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Estuaries and Coasts' Electronic Evolution

Anne E. Giblin
ERF President
Agiblin@mbl.edu

As most of you know, institutional subscriptions to Estuaries and your membership in the Estuarine Research Federation help to support a wide range of ERF activities, including biennial conferences, strong programs in estuarine research and restoration, education, public policy, and many others. ERF's publication of Estuaries and Coasts serves the entire scientific community by providing research reports of new findings in estuarine science, review articles and special issues.

Managing Editor Stephen Threlkeld recently completed an analysis of the journal's online and print distribution that shows us reaching around the world (see map for online access to Estuaries and Coasts 1999-2001, and our current print distribution). The worldwide distribution and the importance of the journal cited by members taking part in the most recent membership survey (see the winter Newsletter 2000) are indeed good news. We have been working hard to improve the service provided to authors and readers (Stephen Threlkeld talks about some of these improvements in this issue of the newsletter), and there are other big changes ahead for the journal.

Institutional Online Access Begins in 2002
At the April meeting of ERF's Governing Board, we voted to provide online access to institutional subscribers (libraries) as a part of the institutional print subscription. This service will start in 2002. The institutional rates will be increased to cover inflationary costs but remain well below that of most other journals in estuarine science (about $0.40/page for Estuaries and Coasts compared to as much as a $1.00/page for journals published by commercial, for-profit, publishers).

The Board's decision is certainly consistent with ERF's mission, which is "to promote research in estuarine and coastal waters, to promote communication between members of affiliated societies (newsletters, journals), to conduct meetings and to be available as a source of advice in matters concerning estuaries and the coastal zone." The pricing decision reflects the Board's concern that the vitality of our research and educational efforts depends on having the journal available in as many institutional libraries as possible.
In an era when journal subscription rates for institutions have gone through the roof, and libraries' journal cutbacks are the norm rather than the exception, we must be mindful that we are a part of those institutions. We bear some responsibility for their library holdings through our actions as officers and members of professional societies (if you are unaware of what your library pays for journal subscriptions in estuarine science, you should ask your librarian today). The ERF Board believes that providing institutional access to Estuaries and Coasts Online (and continuing to make it available in print) will greatly enhance the distribution of your research findings to other members of the estuarine community. This development will be very good for Estuaries and Coasts, for ERF, and for estuarine science, and we are all very excited by it.

Risks Involved with Institutional Online Access
Unfortunately, as we begin to provide access to the journal through our institutional subscribers (libraries) we also face some risks. Because most of our membership is from individuals at those very same institutions, ERF faces the threat that memberships will be lost because an important benefit of ERF membership will be provided for by your library's institutional subscription. This could have serious financial consequences for ERF because about 45% of our revenue comes from memberships.

Some of you may have seen the recent letter from Donald Kennedy, editor of Science, and know that even societies as large as AAAS are grappling with this problem. However, in spite of the risks we have decided to go ahead with institutional electronic access. We hope that this will not result in a loss of membership.

We believe that the many benefits of ERF membership go far beyond convenient access to the journal. But if you are a member for whom membership renewal is not a forgone conclusion, I urge you to carefully consider the benefits associated with ERF membership in the coming months. Consider your important role as a member of the premier estuarine scientific society in the world, and consider the many other benefits of ERF membership. These benefits include reduced rates at conferences and for publications and easy access to information about events, jobs and current topics of interest to our field. Members are entitled to hold office and to vote.

Please recognize that your membership is of vital importance to continued publication of Estuaries and Coasts, to the biennial conferences, to support for students and to all other membership services that ERF provides to you and to the rest of the estuarine community. With so many good projects underway, I hope I can count on your continued membership to maintain this momentum.

Sincerely,

Anne E. Giblin
ERF President