I used to be delighted to see that the British Herpetological Society now has all problems with British Journal of Herpetology obtainable with free entry on its web site. That is precisely the best way a correct realized society ought to act and is in marked distinction to industrial scientific journal publishers and a few scientific societies who know no higher than to exist as parasites on the acquisition and dissemination of information.
British Journal of Herpetology was launched by the newly shaped society in 1948 and ran underneath that title till shortly after I handed over the editorship of the journal to Trevor Beebee in 1985. The change of title—to Herpetological Journal—had as I recall two goals: to make sure that the protection was not simply perceived as British amphibians and reptiles; submissions weren’t restricted to authors in Britain.
Entry to the papers revealed in BJH had by no means been straightforward as a result of the Society had comparatively few gross sales to libraries. The journal was distributed to members however from the early years I believe few copies have survived.
Other than these wishing to seek the advice of the papers themselves, the extra materials, the early membership record, for instance, supplies an interesting perception into the event of curiosity in reptiles and amphibians in Britain and into what a great job those that based the Society did in attracting members from such a variety of backgrounds and pursuits—a subject I’ll return to in future articles.