54 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PUBLICATION. [VOL. I. 



this. If some unforeseen delay does occur, the date can always be 

 rectified with a date stamp. 



(2) 'That authors' separate copies should be issued with 

 the original pagination and plate numbers clearly indicated 

 on each page and plate, and with a reference to the original 

 place of publication.' 



The Committee believes this to be a most important recommenda- 

 tion, and its view is supported by all the zoologists consulted. Never- 

 theless, many leading publications continue to issue authors' copies 

 repaged, and often without reference to volume number, date, or 

 even the name of the periodical. The remedy is so simple that the 

 Committee urgently appeals for its universal application. 



(3) ' That authors' separate copies should not be distributed 

 privately before the paper has been published in the regular 

 manner.' 



It is a curious fact that on this question editors take a different 

 line to working zoologists. All the latter who have discussed the 

 matter agree with the Committee as to the extreme inconvenience 

 caused by the general custom. Among the editors, however, nine 

 (i.e., nearly one-quarter) protest against the present recommenda- 

 tion. The objectors represent small societies which publish at 

 lengthy intervals, and their reasons are : that it is not fair to an 

 author to prevent him from receiving his separate copies for perhaps 

 a year ; that it is not to the advantage of science that work should 

 thus be delayed ; that a society which did this would receive fewer 

 contributions and lose its members. In brief, the argument is : ' We 

 are too poor to publish properly ; therefore we must allow authors 

 to publish improperly.' This form of argument suggests an easy 

 remedy, and one that, on the informal suggestion of the Committee, 

 has already been put into practice by the Liverpool Biological Society 

 and by the R. Physical Society of Edinburgh. The remedy is this : 



In cases where a volume or part can only appear at long intervals, 

 each author that requires separate copies of his paper for private distribu- 

 tion before its publication in the volume or part should be permitted them 

 only on this condition that, for every month before the probable issue of 

 the volume, a certain number of copies say five should be placed by 

 him in the hands of the society or its accredited publisher, in order that 

 they may be offered for sale to the public at a fixed price. Further, that 

 the society, for its part, should announce the publication, with price and 



