It is coming! We are pleased to announce a significant change in the format of the publication that NCSE distributes to its members. Beginning with volume 31 (the 2011 January/February issue), Reports of the National Center for Science Education will be available on line. All our articles, features, and book reviews will be available in their entirety only through the NCSE website (http://ncse.com).
WILL I STILL RECEIVE RNCSE IN THE MAIL?
Yes. There will still be six issues of RNCSE published each year, but we will be changing the format in several ways. You will continue to read about the work our our staff and members are doing to promote good science education that includes evolution as a fundamental explanation for the history and diversity of life. You will also see members-only features and other materials in the print version.
RNCSE will still feature original articles, features, news analysis, and book reviews, but our print version will contain brief summaries of these contributions. The full text of these items will appear on line. Each printed issue will provide a complete citation for the on-line material and a URL to link directly to the items that interest you.
The printed version of RNCSE will be smaller (about 16 pages). The reduction in the size of the publication will be the result of shortening the original articles, book reviews, and features, which will appear only as brief summaries in the on-line version. What you will see in print will be a review of the main thrust of original contributions, including a recap of the authors’ main points and with specific attention to the authors’ conclusions.
HOW WILL I GET THE ON-LINE MATERIAL?
The on-line articles, features, and book reviews will be available in two ways. You will be able to browse issues of RNCSE as you do today by connecting to the publications page of the NCSE website: http://ncse.com. This will present you with content organized into bimonthly issues as you see today on the NCSE website.
You will also be able to locate materials that interest you by using the URL that will appear with each summary in the new version of RNCSE. This will take you directly to the item that interests you without having to look through the contents of an entire issue to locate it.
WHEN WILL ARTICLES BE AVAILABLE?
Beginning in January 2011, the materials that we will summarize in the print version of RNCSE will appear on line in the first month of the publication date. For example, the publication date of RNCSE volume 31, number 1, will be Jan/Feb 2011. The online material will be available in January, and the printed issue will be available in February. Readers may access the on-line material as soon as it is available; you do not need to wait for the issue to arrive in the mail. You may also subscribe to a publication alert that will e-mail you when new materials are available.
WHAT IF I PREFER TO HAVE ARTICLES ON PAPER?
You have two choices for receiving print versions of the content that we provide on line. First, you can connect directly to the materials that you want to print, download them to your own computer, and then print them to read right away ... or later.
Second, NCSE members are entitled to free document delivery services. You simply tell NCSE which articles you would like to see in print, and we will send you a copy of that article on paper. This service is available to all NCSE members — and only to NCSE members.
WHY IS NCSE CHANGING RNCSE?
NCSE made the decision to change RNCSE for several reasons. The first reason is that putting our content on line allows us to continue the evolution of NCSE publications that reached back to the earliest days of NCSE. We want to provide more content and more variety for our readers. This was the rationale for the original revision of the NCSE publications that combined the older Creation/Evolution journal and NCSE Reports into the RNCSE that you are reading now. The on-line environment allows us to continue to expand the contents both in the type of contributions that we offer you and in the supplemental materials that accompany them. This means more charts, graphs, and photos will be available than we can provide in print — and perhaps even some innovative formats that are impossible to print, such as videos.
Second, the new format will allow each reader to customize the “RNCSE experience” — choosing to read the contributions in each issue in the order that suits you, the reader, and only the items that interest you the most. We also plan to provide a searchable database of all the original material published in NCSE publications, so you can create your own collections of materials on a particular subject, such as “flood geology” or “intelligent design” models.
Finally, this change will allow NCSE to make a more efficient use of your financial contributions. Printing and mailing costs continue to increase, and the publication of RNCSE takes up an increasing proportion of our budget. At the same time, NCSE is called on more and more to provide advice, information, and support to citizens, teachers, students, lawyers, legislators, clergy, and the press whenever opposition to evolution education emerges in communities across the continent and around the world. This change in RNCSE will allow us to devote more of our resources to our primary mission of promoting good science education and evolution education everywhere because it will expand access to the original content of our publications even while lowering the costs of distributing this information.
Our goal is to serve you better with our new publication. Please welcome the new RNCSE in January 2011, and give us your feedback to help us to meet your needs for information on creationism/evolution issues in the future.