I haven't yet received the latest ABJ (slow mail to Canada?) but am
looking forward to finding out for myself what all the kerfuffle
is about.  That being said, I want to thank both Kim Flottum and,
especially, Kirsten Traynor, for sticking their necks out by posting
to this list, and enlightening us about the difficulties of being
an editor, and, in Kirsten's case, about this disclaimer business
in particular.  It really matters a lot that people's comments are
being heard.

Jerry Bromenshenk writes:

> Under Joe, ABJ was somewhat of an extension/research findings hybrid. 
> A bit of entertainment, but also some timely and informative research
> reports.  It was a bit of a bridge between general information
> and hard core academic journals - a place where applied research
> of use to beekeepers could be published in a format readable by an
> 'informed' audience.

Yes, that's it!  I was going to phrase this as: since I subscribed in
2014, ABJ has hit the sweet spot between the "pretty pictures and
people stories" approach of some publications, and the hard-core
but dry research findings of academic journals.  I'd hate to lose
that.

He continues:

> All of this is why in our online courses, at the second level, we
> introduce all of our students to peer-reviewed publications, how to
> access them, get around pay walls, read and assess.

... which is great if one is looking for particular information,
but for general "keeping up with what's happening", unless one
is a full-time researcher or professional beekeeper, reading the
academic journals regularly is a bit much to expect.  :-/

Justin Kay argues:

> I've also noticed in the past few years that the articles have skewed
> more toward contributions from beginners, or articles about how to
> start out in beekeeping.  [... new beekeepers] don't subscribe. But
> realistically speaking, we need them to.  [...] Without them knowing,
> they learn. And the craft progresses. I see it as a positive. Maybe
> I'm the only one.

You're not the only one, but I just wouldn't want these additions
to be at the expense of the more technical material.  I was very
sad to see Jamie Ellis go (temporarily, I hope) and to see Keith
Delaplane go (though I wish him the best with writing his book),
and was a bit panicked at the idea that we might lose Randy Oliver
from ABJ as well.  I'm very relieved by the statements from both
Randy and Kirsten to the effect that they've found a way to agree
to disagree.  Thank you both for posting clarifications.



Anne, backyard beekeeper, Montreal.

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