2009 was a very successful year for Amphibia-Reptilia, with 149 manuscripts submitted, a similar number to the best year until now (2006). The manuscripts originated from all the continents with Europe (30%) and South-America (29%) coming first. Asia and North America are also well represented (12-13%). There is a strong increase of interest for Amphibia-Reptilia for authors outside Europe, showing the broad coverage of our journal. Corresponding authors came from 33 countries; the top six consisting of Brazil, Argentina, the United States, China, Germany, and Italy. The ISI impact factor indicated also that Amphibia-Reptilia continued its progression among top herpetology journals as it increased up to 0.949. Of the submissions, 58% of the manuscripts were rejected. Manuscripts that were not editorially rejected because they fell outside of the scope of the journal (e.g., because of ethical concerns) went through one to four revisions. Rejections mainly concerned the first submissions, but a few manuscripts were also rejected at the second or third review rounds. 352 review requests were sent, with the US coming first, followed by Italy, France, UK, and Spain but reviewers from 21 other countries were also contacted. Reviewers replied to invitations within two days on average, but only 60% of the reviewers (all included) sent back their comments within 21 days on average. The others either declined the invitation or did not reply before the deadline. 72 reminders were sent in such cases but in some cases no reviews were received, that complicated considerably the editorial work. Despite this, the editorial process remained on average fast with respect to international standards: 7 days to invite reviewers, 34 days to give a decision after a submission. However, as manuscripts need more than a submission, the whole process lasted more time (30 to 45 days are left to authors to revise each version of their manuscript; most authors respected the deadlines). Manuscripts that did not need much revision could thus be accepted very quickly. As in previous years, the journal contained 600 pages.

We would like to thank our Associate Editors (G.F. Ficetola, C.R. Gabor, J. Lea, T. Madsen, M.J. Mazerolle, and B. Schmidt) for their support to the co-editors (M. Denoël, D.J. Harris, L. Luiselli and S. Ursenbacher).

We are also particularly grateful to our internal and external reviewers (159, i.e., 30 more than in 2008) for their very good job on the submitted manuscripts: G. Alexander, R.A. Alford, R. Altwegg, R. Amaro-Ghilardi, C. Angelini, O. Attum, R. Avery, C. Battisti, D. Bauwens, M. Becak, D. Blackburn, P. Bombi, X. Bonnet, C. Brasileiro, F. Brischoux, J.C. Brito, T. Broquet, B. Buchanan, D. Buckley, R. Burke, S.D. Busack, P. Byrne, M. Cabanac, G. Caccone, J. Campbell, D. Capizzi, G.L.F. Carfagno, S. Carranza, C. Carreras, M.A. Carretero, B. Caspers, Y. Chiari, S. Converse, C. Corti, G. Costa, M. Cristaldi, J. Crnobrnja-Isailovic, P. Crochet, M. Cummings, I. de la Riva, V. Di Cola, M. Donnelly, L. Drummond, S. Dubey, A. Edwards, R.M. Elsey, R. Ernst, J. Faivovich, I. Farias, E. Filippi, M.M. Fonseca, U. Fritz, E. Froufe, H. Gasser, J. Gerlach, D. Germano, G. Gollmann, T. Gormant, P.T. Gregory, R. Griffiths, R. Gutberlet, B.J. Halstead, D. Hawlena, G. Herczeg, A. Herrel, S. Hertwig, A. Hettyey, W. Hoedl, L. Houck, F. Ikuko, D.J. Irschick, J. Isailovic, A. Ivanovic, J. Iverson, C. Jakob, R. Jehle, C. Jenkins, H. Johansson, J. Jonak, A. Kaliontzopoulou, J. Kapfer, S.A. Karl, W. Kendall, T.E. Krause, A. Kupfer, S. Lüpold, D. Laloi, P. Larson, C. Leary, T. Lengagne, D. Lesbarreres, M. Letnic, P. Lindeman, G. Llorente, J. Loman, A. Loyau, T. Madsen, F. Marangoni, J.C. Marshall, J. Martin, F. Mazzotti, J. Merila, C. Miaud, M. Michel, P. Mikulicek, L. Mouton, B. Mueller, A. Ohler, G. Orizaola, A. Pagano, W. Palen, F. Pasmans, A. Perera, V. Perez Mellado, C. Pinho, J. Pleguezuelos, H. Pröhl, S. Ravela, S. Recco-Pimentel, S. Rocha, S. Ruane, L. Rugiero, K. Ryan, S. Salvidio, X. Santos, R. Saporito, E. Sasso Cerri, S. Scali, R. Schabetsberger, M. Schaub, D. Schmeller, T. Schmoll, F. Sequeira, D. Sever, U. Sinsch, S. Siqueira, G.R. Smith, L. Smith, J. Snodgrass, U. Steiner, S. Steinfartz, M. Sztatecsny, G. Tavecchia, J. Thorbjarnarson, B. Todd, S. Ursenbacher, M. Vallinoto, J. Van Buskirk, R. Van Damme, P. van Dijk, N.J. van Wilgen, M. Vences, D. Vieites, J. Waddle, D.K. Wasko, M. Whiting, R. Williams, K. Witte, and M.A.L. Zuffi. The reviewers are a key point in the quality of a journal. It is to be noted that after the communications of good reviews, reviewers can be invited to join the Advisory Editorial Board and afterwards the board of Associate Editors of the Society and thus take a more official role in the editorial process.

Prepared by the Editors:
Mathieu Denoël, F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate at the University of Liège,
Sylvain Ursenbacher, NLU Research Assistant at the University of Basel,
and D. James Harris, Researcher at CIBIO – University of Porto

One hundred and eighteen manuscripts have been submitted to Amphibia-Reptilia in 2008, i.e. a similar value than in 2005 but a bit less than the two last years. The manuscripts originated from all the continents with Europe (45%) and North-America (24%) coming first. There is a relative increase of interest for Amphibia-Reptilia for authors outside Europe, showing the broad coverage of our journal. Corresponding authors came from 34 countries; the top five being constituted by Argentina, the United States, Spain, Germany, and Portugal. Of these submissions, half the manuscripts were rejected. Manuscripts that were not editorially rejected because they fell outside of the scope of the journal (e.g. because of ethical concerns) went through one to three revisions. 327 review requests were sent, with English speaking countries coming first (U.S. and then U.K.), followed by Germany, Spain and Italy but reviewers from 31 other countries were also contacted. Only one reviewer out of two agreed to send back his comments, which complicated the editorial work. Despite this, the editorial process remained on average fast with respect to international standards: 18 days to give a decision (including editorial rejection) after a submission, but as manuscripts need more than a submission, the whole process lasted more time (30 to 45 days are left to authors to revise each version of their manuscript). As last years, the journal contained 600 pages.

            The new on-line submission procedure, Editorial Manager, has proved to be much helpful. It allowed a better coordination between authors, reviewers, associate editors, co-editors and the publisher. Everything is archived in the system, which prevent files lost and delays and allows a fast selection of reviewers and associate editors in taking into account their current workload. Reminders are also set up in the system to shorten the delays. Some improvements have been done during the year to lighten the different steps of the reviewing process, making thus it as easy as possible. Although instructions to authors are much detailed and free samples of the journal are available on-line, many manuscripts remain not conform for a large number of aspects. Such manuscripts are sent back to authors for revision through an automatic procedure.

            We would like to thank our Associate Editors (R. Jehle, G.F. Ficetola, J. Lea, T. Madsen, and B. Schmidt) for their support to the co-editors (D.J. Harris, L. Luiselli, and M. Denoël). We are also particularly grateful to our internal and external reviewers (129, i.e. 18 more than in 2007) for their very good job on the submitted manuscripts: D. Adams, J. Ahnesjö, G. Akani, J. Alexandrino, R. Altwegg, N. Ananjeva, P. Arens, O. Attum, R. Avery, A.M. Barbosa, S. Barni, C. Battisti, D. Bauwens, X. Bonnet, J. Bourjea, F. Brischoux, J.C. Brito, T. Broquet, R.   Brown, B. Cameron, D. Canestrelli, S. Carranza, M. A. Carretero, C. Castellano, A. Castilla, E. Chadwick, F. Chesi, R. Cimmaruta, M. Cuadrado, S. Daniels, F. Diego-Rasilla, D. Dolmen, R. Downie, A. Egea-Serrano, C. Eggert, E. Filippi, M. Fonseca, C. Fontenot, T. Friedl, U. Fritz, J. Fu, T. Garner, M. Given, D. Gledhill, J. Glos, M. Godfrey, G. Gollmann, I. Gomez-Mestre, R. Griffiths, H. Grillitsch, J. Hallermann, J. Hammond, R. Harris, T. Hartel, R. Hendrix, A. Hettyey, W. Hödl, L. Houck, J. Isailovic, A. Ivanovic, A. Janke, R. Jehle, C. Jenkins, P. Joly, M. Jowers, A. Kaliontzopoulou, F. Kraus, A. Kupfer, A. Kurabayashi, A. Laurila, C. Leary, D. Lesbarreres, J. Loman, S. Lykapov, R. Márquez, A. Maletzky, F. Marangoni, M. Mazerolle, M. Menin, P. Mikulicek, L.F. Mouton, E. Muths, M. Ogielska, G. Orizaola, J. Padilla, V. Perez Mellado, D. Pincheira-Donoso, C. Pinho, C. Rato, R. Real, P. Rosenbaum, V. Rudolf, L. Rugiero, M. Rybacki, S. Salvidio, X. Santos, E. Sasso Cerri, R. Schabetsberger, M. Schaub, P. Segurado, F. Sequeira, D.M. Sever, N. Sillero, J. Snodgrass, U. Steiner, S. Steinfartz, M. Stock, M. Sztatecsny, J. Teixeira, M. Urban, S. Ursenbacher, E. Ursprung, T. Uzzell, R. Van Damme, N. van Wilgen, M. Vences, F. Vera Candioti, D. Vieites, L. Vignoli, P. Wagner, R. Walker, V. Wallach, P. Weatherhead, H.H. Whiteman, M. Whiting, W. Wuster, M. Zelditch, T. Ziegler, M. Zuffi. The reviewers are a key point in the quality of a journal. It is to be noted that after the communications of good reviews, reviewers can be invited to join the Advisory Editorial Board and afterwards the board of Associate Editors of the Society and thus take a more official role in the editorial process. 

Prepared by Mathieu Denoël
Research Associate F.R.S.-FNRS
On behalf of the Co-Editors
of Amphibia-Reptilia

One hundred and thirty eight manuscripts have been submitted to Amphibia-Reptilia in 2007, i.e. an intermediate value between the records of 2005 (123 in 2005) and 2006 (156). The majority of manuscripts originated from Europe (64%) and North-America (19%), but submissions were also received from South America and Asia and to a smaller extent from Oceania, Central America, and Africa. Of these submissions, 58 manuscripts were accepted and 80 rejected. This means a rejection rate of 58%, i.e. a bit lower than in 2006 (63%), which reflects the submission of excellent works. Manuscripts that were not editorially rejected because they fell outside of the scope of the journal went through one to three revisions. As last year, the journal contained 600 pages. The issues of the journal have been published two months earlier than last year. This new procedure allows a fastest publication of papers, which was less than one year on average but also a fastest indexation. The ISI Impact factor of the papers published in the journal in 2006 considerably increased to 0.795. This follows the positive trend of the last couple of years, and the highest increase in herpetological journals, confirming thus the progression of Amphibia-Reptilia to the top of the list. The 2007 Impact factor should be released in late June 2007. It is expected to be very good. Although Impact factors are not a perfect index, they reflect that more people are interested by our journal as they cite our papers more frequently. Proofs were provided to the authors very soon after acceptance, which should favour a fast communication of their work. For instance, manuscripts that do not need major revisions and for which authors resubmit directly their revisions, could be available, as proofs, only a few months after the first submission.

            A new on-line submission procedure (http://amre.edmgr.com) has been built during 2007 with collaboration with Brill, our publisher, and Aries System, the company who distributes Editorial Manager. This professional software, which is used by other major journals, was customized to fit the style and work structure of Amphibia-Reptilia but also to be as convenient as possible for all users. It has a large number of advantages over the previous e-mail procedure: archiving of all material and meta-data associated with submissions (with restriction access depending on users), centralization of the submissions, pdf building of manuscripts for authors, acceptance of larger files, integrated list of reviewers and pre-formatted letters, report of late reviews and resubmissions, statistics on the submissions, easy workflow from submission to publication. In addition to the previous system, a preliminary request is now sent to reviewers to find out whether they would agree to give their comments on a manuscript. When reviewers do not accept or do not reply within 8 days, this allows the editors to send a reminder or to find more rapidly than before an alternate reviewer. All this procedure is also expected to reduce time from submission to publication for papers submitted from 1 January 2008, date of the official launching. This will also prevent loss of material as everything remains on the website and can be checked by all parties. Indeed, emails do not always reach their destination (e.g. because of spam filters) but now each party can check the status and list of materials on the website through an access with ID and password.

            Thanks also to Michiel Thijssen, Senior Acquisition Editor in Brill, for posting on the Ingenta website (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/amre) all old issues of Amphibia-Reptilia, which have been scanned. There are thus currently 109 issues available on-line. These pdf reprints are provided with no additional charge to all SEH members (with journal) and subscribing institutions.

            Finally, after a roundtable in Porto during the last SEH congress and after several important modifications, an official agreement, signed by our General Secretary (M.A.L. Zuffi), our President (N. Ananjeva) and M. Thijssen, has been concluded between Brill and SEH for the publication of Amphibia-Reptilia. This solves a long period of uncertainty between the publisher and the society.

We would like to thank our Associate Editors (R. Jehle, G.F. Ficetola, J. Lea, T. Madsen, and B. Schmidt) for their support to the co-editors (D.J. Harris, L. Luiselli, and M. Denoël). We are also particularly grateful to our internal and external reviewers for their very good job on the submitted manuscripts: U. Agrimi, J. Ahnesjo, G.C. Akani, G. Alexander, S. Andersson, F. Andreone, R. Avery, A. Bauer, M. Bologna, W. Boehme, P. Bombi, X. Bonnet, B. Borczyk, F. Brischoux, J.C. Brito, K. Buhlmann, M. Capula, S. Carranza, M.A. Carretero, C. Castellano, W. Cooper, C. Crumly, M. D’Amen, F. Della Rocca, C. Diaz Paniagua, F.J. Diego-Rasilla, V. Dikinson, E.A. Eniang, C. Erard, E. Filippi, D.C. Forester, S. Fornasiero, U. Fritz, J.W. Gibbons, M. Godfrey, R. Godinho, I. Gomez-Mestre, G. Gracceva, R. Grant, E.H.C. Grant, D. Greenberg, A. Hailey, J. Hallermann, T. Hels, P. Jenkins, A. Kaliontzopoulou, G. Kuchling, J. Lea, P. Le Fras Mouton, O. Lourdais, A. Loy, T. Madsen, W. Magnusson, J. Maisano, B. Maritz, R. Marquez, M. Mazerolle, J. Measey, R. Nydam, M. Ollson, A. Oppliger, G. Orizaola, G. Orlowski, N. Pacini, P. B. Pearman, M. Penna, A. Perera, V. Pérez Mellado, A. Pernatta, C. Pinho, M. Plath, J. Pleguezuelos, K. Räsänen, L. Raw, C. Reading, A. Richter-Boix, S. Rocha, R. Rouag, J.J.L. Rowley, V.H.W. Rudolf, L. Rugiero, A. Russell, R. Sacchi, D. Salvi, S. Salvidio, M. Sanchez, X. Santos, P. Schlegel, R. Shine, U. Sinsch, S. Steinfartz, V. Stevens, C. Téplitsky, G. Thompson, M.L. Tobias, B.D. Todd, L. Tomovic, P. Tryjanowski, B. Ujivari, G. Velo-Anton, B. Viertel, L. Vignoli, R. Walker, S. Watling, C. Wanger, K. M. Warkentin, P. Weatherhead, D.J. Wilgers, M. Znari, G. Zug, and M.A.L. Zuffi. The reviewers are a key point in the quality of a journal. Unfortunately, it becomes difficult to find external reviewers for all topics. This is indeed a time-consuming task, but which remain absolutely necessary for peer-reviewed journals that look for specialists of each field. We are all authors of manuscripts and thus cooperation is welcome. It is to be noted that after the communications of good reviews, reviewers can be invited to join the Advisory Editorial Board of the Society and thus take a more official role in the editorial process.

Mathieu Denoël

On behalf of the Co-Editors

of Amphibia-Reptilia

Liège, 15^th June 2008

The number of submitted manuscripts to Amphibia-Reptilia has increased from 123 in 2005 to 152 in 2006. They originated, for a large part, from Europe, but also from North and South America and at a lesser extent from Asia, Africa and Oceania. Of these submissions, 54 manuscripts were accepted, 96 rejected and for 2, a decision is still pending. This means an expected rejection rate of at least 63 % and the publication of the highest quality papers in the 600 available pages every year. Manuscripts that are not editorially rejected went through one to three revisions. The time from submission to publication has been considerably shortened and is maintained at less than one year on average (2 issues in the back log). Proofs are provided to the authors very soon after acceptance, which should favour a fast communication of their work. For instance, manuscripts that do not need major revisions and for which authors resubmit directly their revisions, could be available, as proofs, only a few months after the first submission. This fast publication service should allow papers published in Amphibia-Reptilia to get a broader readership and thus a higher citation rate.

We continue working to improve the services to the authors and readers of Amphibia-Reptilia. Reducing as much as possible publication time is one of our priorities. The issues of Amphibia-Reptilia will be published earlier than previously with publications planned in January, April, July, and October. Discussions are currently on-going with Brill about the creation of a web-submission platform. This should facilitate and speed-up communication between authors, reviewers, associate editors and editors. We would also like corrected proofs to be on-line as soon as there are composed in the typesetter. In addition, we plan to post all issues of Amphibia-Reptilia on-line for our members and possibly the oldest issues in open access. A board of associate editors, currently composed of R. Jehle (Bielefeldt, Germany), G.F.

A board of associate editors, currently composed of R. Jehle (Bielefeldt, Germany), G.F. Ficetola (Le Bourget du Lac, France), J. Lea (York, The United Kingdom), T. Madsen (Lund, Sweden), and B. Schmidt (Zurich, Switzerland), has been created. It has already been involved in the assesment of a part of manuscripts submitted to Amphibia-Reptilia. The submission procedure remains unchanged. The manuscripts continue to be submitted to the co-editors: M. Denoël (Belgium), L. Luiselli (Italy), and D.J. Harris (Portugal).

Three of our reviewers, S. Carranza (Spain), M.J. Mazerolle (Canada), and O.S. Paulo (Portugal) joined the advisory editorial board.

We would like to thank the authors who supported Amphibia-Reptilia in submitting the results of their research, but also the reviewers without whom we would have been unable to give valuable improvements for each paper. A list of the 123 reviewers of manuscripts submitted to Amphibia-Reptilia in 2006 is given below:

P. Abrunhosa, U. Agrimi, G.C. Akani, N. Ananjeva, S. Andersson, F. Andreone, F.M. Angelici, R. Avery, L. Baker, L. Bailey, J. Barandun, I.F. Barieenee, P.E. Bartelt, T.J.C. Beebee, M.A. Bologna, P. Bombi, X. Bonnet, B. Borczyk, J.C. Brito, S. Busack, J.M. Caldwell, D. Capizzi, M. Capula, V. Caputo, S. Carranza, M.A. Carretero, J. Castanet, C. Ciofi, W. Cooper, C. Corti, J. Crnobrnja-Isailović, C. Crumly, T. Dellinger, C. Díaz Paniagua, I. De La Riva, V. Dikinson, J.R. Downie, A. Dubois, C. Ebin, E.A. Eniang, C. Erard, E. Filippi, S. Fornasiero, T. Friedl, J.W. Gibbons, B. Godley, G. Gollmann, I. Gomez-Mestre, D. Greenberg, R.A. Griffiths, B. Gruber, M.S. Gunzburger, A. Hailey, V. Helfer, T. Hirai, R. Jehle, P. Jenkins, A. Kalontzopoliou, S. Kazaharae, R. King, A. Kwet, J. Lea, R. Lehtinen, W. Lowe, A. Loy, D. Madison, T. Madsen, W. Magnusson, B. Maritz, D. Marsh, J. Marshall, R. Meek, S. Mitrus, C.G. Murphy, P. Nystrom, M. Ollson, A. Oppliger, G. Orizaola, D. Ottonello, N. Pacini, C. Pazkowski, J. Pellet, V. Perez Mellado, J. Pleguezuelos, E. Politano, O. Paulo, C. Pinho, E. Pozio, M. Quadrado, C. Reading, R. Rebelo, V. Roca, E. Roth, M. Rubo, L. Rugiero, S. Salvidio, R. Schabetsberger, R. Shine, N. Sillero Pablos, U. Sinsch, G. Smith, J.W. Snodgrass, F. Soderman, S. Steinfartz, M. Stöck, M. Sumida, Z. Tooze, T. Tuberville, B. Ujivari, F. Uwe, L. Vignoli, R. Vogt, D. Wake, J. Watling, J. Watson, J. Wilkinson, and M.A.L. Zuffi. In addition, K.R. Elmer, R. Grant, L. Raw, A. Russell, T. Uzzell, and G. Walters acted as language reviewers.

Mathieu Denoel, James Harris and Luca Luiselli

the Co-Editors of Amphibia-Reptilia Liège, 2nd April 2007

Amphibia-Reptilia has continued to receive a high number of submissions in 2005: 123 manuscripts from a large number of countries, mainly in Europe but also in South and North America and in the other continents. On these submissions, 46 manuscripts were accepted, 72 rejected and for 7, a decision is still pending, which means an expected rejection rate of 59 % if the revisions are accepted. Because of the new layout, the higher number of published pages since 2005, the slight changes in the scope of the journal, and the selection of high quality papers, we managed to fully solve the space problem in Amphibia-Reptilia. From a backlog of 6 issues two years ago, it is now only of 2 issues. This means a fast publication rate from acceptance. In addition, all the procedures during the submission process have been accelerated (e.g., only e-mail communications, shortened review, resubmission and proof processes). Authors may now expect to get a submitted paper published in less than one year on average. We are also working on new ways to get the service again improved. Although not a perfect index, the impact factor of our journal has recently increased over 0.5 and we expect it to continue its increase in the next few years. With all this good news, we hope that Amphibia-Reptilia will remain an issue of choice for your future high quality manuscripts and we thank you in advance for your support to our journal. Particularly, we need a higher rate of manuscript submission to keep our current standard of selection and to fill the 600 yearly pages of our journal.

We would like to thank the authors who supported Amphibia-Reptilia in submitting the results of their research, but also the reviewers without who we would have been unable to give valuable improvements for each paper.

Here under there is a list of the 107 reviewers who acted on manuscripts submitted to Amphibia-Reptilia in 2005: U. Agrimi, R. Aldridge, F. Andreone, F.M. Angelici, G.C. Akani, A. Bauer, T.J.C. Beebee, D.P. Bickford, M.A. Bologna, X. Bonnet, J.C. Brito, R. Brizzi, R. Brodman, C.R. Bursey, D. Capizzi, M. Capula, D. Cogalniceanu, S. Carranza, M.A. Carretero, J. Castanet, C. Ciofi, W. Cooper, C. Corti, E.J. Crespi, J. Crnobrnia Isailovic, P. Daszak, I. De La Riva, T.H. Dellinger, W.E. Duellman, R. Durtsche, D.L. Edwards, E.A. Eniang, C. Erard, J. Faivovich, F. Ficetola, E. Filippi, C. Gabor, J.W. Gibbons, G. Gollman, M.J. Gray, D. Greenberg, P. Gregory, R.A. Griffiths, S. Grosjean, A. Hailey, A.J. Hamer, D.J. Harris, S.B. Hedges, T. Hirai, R. Jaeger, C. Jakob, R. Jehle, J.R. Johnson, P.T.J. Johnson, L. Kats, R. King, A. Kwet, V.A. Lance, J. Lea, K.E. Linsenmair, T. Lodé, P. Lopez, L.B. Lourenço, T. Madsen, W.E. Magnusson, R. Marquez, J.C. Marshall, W.J. Mautz, C. Miaud, R. Mirza,, S. Mitrus, C. Morrison, P. Nystrom, D. Ottonello, G. Orizaola, L. Palacios, J. Pellet, V. Perez Mellado, O. Paulo, J.W. Petranka, T. Phelps, C. Pinho, J. Pleguezuelos, E. Politano, C. Reading, R.M. Rebelo, V. Roca, E. Roth, L. Rugiero, R. Schabetsberger, C.S. Schauble, B. Schmidt, R. Seymour, R. Shine, U. Sinsch, D. Skelly, D.W. Sparling, M. Sztatecsny, Y. Taguchi, B. Thiesmeier, T. Tuberville, L. Vignoli, D.R. Vieites, R. Vogt, V. Wallach, R.A. Wassersug, M. Zuffi.

the Co-Editors of Amphibia-Reptilia Liège, 29th June 2006

Amphibia-Reptilia has received a high number of submissions during the last few years: up to more than 150 in 2004 (mainly from Europe, South America and the U.S.A.). In starting this new editorial term after the 12th OGM, in August 2003, we had thus to face the problem of space limitations because in 2003, for instance, only 53 papers were published. Having already a huge backlog of more than 6 issues, even with our current rejection rate (around 65%), we would have kept unacceptable delays between submission and publication time. On the other hand, we would have lost interesting manuscripts for authors looking for fast publication service (what can partly explain the decrease in the submission rate in 2005 with compared to 2004). We then decided to improve the quality services of Amphibia-Reptilia. This is a step by step process and we are continuously applying new solutions. The recent changes do not only concern ways to save space but also many other points in connection with our journal.

In summary:

1. We obtained from Brill more published pages each year without price increase (600 in 2005 instead of 500 the previous years).

2. In 2005, we changed entirely the layout to a more modern presentation that allows more flexibility and space (two columns, smaller font).

3. We now publish each short-note on a separate page, so they can be presented and downloaded individually.

4. In 2005, we will publish 74 manuscripts.

5. We have more strongly focused the scope of the journal. Manuscripts that are too descriptive (except if innovative), including only species check-list, placing unconnected results together, really too repetitive with previous studies, dealing with captive breeding only, based on a small sample size or containing reports of work which appears to contravene accepted ethical standards are usually no longer accepted.

6. We now accept reviews on hot topics from specialists.

7. We have increased the advisory editorial board in welcoming ten new members. They were chosen among those of our reviewers who gave the most pertinent and constructive reviews.

8. We request reviews from herpetologists from all over the world (mainly Europe and the U.S.A), regardless of their SEH membership. For each manuscript, we try to have the best specialists, but although many agreed to support our journal, this is not always an easy task.

9. We started to launch electronic procedures in 2003. Now, manuscripts must be submitted by e-mail (MS Word for the text, pdf for the figures for the first submission). All correspondence between the authors, editors and reviewers is done by e-mail, which saves time, money and avoids mail losses.

10. We published new instructions to authors (both on-line and in the first printed issue of each year) which avoid losses of time for editors and reviewers. Although, during the last two years, we have sometimes accepted manuscripts that were not prepared in accordance to the instructions to authors, we now are strict in not considering anymore poorly prepared manuscripts.

With these different new procedures, we expect to attract higher quality papers in the next few years. In consequence of a rapid publication service (probably two issues in the backlog by mid 2006), we are now able to offer good services to authors that will see their paper in print faster and can thus cite it also faster. These two aspects are good in terms of impact factor and with an increasing impact factor, we will also get more high quality submissions and remain competitive among the ranked herp journals. Because we published many more papers in 2005 than in 2004 and 2003, we would like to ask you your patience in waiting for a rise of the impact factor of Amphibia-Reptilia. Indeed, impact factors are based on the number of citations of papers published the two years before the year considered and that with respect to the number of papers published on that year.

To improve additionally the quality of services of our journal, we have now founded an Associate Editorial Board for which we are going to welcome new members, we are going to speed up the process at the proof stage, we are preparing an updated version of the instructions to authors, and we are thinking of new on-line procedures, such as web submissions of manuscripts, and abstracts and/or papers published on-line before printing. We are now waiting with enthusiasm your new submissions.

We would like to thank the authors who supported Amphibia-Reptilia in submitting the results of their research, but also the reviewers without who we would have been unable to give valuable improvements for each paper. Hereunder there is a list of the 134 reviewers who acted on manuscripts submitted to Amphibia-Reptilia in 2004:

U. Agrini, G.C. Akani, F. Andreone, P. Abrunhosa, F.M. Angelici, E.N. Arnold, J. Austin, R.A. Avery, M. Babber, T.J.C. Beebee, L. Belden, C. Bevier, X. Bonnet, J. Bosch, W. Böhme, D. Bradshaw, J.C. Brito, R. Brizzi, D. Capizzi, M. Capula, S. Carranza, M.A. Carretero, J. Castanet, S. Castellano, W. Cooper, M. Crossland, J. Cubo, C. Cummins, P. Daszak, I. De la Riva, C. Diaz Paniagua, M. Delfino, S. Diamond, C. Eggert, E. Eniang, C. Erard, F. Ficetolla, E. Filippi, E. Font, T. Fretey, T. Friedl, P. Geniez, A.A. Giaretta, J.W. Gibbons, M. Given, G. Gollmann, P. Gregory, T.R. Gregory, H. Greven, R.A. Griffiths, T. Groot, G. Grosman, A. Haasl, A. Hailey, C. Haddad, S.B. Hedges, R.W. Henderson, F. Hervant, W.R. Heyer, R. Hoffman, A. Holman, I. Ikeuchi, U. Jaeger, R. Jehle, A.I. Kehr, L. Kupriyanova, R.R.K. Lambert, T. Langilde, P. Le Fra Mouton, J.M. Lea, J.P. Lena, R. Lecis, D. Lesbarreres, R.A. Knapp, A. Kwet, P. Kyriakopoulou, B. Lanza, A. Larson, S.P. Lawler, A. Lima, L.B. Lourenço, W. Lowe, J. Lynch, T. Madsen, W.E. Magnusson, A. Malhotra, R. Marquez, J. Marshall, J. Martin, A. Mathis, C. Miaud, N. Mitchell, D.L. Murray, M. Ogielska, P. Nystrom, G. Orizaola, A. Pagano, L. Palacios, O. Paulo, J. Perälä, V. Perez Mellado, C. Pinho, C.J. Reading, R. Rebelo, S.J. Richards, Z. Roček, L. Rugiero, S. Salvidio, E. Sasso-Cerri, B. Schmidt, F. Sequeira, R.A. Seymour, R. Shine, U. Sinsch, G.R. Smith, S. Smyers, L.D. Spotila, A. Storfer, F. Suchentrunk, B.K. Sullivan, D. Tarkhnishvili, M. Tobias, L. Trueb, B. Ujivari, F. Uwe, D. Vallan, M. Vences, P.A. Verrell, J. Watson, J. Wilkinson, P. Wood, W. Wuster, M.L. Zelditch, M. Zuffi.

Mathieu Denoël
On behalf of the Co-Editors of Amphibia-Reptilia Liège, 3rd October 2005