The Journal of Herpetology after 50 Years Plus: A Brief History (1958-2016)

Abstract

The Journal of Herpetology (JH), which reached its 50th volume in 2016, had an unusual start. Its predecessor publication was founded in 1958 by high school students as the Journal of The Ohio Herpetological Society (JOHS), which was sponsored by an amateur organization. The scope of the journal as well as that of the society soon became broader than Ohio or even North America. In 1967 OHS transformed into the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), which today is the largest professional herpetological society in the world. The journal was re-named Journal of Herpetology in 1968 and the volumes numbered again from 1. The journal, like SSAR, grew rapidly in size and professionalism. In 2009, JH was selected as one of the "100 most influential journals in biology and medicine worldwide over the last 100 years." Originally, taxonomy-systematics (37%), ecology (20%), behavior (16%), physiology (8%), and genetics (4%) predominated as topics in JH; today, ecology (28%), conservation (19%), behavior (16%), taxonomy-systematics (13%), and physiology (9%) predominate. The JH is now the most-popular scientific journal in the world for biologists to publish on amphibians and reptiles. In this historical essay, I discuss major events in the development of the journal and list (in an Appendix) the editorial teams that collectively have helped shape JH.