EDITORIAL

Abstract

EDITORIAL Cite as follows: Osborne, Bruce 2010 Editorial. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the RoyalIrish Academy 110B, i-ii;DOI: 10.3318/ E. 2010.110.1.i. Pl. I?Biology and Environment's new Praeger Review series is named in honour of Robert Lloyd Praeger.The plate shows Robert Lloyd Praeger engaged in fieldwork in Ballyruddery, near Larne, Co. Antrim, in June 1888. It's always good to be able to report some good news, particularly in a period of economic doom and gloom. The associated figure (Fig. 1, overleaf) shows the number of citations per year for papers published in Biology andEnvironmentfrom 1994 to 2010. This representsa >600% increase in citations over thisperiod.Although admittedly thisreflects,in part,a low initialbaseline,with only four citations in 1994, this is stilla remarkable achievement for any journal and bodes well for theofficialdesignation of our impact factor this summer. There has also been a steady increase (>200%) in the number of regular papers submittedover the last sixyears andwe have in turn increased the number of papers published DOI: 10.3318/BIOE.2010.110.1.? Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,Vol. HOB, No. 1, i-ii (2010). ? Royal Irish Academy i Biology and Environment Fig. 1?Number of citations per year for papers published in Biology and Environment (1994-2010). thisyear. All of thisreflectsthe increased importance of thejournal as a communiqu? for environmental biology research not just to a national audience but increasingly to an international readership too. None of these achievements would have been possiblewithout the conscientious supportof all the staffin the editorial office in theAcademy, or all of the reviewersand editorial boardmembers thathave given up their time to support the journal in one way or another. But, as the well-worn clich? tells us, One swallow doesn't make a summer', and we need tobe able to sustainand build on these achievements in the future. This issue also sees the publication of the first in series of commissioned reviews, called the Praeger Reviews, afterRobert Lloyd Praeger, an outstanding and well-known Irish natural historian (Pl. I),which will focus on topical subjectswritten by international experts. In our choice of title for these reviews we have unashamedly taken a lead from theNew PhytologistTansley Reviews Series, named afterSirArthur George Tansley, FRS (1871? 1955) in recognition of the contribution hemade to plant ecology during the earlypart of the twentieth century. The parallels do not, however, end there. Like Tansley, Praeger was President of the nascent British Ecological Society (1922-23), having both served earlier (1904-1909) on what was arguably its forerunner organisation, the Central Committee for the Survey and Study of British Vegetation, where they were both members of at least two sub committees (Schulte Fischedick 2000). Praeger was also, in turn,President of theRoyal IrishAcademy in 1931 and became an honorary lifemember of theBotanical Society of theBritish Isles (seewww. universityscience.ie for a summary of Robert Lloyd Praeger s career and achievements). Their paths almost certainly crossed on several occasions, inclu ding the International Phytogeographic Excursion to Ireland in 1911, organised by Praeger (Godwin 1958). In 1935 Praeger also accompanied Tansley and others on a visit to a number of Irishpeat bogs (Godwin 1958).There are also lettersbetween these twomen still surviving (Greta Jones, pers comm). While Tansley clearly developed amore functional approach toplant ecology,Praeger retainedhis initial interest in vegetation surveying throughout his career. These are complementary approaches, both ofwhich are still represented in papers covered by Biology andEnvironment. He also developed a broad interest in field natural history, including animal biology andwas president of theRoyal Zoological Society of Ireland. What is remarkable is that most of Praeger swork was carried out almost as a hobby, having been employed for a long period by the National Library inDublin. It is, therefore, particu larly fitting that this series of reviews be entitled The PraegerReviews in recognition of his singular contributions to the Royal IrishAcademy, field natural history and vegetation studies,in Ireland and elsewhere. REFERENCES Godwin, H. 1958 Sir Arthur George Tansley, FR.S. 1871-1955. Journal ofEcology 46,1-8. Schulte Fischedick, Kaat 2000 From survey to ecology: the role of the British Vegetation Committee, 1904 \9...