Paul Novelly, Editor-in-Chief of The Rangeland Journal   Email:  penovelly@gmail.com

Journals such as The Rangeland Journal (TRJ) act not only to provide information, but to communicate between all those involved with rangelands, either through production, extension or research, or simply through an interest in rangelands and their management. Keeping up with what is available in the rangeland literature can be a full-time job.  There is plenty to read in various journals, although access can be an issue.

When looking for information, ARS members should remember that they have access to the full archive of The Rangeland Journal which contains papers from a wide range of contributors from both Australia and overseas.  First published in 1976, all papers in TRJ are available on-line on the TRJ website (at http://www.publish.csiro.au/rj).  What’s more, you don’t even have to wait until an Issue is published to read the most recent articles.  Apart from the CURRENT ISSUE, all papers are made available on the website (either as a full paper or an Abstract) as soon as they are accepted for publication, even if they will not appear as “hard copy” for some time.  Papers are listed under the headings of ‘CURRENT ISSUE’, ‘ON-LINE EARLY’ [all copyedited and ready to go as they will eventually appear as hard copy] or ‘JUST ACCEPTED’ [only an Abstract is available at this point – the full text/pdf is unavailable until copy edited].  It’s pretty straightforward and, while non-members can’t read the paper’s full text, they do, as for all papers old and new, get to see the Abstract for free and hence know what is coming.

So, I do encourage to keep up to date with the Journal and see what is happening and what will appear in your next hard copy bound Issue if you are one of those who still prefer reading things on paper.  However, remember that the Journal can only be as effective as the quality of the contributions allows it to be.  So, while you are reading, think about writing.

A screenshot of The Rangeland Journal’s web page showing tabs to access the Current Issue, papers published Online Early, those papers just accepted and the Most Read papers (based on the numbers of downloads in the last 60 days from papers published on the website within the last 12 months).

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