Volume 20 in 2015 completed the second decade of Systematic & Applied Acarology (SAA). During its first decade, SAA was as an annual publication with an average of 27 papers in 202 pages per year (Zhang 2005). During the last decade, SAA increased its frequency to biannual in 2006, triannual during 2007–2011 and quarterly during 2012–2014, averaging 39 papers in 328 papes per year (Zhang 2014). In 2015, the online edition was published in eight issues with 94 papers in 976 pages-the largest annual increase in its history. Overall, the second decade achieved 66.7% increase in the number of papers and 94.6% in the number of pages over the first decade (Fig. 1). In 2016, SAA will be published monthly online, allowing faster publication, while printing will continue quarterly as in 2015.
FIGURE 1.
The growth of Systematic and Applied Acarology as shown in the average numbers of papers and pages per year during the first and second decade.
In 2015, SAA joined BioOne.org, which is a full-text aggregation serving a community of over 140 society and institutional publishers, 4,000 accessing institutions, and millions of researchers worldwide. From January 2016, all published issues of SAA will be available via BioOne in html for the first time in addition to PDF. This will enable wider visibility, increased access (esp. free access for over 2,500 institutional libraries throughout the developing world), enhanced reference linking, comprehensive archiving and better financial sustainability for SAA. During 2015, we archived all papers in PDF/A in Biotaxa.org, which also provides a manuscript submission and tracking system for SAA.
Acknowledgements:
Dr Tianci Yi for help in archiving SAA back issues; co-editors and reviewers for maintaining the quality of the journal; retired editors Dr Rich Robbins and Dr Owen Seeman for their significant contributions to the rise of SAA during the last decade; Dr Xiaoyue Hong for managing the printing and mailing of SAA; retired membership secretary Dr Bruce Halliday (and also Dr Ting-Kui Qin) for managing SAA subscriptions/accounts in the last decade and Dr Xiaofeng Xue for continuing this service; Dr Qing-Hai Fan, Dr Anne Baker and others for proof-reading of some papers before publication.
