Journal's History

Theriologia Ukrainica is the main journal of the Ukrainian Theriological Society, NAS of Ukraine since 1998. It is published  by the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine. This page is devoted to the journal's history. The journal was published earlier (until 2018) as Proceedings of the Theriological School (with ISSN 2312-2749 Print and 2074-2274 Online).

A review on the history of Theriologia Ukrainica

Introduction

The history of publishing in Ukraine counts a significant nubmer of theriological editions, i.e. publications devoted to research on mammals. Theriology as a branch of zoology had been considered only as part of zoology for a long time and most of the fauna surveys usually dealt with more voluminous groups of animals, mostly vertebrates. Nevertheless, publications devoted to mammals strated to appear yet in the 17th century, for instance surveys by Alexander von Nordmann (volume 'Mammalia' in the series 'Observations sur la Faune Pontique,' 1840), Mykola Kessler (issue 'Mammals' in the series 'The Natural History of Governorates of the Kyiv Academid District', 1851), and Alexander Czernay (issue 'Fauna of Mammals and Birds' in the series 'Fauna of Kharkiv Governorate and Adjacent Areas,' 1853). Publications on mammals had been mostly considered as unique occasions rather than usual practice for long decades, although the number of such publications increased through time (Загороднюк, 2001).

In March 1982, the Ukrainian Theriological Society was established (UTS, at that time it was a branch of the All-[Soviet]Union Theriological Society) (Загороднюк, Ємельянов, 2012). The publishing business also increased with the establishment of the Society, fauna surveys appeared and separate research fields developed as sections within the Society, such as of systematics, morphology, ecology, and game mammals. The chairman of the Society — academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Vadim Topachevsky — was one of the initiators and editors of a number of monographs and collections of research papers (Изученность..., 1988; Млекопитающие..., 1993). The vivid research activity within the Society also led to publication of a number of conference proceedings in 1987, 1990, and 1992 (for more details see Загороднюк, 2015).

The period of research paper collections and the establishment of the Proceedings

With the development of the Society and the creation in 1993 of its new section — the Theriological School — the period of publication of periodical collections of research papers has started. There were three forms of publications (according to Загороднюк, 2015):

1) 'Novitates Theriologiae' — mainly informative materials published either before or after annual Theriological Schools-Workshops (8 published issues between 1998-2009 with a total scope of 610 pages);

2) collections of research papers as special theriological issues of university scientific bulletins ('visnyks') published by the annual schools' organizing universities (6 published issues between 2002-2011 with a total scope of 962 pages);

3) thematic collections, basically collective monographs, launched as a series of research paper collections 'Proceedings of the Theriological School' (9 issues of such thematic collections were published between 1998-2008 with a total scope of 1810 pages).

Eventually, the Society refused to 'rent' special issues of other journals, as well as to continue publishing Novitates Theriologiae as a main publication. Instead, in 2010, the UTS decied to develop the Proceedings of the Theriological School into an academic journal. Since 2018 the journal is published as Theriologia Ukrainica as an East European regional journal on mammalogy

General information

Theriologia Ukrainica is the main publication of the Ukrainian Theriological Society initiated in 1998 by the Council of UTS and first presented at the 5th Theriological School-Workshop (Haidary, Kharkiv oblast). The first volume was titled 'European Bat Night '98 in Ukraine' (Європейська…, 1998) issued on the occasion of The Second European Bat Night, the 5th Theriological Shool-Workshop, and preparation of Ukraine to joining the Agreement on protection of bat populations in Europe (EUROBATs). Since, the journal has been published periodically one volume per 1-2 years and devoted to topical issues of research into mammalian biology, populations and communities, ecology and variability, systematics, conservation, and rational use.

Publishers, editors, and editorial board

The journal was published initially by Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology (volumes 1-2). Since Volume 3, the Proceedings of the Theriological School has been published by the National Museum of Natural History. Additionally, on title pages of seven volumes (1-4, 6-7, and 9), the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine is also indicated as responsible organization (Table 1).

The compiler and scientific editor of all volumes of PTS is Igor Zagorodniuk. Chief Editors in different times were Vadim Topachevsky, academician of AS of Ukraine (volumes 2-5, 1999-2002), Igor Emelyanov, corresponding member of NAS of Ukraine (volumes 7-10, 2006-2010), and Igor Zagorodniuk, senior researcher (since volume 11, 2012).

Table 1. A brief review on volumes of the Proceedings of the Theriological School

Since Volume 12 (2014), members of the Editorial Board were I. Zagorodniuk, PhD (Kyiv, Ukraine, Editor-in-Chief), A. Volokh, DSc (Melitopol, Ukraine); O. Godlevska, PhD (Kyiv, Ukraine), P. Goldin, PhD (Kyiv, Ukraine), I. Dykyy, PhD (Lviv, Ukraine), I. Emelyanov, DSc (Kyiv, Ukraine), V. Lobkov, DSc (Odesa, Ukraine), Ye. Pysanets, DSc (Kyiv, Ukraine), T. Postawa, Dr. Habil. (Krakow, Poland), L. Rekovets, DSc (Wroclaw, Poland), V. Tyschenko, PhD (Kyiv, Ukraine), and V. Tokarsky, DSc (Kharkiv, Ukraine). The Advisory Board includes L. Balciauskas, Dr. Habil. (Vilnius, Lithuania), P. Khoyetsky, PhD (Lviv, Ukraine), L. Peter (Leiden, Holland), A. Miljutin, PhD (Tartu, Estonia), B. Ridush, DSc (Chernivtsi, Ukraine), and D. Tarkhnishvili, DSc (Tbilisi, Georgia).

Subjects of volumes

All volumes of PTS usually are thematic. For instance, the first volume was titled 'European Bat Night '98 in Ukraine' and devoted to results of theriological research, and published on occasion of joining by Ukraine the EUROBATs agreement. The edition further developed into an annual periodical of journal format having the corresponding attributes and sections. In particular, since volume 9 (Rare Theriofauna and Its Conservation), in addition to reserach papers short communications has been also published, as well as contributions in the section of chronicles and information.

Edition format

The first five volumes had 'juvenile' A5 format convinient for publishing in private printing houses. Afterwards, volumes were published in B5 (volumes 7-9) and A4 (since volume 10) format. Examples of front covers from the first period of publication (monographic series and thematic collections) are shown on fig. 1), while from the second period (journal format) on fig. 2.

Fig. 1. Front covers of three volumes of the Proceedings of the Theriological School from the first period of publication: a — volume 2 (1999, thematic collection format), b — volume 3 (2002, collective monograph format), c — volume 7 (2006, research papers collection format).

Fig. 2. Front covers of three recent volumes of the Proceedings of the Theriological School: а — volume 10 (2010), b — volume 12 (2014), c — volume 15 (2017).

ISBN, ISSN, periodicity

During 1998–2010, the Proceedings of the Theriological School was published as a series of thematic papers collection under ISBN 966-02-0692-5. Since Volume 11, the series become a periodical under ISSN 2312–2749. Since 2018 the journal registered under current title Theriologia Ukrainica, with ISSN 2616-7379 (print) та 2617-1120 (online). The journal currently publishes 1-2 volumes per year.

Web sources

Bibliographic information of all volumes of the Proceedings of the Theriological School and pdf files of all papers with open access can be found on the journal's website and on the website of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine — the main repository of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Information about the journal can be also found on the website of the publisher, the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine.

Citations

The journal has a Google Scholar profile to trace the citation dynamics (Праці..., 2017). As of 03.10.2015, the journal had 447 citations of 109 papers, h-index h = 10 (for the last five years h = 6) (Загороднюк, 2015). At the time of preparation of first version of this review (29.10.2017) the number of citations was 847 citations of 155 papers, h = 12, and the number of paper cited 10 and more times reached 20. As of 21.02.2021, there are 1798 citations of 334 publications; the h-index is h = 16, i10-index = 48 (number of papers with >= 10 citations).

Analysis of these data shows that the number of citation of papers published in the Proceedings is increasing (fig. 3): in 2015 there were 1.64 citations per 1 paper, in 2020 (14.03.20) — 2.82; in 21.02.2021 — 3.68 citations per 1 paper.

Fig. 3. Citation dynamics of papers published in the Proceedings of the Theriological School according to Google Scholar data. On the axis of ordinates — a relative time scale presented by the sum of published papers for a certain period:
1998 — 29, 1999 — 40, 2002 — 19, 2004 — 35, 2006 — 81, 2008 — 45, 2010 (vol. 10) — 24, 2012 (vol. 11) — 22, 2014 (vol. 12) — 17, 2015 (vol. 13) — 21, 2016 (vol. 14) — 16, 2017 (vol. 15) — 22 papers), 2018 (vol. 16) — 22, 2019 (vols 17-18) — 19+19, 2020 (vols 19-20) — 16+16 = 32 papers.

In a nutshell

For almost a quarter century (1982–2017) the Ukrainian Theriological Sociaty has published a significant massif a scientific production, including 90 separate scentific editions. Among them 21 monographs, 31 preprints, 4 collections of scientific papers, 6 issues of university scientific bulletins, 8 issues of Novitates Theriologiae, 15 volumes of the Proceedings of the Theriological School, and 5 brochures. The total scope of these publications reaches ca. 10 000 printed pages, including 2818 pages (375 papers) of the Proceedings of the Theriological School.

References

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