Welcome to Volume 10, Number 3 of Livestock Research for Rural
Development, the thirtyfirst issue of the journal.
The editorial strategy of Livestock Research for Rural Development is to promote the distribution of ideas and hypotheses as well as the documentation of relevant research findings in sustainable use of natural renewable resources. The medium for the former (ideas and hypotheses) traditionally has been through the presentation of short research communications usually at a conference, seminar, workshop or a meeting of members of a scientific association. At such meetings, when many short papers are submitted, these may be accommodated in simultaneous sessions for oral presentation or increasingly in the form of posters. The latter procedure is proving to be the more attractive as it facilitates the dissemination of information by having it available on a continuous basis throughout a meeting rather than at selected times as is the case with theatre presentations.
In the same way that the "tele-conference", employing E-mail and WWW communication, is emerging as a cost-effective alternative to the localised (in time and place) scientific gathering, so the "electronic journal" can become a medium for the "poster" presentations. The editors of LRRD propose to encourage this approach by creating a section in the journal devoted exclusively to "poster" presentations. It is hoped that by creating a medium for presenting ideas based on preliminary observations, readers interested in the data will be encouraged to enter into a dialogue with the authors using the "lrrd-discuss" discussion list. Details for the submission of the posters are given in "guides to authors".
Rene Sansoucy is now assistant editor with specific responsibilities to share with the Senior Editor (T R Preston) in:
An editorial committee is formed whose responsibility is to:
T R Preston, Vietnam (tpreston@hcm.fpt.vn)
Rene Sansoucy, France (rene_sansoucy@csi.com)
Mauricio Rosales, Colombia (mauro@cipav.org.co)
Andrew Speedy, UK (andrew.speedy@fao.org)
Hanne Hansen, Denmark (hanne.hansen@ihh.kvl.dk
Jorge Combellas, Venezuela (jcombell@telcel.net.ve)
Frands Dolberg, Denmark (frands@mail1.stofanet.dk)
Christophe Dalibard, France (cdalibard@hotmail.com)
Steven Lukefahr, USA (s-lukefahr@taiu.edu)
Readers of the journal and authors are also invited to comment on the pre-publication articles as these are posted on the Home Page of LRRD on the Internet, on the CIPAV server in Cali, Colombia.
The editing procedure thus consists of three stages:
Stage 1: Receipt of paper by Senior and Assistant Editors who will make initial editing and format the paper in HTML
Stage 2: The papers are posted on the WWW but access is restricted to members of the editorial committee. The editorial committee have one week during which they give their opinion on acceptance (or otherwise) of the paper for publication in LRRD.
Stage 3: Papers approved by the editorial committee are made available for widespread access (linkages are made from the LRRD Home Page). Within 2 weeks, editors and readers send comments which the Senior Editor (or Assistant Editor) convey to authors according to relevance.
Stage 4: When 10 papers have been received and posted on the Internet, and a reasonable time has elapsed for comments to be received (2-3 weeks), the definitive version of each issue is finalized and published on the LRRD Home Page in HTML format.
In this way the basic information in the articles is immediately available to
interested readers who can enter into an interactive dialogue with authors, for exchange
of information, and to the editors for any proposed amendments to the paper. It is
believed that this "transparency" is an improvement on the traditional system of
using "anonymous" referees who are not always completely objective and
impartial, especially when the research emanates from developing countries.
Responsibility for posting the pre-publication papers on the Internet Home Page of LRRD
and later the edited final HTML version, will be with CIPAV (Nick Waltham and Hector
Osorio)
An advisory committee will be formed from interested collaborators. This committee could
meet once yearly by "tele-conferencing" to discuss general strategy. It is also
expected that members will assist in promoting the journal in their respective spheres of
influence.
HTML is the native language for publishing documents on the World Wide Web and is understood by all Web browsing software. The journal, as the principal means of publication of developing world sustainable agriculture, needs to be easily available to the widest possible audience of interested people. Using HTML as the on online publishing format has three principal advantages. The first is that everybody who finds the journal will be able to read it with their Internet browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape are amongst the most common). Secondly, the Internet search engines such as Alta Vista, Infoseek and others will index the pages. Thirdly, articles can be posted on the WWW as a form of pre-publication as soon as they are formatted in HTML, thus increasing tremendously the speed of communication of information.
A counter has been installed on the LRRD Homepage to record the numbers of visitors. The trend over the 18 months since records were kept is shown in the figure. On average some 10 persons have been visiting the Home Page daily during the past year, up from 6 persons per day in the first 6 months. It is intended to put a counter on individual papers which will provide useful feedback as to which articles are attracting most attention.
All previous issues of the journal have now been converted to HTML format (thanks to CIPAV staff in Colombia), thus there is available on the Internet through the CIPAV web pages a library of nearly 10 years of research in the field of developing world sustainable agriculture.
The HTML version of LRRD is available on the WWW at:
and
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGA/AGAP/FRG/lrrd.htm
For readers in Asia it is also available on: http://www.hcm.fpt.vn/inet/~lrrd
The MS-DOS, Windows Help and pdf formats are now discontinued.
Comments about the journal should be sent to the Editors
tpreston@hcm.fpt.vn in Vietnam
rene_sansoucy@csi.com in France
Volumes 1 to 9 of LRRD are now available in HTML format on a CD ROM disk. Readers who wish to receive copies should send their requests to;
The first MSc course, executed by UTA and funded by the Danish embassy in Hanoi, has been completed. Copies of the research papers that form the theses of the first group of students, and information about the Foundation, are available on the UTAF site at:
http://www.hcm.fpt.vn/inet/~utaf
The Ecological Farm, also known as 'Finca Ecologica', located on the Campus of the College of Agriculture and Forestry of the National University of Ho Chi Minh city, now has a presence on the World Wide Web. The aim of the site is to give a digestible overview of the technologies that are in use on the Ecological Farm. The site has been changed and has recently (25 October 1998) been updated. The URL for the site is:
http://www.hcm.fpt.vn/inet/~ecofarm
There is now an electronic edition of the book `Tropical Feeds', originally written by Dr Bo Göhl, and published by FAO in 1971. The database (prepared by Dr A W Speedy and Nick Waltham) is available on diskette from: The Senior Officer (Feed Resources), Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Via della terme di Caracalla, 00100-Rome, Italy. An updated version (September 1998) has been prepared and is now available. The database is also available online from the FAO server at:
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGA/AGAP/FRG/TFEED8/Index.htm
No 126, Tropical animal feeding: A manual for research workers (Thomas R Preston) 1995, pp 305 (English)
No 132, Feeding pigs in the tropics (Rena Perez) 1997, pp 185 (English)
No 134, Tratamiento y utilización de residuos de origen animal, pesquero y alimenticio en la alimentación animal (Editors: Vilda Figueroa y Manuel Sánchez) 1997, pp 255 (Castellano)
No 135, Roughage utilization in warm climates (Michel Chenost and Chedly Kayouli) 1997, pp 226 (English et Français)
No 139, Tree foliage in ruminant nutrition (Ronald A Leng) 1997, pp 100 (English)
No 42, Using fodder from trees and shrubs to feed livestock in the tropics (O B Smith), pp 52 (English, Français, Castellano)
No 43, Feeding animals on straw (F Dolberg), pp30 (English)
No 44, Processing of cassava and sweet potatoes for animal feeding (V Ravindran), pp 49 (English)
No 45, Multinutrient block handbook (L O Garcia and J I Restrepo), pp 28 (English)
No 46, Use of cassava and sweet potatoes in animal feeding (V Ravindran), pp 47 (English)
Copies can be obtained from: The Senior Officer, Feed Resources Group, AGA, FAO, 00100 Rome Italy
e-mail: andrew.speedy@fao.org
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