From: IN%"ESA346@esavax.edinburgh.ac.uk" 7-DEC-1993 10:47:33.27 To: IN%"APPLIED-ETHOLOGY@sask.usask.ca" "APPLIED-ETHOLOGY" CC: Subj: Applied Animal Behaviour Science Dear Applied Ethologists As you will know, personal subscriptions are available to Applied Animal Behaviour Science at one-sixth of the cover price: but we need to know that you are interested in this option NOW. I enclose the details of the offer: please send off a copy of the form as soon as possible. Mike Appleby ISAE Secretary Announcement from ISAE and ELSEVIER The International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE) and Elsevier Scientific Publishers are pleased to announce the establishment of personal subscription rates to the Elsevier journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Applied Animal Behaviour Science is an increasingly successful journal, publishing refereed scientific papers in the field of Applied Ethology and related areas of Behaviour Science. It is concerned with all types of animals which interact with humans, including farm animals, companion animals, zoo animals, wild animals, laboratory animals and pests. It currently publishes four volumes per year, each of four issues, totalling approximately 1600 printed pages. Personal subscriptions will be available to members of ISAE in a special arrangement with Elsevier, for their personal use. For an initial period of two years - 1994 and 1995 - a subscription of DFl 250 (currently equivalent to UKpounds 85) has been negotiated, which is approximately one-sixth of the standard subscription charged to libraries. This rate will be maintained for this period, even if standard subscriptions have to be increased in 1995. From the beginning of 1996 a new rate will be negotiated, but it is intended that any increase will be proportional to increases in the standard subscription. Other arrangements between ISAE and Elsevier will include an annual, special ISAE issue of the journal, incorporating proceedings of the ISAE's International Congress and other selected material. This arrangement must be confirmed by the end of 1993 to ensure the availability of personal subscriptions for 1994, and it will only be possible if at least 50 subscribers are confirmed by that time. So please fill in the form as soon as possible and send it off. Subsequent subscriptions will fall due in June for the following calendar year, and can be paid with the corresponding ISAE subscription which is also due in June. ______________________________________________________________________________ APPLICATION FORM I would like to take out a personal subscription to Applied Animal Behaviour Science, available to members of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE) * I am a member of ISAE * Please send me a membership application form for ISAE Payment: it would be most helpful to us if you could pay by credit card (which will not incur bank charges). Please note that we will NOT charge your credit card account until or unless we get the 50 subscriptions and conclude the agreement with Elsevier * Please debit my credit card with UKpounds 85: Card type .................. Number .................. Expiry .................. * I wish to pay by the following alternative method: ........................................ Name ........................................ Address ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ Signed ........................................ Date ........................................ * Delete as appropriate Please send to: Dr S.M. Rutter ISAE Membership Secretary Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB, UK ============================================================================== From: IN%"STOOKEY@sask.usask.ca" 8-DEC-1993 10:36:50.55 To: IN%"Applied-ethology@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: RE: Applied Animal Behaviour Science It was mentioned in the newsletter and again on this network that the personal subscription rates to Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. would only be available if "at least 50 subscriptions are confirmed". I would be curious to know how close we are to reaching that goal, providing you are able to disclose that information? Joe Stookey ============================================================================== From: IN%"ESA346@esavax.edinburgh.ac.uk" 9-DEC-1993 03:55:49.07 To: IN%"APPLIED-ETHOLOGY@sask.usask.ca" "APPLIED-ETHOLOGY" CC: Subj: ISAE Council's comments on the network Dear All At the Council meeting of the International Society for Applied Ethology last week we discussed this new network. Important points were: 1. We were enthusiastic about the opportunities for informal discussion. After all, many of our most productive discussions with colleagues take place in the corridor or over coffee! The alternative of an edited email 'journal' does not seem feasible or desirable at this time. 2. So there is no need for detailed record-keeping of what occurs on the network. Members can just save what they want, although Joe Stookey will keep a brief record of topics which come up. 3. People who are not on email did not seem worried about being 'excluded' - rather, they saw it as one more incentive for getting on to email. However, it will be useful for us all to have a list of subscribers now and then so that we know whom we are reaching and whom we are not. 4. As already stated, dross is to be discouraged, because dealing with several rubbishy messages every morning is tedious. And even for serious messages, please be explicit in the SUBJECT line, because then if people are not interested in that particular topic they can DELETE it without reading it. 5. Use it! Best wishes Mike Appleby ISAE Secretary ============================================================================== From: IN%"ESA346@esavax.edinburgh.ac.uk" 9-DEC-1993 04:21:59.71 To: IN%"APPLIED-ETHOLOGY@sask.usask.ca" "APPLIED-ETHOLOGY" CC: Subj: HUMAN WELFARE/ANIMAL WELFARE Dear All I am interested to know if anyone is involved in fruitful collaboration or, at least, discussion, on the similarities and differences between human and animal welfare. While this is, of course, a general interest, it has been further prompted by two newspaper articles. The first, last year, was about a project financed by the World Health Organization to define Quality of Life - for humans. It mentioned as a possible starting point, the 'universal needs' of 'Adequate nutrition, shelter, warmth, secure interpersonal relationships and legal rights.' These were so strikingly similar to the Five Freedoms that I wrote to the person mentioned - a lecturer in psychology at Bath University, UK. I received the archetypally unhelpful reply of 'the problems of studying quality of life in animals greatly exceed those in humans ... and anyway our data will not be available for 4 years.' A recent article was on choice as a basis for happiness - mostly in relation to economics and the current political views of this. One part of the article mentioned 'Daniel Kahneman's exhaustive tests at the University of Princeton about whether the human memory and the psychology of choice are consistent with rational economic behaviour in markets.' Kahneman has showed (a) that short, relatively painless operations with a painful ending are remembered as worse than long, painful ones which end with less pain, and that (b) people given a free choice between accepting $18 and giving away $2, or accepting $10 and giving away $10, took the latter option. Can anyone tell me references for this work, and/or give me Kahneman's address? Both these examples suggest areas for collaboration. Is it happening? Mike Appleby ============================================================================== From: IN%"RUSHENJ@NCCCOT2.AGR.CA" 9-DEC-1993 11:40:28.07 To: IN%"APPLIED-ETHOLOGY@sask.usask.ca" CC: Subj: ISAE (EMAIL) JOURNAL The recent statement from the Council of the ISAE that `an electronic journal is neither feasible nor desirable' may have come as a surprise to many of you in that it appeared to close a debate that really had not been opened. I shall take the opportunity of correcting this by making a retrospective step and opening it. One of my own sources of motivation in wanting a functioning email bulletin board for the ISAE was that it would be a precursor to an email journal and help prepare th e ISAE for the inevitable day when most scientific `publishing' is electronic. There are a number of issue underlying this, many of which arise from the relationship between the ISAE and the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science and the eternal question of the ISAE having its own journal. Problem 1: Most scientific societies publish their own scientific journal. This can be a source of revenue, and is a major incentive for people to join the society because they can get the journal at an affor dable price (sometimes for free). The fact that the ISAE does not have its own journal will always keep its financial state somewhat precarious (which I admit is not necessarily a bad thing) but it will also limit its ability to attract new members, which I think is more serious. The endless debate about the society having its own journal resulted in us having two options. One, was to negotiate with Elsevier for a reduced price to Applied Animal Behaviour Science (AABS) for ISAE members. The seco nd was for the society to publish its own journal. Members were polled on this and a majority of the minority that responded chose the first option. The result of the negotiations is that ISAE members can get the journal for about US$150. This is a reduction from the normal astronomical price to the merely outrageous. The fact that less than 10% of ISAE members seem willing to take up this option indicates, to me at least, that this aspect of our negotiations have failed. The second option was re jected because an own journal was considered too expensive, or at least financially risky. I am not convinced about this. However, one clear advantage to having an electronic journal is that it can be provided far more cheaply (at the moment apparently for free, although this will probably change). Problem 2. A related problem is the exorbitant price publishers like Elsevier charge libraries for subscriptions to their journals. Every year we are asked to justify the thousands of dollars that our library must pay for subscriptions to journals like AABS. Elsevier journals always seem to top the list in price. I know that one day we shall not succeed in justifying this cost and our subscription will be cut. Subscription prices this high simply mean that many dollars out of shrinking research budgets are directly handed over to publishing firms instead of being spent on research. The advantage of journals published by scientific societies is that they are traditionally much cheaper, and thi s will be even more true for electronic journals. Problem 3. The lack of an ISAE journal limits our communication both within the society (e.g. publication of conference proceedings) and with the outside world. As you all know, an agreement has been reached with Elsevier that the society can edited one special issue of AABS each year. Plans are currently being made for a 1994 issue, and you will be informed when these are complete. This is, I think, a real step forward and it does have a number of attractions. However, it does not go all the way to meeting our needs. First, the space available for abstracts from conferences is limited. Second, because it is published we shall have to exert a high degree of quality control so that some (or many?) abstracts from conferences will not be published. Thus this will not be a full record of the conference. Furthermore, a serious problem is the time delay to publication. Abstracts from summer congresses will not be published until after at least 8 months, and for winter meetings the delay will be at least 18 months. I do not see the point of publishing abstracts this late. The majority of ISAE members cannot attend all conferences and it would be very useful to be able to send everyone a full copy of proceedings. The special issue of AABS is not the best way to do this, but an electronic journal would be perfect. As a concrete proposal, I suggest that we begin to phase out publishing abstracts in AABS and begin to send them over the emai l bulletin board. I think we could complete this transition within 3 years (depending on how quickly people can get onto email). I suggest that we begin this for the next conferences and that conference organizers encourage electronic submission of abstracts. Of course, we need to ensure that people not on email still have some access. Problem 4. We still not have any means of exerting any quality control over normal research papers published in AABS. Such papers will not be published in the spec ial issue. The recent changes in the editorial structure of AABS and the obvious attempts to improve the standard of the journal are very welcome and go a long way to reducing the need for more radical measures. However, the society still has no power to ensure that those new standards are maintained or raised even higher. In the long run, I am convinced that we still need our own journal. The lack of enthusiasm of members for a new published journal makes this option not feasible. However, I th ink we need seriously consider an electronic journal. There are still outstanding problems regarding electronic publication of scientific research, and for this reason I agree with the coucil's decision that an electronic journal is not feasible `for the moment', but I suspect that `the moment' may be much shorter than we think. Some electronic journals already exist, and many traditional journals are beginning to be published on disk form as well. When the SVE was founded it was decided not to publish a journal. I think this was a mistake and that we are presently suffering from it. When the switch from paper publishing to electronic publishing occurs, we need to make sure that the ISAE is ready and does not miss a second opportunity. I welcome your comments (rude ones direct to me, interesting ones to applied-ethology). Jeff Rushen