Yes, witness that we are promoting an old media company (Wiley-Blackwell) but only because they aren't charging anyone ridiculous subscription fees and convincing you your career is over if they're not in your citation list when your review comes up.
They have added yet another name to their 1400-title long publication list. But this one is free. We couldn't agree more with free.
A new journal called Evolutionary Applications publishes articles that use evolution to address pressing issues such as climate change, endangered species, food safety, infectious diseases, and invasive species. In other words, someone besides us finally figured out that showing the practical uses of evolution, and how evolutionary biology is absolutely necessary to understanding the biological world, would be a good thing.
The first issue stuck with that 'evolution is not just for monkeys' concept - though we still love monkeys. Articles discussed topics such as how organisms may respond to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and why evolutionary biology should be added to medical school curricula.
“Evolution is not just about understanding where humans came from,” says Evolutionary Applications Editor-in-Chief Louis Bernatchez.
The first issue featured other articles that use evolutionary tools to address HIV transmission, to assess population boundaries of threatened species such as spotted owl, and to predict how Atlantic cod will evolve in response to increased fishing intensity.
Journal editor Loren Rieseberg, who is also a MacArthur Fellow and University of British Columbia Canada Research Chair, stated that the new journal is necessary because “evolutionary biology is the glue that holds the life sciences together, and evolutionary principles are key to understanding and solving many of society’s most serious problems. There’s a huge growth of studies using evolution to solve real-world problems. What we really needed was a place to publish all of these important papers.”
Well, we've been here since February 2007. But you're better late than never.
Comments
T. Ryan Gregory | 05/02/08 | 07:08 AM
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I bet they're still not going to read either of those magazines, no matter how much we endorse them.
I don't think my ancestors were monkeys either - more likely they were riverboat gamblers. Or whatever occupation rascals had in prehistoric times.
Hank Campbell | 05/02/08 | 09:27 AM
