Dear David, Charlie, and Linda,

Thanks for your quick response. Following up on David's suggestion that
some shell clubs could produce high-quality newsletters and magazines that
would eventually be suitable for publication of nomenclatural changes
(e.g., description of new species), it is only natural to mention The
Nautilus, which started in 1886 as The Conchologists Exchange, basically a
tiny newsletter where dealers and collectors could promote sales and
exchange of shells as well as publish bits on information on them (Tucker
Abbott introduced the peer review process to The Nautilus in the 1970s in
his tenure as editor). I can also think of The Festivus, published by the
San Diego Shell Club as a good example of a refined, high-quality shell
club magazine. However, by running a quick, cursory search on the table of
contents and articles published in the last twenty years in The Festivus I
haven't found any description of new taxa in that publication (may be we
could get editor Carole Hertz to contribute their viewpoint/journal
policies to this thread). Some magazines and newsletters, such as COA's
American Conchologist and the traditional, printed version of Hawaiian
Shell News publish (or published, in the case of HSN) a disclaimer stating
that these publications "are not deemed valid for taxonomical and/or
nomenclatural purposes". On Linda's question of whether Tony d'Attilio's
illustrations in the New York Shell Club Notes consisted of valid
descriptions: his drawings in NYSCN were mostly illustrations of well-known
species, not of new taxa. Incidentally, following his move to San Diego,
Tony continued to contribute his line drawings to The Festivus.
Incidentally 2, the library at the Shell Museum on Sanibel has a large and
now well-curated collection of national and international shell club
newsletters and magazines. Staff will be happy to give you a quick tour of
the library next time you visit the museum.

Cheers,

José

At 01:10 PM 6/21/00 -0400, you wrote:
>I do not know of a standard shell club publication that would be suitable
>for publishing new species, although I think Veliger grew out of something
>like that.  It would have been clearer if I had said that it is highly
>unlikely that a shell club publication would be suitable.  A well-funded
>and ambitious club might be able to produce something suitable, so I did
>not feel as though the possibility could be ruled out.
>However, submitting to an existing journal is much simpler and helps avoid
>the risk of oblivion that is raised by publishing on one's own.  It also is
>less likely to make people suspect that you are trying to avoid peer
>review.
>
>
>Dr. David Campbell
>"Old Seashells"
>Department of Geological Sciences
>CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
>Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315 USA
>[log in to unmask], 919-962-0685, FAX 919-966-4519
>
>"He had discovered an unknown bivalve, forming a new genus"-E. A. Poe, The
>Gold Bug
>
>
__________________________________________________________________________
José H. Leal, Ph.D.
Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Editor, THE NAUTILUS
[log in to unmask]
3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road
Sanibel, FL 33957 USA
(941) 395-2233; fax (941) 395-6706