Malacological Journals and Newsletters

Molluscan journals began in the 1770s and many hundreds of such specialized serials have been introduced since. Tracking the often short-lived runs and frequent name changes can be challenging.  Catalog and database are provided to facilitate access to this complex body of literature.

[For searches, go to "Collection Search: Search Database," below]



Molluscan journals began in the 1770s, with a series of short-lived German serials published by J. S. Schröter. Today, the field of molluscan literature is blessed with (and at times haunted by) an amazing diversity of serials. These include scientific journals that publish original research articles intended as part of the permanent scientific record. They also include newsletters, often from regional shell clubs, meant to disseminate knowledge in layman's terms and often providing valuable zoogeographic and ecological information (and, unfortunately, inadvertently or deliberately from time to time introducing taxonomic descriptions and type designations). The boundaries between these are sometimes blurred, with newsletters sometimes developing into peer-reviewed journals and self-proclaimed journals occasionally disappearing into oblivion.

Malacological serials are published in many countries around the world and most are not tracked by indexing or interlibrary loan services. Numerous title changes over time, duplicate names, and often rapidly changing places (and even countries) of publication, have made it very difficult to obtain such materials. In 1991 we published an annotated list of 286 malacological journals and newsletters (representing 374 titles from 31 countries), 157 of which were still being published.

The following link provides excerpts from that article, giving details on the compilation and analysis:

-- Bieler R.\, Kabat A. R. (1991) Malacological Journals and Newsletter\, 1773-1990\, The Nautilus\, 105(2):39-61\, April 1991