Don Burnside, Acting Membership Officer. Email: don.burnside@iinet.net.au
Background
After 46 years of publication, and 44 volumes of The Rangeland Journal, sadly, hardcopy publication will come to an end with the last issue of Volume 44, which is expected to come off the presses in early 2023.
Why are we ceasing hardcopy publishing?
There are three main reasons.
- A majority of members of the Australian Rangeland Society are now receiving The Rangeland Journal in electronic form, which means they access it via the members’ area on the ARS website, which also enables them to download papers at no cost. Further, nearly all institutional subscribers to the Journal access the electronic version.
- As a consequence of this move to an ‘electronic Journal’ there are now only 97 members who are receiving hardcopy journals in the post. CSIRO Publishing advise that it is becoming increasingly difficult financially to justify a hardcopy print run for this small number of copies.
- The move to on-line issues of scientific journals is occurring rapidly across the world, and we need to keep up with this trend if our journal is able to build its credibility and recognition in an increasingly busy environment.
