than electronic files, we all depended on hard-copy books, papers, and journals for our information. Our technologies have certainly changed over the last 28 years; reading papers often occurs on a computer screen now, and many folks rarely pick up a printed hard copy of anything. Nevertheless, for many of us (including me) there is no replacement for having that book in our hands, or for turning the pages of a newly minted reprint of our favorite scientific article. It is with this in mind that CCB continues to publish our journal in both hard-copy and electronic (PDF) format. Something for everybody.

The first issue of Volume 1 of Chelonian Conservation and Biology was adorned on the cover with a photo of an Asian giant softshell turtle (genus: Pelochelys), and fittingly the cover of this first issue of Volume 20 spotlights the Chinese softshell turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis), and the issue starts off with an article about its home range and habitat use on the Yellow River of Northwestern China. And reading on, you'll see that this CCB issue lives up to the role of providing diverse and multidisciplinary papers that highlight chelonid research and conservation from around the world. Articles in this issue span four continents and include contributions from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Myanmar, Oman, Tanzania, and the United States. These papers focus on two sea turtle species, five tortoise species and 14 freshwater turtle species. Indeed, this is an exceptional collection of articles and I thank all the authors, CCB Editors, and external reviewers for making this issue possible!

In addition to introducing this Issue, I also want to take a few moments to highlight some changes at CCB, all for the better. First, I am delighted to announce that Dr. Vivian Páez (Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia) has accepted our invitation to elevate her role within CCB to Editor, which means she'll have greater leadership with the handling of manuscripts and review processes for these papers. It also marks the first time that we've had a colleague from South America serve as Editor. Welcome to your new role, Vivian! Now is also an exciting time for CCB's social media, with the number of subscribers and followers growing on each of our social media platforms, including Facebook (www.facebook.com/CCBJournal/), Instagram (www.instagram.com/ccb_journal/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/CCB_Journal). I hope you have had an opportunity to check out one or all of these sites, and if you have, you will see that in addition to the latest news about everything-turtle, we highlight the research by CCB authors, and provide a bit more perspective about the people behind the research. If you are a subscriber/follower, we greatly appreciate your support and hope that you nudge your friends and colleagues to join too!

While we are so pleased to celebrate the 20th Issue of CCB, it's a bitter-sweet time, too. Obviously, the past year and a half has been incredibly difficult as we have battled the novel Coronavirus. With the global pandemic we have had our careers and our research interrupted, many of us (including me!) have been stuck at home and/or have struggled with our kids trying to save the school year(s) with on-line learning, and all of us have had to cope with a new world for which much of our day-to-day routine will be forever changed. But most of all, 2020 and this first part of 2021 has been marred by a tremendous sense of loss for many of us. Friends, family members, and cherished colleagues have passed, and the pandemic has left a huge void filled with sadness. Things will never be the same, but I hope that the articles in this issue can bring a bit of solace. And maybe for a little while, CCB can take the focus off the bad times and remind us about the splendor of turtles and tortoises.