Systematic & Applied Acarology (SAA) was founded in 1996 and was published annually during the first ten years (1996–2005). In the last two years, the frequency of publication was increased to semiannual in 2006 and quarterly in 2007 to reduce the publication lag so that accepted papers can be published more rapidly. Herein I will summarize the effect of such increased frequency on the number and type of papers published, the number and distributions of authors and the number of new mite taxa published in SAA over the last two years, in comparison with the pattern in 1996–2005 as summarized in Zhang (2005).
Number and type of papers
With the increase in frequency, the total number of pages were also increased and, on average, 251 pages were published per year during 2006–2007 (c.f. 202 pages per year during 1996–2005). The number of papers published was also increased, so was the length of papers (Table 1).
TABLE 1.
A summary of papers published during 2006–2006 in comparison to those in 1996–2005 in Systematic & Applied Acarology.
Number and distribution of authors
The number of authors each year increased by 30% during 2006–2007, compared to the 1996–2005 period (Table 2). International representation also increased; during 1996–2005, <12 countries (of 4.4 continents) were represented in each volume and authors from China were the majority in 90% of the volumes (although proportions of authors from China decreased from 78% in 1996 to 28% in 2005), but during 2006–2007, 18 countries from all continents were represented in each volume, with the top two countries being China (19%) and Iran (14%) in 2006 and India (20%) and USA (16%) in 2007.
Most of the papers in 2006–2007 were collaborative research by two or more authors, and among these 44.4% were written by authors from different countries, reflecting an increase by 41% in international collaboration over the period 1996–2005 (Table 2).
TABLE 2.
A summary of authors in Systematic & Applied Acarology during 1996–2007.
TABLE 3.
A summary of new mite taxa published in Systematic & Applied Acarology during 1996–2007.
Number of new taxa described
The number of new taxa described per volume increased from 21.0 during 1996–2005 to 26.5 during 2006–2007 (Table 3).
Discussion
The increased numbers of papers, authors and new taxa are correlated with the increased number of pages published in the last two years compared to 1996–2005. However, it is very encouraging to see an increase in diversity of authors from different countries and also the increased degree of international collaboration in papers published in the last two years.
Since 2008, SAAS has formed an partnership with the Acarological Society of America to enable its members full access to the online edition of SAA at a reduced rate. This will likely increase the number of authors from the USA in SAA.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my fellow acarologists for continuous support of SAA over the years: my co-editors, members of the editorial board, and all the reviewers who helped to safeguard the quality of papers; Drs Anne Baker, Owen Seeman, and Richard Robbins, in particular, for reading the final proofs of papers; Dr Qing-Hai Fan for typesetting the volumes during the last few years; Prof Xiaoyue Hong for help with the printing and delivery of the journals; Dr Ting-Kui Qin and Dr Bruce Halliday (our new membership secretary) for help with membership and subscriptions.
