Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2024 | 16(3): 24819–24820
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.9043.16.3.24819-24820
Date of publication: 26
March 2024 (online & print)
Celebrating 25 years of building
evidence for conservation
For a quarter of a century, the Journal
of Threatened Taxa has been serving a critical role in conservation. Every
month, without fail, the pages of this open access online publication fill up
steadily with words that describe the wonders of the natural world — as
observations, scientific experiments, or opinions — serving over 120,000
readers across the world.
A product made in India without
the hype or hoopla, serving scientists, organizations, conservationists, wildlifers, educators, veterinarians, pathologists,
environmentalists, communities, independent researchers, and institutions among
others. JoTT — as it is popularly known — has
grown from a 12-page peer-reviewed section of Zoos’ Print in April 1999
to this issue of March 2024 with 200 pages. A journey, as the founder, I never
thought of in my wildest imagination to achieve this.
I would like to imagine, given
its popularity, JoTT is a cornerstone for
conservationists, scientists, and enthusiasts worldwide; and I have been told
repeatedly that it is a beacon of excellence serving the community at large.
The legendary Sally Walker and I
realized the need for a peer-reviewed journal in the late 1990s during our
various Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP) workshops to assess
the Red List status of species from various groups (Mammals, Plants, Reptiles,
Amphibians, Invertebrates, Fish) across India. A common thread of complaint
from all scientists and biologists in the various workshops was the lack of a
timely and affordable peer-reviewed journal that would help publish articles
relevant for conservation quickly and be freely available. The costs of
purchasing articles in those days were prohibitive for most Indians as well as
other southern Asians, and we had heard the same to be true of other
biodiversity-rich countries around the world that were poor. So, the seed of
our next adventure was sown in those different workshops in 1997–98. As the
number of technical articles submitted to Zoos’ Print increased, we
decided to submit some of those to experts to review. The encouragement from
the scientific world spurred us to start a peer-reviewed section called Zoos’
Print Journal. And, we have come a long way since.
Zoos’ Print Journal lasted until December of 2007
when we decided that it had reached a stage where a standalone journal with a
name more inclusive than what was at that point in time would have a better
impact. Based on the experience of ZPJ, we renamed it as the Journal
of Threatened Taxa in January 2009. Zoo’s Print continues to be
published as a disseminator of information for conservation science on the 21st
of every month while JoTT is published on the
26th of every month.
With the combination of ZPJ
and JoTT, this 25th-anniversary
edition is the 318th issue (Totally, there have been 105 issues of ZPJ,
183 regular issues of JoTT, and 30 Monographs
in JoTT). Other milestones include almost
28,000 pages combined and this issue crossing the 25,000 pages in the new
avatar (25,018 pages); the total number of articles published is 3,873 (965 in ZPJ
and 2,908 in JoTT).
Many people have contributed
significantly to the evolution of JoTT, starting from
Binu Priya who helped
manage ZPJ initially for a couple of years, followed by B. Ravichandran
who took over as the managing editor of JoTT.
Ravi’s contribution has been invaluable. The periodicity, solidity, and
frequency of JoTT are purely due to his
dedication, patience, and perseverance. Another person who has shaped JoTT is Latha Ravikumar,
whose dogged application, determination, tireless contribution to building,
maintaining, updating, backing-up, archiving, and constantly fixing the website
has ensured its near smooth performance. Without these two people, I would have
been hard-pressed to keep JoTT going. Other
people in the office who have helped out include Priyanka Iyer,
and more recently Usha Ravindra and Trisa Bhattacherjee for the copious amounts of copyediting they
volunteer. Thanks are also due to the remote staff, Melito Pinto and Paloma Naronha,
for helping with copyediting. A special shout-out to our enthusiastic
volunteers, Fred Pluthero, Mira Bhojwani,
and P. Ilango who have given many an article better
shape in their presentation style and language.
I am indebted to more than 150
subject/section editors for their constant support and tireless efforts, but
would like to mention a few names who have stood by and delivered consistently —
Drs. Mewa Singh, Priya Davidar, L.A.K. Singh, Mandar Paingankar, Hemant Ghate, Pankaj
Kumar, Solomon Raju, John Caleb, Angie Appel, H.N. Kumara,
& S.R. Ganesh among others; Raju Vyas & H. Byju;
and several others whom I apologize for not mentioning by name due to space. I
wish to thank each and every one of the thousands of reviewers, who have shaped
the publications. I am indebted to two friends who have stood by us with
monetary support—Drs. Neelesh Dahanukar
and Mandar Paingankar—without
whose help digitizing and archiving would have been very difficult.
I was unhappy (and still am) to
introduce the article processing contribution in 2021 when COVID 19 almost
closed JoTT. It helped us stay afloat mainly
thanks to the staff of WILD and Zooreach who
volunteered their time uncomplainingly and still do. I am indebted to the authors
who range from novices to top scientists from more than 80 countries who
continue to publish in JoTT despite the modest
APC. They shattered my perception of losing out on authors and submissions when
JoTT model changed from platinum open access
to gold open access. And, I’m thankful to all the readers who use and
distribute the publications all over the world making JoTT
a success.
Ending this celebratory editorial, I wish to thank my
office colleagues, who have stood by Sally and me all these years and have
braved all the challenges of working in this field. But for them, this journey
of JoTT would not have been possible. And, of
course, the support I get from home from my wife Payal
and from our daughter Elakshi Mahika
who are rock solid pillars of support and to whom I’m forever indebted. The
absolutely amazing cover of this celebratory issue is made by Elakshi. Her varied artistic abilities are a delight to
discover every day. I discussed the cover and gave her a free hand at applying
herself and she did it with doing her own research, developed the context, and
visualized the theme. I had nothing to add to the 13-years old’s interpretation
of what JoTT does and its philosophy. I’m sure
she’ll make Stephen Nash, the creator and illustrator of the JoTT logo, proud.
Sanjay Molur
Founder & Chief Editor, JoTT
Wildlife Information Liaison
Development Society (Publisher)
Zoo Outreach Organisation
(Host)