Confessions of a botanical editor

Abstract

When erstwhile friends and colleagues urged me to talk on this occasion about editing, specifically editing of Economic Botany, I resisted on the grounds that there would be little interest, except on the part of a few aficionados. But on further reflection I was persuaded by several counter considerations: 1. Clearly, journals, or serials, as librarians are wont to style them, constitute a considerable part of our culture; indeed, they are the basis of a sizeable industry. I note in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Anonymous 1988) that some of our more renowned research universities receive over 90,000 serials. We are further told (Broad 1988) of that number some 40,000 are scientific journals. All in all not an insignificant aspect of science. 2. Economic Botany, now in its 42nd volume, along with the annual meetings with their research papers and symposia form the core of the activities of the Society for Economic Botany. The journal itself produces an annual income of approximately $80,000, which is available for its publication activities. 3. Under the circumstances, members of the Society deserve a full account of editorial activities-fuller than can be presented in our annual business meetings. They should learn something of the pleasures and the frustrations behind the azure quarterly that appears regularly on their desks. After all, at irregular intervals we seek another editor and thus we need to enlighten all prospects. And so I launch on these confessions, with apologies to DeQuincey. But first let me inform you what this paper is not going to be, as well as what it will include. This will not be an all-inclusive, or comprehensive, treatise on the preparation of scientific papers. We do not have the time nor is this the proper forum for such an encyclopedic endeavor. Besides we already have excellent publications of this kind, i.e., the rightfully renowned Chicago manual of style, the 13th edition of which appeared in 1982 (University of Chicago Press 1982) the useful CBE style manual (CBE Style Manual Committee 1983); Day's (1983) eminently readable and witty How to write and publish a scientific paper; and a host of other laudable guides. Instead of competing with these old standbys, I propose to select a few topics of interest to me, topics that may not even be the most important; indeed, some of the content may seem to be rather trivial, but I remind you that much of the editor's time is devoted to trivia. My account-whatever its meritsis based on my experience as editor of Economic Botany and as editor of the American Journal of Botany, plus an occasional and minor reference to other editorial or literary exposures. Involving the two journals will serve to broaden the base of the data pool-to use a current popular phrase-and will help to increase the desirable anonymity, for I have no wish to embarrass any individual.