RE: NANFA-- requesting reprints

Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS (HOOVERJ_at_wes.army.mil)
Wed, 14 Aug 2002 17:11:11 -0500

Travis wrote:
>>>Okay, as an aquarist who has never ordered reprints but is willing to put
forth the effort to try, how do I go about doing it? I'd like to get my
hands on those articles.<<<

Travis -

Collecting reprints is an inexpensive and spatially-efficient way to build a
working library. Nowadays, most people just e-mail the senior (or
designated) author of the paper and ask for a reprint. Previously, reprint
request cards were used. Some people use hand-written picture post cards
(always a pleasure to get) but usually these are pre-printed postcards
containing a message like this:

Dear Dr. _____,

If available, I would greatly appreciate a copy of your recent paper
_________________________________________________________ which
appeared in _______________________________________________ .

Also, if you have any related papers on the subject of
_______________________, I would be very much interested in those.

Thank you.
(Name)
(Address)

Author addresses are available in the article, usually under the author's
name. In Copeia, they appear at the end of the article.

Citation compilations, like Current Contents and Current References in Fish
Research, usually contain authors' mailing addresses in a separate section.

With photocopiers and online-journals, some might question the utility of
sending a card to get a reprint. Even though its slow and old-fashioned, I
like the idea. It gives the author feedback on who is interested in his
work and it gives the recipient hardcopy that is neater and nicer to handle
than photocopy.

Something to think about. Some reprints (e.g., those having broad taxonomic
relevance) can be exhausted within a year or two of publication especially
if only 100-200 reprints were purchased by the author. Others (e.g.,
natural history study of non-commercial species) may appeal to a much
smaller audience and still be available decades after their publication
date.

- Jan
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