Dear reader,
In 1983 the first issue of Animal Genetic Resources, at that time entitled Animal Genetic Resources Information, was published. Now, 33 years later, with its 59th issue, the journal comes to an end, mainly due to a lack of resources. Already the editorial of the 50th commemorative issue provided you with some information on the history of the journal and some statistics. I would now like share with you the final numbers.
The 50th issue was made available online mid-2012. To that time more than 400 articles had been published. Since then, other 123 articles have been accepted for publication. Whereas the proportion of articles published in English during the first 50 issues was below 80%, it increased to almost 90% in the last nine issues. Regarding the livestock species, the analyses of the papers reveal that the majority of publications still focus on ruminants. More specifically, in these last nine issues, two-thirds of the publications dealt with large or small ruminates, each with an equal share, while a fifth of the articles have been dedicated to poultry, and to a lesser extent, pigs and equines. While this result substantiates the important role of ruminants for human livelihoods, it may also be interpreted as call for more research on other livestock species playing an essential role in certain areas of the world that might be of increasing importance in the light of changing environmental conditions.
The papers published in the journal can be related to the various strategic priority areas of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources (GPA) Footnote 1 . I would like to recall that the international community adopted the GPA at the International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in September 2007. The GPA was later endorsed by the 34th FAO Conference. It includes 23 strategic priorities for action grouped into four priority areas: characterization and monitoring; sustainable use and development; conservation; and policies, institutions and capacity-building. The Second Report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Footnote 2 (published in 2015) provided the basis for a review and possible update of the GPA. It confirmed that the four strategic priority areas remain valid. A large majority of journal's articles deals with the first strategic priority area. While 63% of all articles published in the first 50 issues fell under this strategic priority area, this percentage increased to 73% in the final nine issues. Sixteen percent of the articles published after the 50th issue dealt with sustainable use and development, compared to 11 percent before. The percentage of articles dealing with conservation dropped from 17 to 8 and only a low percentage of articles have dealt with strategic priority area 4 on policies, institutions and capacity building. The unbalanced distribution over the strategic priority areas may be explained by the feasibility of certain studies supported by research projects limited in terms of time and money but also by the frequent lack of structured breeding programmes and related data.
In total, three special issues of the journal have been published. The last one, entitled “adding value” was published in 2013. The articles on this topic describe various strategies that have been used to add value to local breeds in various countries and regions, with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of these breeds and promoting their sustainable use in the long term.
Since 2009, FAO has been publishing the journal jointly with Cambridge University Press. All issues and articles will continue to be available through Cambridge Journals Online and on FAO's website at http://www.fao.org/AG/AGAInfo/programmes/en/genetics/journal.html.
I would like to thank the readership of the journal for its loyalty and interest over so many years and the authors for their valuable submissions. You made the journal to an exciting source of information for everybody interested in the diversity of animal genetic resources and their manifold products and services. We sincerely hope that past Animal Genetic Resources authors will find a suitable place among the broad field of journals related to livestock issues to submit their future publications to continue facilitating the spread of knowledge on animal genetic resources.
Last but not least, I would also like to thank the reviewers and members of the editorial board of the journal who did a fabulous job over so many years, taking the capacity building role of the journal seriously. This was reflected in the review process, which aimed, where necessary, to support and advise authors who might otherwise have difficulty presenting their work in an appropriate form for publication in a scientific journal.
Yours sincerely,
Roswitha Baumung
