William M. Last
Dept. Geological Sciences
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2 Canada
Tel: (204) 474-8361
Fax: (204) 261-7581.
E-mail: mlast@ccm.umanitoba.ca
[Dear Colleagues: The Journal of Paleolimnology is starting a new section entitled "Computer Applications to Paleolimnology". Bill and I have an editorial (partially reproduced below, Ed.) describing this new feature in the journal. The editorial will be published in vol 13(1), which has now gone to press. We would like to take this opportunity to invite the readers of the INQUA Commission for the Holocene, Working Group on Data-Handling Methods Newsletter to contribute to this new section. In doing this, we also do not want to compete for the very useful function the INQUA Newsletter provides. We think the two should be complementary. Best Wishes, John and Bill]
There is no doubt that paleolimnology, as an integrated discipline, is moving fast. Some of this progress has been related to the increased integration of computers and associated technologies into our science. In an attempt to keep our readers abreast of these advances and developments, we are initiating a new section in the journal called "Computer Applications to Paleolimnology". We anticipate this section will appear in several issues each year, as submissions warrant. We hope this new section will provide a forum for the discussion of new computer applications, a platform for the review of new technologies and software, and also introduce our readers to any other information that may be relevant to our science. We also hope this new feature will provide a forum for discussion. Our goal is to make this section as user-friendly as possible, as many of us are still uncomfortable with some of these new advances. For example, as an introduction to this series, we will have a description of some of the electronic listservers that are especially relevant to paleolimnology. As many of you know, the journal has already been making use of some of these listservers. For example, the Table of Contents (including authors, their affiliations and, if known, their e-mail addresses) of all J. Paleolimnology issues is now distributed via e-mail to all the subscribers of the Paleolimnology Listserver.
As you will see in our modified "Guide for the Preparation of Manuscripts", we are now encouraging authors to include their electronic mail addresses on their manuscripts. The inclusion of one's e-mail to the address is optional, but it is our hope that by including e-mail addresses on our papers we will facilitate the more rapid exchange of ideas and discussions between paleolimnologists. It also serves a secondary function as a directory of relevant e-mail addresses.
We would like to take this opportunity to solicit any potential contributions to the new "Computer Applications to Paleolimnology" section of the journal. In general, all contributions will be reviewed, as regular submissions. As with the overall philosophy of the journal, our hope is to attract diverse contributions. We look forward to receiving your submissions to this exciting new area.
Another related feature is our World Wide Web (WWW or W3) service that will be starting in 1995. Internet tools and services such as Gopher, WAIS, FTP, and the various Listservers described in our "Computer Applications to Paleolimnology" section have grown at a great rate in the past 24 months. But the World Wide Web is growing at an even faster rate. There are now over 8000 WWW servers worldwide with another 70-90 added daily! WWW provides a single consistent user interface to the virtually thousands of sites on the Internet today. Because of this interlinking ability and the fact that WWW documents can contain not just text but also images, sounds, animation, and movies, it is much more powerful and flexible than Gopher. The Journal of Paleolimnology WWW home page will provide readers with information about past and current issues of the journal (including indices, titles, keywords, abstracts), future papers to appear in the journal, announcements, editorial and manuscript preparation/submission details, and, of course, links to other useful WWW sites.
The Journal of Paleolimnology WWW home page can be accessed (using any WWW compatible software such as NCSA's Mosaic, SPRY's Air, or NetScape) at the following address:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/geosci/PALEOLIM/jopl.html
Paleolimnology is moving quickly, and we hope to capture this research and excitement. We invite all readers to consider the Journal of Paleolimnology as a vehicle for their publications, and remind potential authors that we publish regular papers, notes, as well as review articles, in addition to the new feature discussed in this editorial. We also anticipate that special dedicated issues will continue to be a regular part of the journal, and so we encourage potential guest editors to discuss their ideas with us as early as possible in the planning phase.