From Johan Kotze and colleagues, Journal of Negative Results – Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
We were interested to read Ian Simmons’s letter suggesting that someone establish a “Journal of Negative Results” (15 May, p 29). Bruce Charlton made this same suggestion in the pages of New Scientist as far back as 1987 (29 October 1987, p 72). There are now at least three journals dedicated to the promotion of scientific negatives: the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine (www.jnrbm.com/home), the Journal of Negative Observations in Genetic Oncology (www.path.jhu.edu/NOGO), and our own Journal of Negative Results – Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (www.jnr-eeb.org).
Funding is a problem for any journal. The limited funds available to libraries make it difficult to encourage them to subscribe to a new journal, perhaps more so because of the “negative” nature of the published material. Fortunately, the costs of printing a journal can be reduced by publishing on the web, for which software is freely available, such as the Open Access System of the Public Knowledge Project (www.pkp.ubc.ca/ojs).
This means that the journal is freely available to all, regardless of their institutions’ desire (or ability) to subscribe. The main cost is the time needed to set up and maintain such a journal. We encourage researchers to contribute their time, thus expanding the breadth of information available to all researchers.
Helsinki, Finland
