To CLARIVATE ANALYTICS/Web of Science Group

Mme Marian Hollingsworth, Director & Editorial Relations

I write on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Society of Acarology- SLA (Sociedad Latinoamericana de Acarología), a nonprofit civil association formed by more than 270 partners from 24 countries and that main purpose is to promoting scientific research, teaching and dissemination of knowledge on mites (Acari) in our region and throughout the world. We here express our concern over and we appeal against Clarivate’s decision to suppress Zootaxa by excluding its Impact Factor from JCR.

Zootaxa is a journal of major importance to Latin American Acarology. It is regarded by acarologists as a high-quality journal worldwide respected, with editorial integrity, agile publication process, online access, and no page charges. Particularly for our field and region it constitutes an extremely important source of taxonomic information of unquestionable quality. Zootaxa is among very few journals that continues to publish papers of descriptions of biodiversity in all its forms; additionally, it is one of the very few that publish monographs, which are essential to the field of Taxonomy. Latin America has a tremendous amount of biodiversity and a large, highly-trained, community of professional taxonomists, who publish a large part of the knowledge they produce in Zootaxa. This knowledge is the basis of any attempt to conservation and to develop a sustainable economy.

Since Zootaxa publishes a large share of the world-wide papers on taxonomy, inevitably frequently cites its own papers. The size and importance of Zootaxa for taxonomy explain why ‘self citation’ is common, and why this is not a maneuver by the editors to artificially increase the citations of the journal. The stable and relatively low impact factor of Zootaxa during the past few years is additional evidence that explains why the current amount of self citation is expected.  Actually a differentiated ‘self-citation’ criteria should be adopted to IF classification of  Zootaxa and of any other journal focusing on taxonomy.

The inappropriate decision to suppress Zootaxa Impact Factor will have serious consequences on Latin American and worldwide Acarology. It will harm a career especially from young researchers that are highly dependent on the evaluation of their scientific production.  Impact Factor is the main index used for this goal. Removing Zootaxa from the JCR will be disastrous for the field of Taxonomy worldwide.

For the above, the SLA supports and requests the reinstate of Zootaxa to the list of journals with Impact Factor as soon as possible.

Denise Navia

Latin American Society of Acarology, President

21/7/2020

Dear Dr. Navia,

Thank you for your message from the SLA concerning Zootaxa.

This year, we have updated our suppression policy, including our methodology and parameters for journal self-citation. Our approach remains data-driven; we do not apply subjective interpretations and we do not assume motive. The analysis now includes the percentage of out-going (citing) journal self-citation, as well as the percentage of in-coming (cited) activity. We now compare each journal within its assigned category (or categories) – instead of to the entire JCR – to allow for subject-based differences in citation behavior. We also now consider the level of distortion of the citation network, in addition to the outcome of that distortion on journal metrics and/or journal rank.

We acknowledge that in exceptional circumstances there may be compelling editorial reasons for an atypical level of journal self-citation, which fulfils a genuine scholarly purpose. We are working with Zootaxa’s Chief Editor to resolve any appeal as we continue to improve our method of identifying and addressing citation distortion.

A decision regarding Zootaxa is expected to be made of the end of this month.

Best regards,

Marian

Marian Hollingsworth

Director, Editorial Relations

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Clarivate

Accelerating innovation

Dear members,

in order to complete the candidacies to renew the SLA authorities, starting today and until the 24th of this month, proposals are received for delegates by country (send the chosen name to master@slacarologia.org).

The Board of Directors proposes the permanence of the current delegates, although not all of them have yet expressed their willingness to continue in their role.

Any member can propose one or more names, either as a delegate of his or her own country or another, or self-promote.

With special emphasis we urge those members from countries that do not have a designated delegate, to propose one, or to self-promote if they wish. Among the Latin American countries of which we have members, but not members, are Nicaragua and Venezuela.

We look forward to your participation!

We regretfully report the death of the eminent entomologist and acarologist Marjorie A. Hoy. We have attached a recent interview that was conducted for the American Entomologist and a note by Prof. Gilberto de Moraes (Professor Associado do Departamento de Entomologia e Acarologia, ESALQ – USP)

Rice2019-AE.pdf

Nota Prof. De Moraes

The deadline for the presentation of candidates for the Board of Directors of the Latin American Society of Acarology extends until the 29th of this month, an election that must be made this year.

Send email to: master@slacarologia.org

Your participation is essential to strengthen our Society. We count on your collaboration!

Dear partners, herewith we present a statement from the organizers of the IV Latin American Congress of Acarology, to be held in Panama. In summary, it is reported that, due to the pandemic situation that we are going through, it will not take place this year but will be rescheduled, probably by 2022.

COMUNICADO-1.docx