Reviews in Conservation

To further broaden the scope and widen the content of Studies in Conservation, we are pleased to announce that IIC's younger peer-reviewed journal Reviews in Conservation is to be merged into Studies during this anniversary year, following the recent publication of volume 10 (2010) of Reviews.

This is another response to the practical realities of writing and publishing in the twenty-first century: a number of prospective authors have expressed concern about the long publication time that a journal like Reviews, produced only once a year, can engender, and others have pointed out that journals published annually tend to miss out on citation indices, and are therefore less attractive as a publication medium to many university-based researchers. Museum-based authors will probably follow this trend soon. Both views are valid and have been taken seriously by IIC.

The opportunity to address these concerns while broadening the content of Studies could not be resisted, and the combined journal, still to be known as Studies in Conservation, should enhance the strengths of both. Inevitably, this process of assimilation involves a considerable amount of work for those involved in order to harmonize the procedures, logistics and evaluation criteria of two previously independent journals; but these are purely mechanistic issues and we are confident that Studies will emerge from the merger a bigger and better thing.

As an immediate practical response to this change Reviews editor Marika Spring will join the editorial team of Studies focusing initially on the incorporation of the Reviews element into the combined journal. Marika brings a wealth of practical, organisational and technical specialism skills to the editorial group which will add greatly to the continued development of the journal.

Joyce Townsend
IIC Director of Publications
May 2010