Editorial Reflection
It has been 15 years since I started this journal: 15 years of hard work and endless reviewing, editing, and formatting, and 15 years of gratifying involvement in the world of turtle conservation and biology. I have felt most fortunate to have successfully transformed my early focused interests in the taxonomy of chelid turtles into a position of broad leadership in the global turtle-conservation community. I have also been most honored to have been accepted into this chelonian community, despite my simultaneous and parallel nonturtle-focused career as a practicing orthopedic surgeon.
The publications I produced through the Chelonian Research Foundation, including Chelonian Conservation and Biology, Chelonian Research Monographs, and Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, and my leadership involvement in the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group and the Turtle Conservation Fund, have been the main vehicles that allowed me to play an integral role in helping to document and define issues in chelonian conservation and biology. These endeavors allowed me to develop a leadership position in these fields and to help influence their progress. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities generated by these efforts and others and equally grateful for the numerous professional and collegial relationships that have inspired me and taught me the measure of devotion that all in this community bring to bear on their own passionate endeavors. Thank you to all who have provided me with your friendship, collegiality, collaboration, and inspiration over the years. I have seen our international chelonian conservation community grow stronger and more focused and successful over the last few decades; the future looks increasingly bright ahead as we continue our fight for turtle conservation. May we ultimately be successful in preserving these animals and their habitats that we all care for with such energy and passion.
As I write these words here in the middle of May, I unfortunately face a serious challenge to my health and ongoing productivity. Within a week I will be undergoing open-heart surgery for a recently discovered enlarged ascending aortic aneurysm with aortic valve insufficiency, a so-called aortic root replacement. My surgeon tells me the outcome will be fine (as nearly all surgeons, including me, usually predict), yet the prospect still creates some personal anxiety and concern about the future. I fervently hope and plan to continue my turtle work after the successful outcome of this procedure, but it may be a few months before I am back to full strength and productivity. Thank you all for your understanding and support.
As Jeff Seminoff and I produce this 21st issue of Chelonian Conservation and Biology, we announce some important developments. In terms of the editorial review board, we decided that it was time for a major renewal, allowing some of our old friends and colleagues respite from their many years of service, while bringing in some new blood and fresh faces. To that end, we replaced 12 members of the board.
We thank the outgoing board members with all our hearts for their years of help and dedication to the cause of peer-review professionalism: Nat B. Frazer, Elliott R. Jacobson, Colin J. Limpus, Kenneth J. Lohmann, Molly E. Lutcavage, Roderic B. Mast, Edward O. Moll, Jeanne A. Mortimer, Hidetoshi Ota, Frank V. Paladino, James Perran Ross, and George R. Zug. Their support of this journal, for most of them since the very beginning in 1993, has been a major part of our success over the years. We thank them all for their professionalism, collegiality, and excellent service.
At the same time, we welcome the following new members of the board: Harold W. Avery, John L. Carr, Matthew H. Godfrey, Sandra Hochscheid, Brian D. Horne, Yoshimasa Matsuzawa, James F. Parham, Steven G. Platt, Richard Reina, Amanda L. Southwood, Chris Tabaka, and Bryan Wallace. Their institutional affiliations are recorded on the masthead on the inside front cover of the journal. We welcome them to the board and look forward to many years of productivity from them as they help us lead the journal into improved publication timeliness and more rapid online availability.
On the financial side, we are honored and pleased to announce that we have been joined in major partnership by the Behler Chelonian Center. They have stepped up and helped us cover the shortfall created by publishing more pages per volume than the contracted amount, thus allowing us to improve publication timelines and increase content, thereby improving the quality and scope of the journal. We thank their principals, Eric Goode and Maurice Rodrigues, for their wonderful support and shared vision of the goals for turtle conservation and biology.
On a related topic, the book previously and often advertised in the pages of this journal, the Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles, is finally coming to fruition and is being expanded to also include Tortoises. The accounts will all be published both online and in hardcopy form by the Chelonian Research Foundation as Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5, as a Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Many accounts are done and we are finally going ahead and getting them published. We are starting out by first publishing the accounts online on the TFTSG Web site (www.iucn-tftsg.org) with individual DOI (digital object identifier) numbers and downloadable open access for all accounts to guarantee acceptability and citability as bona fide dated scientific publications (following the lead and recommendations of online journals and the ICZN). The first accounts will be up and published online by mid May, with rapid publication of many accounts over the coming months as we finalize the processing and editing of all accounts. Hardcopy published accounts will be produced annually, in similar fashion to the Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. Visit the TFTSG Web site to view and download the accounts, and the Chelonian Research Foundation Web site (www.chelonian.org) to order hardcopy published accounts.
